Best HBO Max Movies | TechRadar

Best HBO Max Movies

Getting stuck into the best HBO Max movies sets you off on a whistle-stop tour of Hollywood's finest offerings. Because the streamer is owned by Warner Bros Discovery, it has the entire Warner Bros back catalogue at its disposal – and this is an unrivalled collection of movies. 

Though rival service Disney Plus shines with heavy hitters Pixar, Star Wars and Marvel, HBO Max has legitimate film classics, spanning from the golden age of Cinema (think Casablanca) to recent Oscar-winners like Joker, Mad Max: Fury Road and Gravity. 

Looking for blockbusters? You'll be set with the entire The Lord of the Rings trilogy and the whole Harry Potter series. DC Comics is also part of Warner, so there's The Dark Knight, Wonder Woman and The Batman. Plus, recent Warner hits like Dune: Part One and Elvis. And if you want to catch up on John Wick before chapter four hits in March, HBO Max has got one to three, ready and waiting.

Here, we've listed the best of the best HBO Max movies available. Our list includes all eras and genres so whatever you're taste, you'll find something you like – from crime dramas to classic romance, sci-fi, fantasy and beyond. FYI, the list is arranged in release order.

Best HBO Max movies

The Wizard of Oz

(Image credit: MGM)

It’s hard to imagine how far away Kansas must have felt when 1939 audiences first watched Judy Garland step into the Technicolor world of Oz. Over 80 years later, the movie remains a technical marvel, set in a bizarre fantasy world populated by witches (good and bad), scary flying monkeys, and a wizard who may not be all he pretends to be. But the real reason the story has been absorbed into our collective cultural memory is the memorable songs, a group of easy-to-love heroes, and that long-standing Hollywood staple – a story of good triumphing over evil.

Casablanca

(Image credit: Warner Bros)

It’s no accident that Casablanca regularly features on lists of the greatest movies of all-time – this wartime classic is proof that they really don’t make them like they used to. Humphrey Bogart is the bar owner whose life is turned upside down when an old flame (played by Ingrid Bergman) arrives in town with her new husband, a key figure in the resistance in Europe. 

Both a love story for the ages and a cunning piece of 1940s propaganda – the importance of sacrifice in wartime is a major theme – Casablanca is much imitated but never bettered. Endlessly quotable and exquisitely acted, if you haven’t seen it you must remember this: put it on your HBO Max watchlist now.

North by Northwest

(Image credit: MGM)

A case of mistaken identity sends Cary Grant’s suave advertising executive Roger O Thornhill on the run in one of the later highlights of Alfred Hitchcock’s storied career behind the camera. An espionage thriller made three years before James Bond made his screen debut in Dr No, it’s a masterclass in suspense, while Grant’s comedic lightness of touch supplies an almost screwball sense of fun. 

North by Northwest also features a wonderfully slimy villain in James Mason, a memorable score from Hitchcock’s composer of choice, Bernard Herrmann, and – in the crop duster scene and the famous fight on Mt Rushmore – a pair of cinema’s most iconic set-pieces.

2001: A Space Odyssey

(Image credit: Warner Bros)

Nearly a decade ahead of Star Wars – and a year before humans walked on the Moon – Stanley Kubrick expanded the possibilities of cinematic space travel. Where science fiction had traditionally been the preserve of schlocky B-movies, the legendary director assembled a spectacular vision of a future where beautiful ships glide elegantly through space to a score of classical music – and, at key moments, dead silence. 

But beyond the hardware, this big-screen riff on Arthur C Clarke short story ‘The Sentinel’ asks huge philosophical questions about the origins of our species, and where we might be going next. 

While not quite up there with the very best movies on HBO Max, sequel 2010: The Year We Make Contact makes a little more sense of 2001’s ultimate trip.

Gremlins

(Image credit: Warner Bros)

When a Christmas gift arrives with three simple rules, you know it’s only a matter of time before at least one of them is broken. In Gremlins, a teen's inevitable slip-up leads to yuletide carnage in a picture-box American small town, as a super-cute Mogwai spawns an army of reptilian creatures with a penchant for violent mischief and – bizarrely – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs sing-alongs.

