11 Best Movies on Amazon Prime India

My Old Ass has a very simple premise, one it doesn’t even take the effort of explaining. For whatever reason, 18-year-old Elliot meets her 39-year-old self, and they talk at length about life. Naturally, older Elliot gives her younger self some advice to improve her life. But she also gives her a grave warning: under no circumstances must she be with a man named Chad. The film then follows younger Elliot as she tries to heed her advice and learn a lot about life in the process. Now, on paper, that may sound like sentimental schmaltz, but the two actresses playing Elliot—Stella and Plaza—are what make the film so grounded and enjoyable. Stella is bursting with life and energetic humor, while Plaza delivers her signature stoic wit. That’s not to say she’s lifeless though. By the time the climax rolls in, you’ll be struggling to keep the tears in.

A big part of Strange Darling’s charm is its ability to surprise you with one twist after another, so it’s best not to get into too many details here. What we will say is that director J.T. Mollner and his cast execute those twists with great finesse, making sure not to waste even a second of your time. The non-linear approach might seem gimmicky at first, but once Mollner presents all the pieces of the puzzle, it ends up feeling like a satisfying payoff. Even if you manage to guess where the film is headed, it still makes for an entertaining watch. Willa Fitzgerald is especially captivating.

For the longest time, land was where people formed strength in community, where people were born, lived, died, and was buried in, but it was also how empires grew in power, often at the expense of the people that came before. Exhuma is centered in a haunted burial site of a Korean family that migrated due to the war, but as the shamans try to unearth the casket, they also uncover the psychospiritual ways in which Japan colonized Korea– haunting the land with their own ghosts, dividing its people through belief, and leaving deep scars that hasn’t yet been fully recovered from. While the double exorcism situation can be a tad confusing, Exhuma nonetheless elevates this folk horror drama with their respect and attention to detail for Korean shamanism.

Are connections truly fated, completely chosen, or purely circumstantial? The slow tragedy of Henry James’ The Beast in the Jungle hangs entirely on the question, which captivated readers and filmmakers with the concept, including Bertrand Bonello, which forms the foundations of 2023’s The Beast. Bonello lets loose The Beast in the Jungle into an AI playbox of time and space and destiny, transforming the simple examination of human life into a sci-fi epic, a moving period romance, and an existential mystery all at once. It can occasionally feel a bit jumbled up at times, with the way Bonello jumps across lives, but Léa Seydoux and George MacKay hold everything together with their performance, making La Bête deeply striking, if a bit derivative.

Thirteen Lives is a taut, no-nonsense film that smartly forgoes dramatizing an already well-known case and, instead, hones in on the excruciating but impressive ordeal that is rescue diving. The divers are played by Viggo Mortensen and Colin Farrell, both of whom are convincing in their expertise and heroism. But this isn’t to say this story is theirs. Howard does well to center the narrative on the locals and even makes use of their language, Thai, for most of the film’s run. It’s as sensitively told as it is genuinely gripping.

You know how, instead of condemning sexual violence, some people patronizingly advise women to go home early, move in groups for safety, and make sure to lock the door for safety? Stree takes this usual advice and uses it instead as fictional ritual practices for the men in the small town of Chanderi to escape from the titular spirit. It’s a rather cheeky inversion, one that resolves in a familiar, though understandable, way. While Stree takes a more comedic, jumpscare approach, it does rightly point out that if half of the population acted like this spirit, then the fear the other half feels would undeniably be reasonable.

The concept of a soulmate– the idea that there is someone out there that you’re meant to meet, who’s been made for you to be with, and vice versa– has inspired plenty of romance stories. Dil To Pagal Hai is one such musical centered on the idea. There are some flaws, especially with the love triangle, but the stacked cast, the classic soundtrack, and the elaborate, gorgeous dance numbers are just so enthralling to watch. There’s an interesting thread with the way the two leads’ lives mirror each other even before they meet, as well as the way the film contemplates the decades’ anxieties over crafting the modern woman, which makes Dil To Pagal Hai not perfect, but iconic nonetheless.

The first My Spy film was a fun caper that let kids imagine what life could be like if they trained and fought alongside the country’s top agents. This second film, set in Italy and following a now-tween Sophie, tries to be more grown up than the last but instead falls flat in every aspect. The script is bland, the plot is cliched, and even the performances aren’t as exciting this time around. To be sure, there are still laughs to be had, especially when Bobbi (Kristen Schaal) is onscreen, but for the most part, the stacked cast’s talents are wasted. Bautista and Ken Jeong, who plays the boss, are perennial worrywarts, while Anna Faris (in a secret role) is stuck playing a caricature. What a waste of comedic potential! If you’re planning to see this with your kids, it’s harmless good fun, but don’t expect to pick up anything new or worthwhile watching this.

There’s something genuine at the core of Jackpot that unfortunately gets lost in the movie’s violence, spectacle, and “humor,” which is that life has become so unlivable in America that resorting to a Purge-like scenario now seems more likely than receiving actual care and rights from the state. You can see it whenever Katie (Akwafina), a struggling actor, is given room to express her frustration and desperation. These moments, small as they are, feel real and relatable, and they recall Akwafina’s superior performance in the 2018 drama The Farewell, which I believe she should do more of, instead of films like this. And by films like this, I mean Jackpot, which feels like a streaming filler meant to be consumed and forgotten the moment it ends (assuming you don’t pause and look for something else midway). If you want mindless action, then this film could be for you. John Cena is reliably cool, and Machine Gun Kelly makes a surprisingly hilarious cameo. But if you’re looking for something meaningful, you’ll have to buy a ticket elsewhere.

Murder mysteries don’t have to be full of twists to be worthwhile, but if you’re going the predictable route, you might as well make it an exciting one. Killer Heat, despite its name, feels cold and dragging. Gordon-Levitt’s Bali shoots for mysterious and debonair, like the detectives of noir past, but instead, he feels more like a parody of those characters. He never seems to ground Bali into something real, no matter how many flashbacks we get of his tragic family life. Madden similarly feels more like a trope than anything, and it’s beyond frustrating to watch him waste the opportunity to play identical twins. Where other actors seemed to have a blast at this (see: Jeremy Irons in Dead Ringers or even Lindsay Lohan in Parent Trap), Madden is just plain indistinguishable. Woodley is the film’s sole believable character, but her affecting performance isn’t enough to save the film.