Superman may be flying into movie theaters right now, but Amazon Prime Video is all about con artists and serial killers this weekend.
The streamer’s considerable library is full of hits like No Country for Old Men with Javier Bardem and Point Break with Keanu Reeves, but Prime Video also has tons of underrated movies worth checking out.
Watch With Us recommends streaming the 1994 action-thriller Blown Away, the crime comedy The Hustle and the serial killer chiller The Bone Collector starring Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie.
‘Blown Away’ (1994)
Did you know there were two 1994 summer action movies involving a mad bomber terrorizing a big city? Yet while Speed became a hit, Blown Away bombed (pardon the pun) with critics and audiences. It’s not as great as that Keanu Reeves action masterpiece, but it’s a solid thriller with an unhinged performance by Tommy Lee Jones.
He plays antagonist Ryan Gaerity, a former IRA fighter who is on a quest for revenge. His former friend Jimmy Dove (Jeff Bridges) betrayed him, sent him to jail and assumed a new identity as a bomb defuser in Boston. Now out of jail, Ryan wants to make him pay by systematically killing each of his coworkers and friends. Can Jimmy stop Ryan before he sets his sights on his fiancée, Kate (Suzy Amis)? And will Jimmy’s secret past be exposed by Ryan’s violent acts?
Blown Away is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
‘The Hustle’ (2019)
Penny (Rebel Wilson) is a young con artist who catfishes wealthy men and takes their money. She’s good at her job, but she meets her match in the older Josephine (Anne Hathaway), who romances rich men before swindling them of any valuable possessions they may have. Josephine doesn’t like competition, so she tries to get rid of Penny, but the rookie proves to be more valuable as a collaborator than as an enemy. The two women team up to rob a rich target, Thomas (Alex Sharpe), but can they trust each other long enough to succeed?
Like past con artist comedies Dirty Rotten Scoundrels with Steve Martin and Heartbreakers with Sigourney Weaver, The Hustle lives or dies by the chemistry of its two leads. Fortunately, Wilson and Hathaway have a great comedic rapport that plays to each other’s strengths. Hathaway is sexy and commanding as the imperious Josephine, while Wilson is charming as the eager-to-learn Penny.
Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson in The Hustle MGM
The Hustle is a frothy comedy that’s best enjoyed by not thinking too hard about its plot, which is full of holes. That doesn’t matter much when the two stars are having so much fun one-upping each other every chance they get.
The Hustle is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
‘The Bone Collector’ (1999)
Denzel Washington doesn’t make traditional thrillers anymore, but when he did, he was in some good ones. In The Bone Collector, he plays Lincoln Rhyme, a paraplegic who still works as a forensics expert thanks to an A/V feed and the help of newbie officer Amelia Donaghy (Angelina Jolie). They’re tracking down a serial killer who is mimicking crimes described in an old crime novel, The Bone Collector. It’s a race against time as Lincoln and Amelia try to solve the mystery of who this killer is before it’s too late.
The days after the 4th of July can be a bit of a letdown. Not so on Amazon Prime Video, though — the streamer is still playing the hits that everyone loves. Summertime hits like The Better Sister and We Were Liars continue to dominate the most popular Prime Video movies and shows chart. But […]
The Bone Collector is a second-rate The Silence of the Lambs, but it still works due to the two leads and the bonkers story. Confined to a wheelchair, Washington gets to chew some scenery as the morose yet driven Lincoln, while Jolie largely plays it straight as the rookie Amelia. There’s a hint of romance between the two, which doesn’t work at all, but that’s dropped in favor of multiple scenes involving people dying in gruesome ways. It’s crude, but it’s effective.
The Bone Collector is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
