Amazon Prime streaming video recommendations thread

[sojourner]

Finished.
Just checked, the directors cut is 30 minutes longer. Didn't seem crazy long at all. I wonder what was different.
Steven king didn't like the original, and watching this (I've not read the book but) I think I can see why.

Not amazing but not at all terrible. I didn't like the baddies. Seemed like they were in a different film (near dark probably).

Here's an article I read yesterday about the differences:

Doctor Sleep Director's Cut: 9 Key Differences From The Theatrical Cut

What makes the Doctor Sleep Director’s Cut superior? If you’re asking yourself those questions, particularly while considering which version to watch on HBO Max, you’re in luck

www.cinemablend.com

Given at least one of them, I'm kinda glad I watched the theatrical one tbh.

 

[sojourner]

I've never read the book of The Shining, so just bought it. Hadn't realised Kubrick had changed the ending.

 

[Chz]

OK I watched a whole episode this morning instead of just flipping through.
As a kids show it's not 'terrible' but it's clearly not aimed at kids because of the violence and swearing. There is absolutely nothing in in the story that elevates it above a MOR children's hero quest show. The D&D I posted above is not far off a good example (except it's only the shield guy that ever makes the quips). Reminds me of early 90s anime aimed at a 12-14 audience but with forced swears and gore. All the swearing could be lost with zero detriment to the feel/plot, in fact i'd argue that it's inclusion is more childish. The more graphic violence serves a purpose, but could easily be curbed without too much effort to make this a PG affair.
My biggest problem is the story, it's not set up in any grown up way, it's all there, all at once, like a saturday morning kids cartoon (or the opening of the D&D cartoon I posted). Development and mystery over three episodes might have been the more adult approach.
In short. I don't think I like it, but I don't think kids will like it either.

It makes a bit more sense once you understand the context. It doesn't make it better, but at least it makes sense.

Basically a bunch of pen and paper RPG dweebs (I mean that in a loving way) decided to webcast their latest D&D 5th Edition campaign a few years ago. The rest of the world's PnPRPG dweebs lapped it up and thought it was brilliant. So they crowdfunded an animated version of it. It's been fully funded via Kickstarter, it's just Amazon decided to pick it up as well.

I thought it was... good. Given the context. I know when I used to play, things would get exceedingly silly and childish so I wouldn't hold that against them. I still think they should have filled in the back stories a bit better instead of assuming you'd seen the webcasts, but then it does allow it to jump straight in to the narrative. AIUI, the first two episodes were an introductory bonus for smashing their Kickstarter goals and the real campaign starts from Ep.3.

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

It makes a bit more sense once you understand the context. It doesn't make it better, but at least it makes sense.

Basically a bunch of pen and paper RPG dweebs (I mean that in a loving way) decided to webcast their latest D&D 5th Edition campaign a few years ago. The rest of the world's PnPRPG dweebs lapped it up and thought it was brilliant. So they crowdfunded an animated version of it. It's been fully funded via Kickstarter, it's just Amazon decided to pick it up as well.

I thought it was... good. Given the context. I know when I used to play, things would get exceedingly silly and childish so I wouldn't hold that against them. I still think they should have filled in the back stories a bit better instead of assuming you'd seen the webcasts, but then it does allow it to jump straight in to the narrative. AIUI, the first two episodes were an introductory bonus for smashing their Kickstarter goals and the real campaign starts from Ep.3.

That is indeed interesting.
I wonder if I should give episode three a blast. . . . though if it is much like the first episode, how ever interesting the context of it's creation may be, it's just a kids cartoon with swearing.

 

[spudulike]

Well, Reacher episode 1 was fun. Along the lines of "The Punisher". Give it a try if you like heroes indestructible.

 

[T & P]

Well, Reacher episode 1 was fun. Along the lines of "The Punisher". Give it a try if you like heroes indestructible.

Really enjoyed it myself. Hopefully the rest of it will be as good. Firm recommendation from me so far.

 

[Artaxerxes]

The Monopoloy of Violence on bfi player.

French police don’t fuck about. Otherwise it’s a lot of talking heads discussing protest and rights of man along with some of the more recent protestors from the yellow jackets who’ve been on wrong end of baton

 

[MrCurry]

The Monopoloy of Violence on bfi player.

