What are you in the mood to watch this week? That’s always the big question, isn’t it? With thousands of movie titles in its library, spanning from small indies to documentaries to big popcorn blockbusters, Paramount+ is a well seemingly without a bottom, especially when you consider its Originals and movies it licenses from other studios.
To help, we put together this weekly list of movie suggestions for U.S. subscribers. This week, I’ve chosen the origin prequel to a huge alien horror franchise, a video kid-friendly game adaptation, and a movie with arguably the best dialogue of all time.
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A Quiet Place: Day One (2024)
Stay quiet or die, in one of the noisiest cities on Earth
Ever wondered what it would be like if your life depended on being absolutely silent, or else you’d be horribly killed by a freaky alien monster? The closest I’ve ever come to such a scenario was my nightly escape from my infant daughter’s bedroom after finally getting her to sleep. I guess I’ll never know which scenario would be worse. John Krasinski’s dystopian sci-fi horror franchise, A Quiet Place, has spawned a whole new genre of silent-terror films in which an invading alien species has attacked Earth with designs on wiping us out. But they hunt only using sound, forcing the planet’s survivors to live life in total silence.
While the first two popular films focused on people trying to survive more than a year after the aliens landed, A Quiet Place: Day One ventures back to the day of the invasion. But instead of a quiet countryside setting, Day One starts in one of the noisiest places on the planet—New York. There, we follow Sam (Lupita Nyong’o), a terminally ill cancer patient living in hospice, and Eric (Joseph Quinn), a stranger alone in the chaos. Sam and Eric are the emotional core of the movie—unlikely friends who meet and are bonded together through their shared will to survive.
If you’re worried that Day One isn’t going to be as rich in the whisper-to-a-scream jump scares of its predecessors, don’t be. Against the backdrop of an apocalyptic Manhattan, you never know what a simple cough or sneeze is going to attract. It’s survival horror at its finest, with a surprisingly emotional core and a super-cute kitty.
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Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)
Blue blur, big laughs, family-friendly chaos
If you’re looking for a much-needed respite from heavy dramas and sappy rom-coms, or something fun to watch with the kids, look no further than 2020’s much-loved video game adaptation, Sonic the Hedgehog. Even if you never played the popular Sega video games that this fun, animated action-comedy is based on, you’ll find yourself easily enamored by Sonic (voiced by Ben Schwartz).
He’s a literal ball of lightning-fast energy who finds himself on Earth being hunted by the villainous Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey), who wants to harness that energy to power his evil robots. With a little help from the local cop (James Marsden) and his wife, Maddie (Tika Sumpter), the group works to take down Dr. Robotnik and save the world.
Operating System
Fire OS
Resolution
4K
For just a little more money than the Fire Stick TV Lite, you can get the Fire Stick TV 4K, which offers a Dolby Vision upgrade and TV controls on the Alexa remote. With 4K streaming, it’s much more futureproof.
Don’t overthink Sonic the Hedgehog, it’s a fun, fast, and funny crowd-pleaser that launched a franchise (part two is also streaming on P+) that will reportedly see a fourth movie sometime in 2027. And while the critics didn’t love it (it has a 64% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes), audiences were much more forgiving (it has an audience rating of 93%).
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Pulp Fiction (1994)
Tarantino’s indie crime drama masterpiece still rules
Regularly imitated, endlessly quotable, but still unmatched after more than 30 years, Pulp Fiction remains Quentin Tarantino’s greatest cinematic achievement, and I’ve got a dark passage from Ezekiel 25:17 for anyone who thinks otherwise. While the Oscar-winning indie darling was robbed of the Best Picture statue by that lowly Forrest, Forrest Gump, the mark it left on the cinema can still be felt.
Tarantino and writing partner Roger Avary’s crime drama is an intricate web of seemingly random storylines that brilliantly intertwine over the course of the film. Key characters in this pulp of fiction include L.A. hitmen Jules and Vincent (Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta), on a mission to retrieve a mysterious briefcase stolen from their boss, the gangster Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames); aging boxer Butch Coolidge (Bruce Willis), who’s on Marsellus’s most-wanted list; Marsellus’s wife Mia (Uma Thurman), who nearly overdoses and dies after an innocent night out with Vince; and Honey Bunny and Pumpkin (Amanda Plummer and Tim Roth), two petty thieves who hold up the wrong diner at the worst possible time.
Built on a base of Tarantino’s trademark smart, hyper-mundane dialogue, Pulp Fiction has delivered such quotable gems as “Royale with cheese!” “Hamburgers! The cornerstone of any nutritious breakfast,” “Zed’s dead, baby. Zed’s dead,” and “Imma get medieval on your ass!” With a 92% critics score and a 96% audience score, watching this while it’s still on Paramount+ is a no-brainer.
Pulp Fiction
Release Date
September 10, 1994
Runtime
154 minutes
Director
Quentin Tarantino
Throw on one of these great movies to wind down after work this week—it’s low effort, high reward.
Subscription with ads
Yes, $8/month
Simultaneous streams
3
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