A series of serious titles are set to leave Netflix US in a matter of days so UNILAD RANKED is bringing you the top five actually worth ditching your weekend plans to watch.
Netflix can feel like a gloriously daunting bottomless pit when it comes to trying to choose which gripping series or iconic movie you fancy settling down to.
But what would you do if we told you there are actually several titles which you can wave goodbye to being able to watch on the streaming service and the countdown is very much on to catch them?
UNILAD RANKED brings you the top five films leaving Netflix on June 1 which you don’t want to miss – ordered by their median Rotten Tomatoes score.
Prepare to clear your calendar for a whole day of the weekend if you want to really dedicate yourself to number one…
You said which titles are leaving?! (Universal Pictures)
5) Ted (2012)
Coming in with a Rotten Tomatoes critics score of 69 and audience score of 73 – median of 71 – Ted has remained a feel-good favorite among comedy lovers.
Written by Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy), Alec Sulkin (also Family Guy) and Wellesley Wild (Dads), the movie is based on a story written by MacFarlane.
Also directed and co-produced by MacFarlane, with Scott Stuber (Identity Thief), John Jacobs (The Boy Next Door) and Jason Clark (Poker Face) producing too.
The 2012 release is the first in what became a franchise, with Mark Walhberg (Flight Risk) and Mila Kunis (Forgetting Sarah Marshall) starring alongside Joel McHale (Community) and Giovanni Ribisi (Sneaky Pete) – MacFarlane voicing Ted, of course.
Maybe don’t watch it with your parents though (Universal Pictures)
The story centers on what happens when a boy named John wishes his teddy bear would come alive and ends up spending the next 30 years navigating life alongside his foul-mouthed furry friend – relationships, work and all.
MacFarlane’s feature-length directorial debut was a box office hit, grossing around 10 times its original budget and was the highest grossing comedy of the year.
Within the movie, Ted and John (Wahlberg) have a chat about their reactions to 9/11 – MacFarlane and Wahlberg actually narrowly missing out on being onboard American Airlines Flight 11. Wahlberg booked on the flight but changed his mind last minute and drove to New York instead, and MacFarlane arrived late at the gate and was refused boarding.
One Twitter user wrote: “The TED movie was such a significant film in pop culture because it was one of the best comedy flicks of its time.”
Although, next up is certainly no laughing matter…
4) Cult of Chucky (2017)
For reasons unbeknownst to me – not hating, just terrified of all things horror – Cult of Chucky achieved an impressive Rotten Tomatoes critics score score of 81 alongside an audience score of 62 – a median of 71.5.
The supernatural slasher was written and directed by Don Mancini (Cellar Dweller) and produced by David Kirschner (An American Tail) and Ogden Gavanski (River Wild).
The seventh instalment of the horrifying Child’s Play franchise, the film stars Brad Dourif (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest), Fiona Dourif (The Pitt), Alex Vincent and Allison Dawn Doiron.
Chucky will come for you if you don’t watch the movie before it leaves Netflix (Universal Pictures Home Entertainment)
The movie sees Chucky to return to reign terror on Nica who’s been placed in an asylum for the criminally insane, alongside enlisting the help of his wife to get back at other enemies too.
In the movie, Chucky compares one of the other dolls to Hannibal Lecter. The doll also states “Can’t believe they cancelled that show” – with two episodes of the third season of 2013’s Hannibal actually also written by Mancini.
While some Redditors criticized the ‘design of the doll’ and the continuation of the plot as not making ‘a whole lot of sense’, other social media users were torn when asked to pick between Cult of Chucky and Curse.
“Cult is soo fun but Curse is scarier,” one user said.
Thankfully, if you can’t hack horrors like me, taking the third spot is a romantic drama.
3) Closer (2004)
Closer scored a Rotten Tomatoes critics score of 67 with a much audience score of 81 – totaling a median of 74.
Written by Patrick Marber (The Critic), the romantic drama was based on Marber’s own award-winning 1997 play with references to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Lorenzo Da Ponte’s 1790 opera Cosi fan tutte.
