Since I’ve been doing the “Catching the Classics” segment for almost two years, I figured it was about time to flip the script and share with all of you the movies that *you* might be missing out on — the ones that you need to see at some point in your life.
You might notice that a lot of these are no-brainers. Your Star Wars OT, your Lord of the Rings trilogy, your Princess Bride, Alien, Jaws and Die Hard. Thus, if you’re a big movie fan the way the Nerds and I are, you’ve probably seen more than half of these movies already. But, as I learned recently, you’d be surprised at how few of these the “average person” has seen.
I compiled the list by going through the AFI Top 100, the IMDB Top 250, and my own movie collection to identify 100 movies that are 1) high-quality and 2) culturally relevant in some way. To clarify: I only included movies I’ve seen, so no Godfather Part II or anything like that.
I also tried to keep it generally accessible for all people. You’ll notice I don’t have much in the way of horror or really violent action movies. That’s because 1) I don’t watch a lot of those, so 2) I don’t feel comfortable ~demanding~ that other people watch them either. Thus, most of the movies on here are PG-13 or lower.
If you paid attention to Movie Madness at all, it’ll come as no surprise that my 100 movies span a variety of genres. We have modern classics, Old Hollywood classics, superhero movies, musicals, comedies, dramas, animation, etc.
Unlike the AFI Top 100 or IMDB Top 250 lists, I broke mine down by genre instead. Much easier that way. Admittedly, there is some overlap. For instance, should Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse be classified as an animated movie or a superhero movie? I put it in the animation category because it needed more entries, but just be aware that there really isn’t much rhyme or reason on why those “overlap” movies are in one category over another. Also, the “Miscellaneous” category contains a lot of films that could probably be in “Modern Classics,” but the modern classics were the first 17 films I thought of while the miscellaneous ones were things I threw on there at the end. There’s also no significance to their ordering within the categories — it’s just merely the order that I thought of them in.
For the record: I came up with my first 60 films very easily. After that, I flipped through the other lists and various articles about “Best Musicals” and whatnot to get ideas. Once I got down to my last 10, it was really hard to pick which ones to officially go on the list while others fall into obscurity.
Again, remember: these are movies that I enjoy and that I think are important movies to watch from a technical and/or cultural standpoint.
Without further ado, here’s the list by category / genre:
Modern Classics
- The Original Star Wars Trilogy (3)
- The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (3)
- The Back to the Future Trilogy (3)
- Indiana Jones: Raiders & Last Crusade (2)
- Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
- The Matrix
- Jurassic Park
- The Princess Bride
- A Christmas Story
- The Sandlot
These are all pretty obvious. I guess the one thing of note is that I only put the good Indiana Jones movies on here, because Temple of Doom and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull aren’t good. Fight me.
Old Hollywood Classics
- Casablanca
- A Raisin in the Sun
- How to Kill a Mockingbird
- The Wizard of Oz
- 2001: A Space Odyssey
- Rear Window
- North by Northwest
- Charade
- Gone with the Wind
- Roman Holiday
- Some Like it Hot
- It Happened One Night
Again, pretty obvious. The only one I’ll note is Gone with the Wind.
I struggled a lot as to whether I should put it on the list, given its controversial nature. I watched this movie a lot as a kid, so I’d become numb to its bullshit until recent discussions really made me examine whether I should support it. I think that if someone goes into it with the right mindset — that these people and their way of life are not to be glorified, that this was a film that was set and made in a different time, and that we need to learn from those things and improve — I think it’s still worth watching. Plus, my fellow Wichitan Hattie McDaniel won her Oscar for this movie. And while the role she plays and the drama around the awards ceremony itself was racially charged, I hesitate to throw the baby out with the bath water, as it were.
Also, as I said recently on the podcast, the only really good character (of the main four) is Melanie. When you really look at Scarlett, she seems to be more of an anti-heroine. She’s a terrible person who only grows more ruthless and selfish as the story progresses; but because she’s living through literal hell — at least for the first two-thirds of the movie — the audience feels they need to root for her. So, while it’s important to pay attention to how POC are treated in the movie and how The South is portrayed, I think people can still appreciate the technical aspects and become invested in the story of these four people who survive a war only for their lives to be torn apart by each other’s selfishness and weak-willed natures.
