Fashion, Music, Movies and Art in the 1800w

The greatest movies of all time endure for many reasons – they give usa characters to fall head-over-heels for, plots that twist and plough in unexpected ways, depict experiences that change u.s., and thrill us with incredible filmmaking arts and crafts. The best films – from classic movies that have stood the test of fourth dimension, to gimmicky works that changed the game – offer heartwarming comfort, iconic scares, big laughs, and pulse-pounding suspense, becoming house audience favourites and garnering critical acclamation.

Empire asked readers to share their picks for the best films of all time – ones that condolement, challenge and pioneer. Films that accident your listen, help you lot see things from a new perspective, and that go along to shape cinema equally we know it today. Films that make you experience something. Combining reader votes with critic's choices from Team Empire, here we take it – the latest version of the 100 Greatest Movies list. Read it in full below.

Looking for our list of The 100 Greatest Television Shows Of All Fourth dimension? Read here.

1 of 100

1992
Quentin Tarantino's terrific twist on the heist-gone-incorrect thriller ricochets the zing and fizz of its dialogue around a gloriously intense unmarried setting (for the well-nigh function) and centres the majority of its action around i long and incredibly encarmine death scene. Oh, and by the manner: Overnice Guy Eddie was shot past Mr. White. Who fired twice. Case airtight.
Read Empire's review of Reservoir Dogs

2 of 100

1993
Pecker Murray at the height of his loveable (eventually) schmuck powers. Andie McDowell bringing the brains and the heart. And Harold Ramis (directing and co-writing with Danny Rubin) managing to observe gold in the story of a human trapped in a time loop. It might not take been the first to tap this particular trope, but information technology's head and shoulders above the rest. Murray's snarktastic delivery makes the early on going easy to laugh at, simply every bit the movie finds deeper things to say about existence and morals, it never feels similar a polemic.
Read Empire's review of Groundhog 24-hour interval

3 of 100

2017
When the beginning Paddington was on the way, early trailers didn't await entirely promising. Still co-writer/director Paul King delivered a truly wonderful moving picture bursting with joy, imagination, kindness and but ane or two hard stares. How was he going to follow that? Turns out, with more of the aforementioned, only also plenty of fresh pleasures. Paddington (bouncily voiced by Ben Whishaw) matches wits with washed-up actor Phoenix Buchanan (Hugh Grant, chewing scenery like fine steak), existence framed for theft and getting sent to prison. Like all smashing sequels, it works superbly as a double bill with the original.
Read Empire's review of Paddington 2

iv of 100

2001
Jean-Pierre Jeunet's beautifully whimsical Parisian rom-com succeeded non but considering he found the perfect lead in Audrey Tautou, but also because his numerous surreal touches truly gave a sense that there is e'er magic in the earth effectually usa — if nosotros only know how to look for it.
Read Empire'due south review of Amelie

5 of 100

2005
Ang Lee adapts Annie Proulx's short story (with Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana on script duty) with sensitivity, grace, and differing scope – the intimacy of the relationship between Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger's shepherds backed by beautiful mountain landscapes. The honey between Ennis Del Mar (Ledger) and Jack Twist (Gyllenhaal) is complicated by the mores of the time and their need to ally their corresponding girlfriends. Information technology'll interruption your heart and offer hope all at the same time, and the film ended upward scoring Best Adapted Screenplay, Music and Directing Oscars.
Read Empire's review of Brokeback Mountain

six of 100

2001
Richard Kelly'south time-looping, sci-fi-horror-blending high-school movie is the very definition of a cult classic. Information technology was a struggle to get made, information technology flopped on release, and so plant its crowd via word-of-oral cavity and a palpable sense that its creator really, you know, gets information technology. And let'south non forget how goddamn funny it is, too.

Read Empire'south review of Donnie Darko

7 of 100

2010
With Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, Edgar Wright leaned all the way in to the things that make his directorial way so singular – fantabulous needle drops, a bold color palette, whip-pans and whip-smart wit alike. Michael Cera is the put-upon protagonist, but it'south Ramona's (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) seven mortiferous exes that gear up the screen alight, including Chris Evans and Brie Larson – before they were saving half the universe together. With masterful touches of magical realism and stunning shots that stick in the mind throughout, Scott Pilgrim is 1 of Wright's most memorable.
Read Empire'due south review of Scott Pilgrim

8 of 100

2019
Céline Sciamma's magnetic, masterful lesbian romance may be a recent improver to this list, but became an instant landmark of queer cinema upon its release. Starring Noémie Merlant every bit an 18th century painter and Adèle Haenel every bit her elusive subject area, Portrait Of A Lady On Fire is a tale of an ballsy honey developed in the quietest, about delicate style, formed in stolen moments and glances. Sciamma'southward carefully constructed script is matched past Claire Mathon's cinematography, each shot like a Renaissance painting brought to life. Pure poetry.
Read Empire's review of Portrait Of A Lady On Burn down

9 of 100

1994
In some ways, Luc Besson's first English-language movie is a spiritual spin-off: later on all, isn't Jean Reno'south eponymous hitman just Nikita'south Victor The Cleaner renamed and fleshed out? Of grade, its greatest strength is in Natalie Portman, delivering a luminous, career-creating operation every bit vengeful 12-year-quondam Mathilda, whose human relationship with the monosyllabic killer is truly affecting, and nimbly stays but on the right side of acceptable.
Read Empire'due south review of Léon

10 of 100

2017
If yous're going to wrap upwards your tenure as one of the most loved superhero icons in fiction, it'south hard to think of a improve way than how Hugh Jackman – with James Mangold directing — punched out on the fourth dimension clock of playing Wolverine. Prepare in a nighttime almost-time to come globe where an aging Logan is caring for a mentally unstable Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and getting mixed up yet once more with some very dangerous people , Logan is a truly original superhero tale that is mournful without existence morbid. Information technology's so outside the established mold, in fact, information technology's honestly a wonder the film e'er got made.
Read Empire's review of Logan

