The Best Action Movies on Amazon Prime Video (July 2021)
For the July 4th holiday weekend, the sci-fi film, The Tomorrow War, skipped theaters entirely, and it is now exclusively available to Amazon Prime Video subscribers. While that’s a very nice gesture, it was also necessary. You’re not alone if you’ve noticed that the action selection on Prime Video is getting a little thin. That’s because other studios are reclaiming the titles that helped Prime Video become one of the top streaming outlets. Filling that void with original titles is going to take some time. Fortunately, there are still some worthy action flicks if you know where to look. And since we’ve already done the searching for you, the only thing you need to do is check out our list of the best action movies that you can stream on Amazon Prime Video right now.
If you’ve already burned through the Amazon Prime catalog, we’ve also put together a list of the best action movies on Netflix, the best action movies on Disney+, and the best action movies on Hulu.
The Tomorrow War (2021)
As the title implies, The Tomorrow War isn’t about a conflict in the present. But it is very much a problem that the modern world can’t ignore. When Lt. Hart (Jasmine Mathews) travels back in time to warn the people of Earth about an alien invasion, she also reveals that humanity is losing the war. Recruits are badly needed to come back to the future and fight the alien horde. Chris Pratt’s Dan Forester is one of many who answer the call to action, but he’s not the only member of his family who gets roped into the war. Yet once they get to the future, Dan and the new recruits find themselves ill-prepared for the full scale of the threat.
Rotten Tomatoes: 52%
Stars: Chris Pratt, Yvonne Strahovski, J. K. Simmons, Betty Gilpin, Sam Richardson, Edwin Hodge
Director: Chris McKay
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 138 minutes
Tropic Thunder (2013)
Ben Stiller co-wrote, directed, and starred in Tropic Thunder, an unabashed parody of almost every action film that came before it. Stiller plays Tugg Speedman, a faded action star who is signed to appear in a new film alongside controversial method actor, Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.), comedian Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black), and the rest of the misfit cast. Director Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan) simply can’t get these goofballs under control. That’s why he drops them into a real warzone while hoping that the experience will shape them up. Instead, Tugg and the guys soon find themselves in actual danger, even though they initially believe that it’s all part of the movie they’re shooting.
Rotten Tomatoes: 82%
Stars: Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr., Nick Nolte, Steve Coogan
Director: Ben Stiller
Rating: R
Runtime: 107 minutes
Green Zone (2010)
Green Zone is an action thriller loosely based on events that took place during the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Matt Damon stars as Roy Miller, a chief warrant officer in the U.S. army. It’s his job is to track down Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction. However, that’s an inherent problem because Iraq doesn’t have any, and the country is rife with misinformation even from Roy’s superiors. Intelligence official Clark Poundstone (Greg Kinnear) goes to great lengths to hide the truth, including putting out a kill order against Iraqi General Mohammed Al Rawi (Yigal Naor) simply because he can prove that Iraq no longer has the weapons. Roy’s search for the truth will put him in grave danger, but even that may not be enough to overcome the lies.
Rotten Tomatoes: 53%
Stars: Matt Damon, Greg Kinnear, Brendan Gleeson, Amy Ryan, Khalid Abdalla, Jason Isaacs
Director: Paul Greengrass
Rating: R
Runtime: 115 minutes
The French Connection (1971)
Few movies can match the thrills of The French Connection, which has action sequences that even modern films can’t compete with. Gene Hackman stars as Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle, a police detective who stumbles upon a major heroin smuggling operation led by Alain “Frog One” Charnier (Fernando Rey). Popeye and his partner, Det. Buddy “Cloudy” Russo (Roy Scheider), have only two weeks to intercept a heroin shipment that may be the biggest the country has ever seen. But as Popeye gets too close, Alain and his personal hitman, Pierre Nicoli (Marcel Bozzuffi), decide to take him out.
