Amazon’s Prime video service is having a very males-between-the-ages-of-18-and-34 month in March. (Did no one tell them it’s Women’s History Month?) There’s the premiere of dude-bro comedy Ricky Stanicky starring John Cena; a remake of 1980s beefy-dudes-punching-faces epic Road House; and the second half of season 2 of grown-up super-hero cartoon Invincible, for nerd-lier young men. (There’s also a documentary about Frida Kahlo and a Tig Notaro stand-up special.)
Ricky Stanicky
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Wrestler-turned-movie-star John Cena is always funnier than you think he’ll be, and Ricky Stanicky gives Cena the chance to sink his teeth into a hammy role as the title character. In this Amazon-produced comedy from director Peter Farrelly, Zac Efron, Andrew Santino, and Jermaine Fowler play Dean, JT, and Wes, lifelong pal who and have been pretending to have a friend to use as an alibi or scapegoat since they were kids—if they want a night out with the guys, they just say they’re visiting Ricky Stanicky in the hospital. When their partners become suspicious and demand to meet Stanicky, the trio hire “Rock Hard” Rod (John Cena), a washed-up actor who specializes in x-rated celebrity impersonations, to portray Ricky. Things quickly spiral out of control as Ricky refuses to drop the role and insinuates himself into every aspect of their lives.
Starts streaming March 1.
Road House
In the original Road House, Patrick Swayze played against type as the bouncer in rough Southern saloon. In the remake, it’s a jacked-up Jake Gyllenhaal doing the honors. He plays Elwood Dalton, a nice-seeming dude who used to be a UFC fighter. Down on his luck, Dalton takes a gig as security at a rundown roadhouse in the Florida Keys, but his new gig quickly leads beyond bouncing drunks toward confrontations with dangerous criminals. In his first acting job, MMA champion Conor McGregor plays the heavy, and finding out if he can act is enough reason to watch Road House by itself.
Starts streaming March 21.
Invincible, Season 2, Part 2
This animated superhero show has built up a large following for its R-rated action and compelling story, so the second half of season 2 appearing on Amazon is cause for celebration in nerd-circles. Invincible’s main character is 17-year-old Mark Grayson, a second-generation superhero living under the shadow of his famous dad, Omni-man, the most powerful man on the planet. According to Prime’s official show description, in the second part of season 2, “Mark goes back to college, reads his dad’s books, and nothing bad happens to him or his family. This is a very official synopsis.” So I’ll go with that.
Starts streaming on March 14.
Frida
This documentary explores the life and work of iconic artist Frida Kahlo using her own words taken from journals, letters, interviews and other primary source material, all illustrated with animations inspired by Kahlo’s art. First-time director Carla Gutiérrez had access to material never presented to the public before, and uses it to create a film that aims to go deeper than an art history lesson or just-the-facts biography.
Starts streaming March 14.
Boat Story
In this BBC-produced action series, a pair of down-on-their-luck strangers happen upon a shipwrecked boat that’s packed to the rafters with pure cocaine. They decide to sell it, but their get-rich-through-drug-sales scheme goes haywire when they get mixed up with the police, masked assassins, and “The Tailor,” a hardened gang-boss who wants his shipment of cocaine back. Boat Story was created by the people who made the excellent Netflix show The Tourist, and if even comes close to measuring up to that show, you won’t want to miss it.
Starts streaming on March 12.
Tig Notaro: Hello Again
Emmy and Grammy award-winning comedian Tig Notaro’s best jokes come from mining everyday life for comedy gold, and delivering it with a laid-back, friendly style. In Hello Again, she takes on domestic life, misunderstandings with clerks at the airport, and more.
Starts streaming on March 26.
Five Night At Freddy’s (2023)
The Five Nights at Freddy’s video games are considered best-of-the-best by many horror game fans, so the movie adaptation was eagerly awaited, particularly since the game’s creator is a producer and co-writer of the film. But does the tale of a kids’ pizza place haunted by animatronic monstrosities work as a movie? Depends on who you ask. Critics hated it, giving it a measly 32% on rotten tomatoes, but fans loved it, earring it an 87% audience score. All you can do is give it a shot and see where you land.
Starts streaming on March 5.
Minions: The Rise Of Gru (2022)
Everyone loves minions, but what even are they? Rise of Gru answers that and many other questions by presenting Gru’s origin story and his meet-cute with the minions, taking us back to the 1970s, when Gru was just a boy dreaming of world domination from his suburban bedroom. Minions: The Rise Of Gru features voice acting from Steve Carell, Russell Brand, Michelle Yeoh, and Julie Andrews as Gru’s mom, and the animation by best-in-the-world-except-Pixar animation company Illumination,
Starts streaming on March 26.