Amazon Prime never fails to deliver, and neither does Amazon Prime Video. The start of a new month means fresh titles have been added to Prime Video’s cinematic library. That includes the new biographical thriller, On a Wing and a Prayer. And there’s also an assortment of other flicks from other studios that have joined Prime Video’s lineup.
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- Life of Pi2012
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- Top Gun: Maverick2022
- Good Will Hunting1997
The premise of On a Wing and a Prayer is perhaps the nightmare of everyone who has ever flown in an airplane. While returning from the funeral of his brother, Doug White (Dennis Quaid) and his wife, Terri (Heather Graham), are understandably alarmed when the pilot of their plane suddenly dies, leaving them with no one but Doug to take over in the cockpit.
As air traffic controllers try to talk Doug through flying and landing the plane, his family prays for a miracle. [Spoiler warning] This film is based on a true story, and the White family got their miracle. But not without some tense moments along the way.
For most of his screen time in Life of Pi, Suraj Sharma shares the stage with a CGI Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. And it is absolutely mesmerizing. Ang Lee directed Yann Martel’s novel with an elevated sense of magical reality. When young Piscine Molitor “Pi” Patel (Sharma) and his family are caught in a shipwreck, he finds himself stuck on a lifeboat with animals from his family’s zoo, including tiger Richard Parker.
As the tiger takes out the other animals, Pi has to find a way to co-exist with Richard Parker, as well as the strength of will to survive a harrowing ordeal at sea. This film is a visual masterpiece, and it has an unforgettable story.
Did you know that Star Wars and dozens of other films were greatly influenced by the French sci-fi comic Valérian and Laureline by Pierre Christin? However, the comic didn’t make it to the big screen until director Luc Besson adapted it into Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. True to its title, the space station Alpha is indeed the product of aliens from thousands of worlds, and is kept under the watchful eye of the United Human Federation.
Two of the station’s primary operatives, Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and Laureline (Cara Delevingne), try to keep the peace before they unknowingly stumble upon a conspiracy that could bring down Alpha itself. Laureline also has her hands full keeping Valerian’s amorous intentions toward her in check, even though his attraction to her isn’t one-sided.
If you’re wondering why But I’m a Cheerleader had such lousy reviews during its initial release, keep in mind that it came out at a time when there weren’t a lot of LGBT films in the mainstream. Natasha Lyonne stars as Megan Bloomfield, a teenage cheerleader who is good at everything … except being straight. That’s why her parents, Peter (Bud Cort) and Nancy Bloomfield (Mink Stole), ship Megan off to a conversion therapy camp.
This spectacularly backfires on Peter and Nancy when Megan meets and falls in love with Graham Eaton (Clea DuVall), another young woman who was forced into conversion camp by her family. Although Megan is initially reluctant to embrace her true self, convincing Graham to let go of her family’s expectations proves to be far more difficult.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that Top Gun: Maverick is the most popular movie of 2022 and one of biggest blockbusters in years. And after cleaning up at the box office, the Top Gun sequel is coming in for a landing on Prime Video. Tom Cruise reprises his role as Capt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, a test pilot-turned-instructor who doesn’t quite have the same fire that he had in the ’80s.
While teaching the next generation of Top Gun pilots, Maverick also finds himself in conflict with one of his students, Lt. Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw (Miles Teller), the son of his late friend, Nick “Goose” Bradshaw. However, Maverick and his pilots will need to find common ground as they are drawn into a new mission with high stakes and breathtaking flying sequences.
Good Will Hunting is the movie that made Matt Damon and Ben Affleck into stars. They co-wrote the script together, and Damon plays the title character, Will Hunting, with Affleck as his best friend, Chuckie Sullivan. Will is a genius whose personal issues have held him back in life. But while working as a janitor at Harvard, Will solves an incredibly difficult math problem that catches the attention of Professor Gerald Lambeau (Stellan Skarsgård).
Lambeau is the first person to realize that Will has limitless potential if he can stay out of trouble with the law. Enter Dr. Sean Maguire (Robin Williams in an Oscar-winning turn), a psychologist who challenges Will to overcome his past and embrace the man he could become. It’s a riveting feel-good drama for the ages. How do you like them apples?
Jordan Peele’s latest film, Nope, is an impressive blend of sci-fi and horror. Siblings OJ (Daniel Kaluuya) and Em Haywood (Keke Palmer) are on the verge of selling their father’s horse ranch when they realize that a UFO appears to be hanging around their property and devouring horses. With the assistance of a Fry’s Electronics tech, Angel Torres (Brandon Perea), they attempt to record footage of the UFO as a way to get rich.
Unfortunately for the unlikely trio, the aforementioned UFO is far more dangerous than they initially realized. And it’s not what they expected at all. Nope made DT’s list of the best movies of 2022, and there’s a good reason why: it’s entertaining and smart, which is a rare combination in blockbuster movies these days.
Pulp Fiction was not Quentin Tarantino’s first movie, but it is the film that made him a legend. Tarantino intentionally tells the events of the story in non-chronological order. But the characters are so memorable that it’s almost impossible to take your eyes off of them. This is especially true of the hitmen, Vincent Vega (John Travolta) and Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson), as they find themselves in way over their heads after an accidental death.
