I’ve scoured the August releases on Amazon’s Prime and FreeVee platforms to find the best new and new-to-streaming, movies and shows, plus a couple of older choices for extra flavor.
My must-watch movie of the month is Jackpot!, an Amazon original action-comedy with a an intriguing premise and high-charisma stars John Cena and Awkwafina. I’ve also got high hopes for season two of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Prime’s high-budget, high-fantasy series, and NFL football is back on the menu! (It’s pre-season, but we take what we can get.)
Jackpot!
How’s this premise for an action-comedy: California awards a randomly selected person a multi-billion dollar jackpot, but anyone who murders the winner gets to take the money. Now imagine the “lucky” winner is played by Awkwafina and John Cena plays a bodyguard who tries to protect her when the entire city of Los Angeles is trying to knock her off. Does Jackpot! sound good? It sounds good to me.
Starts streaming August 15.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, season 2
Internet opinion-havers and fantasy nerds didn’t exactly love the first season of Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power, but critics were positive, and a new season means a new chance to tap into that demanding audience’s Tolkien-glands. Season 2 of Rings of Powers will have eight episodes that detail Sauron’s stab at creating the Rings of Power so he can rule Middle Earth, while heroic underdogs fights to stop him—you know, fantasy shit.
Starts streaming August 29.
Thursday Night Football
August’s Thursday Night Football match up between the Indianapolis Colts and Cincinnati Bengals is the opposite of the barn-burner. Both teams had mediocre, 9 and 8 records in 2023 and it’s a pre-season game, so it doesn’t even count. But on the other hand, it’s flipping football! And it’s back! (Finally, something to wash the taste of the Olympics out of my mouth.)
Starts streaming August 22.
One Fast Move
Sometimes you want to kick back and watch a rags-to-riches, Rocky-like story about redemption through sport. One Fast Move is that movie. KJ Apa plays Wes Nea, a directionless man who was recently released from prison. With nowhere else to turn, Wes asks his estranged father to help him realize his dream of becoming a professional motorcycle racer.
Starts streaming August 8.
Batman: Caped Crusader, Season 1
The newest animated iteration of Batman was produced by Matt Reeves, J.J. Abrams, and Bruce Timms, so I have high hopes. Caped Crusader is a family-friendly Batman series, so gather the kids, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be serious action and thrills as Batman faces off against Clayface, Catwoman, Harley Quinn, and a female version of The Penguin.
Starts streaming August 1.
Superman 1, 2, 3, 4 and Superman Returns
If a new Batman series isn’t enough super-heroics for you, in August, Prime is offering the original four Christopher Reeves Superman movies as well as the 2006 series reboot Superman Returns. This is the perfect opportunity to grab some super-popcorn, sit on your super-couch and have an old fashioned super-film festival.
Starts streaming August 1.
Imitation of Life (1959)
Featuring both Lana Turner and Mahalia Jackson, Douglas Sirk’s study of the lifelong friendship between a white woman and a black woman is a fearless (for 1959) examination of race, class, alienation, gender and more, told through lush visuals and Sirk’s patented ironic-melodrama style. If you haven’t seen it, you really should watch Imitation of Life; they really don’t make movies like this anymore.
Starts streaming August 1.
Judy Justice, Season 3
TV judges like Judge Joe Brown, Judge David Young, and Judge Faith come and go, but there’s only one Judge Judy Justice, the stalwart queen of grouchy zingers and the ultimate haver of no bullshit. Season 3 of Judy Justice is unlikely to mess with the winning formula, so expect a slew of satisfying (but legally dubious) decisions meted out to the kinds of dipshits you’d expect to see on a daytime courtroom show.
Starts streaming on FreeVee August 5.
Last month’s picks
Space Cadet
Remember that episode of The Simpsons where Homer is chosen to fly in a space shuttle mission? Space Cadet is like the training montage made into a fish-out-of-water comedy. It stars Emma Roberts as Tiffany “Rex” Simpson, a Florida party girl who’s always dreamed of being an astronaut. Her background is in bar-hopping instead astrophysics, so she lies on her LinkedIn and gets into NASA’s competitive astronaut training program. Surrounded by ambitious PhDs and engineers, Simpson tries to keep up her “smart and accomplished” ruse long enough to be blasted into space. If you like female-led comedy and jokes about science, Space Cadet might be your favorite movie.
Starts streaming July 4.
Sausage Party: Foodtopia
Based on 2016’s CGI feature Sausage Party, Foodtopia details the efforts of sentient hot dogs, bananas, and other foods to create a society where they won’t have their heads bitten off just because someone is peckish. It’s sure to be packed with the scatological and raunchy humor audiences enjoyed in the original film, so it’s definitely not for kids. The eight-episode series features the return of voice talent from the original, including Seth Rogen, Kristen Wiig, Michael Cera, David Krumholtz, Edward Norton, Sam Richardson, and Will Forte. If you like your comedy uncut, this might be your new summer show.
