Best new movies and TV series on Amazon Prime Video Australia: August 2024

Each month, new films and TV shows are added to Amazon Prime Video‘s Australian library. Eliza Janssen presents her picks for titles worth watching. For the full list of everything arriving on the platform, scroll down.

Top picks: TV

Batman: Caped Crusader: Season 1 (August 1)

The best Batman stories centre the grouchy emo hero’s detective work, so this brand new animated series is onto something clever by turning back the clock to show a more retro Gotham. Hamish Linklater voices Bruce Wayne/Batman, his film noir roots more strongly on display as he faces off against the usual rogues gallery of costumed weirdos: Two-Face, Harley Quinn, Catwoman (Christina Ricci!) and more. A nice reset without the big stakes that burden each new Batman movie reboot—the last film’s director Matt Reeves is a producer on this show.

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The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Season 2 (August 29)

Amazon’s big, eye-wateringly budgeted gamble on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien marches on into its sophomore season, with Sauron now a main player and Middle Earth on the brink of calamity. Everyone in the show’s expansive, expensive setting is threatened by his promise to bind the world in darkness; the gentle Harfoots, industrious and loveable dwarves, and even the brave elf Galadriel (Morfydd Clark), who has a devastating personal connection to the mysterious baddie. If you felt season one took too long to reach that awesome siege in its final episodes, prepare for a bigger and badder follow-up chapter.

Top picks: Movies

Ferrari (August 20)

I dunno if Adam Driver was the right pick to lead Michael Mann’s racing biopic. He’s not particularly convincing as an elderly Italian man, and his performance gets completely bodied by the emotionally volatile hurricane of a performance that Penelope Cruz blesses us with. Nevertheless, Ferrari is well worth your time, establishing a fine lacquer of period glamour and fast-paced action before deconstructing it in scenes of completely unexpected tragedy—hubris shredded into nothingness. For real; the way Enzo’s racers end the climactic Mille Miglia will leave your jaw on the floor.

The Beekeeper (August 23)

You won’t believe how many out-of-place bee metaphors there are in this supremely silly action-revenge flick, so I won’t even try to convey it; you’ll just have to watch the heavy-handed madness yourself. Jason Statham does his usual gruff shtick as a high-powered operative, laying low until scumbag scammers drive his lovely elderly neighbour to suicide. They’ve obviously messed with the wrong beekeeper, and so the bald Brit must crack some skulls to deliver vengeance. Josh Hutcherson has a lot of fun as an evil, vaping finance bro, and Jeremy Irons is so above his role as a shadowy insider, delivering a cumbersome monologue about how bees protect the queen and all that.

Almost Famous (August 31)

Are you constantly whinging about how music ain’t as good as it used to be, or that you were born in the wrong generation? Cameron Crowe’s 2000s drama is a road trip through rock n’ roll history, following a rookie Rolling Stone reporter, a gorgeous groupie (Kate Hudson), and the fictional band Stillwater on an existential adventure that only plays the hits. There are semi-autobiographical moments here, drawn from Crowe’s own work as a teen music journo, and a banging 1970s soundtrack—that bus singalong of “Tiny Dancer” always manages to force a smile out of us, just as it does for the film’s weary, hard-partying characters.

All titles arriving on Prime Video Australia in August

August 1

The Angry Birds Movie
The Angry Birds Movie 2
Batman: Caped Crusader: Season 1
Call Me By Your Name
Influenced: Season 1
Love and Death
The Lost City

August 2

A Sacrifice
Beacon 23: Season 2

August 4

The Circle

August 8

One Fast Move
The Mallorca Files: Season 3
The Shakedown

August 13

The Hitman’s Bodyguard
Rumour Has It

August 15

Catch the Ghost: Season 1
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
Jackpot!
Underworld: Awakening
White House Down