July 2019 promises to be a big month for Amazon Prime's original and exclusive content, with
a slew of movies and television series lined up to join the streaming service's library.
Get a head start on all the additions to your queue with our look at the month's best Amazon
Prime Video arrivals.
While it was released in Great Britain in October 2018, the historical drama Peterloo,
directed by Cannes Film Festival favorite Mike Leigh, becomes available for Amazon Prime
subscribers on July 3rd.
Peterloo chronicles a bloody massacre Britain's military unleashed on its own people.
More than a decade after the bloody Napoleonic Wars finally ended, England was in rough shape.
Responding to widespread poverty, unemployment, and famine, among other ills, somewhere between
60,000 and 100,000 peaceful protesters gathered in Manchester, England on August 10, 1819
to demand parliamentary reform, including granting universal suffrage.
"We shall maintain our spirits!"
The meeting was interrupted by cavalrymen attempting to arrest the resistance leaders
and eventually charging into the crowds on horseback to deadly consequences.
In 2016's Captain America: Civil War, we saw one potential aftermath of superheroes unintentionally
hurting innocent civilians while fighting supervillains.
When writer Garth Ennis and artist Darick Robertson premiered their brutally amusing
superhero comic The Boys in 2006, they weren't quite so forgiving.
The superheroes of The Boys, for the most part, are examples of what happens when you
give godlike physical power to the least responsible, most twisted individuals you can find.
Karl Urban stars as Billy Butcher, leader of the vigilante group dedicated to taking
down the Justice-League-like team "The Seven."
He recruits the young Hughie after the superhero speedster A-Train unintentionally kills Hughie's
girlfriend Robin by running through her at super speed.
Simon Pegg appears in a recurring role as Hughie's father fitting, since Pegg was the
inspiration for the comic book's Hughie.
Judging by the action-packed and darkly funny trailers, The Boys promises to be just as
unapologetically bloody and hilarious as the source material.
Check it out on July 26th.
Just as Gotham's penultimate season came to an end in May 2018, fans of the Dark Knight
learned that it wouldn't be the last Batman-related prequel series on television.
The premium cable network Epix ordered ten episodes of Pennyworth, a series taking its
name from Batman's famous butler Alfred Pennyworth.
While Pennyworth and Gotham don't exist within the same universe, it seems likely putting
the spotlight on Gotham's Alfred helped make Pennyworth a reality.
Set in 1960s London, Pennyworth gives us a much younger Alfred than we're used to, played
by Jack Bannon.
"You can find a position in a good household.
Do right, you're a butler before you're 40."
Fresh out of the British SAS, Pennyworth starts a security company and his connections to
the larger story we already know are forged when he's hired by Thomas Wayne, the doomed
father whose death will eventually lead to the rise of Batman.
Pennyworth's trailer looks fun, sexy, and thrilling, and definitely worth a look when
the first season hits Prime on July 28th.
Those are the major highlights now, let's take a look at what else Amazon is offering,
genre-by-genre.
July is injecting a lot of Star Trek into Amazon Prime.
Five Star Trek films come to the service on July 31st, including 1996's Star Trek: First
Contact, which was the first of the films to star only the crew of the Star Trek: The
Next Generation series.
Directed by Jonathan Frakes aka William Riker First Contact brought the popular cybernetic
hive-mind bad guys the Borg to the big screen for the first time.
If you're not interested in the future, a number of Amazon's July action offerings delve
into the past.
John Cusack and Emile Hirsch face off in the gritty western Never Grow Old on July 13th.
On July 31st you can see the acclaimed New Zealand-made action-thriller Tracker.
Ray Winstone plays a master tracker from the South African side of the Second Boer War
tasked with finding and capturing a man accused of murdering a British soldier.
It flopped in the theaters and was roasted by critics, but if you're still curious, the
new Hellboy reboot, starring Stranger Things fan favorite David Harbour, also hits the
streaming service on July 23rd, just a few months after its theatrical release.
Thriller and horror offerings bring mystery, time travel, demons, and devil babies to Amazon
Prime in July.
On the more thrilling side of things, Ben Affleck's critically adored mystery Gone Baby
Gone arrives on Prime on July 12th, while at the end of the month, Bruce Willis travels
through time to save the world from Brad Pitt in 1995's Twelve Monkeys.
If you're looking for a hit of pure '90s nostalgia, Hackers hits Prime on July 31st.
Prime isn't short on the bloodier fare either, though a lot of the scarier stuff doesn't
land until the very end of the month.
On July 29th, viewers can watch The Haunting of Sharon Tate, based on the infamous 1969
Manson Family murders.
The last day of the month brings to Prime the 2009 slasher remake My Bloody Valentine,
Jeepers Creepers 2, and the 1968 horror classic Rosemary's Baby.
After Peterloo, Amazon's drama offerings are scarce, but what they lack in quantity they
make up for in quality.
Ironically, two icy films premiering on Prime at the end of July are about things starting
to get dark and cold.
Starting July 28th, Prime subscribers can watch After Darkness starring Natalia Dyer
of Stranger Things fame, and former Closer lead Kyra Sedgwick.
The sun is dying, and as the world grows dark, a family prays for rescue while facing a few
skeletons in the closet.
On the final day of July, the survival drama Arctic appears on Prime.
Mads Mikkelsen stars in the Icelandic film as a man struggling to survive after his plane
crashes in the Arctic Circle.
Also at the very end of July, Tim Burton's stop-motion musical comedy Corpse Bride arrives
on Prime.
When young Victor practices his wedding vows, he's overheard by the Corpse Bride, who inexplicably
believes the vows were meant for her, and that the two are now married.
The darkly funny ghost story was nominated for an Oscar for Best Animated Feature in
2005.
On July 21st, Prime subscribers can watch Time Freak, a sci-fi comedy about the misadventures
of a young physics prodigy.
After the genius is dumped by his girlfriend Debbie, played by Game of Thrones' Sophie
Turner, he invents a time machine and goes back in time over and over again to try to
figure out what went wrong with Debbie and fix the relationship.
"You don't think I love you?"
"I don't know!
I know I said it, and then you ran off and you came back and sang a song about a monkey."
Arctic isn't the only thing Iceland is sending Amazon Prime in July.
On July 10th, the second season of the Icelandic mystery drama Trapped will be available for
streaming.
Season 1 was about the police chief searching for a killer after a mutilated torso surfaces
in the local harbor.
Having moved to Iceland's capital Reykjavik after the events of the first season, Season
2 finds the chief forced to return to his hometown when a local politician is assaulted.
Trapped's first season earned an impressive 100% critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes with
its audience rating of 97% not far behind.
Ceri Radford of the Telegraph writes,
"Even without all these promising plot angles, Trapped was worth watching for its chill beauty
alone."
Sounds like a cool way to spend a hot summer night.
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