Friday, April 14, 2017

I Stream, You Stream Vol. 27

by Patrick Bromley
Once you've had your fill of car chases and family this weekend, check out these great movies available to stream.

The Handmaiden (2016, dir. Park Chan-wook) Hey, remember a few weeks ago when Amazon began streaming The Handmaiden and so I recommended it in this column and then it was immediately taken down and people were all like "Hey, where's The Handmaiden?" I do. Luckily, it appears that now Amazon has made it available to stream for real this time. It's still my favorite movie of 2016. Watch it if you didn't get the chance to last time. (Watch on Amazon Prime Video)
Déjà Vu (2006, dir. Tony Scott) I recently wrote a 24 Hours of Movies column about time travel movies in which I made a case for Tony Scott's 2006 thriller being his most underrated effort. It's a movie I really like and one I think not enough people saw back when it was released because for once the marketing didn't fully reveal what the movie is really about. Someone at Netflix must have heard me because now it's available to stream. If you've never seen it, give it a chance; if you have and you didn't dig it, maybe give it a second one? K thanx. (Watch on Netflix)
True Romance (1993, dir. Tony Scott) As long as I'm recommending Tony Scott movies, I might as well recommend his very best. It also happens to be one of my favorite movies of all time and a film that helped define the kind of movie fan I became. I wrote about it a few years back, and everything I said then holds true today. It's streaming for free, no subscription service required. (Watch on Crackle)
Return of the Living Dead 3 (1993, dir. Brian Yuzna) I forgot just how good a sequel this was until I recently revisited the movie on the new Vestron Blu-ray. Having almost nothing to do with the two preceding RotLD movies, 3 is more of a doomed love story between J. Trevor Edmond and pre-O.C. Melinda Clarke's proto-goth chick, who is killed in a motorcycle accident and comes back as a self-aware zombie. Yuzna's movies always feature a ton of imaginative, gory practical effects and RotLD3 is no exception; in addition to the surprisingly strong emotional center, there is so much cool shit going on here that if the movie were better remembered, I think we'd be talking about it as one of the best zombie movies of the '90s. (Watch on Hulu)
Poison (1991, dir. Todd Haynes) The debut feature from writer/director Todd Haynes is a fascinating and ambitious examination of perceptions of homosexuality in the time of AIDS and queer panic. Told as pseudo-anthology, the film intercuts three isolated stories told in three very different styles: a tabloid news show, a '50s sci-fi monster movie and a gritty prison drama. The movie is rough and experimental in all the best ways, and one of the joys of watching Haynes evolve as a filmmaker is to see him continue that experimental streak while refining his aesthetics, though I would argue the interest in stylistic mimicry that begins here continues to carry on through much of his work. (Watch on Fandor)

7 comments:

  1. Canadian Amazon Prime doesn't have The Handmaiden. Instead, it has classics such as Van Helsing and Battleship, and a handful of Amazon Original content.

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    1. Don't sleep on "Battleship". That film is fun as shit. Not even kidding.

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    2. I rented the DVD when it came out, and I remember enjoying it. It was only later I learned that it apparently was the worst movie ever.
      Should give it a rewatch. Thanks.

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  2. I watched RotLD 3 in Amazon the other day, actually. And while I liked it, it must have been the theatrical cut because there was almost no gore.

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  3. it has classics such as Van Helsing and Battleship, and a handful of Amazon Original content.... Thanks for sharing.

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  4. My brother and I watched Return of the Living Dead 3 multiple times in the first few weeks after it showed up on cable. Basil Wallace was great as Riverman and there was something mesmerizing about Melinda Clarke. She was also a bright spot in Spawn despite being given very little to work with and was also pretty good in an episode of Firefly as well. I hate to comment on looks but she's only seemed to become even more attractive with age.

    I actually like 3 better than 2. Never bothered with the installments after that though.

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