The film was directed by Mike Nichols (The Graduate) and produced by Nichols alongside Cary Brokaw (The Resident) and John Calley (The Da Vinci Code).
It features an all-star cast of Julia Roberts (Leave the World Behind), Natalie Portman (V for Vendetta), Jude Law (Eden) and Clive Owen (Cleaner) – Owen and Portman winning awards for their roles, alongside a win for the cast as an ensemble.
Natalie Portman and Julia Roberts gifted each other necklaces during filming (Sony Pictures Releasing)
The story centers on American stripper Alice (Portman) who moves to London and bumps into a man (Law) on the street – to disastrous consequences, but with quite a sweet outcome. However, will the relationships formed withstand the test of time?
Off the back of their characters’ foul use of language, Portman told Interview Magazine she gifted Roberts a necklace which read ‘c**t’ at the start of filming, Roberts later returning the favor at the end of production by giving Portman a necklace reading ‘Lil’ c**t’.
As a Twitter user said: “Gotta watch this now.” – Hey, I don’t make the rules.
And coming in at second place is a heart-wrenching documentary movie.
2) 100 Days with Tata (2021)
The movie doesn’t have a Rotten Tomatoes critics score but comes in strong with an audience score of 86.
A translation of its original title – 100 dias con tata – the documentary sees Miguel Ángel Muñoz document the 100 days he spent in a tiny apartment with his 95-year-old grandma during the coronavirus pandemic.
Tata eventually ends up becoming a social media star as a result of the documentation.
And while the heart-warmer was first released in December 2021, it remains a favorite among Netflix users.
Prepare to reach for the tissues (Netflix)
One Twitter user said: “[Translation] I just saw it in Argentina… a marvel… it excites, moves, entertains, saddens, and touches, all at once. A tribute to older adults in capital letters. Congratulations to both for the gem they have created together.”
“Congratulations @miguelamunoz, it’s a documentary with an open heart split in two, that moves you, that transports you, in which you see yourself reflected in the love for grandparents or those special older people in our lives. Thank you for such a touching story, it’s beautiful!” another added.
And last, but by no means least, is one of the most iconic trilogies out there.
1) The Dark Knight trilogy (2005-2012)
Yes, yes, you read that right. Batman fans prepare your tissues because the trilogy is set to be leaving Netflix.
Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight (2008) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012) are about to take flight out of your app.
Granted, you should’ve watched them all already, but if you haven’t binge-watched the Christian Bale-led dramas in a while? Clear your plans.
The first film of the Dark Knight trilogy is a reboot of the Batman film series co-written by Christopher Nolan (Inception) and David S. Goyer (Blade).
Directed by Nolan, the movie was produced by Charles Roven (American Hustle), Emma Thomas (Dunkirk) and Larry Franco (They Live).
It stars Bale (American Psycho) as Bruce Wayne, alongside none other than Michael Caine (Now You See Me) as Alfred. Liam Neeson (Absolution), Katie Holmes, Gary Oldman (Darkest Hour), Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer) and Morgan Freeman (Seven) round out the cast.
Heath Ledger (Brokeback Mountain) stars as the Joker in the second of the trilogy – co-written by Nolan and his brother Jonathan this time – with Maggie Gyllenhaal (The Bride) also joining the cast.
You rushing back home to go and catch The Dark Knight trilogy before it leaves Netflix (Warner Bros. Pictures)
And the third movie – once more written by the Nolan brothers – sees Tom Hardy (Havoc) storm in as Bane, Anne Hathaway (The Devil Wears Prada) slink in as Catwoman, alongside Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Killer Heat) as the heroic John Blake. Yep, the trilogy is stacked.
And with Rotten Tomatoes scores of 85 and 94 for the first – median 89.5 – 94 and 94 for the second and 87 and 90 for the third – median 88.5 – well, you can’t really argue with that.
As one Twitter user wrote: “12 years ago I was sitting in the Navy Pier IMAX theater watching THE DARK KNIGHT RISES. This film gets a bad rap. It’s a wonderful, beautiful, poetic end to Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy. It’s one of the most satisfying closing chapters of any trilogy.”
