Veteran members of the streaming platform would agree that the ever-evolving catalog of movies available with a subscription to Amazon Prime Video is endless. There is almost too much to choose from, which often leads to more time scrolling to find the best movies on Prime Video than actually spent enjoying a film.
Of course, as any frequent streamer should know, access to that much content – which also includes many great TV shows on Amazon – is both a blessing (making Amazon Prime one of the best streaming services to subscribe to) and a curse. Allow us to help narrow down your search with our picks for the best movies on Amazon Prime Video currently available to stream as of April 1, 2024, unless otherwise specified.
The Top Gun Movies (1986, 2022)
A rebellious naval aviator (Tom Cruise) falls for his mentor (Kelly McGillis) and later becomes a mentor to a group of talented, recent graduates at one of the most elite piloting schools. Director Tony Scott’s Top Gun was one of the most popular movies of its time, went down in history as one of Cruise’s best action movies, and later spawned a sequel, Top Gun: Maverick, which became the most popular movie of 2022 and the actor’s biggest hit to date.
Stream Top Gun on Amazon Prime.
Stream Top Gun: Maverick on Amazon Prime.
Another Round (2020)
A group of high school teachers conduct an experiment to see how their lives may improve by consuming alcohol on a daily basis. One of the best Mads Mikkelsen movies, co-writer and director Thomas Vinterberg’s Another Round won the Best International Feature Oscar 2021 for its darkly humorous execution of a fascinating concept.
Stream Another Round on Amazon Prime.
Witness (1985)
A detective (Harrison Ford) investigating a murder witnessed by an Amish 8-year-old (Lukas Haas) is forced to pose as a member of the boy’s village when he is targeted by the culprits. Ford received an Academy Award nomination for his performance in director Peter Weir’s Witness, which would take home Oscars for Best Original Screenplay and Best Editing.
Stream Witness on Amazon Prime.
Field Of Dreams (1989)
A mysterious voice inspires an Iowa farmer (Kevin Costner) to convert his cornfield into a baseball field. Costner has made several great baseball movies, but one of the most memorable and emotionally gratifying is Field of Dreams – writer and director Phil Alden Robinson’s adaptation of W.P. Kinsella’s novel.
Stream Field of Dreams on Amazon Prime.
How To Train Your Dragon (2010)
In a time when human beings and winged, fire-breathing creatures are sworn enemies, one bumbling, wannabe hunter (Jay Baruchel) makes a discovery that could change how his people interact with the creatures forever. What makes How to Train Your Dragon a great kids movie that adults will also love is the exciting action sequences at the center of its heartwarming tale of finding friendship in unlikely places.
Stream How to Train Your Dragon on Amazon Prime.
Rain Man (1988)
A young, self-absorbed yuppie (Tom Cruise) meets and takes a cross-country trip with the older brother he never knew he had: an autistic-savant (Dustin Hoffman). Hoffman received his second Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in Rain Man – a Best Picture Oscar winner from Barry Levinson.
Stream Rain Man on Amazon Prime.
Bottoms (2023)
Rachel Sennott and Emmy winner Ayo Edebiri lead the Bottoms cast as two teen lesbians who start an after school women’s self-defense class in hopes to get closer to their crushes. Sennott also worked with director Emma Seligman on the screenplay for this uproarious and subversive coming-of-age comedy.
Stream Bottoms on Amazon Prime.
Fiddler On The Roof (1971)
Three Academy Awards went to this cinematic adaptation of the Tony Award-winning smash, Fiddler on the Roof. Topol leads the cast and Norman Jewison directs this funny, romantic, and heartbreaking musical set in pre-revolutionary Russia.
Stream Fiddler on the Roof on Amazon Prime.
12 Angry Men (1957)
One of the best courtroom dramas of all time barely takes place in the courtroom. With brazen performances by Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, and more, director Sidney Lumet’s 12 Angry Men is an intensely captivating thriller from the point of view of the jury for a murder trial.
Stream 12 Angry Men on Amazon Prime.
Heaven Can Wait (1978)
Warren Beatty co-writes, co-directs, and stars in the Oscar-winning, fantastic sports dramedy Heaven Can Wait as a professional football player given a second chance at life on Earth. Reason being, he was accidentally taken too early, leading the people in charge above to transfer his soul into a recently murdered millionaire.
