Best movies on Amazon Prime Video (January 2022)

One of the best movies of the 90s has probably been seen by all, but Fight Club is well worth a rewatch. The machismo of the movie may have dulled over the years, as has the CGI, but the main tale of a bunch of men looking for more from their corporate lives is still thrilling.

In the US? Stream Fight Club on Prime Video here.

One of the best movies of 2020 is the twisty, unhinged Parasite. A metaphor for the gaping chasm that is the class system in South Korea, we see a lower-class family making their way into the lives of a rich family, by way of jobs and other rather stranger means.

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The first time we saw Robert De Niro and Al Pacino on screen and it's in a fantastic movie. Heat is a cops and robbers tale, put the through the clinical lens of Michael Mann. It's a superb thriller and its effects can be seen in movies since - including The Dark Knight.

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Kumail Nanjiani is currently famed across the internet as the nerd who got "swole". But The Big Sick was a highlight of his pre-muscle days.

It was written by Nanjiani and his wife Emily Gordon, and is based on their own experiences of an interracial relationship and their struggles with Gordon’s health issues. It is real, relatable and dances effortlessly between its funny and serious sides.

In the US? Stream The Big Sick on Prime Video here.

A really nice ultra low budget thriller that has one of the best tracking shots in it we have seen. In the 50s a DJ and switchboard operator find an audio signal that could well change a town in New Mexico forever. The movie keeps you guessing right up to the end. At times it feels like an extended Twilight Zone episode but it's all done so well.

In the US? Stream Vast of the Night on Prime Video here.

Riz Ahmed gives a career-defining performance as a drummer for a metal band who loses his hearing. The results are a gripping, tender study of the human psyche when it has to combat something that is life changing.

In the US? Stream Sound of Metal on Prime Video here.

A wonderful timeloop movie that manages to find something fresh in what is now a well-worn plot point. Adam Samberg is fantastic as the man stuck replaying the same day over and over which he hates - until someone comes into his life that unwittingly falls into the same predicament he finds himself in.

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There is no better than Rosamund Pike to create a villain so evil but bloody persuasive that you nearly end up rooting for her. She did it in Gone Girl and has done it again in I Care A lot. Here she is a con artist trying to grift retirees by becoming their legal guardians. What happens is jaw dropping and Pike is just fantastic to watch throughout.

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One of the greatest movies ever made, Once Upon A Time In America is a generation spanning tale about the rise and fall of gangsters in the US. Robert D Niro, James Woods and the rest of the cast are superb. This was the final movie of Sergio Leone and his absolute masterpiece.

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While we heartily recommend the TV show, the What We Do In The Shadows (from which the show is spun from) is also a delight. Starring Jemaine Clement, Taika Waititi and others, the mockumentary focuses on a group of vampires and their sworn enemy - werewolves.

Best-selling novel Gone Girl gets a brilliant movie adaptation thanks to David Fincher. Rosamund Pike is 'gone girl' Amy - someone who has gone missing and is being searched for by her husband Nick (Ben Affleck). But everything isn't as it seams with many untruths about to be uncovered about the relationship

This escapist fantasy is unlikely to feature on many top 10 all-time film lists. But it is an absolute must-see in 2020, when we can all do with a break from the real world.

A pilot (Felicity Jones) and nerdy meteorologist (Eddie Redmayne) are an unlikely team in a record-breaking hot air balloon trip into the sky. Tune your brain into The Aeronauts frequency and you’re in for one of the most charming live action family movies in years. There are sofa-clenching sections too.

In the US? Stream Aeronauts on Prime Video here.

Shot in natural light and a movie that puts its lead actor through hell, The Revenant is a stunning movie that won Leonardo DiCaprio his Oscar. The movie is brutal, focusing on a frontiersman who is trying to survive in the wild after being mailed by a bear. It's a tough watch, but well worth it.

It’s by no means a perfect movie but the Borat sequel strikes a much-needed political cord with its look at Borat and his daughter making their way to America once more to make fun of the ignorant. While the ‘story’ is wafer thin, it was a genius idea to bring his daughter along for the ride as she can do everything Borat would do but nobody recognises her - and her scene with one of the most famous people in America caught with his hands down his pants is just brilliant.

In the US? Stream Borat 2 on Prime Video here.

The Watch is a gripping look at the true story of those trying to hold the government account for its 'enhanced interrogation' practises in the events after 9/11. Adam Driver is superb as the senator looking into how the CIA conducted its business and the abnormalities in what they were doing, trying to uncover a level of brutality that nobody wanted the world to know about.

In the US? Stream The Report on Prime Video here.

