{"id":562004,"date":"2026-04-03T10:42:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T10:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/562004\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T10:42:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T10:42:10","slug":"the-greatest-action-franchise-of-all-time-is-a-must-watch-on-netflix-this-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/562004\/","title":{"rendered":"The Greatest Action Franchise of All Time Is a Must-Watch on Netflix This Weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"

Based on the bestselling book by Andy Weir<\/a>, the Ryan Gosling<\/a>-led sci-fi flick Project Hail Mary<\/a> has been the dominant force on the box office charts for two weekends in a row. Boasting over $300 million in global revenue despite still being in the early stages of its theatrical run, Project Hail Mary is already the year’s biggest box office winner. However, another sci-fi film is about to challenge for the throne as The Super Mario Galaxy Movie<\/a> makes its long-awaited theatrical debut this weekend. If neither is to your taste or you’d just rather stay at home, here’s a look at three movies you should stream this weekend on Netflix<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For more recommendations, check out our list of the best shows<\/a> and movies on Netflix<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: These titles are available on US Netflix.<\/p>\n

1 <\/p>\n

‘American Gangster’ (2007)<\/p>\n

Rotten Tomatoes: 81% | IMDb: 7.8\/10<\/p>\n

As the first days of April arrive, this weekend brings with it a smorgasbord of new and returning titles to the Netflix catalog. Among them is American Gangster<\/a>, a 2007 docudrama starring Denzel Washington as the titular gangster, Frank Lucas. As he rises through the ranks of the 1960s drug trade, Lucas quickly comes under the radar of Newark Detective Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe).<\/p>\n

A gangster biopic as fascinating as it is gripping, Washington and Crowe are at their very best in this gem of a thriller. Directed and produced by Ridley Scott and written by Steven Zaillian, the film earned a pair of Academy Award nominations, including a nomination for Ruby Dee in the Best Supporting Actress category. The film also features performances from Cuba Gooding Jr., Josh Brolin, and Chiwetel Ejiofor.<\/p>\n

Collider Exclusive \u00b7 Oscar Best Picture Quiz
\n Which Oscar Best Picture
Is Your Perfect Movie?
\n Parasite \u00b7 Everything Everywhere \u00b7 Oppenheimer \u00b7 Birdman \u00b7 No Country<\/p>\n

Five Oscar Best Picture winners. Five completely different visions of what cinema can be \u2014 and what it can do to you. One of them is the film that was made for the way your mind works. Ten questions will figure out which one.<\/p>\n

\ud83e\ude9cParasite<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udf00Everything Everywhere<\/p>\n

\u2622\ufe0fOppenheimer<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc26Birdman<\/p>\n

\ud83e\ude99No Country for Old Men<\/p>\n

\n FIND YOUR FILM \u2192\n <\/p>\n

01<\/p>\n

What kind of film experience do you actually want?
\n The best movies don’t just entertain \u2014 they leave something behind.<\/p>\n

\n ASomething that pulls the rug out \u2014 that makes me think I’m watching one kind of film and then reveals I’m watching another entirely.
\n BSomething overwhelming \u2014 funny, sad, absurd, and genuinely moving, all at once.
\n CSomething grand and weighty \u2014 a film that makes me feel the full scale of what I’m watching.
\n DSomething formally daring \u2014 a film that pushes what cinema can even do.
\n ESomething lean and relentless \u2014 pure tension with no wasted frame.\n <\/p>\n

NEXT QUESTION \u2192<\/p>\n

02<\/p>\n

Which idea grabs you most in a film?
\n Great films are driven by a central obsession. What’s yours?<\/p>\n

\n AClass, inequality, and what people are willing to do when desperation meets opportunity.
\n BIdentity, family, and the chaos of trying to hold your life together when everything is falling apart.
\n CGenius, moral responsibility, and the catastrophic weight of a decision you can never take back.
\n DEgo, legacy, and the terror of becoming irrelevant while you’re still alive to watch it happen.
\n EEvil, chance, and whether moral order actually exists or if we just tell ourselves it does.\n <\/p>\n

NEXT QUESTION \u2192<\/p>\n

03<\/p>\n

How do you like your story told?
\n Form is content. The way a story is shaped changes what it means.<\/p>\n

\n AGenre-twisting \u2014 I want it to start in one lane and migrate into something completely different.
\n BMaximalist and genre-blending \u2014 comedy, action, drama, sci-fi, all in one ride.
\n CEpic and non-linear \u2014 cutting between timelines, building a mosaic of cause and consequence.
\n DA single unbroken flow \u2014 I want to feel like I’m living it in real time, no cuts to safety.
\n ESpare and precise \u2014 every scene doing exactly what it needs to do and nothing more.\n <\/p>\n

NEXT QUESTION \u2192<\/p>\n

04<\/p>\n

What makes a truly great antagonist?
\n The opposition defines the protagonist. What kind of opposition fascinates you?<\/p>\n

