The best movies to watch on Paramount Plus

In the expansive world of streaming services, there are loads of different options when it comes to what to watch. In our continued quest to refine your potential movie picks to only the best possible choices, it is time to turn our attention to Paramount Plus.

Paramount Plus has something many of its streaming rivals do not: a deep back catalog from one of the most storied production companies in the history of Hollywood, boasting classics from just about every era of American movie making.

We’ve pulled our favorites from their extensive selection of movies, with a mix of all-time classics and new gems from a variety of eras. Take a stroll through a history of great movies.

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There Will Be Blood

For a while, Paul Thomas Anderson’s mesmerizing story about the rise and fall of an oil baron was best known for an unfortunate milkshake meme. But it’s been 14 years since its release, surely by now we can let go of that particular gag and get back to appreciating Daniel Day-Lewis’ typically intense performance and the film’s particularly uncompromising severity. It’s a severe-looking film, all cracked, dry surfaces and angry desperation, and the clash between Day-Lewis’ viciously competitive oilman and a struggling young preacher (Paul Dano) is just as severe. This is not a film about moderation or kindness, and the end is pure Grand Guignol, but it’s a hell of a ride to get there. —Tasha Robinson

The Mission: Impossible movies

Arguably the most consistent modern blockbuster franchise, the Tom Cruise-led Mission: Impossible series started with a bang, with the first entry directed by the legendary Brian de Palma. That first movie was instantly iconic, with unforgettable scenes still etched permanently into the memory of our popular culture (who can ever forget the scene where Cruise’s Ethan Hunt hangs from a ceiling and has to catch his own sweat to prevent an alarm going off?).

The series has continued strong from there, bringing in John Woo for the unfairly maligned second entry, and returning back to form in the two most recent entries, Rogue Nation and Fallout, both directed by Christopher McQuarrie (who previously worked with Cruise on Jack Reacher). The first six entries (and the show) are currently available to Paramount Plus subscribers. —Pete Volk

Bound

The Wachowskis made their mark with their debut feature, a scintillating erotic thriller about two women drawn to each other while trying to pull off a small-scale heist. Violet (Jennifer Tilly) is dating a skeevy gangster named Caesar (Joe Pantoliano). When she meets ex-con Corky (Gina Gershon), who is fixing up the apartment building Violet and Caesar are staying in, sparks fly and the two pursue each other and the $2 million of mob money Caesar is holding on to.

The result is an unforgettable crime drama that is one of the sexiest movies produced in modern American cinema. The Wachowskis hired renowned sex educator Susie Bright as a consultant to choreograph the sex scenes, and the movie oozes with sensuality even outside of those (quite explicit) scenes. Gershon and Tilly are fantastic in their respective lead roles (and had an absolute blast filming it, as they are delighted to share), and Pantoliano’s pre-Matrix collaboration with the directors shows why they were so keen to bring him back. —PV

The Ring

Gore Verbinski’s American remake of Hideo Nakata 1998 supernatural horror classic The Ring was a runaway pop culture phenomenon when it first released in 2002, introducing Western audiences to the wonderful world of J-horror cinema and going on to be parodied in everything from Scary Movie 3 to Family Guy. Naomi Watts stars as Rachel Keller, a journalist who goes undercover to uncover the strange connection between the unexplainable deaths of her niece and three friends and a mysterious videotape they watched one week prior. But when Rachel views the tape herself, she finds herself caught in a race against time to solve the mystery and put to rest the vengeful spirit now fixated on claiming the lives of her and all else who watch it. —TE

Overlord

Director Julius Avery (The Pope’s Exorcist) delivered a genre mashup for the ages here. “World War II, but with zombies” is not exactly new ground — Dead Snow, among many others, have delved into the “Nazi zombie” sub-subgenre of horror. But Overlord works so well because it succeeds on both levels — as a war thriller following soldiers trapped behind enemy lines, and also as a zombie horror movie.

