Instant Classic
by bgrigoriev3794 | created - 04 Feb 2012 | updated - 06 Dec 2013 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
Not Rated | 99 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Two employees at a gift shop can barely stand each other, without realizing that they are falling in love through the post as each other's anonymous pen pal.
Director: Ernst Lubitsch | Stars: Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart, Frank Morgan, Joseph Schildkraut
Votes: 38,532 | Gross: $0.20M
2. It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
PG | 130 min | Drama, Family, Fantasy
An angel is sent from Heaven to help a desperately frustrated businessman by showing him what life would have been like if he had never existed.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Thomas Mitchell
Votes: 499,487
3. The Petrified Forest (1936)
Passed | 82 min | Drama, Thriller
A waitress, a hobo and a bank robber get mixed up at a lonely diner in the desert.
Director: Archie Mayo | Stars: Leslie Howard, Humphrey Bogart, Bette Davis, Genevieve Tobin
Votes: 14,945
4. You Can't Take It with You (1938)
Passed | 126 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
The son of a snobbish Wall Street banker becomes engaged to a woman from a good-natured but decidedly eccentric family not realizing that his father is trying to force her family from their home for a real estate development.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: Jean Arthur, James Stewart, Lionel Barrymore, Edward Arnold
Votes: 27,922 | Gross: $4.66M
5. Sweet November (1968)
Approved | 114 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A woman lures emotionally crippled men into affairs, then helps them repair their lives.
Director: Robert Ellis Miller | Stars: Sandy Dennis, Anthony Newley, Theodore Bikel, Burr DeBenning
Votes: 1,251 | Gross: $2.18M
6. Made for Each Other (1939)
Approved | 92 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
While on a business trip, an ambitious young lawyer meets and immediately falls in love with a stranger. They wed the following day, and tragedy soon strikes.
Director: John Cromwell | Stars: Carole Lombard, James Stewart, Charles Coburn, Lucile Watson
Votes: 4,106
7. Topper (1937)
Passed | 97 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Romance
A fun-loving couple, finding that they died and are now ghosts, decide to shake up the stuffy lifestyle of a friend of theirs.
Director: Norman Z. McLeod | Stars: Cary Grant, Constance Bennett, Roland Young, Billie Burke
Votes: 8,329
8. Harvey (1950)
Approved | 104 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Due to his insistence that he has an invisible six foot-tall rabbit for a best friend, a whimsical middle-aged man is thought by his family to be insane - but he may be wiser than anyone knows.
Director: Henry Koster | Stars: James Stewart, Wallace Ford, William H. Lynn, Victoria Horne
Votes: 58,267
9. Broken Arrow (1950)
Approved | 93 min | Drama, Romance, Western
Tom Jeffords tries to make peace between settlers and Apaches in Arizona territory.
Director: Delmer Daves | Stars: James Stewart, Jeff Chandler, Debra Paget, Basil Ruysdael
Votes: 9,688
10. No Time for Comedy (1940)
Approved | 93 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Playwright Gaylord Esterbrook scores a hit with his first Broadway play, both with the critics and with leading lady Linda Paige. He and Linda are happily married until a patroness of the ... See full summary »
Director: William Keighley | Stars: Rosalind Russell, James Stewart, Genevieve Tobin, Charles Ruggles
Votes: 1,189
11. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 (2011)
PG-13 | 117 min | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy
The Quileutes close in on expecting parents Edward and Bella, whose unborn child poses a threat to the Wolf Pack and the towns people of Forks.
Director: Bill Condon | Stars: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Gil Birmingham
Votes: 254,455 | Gross: $281.29M
12. The Lawnmower Man (1992)
R | 108 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
A simple man is turned into a genius through the application of computer science.
Director: Brett Leonard | Stars: Jeff Fahey, Pierce Brosnan, Jenny Wright, Mark Bringelson
Votes: 39,068 | Gross: $32.10M
13. Doctor Dolittle (1967)
Approved | 152 min | Adventure, Comedy, Family
After the animal communicating veterinarian goes too far for his clientele, he and his friends escape their hometown to the sea in search of the Great Pink Sea Snail.
Director: Richard Fleischer | Stars: Rex Harrison, Samantha Eggar, Anthony Newley, Richard Attenborough
Votes: 10,273 | Gross: $13.52M
14. The Bishop's Wife (1947)
G | 109 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
A debonair angel comes to Earth to help an Episcopalian bishop and his wife in their quest to raise money for the new church.
Director: Henry Koster | Stars: Cary Grant, Loretta Young, David Niven, Monty Woolley
Votes: 20,906
15. Son of Kong (1933)
Passed | 70 min | Adventure, Family, Horror
The showman who brought Kong to New York returns to Skull Island and finds Kong's son, a spunky 12-footer with a winning personality and his dad's awesome strength.
