The 101 best movies to watch on Amazon Prime right now

Joaquin Phoenix plays Joe, a traumatized veteran with suicidal thoughts that is a hired gun who specializes in rescuing trafficked girls. But when he's hired by a senator to find his abducted daughter, we follow Joe on his deadliest and most gruesome job yet.

This Jackie Chan movie is a must-watch if you want to see how amazing he was with his fighting and stunts in his youth.

The movie, about friends who operate a food truck and help their private investigator friend solve cases on the side, isn't just filled with Chan at his action best but also showcases his comedic chops.

Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton give explosive performances as estranged brothers who reconnect by facing each other in a mixed martial arts tournament. This is the "Rocky" of MMA.

George Clooney stars as a "corporate downsizer" who spends most of his days traveling in the air from city to city. And he wouldn't change it for the world. But when his job changes, so does his life, as well as the things he thought were most important to him.

Need a cheesy action movie to cheer you up? How about this Roland Emmerich tale starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren as rival superhuman warriors.

Director Tobe Hooper gives us one of the most twisted horrors ever made. It's still an inspiration to filmmakers to this day.

The original cast of "Star Trek" takes on one of their greatest foes in Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalbán). From the strange creatures put into ears to the shocking ending, this is a great "Star Trek" movie.

Luca Guadagnino ("Call Me by Your Name") updates Dario Argento's classic horror with this dark look at the strange things going on at a renowned dance company.

Another iconic work from Billy Wilder, here he looks at the dark side of Hollywood as he has William Holden playing a struggling screenwriter who gets entangled with a washed-up silent film actress who still thinks she's the biggest star in the world.

It's hard to ever get tired of watching this movie.

This powerful drama looks at a young film student (Honor Swinton Byrne) who falls for an older man (Tom Burke) who is struggling with addiction.

A landmark work from director Billy Wilder, Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis play two musicians who have to pretend to be women to flee the mob.

But what makes the movie a classic is the casting of Marilyn Monroe as a love-seeking singer.

A 1980s staple (of course, it's written by John Hughes), Eric Stoltz, Lea Thompson, and Mary Stuart Masterson star in a fantastic high school-set love triangle.

Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader are fantastic as estranged twins who reunite to mend their relationship.

This fun whodunit stars Anna Kendrick as Stephanie, a single mother who befriends the classy Emily (Blake Lively). But when Emily goes missing Stephanie tries to figure out what happened, leading to some surprising discoveries.

This beloved love story stars Audrey Hepburn as a sheltered princess who finds an escape from her handlers long enough in Rome to fall for an American reporter played by Gregory Peck.

Adam Driver gives a great performance as Senate staffer Daniel J. Jones, who led the investigation into the CIA's post 9/11 detention and interrogation protocol. What he finds is shocking and he must go to some extreme lengths to get the truth out to the public.

Warren Beatty stars, directs, produces, and co-writes this powerful epic in which he plays John Reed, the American journalist who chronicles the Russian Revolution.

Squeezed between "Commando" and "Predator," Arnold Schwarzenegger stars in this action movie as a sheriff who takes on the Mafia.

This great Oscar-winning animated movie has Johnny Depp voicing a chameleon who unwittingly becomes the new sheriff of an outpost in the west that is desperate for water.

In one of his first big roles, Matt Damon plays a small-time lawyer who takes on a fraudulent insurance company. Though it's not a movie Francis Ford Coppola will be remembered for, it's still an impressive drama.

John Krasinski directs and stars in this powerful horror about aliens who show up to Earth and kill anything that makes a noise. We follow one family who is forced to live in silence to survive.

Molly Ringwald solidifies herself as a 1980s icon in this movie where she plays a poor girl on the wrong side of the tracks who begins to date one of the most popular (and wealthy) boys at their school.

This is the best horror mockumentary you have never seen as it has been unavailable on home video for years.

It's a creepy story that delves into a serial killer's work that is discovered when police raid a house and find hundreds of VHS tapes that show off his murders. It's best to keep reminding yourself while watching, "None of this is real."

Oliver Stone's four-time Oscar winner looks at the Vietnam War through the eyes of Chris (Charlie Sheen), a soldier fresh from the real world who realizes that some of the people he's fighting with are as dangerous as the enemy.

The movie has a great cast that includes Tom Berenger and Willem Dafoe.

This John Hughes classic stars Steve Martin and John Candy as two strangers who struggle to make it home for Thanksgiving.

On the eve of D-Day, a group of American soldiers is dropped behind enemy lines. They then uncover the horrific experiments that the Nazis were doing.

