While some other streamers have flooded their library with Christmas movies this month, Hulu didn’t forget to place some great films under the Christmas tree for its subscribers. In December, the most notable new additions are Cast Away, Sommersby, Gladiator, and a more recently released film called Cuckoo. Some of these movies cannot be ignored. After all, Gladiator won the Oscar for Best Picture in 2000, while Cast Away was a spectacular triumph for director Robert Zemeckis and star Tom Hanks.
Many of Hulu’s recent arrivals provide more selections for movie lovers, including Alien: Romulus, La La Land, and National Treasure. But if you really need to find the best Christmas movies on Hulu, we suggest starting with Elf. You can find these films and more among the best movies on Hulu right now.
Subscribe to a different platform? Not only do we have a guide to the best new movies to stream, but we’ve rounded up the best movies on Amazon Prime Video, the best movies on Netflix, and the best movies on Disney+.
Cast Away (2000)
74%
7.8/10There are few movies that could hang entirely on one actor. Tom Hanks proved that he is one of the few in Cast Away. Hanks is the greatest special effect in Robert Zemeckis’ film because he physically transforms his body to better reflect the fate of his character, Charles “Chuck” Noland.
While working for FedEx, Chuck is lost at sea in a plane crash and left alone on a desolate island, with minimal food and resources. All Chuck wants to do is get home to his girlfriend, Kelly Frears (Helen Hunt), but first, he’ll have to find a way to survive with what little he has. And if Chuck can pass those trials, then he can tackle the bigger problem of escaping the island itself.
Sommersby (1993)
6.3/10John “Jack” Sommersby (Richard Gere) finally comes home after the Civil War in Sommersby, but the people who knew him can hardly recognize him. That’s especially true of his wife, Laurel Sommersby (Jodie Foster), who discovers that Jack is seemingly a changed man who gives her the love she needs. He is a caring father for their son, Rob (Brett Kelley).
Jack even takes it upon himself to help save their town and community, while deeply angering Orin Meacham (Bill Pullman), a man who wanted Laurel for himself. However, Jack’s transformation may be too good to be true when he’s accused of being a murderer and an imposter. Neither charge can lead to a positive outcome, but Laurel knows who she loves, and she’s going to do everything she can to save him.
Gladiator (2000)
67%
8.5/10Russell Crowe has had many roles over the last two decades, but the one that has defined his career is Maximus Decimus Meridius in Ridley Scott’s Gladiator. Maximus wasn’t always a slave or a warrior in the arena. Under the leadership of Emperor Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris), Maximus was a great general who built a life with his wife and child.
That life was taken from Maximus by Marcus’ insane son, Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix). With no other options, Maximus survives every trial in the arena to become a mighty gladiator. But as his popularity with the people of Rome grows, Maximus can only hide his identity from Emperor Commodus for so long before his plans for revenge are threatened.
Cuckoo (2024)
62%
5.8/10Cuckoo is an indie horror film that debuted under the radar in 2024, but it has a chance to branch out on Hulu. Hunter Schafer stars as Gretchen, a teenager who is grieving the death of her mother when her father, Luis (Marton Csokas), and her stepmother, Beth (Jessica Henwick), move her to the German Alps alongside her mute half-sister, Alma (Mila Lieu).
Gretchen soon discovers that strange things are happening in and around the hotel owned by Herr König (Dan Stevens), which may be connected to a mysterious hooded woman and a secret about Alma that no one could have guessed.
Elf (2003)
66%
7.1/10For his entire life, Buddy (Will Ferrell) believed that he was an elf, despite all evidence to the contrary. His story unfolds in Elf, a perennial holiday favorite directed by Jon Favreau. Papa Elf (Bob Newhart) finally breaks the news to Buddy as an adult and reveals that his biological father, Walter Hobbs (James Caan), is still alive and working as an executive in New York City.
Buddy may not have fit in among the elves, but he’s even more out of place among his father and his stepfamily. He has better luck with Jovie (Zooey Deschanel), a young woman who finds Buddy endearing. But it’s going to take some Christmas magic for Buddy to reconcile with his human family and find a place for himself in this world.
