3 underrated (HBO) Max movies you should watch this weekend (August 16-18)
Who knew a rom-com about domestic violence could be such a hit? The adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s novel It Ends with Us did the unthinkable last weekend by grossing $50 million in just three days, giving Deadpool & Wolverine a run for its money.
This weekend, the Blake Lively-led film is expected to do well again, but Alien: Romulus will snag more viewers with its new take on the sci-fi franchise. If none of these films interest you, then you should probably stay home and fire up your HBO and Max subscriptions. The following three movies are guaranteed to give you some enjoyment as summer starts to wind down.
Into the Blue (2005)
Remember those lazy days of summer when you sat on your couch and watched the equivalent of junk food on cable TV? The downside of streaming is that it gives you the power of choice, which means there’s no good reason why you should watch crap. Yet there’s something relaxing about watching an entertaining B movie, one that you’d never pay to see in the movie theaters.
That’s what Into the Blue is to me. The 2005 movie stars Paul Walker and Jessica Alba as a pair of impossibly beautiful beach bums who love each other, the cool blue waves, and deep sea diving. Along with some rich pals from NYC, they go diving and literally find buried treasure … and a crashed plane filled with cocaine. Soon they run afoul from drug lords, sharks, and corrupt cops, setting them off on a wild adventure that involves many, many shots of Walker shirtless and Alba in a skimpy bikini.
Yes, this is silly and trashy, but it’s also fun and fast. Into the Blue was released in theaters, but its spirit is ready-made for endless reruns on TNT or, in 2024, on Max.
Into the Blue is streaming on Max.
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010)
Why would anyone make a sequel out of Wall Street? That 1987 film, which made bank at the box office and won Michael Douglas his only Oscar, was very much of its time, with its most quotable line — “Greed is good” — summing up the ’80s pretty succinctly. Yet the sly genius of Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, which arrived just two years after the 2008 financial crisis, is that it inverts the original film’s meaning. This time around, greed is bad, and it’s going to show you exactly why.
Douglas returns to the role of Gordon Gekko, a financial tycoon who has seemingly reformed and is trying to mend his broken relationship with his estranged daughter Winnie. He enlists the help of Winnie’s boyfriend Jake Moore (Shia LaBeouf), who idolizes Gekko, and soon, the two men team up to raise funds for a clean energy project that involves hundreds of millions of dollars.
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps isn’t perfect; the dense plot involves too many explanations about subprime loans and shell corporations, which just aren’t that interesting. And the out-of-nowhere happy ending is borderline unforgivable. But there’s enough here to warrant a look, especially its central relationship between Gordon and Jake. Greed may not be good, but for these men, it’s still a hell of an aphrodisiac.
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps is streaming on Max.
Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds (2017)
On December 27, 2016, Carrie Fisher passed away suddenly. A day later, her mother, Debbie Reynolds, died from a stroke. On January 7, 2017, Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds premiered on HBO. Their recent deaths hovered over the film when it debuted, and they still loom over it after all these years.
How could they not? Both Fisher and Reynolds were legends of two different eras of Hollywood, and in this documentary, all of their intelligence, wit, and vulnerabilities are on full display. It’s still stunning and sobering to see these two women with so much life taken away far too soon.
Told with both love and honesty, Bright Lights is always captivating, particularly when Fisher confronts the many highs and lows of her life. The only downside is that you’d wish they both were still around today.
Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds is streaming on Max.
