Although Prime Video could be observed as a secondary advantage to your Amazon Prime membership (just after that glorious totally free two-day shipping), the streamer’s deep catalog of good motion pictures deserves much more fanfare. We’ve pored more than their enormous choice of new releases and classics to bring you the films we enjoy that you can stream these days. 

To preserve you from obtaining to scroll endlessly via the Prime Video app hunting for one thing good, (the worst, amirite?), these are our picks, aka the motion pictures that make us swoon the second we see the title. Irrespective of whether you are seeking for high quality thrills, Oscar-winning prestige, a film the complete family members will take pleasure in (parents integrated), or these hidden gems you could possibly have missed, we’ve got you covered with one thing for absolutely everyone. 

Right here are the very best motion pictures on Prime Video. 

1. Out of Sight

Among the glitzy charms of the Ocean’s 11 films and the goofy enjoyable of Logan Fortunate, Steven Soderbergh is a master of the heist film. But prior to producing these favorites, he directed 1998’s Out of Sight, a slick, close to-fantastic crime comedy adapted from an Elmore Leonard novel. 

Out of Sight marks the director’s initially collaboration with George Clooney, who plays Jack Foley, a serial bank robber who breaks out of prison with two fellow inmates (Ving Rhames and Steve Zahn). Jennifer Lopez stars as Karen Sisco, the U.S. Marshal whom Jack briefly kidnaps in the middle of his escape prior to she gets away. She then joins the activity force to apprehend him, whilst he prepares to commit for a single final heist. 

Set mainly in steamy Florida and starring two extremely desirable leads, this film oozes sex. And its hottest scene is not even the sex scene (although that sequence is quite good also a master class in editing as a great deal as chemistry)! That distinction goes to the renowned bit that puts Jack and Karen in the trunk of a getaway car or truck, finding to know every other whilst they’re on opposite sides of the law. But as horny as the film is, Out of Sight knows how to have enjoyable — and have it in style.

How to watch: Out of Sight is now streaming on Prime Video.

two. The Holdovers

This intimate comedy feels like a holdover from the decade it is set in, like an individual found a lengthy-forgotten space in Chinatown screenwriter Robert Towne’s Hollywood residence and unearthed a lost film from the 1970s amid the shag carpeting and wood-paneled walls. Directed by Alexander Payne and reuniting him with his Sideways star Paul Giamatti, The Holdovers has a warm, vintage vibe with a genuine affection for and consideration to character and dialogue.

Giamatti earned an Oscar nomination for playing Paul Hunham, a New England boarding college classics teacher who has to serve as a chaperone for the students who do not go residence — or on luxury holiday with their households — more than the winter holidays. He is stuck with Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa), an insolent teen whose mother leaves him in favor of a belated honeymoon with her new husband.

The broad strokes of The Holdovers really feel comfortably familiar, with its story of an irascible man who gradually melts and mentors a tricky kid. On the other hand, it is set apart by David Hemingson’s simultaneously erudite and accessible script, which boasts references to Marcus Aurelius and the Punic Wars whilst featuring characters who really feel like genuine persons who do not know every thing (even if they consider they do). There’s also the grounding presence of Da’Vine Joy Randolph, who won an Oscar for playing Mary Lamb, a cafeteria worker grieving the loss of her son in Vietnam. Compact touches elevate this into profession-very best function for veterans Payne and Giamatti it is a actually specific film worthy of all the awards-season accolades it received and much more. 

How to watch: The Holdovers is now streaming on Prime Video.

three. How to Train Your Dragon

Even if you have the very best residence entertainment setup, it will be not possible to replicate the exhilaration of seeing this in 3D in theaters, but fortunately there’s much more to How to Train Your Dragon than just its beautiful visuals. Its animation remains thrilling even on a smaller sized screen, but it is surrounded by an engaging story, loveable characters, and a strong cast of voice actors which includes Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Craig Ferguson, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, and Kristen Wiig. This is a uncommon beast: an animated film complete of thrills, heart, and imagination that feels timeless thanks to its mythological setting and refusal to add pop culture references. 

Primarily based on Cressida Cowell’s book, this family members film follows Hiccup (Baruchel), a Viking teen who is not as fierce as his peers or his clan chief father (Butler). His persons fight dragons, but when he gets to know an injured a single, he discovers they could not be the monsters he was led to think. 

