Top Rated Movies by IMDb
The top 100 rated movies as voted on by IMDb users.
Last updated: January 30th, 2016
Weight: 50
Detractions
- Voted on by the general public (-50)
Films (100)
1. The Shawshank Redemption
Directed by Frank Darabont | Rated R | 142 min | 1994
Two imprisoned men bond over a number of years, finding solace and eventual redemption through acts of common decency.
2. The Godfather
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola | Rated R | 175 min | 1972
The aging patriarch of an organized crime dynasty transfers control of his clandestine empire to his reluctant son.
3. The Godfather: Part II
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola | Rated R | 202 min | 1974
The early life and career of Vito Corleone in 1920s New York is portrayed while his son, Michael, expands and tightens his grip on his crime syndicate stretching from Lake Tahoe, Nevada to pre-revolution 1958 Cuba.
4. The Dark Knight
Directed by Christopher Nolan | Rated PG-13 | 152 min | 2008
When the menace known as the Joker wreaks havoc and chaos on the people of Gotham, the caped crusader must come to terms with one of the greatest psychological tests of his ability to fight injustice.
5. Pulp Fiction
Directed by Quentin Tarantino | Rated R | 154 min | 1994
The lives of two mob hit men, a boxer, a gangster's wife, and a pair of diner bandits intertwine in four tales of violence and redemption.
6. Schindler's List
Directed by Steven Spielberg | Rated R | 195 min | 1993
In German-occupied Poland during World War II, Oskar Schindler gradually becomes concerned for his Jewish workforce after witnessing their persecution by the Nazi Germans.
7. 12 Angry Men
Directed by Sidney Lumet | 96 min | 1957
A jury holdout attempts to prevent a miscarriage of justice by forcing his colleagues to reconsider the evidence.
8. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Directed by Peter Jackson | Rated PG-13 | 201 min | 2003
Gandalf and Aragorn lead the World of Men against Sauron's army to draw his gaze from Frodo and Sam as they approach Mount Doom with the One Ring.
9. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Directed by Sergio Leone | 161 min | 1966
A bounty hunting scam joins two men in an uneasy alliance against a third in a race to find a fortune in gold buried in a remote cemetery.
10. Fight Club
Directed by David Fincher | Rated R | 139 min | 1999
An insomniac office worker, looking for a way to change his life, crosses paths with a devil-may-care soap maker, forming an underground fight club that evolves into something much, much more.
11. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Directed by Peter Jackson | Rated PG-13 | 178 min | 2001
A meek Hobbit and eight companions set out on a journey to destroy the One Ring and the Dark Lord Sauron.
12. Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back
Directed by Irvin Kershner | Rated PG | 124 min | 1980
After the rebels have been brutally overpowered by the Empire on their newly established base, Luke Skywalker takes advanced Jedi training with Master Yoda, while his friends are pursued by Darth Vader as part of his plan to capture Luke.
13. Forrest Gump
Directed by Robert Zemeckis | Rated PG-13 | 142 min | 1994
Forrest Gump, while not intelligent, has accidentally been present at many historic moments, but his true love, Jenny Curran, eludes him.
14. Inception
Directed by Christopher Nolan | Rated PG-13 | 148 min | 2010
A thief, who steals corporate secrets through use of dream-sharing technology, is given the inverse task of planting an idea into the mind of a CEO.
15. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Directed by Milos Forman | Rated R | 133 min | 1975
A criminal pleads insanity after getting into trouble again and once in the mental institution rebels against the oppressive nurse and rallies up the scared patients.
16. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Directed by Peter Jackson | Rated PG-13 | 179 min | 2002
While Frodo and Sam edge closer to Mordor with the help of the shifty Gollum, the divided fellowship makes a stand against Sauron's new ally, Saruman, and his hordes of Isengard.
17. Goodfellas
Directed by Martin Scorsese | Rated R | 146 min | 1990
Henry Hill and his friends work their way up through the mob hierarchy.
18. The Matrix
Directed by Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski | Rated R | 136 min | 1999
A computer hacker learns from mysterious rebels about the true nature of his reality and his role in the war against its controllers.
19. Seven Samurai
Directed by Akira Kurosawa | 207 min | 1954
A poor village under attack by bandits recruits seven unemployed samurai to help them defend themselves.
20. Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope
Directed by George Lucas | Rated PG | 121 min | 1977
Luke Skywalker joins forces with a Jedi Knight, a cocky pilot, a wookiee and two droids to save the galaxy from the Empire's world-destroying battle-station, while also attempting to rescue Princess Leia from the evil Darth Vader.
21. City of God
Directed by Fernando Meirelles, Kátia Lund | Rated R | 130 min | 2002
Two boys growing up in a violent neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro take different paths: one becomes a photographer, the other a drug dealer.
22. Se7en
Directed by David Fincher | Rated R | 127 min | 1995
Two detectives, a rookie and a veteran, hunt a serial killer who uses the seven deadly sins as his modus operandi.
23. The Silence of the Lambs
Directed by Jonathan Demme | Rated R | 118 min | 1991
A young F.B.I. cadet must confide in an incarcerated and manipulative killer to receive his help on catching another serial killer who skins his victims.
24. The Usual Suspects
Directed by Bryan Singer | Rated R | 106 min | 1995
A sole survivor tells of the twisty events leading up to a horrific gun battle on a boat, which begin when five criminals meet at a seemingly random police lineup.
25. It's a Wonderful Life
Directed by Frank Capra | Rated PG | 130 min | 1946
An angel helps a compassionate but despairingly frustrated businessman by showing what life would have been like if he never existed.
26. Life Is Beautiful
Directed by Roberto Benigni | Rated PG-13 | 116 min | 1997
When an open-minded Jewish librarian and his son become victims of the Holocaust, he uses a perfect mixture of will, humor and imagination to protect his son from the dangers around their camp.
27. Léon: The Professional
Directed by Luc Besson | Rated R | 110 min | 1994
Mathilda, a 12-year-old girl, is reluctantly taken in by Léon, a professional assassin, after her family is murdered. Léon and Mathilda form an unusual relationship, as she becomes his protégée and learns the assassin's trade.
28. Once Upon a Time in the West
Directed by Sergio Leone | Rated PG-13 | 175 min | 1968
Epic story of a mysterious stranger with a harmonica who joins forces with a notorious desperado to protect a beautiful widow from a ruthless assassin working for the railroad.
29. Spirited Away
Directed by Hayao Miyazaki | Rated PG | 125 min | 2001
During her family's move to the suburbs, a sullen 10-year-old girl wanders into a world ruled by gods, witches, and spirits, and where humans are changed into beasts.
30. Interstellar
Directed by Christopher Nolan | Rated PG-13 | 169 min | 2014
A team of explorers travel through a wormhole in space in an attempt to ensure humanity's survival.
31. Saving Private Ryan
Directed by Steven Spielberg | Rated R | 169 min | 1998
Following the Normandy Landings, a group of U.S. soldiers go behind enemy lines to retrieve a paratrooper whose brothers have been killed in action.
32. Casablanca
Directed by Michael Curtiz | Rated PG | 102 min | 1942
In Casablanca, Morocco in December 1941, a cynical American expatriate meets a former lover, with unforeseen complications.
33. American History X
Directed by Tony Kaye | Rated R | 119 min | 1998
A former neo-nazi skinhead tries to prevent his younger brother from going down the same wrong path that he did.
34. Psycho
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock | Rated R | 109 min | 1960
A Phoenix secretary steals $40,000 from her employer's client, goes on the run and checks into a remote motel run by a young man under the domination of his mother.
35. City Lights
Directed by Charles Chaplin | 87 min | 1931
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.
36. Raiders of the Lost Ark
Directed by Steven Spielberg | Rated PG | 115 min | 1981
Archaeologist and adventurer Indiana Jones is hired by the U.S. government to find the Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis.
37. Rear Window
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock | 112 min | 1954
A wheelchair-bound photographer spies on his neighbours from his apartment window and becomes convinced one of them has committed murder.
38. The Intouchables
Directed by Olivier Nakache, Eric Toledano | Rated R | 112 min | 2011
After he becomes a quadriplegic from a paragliding accident, an aristocrat hires a young man from the projects to be his caregiver.
39. Modern Times
Directed by Charles Chaplin | Rated G | 87 min | 1936
The Tramp struggles to live in modern industrial society with the help of a young homeless woman.