French police don’t fuck about. Otherwise it’s a lot of talking heads discussing protest and rights of man along with some of the more recent protestors from the yellow jackets who’ve been on wrong end of baton

What’s bfi player?

 

[Orang Utan]

What’s bfi player?

One of the better streaming channels for films.
You can access it via Prime if you have that, but you don’t need Prime - it has it’s own player too

BFI Player

Stream award-winning cinema from the UK & around the world, hand-picked by the British Film Institute. Explore BFI Player’s curated indie film collection today.

player.bfi.org.uk

 

[nagapie]

Watched As We See It, a show about three autistic adults sharing a flat and supported by an aide. Very good. Does have some of the American feel good gloss but also shows some of the really hard stuff for the young adults and their families too.

 

[Ted Striker]

So the wait (for me ) was finally over, and watched the first Reacher episode - I've read/audiobooked all the novels as the narrators voice sends me to sleep, so I'm a reluctant (they are, at best a very guilty pleasure ) fan....But watched ep1 last night, and right chuffed with the casting of Reacher

Tom Cruise (in the films) was slammed as a 'Reacher' because of his height, but I thought he was excellent - you need an implausibly self assured attitude (to handle the implausible plots) and few people can carry them off than TC, especially when he has executive director credit iirc...But I digress...The TV series Reacher will please the fans more perhaps. Basically Harvey Spector from Suits but 6ft 5 and 250 of muscle.

 

[sojourner]

The Falling

A 2014 film looking at psychogenic illness, specifically mass hysteria/fainting in schoolgirls. Very good. It felt a little uncomfortable at times in terms of the flesh on display, and I did think it was gratuitous in places, so it having a female writer and director puzzles me.

 

[Yossarian]

I got Prime when the pandemic was looming in early 2020, reasoning that I might end up having to get a lot of things delivered in the months ahead.

Two years on, I haven't got that excuse any more, I'm sick of giving Bezos money, but there's still a lot of things I haven't gotten around to watching - is it easy enough to illegally download Prime material or have Amazon got their lawyers all over it?

 

[Reno]

I got Prime when the pandemic was looming in early 2020, reasoning that I might end up having to get a lot of things delivered in the months ahead.

Two years on, I haven't got that excuse any more, I'm sick of giving Bezos money, but there's still a lot of things I haven't gotten around to watching - is it easy enough to illegally download Prime material or have Amazon got their lawyers all over it?

It's easy enough to illegaly download anything and as for the laywers, get a decent VPN.

 

[AnnO'Neemus]

Cosmos - three nerds park up in the countryside to do some stargazing/radio astronomy, hear some strange signals.

Tagline: They were searching for the truth, but the truth found them.

It is overlong at around two hours, could've done with judicious editing of dialogue and footage and cropped at least 20-30 minutes off, and there's some clunky exposition where radio astronomer is explaining stuff to engineer who would've known that stuff, and 'You know what this means, don't you?' [teaches grandma to suck eggs for the the benefit of the audience, many of whom probably don't know how to suck eggs].

But overall, it's fairly decent, for what it is, ie considering it's a low budget production. Actually, just looked it up, and there was no budget, so it's good, when taking that into consideration.

 

[sojourner]

I got the 7 day free BFI player offer on Amazon, so have watched and can recommend:

Embrace of the Serpent
Dreams of a Life

Got loads more lined up too.

 

[kabbes]

We watched the first episode of Reacher, following its mention in this thread. The kabbess was willing to give it a go despite it not really being her kind of thing because of the credibility of it being based on an actual series of books rather than something TV writers make up as they go along.

I can report that although the kabbes declared it “all a bit teenage boy” and silly, she found Reacher himself an excellent character and the story interesting enough to want to continue watching it. I liked it, of course, but that is because I like TV made for teenage boys.

 

[Chz]

The missus here also proclaims it to be "a good bit of fluff"

 

[Meyertop]

Well, Reacher episode 1 was fun. Along the lines of "The Punisher". Give it a try if you like heroes indestructible.

I thought it was decent enough to binge it in a couple days. Definitely entertaining if you like the tough guy superhero action type of shows, even if it was kind of heavy handed at times. It's not remarkable by any means, but I'll be watching the next season when it comes out.

 

[Buddy Bradley]

Is Wheel of Time worth watching at all, or is it just a low-budget GoT?

