It’s hard to know which movies are worth your time. One useful way to sift through garbage is Rotten Tomatoes, which aggregates critical reviews and assigns each movie and TV show a score.
That helps when streamers like Peacock add tons of new movies to their libraries each month.
This July, Peacock has added three classics with a score of over 90 percent on Rotten Tomatoes — Richard Linklater’s dramedy Dazed and Confused, Martin Scorsese’s gangster drama Goodfellas and the zany comedy Airplane!
‘Dazed and Confused’ (1993)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 93 percent
It’s May 28, 1978, and school is finally out for the kids in Austin, Texas. For the freshly minted seniors like Fred O’Bannion (Ben Affleck) and Darla Marks (Parker Posey), it’s time to haze all the incoming freshmen like poor Mitch Kramer (Wiley Wiggins). For others like Randall “Pink” Floyd (Jason London), it’s time to reflect on what’s really important to them — playing football or having fun? No matter what happens, all of them will experience all the drama and boredom that comes with being a teenager on summer vacation.
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Dazed and Confused is a classic coming-of-age movie that gets the rhythms of youth just right. Even though it’s set in a specific time and place, its themes are universal. Who doesn’t relate to Mitch’s fury at getting bullied by O’Bannion or Floyd’s desire to get the hell out of his small town? The movie has some heavy themes, but it’s not a downer; instead, it plays like a raucous house party filled with people you like, some you don’t and an ending that leaves the future wide open.
Dazed and Confused is streaming on Peacock.
‘Goodfellas’ (1990)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 94 percent
“Ever since I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster.” So begins Goodfellas, Martin Scorsese’s massively entertaining dramatization of Hank Hill’s decades-long association with the Italian American mob. Ray Liotta plays a grown-up Hill, who quickly ditches his humble beginnings for a life filled with all the money, glamour and prestige that comes with being associated with the mafia. But every pleasure has a price, and Hank soon finds himself paying for a life filled with too much money, sex and violence.
Goodfellas is peak Scorsese and a key influence on HBO’s seminal show, The Sopranos. Utilizing a pop-infused score filled with ‘60s and ‘70s hits and breathless direction that quickly moves from one gang hit to the next, Goodfellas is a wild ride that’s an unexpected blast to watch. Who knew a crime-doesn’t-pay morality tale could be so fun?
Goodfellas is streaming on Peacock.
‘Airplane!’ (1980)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 97 percent
There are funny movies, and then there’s Airplane!, which is in a class by itself. The 1980 parody birthed a new subgenre and helped everyone avoid eating that suspicious fish meal served on long, cross-country flights.
Robert Hays plays Ted Striker, a World War II fighter pilot who can’t get over his stewardess girlfriend, Elaine Dickinson (Julie Haggerty), leaving him. Still in love with her, he boards a flight she’s working on, but when the plane’s pilots fall ill, only Striker can fly the plane. Can he overcome his PTSD and save everyone on board — and maybe convince Elaine to give him another chance?
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From the opening scene that parodies Steven Spielberg’s Jaws to a hysterical female passenger getting punched by a nun in business class, Airplane! Has so many laughs, you’ll have trouble catching your breath. A majority of those are caused by The Naked Gun‘s Leslie Nielsen, who plays his silly role of Dr. Rumack absolutely straight. When everyone around him is mugging for the camera, he delivers his lines with such gravitas, he makes all of his jokes funnier.