Dramas
- The Silence of the Lambs
- Parasite
- The Prestige
- Unforgiven
- Pan’s Labyrinth
- Arrival
- Remember the Titans
- The King’s Speech
- A Few Good Men
- Good Night & Good Luck
- The Post
I like The Prestige the most out of Nolan’s non-Batman movies. I know everyone loooooooves Inception, and I admittedly need to revisit it, but I think it’s a bit overblown. And I never saw Interstellar or Dunkirk so…. *shrugs*
Otherwise, we’ve got a variety of genres even within this “drama” category. We got some sci-fi, some thriller, a sports movie, historical/period dramas, fantasy, action… and of course, I had to throw a few movies about journalism in there for good measure. Notice how I’ve got one about broadcast journalism (GN&GL) and one about print journalism (The Post).
Superhero Movies
- Batman Begins
- The Dark Knight
- Iron Man
- The Avengers
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier
- Captain America: Civil War
- Black Panther
- Avengers: Infinity War
- Avengers: Endgame
I don’t think anyone’s going to complain about the movies that are on here, but I anticipate complaints about the movies that AREN’T. But, honestly, I don’t care. The DC movies aren’t very good outside of Nolan’s Batman trilogy, although admittedly Batman ’89 is a hallmark for live-action superhero movies.
Also I condensed the 20-plus MCU into seven films… that’s a pretty admirable feat, if I do say so myself. And, arguably, you don’t even need Black Panther; but it’s a good movie, so it’s a must-watch.
Musicals
- My Fair Lady
- Fiddler on the Roof
- The Sound of Music
- Singin’ in the Rain
- The King & I
- Mary Poppins
- Oklahoma!
- High Society
- Annie — any version
- The Sister Act duology (2)
You all knew I was gonna put My Fair Lady on this list, so why not have an entire category for musicals?
Not much here to explain, as most of these are pretty iconic. I put High Society on here instead of The Philadelphia Story, because I like it better. The story actually lends itself pretty well to the musical format. Also, Louis Armstrong, Grace Kelly, Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby in a movie together!!! Can’t get much better than that.
I put Annie on here, although which version of Annie doesn’t really matter. They all have their pros and cons. I personally always liked the one with Carol Burnett and Tim Curry the most, but it’s not a hill I’m going to die on. As long as they have all the iconic songs, it doesn’t matter what version it is.
And, I put the Sister Act movies on here, because they’re just kinda fun and more jukebox musicals than something like My Fair Lady. It’s something different even though it exists in the same genre as the others.
Comedies/RomComs
- Clueless
- Legally Blonde
- Mean Girls
- Juliet, Naked
- My Big Fat Greek Wedding
- Crazy Rich Asians
- Sabrina — either version
- You’ve Got Mail
I don’t think there’s a single comedy or romcom on the AFI Top 100 List. And if there’s any on the IMDB Top 250, there’s not that many. Thus, I pretty much had to will this category into being, rather than going off pre-existing lists. Granted, that wasn’t too hard, considering I did an entire post about romcoms already.
Anyway, these are all good movies that are worth watching, and I’m ready to fight anyone who thinks otherwise.
Disney & Pixar Animated Movies
- Snow White
- The Little Mermaid
- Beauty & the Beast
- Aladdin
- The Lion King
- The Hunchback of Notre Dame
- Zootopia
- The Toy Story trilogy (3)
- Up
- Coco
This is another category that might not be controversial for the movies that are in it, but rather for the movies that aren’t. But, honestly, if I could make some person who’d never seen any animated movies sit down and watch any Disney and Pixar movies I choose, these would be the ones. They pack the most punch both technically and emotionally, although any Pixar movie is obviously gonna be a tearjerker.
Other Animated Movies
- Shrek 1 & 2 (2)
- Kung Fu Panda 1 & 2 (2)
- How to Train Your Dragon
- The Prince Egypt
- Princess Mononoke
- Spirited Away
- Your Name.
- Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse
Of course, some Miyazaki movies are going to be on there along with Spider-verse. Dreamworks tends to fly under the radar compared to Disney, but they’ve arguably put out more high-quality movies in the last 10 or 15 years than Disney has (not including Pixar). So, don’t sleep on Dreamworks!
Miscellaneous
- Jaws
- Alien
- Die Hard
- Star Trek (2009)
- Mad Max: Fury Road
- Edge of Tomorrow
- Knives Out
- Jojo Rabbit
- Titanic
- Jane Eyre — any version
Again, I know many of these can go in the “modern classics” category, but I had enough there already and I was trying to round out a couple of genres I don’t have on this list. We got some horror, some sci-fi, plenty of action, and a bit of mystery as well.
Again, with Jane Eyre, there might be versions I like better than others and ones I’d recommend over others; but ultimately, there are no bad versions. Watch the one with Joan Fontaine and Orson Welles; or the one with Michael Fassbender; or the one with George C. Scott. Doesn’t matter. All the best versions are miniseries anyway, so the movie ones are more or less the same level of ‘doable’ even though they all have their pros and cons.