The 30 Best Movies on Amazon Prime Video Right Now

This list is regularly updated as movies rotate on and off of Amazon Prime
Video. *New additions are indicated with an asterisk.

Amazon has a little bit of everything on their streaming service, but they don’t have an interface that makes it particularly easy to find any of it. They also love to rotate out their selection with reckless abandon, making it hard to pin down what’s available when you want to watch a movie. It’s the kind of digital minefield that demands a guide. That’s where we come in! This regularly updated list will highlight the best films currently on Prime Video, free for anyone with an Amazon Prime account, including classics and recent hits. There’s truly something here for everyone, starting with our pick of the week.

This Week’s Critic’s Pick

*Die Hard

Year: 1988
Runtime: 2h 6m
Director: John McTiernan

Finally! Streamers have a habit of dropping parts of the Bruce Willis franchise but never the whole thing, until now. Watch the whole series, from the masterful original through the abysmal A Good Day to Die Hard, in one sitting, only on Prime Video. The first one is still the masterpiece, a film that truly rewrote the rules for the genre, shifting it more to everyman characters like Willis and away from muscular stars like Sly and Ah-nuld. It’s held up perfectly, as entertaining today as when it came out.

How We Pick Our Films

Critic Brian Tallerico watches and writes about movies and TV every day. To curate this list, he dives into Prime Video’s catalogue to surface acclaimed, surprising, or otherwise noteworthy titles — using his taste and a lifetime of cinema study as his guide, instead of whatever the algorithm happens to be pushing. After triple-checking to make sure they’re still available, he watches each, organizes them by category, then writes his recommendation. We highlight more than just Oscar winners or popcorn flicks: These films present interesting ideas, made an impact on cinema, and changed our culture. Read on to find something to watch.

Drama

*12 Angry Men

Year: 1957
Runtime: 1h 32m
Director: Sidney Lumet

Sidney Lumet’s American classic impacted not just the courtroom dramas that would follow but the very judicial process. Who hasn’t gone into jury duty thinking they would be the “Juror 8� in their group, the one willing to really look at the case before rushing to justice? Henry Fonda gives one of his most iconic performances in a movie that holds up six decades after it was released.

*After Yang

Year: 2022
Runtime: 1h 35m
Director: Kogonada

What a beautiful movie this is. Colin Farrell stars in a near-future tale in which androids are more common. When one dies, it feels like a member of the family is gone, almost like losing a child. Farrell’s character tries to fix Yang, discovering what’s important about life along the way. It also contains a gorgeous score by Ryuichi Sakamato.

*Challengers

Year: 2024
Runtime: 2h 11m
Director: Luca Guadagnino

One of the most acclaimed dramas of the year is exclusively on Prime Video. Zendaya, Mike Faist, and Josh O’Connor star in a story of tennis players who also happen to be lovers. Smart and sexy, this is the kind of film they’re talking about when they say that Hollywood doesn’t make movies for adults anymore. Watch this one so they do.

*Children of Men

Year: 2007
Runtime: 1h 49m
Director: Alfonso Cuaron

What happens to a society with no hope? (A more profound question in November 2024 than we ever could have imagined.) That’s the vision of this ‘00s masterpiece, a film about a future in which all women have become sterile, meaning there will be no next generation. Clive Owen is phenomenal as a man who discovers that there may be hope on the horizon. It’s a film that was great when it was released and feels ahead of its time now.

Donnie Darko

Year: 2001
Runtime: 1h 53m
Director: Richard Kelly

It’s a mad world in Richard Kelly’s sci-fi hit starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Drew Barrymore, Patrick Swayze, and Jena Malone. Darko made almost nothing in theaters but developed a loyal following on the home market, becoming one of the more acclaimed sci-fi films of the ‘00s. Join in the conversation that seems to constantly surround this film (and maybe Kelly will be encouraged to make another one soon — he hasn’t directed in over a decade).

Fitzcarraldo

Year: 1982
Runtime: 2h 37m
Director: Werner Herzog

Werner Herzog set out to make a movie about a man who was insane enough to try and move a steamship over land from one river to another and Herzog himself was insane enough to actually try and replicate it. The result is a film that’s mesmerizing in its detail and blatant in its study of power gone mad, both in the narrative and the filmmaking. Watch Burden of Dreams after – a great doc about the crazy making of this film. (It’s on Prime too.)

*The Godfather

Year: 1972
Runtime: 2h 49m
Director: Francis Ford Coppola

Maybe you’ve heard of it? In all seriousness, there’s a very cool opportunity right now to watch the entire Godfather trilogy on Prime Video, including the superior recent cut of the third film. These films have been regulars on Paramount+, but they’re rarer on other services like Prime Video. Take the chance while you can! Marathon!

