The holidays are coming, so you’d expect the top titles from major streaming services to be Christmas classics that the whole family can enjoy. It’s hilarious not This is, however, the case, and it is either a sign of a broadening of tastes or of a broadening of sensitivities.

I’m not going to object to viewers getting into the Christmas spirit by watch such violent delights as “Die Hard”, “Silent Night, Deadly Night” or one of Shane Black’s classics set around the holidays. I might just collapse and run myself a marathon of “Lethal Weapon,” “The Last Boy Scout,” “The Long Kiss Goodnight” and “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” on Christmas Eve. Christmas Day is the time when you pull out “It’s a Wonderful Life” (a remarkably dark film in itself) or one of the adaptations of “A Christmas Carol.”

But if the FlixPatrol report Of the most popular films currently streaming on Max, it seems that most people are prioritizing certain macabre and/or bloody contemporary films in December. As was also the case last week, the box office flop “Joker: Folie à Deux” is at the top of Max’s most-watched list right now, with “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” in second place. Surely, something like “Elf” or “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” are right behind them, right? No. Number three on the list is a scuzzy, hissy B-movie with an impressive body count.

This Christmas, add four fingers of bourbon to your eggnog and treat yourself to Christian Gaudegast’s twisty thriller, “Thieves’ Cove.” Starring Gerard Butler as Big Nick O’Brien, a drunken cop with a craving for blood-splattered donuts, this film went from being a modest box office success (it grossed $80 million in the world on a budget of 30 million dollars) to a true classic movie for dad. It’s a hard-hitting riff on “Heat” with an assortment of badass performances from Pablo Schreiber, O’Shea Jackson Jr. and Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson. Don’t let yourself be fooled; Gaudegast’s narrative is surprisingly clever, culminating with an ending you might not see coming.

“Den of Thieves” rides or dies with a harsh philosophy that is the antithesis of “Peace on Earth, good will toward men.” So why is this 2018 action movie suddenly so popular on Max? Why, it’s because the sequel, “Den of Thieves: Pantera”, is scheduled to arrive in theaters on January 10, 2025. And, really, who would you rather spend time with this Christmas: your family or Gerard Butler? So if the world is really going to hell, cool off and let’s go with Big Nick.