11 movies to check out on Prime Video in January

George Miller’s postapocalyptic classic Mad Max stars Mel Gibson as cop-turned-vigilante “Mad” Max Rockatansky in near-future Australia. Max goes “mad” after a motorbike gang destroys his family. Grossing more than $100 million worldwide on a budget of only $400,000, Mad Max set a Guinness record for movie profitability. The action-packed origin story spawned four sequels all directed by Miller, including this May’s Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.

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The action moves to the not-so-friendly skies in Jaume Collet-Serra’s Non-Stop starring Liam Neeson as a federal air marshal who must find a killer on board a passenger flight from New York to London. The A.V. Club’s Ignatiy Vishnevetsky writes: “Part locked-room mystery, part political allegory, Non-Stop is one of the most purely enjoyable entries in the ongoing cycle of Liam Neeson action-thrillers, tempering the star’s gruff strongman antics with surveillance-state commentary that’s more clever than subversive.”

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As superhero movie after superhero movie crashes and burns at the box office, it’s helpful to remember a magical cinematic decade—the 1990s—when studios produced original content by cutting-edge filmmakers. Pulp Fiction was not the first movie by Quentin Tarantino, but it’s the one that cemented his trademark cinematic style and broadened his appeal with mainstream audiences. The crime film with four intertwining stories set in Los Angeles stars John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, Uma Thurman, Tim Roth, and Ving Rhames.]

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With all due respect to late Superman director Richard Donner, we prefer the theatrical version of Superman II credited to director Richard Lester over the 2006 Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut, which recycles the time-reversal ending of 1978's Superman. In Superman II, the Man of Steel (Christopher Reeve) faces off against three supervillains—including General Zod (Terence Stamp)—released from the Phantom Zone who have to same superpowers as Superman. Margot Kidder and Gene Hackman reprise their roles as Lois Lane and Lex Luthor, respectively.

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The official description for Amazon Studios’ Foe reads: “Hen (Saoirse Ronan) and Junior’s (Paul Mescal) life is thrown into turmoil when a stranger shows up at their door with a startling proposal. Will they risk their relationship and personal identity for a chance to survive in a new world? With mesmerizing imagery and persistent questions about the nature of humanity (and artificial humanity), Foe brings the not-too-distant future to luminous life.”

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Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts—the seventh film in the Transformers series—serves as both a sequel to 2018's Bumblebee and a prequel to 2007's Transformers. The A.V. Club’s Brett Buckalew writes, “For anyone curious about where the Transformers franchise can go from here, a fan-service epilogue has the answer which, without spoiling anything, indicates an expansion of the series’ cinematic universe. What really needs expanding, though, are the dramatic possibilities of these movies, because the formula of a convoluted fetch quest with no credible human anchor but spectacular action has become extremely rusty.”

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Gizmodo’s Germain Lussier writes about the sci-fi film Landscape With Invisible Hand starring Asante Blackk, Kylie Rogers, and Tiffany Haddish: “Based on a novel of the same name by M.T. Anderson, aliens have taken over the Earth and subjugated the human race. It’s over. They won and we lost. So what happens next?

“Director Cory Finley (Thoroughbreds) starts there but moves beyond the initial premise very quickly. The film jumps wildly through different related storylines, each exploring new social contexts and constructs, never lingering for too long before moving to the next thing. It results in a film that’s a bit muddled by the end, but constantly surprising and entertaining.”

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The official description for the Paramount mystery-thriller The Passenger reads: “Randy (Johnny Berchtold, Gaslit) is perfectly content fading into the background. But when his coworker Benson (Kyle Gallner, Smile) goes on a sudden and violent rampage leaving a trail of destruction in his wake, Randy is forced to face his fears and confront his troubled past in order to survive.​” Carter Smith directs the Blumhouse Productions movie.

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The official description for the Amazon Original Role Play reads: “Emma (Kaley Cuoco) and Dave (David Oyelowo) spice up their wedding anniversary with a night of role-play in New York City. But things turn perilous when Emma’s secret life as an international assassin, unknown to Dave, is exposed by Bob (Bill Nighy), jeopardizing her family. Emma must rely on her lethal skills and determination to protect her family at all costs.”

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Vin Diesel’s Dominic Toretto faces off against the vengeful son (Jason Momoa) of a drug lord in Fast X. The A.V. Club’s Ray Greene writes, “What did we do to deserve Vin Diesel, that manly man of a vintage they haven’t been bottling since the heyday of Axl Rose’s first bandana? Vin’s tough but he’s tender. He puts women on the exact pedestal feminists thought they’d knocked over maybe 40 years ago. He’s loyal to his friends—the dead ones especially. And as he moves through the world as he knows it, powered by some unquantifiable mixture of ostentatious humility and laid-back self-love, he makes you believe that all the contradictions he embodies can be brought into balance with a crooked smile and the sound of his Barry White baritone crooning, ‘I don’t have friends. I got family.’”

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The Other Zoey is the rare rom-com worth mentioning in a viewing guide because it garnered surprisingly favorable reviews from both critics and audiences. The official description for the movie reads: “When Zoey (Josephine Langford), a smart computer nerd inexperienced with love, causes Zach (Drew Starkey) to get a concussion, he mistakes Zoey for his girlfriend. Before she reveals the truth, she meets Zach’s cousin Miles (Archie Renaux), with whom she has a lot in common. Pretending to be Zach’s girlfriend, she realizes she has feelings for both of them and is forced to confront her fears and to make an impossible decision!”

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