The streaming landscape is a crowded one. From Netflix to Hulu to Peacock, there are over a dozen major streaming services out there vying for your hard-earned dollars and valuable time. One of the more underrated ones is Paramount+, a streamer that has access to the vast Viacom library of past and present hits.
What does that mean? Well, you can watch all the best Mission: Impossible movies, lots of Star Trek, SpongeBob SquarePants, The Godfather, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, some of the Scream movies, and many more. Paramount+ has hundreds of movies, so we’ve created a list that highlights the very best of them.
We also have guides to the best movies on Netflix, the best movies on Hulu, the best movies on Amazon Prime Video, the best movies on Max, and the best movies on Disney+.
Smile 2 (2024)
Released in 2002, Smile was a surprise box office hit, a horror movie about trauma that resonated with a mass audience. Naturally, a sequel was greenlighted, and in 2024, the original movie’s director, Parker Finn, crafted Smile 2, a leaner, meaner follow-up that tops the original in almost every way.
Pop star Skye Riley (Naomi Scott) seemingly has it all: a successful career, lots of money, and global fame. But she’s haunted by the death of her former boyfriend, and it’s that lingering trauma that makes her the victim to Smile‘s malevolent entity, which preys on the pain and fear of its victims. As Skye watches helplessly as her friends and family fall prey to the parasite, she must find a way to overcome her own personal demons to beat it once and for all.
Gladiator (2000)
“Are you not entertained?” Those immortal words were shouted by Russell Crowe in Gladiator, a 2000 movie that brought back the sword-and-sandals epic from the dead and earned Crowe an Oscar for Best Actor. The movie itself won Best Picture, and it’s not hard to see why; it’s epic in scope and tells a universal story about the need to be with one’s family, even if they are dead and chilling out in the afterlife.
The soldier Maximus (Crowe) is understandably mad that his wife and child have been murdered by the new emperor Commodus (Joker 2‘s Joaquin Phoenix) and that he’s been left for dead, only to be found and forced into slavery. The only thing that sustains Maximus is his thirst for revenge, which leads him to train and fight as a gladiator so he can get close to Commodus and kill him.
The Last Voyage of the Demeter (2023)
Horror films are in vogue right now, but some still slip through the cracks. That’s what happened with The Last Voyage of the Demeter, a movie with a troubled production history that was ignored by many when it was released in August 2023. That’s a shame, as the film boasts incredible cinematography, score, and visual effects work that successfully brings its horror narrative to bloody life.
The movie adapts one chapter in Bram Stoker’s classic vampire novel Dracula called The Captain’s Log. Aboard the massive merchant ship the Demeter, a motley crew of workers discovers that among the cargo lies a vampire that is systematically killing them. Stranded in an unforgiving sea with land miles away, the remaining crew must band together to try to find some way to stop the evil creature from consuming them all.
L.A. Confidential (1997)
1997 was a great year for movies, and among the best that year was Curtis Hanson’s noir thriller L.A. Confidential. Adapted from James Ellroy’s novel, the film is set in 1953 Los Angeles, populated with movie stars, corrupt cops, prostitutes who are molded to look like famous actresses, and tabloid reporters looking for the next big scandal.
They might have found one when a bloody shootout occurs at the Nite Owl coffeehouse, a massacre that gradually pulls together three different men to find out why it happened. But Bud White (Russell Crowe), Ed Exley (Guy Pearce), and Jack Vincennes (Kevin Spacey) soon realize something more sinister and far-reaching is at play. Can they trust each other long enough to solve the mystery?
The Hours (2002)
The Hours takes a simple concept — three different people decide to hold a party one day — and spins a complex movie that spans three different time periods with three different female protagonists. But what unites Virginia in 1920s England, Laura in 1950s Los Angeles, and Clarissa in 2000s New York City is one book: Mrs. Dalloway, whose title heroine wakes up one day, arranges and attends a party, and then contemplates suicide.
The beauty of The Hours is how deftly it manages to juggle three different narratives that all intersect at one point with each other. Nicole Kidman deservedly won an Oscar for her work as Virginia Woolf, the writer of Mrs. Dalloway, but just as good are Meryl Streep as Clarissa, who strains to juggle the demands of an ex-lover with her current one, and Julianne Moore as Laura, who is trapped in a boring marriage. The Hours also boasts a wonderful score by the composer Phillip Glass, which you may want to play as you contemplate your own mortality or if you just want to hear something beautiful.
