Great movies can be hard to come by, especially if the only way you know to look for them is by scrolling through Amazon Prime Video or any other streaming service. If you want to find something truly excellent, you might discover that user ratings are not as reliable as they might appear to be.
That’s why we’ve curated three of the best movies available on Prime Video that you might not have considered watching this weekend. These movies have a wide variety of tones and are about pretty different things, but each one of them will prove satisfying to anyone checking them out for the first time.
Need more recommendations? We also have guides to the best movies on Netflix, the best movies on Hulu, the best movies on Amazon Prime Video, the best movies on Max, and the best movies on Disney+.
Rounders (1998)
Movies about gamblers are a lot of fun until they’re not, much like gambling itself. The miracle of Rounders, though, is that it makes degenerate gambling seem both terrible and awesome (which is kind of what degenerate gambling is like).
The movie tells the story of a gambler who cleans up his act after he gets beat in a major poker game, only to get drawn back in when one of his friends is released from jail and finds himself in need of a payday. Matt Damon is in full charismatic movie star mode, and John Malkovich is doing one of the most absurd accents of his career, which is really saying something. Both stars have a great time staring each other down at the poker table, and the director, John Dahl, makes the revelation of a royal flush somehow exciting.
You can watch Rounders on Amazon Prime Video.
Charade (1963)
They don’t really make movies like Charade anymore, and we’re all the poorer for it. The film tells the story of a woman who falls for a dashing man while on vacation, only to discover that her husband was murdered when she returns home. She then learns about the money he stole during World War II, and realizes that the man she fell for may have secrets of his own.
With a plot so silly and labyrinthine that describing it seems almost impossible, Charade is incredibly silly but also undeniably great, thanks in large part to the chemistry between Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn at its center.
You can watch Charade on Amazon Prime Video.
Roman J. Israel, Esq. (2017)
Denzel Washington gives one of the more fascinating, mannered performances of his career in Roman J. Israel, Esq., a movie whose reputation has only grown since it was released. The film tells the story of an idealistic defense attorney with no interest in money whose life is upended after the death of his boss.
When he’s hired by a high-powered firm that wants to prove it can do good work, his idealism is put to the test as he’s forced to confront whether the things that he’s spent his whole life defending are really worth all the hassle they’ve caused him.
You can watch Roman J. Israel, Esq. on Amazon Prime Video.