King of New York

Year: 1990
Runtime: 1h 43m
Director: Abel Ferrara

The amazing Abel Ferrara directed this crime epic that oozes with style. Three decades after its release, it’s still one of the most cited films of this kind of its era. One of the main reasons for that is the cast. Christopher Walken leads the way as the legendary drug lord Frank White, but the whole ensemble here is amazing, including Laurence Fishburne, David Caruso, Wesley Snipes, Steve Buscemi, and Giancarlo Esposito.

The Limey

Year: 1999
Runtime: 1h 28m
Director: Steven Soderbergh

Steven Soderbergh directs a searing performance by Terence Stamp in his thriller about a Brit who comes to California trying to find his missing daughter, and those who may be responsible for hurting her. Soderbergh rarely missteps and The Limey is one of his most underrated films, a perfectly paced angry shout of a movie that matches its captivating leading man.

*Lost in Translation

Year: 2003
Runtime: 1h 41m
Director: Sofia Coppola

Sofia Coppola exploded onto the filmmaking scene with her second film, this 2003 dramedy about a fading movie star who meets an American girl in Tokyo and both of their lives change. Bill Murray does career-best work in the film (and should have won an Oscar), and he’s matched by Scarlett Johnansson. But this really is Coppola’s film, a tender, brilliant character study with personal resonance.

Manhunter

Year: 1986
Runtime: 2h 1m
Director: Michael Mann

Believe it or not, this Michael Mann flick isn’t regularly available for streaming subscribers, so take this chance while you can to watch one of the best from a masterful American director. Adapting Red Dragon by Thomas Harris, this is actually the first cinematic iteration of Hannibal Lecter, played here by future Succession Emmy winner Brian Cox. William Petersen is great as Will Graham, the role that Hugh Dancy would play many years later in the NBC series. This one is tense, and truly terrifying.

*The Master

Year: 2012
Runtime: 2h 17m
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson

One of P.T. Anderson’s best films, and one of the best films of the 2010s by anybody, is this drama starring Joaquin Phoenix, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Amy Adams. Originally seen as a dissection of the creation of Scientology, The Master is a lot more than that, breaking down leader/follower relationships, trauma, and doubt in ways that only one of our best filmmakers could.

Memento

Year: 2001
Runtime: 1h 53m
Director: Christopher Nolan

Christopher Nolan announced himself to the world with this Sundance thriller that really reshaped the indie and eventually the blockbuster landscape. Guy Pearce gives one of his best performances as a man with such severe memory loss that he has to use his body to remind himself of the details he needs to solve a mystery. It’s still so clever and riveting.

Oppenheimer

Year: 2023
Runtime: 2h 58m
Director: Christopher Nolan

One of the biggest and best movies of 2023 has been doing a victory lap on the streaming services following its Oscar win for Best Picture. Of course, one of the draws of Nolan’s brilliant examination of the development of the atomic bomb was the way it played on Imax screens around the world. It’s best viewed large, loud, and in a one 3-hour chunk. So don’t break this one up and don’t watch it on your phone. Give yourself over to one of the most truly cinematic experiences of the decade.

Passion Fish

Year: 1992
Runtime: 2h 15m
Director: John Sayles

The brilliant writer/director John Sayles delivered one of his most beloved films in this 1992 drama about a soap opera star (Mary McDonnell) who has been paralyzed after being hit by a cab. She returns to her family home, where she crosses paths with a nurse (Alfre Woodard) who refuses to give up on her. It’s moving in a way that feels genuine, never manipulative.

*Raging Bull

Year: 1980
Runtime: 2h 3m
Director: Martin Scorsese

As the decade turned, one of the best American filmmakers reunited with his muse to deliver what is widely considered one of the best films of his career, or anyone’s career. Much has been written about the physical transformation that would win Robert De Niro an Oscar for this film, but there’s more to this story of Jake LaMotta than just that. It’s an unforgettable character study of violence, rage, and self-destruction.

Requiem for a Dream

Year: 2000
Runtime: 1h 41m
Director: Darren Aronofsky

Darren Aronofsky adapted Hubert Selby Jr.’s novel of the same name into one of the most harrowing films about addiction that has ever been made. Jared Leto, Ellen Burstyn, Marlon Wayans, and Jennifer Connelly star in a film that looks at four different spirals into drug abuse and the horrors that can often come with it. The performances are unforgettable, but it’s the incredible visual confidence that Aronofsky displayed in only his second film that makes this such a riveting experience.

Horror

*It Follows

Year: 2015
Runtime: 1h 40m
Director: David Robert Mitchell

Horror favorite Maika Monroe stars in this 2014 indie horror breakthrough hit as a young woman who discovers that her recent sexual activity has cursed her with a supernatural force that will chase her until she passes it along to someone else. Stylish and striking, the movie felt like nothing else on the American horror market in 2014, helping usher in the era of what is now called “elevated horror.� Whatever you call it, It Follows is still an unforgettable genre flick.