11 of 100

1984
It features time travel and a cyborg, with car chases and shoot-outs, merely in James Cameron's beginning proper movie (ie. not featuring flying piranhas) it'south all packed around the claret-covered endoskeleton of a relentless-killer horror moving picture. After all, what is Arnold Schwarzenegger's Uzi-9mm-toting Terminator, if non an upgraded version of Halloween'due south Michael Myers?
Read Empire's review of The Terminator

12 of 100

2007
The Coen brothers' Cormac McCarthy adaptation is a tension-ratcheting, 1980 Texas-set hunt moving-picture show, which also thoughtfully considers the question: how can good people ever possibly deal with a globe going to shit? It also revealed that Javier Bardem makes an awesome villain; ever since he played No Country's cold-blooded assassin Anton Chigurh, Hollywood tin can't stop making him the bad guy.
Read Empire's review of No Country For Old Men

13 of 100

1997
James Cameron doesn't exercise things by halves. His movie near the 1912 sinking of the world'southward biggest cruise liner was the nearly expensive ever made, suffered a hard, overrunning shoot, and was predicted to be a career-ending flop. But information technology turned out to exist one of the virtually successful films of all fourth dimension (in terms of both box office and Awards), and made him Rex Of The Globe.
Read Empire's review of Titanic

14 of 100

1973
William Friedkin's horror masterwork — in which a 12-twelvemonth-old girl is possessed by a demon — has a reputation as a shocker (in the good sense), with the pea-soup vomit, head-spin and crucifix abuse moments the nearly regularly cited. But the reason it chills so deeply is the mode it sustains and builds its disquieting atmosphere then craftily and consistently throughout.
Read Empire's review of The Exorcist

15 of 100

2018
Later his standout introduction in Captain America: Civil State of war, 2018's Black Panther allowed united states of america to properly meet Chadwick Boseman's T'Challa, and come across his Wakandan kingdom in all its celebrity. Impeccably directed by Creed'due south Ryan Coogler, it's an Afrofuturistic vision oozing with cool, colourful regality, expressed through its Oscar-winning costume design, stunning set pieces and thrumming soundtrack. Soaring to billion dollar-plus box office takings, Black Panther's cultural impact cannot exist understated – and after the tragic loss of Boseman in 2020, the film lives on as the defining role for a truly remarkable talent.
Read Empire's review of Black Panther

16 of 100

2004
Earlier its release, you lot might have been forgiven for thinking it would exist Spaced: The Movie. Simply Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost'southward first feature is genuinely stand-lonely: a savvy blend of proper-funny comedy and seriously gruesome undead-horror which, funnily enough, played a big part in the zombie-pic resurgence we're still enjoying now.
Read Empire'south review of Shaun Of The Dead

xviii of 100

2017
Marvel has cannily employed directors who have more usually made smaller, indie movies, handed them the keys to the giant machine that is their cinematic universe and (within reason) let them do their thing. Among the best to grasp that opportunity is Taika Waititi, who helped detect Thor'due south truthful funny bone, a more than effective weapon than Mjolnir. Ragnarok, which shakes upward Thor'southward entire world (by, er, destroying it) is a hilarious accept on a superhero story, full of action, while re-introducing Mark Ruffalo's Hulk in fantastic fashion and having us meet the likes of Tessa Thompson's Valkyrie and Jeff Goldblum's Grandmaster.
Read Empire's review of Thor: Ragnarok

20 of 100

1960
The moving-picture show Universal originally didn't desire Hitchcock to make not just turned out to be a easily-down masterpiece but also effectively invented a genre: the psycho-killer slasher moving-picture show. No longer were picture show monsters only big, hairy wolf-men, or vampires, or swampy fish-things. They could now look completely normal. They could be the guy sat right side by side to you, in fact...
Read Empire'south review of Psycho

22 of 100

1982
With the "Amblin" style so regularly referenced these days (nearly successfully in the Duffer brothers' Stranger Things), it'due south worth reminding ourselves that it was never more perfectly encapsulated than in E.T.: a children'south adventure which carefully beds its supernatural elements in an utterly relatable everykid world, and tempers its cuter, more sentimental moments with a true sense of jeopardy.
Read Empire's review of Due east.T.

23 of 100

2000
Years before contesting Shang-Chi in the MCU, Hong Kong acting legend Tony Leung was managing director Wong Kar-wai's greatest muse in gorgeous, simmering masterpieces like Chungking Express, Happy Together — and this remarkable romance, peradventure their greatest collaboration. Leung plays a journalist renting an apartment in 1960s Hong Kong; his neighbor, played by Maggie Cheung, appears equally lone and lost every bit he is. It soon emerges their spouses are having an affair, and a romance of stolen glances and intimate longing begins to emerge. Love stories are rarely every bit ravishingly cute (or deeply influential) as this.
Read Empire's review of In The Mood For Dear

24 of 100

1983
In this post-Phantom Menace globe, the Ewoks don't seem quite and then egregious, do they? Endor'southward teddy-carry guerillas might have got sneered at, merely they shouldn't bullheaded usa to Jedi's assets: the explosive squad-re-gathering opening; the crazily high-speed wood chase; and that marvellously edited iii-manner climactic battle that dextrously flipped us between lightsabers, spaceships and a ferocious (albeit fuzzy) forest conflict.
Read Empire'southward review of Return Of The Jedi

25 of 100

2016
Denis Villeneuve's empathic, perception-bending alien visitation drama is a delicately crafted modern rework of The Day The Earth Stood Even so — except the extra-terrestrials are truly otherworldly and there'south the sky-high obstacle that is the language barrier. With its message that open-minded advice enables usa to realise the things we have in common with those who appear vastly different, it feels similar genuinely compulsive viewing for these troubled times.
Read Empire'south review of Arrival

