Entertainment
New Year's Eve should be a boisterous celebration welcoming in the start of another year and the renewed opportunities that come with it. Instead, with all the high expectations, it's often a last-minute freak-out over all the accomplishments we didn't meet and plans that fell through in the past year. If you're staying in or joining some friends for a quieter evening, here are some New Year's Eve movies you can stream right now to take your mind right off those worries.
For those concerned they've made a mess of their lives, Trading Places shows that no matter where you start or how low you sink, it's always possible to get back on top. Feeling despondent over the year's endless onslaught of terrible news? Perhaps Strange Days' memory-addled cop coverup conspiracy-unravelling might inspire hope that it's not impossible to bring wrongs, however deeply buried, to light. Or if you just want to see the entitled struggle a little bit, check out Madame Satan's swank zeppelin party come to a (literally) crashing halt.
For those fretting over being alone in a room of couples when that midnight kiss rolls around, check out Sunset Boulevard''s bummer New Year's evening for two, or Boogie Night's heartbreaking New Year's Eve party. Between that and the frat brat murders aboardTerror Train's New Year's Eve run, you'll start feeling glad you're free to enjoy 2018 on your own.
1
'New Year's Evil'
A high-concept slasher flick spanning the nation. Punk TV icon Blaze is ready for her New Year's televised special, until a caller threatens to murder a "naughty girl" at the stroke of midnight in each timezone, finishing with Blaze herself. When the murderer calls back playing tapes of the first murders, Blaze realizes he's serious, and the countdown begins to figure out who he is and how to stop him.
Available on Hulu, Amazon Prime, and Epix
2
'Assault On Precinct 13' (2005)
The remake of John Carpenter's famously brutal 1976 film of the same name takes place over the holiday skeleton shift at the title precinct. With only two officers on guard and a lone drug kingpin witness to decades of police corruption, it's the perfect time for a gang of crooked cops to try and take the kingpin out. Featuring Ja Rule as small-time crook Smiley.
Available on TubiTV
3
'Trading Places'
In this film, two titans of the stock market make a dollar bet on nature versus nurture. The decide to see what would happen if someone born with a silver spoon had it yanked from his mouth, and if a bum got moved into the big leagues. Dan Akroyd and Eddie Murphy are at their finest dealing with their sudden turns of fate.
Available on Netflix
4
'Terror Train'
This Canadian slasher answers that age-old haunted house question of "why don't they just leave the house?" by setting it on a moving train. It sort of works, but more importantly this New Year's masquerade starts going all wrong when bodies begin piling up. Featuring Vanity, Jamie Lee Curtis, and a very young David Copperfield (he's still doing magic, of course).
Available on Amazon Prime
5
'The Phantom Carriage'
This richly visual silent classic has a grim premise — the last soul to die before the New Year has to drive Death's carriage and collect all the souls in the coming year. When drunkard David gets knocked on the head joking about his friend George believing that bunk, the wagon comes for him...and it's driven by George. Sort of a high-gothic It's A Wonderful Life.
Available on Filmstruck
6
'Money Train'
A money train is a highly guarded train used to pick up and transport the fares from each subway station. Given the modern system this movie might not be as dramatic, but hey, it was 1995, and you get to see Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson brawl and kickbox their way through a debt-cancelling train heist.
Available on Crackle
7
'Sunset Boulevard'
While the poster makes it look like Swanson is Frankenstein's Monster terrorizing citizens, the movie's a lot more sympathetic, showing how Hollywood chews up and spits out female actors when their beauty fades and what that does to a person. This classic noir takes the '30s glamour properly associated with New Year's and gives it a macabre makeover, perfect viewing if you're less than psyched about the holiday.
Available on Netflix
8
'Boogie Nights'
With a plot based around the passing of an era and one of the most depressing New Year's parties captured on film, Paul Thomas Anderson's misfit found-family drama is another movie to make you feel better about your own life on the holiday.
Available on Netflix
9
'Repeat Performance'
Joan Leslie makes the mother of all New Year's resolutions when she wishes she could go back in time and not shoot her husband. Because she wished at the exact stroke of midnight, she's transported back to the beginning of the year. But can she actually change anything, or is her fate predetermined?
Available on Amazon Prime
10
'Strange Days'
1995 sure thought a lot would happen in four years. Set in the last two days of 1999, a former cop-turned-memory-dealer comes across what looks like a murder that leads him straight back to the ex he's desperate to reunite with, and exposes the possible cover-up of the murder of a politically-charged rapper. In a world where bodycam videos are regularly released to little fanfare, the film's biggest misjudgement was believing the future would care.
Available on MaxGo
11
'Madame Satan'
A slow start to a glorious finish, this musical has a married woman realizing her husband's fooling around with a young chippie singer. Realizing her husband thinks she's incapable of excitement, the wife high-tails it to an over-the-top masquerade on a zeppelin disguised as the intriguing and irresistible Madame Satan. Can she woo her husband and beat him at his own game?
Available to rent from Apple or Google Play
Maybe your New Year's Eve won't have the same level of glamour as a 1930s musical extravaganza, but the best resolution is to stop worrying and start enjoying your life as it is, not as it should be. Begin by ringing in the new year on your own terms, whatever they are, and start 2018 right.
