Here are some recent additions to the Amazon Instant Video rental catalog. Note: all descriptions below are from IMDB.
Captain Philips (PG-13, 4.5/5 stars, closed captions available, currently priced at $3.99 to rent and $12.99 to buy)
Captain Phillips is a multi-layered examination of the 2009 hijacking of the U.S. container ship Maersk Alabama by a crew of Somali pirates. It is – through director Paul Greengrass’s distinctive lens – simultaneously a pulse-pounding thriller, and a complex portrait of the myriad effects of globalization.
The film focuses on the relationship between the Alabama’s commanding officer, Captain Richard Phillips (two time Academy Award®-winner Tom Hanks), and the Somali pirate captain, Muse (Barkhad Abdi), who takes him hostage.
Phillips and Muse are set on an unstoppable collision course when Muse and his crew target Phillips’ unarmed ship; in the ensuing standoff, 145 miles off the Somali coast, both men will find themselves at the mercy of forces beyond their control.
– Written by Sony Pictures Entertainment
The Fifth Estate (R, no reviews yet, closed captions available, currently priced at $4.99 to rent and $14.99 to buy)
The story begins as WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and his colleague Daniel Domscheit-Berg (Daniel Brühl) team up to become underground watchdogs of the privileged and powerful.
On a shoestring, they create a platform that allows whistle-blowers to anonymously leak covert data, shining a light on the dark recesses of government secrets and corporate crimes. Soon, they are breaking more hard news than the world’s most legendary media organizations combined.
But when Assange and Berg gain access to the biggest trove of confidential intelligence documents in U.S. history, they battle each other and a defining question of our time: what are the costs of keeping secrets in a free society—and what are the costs of exposing them?
– Written by DreamWorks Pictures
Carrie (R, 3.5/5 stars, closed captions available, currently priced at $4.99 to rent and $14.99 to buy)
The outcast teenager Carrie White is bullied by her mates at high-school. Her mother Margaret White is a pious and paranoid woman that sees sin everywhere and the need to self-inflict punishment. When Carrie has her first period, she does not understand what is happening to her and her mates humiliate her in the [locker] room.
The spiteful Chris Hargensen videotapes Carrie with her cell phone and posts [the video to the] Internet. Their teacher Ms. Desjardin punishes the students and Chris challenges her and is suspended and consequently she can not go to the prom.
Meanwhile Carrie discovers that she has telekinesis and leans how to control her ability. The popular Sue Snell feels bad with her attitude towards Carrie and asks her boyfriend Tommy Ross to invite Carrie to go with him to the prom to make up for what she did to Carrie.
But Chris and her boyfriend Billy Nolan plot an evil prank with her friends to seek vengeance for Carrie with tragic consequences.
– Written by Claudio Carvalho
Rush (R, 4.5/5 stars, closed captions available, currently priced at $4.99 to rent and $12.99 to buy)
Set against the sexy, glamorous golden age of Formula 1 racing in the 1970s, the film is based on the true story of a great sporting rivalry between handsome English playboy James Hunt (Hemsworth), and his methodical, brilliant opponent, Austrian driver Niki Lauda (Bruhl).
The story follows their distinctly different personal styles on and off the track, their loves and the astonishing 1976 season in which both drivers were willing to risk everything to become world champion in a sport with no margin for error: if you make a mistake, you die.
– Written by P. Morgan