How to Train Your Dragon was a giant hit when it came out in 2010, raking in nearly half a billion dollars worldwide and finding a pair of Oscar nominations. Its industrial and vital achievement earned the DreamWorks Animation favored two sequels, which bear the uncommon distinction of becoming nearly as great as the original. It is an particularly impressive feat offered how good this a single is. 

How to watch: How to Train Your Dragon is now streaming on Prime Video.

four. Asteroid City

The purest embodiment of Wes Anderson’s quirky, mannered style, Asteroid City is 105 minutes of wonder and delight for his fans — and probably to be an unending hell for his detractors. The initially query about it below Google’s “People also ask” section is, “What the heck was Asteroid City about?” And offered its structure — a fictional documentary about the production of a play that bears striking resemblance to a film — that query could possibly be much more warranted than usual with an Anderson film. 

At initially, its topic also feels like a departure for the director, whose preceding function could have been creatively framed, but didn’t indicate he’d make a film about aliens’ arrival on Earth. Asteroid City is on a larger scale and has bigger implications than something he’s ever accomplished. And but, Anderson is mainly concerned with these characters’ relationships with a single a different and how they react in conditions it is just that this time, there’s an extraterrestrial added to the mix as an alternative of just fathers and sons, guys and ladies, or brothers and … brothers.

Anderson outdoes even his personal precedent with the quantity of notable stars involved. Alumni producing an look contain Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Jeffrey Wright, Edward Norton, Bryan Cranston, and Liev Schreiber, with newcomers to the filmmaker’s fold which includes Tom Hanks, Maya Hawke, and Hope Davis. All this could be unwieldy in a different director’s hands, but Anderson has crafted a jewel of a film with precision and care. 

How to watch: Asteroid City is now streaming on Prime Video.

five. The Handmaiden

Lush and lusty, twisted and twisty, The Handmaiden is a sumptuous period piece replete with each pleasures and surprises. Director Park Chan-wook and his co-writer Jeong Search engine optimization-kyeong took Sarah Waters’ Victorian England-set novel and brought it to 1930s Korea. In this delightfully filthy erotic thriller from 2016, a con man (Ha Jung-woo) chooses an heiress (Kim Min-hee) as his mark, intending to seduce her and steal her inheritance. To infiltrate her inner circle, he brings on a pickpocket (Kim Tae-ri) to serve as her handmaiden, but the two ladies swiftly come to be close.

With Oldboy and Selection to Leave filmmaker Park at the helm, the only element to anticipate right here is the unexpected. The Handmaiden is slyly funny and marvelously messed up, precisely the type of film Park has produced for decades, even as he crosses genres and settings. But, oh, the glory of how this distinct setting seems on screen. To reflect the lives of the wealthy in 1930s Korea, the production design and style is deliciously decadent, filled with wealthy colors and textures across the costumes and set styles.

The Handmaiden flips its narrative a number of occasions, causing a dizzy rush for the audience. That sensation is each a sense of discombobulation and a feeling of delight at how marvelously properly-constructed this plot and these characters are. Some depictions of abuse and torture are confident to disturb the audience, but they’re outweighed by the joy of seeing Park do one thing this bold and get away with it. 

How to watch: The Handmaiden is now streaming on Prime Video.

six. You Had been Never ever Seriously Right here

With We Need to have to Speak About Kevin and Ratcatcher in her filmography, Lynne Ramsay is recognized for producing motion pictures that are hard to watch, but properly worth the work. Unsurprisingly, her 2017 film You Had been Never ever Seriously Right here is completely brutal — in the very best of methods. Joaquin Phoenix stars as Joe, a bruised, bruising guy who tends to make a living by rescuing missing girls and returning them to their households by any suggests essential. When a politician asks him for aid in recovering his daughter, he is drawn into one thing far larger and much more unsafe than even he is applied to dealing with.

