It’s too easy to spend an entire evening scrolling through streaming services like Prime Video picking a movie to watch. By the time you pick a movie, you could have watched one. Or two. Maybe even three. We’re here to solve that problem with the 25 best Amazon Prime movies that are available right now. From recent critical darlings like La La Land and Licorice Pizza to modern classics like Fight Club and Minority Report, here is your guide to the best movies on Amazon Prime, so you can spend your next movie night actually watching a movie:
1. La La Land
Year: 2016
Cast: Emma Stone, Ryan Gosling, John Legend
Genre: Drama, Musical
Rating: R
Runtime: 128 minutes
Director: Damien Chazelle
Trailer: Watch here
While its legacy might be it was a fake Oscar winner, Damien Chazelle’s romantic but painful musical La La Land shows how ambition and success can unite people, and also how it can divide and change them in an idyllic, colorful version of Los Angeles (the titular La La Land, of course). Although the year’s best picture Oscar actually went to Moonlight, Emma Stone won the Oscar for best actress for her charming performance as aspiring actress Mia.
2. The Wolf of Wall Street
Year: 2013
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Rating: R
Runtime: 180 minutes
Director: Martin Scorsese
Trailer: Watch here
The best thing about The Wolf of Wall Street? It doesn’t give a sh*t. Martin Scorsese’s hilarious adaptation of Jordan Belfort’s life and career as a wealthy stock-market manipulator brought out another side of his directing style and another unexpected side of Leonardo DiCaprio. With the help of effortlessly funny co-stars Jonah Hill and Margot Robbie, DiCaprio finally lets loose and allows himself to be funny. Fortunately, he is just as good at it as he is at drama, if not better.
3. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Year: 2001
Cast: Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Ian McKellen, Sean Bean, Viggo Mortensen, Cat Blanchett
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 178 minutes
Director: Peter Jackson
Trailer: Watch here
The introductory film in Peter Jackson’s award-winning Lord of the Rings trilogy is a classic with ground-breaking special effects, affecting performances, and unbelievable set pieces, costumes, and unfathomable scale. The cast and their sparkling chemistry turns the otherwise quite dark hunt for The One Ring into comfort viewing.
4. Fight Club
Year: 1999
Cast: Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, Helena Bonham Carter
Genre: Drama/Thriller
Rating: R
Runtime: 139 minutes
Director: David Fincher
Trailer: Watch here
Ah, yes, the movie whose poster was tacked to the dorm walls of straight men everywhere for years on end. Despite the annoying film bro following that this David Fincher film developed over time, Fight Club is a decade-defining classic, featuring clever, extremely physical performances from stars Edward Norton and Brad Pitt. If you love a twist, you’ll love this, even if you see it coming five minutes into the movie.
5. Licorice Pizza
Year: 2021
Cast: Alana Haim, Cooper Hoffman, Sean Penn, Bradley Cooper
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Rating: R
Runtime: 133 minutes
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Trailer: Watch here
Paul Thomas Anderson is obsessed with two things: Hollywood and the 1970s. Licorice Pizza combines those inside a coming-of-age story featuring performances from first-time leads Alana Haim and Cooper Hoffman (the son of the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman, a frequent Anderson collaborator). The film is not Anderson’s strongest to date, but it is, perhaps his most personal film to date. Like a typical Anderson film, the narrative feels epic with many acts and many characters, some of who only appear for a scene or two. The best part of the film is Bradley Cooper’s truly wild performance as film producer Jon Peters.
6. The Fighter
Year: 2010
Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Melissa Leo
Genre: Drama, Biopic
Rating: R
Runtime: 116 minutes
Director: David O. Russell
Trailer: Watch here
David O. Russell’s film about professional boxers and half-brothers Micky Ward and Dicky Eklund follows all the typical beats of a sports drama and a biopic. Despite its predictability, formulaic structure can be great. In this case, it gives us the committed performances (some of the decade’s best) room to shine from Melissa Leo’s Oscar-winning performance, Christian Bale’s Oscar-winning performance, and Amy Adams non-Oscar winning or nominated performance (a casual reminder that Amy Adams is long overdue for an Oscar ).
7. Shutter Island
Year: 2010
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Michelle Williams, Ben Kingsley
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Rating: R
Director: Martin Scorsese
Runtime: 139 minutes
Trailer: Watch here
While Shutter Island might not be one of Martin Scorsese’s best films, it is an essential one. Scorsese flexes decades of directorial experience here, going bigger than ever with his style, which has only progressed since then. Shutter Island, which follows two detectives investigating a disappearance at a remote insane asylum, also follows most thriller cliches, but Scorsese’s skill makes it twice as thrilling, and a little bit fun despite its dark tone and themes. Scorsese is going all out here and encourages his frequent collaborator Leonardo DiCaprio (his 2000s muse, in a sense) to really go for it, too.
