In the effort to stay au courant we'll alternate between Netflix and Amazon Prime for streaming news each week. And we'll freeze frame select titles at random places just for fun and see what image comes up. You know how we do.
LAST CHANCE AMAZON PRIME
Amazon Prime has a far better movie selection than Netflix on a month to month basis but they are officially the worst streaming provider in terms of providing dates of expiration on their movies/tv shows. Sometimes the titles don't expire after they're marked for expiration and sometimes they vanish even if they haven't been marked. Sometimes without warning they suddenly cost money when they were once free. And they don't do press releases to announce expiring titles like the other services. So it's all rumors in a way. But supposedly they're losing these titles (among others) at the end of July and they're all worth checking out...
There's no reason why you shouldn't have complete confidence in your chances to come out of this alive and in one piece."
Airplane (1980)
This smash comedy mocked the disaster epic genre and started the spoof craze. That spoof genre peaked early - maybe even here. It's kind of unreal how fast and quick the visual and verbal gags come.
7 more freeze frames after the jump...
Look what I've brought you, my darlings - Two chapters, one for each cheek!
Quills (2000)
I've made no bones about the fact that I think Geoffrey Rush usually overdoes onscreen but if you're ever going to go big-bigger-biggest, playing the Marquis de Sade is the role in which to do it. Philip Kaufman's penultimate film (I wish he hadnt retired!) was Oscar nominated for Actor, Costumes, and Art Direction. I remember being mildly surprised that Kate Winslet was shut-out (she was SAG nominated) but you can't be shortlisted every time.
[music playing]
The Bounty (1984)
This remake of Mutiny on the Bounty was the film debut of Daniel Day-Lewis! But it stars Mel Gibson in the prime of his beauty before the crazy was exposed. In the montage sequence we randomly landed on we're staring at Mel cavorting with his island beauty and dissolving to a sweaty Anthony Hopkins trying not to think about Mel's glistening flesh. Subtle! (Speaking of homoeroticism...)
Also Supposedly Leaving : The Aviator (2004) Oscar heavyhitter... "the way of the future", Benny & Joon (1993) with young adorable versions of Julianne Moore, Johnny Depp and Aidan Quinn, The Black Stallion (1979) two Oscar nominations and a special achievement Oscar, Election (1999) which should have netted Reese Witherspoon her first Oscar nomination, Heartburn (1986) with Meryl & Jack, and School Ties (1992) which features a who's who of then future wannabe stars as young prep schools in a 1950s anti-semitism drama.
NEW TO AMAZON PRIME
Here's what's newly available on Amazon Prime this month. We've freeze framed 5 more titles at random to share whatever popped up.
I like to flirt, yknow? Sometimes people take it too seriously.
Broadway Danny Rose (1984)
Woody Allen's black and white comedy, nominated for Best Director and Best Screenplay features Mia Farrow in prime chameleon mode (you can scarcely believe it's the actress you know from other pictures) as the jaded mistress of a lounge singer. She's really sensational here as she so often was (Globe nominated - she lost to Kathleen Turner in Romancing the Stone). It's always so depressing when an actor deserved multiple Oscar nominations and receives exactly zero.
There daddy, do I get a gold star?
Rosemary's Baby (1968)
I'm so glad that women don't call their boyfriends/husbands "daddy" anymore like they did in 1950s and 1960s pictures. I have only ever unequivocally loved three horror films in my life (as in 'all time favorite films' sized love) and this is one of them. The others are Psycho and Carrie if you haven't been reading long - strange that they were all made within a 16 year period. This is another film Mia should have been Oscar nominated for. She was Globe nominated, losing to Joanne Woodward in Rachel Rachel who actually beat Katharine Hepburn in The Lion in Winter.
I still believe I am in conscious control of my actions. Given your history that's a good day."
Hannibal (Season 3)
I gave up on this show about halfway through Season 1 because I found it so repulsive with its identification and hallucinated reenactment of serial killings. Still, I recognize that it was sumptuously made and well acted and I like TV creator Bryan Fuller's work so much in general. People swore by this show for so long I almost started again. But then I heard that female characters kept getting short shrift and grisly ends. But then Gillian Anderson came on board? So many mixed messages from the univers about watching this show. Readers, did you?
Ardor (2014)
Yes he is beautiful, Alice Braga, yes he is. As a noted Gael García Bernal fan I feel the guilt that I have somewhat lost track of his career aside from Mozart in the Jungle. He works a lot on film but his projects dont get the attention/releases that they used to stateside. Has anyone seen this one set in the Argentinian rainforests?
-What will it be like?
-If it doesn't kill us both... it'll hurt.
Terminator Genisys (2015)
AVOID! This terrible reboot of a franchise that did not need to be rebooted since the concept allows constant recycling made me angry. Emilia Clarke is terrible. The climax is lame. And anything that qualifies as a best bit is borrowed glory. Most stupidly it is PG-13 so, after a handful of features in which the time travelling was always shot the same way and thus made for fun passages of time in the way the series looked side by side, this one has a series of very obvious complicated cuts and lighting choices to make sure that butts (GASP. NSFW) are never shown even when the leads are fully naked -- it's so obvious it's like Austin Powers mocking of attempts to hide nudity. This is stupid since an ass shot does not prompt an R rating. Movies have gotten so prudish in the 21st century!
ALSO NEW (July):