Trauma is ubiquitous in You Had been Never ever Seriously Right here: There’s the present abuse suffered by the youngsters Joe rescues, as properly as the violence he inflicts to save them (which is in turn inflicted upon him). The discomfort of Joe’s previous at when enables him to go to the dark locations expected to do his job, whilst it also continues to haunt him. But there are little joys and touches of humor present that preserve this from becoming a genuine downer. One particular of the (many) action sequences is specifically inspired, combining grisly violence, mordant humor, and a wonderfully terrible ’70s ballad as an individual bleeds out on dated kitchen tiles. At just 89 minutes, You Had been Never ever Seriously Right here gets in and gets the job accomplished swiftly, but it continues to linger for weeks just after you watch it. 

Mashable Best Stories

How to watch: You Had been Never ever Seriously Right here is now streaming on Prime Video.

7. Apocalypse Now Redux

Normally deemed a single of the greatest films of all time and probably the greatest war film ever, Apocalypse Now serves as a grueling descent into hell, each on screen and behind the scenes. The Francis Ford Coppola film was loosely primarily based on Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, but it trades 19th-century Africa for the Vietnam War for its setting, adding resonance for an audience that was nonetheless dealing with the aftereffects of the war in 1979. 

The script from John Milius and Coppola follows Capt. Benjamin L. Willard (Martin Sheen), who is sent on a nightmare of a mission to take down Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando), who has gone rogue — and probably gone mad — deep in the jungle. As he gets closer to his quarry, Willard encounters a wide variety of characters and increasingly awful conditions, commenting on the insanities and moral quandaries of war. 

Although it received eight Academy Award nominations, Apocalypse Now won just two for its cinematography and sound prior to losing to Kramer vs. Kramer in the race for Greatest Image. In the decades considering that its release, it has eclipsed that drama (and most other films produced in the 20th century) for quite a few cinephiles and only grown in stature, with a documentary about its troubled production and 4 different  edits of the film released more than the years in numerous formats. Fans need to note that Prime Video has the Redux version of the Coppola classic, which adds 49 minutes of footage to the original. 

How to watch: Apocalypse Now Redux is now streaming on Prime Video.

eight. Air

Is Air just a 111-minute-lengthy Nike ad? Perhaps. Do I nonetheless consider it is a good film? Certainly. At a time when the line among “content” versus film and Television grows ever blurrier, there’s some danger in a film like this affable Ben Affleck-directed drama that serves as a behind-the-scenes appear at how a bestselling solution was produced and marketed, particularly when you can nonetheless obtain that solution these days. (Is this also exactly where I admit that my primary job is in promoting?) But there’s so a great deal craft and consideration that went into the production of Air that it passes the sniff test (in contrast to these Air Jordans that you haven’t been cleaning like you need to, tsk). 

Air shares the story of how Nike wooed Michael Jordan more than to their brand in 1984, altering sports and sneakers forever in the approach. Affleck BFF Matt Damon stars as Nike exec Sonny Vaccaro, who has to convince Nike, which includes Nike CEO Phil Knight (Affleck), that the rookie Jordan deserves his personal Nike shoe and the entirety of their basketball spending budget, even although he hadn’t but confirmed himself in the NBA. Sonny also has the equally hard activity of demonstrating to Jordan and particularly his mother (Viola Davis) that Nike will be a much better match than Adidas for the athlete’s merch. 

Affleck assembles an remarkable cast that also contains Jason Bateman, Chris Tucker, and a scene-stealing Chris Messina, but this entertaining drama is nonetheless higher than the sum of its components. With a confident Affleck at the helm, Air ends up becoming far much more potent than a solution origin story need to be, supplying a tale of vision and chance beyond just a pair of footwear.  

How to watch: Air is now streaming on Prime Video.

9. <em>The Host</em>

Far more than a decade prior to he won Oscar gold with Parasite, Bong Joon-ho produced this marvelous monster film that broke box workplace records in South Korea with its 2006 release. On the other hand, fans who have observed his other function, like Snowpiercer, Okja, and Memories of Murder, will not be shocked to find out that The Host does not limit itself to that genre’s conventions — or even a single genre. As an alternative, Bong mutates the kind audiences could possibly anticipate to see, shifting tones, supplying incisive commentary, and evoking genuine feelings.