Stream Heaven Can Wait on Amazon Prime.
Women Talking (2022)
Writer and director Sarah Polley won a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar for this heart-wrenching, remarkably timely drama based on true events. The aptly titled Women Talking – depicting a group of women discussing whether or not to leave their Mennonite village in light of sexual assault – is anchored by a stunning all-star cast, including Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckely, Frances McDormand, and more.
Stream Women Talking on Amazon Prime.
Sunshine Cleaning (2009)
Amy Adams and Emily Blunt shine brightly in the otherwise dark dramedy, Sunshine Cleaning. They play sisters struggling to come to terms with their differences and their traumatic pasts while running a crime scene clean-up business together.
Stream Sunshine Cleaning on Amazon Prime.
Get Out (2017)
Comedian Jordan Peele made a stunning feature film debut as a writer and director with one of the best horror movies in recent memory – the groundbreaking, thought-provoking, Academy Award-winning Get Out. Daniel Kaluuya also received his first Oscar nomination for his lead performance as a Black photographer who suspects something is off about his white girlfriend’s family when meeting them for the first time.
Stream Get Out on Amazon Prime.
Burn After Reading (2008)
In one of the best Coen Brothers movies (let alone one of the duo’s more underrated films), the lives of a forcibly retired CIA agent (played by John Malkovich) and two gym employees (played by Frances McDormand and Brad Pitt) converge in unexpectedly grim and ridiculous ways. Also starring George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, J.K. Simmons, and more, Burn After Reading is a hilariously off-beat crime thriller on fire with many fun twists and turns.
Stream Burn After Reading on Amazon Prime.
Saltburn (2023)
An Oxford student (played by Academy Award nominee Barry Keoghan) spends one eventful summer – to say the least – at the lavish estate owned by the family of his wealthy classmate (Jacob Elordi). Oscar winner Emerald Fennell crafts an even darker, more cheekily funny, and sometimes even “disgusting” thriller out of her follow-up to Promising Young Woman, Saltburn.
Stream Saltburn on Amazon Prime.
Goon (2012)
A violent outcast (played by Seann Williams Scott) finds the sense of purpose he has been longing for when he joins a misfit, semi-pro hockey team. Scott gives one of the best and most underrated performances in one of the best hockey movies ever, Goon.
Polite Society (2023)
A British-Pakistani teen (played by Priya Kansara) aspires to rescue her older sister (played by Ritu Arya) from her impending nuptials. Writer and director Nida Manzoor’s feature-length debut, Polite Society, is an ambitious coming-of-age comedy fused with thrilling, Matrix-style action.
Stream Polite Society on Amazon Prime.
Sicario (2015)
An FBI agent (played by Emily Blunt) begins to question the true intentions of her assignment when she joins a government task force taking on a drug cartel. Also starring Benicio del Toro and Josh Brolin, the intense action thriller, Sicario, is one of director Denis Villeneuve’s best movies, featuring visually striking cinematography by Roger Deakins.
Stream Sicario on Amazon Prime.
Interstellar (2014)
A NASA pilot-turned-farmer (played by Matthew McConaughey) goes on an expedition to find the human race a new home as Earth grows more uninhabitable. Writer and director Chrisopher Nolan tries his hand at an ambitious Kubrickian “space odyssey” with the visually stunning cosmic mindbender, Interstellar.
Stream Interstellar on Amazon Prime.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023)
Join the star-studded Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves cast (including Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Regé-Jean Page, and more) on this epic, fantastic, and often hilarious quest. Most adventurers would agree that directors Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley’s action-packed fantasy film effectively captures the essence of participating in a campaign for the popular role-playing game.
Stream Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves on Amazon Prime.
Memento (2000)
A former insurance investigator (played by Guy Pearce) desperately tries to overcome his severe condition of short-term memory loss in order to solve his wife’s murder. Cleverly told in reverse order to keep the audience in the protagonist’s headspace, Memento is one of Christopher Nolan’s best movies and a refreshing achievement in the crime thriller genre in general.
Stream Memento on Amazon Prime.