Tyler Perry’s Divorce in Black
Prolific writer/director/producer Tyler Perry takes on divorce in this drama starring Meagan Good and Cory Hardrict. Good plays Ava, a bank professional, whose life is upended when her husband (Hardrict) walks out of their home. She’s set on fighting to save her marriage until she uncovers secrets that suggest her husband has a very dark side and sabotaged a past relationship with Ava’s true soulmate.
Starts streaming July 11.
The Beekeeper (2024)
The Beekeeper should be terrible. The premise makes you picture a slimy producer at a Hollywood development meeting saying, “It’s John Wick—but with bees!” But miraculously, The Beekeeper is not terrible. People like this Jason Statham-led action movie enough that it’s sitting at 92% audience approval at Rotten Tomatoes. Even finicky critics like The Beekeeper enough for a 71% fresh rating. It’s not going to change your life or anything, but it you’re looking for a dumb-fun action flick about a British badass who beats everyone up, The Beekeeper is for you.
Starts streaming July 2.
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning (2023)
In case you haven’t heard of him, Tom Cruise is a national treasure and the world’s greatest movie star who does his own stunts even though he’s 112 years old. In Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, Cruise turns his charisma up to 15 million gigawatts in his recurring role of Ethan Hunt, agent of the Impossible Mission Force. The plot has something to do with an evil mastermind trying to take over the world with artificial intelligence or something, but it really doesn’t matter. Mission Impossible movies live or die based on the quality and quantity of their over-the-top action set-pieces, and Dead Reckoning over-delivers. It takes action to such ludicrous, even critics like it—the movie has a 96% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Starts streaming July 25.
My Spy The Eternal City (2024)
Released in 2020, My Spy is one of a fair number of action/comedies where a tough guy and a little kid become unlikely partners. The sequel explores this rarely-misses formula by reuniting stars Dave Bautista and Chloe Coleman for a feel-good family adventure. It begins with JJ volunteering to chaperone his new daughter’s choir group on a trip to Rome to perform for the Pope. Things go south when the pair run afoul of International terrorists. Hilarious character actors Ken Jeong and Kristen Schaal return, and are joined by Anna Faris, Craig Robinson, and Flula Borg. Eternal City is full of stars, laughs, and exciting-but-not-distressing action—a perfect summer flick.
Starts streaming July 18.
Sam Morril: You’ve Changed
Gravel-voiced stand-up Sam Morril takes the stage in a stand-up special where he drops hot takes on everything from the worst person he’s ever dated, to the challenges of aging, to the dangers of social media, all delivered in the laid-back style Morril is known for. If you like people making ha-ha jokes at you, Sam Morril: You’ve Changed will make you laugh, or at least say “heh” a few times.
Starts streaming July 9.
Cirque du Soleil: Without a Net
Cirque du Soleil, the circus that costs $100, had a rough time during the pandemic lockdown—it’s a cool show and all, but is it worth contracting Covid? Without a Net documents the struggles of Cirque’s crew and performers as they dust off the trapeze and harnesses and work toward a grand re-opening in Las Vegas. With that famous the-show-must-go-on ethic driving it, the world’s most high-class circus journey’s back from the brink in an inspiring story.
Starts streaming July 25
Rocky 1-6
If you’re looking for a summertime movie binge, consider hitting play on the first five Rocky movies and following the career of the Italian Stallion from his unlikely title fight shot in 1976’s Rocky to his brief career as a trainer in 1990’s Rocky 5. The Rocky franchise follows an arc as dramatic and erratic as its main character’s: It goes from a downbeat beginning about a palooka whose redemption comes through surviving a beating instead of winning a fight, to the over-amped, montage-heavy live-action cartoon Rocky IV, where Rocky KOs Ivan Drago in a battle that’s really about America-brand Freedom beating up Communist oppression. Then there’s the coda, Rocky V, where Rocky doesn’t even box.
Starts streaming July 1.
Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, and The Good the Bad and the Ugly
There are few film franchises better than Sergio Leone’s “Dollars trilogy” (Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, The Good the Bad and Ugly), Steely-eyed Clint Eastwood defines cool as a nameless antihero locked in epic struggles against black-hatted adversaries (usually played by Lee Van Cleef) in a mythic version of the The American West. These aren’t really stories about cowboys as much as legends of Gods from some unfamiliar pantheon. So watch all these movies instead of doing anything else, please.
Starts streaming July 1.
Evil Dead Rise (2023)
1981’s The Evil Dead is one of the best horror movies ever made, but sadly, it’s only on streaming on AMC+. Prime subscribers get a tasty consolation prize with Evil Dead Rise, a thoroughly enjoyable, suitably bloody, modern addition to the franchise. Evil Dead Rise drops the isolated cabin-in-the-woods location in favor of a deadite invasion in a city. It also features characters that are interesting enough that you might think they exist for reasons other than to be killed and eaten by undead monsters. They don’t, of course, because this is an Evil Dead movie. Like all the Evil Dead movies, it’s a gory, scary, silly, and fun treat for fans of horror mayhem.
Starts streaming July 2.
