Recommended Movies

by ALauff | created - 11 Aug 2011 | updated - 10 months ago | Public

Here are the best films I’ve seen (rating at least 8/10 on the IMDb scale), including features, documentaries, shorts, TV movies, and some other “standalone” television broadcasts (e.g., the Twin Peaks pilot). Many of the following are due for another look, to ensure that what I once saw in them hasn’t been effaced with the passage of time. Meanwhile, I will not hesitate to refer to this list when pressed for my favorite movies, or to recommend a video rental to friends and family. [Added on 3/9/22: Killer of Sheep and The Long Day Closes]

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1. I Know Where I'm Going! (1945)

Not Rated | 92 min | Drama, Romance

A young Englishwoman goes to the Hebrides to marry her older, wealthier fiancé. When the weather keeps them separated on different islands, she begins to have second thoughts.

Directors: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger | Stars: Wendy Hiller, Roger Livesey, Pamela Brown, Finlay Currie

Votes: 9,781

2. Audition (1999)

R | 115 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery

70 Metascore

A widower takes an offer to screen girls at a special audition, arranged for him by a friend to find him a new wife. The one he fancies is not who she appears to be after all.

Director: Takashi Miike | Stars: Ryo Ishibashi, Eihi Shiina, Tetsu Sawaki, Jun Kunimura

Votes: 89,276

3. 28 Days Later (2002)

R | 113 min | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi

73 Metascore

Four weeks after a mysterious, incurable virus spreads throughout the UK, a handful of survivors try to find sanctuary.

Director: Danny Boyle | Stars: Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Christopher Eccleston, Alex Palmer

Votes: 446,014 | Gross: $45.06M

4. 3:10 to Yuma (2007)

R | 122 min | Action, Crime, Drama

76 Metascore

A small-time rancher agrees to hold a captured outlaw who's awaiting a train to go to court in Yuma. A battle of wills ensues as the outlaw tries to psych out the rancher.

Director: James Mangold | Stars: Russell Crowe, Christian Bale, Ben Foster, Logan Lerman

Votes: 331,167 | Gross: $53.61M

5. A Fish Called Wanda (1988)

R | 108 min | Comedy, Crime

80 Metascore

In London, four very different people team up on a jewel heist, then try to double-cross one another for the loot, complicated by their efforts to fool a very proper barrister.

Directors: Charles Crichton, John Cleese | Stars: John Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline, Michael Palin

Votes: 153,962 | Gross: $63.49M

6. Wallace & Gromit: A Grand Day Out (1989)

Not Rated | 23 min | Animation, Short, Adventure

To replenish their depleted supply of cheese, inventor Wallace and his dog Gromit travel to the moon in a homemade rocket-ship.

Director: Nick Park | Stars: Peter Sallis, Peter Hawkins

Votes: 36,589

7. A History of Violence (2005)

R | 96 min | Action, Crime, Drama

82 Metascore

A mild-mannered man becomes a local hero through an act of violence, which sets off repercussions that will shake his family to its very core.

Director: David Cronenberg | Stars: Viggo Mortensen, Maria Bello, Ed Harris, William Hurt

Votes: 252,901 | Gross: $31.49M

8. A Matter of Life and Death (1946)

PG | 104 min | Drama, Fantasy, Romance

A British wartime aviator who cheats death must argue for his life before a celestial court, hoping to prolong his fledgling romance with an American girl.

Directors: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger | Stars: David Niven, Kim Hunter, Robert Coote, Kathleen Byron

Votes: 24,915

9. A Perfect World (1993)

PG-13 | 138 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller

71 Metascore

A kidnapped boy strikes up a friendship with his captor, an escaped convict on the run from the law, while the search for him continues.

Director: Clint Eastwood | Stars: Kevin Costner, Clint Eastwood, Laura Dern, T.J. Lowther

Votes: 86,951 | Gross: $31.16M

10. A Prairie Home Companion (2006)

PG-13 | 105 min | Comedy, Drama, Music

75 Metascore

A look at what goes on backstage during the last broadcast of America's most celebrated radio show, where singing cowboys Dusty and Lefty, a country music siren, and a host of others hold court.

Director: Robert Altman | Stars: Lily Tomlin, Meryl Streep, Woody Harrelson, John C. Reilly

Votes: 23,629 | Gross: $20.34M

11. Ace in the Hole (1951)

Approved | 111 min | Drama, Film-Noir

72 Metascore

A frustrated former big-city journalist now stuck working for an Albuquerque newspaper exploits a story about a man trapped in a cave to rekindle his career, but the situation quickly escalates into an out-of-control circus.

Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Kirk Douglas, Jan Sterling, Robert Arthur, Porter Hall

Votes: 39,127 | Gross: $3.97M

12. Act of Violence (1948)

Passed | 82 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Thriller

An embittered, vengeful POW stalks his former commanding officer who betrayed his men's planned escape attempt from a Nazi prison camp.

Director: Fred Zinnemann | Stars: Van Heflin, Robert Ryan, Janet Leigh, Mary Astor

Votes: 5,716

13. Adam's Rib (1949)

Not Rated | 101 min | Comedy, Romance

87 Metascore

Domestic and professional tensions mount when a husband and wife work as opposing lawyers in a case involving a woman who shot her husband.

Director: George Cukor | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Judy Holliday, Tom Ewell

Votes: 22,919

14. Adaptation. (2002)

R | 115 min | Comedy, Drama

83 Metascore

A lovelorn screenwriter becomes desperate as he tries and fails to adapt 'The Orchid Thief' by Susan Orlean for the screen.

Director: Spike Jonze | Stars: Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep, Chris Cooper, Tilda Swinton

Votes: 203,099 | Gross: $22.25M

15. Airplane! (1980)

PG | 88 min | Comedy

78 Metascore

After the crew becomes sick with food poisoning, a neurotic ex-fighter pilot must safely land a commercial airplane full of passengers.

Directors: Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker | Stars: Robert Hays, Julie Hagerty, Leslie Nielsen, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Votes: 261,224 | Gross: $83.40M

16. Ali (2001)

R | 157 min | Biography, Drama, Sport

65 Metascore

A biography of sports legend Muhammad Ali, focusing on his triumphs and controversies between 1964 and 1974.

Director: Michael Mann | Stars: Will Smith, Jamie Foxx, Jon Voight, Mario Van Peebles

Votes: 105,571 | Gross: $58.20M

17. Alien (1979)

R | 117 min | Horror, Sci-Fi

89 Metascore

The crew of a commercial spacecraft encounters a deadly lifeform after investigating a mysterious transmission of unknown origin.

Director: Ridley Scott | Stars: Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, John Hurt, Veronica Cartwright

Votes: 951,329 | Gross: $78.90M

18. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

Passed | 152 min | Drama, War

91 Metascore

A German youth eagerly enters World War I, but his enthusiasm wanes as he gets a firsthand view of the horror.

Director: Lewis Milestone | Stars: Lew Ayres, Louis Wolheim, John Wray, Arnold Lucy

Votes: 67,703 | Gross: $3.27M

19. All the President's Men (1976)

PG | 138 min | Drama, History, Thriller

84 Metascore

"The Washington Post" reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein uncover the details of the Watergate scandal that leads to President Richard Nixon's resignation.

Director: Alan J. Pakula | Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford, Jack Warden, Martin Balsam

Votes: 126,094 | Gross: $70.60M

20. American History X (1998)

R | 119 min | Crime, Drama

62 Metascore

Living a life marked by violence, neo-Nazi Derek finally goes to prison after killing two black youths. Upon his release, Derek vows to change; he hopes to prevent his brother, Danny, who idolizes Derek, from following in his footsteps.

Director: Tony Kaye | Stars: Edward Norton, Edward Furlong, Beverly D'Angelo, Jennifer Lien

Votes: 1,186,638 | Gross: $6.72M

21. And Then There Were None (1945)

Approved | 97 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery

Seven guests, a newly hired secretary and two staff are gathered at a manor house on an isolated island by an unknown absentee host and are killed off one-by-one. They work together to determine who the killer is before it's too late.

Director: René Clair | Stars: Barry Fitzgerald, Walter Huston, Louis Hayward, Roland Young

Votes: 16,648

22. Angel Face (1952)

Approved | 91 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir

Ambulance driver Frank Jessup is ensnared in the schemes of the sensuous but dangerous Diane Tremayne.

Director: Otto Preminger | Stars: Robert Mitchum, Jean Simmons, Mona Freeman, Herbert Marshall

Votes: 9,032

23. National Lampoon's Animal House (1978)

R | 109 min | Comedy

79 Metascore

At a 1962 college, Dean Vernon Wormer is determined to expel the entire Delta Tau Chi Fraternity, but those troublemakers have other plans for him.

Director: John Landis | Stars: John Belushi, Karen Allen, Tom Hulce, Stephen Furst

Votes: 129,372

24. Anne of Green Gables (1985)

TV-G | 100 min | Drama, Family

An orphan girl, sent to an elderly brother and sister by mistake, charms her new home and community with her fiery spirit and imagination.

