11 movies to check out on Prime Video this March

As Madonna crisscrosses the globe on her Celebration Tour performing her greatest hits, check out the Material Girl in her first major film role in the comedy-drama . Madonna essentially plays herself in the Susan Seidelman-directed movie as a street-smart bohemian New Yorker whose life becomes entangled with a bored housewife (Rosanna Arquette) via the personals section of a newspaper. The hit movie includes one of Madonna’s best songs: “Into The Groove.”

In 1989’s , Patrick Swayze plays professional New York bouncer James Dalton, who gets recruited to take over security at a Missouri roadside bar named the Double Deuce. The Rowdy Herrington-directed action film also stars Ben Gazzara, Kelly Lynch, and Sam Elliott. Although most critics panned it, some consider Road House one of those so-bad-it’s-good movies, like Showgirls or Mommie Dearest, when viewed from an ironic perspective. Although it earned an impressive-for-the-time $61 million at the worldwide box office against a $15 million budget, Road House really cleaned up on home video and streaming sales, reportedly earning more than $203 million.

represents Tim Burton’s only straightforward horror movie to date. Yes, there are moments of humor from Johnny Depp as jittery New York City police constable Ichabod Crane, but this atmospheric adaptation of Washington Irving’s “The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow” has some genuinely frightening moments as the Headless Horseman decapitates numerous victims in the foggy Dutch hamlet. Sleepy Hollow won the Academy Award for Best Art Direction and deserves a second look from those who dismissed it upon its initial release for not being as whimsical as Burton fans expected. The gothic horror gem also stars Christina Ricci, Miranda Richardson, Michael Gambon, Casper Van Dien, and Jeffrey Jones.

stars Kevin Costner as a man trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic world after the polar ice caps have melted and very little dry land is left. Playing out like a sopping wet The Road Warrior, Waterworld struggled to recoup its massive budget but, many years later, it eventually turned a profit thanks to home video and TV broadcast rights. Watching it today, there is much to like about this movie, which was the butt of a lot of jokes at the time of its release. The Mad Max-style action is almost entirely practical effects, whereas today it would all be rendered on a Mac and look like a video game. Waterworld may not be as good as a Mad Max movie or even Avatar: The Way Of Water, but it’s nowhere near as god-awful as its reputation suggests.

The official synopsis for Robert Zemeckis’ supernatural horror movie , starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Harrison Ford, reads: “The wife of a university research scientist believes that her lakeside Vermont home is haunted by a ghost—or that she is losing her mind.” The A.V. Club’s , “Zemeckis is as shameless as Hitchcock in his deployment of cinematic tricks; the way to love the movie is to give into the sensation of being pleasurably led by the nose. But few have led so expertly and with such terrifying command. It’s scary how good he is at it.”

Based on the video game series of the same name, the blockbuster horror movie stars Josh Hutcherson, Elizabeth Lail, Piper Rubio, Mary Stuart Masterson, and Matthew Lillard. The A.V. Club’s , “The core premise of the games is so basic and primal that it’s brilliant: evil Chuck E. Cheese. The beloved ’80s pizza place, loaded with video games and an animatronic house band, always felt just a touch creepy; the Five Nights games amped that factor up so much that most remaining Chuck E. Cheese locations removed their animatronics completely. The in-game explanation for the menace factor is morbidly hilarious in the initial installment: the animatronics are freed to walk around at night so their gears don’t seize up. However, if their AI detects humans, knowing they ought not be there after hours, it misidentifies them as robot endoskeletons, and they promptly get stuffed into spare suits, which kills them.”

Neil Jordan’s neo-noir crime thriller , set in 1939 Los Angeles, stars Liam Neeson as Philip Marlowe—a brooding detective hired by a beautiful heiress to find her missing lover. Based on the 2014 novel The Black-Eyed Blonde, Marlowe also stars Diane Kruger, Jessica Lange, Ian Hart, and Alan Cumming. The A.V. Club’s , “Marlowe is an odd duck of a movie. It features recognizable genre contours, including treacherous blondes; thrust-and-parry dialogue that plays as sexual flirtation even when it’s straight exposition; and Philip Marlowe getting stomped on and (nearly) drugged. It’s also very ‘meta.’”

Peter Farrelly’s latest solo comedy stars Zac Efron, John Cena, Jermaine Fowler, Andrew Santino, Lex Scott Davis, and William H. Macy. The official plot description reads: “When three childhood best friends pull a prank gone wrong, they invent the imaginary Ricky Stanicky to get them out of trouble. Twenty years after creating this ‘friend,’ Dean, JT, and Wes (Zac Efron, Andrew Santino, and Jermaine Fowler) still use the nonexistent Ricky as a handy alibi for their immature behavior. When their spouses and partners get suspicious and demand to finally meet the fabled Mr. Stanicky, the guilty trio decide to hire washed-up actor and raunchy celebrity impersonator ‘Rock Hard’ Rod (John Cena) to bring him to life. But when Rod takes his role of a lifetime too far, they begin to wish they’d never invented Ricky in the first place.”

In the romantic comedy , Toula Portokalos (writer-director-actress Nia Vardalos) attempts to locate her dearly departed father’s childhood friends in Greece for a family reunion. The second sequel to 2002’s My Big Fat Greek Wedding also stars John Corbett, Louis Mandylor, Elena Kampouris, Gia Carides, Joey Fatone, Lainie Kazan, and Andrea Martin. The A.V. Club’s , “Vardalos balances comedy and emotion, and her familiarity with the cultural setting, as well as her affinity for the sprawling cast, reap dividends on-screen. The result is a level of authenticity and depth that wasn’t as evident in the first two outings.”

No, this is not the 2002 biographical drama Frida starring Salma Hayek as surrealist Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. Instead, this is a new documentary about Kahlo directed by Carla Gutierrez that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won the U.S. Documentary Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award. The official description of 2024’s Frida reads: “An intimately raw and magical journey through the life, mind, and heart of iconic artist Frida Kahlo, Frida is told through her own words for the very first time, drawn from her famed illustrated diary, revealing letters, essays, and candid print interviews — and brought vividly to life by lyrical animation inspired by her unforgettable artwork.”

Doug Liman’s reimagining of 1989’s stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Daniela Melchior, Billy Magnussen, Jessica Williams, Joaquim de Almeida, Austin Post, and Conor McGregor. The official description reads: “Road House stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Dalton, an ex-UFC fighter trying to escape his dark past and his penchant for violence, in this adrenaline-fueled actioner. Dalton is barely scraping by on the reputation that still precedes him when he is spotted by Frankie (Jessica Williams), owner of a roadhouse in the Florida Keys. She hires him to be her new bouncer in hopes of stopping a violent gang, working for crime boss Brandt (Billy Magnussen), from destroying her beloved bar. Even five to one, Brandt’s crew is no match for Dalton’s skills. But the stakes get higher with the arrival of ruthless gun-for-hire Knox (Conor McGregor). As the brutal brawls and bloodshed escalate, the tropical Keys prove more dangerous than anything Dalton ever faced in the Octagon.”