La La Land (2016)
94%
8.4/10If you’ve ever had a love song in your heart, then La La Land may be the musical rom-com for you. This was one of the rare live-action musicals that went on to be a blockbuster hit. It also won six Oscars, including Best Director for Damien Chazelle and Best Actress for Emma Stone. And that infamous Oscar envelope mix-up sure made for some fun television!
The film follows Sebastian “Seb” Wilder (Ryan Gosling) and Mia Dolan (Stone), a couple who nearly miss the chance to be lovers because they’re so caught up in chasing their dreams. Once Sebastian and Mia realize their obvious chemistry, they fall hard for each other. Unfortunately for the two lovebirds, their relationship hits some turbulence, which may derail their respective ambitions.
Alien: Romulus (2024)
64%
7.2/10The Weyland-Yutani corporation has basically been the villain in every Alien movie to date, and Alien: Romulus is no exception. In this film, we learn that not only has Weyland-Yutani been using humans as conscripted labor in space, but that the corporation also found the wreckage of the Nostromo, Ripley’s ship from the original Alien.
To escape their unjustly extended contracts with Weyland-Yutani, Rain (Cailee Spaeny), her android Andy (David Johnsson), Kay Harrison (Isabela Merced), and a few others undertake a risky mission to scavenge materials from an abandoned space station. By the time they realize that Weyland-Yutani’s Xenomorph experiments took place on that station, it’s too late to escape intact. And it may not be possible to escape at all after a lingering surprise from the past changes Andy’s programming and turns his loyalty away from Rain.
National Treasure (2004)
40%
6.9/10National Treasure gave Nicolas Cage the chance to put his own spin on Indiana Jones with a new character, Benjamin Franklin Gates. It’s also one of the most enjoyable films in Cage’s long career because it absolutely embraces the script’s outrageous plot twists.
After Ben and his friend, Riley Poole (Justin Bartha), follow the trail of a long-lost treasure to a shipwreck, they realize that their partner, Ian Howe (Sean Bean), is a dangerous criminal who plans to steal the Declaration of Independence for the next clue to the treasure. So Ben and Riley decide to steal it first before embarking on a whirlwind adventure that makes them the targets of both the FBI and Ian’s criminal empire.
Edward Scissorhands (1990)
74%
7.9/10Leave it to Tim Burton to make Johnny Depp weird. Or weirder, if you prefer. But there’s a real charm to Depp’s disarming performance as the title character in Edward Scissorhands. Poor Edward may look like a teenager, but he’s more innocent and naive because he never lived among normal people until his creator (as played by screen legend Vincent Price) passed away.
The late inventor left Edward with giant scissors for hands, which makes him stand out even more. The Boggs family takes Edward in, and he falls for their daughter, Kim (Winona Ryder). But while the people of town initially accept Edward, Kim’s jealous boyfriend, Jim (Anthony Michael Hall), does everything he can to turn everyone against his rival.
Unbreakable (2000)
62%
7.3/10It’s unfortunate that M. Night Shyamalan’s best movies came early in his career because The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable are an impressive one-two punch. His twists usually come at the end, and Unbreakable has one of those as well. However, it’s the twist that comes during the film that elevates it to another level. We won’t spoil what it is, but it changes the film from a thriller into something more.
Bruce Willis has a great turn as David Dunn, a man emotionally adrift from his family and facing a potential divorce. When David survives what should have been a fatal train accident unharmed, his wife, Audrey (Robin Wright), sees it as a sign to give their marriage another chance. Yet, a stranger named Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson) sees David’s survival as living proof of a theory he’s chased his entire life. Elijah contends that David is more than just human, and that will send him on a journey that will redefine his entire existence.
High Fidelity (2000)
79%
7.4/10John Cusack’s Rob Gordon knows a lot about music in the rom-com drama High Fidelity, but he’s not as well-versed with the opposite sex. Rob never seems to have problems finding girlfriends like Laura (Iben Hjejle), yet he’s never been able to form a relationship that lasts, as music is the real love of his life.
When Laura finally leaves him, Rob is forced to question why he can’t get his love life together. That’s why he seeks out his former lovers to get their insight. Getting Laura back is going to be a lot harder than revisiting the past, especially if Rob doesn’t want to repeat the same mistakes again.
