Swashbuckling adventures, screwball romcoms, dystopian sci-fi, punch-throwing martial arts extravaganzas, and everything in between: Today we’re counting down 10 undisputed movie classics that will give you plenty of bang for your buck if you need a distraction and that you’ll never get tired of watching.
In making this list, narrowing our options down to 10 titles meant that glaring omissions were inevitable and to be expected. Shockingly, you won’t find certified film-bro staples like “Star Wars”, “The Big Lebowski”, “Goodfellas”, “The Dark Knight” or “The Matrix” down below, while older offerings like “Jaws”, “Psycho”, “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly”, “The Great Escape”, and “Die Hard” similarly missed the cut but obviously deserve your attention. All in all, there should be something for everyone in our rundown of 10 most entertaining movies of all time, from time-tested crowd-pleasers that have aged like fine wine to a few underseen gems ripe for reappraisal. Take our word for it, these films will keep you coming back over for more.
1. Raising Arizona (1987)
Not since Howard Hawks’ heyday at the zenith of the Golden Age had any film win the audience’s hearts with such a pitch-perfect blend of whip-smart dialogue, slapstick glee, and screwball mayhem than this madcap comedy of errors by the Coen Brothers, held down by a one-two punch of career-best turns in Nicolas Cage and Holly Hunter as an erratic married couple that somehow match the film script’s unhinged tone and energy.
Like a live-action Looney Tunes feature-length episode by way of Preston Sturges, this big-hearted tale of small-town romance in the American frontier deftly showcases the Coen’s irreverent style, tongue-in-cheek humor and effortless ability to tow the line between different tones and genres, and quickly achieved cult status before reaching near-Lebowski levels of movie quotability in pop culture.
But for all the uproarious gags, lively performances, and ill-conceived quintuplet-kidnapping ploys, it’s the directing duo’s infectious love and sympathy towards their cast of eccentrics that makes “Raising Arizona” considerably more tolerable than other well-known Coen heavy-hitters, making it all the more rewarding to return to.
2. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Cinema’s marquee archaeologist made his big-screen debut in the summer of 1981 in this oft-imitated, globe-trotting filmic mash-up stewed from bits and pieces of the same Saturday matinee serials, pulp magazines, and post-war B-movies that George Lucas and his movie brat pal Steven Spielberg devoured throughout their childhood.
An awesome cross between James Bond and Humphrey Bogart, the role of Indy instantly cemented Harrison Ford’s status as a generational heartthrob and embedded itself in the popular imagination as a timeless paragon of rugged coolness and put-upon heroism that could really do it all: a brave but fallible treasure-seeking professor with a penchant for getting into impossibly dire situations that occasionally entail outrunning giant rolling boulders, chasing down trucks on horseback, and punching Nazis in the face. What’s not to like?
A perfectly paced thrill ride with too many memorable set pieces to name, “Raiders” stakes a legitimate claim to the title of greatest action-adventure movie ever and arguably the capstone achievement in Lucas and Spielberg’s lauded careers — not to mention the most purely rewarding entry in the saga by quite a wide margin.
3. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
There’s a solid reason why “T2” always comes up whenever the debate for the greatest movie sequel of all time makes the rounds online: In turning Arnold Schwarzenegger’s once-remorseless big baddie from the 1984 original into mankind’s unlikely savior, James Cameron — long before he shattered all-time box office records many times over and succumbed to his VFX fetish — defied all expectations and stayed ahead of the curve by rewriting every conventional rule in the franchise-filmmaking book to give the MTV generation another endlessly quotable movie hero to obsess over.
There’s not an ounce of fat in “Judgment Day”, a 137-minute-long sustained adrenaline rush that rarely puts a wrong foot and wastes no time setting up the stakes and drawing the viewer in with one of the finest opening 30 minutes ever put to film. A decade has passed since the T-800 was first sent back from the future to kill Sarah Connor’s son — as it turns out, now he’s back to protect him from an even mightier and futuristic AI threat (Robert Patrick).
Unresolved daddy issues, unchecked corporate greed, and the rise of the machines supply the thematic backbone this time around, giving Cameron ample room to flex his directing chops and tech wizardry, while a standout motorbike canal chase across L.A. and a brain-melting finale ensures “T2” ranks at least a tier or two above its predecessor.
4. The Thing (1982)
John Carpenter’s R-rated fright fest was not met kindly upon its release, having the misfortune of being completely overshadowed by broad crowd-pleasers like “E.T.” and “Poltergeist” at the 1982 summer box office. But time would be more than kind to “The Thing”, a formerly maligned remake of the 1951 Hawks-produced classic film by the same name that ended up securing a loyal fanbase on home video, and continues to grow in stature today as a watermark genre hallmark and undisputed Halloween fixture we make a point to revisit each and every October.
Cold War paranoia and creeping claustrophobia build to a fever pitch in this chilling slow burner starring Kurt Russell as one of the unlucky members of a group of unsuspecting American researchers trapped in the frozen wasteland of Antarctica who must track down and eliminate a shape-shifting alien force secretly disguised among their ranks.
It’s a deceptively simple and irresistibly pulpy source material that lends itself to a chock-full of spine-tingling moments of suspense and that Carpenter expertly mines to pull the rug out from under audience expectations and keep them double-guessing at every turn. Talk about an all-timer ending that will live rent free in your mind.
5. The Sting (1973)
In reuniting with the megawatt duo behind the 1969 smash hit “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” for a nostalgic throwback caper, Hollywood stalwart director George Roy Hill delivered a perennial fan favorite that played like gangbusters at the box office, collected a 7-Oscar haul including Best Picture and has stood the test of time after playing on cable TV for the past 50 years as much as any certified masterpiece on rotation.
I’d be remiss not to suggest you check “The Sting” if you fancy seeing Paul Newman and Robert Redford light up the scenery together as a pair of suave 1930s professional grifters trying to pull a series of elaborate cons that will bring down Robert Shaw’s ruthless Chicago mob boss. Sounds fun, right? And if the prospect of watching two heavyweight screen titans perfectly cast and playing off each other is somehow not enticing enough to tickle your fancy (as if!), worry not — there are enough narrative curveballs, unexpected twists, and double-crossing galore to keep your head spinning until the screen fades to black.