Read our extensive best Netflix movies list before you make your movie choice.
Netflix UK has a lot of movies on offer, but if you only have time for the best then you’re in the right place. Here you’ll find a list of the best Netflix movies you can get in the UK right now and it’s constantly updated so you know you’re never missing out.
Netflix has become known for its TV shows (especially its originals) but that doesn’t mean you should be discounting the movies on the platform. Many of them are well worth watching and as you’ll see from our extensive list, there are plenty to choose from once you’ve exhausted yourself by TV binge-watching.
To keep things neat, tidy and easy to navigate, we’ve broken up our movie picks into categories. For each category we’ve chosen a selection of movies that you shouldn’t miss with further recommendations listed at the end of each category.
In all there’s over 150 movies to choose from here, all picked because they are, simply, the best films on Netflix to watch right now.
From comedy to indie, to horror and kids, there’s a movie category for everyone.
Keep checking back, too. Unlike its TV output that seems to stay on Netflix for longer, its movies tend to appear and disappear quite fast. We keep this best Netflix movies list updated as often as we can, so please bookmark us. Enjoy!
Director Adam McKay was known for creating big belly laughs before The Big Short came out. And that’s what makes this movie such a surprise. It is funny in places, but it’s also a super-sharp look and – shock, horror – endlessly entertaining look at those who betted big the housing bubble in the US would burst in the mid 2000s. Filled with fantastic characters (played by Brad Pitt, Christian Bale, Ryan Gosling and Steve Carell) and a superb script, this is a must see.
Focus wouldn’t be on this list if it wasn’t for the charisma of its two leads. Both Will Smith and Margot Robbie are brilliant as the con artists looking to one-up each other when it comes to the perfect con. It’s a shallow movie and one that gets far too convoluted the longer it goes on, but it’s also smart and at times sexy with a hint of Out of Sight thanks to the leads’ effortless chemistry.
American Sniper is a taut, tension-filled tale about Chris Kyle, a skilled sniper who 160 people when he was a US Navy Seal. If you can forgive the embellishing of truth to heighten drama and the fact the film offers up a one-sided view of Kyle’s ‘achievements’, American Sniper is one of Clint Eastwood’s more assured movies. It’s a troubling movie, though, one that both tries to moralise war and showcase the after effects of being in a war zone.
It’s rare that Tom Cruise gets upstaged in his movies but that’s what happens in Rain Man. This is because Dustin Hoffman puts in a performance of a lifetime as Charlie’s (Cruise) autistic brother Raymond. In the film we see Hoffman recite dates of airline crashes when he doesn’t want to fly, and this brings the brothers on a road trip after their father passes away. Cruise’s character in unlikeable for the most part but his softening to Hoffman’s Raymond is a beautiful watch – sometimes hilarious, sometimes tender.
The Stephen King renaissance continues with 1922, a movie based on a little-known short story by the horror author taken from his 2010 Full Dark, No Stars compilation. It’s an assured film with a great central performance by Thomas Jane, who plays a farmer in the 1920 who murders his wife, a crime that sparks off a strange string of events. It’s slow burning but when the horror finally creeps in it’s a tough but mesmerising watch.
Me, Earl and the Dying Girl manages to make the most out of a plot that would normally depress the hell out of everyone. Film fanatic Greg (a superb Thomas Mann) is tasked with looking after Rachel (Olivia Cooke) a local girl who has been diagnosed with leukaemia. Instead of playing on the sadness of the situation, Greg makes the most of their time together by spoofing some of his favourite films and making Rachel a movie tribute. It’s sentimental stuff but not sweet enough to rot your teeth.
Shane Black is never someone to play the Hollywood game. Starting off as a hotshot writer – he penned Lethal Weapon at a ridiculously young age – he went into obscurity, only to come back with Kiss Bang and cement his relationship with Robert Downey Jr. This then pushed him into the director chair for Iron Man 3, which was a great choice. Fun, overblown and with a surprising twist – it’s delicious fun.
