What's good on Amazon Prime Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKXyXyJtbhg

Watched this https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannie_Caulder cuz the cast is amazeballs (well, except for Culp). Unfortunately it sucked.

An area that I don't think has been mentioned where Amazon Prime is pretty strong is Italian genre films of the 60s, 70s & 80s. Spaghetti Westerns, Euro-crime, Giallo, etc. Unless you go searching for it and follow links to related titles, directors or actors, you might never know it's there. Amazon's website is the best way to explore, as opposed to the Prime Video app. A few examples:

Search for Spaghetti Western. Just a fraction of what Amazon suggests:

Django Kill... If You Live, Shoot!
Django, Prepare A Coffin
Django Meets Sartana!
(The original Django film is no longer available for some reason. None of the sequels come close, but these three are the best of the 10 or so on Prime.)
I am Sartana...Your Angel Of Death
If You Meet Sartana... Pray for Your Death
Sartana's Here, Trade Your Pistol for a Coffin
$100,000 For A Killing
A Fistful of Dollars
God Made Them, I Kill Them
God Said to Cain
A Man Called Blade
Day of Anger
Companeros
Dead Men Don't Count
Man, Pride & Vengeance

Sure, they ain't all classics. Many don't belong in a discussion of "what's good", but just seeing the lurid cover art by the dozen should make your pulse race. A search for Euro Crime leads to, for starters:

The Italian Connection
Caliber 9
The Boss
Blood & Diamonds
Execution Squad
Hired Gun
Killer Cop
How to Kill a Judge
Property Is No Longer a Theft
Shoot First, Die Later

Search for Giallo. Some of what shows up:

Seven Deaths In The Cat's Eye
Eye In The Labyrinth
Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key
Weekend Murders
The Black Belly of the Tarantula
The Bloodstained Butterfly
The Blood Spattered Bride
Blood and Black Lace
Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion
Don't Torture a Duckling
The Black Cat
City of the Living Dead
Short Night of Glass Dolls
Death Laid an Egg
The Cat O' Nine Tails
The Red Queen Kills Seven Times
Killer Is On The Phone
Opera
Deep Red
Phenomena

Beware that many versions have terrible dubbed English and no option for Italian with subtitles. I'm no expert, but I think that's what comes with the territory. It's more tolerable with the better movies. With the crappier ones, it can add to the charm. Or not.

Whenever you find an old movie on Prime from before about 1990, from anywhere, not just Italy, you should proceed with caution. I've gotten excited to find old classics that turn out to be unwatchable, shoddy transfers. As a rule, when the cover thumbnail is a generic dark box the video quality is shit.

oh damn, i didn't realize so much of that giallo put out in recent times by Arrow was on Prime in the US. Awesome! i wanna watch all of that.

yes! i have been filling my watchlist with all this stuff and absolutely going to town.

it is also a goldmine for the works of folks like joseph merhi, richard pepin, and the like.

the church is missing from that giallo list, it's on prime and it's spectacular

Whenever I stumble upon a cache of stuff I like that I didn't know was there I add it to my watchlist. But then I end up with 300+ things in my watchlist, which is so many that I can't tell when something vanishes. Until I look for it, and it turns out to be the one thing I want to see and it's not there.

A bunch of the movies being listed lately (like Hannie Caulder) are available on Prime and Hulu both, for people without one or the other.

thank you, punning display! I have several of those giallo already in my watchlist but had no clue about how to search for them

I haven't had Prime very long, but my impression is that stuff like this cycles in and out of free status without much predictability

Whenever I stumble upon a cache of stuff I like that I didn't know was there I add it to my watchlist. But then I end up with 300+ things in my watchlist, which is so many that I can't tell when something vanishes. Until I look for it, and it turns out to be the one thing I want to see and it's not there.

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, June 5, 2019 12:36 PM

Or it's still there but now it's $3.99 to watch, not free with Prime anymore. Hate that.

The easiest way I've found to keep tabs on that is to periodically open my watchlist on my computer and scroll down, looking for videos where the diagonal Prime stripe on the upper left corner is gone. Then as you click 'Remove', loudly curse "Fuck Amazon!" or your swear word of choice. When you mouse over, it will sometimes give the date when a title will be leaving Prime soon, but this is completely unreliable.

It sucks that Amazon doesn't support multiple watchlists, or changing the order of videos in your watchlist, or even viewing it as text only. One method I've tried for keeping a list of movies I don't want to forget about but I don't want bloating my watchlist: I save a browser bookmark of the video's Prime page (first deleting the "Amazon.com: Watch" text before each title). Then, I can freely organize the bookmarks into folders as I please. However, there are no thumbnails and no indication whether a title has been dropped, so it's usefulness is limited.

