The Best Movies Leaving Netflix In December 2016

With Thanksgiving this week, we're heading into a one-month period where we'll be spending a lot of time with friends and family at various holiday parties and gatherings. So before you get super busy with all your holiday feasting and fun, you might want to take advantage of some of the movies leaving Netflix in December 2016 before they're gone. Honestly, there's only a handful of titles that you'll be sad are leaving, and you can find out which ones they are after they jump.

The Best Picture from the year 2000, this sad portrait of American life in the suburbs is thoroughly depressing, not to mention extremely creepy. But it also has one of Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening's best performances on screen. There's also a fantastic turn for Chris Cooper as a character who still sadly rings true today. It will also remind you that at one time Mena Suvari was actually a sought-after actress for a few years.

If you're a fan of underdog sports dramas, then you might enjoy a story about the real thing. Medora is a documentary about a small town varsity basketball team in the heart of the Midwest in Indiana. The team was enduring quite the losing streak as the documentary crew follows them, but with the support of the rural community around them who has been kicked down just as much, there might be hope.

Before director Paul W.S. Anderson went off to make the tiring Resident Evil franchise, he actually made a pretty damn good sci-fi horror movie in the form of Event Horizon. As a kid whose only association with Sam Neill came from Jurassic Park, this was quite an interesting change of pace. If you've never seen it, give it a shot, and see how much potential Anderson had before he decided to make lame video game movies.

Most of the spoofs that have come out of Hollywood in the past 15 years have been garbage. They're more interested in timely pop culture references and nonsequitur humor than they are in actually parodying a drama in a satirical way. Before Shawn and Marlon Wayans spoofed scary movies with Scary Movie, they took aim at movies like Boyz n the Hood, South Central, Menace II Society, Higher Learning and Juice with this great send-up of the urban drama subgenre. Not all the jokes land, and it's a bit dated, but it's still pretty funny.

Before Tom Cruise attached himself to the side of the plane for Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, he was Maverick, a real hotshot fighter pilot. This is one of those movies that doesn't really get made anymore. There's an equal amount of focus on the jet action in this movie as there is on the romance between Cruise and Kelly McGillis. Nowadays that romance would be thrown to the side in favor of much more adrenaline-fueled action in the sky. But this balance back in 1986 was actually rather perfect.

Leaving December 1

50 First Dates (2004)

American Beauty (1999)

Black Ops: Series 2

Camp Takota (2014)

Carmen Jones (1954)

Cats & Dogs (2001)

Curious George: Swings Into Spring (2013)

Don't Be A Menace To South Central While Drinking Your Juice In The Hood (2016)

Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007)

Event Horizon (1997)

Frequencies (2013)

McConkey

Medora (2013)

Monkey Business (1952)

Myth Hunters: Series 1

Myth Hunters: Series 2

Neil Young: Heart of Gold (2006)

Paycheck (2003)

Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: A VeggieTales Movie (2008)

River Of No Return (1954)

Sling Blade (1996)

Thor: Hammer of the Gods (2009)

The Great War Diary: Season 1

The In-Laws (2003)

The Out-Of-Towners (1999)

Top Gun (1986)

Valley of the Dolls (1967)

World Trade Center (2006)

Leaving December 2

Legends Of The Knight (2013)

The Red Baron (2008)

Leaving December 3

The Best Of Me (2014)

Leaving December 5

Holes (2003)

Leaving December 14

The Da Vinci Code (2006)

Leaving December 15

High Profits: Season 1

World War II In Colour (2009)

Leaving December 16

Beyond The Hills (2012)

Leaving December 22

Dark Skies (2013)

Leaving December 26

Just Friends (2005)

Leaving December 27

Spy Kids (2001)

Leaving December 31

Hercules: The Legendary Journeys: Season 1

Hercules: The Legendary Journeys: Season 2

Hercules: The Legendary Journeys: Season 3

Hercules: The Legendary Journeys: Season 4

Hercules: The Legendary Journeys: Season 5

Hercules: The Legendary Journeys: Season 6