Netflix, Max, Disney+ — who needs 'em? Turns out you can get some of the greatest movies of all time on YouTube . . . and it won't cost you a penny.
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00:00Netflix?
00:01Max?
00:02Disney Plus?
00:03Who needs them?
00:04Turns out you can get some of the greatest movies of all time on YouTube, and it won't
00:09cost you a penny.
00:11Though most of the dialogue in The Fifth Element is in English, and the cast boasts a number
00:15of major English-language movie stars, it's actually a French film.
00:19The movie was directed by globally renowned French director Luc Besson and produced by
00:23the French company Gaumont.
00:25The Fifth Element's country of origin is worth noting when discussing its track record at
00:28American award shows, which have historically favored American-produced films in most major
00:33categories.
00:34For example, at the 70th Academy Awards in 1998, The Fifth Element was only nominated
00:40for Best Sound Effects Editing, which it lost to James Cameron's Titanic.
00:43However, at that year's Caesar Awards, France's preeminent award ceremony for film, it was
00:48nominated in eight categories, including Best Director and Best Film.
00:53At other ceremonies around the world, The Fifth Element was consistently recognized
00:56for its visual effects, scooping Best Special Effects at the BAFTAs.
01:00Curiously enough, Besson, Milla Jovovich, and Chris Tucker all received nominations
01:05at the 1997 Stinker's Bad Movie Awards, though none of them won in their respective categories.
01:11Still, despite struggling during awards season, The Fifth Element has since become recognized
01:15as the ultimate sci-fi cult classic, and it's more than worth two hours of your time.
01:20If you're in the mood for a bittersweet coming-of-age story, YouTube arguably has no better choice
01:25than The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
01:27The film stars Logan Lerman, Emma Watson, and Ezra Miller, who play high school students
01:32in the early 90s struggling to cope with the complex emotional issues that so often arise
01:36at that age.
01:37It was written and directed by Stephen Chbosky, who adapted it from his 1999 novel of the
01:41same name.
01:42Though less famous than their co-stars at the time, Miller drew much of the attention
01:46during awards seasons with their portrayal of a gay high school student, earning wins
01:50from a number of academies and film institutions.
01:53It is also thanks to its LGBTQ-plus subplot that The Perks of Being a Wallflower won the
01:57GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Film.
02:00To this day, it's remembered as one of the highlights of Ezra Miller's career, as opposed
02:04to, well, you know.
02:08No!
02:10The film also performed notably well at prominent Popular Vote Awards ceremonies, at which films
02:14are honored based on votes from viewers online.
02:17It was recognized as the best drama film of the year by the audiences of both the People's
02:21Choice Awards and Teen Choice Awards, the latter of which also recognized Lerman and
02:25Watson with acting honors.
02:28One year before Back to the Future, filmmaker Robert Zemeckis brought audiences to a radically
02:32different world with 1984's Romancing the Stone.
02:35This movie would quickly be overshadowed by the latter entry in Zemeckis' filmography,
02:39but the premise has remained surprisingly arresting to this day, both to audiences and
02:44Hollywood executives.
02:45Romancing the Stone follows a novelist who suddenly finds herself at the center of a
02:49real-life adventure, alongside a man who bears a striking resemblance to the protagonist
02:53from her stories.
02:54You're the best time I've ever had.
03:00Never been anybody's best time before.
03:03At the 42nd Golden Globes in 1985, Romancing the Stone beat four other films to win Best
03:08Comedy or Musical, including Beverly Hills Cop and Ghostbusters.
03:12The only other award it was nominated for that evening was Best Actress in the Same
03:16Category, which Kathleen Turner won.
03:19She also won an award for her performance at the Los Angeles Critics Association Awards
03:23and was nominated at both the National Society of Film Critics Awards and the Jupiter Awards.
03:28Michael Douglas and Zemeckis himself were also nominated for Jupiters, though neither
03:32won.
03:33In terms of the Oscars, Romancing the Stone was only nominated for one Academy Award,
03:37receiving a nod in the Best Film Editing category.
03:40Though he's now best known as the star of Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy, Tobey Maguire
03:44was once a young actor making his way in Hollywood.
03:47During this period in his career, he co-starred in the 1998 fantastical comedy Pleasantville
03:52alongside the also up-and-coming Reese Witherspoon.
