Remember the days of channel surfing? When you just had to hope a good movie was on, or otherwise go to a video store and sift through the selection there? Simpler times!
Now, you have to sift through thousands of movies across various streamers to find what you want. If you don’t know what you want, it’s arguably even harder. So we’re here to take you back to simpler times; we’ve got just a small handful of movie recommendations for you this weekend, if you’re looking to watch something on Prime Video.
Take them, leave them, we’re okay either way. But here are three possibilities.
Late Night
With “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” completing its run this week, it feels fitting to watch an homage to late night, and “Late Night” serves exactly that function.
In this version of the world, there’s not only a female late night host (played by Emma Thompson no less), but she is the long-reigning queen of the format. But there’s still a dose of reality in there, as she faces declining ratings in a changing environment. So, she must adapt or be replaced. To help with that, she enlists a new writer, played by Mindy Kaling (who also wrote this movie). Together, the women manage to save the show, and get it back on top.
It wasn’t exactly a box office hit, but it was a biting commentary on the TV genre, and it notched Thompson a Golden Globe nomination.
Love Wrecked
Let me just say this upfront: “Love Wrecked” is not what many would call a good movie. It boasts a low 2.4-star average on Letterboxd right now and 48% on Rotten Tomatoes. But yes, I’m still recommending it.
At the very least, it’s probably an Amanda Bynes film that you had no idea existed, unless you randomly caught its premiere at the Dominican Republic International Film Festival in 2005, or got the DVD release way back when. It’s a bit of a travesty that this is the Bynes movie that came out immediately following “What a Girl Wants” — and immediately after “Mean Girls” for Jonathan Bennett, who also stars in this — but it’s part of her catalogue regardless.
Bynes really was a generational comedy talent, and it’s important to remember that. This will at least help the completionists out there who want to watch her whole catalogue.
And hey, if you’re a “Grey’s Anatomy” fan who’s missing the show during hiatus, Chris Carmack also stars in this as a famous musician, so that’s a bonus.
The Sandlot
The weather is getting warmer, the kids are out of school and we are firmly into baseball season at this point, so if you’re looking for more of a comfort watch that you’ve probably seen many times over, go for “The Sandlot.” And if you’ve made it this far with never seeing it, no judgement, but it’s a good time to remedy that too!
For those somehow unfamiliar, it centers on a group of boys who come together to play baseball at their local park in the Summer of 1962. Scotty is new in town, and joins the group to make friends, but he’s not great at baseball. But, like a good neighborhood crew would, they help him polish his skills, and they all become close friends along the way.
That’s admittedly a pretty simplified version of the coming-of-age film, but it’s hard to truly sum up (at least in this list) why this movie has been a classic for multiple generations. It’s just great, really.
