Best movies on Amazon Prime Video (May 2023)

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.

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

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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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.

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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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 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.

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.

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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All of the official James Bond movies are now available to stream on Prime Video. While there are plenty to choose from to add to our best movies on Prime Video list, we've chosen the latest No Time To Die. This swansong for Daniel Craig is a fantastic old-school Bond ride and a fitting end to the actor's turn as the famous fictional spy.

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.

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.

After decades of working in kids’ movies, George Miller returned to the Mad Max series and absolutely smashed this revival of a classic 70s film series. Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy are survivors in a desert wasteland where the fall of civilisation has turned the remaining population wild and feral. Thrilling, muscular action and incredible cinematography.

One of the strangest and most original movies you will watch, Everything Everywhere All At Once showcases the talents of Michelle Yeoh as a bank clerk who ends up having to try and save the world. The premise is superb, where we meet multiple versions of her, taking the idea of the multiverse and just running with it. The result is a visually stunning, mind-melding masterpiece.

Years before he would go on to direct Blade Runner 2049 and Dune, Denis Villeneuve made Sicario. His vision was already hugely in evidence here, a grittier and realer picture than the movies that would go on to make him something of a star. It follows an FBI agent who gets caught up in the drug war around the border between Mexico and the US. Tense and engrossing.

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.

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.

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 entire Mission Impossible series of Tom Cruise movies is available on Amazon Prime Video. They are all a blast apart from Mission Impossible II. Watch them all bar that dud, but Rogue Nation is our favourite of the moment. Loads of exciting action, a compelling villain and some wince-inducing motorbike action.

Sure, you can tell the shark isn't real at points. But Jaws still hooks us in every time with the sheer power and dynamism of its filmmaking. This is early Spielberg at his most riveting, and served as nightmare fuel for millions. You can watch all four Jaws films on Prime Video, but only the original is a must-watch of 70s cinema.

Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson have been in the headlines recently for their brilliant performances in The Banshees of Inisherin. But this duo first formed the better part of 20 years ago in 2008's In Bruges. The two films are also by Martin McDonagh. The two stars play hitmen out on a job in Bruges, and the film is a live wire combination of action and comedy, brought together with a super-sharp script.

If you are looking for a night of ultimate melodrama, then House of Gucci is for you. There are some fantastic performances in this movie (Lady Ga Ga) and some not-so-great ones (Jared Leto) but it all makes for a sublimely ridiculous movie centred on the enigmatic and erratic Gucci family which resided over a fashion empire

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 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.

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.

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 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.

The film that made musicals palatable for folks who would usually run from them, 2016’s La La Land is a must-see. It stars Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone in a Los Angles love story. This film was also, very briefly, announced as a Best Picture Oscars winner, before the gaffe was recognised and Moonlight took the gong. Oops.

This French adaptation of a Harlan Coben novel sees an ordinary man pushed to the limits as he is implicated in a double murder. François Cluzet pulls off the role with an almost intense believability no action star could manage. This film was set to be remade with Liam Neeson starring, but it would have been unnecessary.

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.

This remake (of sorts) of Candyman is a much more cerebral take on the myth. There's still a focus on the perils of gentrification in the US, coupled with the spectre of The Candyman throughout, but it's a much more meta take of what myths are and how they can be rekindled for new audiences.

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.

Daniel Kaluuya co-stars in Judas and the Black Messiah, a role that earned him an Academy award. It’s based on a true story, of an FBI agent charged with infiltrating the Black Panthers. Kaluuya is electric as the leader of the Illinois chapter of the group. It’s a gut-wrenching watch.

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.

Given this one is directed by Pablo Larraín, it wasn't going to be a straightforward biopic of the Princess of Wales. Instead what you get is a stunning psychological thriller based around the events that lead Diana to divorce Prince Charles. Krsten Stewart is mesmerising as the People's Princess, portraying a broken women who needs an escape. Stunning stuff.

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.

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.