The five best movies to watch on Netflix this weekend
If you have also spent the entire week pretending to be productive while secretly looking for something to watch on Netflix this weekend, congratulations, you have reached the end of your search.
This week’s movie weekend list is a bit unusual because it contains some serious watches. The ones where you actually need to stop doomscrolling and pay attention.
To give you a preview, you have got both cult classics and drama, along with a spinoff movie of a fan-favourite show. And this watchlist does not require a group chat vote. Just your couch and maybe that leftover pizza.
Some of these films hit like old memories you didn’t know you missed; others are unfiltered fun. Together, they cover the entire emotional range of a weekend binge. So, clear your queue and trust the process. Here are the five best movies to watch on Netflix this weekend before Sunday guilt kicks in.
The five best movies to watch on Netflix
El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (Vince Gilligan, 2019)
Missing Breaking Bad, but don’t want to start a rewatch? El Camino is made for you. You would think escaping from a white supremacist compound would be enough closure for Jesse; this movie exists to prove otherwise. Set right after Breaking Bad’s finale, it follows Jesse on the run, bruised, and still searching for the freedom Walter White never gave him. But do not confuse it with a flashy sequel. This one is quieter, more introspective, to be precise.
What makes El Camino worth a weekend revisit is how personal it feels. Aaron Paul carries years of trauma in his eyes like he never left the role, and Vince Gilligan turns what could have been fan service into a character study. It’s the closure Jesse deserved. El Camino makes you realise how rare proper goodbyes are in TV history.
Ali (Michael Mann, 2001)
Before Will Smith became a meme, he had given amazing performances that people still bring up when they talk about Oscar robberies. Ali is one of them. You see, Smith has got some really great opportunities to work in sports biopics, and he has always nailed them. But this one is not your usual sports biopic. It’s loud and stubborn and just as exhausting as the man himself. The film follows Muhammad Ali through the most defining decade of his life: his world title win, his conversion to Islam, his refusal to fight in Vietnam, and the years the world tried to break him for it.
What makes it a great weekend watch is that it doesn’t sugarcoat the fight outside the ring. You feel the toll of fame, the isolation he surrounded himself in at the cost of being right too early. It’s long, but totally worth a watch.
Bad Trip (Kitao Sakurai, 2021)
Ever wondered what would happen if a prank show actually had a plot? Well, Bad Trip is your answer. It follows two best friends, Chris and Bud, on a road trip from Florida to New York so Chris can confess his love to his high school crush. Already sounds hilarious, doesn’t it? And the twist? Every wild thing that happens on the way – you name it. The car gets stolen, and you have your public meltdowns playing out in front of real, unsuspecting people.
What makes it perfect for the weekend is its absolute commitment to ridiculousness. You don’t want to watch something serious? Here you go. The reactions are real, and the result is hysterical. No think pieces or moral lessons, just the simple joy of watching strangers lose their minds.
They Cloned Tyrone (Juel Taylor, 2023)
If you want to watch a movie that makes you realise why you haven’t watched it till now, then They Clone Tyrone has to be your next watch. That’s, They Cloned Tyrone. It throws you straight into a neighbourhood that looks normal until you notice it’s a little too polished, a little too rehearsed, like someone’s running a social experiment and forgot to hide the cameras. Fontaine, a dealer who’s just trying to survive another day, gets pulled into something so bizarre it stops being fiction about ten minutes in.
What makes it brilliant isn’t the twist but the tone. You have John Boyega, Jamie Foxx, and Teyonah Parris, and by this you can imagine the hilariousness of it. But it’s not completely a comfort watch. It feels wild and strange, but that’s what makes it so interesting to talk about.
Bone Tomahawk (S Craig Zahler, 2015)
This last pick is a slow-moving movie, but it never loses your attention. It follows a small-town sheriff and a group of men searching for a woman who has been taken by a violent tribe in the desert. What makes it a good watch is the fact that it shows everything with a stillness that makes every scene harder to sit through.
Kurt Russell leads the story with complete control. The tension builds quietly, and when the violence arrives, it feels final. There is no background music to prepare you or lines to make it easier to watch. It’s harsh and strangely honest about fear. You watch it once, and it stays in your mind long after.