\n AA system \u2014 invisible, structural, and almost impossible to fight because it has no single face.
\n BThe self \u2014 the ways we sabotage, abandon, and fail the people we love most.
\n CHistory \u2014 the unstoppable momentum of events that no single person can stop or redirect.
\n DThe industry \u2014 the machinery of culture that chews up talent and spits out irrelevance.
\n EPure, implacable evil \u2014 a force so certain of itself it becomes almost philosophical.\n <\/p>\n

NEXT QUESTION \u2192<\/p>\n

05<\/p>\n

What do you want from a film’s ending?
\n The final note is the one that lingers. What do you want it to sound like?<\/p>\n

\n AShock and inevitability \u2014 a conclusion that recontextualises everything that came before it.
\n BEarned emotion \u2014 I want to cry, laugh, and feel genuinely hopeful, even if the world is a mess.
\n CDevastation and grandeur \u2014 an ending that makes me sit in silence for a few minutes after.
\n DAmbiguity \u2014 something that leaves enough open that I’m still thinking about it days later.
\n EBleakness \u2014 an honest refusal to pretend the world is tidier than it actually is.\n <\/p>\n

NEXT QUESTION \u2192<\/p>\n

06<\/p>\n

Which setting pulls you in most?
\n Where a film takes place shapes everything \u2014 mood, stakes, what’s even possible.<\/p>\n

\n AA gleaming modern city with a hidden underside \u2014 beauty masking rot, wealth masking desperation.
\n BA collapsing suburban life that opens onto something infinite \u2014 the multiverse of a single ordinary person.
\n CThe corridors of power and science at a world-historical turning point \u2014 where decisions echo for decades.
\n DThe grimy, alive chaos of New York and Hollywood \u2014 fame as both destination and trap.
\n EVast, indifferent landscape \u2014 desert and highway where violence arrives without warning or reason.\n <\/p>\n

NEXT QUESTION \u2192<\/p>\n

07<\/p>\n

What cinematic craft impresses you most?
\n Every great film has a signature \u2014 a technical or artistic element that makes it unmistakable.<\/p>\n

\n AProduction design and mise-en-sc\u00e8ne \u2014 every frame composed to carry meaning beneath the surface.
\n BEditing and tonal control \u2014 the ability to move between registers without losing the audience.
\n CScore and sound design \u2014 music that becomes inseparable from the dread and awe of what you’re watching.
\n DCinematography as performance \u2014 the camera not recording events but participating in them.
\n ESilence and restraint \u2014 what’s left unsaid and unshown doing more work than any dialogue could.\n <\/p>\n

NEXT QUESTION \u2192<\/p>\n

08<\/p>\n

What kind of main character do you root for?
\n The protagonist is the lens. Who you choose to follow says something about you.<\/p>\n

\n ASomeone smart and resourceful who makes increasingly dangerous decisions under pressure.
\n BSomeone overwhelmed and ordinary who turns out to be capable of something extraordinary.
\n CA brilliant, tortured figure whose gifts and flaws are inseparable from each other.
\n DA self-destructive artist whose ego is both their superpower and their undoing.
\n EA quiet, principled person trying to make sense of a world that has stopped making sense.\n <\/p>\n

NEXT QUESTION \u2192<\/p>\n

09<\/p>\n

How do you feel about a film that takes its time?
\n Pace is a choice. Some films sprint; others let tension accumulate slowly, deliberately.<\/p>\n

\n AI love a slow build when I know the payoff is going to be seismic \u2014 patience for a devastating reveal.
\n BGive me relentless momentum \u2014 I want to feel breathless and emotionally spent by the end.
\n CEpic runtime doesn’t scare me \u2014 if the material demands three hours, give me three hours.
\n DI want it to feel propulsive even when nothing is technically happening \u2014 restless energy throughout.
\n EDeliberate and unhurried \u2014 I want dread to accumulate in the spaces between the action.\n <\/p>\n

NEXT QUESTION \u2192<\/p>\n

10<\/p>\n

What do you want to feel walking out of the cinema?
\n The best films leave a mark. What kind of mark do you want?<\/p>\n

\n AUnsettled \u2014 like I’ve just seen something I can’t fully explain but can’t stop thinking about.
\n BMoved and energised \u2014 like the film reminded me what actually matters and gave me something to hold onto.
\n CHumbled \u2014 like I’ve been in the presence of something genuinely important and overwhelming.
\n DExhilarated \u2014 like I’ve just seen cinema doing something it’s never quite done before.
\n EHaunted \u2014 like a cold, quiet dread that stays with me for days.\n <\/p>\n

REVEAL MY FILM \u2192<\/p>\n

The Academy Has Decided
\n Your Perfect Film Is\u2026<\/p>\n

Your answers have pointed to one Oscar Best Picture winner above all others. This is the film that was made for the way your mind works.<\/p>\n

