27.

Raya and the Last Dragon
(2021)

PG
|
107 min
|

Animation, Action, Adventure

In a realm known as Kumandra, a re-imagined Earth inhabited by an ancient civilization, a warrior named Raya is determined to find the last dragon.

Directors:
Don Hall,
Carlos López Estrada,
Paul Briggs,
John Ripa
|
Stars:
Kelly Marie Tran,
Awkwafina,
Gemma Chan,
Izaac Wang

Votes:
127,088

Every month, Netflix makes significant changes. Several movies leave the service, while the streaming giant adds several others to its library.

The good news is that Netflix is always adding original movies to its service, meaning they are building a library that will never leave.

However, at the same time, they are also adding classics and newer releases for at least a limited time that fans can enjoy watching anything they want.

Here at Monsters Critics, we will keep track of the latest movies added to Netflix, both originals and the best older movies, and let you know our picks for what you should find to watch each month.

Updated in January 2022: These movies were all added to Netflix in the past four months and will be updated monthly, with the best new titles to watch. This list is for those films released in September 2021 through December 2021.

Don’t Look Up (December 24)

Released in 2021, Adam McKay directed the dark comedy Don’t Look Up. The movie was almost out of place in 2021 because it was often hard to laugh at situations that are all too real.

The movie starred Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence as two scientists who learn that a comet is racing toward Earth that could destroy all life on the planet.

The problem is that the politicians don’t care and ignore the threat while the world decides they are more interested in celebrity pregnancies and refuse to believe the scientists until it is too late.

The movie is a Netflix original and appears to be a front-runner for awards season.

The Power of the Dog (December 1)

A Netflix original movie hit in 2021 that has a chance to win a lot of awards when the Oscars comes around. This movie is a western drama called The Power of the Dog.

Directed by Jane Campion, The Power of the Dog tells the story of two brothers who meet a young woman who is raising her son alone. The brothers are Benedict Cumberbatch’s older, cruel Phil and Jesse Plemons younger, kind-hearted George.

While Phil tries to break down Rose (Kirsten Dunst), George really cares about her. This all leads to Rose’s son Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee) coming into the picture to do what he can to save his mother.

Tick Tick… Boom! (November 19)

Lin-Manuel Miranda made his directorial debut with the Netflix original movie Tick Tick… Boom!

The movie was based on the Broadway musical of the same name, an autobiographical stage place by Jonathan Larson. Larson was the man who created Rent, although he died before he could enjoy the praise that received.

Andrew Garfield is Larson, a man who realizes that time is slipping away and he seems to be growing further from his dreams, until the day he stops waiting and sets out to make them come true.

Minority Report (November 1)

Philip K. Dick wrote some of the most groundbreaking science fiction novels in history. He often approached issues of morality and the use of technology to break those moral codes.

Several of his stories became movies, including one that Spielberg directed — Minority Report.

The film starred Tom Cruise as a police officer in a dystopian future where technology working with a pair of precogs predicted crimes before they happened.

While the police had no problem arresting people before they ever committed a crime, when the machine claimed Cruise’s police officer was going to commit a murder, he went on the run to try to prove that he could stop the crime from happening.

Dracula (November 1)

Francis Ford Coppola created his own movie in the world of the classic Universal Monster Dracula. This was Bram Stoker’s Dracula, with Gary Oldman playing the role of the vampire.

While the cast was questionable in some areas, especially with a miscast Keanu Reeves as Jonathan Harker, the movie was a huge success.

Dracula brought a gothic atmosphere to the story and focused more on that than the actual horror. It ended up winning three Oscars, including one for Makeup and one for Costume Design.

As Good as It Gets (October 1)

Jack Nicholson starred in the James L. Brooks romantic comedy As Good As It Gets in 1997.

This was a rare comedy for Nicholson, but it was a dry and smart comedy with Nicholson, who starred as an obsessive-compulsive novelist.

