5 movies to watch before they leave Netflix at end of February

The month of February is ending soon, which means series and movies will be leaving Netflix. You only have a few days left to catch these gems. There might be almost too much to try to see but so little time.

Don't worry, though. We have some ideas for you if you are in a movie mood. There will still be lots left to watch in March on your favorite streamer, just not these.

The films below are not all Oscar-worthy. That doesn't make them less enjoyable. In fact, sometimes you might just want to sit back and chill to something silly.

Five films to catch before they leave Netflix in February

Inception

Before there was Everything Everywhere All at Once, there was Inception. It has levels (literally) of storytelling, and one will get transfixed on how any of it is going to work. It does, and brilliantly so. In the hands of director Christopher Nolan, the flick is a masterpiece.

Even the plot line remains original. Leonardo DiCaprio plays a thief (Dom Cobb) who can enter people's dreams. He eventually is tasked with planting an idea in someone's dream that would become the perfect crime. But Cobb has a worthy adversary who anticipates everything Cobb is going to do. It's riveting.

Legends of the Fall

What is difficult to believe is that this film came out 30 years ago. But be warned, a lot of it is kind of a downer. A lot of bad stuff happens to people, and Brad Pitt's character goes a bit insane, and yet somehow, it all works.

This might be because the period drama is beautifully shot. You can just sit and stare at the pretty pictures and that might be entertaining enough. But there is another reason to watch. While the movie appears to be driven by male actors, the real heroes are the female characters.

Oblivion

If this movie was released now, it would be a huge hit. There is no stopping the Tom Cruise train at this point. This was made during a period when some moviegoers had temporarily tired of him, though. That was their mistake, not Cruise's.

The icon plays Jack Harper who is a security repairman who has two weeks to complete a task before joining other humans on a colony. There has been a war between humans and aliens, you see. But Harper rescues a person whose spaceship has gone down, and that changes his narrative. It is not the best movie based on the future, but the flick is highly entertaining.

Sixteen Candles

No one did 1980s "teen" movies like director John Hughes. He did not dehumanize the characters or make them caricatures of what people thought teenagers were like. They were real people with real problems, just as they should be.

What makes this film one of Hughes' best is the amount of real compassion one feels for the characters, led by lead Molly Ringwald who plays Samantha. The storyline might be overdone as Samantha likes an older boy who doesn't know her, but has to keep her long-term friend's romantic overtures at bay, but there are no bad guys. There are, however, lots of laughs.

Due Date

This is pure fluff, and it strains logic at times, but that is fine because the acting alone makes up for any pitfalls in the plot. Robert Downey, Jr. and Zach Galifianakis playing off of each other in a road-trip movie that has some similarities to Trains Planes and Automobiles? Yes, please.

Is it silly? Yes. Will you be talking about it with friends around the water cooler? Unlikely. But it certainly is fun.