And another resolved: “Nolan cooked so hard here. This ending will always give me chills… The Dark Knight Trilogy Is GOAT Tier!”
So what are you doing? Go get watching before they go!
UNILAD RANKED is a weekly series with a new article released every Friday.
Featured Image Credit: Sony Pictures Releasing
Topics: Netflix, Rotten Tomatoes, Film and TV, UNILAD RANKED, Entertainment
Poppy Bilderbeck
Netflix subscribers only have days left to watch 100% rated mini-series you can binge in a day
It’s another banger from Adolescence’s Stephen Graham
The clock is ticking for Netflix subscribers to catch a Stephen Graham drama with a perfect Rotten Tomatoes score before it’s removed from the platform.
The English actor has made waves with his one-shot drama Adolescence, which debuted on Netflix last month (March 13).
Graham starred as the father of teenage boy Jamie, who is accused of murdering fellow schoolgirl Katie.
The four-part drama delves into toxic masculinity, the negative influence of social media and its impact on young peoples’ mental health.
Racking up an astonishing 66.3 million views within its first two weeks alone, the TV series became the most-watched limited series within that time frame, with a mammoth 161 million hours viewed.
Since, Graham – who executive produced the drama with wife, actress Hannah Walters – has hinted an Adolescence season two could be on the cards.
Adolescence took Netflix by storm when it released in March (Netflix)
In an interview with Variety, he teased that ‘there’s the possibility of developing another story’.
But Walters added that it would be ‘hard’ to follow-up on Adolescence, ruling out the production of a prequel to the smash hit series.
“…That’s certainly not going to happen,” she said, adding: “But there’s so much mileage in the one-shot and so much mileage in investing into human nature again and looking at something else.”
With Netflix yet to green-light a second season, fans can get stuck into this high-octane TV drama in the meantime.
And fans only have until the end of this month to view it before it’s removed from the streaming service for good.
The series in question is called Boiling Point, and it’s a sequel to the 2021, one-shot feature film of the same name.
The movie followed Graham as Andy Jones, an ‘emotionally scarred’ chef working at a bustling London restaurant.
He’s struggling to get his team through the last Friday before Christmas – the busiest and most stressful shift of the year.
From the emotionally tormented father in Adolescence to this role – will any of Graham’s characters ever catch a break!?
Anyway, the Boiling Point TV series picks up from where the movie left off, eight months later.
It follows head chef Carly (Vinette Robinson) as she works to set up a brand new restaurant alongside her old Boiling Point kitchen crew, including Andy.
Transforming northern English dishes into five-star cuisine, she’s got her work cut out for her, as her kitchen sizzles with high-stakes tension.
Vinette Robinson takes center stage in Boiling Point, the TV series (BBC)
Like Adolescence, Boiling Point is made up of four episodes, is directed by Philip Barantini and also boasts a perfect, 100 percent critics score over on Rotten Tomatoes.
While Boiling Point wasn’t shot in one continuous take, it does open with a ‘mesmerizing’ 11-minute one-shot sequence.
Critics on the review aggregator site said in their consensus: “A culinary drama with palpable tension simmering beneath the surface, Boiling Point generates an absorbing amount of heat.”
Fans also gave glowing reviews, as one wrote: “Intense and captivating. The characters’ passion about food is so realistic. Excellent casting.”
A second hailed it a ‘masterclass in TV drama’, adding: “The writing and direction is superb, the cast and acting is are sublime.”
All four episodes of Boiling Point are available to stream now on Netflix, until Tuesday April 29.
Featured Image Credit: BBC
Topics: Netflix, Film and TV, Entertainment, Rotten Tomatoes
Ellie Kemp
Netflix subscribers only have days left to watch 100% rated movie that’s ‘one of the best things people have ever watched’
Viewers were ‘left broken inside’ after watching it
Netflix subscribers need to hurry or they’ll miss an emotive documentary that has been labeled as ‘one of the best ever.’
