The extensive Paramount+ movie library continues to expand with a selection of high-quality cinematic classic in November. Like many other streaming services, Paramount+ is wasting no time getting ready for the holiday season in December, with titles like 1999’s A Christmas Carol and both Bad Santa and Bad Santa 2 arriving on the platform. These replace a handful of classic horror franchises that are leaving after Halloween – though the selection of movies in the genre on Paramount+ remains strong too.
Thanks to the relative stability of Paramount+ compared to streaming services like Netflix or Amazon Prime Video, many of the best movies available over the last few months still remain. Comedy classics like Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and iconic titles like Pulp Fiction remain available to subscribers (with the latter being joined by another Tarantino hit, Inglorious Basterds, on November 1st). All in all, Paramount+ in November 2024 remains one of the best streaming platforms for movie buffs and cinephiles, with many of the most successful films of all time calling the service home.
- Catch Me If You Can(2002) [Comedy-Drama] – 2002’s Catch Me If You Can is based on the “true story” of Frank Abagnale Jr. and was adapted from his autobiography. Played by Leonardo DiCaprio, Abagnale was a con-man, and the movie follows him staying ahead of the FBI agent assigned to bring him to justice — the increasingly frustrated Carl Hanratty, played to hilarious perfection by Tom Hanks.
- Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy(2004) [Comedy] – Will Ferrell is considered a comedy A-Lister in the 2020’s, and one of the movies that put him on the map was 2004’s Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. Few films capture the spirit of 2000s comedy quite like Anchorman, and its 86% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes shows that it’s stood the test of time.
- IF (2024)(2024) [Fantasy Comedy] – IF is a charming, heartwarming family comedy that viewers of all ages can enjoy. Written and directed by John Krasinski of The Office and A Quiet Place fame, IF focuses on 12-year-old Bea who, after moving into her godmother’s apartment, discovers she can see imaginary friends.
- Tropic Thunder(2008) [Comedy] – Tropic Thunder is laugh-out-loud hilarious throughout, with the three leading cast members — Ben Stiller as Tugg Speedman, Jack Black as Jeff Portnoy, Robert Downey Jr. as Kirk Lazarus — all giving some of the best performances of their careers. While an incredibly controversial comedy, it is considered by an overwhelming majority of viewers to be a flawless film about filmmaking.
- Jackass: The Movie(2002) [Comedy] – The stunt-based slapstick antics of Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, and the rest of the Jackass crew may feel like a relic in the age of social media when online pranksters are a dime-a-dozen, but the Jackass movies show why the band of daredevils that started it all are still the best.
- Ferris Bueller’s Day Off(1986) [Comedy] – Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is the movie that turned Matthew Broderick into a star. He plays the eponymous high school slacker, who skips school with his best friend Cameron (Alan Ruck) and girlfriend Sloane (Mia Sara). Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is one of the best movies about truancy ever thanks to its clever script and Broderick’s charming performance.
- The Addams Family (1991)(1991) [Supernatural Comedy] – The Addams Family marks the big-screen debut of the creepy and kooky clan based on the cartoons by Charles Addams. The Addams Family hwas a box-office smash, likely thanks to the performances of its talented cast led by Raul Julia, Christopher Lloyd, Anjelica Huston, and a young Christina Ricci in a star-marking turn as Wednesday Addams.
- Mean Girls (2004)(2004) [Comedy] – From the brilliant mind of Tina Fey, Mean Girls sees the homeschooled Cady Heron experience public high school for the first time. Its hilariously exaggerated yet shockingly realistic portrayal of high school girl politics, and Mean Girls‘ most iconic quotes — “She doesn’t even go here!”, “You go, Glen Coco!”, etc. — are still spoken to this day.
- School of Rock(2003) [Comedy] – School of Rock is Jack Black’s best movie for many fans. Black plays Dewey Finn, an aspiring guitar player who gets kicked out of his band and is strapped for cash. When he poses as a private school substitute teacher, Dewey discovers that the class he’s teaching is comprised of musical geniuses so he recruits the kids to compete with him in Battle of the Bands.
