This weekend may be dominated by superheroes (Thunderbolts*) and vampires (Sinners), but in the streaming world, it’s all about simple favors and four seasons.
For those who don’t want to watch Amazon’s Another Simple Favor or Netflix’s comedy The Four Seasons, there are plenty of underappreciated older movies worth watching.
Prime Video has tons of them, and the best ones to watch this weekend include a drama based on a real-life kidnapping, a disaster movie starring a former James Bond and a Clint Eastwood musical. (Yes, really.)
‘All the Money in the World’ (2017)
In 1973, 16-year-old John Paul Getty (Charlie Plummer) was kidnapped and held for ransom by a mob-like gang of Italian criminals. Desperate, his middle-class mother, Gail (Michelle Williams), asks her ex-father-in-law, and John Paul’s grandfather, to pay the $17 million ransom. He declines but asks a former CIA operative, Fletcher Chance (Mark Wahlberg), to help get John Paul back.
All the Money in the World is a dramatization of a very real event that involved the world’s richest man, John Paul Getty (Christopher Plummer), and his refusal to part with a tiny fraction of his fortune to save the life of a loved one. The Ridley Scott movie sensationalizes some of the details, but it’s mostly accurate. It works as a tense thriller as well as a study of a mother’s tireless pursuit to get her child back at any cost.
All the Money in the World is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
‘Dante’s Peak’ (1997)
Hollywood has a history of releasing two similar movies at the same time — anyone remember the great 1998 showdown between Deep Impact and Armageddon? In 1997, two disaster movies involving an erupting volcano were released within months of each other — Dante’s Peak in February and Volcano in April. Both aren’t classics, but Dante’s Peak is good enough to be the one worth watching in 2025.
Harry Dalton (Pierce Brosnan) is a widowed volcanologist assigned to investigate seismic activity in Dante’s Peak, Washington. After bonding with the town’s mayor, Rachel (Linda Hamilton), and her two kids, Harry finds enough evidence to deduce that a volcanic eruption is imminent and strong enough to destroy the entire town. Can Harry warn the authorities in time to avert disaster?
Dante’s Peak is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
‘Jersey Boys’ (2014)
Wait, Clint Eastwood made a musical? That’s right, the actor-director most famous for his Westerns and tough-guy action roles directed Jersey Boys, the feature film adaptation of the long-running Broadway musical. It’s actually pretty good, but your enjoyment will depend on whether or not you like the Four Seasons.
The movie depicts the rise of the popular music group in the 1950s and 1960s as they find success with songs like “Sherry” and “Walk Like a Man.” But their newfound fame also brings them misfortune, and encounters with the mob and drug use threaten to tear the band apart. Can lead singer Frankie Valli (John Lloyd Young) find success without the group that first gave him the spotlight?
Jersey Boys is less like Wicked and more like a biopic with songs. Watching how The Four Seasons began is surprisingly fascinating, and the music is undeniably catchy. After the movie is over, you’ll be walking away with a new appreciation for the group that brought the world “Big Girls Don’t Cry.”
Jersey Boys is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