Date Night (2010)
56%
6.3/10Steve Carell and Tina Fey play a married couple, Phil and Claire Foster, who have lost the spark in their relationship in Date Night. They’ve got kids and a house, but their love life is DOA. So to spice things up, they live a little dangerously on their date night by impersonating another couple, the Tripplehorns (James Franco and Mila Kunis), who had reservations at a restaurant.
That leads the couple into actual danger when it turns out that the Tripplehorns have blackmail information on very shady men, including some crooked cops. The only way for the Fosters to get out of this situation is to locate the real Tripplehorns and find someone they can trust with the blackmail intel who won’t try to kill them for it.
Sicario (2015)
82%
7.7/10The director of Dune, Denis Villeneuve, and the co-creator of Yellowstone, Taylor Sheridan, teamed up for Sicario, a dark action thriller featuring Emily Blunt as FBI Special Agent Kate Macer.
While attempting to raid a cartel safe house, Kate witnesses the brutal deaths of two police officers. CIA officer Matt Graver (Josh Brolin) gives Kate the chance to strike back by joining a joint task force that’s letting the old rulebook fall by the wayside. By the time that Kate realizes that the CIA’s task force is going too far, she’s already in the company of a CIA-trained assassin Alejandro Gillick (Benicio del Toro). Gillick is a good ally to have, but if Kate crosses him, then she’ll be taking her own life in her hands.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024)
66%
7.0/10The Planet of the Apes films have been around since 1968, but there’s still a lot of life left in the franchise in Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. This story takes place 300 years after the life of Caesar, as one tribe of apes has taken to raising eagles as companions. Noa (Owen Teague) is the heir to Eagle Clan, until his people are brutally kidnapped and enslaved by the forces of Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand).
Proximus has perverted the teachings of Caesar and installed himself as a tyrant. He’s also after Mae (Freya Allan), a young human girl who may be able to lead him to hidden tech and weapons. Both Noa and Mae have reasons to oppose Proximus, but can they bring themselves to trust each other enough to bring him down?
Immaculate (2024)
57%
5.8/10If you’ve seen one movie this year about a young nun at the center of an evil plan, then you’ve either seen Immaculate or The First Omen. There are definitely a lot of overlapping themes between them. But so you can keep them straight, this is the one that stars Sydney Sweeny as Cecilia, a woman who can’t wait to take her vows and devote herself to God.
Unfortunately for Cecilia, there are shady things happening at her new home in the Italian countryside. Someone believes that Sister Cecilia is the perfect candidate to play an important role in the future of the world. Cecilia doesn’t get to choose what happens to her body, but she will have to decide how to react when the truth behind her immaculate pregnancy comes out.
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
69%
7.7/10Collectively, the Coen brothers have a very strong lineup of films, but O Brother, Where Art Thou? is one of their few feel-good movies. The story is an Americanized remix of The Odyssey, with George Clooney as Ulysses Everett McGill. Ulysses is a prisoner who has convinced two of his fellow inmates, Pete (John Turturro) and Delmar (Tim Blake Nelson), to escape a chain gang with him to find a treasure before a local area is submerged. Somewhere along the way, they become music superstars who are known as the Soggy Bottom Boys.
Yet what Ulysses really wants is his wife and daughters back in his life. And it’s going to take an act of God for that to happen. The music in this film is incredible, even if bluegrass and country aren’t really your things. The songs lend the film an irreverent tone, and it’s just a lot of fun to watch things play out.
Ford v Ferrari (2019)
81%
8.1/10Only the most enthusiastic race fans knew much about the fabled rivalry between Henry Ford II (Tracy Letts) and Ferrari founder Enzo Ferrari (Remo Girone) before director James Mangold’s Ford v Ferrari. But the film explains why Ford held such a grudge against Ferrari before turning the story over to Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) and a volatile race car driver named Ken Miles (Christian Bale).
Shelby and Miles are a pair of mavericks who have been tasked with building and designing a car that can match Ferrari’s top models in competitive racing. However, Miles is, to put it mildly, very abrasive, even with his friends. His attitude also earns the duo some powerful enemies within Ford itself who would love to sabotage their efforts. It’s going to take a battle of wills for Miles and Shelby to bring their dream car to fruition and ride it to glory.