Director: Ernest B. Schoedsack | Stars: Robert Armstrong, Helen Mack, Frank Reicher, John Marston
Votes: 5,302 | Gross: $1.34M
16. The Cable Guy (1996)
PG-13 | 96 min | Comedy, Drama, Thriller
A designer makes a grievious mistake when he rejects the friendship of a borderline cable guy.
Director: Ben Stiller | Stars: Jim Carrey, Matthew Broderick, Leslie Mann, Jack Black
Votes: 178,189 | Gross: $60.24M
17. Upside Down (I) (2012)
PG-13 | 109 min | Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi
Adam and Eden fell in love as teens despite the fact that they live on twinned worlds with gravities that pull in opposite directions. Ten years after a forced separation, Adam sets out on a dangerous quest to reconnect with his love.
Director: Juan Solanas | Stars: Jim Sturgess, Kirsten Dunst, Timothy Spall, Blu Mankuma
Votes: 73,956 | Gross: $0.10M
18. Pleasantville (1998)
PG-13 | 124 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Two 1990s teenage siblings find themselves transported to a 1950s sitcom where their influence begins to profoundly change that colorless, complacent world.
Director: Gary Ross | Stars: Tobey Maguire, Jeff Daniels, Joan Allen, William H. Macy
Votes: 136,385 | Gross: $40.57M
19. Sleepless in Seattle (1993)
PG | 105 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A recently widowed man's son calls a radio talk-show in an attempt to find his father a partner.
Director: Nora Ephron | Stars: Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Ross Malinger, Rita Wilson
Votes: 190,999 | Gross: $126.53M
20. An Affair to Remember (1957)
Not Rated | 115 min | Drama, Romance
A couple falls in love and agrees to meet in six months at the Empire State Building - but will it happen?
Director: Leo McCarey | Stars: Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr, Richard Denning, Neva Patterson
Votes: 33,094
21. Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989)
PG | 90 min | Adventure, Comedy, Music
Two rock-'n-rolling teens, on the verge of failing their class, set out on a quest to make the ultimate school history report after being presented with a time machine.
Director: Stephen Herek | Stars: Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter, George Carlin, Terry Camilleri
Votes: 141,748 | Gross: $40.49M
22. Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey (1991)
PG | 93 min | Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy
A tyrant from the future creates evil android doubles of Bill and Ted and sends them back to eliminate the originals.
Director: Peter Hewitt | Stars: Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter, William Sadler, Joss Ackland
Votes: 81,107 | Gross: $38.04M
23. The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)
PG-13 | 136 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
After Peter Parker is bitten by a genetically altered spider, he gains newfound, spider-like powers and ventures out to save the city from the machinations of a mysterious reptilian foe.
Director: Marc Webb | Stars: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Irrfan Khan
Votes: 702,876 | Gross: $262.03M
24. Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
Not Rated | 118 min | Comedy, Crime, Thriller
A Brooklyn writer of books on the futility of marriage risks his reputation after he decides to tie the knot. Things get even more complicated when he learns on his wedding day that his beloved maiden aunts are habitual murderers.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: Cary Grant, Priscilla Lane, Raymond Massey, Jack Carson
Votes: 75,000
25. Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (2011)
PG-13 | 107 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A fisheries expert is approached by a consultant to help realize a sheik's vision of bringing the sport of fly-fishing to the desert and embarks on an upstream journey of faith and fish to prove the impossible possible.
Director: Lasse Hallström | Stars: Ewan McGregor, Emily Blunt, Amr Waked, Kristin Scott Thomas
Votes: 67,137 | Gross: $9.03M
26. Starman (1984)
PG | 115 min | Romance, Sci-Fi
An alien takes the form of a young Wisconsin widow's husband and makes her drive him to his departure point in Arizona. Distrustful government agents, along with a more ambivalent scientist, give pursuit in hopes of intercepting them.
Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Jeff Bridges, Karen Allen, Charles Martin Smith, Richard Jaeckel
Votes: 52,266 | Gross: $28.70M
27. The Thief of Bagdad (1940)
Not Rated | 106 min | Adventure, Family, Fantasy
After being tricked and cast out of Bagdad by the evil Jaffar, King Ahmad joins forces with a thief named Abu to reclaim his throne, the city, and the Princess he loves.