From 1979 to 2015 China enacted a one-child policy for all families in hopes to control its growing population. This documentary shines a light on how this policy shaped generations.

This classic noir stars Robert Mitchum as a minister/serial killer who marries an unsuspecting woman in his plan to steal $10,000 that her first husband has hidden.

This doc is a deep dive into the life of rapper Nas and the making of his landmark 1994 album, "Illmatic."

This powerful Oscar-nominated documentary looks at quadriplegics who play full-contact rugby in wheelchairs. We follow a group as they prepare to compete at the Paralympic Games in Greece.

There's nothing like a Charles Bronson action movie. Here he plays Vince Majestyk, an ex-con who tries to better his life by becoming a watermelon farmer. But when a small-time hood tries to muscle Majestyk, things go bad.

Famed crime novelist Elmore Leonard wrote the original screenplay and then wrote a book based on the movie.

This three-time Oscar winner, including best picture and best actress for Cher, is a timeless love story that you have to see at least once in your life.

In the latest movie from the "M:I" franchise, Tom Cruise is better than ever as Ethan Hunt. The action sequences are breathtaking, and Henry Cavill is a fun addition.

Jessica Chastain is a joy to watch in this drama where she plays a feared DC lobbyist.

Ari Aster's follow-up to "Hereditary" is another creepy story that will give you chills. In this one, Florence Pugh joins her boyfriend and his friends on a trip to Sweden to attend a mid-summer festival. Things spiral out of control from there in a big way.

In Jonah Hill's feature directing debut, he takes his childhood love for skateboarding and uses it to tell this powerful story about one boy's fun summer hanging out with a group of skateboarders.

This two-time Oscar-winner from Kenneth Lonergan stars Casey Affleck as a down-and-out uncle whose brother dies and he has to take care of his teenage nephew (Lucas Hedges).

In this John Ford classic western, James Stewart plays a popular senator who finally reveals the truth about the death of his good friend. John Wayne and Lee Marvin also star.

David Bowie gives a dazzling performance as an alien who happens upon Earth in his search for water to bring to his suffering planet. But things get complicated when he begins to interact with humans.

This western is a worthy remake of Akira Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai." It's also fueled by a great cast that includes Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn, and James Coburn.

Once more showing that his range is out of this world, Steven Soderbergh takes the experiences Channing Tatum had when he was an 18-year-old stripper and formed it into this wild story set in the male stripper world.

Tatum stars along with Matthew McConaughey, Joe Manganiello, Alex Pettyfer, and Matt Bomer.

The talents of writer-director James Gray shine in this thrilling look at British explorer Major Percival Fawcett (Charlie Hunnam), who in his obsessive drive to find a mythical lost city in the Amazon is never heard from again.

Steven Soderbergh uses the model that made his "Ocean's Eleven" movies so great and scales it down to fit this indie starring Channing Tatum and Adam Driver as brothers looking to pull off a heist at a NASCAR race.

Daniel Craig also stars, sporting a hilarious Southern accent.

In this Jean-Claude Van Damme classic, the star is an ex-French soldier who begins to participate in underground street fighting to provide for his brother's family.

Matthew McConaughey stars as Mick Haller, a slick lawyer whose office is a chauffeured Lincoln Town Car. This is one of the more edgier ones from the courtroom drama genre.

This very underrated horror, featuring fantastic creature effects from legendary artist Stan Winston, stars Peter Weller as the member of a deep-sea mining colony who must fight off a creature before it kills them all.

Think of it as "Alien" but underwater.

Ben Foster gives a powerful performance as an Iraq War veteran suffering from PTSD who lives out in isolation in a park in Portland, Oregon, with his 13-year-old daughter (played beautifully by Thomasin McKenzie).

The movie is a touching look at how people deal with trauma and how the love of family gets them through it.

Mindy Kaling stars as a writer on a late-night show whose host is on the verge of being thrown off it. Emma Thompson is great as the late-night host. Kaling also wrote the screenplay.

Martin Scorsese directs this documentary that captures the final concert of rock group The Band.

Greta Gerwig's fantastic coming-of-age story starring Saoirse Ronan in (using Beanie Feldstein's voice) "the titular role" will make you laugh and, if needed, give you a good cry.

This beloved adaptation of Harper Lee's classic novel showcases Gregory Peck as the Atticus Finch character, which many consider one of the greatest characters ever put on screen.

Kevin Smith's latest movie is a reboot of his 2001 release "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back." If you are into Smith's wacky universe of characters, you will love this.

This fascinating and often chilling documentary looks at a Texas family who has been told their son, who has been missing for three years, has been found in Spain. The doc uncovers how the person is a fraud.

