The Oscars may be over, but at Prime Video every night is a night to celebrate movies.
That’s especially true in March, when the streamer is adding one high-quality movie after another.
Using Rotten Tomatoes as a barometer, Watch With Us has selected only the best films for you to watch.
With around 90 percent on the Tomatometer, the Channing Tatum comedy Hail, Caesar!, the sobering drama Living and the classic action flick The Great Escape are all great pictures that make your Prime Video subscription more than worth it.
3. ‘Hail, Caesar!’ (2016)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 86 percent
Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin) is a fixer who solves the problems of his employer, the Hollywood movie studio Capitol Pictures. Eddie’s very good at his job, but even he’s flummoxed when he has to find Baird Whitlock (George Clooney), the hunky but dumb matinee idol who has mysteriously disappeared. In addition to solving that mystery, Eddie also has to help out a starlet, DeeAnna Moran (Scarlett Johansson), who finds herself inconveniently pregnant, and distract twin sister gossip columnists, the Thacker sisters (Tilda Swinton), who want to expose all of Capitol’s secrets to increase their declining readership. Oh, and there’s also a secret cabal of blacklisted Communist writers who want $100,000 from Eddie.
Hail, Caesar! is wild, nonsensical and kinda crazy, so is it any surprise it springs from the demented minds of the Coen brothers? Like their earlier comedies Raising Arizona and Burn After Reading, Hail, Caesar! boasts an eclectic cast, colorful visuals and sudden acts of violence that are as shocking as they are funny. Because it’s set in 1950s Hollywood, the movie has a loving nostalgia for an industry that no longer exists and stars that no longer shine as bright.
2.‘The Great Escape’ (1963)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 94 percent
In the middle of World War II, several hundred British and American soldiers are captured and held at a POW camp in Germany. Determined to escape, several men, led by Captain Virgil Hilts (Steve McQueen), attempt to dig their way out of captivity. But to pull off their great escape, they’ll have to sacrifice more than mere comfort to win back their freedom. With their lives in constant danger, can they afford to risk it all to escape? And if they don’t, can they afford not to when their enemies are all but guaranteed to kill them?
Based on an incredible real-life event, The Great Escape plays it fast and loose with the facts to tell its story. You don’t mind it too much because the movie is genuinely exciting — an action-thriller that really keeps you invested while also caring about what happens to its large cast of characters. McQueen was never cooler than he was here, and his motorcycle racing sequence remains an iconic staple of the genre. The supporting cast is just as good, with pretty much every ’60s character actor nailing their roles as McQueen’s breakout crew.
1. ‘Living’ (2022)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 96 percent
Rodney Williams (Bill Nighy) is an old London office clerk who has lost his zest for life. When he learns he has terminal cancer, he decides to make the most out of the short time he has left. Unfortunately, a lifetime of distance from his family leaves him isolated at a time when he needs them the most. When he runs into a young colleague from work, he strikes up an unlikely friendship that gives him the joy and purpose he lacked throughout most of his adult life.
Based on the acclaimed Akira Kurosawa film Ikiru, Living is all about dying and what it means to make the most of something as fleeting as life. The movie sounds more depressing than it actually is — instead, it’s a bittersweet drama that’s oddly uplifting and definitely moving. After a lifetime of supporting roles in such well-known films as Love Actually and About Time, Nighy is front and center in Living and gives a beautiful and nuanced performance. He was rightly nominated for an Oscar in 2023 for his efforts, and after watching Living, you’ll understand why.
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