The streaming service is famed for its award-winning documentaries, alongside its slate of original movies and TV series.
And if you’re looking for your next binge-watch, then this is for sure one to add to your list. But you might want to bump it to the top; it’s leaving Netflix on Thursday (May 5).
The documentary examines one of the deadliest avalanches in US history. On March 31, 1982, a huge avalanche enveloped Lake Tahoe ski resort, devastatingly claiming the lives of seven people.
The documentary re-examines one of the deadliest US avalanches (Netflix)
A brutal, five-day research and rescue operation followed, which miraculously saved the life of 22-year-old Anna Conrad Allen.
The ski-lift operator had been buried alive inside the resort’s locker room, with the initial blast knocking her unconscious.
“I woke up probably the next day hearing the blast of the avalanche mitigation that was taking place and trying to figure out where I was,” she recalled to FOX Weather last year.
“My head was pounding. So the idea was really to just see if I could figure out a way to get out of where I was.”
Eventually, grabbing at the ‘snow falling above her head,’ Anna was able to stick her hand out and was spotted by rescuers.
The avalanche was triggered after a huge snow storm which battered the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range for four consecutive days, dumping a huge eight feet of snow on the area.
The documentary, Buried: The 1982 Alpine Meadows Avalanche unpicks the aftermath of the deadly avalanche, featuring interviews with search and rescuers and survivors – including Anna.
The film also explores the psychological impact on survivors and the long-term challenges they faced in processing the trauma.
Following the avalanche, Anna suffered from dehydration, hypothermia and severe frostbite, resulting in the loss of part of her right leg and left foot.
However, to this day, she still continues to ski.
“One of my biggest goals was never to make this incident my whole life. This wasn’t going to define me,” she said. “I wanted to make sure that I survived the avalanche fully, not just partially.”
Buried first released in 2022 before joining Netflix in November 2023.
Buried leaves Netflix on May 8 (Netflix)
It’s racked up a perfect 100 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics praising how ‘extremely well-made’ it was.
Fans echoed the same sentiments, as one wrote: “This documentary is one of the best that I have ever watched… Well filmed, well documented, and the subject matter was handled beautifully with grace…”
A second summed up: “Compelling. Emotional. Impactful,” as a third wrote: “One of the greatest movies of all time.”
A fourth admitted they were ‘broken inside’ after watching the movie, as another wrote: “Buried is a must see.”
Buried: The 1982 Alpine Meadows Avalanche leaves Netflix on Thursday May 8.
Featured Image Credit: Netflix
Topics: Netflix, US News, Rotten Tomatoes, Film and TV
Ellie Kemp
Netflix viewers have become ‘addicted’ to gripping mini-series you can binge in one day
Fans say the six-parter had them ‘on the edge’
An ‘addictive’ British crime drama has Netflix subscribers hooked – so much so, they’re bingeing all six episodes in a day.
The miniseries stars Golden Globe-winning Games of Thrones star Richard Madden who ‘shines’ in his role as a specialist police officer.
Netflix has a jam-packed catalogue of quality crime series – but with so many to choose from, some gems can fall through the cracks.
First released in 2018 on the BBC before joining the streaming giant, the series is set in London, England.
It centers on David Budd (Madden), a troubled war veteran who now works as a Specialist Protection Officer for the Metropolitan Police Service.
Fans say the show is ‘worth their six hours’ (BBC)
After heroically thwarting a terrorist attack, he is assigned to protect the ambitious and controversial Home Secretary, Julia Montague (Keeley Hawes).
As he wrestles with his own psychological trauma and conflicting loyalties, Budd becomes entangled in a web of political conspiracy, terrorism and personal betrayal.
The show delves into subjects including government surveillance, PTSD, terrorism and power play – all of which have audiences gripped.
The series in question is called Bodyguard – not to be confused with the 1992 Whitney Houston blockbuster of the same name.
Its first episode drew in more than 10 million viewers when it debuted in the UK, making it one of the most-watched BBC dramas in recent years.