8. The Usual Suspects
Year: 1995
Cast: Gabriel Byrne, Kevin Spacey, Steven Baldwin, Benicio del Toro
Genre: Thriller
Rating: R
Runtime: 106 minutes
Director: Bryan Singer
Trailer: Watch here
The Usual Suspects combines elements of film noir with a standard ’90s thriller. With every second that passes in the energetic crime thriller with a sprawling cast of ’90s faves from Gabriel Byrne to Benicio del Toro, more layers are added to the mystery and, therefore, the film itself. Although the complex story builds and builds as it goes, the screenplay is packaged in a way so that it doesn’t feel as complex as it is, without condescending to the audience.
9. The Northman
Year: 2022
Cast: Alexander Skarsgård, Nicole Kidman, Anya Taylor-Joy, Willem Dafoe
Genre: Action
Rating: R
Runtime: 136 minutes
Director: Robert Eggers
Trailer: Watch here
Like every Robert Eggers film, The Northman is even weirder than it looks. The film follows the Viking Amleth who devotes his life to seeking revenge on the man who murdered his father and, seemingly, took his mother. Amleth gets his revenge, but slowly and very violently. And yes, the rumors are true: there is a naked volcano fight scene in this. And also a magically unhinged performance from Nicole Kidman.
10. The Italian Job
Year: 2003
Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron, Edward Norton, Seth Green
Genre: Action
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 105 minutes
Director: F. Gary Gray
Trailer: Watch here
It doesn’t get more 2003 than this remake of the 1969 movie of the same name. Action star of the moment Mark Wahlberg stars as professional fixer Charlie Croker, who, seeking revenge for the murder of a friend leads a team of people with various useful skills when it comes to a heist on a heist. Edward Norton plays a villain with a little mustache who often wears a beanie.
11. Fantastic Mr. Fox
Year: 2009
Cast: George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman
Genre: Animation, Comedy
Rating: PG
Runtime: 87 minutes
Director: Wes Anderson
Trailer: Watch here
Of course, a director with an eye for color and symmetry is also a visionary in animation. Wes Anderson’s stop-motion film, based on the 1970 children’s novel of the same name by Roald Dahl, is about a fox whose series of thefts cause problems for his family and his community, as they are hunted down by those seeking revenge. Anderson co-wrote the screenplay with Noah Baumbach.
12. The Hunger Games
Year: 2012
Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrellson
Genre: Action
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 142 minutes
Director: Gary Ross
Trailer: Watch here
The Hunger Games novel is practically written like a screenplay, and the film adaptation stays as loyal as it can be (it was, probably pretty easy). The themes are a little heavy-handed at times, but its the direction, cinematography, and performances from leads Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson (as well as supporting ones from Woody Harrelson, Stanley Tucci, Donald Sutherland, and Lenny Kravitz) that make it staggering and thought-provoking.
13. Minority Report
Year: 2002
Cast: Tom Cruise, Colin Farrell, Samantha Morton
Genre: Sci-fi, Action
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 145 minutes
Director: Steven Spielberg
Trailer: Watch here
Minority Report is what every sci-fi action film should be: energetic, horrifying, and stimulating. Most importantly, fun. Tom Cruise stars as Precrime Chief John Anderton, whose job is to arrest people for crimes they are predicted to commit. Despite his trust of the system, John becomes one of the hunted when he is predicted to commit a crime. So, like everyone he hunts, he runs, and in the process discovers a conspiracy. The film also includes a massively underrated supporting performance from Colin Farrell, then early into his film career.
14. Superbad
Year: 2007
Cast: Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, Emma Stone
Genre: Comedy
Rating: R
Runtime: 113 minutes
Director: Greg Mottola
Trailer: Watch here
This irreverent comedy turned Jonah Hill (now an Oscar nominee) and Emma Stone (now an Oscar winner) into movie stars. The raunchy, graphic comedy went further than any comedy before it, in ways that have aged well and ways that have aged poorly. Regardless, it’s a classic. Behind all the dick jokes and weird period jokes, it’s a film about male friendship that allows men on the screen to be vulnerable with each other.
15. The Machinist
Year: 2004
Cast: Christian Bale, Jennifer Jason Leigh
Genre: Thriller, Drama
Rating: R
Runtime: 102 minutes
Director: Brad Anderson
Trailer: Watch here
Christian Bale is well known for putting on pounds or losing them for roles. For his role in The Machinist, Bale transformed himself into a rail-thin paranoid factory worker who has not slept in a year by dropping over 60 lbs. It’s definitely a gimmick, but Bale’s transformative performance is admirable and unlike anything else he’s ever done before or since.
16. The Silence of the Lambs
Year: 1991
Cast: Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins
Genre: Horror
Rating: R
Runtime: 118 minutes
Director: Jonathan Demme
Trailer: Watch here
Jonathan Demme’s The Silence of the Lambs is not only one of the best horror movies ever made, but one of the best movies ever made full stop. The disturbing psychological thriller gets its energy from its rousing lead performances from Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins. Their chemistry on screen is a palpable force that helped earn the film – and the genre – deserved recognition at the Oscars, where it swept the five major categories: best actor, best actress, best-adapted screenplay, best director, and best picture. To this day, it is the only horror film to win best picture.
