Ali, Panic Room and Jim Gaffigan: What's Coming to Amazon Prime in July 2020
The best of what is coming soon.
The summer continues for streaming, and Amazon is offering a long list of classic movies that are joining the Prime Video service, even if Amazon has downplayed recent reports that they’re planning to add large amounts of live video to the service. Some highlights:
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Ali (July 1.) There have been quite a few movies made about Muhammad Ali over the years, and with the exception of a documentary or two, the best one is Michael Mann's 2001 biopic, which starred Will Smith as The Greatest as he fought his induction into the Army and then Joe Frazier in the Rumble in the Jungle in 1974.
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Big Fish (July 1.) The best movie Tim Burton has ever directed, from 2003, starred Billy Crudup as a man who can never trust the tall tales told by his father Edward Bloom (Albert Finney), as Ewan McGregor acts out those tales as the younger Bloom. It started as a book and later became a Broadway musical, but the movie was this story at its best.
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Nick And Norah’s Infinite Playlist (July 1.) One of the most underrated romantic comedies of recent years, this 2008 comedy was set over the course of one long night in New York City and starred Michael Cera and Kat Dennings as a young potential couple up all night trying to find a rock show.
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Cold War (July 1.) No, this isn't Paweł Pawlikowski's Oscar-nominated 2018 film about the courtship of his parents; that was an Amazon Studios release that's been on Prime for the last two years. This Cold War is the 2012 Hong Kong police thriller, which starred Aaron Kwok, Tony Leung Ka-fai, and Andy Lau.
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Midnight in Paris (July 1.) Owen Wilson isn't exactly a natural choice as a Woody Allen stand-in, but he fit perfectly in this lovely 2011 comedy/drama, as a writer in present-day Paris who gains the ability to travel back in time each night to the "moveable feast." There, he gets to know Hemingway (Corey Stoll), Fitzgerald (Tom Hiddleston), and Dali (Adrien Brody.)
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Panic Room (July 1.) This 2002 thriller from David Fincher—the movie he made right after Fight Club—had Jodie Foster as a woman hiding out in the titular room with her daughter (a very young Kristen Stewart) from robbers of their apartment.
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Hanna, Season 2 (July 3.) This series, based on the 2011 movie about a young girl assassin that was directed by Joe Wright and starred Saoirse Ronan, debuts its first season in 2019. The second season, which still stars Esme Creed-Miles, Joel Kinnaman, and Mireille Enos, returns in early July.
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Jim Gaffigan: The Pale Tourist (July 24.) The famous comedian, who switched from Netflix to Amazon for his last special—which was Amazon's first-ever—is back again with another one, which coincides with a tour of drive-in comedy tour dates he has planned this summer.
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Radioactive (July 24.) This Amazon original, which debuted last fall at the Toronto International Film Festival, stars Rosamund Pike as Marie Curie. The film is based on a graphic novel and is directed by Marjane Satrapi.
Stephen Silver, a technology writer for the National Interest, is a journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to Philly Voice, Philadelphia Weekly, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Living Life Fearless, Backstage magazine, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.