Of course, with Steven Spielberg’s Amblin producing, things never get too nasty, while director Joe Dante makes sure that the story is shot through with plenty of Looney Tunes-style humor – as well as finding time for one of the saddest tales of Christmases past ever told.

GoodFellas

(Image credit: Warner Bros)

“As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster…” Even as mobster Henry Hill watches his friends shoot and stab a soon-to-be corpse in the trunk of their car, Ray Liotta’s voiceover gives seedy organised crime a thrilling and entertaining edge. 

Charting decades of mafia life through Hill’s eyes, Martin Scorsese’s drama is a violent, sweary, frequently funny rollercoaster ride that finds the humanity in men who wouldn’t think twice about killing anyone who looks at them a bit funny. In a career packed with bona fide classics – he even recycled the GoodFellas formula in the nearly-as-good Casino and The Wolf of Wall Street – this crime classic may be Scorsese’s best.

The Harry Potter saga

(Image credit: Warner Bros)

That the most successful book series in history spawned one of the biggest movie franchises in history is hardly surprising, but there’s a certain – dare we say it – magic at the heart of Warner’s big-budget film saga. Though the quality of the eight films varies, they’re an admirably faithful adaptation of stories that have captured the imaginations of generations. 

Producer David Heyman (who went on to bring Paddington to the big screen) had the good sense to surround young leads Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint with the cream of British acting talent, while the sets and visual effects ensured we could all believe we’d just enrolled at Hogwarts. For millennials, the Harry Potter movies are as culturally important as Star Wars.

The Lord of the Rings trilogy 

(Image credit: New Line Cinema)

The Lord of the Rings trilogy is that rare movie series where everything – and everyone – came together in the right place at the right time. How different history may have been had New Line not trusted director Peter Jackson’s vision, by allowing him to film all three movies back-to-back in his native New Zealand – the ideal real-world stand-in for JRR Tolkien's Middle-earth. 

In Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, Jackson found the perfect co-writers to translate JRR Tolkien’s sprawling novels to the screen, while the visual effects geniuses at Weta discovered many ingenious ways to make a magical world feel real. Jackson also found the right performers for every iconic role, from Gandalf to Gollum, Elrond to Eowyn. Without The Lord of the Rings, there’d be no The Witcher and no Game of Thrones. And Amazon’s big-budget The Rings of Power TV show will forever be judged against what Jackson achieved two decades ago.

The Dark Knight trilogy 

(Image credit: Warner Bros.)

Now that the Marvel Cinematic Universe is widely accepted as the benchmark for superhero movies, it’s easy to forget how radical – and brilliant – Christopher Nolan’s bat-trilogy was. Crafting a dark-and-moody Gotham City nearly two decades before Robert Pattinson got soaked in The Batman, Nolan’s decision to ground the Caped Crusader in a believable world proves a masterstroke. 

Batman Begins is one of cinema’s great origin stories, while follow up The Dark Knight is an ambitious crime thriller that would probably have won numerous major awards if its protagonist didn’t dress up as a bat. The Dark Knight Rises isn’t quite the closer the trilogy deserves, but the series still stands up as the pinnacle of DC storytelling on the big screen.

Inception

(Image credit: Warner Bros)

Between 2002’s Insomnia and 2020’s Tenet, Christopher Nolan had a long and extremely fruitful creative partnership with Warner Bros – how many filmmaker resumés can compete with a filmography including The Prestige, Interstellar and Dunkirk, as well as the aforementioned Dark Knight trilogy? His masterpiece, however – and an essential entry on any list of the best movies on HBO Max – is this mind-bending trip inside the dizzying world of dreams. 

Recruiting an A-list cast (including Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Elliot Page, Marion Cotillard and Joseph Gordon-Levitt), Nolan revels in the chance to tell a story in multiple, overlapping timeframes, while DNEG‘s city-folding visuals are truly, awe-inspiringly groundbreaking.

