Summer blockbuster season may be winding down, but that doesn’t mean you should stop watching movies.
Prime Video has plenty of them, from new originals like The Pickup with Eddie Murphy to action hits like Uncharted with Tom Holland.
The streamer also has tons of underrated movies just waiting to be rediscovered.
Watch With Us recommends three underappreciated films to watch this weekend: the sci-fi remake Death Race, the horror thriller Stigmata and the war epic Battle of Britain.
‘Death Race’ (2008)
Let’s get this out of the way — the 2008 remake of Death Race isn’t as good as the 1975 version. Once you get past that, however, the 2008 incarnation is a surprisingly decent action flick and further proof that lead star Jason Statham is one of the best action stars around.
It’s 2020, and the world is a bleak place. The US economy has collapsed, and prisons stage deadly car races that are broadcast to a public hungry to see these convicted criminals kill each other for the grand prize of having their sentence commuted. Jensen Ames (Statham) is one of those prisoners; sentenced to death for killing his wife, he wants to win the Death Race so he can get out of jail and prove his innocence. That’s not so easy, as everyone else wants to get the hell out of prison and will do anything — including murder — to win their freedom.
Death Race doesn’t really need to do anything more than set up several well-executed car races and give Statham enough witty one-liners to qualify as character development. In that regard, it succeeds, but Death Race is also pleasantly surprising by giving normally serious actors like Joan Allen and Ian McShane larger-than-life roles to play and have fun with. The result is a futuristic action movie that’s more entertaining than it has any right to be.
Death Race is streaming on Prime Video.
What to Watch This Weekend: 10 New Movies on Netflix, Prime Video, HBO Max, and Hulu
‘Stigmata’ (1999)
Andrew Kiernan (Gabriel Byrne) is a priest sent by the Vatican to investigate a young woman named Frankie (Patricia Arquette), who might be possessed by a demonic force. An atheist, Frankie is afflicted with stigmata, the five wounds Jesus Christ experienced while being crucified on the cross. Only the devout can experience stigmata, which is what draws Andrew to Frankie. As he grows closer to her, he realizes her possession might be tied to a secret the Vatican doesn’t want anyone to find out., Can Andrew save Frankie without both of them dying — or worse?
Stigmata is hokum, but it’s well done enough to be entertaining. Long before her Emmy and Oscar wins, Arquette turns in a typically rock-solid performance, giving Frankie enough relatability and personality to make her a heroine to root for. Byrne is appropriately brooding and magnetic as the hot-to-trot priest who is attracted to Frankie, and his scenes with Arquette have enough chemistry to make you want them to commit some sins together. It’s far from great, but Stigmata is a decent horror flick to watch on a lazy weekend afternoon.
Stigmata is streaming on Prime Video.
‘Battle of Britain’ (1969)
Hollywood used to crank out war movies by the dozen each year. Now, they’re relegated to streaming services as extended miniseries like Masters of the Air. One of the last big-budget spectacles was Battle of Britain, a 1969 movie that starred pretty much every British actor alive then, like Laurence Olivier, Michael Caine, Christopher Plummer, Robert Shaw and more.
12 Must-Watch Action Movies on Amazon Prime Video Right Now (August 2025)
The film chronicles the events leading up and during the Battle of Britain, a military assault between German troops and the British in 1940. Most of the action takes place in the air, as Britain’s RAF pilots face overwhelming odds as Germany’s superior weaponry devastates London, which is almost destroyed by aerial bombs. With America still neutral and Europe crippled by the rise of the Nazis, England has to fight alone to save itself from being overwhelmed by Hitler’s army.
Unappreciated when it was first released in 1969, Battle of Britain is impressive today by its sheer scale and ambitious filmmaking. The action sequences, particularly the climactic air battle that takes place on September 15, 1940, are impressive, and the human drama is compelling enough to make you care who lives and who dies. Battle of Britain is old-school moviemaking in the best sense, and a good retro throwback that should appeal to fans of the war film genre.
Battle of Britain is streaming on Prime Video.