I'd watch more movies if it didn't cut into the time I could spend farting around with lists.

Good Omens is outrageously clumsy but I’m enjoying watching it. The voiceover is the pits though, yes.

I wish Tennant had waited a decade to do Who. He’s a lot more interesting to watch now.

Whenever you find an old movie on Prime from before about 1990, from anywhere, not just Italy, you should proceed with caution. I've gotten excited to find old classics that turn out to be unwatchable, shoddy transfers.

Yeah, Prime has some really terrible transfers, particularly of horror movies. Shudder is really good for that stuff though, and is pretty cheap for a year's sub. They don't seem to be trawling the transfer bargain bin (can such a thing exist? It seems like it does) like Amazon is.

I think that was where I saw a version of "City Lights" that didn't even have Chaplin's score

I wish Tennant had waited a decade to do Who. He’s a lot more interesting to watch now.

He's in my bottom three Doctors, but I don't think there would have been a show a decade later if he hadn't done it.

If you have a watchlist on IMDb, you can drill down to see a list of those that are streaming on Amazon Prime. Only problem is: the title matching is rudimentary, so quite often you're disappointed to find it's actually another film with the same name. It's a nice feature though: shame they don't do it with Netflix.

They do it with Prime because they're owned by Amazon

There's a streaming service they've crammed into a weird niche called "Freedive" that I believe is US-only with television shows and movies interrupted by commercials. It's accessible in a not-clear way through most of the Amazon streaming apps, sometimes via a separate row of content. I think I've only watched episodes of Fringe that way, but it's not easy to search for content on it unless you come from the website.

Patriot's really good! Surprised that I hadn't heard anything about it. Maybe the title puts people off?? Riyl barry

yeah the name doesnt really work at all.

Fleabag has a thread too!
Fleabag

There's a separate thread for it but is anyone else watching Nicolas Winding Refn's Too Old To Die Young?

I'm five (very long) episodes in now and whilst it looks beautiful, the incredibly drawn out scenes are getting all a bit tedious now in a way that those of Twin Peaks didn't. They all just feel a bit too much deliberately stylized in this, so much so that it often breaks your suspension of disbelief.

ozploitation options are strong. have so far enjoyed: wake in fright, long weekend, turkey shoot, and frog dreaming.

will say that rarely has a movie made me as queasy and uneasy as wake in fright. and if i ever watch it again i will be ffw-ing through the infamous roo hunt.

have a few more lined up in the queue: night of fear, mad dog morgan, patrick, nightmares.

have read that dead end drive-in and razorback are worthy. not on prime atm though.

oh, and body melt is in the queue as well.

Body Melt is wild

The Man From Hong Kong is a $2 rental & well worth it

There's a separate thread for it but is anyone else watching Nicolas Winding Refn's Too Old To Die Young?

I'm five (very long) episodes in now and whilst it looks beautiful, the incredibly drawn out scenes are getting all a bit tedious now in a way that those of Twin Peaks didn't. They all just feel a bit too much deliberately stylized in this, so much so that it often breaks your suspension of disbelief.

― groovypanda, Friday, June 21, 2019 2:13 AM (six days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'm five episodes in now and I think it's really strong. the manner in which the five leads are all operating in vv different ways on paths of revenge for those who have been wronged is pretty interesting and the whole series being specifically from the very first scene about the violent effects of broken and/or evil men is pretty timely to say the least.

I saw someone online refer to episode 2 as basically Tarkovsky doing "Narcos" and that seems pretty otm, i mean obv not Tarkovsky-level but miles better than any of the bullshit in Narcos. Points to the show for clearly being super contemptuous of the police dept -- i love the Wolf of Wall Street style of Hart Bochner's homicide squad.

William Baldwin is insane in this. and James Urbaniak's villain in episode 5 was one of the most despicable creations I've seen in a long time. Miles Teller makes for a better blank slate than Ryan Gosling.

basically Tarkovsky doing "Narcos"

Wake In Fright is SO good, one of my faves; but the roo hunt def makes it a tough watch, no question.

belladonna of sadness added

Another thumbs-up for Wake in Fright, which perfectly balances between terrifying and hilarious, capturing that queasy fear you get when you're just waiting for the goons you've been partying with to decide you think you're better than them and kick the shit out of you, but it also perfectly captures the kind of asshole behavior of someone who thinks he's smarter than his goon friends. It's one of the most lacerating movies I've ever seen.