26 of 100

2018
Take a simple concept (don't make a audio, or aliens will get you), a stellar cast (Emily Edgeless, Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe) and a director with a light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation-precipitous vision (John Krasinski) and what practice you become? As it turns out, one of the about innovative, refreshing, unbearably tense horror movies of the 21st century. From the second information technology starts, the imposed silence of A Quiet Place makes information technology a revelatory cinematic experience – as the Abbott family pad gently around their home, the shop, the woods, y'all experience in your basic that i incorrect pace equals disaster. The (loudly) ticking time bomb of imminent childbirth sets the scene for a stellar scary finale, but it's the deeply endearing family unit dynamic that sets this apart.
Read Empire's review of A Quiet Identify

27 of 100

For their follow up to the superb Shallow Grave, Danny Boyle (managing director), Andrew Macdonald (producer) and John Hodge (screenwriter) foolhardily elected to picture the supposedly unfilmable: Irvine Welsh's scrappy, episodic, multi-perspective novel about Edinburgh low-lives. The outcome couldn't have been more triumphant: the cinematic incarnation of 'Cool Britannia' came with a kicking-donkey soundtrack, and despite some night subject matter, came with a punch-the-air uplifting pay-off.
Read Empire's review of Trainspotting

28 of 100

2001
David Lynch messes with Hollywood itself in a mystery tale that's as twisted every bit the road it'due south named later on, while presenting Tinseltown as both Dream Factory and a realm of Nightmares. It also put Naomi Watts on the map; her audience scene remains equally stunning every bit it was twenty years ago.
Read Empire'due south review of Mulholland Bulldoze

29 of 100

1954
Lensman LB Jeffries (James Stewart) is on ill leave, with a broken leg. He's bored to tears, so he starts spying on his neighbours. Then he witnesses a murder. OR DOES HE? Alfred Hitchcock really knew how to have a corker of a premise and spin it into a peerless thriller (that'due south why they called him The Master Of Suspense), just Rear Window also deserves praise for an astonishing prepare build: that entire Greenwich Village courtyard was synthetic at Paramount Studios, complete with a drainage system that could handle all the rain.
Read Empire's review of Rear Window

30 of 100

2009
A lot has been said about the opening to Pete Docter'south Pixar masterpiece, and rightly and so, wringing tears from the hardest of hearts with a wordless sequence set to Michael Giacchino's lovely, Oscar-winning score that charts the ups and downs of a couple's marriage. Yet while the majority of the moving picture is more of a straight-alee adventure tale (albeit one with a wacky bird and talking dogs), that doesn't go far whatever less satisfying. And let'south be honest — the story of a human being who uses balloons to bladder his firm to a foreign state, accidentally picking up a young wilderness explorer watch every bit he does, feels perfectly Pixar.
Read Empire's review of Up

31 of 100

2018
Having Phil Lord and Chris Miller's names on a movie is regularly the guarantee of something corking, but the full team behind this animated marvel (in both upper- and lower-instance senses of the word) is what makes it work. Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman all added something equally directors (with Rothman co-writing aslope Lord) and their animators whipped upwards a visually dynamic, heady, and heartwarming adventure that literally spans multiverses earlier the MCU introduced it. Bringing Miles Morales to the screen was a masterstroke, and Shameik Moore'southward vocal work gives him buckets of charm.
Read Empire'southward review of Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Poetry

32 of 100

2009
From its Sergio Leone-riffing opening to its insanely OTT, history-rewriting finale, Tarantino'southward World War Two caper never once fails to surprise and entertain. As ever, though, QT's at his best in claustrophobic situations, with the tavern scene ramping upward the tension to nigh unbearable levels.
Read Empire's review of Inglourious Basterds

33 of 100

2017
With her directorial debut, the wry wit and emotional potency of Greta Gerwig's previous work came fifty-fifty sharper into focus – telling a beautifully nuanced coming-of-age story near mothers, daughters, and the hometowns yous yearn to get out, just for them to be truly appreciated in the rear-view mirror. Saoirse Ronan is perfectly precocious as the non-always-likeable Christine 'Lady Bird' McPherson, experiencing fractured friendships, get-go fuckboys, and fateful fumbles in her final year of loftier schoolhouse in 2003 Sacramento.
Read Empire's review of Lady Bird

34 of 100

1952
A joyous, vibrant Technicolor celebration of the movies, that'due south such an essential viewing experience there should perhaps exist a law that information technology characteristic in every DVD and Blu-ray collection. Information technology's no mere Hollywood self-love do, though. Every bit star Don Lockwood, Gene Kelly brings a sense of exasperation at the motion picture industry'south diva-indulging daftness, making information technology a gentle piss-take, likewise.
Read Empire's review of Singin' In The Rain

36 of 100

1954
A film so good they remade information technology twice — as The Magnificent Seven, and then every bit Battle Beyond The Stars. Or four times, arguably — if you count A Bug's Life and the remake of The Magnificent Seven. Y'all could as well make the case that Avengers Assemble is a version, too. The point is this: Akira Kurosawa's ballsy, 16th century-set drama nigh a motley gang of warriors uniting to save a hamlet from bandits couldn't be more influential. Picture palace but wouldn't be the same without it
Read Empire's review of 7 Samurai

37 of 100

2016
Every bit much a technical marvel as it is an acting tour-de-force, Damien Chazelle's Los Angeles love letter of the alphabet proved a ridiculously easy picture show to fall in honey with, even for those who may have grumbled that they weren't actually into musicals before sitting down to lookout man it. Keep, acknowledge it: Yous're still humming "Some other Twenty-four hours Of Sun", aren't you?
Read Empire's review of La La Country