Bodyguard comes from the mind of Jed Mercurio, who was also behind other acclaimed crime dramas including Line of Duty, Critical and Bodies.
Having racked up a Rotten Tomatoes critics score of 93 percent, reviewers have hailed it an ‘absorbing and addicting’ psychological thriller.
“This show was amazing, and Richard Madden was just great, I wish they would continue it but alas you don’t get everything you wish for,” one fan wrote, as a second added: “I know I’m late to the party but I thought this was brilliant, exciting and had me on edge.”
A third agreed: “Refreshing and gripping from start to finish. This is a must watch.”
Bodyguard raked in a huge amount of views when it first released in the UK (Netflix)
The praise continued over on Twitter, where one viewer wrote: “Netflix miniseries BODYGUARD is an intense drama thriller which you will binge-watch in a day itself.” They continued: “Too good story line, intense moments, and gripping throughout. Worth your six hours.”
“Highly impressed by bodyguard TV series. Best for binge watching,” a second weighed in, as a third admitted: “I started watching on a whim and went into full binge mode.”
Bodyguard is streaming now on Netflix.
Featured Image Credit: Netflix
Topics: Netflix, Film and TV, Crime, Entertainment, Rotten Tomatoes, UK News
Ellie Kemp
Netflix mini-series ‘watched in one sitting’ is that good fans are still thinking about it six months later
Fans say the moving four-parter had them ‘bawling’
Among Netflix’s vast catalogue is a mini-series so touching, people are still remembering it six months on from their first watch.
We know a well-crafted story – whether told through a TV series or movie – has the power to move us. How often have you found yourself uncontrollably laughing at a side-splittingly funny comedy?
Or perhaps sobbing endlessly after a particularly emotional series tugs on your heartstrings just so?
Well, this ‘watch-in-one sitting’ mini-series, made up of only four episodes, has undoubtedly left its mark on viewers. Not to mention, it’s so captivating, one viewer stayed up until almost 4am to binge-watch the entire thing.
The story follows Esty Shapiro (Captain America: Brave New World’s Shira Hass), a young woman who flees her ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn, New York after being forced into an arranged marriage.
Shira Haas plays young bride and escapee Esty Shapiro (Netflix)
She escapes for a new life in Europe, relocating to Berlin, Germany. There, Esty discovers a whole new world of freedom she never imagined was possible.
And with the help of new-found friends, she applies to music school, with ambitions of studying piano and singing.
While she pursues the life she’d always dreamed of, her family are hot on her trail, hell-bent on finding her – and dragging her back to the US.
The series in question is called Unorthodox and is based on the 2012 memoir, Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots, by Deborah Feldman.
While the show is inspired by Feldman’s real-life experiences, the portion of the story set in Berlin is fictional.
You can watch the trailer for Unorthodox below:
While the series first released in 2020, viewers are still only just discovering the eight-times Emmy-nominated series.
Taking to Twitter a few months ago, one viewer shared: “I watched Unorthodox on Netflix like 6 months ago, I still think about it all the time… such a bittersweet story I absolutely bawled my eyes out…”
A second wrote: “Just finished watching Unorthodox on Netflix. Outstanding television. Acting, casting, writing, production, music – all perfect. Definitely watch it.”
And a third penned: “If you enjoy learning about different religions and beliefs, Unorthodox on Netflix was a watch-in-one-sitting series. Very intriguing.”
The praise continued over on Rotten Tomatoes, where the series received a remarkable 96 percent score from critics.
Unorthodox was nominated was eight Emmy awards (Netflix)
“Unorthodox adapts its source material with extreme care, crafting a series that is at once intimate and urgent, all centered around Shira Haas’ captivating performance.”
Viewers agreed, as one wrote: “Gripping from start to finish,” going on to hail Haas’ performance ‘extraordinary.’
A second gave their verdict: “Riveting and enthralling!” before admitting: “It’s 03.45am and I just watched all of the miniseries in one go.
“The whole package is courageous, honest, beautiful, inspirational and full of hope and determination.”
Unorthodox is streaming now on Netflix.
