Prime Video seems to have one resolution this year — to add more movies to its already impressive library.
That makes an already existing problem even more difficult to solve — which films are worth your time to stream?
That’s why Watch With Us has consulted with Rotten Tomatoes’ handy Tomatometer and Popcornmeter to select three new Prime Videos with at least 90 percent scores.
January’s new titles include the action sequel Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol starring Tom Cruise, the dramedy About a Boy and the teen classic The Breakfast Club.
‘Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol’ (2011)
Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer: 93 percent
Super agent Ethan Hunt (Cruise) is back, and this time, he has to save the world from certain destruction. The French assassin Sabine Moreau (Lea Seydoux) has stolen Russian nuclear codes, and she’s determined to sell them to the highest bidder. Ethan and his team of IMF agents, which now includes Simon Pegg’s tech expert, Benji Dunn, and Paula Patton’s field agent, Jane Carter, must stop her, but first, they have to find her. All signs of her current whereabouts point to Dubai, but can they track her down in time before the codes fall into the wrong hands?
Five years after Mission: Impossible III fell flat with critics and audiences, Ghost Protocol breathed new life into the venerable spy franchise. With a combination of a great new supporting cast, thrilling espionage story, and jaw-dropping stunts like Cruise scaling the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, without a safety net, this fourth entry in the M:I series still ranks as one of the series’ best.
‘About a Boy’ (2002)
Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer: 93 percent
Will Freeman (Hugh Grant) lives the good life. Rich, thanks to his deceased father’s Christmas song, Will’s days are filled with playing video games, shopping for the latest designer sneakers, and pursuing women he barely likes, let alone loves. All of that changes when 12-year-old Marcus (Nicholas Hoult) comes crashing into his life. Will initially uses Marcus to get closer to a single mom, Rachel (Rachel Weisz), but he winds up caring for the boy. Can a narcissistic guy like Will really change?
About a Boy is a winning comedy about two boys — Marcus and Will — who realize they have to grow up to be happy. In Will’s case, his maturity arrives about two decades too late, and it’s to Grant’s immense credit as an actor that he makes Will’s gradual transformation into a responsible adult mostly believable. About a Boy also spotlights a young Hoult, who would grow up to be an impressive actor in his own right in movies like Nosferatu and TV shows like The Great.
‘The Breakfast Club’ (1985)
Rotten Tomatoes Popcornmeter: 92 percent
Five teenagers — popular girl Claire (Molly Ringwald), jock Andrew (Emilio Estevez), nerd Brian (Anthony Michael Hall), weirdo Allison (Ally Sheedy) and delinquent Bender (Judd Nelson) — spend time together at school during Saturday detention. Overcome by boredom, they gradually get to know each other beyond their social facades. It turns out they have more in common than any of them thought, but will their newfound friendships survive beyond detention?
There’s a reason why The Breakfast Club is one of the defining movies of the ‘80s — and one of the best teen movies ever made. Unlike the sex-crazed comedies of the period like Porky’s, The Breakfast Club takes teenagers seriously and considers them deep, complex people worth examining. It’s also just fun to watch the five of them get into all sorts of antics, like dancing around the school and avoiding getting caught by the mean vice principal, Mr. Vernon (Paul Gleason).
