12 Angry Men.
Photo: Courtesy of the Studio
This list is regularly updated as movies rotate on and off of 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.
Year: 1957
Runtime: 1h 36m
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.
Year: 2011
Runtime: 2h 5m
Director: Takashi Miike
Takashi Miike has made directed over 100 movies, and this is one of the best, a stylish throwback to samurai cinema of old anchored by the modern filmmaking prowess of one of the best filmmakers alive. A remake of Eiichi Kudo’s 1963 film, this is loosely based on actual events from 1844 when 12 samurai and a hunter worked together to assassinate the leader of the Akashi clan. It’s a perfect balance of storytelling and sprays of samurai blood.
Year: 2001
Runtime: 2h 25m
Director: Steven Spielberg
When it was released in 2001, audiences were divided over Steven Spielberg’s completion of a project once started by the legendary Stanley Kubrick about the nature of human existence. History has (mostly) come around to recognize it as a visually daring, often brilliant film. Haley Joel Osment stars as David, an android child who learns about the meaning of life and human nature. It’s a gorgeous, ambitious piece of work that you should revisit if you haven’t seen it since it came out.
Year: 2007
Runtime: 2h 56m
Director: Ridley Scott
Ridley Scott directed this epic gangster pic that saw two of the most charismatic actors of their generation work together on their first major project (no offense, Virtuosity fans). Denzel Washington plays this loose variation on the life of Frank Lucas, a legendary criminal who revolutionized the drug trade; Russell Crowe plays the detective who brought him down. Both men are great, but this is an awesome ensemble piece with great supporting work from a dozen or so character actors.
Year: 2013
Runtime: 1h 49m
Director: Richard Linklater
Linklater closed out one of the best trilogies of all time in the final film (to date) about Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy), a pair who met on a train so many years ago in Before Sunrise. It’s such a richly nuanced character study of how love changes and shifts over the course of a relationship, anchored by two of the most genuine performances of their era.
Year: 1995
Runtime: 1h 41m
Director: Carl Franklin
Carl Franklin wrote and directed one of the most underrated Denzel Washington performances of all time in this 1995 adaptation of the novel of the same name by Walter Mosley. Washington plays Easy Rawlins, a World War II vet in 1948 who gets drawn into a mystery that classic noir filmmakers would have adored. Charming and riveting, the only crime here is that there wasn’t a whole franchise of films with Washington playing Easy.
Year: 1998
Runtime: 2h 6m
Director: Gus Van Sant
In 1997, two old friends named Ben Affleck and Matt Damon saw their dreams come true in the form of a drama that would turn both of them into household names and win them Oscars for Best Original Screenplay. Damon stars as Will Hunting, a janitor who has not lived up to his intellectual potential, but what really makes this movie still effective is its emotional foundation. A lot of that comes courtesy of a therapist played by Robin Williams, who won an Oscar for his work.
Year: 2021
Runtime: 2h 37m
Director: Ridley Scott
One of two 2021 films by the incredible Ridley Scott is already on Prime Video in this adaptation of the 2001 non-fiction book by Sara Gay Forden. Lady Gaga gives a fearless performance as Patrizia Reggiani, whose romance with fashion empire heir Maurizio Gucci (Adam Driver) ended in violence. A modern camp classic just for Jared Leto’s accent alone, House of Gucci is a riveting exercise in excess.
Year: 1996
Runtime: 2h 10m
Director: Gregory Hoblit
Richard Gere stars in this 1996 thriller about an attorney who becomes deeply involved in his latest case, that of an altar boy (played unforgettably by Edward Norton) who has been accused of murdering a Catholic Archbishop. A battle of wills between Gere and Norton with the backdrop of allegations of abuse against the church, Primal Fear is a smart, riveting genre movie. Norton was so good he even won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor and earned a much-deserved Oscar nomination too.
Year: 1976
Runtime: 1h 59m
Director: John G. Avildsen
Just in time for the drop of Creed III in theaters, Prime Video knocked out all of the streaming competition by adding the entire saga up to this point, including every Rocky film from the Best Picture winner through Rocky Balboa, along with both Creed movies to date. These are legendary films in the history of American sports movies. Marathon time!