Stars: Megan Follows, Colleen Dewhurst, Richard Farnsworth, Patricia Hamilton

Votes: 22,662

25. Any Given Sunday (1999)

R | 162 min | Drama, Sport

52 Metascore

A behind-the-scenes look at the life-and-death struggles of modern-day gladiators and those who lead them.

Director: Oliver Stone | Stars: Al Pacino, Dennis Quaid, Cameron Diaz, James Woods

Votes: 125,912 | Gross: $75.53M

26. Apollo 13 (I) (1995)

PG | 140 min | Adventure, Drama, History

78 Metascore

NASA must devise a strategy to return Apollo 13 to Earth safely after the spacecraft undergoes massive internal damage putting the lives of the three astronauts on board in jeopardy.

Director: Ron Howard | Stars: Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, Kevin Bacon, Gary Sinise

Votes: 315,708 | Gross: $173.84M

27. Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)

Not Rated | 118 min | Comedy, Crime, Thriller

A Brooklyn writer of books on the futility of marriage risks his reputation after he decides to tie the knot. Things get even more complicated when he learns on his wedding day that his beloved maiden aunts are habitual murderers.

Director: Frank Capra | Stars: Cary Grant, Priscilla Lane, Raymond Massey, Jack Carson

Votes: 74,987

28. A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)

PG-13 | 146 min | Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi

65 Metascore

A highly advanced robotic boy longs to become "real" so that he can regain the love of his human mother.

Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Haley Joel Osment, Jude Law, Frances O'Connor, Sam Robards

Votes: 323,111 | Gross: $78.62M

29. Elevator to the Gallows (1958)

Not Rated | 91 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller

94 Metascore

A self-assured businessman murders his employer, the husband of his mistress, which unintentionally provokes an ill-fated chain of events.

Director: Louis Malle | Stars: Jeanne Moreau, Maurice Ronet, Georges Poujouly, Yori Bertin

Votes: 28,655 | Gross: $0.11M

30. Farewell My Concubine (1993)

R | 171 min | Drama, Music, Romance

84 Metascore

Two boys meet at an opera training school in Peking in 1924. Their resulting friendship will span nearly 70 years and endure some of the most troublesome times in China's history.

Director: Kaige Chen | Stars: Leslie Cheung, Fengyi Zhang, Gong Li, You Ge

Votes: 33,170 | Gross: $5.22M

31. Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)

Passed | 81 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery

A one-armed stranger comes to a tiny town possessing a terrible past they want to keep secret, by violent means if necessary.

Director: John Sturges | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Robert Ryan, Anne Francis, Dean Jagger

Votes: 24,267

32. The Wind Will Carry Us (1999)

Not Rated | 118 min | Drama

87 Metascore

Irreverent city engineer Behzad comes to a rural village in Iran to keep vigil for a dying relative. In the meanwhile the film follows his efforts to fit in with the local community and how he changes his own attitudes as a result.

Director: Abbas Kiarostami | Stars: Behzad Dorani, Noghre Asadi, Roushan Karam Elmi, Bahman Ghobadi

Votes: 12,325 | Gross: $0.21M

33. Bad Santa (2003)

R | 92 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama

70 Metascore

A miserable conman and his partner pose as Santa and his Little Helper to rob department stores on Christmas Eve. But they run into problems when the conman befriends a troubled kid.

Director: Terry Zwigoff | Stars: Billy Bob Thornton, Bernie Mac, Lauren Graham, John Ritter

Votes: 155,188 | Gross: $60.06M

34. Bambi (1942)

G | 69 min | Animation, Adventure, Drama

91 Metascore

The story of a young deer growing up in the forest.

Directors: James Algar, Samuel Armstrong, David Hand, Graham Heid, Bill Roberts, Paul Satterfield, Norman Wright, Arthur Davis, Clyde Geronimi | Stars: Hardie Albright, Stan Alexander, Bobette Audrey, Peter Behn

Votes: 154,133 | Gross: $102.80M

35. Bananas (1971)

PG-13 | 82 min | Comedy

67 Metascore

When a bumbling New Yorker is dumped by his activist girlfriend, he travels to a tiny Latin American nation and becomes involved in its latest rebellion.

Director: Woody Allen | Stars: Woody Allen, Louise Lasser, Carlos Montalbán, Nati Abascal

Votes: 37,823 | Gross: $11.80M

36. Band of Outsiders (1964)

Not Rated | 95 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama

93 Metascore

Two crooks with a fondness for old Hollywood B-movies convince a languages student to help them commit a robbery.

