30 Best Movies On Amazon Prime Right Now (December)

In a vast landscape of streaming, Amazon Prime Video may very well have the best selection of movies around, and there are some great movies on the service right now. Amazon Prime Video is a go-to streaming service, with movie lovers placing it high on their list. It offers a broad expanse of movies that viewers can rent for just a few bucks, but with an Amazon Prime account, virtually all of their movie selections are completely free. It’s certainly one of the reasons that Amazon Prime Video has surpassed Netflix as the top streamer in the United States.

With a library that extensive, it can be hard to find the right movie to watch. Amazon Prime Video offers something for everyone, so no matter what mood someone is in or their tastes in film, they’re bound to find something to dive into on the streamer. Still, it can be hard to narrow down the catalog when Amazon Prime Video, ad-free or not, offers so much from which to choose. Here are the 30 best movies that are currently available on Amazon Prime Video.

30 Asteroid City (2023)

All of Wes Anderson’s whimsical sensibilities are present and accounted for in Asteroid City. For the director’s eleventh feature film, Anderson leans into sci-fi more than ever with a complex, meta premise about a play depicting Junior Stargazers and their families gathering at a convention in the 1950s.

Anderson is known for his sprawling ensemble casts, and Asteroid City boasts one of the biggest. The movie stars many frequent Anderson collaborators including Jason Schwartzman and Edward Norton, and Tom Hanks notably joins the company in a small role, marking his first time working with the director. After the somewhat forgettable The French Dispatch, Anderson is back in fighting form with Asteroid City, praised for its style, quirky narrative, and top-notch cast.

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29 The Big Sick (2017)

Prior to The Big Sick, Kumail Nanjiani was best known for his supporting role in Silicon Valley as the put-upon Dinesh. But with this movie, Nanjiani steps into the spotlight. He and his wife, Emily Gordon, co-write the script together, which is a semi-autobiographical account of their relationship. In the film, Nanjiani is a stand-up comedian and Uber driver who meets and falls for Emily Gardner (Zoe Kazan). As cultural differences threaten their relationship, Emily falls ill and goes into a coma.

This is a unique premise for the rom-com genre, and one that works spectacularly, as Kumail and Emily’s story is made all the more personal by the fact that it really happened. Romantic comedies are rarely given the respect they deserve, but there’s no denying how powerful The Big Sick is. Nanjiani and Gordon were nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the Academy Awards, and won Best First Screenplay at the Independent Spirit Awards for their stellar script.

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Riz Ahmed has been known for playing dark, troubled characters since his breakout role in Nightcrawler, and in Sound of Metal, he delivers the performance of a lifetime. He plays Ruben Stone, an avant-garde metal drummer who begins to lose his hearing. As Ruben grapples with the fact that he is going deaf, he must decide whether to get cochlear implants or remain with his community of people with deafness recovering from addiction.

Unsurprisingly, Ahmed’s performance as the troubled Ruben earned him many award nominations, including an Oscar. And while Ahmed steals the show, many other elements of the film were praised, particularly the the sound editing. In total, Sound of Metal was nominated for an impressive six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and deservedly won for Best Sound and Best Editing.

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27 One Night In Miami (2020)

Oscar winner Regina King steps behind the camera for a triumphant debut with One Night in Miami. Based on Kemp Powers’ play of the same name, One Night in Miami is a fictionalized retelling of a real night in February 1964 in which Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown, and Sam Cooke spend a night celebrating Ali’s boxing win over Sonny Liston, and share poignant conversation about what it means to be successful Black men in the midst of the civil rights movement.

While this premise may sound stagey and more suited to the theatre, the discussion amongst these powerhouse men will have viewers so engrossed they’ll barely register how little action is happening, and if they do, they won’t care. The movie earned three Academy Award nominations, including Best Supporting Actor for Leslie Odom Jr. as Sam Cooke. If One Night in Miami is any indication, King has a bright directing future ahead of her.

