Prime Video has an unusually packed programming slate in January, with new shows like Sophie Turner’s Steal and films like Jason Momoa’s The Wrecking Crew making the pricey annual subscription worth it.
While February is a little quieter, there are still loads of new flicks that are worth streaming.
This weekend, Watch With Us has selected three movies for you to watch this weekend.
Take flight with Robin Williams in Hook, solve a mysterious murder with Kevin Costner in No Way Out and get your puck on with Paul Newman in Slap Shot.
‘No Way Out’ (1987)
If you like your thrillers filled with wild plot twists, steamy sex scenes and big shoulder pads, No Way Out is for you. Kevin Costner stars as Tom Farrell, a Navy officer who is having a passionate affair with Susan Atwell (Sean Young). That’s risky because Susan is the mistress of the current Secretary of Defense, David Brice (Gene Hackman), who has a bad drinking habit. When Tom witnesses David killing Susan in a drunken stupor, he has to figure out a way to bring him to justice. The only problem? Tom is hiding a secret of his own, which can’t be revealed under any circumstances.
I won’t tell you exactly what Tom’s secret is, except it’s a doozy — one that turns No Way Out from a conventional thriller to a political melodrama with shades of The Manchurian Candidate. Costner has never been more dashing than he is here, while Young brings her usual sugar and spice personality to an underwritten role. As David, Hackman is wonderfully sleazy, and only an actor of his stature can make you sympathize with him when he mourns the lover he just killed.
No Way Out is streaming on Prime Video.
‘Hook’ (1991)
Live-action Peter Pan movies have a bad track record; in fact, there’s only really one successful version, Steven Spielberg’s flawed and imaginative Hook. In this adaptation, Peter Pan (Robin Williams) grew up to become the worst of humanity — a corporate lawyer who is too busy to pay attention to his kids, Jack (Charlie Korsmo) and Maggie (Amber Scott). When his children are unexpectedly kidnapped one night by his old nemesis, Captain Hook (Dustin Hoffman), Peter must regain his child-like wonder (and flying powers) to travel to Neverland and get them back.
Hook received mixed reviews at the time, but it plays better now than it did in 1991. No one can direct a fantasy like Spielberg, and he imbues Hook with a sense of awe that’s appropriate given the fantastic material he’s working with. Williams, Hoffman and Julia Roberts as Tinkerbell are all miscast in their roles, but they still make it work, with each giving a performance that’s deeper than you’d expect. The film features one of composer John Williams’s best scores that rivals his works in the Harry Potter films.
Hook is streaming on Prime Video.
‘Slap Shot’ (1977)
Hockey’s all the rage right now, thanks to Heated Rivalry, but if you’re craving more puck-on-ice action, there’s not a lot of other content to watch. The best of them all is probably Slap Shot, a winning sports movie from 1977 featuring one of Paul Newman’s most relaxed — and hilarious — performances.
He stars as Reggie Dunlop, a burnt-out coach of a minor league hockey team, the Charleston Chiefs. When a nearby steel mill plans to lay off most of the town’s citizens, the Chiefs are almost certain to go under. Desperate, Reggie recruits the volatile Hanson brothers (Jeff, Steve and Jack Hanson), who are less hockey players than violent goons who like to start fights on the ice. This new infusion of unexpected violence brings in the crowds, but Dunlop soon realizes he can’t rely on chaos to win the big championship game. Can he somehow bring his wayward team together to win it big?
Lewd and crude, Slap Shot is a terrific snapshot of working-class life in late ‘70s Pennsylvania. From its welcoming and rundown bars to its large, abandoned factories, Charleston (a fictional stand-in for the real-life Jamestown) isn’t much, but it’s all Dunlop and his men have, and they wouldn’t want to live anywhere else. Newman is terrific here — those famous blue eyes have never flashed as brightly as when he lets the profanities fly. Slap Shot is dated in all the right ways; like Rocky before it, it’s a gritty sports movie that’s of its time yet always timeless.