The great thing about Amazon Prime Video is that with a base Amazon Prime subscription or a standalone subscription to Amazon Prime Video, you can watch tons of popular TV shows and movies. Sure, you will soon have to pay a bit more if you want to watch ad-free, but the selection is diverse enough to warrant the extra $3 per month.
Movies, however, come and go on Amazon Prime Video all the time. Sometimes, you’ll see a notice on the title that it is expiring soon. Other times, it disappears before you get the chance to watch. Don’t let that happen with any of these five movies leaving Prime Video in January that you have to watch.
Evil Dead Rise, the latest entry in the Evil Dead film series, stands on its own, but sticks with the same premise: demonic entities known as Deadites plague the characters and will spare no one. This film centers around estranged sisters Beth (Lily Sullivan) and Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland), who are terrorized by the evil creatures.
Fans of the franchise might be disappointed to know that Bruce Campbell, who plays Ash in most of the other movies, does not appear in this film. He does, however, have a brief uncredited voice cameo role. Evil Dead Rise has received largely positive reviews and is a must-watch for fans of the franchise.
Stream Evil Dead Rise on Prime Video.
Mel Gibson was in his prime for Braveheart, a movie that received 10 Oscar nominations and earned five wins. An epic historical drama that Gibson not only starred in, but also directed and produced, Braveheart follows Sir William Wallace (Gibson), a Scottish warrior from the 13th century who leads forces in the First War of Scottish Independence. To succeed, they must fight King Edward I of England.
It was a massive box office success and remains one of the most epic (and quoted) movies of all time, despite criticisms of historical inaccuracies. Braveheart is one of those movies that runs almost three hours long, but fans don’t seem to mind. There’s so much action, intensity, fight scenes, drama, and romance that you’re thoroughly engaged the entire way through.
Stream Braveheart on Prime Video.
In Kaiko City, residents deal with poverty and rampant crime. Things don’t get any better when a corrupt businessman decides to run for mayor. His goal is to eliminate the competition, including members from a rival mafia. But his plans might be thwarted when a former police captain, who was serving time for murder, is secretly released. His mission? Run a special task force that will hopefully arrest the man trying to wreak havoc on an already damaged city.
Offered in Japanese with English subtitles, Bad City is an action crime film featuring fight scenes and stunts that are so beautifully choreographed that it’s worth watching for those alone.
Stream Bad City on Prime Video.
A South Korean action thriller starring Train to Busan’s Ma Dong-seok and Kim Sung-kyu from The Outlaws and Kingdom, The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil has a title that says it all. The story is about a gangster and a police officer who team up to try and catch a notorious serial killer. It’s a familiar story about an unlikely duo coming together to fight crime, with an interesting twist in that their common enemy happens to be a psychopathic killer.
You can watch the movie in Korean with English subtitles. The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil is available now through Amazon, as well as on Amazon Freevee, but it will be leaving soon.
Stream The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil on Prime Video.
In the mood for a rom-com instead? Check out Life Partners, a rom-com drama about co-dependent friends who rely on one another for just about everything. Their tight bond means they navigate through the troubled world of dating together, and watch reality shows and gossip on their own when their love lives don’t pan out. Work troubles are also pushed aside, especially for struggling musician Sasha (Leighton Meester), who can’t quite get her life together. But when Paige (Gillian Jacobs) happens to meet a man named Tim (Adam Brody) and a romance between them slowly starts to flourish, Sasha is desperate to stop their friendship from changing course. — or to at least find a way to fill her own time (and love life) to adjust for the loss of time with her once, well, life partner.
Compared to a sitcom in its plot and tone, Life Partners received decent reviews thanks to the convincing performances of the leads and the relaxed vibe. The script has also been praised for being witty and warm.
Stream Life Partners on Prime Video.
Some of the best shots in Grok Imagine’s AI-made Odyssey don’t contain actors. Ancient landscapes stretch into the distance. Close-ups of grimy hands suggest people who have touched something rougher than a keyboard. For a few seconds, the illusion holds.
https://twitter.com/imagine/status/2113712964419063911
YouTube videos could soon look better without eating quite so much data, right? Thankfully, the platform plans to introduce a new video format called AV2 on its web player in early 2027, promising more efficient streaming and potentially fewer playback hiccups on slower internet connections. The big headline is a roughly 30% improvement in compression efficiency over AV1, YouTube's existing video format. That doesn't guarantee every video will use 30% less data, but it could make streaming a little easier on both internet connections and data allowances.
What is AV2, and why should viewers care?
YouTube is changing how its Home page works, giving viewers more control over what shows up there and making some of the app’s most-used sections easier to reach. Custom Feeds are now replacing the existing topic chips for eligible users, while YouTube is also testing a redesigned top bar on mobile that moves Subscriptions closer to the Home feed.
YouTube first started experimenting with Custom Feeds earlier this year, letting you type out what you wanted to watch and turning that request into its own stream of recommendations. Now, the feature is starting to look less like a side experiment and more like something YouTube actually wants people to use as part of their everyday Home page.