Memories of Murder.
Photo: Courtesy of Palm Pictures

Paramount+ continues to shuffle its own deck of catalogue titles, mostly with hits from the ’90s and aughts. It means there’s not a lot of new titles on the service in any given month, but there are still some great movies you might not have seen in a generation or even at all. This one is typical of Paramount’s scattered approach with a little bit of auteur (Michael Mann! Bong Joon Ho!) and a couple modern family classics. Here’s everything worth watching on Paramount+ in May.

Year: 2001
Run time: 2h 36m
Director: Michael Mann

Michael Mann directed this 2001 biopic of one of the most important figures of the 20th century, Muhammad Ali. Will Smith does possibly the best film work of his career as the legendary boxer, civil-rights icon, and all-around role model, and Mann approaches the life of Ali with his own unique craftsmanship. This appears to be the original theatrical edition and not one of the alternate versions later released, FYI. ➽ Streaming now.

Year: 2003
Run time: 1h 37m
Director: Jon Favreau

It doesn’t have to be the holiday season to enjoy the wonderful story of Buddy the Elf. Before Iron Man, Jon Favreau directed this glorious fable about a human raised by Santa’s elves and the trouble he gets into on a trip to New York City to find his biological father. Throw yourself a Christmas-in-early-summer celebration. ➽ Streaming now.

Year: 1996
Run time: 1h 41m
Director: Bronwen Hughes

Before she was Dawn on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, young audiences knew Michelle Trachtenberg as Harriet the Spy, the adventurous young lady who headlined this film based on the beloved books. It was actually the first movie produced under the Nickelodeon Movies banner and delivered a story that sent a generation raised on basic cable to the movie theater. ➽ Streaming now.

Year: 1990
Run time: 2h 15m
Director: John McTiernan

This adaptation of the 1984 novel of the same name introduced the film world to Jack Ryan, played here by Alec Baldwin (and currently by John Krasinski on the Prime Video series). Still the best Ryan movie, The Hunt for Red October sees the character match wits with a Soviet naval captain played by Sean Connery, who wants to defect to the United States but may cause World War III by doing so. ➽ Streaming now.

Year: 2003
Run time: 2h 11m
Director: Bong Joon Ho

Long before Parasite and Snowpiercer, Bong Joon Ho directed this masterful film that has earned raves as one of the best Korean dramas of the current generation of filmmakers. It’s the true story of a murder spree that took place mostly in the late ’80s, but this is closer to Zodiac in the way it unpacks how unsolved crimes can drive people to obsession. Despite the Stateside love for Bong’s Oscar winner, this one might actually be his best film. ➽ Streaming now.

Year: 2001
Run time: 1h 27m
Director: Stephen Chow

Stephen Chow rules. This Cantonese-language international hit was one of his first breakthroughs (followed by his masterpiece, Kung Fu Hustle, which is on Tubi and which you really need to see if you have yet to do so). Shaolin Soccer is kind of exactly what that title implies — a kung-fu sports movie. It’s almost impossible to describe a Chow movie in a way that captures his inspired, bizarre filmmaking. ➽ Streaming now.

Year: 1996
Run time: 1h 36m
Director: Jon Favreau

Every few years, a comedy comes completely out of nowhere and taps something in the Zeitgeist that makes everyone involved a star. No one knew who Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn were the day before Swingers came out, but it launched them into the celebrity sphere, where they still reside. This movie is still money, baby, as it captures the posturing of young men trying to get work and get laid in Hollywood in the mid-’90s. ➽ Streaming now.

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