Prime Video – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

WEEK IN WOMEN: Laura Kittrell’s LEGALLY BLONDE prequel ELLE premiers on Prime in 240 countries – Brandy McDonnell reports

June 26, 2026June 27, 2026 Brandy McDonnell elle, hello sunshine, laura kittrell, legally blonde, Lexi Minetree, Prime Video, reese witherspoon

Created by Laura Kittrell, the prequel to the “Legally Blonde” movies will follow a younger version of Elle Woods, the beloved cinematic character famously originated by Reese Witherspoon. Ahead of the series’ debut, Prime Video has already ordered a second season. In the first season, the show follows the title character as a high school student, revealing the life experiences that shaped her into the iconic young woman audiences came to know and love in the first “Legally Blonde” film. Elle is co-showrun and executive produced by Kittrell and Caroline Dries. Witherspoon, Lauren Neustadter, and Marc Platt and Amanda Brown also serve as executive producers. Jason Moore (“Pitch Perfect”) directed the first two episodes of the first season and also serves as an executive producer.

Reviews

HEADS OF STATE – Review by Susan Granger

July 9, 2025July 13, 2025 Susan Granger Heads of State, Idris Elba, Ilya Naishuller, jack quaid, John Cena, Prime Video, Priyanka Chopra Jonas

Without a big budget or bankable stars, Heads of State manages to be a remarkably entertaining action/buddy comedy. It’s predictably directed by Ilya Naishuller who relies on the energetic ability of John Cena and Idris Elbeto glibly bicker-and-banter their way through one dire, diverting dilemma after another.

Reviews

LOCKED – Review by Susan Granger

May 27, 2025June 2, 2025 Susan Granger anthony hopkins, Ashley Cartwright, Bill Skarsgard, David Yarovesky, Locked, Michael Arlen Ross, Prime Video

Locked is terrifying because of its believability. Sleazy, selfish Eddie Barrish is a petty thief and deadbeat dad who forgets to pick up his daughter from school and is perpetually behind on child support payments. He spots a black luxury SUV in a remote parking lot. Hoping to find cash, perhaps in the glove compartment, he’s stunned to find the car unlocked. Surreptitiously slipping inside for a quick search, Eddie suddenly realizes that he can’t get out.

Reviews

LAST BREATH – Review by Susan Granger

May 8, 2025May 9, 2025 Susan Granger Alex Parkinson, Bobby Rainsbury', Finn Cole, Prime Video, Simu Liu, truth-based, woody harrelson

If you enjoy sitting on the edge of your seat, heart-racing, biting your nails with anxiety about what will happen next, Last Breath is for you. Based on a true story, it’s about a diver performing routine pipeline repair work 300 feet below the surface of the North Sea when the cable attached to his diving bell snapped, leaving him stranded in the dark with his oxygen running out.

Reviews

RUST – Review by Susan Granger

May 5, 2025May 5, 2025 Susan Granger Alex Baldwin, Apple TV+, Bianca Cline, Halyna Hutchins, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, Joel Souza, Patrick Scott McDermott, Prime Video

Nearly four years after Alex Baldwin’s prop Colt .45 – inadvertently loaded with ‘live’ ammunition – killed 42 year-old Ukrainian cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounded director Joel Souza, their movie Halyna Hutchins is now streaming. Instead of consigning the film to the scrap-heap where it belongs, vultures are circling as profiteers from a senseless tragedy that never should have happened. Underwritten by director Joel Souza from Alec Baldwin’s story, it’s inept, at best, never resolving its 19th century law/justice/religion narrative themes.

Reviews

THE ORDER – Review by Susan Granger

January 27, 2025February 2, 2025 Susan Granger aryan nations, jamie bowen, jude law, Justin Kurzel, Prime Video, the order, the silent brotherhood, The Turner Diaries, victor slezak

Based on a true story that delves into America’s scourge of white supremacy, The Order stars Jude Law as a veteran FBI agent who stumbles on a virulent hate group operating in the Pacific Northwest in the 1980s. When grizzled Terry Husk (Law) is dispatched to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, in 1983, his assignment is to investigate a series of bank and armored-car robberies, along with a synagogue bombing and murder of Denver talk-show host Alan Berg. Working with a conscientous local cop, Husk discovers undeniable links to a secluded mountain cult called Aryan Nations, headed by cautious Rev. Richard Butler.

Reviews

CHALLENGERS – Review by Susan Granger

December 18, 2024December 18, 2024 Susan Granger Challengers, josh o'connor, luca guadagnino, mgm, Mike Faist, Prime Video, tennis, zendaya

Italian director Luca Guadagnino’s emotional entanglement saga involving three tennis players is certainly one of the most challenging in recent memory. It begins as discontented top-ranked tennis pro Art Donaldson (Mike Faist) is nearing is 40th birthday and obviously tiring of the game, much to the distress of his ultra-competitive wife/coach Tashi Duncan (Zendaya). To restore his mojo, she urges him to enter a low-level Challenger tournament in New Rochelle, New York. What she doesn’t realize is that Donaldson’s long-time on-court rival, Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor) is one of the participants. Down-on-his-luck and so strapped for cash that he sleeps in his car, Zweig needs a win there in order to qualify for the U.S. Open.

News

WEEK IN WOMEN: Karen Kingsbury’s BAXTER books will be Prime Video Series – Brandy McDonnell reports

March 21, 2024March 19, 2024 Brandy McDonnell Karen Kingsbury, Prime Video, Roma Downey, The Baxters, the week in women, twiw

Prime Video has acquired the series The Baxters. The family drama is slated to stream this spring exclusively on the Amazon streaming service in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide. Based on the worldwide best-selling book series by Karen Kingsbury, The Baxters stars and is executive produced by actress, producer and New York Times best-selling author Roma Downey, who plays the family matriarch, Elizabeth Baxter. Season 1 centers on daughter Kari who learns that her professor husband has been secretly having an affair with one of his students. As her relationship is tested, Kari must seek comfort in her faith and family to discover if love is truly a choice and if her marriage can be redeemed. In the faith-based series, The Baxters must come together as a family to work through the challenges of life.

Reviews

WHAT HAPPENS LATER – Review by Susan Granger

January 9, 2024January 10, 2024 Susan Granger Apple TV+, David Duchovny, meg ryan, Prime Video, Vudu, What Happens Later

After an eight-year hiatus, actress Meg Ryan returns to the big screen, co-writing, directing, producing and starring in the disappointing romantic comedy What Happens Later.
Based on Stephen Dietz’s 2008 play Shooting Star, the story revolves around former lovers who are stranded together at a small regional airport during a snowstorm. Toting a rain-stick and dressed in bohemian garb, Willa (Ryan) is a free spirit, “a wellness practitioner in the healing arts,” while Bill (David Duchovny) is a buttoned-up businessman, suffering from “anticipatory anxiety.” They hooked up 25 years ago when they were students at the University of Wisconsin.

Reviews

THE RETIREMENT PLAN – Review by Susan Granger

November 8, 2023November 12, 2023 Susan Granger Apple TV+, Jackie Earle Haley, Nicolas Cage, Prime Video, Ron Perlman, Thalia Campbell, The Retirement Plan, Tim Brown, Vudu

After a brief release in theaters, Nicolas Cage’s newest action-comedy The Retirement Plan is now streaming. The story begins in Miami with a heist that goes terribly wrong. As a result, Jimmy (Jordan Johnson-Hinds) and his wife Ashley (Ashley Greene) are in possession of an incriminating flash-drive that mobster, Donnie (Jackie Earle Haley) promised to give Hector (Grace Byrne), who heads an organized crime syndicate.

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