The best movies on Amazon Prime Video (May 2025)

Lost in Translation has held up for over two decades because of the unusual connection between the two leading characters, as played by Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson. Charlotte (Johansson) is initially a stranger to Bob Harris (Murray), a movie star whose best days are behind him. He’s only in Tokyo to make some easy money shooting commercials while Charlotte accompanied her husband, John (Giovanni Ribisi), who came to Japan for a photo shoot with an actress named Kelly (Anna Faris).

The only outward connection that Bob and Charlotte share is that they’re staying at the same hotel. But with John spending so much time away from her, Charlotte forms a connection with Bob that may redefine their stay in this foreign country. It’s a beautiful story, with an ending that’s still debated today.

The Bikeriders is loosely based upon the experiences of author Danny Lyon, a character portrayed by Mike Faist in this adaptation. But the film is largely reworked into an original story that focuses on three characters: Kathy (Jodie Comer), her lover, Benny (Austin Butler), and the leader of the Vandals Motorcycle Club, Johnny (Tom Hardy).

Johnny had high-minded ideals when he founded the club in the 1960s. Over the course of the next decade, Johnny and his friends are almost unrecognizable in what they’re willing to do for the club. Despite Benny’s love for Kathy, he keeps getting drawn back into Johnny’s vision for the club, even when it may destroy him.

Daniel Craig sheds his James Bond persona like a separate skin in Knives Out. Craig steps into the role of Southern sleuth Benoit Blanc, a man whose accent is just shy of Foghorn Leghorn territory. However, the voice somehow works for this comedic murder mystery. Ana de Armas has a standout turn as Marta Cabrera, the loyal housekeeper of a wealthy author, Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer).

After Harlan dies, his spoiled extended family is stunned to discover that his entire fortune has been left to Marta. The family does not know that Harlan was murdered. Plus, Marta is horrified to discover that the evidence points back to her just as Blanc begins his investigation.

Scream‘s Melissa Barrera reunites with directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett for Abigail, a film that is very much unlike her previous genre movies. Barrera plays Joey, a military veteran who has hit hard times. That’s why she agreed to work with Frank (Dan Stevens) and a group of other criminals to kidnap a young girl named Abigail (Alisha Weir).

Joey tries to form a connection with Abigail to assure the young girl that she will remain safe before learning that the latter is the daughter of a dangerous crime lord, Kristof Lazaar (Matthew Goode). However, the greatest threat to the kidnappers is Abigail herself, because she’s more than she appears to be. When Abigail strikes, it’s lethal.

Dev Patel made his directorial debut with Monkey Man, a film in which he also stars as the main character. And despite the title, Patel’s character doesn’t actually transform into a monkey or even go by that name. The audience only knows him as Kid, a man who will do anything to get his revenge on Rana Singh (Sikandar Kher), the corrupt police chief who murdered his mother.

Kid does wear a monkey mask when he’s in the ring for an underground fighting circuit. However, his real disguise is pretending to be an ordinary waiter at a high-end brothel so he can rise through the ranks and get close enough to assassinate Rana no matter what his vengeance costs him.

Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton) is back for another round of terror in Terrifier 2. Some evil entity has resurrected Art yet again, and he goes on another rampage. A teenager named Sienna Shaw (Lauren LaVera) is haunted by dreams of Art and she’s convinced that her late father knew how to stop the clown once and for all.

Art must sense the same thing, since he kidnaps Sienna’s brother, Jonathan (Elliott Fullam), and terrorizes their family. Now, Sienna has to save her brother, but first, she must live through her encounter with Art.

You may have to pay close attention to Challengers, because the story doesn’t take place in chronological order. Zendaya stars as Tashi Duncan, a rising tennis star romantically drawn to two other players on the pro tour: Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor) and Art Donaldson (Mike Faist).

Both young men want Tashi for themselves, but only one of them is willing to play dirty to get her. Even when one of them wins Tashi’s heart, it doesn’t end the romantic entanglement between this trio as their lives unfold and intersect over several years. Ultimately, the battle between these two men is going to come back to the place where it all began: on the tennis court.

In the long wait between Shrek movies, Antonio Banderas’ Puss in Boots has been keeping the franchise alive. But in Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, time is almost up for the title character. Puss relies on his nine lives to survive the epic adventures. And now that Puss is on his very last life, he’s truly scared about his potential fate — so much so that he abandons his identity and tries to live as a normal cat.

However, Puss learns that there may be a way to restore his lost lives if he can find a magical wishing star. Puss isn’t the only one looking for the star, nor the only one who desperately needs what it can offer him. This quest reunites Puss with his ex-fiancée, Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek Pinault), and forces him to reevaluate what he really wants.

If you’re looking for a movie with Oscar buzz, The Beekeeper isn’t one of those films. But it is a Jason Statham action flick that lives up to everything you may expect to see from it. Statham plays Adam Clay, a former member of a secretive organization called the Beekeepers and an actual beekeeper.

Adam is content in his retirement until his friend and landlady, Eloise Parker (Phylicia Rashad), is taken for everything she has by scammers. Eloise commits suicide rather than live with the shame of having allowed her charity foundation to be robbed of millions. Adam vows revenge, and his bloody path of retribution puts him on opposite sides of the CIA and his former colleagues in the Beekeepers.

American Fiction casts The Batman Part Two’s Jeffrey Wright as Dr. Thelonious “Monk” Ellison, a college professor and a novelist whose books sell very poorly. Monk is also upset that another writer, Sinatra Golden (Issa Rae), has found massive success while seemingly pandering to Black stereotypes. So Monk writes his own novel as a satire of Golden’s books before submitting it for publication.

Much to Monk’s surprise and horror, his satire is embraced by the publisher and the general public. The satire of the piece goes unnoticed, as the book becomes so popular that it starts taking over Monk’s life, even though he made sure that his real name wasn’t listed as the author. But once the book is out and Hollywood comes knocking, it may be too late.