Leaving in December

Dancing off into the new year...

Sadly, a lot of good flicks are leaving Amazon Prime this week (although not nearly as many as are leaving Netflix—yikes). Among these are some genuine classics, including The French Connection (1971), Gandhi (1982), It Happened One Night (1934), On the Waterfront (1954), and Lawrence of Arabia (1962). Modern classics include Eternal Sunshine of Spotless Mind (1994), Unforgiven (1992), When Harry Met Sally (1989), and Woody Allen's recent hit, Midnight in Paris (2011).

Speaking of the Woodman, two of his earlier comedies, Play It Again, Sam (1972) and Broadway Danny Rose (1984), are also departing, as are films by auteurs Robert Altman (3 Women), Terrence Malick (Days of Heaven), Quentin Tarantino (Reservoir Dogs), and Sydney Pollack (The Way We Were).

Some of these losses will be offset in January by such newcomers as An Affair to Remember, Dazed and Confused, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and Serpico, but those on again/off again EPIX titles don't make up for what may prove to be some long-term departures.

Here's the full list of what's been reported to be expiring before the new year:

New Arrivals, Upcoming Departures

Excalibur arrives

Lots of activity on Prime in the past week, with new titles that include a decent mix of recent releases, documentaries, and a few classics for good measure, including Broadway Danny Rose, Excalibur, The Great Santini, A Little Romance, and Near Dark. It's a bit of wash, however, when you consider that November's departing titles include such titles as Tim Burton's two Batman films, Gremlins, Martin Scorsese's epic Hugo, and an indisputable horror/sci-fi classic, 1956's Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

Be sure to look over the full lists below as you plan your (non-football) holiday viewing. Have a happy Thanksgiving!

Recent Releases

In the Name of My Daughter (2014)
Only God Forgives (2013)
Partisan (2014)

Classics and Other Notables

The Amazing Transparent Man (1960)
Babes in Toyland (1986)
The Beast Must Die (1974)
Broadway Danny Rose (1984) - Review
The Careless Years (1957) - starring a young Dean Stockwell
Excalibur (1981)
The Great Santini (1989)
Hero's Island (1962)
The Last of the Mohicans (1992)
A Little Romance (1979)
Near Dark (1987)
One on One (1979)

Leaving in October: Docs, Horror, More

Sad to say, quite a few notable titles are expiring from Prime this month, many of which will be leaving as early as October 23 (as opposed to the more typical last day of the month). So if you're looking to celebrate Halloween with a good horror flick, note that several choice selections will be available on Prime only through 10/23, including standouts The Host (2006), Monsters (2010), and Trollhunter (2011).

The visual (and emotional) feast that is Melancholia

Also taking a major hit on the 23rd are documentaries, with the departure of such esteemed nonfictioners as Crazy Love (2007), Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005), Food, Inc. (2008), I'm Still Here (2010), Jiro Dreams of Sushi (2012), Magic Trip (2011), and Man On Wire (2008)—the inspiration for Robert Zemeckis' latest, The Walk. Horror buffs may want to check out Birth of the Living Dead (2013), a Halloween-appropriate doc about George Romero, creator of the Living Dead movies—which expires two days sooner, on October 21.

Other titles worth noting: Lynn Shelton's Humpday (2009), Lars von Trier's brilliant Melancholia (2011), the Spanish time-travel thriller Timecrimes (2007), 1992's dark, critically lauded Batman: The Animated Series, the three Back to the Future movies, Fritz Lang's You Only Live Once (1937), Woody Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), Joss Whedon's charming Much Ado About Nothing (2013), and the cult sci-fi series, Warehouse 13.

Strangely, this month's genres and expiration dates are mostly in alignment, so I've grouped and sorted them accordingly. See how they all break down on the lists below:

September Departures: With Guns A-blazin'

For those who don't regularly peek in at this site's Expiring Soon page, here's a quick rundown of what's departing the ranks of Amazon Prime in the next couple of days. The below dates represent the last day these titles will be streaming (as opposed to when they'll actually be gone). A number of them—including the Star Trek flicks, Racing with the Moon, and The Odd Couple—are part of Amazon's EPIX package, so in all likelihood they'll return before long.

