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Former Sony employee and editor of 4 TV magazines.
Amazon’s Prime Video is adding 63 new movies today. Here are the four best, in my humble opinion.
Jack Nicholson in Chinatown.
Chinatown (1974)
Jack Nicholson stars in this Roman Polanski-directed neo noir classic about a private detective who gets more he can handle when he investigates the transfer of water in 1930s Los Angeles. Nicholson cements his status as one of Hollywood’s greatest as the cool but vulnerable detective J.J. Gittes and the supporting cast is exceptional, particularly Faye Dunaway as a powerful widow with a host of skeletons in the closet. But the real star here is Polanski who was just five years removed from the graphic slaying of his wife, Sharon Tate, by the Manson Family. Scene after scene in Chinatown offer subtle reminders of that grisly event but Polanski bravely taps his personal experience to tell a haunting tale.
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Mia Farrow stars in Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby.
Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
The spooky 1968 drama from Polanski stars Mia Farrow as a pregnant young woman who suspects a mysterious group wants to kidnap her baby. Farrow is brilliant and haunting as the paranoid (or is she?) mother and film auteur John Cassavetes plays her loving (but possibly suspicious) hubbie to perfection. Made before the horrific Manson family murders, the film now takes on overtones of the massacre that took Polanski’s wife (Sharon Tate) in 1969, a parallel that has haunted the director throughout his life. The connection only makes the film more powerful and poignant in retrospect.
Richard Jewell (2019)
The Clint Eastwood-directed film chronicles how the media and federal government conspired to falsely blame a Georgia security guard (Paul Walter Hauser) for the 1996 Olympic bombing. (The real bomber was caught seven years later.) Hauser is heartbreaking as the guard whose longing to make a difference winds up arousing suspicions and leads to the overreaction from federal authorities and journalists. A true cautionary tale for the modern world.
Out of Sight (1988)
Out of Sight, the 1998 comedy/drama from director Steven Soderbergh which stars George Clooney as a bank robber who’s tracked (and, uh, pursued) by a federal agent played wonderfully by Jennifer Lopez. The great cast also includes Michael Keaton, Albert Brooks, Don Cheadle, Ving Rhames, Nancy Allen, Samuel L. Jackson…and too many more wonderful folks to name here. Watch this movie. It’s classic Soderbergh.
Honorable Mention: Chaplin, Cloverfield, Jarhead, Nebraska, The Holdovers, Titanic, Red Eye, The Big Short, To Catch a Thief, Wayne’s World.
Complete List of New Shows & Movies Coming to Amazon Prime In April
April 1
Age of Adaline (2015)
Airplane II: The Sequel (1982)
Batman & Robin (1997)
Batman Forever (1995)
Blaze and the Monster Machines Vol2 S1-S2 (2014)
Blockers (2018)
Boomerang (1992)
Chaplin (1993)
Cheech & Chong Get Out of My Room (1985)
Chinatown (1974)
Cloverfield (2008)
Disturbia (2007)
El Dorado (1967)
Eureka S1-S5 (2006)
Fighting with My Family (2019)
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957)
Heist (2015)
Henry Fool (1998)
Hotel for Dogs (2009)
House S1-S8 (2004)
Inside Job (2010)
It’s Complicated (2009)
Jarhead (2005)
Jesus Christ Superstar (1973)
Jiro Dreams of Sushi (2011)
Lone Survivor (2013)
Lords Of Dogtown (2005)
Macgruber (2010)
Memoirs of a Geisha (2005)
Mimic (1997)
Money Monster (2016)
Monster Trucks (2017)
Nebraska (2014)
Neighbors (2014)
Ong Bak – The Thai Warrior (2005)
Out of Sight (1998)
Red Eye (2005)
Richard Jewell (2019)
Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
Saturday Night Fever (1977)
Snatch (2001)
The Adventures of Tintin (2011)
The Aviator (2004)
The Big Short (2015)
The Front Page (1931)
The Heartbreak Kid (2007)
The House Bunny (2008)
The Last Temptation of Christ (1998)
The Notebook (2004)
The Ring Two (2005)
The Station Agent (2003)
The Stepford Wives (2004)
The Sweetest Thing (2002)
The Truth About Charlie (2002)
The Way Back (2020)
The Young Messiah (2016)
Titanic (1997)
To Catch a Thief (1955)
To Write Love on Her Arms (2015)
Top Gun (1986)
Total Recall (1990)
Wayne’s World (1992)
We Own The Night (2007)
We Were Soldiers (2002)
When The Game Stands Tall (2014)
White Noise (2005)
April 2
Pet Sematary: Bloodlines (2023)
Please Don’t Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain (2023)
April 4
Música (2024)
April 5
Hit S3 (2020)
How To Date Billy Walsh (2024)
April 8
Unforgotten S5 (2023)
April 9
The Exorcist: Believer (2023)
April 11
Fallout (2024)
April 12
NWSL (2024)
April 18
Going Home with Tyler Cameron (2024)
April 19
NWSL (2024)
April 22
Spectre (2015)
April 25
THEM: The Scare (2024)
April 26
NWSL (2024)
April 29
The Holdovers (2023)
Have a question about new TV technologies? Send it to The TV Answer Man at swann@tvanswerman.com Please include your first name and hometown in your message.
The TV Answer Man is veteran journalist Phillip Swann who has covered the TV technology scene for more than three decades. He will report on the latest news and answer your questions regarding new devices and services that are changing the way you watch television. See the bio for Phillip Swann here.