A masterpiece in both filmmaking and fight choreography, Ang Lee’s superb Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon tells the tale of a Chinese warrior who steals a sword off of a master swordsman and the cat-and-mouse chase that ensues. Chow Yun-Fat may have been the star of the movie when the was first released, but it is Michelle Yeoh and Zhang Ziyi that steal the show. A follow-up was produced by Netflix, which is worth a watch but has none of the charisma of its enigmatic predecessor.
This biographical adventure film tells this story of Robert Edwin Hall (Jason Clarke) and Scott Fischer (Jake Gyllenhaal) who led rival expedition teams on an ascent of Mount Everest in May 1996. When an unexpected blizzard hits them during their climb, they have to fight to stay alive.
There’s an impressive ensemble cast here and some even more impressive cinematography.
Quentin Tarantino’s bloody brilliant kung-fu opus should have been one big movie. But its distributors got cold feet, which meant we actually got two quite different films. The first is pure Shaw Brothers schlock. A revenge tale that follows Uma Thurman’s Bride looking to kill people on her hit list, for murdering her husband and family on her wedding day and leaving her for dead. The second film is a touch more subdued, but no less brutal – starting with a flashback of the infamous wedding and then furthering The Bride’s mission to ‘kill bill’. If you can, watch them together as it’s an epic movie that should be consumed in one sitting.
After the brilliance of Skyfall there was a lot riding on Spectre to keep the quality levels of Bond high. Unfortunately, it doesn’t do that. Spectre is rushed, overblown and full of twists that don’t particularly work. But even at its worst, it’s better than most action movies around at the moment. Daniel Craig is, as ever, brilliant as is Léa Seydoux who has more about her than the usual paper-thin token femme fatale. There’s also a barrage of lovely throwbacks from the Bond of old, including a superb intro that smacks of Live And Let Die.
Last Action Hero is a movie that came out too early to be seen as what it truly is, a gem of a movie. It’s one big knowing nod to action films that just so happens to also be a great action film. Its script is packed with postmodern posturing. Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as Jack Slater, a big-screen action hero who is befriended by Danny, a boy who is sucked into his movie world. What ensues is satire after satire of action movies, directed by the master of action movies John McTiernan. It’s occasionally too clever for its good, but for the most part Last Action Hero (which bombed on its initial release) is an under-appreciated joy of a movie.
It may be the fifth Mission: Impossible but it’s definitely one of the best. Tom Cruise is back as Ethan Hunt, the secretive IMF operative who is tasked to save his agency as a rogue one is hell-bent on destroying it. Christopher McQuarrie was a great choice for director and while news that he completely reshot the ending of the movie was a worry, it’s lack of bombast is a perfect balance to a film that’s filled with thrilling set pieces. Also, Rebecca Ferguson is by far the best female lead the franchise has had so far – we’re glad she’s been cast in the next instalment too.
Director Colin Trevorrow had only done one micro-budget movie before Jurassic World, so it was a big gamble when it was announced he was at the helm of this sequel to one of the greatest movies of all time. The gamble didn’t quite pay off but Jurassic World is a fun, if pedestrian, stab at Michael Crichton’s dino world. As the name implies everything is bigger in Jurassic World but it’s the nods to the original movie where the film works best. It’s just a shame there’s not enough of them. At least his next film will be the ninth film in the little-known Star Wars franchise so he can hone his directing skills away from the wrath of critics.
It’s nowhere near director Danny Boyle’s best, but Trance is still a fun ride. It’s a film that reunites Boyle with his old writing partner John Hodge – who also recently went on to make T2: Trainspotting with Boyle – and is about an art heist that goes wrong. To understand what happened, a hypnotherapist is hired to try and find a missing painting. The story ends up being hard to understand – but when the visuals are this good, you won’t really mind.
Wernor Herzog liked the true story of Dieter Dengler, a US pilot who was shot down during the Vietnam War, that he told his tale twice. The first is in the documentary Little Dieter Needs to Fly. The second is in Rescue Dawn, a dramatisation of his survival and it’s a great watch. Christian Bale stars as Dengler who is captured and subsequently escapes from a POW camp – how he does it will make you think twice about this being a true story.