Clueless (1995)
There are teen movies, and then there’s Clueless. Amy Heckerling’s modern take on Jane Austen’s classic novel Emma was a sleeper hit in the summer of 1995, and it’s never really gone out of style since then. That’s the mark of a true classic, a comedy that’s still funny today and a portrait of teenage life that’s still relevant, even if their cell phones are the size of bricks.
Cher (Alicia Silverstone) may look like your typical spoiled Beverly Hills teenage girl, but she secretly has a heart of gold. She and her friend Dionne (Stacey Dash) team up to help find true love for the people around them, which includes their tragically inept teacher, Miss Geist (Twink Caplan), and new student Tai (Brittany Murphy). It may also include Cher herself, as she begins to realize she has feelings for her ex-stepbrother, Josh (Paul Rudd).
Talk to Me (2023)
Here’s a movie that takes the phrase “talk to the hand” seriously. The hand in question is severed and embalmed, and it’s rumored to have the power for anyone to communicate with someone deceased as long as they grip it and say the words “talk to me.” That’s exactly what Mia (Sophie Wilde) does, and she quickly realizes she’s unleashed something sinister that could jeopardize her friends and herself. Can she find a way to stop the evil she’s unwillingly unleashed?
Talk to Me was a word-of-mouth hit in 2023, and it’s due to both the talented directors, Danny and Michael Phillippou, and the intense lead performance by Wilde. The horror movie uses the familiar trauma trope in new ways, and the ending is a keeper. It’s the rare horror movie where you look forward to the inevitable sequel instead of dreading it.
Casino Royale (2006)
What’s the best Bond movie ever? A serious case could be made for Martin Campbell’s Casino Royale. The 2006 entry successfully rebooted the franchise for a new generation, casting the blond-haired, blue-eyed Daniel Craig as a Bond who literally doesn’t joke around. He has no time for quips, martinis (shaken or stirred), or even romancing beautiful Bond girls. As embodied by Craig, he’s a blunt force instrument designed solely to complete the mission set before him by MI6, which is still headed by M (Judi Dench).
His mission in Casino Royale is a dangerous one: He must infiltrate a high-stakes poker game and play against Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen), a banker who helps fund some of the world’s most notorious terrorists. Bond must team with Vesper Lynd (Eva Green), a beautiful treasury agent who loathes 007, to lure Le Chiffre into a trap and figure out who his latest employer is, who’s been bankrolling a series of violent acts in Florida and Uganda.
The Outsiders (1983)
One of the big hits on Broadway right now is the Tony Award-winning The Outsiders, a musical reimagining of S.E. Hinton’s classic novel. It is also inspired by Francis Ford Coppola’s 1983 adaptation, and while flawed, his film still stands as an entertaining tale of youth gone wild in the heartland of 1950s America.
The main conflict in The Outsiders is between two groups: the Greasers, which consists of brothers Sodapop (Rob Lowe) and Ponyboy (C. Thomas Howell), and the Socs, an affluent bunch that counts the beautiful Cherry Valance (Diane Lane) as one of its members. When Ponyboy falls for Cherry, it starts a chain of events that leads to violence and death. Will any of these teens make it to see their high school graduation? Or will they fall prey to the same cycle of violence that claimed previous generations?
War of the Worlds (2005)
This list wouldn’t be complete without a Tom Cruise picture. The actor has had a long association with Paramount Pictures, so naturally, there are a ton of Cruise pictures on Paramount+. One of the best is War of the Worlds, a 2005 remake helmed by none other than Steven Spielberg. His take is different from the 1953 version as he focuses more on the dysfunctional family dynamics of Cruise’s character Ray, an absentee dad who is trying to repair his fractured relationships with his children, Rachel (Dakota Fanning) and Robbie (Justin Chatwin).
But make no mistake — this is, first and foremost, a sci-fi action movie told by one of the best filmmakers ever to do it. As the aliens invade Earth and easily decimate cities around the world, Cruise’s Ray tries desperately to save his family while avoiding being vaporized by the lethal extraterrestrials. War of the Worlds doesn’t get enough credit as an all-too-effective movie with almost unbearable amounts of tension.