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26 Catherine Called Birdy (2022)

Lena Dunham may be a polarizing filmmaker, but she delivered a crowd-pleasing romp with Catherine Called Birdy. Based on the Karen Cushman novel of the same name, the movie follows Lady Catherine (Bella Ramsey), also known as Birdy, is a 14-year-old girl living in medieval England who is determined to sabotage her father’s plans of marrying her off to a wealthy man.

Ramsey has received tons of acclaim for their performances in Game of Thrones and The Last of Us, and their work in Catherine Called Birdy deserves to join these ranks. As Birdy, they are vivacious, funny, and charming, and they manage to make Birdy’s struggle relatable despite the film taking place so long ago. Fleabag‘s Andrew Scott is also phenomenal as Birdy’s father, Lord Rollo, and their chemistry is just as crackling as Ramsey and Pedro Pascal in The Last of Us.

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25 Raging Bull (1980)

From Mean Streets to Killers of the Flower Moon, Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese have collaborated on 10 feature films, and Raging Bull is easily one of their best. Based on Jake LaMotta’s memoir, Raging Bull: My Story, the movie centers on middleweight boxer LaMotta’s (De Niro) turbulent life, both in and out of the ring.

A 2008 AFI poll voted Raging Bull as the greatest sports movie of all time, beating out favorite Rocky. In many ways, Raging Bull is the antithesis of the feel-good inspirational Rocky. It plays more like a Shakespearean drama, in which LaMotta’s rage is his tragic flaw, as it’s what fuels his career but also is the reason for his downfall. De Niro won the Best Actor Oscar for his performance as LaMotta, and it will forever be remembered as one of his greatest roles.

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24 Chicago (2002)

Murder, fame, and jazz are at the center of the Best Picture-winning film, Chicago. Based on the Bob Foss musical of the same name, Chicago sees aspiring vaudeville performer Roxie Hart jailed for murdering her lover, Fred Casely (Dominic West). Facing a death sentence, Roxie enlists the help of the silver-tongued lawyer Billy Flynn (Richard Gere), which causes conflict when her case gets more attention than Billy’s other client, celebrity Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta-Jones).

With its stunning costumes and catchy, rousing musical numbers, it’s impossible not to get swept up in the razzle-dazzle of Chicago. In addition to Best Picture, the movie won five other Academy Awards, including Best Supporting Actress for Zeta-Jones. It’s one of her best roles, but the entire Chicago cast shines, including Queen Latifah’s corrupt yet kind Mama Morton and John C. Reilly’s naive Amos Hart. A true cinematic spectacle — that’s Chicago.

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23 Jurassic Park (1993)

Ever since 1975’s Jaws, Steven Spielberg has proven himself the master of the Hollywood blockbuster, and Jurassic Park is one of his most beloved movies. Based on the Michael Crichton novel of the same name, Jurassic Park takes place at the titular island theme park, which is populated by scientifically-created dinosaurs. But when paleontologists Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) and mathematician Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) visit, they find themselves in a fight for their lives when the dinosaurs get loose.

From John Williams’ iconic score to the pioneering special effects to Jurassic Park‘s endlessly quotable dialogue, the movie is as much a crowd-pleaser today as it was upon release 30 years ago. It beat Spielberg’s E.T. the Extraterrestrial as the highest-grossing movie of all time, and it wasn’t until 1997 that it was dethroned by Titanic. The oldest movie to gross over $1 billion, Jurassic Park is a timeless classic and one of the best movies on Amazon Prime Video.

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22 Inglourious Basterds (2009)

Quentin Tarantino is one of Hollywood’s most revered directors, and many critics and cinephiles are in agreement that Inglourious Basterds is his greatest work. A revisionist revenge tale blood bath, Inglourious Basterds sees a group of Jewish American soldiers dropped into occupied France with the sole purpose of dispatching as many Nazis as possible. Meanwhile, Shoshanna Dreyfus (Melanie Laurent) is the Jewish owner of a cinema, and she has a vengeance plan of her own.