Director: Jean-Luc Godard | Stars: Anna Karina, Claude Brasseur, Danièle Girard, Louisa Colpeyn

Votes: 27,070 | Gross: $0.04M

37. Beauty and the Beast (1991)

G | 84 min | Animation, Family, Fantasy

95 Metascore

A prince cursed to spend his days as a hideous monster sets out to regain his humanity by earning a young woman's love.

Directors: Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise | Stars: Paige O'Hara, Robby Benson, Jesse Corti, Rex Everhart

Votes: 479,775 | Gross: $218.97M

38. Best in Show (2000)

PG-13 | 90 min | Comedy

78 Metascore

A behind-the-scenes look into the highly competitive and cut-throat world of dog shows through the eyes of a group of ruthless dog owners.

Director: Christopher Guest | Stars: Fred Willard, Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Jennifer Coolidge

Votes: 66,962 | Gross: $18.72M

39. Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989)

PG | 90 min | Adventure, Comedy, Music

50 Metascore

Two rock-'n-rolling teens, on the verge of failing their class, set out on a quest to make the ultimate school history report after being presented with a time machine.

Director: Stephen Herek | Stars: Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter, George Carlin, Terry Camilleri

Votes: 141,707 | Gross: $40.49M

40. Blade Runner (1982)

R | 117 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi

84 Metascore

A blade runner must pursue and terminate four replicants who stole a ship in space and have returned to Earth to find their creator.

Director: Ridley Scott | Stars: Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, Edward James Olmos

Votes: 823,371 | Gross: $32.87M

41. Dave Chappelle's Block Party (2005)

R | 103 min | Documentary, Comedy, Music

84 Metascore

A mix of Dave Chappelle's sketch comedy and musical interludes, inspired in part by the 1973 documentary Wattstax.

Director: Michel Gondry | Stars: Dave Chappelle, Yasiin Bey, Lauryn Hill, Erykah Badu

Votes: 9,626 | Gross: $11.72M

42. Blow Out (1981)

R | 108 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery

86 Metascore

A movie sound recordist accidentally records the evidence that proves that a car accident was actually murder and consequently finds himself in danger.

Director: Brian De Palma | Stars: John Travolta, Nancy Allen, John Lithgow, Dennis Franz

Votes: 63,325 | Gross: $13.75M

43. Blow-Up (1966)

Not Rated | 111 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller

82 Metascore

A fashion photographer unknowingly captures a death on film after following two lovers in a park.

Director: Michelangelo Antonioni | Stars: David Hemmings, Vanessa Redgrave, Sarah Miles, John Castle

Votes: 67,670

44. Boogie Nights (1997)

R | 155 min | Drama

86 Metascore

Back when sex was safe, pleasure was a business and business was booming, an idealistic porn producer aspires to elevate his craft to an art when he discovers a hot young talent.

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson | Stars: Mark Wahlberg, Julianne Moore, Burt Reynolds, Luis Guzmán

Votes: 282,150 | Gross: $26.40M

45. Borat (2006)

R | 84 min | Comedy

89 Metascore

Kazakh TV talking head Borat is dispatched to the United States to report on the greatest country in the world.

Director: Larry Charles | Stars: Sacha Baron Cohen, Ken Davitian, Luenell, Chester

Votes: 442,279 | Gross: $128.51M

46. Brick (2005)

R | 110 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery

72 Metascore

A teenage loner pushes his way into the underworld of a high school crime ring to investigate the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend.

Director: Rian Johnson | Stars: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Lukas Haas, Emilie de Ravin, Meagan Good

Votes: 110,064 | Gross: $2.06M

47. Bringing Out the Dead (1999)

R | 121 min | Drama, Thriller

72 Metascore

Haunted by the patients he failed to save, a monumentally burned-out Manhattan ambulance paramedic fights to maintain his sanity over three increasingly turbulent nights.

Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Nicolas Cage, Patricia Arquette, John Goodman, Ving Rhames

Votes: 76,071 | Gross: $16.64M

48. Bringing Up Baby (1938)

Passed | 102 min | Comedy

91 Metascore

While trying to secure a $1 million donation for his museum, a befuddled paleontologist is pursued by a flighty and often irritating heiress and her pet leopard, Baby.

Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Charles Ruggles, Walter Catlett

Votes: 66,108

49. Bullets Over Broadway (1994)

R | 98 min | Comedy, Crime

In New York in 1928, a struggling playwright is forced to cast a mobster's talentless girlfriend in his latest drama in order to get it produced.

Director: Woody Allen | Stars: John Cusack, Dianne Wiest, Jennifer Tilly, Chazz Palminteri

Votes: 41,802 | Gross: $13.38M

50. Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)

PG-13 | 166 min | Western

82 Metascore

A mysterious stranger with a harmonica joins forces with a notorious desperado to protect a beautiful widow from a ruthless assassin working for the railroad.