The First Omen (2024)
66%
6.5/10Depending upon whether you consider the made-for-TV movie Omen IV: The Awakening as canon, the story of The Omen has been over since the third film hit theaters in 1981. And yet The First Omen reinvigorates the franchise with a prequel set in the early 1970s before the events of the original film.
The film follows Margaret (Nell Tiger Free), an American who has come to Rome to train for a life as a nun out of her religious devotion. Almost from the start, Margaret finds herself targeted by a conspiracy that she doesn’t understand. The forces of evil have decided that Margaret is the perfect woman to bring the antichrist into the world, whether she wants to or not.
Bullet Train (2022)
49%
7.3/10Brad Pitt was 58 years old when Bullet Train hit theaters in 2022, and yet you can’t tell his age by looking at him. As Pitt has grown older, he’s also gotten a lot funnier, and this movie makes his character, Ladybug, the butt of a lot of the jokes in the film. Ladybug is an assassin who is very unlucky, to the point where he wants to leave the life of a killer behind him. But he’s roped into filling in for an operative on a Japanese bullet train for a supposedly easy job.
All Ladybug has to do is retrieve a briefcase full of stolen money and slip out of the train before anyone realizes it’s missing. It’s easy to say, and almost impossible to do when multiple assassins get on the train, each with their own agendas. Ladybug may not have been looking for trouble, but it’s found him. And there’s an even more dangerous threat awaiting everyone at the end of the line.
Bad Boys for Life (2020)
59%
6.5/10To paraphrase the immortal words of Danny Glover from the Lethal Weapon movies, Will Smith and Martin Lawrence are getting too old for this bleep in Bad Boys for Life. That can’t be avoided when the sequel comes out 17 years after the second film. This does work to the movie’s advantage, as Detective Lieutenants Mike Lowrey (Smith) and Miles Burnett (Lawrence) clash over whether they should retire from the force.
Before they can think about stepping away for good, they’ll have to contend with someone from Mike’s past, Isabel “La Bruja” Aretas (Kate del Castillo). Isabel is the widow of a drug kingpin, and she’s sent her son, Armando Aretas (Jacob Scipio), to Miami to wipe out their enemies and get her revenge on Mike. And when Armando strikes, he strikes hard.
Poor Things (2023)
88%
8.1/10Emma Stone won her second Oscar for Best Actress for her performance as Bella Baxter in Poor Things. Max McCandles (Ramy Youssef) falls for Bella before he learns that a mad scientist, Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe), brought her back to life with a newborn’s brain. That doesn’t dissuade Max from wanting to marry Bella, but she has other ideas.
Bella runs away with a lawyer, Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo), so she can experience everything that the world has to offer her. Much like Max, Duncan’s influence over Bella only goes so far before she starts setting the agenda for herself, and no one is prepared to accept that.
Anatomy of a Fall (2023)
86%
7.8/10Anatomy of a Fall was a five-time nominee at the Oscars, and the winner for 2023’s Best Original Screenplay. The story revolves around the death of Samuel Maleski (Samuel Theis) and the discovery of his body by his son, Daniel Maleski (Milo Machado-Graner). Did Samuel fall from the attic in his home, or was he pushed?
The police soon openly suspect that Samuel’s wife and Daniel’s mother, Sandra Voyter (Sandra Hüller), attacked Samuel and pushed him to his death. Even Daniel doesn’t quite know what to think when the truth about his parent’s strained marriage is brought out to the open. Affairs and resentment are only a small part of why Sandra and Samuel were estranged. But it looks damning when one of the leading characters in Sandra’s new novel contemplated killing her husband in a similar manner.
Suncoast (2024)
61%
6.6/10Laura Chinn’s Suncoast is largely based on true events that happened to her and her family, but the movie does take some dramatic license with the story. Nico Parker stars as Doris, a teenager who is overwhelmed by the brain cancer afflicting her brother, Max (Cree Kawa), and from her attempts to deal with their mother, Kristine (Laura Linney).
When Max enters hospice care, Doris befriends Paul (Woody Harrelson), an activist who is fighting to keep a woman named Terri Schiavo hooked up to life support despite her persistent vegetative state and the wishes of her husband. As for Doris, she has to face the very real possibility that her brother will never come home from hospice.
