Weekend Watch List: 20+ Great Movies You Didn’t Know You’ll Find on Netflix

Are you setting up a movie marathon this weekend? If you’re watching from Netflix, it’s best to prepare a watch list. With over 125 million hours of TV shows and movies on Netflix enjoyed by 86 million members in over 190 countries per day, you can get overwhelmed by all the choices. You wouldn’t want to waste precious screening time looking for what to watch, so here’s a list of blockbusters, award-winning films, and highly entertaining flicks you didn’t know you’ll actually find here.

Now all you have to do is line up your favorite movie snacks—buttery popcorn, potato chips, chocolates—and drinks, set up your seat, turn off the lights, and dive right in. See you on Monday!

No-fail Blockbusters

1. The Lord of the Rings trilogy

This fantasy adventure film series based on the novel The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien is worth watching over and over again. And if you’ve been hiding under a rock and missed these on the big screen from 2001 to 2003, now’s your chance to immerse yourself in the fictional world of Middle-earth, filled with hobbits, dwarves, elves, and wizards.

2. The Matrix trilogy

This science fiction action media franchise starring Keannu Reeves first came out in 1999. The story begins when a computer hacker, Neo (Reeves), learns that what most people perceive as reality is actually a simulation created by machines. He joins a rebellion to break free, and then protect Zion, the last outpost still under human control, after it is pinpointed by the machines responsible for The Matrix. The final installment in the Matrix trilogy (2003) finds an unconscious Neo trapped in a subway station in a zone between the Matrix and the machine world. 

3. Iron Man

One of the biggest worldwide box office hits of 2008 stars Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, a weapons maker who, after escaping kidnappers by building a makeshift power armor, turns his creation into a force for good by using it to fight crime, thus becoming Iron Man. 

4. Marvel’s Avengers

2012’s No. 1 box office hit stars Iron Man’s Robert Downey Jr. and an all-star lineup of Marvel superheroes—Mark Ruffalo as the Incredible Hulk, Chris Evans as Captain America, and Chris Hemsworth as Thor, among others—who team up to save the world from certain doom. 

5. Tropic Thunder (2008)

This box office hit is a combat film send-up from director-star Ben Stiller that tracks a group of actors (played by an all-star cast that includes Stiller, Robert Downey Jr., and Jack Black, among others) who are forced to become real-life soldiers. Tom Cruise and Matthew McConaughey also play hilarious roles.

6. Sherlock Holmes (2009)

This time, Robert Downey Jr. stars as the legendary detective Sherlock Holmes in the Guy Ritchie-helmed reinvention of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s detective series. Jude Law co-stars as Dr. John Watson in this action comedy.

7. The Great Gatsby (2013)

This Oscar-winning adaptation of the classic novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald stars Leonardo DiCaprio as the mysterious and affluent Jay Gatsby and Tobey Maguire as his neighbor Nick Carraway, who bears witness to Gatsby’s obsessive love and spiral into tragedy.

Thought-provoking flicks

8. Schindler’s List (1993)

Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-winning drama tells the story of German Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson), who becomes an unlikely humanitarian, spending his entire fortune to help save 1,100 Jews from the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II.

9. What Dreams May Come (1998)

This fantasy drama based on the 1978 novel of the same name by Richard Matheson stars Robin Williams as Chris, a doctor with two children whose death in a car crash caused his wife to suffer a mental breakdown. When Chris himself is killed in a car crash, his wife commits suicide. Chris then travels to hell to save his wife’s soul. 

10. Fracture (2007)

This crime drama/thriller stars Anthony Hopkins as Ted Crawford, who allegedly attempted to murder his wife and gets locked locked in a battle of wits with a young assistant district attorney played by Ryan Gosling. 

11. Shutter Island (2010)

This neo-noir psychological thriller directed by Martin Scorsese is based on a 2003 novel of the same name by Dennis Lehane. It stars Leonardo DiCaprio as U.S. Marshal Edward “Teddy” Daniels who is investigating a psychiatric facility on Shutter Island, helmed by a psychiatrist played by Ben Kingsley, after one of the patients goes missing.

12. Okja (2017)

This 2-hour Netflix Original film about a gentle giant (a genetically-engineered super pig) and the girl who raised her will tug at your heartstrings and make you rethink your love of meat. The two main characters are caught in the crossfire between animal activism, corporate greed, and scientific ethics. It stars Tilda Swinton, Lily Collins, and Jake Gyllenhaal, among others.

Nail-biters: Crime/War/Action/Mystery

13. The Manchurian Candidate (2004)

This political thriller is about two soldiers taken prisoner, their minds forever altered. Now home, one rises up to become a US Vice Presidential candidate, while the other must stop him. Denzel Washington and Meryl Streep star in this film based on the 1959 novel of the same name by Richard Condon and a re-imagining of the 1962 film.

14. Saving Private Ryan (1998)

Tom Hanks leads the cast of this heartbreaking war drama that won director Steven Spielberg an Oscar. It’s about eight US Army Rangers who penetrate German-held territory during World War II to find and bring home a soldier (Matt Damon) whose three brothers have been killed.

15. Surrogates (2009)

This sci-fi mystery is based on the 2005-2006 comic book series The Surrogates. It tells the story of the new way humans have found to live life younger and prettier: through the use of robotic versions of themselves they control with their minds, called surrogates. An FBI agent (Bruce Willis) has to figure out who would want to stop this when the first murder in over a decade is committed in their near-perfect society.

16. Bright (2017)

If you love a good Will Smith starrer, this Netflix Original is a must-watch. The film depicts a fantastical LA rife with interspecies tensions, where a human cop (Smith) and his orc partner (Joel Edgerton) stumble upon a powerful object and become embroiled in a prophesied turf war.

Heart-warming Hollywood

17. Sex And The City (1 & 2)

This big-screen continuation of the hit series still stars the fab four friends: Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie, Kim Cattrall as Samantha, Cynthia Nixon as Miranda, and Kristin Davis as Charlotte. This time, Big (Chris Noth) proposes to Carrie, but he gets cold feet. Is their relationship ruined forever?

18. Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)

Audrey Hepburn stars in this rom-com as fortune hunter Holly Golightly, who finds herself captivated by aspiring writer Paul Varjak (George Peppard), who moves into her building on a wealthy woman’s dime. Here’s where you’ll hear Hepburn sing the classic “Moon River.”

19. Crazy Stupid Love (2011)

Ryan Gosling plays a smooth young bachelor player who helps Steve Carell’s lovable loser Cal navigate the world of single life, after his wife (Julianne Moore) asks for a divorce. You’d want to watch this rom-com over and over!

20. Lost In Translation (2003)

Stuck in Japan, two strangers—an aging actor played by Bill Murray and a photographer’s young wife played by Scarlett Johansson—find each other at their common hotel, Park Hyatt Tokyo, driven by their loneliness that runs deeper than mere homesickness. This award-winning romantic-comedy-drama is written and directed by Sofia Coppola.