Skip to main content

This controversial Bradley Cooper movie is a big hit on Netflix. Is it worth streaming?

Rachel McAdams and Bradley Cooper in Aloha.
Bradley Cooper, left, and Rachel McAdams star in Columbia Pictures' "Aloha," also starring Emma Stone. Sony Pictures
Two men sit in a helicopter in Aloha.
Sony

The Netflix top 10 lists are far from a perfect way to gauge what you should watch, but sometimes a title appears there that seems intriguing, even if it was largely forgotten when it was first released. Cameron Crowe’s Aloha, which was originally released in 2015, is currently experiencing exactly that phenomenon. If you’re intrigued by the movie, you might want to know a little bit more about it before you decide to take the plunge.

The film follows a military contractor who comes to Hawaii and reconnects with his ex. At the same time, he meets a new woman who serves as his escort across the island. As the two become closer, he begins to feel a connection toward this new woman, even as the two must race to avert a nuclear disaster. It’s primarily a comedy, and here are three reasons you should check it out on Netflix.

Recommended Videos

It features an incredible cast

ALOHA Movie Trailer (Official HD) - May 2015

Cameron Crowe sure knows how to assemble a cast, and Aloha‘s is incredible. The movie stars Bradley Cooper (Maestro) and Emma Stone (Poor Things), but it also includes Rachel McAdams, Bill Murray, John Krasinski, and Danny McBride, among others. Cooper was at the height of his movie stardom, and he and Stone make for an incredibly solid romantic pairing.

A man and a woman dance at a party in Aloha.
Sony

Stone’s controversial casting as an Asian American woman is probably best left to history, but she has the charisma necessary to lead the kind of movie, and every member of the cast proves more than capable of working in concert with the tone of the movie.

It’s set in lush, beautiful Hawaii

The cast of Aloha
Sony Pictures

Tourism can be expensive. Thankfully, we have movies like Aloha to show us just how beautiful Hawaii can be without having to go there ourselves.

Hawaii itself looks as beautiful as you’ve heard. It’s easy to see why so many people might want to travel there. If you can’t afford to, though, you can always just turn on Aloha.

It’s the kind of love story we don’t get anymore

Rachel McAdams and Bradley Cooper in Aloha.
Crowe has been making various kinds of love stories for basically his whole career, and Aloha is just the director’s most recent example. Although the movie has a more detailed plot about the U.S. military and nuclear payloads in outer space, the movie is really about two people traveling across an island together and slowly forming a connection. Sony Pictures

Crowe’s old-fashioned form of storytelling, which is usually centered around romance, has fallen out of favor in more recent years, but Aloha is the kind of throwback you might be looking for if you feel like modern moviemaking is sorely lacking when it comes to romance.

Joe Allen
Joe Allen is a freelance writer at Digital Trends, where he covers Movies and TV. He frequently writes streaming…
The best classic movies on Netflix right now
Al Pacino as Tony Montana in Scarface sitting at his desk in an iconic scene.

Classic movie lovers, you're in luck. Netflix has only shed a single classic film since our last update for this post. And while we'll miss Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the additions of Scarface, Psycho, Sixteen Candles, and The Karate Kid more than make up for it.

Netflix doesn't have a lot of films from the 1980s and 1970s and even fewer from the 1960s. So it's worth taking the time to appreciate these classics while they're still around. Netflix has a habit of dropping older movies more quickly than modern hits. Chances are some or even all of these movies will be off the streamer by the end of 2024. So make the most of the time you have, and check out the best classic movies on Netflix right now.
Need more recommendations? Then check out the best new movies to stream this week, 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+.

Read more
3 action movies on Netflix you need to watch in November 2024
Two men and a woman hold guns and board a ship.

One of Netflix's best genres is, without a doubt, action. Action movies are frequently found on Netflix's most popular movies list. Most of these action films are quickly paced and straight to the point. In other words, these movies perfectly provide an escape from our daily lives. Extraction, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, and The Adam Project have all been huge hits with subscribers.

More of these movies are under the "Action" section on Netflix. From there, Netflix separates action into subgenres including suspense, sci-fi, adventure, and international. If you don't feel like scrolling for hours, we did the hard work and picked out three action movies to watch this month. One of these movies features Hollywood's biggest star in his most underrated blockbuster.

Read more
If you have to watch one Amazon Prime Video movie in November 2024, stream this one
Ivana Baquero in Pan's Labyrinth.

Guillermo del Toro is one of the best filmmakers of his generation, and he'll probably go down as the only Best Director winner at the Oscars to take home that award and Best Picture for a love story between a woman and an amphibious male. That movie was The Shape of Water, in case you were wondering. Del Toro loves making fantasy and horror movies, and he's made several, including Hellboy, Crimson Peak, and even Blade II. But the one Amazon Prime Video movie that you have to watch in November is del Toro's most personal work to date, Pan's Labyrinth.

Del Toro wrote and developed Pan's Labyrinth over a period of years before the film hit theaters in 2006. It's a movie set during the Spanish Civil War that mixes in elements of dark fantasy. It had a lower budget -- $14 million -- than the most recent Hellboy movie, but it feels more alive and bursting with imagination. Despite the subtitles throughout the movie, fans in America and around the world embraced Pan's Labyrinth and carried it to a box office take of $83 million worldwide. Nearly two decades later, a new generation has a chance to discover the movie on Prime Video. That's why we're sharing the reasons Pan's Labyrinth should be at the top of your Prime Video playlist.
It's del Toro's passion project

Read more