Club Benefits
In case you missed it, "Anaconda" hasn't just slithered back into pop culture but also into the Netflix top 10 movies list. Starring Jack Black, Paul Rudd, Steven Zahn and Thandiwe Newton, the 2025 action-comedy follows a group of childhood friends as they attempt to remake the original 1997 "Anaconda" movie in the Amazon rainforest, only to encounter the giant, lethal snake IRL.
Packed with cheeky self-awareness and plenty of action, it's less of a remake than a meta-reboot, and one that's clearly been a hit with Netflix fans. Since premiering on the streaming service on March 25, the comedy has quickly reached the top of the platform's charts.
Article continues below'Tropic Thunder'
Starring and directed by Ben Stiller (who also wrote the screenplay alongside Justin Theroux and Etan Cohen), "Tropic Thunder" finds the multihyphenate playing Tugg Speedman, a once top-of-the-A-list action star who takes on the dramatic role of handless Vietnam veteran John "Four Leaf" Tayback (Nick Nolte) to get his career back on track.
Tayback's memoirs are being made into a big-budget war film, with Speedman joined by drug-addled comedy star Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black), closeted gay rapper Alpa Chino (Brandon T. Jackson) and Oscar-winning method actor Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr., who, yes, is in satirical Blackface throughout and received an Academy Award nomination for his performance here) thrust into the real-life jungle for the production, where absurdity after absurdity gets in the way of filming.
That already star-studded cast also includes Matthew McConaughey, Steve Coogan, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride, Bill Hader and, probably most memorable of all, a truly bonkers turn from Tom Cruise as studio executive Les Grossman.
Watch "Tropic Thunder" on Paramount+
'Spaceballs'
From "Young Frankenstein" to "Blazing Saddles" to "History of the World: Part I," Mel Brooks is a master when it comes to a meta-movie, and "Spaceballs" is one of his most beloved.
A parody of major sci-fi flicks like "Star Wars," "Aliens" and "Planet of the Apes," the 1987 space opera centers on a renegade space pilot Lone Starr (Bill Pullman) and his half-man, half-dog sidekick Barf (John Candy), who must rescue a princess (Daphne Zuniga) from Spaceballs President Skroob (played by Brooks himself) and the evil Dark Helmet (Rick Moranis), space baddies who are planning to steal the air supply from a peaceful planet to replenish their own.
And if you love the cult-classic original, we've got good news: A "Spaceballs" sequel is reportedly in development at Amazon, with Mel Brooks attached.
Watch "Spaceballs" on Prime Video
'The Truman Show'
One of Jim Carrey's best movies, 1998 satirical dramedy "The Truman Show" finds the comedy legend starring as Truman Burbank, an everyday insurance salesman who is blissfully unaware that he is living his entire life on a colossal Hollywood soundstage controlled by the show's creator and executive producer (Ed Harris, who received an Oscar nomination for his performance) and is being filmed and broadcast as a reality TV show with a massive viewership.
Not only is Truman's entire world manufactured and scripted, but everyone he knows — from his wife Meryl (Laura Linney) to his own parents (Holland Taylor and Brian Delate) — is a paid actor.
Along with being a fan-favorite meta-comedy, "The Truman Show" was beloved by critics, with a 94% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. On the review aggregate, the critics' consensus praises: "A funny, tender, and thought-provoking film, 'The Truman Show' is all the more noteworthy for its remarkably prescient vision of runaway celebrity culture and a nation with an insatiable thirst for the private details of ordinary lives."
Watch "The Truman Show" on MGM+ now
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