11 movies to check out on Prime Video in February

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, Red Rocket, and Jennifer Lopez's This Is Me... Now lead the offerings from Amazon

By Robert DeSalvo  |  February 3, 2024 | 1:00pm
Film Features Prime Video
11 movies to check out on Prime Video in February
Clockwise from top left: This Is Me… Now: A Love Story (Prime Video), Red Rocket (A24), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (Paramount) Image: The A.V. Club

Amazon’s Prime Video kicks off February with a summer blockbuster, a new “narrative-driven cinematic odyssey” from Jennifer Lopez, and a bunch of indie offerings that are worth a peek. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem serves as a reboot of the franchise and features heavily stylized animation that is anything but run-of-the-mill. The Amazon original This Is Me… Now: A Love Story coincides with J.Lo’s new album. The dark comedy-drama Red Rocket features a career-best performance by Simon Rex. Other new arrivals in the Prime Video film library this February include Strays, Get Out, Life, The Elephant Man, Bottoms, Surrounded, Upgraded, and Dark Harvest.

Get Out (2017, available February 1)
Get Out Official Trailer 1 (2017) - Daniel Kaluuya Movie

Jordan Peele’s directorial debut , starring Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Lil Rel Howery, LaKeith Stanfield, Bradley Whitford, Caleb Landry Jones, Stephen Root, and Catherine Keener, moves to Prime Video for Black History Month. The horror movie about a Black man who soon regrets visiting his white girlfriend’s family is a genre gem. The A.V. Club’s , “There’s a nefarious conspiracy here for audiences to unpack, and it’s all part of the way Peele uses a genre framework to explore how racism survives and mutates in an All Lives Matter culture, taking different insidious shapes.”

Life (2017, available February 1)
LIFE - Official Trailer (HD)

Road House star Jake Gyllenhaal seems to be everywhere at the moment, including in the underseen sci-fi thriller , which visits Prime Video this month. The film, directed by Daniel Espinosa, is about the crew of the International Space Station who are trapped inside with a dangerous Martian life form. The cast also includes Ryan Reynolds, Rebecca Ferguson, Hiroyuki Sanada, Ariyon Bakare, and Olga Dihovichnaya. The A.V. Club’s , “The film has a nasty edge, a visceral mean streak, that’s genuinely bracing. We don’t see much, but we don’t need to, because lord, the sounds. In space, no one can hear you scream. In space movies, every dying gurgle comes through loud and clear.”

Red Rocket (2021, available February 1)
Red Rocket | Official Trailer HD | A24

Simon Rex—who made solo adult videos before breaking out as an MTV DJ—gives the best performance of his career in as a middle-aged porn star who returns to his rural hometown and begins dating a 17-year-old local girl. The A.V. Club’s the Sean Baker-directed movie as a “deliriously funny and deviously satirical new comedy about a very specific, finely sketched specimen of parasitic American hustler.” Rex won Best Actor awards from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and Independent Spirt Awards for his performance.

The Elephant Man (1980, available February 1)
THE ELEPHANT MAN - Official Trailer - Directed by David Lynch

David Lynch’s biopic about the severely deformed Englishman John Merrick (John Hurt) is considered one of the director’s more accessible works, but it remains 100 percent Lynchian in its tone and oddball subject matter. Nominated for eight Academy Awards, also stars Anthony Hopkins, Anne Bancroft, John Gielgud, Wendy Hiller, Michael Elphick, Hannah Gordon, and Freddie Jones. The official description of the black-and-white movie reads: “A Victorian surgeon rescues a heavily disfigured man who is mistreated while scraping a living as a sideshow freak. Behind his monstrous façade, there is revealed a person of kindness, intelligence, and sophistication.”

