Australia's own streaming service Stan has a massive selection of movies to binge so we've picked out the best of the lot.
So Biff hopes to be a film buff? Excellent! Anybody wanting to get up to speed with the best films ever put to celluloid can get an epic leg-up in no time at all, thanks to Stan's streaming service. Be sure to check back with this article soon as we'll periodically update it as the Stanscape changes...
1. Blade Runner
Year: 1982
Cast: Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, Edward James Olmos
It's crazy to think Blade Runner was a misfire for the cinema masses when it was first released. It was considered too dark, too gritty; sci-fi that bore none of the brightness of Star Wars, nor the heart of E.T. or Close Encounters of the Third Kind. However, the modern noir styling of Harrison Ford's titular gun-for-hire protagonist helped it become a cult hit. In the fullness of time, this thought-provoking adaptation of Phillip K. Dick's novel earned its dues as an important pioneer of the cyberpunk sub-genre. It's a hover-car ride that any self-respecting film buff needs to take.
Ridley Scott paints the incredibly disturbing vision of Los Angeles 2019, where the glare of skyscraper-length neon advertising mars a cityscape perpetually wreathed in steam and rain. This is the hunting ground of Blade Runner Rick Deckard, a Bogart-esque detective hot on the trail of five replicants (think: androids). We can't divulge more than that. Watch it.
Watch Blade Runner with iTunes from iTunes Store
View details2. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
Year: 1982
Cast: Dee Wallace, Henry Thomas, Drew Barrymore, Peter Coyote, Robert MacNaughton
It's been 35 years and E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial has lost none of its magic; it's still one of the greatest motion pictures ever made. The plot centres around Elliot, a boy struggling to adjust to a life ruined by an absentee father, who finds and befriends an alien castaway. In an amazing stroke of luck, this off-worlder doesn't want to lay chest-bursters into people; rather E.T. and his pals are cosmic explorers. Some of E.T.'s funniest moments revolve around the friendly outerspacer figuring out "bodacious" 80s technology.
However, these hijinks lead to danger. Elliot, who establishes a physical and empathetic bond with E.T., is tasked with the challenge of hiding the diminutive visitor, as the hunt for the ailing alien increases. Buoyed by an exceptionally talented young cast and expert cinematography, E.T. still holds up as one of Spielberg's finest.
Watch E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial with iTunes from iTunes Store
View details3. The Terminator
Year: 1984
Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Biehn, Linda Hamilton, Paul Winfield
Alright, look, the special effects aren't going to blow your mind, but The Terminator is still an edge-of-your seat ride, even 30 years later. It's such a solid thriller concept: a nigh unstoppable, human-mimicking cyborg hunting down a defenceless young woman. It feels no pain, it cannot be reasoned or bargained with and it can ruin a fully-armed police precinct quicker than a free doughnuts promotion. The only thing standing between this assassin and the mother of humanity's future saviour? Kyle Reese, a resourceful but completely under-equipped (and pants-less) future soldier who's a fish-out-of-water in 1984.
This was the first offering from writer/director James Cameron and, quite frankly, it's a brilliant start to what became a brilliant career. Tightly directed, impeccably paced and bearing a thought-provoking tale of AI gone rogue, The Terminator is great cinema. No doubt it will be viewed as a “WTF were they thinking?” comedy by the machines that overthrow us in the next 10 to 20 years...
Watch The Terminator with iTunes from iTunes Store
View details4. Ghostbusters
Year: 1984
Cast: Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver, Harold Ramis, Rick Moranis
If you look past the amazing special effects, at least for its time, and Bill Murray's largely improvisational pranks, Ghostbusters is less supernatural-themed love/ghost story and more propaganda for a free market. Three scientist pals of varying ability recognise there's a business niche no-one's offering. They leave college for the private sector and start a small company, even though they're not sure they have a literal ghost of a chance of turning a profit. A regulation-happy bureaucrat from the EPA does all he can to ensure they don't succeed; and he's not the only bad guy. An inter-dimensional God with a flat-top who can read your worst thoughts and manifest them at Godzilla height, is also on the loose.
Seriously though, this is a near-perfect mix of spookiness and the impeccable comedic timings of Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Harold Ramis and Rick Moranis. If your first foray into Bustin' was the highly-contentious 2016 remake, do yourself a favour and watch the original; it makes everybody feel good.
5. Fargo
Year: 1996
Cast: William H. Macy, Frances McDormand, Steve Buscemi, Peter Stormare, Kristin Rudrüd,
Two warnings before you get into this Coen brothers classic: it's not your usual crime thriller, and you find repetition irritating, prepare your ears for the onslaught of around 200 “yahs”. This is to be expected when the characters are a host of perpetually upbeat, salt-of-the-earth-type Minnesotans. That said, despite the overabundance of pleasantness, not everybody is a straight-shooter in this winter wonderland. Prime example: Jerry Lundegaard, a car salesman who hires some disreputable out-of-towners to kidnap his wife in order to extract a ransom from his wealthy father-in-law.
