The Movies You Have To Watch Before They Leave Netflix In September 2019

The heat of summer is fading away, and the studios we count on to deliver fantastic films to keep us entertained year-round are shifting focus to more seasonally appropriate fare. With Hollywood beginning to turn its back on summer blockbusters and preparing to get spooky with the fall releases of flicks like It: Chapter Two and Joker, streaming sites are following suit — clearing out their content catalogs to make room for new offerings largely of the horror-thriller variety. Netflix is no different, doing away with a number of movies and TV shows to add fresh picks in September 2019. Before you're faced with the all-too-real problem of reorganizing your watchlist when Netflix's new arrivals drop, sit down with some killer movies that are departing from the streamer soon. Here are the films you have to watch before they leave Netflix next month.

Keen for more Fast fun after catching the franchise spinoff Hobbs & Shaw? Plan a back-to-back-to-back binge session of three Fast and Furious films that won't be available to stream on Netflix for much longer. The first three entries into the high-octane series – 2001's The Fast and the Furious, 2003's 2 Fast 2 Furious, and 2006's The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift — will drive away from the streamer on September 1. 

Buckle up for your Fast and Furious marathon with the original, which follows the ambitious young FBI agent Brian O'Conner (the late Paul Walker) as he goes undercover with a street gang led by Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) to investigate a string of car hijackings. Then, shift into second gear with 2 Fast 2 Furious, the Miami-set sequel that sees Brian partnering up with ex-convict Roman Pearce (Tyrese Gibson) and agent Monica Celemente (Eva Mendes) on a new undercover mission ordered by the U.S. Customs Service. Their goal? Take down the notorious drug lord Carter Verone (Cole Hauser). Finish the Fast race with Tokyo Drift, which brings Diesel's Dom back into the mix for a threequel that takes the action to Tokyo, following high school student Sean Boswell (Lucas Black) who finds a family in the city's car-racing community. 

With the Fast and Furious franchise getting bigger and more bombastic each time out, it's nice to look back on where it all began. 

Ah, Batman Begins. The film that kicked off Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy, turned Christian Bale into a superhero, and, you know, successfully reinvigorated the Batman property after the critical and commercial failure of 1997's Batman and Robin. Released in 2005, Batman Begins stars Bale as Bruce Wayne, who witnessed the brutal murder of his philanthropist parents when he was a child. Raised as an orphan by his family's butler, Alfred Pennyworth (Michael Caine), Wayne grows into a young man seeking retribution for his parents' deaths, hoping to take an eye for an eye and kill the murderous mugger Joe Chill (Richard Brake). Wayne rethinks his approach to vengeance thanks to advice from his childhood friend Rachel Dawes (Katie Holmes) and guidance from League of Shadows member Henri Ducard (Liam Neeson). After seven years away, Wayne remerges as a full-fledged vigilante determined to scrub the criminal stains from the streets of Gotham City. Operating as Batman, the caped crusader faces off with the nefarious psychiatrist Dr. Jonathan Crane (Cillian Murphy), otherwise known as Scarecrow, who is bent on plunging the city into the depths of chaos.  

Now that director Matt Reeves is bringing a brand-new Batman to the big screen with The Batman, starring Robert Pattinson as the Dark Knight, there's no better time to revisit Batman Begins and rediscover how the legend was born.

Batman Begins flies away from Netflix on September 1.

If you're still craving bad-guy-busting batty goodness after watching Batman Begins on Netflix one last time, turn your evening of streaming into a double feature with The Dark Knight, which will drop off the site on September 1. 

The 2008 sequel to Batman Begins, The Dark Knight sees Batman — who was last spotted showing the Bat-Signal and making mention of a criminal whose calling card is literal playing cards — taking on his most infamous adversary yet: the Joker, played to perfection by the late Heath Ledger. Bruce Wayne teams up with Police Lieutenant James Gordon (Gary Oldman) and District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) to take to pieces organized crime in Gotham. But the moment the trio seems to gain an advantage over the delinquents destroying the peace in the city, the maniacal madman Joker surfaces — cackling and committing crimes as he undercuts Batman's status in Gotham and spins the city into darkness.

Just like Matt Reeves is ushering in a new era of Batman, Todd Phillips is introducing audiences to a fresh, freaky version of the Clown Prince of Crime with the Joaquin Phoenix-led film Joker, arriving in theaters on October 4. Before you start associating Phoenix with the dastardly DC Comics villain, though, dig into The Dark Knight again and remember why Ledger is widely considered the best Joker actor ever. 

