While a lot of people subscribe to Amazon Prime, its streaming service, Prime Video, is somehow still overlooked when compared to rivals Netflix, Hulu and HBO Max.
That’s a pity, as the streamer boasts an impressive library of new releases and beloved classics ready to watch.
This weekend, Watch With Us recommends streaming the captivating 2022 melodrama Where the Crawdads Sing, the underappreciated action sequel Mission: Impossible II and the Oscar-winning musical, Les Misérables, starring Hugh Jackman.
‘Where the Crawdads Sing’ (2022)
After Chase Andrews (Harris Dickinson) is found dead in a swamp in 1969 rural North Carolina, local author Kya Clark (Daisy Edgar-Jones) becomes the prime suspect. On trial for his murder, Kya flashes back to her wild childhood, when she was abandoned by her parents and raised by a local couple, and her tumultuous teenage years, when she was involved in a love triangle with Chase and Tate Walker (Taylor John Smith). Why was Chase murdered? And does his death have anything to do with Tate’s competing love for Kya?
Based on the bestselling novel by Delia Owens, Where the Crawdads Sing is an engrossing drama with a genuinely intriguing mystery at its center. The film is best when it evokes a pre-Nixon America filled with passions and melodrama that simmer below the surface. It’s pulpy, sure, but the movie works, with the very British Edgar-Jones convincingly portraying a Southern “marsh girl” who drives the two most popular boys in town crazy.
Where the Crawdads Sing is streaming on Prime Video.
‘Mission: Impossible II’ (2000)
Let’s get this out of the way right now — Mission: Impossible II is the weakest entry in the long-running action franchise. It simply can’t hold a candle to the original or the mid-series peak of Ghost Protocol and Fallout. But M: I 2 is still better than most action movies of the then (the forgettable Gone in 60 Seconds) and now (the awful Red Notice).
In this sequel to the 1996 hit, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is a little older and wilder — he likes to free solo climb in Utah and sports a shag that any ‘80s rock star would be envious of. The threats, however, are still the same — a rogue agent, Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott), has stolen the Chimera virus and wants to use it to kill a lot of people for even more money. The key to stopping Ambrose is Ethan finding and recruiting Sean’s ex-girlfriend, Nyah (Thandiwe Newton), to seduce the bad guy long enough to find the virus. But things get complicated when Ethan starts to fall for her and vice versa. Can he trust Nyah? Or will she betray him like his previous love, Claire Phelps (Emmanuelle Beart), in the first Mission: Impossible movie?
Directed by Hong Kong action maestro John Woo, M: I 2 has some great fight scenes and a plot that’s simultaneously simplistic and way too complicated. That doesn’t matter much when you have Cruise performing his now-signature death-defying stunts on speeding motorcycles and tall skyscrapers. M: I 2 is uneven, but when it’s good, it’s very good, and it’s still the best American movie Woo has ever made.
Mission: Impossible II is streaming on Prime Video.
‘Les Misérables’ (2012)
It’s Oscar season, so it’s a good time to watch one of the previous winners for Best Picture, Les Misérables. In this surprisingly dramatic adaptation of the hit Broadway musical, Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman) is a former convict who has established a new identity as a respected factory owner. When he helps the destitute prostitute Fantine (Anne Hathaway) and her bastard daughter, Cosette (Amanda Seyfried), his former identity is discovered by Javert (Russell Crowe), a policeman who will stop at nothing to see Valjean behind bars again.
That’s just some of the movie’s bulging plot, which also covers the French Revolution, more than one impoverished orphan, a couple of doomed romances and a very dramatic suicide. That doesn’t sound like much fun, but Les Misérables is immensely entertaining due to its top-notch cast, skillful direction and unbeatable musical score. “I Dreamed a Dream” is a classic for a reason, and after watching this adaptation, you’ll be singing it long after the credits have rolled.
Les Misérables is streaming on Prime Video.
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