10 Movies Streaming on Prime That Are Underrated Classics

Love & Mercy (2014)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 89%

This highly underrated biopic follows the extraordinary life of Beach Boys co-founder Brian Wilson. Wilson is played as a young man by Paul Dano, and as a middle-aged man by John Cusack. The two timelines show Wilson's mental health degrading even as he helps create the world's most iconic music.

Watch if you're looking for: Classic music and an eventual triumph over adversity.

The Birdcage (1996)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 84%

It's scandalous that more people don't know this movie – the cast alone makes it a classic, though the script is no slouch either. Robin Williams and Nathan Lane are at their brilliant best as the father and step-father of Val, a young man who has just gotten engaged.

Unfortunately Val's fiancée has ultra-conservative parents, so Nathan Lane's character Albert shows up to meet them in drag, posing as Val's mother.

Watch if you're looking for: Uproarious but ultimately good-hearted comedy.

Begin Again (2014)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 83%

English songwriter Gretta (Kiera Knightley) moves to New York with her musician partner, only to be left behind when he hits it big. She has a chance meeting with a cynical down-and-out music producer (Mark Ruffalo ) and the two decide to record an album live on the streets of New York.

Begin Again has charming characters and music, and although it always looks ready to drift into rom-com territory it also manages to resist all of your expectations.

Watch if you're looking for: A great character piece full of love for music and musicians. Be warned that this one leaves Prime at the end of the year!

Anna and the Apocalypse (2017)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 88%

This hidden gem has a lot of heart – but also a lot of brains, because it's a zombie movie.

This comedy/horror/Christmas flick tells the story of teenaged Anna, about to go off traveling for a year after high school. When a zombie virus starts to spread, Anna and her friends must fight their way free.

Watch if you're looking for: A movie where characters decapitate zombies AND burst into song.

Highlander (1986)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 71%

Yes, Highlander is famously cheesy and over-the-top. But that's why we love it.

When a forensics expert in New York finds a sliver from an ancient sword at a crime scene, it leads her to Connor MacLeod, an immortal Scottish warrior who has been battling other immortals for hundreds of years. All of this is leading to the ultimate showdown… there can only be one!

Watch if you're looking for: Brawn, swords, and silliness.

Blow the Man Down (2019)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 98%

Two sisters living in a small, isolated village try to cover up a bloody crime scene. But the further they go to cover their tracks, the deeper they get pulled into their small town's dark secrets. Margo Martindale is incredible as the woman running the town's low-key brothel, which has ties to the dead man.

Critics and audiences were rapturous over Blow the Man Down, but it remained criminally underappreciated.

Watch if you're looking for: Dark comedy in the vein of Fargo

The Overnight (2015)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 83%

When a young couple with a kid move to a new city, they're worried they'll never be able to make friends. Luckily, they meet another young parent at the park and get invited over for what seems at first to be a normal dinner party. Things quickly turn to 'swingers vibes' in this raunchy comedy.

Watch if you're looking for: An R rating with a short run time and a lot of laughs.

The F Word (2014)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 74%

It follows a pretty standard rom-com formula, but The F Word (also released under its alternate title, What If) is sweet, with some great dialogue and an all-star cast (Adam Driver, Zoe Kazan, Daniel Radcliffe).

When Wallace meets Chantry, they instantly become great friends. He wants something more, but she's happy in her long term relationship to someone else…

Watch if you're looking for: A light, charming romantic comedy.

Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92%

It's not often a movie is described as a 'comedy/thriller', but if anyone can pull it off it's the Coen brothers. A struggling folk musician (Oscar Isaac ) tries to make it in Greenwich Village in 1961. He soon embarks on an odyssey that takes him across the paths of many quirky characters.

Watch if you're looking for: A great soundtrack and melancholy characters.

The Vast of Night (2019)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92%

In the late 1950s, a young radio DJ and an equally young switchboard operator stumble upon a strange radio interference. They broadcast the sound to their listeners, asking if anyone can identify it – and get put on the trail of a massive conspiracy.

The Vast of Night is the directorial debut of Andrew Patterson, who also wrote the script.

Watch if you're looking for: A modern take on The Twilight Zone.