But many others, such as Red River, The Magnificent Seven, and West Side Story, may not be so lucky. Combined with the list of 'B' westerns below, that's an awful lot of oaters for those of you who like your movies brimmin' with cowboy hats, horses, and six-shooters. So catch 'em now before they saunter off into the sunset.

August Departures: The New and the (Very) Old

Fallen Angels

Strange goings-on at Prime this month. As mentioned in my August 6 post, a significant portion of this month's arrivals also number among this month's departures. Most of these are Paramount titles, some quite notable—not just for their quality but for their scarcity among the streaming ranks. So now is the time if you've been waiting to check out Ironweed (1987), Mel Gibson's Hamlet (1990), Jane Campion's Portrait of a Lady (1997), the classic Johnny Guitar (1954), or Leo and Kate in Sam Mendes' 1960s drama, Revolutionary Road (2009).

If all those are a bit too highbrow for you, then other one-month stays include the more low-rent (but possibly more pleasurable) 10 to Midnight (1983), Bolero (1984), Hannie Caulder (1972), A Show of Force (1990), and Walking Tall (1973). Meanwhile, your kids (or the one still inside you) will soon be without Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown (1977), The Monster Squad (1987), and the evergreen Charlotte's Web (1973). All of these will be streaming through midnight on August 30 (full list below).

July Departures: Catch 'Em While You Can

For some of you this may be short notice, but if you've been checking the Expiring Soon page for the last few weeks, you know there are only a couple of days left—through July 30, in fact—to catch most of the below titles before they leave Prime Instant Video. If you haven't been checking regularly, then, well, you've got some streaming to do!

Matthew Modine and Elizabeth Berkley in The Real Blonde

Not sure what to watch in the next 48 hours? A fair number of these movies tend to appear and reappear on a regular basis (on both Prime and Netflix), and many are big-name titles you likely already know or have seen. So if you need a place to start, consider some of the following:

CLASSICS
Les Bonnes Femmes (1960) - an early film of the French New Wave that retains its fascinating fly-on-the-wall quality, delivering an unvarnished look at the sometimes dangerous business of attraction, directed by the great Claude Chabrol (expires 7/31) PRIME ONLY
Harold and Maude (1971) - a classic cult film of the 1970s, reviewed here
Love Story (1970) - one of the great tearjerkers of all time, and a major phenomenon in its day
Manos: The Hands of Fate (1966) - considered by many to be the worst movie ever made. How can you resist? (expires 7/31) PRIME ONLY

June Expirations: Riding Into the Sunset

For those of you who also subscribe to Netflix, most of the below titles may look familiar—the majority of them are also streaming there. But not all of them are expiring from both services (a bit confusing, yes).

In addition to the shared titles that are expiring this month, a number of PRIME ONLY movies are also leaving, five of which belong to the increasingly beleaguered category of Genuine Classics. That means fans of westerns like 1958's The Big Country, starring Gregory Peck, and 1950's Broken Arrow, with Jimmy Stewart—not to mention John Ford's 1939 Drums Along the Mohawk and the John Wayne-starrer Brannigan (1975)—should move those titles to the top of their watchlists right away (especially The Big Country, which clocks in at almost three hours).

If you've already seen those but are still craving something less current than the usual streaming fare, check out the more obscure Lily in Love (1984), starring Christopher Plummer and Maggie Smith, or the Alistair Maclean thriller, When Eight Bells Toll (1971), featuring a young Anthony Hopkins in a rare action-adventure role. Some of the more highbrow critics championed Paul Schrader's Douglas Sirk-like melodrama, Forever Mine (1999), but I found it a bit hard to take (even with generous helpings of Gretchen Mol's many charms). View at your own risk.