Strays (2023, available February 6)
Strays | Official Trailer [HD]

Despite looking like something aimed at kids who would naturally gravitate toward a movie featuring talking dogs, this decidedly R-rated movie is for adult fans of crude humor. Featuring the voices of Will Ferrell, Jamie Foxx, Isla Fisher, and Randall Park, is about an abandoned dog who teams up with other strays to get revenge on his abusive owner (Will Forte). The A.V. Club’s , “Each of the main voice actors is typically typecast, with Ferrell playing predictably gullible, Foxx as brashly insecure, Fisher as the competent woman, and Park as the timidly polite lug. But they’re all great at playing those roles, so there isn’t much to complain about, with Park in particular standing out with some of the best vulgar material to work with.”

Surrounded (2023, available February 6)
SURROUNDED Trailer (2023) Letitia Wright, Jeffrey Donovan, Action Movie

Also arriving on Prime for Black History Month is Anthony Mandler’s Western drama , starring Letitia Wright, Jamie Bell, Jeffrey Donovan, Brett Gelman, and the late Michael K. Williams in his final film appearance. The movie is set five years after the end of the Civil War. The official description reads: “Former Buffalo Soldier Mo Washington travels west to lay claim on a gold mine. After her stagecoach is ambushed, Mo is tasked with holding a dangerous outlaw captive and must survive the day when the bandit’s gang tries to free him.”

Upgraded (2024, available February 9)
Upgraded - Official Trailer | Prime Video

It wouldn’t be Valentine’s Day without a streaming service throwing a few frothy rom-coms into the mix. For Prime Video, that movie is , starring Riverdale’s Camila Mendes opposite Archie Renaux. The official description reads: “Ana (Camila Mendes) is an ambitious intern dreaming of a career in the art world while trying to impress her demanding boss Claire (Marisa Tomei). When she’s upgraded to first class on a work trip, she meets handsome Will (Archie Renaux), who mistakes Ana for her boss—a white lie that sets off a glamorous chain of events, romance, and opportunity, until her fib threatens to surface.”

Bottoms (2023, available February 13)
BOTTOMS | Official Red Band Trailer

The satirical comedy , directed by Emma Seligman and starring Rachel Sennott, Ayo Edebiri, Ruby Cruz, Havana Rose Liu, Kaia Gerber, Nicholas Galitzine, Miles Fowler, Dagmara Domińczyk, and Marshawn Lynch, is about two female high school seniors who create a fight club in an attempt to hook up with cheerleaders. The A.V. Club’s , “In the end, what stands out about Bottoms is its guts. Theatrically released feature-length comedies are becoming rarer these days. Good ones even more so. Films like this that are willing to operate with such abandon feel like a minor miracle in our current media landscape. If Bottoms doesn’t land every single punch, we can be happy that at least someone is out here swinging.”

This Is Me… Now: A Love Story (2024, available February 15)
This Is Me...Now: A Love Story - Official Trailer | Prime Video

Jennifer Lopez’s This Is Me… Now: A Love Story is the video accompaniment to her ninth studio album, This Is Me… Now. The official press release for the movie reads, “This Is Me…Now: A Love Story is like nothing you’ve ever seen from Jennifer Lopez. Alongside director Dave Meyers, Jennifer has created a narrative-driven cinematic odyssey, steeped in mythological storytelling and personal healing. Dropping in tandem with her first studio album in a decade, this genre-bending Amazon original showcases her journey to love through her own eyes. With fantastical costumes, breathtaking choreography, and star-studded cameos, this panorama is an introspective retrospective of Jennifer’s resilient heart.”

Dark Harvest (2023, available February 16)
DARK HARVEST | Official Trailer

David Slade’s fantasy-horror movie is loosely based on Norman Partridge’s 2006 novel of the same name. Set in early 1960s America, the MGM release stars Casey Likes, E’myri Crutchfield, Dustin Ceithamer, Elizabeth Reaser, and Jeremy Davies. The official synopsis reads: “In a small Midwestern town, a deadly annual ritual unfolds when the mythical nightmare, Sawtooth Jack, rises from the cornfields and challenges the town’s teenage boys in a bloody battle of survival.” If Halloween fits your brand more than Valentine’s Day, check out this stylish little horror movie that received mostly favorable reviews.

 
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