40. The Green Mile
Directed by Frank Darabont | Rated R | 189 min | 1999
The lives of guards on Death Row are affected by one of their charges: a black man accused of child murder and rape, yet who has a mysterious gift.
41. Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Directed by James Cameron | Rated R | 137 min | 1991
A cyborg, identical to the one who failed to kill Sarah Connor, must now protect her young son, John Connor, from a more advanced cyborg, made out of liquid metal.
42. The Pianist
Directed by Roman Polanski | Rated R | 150 min | 2002
A Polish Jewish musician struggles to survive the destruction of the Warsaw ghetto of World War II.
43. The Departed
Directed by Martin Scorsese | Rated R | 151 min | 2006
An undercover cop and a mole in the police attempt to identify each other while infiltrating an Irish gang in South Boston.
44. Whiplash
Directed by Damien Chazelle | Rated R | 107 min | 2014
A promising young drummer enrolls at a cut-throat music conservatory where his dreams of greatness are mentored by an instructor who will stop at nothing to realize a student's potential.
45. Back to the Future
Directed by Robert Zemeckis | Rated PG | 116 min | 1985
Marty McFly, a 17-year-old high school student, is accidentally sent 30 years into the past in a time-traveling DeLorean invented by his close friend, the maverick scientist Doc Brown.
46. Memento
Directed by Christopher Nolan | Rated R | 113 min | 2000
A man juggles searching for his wife's murderer and keeping his short-term memory loss from being an obstacle.
47. Gladiator
Directed by Ridley Scott | Rated R | 155 min | 2000
When a Roman general is betrayed and his family murdered by an emperor's corrupt son, he comes to Rome as a gladiator to seek revenge.
48. Apocalypse Now
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola | Rated R | 153 min | 1979
During the Vietnam War, Captain Willard is sent on a dangerous mission into Cambodia to assassinate a renegade colonel who has set himself up as a god among a local tribe.
49. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Directed by Stanley Kubrick | Rated PG | 95 min | 1964
An insane general triggers a path to nuclear holocaust that a war room full of politicians and generals frantically try to stop.
50. The Prestige
Directed by Christopher Nolan | Rated PG-13 | 130 min | 2006
Two stage magicians engage in competitive one-upmanship in an attempt to create the ultimate stage illusion.
51. Sunset Boulevard
Directed by Billy Wilder | 110 min | 1950
A hack screenwriter writes a screenplay for a former silent-film star who has faded into Hollywood obscurity.
52. The Lion King
Directed by Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff | Rated G | 89 min | 1994
Lion cub and future king Simba searches for his identity. His eagerness to please others and penchant for testing his boundaries sometimes gets him into trouble.
53. Alien
Directed by Ridley Scott | Rated R | 117 min | 1979
After a space merchant vessel perceives an unknown transmission as distress call, their landing on the source moon finds one of the crew attacked by a mysterious lifeform. Continuing their journey back to Earth with the attacked crew having recovered and the critter deceased, they soon realize that its life cycle has merely begun.
54. The Great Dictator
Directed by Charles Chaplin | 125 min | 1940
Dictator Adenoid Hynkel tries to expand his empire while a poor Jewish barber tries to avoid persecution from Hynkel's regime.
55. The Lives of Others
Directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck | Rated R | 137 min | 2006
In 1984 East Berlin, an agent of the secret police, conducting surveillance on a writer and his lover, finds himself becoming increasingly absorbed by their lives.
56. Cinema Paradiso
Directed by Giuseppe Tornatore | Rated R | 155 min | 1988
A filmmaker recalls his childhood, when he fell in love with the movies at his village's theater and formed a deep friendship with the theater's projectionist.
57. Django Unchained
Directed by Quentin Tarantino | Rated R | 165 min | 2012
With the help of a German bounty hunter, a freed slave sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal Mississippi plantation owner.
58. The Shining
Directed by Stanley Kubrick | Rated R | 146 min | 1980
A family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where an evil and spiritual presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from the past and of the future.
59. Paths of Glory
Directed by Stanley Kubrick | 88 min | 1957
After refusing to attack an enemy position, a general accuses the soldiers of cowardice and their commanding officer must defend them.