- Interstellar(2014) [Sci-Fi Drama] – Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar focuses on the crew of an exploratory starship, the Endurance, as they attempt to find a new home for humanity by traveling through a newly emerged wormhole near Saturn. Things quickly go awry for the Endurance team (led by Matthew McConaughey as Cooper), and the adventure that follows has some of the most epic sci-fi visuals of the past decade.
- Saving Private Ryan(1998) [War Drama] – Widely considered the best WW2 movie ever made, Saving Private Ryan is inarguably a career highlight both for director Steven Spielberg and leading cast member Tom Hanks. Saving Private Ryan landed the Golden Globe for Best Drama and Best Director, as well as nominations for Best Drama Actor (for Tom Hanks), Best Original Score, and Best Screenplay. It then went on to land Oscars for Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Sound, and Best Sound Effects Editing at the Academy Awards the same year.
- Forrest Gump(1994) [Comedy Drama] – Forrest Gump is also near-unbeaten as a movie that summarizes the final decades of the 20th century in a succinct (and, at times, hilarious) way. Tom Hanks plays the titular character, Forrest Gump, who — despite having an IQ of only 75 — manages to become one of the most coincidentally significant figures of the century. He ends up meeting multiple presidents, serving in the Vietnam War, becomes an international ping-pong champion, and by the 1990s, a billionaire (though he still mows lawns for free).
- Gladiator(2000) [Historic Drama] – Set in Ancient Rome, Gladiator stars Russell Crowe as Maximus, a fallen Roman soldier who becomes enslaved and forced to fight as a gladiator in the Colosseum. Crowe delivered a career-defining performance, as did Joaquin Phoenix as the vile Emperor Commodus.
- The Godfather(1972) [Crime Drama] – Few films have been as influential as 1972 crime drama The Godfather, and Marlon Brando’s performance as the ruthless yet soft-spoken mafia kingpin Vito Corleone is one of the most quoted in cinema history.
- Titanic(1997) [Romantic Drama] – James Cameron’s epic romance film Titanic had a massive effect on Hollywood the moment it sailed into theaters in 1997. Making huge stars out of its lead actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, Titanic‘s story of the doomed ship parallels the doomed lovers who set sail upon it in 1912.
- Transformers (2007)(2007) [Action Sci-Fi] – Fans of Michael Bay in particular will find Transformers immensely satisfying, as it’s dripping with the director’s penchant for explosions and high-octane action sequences. The CGI in the 2007 movie still holds up too, showing that it more than earned its Academy Award nomination for Best Visual Effects at the 80th awards.
- Dungeons and Dragons: Honor among Thieves(2023) [Fantasy Adventure] – While Honor Among Thieves contains many nods to Dungeons and Dragons, knowledge of the game is far from a requirement to enjoy the movie. The film stands as an action-packed ride through a mythical fantasy kingdom that never lets itself get bogged down in lore and exposition at the expense of good storytelling.
- Terminator 2: Judgment Day(1991) [Action Sci-Fi] – The much-anticipated follow-up to 1984’s The Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgment Day superseded expectations and is widely considered to be the best film in the sci-fi franchise. The sequel made huge stars out of its lead actors, and its special effects are so impressive that they’re just one of the things about Terminator 2 that still hold up today.
- Top Gun: Maverick(2022) [Action] – After many decades, the classic 1986 aviation movie Top Gun received a sequel, and 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick both lived up to the original and even — according to many viewers and critics — surpassed it. Tom Cruise returns for Top Gun 2 to reprise his role as Captain Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, and in the follow-up he’s struggling to adapt to a changing world that’s increasingly reliant on drones, AI, and other varieties of technology that threaten to render ace pilots redundant.
- Mission: Impossible(1996) [Spy Thriller] – While Cruise had been in action movies prior to this one, it could be argued that Mission: Impossible‘s still-iconic scene of Ethan Hunt breaking into a high-security vault on a line is what solidified Cruise as a practical stunt junkie. Brian De Palma’s spy thriller doesn’t rewrite the genre, but what it does do is make Tom Cruise a bona fide action star.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem(2023) [Action Adventure] – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is perfect for a family movie night. From a team of writers that includes the hilarious Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, the animated movie sees the four Turtles (Micah Abbey, Shamon Brown Jr., Nicolas Cantu, and Brady Noon) and their friend April (Ayo Edebiri) looking to bring a crime syndicate to justice.
