40+ of the best movies on Stan (April 2021)

There was a time when Eddie Murphy’s rookie cop Axel Foley was the hottest fictional character in the world; we’re talking Marvel-tier fandom long before the Avengers existed. And it’s easy to see why. This is Eddie Murphy in his prime. His comedic timing and acting chops on display in Beverly Hills Cop are worlds apart from his later family-friendly fare, like The Nutty Professor and Dr Dolittle.

If you were too young to be part of the zeitgeist at the time, do yourself a favour and check it out but be warned; there’s a reason the infectious theme song was number 1 internationally in 1985 and dominated the ringtone scene in the Nokia 3310’s heyday.

Armando Iannucci (Veep, In The Loop) hits it out the park again with this satirical retelling of Stalin’s last days.

Come for the premise and Iannucci’s razor-sharp dialogue, stay for the truly hilarious performances of Steve Buscemi and Jason Isaacs.

Long before he took a swing at the MCU with Thor: Ragnarok, or sunk his teeth into vampire lore with What We Do in the Shadows, Taika Waititi melted hearts with Boy. 

Boy is a comedy that isn’t out-and-out silly like What We Do in the Shadows, rather more akin to Waititi’s more recent work Hunt for the Wilderpeople. Both are set in New Zealand, but they’re also some of the director’s more tearjerky films. Released back in 2010, Boy tells the story of a young Māori kid who idolises his estranged father, Alamein (and Michael Jackson). Initially overjoyed when Alamein (played by Waititi) returns home from prison, Boy soon discovers that the legend he manufactured in his mind doesn’t quite match-up with reality.

Loving Vincent is a revolution in film-making that has to be seen to be believed; the first-ever oil-painted film.

Every single frame (of which there are over 60,000) was hand-painted by a team of over 100 artists. The film explores the life of Van Gogh and the suspicious circumstances of his death.

When three young girls escape the clutches of a slave training camp, they must find their way home to their mother by following a vast rabbit-proof fence.

Widely considered one of the most important Australian films ever created, the movie is carried by the stunning performances of its three young leads, Everlyn Sampi, Tianna Sansbury and Larua Monaghan.

The overall quality of the Rocky movies plunged harder than the Italian Stallion after a left hook from Clubber Lang but that doesn’t mean they’re not worth a re-watch.

With age, the sequels can be viewed as oddball products of their time.

Rocky, Rocky II, Rocky III, Rocky IV, Rocky V, and Rocky Balboa are all streaming on Stan.

While the Rocky series as a whole is definitely a contender for best binge, Ryan Coogler’s Creed is another level of re-watchable.

Creed stars Coogler’s bud Michael B. Jordan in the lead role as Apollo Creed’s son, Adonis, and Sylvester Stallone reprising the Rocky mantle in a tender turn as mentor and surrogate father figure.

Samson and Delilah is a story about young love and surviving the odds that follows two Indigenous Australian 14-years olds as they elope to Alice Springs.

This is an early one from Warwick Thornton, who went on to direct Sweet Country and The Sapphires.

If you’ve been hankering for a Tarantino marathon since Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood, you can count on Stan to get you a fair chunk of the way through, with Jackie Brown, Pulp Fiction and both Kill Bills available to stream (plus a bonus appearance with From Dusk Till Dawn). Kill Bill, in particular, will be the perfect action-packed refresher for anyone who thinks Once Upon a Time was too slow.

Another fish-out-of-water assassin story, Leon: The Professional follows French hitman Leon Montana (Jean Reno).

The lone wolf becomes the unwitting guardian and eventual mentor for 12-year old Mathilda (Natalie Portman).

It’s not often the Coen Brothers release a movie with a completely straight face. Even some of their darkest films, such as Fargo, have a sense of humour. That’s what makes movies like No Country For Old Men so fascinating. It’s often easy to forget that these brutal dramas are from the same minds that brought us O Brother, Where Art Thou?

True Grit is one of those serious Coen Brother movies. It paints a harsh, unrelenting landscape with deeply flawed characters. It stars a young Hailee Steinfeld who crashed onto the scene, earning herself an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress at just 13 years old.

3 Ninjas isn’t the cinematic classic that is Karate Kid but the series does feature Hulk Hogan as a villain named Dave Dragon so it’s hard to say which is the better martial arts film.

If you absolutely have to watch Karate Kid, the original is currently streaming on Prime Video.

Give it a re-watch for Steve.

Collision Course might not actually be one of the ‘best family movies’ of all time but I needed another Australian movie and there’s no way I was putting Fat Pizza vs. Housos on this list.

It is, however, a bizarre pastiche of Australian and American culture and well worth a watch simply for that fact.