To create the screenplay, Bong started with a genuine-globe occasion: In 2000, an American ordered Korean workers to dispose of toxic chemical substances in the Han River. Although that incident didn’t outcome in any giant monsters emerging from the water (but), Bong’s story imagines that it could have. In The Host, a family members who lives and operates along the river is terrorized by the look of a enormous, slimy … issue that requires the teenage daughter (Ko Ah-sung) into his sewer lair. Led by her dim-witted dad (Bong favored Song Kang-ho), the family members tries to rescue her when the authorities prove to be no aid.

The Host presents lots of genre pleasures with strong creature design and style, great specific effects (for the time), and some quite funny moments, devoid of skimping on character improvement or thoughtful satire. But as a great deal enjoyable as this can be (particularly in its action sequences and ickier moments), Bong’s film is surprisingly severe, refusing to give in to just becoming entertaining.

How to watch: The Host is now streaming on Prime Video.

ten. Malcolm X

The inventive partnership of Spike Lee and Denzel Washington has been a fruitful a single, resulting in 4 films to date (with a different a single on the way), but their collaboration has never ever been much better than in this 1992 biographical drama about the civil rights leader. Malcolm X runs nearly 3-and-half hours, covering Malcolm’s life from his childhood via his assassination.

In his initially 5 characteristics (She’s Gotta Have It, College Daze, Do the Ideal Issue, Mo’ Far better Blues, and Jungle Fever), Lee chronicled the modern Black practical experience with sharp insight and wit, but Malcolm X marked his initially foray into Black history. This is also the initially film Lee produced that he didn’t create himself, adapting Alex Haley’s The Autobiography of Malcolm X with Arnold Perl, but it nonetheless feels like a Spike Lee joint, as a outcome of his signature style present in just about every frame. With its decades-spanning scope, Malcolm X was an ambitious step up for the director — and it paid off. This is an epic biopic with an Oscar-nominated efficiency from Washington that feels each bigger than life and totally human. Lee surrounds Washington with a talented cast, which includes Angela Bassett, Delroy Lindo, Albert Hall, and Al Freeman Jr. On the other hand, as good as they all are, Malcolm X is undeniably the Denzel Washington show. 

How to watch: Malcolm X is now streaming on Prime Video.

11. The Good Escape

Director John Sturges could be most renowned for his Westerns like The Magnificent Seven and Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, but this 1963 war film has the fizzy really feel of a heist film — but with even greater stakes. Loosely primarily based on genuine Planet War II events, The Good Escape depicts precisely what its title implies: a breakout of hundreds of American and British POWs from a German camp. To execute their strategy, they’ll will need an assemblage of guys, every adding their personal abilities and worth to the work, which includes a forger, scrounger, strategist, and tailor. Every single member of Sturges’ cast also brings one thing to the table with the varied charms of Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson, Donald Pleasence, James Coburn, and David McCallum.

Set to a cheery march of a theme from Elmer Bernstein, The Good Escape breezes by, even although it clocks in at nearly 3 hours. Sturges’ film is wildly entertaining, remaining riveting in each its action sequences and in all the prep scenes that precede them, which are complete of good character facts and enjoyable banter. Offered its setting, the film is imbued with gravitas, but it is never ever grim. Not just about every character gets a content ending, but there’s triumph even in death for these who do not make it, considering that they are no longer imprisoned by the Germans. 

How to watch: The Good Escape is now streaming on Prime Video.

12. Get in touch with Me by Your Name

Initially enjoy has hardly ever looked as dreamy as it does in this Luca Guadagnino drama set throughout the summer time of 1983 in northern Italy. Complete of skin and sun, 2017’s Get in touch with Me by Your Name is a heady romance starring Timothée Chalamet as Elio, a 17-year-old who is charmed by Oliver (Armie Hammer), the much more seasoned doctoral student staying at his family’s villa for the season. 

Get in touch with Me by Your Name captures with vivid intensity all the longing, wonder, and heartache seasoned when you initially fall in enjoy. Chalamet earned a single of the film’s 4 Oscar nominations for his tentative and tender portrayal of Elio, and James Ivory won for his adapted screenplay primarily based on André Aciman’s novel. It is a thoughtful script, driven by intellectual and sensual pleasures alike, but it is also suffused with sensitivity and empathy for these characters. Michael Stuhlbarg deserves a specific shout-out for his warm portrayal of Elio’s dad, whose supportive strategy to parenting his teen son need to be taught in seminars for all fathers. 

