The Hulu Top Twenty

Here are the 20 most popular movies on Hulu this week.

1. The Family Man
Last Week's Ranking: NA
Weeks on List: 1
Notes: Studio workhorse Brett Ratner directs this Nicolas Cage vehicle to predictable results. It's a Christmas story in which the financially successful but morally bankrupt Cage gets an opportunity to live an alternate version of his own life, one in which he is an average schmo happily married to Tea Leoni. The movie is well done, but brings nothing new to the table, and we know the outcome of the movie before our asses hit the theater seats (or, in this case, our computer chairs). Don Cheadle has a role as the mystic author of Cage's personal journey.

2. Howard The Duck

Last Week's Ranking: NA
Weeks on List: 1
Notes: It won a Razzie Award for the worst picture of 1987. And yet, there's something about this enormous flop that is compelling to watch (unlike Battlefield Earth, Hudson Hawk, or that Eddie Murphy on the moon flick). Tim Robbins, Lea Thompson, and Jeffrey Jones do their best to provide some ham amidst all the cheese; ultimately, the movie is a spectacular paeon to just how bad Hollywood moviemaking can get.

3. The Times of Harvey Milk
Last Week's Ranking: NA
Weeks on List: 1
Notes: Hulu is showing some savvy by timing their premiere of this 1984 Harvey Milk documentary with the Hollywood release, which stars Sean Penn as the gay rights activist turned mayor. That's not to suggest that this isn't a good movie, as it boasts an Academy Award for Best Documentary and a 100% approval rating over at Rotten Tomatoes.

4. Horse Feathers
Last Week's Ranking: NA
Weeks on List: 1
Notes: This 1932 feature starring the Marx brothers might just be the oldest bit of celluloid in the Hulu stable. Critics rave about the film's madcap pace and wild antics as the Marxes give the world their take on college life. A great example of a movie's characters getting up to some shenanigans long before the word became ironic.

5. Last Tango In Paris

Last Week's Ranking: NA
Weeks on List: 1
Notes: Marlon Brando headlines this controversial drama which still invites dispute 35 years after it hit theaters in 1972. It pushed the envelope with sexual themes and scenes; now it invites comparisons with modern American films, which reek of sexuality even as they censor boobs and the F word. Brando's performance is highly praised.

6. Picture Perfect

Last Week's Ranking: NA
Weeks on List: 1
Notes: This romantic comedy is a predictable trifle, but critics were pacified by the sweet matchup of Jennifer Aniston and Jay Mohr. The plot involves Aniston inventing a fictional fiancee in an effort to get ahead at work.

7. A Little Sex

Last Week's Ranking: 3
Weeks on List: 3
Notes: This film barely registered a blip when it opened in theaters in 1982,. The story is an old one-- a man is torn between his wife and his propensity for cheating, but Kate Capshaw and Tim Matheson do their best to punch up the pseudo-intellectual dialogue. Watch for John Glover, who steals his scenes, as per usual.

8. 21 Grams
Last Week's Ranking: 13
Weeks on List: 3
Notes: Benicio Del Toro, Sean Penn, Naomi Watts, and Charlotte Gainsbourg star in this strangely-structured drama that warms the cockles of our cold, dead hearts. The critics give it high praise, but always with a hint of frustration that this good movie fell short of being a great one.

9. Muppets From Space

Last Week's Ranking: NA
Weeks on List: 1
Notes: Muppet afficianados saw this movie as the first post-Henson feature that managed to corral the early charm of the Muppets. Gonzo heads into outer space in an effort to track down his roots. As a Muppet vehicle, it's far from perfect, but it is nice to see a departure from the Kermit-centric, earthbound movies that came before.

10. Kung Pow: Enter the Fist

Last Week's Ranking: NA
Weeks on List: 1
Notes: A goofy spoof of kung fu films in which director Steve Oedekerk digitally inserts himself into an already-laughable action flick. Critics largely hated the comedic effort, with the main criticism being that it's a 2-minute joke stretched out to an excruciating 80 minutes.

11. The Fifth Element
Last Week's Ranking: 12
Weeks on List: 5 (9)
Notes: Bruce Willis is a cab driver...in the future! Kind of. He and Milla Jovovich tear it up in the pure action adventure that keeps drawing in the Hulu viewers. With "The Girl Next Door" gone for good, this is the most popular movie on Hulu. Strange, innit?

