During the summer months, action movies have traditionally dominated the box office. That’s still true this summer, even though it seems like many movie-lovers are choosing to stay at home. The good news is that Amazon Prime Video has you covered if you need a shot of adrenaline. Action movies give us a sense of simulated danger and excitement without having to experience it for ourselves. Life-or-death stakes play out on screen, and there’s almost always a compelling hero or heroine to root for. That’s why we’re happy to see that Amazon has re-added a few classic action flicks for August. We’ve also updated this list of the best action movies you can watch on Prime Video. Thanks to these films, you won’t be bored anytime soon.
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 Mask of Zorro (1998)
Pulp heroes like Zorro preceded the rise of the superheroes, and they’ve subsequently been overshadowed by their successors. But sometimes the classic heroes get a chance to prove that they still belong in the spotlight. The Mask of Zorro is a thrilling reinvention of its title character, with Anthony Hopkins as Don Diego de la Vega. When Diego’s enemy, Don Rafael Montero (Stuart Wilson), discovers that he is Zorro, he is arrested and imprisoned for decades. Years later, Diego trains a former bandit, Alejandro Murrieta (Antonio Banderas), to become the new Zorro. However, both men are surprised to discover that Don Montero’s daughter, Elena Montero (Catherine Zeta-Jones), is Diego’s long-lost child who was stolen from him when she was an infant.
Rotten Tomatoes: 82%
Stars: Antonio Banderas, Anthony Hopkins, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Stuart Wilson, Matt Letscher
Director: Martin Campbell
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 137 minutes
Die Hard 2 (1990)
Thanks to the byzantine streaming contracts between studios, Die Hard 2 is the only Die Hard movie currently available for Prime Video subscribers. It’s not as good as the original, but it’s still better than many of its modern contemporaries. Two years after the Nakatomi Tower crisis, John McClane (Bruce Willis) finds himself smack in the middle of another terrorist incident. A rogue colonel, William Stuart (William Sadler), and his forces seize control of a Washington, D.C., airport on Christmas Eve, which traps dozens of planes in the sky without a way to safely land. John’s wife, Holly Gennero McClane (Bonnie Bedelia), is among the passengers whose lives are on the line. That only gives John more incentive to save the day.
Rotten Tomatoes: 69%
Stars: Bruce Willis, Bonnie Bedelia, William Atherton, Reginald VelJohnson, Franco Nero, William Sadler
Director: Renny Harlin
Rating: R
Runtime: 124 minutes
Hellboy (2004)
Director Guillermo del Toro fought for years to bring Mike Mignola’s comic book, Hellboy, to the big screen, and his passion is on display in every frame of the film. Ron Perlman stars as Hellboy, a demon summoned to Earth as an infant in the waning days of World War II. Professor Trevor Bruttenholm (John Hurt) raises Hellboy as his son and trains him to fight evil. Decades later, Hellboy works for the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense alongside his friends and partners, Abe Sapien (Doug Jones) and Liz Sherman (Selma Blair). However, the return of Grigori Rasputin (Karel Roden) threatens to unleash a power that could destroy the world.
Rotten Tomatoes: 81%
Stars: Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Jeffrey Tambor, Karel Roden, Rupert Evans, John Hurt
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 122 minutes
Aliens (1986)
Aliens is one of the rare sequels that surpasses the original movie. Decades after the events of Alien, the lone survivor of the Nostromo, Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), is awakened from suspended animation. Although Ripley is devastated by losing her daughter in her long absence, she agrees to accompany a crew of Colonial Marines to a colony on LV-426. Once they arrive, Ripley and her new team soon discover that the alien xenomorphs have overrun the colony and slaughtered almost all of the inhabitants. Ripley finds a young girl named Rebecca “Newt” Jorden and forms a strong emotional bond with her. When Newt’s survival is threatened, Ripley resolves to rescue her regardless of the danger.
Rotten Tomatoes: 97%
Stars: Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Paul Reiser, Lance Henriksen, Carrie Henn
Director: James Cameron
Rating: R
Runtime: 137 minutes
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
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
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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