38 of 100

2017
Even given the darker tones of a few Key And Peele sketches, no one could have predicted that Jordan Peele would place himself on rails to become a modern principal of horror. And it all started with this, the Oscar-winning boot-off to his movie career in which Daniel Kaluuya's Chris meets his girlfriend Rose'southward (Allison Williams) parents and discovers some truly shocking secrets. White guilt, specific racism, slavery and more blend into a socially conscious terror tale that rings every note with pitch-perfect accuracy. Y'all'll never look at a cup of tea the aforementioned way again.
Read Empire's review of Become Out

39 of 100

1962
If you only ever run across ane David Lean picture show… well, don't. Lookout as many as you can. Only if you lot really insist on only seeing one David Lean movie, then make sure information technology's Lawrence Of Arabia, the movie that put both the "sweeping" and the "epic" into "sweeping epic" with its breath-taking depiction of T.East. Lawrence's (Peter O'Toole) Arab-uniting efforts against the High german-centrolineal Turks during World War I. It'south a different world to the one we're in now, of course, merely Lean's mastery of expansive storytelling does much to shine out any elements (such as Alec Guinness playing an Arab) that may rankle mod sensibilities.
Read Empire's review of Lawrence Of Arabia

twoscore of 100

2006
Guillermo Del Toro'southward fairy tale for grown-ups, as pull-no-punches brutal as it is gorgeously, baroquely fantastical. At that place's an earthy, primal feel to his fairy-earth here, alien and threatening rather than gasp-inducing and 'magical' — cheers in no modest office to the truly cheese-dream nightmarish demon-things Del Toro conjures up, sans CGI, with the assist of performer Doug Jones.
Read Empire's review of Pan'southward Labyrinth

41 of 100

2007
Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost'due south tribute to big American cop movies isn't just a neat fish-out-of-water comedy, sending high-achieving London policeman Nick Angel (Pegg) to the most boring place in the United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland (or so it seems). Information technology besides manages to wring every last drip of funny out of executing spot-on bombastic, Bayhem-fashion action in a sleepy English small-town setting.
Read Empire's review of Hot Fuzz

42 of 100

2016
Adapted from Tarell Alvin'south play In Moonlight, Blackness Boys Wait Bluish, Barry Jenkins' Oscar-winning drama is the kind of film that seeps under your skin and stays there. Tracking one human's life in 3 stages, and the love (and lack of it) that made him who he is, Moonlight evokes a sense of intimacy and then palpable, the camera's gaze into the characters' eyes so intense, you can't bear to await away. Mahershala Ali and Naomie Harris are impeccable in supporting roles, with Trevante Rhodes and André The netherlands delivering an unforgettable final act.
Read Empire'due south review of Moonlight.

43 of 100

2014
Marvel took i of its biggest swings with this space-borne adventure, which featured the MCU's freakiest and least-known characters (a talking raccoon, a walking tree, a green assassin lady, a muscleman named after a Bond villain and Star-who!?), starred that schlubby fellah from Parks And Rec, and was directed by the guy who turned Michael Rooker into a behemothic slug-monster in Slither. Which is pretty absurd, when y'all call up nigh it.
Read Empire's review of Guardians Of The Galaxy

44 of 100

2017
Putting together the director of Inflow with a sci-fi franchise that – for box office performance reasons — hasn't been overexploited the way some others have, seemed like a no-brainer. Information technology'south actually a big brainer, with Denis Villeneuve dipping into Philip K. Dick's universe and constructing a sequel that non simply doesn't embarrass Ridley Scott'south original, but builds out that world, adding layers and texture while yet feeling of a slice. Audiences yet didn't exactly bite, but betwixt Harrison Ford revisiting his iconic replicant hunter and Ryan Gosling grappling with his own identity, 2049 is a triumph of quiet character moments and glorious, sense-enveloping spectacle.
Read Empire's review of Blade Runner 2049

45 of 100

2010
Or, I'm Gonna Git Yous Zuckerberg. Portrayed as an über-ruthless ultra-nerd by Jesse Eisenberg, information technology's fair to say the Facebook founder came out of David Fincher's social-media drama smelling less of roses than the stuff you grow them in. But it is keen drama, expertly wrought by screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, who exploits the story's key paradox (a guy who doesn't go people makes a fortune getting people together online) to supremely juicy effect.
Read Empire's review of The Social Network

47 of 100

1998
The sheer bludgeoning, blood-spilling, visceral power of its Omaha Beach, D-Twenty-four hour period-landing opening act ensured that Steven Spielberg'southward 4th Earth War 2 picture set the standard for all hereafter battle depictions. Its shaky-staccato-desaturated style (courtesy of Janusz Kaminski's ingenious cinematography) — newsreel made cinema — has been oft-copied, but rarely bettered.
Read Empire's review of Saving Private Ryan

48 of 100

1994
Robert Zemeckis' affable stroll through some of America's almost turbulent decades, as seen through the childlike optics of the simple-but-successful Forrest — the role which earned Tom Hanks his second Oscar in two years. And it says a lot well-nigh the movie's emotional heft that it managed to win an Oscar itself, when it was in contest with both Pulp Fiction and The Shawshank Redemption.
Read Empire'due south review of Forrest Gump

49 of 100

"Ever fired your gun in the air and gone 'Ahhhh?'" PC Danny Butterman's well-placed reference in Hot Fuzz confirmed, if confirmation were ever needed, that Signal Interruption is a fundamental pillar of '90s pop culture cool, and 1 of the most memorable action blockbusters e'er made. In Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze, nosotros get two smouldering sides of the same anti-heroic coin; in W. Peter Iliff'south screenplay, nosotros get gems of dialogue similar "The right term is 'babes', sir"; and in Kathryn Bigelow's frenetic, confident management, we get intense foot chases, fiery shoot-outs, epic surfing, and a spot of light skydiving. It shouldn't work — extreme sports, banking concern robberies and male person bonding? — but it does, every time.
Read Empire'due south review of Bespeak Break