Uncharted (2022)
45%
6.3/10Fans of the Uncharted video games may have done a double take when the MCU’s Spider-Man, Tom Holland, was cast as a much younger version of adventurer Nathan “Nate” Drake. The Uncharted movie is an alternate take on Nate’s origin story and how he formed a partnership with Victor “Sully” Sullivan (Mark Wahlberg), a treasure hunter who claims to have been the partner of Nate’s missing brother, Sam Drake (Rudy Pankow).
In the way of Nate and Sully’s first expedition is Santiago Moncada (Antonio Banderas), a very wealthy man who hires Jo Braddock (Tati Gabrielle) and her mercenaries to take out anyone in their path. Nate and Sully only have Chloe Frazer (Sophia Ali) to call upon for help, but even she may be less than trustworthy.
Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood (2019)
83%
7.6/10If Quentin Tarantino is serious about making only one more movie, then his penultimate film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, will go down as one of his best pictures. In this alternate version of history, Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a faded Hollywood star, and his best friend and bodyguard, Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt), is a dangerous man with a murky past. Rick is desperate for a comeback, and his opportunities are drying up.
Meanwhile, Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie) is on the rise as a prominent actress, unaware that the Manson family’s violent ambitions may mean the death of her. Tarantino creates so much tension whenever the Mansons menace any of the three leads in this film that the inevitable violence is almost cathartic when it finally arrives.
No One Will Save You (2023)
60%
6.3/10Kaitlyn Dever stars in the Hulu original movie No One Will Save You as Brynn, a young woman who lives a solitary existence in large part because she is a pariah in her small town. That’s one of the reasons why Brynn has no one to turn to when an alien invades her home. In the aftermath, Brynn finds no support from her fellow humans, and she discovers just how alone she really is.
No One Will Save You barely has any dialogue at all, but Dever’s expressive and earnest performance carries the entire film. It also goes a long way toward making little gray men scary again, especially when Brynn meets the more horrific aliens.
Flamin' Hot (2023)
65%
5.8/10What do you do when there’s a true story that may not be true? As was famously said in the 1962 Western classic The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, “when the legend becomes fact, print the legend.” The story of Flamin’ Hot is truly inspirational regardless of whether these events actually played out this way in reality. The film is based on the memoir of Richard Montañez (Jesse Garcia), the man who claims that he created Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. And he didn’t do it alone.
With the support of his wife, Judy Montañez (Annie Gonzalez), and his co-worker, Clarence C. Baker (Dennis Haysbert), Richard rises from the rank of janitor and works up the nerve to pitch his Flamin’ Hot ideas to Frito-Lay executive Roger Enrico (Tony Shalhoub). From there, a snack food legend is born.
Something in the Dirt (2022)
An exciting example of the kind of narrative ingenuity that only a worldwide pandemic can foster, Something in the Dirt is the latest film from writer-director duo Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead (The Endless, Synchronic), and is arguably the most primitively fascinating work of these two collaborators. Shot over the course of a year with a crew of just 12, our story follows Levi and John, apartment-dwelling neighbors who decide to make a documentary about a range of supernatural events occurring in their Los Angeles residence. But as the two men discover that these kinds of extraordinary happenings are taking place all over L.A., their findings lead them to a combative exchange of theories and calculations.
Ultrasound (2022)
55%
5.8/10In director Rob Schroeder’s Ultrasound, Mad Men alum Vincent Kartheiser stars as Glen, an unassuming everyman who just so happens to encounter some car trouble on a dark and stormy night. Seeking some help, he knocks on the door of a perfectly kind stranger named Arthur (Bob Stephenson), leading the former down an uncanny rabbit hole of deceit and mind control. Presenting a nail-biter of a story without diving into carnage and other typical screen grabs, Ultrasound does its best work as a quietly curious foray into a world that’s hard to pin down.
The Last Tourist (2021)
7.3/10Derek DelGaudio's In & Of Itself (2020)
82%
8.2/10Dinner in America (2022)
80%
7.2/10Prey (2022)
79%
7.3/10Flee (2021)
91%
8/10Sundown (2022)
70%
6.6/10Fresh (2022)
67%
6.7/10Spencer (2021)
76%
6.6/10No Exit (2022)
54%
6.1/10Deep Water (2022)
53%
5.4/10Wander Darkly (2020)
66%
5.8/10