Will Smith is great as literally the last man in New York City. After a plague kills most of humanity, Robert (Smith) tries to survive as he struggles to come up with a cure to the virus.

Alma Har'el teams with Shia LaBeouf to make a movie that looks at LaBeouf's troubled relationship with his father. The actor wrote the screenplay and stars as his father in the movie. It really is a moving work.

This classic fantasy movie stars Christopher Lambert as a time-traveling immortal swordsman who is in search of his final opponent.

Robert Pattinson returns to the list, this time in this Claire Denis space thriller. Pattinson starts as one of a group of prisoners who are serving a death sentence by taking a space mission to a black hole and being treated as guinea pigs by the doctor on board.

Ari Aster's demented horror follows a family that endures some pretty horrific things thanks to the death of the creepy grandmother. Yeah, things get really bad. Don't watch this one before going to bed.

Looking for more dark comedy? Here's one set in high school. Winona Ryder teams with Christian Slater to combat the cool clique by plotting to kill them.

Fueled by the music of Cat Stevens, this is the most unlikely love story you'll ever see as it follows Harold (Bud Cort), a young man obsessed with death, who connects with 79-year-old Maude (Ruth Gordon) after they meet at a funeral. It's also sprinkled throughout with some fantastic dark comedy.

Werner Herzog uses footage of bear activist Timothy Treadwell to profile Treadwell's nomadic life living among grizzlies. Treadwell's life would have a horrific ending in 2003 when he is killed by the bears he was living with in Alaska.

This classic war movie starring an all-star cast made up of Steve McQueen, Richard Attenborough, James Garner, Charles Bronson, and Donald Pleasence is an epic tale about a group of Allied POWs who plan an elaborate escape from a German prisoner camp during World War II.

While watching you may notice the scene that Quentin Tarantino reimagined in "Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood" with Leonardo DiCaprio in the role of McQueen.

Mike Nichols' classic stars a then-little-known Dustin Hoffman as a disillusioned college graduate who begins an affair with the married woman (Anne Bancroft) of a family friend and then falls for her daughter (Katharine Ross). The movie to this day is a powerful work about the twists and turns that happen while navigating through life.

Sean Connery's third film as 007 is arguably his best as he goes up against the supervillain Goldfinger.

From his supped up Aston Martin to iconic Bond girl Pussy Galore, the movie has everything you'd ever want from a James Bond movie. And if you want to watch more, Prime Video has almost every Bond movie available.

Eddie Murphy plays a private detective who is hired to track down a missing child. But to do that he realizes he has to navigate through fantasy and dark forces to rescue the child. The movie is filled with lots of action, and Murphy is hilarious.

Filmmaker/photographer Lauren Greenfield takes her two and a half decades of chronicling wealth and luxury in America to showcase ultimate materialism during global economic highs and lows.

This classic horror never gets old and still has one of the best (and most shocking) final shots in movie history.

"The Green Hornet" TV show may have made Bruce Lee famous, but this movie made him a legend across the globe. Watch Lee in one of his best performances.

Based on the life of pro wrestler Paige, Florence Pugh plays the wrestler as the movie highlights her unlikely rise. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, who produced the movie, also stars.

When Billi (Awkwafina) discovers that her grandmother only has a short time left to live she travels to China to be by her side. But Billi discovers that her grandmother doesn't know about her grave condition and no one in the family is going to tell her.

Kurt Russell delivers one of his career-defining roles in this John Carpenter thriller set in a futuristic 1997 where Manhattan is now a giant prison. The president crash lands into the island and now Snake Plissken (Russell) is the only one who can get him out.

This comedy/musical stars Geena Davis as a Valley girl who befriends three furry aliens (Jeff Goldblum, Jim Carrey, and Damon Wayans) after they crash land in her pool. The movie is based on Julie Brown's album "Goddess in Progress." She also stars.

Oliver Stone looks back on the rise of the iconic 1960s rock band, The Doors. Val Kilmer gives a remarkable performance as its complex frontman, Jim Morrison.

If you enjoyed "Dolemite Is My Name" now watch the Blaxploitation classic that the movie is based on. If you thought Eddie Murphy was funny as Rudy Ray Moore, wait until you see the real thing. Another reason to see this movie: check out how low-budget it really was made for.

A legendary Oscar-winning work from Spanish filmmaker Luis Buñuel, we follow the lives of friends who constantly are interrupted by bizarre dreams during a meal they are trying to have together.

This great horror follows a group of friends who go on a caving expedition only to find it's filled with deadly creatures.