The sequel to the first Avengers movie is an unwieldy, clunky film that still has sparkle, thanks to Joss Whedon just about holding proceedings together. He’s made an impossible task of a movie – that has to combine the original Avengers timeline and the new Avengers – into something watchable and altogether coherent. For those that like explosion, there’s plenty to love – as long as you don’t mind a heavy dose of exposition to go with it.
With a script by word genius William Goldman and George Roy Hill at the helm, Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid is a wonderful watch. Paul Newman and Robert Redford ooze screen chemistry as the titular pair and the soundtrack by Burt Bacharach is lovely on the ears. It’s funny too – mixing both buddy movie and Western tropes with fantastic results.
Focused around a turf war between rival street gangs, The Warriors is an achingly cool cult film. It showcases ’70s New York in all its filth and fury and while its focus is on gang fighting, the film never comes across as an exploitation flick. This is because it’s shot with such style and flourish by director Walter Hill that 37 years on, it’s still as pertinent as ever.
Released at a time when Mel Gibson found his popularity on the wane for various reasons, Apocalypto is one of the actor-director’s finest movies. Shot on digital, Apocalypto rattles on at a furious pace, mixing old-fashioned storytelling (about Mayan culture) with huge smatterings of violence.
Kids are the worst. Well, they are when you put them on an island and make them fight to the death until there is only one winner. This Japanese cult classic is a hard watch but it’s worth it. It also pretty much inspired the Hunger Games, albeit in a very watered down way.
Jonathan Glazer may make movies at a glacial speed, but they are always worth the wait. Under The Skin is an unnerving, brilliant piece of cinema that starts off as realist moviemaking and ends up being utterly surreal. The plot, though, sci-fi is slight: Scarlett Johansson is an alien who spends its days driving the roads of Scotland to pick up prey, until one day it starts questioning what it is really doing. But the way Glazer tells the story is nothing short of a masterpiece.
Inherent Vice is a fantastic film but one you may want to watch twice to figure out just what is going on. Director PT Anderson – this is his best movie – tries to make sense of Thomas Pynchon’s opaque novel, about a stoner detective trying to figure out the disappearance of his ex-lover’s lover. Nothing makes sense in the movie. It’s covered in a fog of weed and hallucinogens, dripping in Californian sunshine and swathed in seediness. Don’t try and unpick it too much and you will be rewarded with a brilliant, beguiling watch.
The star of Mandela is undeniably Idris Elba who does a brilliant job portraying Nelson Mandela as a young man, all the way up to his eventual freedom from Robben Island. His performance holds up a movie that weighed down with too many formalities. It’s a good biopic, though, and one that shines a light into just how rebellious Mandela was.
Mistress America is Noah Baumbach’s third movie with Greta Gerwig. This one is co-written by her and is a superb look at friendships and what it means to be both young and an adult. The film is packed with Baumbach flourishes but this movie is all about Gerwig. She’s phenomenal as someone who is the complete opposite of her persona in Frances Ha – a person who looks in complete control, even if the opposite is true.
This shouldn’t have worked. The manic tale of how NWA came to be may well be larger than life but in the wrong hands it could end up being cartoonish. On the whole, Straight Outta Compton manages to avoid this thanks to director F Gary Gray who also created the brilliant Friday. Casting for Compton is inspired. O’Shea Jackson Jr does a great impression of his real-life dad Ice Cube, but it’s Corey Hawkins that steals the show of Dr Dre. Perhaps the weakest link is Paul Giamatti as Jerry Heller but it doesn’t detract from what is one of the more entertaining biopics in recent years.
The Squid And The Whale is director Noah Baumbach’s masterpiece. It’s a short 81 minutes but in that time he paints a perfect picture of a family frayed at the seams because of a divorce. Jeff Daniels, Laura Linney and Jesse Eisenberg are all fantastic in the film that’s both uncomfortable and claustrophobic but only because the themes will be familiar to all. It’s part autobiographical and it shows – this is proper heart on sleeve stuff.
