Max isn’t feeling a hangover from the holidays as the streaming service formerly known as HBO Max is showering subscribers with loads of new movies to watch in January 2024.
There’s a big focus on classic movies on Max this month. In particular, there’s a collection of iconic Western flicks starring Clint Eastwood that have just landed. But if you’re looking for something a little more modern, there are also a few well-regarded contemporary movies as well. And if you fancy a trip into outer space, pretty much every Star Trek feature film you can think of has arrived on Max.
The list of best Max movies is already stacked with must-watch entries, and this month’s slate is adding even more. So to help you avoid decision paralysis, we’re rounding up the new to Max movies in January 2024 that have seriously high Rotten Tomatoes scores.
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
Before Oppeheimier’s timely reminder to moviegoers of the dangers of nuclear warfare, there was Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. In Stanley Kubrick’s legendary satirical comedy, an overzealous American general orders an attack on the Soviet Union that will trigger global destruction on a scale never before seen. Subsequently, a war room convenes in the hopes of preventing total nuclear annihilation.
A mainstay of almost any respectable best movies of all time list, Dr. Strangelove is one of the most revered movies in the entire history of cinema. Even amongst Kubrick’s exceptional filmography, it stands out thanks to its biting satire, brilliant performances and inventive filmmaking. Even more remarkably, or perhaps rather frighteningly, over the last 60 years its core message has only become more relevant. It's just as vital watch now as it was back in the 1960s.
Genre: Comedy
Rotten Tomatoes score: 98%
Stream it on Max
The Good, The Bad and the Ugly (1966)
Max has added a quartet of critically acclaimed Western movies starring Clint Eastwood this month, including A Fistful of Dollars, For A Few Dollars More and Hang 'Em High, but if you’ve only got the time to watch one of them then I’d strongly recommend selecting The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. It received lukewarm reviews upon release in the late 1960s, but over the decades since it has been herded as a shining example of the genre done right.
Directed by Sergio Leone, Eastwood plays the iconic Blondie, also known as the Man with No Name, a character that also appears in A Fistful of Dollars and For A Few Dollars More, but you don’t have to watch the movies in any specific order. This timeless movie sees two gunslingers joining together in an uneasy alliance as they race against a ruthless mercenary with a score to settle in a high-stakes quest to find buried treasure in a remote cemetery.
Genre: Western
Rotten Tomatoes score: 97%
Stream it on Max
Escape From Alcatraz (1979)
Another classic movie starring Clint Eastwood, but this time he’s swapped his cowboy hat for a prison garb. In Escape from Alcatraz, the legendary American actor plays Frank Morris, a convict who is transferred to the eponymous maximum security prison. No inmate has ever escaped from Alcatraz, but that doesn’t deter Morris, who concocts a plan to break free with a little help from his cellmates.
An adaptation of the 1963 non-fiction novel of the same name, Escape From Alcatraz laid the blueprint that many modern movies and shows still follow to this day. It’s a fantastically tense thriller, and watching Morris and Co. attempt to execute his daring escape plan is seriously gripping. It also marked the fifth and final collaboration between Eastwood and director Don Siegel. In the decade prior the duo had also made classic hits such as Dirty Harry and The Beguiled.
Genre: Thriller
Rotten Tomatoes score: 97%
Stream it on Max
Hail Satan? (2019)
In this provocative documentary by filmmaker Penny Lane, the origins of the Satanic Temple are traced. Only six years old at the time of the movie's creation in 2019, the religious movement rapidly became a lightning rod for controversy. And with The Temple’s disturbingly charismatic leader, Lucien Greaves, claiming that a Satanic revolution was required to save the very soul of America, it’s no wonder this documentary attracted headlines five years ago.
Lane doesn’t just examine the founding of the movement, and what the group claims to stand for, the documentary also explores if The Satanic Temple is a legitimate organization or if it’s just looking to stir up trouble in the name of causing a little bit of chaos. Hail Satan? received particular praise for its darkly comedic approach to its subject matter and its exploration of social issues like the ideal degree of separation between church and state.
Genre: Documentary
Rotten Tomatoes score: 96%
Stream it on Max
Star Trek First Contact (1996)
The second feature film to star the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation, this 1996 movie brings the danger a little closer to home. In Star Trek: First Contact, the crew of the USS Enterprise-E and their fearless leader Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) discover a sinister Borg plan to travel back to the 21st century and change the course of history by stopping humanity from ever making contact with an alien race.
Upon release, Star Trek: First Contact earned praise for its intriguing premise, as well as its high production values that elevated it beyond its television show counterpart. But don’t think this movie reinvents the wheel, First Contact was also heralded as a delightful throwback to the original '60s series. Over the years, it’s come to be considered one of the best Star Trek movies ever made, but you don’t have to be a Trekkie to enjoy this entertaining sci-fi romp.
Genre: Sci-fi
Rotten Tomatoes score: 93%
Stream it on Max
The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019)
Jimmie Fails stars in this semi-autobiographical drama where he plays a heightened version of himself. The movie sees the on-screen Jimmie attempt to reclaim the San Francisco home that he grew up in and that was built by his grandfather. The problem is his family lost the house years ago, and the surrounding area has been gentrified increasing the value of the home well beyond Jimmie’s merger salary as a lowly paid nurse in a senior care home.
The film won Best Directing at the Sundance Film Festival in 2019 and marked Joe Talbot as a filmmaker to watch. It packs important themes exploring identity and nationalism and also packs some seriously remarkable visuals. The eccentric elements may not be for everyone, but the characters are compelling and it’s very easy to root for Jimmie on his quest to reclaim what he sees as his birthright.
Genre: Drama
Rotten Tomatoes score: 92%
Stream it on Max
RoboCop (1987)
RoboCop is a movie that needs no introduction. This 80s action classic spawned a franchise — although the sequels are universally poor — that persists to this very day with a remake hitting theaters in 2014 and a well-received video game launching just last year. But when it comes to RoboCop you really can’t beat the original, and if you’ve never had the pleasure of meeting this metallic law-enforcer then there’s no time like the present.
Set in a future vision of Detroit that is riddled with crime, Alex Murphy is an optimistic street cop who is reborn as the eponymous cyber-crime-stopper after an altercation with a gangster boss leaves him on the brink of death. Armed with a large assortment of weaponry, and capable of smashing through almost anything in his path, RoboCop is the ultimate police officer. Designed to be an unfeeling machine, fragments of Murphy’s humanity linger, and when shocking truths are revealed, RoboCop may just turn on those who created him.
Genre: Action
Rotten Tomatoes score: 92%
Stream it on Max
Another classic movie starring Clint Eastwood, but this time he’s swapped his cowboy hat for a prison garb. In Escape from Alcatraz, the legendary American actor plays Frank Morris, a convict who is transferred to the eponymous maximum security prison, after previously absconding from the previous jails. No inmate has ever escaped from Alcatraz, but that doesn’t deter Morris, who concocts a plan to break free with a little help from his cellmates.
An adaptation of the 1963 novel of the same name, Escape From Alcatraz laid the blueprint that many modern movies and shows still follow to this day. It’s a fantastically tense thriller, and watching Morris and Co. attempt to excuse his daring escape plan is seriously gripping. It also marked the fifth and final collaboration between Eastwood and director Don Siegel. In the decade prior the duo had also made hits such as Dirty Harry and The Beguiled.
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