When the plan turns bloody, it attracts the attention of Margie, a cheerful, idealistic and heavily pregnant cop who basically subverts all Hollywood stereotypes. You'll see a lot of that going on here; Fargo is as unpredictable as it is engaging. It's one of the very best works of the quirky Coen brothers; a masterclass in pace, tone and dialogue.
Watch Fargo with iTunes from iTunes Store
Catch all the episodes of Fargo from iTunes today!
View details6. Wake in Fright
Year: 1971
Cast: Donald Pleasence, Gary Bond, Chips Rafferty, Sylvia Kay, Jack Thompson
Prepare to be disturbed by the ultimate Aussie nightmare, cobber, because Wake in Fright is an unflinching look into the dark heart of the outback. The uncompromising story centres on outsider John Grant, a civilised-to-the-point-of-snobbishness schoolteacher who becomes a five-day castaway out Woop Woop, in a mining town called Bundanyabba. In no time at all, Grant falls in step with the dead-eyed locals and tumbles down a rabbit hole of ritualistic boozing, high-stakes gambling, brutality toward nature and toxic masculinity.
Don't let the release date prevent you from viewing. This is a seminal piece of Australian film-making; a disquieting classic that deserved the remastering it received. Watching the devolution of an idealistic soul into the animal side of his own nature is just as powerful now as it was 40-odd years ago. It's a bloody pearler, mate.
Buy Wake in Fright from iTunes from iTunes Store
View details7. Good Will Hunting
Year: 1971
Cast: Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Stellan Skarsgard, John Mighton
Not only was this the vehicle that put a young writer/actor Matt Damon on the map, it was arguably the greatest performance that the late Robin Williams ever put to film. The titular Will Hunting is an undiscovered, world-class maths genius who's anything but good, thanks to a South Boston upbringing and a childhood fraught with foster homes and domestic violence. When his latest outburst gets him arrested, an MIT professor offers to keep him out of the clink in return for regular study sessions and weekly psych evaluations from a third-party shrink. The latter quickly becomes sport for the cocky kid, who proceeds to tear the head doctors to shreds.
Enter Sean Maguire (Williams), a fellow Southie expat who knows a thing or two about defence mechanisms and even more about book smarts and brashness versus lived experiences and the best and worst moments of love. Expect powerful performances in this emotionally rich drama.
Buy Good Will Hunting from iTunes from iTunes Store
View details8. Stand By Me
Year: 1986
Cast: Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Jerry O'Connell
Here's a double dose of disturbing trivia before we begin: the Stephen King novel that this film is based upon draws from King's childhood. Specifically, the “leeches downstairs” moment actually happened to him. Also, the crew-built pond in the movie ended up accidentally housing a few of the little suckers that the young actors could “use” in their scene.
Rob Reiner's pitch-perfect translation of King's novel focuses on a juncture we can all recall: where the last days of naivety begin to give way to the awful realities of impending adulthood. What starts as four misfit friends walking beyond the boundaries of their little world, to scope out a dead body, becomes a dangerous bonding experience that none of them will forget. Expertly paced and well produced, Stand By Me is still one of the most poignant coming-of-age tales you'll ever see.
Buy Stand By Me (1986) from iTunes from iTunes Store
View details9. Taxi Driver
Year: 1976
Cast: Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd, Harvey Keitel
The enduring popularity of Robert De Niro's “you talkin' to me?” monologue aside, what exactly is it about this Martin Scorsese movie that makes it such an essential watch? It's gotta be Travis Bickle himself, the utterly magnetic anti-hero who, to put it lightly, had a few pre-exisiting social issues even before he's forced to adjust from Vietnam to a civvie's life in a dangerous ghetto area of New York. Basically, it's the worst environment he could be in, as the perceived decadence and sleaze fuels his urge for violent action.
A lot of time has passed since this film debuted, but bearing witness to the slow psychological descent of a man held captive by his own heroic fantasies, has lost none of its potency. Taxi Driver triggered an avalanche of me-too vigilante films back in the day, though none of those exploitation flicks could ever hope to match this original and unforgettable neo-noir thriller.
Buy Taxi Driver from iTunes from iTunes Store
View details10. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
Year: 1966
Cast: Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach, Lee Van Cleef
I'm tellin' ya, pardner, they don't make westerns like this anymore. During the American Civil War, a mysterious gunslinger and a Mexican outlaw form an uneasy partnership. The plan: the gunhand turns in the bandit for the reward money, then uses his expert marksmanship to rescue him from hanging just as the trapdoor opens. When things become complicated and the noose-shoot goes awry, the foundations for a blood feud are laid. The only thing preventing a murder is that both men need to team up against a sadistic rival bounty hunter, who's also on the trail of treasure buried in the desert.
The film's runtime is considerable, but Sergio Leone's scope and vision stand the test of time. The lovely griminess of a true spaghetti western is so much more preferable to the squeaky clean Hollywood westerns of the same era. Pull out your remote trigger on this without delay.
Buy The Good, The Bad and The Ugly from iTunes from iTunes Store
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