Director: Sergio Leone | Stars: Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson, Claudia Cardinale, Jason Robards

Votes: 349,182 | Gross: $5.32M

51. Caché (2005)

R | 117 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller

87 Metascore

A married couple is terrorized by a series of surveillance videotapes left on their front porch.

Director: Michael Haneke | Stars: Daniel Auteuil, Juliette Binoche, Maurice Bénichou, Annie Girardot

Votes: 85,253 | Gross: $3.63M

52. Candyman (1992)

R | 99 min | Horror, Thriller

61 Metascore

The Candyman, a murderous soul with a hook for a hand, is accidentally summoned to reality by a skeptic grad student researching the monster's myth.

Director: Bernard Rose | Stars: Virginia Madsen, Xander Berkeley, Tony Todd, Kasi Lemmons

Votes: 100,184 | Gross: $25.79M

53. Capturing the Friedmans (2003)

Not Rated | 107 min | Documentary, Biography, Crime

90 Metascore

Documentary on the Friedmans, a seemingly typical, upper-middle-class Jewish family whose world is instantly transformed when the father and his youngest son are arrested and charged with shocking and horrible crimes.

Director: Andrew Jarecki | Stars: Arnold Friedman, Jesse Friedman, David Friedman, Elaine Friedman

Votes: 27,135 | Gross: $3.12M

54. Catch Me If You Can (2002)

PG-13 | 141 min | Biography, Crime, Drama

75 Metascore

Barely 17 yet, Frank is a skilled forger who has passed as a doctor, lawyer and pilot. FBI agent Carl becomes obsessed with tracking down the con man, who only revels in the pursuit.

Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks, Christopher Walken, Martin Sheen

Votes: 1,096,268 | Gross: $164.62M

55. Charade (1963)

Passed | 113 min | Comedy, Mystery, Romance

83 Metascore

Romance and suspense ensue in Paris as a woman is pursued by several men who want a fortune her murdered husband had stolen. Whom can she trust?

Director: Stanley Donen | Stars: Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, Walter Matthau, James Coburn

Votes: 85,596 | Gross: $13.47M

56. Chasing Amy (1997)

R | 113 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

71 Metascore

Holden and Banky are comic book artists. Everything's going good for them until they meet Alyssa, also a comic book artist. Holden falls for her, but his hopes are crushed when he finds out she's a lesbian.

Director: Kevin Smith | Stars: Ben Affleck, Joey Lauren Adams, Ethan Suplee, Scott Mosier

Votes: 143,832 | Gross: $12.02M

57. Children of Men (2006)

R | 109 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi

84 Metascore

In 2027, in a chaotic world in which women have somehow become infertile, a former activist agrees to help transport a miraculously pregnant woman to a sanctuary at sea.

Director: Alfonso Cuarón | Stars: Julianne Moore, Clive Owen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Caine

Votes: 529,549 | Gross: $35.55M

58. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)

G | 144 min | Adventure, Family, Fantasy

64 Metascore

A down-on-his-luck inventor turns a broken-down Grand Prix car into a fancy vehicle for his children, and then they go off on a magical fantasy adventure to save their grandfather in a far-off land.

Director: Ken Hughes | Stars: Dick Van Dyke, Sally Ann Howes, Lionel Jeffries, Benny Hill

Votes: 50,726 | Gross: $7.50M

59. Christine (1983)

R | 110 min | Horror, Thriller

57 Metascore

A nerdish boy buys a strange car with an evil mind of its own and his nature starts to change to reflect it.

Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Keith Gordon, John Stockwell, Alexandra Paul, Robert Prosky

Votes: 92,480 | Gross: $21.20M

60. City of God (2002)

R | 130 min | Crime, Drama

79 Metascore

In the slums of Rio, two kids' paths diverge as one struggles to become a photographer and the other a kingpin.

Directors: Fernando Meirelles, Kátia Lund | Stars: Alexandre Rodrigues, Leandro Firmino, Matheus Nachtergaele, Phellipe Haagensen

Votes: 801,385 | Gross: $7.56M

61. City Lights (1931)

G | 87 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

99 Metascore

With the aid of a wealthy erratic tippler, a dewy-eyed tramp who has fallen in love with a sightless flower girl accumulates money to be able to help her medically.

Director: Charles Chaplin | Stars: Charles Chaplin, Virginia Cherrill, Florence Lee, Harry Myers

Votes: 196,098 | Gross: $0.02M

62. Clean (I) (2004)

R | 90 min | Drama, Music, Romance

75 Metascore

After she ends up in prison and loses custody of her son, a woman struggles to assimilate outside her former life and remain clean long enough to regain custody of her son.