Thanks to the off-screen troubles of Hammer, a promised sequel is seeking much less probably, but there’s one thing profound about this beautiful gem of a film just current as its personal issue. That mentioned, if a stick to-up is ever released, I’ll be there opening weekend.  

How to watch: Get in touch with Me by Your Name is now streaming on Prime Video.

13. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 

If Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is your initially practical experience with wuxia films — as it was for quite a few Americans who saw it in the theater back in 2000 — prepare for it to leave you breathless. But even if you are a martial arts film master, this Ang Lee epic is nonetheless a jaw-dropping watch with its impressive production design and style, sweeping romance, and astonishing fight sequences choreographed by the legendary Woo-Ping Yuen.

Set in 19th-century China, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon centers on the theft of a treasured sword. Chow Yun-Fat and Michelle Yeoh star as warriors intent on finding it back, whilst hiding their romantic feelings for every other. Meanwhile, a princess (Zhang Ziyi) is about to be married off, but her abilities as a fighter beckon her toward a different life. 

This international co-production was the initially foreign-language film to cross the $one hundred million mark at the U.S. box workplace, paving the way for films like Hero and Property of Flying Daggers to succeed with American audiences. On the other hand, it wasn’t just a enormous hit it also scored ten Oscar nominations, which includes Greatest Image. It won 4 of these, which includes a statuette for its sumptuous cinematography by Peter Pau. Two decades just after all these initial accolades, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon remains a thrilling watch — or rewatch.

How to watch: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is now streaming on Prime Video.

14. <em>Bottoms</em>

This raunchy comedy tends to make a compelling argument for letting teen girls be just as horny and weird as their male film counterparts — and for letting Marshawn Lynch just do what ever the hell he desires on screen. Immediately after the amazingly awkward Shiva Child, director Emma Seligman and star Rachel Sennott reteam for Bottoms, co-writing the shockingly funny script about two unpopular higher college lesbians (Sennott and Ayo Edebiri) who start off a girls-only fight club so they can get laid by two queen bees (Havana Rose Liu and Kaia Gerber). As a single does. 

Bottoms is bonkers, somehow surpassing its wild fundamental premise and finding even crazier than you’d anticipate. Even if you go in obtaining study that final sentence and expecting one thing cuckoo bananas, you nonetheless will not be in a position to predict the turn it requires. Which is good! We’ve observed so quite a few teen comedies that a film’s capacity to actually surprise the audience — whilst producing them cackle with laughter at some actually dirty jokes — is invaluable. 

Sennott and Edebiri are hilarious and so properly-paired as leads for the distinctive power they bring, but Lynch elevates Bottoms to the subsequent level of comedy. How this man was apparently so great at football and such a comic genius, I will never ever have an understanding of, but I’m grateful for it just about every day. 

How to watch: Bottoms is now streaming on Prime Video.

15. The Station Agent

This gently affecting, immensely charming indie from 2003 casts a pre-Game of Thrones Peter Dinklage as Finbar McBride, a taciturn man who inherits a railroad depot in rural New Jersey just after the death of his only pal. Eager for isolation, he moves to the remote place, but his solitude is swiftly interrupted by the arrival of chatty meals truck operator Joe (Bobby Cannavale). He quickly reluctantly connects with Joe, as properly as with Olivia (Patricia Clarkson), an artist who like Finbar also craves quiet. 

The Station Agent is a meditation on how what we want is not often what we will need, but it presents gentle humor to preserve it from ever feeling overly sentimental. Writer-director Tom McCarthy went on to win an Oscar for co-writing Spotlight, but his directorial debut right here is equally worthy of accolades, if intentionally much less ambitious in scope. Recognizable character actors like Richard Type, Lynn Cohen, and John Slattery make short appearances, and Michelle Williams plays a supporting part, but The Station Agent is seriously just about the 3 persons at its heart. Dinklage, Cannavale, and Clarkson are all completely cast in these properly-written roles. They every really feel like persons we’ve met prior to and who have complete lives prior to and just after this film. McCarthy’s script displays clear affection and warmth for them and their flaws, and it is tricky for the audience not to really feel the exact same. 

How to watch: The Station Agent is now streaming on Prime Video.

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