Photo: Twentieth Century Fox/Warner Bros./Paramount Pictures (Composite)
Spooky season is officially over, even though you might still be riding that sugar high from all the Halloween candy you ate. November marks the beginning of the march toward the festive season, but the biggest streaming platforms are still leaving some room for solid action, of the kind we like the best.
Every month, we at autoevolution strive to deliver a carefully curated list of the kind of content that best suits other common interests. Movies with insane car sequences, documentaries on old ships or space rockets, and reality shows centered firmly on the modern car or bike culture – all make their way on our list and into our recommendations for you.
That said, November is the late-year equivalent of the box-office graveyard months for the movies. January and February, here's looking at you! Christmas content is slowly seeping in (or not so slowly in the case of MAX this month, which is already in full festive mode), and there's a vague feeling that everything is a repeat.
Truth be told, it's not just a feeling. But we still have a fine choice of must-sees for you, so read on!
With the first day of the month comes a critically acclaimed, Oscar-winning story of the rise of the now ever-present Facebook. As technology and AI are taking over every aspect of our lives, the brilliant director David Fincher and the equally brilliant writer Aaron Sorkin offer a nuanced look at the typical inception story, rendered exceptional by a worldwide reach not even Zuckerberg himself could have predicted.
The Social Network stars Jesse Eisenberg as Zuckerberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, and the now-shunned Armie Hammer. It's a fictionalized story about the start of Facebook, but it's a gripping one nonetheless, with brilliant dialogue and flawless acting. You don't have to be pro- or anti-technology to tune in; this one is easily a timeless masterpiece.
A Netflix production, Sly is the old underdog story with one major difference: it's a real story. This documentary is a retrospective look into the life and career of one of Hollywood's most beloved actors and producers, Sylvester Stallone.
Sly is more than the man who gave life to iconic characters like Rambo, Rocky Balboa, or Barney from The Expendables later on. He is also one of Hollywood's most hard-working producers, an Oscar-winning writer, a family man, a reality star, a famous car collector, and a watch enthusiast and designer. Sylvester Stallone might have made a career on the big screen shooting guns and breaking necks, but there are many layers to the man in real life.
Call this the awesome gift David Fincher has been working on, and we had no idea about it. After a few years on hiatus, Michael Fassbender is back in a leading role, playing the unnamed Killer in Fincher's new crime movie. Fassbender is a paid assassin who "after a fateful near-miss, [finds himself battling] his employers, and himself, on an international manhunt he insists isn't personal."
The tagline is intriguing, and the first teaser trailer below is equally so. The film also stars the chameleonic Tilda Swinton and Charles Parnell and picks up after the near-miss, promising plenty of action, including hand-to-hand combat, some car action, and chases. The Killer drops on November 10.
MAX
Aliens (1986)
MAX is getting heavily into the Christmas spirit, but it kicks off this transition month with an absolutely unmissable classic: James Cameron's Aliens, the second installment in the Alien saga, released in 1986 and still standing strong as a masterpiece of the space horror genre.
We could write a gazillion words about Aliens and would probably still come a bit short in terms of doing it complete justice. The story picks up after the Nostromo incident, with Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) sent out to a terraforming colony to re-establish contact, only to find herself facing the Alien Queen. No one quite tells a story like Cameron, and that's one of the reasons Aliens holds its own against the modern wave of blockbusters: space rockets, space machines, space weapons, and aliens, what more could you want?
Photo: Twentieth Century Fox
Kart Racer (2003)
Consider this silly prep for upcoming releases like Ferrari. Kart Racer is your typical straight-to-video movie, a coming-of-age story about a troubled teen who finds release in kart racing. Don't expect solid action – or realistic racing action, for that matter – or astounding storytelling, but this could be a half-decent way of passing 90 minutes.
Kart Racer stars Will Rothhaar and Jennifer Wigmore, with supporting acting from Randy Quaid and Stuart Gillard in the director's chair.
The Craftsman: Preserving the Last Higgins Boat (2023)
This one goes out to all WWII enthusiasts: specialist in historic wood preservation Eric Hollenbeck is back for another season of The Craftsman, the second to date, this time to try and preserve the Higgins Boat retrieved from the Shasta Lake in North California in December 2021.
The rusted hull of the boat is being prepared for display at the Nebraska National Guard Museum display and the 4th of July parade, but it will retain its "ghost" appearance. This means that Hollenbeck won't be doing a full-on restoration but preservation work, as the name of the docuseries says.
Hull PA31-17 was completed in New Orleans in 1942 or 1943 and is one of the 23,000 of the Higgins Boats built, the famous LCVPs (landing craft, vehicle, personnel) used by Ally Forces with a flat bottom that could carry up to 30 troops or a dozen men and one vehicle. It's also one of the 20 boats or so to have survived to this day. It's seen seven battles in Sicily, the Marshall Islands, Saipan, Guam, the Philippines, and Okinawa, and sunk at least once, not including the time it found itself in Shasta Lake.