One Night In Miami is an understated movie and all the better for it. For the most part, it takes place in one room (a motel room) after Cassius Clay's big fight with Sonny Liston. Within that time the worlds of Clay, Malcolm X, Jim Brown and Sam Cooke collide in a drama that is compelling to watch.

In the US? Stream One Night In Miami on Prime Video here.

Bronson is a challenging movie. It's almost like a stage play, with Charles Bronson's fevered mind (Tom Hardy is a career-defining performance) centre stage. This is a psychedelic biopic that's at time funny, harrowing and, well, harrowingly funny. Director Nicolas Winding Refn has created an OTT but very compelling movie.

The Argento cut of Dawn Of The Dead is an intriguing one. It's pretty much the Dawn Of The Dead you know and love but the soundtrack has way more Goblin. This is the cut that most of Europe has seen and it's a much faster-paced version of the movie than you might have seen. Okay, so it's not the purest version of Romero's movie but it is still well worth a watch. And if you don't fancy it, then both the theatrical cut and Cannes' cut are available to watch on Prime, too.

One of the most mesmerising movies of recent years, The Green Knight is a psychedelic rendition of the great Arthurian legend. Dev Patel is proving once more that he is the actor to revise old English stories (he was also amazing in David Copperfield) and the rest of the cast are also sublime. This is a slow, enveloping movie but we loved it.

This is one of the most unnerving horror movies of recent years. It tackles religion, coming of age and mental health fantastically well, making for a real fright fest. Maud is a nurse who looks after Amanda and, well, things escalate from there.

This is a nasty movie and one that has been misjudged since its release. Seen by some as a right-wing call to arms, it's really a mental health battle on the big screen - where someone who has had enough of being sidelined by his peers decides to change his life in the most drastic way possible. Joaquin Phoenix is fantastic as 'Joker' and having Robert De Niro involved pushes the King of Comedy connotations to the max, which is all good fun. We do think a better director would have been a little more subtle in their approach about what's happening but it's worth a watch.

The Hateful Eight may be a period thriller but the movie is a fantastic companion piece to Reservoir Dogs. Both focus on a 'rat' in the ranks and both are (mainly) set in one room. Samuel L Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Walton Goggins star and are all mesmerising as characters stuck in a lodge during a huge snow storm.

Everybody's Talking About Jamie is a fantastic filmic take on the stage play of the same name. The movie follows Jamie, a schoolboy who dreams of becoming a drag artist. Richard E Grant is there to help him on his way, even if his school doesn't believe in him. It's a brilliant feel-good British film that everyone should watch.

The Day Shall Come is fantastic satire from the mind of Chris Morris, following a movie based on real events where a preacher is paid by the FBI to become a terrorist and then it all goes awry from there. It's funny in places but also a despairing look at what can happen when certain numbers in a spreadsheet need to be met.

Rachel Brosnahan (of Prime Video's The Marvelous Mrs Maisel) is fantastic in this '70s-based drama about a housewife that becomes embroiled in a life of crime. While the first half of the movie is the best, it's a caustic look at what life was like for women in the Seventies with a nice mix of crime thrills.

In the US? Stream I'm Your Woman on Prime Video here.

We were surprised by Wrath of Man. Given it stars Jason Statham and is directed by Guy Ritchie, we were expecting a fun, sarcastic romp. Instead, this is a taut thriller that just doesn't let up. Statham is ace as a new cash truck driver that isn't what he seems.

This Aaron Sorkin drama features a nearly unrecognisable Nicole Kidman as Lucille Ball, focusing on her time on the hit show I Love Lucy. Javier Bardem is the other half of the power couple and we see the goings on of their lives through the course of filming an I Love Lucy episode - from script read to performance. Both the acting and the script here are fantastic, as you would expect with the talent on show.

This sequel to The Shining is stunning. The director's cut is a must watch as it melds the two Stephen King books together better, while linking Stanley Kubrick's movie up seamlessly with this one. Here Danny Torrance (Ewan McGregor) is all grown up, fighting alcoholism like his father and his own demons. A series of events bring out his 'shining' powers and mean he has to confront the chilling events from his past.

Jennifer Lopez should have been up for an Oscar for her role in Hustlers. She is fantastic as the leader of a group of strip club employees who turn the tables on Wall Street execs who frequent their club. It's based on a true story and is a fascinating insight into those who hustle, why they hustle and where that eventually leads them.

This one is an Amazon Original and is a fun frolic through the Scottish highlands, as part of the Duke of Edinburgh, as we follow four hip-hop loving city dwellers who are chased by a huntsman. Directed by Ninian Doff, who cut his tooth on music videos for the likes of Run The Jewels and The Chemical Brothers, this is a hilarious boys' own adventure. We do prefer the original title of the movie, though, which was Boyz In The Wood.

In the US? Stream Get Duked on Prime Video here.