Whether you’re on vacation or working, if you’re looking for some great movies to entertain you or even get you in the holiday spirit, we’ve got four excellent movies Paramount+ Picks – expertly selected and all movie nerd-approved on Rotten Tomatoes.
This week I’ve selected a bunch of great movies that have some temporal significance, including two holiday classics (one more modern, one true-to-life). classic Classic), a crime drama celebrating its 30th anniversary, and a twisty new version starring Channing Tatum. Happy holidays!
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Planes, trains and cars
Well, before you come to me Planes, trains and cars Being a Thanksgiving movie (which it most certainly is), because it has many of the same themes of the chaos of holiday season travel, and the heart of a family at home for the holidays, I’ll stick to my guns here and say it’s just as appropriate as a Christmas season movie. Since I’m Canadian, and we finished Türkiye Day a month earlier than our American friends, I welcome this classic this time of year as well.
John Hughes’s brilliant, 38-year-old road-trip comedy is a classic in large part because of its stars – the legends Steve Martin and the late John Candy, a comedy powerhouse duo for the ages. One of the greatest straight man/funny guy encounters ever, Martin and Candy play Neil Page and Dale Griffith, respectively, two strangers who meet and become stranded at LaGuardia Airport after all flights to Chicago are canceled due to a blizzard. Neil is an uptight advertising executive who just wants to get home to his family, while Dale is a relentlessly optimistic huckster. With a shared destination, Neil reluctantly agrees to team up with Dale to get to Chicago overland, and the flaming gas pairing leads to hilarious mayhem—destroyed rental cars, hotel pillow mishaps, near-death experiences, and Martin’s epic meltdowns.
Based on the real-life nightmarish travel experience Hughes once had, Planes, trains and carsWhen All the Chaos Calms Down, is a feel-good movie with an emotional heart (and a twist ending that will one hundred percent choke you up). It has a 93% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and is a huge hit for any holiday viewing session.
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heat
In 1995, when the heist action film directed by Michael Mann came out heat In the hit theaters, moviegoers enjoyed the first pairing of its leading stars, both of whom had already won an Academy Award for Best Actor. It celebrates its 30th anniversary this month heat This film remains a model for many crime films because it brought a dark, gritty realism rarely seen at the time (explicit shootout scenes), and pioneered the double-hero plot, creating both a good guy (Al Pacino) and a bad guy (Robert De Niro).
If you haven’t seen heatit’s time. The film revolves around obsessive thief Neil McCauley (De Niro) and his unstable partner Chris Sheehairlis (Val Kilmer in a terrifying portrayal) as they plan to score a huge bank job. But if there’s a yin to anyone’s yang, it’s LAPD Lt. Vincent Hanna (Pacino), who will stop at nothing to take down McCauley and his crew.
heat A cat-and-mouse lesson in filmmaking, Mann’s pace ebbs and flows as it builds toward the final showdown, a downtown shootout that’s one of the most epic and ferocious ever filmed. There’s a reason critics love it (Rotten Tomatoes has an 84%) and fans keep rewatching it. It’s enough that Mann is like that It is said to work on Heat 2with Leonardo DiCaprio, Austin Butler, Bradley Cooper, and Adam Driver involved. heat Now streaming on Paramount+.
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Roof man
If you’re looking for a new (for streaming services) feel-good movie to stream over the holidays, you could do a lot worse than Channing Tatum’s comedy that’s part crime drama, part romance, and part biopic. Writer and director Derek Cianfrance (The sound of metal) Roof man The film is inspired by the plight of real-life criminal Jeffrey “Roffman” Manchester, a former army veteran who became famous in the 1990s for robbing McDonald’s restaurants by breaking into them by cutting off their countertops and very politely holding employees at gunpoint. However, it gets crazier. After escaping from prison in 2004, Manchester lived undetected for several months inside a Charlotte, North Carolina Toys “R” Us hotel.
Tatum is perfect as Manchester, a sweet, goofy, innocent guy who has just made a lot of bad decisions and, in the end, is looking for a normal life. Roof man This is highlighted, as Manchester, while monitoring the goings-on in the toy store by secretly setting up video baby monitors all the time, begins to fall in love with Lee (Kirsten Dunst), an employee, with whom he begins a relationship outside the store. Of course, Jeff’s double life complicates matters, but he’s such a good guy that we root for him to dig himself out of the impossible problem he’s facing. Dunst brings emotional honesty to single mother Lee, and we root for her, too, and Peter Dinklage plays Mitch, the hilarious Toys “R” Us manager.
Roofman has an 87% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and is a charming, light-hearted comedy perfect for the holidays.
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A Christmas Carol (1984)
If we save the best for last, what would Christmastime be without a presentation of Charles Dickens’ quintessential tale of reckoning and redemption? With the exception of the 1938 black-and-white classic, Clive Donners’ 1984 performance starring George C. Scott is the most popular version of Christmas carol Absolutely, and you should definitely watch it before the 25th.
There is no better than Scott’s portrayal of Dickens’s famous character, Ebenezer Scrooge, a greedy and miserly financier who forces his long-suffering clerk, Bob Cratchit (David Warner), to work on Christmas Day, keeping him from his wife and sick and disabled son, Tiny Tim (Anthony Walters). But everything changes for Scrooge, as the ghost of his former partner, Jacob Marley (Frank Finlay), warns him that he will be visited by three ghosts – Christmas Past, Present and Future – who take Scrooge on a chilling tour of his life in the hopes that he will reform his miserable ways before it is too late.
Christmas carol It’s as much a classic as holiday movies get (except maybe… It’s a wonderful life), and is a must-watch this season. If you’ve never seen this 1984 version (Bill Murray’s miser A fun alternative), put it on your watchlist this year.
As you relax and enjoy the holidays with friends and family, I hope at least one Paramount+ movie adds some entertainment to your life this week or next. Happy holidays everyone!
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