We all love a comeback. And a training montage. And a boxing film. And that’s what Bleed For This is, the remarkable true-life tale of a boxer who gets into a serious accident and doesn’t think he’ll walk again let alone box. Miles Teller plays boxer Vinny, looking almost unrecognisable given how much muscle he put on for the role. Another unrecognisable actor is Aaron Eckhart who plays his balding coach. It’s not perfect, but it does occasionally pack a punch and the ‘80s soundtrack is welcomed.
We’ll admit it, anything with Greta Gerwig in it will be watched by us. She’s a brilliant, funny, understated actress that lights up the screen. In Greenberg she catches the eye of Ben Stiller, who comes to stay with his brother in New York after being in a psychiatric hospital. Stiller is Roger Greenberg whose social awkwardness is the basis for most of the laughs in the film but it’s Noah Baumbach’s deft direction that makes the film. The way he edits the kids party scene is superb and he’s packed the movie out with (now famous) famous, including Brie Larson, Juno Temple and Zosia Mamet.
Love And Mercy is by no means a perfect film. But Paul Dano as Brian Wilson is an absolute must see. The actor balances Wilson’s fragility, torment and genius brilliantly. The film flits between timelines to tell its story, taking place in the 60s during the making of Pet Sounds and the 80s when Wilson was a shadow of his former self. At times the parallel storytelling is confusing but this is definitely a movie worth sticking with.
Dope was a revelation when it was released in 2015. Part coming-of-age drama, part hip-hop homage, the movie is about a group of teenagers who go to a party and end up tangled up in drug dealing. While that sounds all very gritty, the film plays it for laughs more than often, punctuated by moments of drama.
This is a movie that was close to not being made. Just as shooting began, funding was pulled and it means that star Matthew McConaughey may have had to drop out, as he needed to put all the weight on he had lost for playing Ron Woodroof, an electrician diagnosed with Aids. Money was found, though, and we’re glad it was as this is a sometimes harrowing but strangely uplifting account of someone who goes to the extra mile to get their hands on an experimental Aids drug that can lessen the effects of the disease. McConaughey is fantastic as the makeshift drug runner while his partner in crime is Jared Leto as Rayon, a trans woman who helps him on his journey. Despite the budget cut, there was Oscar nominations aplenty for the film with it winning Best Makeup. Considering the makeup was done on $250 budget, this is an impress feat.
Bette Davis is superb in this classic film about ageing Broadway star Margo Channing and the relationship she has with ‘superfan’ Eve (Anne Baxter). Joseph L Manckiewicz script (full of biting one liners) and direction is breathtaking – showcasing a story of fame a celebrity in the most scathing and satirical way possible for something shot in the ’50s. If you’ve never seen this movie, be prepared for it to enter your top 10 favourite films.
Trumbo is an interesting take on the whole communism scandal of the 1950s that saw many prolific screenwriters and filmmakers blacklisted for supposed anti-American beliefs. Dalton Trumbo (Bryan Cranston) was one of them and instead of taking the whole thing on the chin he tried to expose what was going on, winning two Academy Awards in the process. Cranston is great as Trumbo, a role he took soon after Breaking Bad finished its run.
The movie may now be parodied beyond belief but The Breakfast Club is still a fun watch. It’s an ‘80s movie that’s so ‘80s it should come with its own shell suit. The premise is simple: a bunch of kids are put into detention one Saturday, dubbed the Breakfast Club. They’re all a different stereotype – geek, jock, the pretty one, the angry one – and seemingly have nothing in common but it turns out they have everything in common. Yes, it’s cheesy but you can’t help but smile as the kids ‘find themselves’ to the tune of Simple Minds.
Director John Frankenheimer should be given all of the plaudits for managing to get such a commanding performance from Burt Lancaster in the Birdman of Alcatraz. Based on the true story of the violent murderer Robert Franklin Stroud who is sent to solitary confinement for his actions, where he befriends a bird and becomes an expert on the species – only for things to change when he is sent to Alcatraz. Unfortunately, since the movie was made, some even nastier allegations about Stroud came to light, but this movie is still a fantastic watch.
