12 movies to check out on Prime Video this June

Air is a biographical sports drama directed by Ben Affleck about the origin of the Air Jordan line of sneakers. Affleck plays Nike co-founder Phil Knight in a film that also stars Matt Damon, Jason Bateman, and Viola Davis. The Amazon Studios production scored positive reviews from critics and pulled in over $89 million worldwide at the box office. Amazon decided to release the movie first in theaters instead of directly to Prime Video due to positive test screenings. But now you can watch a film about the creation of Air Jordans on Amazon while ordering a pair of Air Jordans on Amazon.

Prime Video kicks off Pride Month with Ang Lee’s 2005 romantic drama Brokeback Mountain, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger as sheep herders who develop a deep emotional and physical bond while on the job. The movie won three Oscars, including Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Original Score. Brokeback Mountain is generally regarded as the movie that broke queer cinema into the mainstream, so check it out for that and strong supporting performances by Anna Faris, Anne Hathaway, and Michelle Williams.

Before you check out Creed III at home, now is a great time to revisit the previous sequel, 2018’s Creed II. Michael B. Jordan returns as heavyweight champion Adonis Creed and, under the tutelage of Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone), faces off against Viktor Drago (Florian Munteanu), the son of Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren). Rocky fans know that the elder Drago and Balboa haven’t appeared on-screen since 1985’s Rocky IV, during which Adonis’ father, Apollo, dies in the ring while boxing Ivan. As of this date, Creed II marks Stallone’s final big-screen appearance as the Italian Stallion.

If you’re a Simon Pegg fan, there is a lot to celebrate this month on Prime Video. First up is Hot Fuzz, a buddy-cop action-comedy in which Pegg plays a London police office who gets transferred to a sleepy English village where grisly murders start taking place. It is the second film in director Edgar Wright’s so-called Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy, which also includes Shaun Of The Dead and The World’s End, both of which are also available on Prime Video this June. Hot Fuzz co-stars Nick Frost and Timothy Dalton, both of whom are a scream.

The 1984 musical drama Purple Rain starring Prince (in his acting debut) is pretty much the soundtrack of the 1980s. The movie won an Academy Award for Best Original Song Score and grossed over $72 million worldwide against a $7.2 million budget. The soundtrack includes megahits such as “When Doves Cry,” “Let’s Go Crazy,” and “Purple Rain.” So stream this classic in the background for your ’80s-themed summer party.

Although George A. Romero is considered the father of the zombie movie with films like Night Of The Living Dead and Dawn Of The Dead, 1985’s The Return Of The Living Dead, directed by Dan O’Bannon, introduced two important zombie concepts to the genre: zombies specifically crave brains and can be stopped permanently by a headshot. The horror-comedy starring Clu Gulager, James Karen, and Don Calfa is also known for its punk soundtrack, including “Partytime (Zombie Version)” by 45 Grave, as well as the unforgettable zombie character dubbed Tarman.

RoboCop is set in a dystopic Detroit that is overwhelmed by crime. Peter Weller plays a mortally wounded police officer who gets a whopper of an upgrade to become the titular cyborg cop. Although the movie still holds up as an ’80s sci-fi/action classic, director Paul Verhoeven also has a lot to say about greed, corruption, and the Reaganomics that shaped our culture in 1987. The movie spawned two inferior sequels and a remake, so it’s the original that you want to stream on Prime Video.

In Edgar Wright’s zombie comedy Shaun Of The Dead, Simon Pegg plays the titular, listless electronics salesman who is slow to notice the zombie apocalypse happening all around him. Pegg’s frequent costar Nick Frost plays his deadbeat roommate as the two deal with their new reality in which actual zombies are a lot more dangerous than the iPhone, selfie-snapping zombies seen shuffling around town on any given day. Shaun Of The Dead is the movie that introduced Pegg to a worldwide audience, so revisit his breakout role before you see him in theaters this summer in Mission: Impossible–Dead Reckoning Part One.

Before he got preoccupied with making Avatar movies, James Cameron wrote and directed the ridiculously entertaining 1994 summer blockbuster True Lies starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as a globetrotting secret agent and Jamie Lee Curtis as his in-the-dark wife. Curtis, who is now an Oscar winner, won a Golden Globe for Best Actress—Motion Picture Musical Or Comedy for her hilarious turn (and sultry striptease) as Helen Tasker. True Lies has been available on different streaming platforms in various levels of quality, so here’s hoping Prime Video pumps out a solid stream. The movie inspired a 2023 TV series of the same name, which has already been cancelled before Prime Video even got around to streaming the 1994 original this June.

Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi epic Interstellar is about a team of astronauts who embark on a mission through a wormhole near Saturn in an attempt to save humanity. The movie has a stacked cast that includes Matthew McConaughey, Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Michael Caine, and Ellen Burstyn. Nolan’s 2014 follow-up to The Dark Knight Rises won a Best Visual Effects Oscar and was nominated for several others. Since Interstellar’s release it has developed a cult following and astronomers have praised it for its scientific accuracy and interpretation of theoretical astrophysics. If you were making a list of the best sci-fi films of all time, Interstellar would likely be in your top 10.

Set in 1980, Armageddon Time is a coming-of-age story written and directed by James Gray about a young Jewish-American boy who befriends an African-American classmate in Queens, New York. The movie premiered at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival and stars Anthony Hopkins, Anne Hathaway, and Jeremy Strong. Despite being praised by critics, the prestige film failed to find an audience in theaters and only earned a worldwide total of $6.1 million. Now is your chance to stream the film at home as counter-programming to all the robots and superheroes in theaters.

Speaking of robots ... we’re not sure what kind of night you’re having on June 27, but if you start it by streaming M3GAN, it’s going to be a PARTY (in all caps). The sci-fi/horror movie starring Allison Williams, Violet McGraw, and Ronny Chieng was a surprise hit and has developed a cult following of fans drawn to the campy premise of a lifelike, violently sassy robotic doll who protects a little girl from bullies. We’re not sure if Prime Video is streaming the theatrical or unrated version, but we’re hoping it’s the latter.