He is also misanthropic and homophobic and has to deal with the single mother (Helen Hunt) of a chronically ill son, and a gay artist (Greg Kinnear).

Nicholson and Hunt both won acting Oscars for the movie.

Gladiator (October 1)

Ridley Scott directed one of his most successful movies in 2000 with Gladiator.

The movie took place in 180 AD when a Roman war general named Maximus stood loyally by his king. However, when the king died, betrayed by his son, Maximus was reduced to slavery and eventually the role of a gladiator.

Russell Crowe starred as Maximus and eventually led all the slaves and gladiators to freedom when he challenged the new king, while also avenging the murder of his own family.

Gladiator won five Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Russell Crowe. It was also a box office success, making $457 million, the second-highest movie of the year.

Titanic (October 1)

For many years, the most successful movie in history was Titanic.

James Cameron directed the movie about the sinking of the Titanic and shattered box office records. With Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in the lead roles, the movie went on to make $1.84 billion – the first movie to ever surpass a billion dollars.

When Avatar broke those records, paramount re-released the movie and pushed it to over $2.195 billion.

It also picked up 14 Oscar nominations, at the time a tie for the most ever, and won 11 of them, also a tie for the most ever.

Zodiac (October 1)

David Fincher directed the movie Zodiac in 2007. The movie followed the case of the Zodiac Killer, which never provided a killer convicted for the cold case murders.

In his movie, Fincher suggested who the killer might have been, but the movie is best known for its incredible cast, including Robert Downey Jr and Jake Gyllenhaal as the journalists covering the case and Mark Ruffalo as the detective on the case.

The movie was a minor success but remains one of Fincher’s masterpieces.

Jaws (September 1)

One of the best horror movies of all time arrived on Netflix in September 2021.

Steven Spielberg’s Jaws is the movie that popularized the idea of summer Blockbusters and launched Spielberg’s massively successful directing career.

The movie was about a summer beach vacation town that refused to shut down the beaches despite a shark attack. This led to more deaths and three men were sent out to try to bring down the giant Great White Shark.

This movie resulted in business in beach towns dropping for years.

Labyrinth (September 1)

Jim Henson directed the fantasy movie Labyrinth in 1986 and it has remained a beloved cult classic since that time.

The movie stars Jennifer Connelly as a teenage girl who is stuck babysitting her baby brother. When she wishes the Goblin King would take the baby out of her life, he does.

The girl then sets out in a labyrinth full of dangerous goblins to try to save her brother from David Bowie’s brilliant Goblin King.

Do the Right Thing (September 1)

In 1989, Spike Lee created his masterpiece in Do the Right Thing.

The movie had a day in the life of a Bed Stuy neighborhood when the intense heat and racial tensions reached a peak. It resulted in a huge riot in the streets that concluded with the police showed up and choked one black man to death.

The movie picked up Oscar nominations was added to the Library of Congress in its first year of eligibility, and picked up a pristine Criterion release.

It hit Netflix in September 2021, allowing people to rediscover this masterwork.

Blade Runner (September 1)

The movie considered the seminal science fiction movie and one of the greatest in film history hit Netflix in September 2021.

Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner is on the streaming giant, and it is the Final Cut, adding in what Scott created but the studio edited out in the original release.

Harrison Ford is Deckard, a Blade Runner whose job is to hunt down replicants – androids created to serve humanity. The replicants he is sent to take out are ones that have developed an advanced level of being and consider themselves living beings.

The one he hunts down in this movie is Roy Batty, played by Rutger Hauer, and the entire movie is the template for what smart sci-fi should look like.

Shawn S. Lealos

Shawn S. Lealos has been a freelance writer for 25 years, starting…read more

The Last Full Measure

Samuel L. Jackson, Alison Sudol, Sebastian Stan, Ed Harris, Christopher Plummer, William Hurt, Bradley Whitford, Jeremy Irvine, Linus Roache, Michael Imperioli, Peter Fonda, Amy Madigan, Diane Ladd, John Savage

31 Jan 2020 | 1 hr 56 mins