If you’re looking for something to watch this weekend, you might find that you’ve already seen all the obviously great movies on Amazon Prime Video. While Prime certainly has plenty of good movies worth checking out, it can be difficult to distinguish which ones are actually worth your time from those that aren’t.
That’s why we’ve done some of the hard work for you. We’ve rounded up three underrated movies available to watch on Amazon Prime Video that you may never have heard of before, in spite of the famous people who directed and starred in them. If you’re looking for something that’s a little bit off the beaten path, then these titles are definitely a good place to start.
Lenny (1974)
Bob Fosse only made five movies, and Lenny may be the least well-known. The movie tells the story of famous comedian Lenny Bruce, who was hugely innovative in his time and also ran into frequent problems with the police over censorship laws.
Dustin Hoffman may not resemble Bruce much, but he does get some of the comedian’s verbal ticks down perfectly, and he’s matched by Fosse’s sharp, unconventional direction. Lenny doesn’t play like a conventional biopic, but in telling the story of Lenny Bruce, it probably makes sense for a few rules to get broken.
You can watch Lenny on Prime Video.
Dances With Wolves (1990)
Calling Dances With Wolves underrated given that it won Best Picture may seem like a strange call, but the movie has long been seen as the movie that Goodfellas lost to, and that has unjustly tarnished its reputation. This sprawling epic was seen as a vanity project by director and star Kevin Costner, and it is to some extent.
What’s remarkable about it, though, is the way that its story of a Civil War veteran who becomes part of a tribe feels like it still holds power all these years later. Costner is excellent in the central role, and he’s surrounded by a brilliant supporting cast of largely Native American actors. Fans of Yellowstone or Costner’s latest Western, Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1, will especially love this movie.
You can watch Dances With Wolves on Prime Video.
The Limey (1999)
The Limey almost feels like a secret that cinephiles have kept for themselves. In the middle of a run of directing credits that included winning Best Director at the Oscars for Traffic and making Ocean’s Eleven, Steven Soderbergh made a much smaller, just as awesome movie called The Limey.
The movie follows Terrence Stamp as an aging, career criminal who travels to Los Angeles to get revenge for the death of his daughter. The Limey is a smart, small-scale action thriller that feels like a proto John Wick, but it’s also a movie about the long hangover from the 1960s that features two iconic performers of that era in Stamp and Peter Fonda.
You can watch The Limey on Prime Video.