17. Jennifer’s Body
Year: 2009
Cast: Megan Fox, Amanda Seyfried
Genre: Horror, Comedy
Rating: R
Runtime: 102 minutes
Director: Karyn Kusama
Trailer: Watch here
Jennifer’s Body was generally reviled by critics when it came out, but it has since gained a deserved cult following and is now regarded as a feminist classic. Written by Juno screenwriter Diablo Cody, people were likely not prepared for the body horror flick as much as they were for a charming indie about a pregnant teenager. Megan Fox plays Jennifer, a high school student who develops some deadly vampiric tendencies after a ritual gone horribly wrong. Emmy-winner Amanda Seyfried plays her nerdy best friend who tries to save her bff’s victims.
18. The Tender Bar
Year: 2021
Cast: Ben Affleck, Lily Rabe, Ty Sheridan
Genre: Drama
Rating: R
Runtime: 104 minutes
Director: George Clooney
Trailer: Watch here
This sentimental coming-of-age film from director George Clooney tells the story of American journalist J.R. Moehringer’s life growing up on Long Island, where he spent a significant portion of his time at a bar, which is his only escape from his complex life at home. It is based on Moehringer’s 2005 memoir of the same name.
19. A Quiet Place 2
Year: 2020
Cast: Emily Blunt, Cillian Murphy, Millicent Simmonds
Genre: Horror
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 97 minutes
Director: John Krasinski
Trailer: Watch here
Emily Blunt returns for the sequel to her husband John Krasinksi’s hit horror film set in a post-apocalyptic world occupied by aliens with razor-sharp hearing. Although the film is not as tight as its predecessor, the sequel still captures the family dynamics that give it heart and Krasinksi continues to show off his skill as a horror director.
20. Casino Royale
Year: 2006
Cast: Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Mads Mikkelsen, Judy Dench
Genre: Action
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 144 minutes
Director: Martin Campbell
Trailer: Watch here
Casino Royale is a significant departure in tone in the decades-long James Bond franchise. In 2006, new Bond Daniel Craig had a different, controversial look and feel to the Bond actors before him: his hair wasn’t as dark and he was a little less polished, rougher around the edges. Unlike Craig’s hair, Casino Royale set a dark, more serious tone for the next era of Bond by taking it a little more seriously. It influenced the Bond franchise permanently, and action films as a whole, which have gotten gritter (some in good ways, some in bad ways).
21. Sound of Metal
Year: 2020
Cast: Riz Ahmed, Olivia Cooke, Paul Raci
Genre: Drama
Rating: R
Runtime: 120 minutes
Director: Darius Marder
Trailer: Watch here
Riz Ahmed earned himself an Oscar nomination for best actor for his performance as heavy-metal drummer Ruben who hopes to make it in the music scene but discovers that he is losing his hearing, which changes his life and his plans to pursue a career doing what he loves. House of the Dragon’s Olivia Cooke, who plays Ahmed’s girlfriend and bandmate Lou, also delivers an impressive performance.
22. Candyman
Year: 2021
Cast: Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Teyonah Parris, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett
Genre: Horror
Rating: R
Runtime: 91 minutes
Director: Nia DaCosta
Trailer: Watch here
Nia DaCosta (Little Woods) directed this followup to the ’90s cult classic starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as an artist who investigates a serial killer for a new project. His investigation leads him to other Black men who were murdered and secrets about his own lineage that send him on a bloody spiral. DaCosta is a visionary director with a deep understanding of disturbing, thrilling, and impactful imagery.
23. Coming 2 America
Year: 2021
Cast: Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall
Genre: Comedy
Rating: R
Runtime: 110 minutes
Director: Craig Brewer
Trailer: Watch here
If you love the original Coming to America, which graced theaters in the summer of 1988, you will most likely enjoy the sequel, set in the country of Zamuda, where the newly crowned king Akeem (Eddie Murphy) embarks on an all-new adventure across the globe. Ultimately, he ends up back in Queens, New York, where Coming to America began decades ago.
24. The Lost City of Z
Year: 2017
Cast: Charlie Hunnam, Robert Pattinson, Sienna Miller, Tom Holland
Genre: Adventure, Drama
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 141 minutes
Director: James Gray
Trailer: Watch here
James Gray’s ambitious biopic/adventure flick is a retelling of the true-life drama of Col. Percival Fawcett. Fawcett (Hunnam), a British explorer who disappeared while searching for a mysterious city in the Amazon in the 1920s. Like most of Gray’s work, it’s a slow, but rewarding burn. The cinematography is spectacular, and there are some engrossing action sequences. Robert Pattinson is, as always, weird as ever, but it works.
25. Ambulance
Year: 2022
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Eiza González
Genre: Action
Rating: R
Runtime: 136 minutes
Director: Michael Bay
Trailer: Watch here
When described, AmbuLAnce (it’s set in LA!) sounds fake. The film, directed by Michael Bay, includes several references to Michael Bay films including The Rock. It’s messy and all over the place, but Jake Gyllenhaal’s chaotic performance as the manic villain collides with Bay’s aggressive directing style as if they were meant to be.
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