A Minecraft Movie conquered the box office last weekend, breaking Barbie’s opening weekend gross record and pleasing many Gen Z moviegoers who loved seeing their favorite video game characters come to life.
Yet, the Jason Momoa movie isn’t for everyone and those who prefer their entertainment to be less frantic and noisy are likely to look elsewhere.
Streaming is always a safe bet, and Watch with Us has three great recommendations for you to choose from this weekend. All you need is a Max subscription and some free time to watch an underrated comedy starring Steve Martin, a fascinating documentary about one of the most popular directors ever or a drama starring a young Julia Roberts.
‘The Big Year’ (2011)
With a cast that included Steve Martin, Jack Black and Owen Wilson, how could The Big Year fail? Yet the Dravid Frankel movie was a major flop 14 years ago — maybe a comedy about birdwatching wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea during the Obama years.
“The Big Year” refers to an informal competition among birdwatchers to see who can identify the most bird species within a calendar year by sight or sound. This is a challenge that appeals to three different men for three different reasons. Brad (Black) wants to win and regain some of the professional and personal dignity he lost after his marriage ended in divorce and his failed career at Dell. Stu (Martin) is nearing retirement and is afraid he’ll have nothing to do or look forward to. Kenny (Wilson) just wants to hold onto his “Big Year” record of identifying 732 different birds.
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The Big Year isn’t a laugh-out-loud comedy — its humor is more subtle and observational than what you’d expect in a movie starring Black. The trio of actors all have wildly different comedic styles, and that’s what makes The Big Year work — it’s fun to see these three men clash and bond while trying to outdo each other by identifying as many Callippe hummingbirds and Eurasian teals as they can.
The movie plays better at home than it does on a big screen, and it’s good to watch if you want to go outside (the film features stunning cinematography of the Vancouver wilderness) but are too lazy to do so.
The Big Year is streaming on Max.
‘Spielberg’ (2017)
Everyone has seen a Steven Spielberg movie — the famed director has helmed some of the most popular movies of all time, including Jaws, the first four Indiana Jones films, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Jurassic Park. But few know about his childhood in Arizona, his teen years in California or how he got his start in the late 1960s and early 1970s as a novice filmmaker. (The Fabelmans, the director’s fictional take on his childhood, flopped at the box office.)
Spielberg, the 2017 documentary by Susan Lacy, fills in the blanks superbly by using archival footage from Spielberg’s early TV work on such shows as Night Gallery and Columbo, as well as his later film hits like Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Color Purple, Schindler’s List and Minority Report.
Lacy also interviews most of the director’s key collaborators like Harrison Ford, John Williams and Tom Hanks as well as peers like Martin Scorsese and George Lucas to gain insight into what makes him tick. The documentary is always fascinating and never dry, and is about as fun as one of Steven’s blockbusters.
Spielberg is streaming on Max.
‘Mystic Pizza’ (1988)
Every actor needs to start somewhere, and for some, it can be a long time before they are discovered. That wasn’t the case for Julia Roberts, who became someone to watch with just her third picture, the indie comedy Mystic Pizza.
Roberts stars as Daisy Araujo, a young waitress working with her sister Kat (Annabeth Gish) at a pizza parlor in Mystic, Connecticut. The sisters are complete opposites — Kat is bookish and wants to attend Yale while Daisy just wants to have fun (and that usually involves sleeping around). When Kat begins having an affair with a married man, the two sisters’ relationship is tested. Will their strong sibling bond survive the twin challenges of adulthood and working in the service industry?
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Mystic Pizza sounds serious, and while certain elements are played for drama, the film is mostly light and breezy. The cast is full of future stars like Lili Taylor and Vincent D’Onofrio, but the film belongs to Roberts. With her trademark megawatt smile and mass of red curls, she shows in Mystic Pizza all the qualities that would make her a worldwide star in Pretty Woman two years later.
Mystic Pizza is streaming on Max.
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