- Pulp Fiction(1994) [Crime Drama] – When it comes to currently working directors, few names are as widely recognized as Quentin Tarantino. The filmmaker has several highly acclaimed movies to his name, though the classic that arguably made him a household name, 1994’s Pulp Fiction, is still considered by many to be his best.
- Face/Off(1997) [Crime Sci-Fi] – 1997’s Face/Off, a genre-blurring action-heavy borderline-sci-fi crime thriller from renowned director John Woo. Face/Off stars both John Travolta and Nicolas Cage, and they both play the same pair of characters since Face/Off is about an FBI agent who gets his face swapped with a notorious terrorist through a surgical procedure so that he can go undercover and find the location of a bomb that could destroy Los Angeles.
- Jack Reacher(2012) [Action Thriller] – The premise of Jack Reacher alone already sets up an intense action-thriller, but the presence of Tom Cruise in the lead role lets Paramount+ subscribers know that they’ll be in for an edge-of-the-seat ride for every minute of the 2h 10 runtime. It’s an adaptation of the Lee Child movie One Shot, and stars Cruise as the titular retired US Army investigator who finds himself pulled back into his former life to help capture a retired military sniper responsible for a mass shooting.
- Collateral(2004) [Thriller] – Tom Cruise is one of Hollywood’s biggest movie stars thanks to iconic leading man performances like Ethan Hunt in the Mission: Impossible franchise and Maverick in the Top Gun movies. However, his villainous turn as hitman Vincent in Collateral is truly one of his best roles. Filling the role of the hero in the Michael Mann-directed film is Jamie Foxx as Max Durocher, a cab driver who is forced to drive Vincent around as he completes his contract kills.
- Annihilation(2018) [Sci-Fi Horror] – Director Alex Garland’s mind-bending 2018 sci-fi horror stars Natalie Portman alongside the likes of Tessa Thompson and Oscar Isaac, and remains one of the most puzzling and mentally engaging movies in the sci-fi horror subgenre of the past several decades. Annihilation is a movie that’s best entered with as few spoilers as possible, and it’s all-but-guaranteed to satisfy Paramount+ subscribers seeking a horror that has as many thought-provoking plot points as it does jump scares.
- A Quiet Place: Day One(2024) [Sci-Fi Horror] – Among the new movies that have come directly from theaters to Paramount+ is 2024’s A Quiet Place: Day One, the long awaited prequel to A Quiet Place and A Quiet Place: Part II. A Quiet Place: Day One stars Lupita Nyong’o as Sam, a terminal cancer patient living in a hospice just outside New York City. The plot of the movie follows Sam as she tries to survive the sudden invasion of Earth by hostile extraterrestrials.
- World War Z(2013) [Zombie Horror] – The Brad Pitt action horror World War Z is based on the novel of the same name by Max Brooks. However, the adaptation is incredibly loose, and there were many complaints both about its version of the narrative, and that director Marc Foster’s version watered down the tone to achieve a PG-13 rating. However, when analyzed on its own merit, World War Z stands as an incredibly solid zombie movie with some unrivaled special effects.
- Pet Sematary(2019) [Supernatural Horror] – The 2019 remake of Pet Sematary is one of the most solid Stephen King adaptations of the last decade. The movie follows the Creed family who, after being evicted from their home in Boston, moves to the small town of Ludlow, Maine with their two children. The family quickly discovers that the local “Pet Sematary” has strange properties, most notably that animals buried their return from the grave.
- Smile(2022) [Supernatural Horror] – One of the most widely discussed new horror movies that isn’t a remake, reboot, or sequel in the last 5 years is 2022’s Smile. From the moment the Smile trailer arrived, it got horror genre fans talking thanks to its incredibly striking and disturbing visuals — most notably the ghoulish, distended grin every victim afflicted by the Smile curse sees in those around them and, eventually, wear themselves in their final moments.
If you’re looking for more to watch on Paramount+, you can read our lists on the hidden gems on Paramount+, Paramount+ family movies, or the classic movies on Paramount+.
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