Archive for the ‘Videos’ Category

Amazon is really stepping it up with IMDB TV

November 8, 2020

Amazon is really stepping it up with IMDB TV

When Amazon launched IMDb TV in January of 2019 (it was then branded FreeDive), it seemed like an interesting move.

IMDb is one of my favorite Internet sites, something that I use every day. It’s a movie & TV reference site (launched in 1990, Amazon bought it in 1998).

This is the post I wrote at its launch:

Amazon introduces IMDb Freedive ad-supported videos…but Prime Video loses some content

While there were some good movies & TV shows, this ad-supported video streamer seemed like something nice for folks who didn’t pay for a subser (subscription service), including Amazon’s own Prime Video.

However, I’ve recently noticed that they’ve been offering really superior and/or hit titles!

There’s a lot of competition, not surprisingly, in the streamer market right now. We subscribe to several and use others. Amazon could either have chosen to just give up on the ad-supported IMDb TV (and concentrate on their subser Prime Video), or make IMDb TV a real competitor.

They’ve chosen the latter.

Here are some titles which caught my eye, some of them recently added:

Movies

  • Fury (2014-R): David Ayer directs Brad Pitt in a war drama
  • The Imitation Game (2014-PG13): Benedict Cumberbatch stars as Alan Turing, and was nominated for a Lead Actor Oscar for it; Keira Knightley was nominated for Supporting Actress
  • Ghost in the Shell (2017-PG13): Scarlett Johansson stars in this anime adaptation
  • Red (2010-PG13) & the sequel, Red 2 (2013-PG13): Helen Mirren, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, Bruce Willis star as retired assassins in a comedic adventure movie
  • Charlie’s Angels (2000-PG13): Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu are the Angels to Bill Murray’s John Bosley (with John Forsythe back as the voice of Charlie)
  • Nacho Libre (2006-PG): Jack Black in a Mexican wrestling comedy
  • Rosemary’s Baby (1968-R): Mia Farrow & Ruth Gordon in this adaptation of Ira Levin’s horror novel
  • Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939): Frank Capra’s uplifting comedy about a naive Senator played by Jimmy Stewart
  • Small Soldiers (1998-PG13): toy soldiers with military artificial intelligence chips act as though they alive in this Joe Dante sci-fi horror comedy. A nice touch: some voices are done by the original Dirty Dozen from 1967 (George Kennedy, Jim Brown, Clint Walker, Ernest Borgnine)…Sarah Michelle Gellar & Christina Ricci also voice characters in a scene
  • When a Man Loves a Woman (1994-R): Andy Garcia and Meg Ryan
  • The Monster Squad (1987-PG13): Fred Dekker’s cult comedy with Universal monster inspired, well, monsters after a magic amulet
  • Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993-PG): drama about a chess prodigy…if you are enjoying Queen’s Gambit on Netflix, you might find this interesting
  • Roxanne (1987-PG): Steve Martin in a modernized version of Cyrano de Bergerac
  • Popeye (1980-PG): Robin Williams & Shelley Duvall in a live-action version of the cartoon
  • Walking Tall (1973-R): Joe Don Baker as Sheriff Buford Pusser
  • His Girl Friday (1940): Howard Hawks directs Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell
  • The Boy from Brazil (1978-R): Gregory Peck, Lawrence Olivier, James Mason, Lilli Palmer, in a Hitler cloning story
  • Battle Royale (2000-R): Japanese movie where high school students fight to the death in a game…many see a parallel to the later The Hunger Games

Some others:

  • Whiplash
  • Closer
  • Mystery, Alaska
  • Big Fish
  • The Brothers Bloom
  • Major League
  • Midnight in Paris
  • 10 Cloverfield Lane
  • Layer Cake
  • True Lies
  • L.A Confidential
  • Starship Troopers
  • The Texas Chain Saw Massacre: 40th Anniversary Edition
  • Nick & Nora’s Infinite Playlist
  • Sliding Doors
  • Donnie Darko
  • Riverworld
  • Little Women (1994)

That’s just some of them! While I generally prefer to watch movies without ads, I’m okay with it quite a bit of the time. There is no charge, and no commitment on this: just ads. You don’t have to give up anything else you are doing, I just wanted you to be aware of how this option has improved.

Oh, and I only talked about movies there are TV shows, too. 😉

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This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog. To support this or other organizations, begin your Amazon shopping from a link on their sites: Amazon.com (Smile.Amazon.com)