Watch With Us loves watching movies, but we can’t lie — it’s better when you don’t have to pay for them.
Thankfully, there are lots of free streaming platforms that don’t require rental fees or a subscription plan, with huge movie libraries that could put Prime Video or HBO Max to shame.
This February, we want to recommend some of the best movies you can find on free platforms like Tubi, Pluto TV and The Roku Channel.
Whether you want a mid-budget mainstream comedy like Tropic Thunder or a sci-fi spectacle like Interstellar, you can find it for free.
“Tropic Thunder,” the title of a memoir by a Vietnam War veteran (Nick Nolte), is greenlit for a film adaptation starring flailing action star Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller), extreme method actor Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.), rapper Alpa Chino (Brandon T. Jackson) and drug-addicted comedian Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black). While filming in Vietnam, director Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan) tries to liven up the production by leaving the actors unprotected in the middle of the jungle. But when Damien’s stunt causes him to get killed, the four hapless actors are left to fend for themselves.
While your mileage may vary in terms of whether or not some aspects of Tropic Thunder have aged better than others, it’s hard to deny that most of the humor and performances in the film have aged like fine wine. Tropic Thunder is a platinum-level classic if you were in high school when it came out, but even watching it now will likely make you misty-eyed for a time when mainstream comedies were truly pop-cultural touchstones.
In the near future, widespread blight, famine and dust storms have left humans susceptible to extinction. Meanwhile, brilliant NASA physicist Professor Brand (Michael Caine) has been working on technology to save mankind by transporting them through a wormhole to a more hospitable planet. Brand has found three possible new home planets in the wormhole, but first, he has to send former NASA pilot Joseph Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) along with a team of researchers and astronauts through the wormhole to find which one is best for Earth’s Plan B.
With a stacked cast that includes Anne Hathaway, Timothée Chalamet, Matt Damon and Jessica Chastain, Christopher Nolan‘s space and time-bending sci-fi drama may confuse you with its meticulous attention to detail to the real-life physics involved in the narrative. But you don’t need extensive knowledge of black holes to fall for the story, themes and performances. Interstellar is a singular blockbuster spectacle whose mind-blowing special effects are just as profound as its intimate emotional core.
Following a second Ice Age that was caused by an attempt to mitigate global warming, the remaining survivors of humanity are forced to live on a never-ending train ride. On the Snowpiercer, each car is separated individually by class — the poorest people are at the back of the train living in squalor, while the wealthiest are at the front living in safety and luxury. As the train travels on its globe-trotting route, the leader of the lower-class car, Curtis Everett (Chris Evans), stages a rebellion against the class structure of the Snowpiercer, battling his way through the elite to make his way to the front of the train.
Korean director Bong Joon Ho‘s first English-language film is an ambitious and riveting sci-fi marvel that is lower on gratuitous special effects and higher in engaging character drama. Offering more intellectual pleasures than many modern sci-fi action films of its ilk, Snowpiercer succeeds in both creating a unique, absorbing world with its breathtaking visuals and production design, and thought-provoking thematic commentary on climate change and class struggle.
Married couple Melinda (Ana de Armas) and Vic Van Allen (Ben Affleck) have a deeply complicated relationship, held together by a tenuous arrangement in which Melinda is allowed to take as many lovers as she likes, even in their own home. Their open marriage is no secret to those close to them, but Vic finds himself getting increasingly jealous of his wife. When Melinda starts seeing a gorgeous young man named Charlie (Jacob Elordi), and she invites him to their home, Charlie turns up dead in their backyard pool — and all eyes are on Vic as the prime suspect.
Adrian Lyne‘s adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel of the same name is certainly not going to be for everyone, especially not for those who were hoping for something salacious akin to Fifty Shades of Grey. Instead, Deep Water finds its erotic pleasures elsewhere, through psychological manipulation, pulpy intrigue and shocks that feel earned rather than easy. Plus, it’s hard not to enjoy the charged chemistry between de Armas and Affleck.