Director: Olivier Assayas | Stars: Maggie Cheung, Nick Nolte, Béatrice Dalle, Jeanne Balibar

Votes: 4,914 | Gross: $0.14M

63. Cloak and Dagger (1946)

Passed | 106 min | Adventure, Film-Noir, Romance

In WW2, the Allies race against time to persuade two nuclear scientists working for the Germans to switch sides.

Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Gary Cooper, Robert Alda, Lilli Palmer, Vladimir Sokoloff

Votes: 3,446

64. Collateral (2004)

R | 120 min | Action, Crime, Drama

71 Metascore

A cab driver finds himself the hostage of an engaging contract killer as he makes his rounds from hit to hit during one night in Los Angeles.

Director: Michael Mann | Stars: Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx, Jada Pinkett Smith, Mark Ruffalo

Votes: 433,261 | Gross: $101.01M

65. Cyrano de Bergerac (1950)

Not Rated | 113 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance

The charismatic swordsman-poet helps another woo the woman he loves.

Director: Michael Gordon | Stars: José Ferrer, Mala Powers, William Prince, Morris Carnovsky

Votes: 4,576

66. Day Night Day Night (2006)

Not Rated | 94 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller

61 Metascore

A 19-year-old girl prepares to become a suicide bomber in Times Square. She speaks with a nondescript American accent, and it's impossible to pinpoint her ethnicity. We never learn why she ... See full summary »

Director: Julia Loktev | Stars: Luisa Williams, Josh Philip Weinstein, Gareth Saxe, Nyambi Nyambi

Votes: 2,304 | Gross: $0.03M

67. Day of the Fight (1951)

Approved | 16 min | Documentary, Short, Sport

After a short study of boxing's history, narrated by newscaster Douglas Edwards, we follow a day in the life of a middleweight Irish boxer named Walter Cartier.

Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Douglas Edwards, Nat Fleischer, Walter Cartier, Vincent Cartier

Votes: 5,140

68. Deep Cover (1992)

R | 107 min | Action, Crime, Thriller

67 Metascore

A uniformed police officer is recruited by the DEA to infiltrate a drug smuggling ring looking to expand its operation.

Director: Bill Duke | Stars: Laurence Fishburne, Jeff Goldblum, Lira Angel, René Assa

Votes: 14,061 | Gross: $16.64M

69. The American Soldier (1970)

80 min | Drama

Ricky is a cold-blooded U.S. German contract killer. After serving in Viet Nam, he returns to his home town of Munich to eliminate a few problem crooks for three renegade cops. He inspects ... See full summary »

Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder | Stars: Karl Scheydt, Elga Sorbas, Jan George, Hark Bohm

Votes: 1,937

70. Desperate (1947)

Approved | 73 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Thriller

A young married couple flee both the police and a gangster out for revenge.

Director: Anthony Mann | Stars: Steve Brodie, Audrey Long, Raymond Burr, Douglas Fowley

Votes: 2,615

71. Detour (1945)

Passed | 66 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir

The life of Al Roberts, a pianist in a New York nightclub, turns into a nightmare when he decides to hitchhike to Los Angeles to visit his girlfriend.

Director: Edgar G. Ulmer | Stars: Tom Neal, Ann Savage, Claudia Drake, Edmund MacDonald

Votes: 19,720 | Gross: $0.02M

72. The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979)

R | 120 min | Drama

Maria marries Hermann Braun in the last days of World War II, only for him to go missing in the war. Alone, Maria puts to use her beauty and ambition in order to find prosperity during Germany's "economic miracle" of the 1950s.

Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder | Stars: Hanna Schygulla, Klaus Löwitsch, Ivan Desny, Gisela Uhlen

Votes: 14,927

73. Diner (1982)

R | 110 min | Comedy, Drama

82 Metascore

A group of college-age buddies struggle with their imminent passage into adulthood in 1959 Baltimore.

Director: Barry Levinson | Stars: Steve Guttenberg, Mickey Rourke, Kevin Bacon, Daniel Stern

Votes: 22,834 | Gross: $14.10M

74. Dirty Harry (1971)

R | 102 min | Action, Crime, Thriller

87 Metascore

When a man calling himself "the Scorpio Killer" menaces San Francisco, tough-as-nails Police Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan is assigned to track down the crazed psychopath.

Directors: Don Siegel, Clint Eastwood | Stars: Clint Eastwood, Andrew Robinson, Harry Guardino, Reni Santoni

Votes: 168,347 | Gross: $35.90M

75. Dracula (1931)

Passed | 75 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror

71 Metascore

Transylvanian vampire Count Dracula bends a naive real estate agent to his will, then takes up residence at a London estate where he sleeps in his coffin by day and searches for potential victims by night.