A difficult figure skater (Moira Kelly) and a former hockey player (D.B. Sweeney) team up to become an Olympic figure skating pairs team. This beloved 1990s-set love story is a must-see.

Michael B. Jordan, Sylvester Stallone, and Tessa Thompson return for this sequel to the 2015 hit. In this movie, Adonis (Jordan) takes on the son of the former Rocky foe, Ivan Drago.

In this David Cronenberg movie, Robert Pattinson plays a guy riding in a stretch limo who is trying to get a haircut. But that turns out to be harder than he thought as his day gets very complex.

William H. Macy plays Bernie, a guy with a specific role at the casino he works at. He's "the cooler." For whatever reason, if someone is on a hot streak, all Bernie needs to do is show up at the table and that player's luck disappears. But he begins to lose his unique talent after he suddenly falls in love.

Francis Ford Coppola's classic stars Gene Hackman as a secret surveillance spy who is in a moral dilemma when he suspects the couple he is spying on will be murdered by the person who hired him.

Not only is Hackman incredible but the photography, editing, and sound editing in this movie are all astounding.

Liam Neeson's late-career shift to being an action star is on full display here as he plays an ex-cop caught in the middle of big trouble on his commute home.

The popular board game comes to life in this whodunit comedy.

Sit back and enjoy this horror classic that gave the world the demented doll, Chucky.

This Oscar-nominated documentary delves into the drug problem at the US/Mexico border.

Drew Goddard directed and wrote (along with Joss Whedon) this clever horror movie that is full of surprises and showed that Chris Hemsworth was worthy to take on Marvel's Thor character (the first movie in the Marvel franchise opened a month later).

Set in the late 1980s, we follow Autobot Bumblebee as he lands on Earth. Bumblebee soon befriends Charlie (Hailee Steinfeld) who helps keep him battle the Decepticons.

Jillian Bell gives a great performance as a New York City partier who decides to turn her life around by training to run the New York City Marathon.

If you are looking for a feel-good story, this is it.

This classic rom-com stars Renée Zellweger in the title role who goes on a series of misadventures to find love.

Kurt Russell stars in this grisly western in which he plays a sheriff who sets out to rescue townspeople from a cannibalistic Native American clan.

Kevin Costner plays a former Secret Servant agent who is tasked to be the bodyguard for a huge recording artist (played by Whitney Houston) who is receiving death threats. The two soon fall for each other as Costner's character tries to figure out who is harassing her. This movie still holds up.

Robin Williams and Nathan Lane are fantastic in this Mike Nichols comedy in which the two play a gay couple who have to act like they are straight so their son can introduce them to his fiancée's right-wing parents.

This entertaining sequel follows Bill (Alex Winter) and Ted (Keanu Reeves) as they team with death to face off a pair of evil androids.

Based on the real-life relationship between Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon (actress Zoe Kazan plays a version of her in the movie), we follow the two as they navigate being an interethnic couple while Emily becomes ill.

Nanjiani and Gordon received an original screenplay Oscar nomination.

Based on a true story, Jack Black plays Bernie Tiede, a mortician living in a small Texas town who after building a relationship with controlling 80-year-old millionairess, Marjorie (Shirley MacLaine), murders her.

Black gives one of the best performances of his career as Bernie.

At the height of Jerry Lewis' popularity, he released this comedy, which also marked his feature directing debut. In it, he plays a clumsy bellboy who is mute. The movie highlights the silly situations he gets into and is heightened by the fact that he doesn't speak.

Though this movie is 60 years old, many of the comedy bits still work really well.

This hard-to-watch drama about addiction and how it cripples a family features incredible performances by Steve Carell and Timothée Chalamet who play father and son.

Following his successful directorial debut, "Ex Machina," Alex Garland dove back into the sci-fi world with this trippy thriller.

Natalie Portman, Gina Rodriguez, Jeniffer Jason Leigh, and Tessa Thompson star as a group who journey into a mysterious area known as "The Shimmer" that suddenly has appeared on the southern coast of the US.

This classic starring Humphrey Bogart, Katharine Hepburn, and directed by John Huston, follows the pair as they play two unlikely friends (Bogart, a hard-drinking riverboat captain; Hepburn, a Methodist missionary) who do their part to take on the enemy during World War I.

Loosely based on real-life events, 1860s balloon pilot Amelia Wren (Felicity Jones) and scientist James Glaisher (Eddie Redmayne) team up to fly a gas balloon higher than anyone has before in the name of science.

The movie is filled with fantastic thrills that will keep you on the edge of your seat.