3 must-see movies to catch this month before they leave Netflix

Netflix constantly adds great titles every month. That's great for us, of course, but there is one little drawback: we also lose a lot of great titles. These are three of the very best movies you need to catch before they're gone.

To be sure, a few films leaving the Netflix rotation in April won't be sorely missed. I'll just say that when you've reached the third movie in a trilogy, the franchise has usually run out of ideas. There aren't many franchises that close out with a film like The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Although if they were being honest, they could probably borrow the title. But overall, a lot of great titles are leaving.

Unlike the three films I highlighted last week, I can't exactly say these three movies are underrated. The first was a box office hit that scored with critics and audiences alike. The second was an even bigger box office smash that won seven Academy Awards. The third was the biggest box office hit for a phenomenally popular director, and a major critical darling as well.

You need to catch these 3 movies before they disappear from Netflix in April

Mad Max: Fury Road (leaving March 30th)

I mentioned the third film of a trilogy often being the weakest. You can certainly include Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome in that category. It's fun, and it certainly has its fans, but its failure at the box office killed the franchise. It took writer/director George Miller 30 years to revisit the shattered post-apocalyptic world of Max Rockatansky.

When he came back to the story, he came back with a vengeance worthy of Max himself. Miller made the bold decision to make Max (now played by Tom Hardy) a side character in his own franchise. That was a risk, but one I completely agree with. We'd already seen Max's character arc; there wasn't anything new there. Switching the focus to the new character of Imperator Furisoa (Charlize Theron) created more depth than ever for the series.

Theron is fantastic in the role in every respect. It would have been nice to get a few more scenes with Hardy, but Max is still integral to the story. Make no mistake, this is Theron's picture. Well, and Miller's. As we see more and more lifeless CGI in our movies, George Miller continues to hold the line, incorporating as many in-camera stunts and action sequences as possible.

As Peter Travers of Rolling Stone magazine wrote, "Hardy and Theron make a dynamite team, but Theron is the film's bruised heart and soul. So get prepped for a new action classic. You won't know what hit you." Travers is just one of the critics whose reviews resulted in Mad Max: Fury Road earning a 97 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

The Sting (leaving March 31st)

You'll have a day to recover from the fury of Miller's apocalyptic mayhem, and you'll probably need it. I'd wager that most Netflix subscribers have never heard of The Sting. Or they think they have, but think it's an origin story for a sword. Or maybe it's a biopic for a singer-songwriter or a pro wrestler. To be fair, I'd watch all three of those in a marathon.

Even worse, they may never have heard of its incredibly charismatic and talented stars, Paul Newman and Robert Redford. Hint: they're the two handsome gents in the main photo, Redford on the left. They were two of the most popular and respected actors over their long careers, each a major star for over five decades.

Despite being great friends off-camera, they only collaborated on two films. The first was 1969's classic western, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The second, also directed by George Roy Hill, was one of the greatest caper films of all time.

The Sting was a monumental success. It was the third-highest-grossing film released in 1973, raking in $257 million worldwide. Adjusting for inflation, that would be $1.635 billion today. It did okay at awards time too, as it nabbed seven Oscars, including Best Picture, Director, and Adapted Screenplay. Much like their previous collaboration, The Sting took a standard formula - the crime caper - and invented something fresh. It's as much a statement on movies of the 1930s as its setting.

The short synopsis is that Newman and Redford run a con game on a professional gambler, played by the great Robert Shaw. I know you've seen Jaws, right? He played Quint, the driven shark hunter. If anything, he's even more formidable in this. Yes, The Sting came out over 50 years ago, and it's every bit as entertaining now as it was then. I saw it in the theater then, and yes, I'm old.

I've probably seen it half a dozen times since then. That's all I'm telling you, other than when you think you've got it all figured out, you don't. And after that, you still don't. If you love film, you need to watch this within the next week. Yes, the trailer is for the Blu-ray release, but it's a lot cleaner than any other version.

Baby Driver (leaving March 31st)

Now that you've caught your breath, let's rev the action back up. I know all you whippersnappers have heard of Edgar Wright, even if you think you haven't. He's the genius who brought us movies like Last Night in Soho, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and the brilliant Cornetto trilogy, led by Shaun of the Dead. His incredible take on the heist film, Baby Driver, remains his most overlooked film.

The titular Baby is a master of the getaway drive. Hopefully you can see the genesis of the title now. Pressed into one last job by a ruthless crime boss - as opposed to the the kind-hearted type, I suppose - Baby has to not only get away from the crime scene, but from the particularly nasty group assembled for the job. All he has on his side is naive girlfriend and his playlist. Yes, as in the music which serves as the soundtrack of the film.

Ansel Egort (The Fault In Our Stars) plays Baby, and Lily James is his best girl, Debora. The real standouts in the cast are the co-stars: Jon Hamm, Jon Bernthal, Eiza Gonzalez, Kevin Spacey, and Jamie Foxx. Egort and James are excellent, but the cast as a whole redlines it throughout the entire film. Oh, and the amazing soundtrack is as big a co-star as any.

As important as the soundtrack is to any Tarantino movie, Wright takes that concept to an entirely different level with Baby Driver. It paces the action and often the dialogue itself. And any film that can masterfully fuse Barry White, the Beach Boys, Dave Brubreck, Focus, and Queen among the 35 (yes, thirty-five!) songs into a coherent whole deserves to be heard.

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