*The Silence of the Lambs

Year: 1991
Runtime: 1h 53m
Director: Jonathan Demme

Movies don’t get much better than Jonathan Demme’s adaptation of Thomas Harris’ chilling thriller about Clarice Starling and Dr. Hannibal Lecter. With career-defining performances from Jodie Foster and Sir Anthony Hopkins, this movie still absolutely slays a quarter-century after it was released. It’s fascinating to see its DNA in so many modern genre films. Nothing about it is dated, which isn’t something that can be said about many films that are over three decades old.

*Suspiria

Year: 1977
Runtime: 1h 33m
Director: Dario Argento

The Luca Guadagnino remake is also on Prime, but the Argento original is the one to watch. One of the most important and influential of all the Giallo films, it stars Jessica Harper as a ballet student who goes overseas to study and discovers that her new school is populated by witches.

*The Thing

Year: 1982
Runtime: 1h 45m
Director: John Carpenter

John Carpenter directed one of the greatest horror movies of all time in 1982’s The Thing, a sci-fi masterpiece about a group of American researchers at a remote base in Antarctica when, well, they’re visited by something. The real problem is that their alien visitor can take the form of anyone around them, leading to a great cinematic depiction of paranoia and distrust.

*The Witch

Year: 2016
Runtime: 1h 32m
Director: Robert Eggers

Robert Eggers’ Sundance hit is a master class in sound design and limited perspective. Using testimony from the Salem Witch Trials, the concept of Eggers’ script is beautifully simple – what if one of those trials was about a legitimate witch? The sound of branches hitting each other from the wind, the sound of footsteps on the leafy ground: This is a movie that understands that horror is often sensory more than purely conveyed through storytelling.

Comedy

*Clueless

Year: 1995
Runtime: 1h 34m
Director: Amy Heckerling

You can keep all those stuffy Jane Austen adaptations — one of the best remains Amy Heckerling’s updating of the 1815 classic Emma to mid-‘90s L.A. Perhaps even the most ‘90s movie ever? From its fashion to its references to its beloved characters, Clueless is certainly one of the most iconic, and it grows even more popular with each generation that discovers it.

Heathers

Year: 1989
Runtime: 1h 43m
Director: Michael Lehmann

Talk about a movie ahead of its time. Coming-of-age teen comedies were never quite as wonderfully cynical before this movie about four teenage girls whose lives are upended by the arrival of a new kid, played by Christian Slater. More than just seeking to destroy the damaging cliques at his new school, Slater’s character has plans for something a little more permanent in this comedy that really shaped the teen genre for years to come.

The Holdovers

Year: 2023
Runtime: 2h 13m
Director: Alexander Payne

Paul Giamatti and Da’Vine Joy Randolph were Oscar-nominated for this phenomenal comedy (and Randolph won!), which was exclusive to Peacock but has now escaped out to Prime Video. The ‘70s-set story of a boarding school over holiday break already feels like a comedy classic, a movie that people will be watching, especially around the end of the year, for generations to come.

Action

*Crawl

Year: 2019
Runtime: 1h 27m
Director: Alexandre Aja

Alexandre Aja directed this razor-sharp 2019 film about a father and daughter trapped in a basement as flood waters rise during a hurricane. Oh, and they just happen to be being hunted by alligators. A combination of disaster flick and monster flick tropes, Crawl is a delight from start to finish. There’s not an ounce of fat on this one.

*Goldfinger (and more 007!)

Year: 1965
Runtime: 1h 45m
Director: Guy Hamilton

Classic action! This may be the third James Bond film but it’s arguably the most essential of the early years, the movie that really cemented Sean Connery’s iconic portrayal of 007. Based on the 1959 Ian Fleming novel of the same name, Goldfinger also stars Honor Blackman as the wonderfully named Pussy Galore and Gert Frobe as the title character, one of Bond history’s most iconic villains. There’s a bunch more 007 just added to Prime, from Connery through Craig — far too much to list here.

*Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark

Year: 1981
Runtime: 1h 55m
Director: Steven Spielberg

The first four titles in the franchise featuring one of the world’s most famous action heroes is finally back on Prime Video (jump over to Disney for the fifth one, if you must). Of course, the first entry, Raiders of the Lost Ark, remains the best of the bunch, but there’s some value and fun in Temple of Doom and The Last Crusade too. (And even parts of Crystal Skull. Yeah, we said it.)

*The Lord of the Rings trilogy

Year: 2001-2003
Runtime: Various
Director: Peter Jackson

The Oscar-winning franchise by Peter Jackson bounces around the streaming services with alarming regularity, now finding its way to Prime Video for an indeterminate amount of time. Watch the entire saga of Frodo Baggins, Samwise Gamgee, and the rest of the Fellowship while you can.

Family and Kids

*Paranorman

Year: 2012
Runtime: 1h 32m
Director: Chris Butler, Sam Fell

We don’t deserve Laika. The geniuses at the best stop-motion animation studio in the world delivered the goods with films like Coraline and Kubo and the Two Strings, but their best work remains this 2012 gem about a kid who can see ghosts. As Norman tries to end a centuries-old curse, this visually striking and ultimately moving work never falters once.

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