At the beginning of (and throughout) every month, Netflix Streaming adds new movies and TV shows to its library. Here is a quick list of several that you might be interested in. Some of these were added halfway through, or near the end of, January, but we’re going to include them in this roundup anyway, since you may have missed them. Some of these may also have previously been on Netflix, only to have been removed and then added back. Feel free to note anything we’ve left out in the comments below. (And for more recommendations on great movies to stream, replay our movie critics’ recent live chat, where they gave out suggestions to readers.)
House of Cards, season two (available February 14)
Netflix’s Emmy Award–winning first big play into original programming returns for its second season. Starting at the end of next week, whenever you access Netflix, this will likely be the first thing you see featured. Might as well watch it.
The Returned, season one (available February 24)
This is the show that some referred to as “that French zombie show” even though it definitely has nothing to do with zombies. As Margaret Lyons wrote in her review, it’s “an eerie, dreamy spin on back-from-the-dead stories; one day, long-dead residents of a small town in France start reappearing. A teen girl who’s been dead for four years shows up like nothing has happened. A bad-boy misanthrope who died suspiciously ten years earlier — on his wedding day — returns and still loves his betrothed.” It’s a sad, slow-burn tale, worth watching now that it’s so easily accessible.
Day of the Dead
This movie, however, is 100 percent about zombies. The third entry in George Romero’s initial set of zombie films (Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead — neither of which are available on Netflix — and this one), Day is set among a group of scientists and soldiers living safely in an underground bunker following the zombie apocalypse. Then human nature gets in the way and tensions break out and people get eaten. So, it’s a zombie movie, basically.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and A Fistful of Dollars
From one movie trilogy to another. Sergio Leone’s “Man With No Name” trilogy, starring Clint Eastwood, rolled out over three consecutive years starting in 1964. Netflix now has two of the films available to stream — middle entry For a Few Dollars More is unfortunately nowhere to be found. Of course, watch these on the biggest home screen you can find.
The Usual Suspects
It’s the rare person of a certain age who doesn’t know about Keyser Soze and Kobayashi and Fenster and McManus and the greatest trick the devil ever pulled and “Gimme the keys you fuckingcocksuckermotherfucker!!!” It’s a gaunt Kevin Spacey decades before he would calcify into the sturdy corrupt monster of House of Cards; it’s a young, barely comprehensible Benicio del Toro; and it’s director Bryan Singer before he got sucked up into the superhero game. The Usual Suspects remains one of the best crime thrillers of the past 25 years, fun and silly and twisty all the same.
30 for 30: The Price of Gold (available February 6)
Netflix has dozens of ESPN’s “30 for 30” documentaries available for streaming. But one of the more compelling is this most recent entry, about the Nancy Kerrigan–Tonya Harding scandal. As Margaret Lyons wrote before it aired last month, “What The Price of Gold has that few other ‘30 for 30’ docs have is an utterly, pervasively familiar subject matter. It’s hard to think of a more famous moment in sports, one that’s so clearly part of the lexicon.”
New Seasons of TV:
Bates Motel (Season 1)
The Borgias (Seasons 1–3)
Queer As Folk (American version, Seasons 1–5)
Burn Notice (Season 7, available February 15)
Breaking Bad (Season 5 Part 2, available February 24)
Dallas (Season 2 of new series)
Other movies available:
Marathon Man
Sunset Boulevard
Harold and Maude
Bull Durham
Adore
The Croods
Airheads
Tyler Perry’s Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor (available February 24)
MASH
Man of Tai Chi
Crocodile Dundee II (but not Crocodile Dundee)
Flashdance
Leap of Faith
Jesus Christ Superstar
Jesus Camp (available February 21)
Somewhere
The Hard Way
Death Wish 2
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
Airplane!
Airplane II: The Sequel
The Naked Gun
Bubba Ho-Tep
Cocoon: The Return (but not Cocoon)
Assault on Precinct 13
A Life Less Ordinary
Patriot Games
Down Periscope
The Dancer Upstairs
Failure to Launch
Blue is the Warmest Color (available February 25)
The Gift
North Dallas Forty
Tales From the Darkside: The Movie
In Dreams