HULU
Alien vs. Predator (2004)
This is easily one of the most divisive installments in the Alien franchise, from director Paul W.S. Anderson and not starring Sigourney Weaver, which in itself is unspeakable blasphemy for most fans. AvP, as it came to be known later, aims to bring together two legends of the space horror genre in a way that was quite a trendy move at the time: Aliens and Predators.
The story starts on Bouvetøya Island in Antarctica, where a team of archaeologists uncover the millennia-old battle between these two species, with humankind suddenly caught in the middle. Lance Henriksen is the only member of the original Alien cast to return, and it didn't help with the film's reception. AvP makes sense if viewed separately from either franchise and can, as such, deliver some thrills.
Photo: Twentieth Century Fox
Ancient Aliens: The Ultimate Evidence: Complete Season 9
Ancient Aliens is a pseudo-documentary that celebrated its 19th season in 2023, which is one season less than the biggest reality stars on the planet, the Kardashians, had on E! before moving to Hulu. Like the Ks, Ancient Aliens is often mocked and ridiculed, but its ever-lasting popularity on the very fickle entertainment scene speaks volumes for its reach.
Season 9, The Ultimate Evidence, originally aired in 2014 and is comprised of 12 episodes dealing with the same-old same-old alien conspiracy. The entire series tries to build the argument that aliens have been here even before humankind took over and that their existence explains some of the biggest mysteries of the civilized world.
Edge of Tomorrow (2014)
Aliens again, but this time, with a healthy side of Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt. This Doug Liman-directed action sci-fi is Groundhog Day, set in an alternate, war-ravaged future where humanity has lost the battle against aliens.
Tom Cruise does his best Tom Cruising as the unwilling soldier living on the edge of tomorrow (time restarts every time he dies), while Blunt is the actual soldier training him for combat. The film is packed with action scenes and explosions, awesome stunts, and some CGI, and is just perfect for a chilly night in. Streaming starts on November 7.
Photo: Warner Bros.
Drive with Swizz Beatz: Complete Docuseries (2023)
If you're into celebrities and cars at the same time, this one is for you: hip-hop legend and passionate car collector Swizz Beatz has teamed up with his 23-year-old son Nasir Dean for a six-episode series titled simply Drive With Swizz Beatz.
The docuseries premieres on November 16 and will see the father-duo son travel to various locales to meet with car enthusiasts and check out new rides, exploring car culture and, according to the tagline, trying to "unite two otherwise separate car clubs through a shared love of all things automotive." Beatz himself describes the series as the perfect blend of "cars, culture, family, and community," and that’s all we need to know to tune in!
Fast and Furious time is any time of the year, so we might as well go ahead and declare this time-enduring car-centric franchise a Christmas movie franchise. The recognizable characters, both human and machine, are coming to Amazon Prime this month, thanks to five of the total 10 installments released so far.
Bring popcorn and your favorite beverage, and settle in for what would be the most thrilling binge possible, starting with the film that started it all, The Fast and the Furious of 2001. Amazon is also offering 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003), The Fast & Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006), Fast & Furious (2009), and Fast Five (2011).
Halloween may be over, but Batman has year-round appeal. Amazon is proposing a return to the basics with a two-for-two approach: two Tim Burton Batmans and two Joel Schumacher Batmans, the latter more divisive than the former.
Batman (1989) and Batman Returns (1992) see Michael Keaton as the Dark Knight, while Batman Forever (1995) and Batman & Robin (1997) star Val Kilmer and George Clooney, respectively. Clooney's take on the iconic character is perhaps the least fortunate, thanks to the much-derided decision to put nipples on his suit and the overall cartoonish vibe of the film.
Either way, all four films are a great way to immerse yourself in the Batman universe, complete with different rides, different weapons and gadgets, and different Batman suits.
PARAMOUNT
Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)
You can never go wrong with a classic, especially if you've run into a rut. This 1986 classic comedy has been on rotation on the major streaming platforms for more than a year, and with good reason: it's equally loved by fans, critics, and auto enthusiasts.
With Matthew Broderick as the leading character, this film stands out for good storytelling and excellent acting, as well as for featuring one of the most iconic movie cars of all time: a red 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder that meets a most unexpected and undeserved fate at the end. No spoilers here.
Photo: Paramount Pictures
The Terminal (2004)
Speaking of classics, it doesn't get any more classic than this Steven Spielberg film with a most impressive roster of stars, from Tom Hanks to Catherine Zeta-Jones, Zoe Saldana, Stanley Tucci, Diego Luna, and Chi McBride. Technically billed as a romantic comedy, The Terminal takes one of our most unspectacular life experiences, passing through an airport terminal, and turns it into a permanent phase where one man becomes a prisoner.
Due to unexpected events, Viktor becomes trapped at JFK, banned from entering America, and not able to fly back home, so his entire life is now confined to the terminal, which becomes his temporary home. If you often find yourself thinking that Hollywood no longer makes rom-coms like it did back in the early aughts, The Terminal is proof that it really doesn't.
Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends. Full profile
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