Valentine’s Day is about three things: Love, chocolate, and sitting on the couch with your significant other and vegging out while you watch Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey flirt with each other. If you’re looking for something to watch on Valentine’s Day, check out our list of the best romantic movies and TV shows to stream on Amazon Prime Video.
Streaming selections include romantic comedies, romantic period pieces, and even a romantic thriller. Pop open a box of Russell Stover’s and get to watching! (P.S. the Hudson-McConaughey movie available on Prime is Failure to Launch.)
Looking for more romantic movies and shows to stream on Valentine’s Day? Check out our picks for Netflix, Hulu, and Disney+.
(Disclosure: Links to retailers may earn money to support our work.)
The Big Sick
Kumail Nanjiani is a muscular Marvel actor now, but you can see him as a regular guy in this moving dramedy that’s based on his real-life early romance with his now-wife Emily V. Gordon, with whom he wrote the screenplay. You’ll laugh and cry and marvel at how much better Ray Romano looks now than he did in the ’90s.
Breathless
Richard Gere and Valerie Kaprisky, Breathless
This cult romantic thriller, a remake of filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard’s French new wave classic À bout de souffle, is one of Quentin Tarantino‘s favorites. It stars young Richard Gere as a bad, bad boy who sweeps a mild-mannered architecture student off her feet, with dramatic results. If you like a little bit of danger on Valentine’s Day, stream this.
Catastrophe
Rob Delaney and Sharon Horgan, Catastrophe
Rob Delaney and Sharon Horgan‘s blisteringly funny series about marriage and parenthood isn’t exactly a romantic comedy, instead taking a jaundiced, complicated look at love. It’s a Valentine’s Day binge for people who are over Valentine’s Day.
A Different World
Kadeem Hardison and Jasmine Guy, A Different World
Whitley Gilbert (Jasmine Guy) and Dwayne Wayne (Kadeem Hardison) are one of the great on-again, off-again sitcom couples. Flip your sunglasses up and relive their relationship through all six seasons now streaming on Prime.
Fleabag
Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Andrew Scott, Fleabag
Phoebe Waller-Bridge‘s game-changing series is kind of an anti-romantic comedy. It’s about love and sex, but it approaches those themes from a place of pain and confusion as it follows Waller-Bridge’s titular character through self-destructive but transcendent misadventures, like falling in love with a Catholic priest. It’s laying in the gutter but looking up at the stars.
Ghost
Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze, Ghost
This genre-blending romance changed the way the world looks at pottery wheels, short haircuts on women, and Whoopi Goldberg. Patrick Swayze stars as a murdered man who lingers on Earth to make sure the woman he loves — Demi Moore — is safe from the bad guys who did him in. It was the highest-grossing movie of 1990, and Goldberg won an Oscar for her performance as psychic medium Oda Mae Brown. (Available Feb. 1)
Harold and Maude
Ruth Gordon and Bud Cort, Harold and Maude
Director Hal Ashby‘s classic film is one of the most enduring comedies of the ’70s. It tells the story of a morbid young man who falls in love with a quirky 79-year-old woman, who helps him learn to enjoy life. It’s a Catcher in the Rye type of movie, highly recommended for high school couples to watch together.
Jane Eyre
Charlotte Brontë’s immortal 19th-Century love story has been adapted over a dozen times, but we’re partial to this 11-part BBC series from 1983, which stars Zelah Clarke as the title character and Timothy Dalton as Edward Rochester.
Modern Love
Anne Hathaway and Gary Carr, Modern Love
This anthology series is based on a beloved New York Times column, and it adapts stories of love and New York City into a collection of short films starring great actors like Anne Hathaway, Catherine Keener, and John Slattery. Some are funny, some are sad, and they’ll tug on your heartstrings.
Moonstruck
Cher and Nicolas Cage, Moonstruck
Cher won an Oscar for her iconic performance in this 1987 movie, as did screenwriter John Patrick Shanley and Best Supporting Actress Olympia Dukakis. This very Brooklyn movie tells the story of a woman who falls in love with her fiance’s brother, played by a delightfully deranged Nicolas Cage.
No Strings Attached
This romantic comedy, in which Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher play two friends in a casual sexual relationship that Kutcher wants to be more, was a big hit in 2011. It’s a cute flick with great chemistry between Portman and Kutcher, though it’s not as good as Friends With Benefits, which also came out in 2011 and has almost the same premise but unfortunately isn’t included with Prime (though it is available to rent).
Sex and the City
Sarah Jessica Parker and Chris Noth, Sex and the City
If you haven’t watched the comedy that defined the late ’90s and early ’00s recently, you should watch it and see if you’re still a Carrie or a Samantha or a Charlotte or a Miranda. Your identification may have changed over time! Maybe you think you’re still a Samantha but you’re actually a Miranda now. Take this Valentine’s Day to check and make sure you’re not deceiving yourself.
Some Like It Hot
Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon, and Tony Curtis, Some Like It Hot
It doesn’t hold up to modern cultural values, but Billy Wilder‘s 1959 movie is one of the most historically beloved and influential romantic comedies ever. It stars Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon as two jazz musicians who dress as women and join an all-female traveling band to escape mobsters who are after them and fall in love with singer Sugar Kane, played by Marilyn Monroe. Watch it for the historical significance, the stars’ charisma, and role-play ideas for when the movie’s over.