wake in fright is genuinely one of the most unsettling, nightmarish movies i've ever seen

sweaty, threatening Donald Pleasance is so great in that film

otm

I'd somehow never seen Wake in Fright before. I think I always confused it with something else, a movie about someone hallucinating in the outback or being hunted in the outback? (Both descriptions not entirely off!) Anyway, what a nuts movie this is. It would make a great sweaty triple bill with, I dunno, Straw Dogs and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Saw it at the cinema a few years ago and loved it, it has that wicker man feel where you’re simultaneously against the uptight prick who won’t go with the flow, revelling in his downfall, and yet totally with him in his descent to hell surrounded by these grotesques

The scariest thing was that ruined steak and egg and the piss that Australians call beer tho

Yeah, I don't know if it's scary so much as unsettling.

call

It’s not 1971 anymore

also some grotesque real-life animal cruelty captured on film, lovely

then ted kotcheff went off to make first blood and weekend at bernie’s

what a career

Good stuff in this interview:

https://www.dreadcentral.com/news/38309/exclusive-ted-kotcheff-looks-back-at-forty-years-with-wake-in-fright/

Dread Central: One of the more unsettling moments of Wake in Fright had to be the kangaroo hunting sequence; it’s a tough watch. Was that one of the bigger challenges you faced when you made this movie- pulling off that scene?

Ted Kotcheff: You know, at the beginning I really didn’t know how I was going to do that sequence; I wasn’t sure how to make it look real because I would never condone killing animals just for a movie. That’s immoral. But then one night, one of the Australians on the film crew said, “You know, they kill hundreds of kangaroos every night in the outback professionally? “They have these refrigerated trucks where hunters go out in pairs on them. They shoot the kangaroos and they bring them back, put them in a refrigerator, go out and then kill some more of them. So why don’t you put your camera in the back and go out with these hunters; they’re killing hundreds anyway and sending the meat out for pet food.”

So, it was kind of gross, knowing that pet food back then was made out of kangaroos too but I was not going to kill one kangaroo for my film either. So I went out with the hunters and shot some footage which was quite an experience. It was so incredibly grueling to watch them shooting the animals but I just photographed exactly what they did and made no judgments on their actions.

There was this spotlight at the top of their truck and a reversible windshield so when they lifted their guns on the dashboard, the light would hypnotize the kangaroos so they were able to shoot them without any problem. To me, I think the most horrific thing in the film was the way the kangaroos’ eyes were red as they stood there waiting for death. It haunted me. But I know we had that warning at the end of the movie about the animals but that’s something I wished we had put in at the beginning, just so audiences would know that we wouldn’t mercilessly kill animals just to make a movie.

yeah i may never be able to watch wake in fright

the roo scene can probably be skipped past without harm to the vibe or the story but yeah if you’re in any doubt i’d probably give it a miss tbh

I think the kangaroo stuff is essential, actually. Or at least, it's essential to the uncomfortable anything-goes violent psychopath general batshit vibe of the whole thing.

It’s not 1971 anymore

Brad you can cover your eyes or go and make a cup of tea during that bit, so you get the vibe without fully watching

it was kind of gross, knowing that pet food back then was made out of kangaroos too

Now it's in midscale restaurants and supermarkets for humans

There was kangaroo on the menu the first time I was ever in Sydney. It was at an upscale Indian place.

i had a couple of cans of beer while i watched, as i often do, and watching them sweatily, very sweatily, guzzle so much beer and liquor day and night was ... something. definitely affected my enjoyment of my two cans and ramps of the quease factor.

I think the kangaroo stuff is essential, actually. Or at least, it's essential to the uncomfortable anything-goes violent psychopath general batshit vibe of the whole thing.

I agree. It's deeply disturbing to watch, but so is everything else in the movie.

Whenever you find an old movie on Prime from before about 1990, from anywhere, not just Italy, you should proceed with caution.

re: shoddy transfers, was stoked to watch china 9, liberty 37, and i did, but it was really rough going. def the worst i've come across of all the old crazy genre stuff i've watched thus far. like, handycam set on a table with a book under it aimed at a goldstar vhs/tv combo bad.

^^Isn't that one kinda-sorta Public Domain? Always tread w/caution regarding those unless you can tell it's provided to the service by a reputable distributor.

just started on Red Oaks, really like it in a flashback, John Hughes way. THis is a convincingly 80's looking cast too. Seems like this show didn't get very much attention while it was running; I don't know a single person who watched it or ever talked about it.

provided to the service by a reputable distributor

sometimes they'll have two different free versions of the same movie, and a third one that costs $3.99 to rent, and the thumbnail on the third one will be a cropped b&w screencap with the title overlaid in blue Times New Roman

https://nonfics.com/best-documentaries-streaming-amazon-prime-july-2019/