3 Underrated Amazon Prime Video Movies to Watch This Weekend (April 25-27)

This weekend offers a plethora of options for those intent on streaming the latest hit movie or show. Netflix just released the final season of You, while Disney+ launched Andor’s farewell voyage this past Tuesday.

Amazon Prime Video has been quiet compared to its competitors, but the streamer has such an impressive library that it doesn’t need new releases to make your subscription worthwhile.

Watch With Us has selected three older movies on Prime Video that didn’t get the attention they deserved when they were first released. One movie, The Voyeurs, would be a bigger hit if it were released now, and that’s due to lead actress Sydney Sweeney, whose star has risen in the past few years thanks to the HBO hit show, Euphoria, and the rom-com blockbuster, Anyone but You.

‘The Voyeurs’ (2021)

Young couple Pippa (Sydney Sweeney) and Thomas (Justice Smith) have just moved into their gorgeous high-rise apartment and are intrigued by their very attractive neighbors from across the street, Sebastian (Ben Hardy) and Julia (Natasha Liu Bordizzo). When Pippa notices Sebastian having an affair in the apartment while Julia is away, she finds a way to let her know about her boyfriend’s infidelity. What follows is a chain reaction of events that leads to deception, heartbreak and even murder.

The Voyeurs’ first hour is superb in setting up its thriller premise and the appeal of watching someone spy on others. While the third act is diminished somewhat by one implausible twist after another, the movie is still hypnotic enough to forgive most of its sins. Sweeney is magnetic as the voyeuristic Pippa, and the movie, which was shot on location in Montreal, is gorgeous to look at.

The Voyeurs is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

‘Arbitrage’ (2012)

Robert Miller (Richard Gere) has everything he wants in life: a successful hedge fund business he’s about to sell for a handsome profit, a devoted wife and daughter who love him and an art gallery mistress who makes him feel young. But when a car accident jeopardizes his luxurious life, Robert must choose between doing what’s right versus what’s best for him to keep all the people and things he holds dear.

Arbitrage does the impossible — it makes you sympathize with a finance bro. That’s due largely to Gere, who gives one of his best performances of his career as a man who thinks he’s moral until he’s faced with a crisis he can’t charm his way out of. The Pretty Woman actor shows the quiet desperation behind Robert’s handsome facade, and his scenes with Susan Sarandon, who plays his wife, are some of the movie’s best.

Arbitrage is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

‘The Serpent and the Rainbow’ (1988)

Wes Craven is mostly known for his Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream slasher movies, but he also directed this odd 1988 horror movie that was more supernatural than his other films. Bill Pullman stars as Dennis Allen, an anthropologist hired by a pharmaceutical company to investigate a potential new drug in Haiti.

This drug has been used in strange Voodoo rituals, but Alan is skeptical of black magic until he encounters Christophe (Conrad Roberts) — a man who was buried alive seven years earlier. Now a believer, Alan must find a way out of the war-torn country and evade both mercenaries and witch doctors who don’t want their secret in the hands of an American corporation.

The Serpent and the Rainbow’s plot is silly, but Craven and all the actors treat the material seriously. The result is a movie filled with a peculiar kind of dread and menace, a horror movie about not being able to do anything while someone buries you alive. It’s terrifying.

The Serpent and the Rainbow is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.