Gravity

(Image credit: Warner Bros)

If Star Wars and Star Trek make interplanetary travel look easy, Gravity is a scary reminder of just how vulnerable real-world spacefarers can be if something goes wrong in orbit. Sandra Bullock and George Clooney are the astronauts left stranded when a storm of debris leaves their space shuttle seriously incapacitated. Oscar-winning director Alfonso Cuarón fires plenty of innovative visual effects at their predicament, ensuring that the movie feels frighteningly real. But more importantly, he marshals an unbearably taut thriller about being trapped in the most unforgiving, most dangerous environment imaginable.

Behind The Candelabra

(Image credit: HBO)

Although Michael Douglas spent much of the ’80s and ’90s in chiselled leading man mode, the 21st century has seen him morph into one of Hollywood’s finest character actors. And his multi-award-winning performance as legendary pianist Liberace – a man who didn’t believe in understatement – is one of the undoubted highlights of his long career. 

The star gets A-list support from Matt Damon as Liberace’s boyfriend, a younger man who finds himself trapped in a bizarre, acrimonious hell when the musician tries to mould him in his own image. Douglas’s Traffic director Steven Soderbergh tells the story in typically accomplished style.

The Normal Heart

(Image credit: HBO)

Ryan Murphy, the prolific mind behind TV shows as diverse as Nip/Tuck Glee, American Horror Story, Ratched and Pose, turned his attentions to New York’s early-’80s HIV/AIDS crisis with this hard-hitting drama. 

Directing from Larry Kramer’s screenplay based on Kramer’s own 1985 stage play, Murphy pulls no punches in telling the powerful story of gay activist Ned Weeks (a character Kramer based on himself) as he tries to convince the world to take the lethal virus seriously. The ever-brilliant Mark Ruffalo leads the cast as Weeks, with memorable support from Jim Parsons, Julia Roberts, Matt Bomer and Taylor Kitsch.

The John Wick Collection

(Image credit: Lionsgate)

With the fourth instalment of the John Wick saga set for release in March, we're delighted that HBO Max has the first three movies in its locker. John Wick (Keanu Reeves) focuses on the title character, a retired assassin born out of the Russian mafia, who keeps getting pulled back into the violence and relentlessness of the hitman life.

Over the course of the first three movies, he meets one adversary after another, seeking revenge, facing debts from his past and contracts on his life. Both a commercial and critical success, the trilogy is worthy of a place in this best HBO Max movies list, and we're eagerly anticipating the release of chapter four.

Mad Max: Fury Road

(Image credit: Warner Bros.)

While action blockbusters aren’t traditionally regarded as art, the ingeniously choreographed stuntwork of Fury Road ensured even the most highbrow critics had to give the fourth Mad Max movie its due. 

After a lengthy and troubled production (excellently documented in author Kyle Buchanan’s Blood, Sweat & Chrome), director George Miller built an entire movie around a single madcap chase across a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Although the movie bears the character’s name, Tom Hardy’s Max is relegated to a monosyllabic supporting player, leaving a magnificent Charlize Theron to take the lead as the heroic Imperator Furiosa – Anya Taylor-Joy will take on the role in an upcoming prequel.

Wonder Woman

(Image credit: Warner Bros)

While the superhero landscape of the 2010s was ruled by the all-powerful MCU, Wonder Woman proved that DC hadn’t forgotten how to play Marvel at their own game. Far more playful than dour DCEU predecessors Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Patty Jenkins’ movie is a thoroughly entertaining journey from Wonder Woman’s origins on the magical island of Themyscira, to the battlefields of World War I. 

As Christopher Reeve did in Superman: The Movie, breakout star Gal Gadot finds the joy and inherent decency in a god walking among humans, without ever allowing her to become one-note or predictable. It’s just a shame that lightning didn’t strike a second time in so-so sequel Wonder Woman 1984.

Joker

(Image credit: Warner Bros)

Barry Keoghan must be chomping at the bit to play the Joker in the follow-up to The Batman – Gotham’s Clown Prince of Crime tends to bring out the best in every actor lucky enough to win the role. 

