Labor Day weekend shouldn’t be laborious, which is why it’s the perfect time to kick back, relax and watch a good movie or two.
You don’t even have to bother deciding which films to watch — that’s What to Watch’s job.
We’ve selected three great new Prime Video movies to stream over the long Labor Day weekend.
From a Charlize Theron action film and a ‘70s horror classic featuring John Travolta before he came down with a Saturday night fever, these films will make you grateful you don’t have to work on Monday.
‘Cape Fear’ (1991)
It’s safe to say that Max Cady (Robert De Niro) can nurse a grudge or two. He has a good reason, though – he was jailed for years due to his defense lawyer, Sam Bowden (Nick Nolte), hiding key evidence that could have acquitted him. That doesn’t mean Max is innocent – he’s a rapist and murderer, and now that he’s out of jail, he has only one goal: to make Sam and his family suffer as much as he did while he was locked away for all those years.
Cape Fear was recently remade into a bizarrely campy, 10-episode Apple TV miniseries starring Javier Bardem as Cady, but the ‘91 version remains the gold standard. (The 1962 original starring Robert Mitchum as Max is OK but dated. It’s also streaming on Prime Video.) Director Martin Scorsese flexes every cinematic muscle he has in bringing this pulpy revenge story to life, with split-diopter shots, stylistic color choices and a bombastic score from original composer Bernard Herrmann. The result is a thriller that’s both scary and fun; like a rollercoaster ride, it keeps moving and doesn’t give you much time to breathe. The cast is excellent, with the standouts being Jessica Lange as Sam’s unhappy wife and a young Juliette Lewis as her precocious teenage daughter.
Cape Fear is streaming on Prime Video.
‘Atomic Blonde’ (2017)
Being an avid modern moviegoer means a lot of things, and one of them is watching action films where Charlize Theron kicks ass and looks great doing it. Mad Max: Fury Road is her best film in this very specific genre, but Atomic Blonde is not too far behind. The Odyssey actress stars as MI6 agent Lorraine Broughton, who travels to Cold War-era Berlin to recover a stolen list of undercover agents operating in Europe. She teams up with local spy David Percival (James McAvoy) to track down the KGB agents who took it, but can she trust David – or anyone – in a dangerous game of secrets, lies and espionage?
Look beyond Atomic Blonde’s neon-colored surface, and you’ll find there’s not much there. But when a movie looks this good, why would you want to? The film’s spy story isn’t as deep as a John Le Carré plot, but rather an excuse to stage some pretty epic fight scenes. It also gives Theron just enough of a character to make you care if she hooks up with undercover French agent Delphine (Sofia Boutella) and somehow survives by the end of the film. It’s not a great action film, but Atomic Blonde is good enough and proves once again that Theron is one of the few real stars Hollywood has left.
Atomic Blonde is streaming on Prime Video.
‘Carrie’ (1976)
The beginning of September usually means it’s time to go back to school, and no one dreads that prospect more than Carrie White (Sissy Spacek). She’s a shy teen who is picked on by the other girls, but when the school hunk, Tommy Ross (William Katt), asks her to prom, she thinks she’s finally been accepted. Carrie quickly discovers it’s all a sham — she’s the target of another cruel prank that emphasizes just how different she is from all the other students. But what her tormentors don’t know is that they’re right — Carrie is different, and when she gets mad, no one is safe from her wrath.
No film better captures the horrors of high school than Carrie does — and that’s before anyone actually dies! Director Brian De Palma is clearly sympathetic to his heroine’s plight, and he shoots Spacek as if she’s some angel stuck in Hell. In a way, she is — school bullies are the worst, especially when they’re played with such dumb glee by then-nobodies John Travolta and Nancy Allen. As the titular heroine, Spacek gives one of the best performances ever in the horror genre. She’s matched only by Piper Laurie as Carrie’s mother, who thinks her daughter is an evil that only she can destroy. But like most teens, Carrie isn’t evil — she’s just misunderstood, and that makes her even more dangerous.
Carrie is streaming on Prime Video.