Directors: Tod Browning, Karl Freund | Stars: Bela Lugosi, Helen Chandler, David Manners, Dwight Frye

Votes: 58,653

76. The Exterminating Angel (1962)

Not Rated | 95 min | Drama, Fantasy

The guests at an upper-class dinner party find themselves unable to leave.

Director: Luis Buñuel | Stars: Silvia Pinal, Jacqueline Andere, Enrique Rambal, José Baviera

Votes: 35,559

77. Empire of the Sun (1987)

PG | 153 min | Drama, War

62 Metascore

A young English boy struggles to survive under Japanese occupation of China during World War II.

Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Christian Bale, John Malkovich, Miranda Richardson, Nigel Havers

Votes: 134,347 | Gross: $22.24M

78. Escape from New York (1981)

R | 99 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

76 Metascore

In 1997, when the U.S. president crashes into Manhattan, now a giant maximum security prison, a convicted bank robber is sent in to rescue him.

Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Kurt Russell, Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Donald Pleasence

Votes: 157,585 | Gross: $25.24M

79. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

R | 108 min | Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi

89 Metascore

When their relationship turns sour, a couple undergoes a medical procedure to have each other erased from their memories forever.

Director: Michel Gondry | Stars: Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Tom Wilkinson, Gerry Robert Byrne

Votes: 1,078,389 | Gross: $34.40M

80. Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

R | 159 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller

69 Metascore

A Manhattan doctor embarks on a bizarre, night-long odyssey after his wife's admission of unfulfilled longing.

Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Todd Field, Sydney Pollack

Votes: 375,301 | Gross: $55.69M

81. Fail Safe (1964)

Approved | 112 min | Drama, Thriller

75 Metascore

A technical malfunction sends American planes to Moscow to deliver a nuclear attack. Can all-out war be averted?

Director: Sidney Lumet | Stars: Henry Fonda, Walter Matthau, Fritz Weaver, Dan O'Herlihy

Votes: 24,412

82. Family Plot (1976)

PG | 120 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama

79 Metascore

A phony psychic/con artist and her taxi driver/actor boyfriend encounter a pair of serial kidnappers while trailing a missing heir in California.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Karen Black, Bruce Dern, Barbara Harris, William Devane

Votes: 24,843

83. Finding Nemo (2003)

G | 100 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy

90 Metascore

After his son is captured in the Great Barrier Reef and taken to Sydney, a timid clownfish sets out on a journey to bring him home.

Directors: Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich | Stars: Albert Brooks, Ellen DeGeneres, Alexander Gould, Willem Dafoe

Votes: 1,113,791 | Gross: $380.84M

84. Five Easy Pieces (1970)

R | 98 min | Drama

85 Metascore

A dropout from upper-class America picks up work along the way on oil rigs when his life isn't spent in a squalid succession of bars, motels, and other points of interest.

Director: Bob Rafelson | Stars: Jack Nicholson, Karen Black, Billy Green Bush, Fannie Flagg

Votes: 40,560 | Gross: $19.40M

85. Following (1998)

R | 69 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller

60 Metascore

A young writer who follows strangers for material meets a thief who takes him under his wing.

Director: Christopher Nolan | Stars: Jeremy Theobald, Alex Haw, Lucy Russell, John Nolan

Votes: 101,792 | Gross: $0.05M

86. For Your Eyes Only (1981)

PG | 127 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller

54 Metascore

Secret service agent James Bond is assigned to find a missing British vessel equipped with a weapons encryption device and prevent it from falling into enemy hands.

Director: John Glen | Stars: Roger Moore, Carole Bouquet, Topol, Lynn-Holly Johnson

Votes: 108,322 | Gross: $62.30M

87. Foreign Correspondent (1940)

Passed | 120 min | Action, Romance, Thriller

89 Metascore

On the eve of World War II, a young American reporter tries to expose enemy agents in London.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Joel McCrea, Laraine Day, Herbert Marshall, George Sanders

Votes: 23,725 | Gross: $3.48M

88. Fort Apache (1948)

Passed | 128 min | Drama, Western

At Fort Apache, an honorable and veteran war captain finds conflict when his regime is placed under the command of a young, glory hungry lieutenant colonel with no respect for the local Indian tribe.

Director: John Ford | Stars: John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Shirley Temple, Pedro Armendáriz

Votes: 19,699

89. Freaks (1932)

Not Rated | 64 min | Drama, Horror

80 Metascore

A circus' beautiful trapeze artist agrees to marry the leader of side-show performers, but his deformed friends discover she is only marrying him for his inheritance.

