The Absolute Best Movies on Amazon Prime (February 2023) #GeekLeap

Dreamworks

The favored animated characteristic has spawned three sequels, quite a few spin-offs and a veritable cottage business of memes. Revisit the franchise’s humble origins, and Mike Meyers’ Scottish accent (enjoyable truth: not an unique element of the film). Meyers performs the titular ogre, who should discover a method to rescue Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) and clear his home-sweet-swamp of pesky fairy-tale characters for good. Prime Video is not identified for its household fare, however Shrek is an efficient wager for teenagers.

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In a little bit of good casting, younger Reese Witherspoon stars as Tracy Flick, a personality whose Sort A character and mega-ambition have made her considerably of an archetype and have coloured lots of the actress’ subsequent roles. Matthew Broderick performs her highschool social research instructor, who makes it his mission to stymie Tracy’s run for sophistication president.

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It is a rom-com the place the “rom” is the friendship between always-a-bridesmaid Annie (Kristen Wiig) and bride Lillian (Maya Rudolph) within the lead-up to the latter’s large day. Hilarity ensues as Annie’s downward spiral threatens to disrupt her finest buddy’s marriage ceremony, and rival bridesmaid Helen (Rose Byrn) swoops in to choose up the items. It is a surprisingly poignant movie about rising up and rising aside, punctuated with set items just like the notorious “shittin’ on the street” scene.

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Take the Brat Pack, add the specter of murder-suicide, and you have got Heathers, a pitch-black teen comedy that is much less laugh-out-loud humorous and extra… gesturing on the thought of humor (and that gesture is a center finger). Winona Ryder performs Veronica Sawyer, the one member of her croquet-playing clique not named Heather. When sociopathic beginner J.D. (Christian Slater) arrives at college, Veronica finds herself caught up in an more and more messy – and violent – revenge plot in opposition to the favored crowd she as soon as belonged to.

MGM; screenshot by CNET

Do you know Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis each acquired Greatest Actress Academy Award nominations for his or her roles on this iconic highway journey flick? The story of two associates on the lam achieved each crucial and industrial success, cementing it as an immediate basic again in 1991. It is a must-watch if you have not seen it but, but additionally a must-rewatch for a lazy Sunday afternoon on the sofa. Bonus: Thelma and Louise gave Brad Pitt one among his earliest movie roles.

Amazon Studios

Searching for complete emotional annihilation? Look no additional than Amazon Studios’ 2016 melodrama about grieving divorcee Lee (Casey Affleck), who unexpectedly turns into the guardian to his teenage nephew Patrick (Lucas Hedges). The movie could be a actual gut-punch, however its phenomenal performances – which netted a Greatest Actor Oscar for Affleck and a nod for each Hedges and Michelle Williams, enjoying Lee’s ex-wife Randi – flip the potential schmaltz into one thing a lot deeper, and grimmer.

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Francis Ford Coppola’s epic battle movie received a 2001 Redux with 49 additional minutes of footage, which you’ll be able to stream in its entirety with an Amazon Prime membership. Primarily based loosely on Joseph Conrad’s 1899 novella, Coronary heart of Darkness, Coppola’s model swaps the setting to the Vietnam Conflict and brings in Marlon Brando to painting the evil Colonel Kurtz. 

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See Kate Hudson’s breakout position on this cult dramedy from 2000, which options unique music penned by Peter Frampton. Patrick Fugit stars as William, an upstart music journalist overlaying (fictional) band Stillwater for Rolling Stone. Hudson performs Penny Lane, a Stillwater groupie (who would reject that epithet). As William travels with the band for the sake of his story, he will get wrapped up in all of the drama you’d count on from the world of rock n’ roll.

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Colin Firth performs King George VI on this 2010 interval movie in regards to the relationship between the brand new king and his speech therapist (Geoffrey Rush), who labored to assist him cope along with his stutter upfront of delivering his first radio broadcast speech in 1939, when Britain declared battle on Germany.

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Director Sean Baker famously shot this color-saturated indie on an iPhone 5, however beneath its slick postproduction, the movie’s lo-fi provenance does not present. Set within the seedy underbelly of LA, Tangerine follows trans sex-worker Sin-Dee Rella (Kitana Kiki Rodriguez), who’s simply gotten out of jail to seek out out her pimp-boyfriend’s been dishonest on her. It is half drama, half farce, half… Christmas film (actually).

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Probably the greatest horror movies for scaredy-cats who nonetheless wish to really feel a bit spooked, Rosemary’s Child stars Mia Farrow and John Cassavetes as a younger couple who transfer into a brand new Manhattan house constructing simply earlier than their household expands. However the neighbors appear a bit too inquisitive about Rosemary’s future bundle of pleasure, and after some time one begins to doubt there will be any pleasure in any respect.

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In case you may erase all reminiscences of your ex and keep away from all of the heartbreak that comes after a relationship ends, would you? That is the query on the heart of this 2004 Charlie Kaufman movie, starring Kate Winslet as Clementine and Jim Carrey as her ex-boyfriend Joel. Each Clementine and Joel elect to have the fantastical medical process carried out post-breakup, in an obvious endorsement of the “ignorance is bliss” adage. However reminiscence is a difficult factor.

Amazon

A bunch of associates (Joel Courtney as Joe, Elle Fanning as Alice) inadvertently movie a practice crash whereas making a zombie film for a Tremendous 8 movie contest. Issues begin to get bizarre, and when the footage is unearthed, the buddies notice there could also be much more to the story, and the crash could not have been an accident.

