WITH THE whole mess around Brexit, many people may be cancelling their Amazon Prime membership, but before you do, here are some films worth having a look at before you cut the cord.
Amazon Prime has a very good selection of films, but an absolutely brutal user interface makes them hard to find, but these films are worth the effort.
The Contender: This week, the first female vice-president of the United States was sworn in. The Contender is a fun political thriller about a female VP being sworn in. However during her vetting, some unflattering stories from her college days are uncovered, or are they lies?
The film is a bit of a time capsule (it is 20 years old ). Its attitude to promiscuity is laughably bad by today's standard. but it has a sensational performance by Jeff Bridges as the best on-screen president ever (yes even better than Bill Pullman in Independence Day ) and most shockingly…a moustache-less Sam Elliott as his chief of staff.
Knives Out: This was the most fun I had in a cinema in years. A delightful whodunnit with a great cast. Funnier than most comedies and more tension than most thrillers. If you can stomach some bad language this is one the whole family could enjoy.
Parasite: If somehow you missed the film of the decade last year it is available to stream on Prime. There is a point halfway, where a character heads down to the basement, and the film goes from being great to becoming one of the best I have ever seen. A final hour that is just mind meltingly good.
The Vast of Night: If I had seen this before the end of 2020 (it came out last May ) it would have cracked my Top 10 of the year. Set in New Mexico the 1950s, a young DJ and switchboard operator tune into an unusual sound. The entire small town they are from are engrossed in a high school basketball game while they try to figure the sound out. Shades of the Orson Wells' War of the Worlds radio broadcast, this is a really clever little film that blew me away.
JFK: Remember when conspiracy theories were fun? Oliver Stone's three and half hour epic which does not even feature JFK. The film covers the investigation into his death with a peak of his powers Kevin Costner in the lead. It is pretty incredible the accusations the movie makes (sadly most of which have been disproven, because there are some fun ones ) and still got eight Oscar nominations. An all star cast and a few unforgettable scenes (the magic bullet is still an absolutely convincing argument ).