03:55The pair played a brother and sister who get pulled into the bland and literally colorless
03:59world of a 1950s sitcom, with their modern sensibilities coming into conflict with, and
04:04eventually influencing, the stagnant society.
04:07The film was written and directed by Gary Ross, who would later go on to helm the first
04:11Hunger Games film in 2012.
04:13Pleasantville was released to considerable critical acclaim, particularly for its distinct
04:17visual appeal.
04:19At the 71st Academy Awards in 1999, it was nominated in three categories, Best Art Direction
04:25slash Set Direction, Best Costume Design, and Best Original Dramatic Score.
04:30And although it didn't manage to snag any Oscars that year, Joan Allen took home a number
04:34of other awards for playing the repressed Parker family matriarch Betty.
04:38Her honors included a Saturn Award, a Critics' Choice Award, and a Satellite Award.
04:43The Saturn Awards also honored Maguire with the award for Best Performance by a Younger
04:47Actor.
04:48A classic romantic comedy if there ever was one, Notting Hill would be a safe choice for
04:53almost any viewer looking for something easy and satisfying to watch, even if they aren't
04:57always partial to films within this genre.
05:00The film stars Hugh Grant as Will Thacker, a British bookshop owner who unexpectedly
05:04finds himself in a whirlwind on-and-off relationship with an American movie star.
05:08The plot is mostly comforting rom-com fluff, scripted in such an undeniably charming way
05:13that it could come from no screenwriter but Richard Curtis.
05:15Can I stay a bit longer?
05:21Stay forever.
05:22Notting Hill won a ton of awards in the UK, including the BAFTA Audience Award in 2000.
05:28Grant and Julia Roberts drew several nominations in the categories of Best Actor and Actress
05:32respectively, as did Reese Evans, who played Will's chaotic and disheveled roommate Spike.
05:37Evans was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at that year's BAFTAs, though he lost to Jude
05:41Law for his role in The Talented Mr. Ripley.
05:44Grant and Roberts, meanwhile, earned nods at the Golden Globe Awards, as did the film
05:48itself for Best Musical or Comedy, though it ultimately lost out to Toy Story 2.
05:53By now, Train to Busan is well-known among horror fans around the world as a not-so-hidden
05:58gem in the zombie apocalypse subgenre.
06:01Directed by Yeon Sang-ho, the film begins when a viral outbreak occurs on South Korea's
06:05high-speed railway.
06:07Tense, tragic, and packed with all the action anyone could ask for from the genre and then
06:11some, it isn't hard to see why Train to Busan became a hit.
06:15Train to Busan was met with a warm reception globally and recognized with dozens of nominations
06:19from multiple countries.
06:21In South Korea, it was nominated for four Baek Sang-art Awards, with Yeon winning Best
06:25New Director and Kim Yu-sung winning Best Supporting Actor.
06:29It earned over twice as many nominations at the 2016 Blue Dragon Awards, too, taking home
06:34the Audience Choice Award and the Best Technical Award.
06:37Film festivals and academies in Spain, Canada, and the United Kingdom awarded Train to Busan
06:42with various honors, too.
06:44In the United States, it was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Horror Film, and it
06:48also won a Fangoria Chainsaw Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
06:53Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind stars Jim Carrey as a man who impulsively decides
06:57to undergo a procedure that will erase all memory of his longtime romantic partner.
07:02During the procedure, he finds himself reliving their relationship in reverse, having his
07:06decision to forget her challenged as his happiest memories of her begin to slip away.
07:10What do we do?
07:13Enjoy it.
07:16Eternal Sunshine won the award for Best Original Screenplay at the 77th Academy Awards in 2005.
07:22Winslet was also nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role, though she
07:26lost to Million Dollar Baby star Hilary Swank.
07:29While he wasn't nominated for an Oscar, Carrey was nominated for a Golden Globe, as were
07:33the screenwriters and Winslet.
07:35Despite being overlooked by the major bodies, Carrey triumphed at a number of other award
07:39shows that year, including the International Cinephile Society Awards and the San Diego
07:44Film Critics Society Awards.
07:46You've probably already seen at least one scene from Downfall.
07:50Since 2006, a climactic scene from the German historical drama has been spread across the
07:54internet as content creators from all around the world continue to edit satirical subtitles
07:59over a tense conversation between Adolf Hitler and his generals.
