The Best Movies Leaving HBO Max In October 2020

We're officially in Halloween season, and since the holiday has basically been canceled in many places this year, that gives you even more time to settle in and watch a bunch of movies. But if you burn through all of your annual horror favorites and still have time to poke around in the HBO Max library, these are a few movies that you should add to your queue and watch before they vanish throughout the month of October. Here are the best movies leaving HBO Max in October 2020.

Shane Black, who has made a career out of modernizing Hollywood noir mysteries with punchy dialogue and great characters, did it again in 2016...and the world shrugged its shoulders. Big mistake. Huge. The Nice Guys, a hilarious, cutting piece of commentary about corruption, disillusionment, and the realization that life comes down to waking up and trying to be just a little bit better than you were the day before, should not be slept on.

If you've never seen a Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movie, I recommend starting with this one, which contains the glorious dancing for which they're known wrapped inside a comical farce about mistaken identity. It's light, breezy, and a little silly...but man, those dance numbers are great and as a neophyte to this subgenre, I was pleased to find that both Astaire and Rogers are compelling actors in addition to talented dancers. Who knew!

Let's skip the jokes about how this movie has too many endings. We've heard 'em all before. Instead, let's thank the movie gods that this trilogy exists at all and was executed at such an unfathomably high level by Peter Jackson and his team. God, I miss filmmaking like this these days.

If you crank the dial on the Indie Whimsy scale as hard as you can, well past the highest setting, you'll find a secret setting called Amelie. But that's not a bad thing! Sometimes we need a heavy dose of indie whimsy in our lives – like, say, in the middle of a global pandemic when death tolls are rising and the governors of states like Florida, where I live, seem to think the coronavirus has magically vanished when it absolutely has not. Distract yourself for a couple hours with this wonderful, unique experience.

Just a perfect piece of mainstream entertainment. Steven Soderbergh is one of the most curious filmmakers of this century, and while his legacy extends far beyond this movie and the sequels it sparked, this will always exist as an exquisite jewel of a heist thriller – one that's so good, it's worth breaking into a casino for.

October 8:

The Nice Guys, 2016 (HBO)

October 11:

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, 2018 (HBO)

October 20:

The Conjuring 2, 2016 (HBO)

October 31:

A Cinderella Story, 2004

A Cinderella Story: Once Upon a Song, 2011

A Very Brady Sequel, 1996

Amelie, 2001 (HBO)

American History X, 1998

Barefoot in the Park, 1967

Batman Beyond: The Return of the Joker, 2000

Batman vs. Robin, 2015

Batman: Gotham Knight, 2008

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Part 1, 2012

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Part 2, 2013

Beautiful Creatures, 2013

Blade Runner: The Final Cut, 2007

Blood Diamond, 2006

Cop Out, 2010

Crazy, Stupid, Love, 2011 (HBO)

Dangerous Liaisons, 1988

DEVIL, 2010 (HBO)

Driving Miss Daisy, 1989

El Norte, 1984 (HBO)

Green Lantern (2011)

Gremlins 2: The New Batch, 1990

Home Alone, 1990 (HBO)

House Party, 1990

Kung Fu Panda 2, 2011

Kung Fu Panda, 2008

Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, 2003

Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, 2002

Ocean's Eleven, 2001

Paul (Extended Version), 2011 (HBO)

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, 1987

Raising Arizona, 1987 (HBO)

Serendipity, 2001

Soldier, 1998

Spies Like Us, 1985

Star Trek, 2009

Swing Time, 1936

The Adventures of Pinocchio, 1996

The First Wives Club, 1996

The Others, 2001 (HBO)

The Outsiders, 1983

The Replacements, 2000

This Means War (Extended Version), 2012 (HBO)

Three Kings, 1999

Top Hat, 1935

V for Vendetta, 2006

Woodstock (Director's Cut), 1994

Yesterday, 2019 (HBO)