Today we shine the Instant Video Spotlight on some of the best-reviewed political thrillers available in the Amazon Instant Video store.
Good Night and Good Luck has an average review rating of 4/5 stars across more than 330 reviews. Reviewer Rocco Dormarunno says:
Good Night and Good Luck captures a piece of time which is rapidly moving from current events to history. This is sad. The great Edward R. Murrow’s meritorious dedication to the integrity of journalism is fast fading from the American memory. And while Good Night and Good Luck only examines one aspect of his long career, what an aspect it is! Murrow’s pit-bull grip to bring down the infamous Joseph McCarthy was probably the highlight of his career. (Unfortunately, it also relegated both men to the “back row” of their professions, in the long run.) Some people have read about how political cartoonist, Thomas Nast, brought down Boss Tweed in the 19th Century. Some people remember how Woodward and Bernstein were an integral part of forcing Nixon out of office. But this journalist’s contribution to restoring sanity to America during the 1950s is hardly remembered, and not at all talked about in schools (unless you take a journalism class–and that’s maybe!).
The performances are wonderful. Strathairn IS Edward R. Murrows: remarkably understated and still very intense. George Clooney, as Fred Friendly, is his perfect foil–very extroverted and constantly joking. It was good to see Robert Downey Jr. take such a serious role, again. His portrayal of Chaplin is the last serious thing I think he did. Jeff Daniels was perfectly cast as the tooth grinding stuffed shirt, and Frank Langella was on-the-money as the powerful William Paley, owner of CBS.
Good Night and Good Luck is priced at $2.99 for the rental and $9.99 to purchase the download, and it’s also currently free to view for Amazon Prime members.
Of course, All the President’s Men is a political thriller against which all others are inevitably judged. From Amazon:
Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman play Woodward and Bernstein, the intrepid newspaper reporters who broke open the Watergate scandal and toppled a President.
All the President’s Men has an average review rating of 4.5/5 stars across 198 reviews. It’s priced at $2.99 for the rental and $9.49 to purchase the download, and this film is also currently free to view for Amazon Prime members.
Another excellent entry in this category is Breach. From Amazon:
Inspired by the true story of the greatest security breach in U.S. intelligence history, this gripping thriller stars Chris Cooper, Ryan Phillippe, Laura Linney and Dennis Haysbert.
Amazon reviewers love Breach, and have given it an average rating of 4/5 stars across 179 reviews. It’s available to rent for $2.99, or $9.99 to purchase the download.
Finally, Traitor is another popular political thriller, rated an average of 4/5 stars across 128 reviews. From Amazon:
Academy Award nominee Don Cheadle (Hotel Rwanda, Crash) and Guy Pearce (Memento, L.A. Confidential) star in a taut international thriller set against a jigsaw puzzle of covert counter-espionage operations.
Top 500 Reviewer, Hall of Fame Reviewer and Vine Voice Brian E. Erland says:
In `Traitor’ Don Cheadle delivers a marvelous performance as Samir a Islamic, Sudanese born American immigrant who after spending years in U.S. military intelligence apparently has a change of conscience and joins an extreme terrorist organization after being recruited by Jihadist and future best friend Omar (Said Taghmaoui). Said is also magnificent, the on-going conversations between Omar and Samir discussing the Jihadist mindset and mission and how they compare with past and present acts of aggression by America are searing, thought-provoking and nuanced. For me they make this movie worth the time and effort. That’s not to say that there isn’t anything else worthwhile in this film, but it is there relationship and intellectual debate that raises the film to a higher level.
The Traitor Instant Video is $399 to rent, $6.99 to purchase the digital download.