As people continue to do their part in the fight against COVID-19 and spend more time at home, many find themselves inevitably searching for new material to watch. While playing “streaming roulette” — in which one takes a chance on some unknown movie or show on a streaming service — may sometimes pay off, it’s often better to seek out a film with a proven track record.
Movies that score well with both audiences and reviewers online should satisfy the majority of viewers. These flicks tend to have a few basic characteristics in common: a strong, coherent storyline; richly drawn — and well acted — characters; good cinematography and (if applicable) special effects; and a satisfying ending.
24/7 Tempo has identified the 100 best movies of all time based on user and critic ratings from the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) and Rotten Tomatoes.
The movies on this list share those virtues to a greater or lesser extent. They span cinema history from 1924 to 2019. They include silent films and technologically dazzling blockbusters. Many feature famous performers of the past and present, as well as some of the film world’s most acclaimed directors — Charlie Chaplin, Frank Capra, Alfred Hitchcock, John Huston, Stanley Kubrick, and Francis Ford Coppola. Here’s who won the Oscar for Best Director every year.
Some of these movies will be familiar to almost anyone — “Citizen Kane,” “2001: A Space Odyssey,” “The Silence of the Lambs,” “Star Wars” (now retitled “Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope”). Others are more obscure but well worth discovering — especially for those with some extra time on their hands. For those seeking even lesser-known movies, here are the 50 best movies you’ve never seen.
To determine the best movies of all time, 24/7 Tempo created an index based on each film’s Rotten Tomatoes average critic rating, Rotten Tomatoes average audience rating, and Internet Movie Database average user rating. To be considered, each film needed to have at least 5,000 Rotten Tomatoes user ratings, 10 approved Tomatometer critic reviews, and 10,000 IMDb user ratings. English also had to be listed as a primary language on IMDb.
We averaged the user ratings from Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb and weighted by the number of votes for each. The combined user rating was then averaged with the Rotten Tomatoes critic rating.
100. It Happened One Night (1934)
> Genre: Comedy, romance
> Directed by: Frank Capra
> Starring: Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert, Walter Connolly
One of the greatest screwball comedies of the 1930s, “It Happened One Night” is one of only three movies ever to have won all five of the major Academy Awards (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay). Clark Gable plays a reporter who falls in love with spoiled heiress Claudette Colbert. Critics gave the Capra classic a 98% Freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and 93% of audiences liked the movie.
99. The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)
> Genre: Action, Mystery, Thriller
> Directed by: Paul Greengrass
> Starring: Matt Damon, Edgar Ramírez, Joan Allen
The third entry of the spy series based on Robert Ludlum books continued to keep audiences at the edge of their seat. The movie is about a rogue CIA agent (Matt Damon) who searches for his past while avoiding assassins from the government agency he used to work for. The Critics Consensus on Rotten Tomatoes says “The Bourne Ultimatum” is “is an intelligent, finely tuned non-stop thrill ride.” Critics gave the movie a Freshness rating of 92%, and 91% of audiences liked it.
98. The Pianist (2002)
> Genre: Biography, Drama, Music
> Directed by: Roman Polanski
> Starring: Adrien Brody, Thomas Kretschmann, Frank Finlay
Based on the life of Polish-Jewish pianist and Holocaust survivor Władysław Szpilman, this saga follows the man’s experiences during the Nazi occupation. The film won three Acade