There are so many movies available to watch on Amazon’s Prime Video that it can be hard to know which ones to choose every week. That is what this list is for. Right now, Prime Video’s best selections include an early 2010s satirical comedy from director Martin Scorsese that features the greatest performance of Leonardo DiCaprio’s career, as well as an oft-forgotten early ’90s heist comedy starring Robert Redford and Ben Kingsley. If neither of those movies interests you, the streamer also has a 1960s mystery thriller that is destined to win you over, as it does practically everyone who watches it.
Here are the three best movies on Prime Video you can watch this week.
“The Wolf of Wall Street” (2013)
“The Wolf of Wall Street” is a lot, and that’s the point. Director Martin Scorsese’s raucous, purposefully indulgent black comedy about unrepentantly corrupt, real-life Wall Street bankers running amok in 1980s America is long, vulgar, excessive and utterly, relentlessly debauched. It should be. An adaptation of subject Jordan Belfort’s 2007 memoir about his criminal exploits, Scorsese’s film brings the manic, depraved and sweaty cartoonish reality of unchecked greed to life in with sparkling, horrifying energy and style.
Featuring the best performance of Leonardo DiCaprio’s career and a rightfully star-making supporting turn from Margot Robbie, “The Wolf of Wall Street” is hilarious, terrifying, remarkably entertaining and, in the end, sobering. It is, perhaps, the greatest of all of Scorsese’s late-career achievements to date.
“Sneakers” (1992)
“Sneakers” is a breezy, early ’90s heist comedy overflowing with charm and wit. Helmed by “Field of Dreams” filmmaker Phil Alden Robinson, this underrated caper thrill ride follows a crew of security specialists — led by Robert Redford’s Martin — as a job robbing a highly sought-after piece of tech turns out to be far less straightforward and immensely more dangerous than they thought.
Directed with relaxed confidence by Robinson, “Sneakers” effortlessly sweeps viewers up in its crime plot, winding them through its numerous layers of deception and betrayal with an elegance that is as technically impressive as it is dramatically effective. This is one of the best ’90s thrillers that you likely have not seen, which makes it a necessary entry on this list.
“Charade” (1963)
“Charade” is often regarded as the greatest movie that Alfred Hitchcock never made, and for good reason. Directed by frequent Gene Kelly collaborator Stanley Donen, “Charade” is a screwball mystery thriller about a woman (Audrey Hepburn) who finds herself pursued by multiple men with dubious intentions, including a dashing American expatriate (Cary Grant), who want to get their hands on her dead husband’s stolen fortune.
Featuring a thriller plot that is, in true Hitchcockian fashion, held together by paper clips and duck tape, “Charade” dances through its 113 minutes with musical style and infectious verve. It is, quite simply, one of the most charming movies Hollywood has ever made, a fitting outcome for a film that dared to pair together two all-time megawatt stars in Grant and Hepburn.
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