HBO Max just won a lot of Emmys for its excellent TV programming like The Pitt, but it’s also the home to some pretty awesome movies.
In addition to new and popular movies like Warfare and Sinners, the streamer also has a library of underappreciated flicks.
This weekend, discover some of HBO Max’s underrated movies like the cultural Tom Hanks comedy A Hologram for the King,
the throwback horror flick MaXXXine starring Mia Goth and the enjoyably cheesy action film Criminal with Kevin Costner.‘A Hologram for the King’ (2016)
Alan Clay (Tom Hanks) is a salesman who needs to sell a holographic teleconferencing system to a client in Saudi Arabia. And it’s not just any ordinary client — it’s the King of Saudi Arabia himself. But when Alan arrives to pitch his product, he discovers the King is absent, and he’ll have to wait in a nearby tent with no internet access and limited supplies. As he waits for his client to arrive, Alan bonds with the locals, particularly driver Yousef (Omar Elba), and finds out there’s more to life than being successful at your job.
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A Hologram for the King is your standard fish-out-of-water company with just a touch of cultural-clash satire. What makes the movie stand out is the terrific performance by Hanks, who brings depth and empathy to his character. While he appears to be successful, Alan is struggling, and Hanks lets you see his desire to be better at his job and as a father to his grown daughter. Hanks’ Alan is a modern-day Willy Loman who refuses to give in and is a salesman who ultimately buys the optimistic view of life he’s been selling to his clients for years.
A Hologram for the King is streaming on HBO Max.
‘MaXXXine’ (2024)
Everyone wants to be a star, but no one wants it more than Maxine Minx (Mia Goth). The final girl from the 1970s-set horror film X is now a semi-successful ‘80s porn star in MaXXXine, but she longs to be a mainstream actress. She’s up for the lead role in a hot new slasher, The Puritan II, but someone’s systematically killing her friends and co-workers. As the bodies pile up and the cops refuse to help her out, it’s not just Maxine’s new career that might be in jeopardy, but her life as well. Can she stop the killer before she’s his — or her — next victim?
MaXXXine isn’t as scary as X or as critically acclaimed as its prequel, Pearl, but it’s a satisfying modern take on the Italian giallo subgenre that thrives in the ‘60s and ’70s. The movie convincingly recreates a Reagan-era Los Angeles filled with porn stars, prostitutes and shady studio executives, and it sports a style that faithfully recreates the horror films from that period. Best of all is Goth, who makes Maxine an anti-hero you aspire to be — even if you’re also a little afraid of her.
MaXXXine is streaming on HBO Max.
‘Criminal’ (2016)
A mysterious hacker known as the Dutchman (Michael Pitt) has created software that’s able to bypass any security program in the world, including those that safeguard nuclear codes. When CIA agent Bill Pope (an uncredited Ryan Reynolds) is killed trying to protect him, the Dutchman goes into hiding. To find him, the CIA uses an experimental device that allows Pope’s memories to be implanted into Jericho Stewart (Kevin Costner), a career criminal with brain damage. After the procedure, Jericho escapes prison and fakes his death, but he experiences memories of Bill’s past that lead him to continue the deceased agent’s mission to find and protect the Dutchman at all costs.
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Criminal has a lot of plot, and its sci-fi premise, which borrows liberally from the much better action movie Face/Off, is absurd. But it somehow all still works, and that’s largely due to its unusually talented cast. Costner effectively plays against type as a baddie with a heart brain of gold, while Oscar winners Gary Oldman and Tommy Lee Jones appear as Pope’s former associates who want to find the Dutchman and stop the software from getting into the wrong hands. Criminal is silly and inconsequential, but if you abandon all sense and logic, it’s a pretty fun movie to watch during the weekend.
Criminal is streaming on HBO Max.