Get down to business to defeat the Huns while you've still got time — Disney's 1998 animated classic Mulan is streaming on Netflix until the first of September. 

Based on the Chinese legend of Hua Mulan — a legendary warrior from the Northern and Southern dynasties period — Disney's Mulan centers on Fa Mulan (Ming-Na Wen), the daughter of the elderly but well-respected warrior Fa Zhou (Soon-Tek Oh). Mulan disguises herself as a man and takes her aged father's place in the war, as she worries that his weakening health will put him at a greater risk of death on the battlefield. Masquerading as "Ping" and accompanied by Mushu (Eddie Murphy), a tiny dragon and disgraced former spirit guardian, Mulan fights against the invading Huns under the command of Captain Li Shang (BD Wong). There's action, adventure, some awkward hints of romance, and, of course, plenty of sing-along tunes sprinkled throughout. 

Mulan leaving Netflix on September 1 is bittersweet: it's sad because it's a beloved Disney film perfect to watch on a lazy Sunday (or any day), but it's also sort of exciting because it signals we're getting closer to the live-action version of the film. Its disappearance from Netflix serves to remind everyone of the fact that Niki Caro's adaptation of Mulan, which will lean more closely to the Chinese legend than the Disney original, will be here before we know it. 

Hangovers = bad. The Hangover = decidedly not bad (just let its $467 million box office pull and Best Motion Picture Golden Globe win speak to that). 

Helmed by Old School director and future Joker mastermind Todd Phillips, The Hangover redefined the comedy genre when it stormed into theaters in 2009 with a bottle of tequila in one hand and a tiger on a leash in the other. It centers on a gang of best guy friends — Phil Wenneck (Bradley Cooper), Stu Price (Ed Helms), and Doug Billings (Justin Bartha) — and Doug's future brother-in-law Alan Garner (Zach Galifianakis) as they head to Las Vegas for Doug's bachelor party. The foursome winds up embracing the spirit of Sin City a little too much, and they wake up with no recollection of the night before... and without Doug in sight. From there, Phil, Stu, and Alan retrace their steps in a desperate attempt to find Doug and send him down the aisle without his wife-to-be ever learning of his night of debauchery or his sudden disappearance. They encounter strange people and hear even stranger stories along the way — all while suffering the mother of all hangovers.

It's raunchy, it's ribald, it's oh so quotable, and it's leaving Netflix on September 1. 

Outrageously vulgar, provocative, and thought-provoking, Stanley Kubrick's dystopian crime film and pitch-black comedy A Clockwork Orange has become a controversial classic in the years since it debuted in 1971. The pic, adapted from English author Anthony Burgess' novel of the same name, takes place in a near-future Britain, where the charismatic, classical-music-loving criminal Alex (Malcolm McDowell) and his band of thugs — Pete (Michael Tarn), Georgie (James Marcus), and Dim (Warren Clarke) — commit "ultra-violence" everywhere they go. Alex is eventually jailed for one of his many atrocities, and agrees to undergo rehabilitation through a psychological conditioning method known as "the Ludovico Technique" in order be reincorporated into society. When Alex earns his freedom, everything he once loved — brutality and Beethoven in particular — is used against him, and where he was once the perpetrator of violence, he now is the victim. 

While A Clockwork Orange is difficult to stomach at times, it's regarded as "a much-maligned and misunderstood classic," and one of Kubrick's best films. Revisit the movie — or watch it for the very first time — before it leaves Netflix's library on September 1.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is probably one of Tim Burton's weirdest and most wonderful movies — and that's saying a lot considering all the outstanding oddities freckling the filmmaker's oeuvre. A silver screen translation of Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler's musical of the same name, Sweeney Todd features Johnny Depp in the title role, a barber-slash-serial killer who cuts the hair and throats of his customers with his signature straight razor. His right-hand woman Mrs. Nellie Lovett (Burton's ex-wife and frequent collaborator Helena Bonham Carter) then uses Todd's, er, leftovers as the main ingredient in her special meat pies. Throughout the whole affair, there's song and dance and ample dramatics — because what would a macabre musical be without all that?

The film slashed its way to the top of the box office in December 2007, earning $152 million worldwide against its $50 million production budget, and raked in dazzling reviews from critics. A National Board of Review-selected pick for the top 10 movies of the year, Sweeney Todd also took home numerous Golden Globe Awards and an Academy Award for Best Art Direction. 

Before September 1 rolls around and it's no longer available on Netflix, find out why so many agree that Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is the film Burton was born to direct.