For all Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger’s exuberance as Batman’s most famous foe, however, they never had to go to places quite as dark as Joaquin Phoenix does here. Indeed, with Bruce Wayne still a child, director Todd Phillips’ bleak, retro drama owes as much to Martin Scorsese crime dramas (most notably The King of Comedy) as traditional superhero movies. Its brutal, nihilistic take on a city gone to hell may not be to everyone’s tastes, but Joker shows how far DC can push the envelope when they’re not trying to ape Marvel.

(Image credit: HBO Max)

An adaptation of a three-hour stage play about early ’90s diplomacy may not initially sound like one of the best movies on HBO Max, but the brilliantly told drama of Oslo makes it a must-watch. With a screenplay from original playwright JT Rogers, the film tells the based-on-real-life story of the 1993 Oslo peace talks, secret negotiations between Israel’s prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat, leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation. His Dark Materials’ Ruth Wilson and Sherlock’s Andrew Scott play the pair of married Norwegian diplomats who were pivotal to events that remain extremely relevant today. A reminder that movies made for TV can be every bit the equal of their big screen counterparts. 

The Suicide Squad

(Image credit: Warner Bros.)

When Marvel briefly removed James Gunn from Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 3, DC swooped in and gave him a writing/directing gig on this quasi-sequel to 2016’s mediocre Suicide Squad. Given free rein to keep or discard characters and continuity as he pleased, Gunn shaped a hilariously funny, frequently rude tale of memorably amoral supervillains on a mission to eliminate a giant pink starfish. DC were so impressed they’ve since hired Gunn to co-manage all their future movie output.

Dune: Part One

(Image credit: Warner Bros.)

David Lynch’s 1984 movie was a noble but flawed attempt at adapting Frank Herbert’s classic sci-fi novel, so it was always ripe for a remake. Arrival and Blade Runner 2049 director Denis Villeneuve turned out to be the ideal man for the job, successfully navigating the author's dense text to create a spectacularly faithful world of vast deserts, spectacular ornithopters and fearsome sand worms. The huge ensemble cast (featuring Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya and Rebecca Ferguson) invest fully in the material, while the decision to split the story over two films proves a masterstroke. Part Two is due in November 2023.

Belfast

(Image credit: Focus Features)

Writer/director Kenneth Branagh sends a love letter to his childhood, in this semi-autobiographical tale set against the backdrop of late-1960s Belfast. Shot in beautiful black-and-white and with plenty of Belfast native Van Morrison on the soundtrack, it presents a slightly rose-tinted view of a turbulent period in Northern Ireland’s history. Nonetheless, it’s impossible not to be drawn in by Branagh’s deft storytelling, especially with a cracking cast including The Tourist’s Jamie Dornan, Outlander’s Catriona Balfe and Dame Judi Dench.

The Batman

(Image credit: Warner Bros.)

Not even Spider-Man can compete with the Caped Crusader when it comes to big screen reinventions. The latest – from Dawn of/War for the Planet of the Apes director Matt Reeves – doubles down on the Dark Knight’s reputation as the World’s Greatest Detective, with a labyrinthine, noir-ish mystery that owes as much to Se7en as standard comic-book fare. Robert Pattinson is a suitably angsty Bruce Wayne, while Paul Dano’s chilling reinvention of classic villain the Riddler adds extra edge.

Elvis

(Image credit: Warner Bros)

Moulin Rouge director Baz Luhrmann doesn’t do understated, so it’s no surprise that his Elvis Presley biopic is anything but run-of-the-mill. Shot in Luhrmann’s trademark fast-paced, visually inventive style, it’s a feast for the eyes, but most importantly, he finds the ideal king of rock and roll in leading man Austin Butler – from his first, captivating stage performance, you believe he is Elvis. Tom Hanks delivers solid support as manager/manipulator-in-chief Colonel Tom Parker.

Want more HBO content? See our pick of the best HBO Max shows