Bruce Willis also has a strong turn as Butch Coolidge, an aging boxer who double-crossed the local crime boss, Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames), by refusing to throw a match after accepting a large bribe. And in Butch’s attempt to skip town with the money, he comes face-to-face with Marsellus himself.
If you’re waiting for Creed III to show up on Prime Video, it’s going to be a while. But in the meantime, you can see where the next chapter of the Rocky movies began. Creed is actually a brilliant revival that puts Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) into the mentor role for a new fighter, Adonis “Donnie” Creed (Michael B. Jordan), the illegitimate son of Rocky’s late friend, Apollo Creed.
Somewhat reluctantly, Rocky takes Donnie under his wing and shows him what it takes to be a real fighter. But the really impactful blows are the emotional wounds suffered by both men, and the way they find catharsis and family with each other. There are even some great bro cry moments to melt even the hardest of hearts.
The original Magnificent Seven is one of the all-time great Westerns. The modern remake is nowhere near that good, but it’s still enjoyable on its own terms. Strangely enough, it plays more like a superhero movie than a Western, as each of the seven brings a particular skill to the table.
Over a decade after the Civil War, Bartholomew Bogue (Peter Sarsgaard) and his men enslave and brutalize a small town. The beleaguered townspeople turn to U.S. Marshal Sam Chisholm (Denzel Washington), and his hastily assembled Avengers of the Old West, including Joshua Faraday (Chris Pratt), Goodnight Robicheaux (Ethan Hawke), Jack Horne (Vincent D’Onofrio), Billy Rocks (Byung-hun Lee), Vasquez (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), and Red Harvest (Martin Sensmeier). The outcome is never really in doubt, but it’s still a fun ride.
In the same way that audiences fell in love with Pixar’s cute Wall•E, watching Good Night Oppy elicits a similar response, drawing you into the gushy human emotion surrounding a robot roaming Mars 50 million miles away. But that’s because this documentary is as much about the people at NASA that made the Opportunity Mars Exploration Rover mission possible as it is about the rover itself. Narrated by Angela Basset, Good Night Oppy tells the inspiring story of Opportunity, a six-wheeled, solar-powered vehicle that touched down on the Red Planet in January of 2004 and was supposed to roam and explore the landscape for a pre-determined 90 days. But beyond anyone’s expectations, Oppy’s mission endured for nearly 15 years before going dark. Told through interviews with many of the scientists and engineers on the project, as well as archival footage, this is a feel-good doc not to be missed.
Early Rotten Tomatoes critics’ reviews bode well for this haunting horror-thriller starring Katey Sagal who is terrifying as reclusive Nashville country icon Harper Dutch. Young, up-and-coming country duo Jordan Wilder (Abby Quinn) and Leigh Blackhouse (Alexxis Lemire) are paying their dues in Nashville bars when they get the chance to meet Harper and record a song with her at her decrepit mansion (which should have been the first sign). They say you should never meet your idols, which is the understatement of the year as the girls are drawn into Harper’s twisted nightmare — kind of like if Dolly Parton went all Jack Torrance. One respite from all the thrills is Torn Hearts‘ music: there are some truly great vocal numbers sung by Sagal herself.
The Northman is nothing short of brutal. That’s not a critique of the film (it has a Rotten Tomatoes critics score of 89%) — by that, we mean that The Northman is a dark and vicious Viking revenge tale that makes shows like Vikings and Vikings: Valhalla look like episodes of Sesame Street. Directed by Robert Eggers (The Lighthouse), Northman tells the Viking legend of prince Amleth (Alexander Skarsgård), whose father, King Aurvandill (Ethan Hawke), is murdered by his own brother, Fjolnir (Claes Bang), who assumes rule and takes Aurvandill’s wife (Nicole Kidman) as his own. Young Amleth flees by boat, narrowly escaping death, and spends the following years preparing and plotting his revenge. And boy, does he get it. Now a grown man and a trained berserker, Amleth tracks a usurped Fjolnir down in Iceland, where he’s living a much more modest life as a farmer. With the help of a young slave woman (Anya Taylor-Joy), all Viking hell is set to break loose.
Sadly, in our racially-inequitable society, the truth often takes a back seat to the way things look, and for college students Kunle (Donald Elise Watkins), his best friend, Sean (RJ Cyler), and their roommate Carlos (Sebastian Chacon), things look bad. During a night of epic Spring Break partying, Kunle and Sean return to their room to find a drunk, semi-conscious white girl on their living room floor, while an oblivious Carlos is in his room gaming. Do they call the police? As Sean astutely points out, “they’re just going to see three brown guys hanging over this little white girl.” What follows is a darkly funny and suspenseful string of events as the boys try to get the girl to the hospital.
Regina Hall (Nine Perfect Strangers, Insecure) stars in this social thriller/horror about an elite New England university that’s as old as the country itself and has just as many dark secrets. Hall plays Gail Bishop, the school’s new headmaster and the first Black person to hold the position. A Black student, Jasmine Moore (Zoe Renee), arrives as a freshman and is soon subjected to anonymous racist attacks that she is convinced are being done by an ancient presence from the school’s past — turns out the school was built on the site of some Salem-era witch trials. As Gail and Jasmine learn to navigate the school’s elite politics and privilege, they uncover the truth about the school and just how tied to its past it really is.
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