Thanksgiving is a time to feast, and I’m not just talking about food.
That’s right, with most people off for the holiday, it’s prime time to watch a lot of movies, and Prime Video has a slew of them.
The Watch With Us team has selected three great movies that are perfect to watch over the extended holiday weekend: The Family Stone, Casino Royale and Knives Out.
So if you’re craving for a warm comedy, a thrilling action movie or a puzzling mystery, these three films will satisfy your cinematic cravings.
‘The Family Stone’ (2005)
Career woman Meredith (Sarah Jessica Parker) is anxious when she finally meets her longtime boyfriend Everett’s (Dermot Mulroney) family over the holidays and for good reason — they don’t like her and aren’t afraid to show it. Meredith tries to win them over, but it’s clear they think she’s wrong for Everett. As she pivots from one disaster after another, Meredith begins to suspect they might be right — she’s more compatible with Everett’s chill-bro Ben (Luke Wilson), even though he’s the complete opposite of her. Amid all this romantic drama stands family matriarch Sybil (Diane Keaton), who has a secret she’s keeping from her children.
It doesn’t matter whether you think The Family Stone is good or bad — you have to watch it at some point around Thanksgiving and rewatch it until December 26. It’s a holiday movie staple because it gives us what we all long for — a big family in a big house eating great-looking food while finding or reaffirming true love. It’s as fantastical as Wicked: For Good, and the best part of the movie is watching its slightly wicked witches — Parker, Keaton and Rachel McAdams as Sybil’s NPR-listening daughter — battle each other with veiled insults and eye rolls.
‘Casino Royale’ (2005)
Watching James Bond movies is a Thanksgiving tradition for many people, even though the British spy series has nothing to do with the distinctly American holiday. Blame Ted Turner for that — his TNT and TBS cable channels played 007 marathons in the ‘90s and 2000s, so a generation was raised to expect to see daring, action-packed feats while digesting buttery turkey and spicy pumpkin pie.
Streaming allows you to continue this tradition, and you can’t go wrong watching Casino Royale, one of the very best in the long-running franchise. A top-to-bottom reboot, the movie casts Daniel Craig as the world-famous English agent, who must hunt and capture arms dealer Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen) before he finances another terrorist act. To do so, he needs to join a top-secret poker game in Montenegro, and he needs the help of Vesper Lynde (Eva Green), a beautiful Treasury agent who loathes him. But can he trust Vesper even though she seems to be hiding a secret?
Casino Royale is Bond in an embryonic stage — he’s not yet the smooth operator everyone knows and loves, and his way of dealing with problems is often as subtle as a punch to the face. That’s what makes Casino Royale so fascinating to watch — it chronicles in real time the birth of a pop culture icon. It helps that Craig and Green are great to look at, and manage to create three-dimensional characters you actually care about. Take that, Roger Moore!
‘Knives Out’ (2019)
Who would’ve thought Daniel Craig would have another iconic character to play in his career? That’s what happened when he first assumed the role of master sleuth Benoit Blanc in the 2019 surprise hit, Knives Out. When best-selling mystery author Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) is found dead one morning at his palatial estate, Blanc suspects foul play even though the police rule his death a suicide.
Benoit has good reason to be suspicious — Harlan’s family, which includes his shady real-estate-developer daughter Linda (Jamie Lee Curtis) and her lazy but handsome son Ransom (Chris Evans) — is a nest of vipers, with only nurse Marta (Ana de Armas) seeming to care that Harlan is dead. When it looks like she killed him to take the family’s inheritance, everyone wants her thrown in the slammer — except Blanc, who believes she’s innocent. But who killed Harlan? And will they kill again to stop Marta and Harlan from solving the mystery?
Knives Out has already spawned two critically successful Netflix sequels, but the first one remains the best. The setup is ingenious, the mystery is truly perplexing and the cast of well-known character actors makes Knives Out one of the best modern suspense movies ever made. Almost as important, the autumnal New England setting and proliferation of chic chunky sweaters give you those sorely desired Thanksgiving-to-Christmas vibes.
