If there’s any film genre that Hulu excels at, it’s action movies. A lot of the 20th Century Fox flicks that have no place on Disney+ tend to end up here, and that makes Hulu the ideal home for PG-13 and R-rated action films that don’t fit in with the Disney brand.
This month’s picks for the three action movies on Hulu that you need to watch in January include a monster movie on loan from Universal, a Marvel film, and one of our favorite action flicks from the ’90s.
The Mummy (1999)
Imagine Indiana Jones, but goofier. Somehow, it works for this iteration of The Mummy, which features Brendan Fraser as Rick O’Connell, a roguish adventurer who is hired by Evelyn Carnahan (Rachel Weisz) and her brother, Jonathan Carnahan (John Hannah), to help them find Hamunaptra, Egypt’s fabled City of the Dead.
However, Evelyn’s expedition isn’t the only group out to uncover the city’s secrets. Once there, the rival expeditions accidentally awaken the titular mummy, Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo). After being mummified alive thousands of years before, Imhotep isn’t exactly looking to make friends as he harvests the Americans for fresh body parts. More alarmingly, Imhotep plans to sacrifice Evelyn in order to resurrect his lost lover, unless Rick can find a way to kill the mummy all over again.
Watch The Mummy on Hulu.
X-Men: First Class (2011)
This Marvel movie must have gotten lost on its way to Disney+. Regardless, X-Men: First Class ranks among the very best Marvel films of the 20th Century Fox era. Director and co-screenwriter Matthew Vaughn only had a short period of time to put together this origin flick, but it has a great cast that rejuvenated the X-Men at a time when the franchise was floundering.
Michael Fassbender is particularly good as Erik Lehnsherr, the man who will go on to become Magneto. Following the murder of his mother at the hands of Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon) in Germany during World War II, Erik ruthlessly hunts down Nazis until he can catch up with his nemesis. But in order to defeat Shaw, Erik has to learn how to trust Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and Mystique (No Hard Feelings‘ Jennifer Lawrence) before he can help them put together the first generation of the X-Men during the turbulent early ’60s.
Watch X-Men: First Class on Hulu.
Con Air (1997)
It may not be scientifically possible for a movie to be any more ’90s than Con Air. Nicolas Cage stars as Cameron Poe, an Army Ranger who is convicted of accidentally killing a man who accosted his wife, Patricia Poe (Monica Potter). After spending eight years in prison, Poe finally gets paroled. But Poe’s first step toward freedom is derailed when he is placed on a prisoner transport plane that gets hijacked by Cyrus “The Virus” Grissom (John Malkovich).
Cyrus has enlisted some of America’s deadliest criminals to enact his plan, including Nathan “Diamond Dog” Jones (Ving Rhames), serial killer Garland “The Marietta Mangler” Greene (Steve Buscemi), Joseph “Pinball” Parker (Dave Chappelle), and Earl “Swamp Thing” Williams (M. C. Gainey). Cyrus and his men initially believe that Poe is one of them. But all Poe really wants to do is tip off the authorities, and get back home to his wife and daughter. And there’s going to be a lot of gunplay and explosions before that can happen.
Watch Con Air on Hulu.
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