Year: 1999
Runtime: 2h 19m
Director: Anthony Minghella
Matt Damon, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Philip Seymour Hoffman star in one of the most perfect adaptations of a Patricia Highsmith novel to date. Damon plays the title character, Tom Ripley, a con man who works his way into the life Dickie Greenleaf (a fantastic Law) and his girlfriend Marge (Paltrow). A beautifully shot thriller, this film was nominated for five Oscars, including Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor. It’s one of the best films of a historically good film year in 1999.
Year: 1992
Runtime: 2h 7m
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 epic retelling of the classic novel is one of the most lavish and ambitious Hollywood productions of its era. Gary Oldman gives one of his best performances as the title character, but it’s Coppola’s incredible craftsmanship and unforgettable design that make his Dracula an underrated horror classic.
Year: 1976
Runtime: 1h 38m
Director: Brian De Palma
Long before Stephen King was an entire industry, he was the guy who wrote Carrie, a 1974 novel about a bullied teen girl who unleashes hell on her classmates. Every once in a while, there’s a perfect combination of source material and creatives, and that’s what happened when King, De Palma, and Sissy Spacek combined forces here. Horror movie history would be made. Note: The underrated Chloe Grace Moretz remake is also on Prime.
Year: 1987
Runtime: 1h 34m
Director: Clive Barker
The horror author Clive Barker directed this adaptation of his own novella The Hellbound Heart and made genre movie history. Introducing the world to the iconic Pinhead, who would go on to appear in so many sequels, the original film here is still the best, the tale of a puzzle box that basically opens a portal to Hell. The sequels have kind of lost the thread, but the original is still incredibly powerful. It’s one of the few films from the ‘80s that would still shatter audiences if it were released today.
Year: 2008
Runtime: 1h 54m
Director: Tomas Alfredson
Based on the 2004 novel of the same name, this is one of the best vampire movies ever made. It’s the tale of an ordinary pre-teen who is bullied at school and has a lonely life at home. That’s the case until a new child moves in, one with a secret. She’s a creature of the night, and her connection with this new friend will change both of their lives forever. Moody and moving, this is a modern classic.
Year: 1999
Runtime: 1h 53m
Director: Spike Jonze
Long before Charlie Kaufman wrote the excellent I’m Thinking of Ending Things for Netflix he really broke through with this clever 1999 comedy, a film that really put him and Spike Jonze on the movie map, and landed its writer an Oscar nomination. How does one even begin to describe this surreal comedy in a capsule description? It’s wonderfully impossible to do so.
Year: 1988
Runtime: 1h 47m
Director: Charles Crichton
Movies simply don’t get much funnier than this Oscar winner starring John Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline, and Michael Palin. The story of a jewel robbery gone very wrong, the barrister who gets involved, and the fish that gets caught in the middle is regularly included on any short list of the funniest movies ever made. You know how the Academy Awards never include any comedy performances? This one won an Oscar for Kevin Kline, who is simply impossible to deny.
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.
Year: 2021
Runtime: 2h 13m
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
A controversial nominee for Best Picture at the beginning of 2022, P.T. Anderson’s latest is already on Prime Video for subscribers to screen for no extra cost. And they should. Alana Haim and Cooper Hoffman are transcendent in this story of a teenager who falls for a twentysomething woman, and the odd adventures that somehow keep falling into their lives. It’s a lyrical, gorgeously shot period comedy about those hazy days when anything seems possible.
Year: 2003
Runtime: 1h 42m
Director: Sofia Coppola
Sofia Coppola exploded onto the filmmaking scene with her second film, her 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 is really Coppola’s film, a tender, brilliant character study with personal resonance.
Year: 2013
Runtime: 3h
Director: Martin Scorsese
Leonardo DiCaprio should have won the Oscar for his amazing performance as Jordan Belfort, the financial criminal that rocked Wall Street and shocked audiences in one of Scorsese’s best late films. Arguments over whether or not this film glorifies a “bad guy” have become prominent — and could only really be made by people who haven’t actually watched it. Most of all, it’s a shockingly robust film, filmed with more energy in a few minutes than most flicks have in their entire runtime.