 

[Chz]

Is Wheel of Time worth watching at all, or is it just a low-budget GoT?

I expect if you're into the novels it's interesting. But for me it came off as a lower (not low) budget GoT. I did give it a fair shot, and it was meh. Not bad. Just meh.

 

[Buddy Bradley]

I expect if you're into the novels it's interesting. But for me it came off as a lower (not low) budget GoT. I did give it a fair shot, and it was meh. Not bad. Just meh.

I read the first novel, which is basically a complete LotR rip-off even down to the character names. Wondered if the TV show might inspire me to actually pick up the next book.

 

[AnnO'Neemus]

I do love a cheesy disaster movie. Spotted Super Eruption on Prime. Not sure if I've seen it before but it's off to a promising start. Syfy. Light aircraft flying over rivers of lava. Cheap vfx. Man parachutes into ash cloud (ash doesn't burn holes in his chute) and he lands with precision next to a crashed plane containing two people whose names he calls out. Wife? Child?

That's all in the first minute.

I'm getting the feeling this film is definitely going to rate higher than a mild mass produced processed cheddar on the cheese scale.

 

[sojourner]

On the BFIplayer free sub

After Love.

Excruciating at times, beautifully honest, will definitely have you asking questions afterwards.

 

[AnnO'Neemus]

I do love a cheesy disaster movie. Spotted Super Eruption on Prime. Not sure if I've seen it before but it's off to a promising start. Syfy. Light aircraft flying over rivers of lava. Cheap vfx. Man parachutes into ash cloud (ash doesn't burn holes in his chute) and he lands with precision next to a crashed plane containing two people whose names he calls out. Wife? Child?

That's all in the first minute.

I'm getting the feeling this film is definitely going to rate higher than a mild mass produced processed cheddar on the cheese scale.

I do love a cheesy disaster movie. Spotted Super Eruption on Prime. Not sure if I've seen it before but it's off to a promising start. Syfy. Light aircraft flying over rivers of lava. Cheap vfx. Man parachutes into ash cloud (ash doesn't burn holes in his chute) and he lands with precision next to a crashed plane containing two people whose names he calls out. Wife? Child?

That's all in the first minute.

I'm getting the feeling this film is definitely going to rate higher than a mild mass produced processed cheddar on the cheese scale.

Spoiler: What happened was...

a bit of a weird twist, there was something to do with * raises eyebrows * the space time continuum that meant future vulcanologist told present vulcanologist how to fix the problem.

Mature cheddar on the cheese scale. Lots of cheap vfx, the kind of movie that probably would've gone straight to video in years gone by, or before streaming would've been a Sunday afternoon terrestrial television film, rather than prime time.

 

[Reno]

I do love a cheesy disaster movie. Spotted Super Eruption on Prime. Not sure if I've seen it before but it's off to a promising start. Syfy. Light aircraft flying over rivers of lava. Cheap vfx. Man parachutes into ash cloud (ash doesn't burn holes in his chute) and he lands with precision next to a crashed plane containing two people whose names he calls out. Wife? Child?

That's all in the first minute.

I'm getting the feeling this film is definitely going to rate higher than a mild mass produced processed cheddar on the cheese scale.

Is that what comes out of a Spotted Dick when it gets excited ?

 

[miss direct]

I'm enjoying As we see it. In fact, I've almost got through the entire season in under a week!

 

[Spymaster]

Probably not U75 approved material, but I'm really enjoying The Men Who Built America.

It's beautifully made and historically appealing, and for me, puts the timeline of industrial, scientific, and financial progress, in good order.

Not for everyone, but worth a go if you're into recent history.

 

[8ball]

Probably not U75 approved material, but I'm really enjoying The Men Who Built America.

It's beautifully made and historically appealing, and for me, puts the timeline of industrial, scientific, and financial progress, in good order.

Not for everyone, but worth a go if you're into recent history.

You should possibly include a footnote.


Contains capitalist oppression,.

 

[sojourner]

Force Majeure on BFI Player. Way better than I thought it would be, loved the fixed camera angles, some excruciating scenes, excellent analysis of human behaviour. I've extended the sub for a month, paid for, cos there's so many really good films I wanna watch on there.

It was directed by Ruben Östlund, who also directed the brilliantly thought-provoking The Square. I've got a free MUBI sub to watch another of his now too.