Amazon’s Prime Video service is currently streaming quite a few big blockbuster films, e.g. Bruce Almighty, Casino Royale, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Twisters. Then there are the beloved cult classics that either did fairly well when released and have only seen their audience grow or flopped when first released and then saw their fanbase greatly increase throughout subsequent decades, including Tremors, The Howling, and The Stepfather. But what about the movies that don’t seem as though they’ve ever gotten the love they deserve? Those are the ones that follow, not necessarily movies that flopped when they debuted, but rather just movies that generally deserve to have their fanbases expanded.
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From action thrillers to horror comedies, these fun hidden gems are currently streaming on Prime Video and deserve your time on movie night. Which will you choose?
7) The Negotiator
Even at 140 minutes, The Negotiator is a quickly paced and airtight thriller with two fantastic performances by Samuel L. Jackson and Kevin Spacey. It’s also a film that benefits from a phenomenal supporting cast, including Dean Norris, Paul Giamatti, The West Wing‘s John Spencer and, especially, the late J. T. Walsh (one of the best character actors of all time who was arguably never better than he was here).
Jackson stars as Chicago Police Lieutenant Danny Roman, an ace hostage negotiator who is informed by his partner that there is likely some embezzlement going on within their unit. Then that partner is murdered, and the homicide gets pinned on Roman, who is now on the hook for that crime as well as the embezzlement. With no options left, Roman goes to the Internal Affairs office and takes its lead inspector hostage, kicking off a back-and-forth that Roman hopes will clear his name. But he’ll only deal with one person, and that’s fellow negotiator Lieutenant Chris Sabian, a member of a different precinct who is far removed from the corrupt workplace Roman once called home.
6) Charlie Bartlett
A great leading man vehicle for the late, great Anton Yelchin, Charlie Bartlett allows him to do what he did best: display an innocence-branded charm. This indie also has meaty roles for future Marvel Cinematic Universe stars Robert Downey Jr. (who would debut as Iron Man just three months later), Kat Dennings, and Hope Davis to chew on, making it one of the better cast comedies of the late 2000s.
Yelchin plays the title character, a high school student who has been expelled from multiple private schools. Fed up, his parents put him in a public school, which is run by tired, bitter alcoholic principal Nathan Gardner (Downey Jr.). Even though this school is a little less stuffy, Bartlett is again having a hard time fitting in, until he gets the not-so-bright idea to pass himself off as a pseudo-therapist and pharmacist. Since he has access to as many expensive doctors as he needs, Bartlett can feign various illnesses and emotional disturbances, and he begins to profit not just financially, but also in terms of ascending the popularity scale. But, of course, good things don’t last forever, and Bartless soon finds himself going head-to-head with Principal Gardner.
5) The Iceman
The Iceman isn’t one of the very best gangster films ever made, as it doesn’t have quite enough new to say or contribute to allow it to stand out, but it does give Michael Shannon a lead role he can really bite into. And, as might be expected of an actor of his caliber, he doesn’t disappoint.
The film follows real-life gangster Richard Kuklinski, aka the Iceman, who moves up from a dubber of X-rated films to head of a burglary ring. But Kuklinski is more known for one thing, and it’s the thing that got him his nickname: being an ice-cold contract killer.
4) The Monster Squad
Fred Dekker’s The Monster Squad, scripted by the director (who was fresh off Night of the Creeps) and Lethal Weapon‘s Shane Black, is a genre-blending concoction that holds a level of appeal to kids and adults alike. It is the definitive movie for anyone who grew up on Universal’s classic monster movies e.g. Dracula, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, and The Wolf Man.
In fact, those monster movie legends are actually in the film, as is Frankenstein and the Mummy. But they’re not the only stars of the show, as there’s also a likable group of young protagonists not so far removed from the primary cast of The Goonies. It may have bombed when released in 1987, but The Monster Squad deserves its cult following, and that cult following will only continue to grow the more people sit down to watch.
3) Judgment Night
A compelling ’90s action-thriller, Stephen Hopkins’ (Predator 2, A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child) Judgment Night follows a group of friends as they excitedly board an RV to travel to a boxing match in Chicago. However, after they take a shortcut, they run into a man named Teddy, who is swiftly dragged away by a trio of criminals and executed. Now, the friends are witnesses, and the criminals have their sights on bumping up the evening’s kill count.
Judgment Night is a movie with a grim tone that does a great job of conveying its high stakes. It really is the type of narrative where no one feels safe. Then there’s the casting, which consists of quite a few ’90s favorites, including Emilio Estevez, Cuba Gooding Jr., Stephen Dorff, and Jeremy Piven. They do a solid job as the friends, but where Judgment Night really excels is in the casting of its villains. At the head of the trio of killers is comedian Denis Leary, whose drug lord Fallon is an intimidating, sneering monster with a short fuse (he’s also ably backed up by The Mask‘s Peter Greene, who could always make his villains stand out).
2) Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man
One of the 1990s’ more bizarre action films, Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man features one of the more interesting “buddy cop” action-comedy pairings: Don Johnson and Mickey Rourke. And while they are selling points, it’s the film’s out-there tone that makes it a must-watch for midnight movie fans.
They play biker buddies in the near future who are enlisted to rob an armored bank truck. They’re doing it for a good reason, though, which is to save their buddies bar, which is soon to be foreclosed upon by the bank. Unfortunately for them, they accidentally steal an experimental new narcotic instead, and now they have a crime boss sending his big black leather jacketed goons after them. A litany of action sequences and banter follows but be sure you’re the type of doesn’t mind an awful lot of cliché-ridden dialogue.
1) Black Friday
An early 2020s comedy horror movie that unfortunately went very much under the radar, Black Friday is a spooky zombie-esque movie that pokes fun at consumerism and has a great cast of horror legends. To the latter point, there’s Evil Dead‘s Bruce Campbell (clearly having a lot of fun), Spawn‘s Michael Jai White, Pan’s Labyrinth‘s Ivana Baquero, Super 8‘s Ryan Lee, and Final Destination‘s Devon Sawa.
The narrative follows a group of All-Mart employees as they flirt and goof around before the incoming onslaught of customers who are hungry for a good deal leading into the holidays. Unfortunately for them, a parasitic organism is turning all of those customers into mindless, violent creatures, and the good people of All-Mart are on the menu. Black Friday coasts on its slimy, gooey monster movie action, but where it really excels is in having a diverse group of characters with interesting personalities.
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Image courtesy of Prokino Filmverleih
