Isolation Media 101: Amazon Prime Edition
Prime is easily the most forgotten streaming service. We give Amazon our money to get two day shipping but when we’re looking for something to watch, how often do we really turn to Prime? We may as well get our money’s worth, right?
Surprisingly, this may be the best crop of movies I’ve watched in one of these ‘challenges’ I’ve set myself. Hulu was pretty solid, but somehow I was able to get both quality and quantity - more than 20 movies in a week, and a lot of them were pretty high rated in my mind.
I’ll definitely be wandering over to this streaming service more often, especially if social distancing keeps going and keeping us all from going to the theaters.
Friends with Kids
Based on the premise alone, I was on board. A romantic comedy in which two friends make a seemingly stupid decision that will totally end up with at least one of them falling in love with the other? I’m so in. Then you add a friend’s recommendation, an incredible cast (Adam Scott, Maya Rudolph, Chris O’ Dowd, Kristen Wiig and John Hamm - and others I’ll leave as a surprise because it was a joy for me to discover).
The Verdict: 3/5
Elizabeth: Killer Queen
While this documentary may be short, it covers a lot of ground. The death of Robert Dudley’s wife in Tudor England is one of the biggest mysteries in British history, and it may have been the exact thing that pushed Elizabeth I into being the virgin queen, one of the many reasons she made history. We may still not have answers, but just watching historians discuss the whole event was fascinating.
The Verdict: 4/5
Chasing Happiness
I was the perfect age to be obsessed with the Jonas Brothers but without access to Disney Channel, I just kind of missed it. But since I’ve enjoyed their recent music, I decided to check it out, and I was beyond surprised with how much I enjoyed this documentary. It was candid, funny and didn’t shy away from the issues they had with one another. It may have actually made me more of a fan.
The Verdict: 3.5/5
My Friend Dahmer
I tend to get concerned when I see a project that may humanize a serial killer comes around, but I was intrigued by this movie. It really paints a picture of how someone like this exists in the everyday world without ever setting off any real warning bells. How small things can be ignored or explained away until it gets to a breaking point.
The Verdict: 3.5/5
Troop Zero
I wanted to like this movie so much. I love the cast, it has potential and there’s really no reason for me not to like it. For some reason, it just didn’t hit right with me. The humor didn’t make me laugh at all and I basically just sat in secondhand embarrassment for a lot of the movie. I would have rated it lower, but the writing and acting was perfectly fine, and I couldn’t not acknowledge that.
The Verdict: 2.5/5
12 Angry Men
I figured I needed to include a couple of classics in this list, and I’d just listened to a podcast about this movie, so I had to watch. It took me a little bit of time to get fully into the film, but it is so incredibly well done. The entire movie takes place during a jury deliberation for a murder case, and it’s a great look into what can happen when reasonable doubt comes into play.
The Verdict: 3.5/5
The Farewell
The Farewell was one of the movies that I kept meaning to see in theaters, but never got around to watching. The Rotten Tomatoes score was incredibly high and I kept hearing how Awkwafina got robbed by not getting an Oscar nomination. The story is incredibly moving and gives a peek into more traditional Chinese culture. It makes you think a lot about some things that may or may not make you cry like a baby by the end.
The Verdict: 4/5
First Wives Club
Since I’ve existed in the age of the internet, of course, I’ve seen the amazing clip of the three fantastic women in this movie dressed all in white and dancing to “You Don’t Own Me.” But I realized that despite having seen bits and pieces of it, I’d never watched it beginning to end. And I loved every second of it. It manages to hold up and is a who’s who of “wait I know that actor!”
The Verdict: 4/5
Thelma and Louise
For some reason, I went into this movie thinking it was supposed to be slightly comedic. It didn’t take me long to figure out that I was pretty dead wrong. I was fascinated watching this film, and it felt great to finally see a movie that is so huge in pop culture. But the most exciting thing about it was baby Brad Pitt, who - to my surprise - did a pretty solid Southern/Texan accent.
The Verdict: 3.5/5
Puncture
I went into this movie knowing one thing: this movie starred Chris Evans. Then, I quickly learned that this was a legal drama based on a true story and things got really, really interesting. Think a dirtier/darker version of Erin Brokovich - a lawyer fighting the good fight for a cause that makes a lot of big scary companies turn against him. I won’t say more because I actually found it better knowing literally nothing else about it.
The Verdict: 3.5/5
Logan Lucky
This may be one of the best movies I’ve watched this year. For being two hours long, I could have sat through another half hour easily. It’s the most I’ve ever liked Channing Tatum, somehow every single actor (including Katie Holmes, who I haven’t seen act in something in ages) has pretty solid southeastern accents and a plot that I was totally sold on immediately. I already want to rewatch it.
The Verdict: 4/5
Boondock Saints
So the lower score on this one is on me, because I went into this for some reason under the belief that this was a dark comedy a la In Bruges, but that definitely was not the case. It was an interesting enough movie - and they deserve awards for solid Irish accents - but I think since I had a wrong impression of it, I was weirdly disappointed. And a bit freaked out by a story about murderers feeling religiously endorsed.