Here's the full list of what's expiring in the next few days. Feel free to add your own in the comments below.

For June: Coppola & Kubrick In, PBS Out

[6/19 NOTE: It appears most of the PBS shows have now been renewed.]

In a month that saw the arrival of Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now (1979), Stanley Kubrick's The Shining (1980), and a handful of classics that include People Will Talk (1951), Roman Holiday (1953), and The Paper Chase (1973), you would think there would be cause for celebration among subscribers to Amazon Prime (especially considering the ongoing scarcity of Kubrick films on streaming services).

Unfortunately, if you're a PBS fan, the more significant story is the scheduled June 13 June 20 departure of a large number of programs, including such stalwarts as Nova, Frontline, American Experience, and the many acclaimed documentaries from Ken and Ric Burns. Given the recent loss of nearly all things Comedy Central—plus a large swath of BBC content earlier this year—that leaves some sizable gaps in Prime's TV catalog. Sure, HBO and original Amazon series continue to grow, and there's still a decent mix of FOX, USA, and other network content, but that will be of little consolation to diehard comedy and public television fans.

Recent Arrivals, Upcoming Departures

When HBO first announced its HBO Now standalone service, the concern among many Prime subscribers was whether this meant the end of HBO's presence on Prime Instant Video. Would the contract on the service's current shows simply be allowed to run out, with no new content made available? If the additions of the last few days are any indication, you can relax: it looks like you've still got time to catch up on The Wire and The Sopranos—not to mention some other great shows that are now available, including the first seasons of Girls, Veep, and the very unlucky Dustin Hoffman-starrer, Luck.

Arrivals (HBO series)

Banshee: Season 1 (2013) (Cinemax)
Girls: Season 1 (2012)
Hung: Seasons 1-3 (2009-11)
In Treatment: Seasons 2-3 (2009-10)
John From Cincinnati: Season 1 (2007)
Luck: Season 1 (2011)


Treme: Season 4 (2013)
True Blood: Season 4 (2011)
Veep: Season 1 (2012)

Also among the new HBO titles is 2012's Game Change, with Julianne Moore kicking butt as Sarah Palin and Ed Harris as John McCain. This joins a number of other quality HBO films on Prime, many of which can be found toward the bottom of the Only On Prime page.

New & Expiring

A few new notable indies arrived on Amazon Prime in the last few days:

Bathory: Countess of Blood (2008) - starring Anna Friel as the (misunderstood) bloodthirsty Hungarian
Come Undone (2010) - not to be confused with the 2000 movie of the same name on Netflix
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: Extended Edition (2011)
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Next: Extended Edition (2011)
The Girl Who Played with Fire: Extended Edition (2011)
Poison (1991) - controversial film from director Todd Haynes (Far from Heaven, I'm Not There)
Pussy Riot: The Movement (2015) - documentary on the eponymous Russian punk rock feminists

There are also a number of other new Film Movement, Monterey Media, and Zeitgeist titles, most of which I've never heard of but are exclusive to Prime and look interesting.

And here's what's about to expire, watchable through the dates below. Note that a number of these will also be expiring from Netflix.

April 29

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994) PRIME ONLY
Airplane! (1980) / Airplane II: The Sequel (1982)
Bitter Moon (1994)
Boys Don't Cry (1999)
The Brothers Bloom (2009)
Cecil B. Demented (2000)
Dirty Girl (2011) PRIME ONLY
Fantastic Voyage (1966)
Finding Forrester (2000)
Hitch (2005)
The Jewel of the Nile (1985)
Kicking and Screaming (1995)
Life Is Beautiful (1998)
Little Odessa (1995)
Permanent Midnight (1998) PRIME ONLY
Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2009) PRIME ONLY
Ulee's Gold (1997)

April 30

Annie (1982)
Flight (2012)

May 3

Skyfall (2012)

May 10

Robot & Frank (2012)