Michael Caine first appeared on the big screen in 1956, in a film called A Hill in Korea. He ended his career – at least for now, because retired actors do have a habit of coming back for one more job – in 2023 with The Great Escaper. The decades in between are a life in cinema well lived, moving from genre to genre, and from major star to venerated supporting artist. In this guide you can find where to watch the best Michael Caine films on popular streaming services in the United Kingdom. This includes Michael Caine films streaming on Netflix, Prime Video, BBC iPlayer, and many more. We'll also show you which Michael Caine movies are available to stream legally for free today.
What are the best Michael Caine movies?
After breaking through with Zulu in 1964, Caine was unafraid to experiment with his new star status, returning the following year with the angular, cool spy thriller The Ipcress File. His anti-hero Harry Palmer is a dodgy geezer who has to adapt to changed circumstances in order to survive: Caine’s cocky charm and steely interior perfectly match the movie’s effort to be a sort of realist/arthouse James Bond film.
Charm in abundance got Caine through the rest of the 1960s, with the romantic romp Alfie being another Caine movie that, like Zulu, hasn’t dated well. Then there’s The Italian Job, which is pure fun and the peak of cheeky-chappy Caine, even if it’s hard to call it a classic.
Our pick for Caine’s best film comes at the start of the darker, tougher 1970s. Caine swapped swinging London for grimy, unforgiving Newcastle in the noir-ish Get Carter, a film that reinvented how British cinema dealt with urban violence. As a belligerent loose cannon whose methods are outdated and who doesn’t know what he is messing with, Caine is a huge presence in a taut, sparse film that the actor took on when he could easily have relaxed into blockbuster star vehicles.
He did appear in a couple of corking crowd-pleasers soon after that, in the form of the fiendish cat-and-mouse mystery Sleuth (with Laurence Olivier) and the sweeping adventure The Man Who Would Be King (with Sean Connery), but for much of the 1970s and ‘80s, Caine was in the doldrums, appearing in several films that he would later admit he signed up to for the money. He did, however, shine in the much more grounded Educating Rita and the sly comedy Dirty Rotten Scoundrels - not to mention winning an Oscar for a refined turn in Hannah and Her Sisters.
The 1990s began strongly with The Muppet Christmas Carol, a genuinely fresh and cheering take on Ebenezer Scrooge. Another quiet period followed but, having flexed his muscles by scooping another Oscar for The Cider House Rules at the end of that decade, Caine was ready for reinvention in the new millennium as an elder statesman.
That began in earnest with Batman Begins, the most low-key of Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy but a rewarding drama in its own right, not least because of Caine’s turn as Batman’s mentor, Alfred. Caine went on to appear in numerous other Nolan movies, but he really put his age and experience to good effect in films like Last Orders, Youth and The Great Escaper - intriguing gems proving that a superstar of the 1960s had still got it, more than half a century later.
Where can I watch Michael Caine movies online?
Here is a guide to the best Michael Caine movies and where you can watch them on streaming services in the U.K. right now.