Year: 1981
Runtime: 1h 39m
Director: John Carpenter
John Carpenter’s 1981 action masterpiece imagined the distant future of 1997 when the island of Manhattan had become a maximum-security prison. When Air Force One is hijacked and crashed into New York on purpose, only Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell) can stop the madness.
Year: 1986
Runtime: 1h 50m
Director: Russell Mulcahy
There can be only one. Christopher Lambert stars as Connor MacLeod, who was born in the Scottish Highlands in the 16th century and killed there, only to discover that he was born immortal and is now a part of a massive secret war to leave only one highlander remaining. Yeah, it’s all really silly, but this movie became a massive cult hit, thanks in part to Lambert and Sean Connery’s fun performances.
Year: 1981
Runtime: 1h 55m
Director: Steven Spielberg
Everyone is getting cautiously excited for James Mangold’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, releasing later this year. It’s the perfect time to catch up with the saga of cinema’s most beloved treasure hunter in the beloved first four (well, at least three) films in this franchise. The perfect Raiders of the Lost Ark and its three sequels are all on Prime, waiting for your marathon.
Year: 2006
Runtime: 2h 9m
Director: Spike Lee
Yes, Spike Lee once made a great action movie. The director of Do the Right Thing and Da 5 Bloods put his spin on the heist film with this great 2006 Denzel Washington vehicle. The regular collaborator plays an NYPD hostage negotiator, called in when a bank heist goes down on Wall Street. Tight and effective, this is just further evidence that Spike Lee can nail any kind of movie he chooses to make.
Year: 1994
Runtime: 2h 34m
Director: Quentin Tarantino
There are certain tentpoles of American film history that changed the form forever, and this is undeniably one. Heck, we’re still getting Tarantino riffs almost thirty years later, as everyone wants to make a movie as effortlessly cool as his masterpiece. What more could possibly be written about Pulp Fiction? You know you love this and want to see it again.
Year: 1986
Runtime: 1h 50m
Director: Tony Scott
Tom Cruise reminded everyone that he is really the last true movie star with the amazing success of this film’s sequel in 2022. Why not go back to the original and see how the story of Maverick and Iceman rocked the world over 35 years ago? A lot of this is pretty dated now, but in a way that makes the nostalgic ride even more fun.
Year: 2010
Runtime: 1h 50m
Director: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
At first, the Coen brothers didn’t seem a logical fit for a remake of a beloved John Wayne Western, but they really made this multiple Oscar nominee their own. One of the ways they did that was through directing a fantastic ensemble, led by Jeff Bridges, Hailee Steinfeld, and Matt Damon. And, of course, their undeniable craftsmanship.
Year: 2010
Runtime: 1h 37m
Directors: Chris Sanders, Dean DeBlois
When people speak of the best film trilogies of all time, they too rarely include the films based on the books by Cressida Cowell about a boy and his beloved fire-breathing friend. These movies are gorgeously animated and legitimately moving. They have an odd habit in the streaming era of bouncing around the streaming services like Toothless himself, but the first, and probably still the best, film is the one that’s on Prime Video now.
Year: 1994
Runtime: 1h 58m
Director: Gillian Armstrong
Louisa May Alcott’s beloved 19th century novel has been adapted to the screen a few times but this is one of the more popular versions, a family film memory for a generation of people who were kids in the ‘90s. Winona Ryder, Claire Danes, Kirsten Dunst, and Susan Sarandon headline a film that earned the future Stranger Things star her second and last (to date) Oscar nomination.
Year: 2001
Runtime: 1h 30m
Director: Vicky Jenson, Andrea Adamson
It’s hard to explain how massive this family animated comedy was in 2001. It really changed the landscape forever, giving power to an animated studio other than Disney, and teaching copycats to repurpose old fairy tales into new stories. It also led to three direct sequels and a spin-off franchise that’s still making hits (Puss in Boots). See where it all began.
If you subscribe to a service through our links, Vulture may earn an affiliate commission.
