The Hulu Top Twenty

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




1. The Siege
Last Week's Ranking: 4
Weeks on List: 1
Notes: A pre 911 movie about Muslim terrorists attacking NYC starring Denzel Washington, who seems to continually evade the stink of the many, many bad movies he's made. This one is decent enough, with supporting roles by action movie icon Bruce Willis and Annette Benning.

2. Someone Like You

Last Week's Ranking: 5
Weeks on List: 1
Notes: Ashley Judd andHugh Jackman star in this 2001 romantic comedy, which features the requisite setting of a high-powered magazine company, and lots of schmaltz. It's nothing special, but the leads, along with Greg Kinnear and Marisa Tomei, are always fun to watch.

3. Picture Perfect

Last Week's Ranking: 6
Weeks on List: 2
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.

4. Kung Pow: Enter the Fist

Last Week's Ranking: 10
Weeks on List: 2
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.

5. The Family Man
Last Week's Ranking: 1
Weeks on List: 2
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.

6. Black Knight

Last Week's Ranking: 7
Weeks on List: 3
Notes: Martin Lawrence stars in this godawful stinker of a movie about a man who travels back through time to the days of King Arthur. Lame jokes, shameless mugging, and a general shredding of the comedic movie genre are the hallmarks of this effort, although calling it an effort may be too kind.

7. Swimfan
Last Week's Ranking: 13
Weeks on List: 1
Notes: Jesse Bradford and Erika Christensen in bathing suits? That seems to be the pitch that sold this humdrum Fatal Attraction redux, in which Christensen stalks Bradford after becoming romantically obsessed with him. My then-girlfriend had a policy of seeing all Jesse Bradford releases, so I actually plunked down box office cash for this one.

8. Muppets From Space

Last Week's Ranking: 9
Weeks on List: 2
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.

9. The Times of Harvey Milk
Last Week's Ranking: 3
Weeks on List: 2
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.

10. The Manhattan Project

Last Week's Ranking: NA
Weeks on List: 1
Notes: This 1986 effort by Director Marshall Brickman (best known for writing Annie Hall) is about a high school student who builds an A Bomb for his school's science fair, after which he is branded a terrorist by the government. John Lithgow stars, alongside a pre-Sex And The City Cynthia Nixon. Critics gave it a tepid reaction.

11. Toys

Last Week's Ranking: NA
Weeks on List: 1
Notes: When this came out, it seemed like an epic flop of Hudson Hawkish proportions, but the 25% approval rating from the critics of Rotten Tomatoes mean that it is simply, banally bad. It has all of the eccentricity of Gene Wilder's Willy Wonka movie, but none of the cleverness. Or maybe it's too much cleverness. I'm not sure, but look for this one to slip off the Top Twenty as if it were coated with teflon. L.L. Cool J and Robin Wright also star.

12. St Elmo's Fire

Last Week's Ranking: NA
Weeks on List: 1
Notes: An iconic movie of the 80s featuring all of your favorites, such as Ally Sheedy, Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, and Molly Ringwald (among others). If this moves up the list next week, it will be a big signal as to who the average Hulu consumer really is.

13. The Fifth Element
Last Week's Ranking: 11
Weeks on List: 6 (10)
Notes: Bruce Willis is a cab driver...in the future! Kind of. He and Milla Jovovich tear it up in this pure action adventure that keeps drawing in the Hulu viewers. With "The Girl Next Door" gone for good, this is the most popular movie of all time on Hulu. Strange, innit? I chalk it up to the promo picture on Hulu, which features Jovovich in a skimpy white costume. I think it's utterly unflattering, but I recognize that it will appeal to a certain group of people.

14. Go

Last Week's Ranking: 14
Weeks on List: 4
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, in certain circles, just a couple of hundred dollars can make the world go round. 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. Liar, Liar

Last Week's Ranking: 12
Weeks on List: 9
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 over 2 months in the top 20, this is showing some serious legs.

16. 21 Grams
Last Week's Ranking: 8
Weeks on List: 4
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.

17. The Bounty
Last Week's Ranking: NA
Weeks on List: 1
Notes: The HMS Bounty, captained by the infamously cruel Captain Bligh, was the scene for the most well known mutiny in history. This critically lauded dramatization recasts Bligh as the hero, played by a youngish Anthony Hopkins (the movie was released in 1984, 25 years ago). Mel Gibson is the villainous mutineer, while Laurence Olivier and Daniel Day-Lewis play supporting roles.

18. Wimbledon

Last Week's Ranking: 17
Weeks on List: 4
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.

19. Howard The Duck

Last Week's Ranking: 2
Weeks on List: 2
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.

20. Basic Instinct
Last Week's Ranking: 18
Weeks on List: 9
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.

Notably Absent:
These movies have dropped off the list this week.

Horse Feathers
Last Week's Ranking: 4
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.

Last Tango In Paris

Last Week's Ranking: 5
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.

A Little Sex

Last Week's Ranking: 7
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.

Swimming Pool
Last Week's Ranking: 13
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.

The Nude Bomb

Last Week's Ranking: 15
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.

Two Brothers

Last Week's Ranking: 16
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.

Saints and Soldiers

Last Week's Ranking: 19
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.

Fighter Pilot: Operation Red Flag
Last Week's Ranking: 20
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.


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. No new inductees this week.

Underworld: Evolution

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?

Weeks on List: 6
Notes: Ashton Kutcher and Jennifer Garner teamed up in this stoner flick just before they became breakout stars.