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Amazon Prime Video has steadily become a highly revered and lucrative streaming platform, skillfully keeping pace with fellow competitors Netflix and Hulu thanks to their great original series and movies. The site is constantly producing high-quality material and presenting a wide range of topics. Whatever your taste or mood, you'll find something to suit you among the many options available.
Movies and television viewers have been calling for Amazon Prime to release some new original content, and with a slew of exciting projects, they seem to preparing for an artistic blitzkrieg. Between the recent release of season two of Undone and the upcoming third season of The Boys, Prime Video is unveiling some great content and don't seem to be slowing down any time soon. This goes doubly so with a summer slate of original Amazon movies. With their May schedule, summer is here early — with a strong library of new releases as well as award-winning movies from the past, let's take a look at what is coming in May.
7 Emergency
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This brand new 2022 thriller, Emergency, is a feature-length adaptation of Cary Williams and KD Dávila's 2018 short film of the same name. It will have a theatrical release on May 20th and fans won't have to wait long, with Emergency being released on Amazon Prime Video only a week later. The story follows three college students who return home from an eventful night of partying and are shocked with what they find upon entering their apartment.
They must weigh the pros and cons of the unexpected situation and try to avoid drawing suspicion from police in what early reviews have called an equally disturbing and funny film. Amazon's streaming library of suspenseful thrillers is only growing, and those who love exciting and cutting-edge movies will certainly be in for a treat with Emergency.
6 Gone Girl
2014's Gone Girl will be available on May 1st, though the David Fincher movie has drawn acclaim for its cold, dark narrative ever since it was released. In it, the disappearance of a man's wife becomes the focus of an intense media circus, but he quickly has to battle the media as he sees the spotlight turn on him when it's suspected that he may not be innocent. This is a wonderfully successful movie in both staying true to the murder mystery novel its based on, while still injecting its own unique style courtesy of Fincher. It was a perfect book-to-film adaptation, and one which shifts emphasis and perspective so many times that you don't know who to believe, but it definitely keeps you on your toes.
5 The Woods
The Woods is set in an all-female boarding school in the middle of a remote forest. A teenager begins to suspect that something strange is occurring when her classmates begin to disappear, and nothing is as it seems when something is lurking in the woods nearby. Having a well-developed storyline, the picture has a visually attractive style and an insidiously creepy vibe for the early 2000s, as well as good acting (with Patricia Clarkson, Lauren Birkell, Agnes Bruckner, and a great Bruce Campbell starring) and effective scares. The Woods is coming to Amazon Prime Video on May 1st.
4 The Twin
Jocelyn might have a perfect boyfriend, but Derek, his violent identical twin brother, has escaped from a mental facility and is now on the loose. Ashley, Jocelyn's mother, must act quickly to prevent her daughter from falling prey to a psychopath as Derek unleashes a twisted plan of revenge. The Twin, released in 2018, will be availabe on Amazon from May 6th, where we will be able to see Timothy Granaderos and his fantastic dual performance as good Tyler and evil Derek. Yes, it was a Lifetime original movie, but it's surprisingly good and effective, especially if you don't mind a little cheese.
3 A League Of Their Own - May 1st
If you're a fan of sports films, it's hard to forget 1992's brilliant movie, A League of Their Own, which will be on Amazon on May 1st (as will most non-original additions to their catalog from the past). The story follows Dottie and Kit, sisters and enthusiastic baseball players in small-town Oregon. The owner of the Chicago Cubs, fearing for the future of American baseball in the wake of World War II, recruits the sisters to join his expanding women's team. What follows is an incredible story of the Rockford Peaches. The Peaches win the World Series against all odds, paving the way for other women to pursue careers in baseball (and for great women's sports movies to be a thing). The movie also inspired an Amazon Prime series, so it's only be fitting for the original movie to be available too.
2 Bombshell
Bombshell is based on the real accounts of the women at Fox News who set out to expose the CEO of sexual harassment. The movie features a gifted cast including Margot Robbie, Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman, and follows the ambitious women as they become headlines of the news themselves, risking everything to stand up for what is right.
This movie shows the difficulty for victims of sexual harassment, especially in the workplace, and how inspiring their stories can be for other women to stand up and show their voice. Bombshell gained positive reviews, with specific praise for the compelling portrayals of the ambitious and determined women, earning them Academy Award nominations for their roles. Bombshell is available May 23rd for free, even without a Prime Video membership.
1 Taken
There is no doubt that you have heard Liam Neeson's iconic "I will find you" monologue in Taken. If you'd like to re-watch the film which kickstarted the action phase of Neeson's movie career, or especially if you haven't seen it, it is coming to Amazon Prime Video on May 1st. Neeson plays a retired CIA officer and divorcee, who listens helplessly while his daughter is kidnapped overseas. At this point, he offers her captors an ultimatum: either let her go or die. Right from the get go, Taken is extremely captivating, and Neeson brings the character to life, especially through the fantastic action sequences. For all action lovers, this will be another one to add to the ever-growing list of fantastic must-see movies on Amazon Prime Video.