50 of 100

2014
If Damien Chazelle's semi-autobiographical drama taught us anything, it's that jazz drumming is more hazardous to acquire than base jumping. Especially when your mentor is J.Thousand. Simmons' monstrous Fletcher: a raging bully who makes ground forces drill instructors look like Care Bears. Though, of course, yous could always argue that Fletcher's methods certainly got great results out of Miles Teller's battered but triumphant Andrew…
Read Empire'south review of Whiplash

51 of 100

1958
If Psycho was Hitchcock's big shocker, then Vertigo is the one that gets properly under your skin. With James Stewart'south detective stalking Kim Novak's mysterious woman, witnessing her suicide, then becoming obsessed with her double, it's certainly disturbing and most definitely (as the championship suggests) disorientating. In the most aesthetic and inventive way.
Read Empire's review of Vertigo

52 of 100

2001
For a Western globe raised on Disney movies, Spirited Away was a bracing change of pace – pure, uncut Studio Ghibli. Taking in bathhouses, spirits of Shinto sociology, and morality without clear-cut distinctions of good and evil, Hayao Miyazaki'due south major crossover hit is distinctly Japanese. It's the film that brought Studio Ghibli – and anime at large – to mainstream Western audiences, an influence increasingly felt in the likes of Moana and Frozen II.
Read the Empire review

53 of 100

1984
Equally high-concept comedies go, Ghostbusters is positively stratospheric — a story of demonic incursion… with gags! And information technology manages to wring a fantastic supernatural take chances out of that concept, while never neglecting the opportunity to deliver a great laugh; or, on the flipside, ever allowing the zaniness to swallow up plot coherence. Ray Parker Jr was right. Bustin' did indeed brand us experience expert.
Read Empire's review of Ghostbusters

54 of 100

1989
Fasten Lee had already caused a stir with his showtime two films – She's Gotta Have It and School Daze – but this was the one that inverse everything, with Lee at total pelt, fully formed, in total control and full of fury. Over the longest, hottest summer's day in Brooklyn'due south Bed-Stuy, already boiling tensions between the African-Americans on the block and the Italian-Americans running a pizzeria somewhen height, erupting into violence. It's an absolutely flawless, funny, frightening piece of work, rammed with soonhoped-for iconography from start to finish. It hasn't dated a day.
Read Empire's review of Do The Right Thing

55 of 100

1993
Spielberg's masterpiece, hands down. You lot might say the shark looks fakey in Jaws. You may wonder how Indy clung to the German sub in Raiders. But in that location's no flaws to be found in his harrowing, (mostly) monochromatic depiction of Nazi persecution of the Jewish community in Kraków. Unless you're the kind of shallow person who only watches movies that are 'entertaining'. In which example, you're missing out.
Read Empire's review of Schindler'south List

56 of 100

1998
Y'all've got to hand it to the Coen brothers. Not only did they make arguably the funniest movie of the '90s — which has since spawned a genuine pic cult — they likewise managed to construct a kidnap mystery in which the detective isn't a detective and nobody was actually kidnapped. With bowling, marmots and a urine-stained carpeting.
Read Empire'south review of The Big Lebowski

57 of 100

1946
Frank Capra'south Christmas fantasy was the movie that coaxed a war-battered James Stewart back to acting, and a good thing, too: every bit George Bailey, who'south shown a mind-blowing parallel reality in which he never existed, Stewart was never more appealing. And he tempers any potential schmaltz, also, with a sense of underlying world-weariness — one that he no doubt brought back from the disharmonize in Europe.
Read Empire's review of Information technology'due south A Wonderful Life

58 of 100

2007
If America were a person, so oil man Daniel Plainview (Daniel Twenty-four hour period-Lewis) is a vampire. (A shake-drinking vampire, if you feel like mixing our metaphor with his own.) Which is why it'due south appropriate that Paul Thomas Anderson gives the film a bit of a horror-pic vibe throughout and Day-Lewis delivers such a deliciously monstrous operation — right up to the point where he spills literal claret in an empty mansion, haunted only past himself.
Read Empire's review of In that location Will Exist Blood

59 of 100

1957
Juries most often corporeality to little more than set dressing in courtroom dramas. Merely Sidney Lumet'due south film finds all its drama outside the courtroom itself and inside a jury deliberation room packed with fantastic character actors, who are forced to re-examine a seemingly straightforward case by lone-voice juror Henry Fonda. It's all virtually the value of looking at things differently, and a reminder that nothing is more than important than keen dialogue.
Read Empire's review of 12 Angry Men

60 of 100

1991
Not but the first horror to win a Best Picture Oscar, it's also only the third movie to score in all four main categories: Pic, Manager (the tardily, great Jonathan Demme), Extra (Jodie Foster) and Actor (Anthony Hopkins) — the latter managing that despite technically being a supporting performer, with a mere 25-ish minutes of screen time. Even so, information technology feels like Foster'south pic more than anybody's: her vulnerable-but-steely Clarice Starling is defined by her ability, not her gender.
Read Empire's review of The Silence Of The Lambs

61 of 100

1941
Orson Welles' game-changing fictional biopic, that managed to both launch his film career and ruin it at the same time (turns out it'southward not a good idea to piss off powerful paper magnates by viciously satirising them to a mass audience). Not only did he apply impressive new pic-making techniques that make it feel like a movie far younger than its 76 years, only its power-corrupts story still resonates loudly. Now more than than e'er, in fact.
Read Empire'south review of Denizen Kane

62 of 100

2000
Ridley Scott'south improvement (later on a bad run with 1492, White Squall and G.I. Jane). Russell Crowe's large Hollywood breakthrough. And, thanks to the scope of Scott'due south visual appetite combined with a leap forward in CGI quality, the picture show that showed the industry you could make colossal historical epics commercially viable once more. Aye, nosotros were entertained.
Read Empire's review of Gladiator