The Verdict: 3/5
Book Club
I have a confession to make. I think this movie has solidified my belief that Diane Keaton is not that great of an actress. I just want to laugh at any scene where she’s supposed to be some level of sad. She full on comically wails every time. And I can’t handle it. However, I appreciate a solid movie about older women, making them a focus in an industry that tends to relegate them to supporting grandparent roles.
The Verdict: 3/5
Roman Holiday
I expected this movie to be a textbook romantic comedy. I figured I could telegraph how it would go every step of the way, and boy was I wrong. First of all, Audrey Hepburn is an actual princess. I think I’d watch four hours of her just roaming beautiful European cities. But there’s also some amazing chemistry between Hepburn and Gregory Peck and a truly original version of a romcom that charmed me immensely.
The Verdict: 4/5
Love & Friendship
The fact that there was a Jane Austen adaptation that I hadn’t heard of (either the movie or its source material) was too much to handle, so I naturally had to investigate this one. However, I wasn’t a huge, huge fan. Maybe it’s hard to stand up to the new Emma adaptation that I can’t stop thinking about, but even so, it was an enjoyable enough of a story to spend 90 minutes with.
The Verdict: 3/5
The Dressmaker
The theme of this deep dive is ‘movies I had the wrong impression about.’ I thought this was about a woman who came back to her small hometown and was involved in a scandalous relationship with a younger man played by the baby Hemsworth brother. That was in fact very much not true. That was the only thing in this story that wasn’t a scandal. I’m still sorting out how I feel about this movie, honestly.
The Verdict: 3/5
The Bodyguard
Guys. Somehow, this movie didn’t make me cry. I prepared for it. I assumed, of course, the home of Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” has to wreck me. But somehow, it didn’t. I enjoyed the movie well enough and thought the chemistry between Houston and Kevin Costner was present and wonderful, but when all was said and done, I felt it should have hit harder at the end.
The Verdict: 3.5/5
Hamilton: One Shot to Broadway
I should have realized this documentary wasn’t exactly what I had hoped for when fifteen minutes in I realized they weren’t showing any actual clips of the show with audio. We only got karaoke background tracks and snippets of non stage performances of the songs. I learned some things about history and Lin-Manuel Miranda, but I had really hoped for more revelations about the creation of this show.
The Verdict: 2/5
Honey Boy
My lack of a response to this movie may have been due to film fatigue. I was on the final day of my Prime week and had watched a bit too much. I couldn’t emotionally invest in the story line and none of it hit me like I think it was supposed to. However, the acting in this movie is phenomenal, from both Shia as his dad and the couple of actors playing him throughout his early career.
The Verdict: 2.5/5
Guava Island
All I knew about this was that it starred Childish Gambino and Rihanna, and that’s all I needed. It’s a hard hitting story told in a beautiful setting, and I wasn’t prepared for how much I’d be able to lose myself in this hour long mini movie. I really enjoyed it despite not really being into Childish Gambino’s music prior to my viewing. I’d recommend this to anyone wanting to just escape the world for a few minutes.
The Verdict: 3.5/5
LBJ
Part of the reason I couldn’t rate this movie higher was that I couldn’t get over Woody Harrelson’s prosthetics. I was still so hyper aware that it was Harrelson being made to look like another person. I did really enjoy getting to know more about LBJ and how he was seen by the Kennedy family and his contemporaries, especially since media tends to focus a lot more on the president that came before him.
The Verdict: 3.5/5
The Wedding Year
I figured this would be the Prime version of all those mediocre romantic comedies I ended up watching on my Hulu binge. I gotta say, though, this one had a bit more to it. I really enjoyed the characters, who unapologetically were far from flawless and had to grow up and find themselves before successfully getting into a relationship. There’s humor and heart to this story, and it was a delightful romcom.
The Verdict: 3/5
Upload
All I knew was “Greg Daniels has a show and it’s a digital afterlife kind of thing.” And that’s all I needed. I was sold, and blew through the whole thing in 24 hours. I really enjoyed the first half of it, but then caught myself losing interest the further we got in. I still think I would keep watching future seasons, especially to get answers to all the questions they left us with, and it’s a truly funny and creative show.
The Verdict: 3/5
Ted Bundy: Falling For A Killer
I feel like there is only so much we can learn from new Ted Bundy documentaries, since how well documented his trial and life has already been. This miniseries brought more to it, though, and talked a lot more to the women he’d left behind - whether it was his longtime girlfriend and her daughter or relatives of the women he murdered or the survivors that got away from him.
The Verdict: 3.5/5
I think I need to factor Prime in a lot more going forward. A lot more of these movies were far better than I anticipated, and I was able to cross a lot of films off my list that I’d been meaning to watch for a long time.
Next up: Netflix Originals.