15 Top Detective Movies To Stream On Prime Video

The mystey subgenre of detective movies has yielded some of the greatest movies ever made. This sort of film fell out of fashion for a while, but it’s returned with a vengeance lately thanks to Rian Johnson’s Knives Out franchise, and Kenneth Branagh’s Agatha Christie series.

Those who’ve always loved the most cerebral of genres will find plenty of classic detective movie gems to stream on Prime Video, as will those who came late to the game.

Perusal of Prime Video’s vast catalog turns up detective films old and new, silly and serious, action-packed and full of banter. There are film noirs, neo-noirs, and whodunits. There are artsy auteur films, and films meant purely for entertainment.There’s even a Nordic Noir, for those who like their detective stories on ice.

Blitz

Jason Statham plays a brutally anti-heroic police detective in this violent 2011 action thriller centered around the hunt for a serial killer, with House of the Dragon’s Paddy Considine as Statham’s unlikely partner.

Critics were not overly kind to Blitz, which currently sits at 48% on RT, but the movie’s handful of positive reviews do single out Statham’s performance as a plus. The movie’s cast is strong overall, with Aiden Gillen, David Morrissey, Luke Evans, and Mark Rylance lending their support.

Blitz is a great choice for those who like their detectives a little on the violent side, and for Statham completists.

China Moon

This twisty and stylish thriller stars Ed Harris and Benicio del Toro as Florida homicide detectives, and Madeleine Stowe as the woman Harris first falls for, then suspects of plotting to murder her abusive husband.

China Moon was DOA at the box office after being shelved for three years, but it deserved much better, and is worthy of rediscovery over 30 years after its release. Harris, Stowe and del Toro are all fantastic, and there’s a real old-fashioned film noir vibe to the twisty story and tragically flawed characters, recalling classics like The Postman Always Rings Twice and Double Indemnity.

Neo-noir fans should get a particular kick out of the lightly erotic, well-acted China Moon, as should anyone curious about del Toro’s early works.

Running Scared (1986)

Billy Crystal and Gregory Hines are Chicago police detectives who won’t give up until they’ve put Jimmy Smits’ drug kingpin behind bars for good. Running Scared’s mix of gritty action and wisecracking humor is a bit hit-or-miss, which accounts for its middling 63% Rotten Tomatoes score.

Crystal and Hines do have great chemistry, however, and some critics had a good time with Running Scared, including Roger Ebert, who called it “a lot of fun.” It’s not on the same level as classic buddy-cop movies like Lethal Weapon or 48 Hrs., but it’s solidly second-tier.

Running Scared should interest fans of 1980s cop movies, and edgy action-comedies.

A Shot in the Dark

Peter Sellers debuted his iconic Inspector Clouseau character in The Pink Panther, but the sequel A Shot in the Dark is generally considered funnier, and is widely hailed as the best entry in the multi-decade franchise (that later saw Steve Martin giving his take on Clouseau).

Old comedies sometimes do not age well, but A Shot in the Dark retains its ability to delight, mostly thanks to Sellers’ brilliant slapstick and hilariously bad French accent. Blake Edwards’ classic farce with a 97% Rotten Tomatoes score is unmissable for Sellers fans, and may still get a chuckle from anyone who enjoys their mystery films slathered in funny sauce.

Mystery Road

Aaron Petersen plays Aboriginal detective Jay Swan in a blistering Australian neo-Western thriller set in rural Queensland. Swan’s investigation into the death of an Aboriginal girl leads him to a series of grim discoveries, exposing the dark underbelly of the remote community.

Playing like a Taylor Sheridan drama set in the Outback, Mystery Road was warmly embraced by critics, and currently sits at 92% on Rotten Tomatoes. It was also nominated for six Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards.

Mystery Road should appeal to anyone looking for a detective mystery that also tackles some heavy social issues, a la Wind River.

The Name of the Rose

The Name of the Rose stars Sean Connery as a medieval monk with dangerously progressive ideas investigating a series of murders at a remote monastery. It’s fascinating to see classic detective tropes transplanted to a pre-modern setting, as Jean-Jacques Annaud’s movie weaves a mysterious spell, with Connery in command as a canny man of the cloth.

The movie was a surprisingly huge worldwide hit, grossing $72 million, with $25 million of that coming in Germany. Its 72% RT score confirms its status as a solid mystery movie, one that should appeal to anyone who enjoys Connery’s non-Bond performances, or under-appreciated 1980s dramas, or offbeat period films.

A Walk Among the Tombstones

Logan co–screenwriter Scott Frank wrote and directed this noirish action thriller, starring Liam Neeson as a recovering alcoholic ex-cop, now working as a private investigator, who calls on his detective skills to track down a kidnapping ring targeting the loved ones of drug dealers.

Neeson’s grizzled action-hero persona has become so familiar he’s now openly making fun of it, but A Walk Among the Tombstones stands outside his usual output, as reflected by its relatively healthy 68% Rotten Tomatoes score.

Those who love Neeson’s more preposterous action outings may be left cold by A Walk Among the Tombstones, but the movie is perfect for those who value thoughtful, somber storytelling over the mechanical brutality of Taken.

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans

It would have been a crying shame had Nicolas Cage and Werner Herzog never had a chance to collaborate. Luckily for humanity, the wild-man actor and renegade director did cross paths once, the result being this bonkers in-name-only sequel to Bad Lieutenant.

Cage could not be better-cast as a rogue cop in post-Katrina New Orleans nursing multiple addictions while investigating the murder of Senegalese immigrants. The movie works as an entertaining exercise in pushing the limits of good taste, but thanks to the fearless Herzog, is not afraid to tackle heavy themes as well.

Port of Call New Orleans sits at 86% on Rotten Tomatoes, and is a genuine cult movie today, one that is a must-see for fans of Cage, and a very interesting watch for Herzog acolytes.

Death On The Nile (1978)

Long before Kenneth Branagh took ownership of the character and his remarkable facial hair, Peter Ustinov offered up arguably the definitive version of Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot. 1978’s Death on the Nile is a quintessential all-star murder-mystery, with Ustinov joined by legends Bette Davis, Maggie Smith, Angela Lansbury, Jane Birkin, Mia Farrow, and David Niven.

Fans of Rian Johnson’s Knives Out movies may find a lot to love about this more conventional, but no-less-entertaining whodunit, which boasts an 80% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and more importantly, is not marred by heavy-handed direction or absurd mustaches like Branagh’s Christie films.

Inherent Vice

Paul Thomas Anderson is currently garnering Oscar buzz with One Battle After Another, based loosely on a book by Thomas Pynchon. 11 years ago, PTA cast Joaquin Phoenix in the Pynchon adaptation Inherent Vice, about a stoner PI bungling his way through three simultaneous investigations.

Anderson’s film is a detective movie in the same way Robert Altman’s The Long Goodbye is one, which is to say, it really isn’t. Like Altman’s film, it’s an L.A. vibes movie disguised as a mystery, and nobody does L.A. vibes like PTA. Plot is a secondary consideration here, and some critics had a problem with that, resulting in a somewhat weak 73% fresh rating on RT.

PTA’s first foray into Pynchon-land is a natural choice for anyone who loved One Battle After Another, and also appeals to anyone who enjoys movies that throwback to ‘70s cinema.