Director: Tod Browning | Stars: Wallace Ford, Leila Hyams, Olga Baclanova, Roscoe Ates

Votes: 50,624 | Gross: $0.63M

90. From Here to Eternity (1953)

Passed | 118 min | Drama, Romance, War

85 Metascore

At a U.S. Army base in 1941 Hawaii, a private is cruelly punished for not boxing on his unit's team, while his commanding officer's wife and top aide begin a tentative affair.

Director: Fred Zinnemann | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Deborah Kerr, Donna Reed

Votes: 50,834 | Gross: $30.50M

91. From Russia with Love (1963)

PG | 115 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller

83 Metascore

James Bond willingly falls into an assassination plot involving a naive Russian beauty in order to retrieve a Soviet encryption device that was stolen by S.P.E.C.T.R.E.

Director: Terence Young | Stars: Sean Connery, Robert Shaw, Lotte Lenya, Daniela Bianchi

Votes: 145,403 | Gross: $24.80M

92. Full Metal Jacket (1987)

R | 116 min | Drama, War

78 Metascore

A pragmatic U.S. Marine observes the dehumanizing effects the Vietnam War has on his fellow recruits from their brutal boot camp training to the bloody street fighting in Hue.

Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Matthew Modine, R. Lee Ermey, Vincent D'Onofrio, Adam Baldwin

Votes: 790,705 | Gross: $46.36M

93. Fury (1936)

Not Rated | 92 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir

When a wrongly-accused prisoner barely survives a lynch-mob attack and is presumed dead, he vindictively decides to fake his death and frame the mob for his supposed murder.

Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Sylvia Sidney, Spencer Tracy, Walter Abel, Bruce Cabot

Votes: 13,729

94. Gaslight (1944)

Passed | 114 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery

78 Metascore

Ten years after her aunt was murdered in their London home, a woman returns from Italy in the 1880s to resume residence with her new husband. His obsessive interest in the home rises from a secret that may require driving his wife insane.

Director: George Cukor | Stars: Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotten, May Whitty

Votes: 33,923

95. Marooned in Iraq (2002)

100 min | Drama, War

88 Metascore

During the war between Iran and Iraq, a group of Iranian Kurd musicians set off on an almost impossible mission. They will try to find Hanareh, a singer with a magic voice who crossed the ... See full summary »

Director: Bahman Ghobadi | Stars: Shahab Ebrahimi, Faegh Mohamadi, Allah-Morad Rashtian, Rojan Hosseini

Votes: 1,625 | Gross: $0.14M

96. Gone with the Wind (1939)

Passed | 238 min | Drama, Romance, War

97 Metascore

A sheltered and manipulative Southern belle and a roguish profiteer face off in a turbulent romance as the society around them crumbles with the end of slavery and is rebuilt during the Civil War and Reconstruction periods.

Directors: Victor Fleming, George Cukor, Sam Wood | Stars: Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Thomas Mitchell, Barbara O'Neil

Votes: 334,397 | Gross: $198.68M

97. Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005)

PG | 93 min | Biography, Drama, History

80 Metascore

Broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow looks to bring down Senator Joseph McCarthy.

Director: George Clooney | Stars: David Strathairn, George Clooney, Patricia Clarkson, Jeff Daniels

Votes: 101,314 | Gross: $31.56M

98. Gosford Park (2001)

R | 137 min | Comedy, Drama, Mystery

90 Metascore

Set in the 1930s, a group of pretentious rich and famous get together for a weekend of relaxation at a hunting resort. But when a murder occurs, each one of these interesting characters becomes a suspect.

Director: Robert Altman | Stars: Maggie Smith, Ryan Phillippe, Michael Gambon, Kristin Scott Thomas

Votes: 94,044 | Gross: $41.31M

99. Gran Torino (2008)

R | 116 min | Drama

73 Metascore

After a Hmong teenager tries to steal his prized 1972 Gran Torino, a disgruntled, prejudiced Korean War veteran seeks to redeem both the boy and himself.

Director: Clint Eastwood | Stars: Clint Eastwood, Bee Vang, Christopher Carley, Ahney Her

Votes: 815,172 | Gross: $148.10M

100. Great Expectations (1998)

R | 111 min | Drama, Romance

55 Metascore

Modernization of Charles Dickens' classic story finds the hapless Finn as a painter in New York City pursuing his unrequited and haughty childhood love.

Director: Alfonso Cuarón | Stars: Ethan Hawke, Gwyneth Paltrow, Hank Azaria, Chris Cooper

Votes: 56,929 | Gross: $26.33M



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