12. Liar, Liar

Last Week's Ranking: 14
Weeks on List: 8
Notes: Jim Carrey goofs it up in a decent comedy that puts all of his face-stretching talents on display. If you can get through his current offering, "Yes Man," without puking, then this will give you paroxysms of delight. With 2 months in the top 20, this is showing some serious legs.


13. Swimming Pool
Last Week's Ranking: NA
Weeks on List: 1
Notes: A French psychological study posing as a steamy whodunit, this is a serious film that has garnered some serious praise from the international media. A buttoned-up, female mystery writer is forced to change when a young, sexually reckless girl enters her life. This definitely adds some brow to Hulu's offerings.

14. Go

Last Week's Ranking: 1
Weeks on List: 3
Notes: I love this movie and everyone in it. There, I said it. Taye Diggs, Sarah Polley, William Fichtner, Timothy Olyphant, Scott Wolf, Jay Mohr, and a just-starting-out Katie Holmes are part of the ensemble cast that Director Doug Liman brings together in a fantastic blend of youth culture and Pulp Fiction. Other movies try to shock us by increasing the amount of money that's been stolen, or demanded in ransom, or whatever. Go shows us that just a couple of hundred dollars can make the world go round in the right circles. There are some great performances, a real sense of style, and a fun, fast-paced storyline that plays with the chronology in just the right way.

15. The Nude Bomb

Last Week's Ranking: NA
Weeks on List: 1
Notes: 1980 farce starring Don Adams as his iconic character, Maxwell Smart. The Steve Carell remake was hit or miss; this one is pretty much all miss.

16. Two Brothers

Last Week's Ranking: NA
Weeks on List: 1
Notes: The titular brothers are tigers, who are separated at birth and are forced to face each other as mortal enemies, ala Fox and the Hound. But this is no animated Disney vehicle; critics appreciated the serious themes and accurate portrait of French Indo-China by Director Jean-Jacques Annaud. Guy Pearce is third billed, after the tigers.

17. Wimbledon

Last Week's Ranking: 2
Weeks on List: 3
Notes: Kirsten Dunst and Paul Bettany have turned in a serviceable romance centered around their lives as professional tennis players taking a shot at Wimbledon glory. Bettany is the down and out, past-his-prime player who is making the most of his last, best, shot to recapture the title. Dunst is a driven young competitor under the tutelage of harsh father/coach Sam O'Neill.

18. Basic Instinct
Last Week's Ranking: 19
Weeks on List: 8
Notes: Sixteen years on, Sharon Stone's hoohoo is still drawing eyeballs in massive numbers. I hope she has that thing insured! At any rate, this is showing some serious staying power on the list. They should make a sequel. Oh, they did? It must have done really well.

19. Saints and Soldiers

Last Week's Ranking: NA
Weeks on List: 1 (4)
Notes: A Mormon sniper and an atheist medic clash as their platoon struggles to survive behind Nazi lines in this 2005 actioner.

20. Fighter Pilot: Operation Red Flag
Last Week's Ranking: 16
Weeks on List: 8
Notes: There must be something I'm not getting about this I-Max documentary featuring fighter pilots. The message board for the movie has a lot of military folks chatting it up, so that may have something to do with it. After weeks near the top of this chart, it looks like this is finally losing some lift.

Notably Absent:
These movies have dropped off the list over the past 2 weeks.

In Her Shoes
Last Week's Ranking: 4
Weeks on List: 3
Notes: Cameron Diaz and Toni Collette star in this novel adaptation that sounds like a complete and total crapfest-- one sister is successful at work but has no social life, while the other is a popular girl with no career. What could possibly happen when these two worlds collide? So, it sounds terrible, but, surprisingly, it is not. Critics actually liked it, crediting an above-average script and some great, nuanced performances by Diaz, Collette, and Shirley MacLaine, whom they reportedly raised from the dead to perform as a kindly grandmother.

The Devil's Own

Last Week's Ranking: 5
Weeks on List: 1
Notes: Ten years ago, Harrison Ford and Brad Pitt teamed up in this international espionage thriller that underwhelmed critics and audiences alike. The setting is Ireland, and Pitt's accent has come under fire for not sounding quite right. I think people would have overlooked that if the overall movie were better, but it's not. A flash in the pan on our charts.

Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels
Last Week's Ranking: 6
Weeks on List: 4
Notes: In the style of "Snatch," this 1999 caper movie is unabashedly British, starring Jason Statham and Vinnie Jones among others. The frenetic story involves four friends who dabble in a high stakes card game and thereby get in trouble with a local mob boss.

Gattaca
Last Week's Ranking: 7
Weeks on List: 4
Notes: This 1997 Jude Law/Ethan Hawke vehicle is a true sci-fi film. It gives us a complete and compelling portrait of a dystopian future in which an intrusive government controls the very genes of its citizens. The romance between Hawke and Uma Thurman is just prevalent enough to give it an appealing, soft edge.

Virus

Last Week's Ranking: 8
Weeks on List: 1
Notes: Jamie Lee Curtis and Alec Baldwin are trying to save the world from evil aliens who consider the human race to be a virus. Donald Sutherland also stars in this stinking pile of a gorefest, which is based on a comic book.

We're Back: A Dinosaur's Story

Last Week's Ranking: 9
Weeks on List: 1
Notes: It's appropriate that this 1993 animated children's tale about dinosaurs would feature the voice talents of some of the biggest dinosaurs in Hollywood. Larry King, Walter Cronkite, Julia Childs, Rhea Perlman, and John Goodman are just some of the actors who lend their voices to the lowly regarded story of a pack of dinosaurs who triumphantly show up in modern day NYC, announcing: We're back!

Speed and Angels

Last Week's Ranking: 10
Weeks on List: 1
Notes: Any 2008 movie offering is a feather in Hulu's cap, even when it features a hackneyed story about two young fighter pilot recruits who have militaristic adventures on the way to a tour of duty in Iraq. Some places list it as a documentary, but others as a drama. After just a week on the charts, the discrepancy is a moot point.

Private School

Last Week's Ranking: 11
Weeks on List: 2
Notes: Phoebe Cates and Betsy Russell are private school girls competing for the attentions of Matt Modine, circa 1983. It tries for a Porky's sensibility with an all-girl setting, but the raucousness and sexual energy both quickly degenerate into a fizzle of bad moviemaking. Given the success of some other titillating fare on the list, I'm surprised it didn't last a little longer.

My Best Friend's Wedding
Last Week's Ranking: 15
Weeks on List: 3
Notes: Julia Roberts at the peak of her career, this romantic comedy has found a spot in the DVD case of about half of all Americans (the female half, of course). Also features Cameron Diaz, Rupert Everett, and Dermot Mulroney, among others.

The North Shore

Last Week's Ranking: 17
Weeks on List: 1
Notes: A 1987 actioner set in Hawaii featuring Matt Adler and Nia Peeples as surfers who get caught up in a larger plot. I predict that you will never hear of this movie again on this blog.

Thunderbirds

Last Week's Ranking: 18
Weeks on List: 1
Notes: The 2004 crapfest featuring a group of young, attractive law enforcement officers who drive five distinct amazingly cool space-vehicles. Based on the British tv show, and featuring Bill Paxton, to his everlasting shame. Also, Ben Kingsley.

In The Name of the Father

Last Week's Ranking: 20
Weeks on List: 1
Notes: I haven't seen this 93 drama starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Emma Thompson, but critics went gaga for the tearjerking story of a man wrongfully imprisoned in 1974 for the bombing of a London pub. After reading a couple of reviews on it, I'm adding this to my list for future viewing.


Hall of Fame:
These are the movies that have had the longest run on the list in the past. Right now, the threshold for inclusion is 6 weeks, but I anticipate that it will go up over time.

Underworld: Evolution

Last Week's Ranking: 14
Weeks on List: 6
Notes: Kate Beckinsale as a goth-boy's wet dream can't save this dark and dreary action flick from the weight of its futuristic vampire world. Reappears on the list after a hiatus, but hurry up and watch! It has an expiration notice that should kick in tomorrow.

Dude, Where's My Car?

Last Week's Ranking: 17
Weeks on List: 6
Notes: Ashton Kutcher and Jennifer Garner teamed up in this stoner flick just before they became breakout stars. After an uninterrupted 6 weeks on the list, it's finally slipped from the top 20.