08:03While Downfall may well be remembered by most as the source of one of the internet's most
08:06enduring memes, this has drawn attention from the fact that the film is staggeringly impressive
08:10in its own right.
08:12This tale of Hitler's final days in a war-torn Berlin was nominated for Best Foreign Language
08:16Feature at several international film festivals and foreign film awards, including the 77th
08:21Academy Awards.
08:22It won that same category at the British Independent Film Awards.
08:26Bruno Ganz was also widely lauded for his performance in the film, earning various acting
08:30nominations and taking home the award for Actor of the Year from the London Critics
08:34Circle Film Awards.
08:36Known for his tense and often angry thrillers, director David Fincher surprised fans in 2008
08:41with The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, a romantic drama adapted from F. Scott Fitzgerald's
08:45short story about a man who ages in reverse.
08:48It's not about how well you play, it's how you feel about what you're playing.
08:54At the 81st Academy Awards, Benjamin Button led proceedings with a whopping 13 nominations,
08:59just two nominations shy of breaking the all-time record.
09:03Despite this, Benjamin Button actually lost the vast majority of the Oscars for which
09:07it was nominated, with Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire dominating most categories that
09:11evening.
09:12That said, the movie was nominated an impressive 160 times for various awards across the globe.
09:19Among the cast, Tilda Swinton and Taraji P. Henson took home acting honors for multiple
09:23ceremonies.
09:25British screenwriter Peter Morgan made his name writing about British politics in The
09:29Royal Family, most recently and prominently with the Netflix series The Crown.
09:34Long before that series began streaming, however, Morgan made a feature film called The Queen,
09:38the second entry in his unofficial trilogy of films chronicling the political environment
09:42of the U.K. under Prime Minister Tony Blair.
09:45Blair is portrayed by Michael Sheen in all three films, and here, he comes into conflict
09:50with Queen Elizabeth over how they should handle the tragic death of Princess Diana.
09:54The Queen was nominated in six categories at the 79th Academy Awards in 2007, with Helen
09:59Mirren taking home Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role.
10:02Why do they hate us so much?
10:04Not us, dear.
10:05What?
10:06Hmm?
10:07Mirren swept most Best Actress categories for the remainder of the season, coming out
10:11on top at the BAFTAs, the Critics' Choice Awards, and the Golden Globes.
10:16Morgan himself was awarded Best Screenplay at the latter, while director Stephen Frears
10:19also got a nomination.
10:22Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood follows a ruthless
10:26oilman on a dark quest to amass as much wealth as possible by any means necessary.
10:31With each moral sacrifice comes tragedy and human cruelty almost beyond imagination.
10:36It's certainly not a film for the faint of heart, and one best entered into with as little
10:40knowledge of the plot as possible.
10:42At the 80th Academy Awards in 2008, There Will Be Blood was nominated in eight categories,
10:47vying for most nominations that year with the Coen brothers' hit No Country for Old
10:51Men.
10:52Though it was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay,
10:56it lost all three to its awards season rival.
10:59Daniel Day-Lewis did take home the award for Best Actor, and the movie also scooped an
11:03Oscar for Best Cinematography.
11:05There Will Be Blood performed similarly at other awards ceremonies that year, with Day-Lewis
11:09sweeping almost all the Best Actor categories for his powerhouse performance as Daniel Plainview.
11:14To be, or not to be, that is the question.
11:23If you're in the mood for a real classic, YouTube has you covered.
11:27Many of the free options currently available on the site are adaptations of plays by William
11:31Shakespeare, most notable among them the 1948 film Hamlet.
11:35The movie features renowned thespian Laurence Olivier in the role of the titular Prince
11:39of Denmark who, spoiler alert, embarks on a killing spree after the murder of his father
11:43by his uncle.
11:44Olivier, who also directed Hamlet, won both Best Actor and Best Picture, the latter being
11:49a somewhat historic win, as it was the first non-American film to do so.
11:54It was fourth time lucky for Olivier, too, who had scored previous Best Actor nominations
11:58for 1939's Wuthering Heights, 1940's Rebecca, and 1946's Henry V.
12:04Sadly, he wasn't able to attend the ceremony due to his theater commitments across the
12:08pond, though he later celebrated his victory at a specially organized event in London.