60. The Dark Knight Rises
Directed by Christopher Nolan | Rated PG-13 | 164 min | 2012
Eight years after the Joker's reign of anarchy, the Dark Knight, with the help of the enigmatic Catwoman, is forced from his imposed exile to save Gotham City, now on the edge of total annihilation, from the brutal guerrilla terrorist Bane.
61. WALL·E
Directed by Andrew Stanton | Rated G | 98 min | 2008
In the distant future, a small waste-collecting robot inadvertently embarks on a space journey that will ultimately decide the fate of mankind.
62. Grave of the Fireflies
Directed by Isao Takahata | 89 min | 1988
A young boy and his little sister struggle to survive in Japan during World War II.
63. American Beauty
Directed by Sam Mendes | Rated R | 122 min | 1999
A sexually frustrated suburban father has a mid-life crisis after becoming infatuated with his daughter's best friend.
64. Aliens
Directed by James Cameron | Rated R | 137 min | 1986
The planet from Alien (1979) has been colonized, but contact is lost. This time, the rescue team has impressive firepower, but will it be enough?
65. Princess Mononoke
Directed by Hayao Miyazaki | Rated PG-13 | 134 min | 1997
On a journey to find the cure for a Tatarigami's curse, Ashitaka finds himself in the middle of a war between the forest gods and Tatara, a mining colony. In this quest he also meets San, the Mononoke Hime.
66. Citizen Kane
Directed by Orson Welles | 119 min | 1941
Following the death of a publishing tycoon, news reporters scramble to discover the meaning of his final utterance.
67. Oldboy
Directed by Chan-wook Park | Rated R | 120 min | 2003
After being kidnapped and imprisoned for 15 years, Oh Dae-Su is released, only to find that he must find his captor in 5 days.
68. North by Northwest
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock | 136 min | 1959
A hapless New York advertising executive is mistaken for a government agent by a group of foreign spies, and is pursued across the country while he looks for a way to survive.
69. Vertigo
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock | Rated PG | 128 min | 1958
A San Francisco detective suffering from acrophobia investigates the strange activities of an old friend's wife, all the while becoming dangerously obsessed with her.
70. Das Boot
Directed by Wolfgang Petersen | Rated R | 149 min | 1981
The claustrophobic world of a WWII German U-boat; boredom, filth, and sheer terror.
71. Once Upon a Time in America
Directed by Sergio Leone | Rated R | 229 min | 1984
A former Prohibition-era Jewish gangster returns to the Lower East Side of Manhattan over thirty years later, where he once again must confront the ghosts and regrets of his old life.
72. M
Directed by Fritz Lang | 99 min | 1931
When the police in a German city are unable to catch a child-murderer, other criminals join in the manhunt.
73. Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi
Directed by Richard Marquand | Rated PG | 131 min | 1983
After rescuing Han Solo from the palace of Jabba the Hutt, the rebels attempt to destroy the second Death Star, while Luke struggles to make Vader return from the dark side of the Force.
74. Witness for the Prosecution
Directed by Billy Wilder | 116 min | 1957
A veteran British barrister must defend his client in a murder trial that has surprise after surprise.
75. Amélie
Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet | Rated R | 122 min | 2001
Amélie is an innocent and naive girl in Paris with her own sense of justice. She decides to help those around her and, along the way, discovers love.
76. Reservoir Dogs
Directed by Quentin Tarantino | Rated R | 99 min | 1992
After a simple jewelry heist goes terribly wrong, the surviving criminals begin to suspect that one of them is a police informant.
77. Braveheart
Directed by Mel Gibson | Rated R | 178 min | 1995
When his secret bride is executed for assaulting an English soldier who tried to rape her, William Wallace begins a revolt against King Edward I of England.
78. Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens
Directed by J.J. Abrams | Rated PG-13 | 138 min | 2015
Three decades after the defeat of the Galactic Empire, a new threat arises. The First Order attempts to rule the galaxy and only a ragtag group of heroes can stop them, along with the help of the Resistance.
79. A Clockwork Orange
Directed by Stanley Kubrick | Rated X | 136 min | 1971
In future Britain, charismatic delinquent Alex DeLarge is jailed and volunteers for an experimental aversion therapy developed by the government in an effort to solve society's crime problem - but not all goes according to plan.
