Best movies on Amazon Prime Video (April 2024)

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 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.

UK Only

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.

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.

UK Only

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.

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.

Ben Affleck both stars and directs this brilliant film about the Nike execs who wanted to sign a yet-unknown basketball player to their books. The player was Michael Jordan and the rest is history. This one has only just finished in the cinema but because of its backing from Amazon Studios, it's now available to watch on Prime.

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.

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.

One of the greatest films of all time is now streaming on Prime Video. Fellini's 8 1/2 is a love letter to cinema - about a director who is looking for inspiration for his new movie and it comes from his past. Sit, back, relax and prepare to be mesmerised.

Brendan Fraser is a morbidly obese, depressed man in The Whale, a film that landed the actor a Best Actor Oscar after years largely out of the limelight. Critics are split on whether this is actually a good film, with some suggesting it's exploitative. However, almost all agree that Fraser's performance is quite something to behold.

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 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.

Years before we would find ourselves knee-deep in AI, Ex Machina tackled the subject with a deft touch. Alicia Vikander plays a robot with human-like AI intelligence. It was Alex Garland’s first directorial job, and might still be his best movie to date — at least among movies he has directed. In classic Garland fashion it tackles big questions, including what it actually means to be human.

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.

Set aside an evening for this one. But it’s worth it. Chapter 4 turns the action-packed John Wick franchise into an epic, at just shy of three hours. And the only bits we’d shave off are some of the slightly too-long fight scenes. This is still an incredible visual spectacle, and the most highly-rated of the entire series. That’s some going.

Guy Ritchie is back with a slice of what this iconic British director does best: action. And Operation Fortune also stars one of the greatest of the genre, Jason Statham. While this movie may not pop quite as much as Ritchie classic Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, it's worth a watch if you regard this director's earliest films fondly.

A woman is accused of murdering her husband after his body is found outside their chalet up in the showy Grenoble mountains. What follows is a film that defies easy categorisation. It’s part courtroom drama, part thriller and a look into a fractured relationship. The performances here are exceptional. Anatomy of a Fall won an Academy Award for its screenplay, and is a truly thrilling watch.

Jeffrey Wright plays Thelonius Ellison, a frustrated author who writes a book based around black stereotypes only to find it celebrated on face value. The thing he rallies against is what ends up making him famous. American Fiction was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, and is both an insightful look at family dynamics as well as a sharp satire.

The musical that even people who dislike musicals often love, La La Land is an ultra-stylish masterwork by Damien Chazelle. Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone star as an actress and pianist trying to make it in Los Angeles. The two fall in love, but the film is as much about the city in which it is set as the central romance.

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.

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.

Here’s a good option if you want a flat-out good time with a horror twist. A serial killer returns after a 35-year hiatus, and Jamie has to travel back in time to stop the killings from happening in the first place. There’s slasher action, time travel and a bit of mother-daughter Back to the Future’ing. Totally Killer has a similar feel to Happy Death Day or Freaky, and comes totally recommended.

Acting Superstar Barry Keoghan is Oliver Quick, a student at Oxford University who works his way into the social circles of rich and entitled young folks. After being invited over to a friend’s family estate, all hell breaks loose. Saltburn may not be the deepest and most meaningful of films, but it sure is a whole lot of stylish fun.

The kind of teen comedies we used to love in the 2000s aren’t gone entirely. They’re just different as Bottoms proves. Two students set a goal of getting laid before graduation. But instead of being testosterone-soaked boys, these two are queer girls. This is a very funny and fast (92 minutes!) comedy that doesn’t need to hold back, as it’s an R-rated flick.

Sometimes you wonder why remakes happen because they’re no good. Doug Liman’s remake of cheesy 1989 action thriller Road House is better than that, but not something we had on our bingo cards a few years before it came out. Jake Gyllenhaal stars as a former UFC fighter turned bouncer at a rough Florida bar, while actual real-life figure Conor McGregor puts on a compelling performance as a punchy villain.

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.