However, this list isn't going to use its three spots to tell action fans that John Wick or Raiders of the Lost Ark are worth watching. Instead, the ranking looks a little deeper at Prime Video's new titles to recommend some of the best action movies that might be easier to overlook. One major franchise earns an exception, thanks to its many, many installments, while the other two picks offer something different for action fans who have already exhausted the genre's biggest blockbusters.
Westerns and action movies have always shared plenty of DNA, and The Long Riders sits comfortably in both camps. Walter Hill's 1980 film follows the James-Younger gang as its members rob banks and trains across the American Midwest before their increasingly violent exploits begin to catch up with them. It's pretty familiar outlaw territory, but Hill approaches The Long Riders with the same muscular filmmaking that would later define movies like 48 Hrs. and Red Heat.
The Long Riders also boasts incredibly smart casting. Real-life siblings play the various brothers within the gang: James and Stacy Keach are Jesse and Frank James; David, Keith, and Robert Carradine are the Youngers; Randy and Dennis Quaid are the Millers, and Christopher and Nicholas Guest appear as the Fords. It's not just a gimmick, though, as the genuine resemblance and familiarity between the actors really help sell the idea that these people have known each other their entire lives, even as loyalty within the gang begins to fracture.
Where The Long Riders really earns its place on an action movie list, though, is in how Hill handles violence. The disastrous Northfield raid is a spectacularly staged eruption of gunfire, shattered glass, horses, and slow-motion action that still feels startling more than four decades later. The Western/action film currently holds an 81% score on Rotten Tomatoes, and while it may not have the name recognition of some of the Western genre's biggest classics (like The Good, the Bad and the Ugly or Tombstone), that's precisely why it's such a good addition to Prime Video. For action fans who have already worked through the usual suspects, The Long Riders should be your next watch.
Picking one Bond movie from the enormous selection arriving on Prime Video isn't easy, but Casino Royale makes a convincing case. Daniel Craig's first outing as 007 effectively starts Bond over, introducing him shortly after he earns his license to kill and before he has developed the effortless confidence associated with the character. His pursuit of terrorist financier Le Chiffre eventually takes him to a high-stakes poker tournament in Montenegro, where Bond is tasked with bankrupting him at the table.
For a movie built around a card game, Casino Royale is one of the most physical Bond adventures ever made. The opening Madagascar pursuit immediately establishes Craig as a very different 007, with Bond smashing through every obstacle that his opponent gracefully avoids. Later fights are messy and exhausting rather than effortless, and the film maintains that tension even through the quieter poker scenes. This is Bond before he has sanded down his rough edges, so his victories often come with a cost.
Casino Royale has endured as one of the highlights in the 25-film franchise; Eva Green's Vesper Lynd gives Craig a commendable scene partner who's capable of puncturing Bond's defenses, while Mads Mikkelsen's Le Chiffre is suitably threatening without the outlandish schemes typically associated with Bond villains. Casino Royale is a first-class action movie and a surprisingly effective character study, reflected in its 94% Rotten Tomatoes score. Anyone tempted by Prime Video's new Bond selection could spend weeks going through the franchise, but Casino Royale is an excellent place to begin.
Of the three action films on this list, Guy Ritchie's The Covenant is the one most likely to have slipped past viewers. Released in 2023, the action/war movie stars Jake Gyllenhaal as US Army Sergeant John Kinley, whose unit is working in Afghanistan with local interpreter Ahmed, played by Dar Salim. After an ambush leaves Kinley badly wounded and the rest of his unit dead, Ahmed undertakes the incredible journey of getting him to safety while Taliban fighters pursue them.
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