Rotten Tomatoes: 98%
Stars: Gene Hackman, Fernando Rey, Roy Scheider, Tony Lo Bianco, Marcel Bozzuffi
Director: William Friedkin
Rating: R
Runtime: 104 minutes
Boondock Saints (2000)
Don’t let that low Rotten Tomatoes score fool you. Boondock Saints is a cult classic action flick that has been embraced by fans for over two decades. A pre-Walking Dead Norman Reedus stars as Murphy, with Sean Patrick Flanery as his brother, Connor MacManus. The MacManus brothers become overnight sensations when they kill Russian mobsters in self-defense. FBI special agent Paul Smecker (Willem Dafoe) declines to charge the brothers, both of whom come to believe that God wants them to eliminate all of the evil men in Boston. That’s much easier said than done, as the brothers soon find themselves well over their heads in a bloody crusade.
Rotten Tomatoes: 28%
Stars: Willem Dafoe, Sean Patrick Flanery, Norman Reedus, David Della Rocco, Billy Connolly
Director: Troy Duffy
Rating: R
Runtime: 108 minutes
The Informer (2020)
Joel Kinnaman headlines The Informer as Pete Koslow, a member of the Polish mafia who wants to get out of his life of crime and start over with his wife, Sofia (Ana de Armas), and their daughter. That’s why Pete agrees to be an informant to FBI Special Agent Erica Wilcox (Rosamund Pike). Unfortunately, Erica abandons Pete when his mob boss, Ryszard “The General” Klimek (Eugene Lipinski), forces him to go back to prison and run his drug trade behind bars. Pete’s only hope is to bring down the General and everyone else who betrayed him. But who can he trust?
Rotten Tomatoes: 62%
Stars: Joel Kinnaman, Rosamund Pike, Common, Ana de Armas, Clive Owen
Director: Andrea Di Stefano
Rating: R
Runtime: 113 minutes
Resident Evil (2002)
Milla Jovovich has built a career on basically one franchise: Resident Evil. And with the newest film due out in 2022 — a full 20 years after the original — now is as good a time as ever to start getting caught up. Given, Resident Evil hits better with fans of the popular video game, but good old-fashioned monster-killing fans will enjoy too. Milla Jovovich and Michelle Rodriguez star as the leaders of a commando team tasked with breaking into “the hive,” a labyrinthine genetics laboratory operated by the Umbrella Corporation. Inside, a deadly virus has been unleashed, killing and resurrecting the staff as evil Undead. Now, the team has just three hours to shut down the lab before the virus runs out of control.
Rotten Tomatoes: 36%
Stars: Milla Jovovich, Michelle Rodriguez, Eric Mabius
Director: Paul W.S. Anderson
Rating: R
Runtime: 100 minutes
Highlander (1986)
“There can be only one Highlander!” That slogan is especially appropriate for this movie, a wild blend of high fantasy, time-traveling, the late Sean Connery in all of his Scottish (even though he’s Spanish?) glory, and loads and loads of ’80s action movie camp. Russell Mulcahy, director of the first music video ever aired on MTV, brings an astonishing degree of lunacy and distortion to this film that captures the majesty of the Scottish Highlands and rapid-cut, neon, time-traveling sequences practically on top of one another. It weirdly works. Queen provides the soundtrack for this wild movie about an immortal Scottish swordsman who must journey to kill his one final remaining immortal enemy to become The One Highlander.
Rotten Tomatoes: 69%
Stars: Christopher Lambert, Roxanne Hart, Clancy Brown, Sean Connery
Director: Russell Mulcahy
Rating: R
Runtime: 111 minutes
Guns Akimbo (2019)
Guns Akimbo is more than just the movie that launched 1,000 Daniel Radcliffe memes. It’s also one of the wildest action comedies to come along in years. Radcliffe stars as Miles Lee Harris, a keyboard warrior who angers the big players behind Skizm, a literal online deathmatch. To retaliate against Miles, Skizm’s masterminds bolt guns to his hands and force him to take on the game’s deadliest player, Nix (Samara Weaving). And to force his cooperation, the bad guys also kidnap Miles’ ex-girlfriend, Nova (Natasha Liu Bordizzo). Miles is far from a conventional action hero, but through a strange mixture of luck and accidental skill, he creates his own legend in the game. He is Guns Akimbo.
Rotten Tomatoes: 53%
Stars: Daniel Radcliffe, Samara Weaving, Natasha Liu Bordizzo
Director: Jason Lei Howden
Rating: R
Runtime: 95 minutes
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