63 of 100

1966
Sergio Leone sets 3 renegades against each other in a treasure hunt backdropped against the chaos and madness of the American Civil State of war. The result is the movie on his CV which best balances fine art and entertainment. Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef are great value as Blondie and Angel Eyes, but it'due south Eli Wallach's Tuco who steals this Wild Due west show: "When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk."
Read Empire's review of The Proficient, The Bad And The Ugly

64 of 100

1995
Aka David Fincher's second debut flick. What sounded like a daft, novelty serial-killer thriller turned out to be a deeply rattling proper-shocker, which had the guts to throw down its biggest narrative twist halfway through, as warped murderer-moralist John Doe gives himself up. A twist made all the more than constructive cheers to Kevin Spacey's insistence he wasn't billed until the end credits.
Read Empire'southward review of Seven

65 of 100

2004
Director Michel Gondry and screenwriter Charlie Kaufman deconstruct the relationship drama via a fantastic psycho-sci-fi device, as Jim Carrey's Joel races through his own mind to reverse a process by which all his memories of his failed relationship with Kate Winslet's Clementine are to exist erased. Which is a brilliantly weird, round-the-houses way of reminding u.s.a. that heartbreak should be valued every bit one of the things that makes us. Meliorate to accept loved and lost, and all that.
Read Empire's review of Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind

66 of 100

1980
Stanley Kubrick's elegant adaptation of Stephen Male monarch's haunted-hotel story — starring a wonderfully deranged Jack Nicholson — is often cited every bit The Scariest Horror Movie Ever Made (perhaps tied with The Exorcist), but it's also the Least Suitable Movie To Watch On Male parent'south Day Ever. Unless you're the kind of Dad who thinks obsessively typing the aforementioned sentence over and over so chasing later your married woman and child with an axe constitutes good parenting.
Read Empire's review of The Shining

67 of 100

2002
Aside from Boromir, Aragorn and the small-boondocks denizens of Bree, at that place's not a huge amount of human being representation in The Fellowship Of The Ring. Then one of the pleasures of The Two Towers is seeing Middle-earth truly open out after the arrival at Rohan, where the series takes on more than of a sweeping, Nordic feel... Building upwardly, of class, to Helm's Deep, a ferocious action crescendo which features gratis scenes of dwarf-tossing.
Read Empire's review of The Two Towers

68 of 100

1942
When you've got such a articulate-cut good-vs-evil scenario as World War II, it takes guts to put out a film which lets its (anti-) hero lurk for and then long in a grey area of that conflict — while said War was however raging, no less. Of form, Rick (Humphrey Bogart) eventually does the right thing, simply watching him make both the Resistance and the Nazis squirm right up to the concluding scene is truly joyous.
Read Empire's review of Casablanca

69 of 100

1982
Whatever argument well-nigh whether or not modern remakes can always be better than the 'classic' originals should exist concluded pretty quickly by mentioning this movie. With the assist of SFX genius Rob Bottin, John Carpenter took the bones of Howard Hawks' 1951 The Thing From Some other World and crafted an intense, frosty sci-fi thriller featuring Hollywood's ultimate flick monster: one that could exist any of the states at any time, before contorting into a genuine biological nightmare.
Read Empire's review of The Thing

70 of 100

2014
Christopher Nolan'southward tribute to 2001 and The Correct Stuff (with a picayune added The Black Hole) presents long-distance space travel as realistically equally information technology's possible to with the theoretical physics currently available. From the effects of gravity to the emotional implication of fourth dimension dilation, it mixes science and sentiment to not bad effect. And it has a sarcastic robot, too.
Read Empire's review of Interstellar

71 of 100

1995
Michael Mann's starry upgrade of his TV movie LA Takedown squeezed every last drop of icon-juice out of its heavyweight double-billing, bringing Pacino and De Niro together on screen, sharing scenes for the very first time. The trick was to simply do it twice during the entire running fourth dimension, with that first diner meeting about fizzing with alpha-star electricity.
Read Empire's review of Heat

72 of 100

1979
The film-maker go-to movie du jour. Gareth Edwards cited Coppola'southward brilliant and visceral jungle trek as a major influence on Rogue I; Jordan Vogt-Roberts drew from it extensively for Kong: Skull Island, and Matt Reeves sees War For The Planet Of The Apes every bit his own simian-related tribute. Hardly surprising; it's both a visually rich war pic and also a powerfully resonant journey into the darkest recesses of the human soul.
Read Empire's review of Apocalypse At present

74 of 100

2003
Anyone who bangs on about all those endings is missing the many joys of Peter Jackson's University Award-laden trilogy-closer. It has some of the most colossal and entertaining boxing scenes ever mounted; it has an awesome behemothic spider; information technology has that fantastic dramatic-ironic twist when Gollum saves the day through his own treachery; and information technology has that bit where Eowyn says, "I am no man". Deserves. Every. Oscar.
Read Empire'due south review of The Return Of The King

75 of 100

1988
I man using just his wits and whatsoever he tin can extract from his environs. A gang of bad guys terrorising the locals. If Dice Difficult wasn't gear up in a skyscraper during the 1980s, it could easily be a Western. A Western which, in the class of Bruce Willis, not but convinced the globe a TV-comedy star could be an action-hero, but also gave the states one of our nearly seethingly charismatic big-screen villain-players: Alan Rickman.
Read Empire'south review of Die Difficult

76 of 100

1999
Afterwards all the pre-release hype about how night and vicious Fight Club was, one of the most surprising things to discover on seeing information technology was merely how funny it actually was. And but as well; if you weren't laughing at Bob's "bitch-tits" or Tyler Durden's homo-fat soap-making antics, information technology would be pretty difficult to process David Fincher's bravura take on Chuck Palahniuk's tale of mod masculinity running insanely rampant.
Read Empire's review of Fight Club