80. Requiem for a Dream
Directed by Darren Aronofsky | Rated R | 102 min | 2000
The drug-induced utopias of four Coney Island people are shattered when their addictions run deep.
81. Toy Story 3
Directed by Lee Unkrich | Rated G | 103 min | 2010
The toys are mistakenly delivered to a day-care center instead of the attic right before Andy leaves for college, and it's up to Woody to convince the other toys that they weren't abandoned and to return home.
82. Taxi Driver
Directed by Martin Scorsese | Rated R | 113 min | 1976
A mentally unstable Vietnam War veteran works as a night-time taxi driver in New York City where the perceived decadence and sleaze feeds his urge for violent action, attempting to save a preadolescent prostitute in the process.
83. Double Indemnity
Directed by Billy Wilder | 107 min | 1944
An insurance representative lets himself be talked into a murder/insurance fraud scheme that arouses an insurance investigator's suspicions.
84. To Kill a Mockingbird
Directed by Robert Mulligan | 129 min | 1962
Atticus Finch, a lawyer in the Depression-era South, defends a black man against an undeserved rape charge, and his kids against prejudice.
85. Lawrence of Arabia
Directed by David Lean | Rated PG | 216 min | 1962
The story of T.E. Lawrence, the English officer who successfully united and lead the diverse, often warring, Arab tribes during World War I in order to fight the Turks.
86. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Directed by Michel Gondry | Rated R | 108 min | 2004
When their relationship turns sour, a couple undergoes a procedure to have each other erased from their memories. But it is only through the process of loss that they discover what they had to begin with.
87. Full Metal Jacket
Directed by Stanley Kubrick | Rated R | 116 min | 1987
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.
88. Amadeus
Directed by Milos Forman | Rated R | 160 min | 1984
The incredible story of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, told by his peer and secret rival Antonio Salieri - now confined to an insane asylum.
89. The Sting
Directed by George Roy Hill | Rated PG | 129 min | 1973
In Chicago in September 1936, a young con man seeking revenge for his murdered partner teams up with a master of the big con to win a fortune from a criminal banker.
90. Singin' in the Rain
Directed by Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly | 103 min | 1952
A silent film production company and cast make a difficult transition to sound.
91. Bicycle Thieves
Directed by Vittorio De Sica | 89 min | 1948
Set in Post-WWII Italy, a working class man's bicycle is stolen. He and his son set out to find it.
92. 2001: A Space Odyssey
Directed by Stanley Kubrick | Rated G | 149 min | 1968
Humanity finds a mysterious, obviously artificial object buried beneath the Lunar surface and, with the intelligent computer H.A.L. 9000, sets off on a quest.
93. Snatch.
Directed by Guy Ritchie | Rated R | 102 min | 2000
Unscrupulous boxing promoters, violent bookmakers, a Russian gangster, incompetent amateur robbers, and supposedly Jewish jewelers fight to track down a priceless stolen diamond.
94. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Directed by Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones | Rated PG | 91 min | 1975
King Arthur and his knights embark on a low-budget search for the Grail, encountering many, very silly obstacles.
95. Toy Story
Directed by John Lasseter | Rated G | 81 min | 1995
A cowboy doll is profoundly threatened and jealous when a new spaceman figure supplants him as top toy in a boy's room.
96. The Kid
Directed by Charles Chaplin | 68 min | 1921
The Tramp cares for an abandoned child, but events put that relationship in jeopardy.
97. Inglourious Basterds
Directed by Quentin Tarantino, Eli Roth | Rated R | 153 min | 2009
In Nazi-occupied France during World War II, a plan to assassinate Nazi leaders by a group of Jewish U.S. soldiers coincides with a theatre owner's vengeful plans for the same.
98. L.A. Confidential
Directed by Curtis Hanson | Rated R | 138 min | 1997
As corruption grows in 1950s LA, three policemen - one strait-laced, one brutal, and one sleazy - investigate a series of murders with their own brand of justice.
99. Rashomon
Directed by Akira Kurosawa | 88 min | 1950
A heinous crime and its aftermath are recalled from differing points of view.
100. The Apartment
Directed by Billy Wilder | 125 min | 1960
A man tries to rise in his company by letting its executives use his apartment for trysts, but complications and a romance of his own ensue.