It’s June, and it’s hot inside and outside. The weather has brought record-breaking heat to the Northeast, while the box office is sizzling with hits like Inside Out 2 and Bad Boys: Ride or Die. What’s a great way to cool down?
By staying home and watching movies, of course. And you can’t go wrong with Amazon Prime Video, which has thousands of movies at your disposal. But what’s good to watch? Digital Trends has selected three underrated movies currently streaming on Prime Video that are perfect to watch this weekend. Find out what they are, and why they are so great, below!
Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)
Some movies are so cinematic, they are extra pleasurable because you’re enjoying just how expertly and gracefully the director is putting it all together. That’s the case with Bram Stoker’s Dracula, a sumptuous adaption of the famous 1897 novel that gives the opportunity for director Francis Ford Coppola to show off all the tricks in his magician’s hat (Miniatures! Matte paintings! Practical effects! Superimposed shots!) while also reveling in all the blood, sex, and violence that is inherent in the oft-told tale.
Do I need to recap the plot? You know it already: Count Dracula is tempted by a woman who looks like a long-lost lover and will do anything to get his reincarnated love back. Many people die. Some become vampires. Europe, and sales of crucifixes, will never be the same again. With a game cast that includes a gleefully hammy Anthony Hopkins, a gothic, wispy Winona Ryder, and singer Tom Waits as a bug-eating Renfield, a terrific, histrionic score by Wojciech Kilar, and truly groundbreaking costumes by Eiko Ishioka, Bram Stoker’s Dracula is, above all else, a movie for movie lovers, and it’s as irresistible to anyone as sweet blood is to the ever-hungry Count D.
Bram Stoker’s Dracula is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
Mr. Holmes (2015)
What happens to great men once time passes them by? That’s the central question asked in Mr. Holmes, which imagines an elderly Sherlock Holmes in quiet retirement after World War II. The past still haunts him, however, as his last case was never settled to his satisfaction. Through his friendship with his housekeeper’s young son Roger, Sherlock musters up enough strength, and wits, to solves his final case before his memories fade away.
Mr. Holmes switches back and forth between the present and the past, but the narrative never gets lost. The mystery is pretty simple to solve, but that’s really not the point. Mr. Holmes is primarily concerned with how Holmes finds comfort through his unexpected friendship with Roger, which allows lead star Ian McKellen to give one of his finest performances ever onscreen. McKellan is still with us, thank God, and he deserves more roles as rich and entertaining as the one he has in Mr. Holmes.
Mr. Holmes is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
Call Me by Your Name (2017)
There isn’t one movie that screams “summer” on this list, and it’s time to rectify that. But instead of going for the obvious choice like The Sandlot, I’m opting for something a little bit different. Call Me by Your Name is typically categorized as a coming-of-age movie, and certainly, it is that. In telling the story of young Elio’s first real romance with another person, Oliver, director Luca Guadagnino (who just helmed the excellent Challengers) goes to painstaking lengths to situate the story within a luxurious, lazy summer setting.
It helps that the story is set in Northern Italy in the 1980s, which gives Guadagnino and lead stars Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer the opportunity to slowly but carefully walk the audience through beginning, middle, and end of a brief love affair between two people who least expected it. A fine drama, Call Me by Your Name is a feast for the senses. You can feel the afternoon sun beating against your skin, the cool waves of a pool nearby, and yes, even the sweet sting of a ripe peach that’s been split open by, well, you’ll find out. Most summer-set movies don’t achieve this kind of harmony and verisimilitude, and that makes the acclaimed 2017 film all the more sweeter to savor.
Call Me by Your Name is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