77 of 100

1991
Making Arnie's T-800 a protector rather than killer for part two could have been a shark-leap moment for the Terminator series, but nosotros're talking nigh James Cameron here. And so information technology paid off — specially every bit this Terminator was just as much a student in human behaviour (with John Connor his teacher) every bit guardian, with some darkly comical results ("He'll live"). Is it really better than the original? In terms of scale and sheer, balls-out action spectacle, aye.
Read Empire's review of Terminator 2: Judgment Day

78 of 100

1968
You've voted it your favourite Kubrick moving-picture show, which makes sense to united states. It is arguably his greatest gift to movie theatre, an infinitely ambitious vision of a space-faring future whose narrative centres on the most pivotal moment in man evolution since some ape-man start bashed another ape-man with an one-time bone. Svelte, gorgeous, unwearied by fourth dimension'south passing. Rather similar that monolith.
Read Empire's review of 2001: A Space Odyssey

79 of 100

2019
What does it take to dethrone James Cameron? A blockbuster of behemothic proportions. The weight of expectations on Endgame — the culmination of 11 years of interweaving stories, following up the greatest cinematic cliffhanger since The Empire Strikes Back — was immense, which only makes it more miraculous that the Russo Brothers (and writers Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeeley) delivered a thrilling, adventurous, emotional fourth dimension-travelling trip through the entire MCU so far. The graphic symbol pay-offs are but as staggering as the action — and when Steve Rogers finally proved worthy enough to lift Mjolnir, a stone-cold cultural moment was created.
Read Empire'south review of Avengers: Endgame

80 of 100

1979
On the 1 hand, re-watching Ridley Scott's deep-space monster-slasher (and it's a movie which tin can handle as many re-watches every bit you can throw at it) makes you appreciate why he keeps coming back to that universe: it'due south and so intoxicatingly atmospheric and deeply compelling, it sticks to yous similar a parasite. On the other hand, it really does brand you wonder why he feels the need to keep tinkering with new cuts. After all, he got information technology perfectly correct the commencement time around.
Read Empire's review of Conflicting

81 of 100

1999
How two sibling indie motion-picture show-makers with only a slick, sexy little law-breaking pic to their name (Jump) created their own blockbuster sci-fi franchise. And opened upwards western audiences to the truth that kung-fu acrobatics are so much more than fun than watching American or European muscle-men waving guns around. While besides making anybody examine some central philosophical questions nearly reality. Cheers to the Wachowskis, nosotros all took the scarlet pill, and we've never regretted information technology.
Read Empire's review of The Matrix

82 of 100

2010
Volition Christopher Nolan ever brand a Bond movie? Well, with Inception he kind of already has. Except, instead of a British secret agent, we go a freelance corporate dream-thief. And the big climactic action sequence is so huge information technology takes up virtually half the pic and is actually three large activity sequences temporally nested inside each other around a surreal, metaphysical-disharmonize cadre.
Read Empire's review of Inception

83 of 100

2019
Few award ceremony moments stick in the heed more than Parasite taking the Best Picture gong at the Oscars in 2020. It's no surprise that it made history as the first not-English language linguistic communication movie to do and so – this S Korean genre-defying delight offers some of the biggest twists and expertly mounted tension in recent retentivity, with a family of excellent performances from Song Kang-ho, Park So-dam, Choi Woo-shik and more. Bitingly satirical, darkly comedic and made with unmatched precision, Parasite doesn't but overcome the 'one inch barrier' of subtitles, as referenced in director Bell Joon-ho's acceptance speech – information technology obliterates it entirely.

84 of 100

1986
The genius of James Cameron's self-penned Conflicting follow-upward was to not try to elevation the original as i of the greatest ever horror movies. Instead, he transplanted the Conflicting (and, significantly, Ripley) to a dissimilar genre, and created one of the greatest e'er action movies. That'due south likewise a Vietnam metaphor. And also 1 of the most enduringly quotable films.
Read Empire'south review of Aliens

85 of 100

1982
Rain-lashed, noodle-bar-packed streets shrouded in perpetual nighttime, with behemothic adverts and neon signs doing the task y'all'd commonly await of the sunday itself... The not-too-distant hereafter had never looked libation than in Ridley Scott's sci-fi gumshoe noir, and we're not sure it ever volition.
Read Empire's review of Blade Runner

86 of 100

1993
When dinosaurs first ruled the picture show-Globe, they did so in a herky-jerky stop-motion manner that while charmingly effective, required a fair dose of disbelief-suspension. When Steven Spielberg brought them back on Isla Nublar, we felt for the showtime fourth dimension they could be real, breathing animals (as opposed to monsters). And that's as much thank you to Stan Winston'southward astonishing animatronics work as to ILM's groundbreaking CGI.
Read Empire's review of Jurassic Park

87 of 100

1974
Often cited as the greatest-e'er sequel, TGPII, every bit no-one'south e'er chosen it, is more accurately described as a seprequel. In a narrative masterstroke, it parallels Michael'due south (Al Pacino) consolidation of power with the ascendance of his Dad, Vito (Robert De Niro); the triumph of one paving the way to the utter corruption of the other.
Read Empire's review of The Godfather Role II

88 of 100

1985
Role science-fiction caper, function generational civilization-clash movie, office weirdo family drama (in which the hero has to rescue his ain existence after his mother falls in lust with him, eww), Back To The Future notwithstanding manages to exist timeless despite being so rooted in, well, time. And it might just accept the all-time title of annihilation on this unabridged listing.
Read Empire's review of Back To The Future

89 of 100

2015
In which old dog George Miller taught Hollywood some new tricks. Stripping the chase picture show downwards to its raw essentials (the plot is basically: run away… then run back again!), Miller expertly built the narrative through some of the nigh astonishing and gloriously operatic action scenes we'd seen in yonks. While as well ensuring his female characters are the film's strongest; Charlize Theron's Furiosa and Immortan Joe'southward ex-brides are inheriting a world "killed" by men…
Read Empire's review of Mad Max: Fury Road

