December's New Titles

A nice batch of movies debuted on Amazon Prime in the last week, mixing new releases with classics, silents, foreign, and titles by some of cinema's top directors. There are horror films, musicals, blaxpoitation flicks, and even a lone James Bond movie (but catch it quick—it expires at the end of the month).

Nick Cave broods in 20,000 Days on Earth

Recent releases

Among new and recent releases are the acclaimed Nick Cave documentary, 20,000 Days on Earth, Chris Rock's autobiographical comedy, Top Five, a new-ish film from Swimming Pool director Francois Ozon, In the House, plus a brand-new one starring Catherine Deneuve, In the Courtyard.

20,000 Days on Earth (2014)
Casual Encounters (2015)
The Details (2012)
In the Courtyard (2015)
In the House (2012)
Top Five (2014)

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:

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

More July Newbies

Robey and Co.

Another crop of interesting additions found their way to Prime Instant Video this week, including a few unexpected TV shows and a number of new-ish foreign and indie titles.

TV Series

All of the new TV offerings, except for Star Trek: The Animated Series—which I wrote up elsewhere a while back—are exclusive to Prime (i.e., not on Netflix), while Beauty and the Beast, like a number of previously mentioned arrivals, was another Netflix casualty earlier this month. Does this mean Prime will soon be acquiring some of the classic series currently scheduled to leave Netflix, like Adam-12, Magnum P.I., and Quincy, M.E.? One can only hope. Meanwhile, fans of cult '80s shows (and anyone old enough to remember Robey) will be thrilled to fill their watchlists with three seasons' worth of Friday the 13th: The Series. Brrr—scary, boys and girls!

Beauty and the Beast (1987-1990)
Belfast Zoo (2006-2007)
The Cleaner (2008-2009)
Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman (1993-1998)
Friday the 13th: The Series (1987-1990)
Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973-1974)

HBO, Comedy, and...Troma Time!

If you like really bad movies with lots of trashy titles (or is that lots of trashy movies with really bad titles?), then this new batch of Amazon Prime arrivals is for you. I can't claim to be a big follower of Le Cinema du Lloyd Kaufman (a.k.a. Troma Entertainment), but I'll always appreciate his influential role in the vanishing art of low-budget exploitation cinema. How much less rich would the world be without movies like Demented Death Farm Massacre, Maniac Nurses Find Ecstasy, Blood Sisters of Lesbian Sin, and Croaked: Frog Monster from Hell?

Each of us must make peace with this question for ourselves, but if you're looking for a little something to cleanse the palate between big-budget summer gloss, then you won't do worse (or is that better?) than settling into the La-Z-Boy with a brewskie and/or barf bag and queuing up one or more of the below titles. Given the number of imported titles, along with the lack of such (cough) classics (cough) as Tromeo & Juliet, Class of Nuke 'em High, and Toxic Avenger, my guess is that many, if not all, of these were distributed by Troma as opposed to actually being produced by them. Which means they could be much better—or far, far worse—than even the usual Kaufman fare.

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.

May's Noteworthy Arrivals

Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary

Some interesting PRIME ONLY entries this month, especially for fans of cult and art films. If you like things weird, wacky, and highly original, it's tough to go wrong with anything by director Guy Maddin. He's the guy who directed 2004's hoot, The Saddest Music in the World (probably his best-known film), as well as Careful (1992) and the highly regarded ballet adaptation, Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary (2003), both of which are now streaming.

Also falling into the weird category are a handful of cult horror flicks released under the Mutant Sorority Pictures label (which for some of you should be recommendation enough):

Death Laid an Egg (1968)
Demon Seed, a.k.a, Satan's Mistress, Dark Eyes, Demon Rage (1982) - not to be confused with Donald Cammel's far superior 1977 film starring Julie Christie
Jail Bait Babysitter (1977)
Satan's School for Girls (1973)

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)