11 movies to check out on Prime Video in November

Batman Returns is the second and last installment of the Batman franchise directed by Tim Burton. Michael Keaton returns as Bruce Wayne, who faces off against Catwoman (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Penguin (Danny DeVito) in a fan-favorite sequel set during Christmastime in Gotham City. Prime Video also adds Batman, Batman Forever, and Batman & Robin in November, but Batman Returns is more seasonal and, well, memorable. After Batman Returns, Keaton didn’t return to the role until 2023’s The Flash.

Pam Grier stars as the titular nurse turned vigilante who goes after the heroin dealer who got her sister addicted to smack in the blaxploitation classic Coffy. Written and directed by Jack Hill, this is the iconic role that cemented Grier’s status as the Queen of Blaxploitation in the 1970s, and her performance inspired Quentin Tarantino to cast Grier as the titular character in Jackie Brown. Coffy also stars Booker Bradshaw, Robert DoQui, and Sid Haig. As Coffy says, “You’d better believe it’s coming!”

In Paul Verhoeven’s Hollow Man, scientist Sebastian Caine (Kevin Bacon) volunteers to be the first human test subject for a serum that renders an individual invisible. When his team is unable to reverse the process and render Caine visible again, he begins to lean into his darker impulses and what he can get away with when nobody can see him. Although the sci-fi/horror film got negative reviews, it became a box office hit and was nominated for a Best Visual Effects Oscar. Hollow Man also stars Elisabeth Shue and Josh Brolin.

Director Simon McQuoid’s pandemic hit Mortal Kombat is a reboot of the martial arts fantasy franchise based on the video game of the same name. The movie follows Cole Young (Lewis Tan), a MMA fighter unaware of his family lineage or why the assassin Sub-Zero (Joe Taslim) is after him. Mortal Kombat also stars Jessica McNamee, Josh Lawson, Tadanobu Asano, Mehcad Brooks, Ludi Lin, Chin Han, Max Huang, and Hiroyuki Sanada. Although critics were unimpressed with the CG-heavy reboot, Mortal Kombat was successful enough that a sequel is in development with McQuoid returning as director.

Years before Squid Game, The Running Man imagined a dystopian future in which contestants are forced to play on a life-or-death TV game show. Arnold Schwarzenegger plays Ben Richards, a falsely convicted policeman forced to participate in the deadly game show hosted by Damon Killian (Richard Dawson of Family Feud). The Paul Michael Glaser-directed movie also features María Conchita Alonso, Yaphet Kotto, Jesse Ventura, and bunch of patented, sometimes groan-inducing Schwarzenegger one-liners, such as “he had to split” and “what a hothead.”

Trashed by critics and dismissed by joyless, elevated-cinema snobs, Paul Verhoeven’s Showgirls found redemption as a home video hit and camp classic worthy of midnight fan screenings for connoisseurs of unintentional humor. In what is essentially All About Eve set at a tacky Las Vegas stage show, drifter Nomi Malone (Saved By The Bell’s Elizabeth Berkley) slides into town and sets her sights on gyrating around a plastic volcano as the star of Goddess at the Stardust. Gina Gershon chews the scenery as Cristal Connors, the veteran star of Goddess and woman standing in the way of Nomi’s life goal. As Cristal says, “There is always someone younger and hungrier coming down the stairs after you.” The endlessly quotable movie, filled with accidental LOL moments and a killer mid-’90s soundtrack, also stars Kyle MacLachlan and Rena Riffel, the latter of whom returned for the obscure sequel Showgirls 2: Penny’s From Heaven.

If you’re not a fan of K-pop or don’t even know what K-pop is, please just click on the “next” arrow. But for those of you who are fans of South Korean boy band BTS, featuring RM, Jin, SUGA, j-hope, Jimin, V, and Jung Kook, check out BTS: Yet To Come In Cinemas—a cinematic cut of the group’s Busan concert re-edited and retooled for theaters and, now, home video. Expect hit songs such as “Dynamite,” “Butter,” and “IDOL,” plus the first-ever concert performance of “Run BTS” from the boys’ 2022 anthology album Proof.

Maxine’s Baby: The Tyler Perry Story is a documentary about the man behind Madea. The official synopsis of the doc, directed by Gelila Bekele and Armani Ortiz, reads, “Tyler Perry is America’s consummate multihyphenate. But underneath this entertainment behemoth is a man working humbly to heal his childhood trauma by transforming his pain into promise. Maxine’s Baby: The Tyler Perry Story, a nod to his mother’s love, is an intimate portrait of visionary Tyler Perry and his harrowing but faithful road to the top of an industry that didn’t always include him.”

Evil Dead Rise, the fifth installment in the Evil Dead series created by Sam Raimi, takes place in a condemned Los Angeles apartment building where the reunion between two estranged sisters is cut short when Deadites infiltrate the space and possess the residents. The A.V. Club’s Andy Klein writes, “For fans of the franchise, Evil Dead Rises marks a welcome return to the seamless blend of humor and genuine scares and creepiness that Raimi created 42 years ago.”

Elf Me is an Italian Christmas comedy directed by someone or some entity named YouNuts! (with an exclamation point). The official description reads, “Trip is an unconventional elf. As Santa’s helper, he seems to succeed only in building bizarre weapons rather than toys. Fate will lead him to meet Elia, a shy and unconventional boy pursued by a gang of bullies. The two will help each other and together discover the value of friendship.”

If you’re the type of person who will show up to a movie just to hear Morgan Freeman read a phone book, the drama A Good Person starring Freeman and Florence Pugh is worth a look even though it didn’t exactly wow critics. The A.V. Club’s Murtada Elfadl writes, “Writer-director Zach Braff speeds through the setup to get to the meat of his film: the relationship between Allison and Daniel (Morgan Freeman). He’s a retired cop who’s been sober for years and has been affected by the same tragic accident that Allison survived. They run into each other by chance in an AA meeting and soon they are helping each other navigate their grief. Allison is trying to kick her opioid addiction while Daniel is raising his teenage granddaughter (Celeste O’Connor) on his own. Shenanigans ensue.”