While Inglourious Basterds is full of the brutal violence Tarantino fans have come to expect, what makes the movie so masterful are its quiet scenes. Nobody writes dialogue better than Tarantino, and the tension in moments like the farmhouse and tavern scenes is as brilliant as it is unbearable. Inglourious Basterds introduced Hollywood to Christoph Waltz, and he deservedly won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance as the sophisticated yet merciless Hans Landa, one of Tarantino’s most memorable villains.

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21 Air (2023)

While Ben Affleck’s acting career has been famously up and down, he’s had impressive success behind the camera, and Air is the fifth film he’s directed. Starring frequent Affleck collaborator Matt Damon as Nike shoe salesman Sonny Vaccaro, Air is the origin story of Nike and Michael Jordan’s iconic shoe, the Air Jordan.

A whip-smart look at the American Dream from a corporate perspective, Air is the most entertaining movie about business since The Big Short. While it’s not expected to see the same awards glory as past Affleck-directed films like Argo and Gone Baby Gone, it’s perfect for a crowd-pleasing movie night. And Viola Davis’ performance as Michael Jordan’s mother Deloris is poignant, heartfelt, and Oscar-worthy.

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20 Smile (2022)

Nothing is more unsettling than a creepy smile, and Smile capitalizes on this fear to the hilt. Smile begins with therapist Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon) meeting her patient Laura (Caitlin Stasey) who claims she is being stalked by a supernatural entity in the form of smiling people after witnessing her professor’s suicide. Laura then takes her own life in front of Rose, who begins to experience the same occurrences. The best horror movies always have smart social commentary, and beneath its many jump scares and terrifying smiles, Smile has a lot to say about trauma, and it’s delivered through some stellar performances, led by Bacon is no doubt on her way to becoming an A-list actor.

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19 Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023)

Given previous attempts at making a D&D movie have tended to end pretty badly, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves seemed like a roll of the dice that could very well end in disaster. By some miracle, though – which in this case really means the talents of writing and directing duo Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley (Game Night) – it actually ended up being a whole lot of fun. Honor Among Thieves is what feels like an increasingly rare fantasy that isn’t incredibly serious, violent, and dark, but is instead lighthearted, good-natured, and feels darn good to watch.

There are plenty of Dungeons & Dragons Easter eggs in Honor Among Thieves, but you don’t need to know your wizards from your warlocks to invest in this movie. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves‘ cast is clearly having a great time, and that spreads to the viewer; the main heroes all make you root for them, and the movie does a good job in bringing the spirit of the game to the big screen. It also helps that, in one particular Chris Pine moment, it has arguably the funniest scene of any 2023 movie. Honor Among Thieves may have bombed at the box office, and it’s by no means perfect, but it’s ideal movie night entertainment on Amazon Prime.

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18 Sicario (2015)

The talent behind Sicario couldn’t be more prestigious, and with Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan writing the script and Dune‘s Denis Villeneuve in the director’s chair, the movie does not disappoint. Sicario‘s cast is also stacked with some of today’s greatest working Hollywood actors led by Emily Blunt as FBI Special Agent Kate Mercer. Mercer joins a government task force looking to bring down powerful Mexican drug cartel leader Fausto Alarcón. While Sicario‘s action sequences are thrilling, it’s Sheridan’s nuanced characters and the stellar actors bringing them to the screen that makes the film such an intense, fascinating watch.

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17 M3GAN (2022)

The pantheon of creepy horror dolls took on a particularly 2020s vibe with Gerald Johnstone’s M3GAN, which is part modern Promethean panic and part good old-fashioned chiller. While the eponymous dancing doll was the source of one of the most viral memes of 2022, the movie itself is more than just a gimmick. The horror credentials are front and center, thanks to James Wan pulling producer duties, but M3GAN is also gloriously, self-consciously silly, which more horror movies can afford to be. At least one could be, at the very least, as MEGAN 2.0 has already been announced.

In short, M3GAN is one of the best horror movies of recent times, one of the best additions to the killer doll sub-genre, and a roaringly fun, creepy romp. It was a ready-made cult classic on arrival, but surpassed that thanks to a higher level of success, and it’s easily one of the most enjoyable new horror movies on streaming.