90 of 100

1977
George Lucas' cocktail of fantasy, sci-fi, Western and World War II motion picture remains as culturally pervasive as ever. Information technology'south so mythically stiff, you sense in time it could go a bona-fide religion...
Read Empire's review of Star Wars

91 of 100

1990
Where Coppola embroiled us in the politics of the Mafia elite, Martin Scorsese drew united states of america into the treacherous simply seductive globe of the Mob's foot soldiers. And its honesty was as impactful as its sudden outbursts of (usually Joe Pesci-instigated) violence. Non just via Henry Colina'southward (Ray Liotta) narrative, just also Karen's (Lorraine Bracco) perspective: when Henry gives her a gun to hibernate, she admits, "It turned me on."
Read Empire'southward review of Goodfellas

92 of 100

1981
In '81, it must have sounded like the ultimate pitch: the creator of Star Wars teams upward with the director of Jaws to make a rip-roaring, Bond-way take a chance starring the guy who played Han Solo, in which the bad guys are the evillest ever (the Nazis) and the MacGuffin is a big, gilded box which unleashes the power of God. Information technology however sounds like the ultimate pitch.
Read Empire's review of Raiders Of The Lost Ark

93 of 100

2018
It was the biggest crossover event in cinematic history, and the biggest cliffhanger nosotros never saw coming. After ten years and eighteen movies, Marvel took superhero filmmaking to a new level when they united all of World's mightiest heroes (and several more) against The Mad Titan himself – and incredibly, devastatingly, they lost. Infinity War crashed much-loved characters into each other'southward orbits, flitting between planets at breakneck speed equally the Avengers desperately tried to stop Thanos from clicking his fingers and wiping out half the universe. Spectacular activity, dial-the-air moments and big-scale battles are perfectly balanced, equally all things should be, with hilarious interplays and agonized emotion. Cinema doesn't go much bigger, or ameliorate, than this.
Read Empire'southward review of Avengers: Infinity State of war

94 of 100

1994
If Reservoir Dogs was a blood-spattered calling card, Pulp Fiction saw Quentin Tarantino kick our forepart door off its hinges — and then get applauded for doing information technology with such goddamn panache. Information technology wore its numerous influences on its sleeve and nevertheless felt utterly, invigoratingly fresh and new. We happy? Yeah, we happy.
Read Empire's review of Pulp Fiction

95 of 100

1975
Forty-v years young, and Spielberg's breakthrough remains the touchstone for issue-movie cinema. Not that whatsoever studio these days would dare put out a summer blockbuster that's half monster-on-the-rampage disaster, half guys-bonding-on-a-fishing-trip adventure. Maybe that's why it'due south never been rebooted. Or but because information technology's genuinely unsurpassable.
Read Empire'due south review of Jaws

98 of 100

Stanley Kubrick once described Francis Ford Coppola'due south accommodation of Mario Puzo'south novel every bit the best film ever fabricated – though having previously topped this list, this time information technology falls to statuary position. At once an art moving-picture show and a commercial blockbuster, The Godfather marked the dawn of the age of the mega-motion picture. An icon of the gangster genre, its imprinted in popular culture – "Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes", the horse's head in the bed – simply the kickoff instalment of Brando'due south cotton-cheeked patriarch's fight for ability is so much more those moments. With performances, manner and substance to savour, it's managed to both smash box part records and live on as a staple of cinematic canon.

Read Empire's review of The Godfather

99 of 100

1980
The original "this one'due south darker" sequel, and by far the strongest of the saga. Not merely because the baddies win (temporarily), or because it Force-slammed united states of america with that twist ("No, I am your father"). Empire super-stardestroys thanks to the way it deepens the core relationships — none more effectively than Han and Leia'south. She loves him. He knows. And it still hurts.
Read Empire's review of The Empire Strikes Back

100 of 100

2001
A wizard is never late. Nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he… well, you know the rest. It might accept taken 20 years for Peter Jackson's plucky fantasy to clamber, Mount-Doom-style, to the very height of our greatest-movies pantheon. Just here it is, brighter and more resplendent than ever.

The Fellowship Of The Ring contains then much picture. Even at the halfway point, as the characters take a sabbatical to bicker in Rivendell, you already feel sated, like you've experienced more thrills, more than suspense, more jollity and ethereal beauty than a regular film could perhaps muster up. Only Jackson is just getting started. Onwards his adventure hustles, to the bravura dungeoneering of Khazad-dûm, to the sinisterly serene glades of Lothlorien, to the last requiem for flawed Boromir amidst autumnal leaves. Every bit Fellowship thrums to its conclusion, finally applying the brakes with a final nifty of Howard Shore's heavenly score, you lot're left feeling euphoric, insufficient and hopeful, all at the same time.

The Two Towers has the coolest battle. The Return Of The Rex boasts the well-nigh batshit, operatic spectacle. But Fellowship remains the virtually perfect of the three, matching every genius activity beat with a soul-stirring emotional ane, as its Middle-earth-traversing gang swells in size in the commencement human action, and then dwindles in the third. This oddball suicide team has so much warmth and wit, they're not just believable as friends of each other — they've come to experience like they're our pals also.

An ornately detailed masterwork with a huge, pulsing heart, it's only the right flick for our times — full of craft, conviction and a belief that trudging forward, footstep past stride, in nighttime days is the bravest human action of all. Its ultimate heroes aren't the strongest, or those with the best one-liners, but the ones who just keep going. And so Fellowship endures: a phenomenon of storytelling, a feat of filmmaking and nonetheless the aureate standard for cinematic experiences.

Right, now that's decided, who's up for second breakfast?

Read Empire's review of The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Band

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