11 movies to check out on Prime Video this October

The heist comedy A Fish Called Wanda directed by Charles Crichton is about a gang of thieves who double-cross one another to get their hands on some hidden jewels. The critically acclaimed movie starring John Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline, and Michael Palin was nominated for three Oscars. The A.V. Club’s Noel Murray writes, “A Fish Called Wanda winds up being a very personal film for Cleese, and not just because he cast his daughter in a key role (as his daughter, appropriately enough), and allowed himself to give the sweetest, fullest performance of his acting career. For all its dead dogs, swallowed fish, misquoted philosophy, and accidental nudity, A Fish Called Wanda is really about how Cleese admires the endless inventiveness and bravado of the Yank.”

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A bunch of James Bond movies drop on Prime Video this month, including Roger Moore’s final turn as 007 in A View To A Kill. This installment stars Christopher Walken, Tanya Roberts, and singer-model-actress-enigma Grace Jones in a story about a plot to flood California’s Silicon Valley. The titular theme song by Duran Duran is the only Bond theme to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100.

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Godzilla Vs. Kong rumbled our world during the pandemic when going to a theater was dicey and movies debuted concurrently on streaming services. Adam Wingard’s Godzilla Vs. Kong is the fourth movie in the Warner Bros. MonsterVerse, following Godzilla, Kong: Skull Island, and Godzilla: King Of The Monsters. The A.V. Club’s Katie Rife writes, “Much like its giant stars’ 1962 title fight, this is a thoroughly unserious film, with a bombastic score, wisecracking sidekicks, evil CEOs, radioactive battle axes, a titan-sized defibrillator, and even a moment reminiscent of the infamous ‘Martha’ scene from Batman V Superman. There may be a moral somewhere in Godzilla Vs. Kong about hubris and greed, but really, this movie knows you came to see monsters punch each other. And monsters punching each other you shall get.”

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Adam Sandler is enjoying a career upswing thanks to the success of Netflix’s You Are So Not Invited To My Bat Mitzvah, so it’s the perfect time to revisit one of his best comedies, The Wedding Singer. The rom-com set in 1985 stars Sandler as the titular character who falls in love with a waitress (Drew Barrymore). The A.V. Club’s Caroline Siede writes, “The Wedding Singer might look like a bawdy Adam Sandler salute to the ’80s, but its kindhearted worldview makes it a timeless and unique romance.”

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Out of all the new movies debuting on Prime Video in October, we are most looking forward to Totally Killer starring Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina actress Kiernan Shipka. In this horror-comedy directed by Nahnatchka Khan, Shipka plays a young woman who travels back in time to 1987 and teams up with her mom to stop the “Sweet Sixteen” killer and return to her own timeline before the clock runs out. Totally Killer also stars Olivia Holt, Julie Bowen, and Randall Park.

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Renfield may not have caught fire at the box office, but the horror-comedy about the dysfunctional relationship between Dracula (Nicolas Cage) and his long-abused servant Renfield (Nicholas Hoult) doesn’t suck—it’s actually a dead man’s party! The A.V. Club’s Jordan Hoffman writes, “Though Nicholas Hoult is charming as he struggles to find inner strength, Renfield lives or dies by Nic Cage camping it up. And he delivers. (This is not the first time he’s gone vampire batty, of course, if you remember 1988’s Vampire’s Kiss.) Cage in celadon-colored makeup craving the blood of cheerleaders ‘not for sexual reasons’ is a cheap laugh, but a good laugh. The Academy Award-winning actor is well aware of what he’s bringing to the table these days, and sometimes a band should get out there and play the hits.”

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The legal drama The Burial directed by Maggie Betts is based on a true story published in The New Yorker. Jamie Foxx plays unconventional personal-injury lawyer Willie E. Gary who helps a troubled funeral home owner (Tommy Lee Jones) sue a large funeral home company. The movie opened at the Toronto International Film Festival in September to critical acclaim. Betts previously directed Novitiate, a 2017 drama nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.

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In the British martial arts action-comedy Polite Society written and directed by Nida Manzoor in her feature film debut, Ria Khan (Priya Kansara) is an aspiring stuntwoman hell-bent on saving her older sister (Ritu Arya) from her impending marriage. This genre-bending gem debuted at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year and delighted critics.

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The Western drama Surrounded, directed by Anthony Mandler, is set five years after the Civil War ended. Letitia Wright plays Buffalo Soldier Moses “Mo” Washington, a freed Black woman who disguises herself as a man and travels west to claim a gold mine after thieves ambush her stagecoach. The film features the final appearance of Boardwalk Empire actor Michael K. Williams, who passed away in 2021.

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For those of you who never met a superhero movie you didn’t like, Shazam! Fury Of The Gods should tide you over until the next DC or Marvel spectacle drops in theaters. The superhero sequel directed by David F. Sandberg stars Asher Angel as Billy Batson, a teenager who transforms into his superhero alter ego (Zachary Levi) after saying the word “Shazam!” Rounding out the cast are Jack Dylan Grazer, Rachel Zegler, Adam Brody, Ross Butler, D.J. Cotrona, Grace Caroline Currey, Meagan Good, Lucy Liu, Djimon Hounsou, and Helen Mirren.

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In the horror-comedy Studio 666, directed by BJ McDonnell, the Foo Fighters (Dave Grohl, Nate Mendel, Pat Smear, Taylor Hawkins, Chris Shiflett, and Rami Jaffee) play themselves and move into a cursed historical mansion to record their 10th album. Whitney Cummings, Leslie Grossman, Will Forte, Jenna Ortega, and Jeff Garlin also star in this over-the-top movie that should tickle Foo Fighters fans even though the rest of the world might consider the concept about 25 years too late.

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