Best movies on Amazon Prime Video (October 2021)

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.

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.

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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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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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.

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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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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We love The Personal History of David Copperfield. The colour blind casting of Dev Patel as the titular character is inspired, as is the rest of the casting. The script and direction are hilarious, thanks to The Thick Of It's Armando Iannuci and it's just a lovely, lovely movie to watch.

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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 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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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.

The first and the best Indiana Jones adventure sees Indy look for the Ark of the Covenant and coming into contact with rolling balls, Nazis, snakes and more. It's an absolute classic and the other Indiana Jones adventures are also ready to stream for free on Prime Video.

With the new Matrix movie (hopefully) coming out this year, it's always good to go back and watch the original. It's a classic, with Keanu Reeves as Neo a computer hacker whose life changes when he is offered a pill. The action is fantastic, the philosophy heady and the soundtrack excellent. Lovely stuff. Reloaded and Revolutions are also on Prime Video but the quality does go down.

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

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.

This long-awaited sequel to Blade Runner is stunning sci-fi. Ryan Gosling is a new blade runner who is on a mission that leads him back to Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) who has been missing for 30-something years. Director Denis Villeneuve has created something special with this one.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Detective Pikachu is a far better movie than it has any right to be. Set in Ryme City, where humans and Pokemon live together in what seems to be harmony, the movie has Ryan Reynolds voicing Pikachu - someone that only Tim Goodman, a former aspiring Pokémon trainer and now dull insurance broker, can understand. This movie pays homage to the game and series and has a whole lot of fun with its setting.

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.

A terrifying tale of religion, obsession and old age, Saint Maud manages to walk a tight rope of sheer terror and suspense, keeping you guessing until the end. Maud is a live-in nurse for a retired dance. At first they both get on but then things start to change.

In the US? Stream Saint Maud on Prime Video here.

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.