Lionsgate

Amazon’s received all 4 of The Starvation Video games movies streaming free with a Prime membership, which implies you may spend greater than 9 hours watching Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence), Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) and the opposite denizens of Panem compete for his or her lives and battle again in opposition to the corrupt President Snow (Donald Sutherland).

Amazon Prime

CNET’s Monisha Ravisetti calls this low-budget indie sci-fi movie “shockingly good” and says it’s going to “drive you to query your individual sanity.” Coherence, starring Emily Foxler and Maury Sterling, is the form of twisty, philosophical mind-bender that is higher the much less you understand stepping into. The fundamental premise: A bunch of associates attend a cocktail party on the night time a comet passes overhead, and absolute chaos ensues. We can not suggest this one sufficient.

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Primarily based not on Hamlet however on its supply materials (the Scandinavian legend of Amleth), The Northman is the story of a son avenging his father’s demise by the hands of his uncle. (In case you’re no Shakespeare buff and this nonetheless sounds awfully acquainted, The Lion King shares the identical lineage.) Alexander Skarsgård performs Amleth on this blood-soaked historic revenge epic.

Amazon

Cary Grant and Grace Kelly star on this basic thriller set within the French Riviera. Grant performs a retired jewel thief who units out to catch a brand new cat burglar who’s begun imitating his outdated model. It is an absolute must-see for Hitchcock completists and people who simply wish to make a journey to the South of France.

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An Odyssey retelling set in Nineteen Thirties rural Mississippi, this Coen Brothers movie from 2000 is maybe finest identified for its bluegrass/people soundtrack, which received an album of the 12 months Grammy Award. The movie follows three escaped convicts, led by Ulysees Everett (George Clooney), in quest of buried treasure. Like its supply materials, O Brother is an journey story a few man who simply needs to go residence.

MGM

The most recent within the James Bond franchise, 2021’s No Time to Die can be Daniel Craig’s final hurrah as agent 007. With a theme music by Billie Eilish and a forged that features Rami Malek, Léa Seydoux and Ralph Fiennes, this entry within the Bond canon may do rather a lot worse.

Paramount Footage

It does not get extra action-packed than Tom Cruise reprising his position as IMF agent Ethan Hunt. The primary 4 Mission: Not possible movies are all out there to stream free with a Prime Video membership, which feels like an effective way to whereas away a weekend as you watch for this summer season’s Useless Reckoning Half One theatrical launch.

Amazon

Paul Thomas Anderson’s indie romance follows woman-child Alana (Alana Haim) as she befriends precise teenager Gary (Cooper Hoffman) in Nineteen Seventies LA. With a classic soundtrack, sepia-toned pictures and total mumblecore vibe, Licorice Pizza is the quirky throwback rom-com all of us want proper about now.

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Primarily based on the Nick Hornby novel of the identical title, this rom-com stars Rose Byrne and Chris O’Dowd as sad couple Annie and Duncan, whose relationship is additional strained when Annie strikes up an unlikely friendship with washed-up rockstar Tucker (Ethan Hawke), who occurs to even be the topic of a fan web site run by Duncan.

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Peter Dinklage stars because the title character within the newest adaptation of the Cyrano de Bergerac story. On this model, dwarfism replaces Cyrano’s giant nostril because the supply of his self-doubt, and everybody sings. 

Amazon

In John Hughes’ directorial debut, Molly Ringwald performs Sam, whose sixteenth birthday seems to have been forgotten by her household. Within the lengthy custom of youth films, Sixteen Candles mixes raunch with romance, as Sam pines for the dreamy Jake Ryan (Michael Schoeffling) and fends off advances from The Geek (Anthony Michael Corridor).

Common Footage; screenshot by CNET

A time journey romance starring Rachel McAdams? No, it is not The Time Traveler’s Spouse (that one’s streaming free on YouTube, although). In 2013, McAdams made one other romance with the same sci-fi twist, this one co-starring Domhnall Gleeson as love curiosity Tim. When Tim finds out he has the flexibility to journey again in time and redo issues that did not go proper the primary time, his forays throughout the space-time material have sudden penalties for his love life.

Amazon Studios

Primarily based on an unfinished James Baldwin manuscript, this Academy Award-nominated, Samuel L. Jackson-narrated documentary interrogates the historical past of racism in the USA by means of Baldwin’s private recollections of the assassinations of three civil rights leaders: Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. 

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It was “the creative crime of the century”: Tightrope walker Philippe Petit carried out a high-wire stroll between Manhatttan’s Twin Towers in 1974, an endeavor that was as unlawful because it was harmful. After his arrest, the act was immortalized on this 2008 documentary, which is an element heist film, half breathtaking athletic feat.

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This 2013 blockbuster documentary investigates the ethics of preserving orcas (“killer whales”) in captivity, centered on Tilikum, a Seaworld orca that was concerned in three deaths. The movie forged Seaworld in a a lot darker gentle, arguing that captivity causes excessive stress and aggression in orca whales. The affect of the movie was so nice that Seaworld has since phased out its reside orca reveals.

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Actual property moguls Jackie and David Siegel had been in the course of constructing their very personal Palace of Versailles – a 90,000-square-foot mansion outdoors Orlando, Florida, which might’ve been one of many largest single-family properties within the nation – when the Nice Recession of 2008 introduced your entire home of playing cards tumbling down. The 2012 documentary that got here out of it reads a bit like a Actual Housewives spinoff, however by means of the lens of incisive social commentary in regards to the fall of the American Dream.

Amazon

Jiro Ono, 85 on the time of this movie, is considered by many as the very best sushi chef on the planet. This 2011 documentary shines a lightweight on the acute care he places into his craft, positioning sushi as an intricate artwork kind on the world’s stage, and follows his two sons as they ponder someday filling their father’s footwear.