Free Films on Hulu We Can All Be Thankful For (and Many More!)

Since the summer debut debacle of Hulu’s payment plan, fans tuning in for their free and legal movies have noticed a drop in the quality of films that have made their list. Where once was Chaplin, Three Amigos, The Doors, and almost every movie Sherlock Holmes has ever appeared in, now remains Cheerleader Ninjas and the entire Lifetime Movie catalog. What a cruel joke Hulu has become.

But sponsors (advertisers) love holidays as much as viewers (consumers) do, so the quality has picked up from burnt turkey to a funky shaped thing we’re told is turducken. I wouldn’t look too closely; I would just accept the fact that there’s something other to watch than Sex Monster.

A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving: I don’t care how old/cool/hipster you think you are, you just better watch it and accept that secretly you love Charlie Brown and the Peanuts gang. Just like how you pretend to hate the cranberry sauce, but it disappears from your dinner table every year before the turkey’s done. They’re like family, complaining about work, depressing holidays, and festive frustrations. Unlike family, they fix everything by the end of the hour and all love (sorta) each other. For dessert, we get an adorable history lesson taught by cartoons. Highly inaccurate, but the real story is probably a lot less cuddly. Hulu has an addition here: an extra cartoon telling the story of the Mayflower. Don’t mind if we stick with main course, right?

Pieces of April: Hollywood must think that a holiday isn’t legitimized until there’s a neurotic fear about it. In Pieces of April, we get the painful potrait of a girl who’s gone through a rough time try and make amends with her family and dying mother over Thanksgiving dinner. A broken oven, crazy neighbors, and a jealous ex-boyfriend try to ruin her party plans, but the biggest hurdle is whether or not her family will even show up. Katie Holmes at her best (in my opinion) stars as the girl struggling to keep all the pieces together.

SNL and Thanksgiving: Just do a search on Thanksgiving and you get everything from Adam Sandler’s “Thanksgiving Song” and Vincent Price’s Thanksgiving Party. It’s not as stale as you think, rather it’s like reheating leftovers. I’ll still take it over watching something new.

There’s already Christmas movies up: Black Friday means flip on the seasonal lights and time to watch old Christmas cartoons. There are stocking stuffers for the adults too, if you know what I mean. It’s your choice on whether you want to watch the Christmas Caper or The Bear who Slept Through Christmas.

Thanksgiving elsewhere on the net:

Hannah and Her Sisters: Woody Allen’s holiday album would have plenty of odes to Thanksgiving. In Annie Hall, we get the infamous cross-cultural comparison of his Jewish family dinners compared to the “Norman Rockwell painting” of  Annie’s family Thanksgiving. In Hannah and Her Sisters, Allen uses Thanksgiving as bookends for the story of a family. Events kick off at a Thanksgiving meal, when a married man realizes his feelings for his wife’s sister. Did I mention the philanderer himself is none other than the original Alfie, Sir Michael Caine? There’s also Mia Farrow, Diane Weist, Carrie Fisher, Sam Waterson (of Law and Order), and Woody Allen to create one of the biggest and best love triangles (or some kind of a polygon) you’ve seen.  Let the witty, psychotic green bean casserole mess of family dynamics entertain while you wait for the cranberry sauce to simmer.  Available on Netflix Instant Watch.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles: I’ll describe this movie as the original Due Date without a baby involved. John Candy and Steve Martin must get over there odd couple shenanigans to get home for the holidays in any way they can after getting thrown off their flight. And these were the days before increase TSA pat downs. Always fun to watch while actually on a plane, train, or automobile. Queue on Netflix.

Home for the Holidays: Jodi Foster directs the family that defines dysfunction. Critical parents, a brother striving for acceptance, and a half-crazed sister couples with untimely job loss for Holly Hunter’s less than festive mood. Maybe your family drama isn’t that bad after all. Anne Bancroft, Robert Downey Jr., and Claire Danes costar in a delightfully moody yet touching family get together. A bonus turn from Geraldine Chaplin (Charlie Chaplin’s daughter) makes things wickedly less anxious as the crazy grandmother. How like a movie to include a crazy relative for the holidays. Queue on Netflix.

Thankskilling: It’s as awful as it sounds and apparently was made just last year. This has the quality of Birdemic: the murderous turkey is a hand puppet, and the leading lady’s a porn actress. Anytime a movie starts off with a bare-breasted pilgrim, I’m calling  turkey. Available on Netflix Instant Watch.