Richard Linklater astute directing and Jack Black’s surprisingly reserved turn as Bernie make this film a wonderful watch. It’s based on the true story of a friendly and well-love mortician who befriends a wealthy widow, a move that spirals Bernie’s life out of control. Given this is a Linklater film, it’s full of Southern Texas charm and characters that are full of quirk. Shirley MacLaine is also fantastic as the widow.
Tommy Lee Jones is one of those actors that you may not seek out a film for, but when you watch him you remember just how good he is. That’s what you get with Emperor, a movie about the surrender of the Japanese at the end of World War II and what happened to the generals of their army. Jones plays a commander who is a leading Japanese expert and puts on a, well, commanding performance. Lost’s Matthew Fox is also great as another general, who hasn’t quite got the presence or authority of Jones’ character. This is a fascinating insight into a little known part of history of postwar Japan.
Okja is a fantastic movie that proves Netflix really does know what it’s doing when it comes to commissioning films. Made by Bong Joon Ho, one of the greatest directors around, the film is the strange tale of a little girl and her best friend, a giant animal called Okja. The friendship is threatened when a CEO (a superb Tilda Swinton) wants to take Okja for nefarious means. The whole movie may well be an ode to animal activism but it’s such a refreshing movie that you don’t mind it preaching to you on occasion. Now you have this on-board Netflix, can you please grab the UK rights for Snowpiercer – another superb Bong Joon Ho movie that never saw the light of day in Britain.
This is one of the most affecting movies that you will ever see. Based on the true story of Oskar Schindler, a factory owner who begins to help his Jewish workers during World War II after he sees them persecuted by the Nazi Germans, the movie is a study in brevity. Steven Spielberg manages to find the human stories in the atrocity of WWII without shying away from the true horror of what happened during the conflict.
Girl, Interrupted quite rightly earned Angelina Jolie a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her portrayal of the rebellious Lisa, a resident of a psychiatric hospital who befriends recent incumbent Susanna (played by Winona Ryder). The film is filled with performances that are better than the movie – including an early turn by Elisabeth Moss.
A heartfelt and considered look at Martin Luther King Jr’s struggle to gain equal voting rights, campaigning in racially-charged Alabama, Selma was one of the finest films of 2014 and was rightly nominated for a Best Picture Oscar as a result. It may have missed out on the top gong, but David Oyelowo’s performance as the civil rights leader is a powerful one, with a supporting cast recreating the inspiring story with great respect.
The Virgin Suicides is a woozy homage to movies such as Picnic at Hanging Rock and Don’t Look Now. Fractured in its storytelling, dreamlike in its visuals it’s an assured debut by Sofia Coppola. Based on the best-selling novel, the movie charts a spate of suicides in a small town and the cast is lead by the mesmerising Kirsten Dunst.
It is still baffling how Slumdog Millionaire was billed as the ‘feel good hit of the summer’ when it was first released. There is nothing feel good about this rag to riches tale, apart from the very end. It is a sublime watch, though. Director Danny Boyle relishes the colours in India, using them to great effect while there’s a frenetic pace to the whole thing. Lovely stuff.
Adapted from Stephen King’s novella, Shawshank Redemption is a film that tissues were invented for. Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) is sentenced to life in prison for two murders he didn’t commit. There he befriends Red (Morgan Freeman) and embarks on both serving his sentence and trying to clear his name. Heartwarming and gut-wrenching in equal measure, Shawshank is a modern classic.
Captain Phillips is a masterstroke of suspense. Directed by Paul Greengrass – the Bourne franchise king – it’s about the true story of a 2009 hijacking of a US container ship. By showing the hijack from both points of view – the captain’s and the Somali pirates – the film humanises what is a complicated, horrific hostage situation.
Just because this biopic of Miles Davis flew under the radar when it was first released doesn’t mean it’s not great. Don Cheadle is brilliant as Miles Davis, the genius jazz musician. This was a passion project for Cheadle and it shows – it’s not perfect, but the non-linear storytelling works in the film’s favour. And the soundtrack is superb, thanks to Miles’ music and the help of producer Robert Glasper.
Don’t let the title or, for that matter, the plot put you off, Warrior is a fantastic movie, centred on two brothers who find redemption and solace in the biggest MMA tournament ever held. A superb script and superb performances from Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton as the brothers and Nick Nolte as the alcoholic father, make this a must see.