Parasite<\/p>\n

You are drawn to films that operate on multiple levels simultaneously \u2014 that begin in one genre and quietly, brilliantly migrate into another. Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite is a film about class, desire, and the architecture of inequality that manages to be darkly funny, deeply suspenseful, and genuinely shocking across a single extraordinary running time. Your instinct is for cinema that hides its true intentions until the moment it’s ready to reveal them. Parasite is exactly that \u2014 a film that rewards close attention and punishes assumptions, right up to its devastating final image.<\/p>\n

Everything Everywhere All at Once<\/p>\n

You want it all \u2014 and this film gives you all of it. The Daniels’ Everything Everywhere All at Once is one of the most maximalist films ever made: action comedy, multiverse sci-fi, family drama, existential crisis, and a genuinely earned emotional core that sneaks up on you amid the chaos. You are someone who responds to ambition, who doesn’t want cinema to choose between being entertaining and being meaningful. This film refuses that choice entirely. It is overwhelming by design, and its overwhelming nature is precisely the point \u2014 because the feeling of being crushed by infinite possibility is exactly what it’s about.<\/p>\n

Oppenheimer<\/p>\n

You are drawn to cinema on a grand scale \u2014 films that understand history not as a backdrop but as a force, and that place their characters inside that force and watch what happens. Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is a film about the terrifying gap between what we can do and what we should do, told with the full weight of one of the most consequential moments in human history behind it. You want your films to feel important without feeling self-important \u2014 to earn their ambition through sheer craft and the gravity of their subject. Oppenheimer does exactly that. It is enormous, complicated, and refuses easy comfort.<\/p>\n

Birdman<\/p>\n

You are drawn to films that foreground their own construction \u2014 that make the how of the filmmaking part of the what it’s about. Alejandro Gonz\u00e1lez I\u00f1\u00e1rritu’s Birdman, shot to appear as a single continuous take, is cinema examining itself through the cracked mirror of a fading actor’s ego. You respond to formal daring, to the feeling that a film is doing something that probably shouldn’t be possible. Michael Keaton’s performance and Emmanuel Lubezki’s restless camera create something genuinely unlike anything else \u2014 a film that is simultaneously about creativity, relevance, self-destruction, and the impossibility of ever truly knowing if your work means anything at all.<\/p>\n

No Country for Old Men<\/p>\n

You are drawn to cinema that trusts silence, that refuses to explain itself, and that treats dread as a form of meaning. The Coen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men is a film about the arrival of a new kind of evil \u2014 implacable, arbitrary, and utterly indifferent to the moral frameworks we use to make sense of the world. It is one of the most formally controlled films ever made, and its controlled restraint is what makes it so terrifying. You want your films to haunt you, not comfort you. You are not interested in resolution if resolution would be dishonest. No Country for Old Men is honest in a way that most cinema never dares to be.<\/p>\n

\n \u21bb RETAKE THE QUIZ\n <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

‘Mission: Impossible’ (1996)<\/p>\n

Rotten Tomatoes: 67% | IMDb: 7.2\/10<\/p>\n

If you’re looking for tense thrills this weekend, then you simply can’t go wrong with the movie that kicked off one of the best modern franchises. Released in 1996, Mission: Impossible<\/a> was a global audience’s introduction to Tom Cruise<\/a>‘s Ethan Hunt, as, whilst under suspicion of disloyalty, he fights to clear his name by discovering who the real traitor is.<\/p>\n

A pulse-racing classic that has only got better with age, Mission: Impossible might not be the best in the franchise, but as the first, it deserves even more credit. Directed by Brian De Palma<\/a>, the movie is best known for Cruise’s lead performance, but it also features a stellar ensemble, including Jon Voight<\/a> as Jim Phelps, Emmanuelle B\u00e9art as Claire Phelps, Jean Reno<\/a> as Franz Krieger, Ving Rhames<\/a> as Luther Stickell, Kristin Scott Thomas<\/a> as Sarah Davies, Vanessa Redgrave<\/a> as Max, and Henry Czerny as Eugene Kittridge.<\/p>\n

3 <\/p>\n

‘Atonement’ (2007)<\/p>\n

Rotten Tomatoes: 83% | IMDb: 7.8\/10<\/p>\n

Another new arrival to the Netflix catalog at the start of this month,Joe Wright’s visuallystunningAtonement<\/a>, adapted from Ian McEwan’s 2001 novel, follows a 13-year-old girl’s (Saoirse Ronan) false accusation of her older sister’s lover and the many lives that are altered forever as a consequence.<\/p>\n

One of the finest period dramas you can find on Netflix right now, Atonement is as narratively indulgent as it is a treat for the eyes. Featuring many great performances from some of the finest British actors, it is a young Ronan who steals the show in a turn that would earn her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, making her the seventh youngest ever to do so.<\/p>\n

\"atonement<\/p>\n

Release Date<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSeptember 7, 2007<\/p>\n

Runtime<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t123 Minutes<\/p>\n

Director<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJoe Wright<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Based on the bestselling book by Andy Weir, the Ryan Gosling-led sci-fi flick Project Hail Mary has been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":562005,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[88,206],"class_list":["post-562004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=562004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/562005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=562004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=562004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=562004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}