Peacock: 20 of the Best Movies to Stream Right Now

Tom Holland solidified himself as the modern-day Spider-Man with Homecoming. The events of this movie take place after those of Captain America: Civil War and find Peter Parker settling into his new responsibilities as a superhero. High school has never been more complicated.

• Director: Jon Watts
• Stars: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Michael Keaton, Marisa Tomei, Laura Harrier, Robert Downey Jr.
• Runtime: 133 min

Challengers is a sports drama centered on a love triangle. Zendaya plays Tashi, a tennis coach who coerces her tennis-champion husband into slumming it in a challenger tournament to turn his losing streak around. Things get super complicated when he faces his former best friend on the court, who just so happens to be Tashi’s ex-boyfriend.

• Director: Luca Guadagnino
• Stars: Zendaya, Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist
• Runtime: 131 min

Air explores the true-to-life events surrounding the creation of the Air Jordan sneaker, which put Nike on the map as a formidable shoe company in the ’80s. The business deal at the center of the underdog drama changed the shoe business and pop culture. It’s all about Michael Jordan, back when he was an unknown rookie, and the huge risk the company took to make an iconic shoe specifically for him.

• Director: Ben Affleck
• Stars: Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Chris Tucker, Viola Davis, Jason Bateman, Chris Messina
• Runtime: 112 min

The Burbs has gotten the reboot treatment as a TV series on Peacock. If you’re interested in seeing where the new project got its inspiration from, Joe Dante’s cult classic is the movie to watch. Before Tom Hanks was known as an Oscar winner, he brought some memorable comedies to life, and this horror comedy is no exception.

• Director: Joe Dante
• Stars: Tom Hanks, Bruce Dern, Corey Feldman, Rick Ducommon, Carrie Fisher, Courtney Gains
• Runtime: 101 min

The Favourite marked the first project Emma Stone worked on with Yorgos Lanthimos, and a fruitful creative partnership was forged. The movie is an absurdist period piece that explores the power struggle between Sarah (Rachel Weisz) and Abigail (Emma Stone), who go to extreme lengths to win Queen Anne’s approval. Olivia Colman took home the Oscar for Best Actress for her portrayal of Queen Anne in the dark comedy.

• Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
• Stars: Olivia Colman, Emma Stone, Rachel Weisz, Nicholas Hoult, Joe Alwyn and Mark Gatiss
• Runtime: 120 min

This music biopic is about the rise and fall of the pivotal hip-hop group NWA. It documents the formation of the group (and its record label, Ruthless Records) and explores how their confrontational rap lyrics and “gangsta” personas changed the genre and influenced culture, while sparking steady controversy in the 1980s.  

• Director: F. Gary Gray
• Stars: Corey Hawkins, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Jason Mitchell, Aldis Hodge, Neil Brown Jr., Paul Giamatti
• Runtime: 147 min

Angela Bassett’s performance as music icon Tina Turner is absolutely stunning. What’s Love Got to Do with It — which shares its name with Turner’s hit single — follows the rise of Turner, alongside her abusive husband, Ike Turner (played by Laurence Fishburne), and her brave decision to escape the relationship and rebrand as a solo artist. Bassett and Fishburne received Oscar nominations for their work.

• Director: Brian Gibson
• Stars: Angela Bassett, Laurence Fishburne, Vanessa Bell Calloway, Khandi Alexander, Chi McBride
• Runtime: 118 min

Jordan Peele’s follow-up to his directorial debut, Get Out, solidified him as a formidable genre filmmaker. The movie tells the story of a family that meets their doppelgangers, who are seeking revenge. For what? Answering that would spoil the whole thing. Us is a wholly original outing that holds a mirror up to society and ponders whether we’re the monsters to be afraid of. As our CNET review puts it, “Maybe the evil is us.”

• Director: Jordan Peele
• Stars: Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Elisabeth Moss, Tim Heidecker
• Runtime: 121 min

The first installment of The Hunger Games kicked off a film franchise that is still thriving over a decade later. Based on Suzanne Collins’ book series, the movie takes place in a dystopian future where children are forced to fight to the death in a televised competition. The story centers on Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and her underdog journey through the Games.

• Director: Gary Ross
• Stars: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Stanley Tucci, Elizabeth Banks
• Runtime: 146 min

Yorgos Lanthimos is back with another mind-breaking drama, with Emma Stone in the lead. In Bugonia, Stone plays the CEO of a drug company who is kidnapped by two conspiracy theorists who believe she’s actually an alien intent on destroying Earth. Jesse Plemons and Aidan Delbis also star.

• Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
• Stars: Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Aidan Delbis
• Runtime: 118 min

Director Steven Spielberg drew on his own childhood to bring to life this semi-autobiographical film about a boy who falls in love with cinema. It’s a coming-of-age story about the power of movies and how his parents’ difficult divorce helped inform his art.

• Director: Steven Spielberg
• Stars: Michelle Williams, Gabriel LaBelle, Paul Dano
• Runtime: 151 min

The Fall Guy follows a stuntman named Colt Seavers who is sent on a mission to find a missing movie star. The key to this movie’s success is the chemistry between its two stars, Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt. Big action sequences and plenty of laughs make this a pretty great popcorn flick. And yes, if you’re thinking this sounds familiar, it’s inspired by the TV show of the same name from the 1980s that starred Lee Majors.

• Director: David Leitch
• Stars: Ryan Gosling, Emily Blunt, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Hannah Waddingham, Teresa Palmer, Stephanie Hsu, Winston Duke 
• Runtime: 126 min

The Commitments follows music promoter Jimmy Rabbitte, who takes it upon himself to create an R&B group to address a void in the Dublin music scene. He has one problem: The group he assembles consists entirely of Irish folks with no experience in that specific music genre. Well, they do it anyway. The result is a surprisingly energetic, heartfelt and uplifting movie.

• Director: Alan Parker
• Stars: Robert Arkins, Michael Aherne, Andrew Strong, Angeline Ball, Maria Doyle Kennedy
• Runtime: 118 min

Monty Python and the Holy Grail is the first full-length feature starring the legendary comedy group. The movie takes place during the time of King Arthur and follows the group as they embark on a quest to find the Holy Grail. This is one of those movies that should be considered required viewing for comedy fans. 

• Directors: Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones
• Stars: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Michael Palin
• Runtime: 91 min

Taking inspiration from the beloved 2010 animated classic, this new adaptation of How to Train Your Dragon holds up. It’s the same world and plot as the original, and it follows a Viking boy who befriends a dragon, much to the chagrin of his powerful father. Thanks to the strong CGI effects, expansive world building and attention to character detail, this is a rare example of a live-action remake that improves upon its animated counterpart. 

• Director: Dean DeBlois
• Stars: Mason Thames, Gerard Butler, Nico Parker, Nick Frost, Julian Dennison
• Runtime: 125 min

Sicario, which stars Benicio del Toro, Emily Blunt and Josh Brolin, takes viewers deep into an escalating drug war at the US-Mexico border. The drama is tense, and the action is grueling, which makes sense considering that Taylor Sheridan wrote the script and Dune visionary Denis Villeneuve directed the movie. 

• Director: Denis Villeneuve
• Stars: Emily Blunt, Benicio Del Toro, Josh Brolin, Victor Garber, Jon Bernthal, Daniel Kaluuya
• Runtime: 121 min

The movie 3:10 to Yuma is an epic modern-day western. It’s a remake of the 1957 western of the same name (and both are inspired by a short story by Elmore Leonard). James Mangold directed the 2007 version in which Christian Bale plays Dan Evans, a rancher who takes on a job to guide outlaw Ben Wade (Russell Crowe) to a train that’ll transport him to prison. As you may expect, it’s not an easy task. Ben Foster. who’s excellent as the villainous Charlie Prince, also stars alongside Peter Fonda, Gretchen Mol and Alan Tudyk.  

• Director: James Mangold
• Stars: Russell Crowe, Christian Bale, Logan Lerman, Dallas Roberts, Ben Foster, Peter Fonda, Vinessa Shaw, Gretchen Mol
• Runtime: 122 min

In Point Break, a gang of renegade surfers don the masks of ex-presidents and rob banks. And they’re pretty good at it, too. Enter FBI agent Johnny Utah (Keanu Reeves), a young and brash law enforcement officer who goes undercover and infiltrates the group and cozies up to its leader, Bodhi (Patrick Swayze), to take them down. Kathryn Bigelow directed this over-the-top action movie, which was a memorable role for Swayze and a star-making turn for Reeves.

• Director: Kathryn Bigelow
• Stars: Keanu Reeves, Patrick Swayze, Gary Busey, Lori Petty, 
• Runtime: 122 min

Shrek was the first movie to win the Academy Award for best animated feature. It’s sort of crazy to think that animated movies weren’t recognized by the Oscars until 2001, but Shrek deserved the win. The voice performances of Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz and Eddie Murphy are on point and deliver delightful comedy and memorable pop culture moments. The movie helped usher in a new era of CGI effects and put DreamWorks on the map. More than two decades later, it’s still a thoroughly enjoyable watch.

• Director: Andrew Adamson, Vicky Jenson
• Stars: Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz
• Runtime: 90 min