The best thrillers to watch on Netflix this February

polygon.com:

Greetings, Polygon readers!

February is here, and while the cold weather might be beginning to break, there’s plenty of good thrillers on Netflix to watch if you’re looking to set your blood cold. We’ve plunged back into the depths of the streamer’s catalog to bring you the very best of what Netflix has to offer when it comes to thrillers this month, and might I say, these picks are good.

This month’s selections include a German martial arts thriller about a cage fighter punching his way to his daughter’s birthday, a neo-noir crime drama starring Guy Pearce and Russell Crowe, and one of the best conspiracy thrillers of the 1970s. Here’s our list of the best thrillers to watch on Netflix in February.

Director: Oliver Kienle
Cast: Emilio Sakraya, Dennis Mojen, Marie Mouroum

Sometimes, what you want is an economical thriller with a tight premise. That’s what the German Netflix original Sixty Minutes has to offer. In it, a fighter (played by two-time German karate champion Emilio Sakraya) has exactly one hour to get to his ex-wife’s house for his daughter’s birthday party. If he doesn’t make it in time, she’ll file for sole custody. And the fighter has another problem: He’s about to step into the ring, and there are some seedy people with a lot of money on the fight.

Sixty Minutes executes this premise well, leaning on Sakraya’s skill as a fighter and as an actor for a sub-90 minute thrill ride. While still falling prey to some of the tropes of the “custody thriller,” Sixty Minutes smartly subverts them by being realistic about the protagonist’s shortcomings as a father. All the while, it cleverly uses modern technology (like cell phones and scooters) to advance the narrative, and delivers some kick-ass fight sequences along the way. If you’re looking for a straightforward piece of genre cinema that knows exactly what it’s going for, check this one out. —Pete Volk

Director: Curtis Hanson
Cast: Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, Kevin Spacey

If you, like myself, count yourself