Sure, there are lots of movie review sites. And if you’re looking up something particular, they’re a great help. But if you don’t know what to watch, you need trustworthy advice to heighten the signal/noise ratio. Welcome to etg Design’s database of worthwhile movies.
The few hundred films included focus mostly on classic movies, which today probably need a little extra help getting the attention of younger viewers. These recommendations are brought to you by Elliot and Steve Grant, longtime movie buffs who are relatively open-minded about what constitutes a good movie.
To get second opinions, you can choose to display only movies that made the AFI’s 400 nominations for Top 100 movies (62K PDF) or FilmSite.org’s 200 Greatest Films. NB: Both these lists exclude foreign films; the AFI 400 was finalized in 1996.
Steve’s list includes roughly 100 movies and also excludes foreign films. To continue the pattern of 50% greater exclusivity, Elliot’s list attempts to capture the approximately 50 most important films. Within those 50, I’ve tried to cover as many genres, cultures, eras, and themes as possible. Don’t write to me complaining about the choices—it’s subjective, it’s an impossible task, and it’ll probably change over time. Finally, the intersection of all four lists is approximately 30 movies.
(If you want a larger list, take a look at the New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made.)
To display films, simply select the appropriate search criteria below. You can filter the search by genre, rating, or inclusion on the various lists mentioned above.
Recommended Movies
Movie | Genre | Rating | Lists |
---|---|---|---|
Birds, The
Very good Hitchcock, based on Daphne du Maurier’s fable of avian terrorism. So-so performance by Tippi Hedren mars an otherwise classy film with fine performances from Rod Taylor, Suzanne Pleshette, and Jessica Tandy. |
Mystery |
SAG100 |
Movie | Genre | Rating | Lists |
---|---|---|---|
Bite the Bullet
An unusual epic Western with strong performances by Gene Hackman, Candace Bergen, and James Coburn. With echos of 1960’s sensitivities blended in. |
Western |
AFI400 |
Movie | Genre | Rating | Lists |
---|---|---|---|
Blade Runner
Harrison Ford as a cop trained to kill replicant humans. But how can you tell the artificial from the real? |
SciFi |
FilmSite200 |
Movie | Genre | Rating | Lists |
---|---|---|---|
Blazing Saddles
Silly—even stupid? Yup. Tasteless? Absolutely. Funny? Indubitably! |
Western |
AFI400 |
Movie | Genre | Rating | Lists |
---|---|---|---|
Body Heat
William Hurt and Kathleen Turner plot her husband’s murder for love and money. |
Mystery |
AFI400 |
Movie | Genre | Rating | Lists |
---|---|---|---|
Born Yesterday
Judy Holliday’s tour de force as the dumb blonde who blossoms when her gangster boyfriend hires a reporter to improve her social grace. |
Comedy |
AFI400 |
Movie | Genre | Rating | Lists |
---|---|---|---|
Brazil
Darkly comic dystopian variation on 1984 pits Jonathan Pryce against the powers that be. |
SciFi |
FilmSite200 |
Movie | Genre | Rating | Lists |
---|---|---|---|
Breaking Away
Right-on-target story of bike racer Dennis Christopher and his friends dealing with approaching adulthood. |
Comedy |
AFI400 |
Movie | Genre | Rating | Lists |
---|---|---|---|
Bridge on the River Kwai, The
Alec Guinness plays a POW officer whose severe sense of duty goads him into building an engineering marvel that will benefit his captors; William Holden is the American soldier sent to destroy the bridge. |
Drama |
ETG50 |
Movie | Genre | Rating | Lists |
---|---|---|---|
Brigadoon
Gene Kelly and Van Johnson stumble into a Scottish village that appears for only one day every 100 years. Some nice Lerner & Loewe tunes. |
Musical |
AFI400 |