This study of the Holocaust is something we haven’t seen before. It’s from the point of view of someone who was forced to burn the bodies in Auschwitz who comes across a boy that, he believes, deserves a proper burial. Son of Saul is a hard watch. It’s about a time that’s filled with despair, but director László Nemes tells the tale so well that it makes for utterly compelling viewing.
Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles recently showed the world his talent by directing the Rio Olympics opening ceremony but it’s City of God where you will see the true skill of the filmmaker. Shot in and around the favelas of Brazil, the movie is a beautifully shot eye-opening look at the violent neighbourhoods of Rio de Janeiro and the people who are trying to make a living within them.
Not only did Network spawn one of the greatest lines shouted in a movie – « I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore! » – it also shone a light on US network television and its constant push for higher ratings. The plot is great: longtime anchor Howard Beale finds out that he is about to get fired, so to drive ratings he announces he will commit suicide on air. What ensues is a harsh look at TV that’s still prescient today.
Eyebrows were raised when Anchorman director Adam McKay’s next project was a deep dive into the US subprime mortgage crisis of 2008, but The Big Shot is a fun and frivolous look at the people who betted against the housing market and made a lot of money.
Brad Pitt, Steve Carrell and Ryan Gosling are all superb, playing varying degrees of slime balls with charisma, while the script – which won an Oscar – is whip smart.
There was no better director to tackle the life of Larry Flynt (played effortlessly by Woody Harrelson) than Milos Forman. Having tackled eccentric people in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest and Amadeus, he brilliantly encapsulated the unbelievable life of porn baron Flynt. From his rise from pornographic publisher to free speech advocate, the movie slightly idolises the man but it’s still a fantastic watch.
One of the stranger movies you will ever see, The Lobster is set in some sort of strange dystopian future where people who are not in love go to a retreat to find love. If they don’t find love after 45 days, they are turned into an animal of their choice. Far funnier than it should be and littered with symbolism about fighting against the norm, this is one of the most original movies around.
Nicolas Winding Refn is one of the most divisive directors around and he’s not looking to change that with The Neon Demon. Like Only God Forgives and the slightly more accessible Drive, Neon Demon is stylish, blood soaked and, well, cold. It features a fantastic central performance by Elle Fanning and never compromises – this makes for a difficult but ultimately rewarding watch.
Pulp Fiction is Quentin Tarantino at his finest. Endlessly quotable and always a refreshing watch, Tarantino re-invents what a crime movie should be. He does this be interlocking seemingly unrelated stories in a non-linear way, riffing on pop culture and breathing new life into old actors – including John Travolta, Bruce Willis and Samuel L Jackson. This film deserves all the accolades it’s garnered over the years. It’s just a shame Tarantino has never bettered it.
Drive is a brutal but beautiful film to watch. Director Nicolas Winding Refn’s movies are opaque at the best of times, but his fractured storytelling works wonder here, in the tale of a Hollywood stuntman cum getaway driver, who’s played brilliantly by a monosyllabic Ryan Gosling. The look of the movie is iconic, the sound of the movie is sublime – forget neo-noir, Drive is neon-noir.
It may feel a little dated now, but Fight Club was the epitome of male angst when it was first released. It’s an angry movie, with work and consumerism in its sights but it’s also a brilliant one, thanks to David Fincher’s knack of taking the novel and transposing it menacingly to the big screen. Brad Pitt has never been better as Tyler Durden – his role making you want to talk about Fight Club, instantly breaking the first rule.
Django may not be on a par with Pulp Fiction but it’s a film that shows how fast Quentin Tarantino has come from the pop-trivia infused movies of his youth to the epic Leone-inspired landscapes of Django Unchained. The plot is great: Django (Jamie Foxx) is a freed slave-cum-bounty hunter who is on a mission to find out what happened to his wife.
While sweding didn’t quite make it into popular parlance, Be Kind Rewind should be celebrated for showing what it’s like to be someone who just wants to make films, no matter what budget they have.
