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Welcome to an action-packed instalment of our guide to the best new movies on Prime Video to watch this weekend. This week we’ve picked out three exciting films in a range of action sub-genres, from frenetic fight flicks, to boxing biopics and a moody neo noir. The one thing these films have in common is that you need to see them.
Ballet dancers take on gangsters in the Uma Thurman-starring Pretty Lethal. Blow Out is steeped in intrigue and atmosphere. And Raging Bull is Raging Bull – one of the greatest films ever made in any genre.
Pretty Lethal
Available: US/UK
It’s dancers versus gangsters in this Prime Video original action thriller from director Vicky Jewson. Bones (Maddie Ziegler), Princess (Lana Condor), Grace (Avantika), Zoe (Iris Apatow), and Chloe (Millicent Simmonds) are part of an LA-based ballet troupe who attend a competition in Budapest. When their bus breaks down in the middle of a forest, the dancers take shelter in an inn owned by Devora (Uma Thurman), herself a former dancer, who has connections to some unsavory gangsters. Chaos and carnage ensues…
You wait ages for one action movie featuring a ballerina and then two come along at once… This hasn’t had the hype of the John Wick spin-off, but it’s a tight and pacy watch, with effectively staged action scenes. Ideal weekend fare, basically.
Watch Pretty Lethal.
Raging Bull
Available: US/UK
Is Raging Bull the greatest ever boxing picture? It’s hard to think of a greater on-screen depiction of the noble art in all its bruising, messy, complicated glory than Martin Scorsese’s masterpiece. Robert De Niro stars as Jake LaMotta, a rising middleweight boxer from the Bronx whose grit and strength bring him wild success in the ring, even as his personal life disintegrates.
Vividly filmed in black and white, this astonishing true story (based on LaMotta’s own memoir) remains a timeless work. Although it was not a huge financial success on release, it has only grown in stature in the decades since, and is now widely considered one of Scorsese’s very best works.
Watch Raging Bull.
Blow Out
Available: US/UK
Brian De Palma’s classic neo noir landed on Prime Video earlier this month. It stars John Travolta as Jack Terry, an audio technician who, while recording the sounds for slasher movie Co-ed Frenzy, accidentally stumbles into a mystery. He witnesses a dramatic car crash which kills the driver. Jack saves passenger Sally Bedina (Nancy Allen), but as they grow closer he discovers that the driver was a presidential hopeful, and that the accident may have, in fact, been a hit job.
Blow Out is part political thriller, part a meta exploration of the genre. It’s visually super slick, as you’d expect from De Palma, and steeped in a moody, sleazy atmosphere. A one-of-a-kind early ’80s classic.
Watch Blow Out.
Will Salmon
Recommendations for what to watch on Prime Video this weekend have come via Will Salmon, GamesRadar’s Streaming Editor. Will has been writing about film and TV for the last 20 years in the pages of SFX magazine and online here and loves mystery, sci-fi, and horror series in particular. If you still need a hand with what to watch this weekend, here’s a little quiz to help: