Netflix added an interesting selection of movies from the past three decades at the beginning of January.
Now that the midpoint of the month is nearly here, it’s safe to say that some of these flicks won’t be topping the streaming charts.
That’s why Watch With Us is throwing the spotlight on the four underrated Netflix movies you need to watch in January 2026.
Our picks include a cyberpunk action film, an emotionally moving tale, a thriller and a zombie movie.
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‘Johnny Mnemonic’ (1995)
It’s easy to overlook Johnny Mnemonic when Keanu Reeves went on to star in the much more successful sci-fi thriller The Matrix just four years later. But this cyberpunk flick is still pretty enjoyable, and it was adapted for the screen by William Gibson, one of the fathers of the genre and the original author of Johnny Mnemonic.
In the dystopian future of 2021, Johnny (Reeves) is a courier who transports sensitive information implanted into his cybernetic brain. During a seemingly routine transfer, assassins attack Johnny and inadvertently destroy the key to unlocking the data. With only a limited time before the information overload kills him, Johnny has to trust a stranger, Jane (Dina Meyer), to help save his life. Dolph Lundgren has a very funny role as the Street Preacher, an assassin who pursues Johnny and Jane throughout the movie.
Johnny Mnemonic is streaming on Netflix.
‘My Girl’ (1991)
Macaulay Culkin may have been a bigger star when My Girl was released, but it’s Anna Chlumsky‘s movie from start to finish. This coming-of-age story follows Vada Margaret Sultenfuss (Chlumsky), an 11-year-old girl who is having trouble accepting that her widowed father, Harry (Dan Aykroyd), is ready to move on with a new woman, Shelly DeVoto (Jamie Lee Curtis).
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Vada’s friendship with a boy her age, Thomas J. Sennett (Culkin), is her oasis when facing life changes she neither wants nor understands. In her own way, Vada has been living a sheltered existence. But during the best summer of her life, Vada is faced with a tragedy that she doesn’t know how to handle. And it may crush her spirit.
My Girl is streaming on Netflix.
‘Wild Things’ (1998)
For its time, Wild Things was considered to be pretty scandalous. High school students Suzie Toller (Neve Campbell) and Kelly Lanier Van Ryan (Denise Richards) separately accuse their guidance counselor, Sam Lombardo (Matt Dillon), of sexually assaulting them. But when the case goes to trial, everything goes Sam’s way, including a hefty cash settlement.
Sergeant Ray Duquette (Kevin Bacon) is the only one who seems to realize that an elaborate con game is in play. But even Ray doesn’t know who’s playing whom, and what they’re willing to do to hang on to that lucrative payday. If all’s fair in love and war, then don’t be so shocked when someone decides that murder is the only acceptable response.
Wild Things is streaming on Netflix.
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‘Dawn of the Dead’ (2004)
George A. Romero‘s Dawn of the Dead is considered to be one of the seminal zombie films, but director Zack Snyder‘s 2004 remake is surprisingly entertaining. Superman director James Gunn wrote the script, which brings together a disparate group of survivors, including Ana Clark (Sarah Polley), Sergeant Kenneth Hall (Ving Rhames), Michael Shaunessy (Jake Weber) and more.
As the zombie apocalypse unfolds, the survivors take shelter in a shopping mall. But with a literal sea of dead people trying to break in, it becomes pretty obvious that they won’t be safe for long. Where can you run when it’s the end of the world? Keep watching this film through the credits, as the story doesn’t end the way you might expect.
Dawn of the Dead is streaming on Netflix.