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16 Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

Tom Cruise was right not to release Top Gun: Maverick directly to streaming during the COVID-19 pandemic, as the sequel to the classic Top Gun went on to become the second-highest-grossing movie of 2022 with over a $1 billion at the global box office. But now that it’s had its theatrical run, nobody is complaining about it being available on Amazon Prime Video. Released over 30 years after the original, the sequel was well worth the wait, as Maverick is even better than Top Gun. As Cruise’s Pete “Maverick” Mitchell trains the next generation of Top Gun graduates, Maverick has better visuals, a tighter script, and sends the franchise soaring into the 21st century with a totally modern update of this beloved story.

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15 10 Things I Hate About You (1999)

Teen rom-coms are rarely known for their staying power, and at first glance, a 71% critics score may not seem good enough to make a “best of” list. But Gil Junger’s 10 Things I Hate About You, a modern retelling of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, has withstood the test of time to become a true classic of the late ’90s. The script is unexpectedly clever and far smarter than one might expect of a teen movie. It also served up breakthrough roles for Stiles, Ledger, and Gordon-Levitt, who had previously been only known for his TV work. The chemistry between the cast, and the charm they show, especially the work of Stiles and Ledger, is genuinely delightful, making the Amazon Prime Video offering well worth a watch.

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14 The Prestige (2006)

Writer-director Christopher Nolan has arguably never had a bad movie, so it’s easy for a great movie like The Prestige to get lost in the flashier titles in the director’s library. Still, the psychological thriller currently on Amazon Prime Video is one of the strongest on his résumé, with one of Nolan’s typical all-star casts putting in some all-star work. It’s crafted in Nolan’s cerebral way, with a narrative that is full of twists and turns that keep the audience guessing, to the point that Christopher Priest, the author of the original novel on which the movie is based, praised Nolan for the clever twists he added. It’s all aided by the lush setting of London in the 1890s. While The Prestige isn’t quite as bombastic or as much of a spectacle piece as some of Nolan’s other films, the tense unfolding of a bitter rivalry grown out of initial friendship is still as gripping as ever.

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13 Train To Busan (2016)

While the zombie horror subgenre was all the rage in the 2000s, fatigue had firmly set in by the 2010s. But Train to Busan proved that quality triumphs over trendiness when it arrived on the scene in 2016. The South Korean film centers on the characters aboard a train who are threatened by the outbreak of a zombie apocalypse. Train to Busan‘s confined setting ratchets up the tension, making for some heart-pumping, thrilling action sequences all while delivering smart, subtle social commentary. The movie was so successful that it launched a film franchise, an animated prequel, a 2020 standalone sequel film, and an in-development American-produced adaptation.

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12 12 Angry Men (1957)

Sidney Lumet is recognized as one of the greatest ever directors, and 12 Angry Men is considered one of his masterpieces – the 100% critics score isn’t by accident. The movie acts as a counterargument to the Cold War paranoia of the McCarthy era, a direct rebuttal to the hysterical mob mentality that ran rampant through the country during that time. One-setting movies are always a challenge; the character work has to be well-executed and the story has to remain compelling without external dynamics to propel them. The brilliance of 12 Angry Men‘s jury room setting is that it organically allows the tension to develop from within as the men – all white men of a certain era who might be assumed to hold the same general views – clash and fault lines begin to appear as the camera angle slowly grows closer. What follows is a master class in how to build dramatic tension.

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11 Gladiator (2000)

Director Ridley Scott has had a long and storied career in filmmaking, and few are able to boast the same number of masterpieces he has under his belt. Among those is Amazon Prime historical drama Gladiator, a movie that was an instantly iconic film the moment it hit screens. As a simple revenge tale, Gladiator is great, but as a broader story about the struggle of the powerless to oppose the boots of those in power standing on their necks, its themes are timeless. Its power is undeniable, and it helped make Russell Crowe a household name, not to mention gained him an Oscar for Best Actor. It’s still one of the great action movies and historical epics, and Scott’s directorial choices in the movie have only gotten better over time.

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