It helps to have such a gifted ensemble cast. In addition to lead Jovan Adepo, who shines as the brave paratrooper Edward Boyce, Overlord boasts Wyatt Russell (Lodge 49), Pilou Asbæk (Game of Thrones), John Magaro (First Cow), Bokeem Woodbine (Fargo), and Iain De Caestecker (Agents of SHIELD). Hard to go wrong with a group like that. —PV

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Cab Passenger: [after Raphael jumps over the cab hood] What the heck was that?

Cab Driver: Looked like sort of a big turtle in a trench coat.

[pause]

Cab Driver: You’re going to LaGuardia, right?

Delightfully silly and overwhelmingly ’90s (for better and worse), the original TMNT is a fun time for all ages. The movie follows intrepid TV reporter April O’Neill (Judith Hoag) as she works with the turtles to stop a crime ring taking over New York City. The suits — designed by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, one of the Muppet master’s last projects — look incredible, and bring a real tangibility to this appropriately comic book-like adaptation. The use of real suits also allowed for talent specialization (different performers were used for puppetry, voice acting, martial arts scenes, and skateboarding stunts), allowing the production to swap in different people under the suit without breaking audience immersion.

Produced by legendary Hong Kong studio Golden Harvest and distributed by New Line Cinema, TMNT was a surprise box office smash hit, holding the record for highest-grossing independent film until Blair Witch Project. It’s also got a very young Sam Rockwell in a minor role! —PV

Face/Off

John Woo’s third Hollywood movie (following Hard Target and Broken Arrow) is the first of his American movies that truly feels like a John Woo movie. Featuring huge gun fights, strained depictions of masculinity, and, of course, doves, Face/Off is a delightfully over-the-top ’90s action movie that thrives on Woo’s direction and the two leading performances.

John Travolta is FBI agent Sean Archer, whose son was killed by Castor Troy (Nicolas Cage), a terrorist who intended to kill the older Archer. In his quest for vengeance, Archer decides to undergo an experimental face transplant surgery, “becoming” Troy. Of course, Troy does the same in return, “becoming” Archer. The set-up is a perfect stage for both actors to have fun in this playground, although Cage has joked that Travolta got the better end of the deal, spending most of the running time playing the much more eccentric of the two characters.

Fun fact: Face/Off writers Mike Werb and Michael Colleary had Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger in mind when they wrote the script. I can see it, but I’m glad we got this one. —PV

Book Club

From our list of the best comedies on streaming:

This delightful and raunchy romantic comedy stars Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen, and Mary Steenburgen as a group of best friends who have been a part of a long-standing book club. Each of them, though successful in their careers, are dealing with crises of life or love. When one of them picks Fifty Shades of Grey as the next book they’ll all read together, it opens the group up in a lovely story of personal acceptance and self-realization, no matter what stage of life you find yourself in.

Collateral

In many ways, Collateral is a slasher movie, and Tom Cruise is at his absolute scariest in it.

Cruise is Vincent, a hitman with a series of murders to commit on one Los Angeles night. Jamie Foxx is Max, a cab driver who drew the unlucky straw of being Vincent’s unwitting accomplice for the night. Michael Mann’s camera evokes the feeling of LA at night, filled with cool tones against the city lights. Foxx is pitch-perfect as a man stuck in a situation he does not want to be in, and whose encounter with a man who may as well be the devil himself helps him realize he’s not living the life he wants to. But it is Cruise that turns this into the horrifying thriller it is.

Cruise’s Vincent is cold and calculating, but also effortlessly charming. He’s able to wear different masks to meet the situations of the night, but never loses his ruthlessness. Mann’s skill with building tension both in his camera placement and music choices heightens this atmosphere, leading to a showstopping finale straight out of a more classical slasher. —PV

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

Don Siegel’s classic sci-fi film noir story of a California town whose residents are slowly taken over by emotionless copies of themselves has been remade many times (including the also-excellent 1978 version with Donald Sutherland), but few have the tension and emotional heart of the bone-chilling original. A local doctor (Kevin McCarthy) and his ex-girlfriend (Dana Wynter) are among the first to suspect what is happening, but it’s a struggle to convince anyone else of the madness that is occurring (or to know who to trust). At a crisp 80 minutes, you’re going to have a great time, but beware the pod people! —PV