Red, White & Royal Blue (2023)
After an embarrassing cake-related incident that captured the public’s attention, the son of the President (played by Taylor Zakhar Perez) and the prince of England (played by Nicholas Galitzine) are forced to end their feud, which only leads them to fall for one another. Based on the best-selling novel by Casey McQuiston, Red, White & Royal Blue is a winning LGBTQ+ romantic comedy exclusively available on Amazon Prime.
Stream Red, White & Royal Blue on Amazon Prime.
Air (2023)
The true story of Nike’s pursuit to make rising star Michael Jordan the face of the basketball shoe division. Directed by Ben Affleck and featuring top-notch performances by the Air cast, this Amazon original docudrama is – like the athlete at its center – a legend in the making.
Absentia (2011)
After moving in with her sister, Tricia (Courtney Bell), Callie (Katie Parker) begins to piece together the horrifying truth behind her brother-in-law’s disappearance after seven years. One of the earliest, most underseen, and underrated Mike Flanagan movies is Absentia, which – despite obvious low production quality – is still one of his scariest and most emotionally gripping works yet.
Stream Absentia on Amazon Prime.
Thirteen Lives (2022)
A team of soccer players and their adult coach become trapped inside a system of flooding caves in Thailand. Ron Howard directs Thirteen Lives – a heart-racing dramatization of the incredible true story of survival that stars Viggo Mortensen and Colin Farrell.
Stream Thirteen Lies on Amazon Prime.
Licorice Pizza (2021)
Teenage Gary (Cooper Hoffman) and an older woman named Alana (Alana Haim) struggle to navigate the trials and tribulations of falling in love in the San Fernando Valley in the early 1970s. Hoffman and musician Haim both received praise for their debut performances as the leads of the Licorice Pizza cast in writer and director Paul Thomas Anderson’s, Oscar-nominated coming-of-age period piece.
Stream Licorice Pizza on Amazon Prime.
Manchester By The Sea (2016)
Ill-tempered Boston handyman Lee Chandler (Casey Affleck) becomes haunted by painful memories from his past after tragedy suddenly makes him the legal guardian to his teenage nephew (played by Lucas Hedges). Affleck’s inspired performance and director Kenneth Lonergan’s devastating original screenplay earned two Academy Awards for Manchester by the Sea – an acclaimed Amazon original that was also produced by Matt Damon.
Stream Manchester by the Sea on Amazon Prime.
The Big Sick (2017)
Pakistani-born comedian Kumail Nanjiani (as himself) is forced to confront various aspects of his life when his white girlfriend, Emily (Zoe Kazan) is placed in a medically induced coma. Nanjiani and his wife, Emily V. Gordon, received Oscar nominations for writing The Big Sick - a wonderful romantic dramedy inspired by their own real love story.
Stream The Big Sick on Amazon Prime.
It’s A Wonderful Life (1946)
Desperate businessman, husband, and father George Bailey (James Stewart) believes the world would be better off without him and is visited by his guardian angel, Clarence (Henry Travers), who shows him a dismal alternate reality in which his wish has come true. Despite not having very much to do with Christmas plot-wise, the inspirational, beautifully told story of Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life has nonetheless become a holiday tradition.
Stream It’s a Wonderful Life on Amazon Prime.
Sound Of Metal (2020)
In addition to wearing a lot of cool band T-shirts, Riz Ahmed received a Golden Globe and Oscar nomination for his performance in the powerful, heartbreaking, and inventively executed Amazon Prime original Sound of Metal as a rock and roll drummer struggling with his own identity and purpose when he begins to lose his hearing.
Stream Sound of Metal on Amazon Prime.
One Night In Miami (2020)
In her first feature-length directorial effort, Academy Award-winning actress Regina King guides four actors at the top of their game (played by Leslie Odom Jr., Aldis Hodge, Kingsley Ben-Adir, and Eli Goree) in the One Night in Miami cast as four of the most famous faces of the 1960s civil rights movement in Kemp Powers' adaption of his own acclaimed stage play.
Stream One Night in Miami on Amazon Prime.
Well, a subscriber to the streaming giant certainly cannot ask for a better assortment of flicks for the ultimate binge. Check back to see what other classics have been added or removed from Amazon Prime Video next month.
