Here’s what’s coming to Amazon Prime this month!
Amazon Prime is the only streaming service with a cost that also gets you free shipping, and that my friends is a deal. They’ve recently gotten into the Original programming game, but their biggest offering remains the ton of films available to watch anytime for Prime members.
The complete list of titles hitting Amazon Prime this month — January 2018 — is below, but first I’m going to shower some affection and point some eyeballs towards a few specific titles.
A Stone Cold Classic
Seven remains my favorite David Fincher film, and I have love for The Game, Fight Club, and Panic Room, but there’s no doubt that 2007’s Zodiac is his absolute best. He perfectly captures the time, the tedium, and the terror that encompassed the years in which the Zodiac killer operated, and from the meticulous production design to the stellar performers (Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr, and John Carroll Lynch among them) it’s every bit a modern masterpiece.
For Chase-Scene Connoisseurs
Everyone knows the heavy hitters when it comes to the “best” onscreen chase scenes, but while Point Break and The French Connection get the most attention there are more to love. Two such films arrive this month, and while both are good movies with great casts it’s their chase action that lifts them above the fray. First up is Ridley Scott’s Black Rain about an American cop in search of a suspect in Japan, and Michael Douglas gets down and dirty on foot, in cars, and on a motorcycle. Peter Hyams’ The Presidio, meanwhile, centers the action in San Francisco and takes terrific advantage of the city’s geography with car shenanigans and one hell of a foot chase.
Sci-Fi Others Love But I Do Not
My tastes are not your tastes, and that’s okay. To that end here are three sci-fi films that have ardent fan-bases despite being “not good.” See? That’s my taste rearing its head, and since I know I’m in the minority I’m going to recommend you give these three a spin. Evolution was Ivan Reitman’s bid for a return to Ghostbusters glory as it pits a fun cast against aliens. Their bigger threat, though, is a dearth of laughs. Ignore that last sentence. Tobe Hooper, meanwhile, passed away in 2017 but left behind a filmography featuring some legendary classics in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Poltergeist. He also re-made Invaders from Mars. I’m sorry, that didn’t sound as positive as I would have hoped, but there’s nothing I can do about it now. Finally, 1986’s The Wraith is something of a cult favorite, and even I loved it when I was a kid. A. Kid.
Ninjas!
Two ninja classics come to Prime this month too along with an early 90s action gem that is one in spirit. First up in 1983’s Revenge of the Ninja which sees Sho Kosugi kicking ass ninja-style after trying to make a new home in America. He ripped himself off a couple years later with Pray for Death, but this is the better of the two and a ton of fun. American Ninja sees the same director introducing a new lead in Michael Dudikoff, and while four sequels followed the first is where it’s at. Finally, Jeff Speakman’s The Perfect Weapon sees the martial arts master dealing death blows left and right, and while he’s never explicitly labeled a ninja he’ll always be one in our hearts.
Keep reading for a look at all of this month’s new arrivals:
January 1st
- The 2018 Rose Parade Hosted by Cord & Tish (Amazon original)
- All is Lost
- American Ninja
- Assassination
- Avenging Force
- Babel
- Baby Mama’s Club
- Black Rain
- Brothers
- Burning Blue
- But I’m a Cheerleader
- Capote
- Coming Soon
- Cool World
- Cross Bronx
- Dangerous Curves
- Drop Dead Sexy
- Doctor Who, season 10
- Evolution
- Flawless
- Freedom Writers
- Hamlet
- Highway
- Horsemen
- Hustle & Flow
- Invaders from Mars
- Love and Death
- Love Story
- Murphy’s Law
- Platoon Leader
- Pretty Bird
- Primitive
- Requiem for a Dream
- Reservoir Dogs
- Revenge of the Ninja
- Revolutionary Road
- Richard the Lionheart
- Show of Force
- Six Degrees of Separation
- Step Into Liquid
- Street Smart
- The Perfect Weapon
- The Presidio
- The Wraith
- Thelma & Louise
- Uncommon Valor
- Words and Pictures
- Zodiac
January 5th
- The Devil’s Double
January 6th
- Grimm, season 6
January 7th
- A Ghost Story
January 9th
- Prime Suspect: Tennison, season 1
January 12th
- Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams, season 1 (Amazon original)
January 16th
- My Mother & Other Strangers
January 17th
- The Midwife
January 19th
- Just Add Magic, season 2 (Amazon original)
January 30th
- Grantchester, season 3
- Remember Me
January 31st
- xXx: The Return of Xander Cage