Directors: Ludwig Berger, Michael Powell, Tim Whelan, Alexander Korda, Zoltan Korda, William Cameron Menzies | Stars: Conrad Veidt, Sabu, June Duprez, John Justin
Votes: 14,511 | Gross: $0.27M
28. It Happened One Night (1934)
Passed | 105 min | Comedy, Romance
A rogue reporter trailing a runaway heiress for a big story joins her on a bus heading from Florida to New York and they end up stuck with each other when the bus leaves them behind at one of the stops along the way.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert, Walter Connolly, Roscoe Karns
Votes: 112,351 | Gross: $4.36M
29. Captain Blood (1935)
Passed | 119 min | Action, Adventure, History
After treating a Monmouth rebel against King James II in 1680s England, a young Irish doctor is exiled as a slave to Jamaica where he captures a Spanish galleon and becomes the most feared pirate of the Caribbean.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Lionel Atwill, Basil Rathbone
Votes: 16,107 | Gross: $2.96M
30. Bell Book and Candle (1958)
Approved | 106 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Romance
A modern-day witch likes her neighbor but despises his fiancée, so she enchants him to love her instead.
Director: Richard Quine | Stars: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Jack Lemmon, Ernie Kovacs
Votes: 13,140
31. The Thirteenth Floor (1999)
R | 100 min | Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A computer scientist running a virtual reality simulation of 1937 becomes the primary suspect when his colleague and mentor is murdered.
Director: Josef Rusnak | Stars: Craig Bierko, Gretchen Mol, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Vincent D'Onofrio
Votes: 77,328 | Gross: $15.50M
32. Erik the Viking (1989)
PG-13 | 107 min | Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy
Erik the Viking and his men travel across the sea to find Valhalla to ask the gods to end the Age of Ragnarok.
Director: Terry Jones | Stars: Tim Robbins, John Cleese, Mickey Rooney, Eartha Kitt
Votes: 14,482 | Gross: $1.93M
33. John Dies at the End (2012)
R | 99 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Horror
A new street drug that sends its users across time and dimensions has one drawback: some people return no longer human. Can two college drop-outs save humanity from this silent, otherworldly invasion?
Director: Don Coscarelli | Stars: Chase Williamson, Rob Mayes, Paul Giamatti, Clancy Brown
Votes: 40,375 | Gross: $0.14M
34. Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)
PG-13 | 103 min | Comedy
A popular high school student, admired by his peers, decides to take a day off from school and goes to extreme lengths to pull it off, to the chagrin of his Dean, who'll do anything to stop him.
Director: John Hughes | Stars: Matthew Broderick, Alan Ruck, Mia Sara, Jeffrey Jones
Votes: 386,807 | Gross: $70.14M
35. Wreck-It Ralph (2012)
PG | 101 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
A video game villain wants to be a hero and sets out to fulfill his dream, but his quest brings havoc to the whole arcade where he lives.
Director: Rich Moore | Stars: John C. Reilly, Jack McBrayer, Jane Lynch, Sarah Silverman
Votes: 458,819 | Gross: $189.42M
36. Hotel Transylvania (2012)
PG | 91 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
Dracula, who operates a high-end resort away from the human world, goes into overprotective mode when a boy discovers the resort and falls for the count's teenaged daughter.
Director: Genndy Tartakovsky | Stars: Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez
Votes: 281,343 | Gross: $148.31M
37. My Lady of Whims (1925)
Passed | 59 min | Comedy
Clara plays wealthy Prudence Severin, whose reckless, profligate behavior causes nothing but headaches for her father. A detective (Lee Moran) is hired to protect Prudence from herself, but to no avail.
Director: Dallas M. Fitzgerald | Stars: Clara Bow, Donald Keith, Carmelita Geraghty, Francis McDonald
Votes: 179
38. Oz the Great and Powerful (2013)
PG | 130 min | Adventure, Family, Fantasy
A small-time magician is swept away to an enchanted land and is forced into a power struggle between three witches.
Director: Sam Raimi | Stars: James Franco, Michelle Williams, Rachel Weisz, Mila Kunis
Votes: 214,332 | Gross: $234.91M
39. Wallace & Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death (2008)
TV-PG | 29 min | Animation, Short, Comedy
Wallace and his dog, Gromit, open a bakery and get tied up with a murder mystery. But when Wallace falls in love, Gromit is left to solve the case.
Director: Nick Park | Stars: Peter Sallis, Sally Lindsay, Sarah Laborde, Ben Whitehead
Votes: 18,354
40. Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)
R | 91 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
A Highway Patrol Officer, two criminals and a station secretary defend a defunct Los Angeles precinct office against a siege by a bloodthirsty street gang.
Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Austin Stoker, Darwin Joston, Laurie Zimmer, Martin West
Votes: 55,670
41. Cool World (1992)
PG-13 | 102 min | Animation, Comedy, Fantasy
When Jack Deebs was behind bars he found escape by creating Cool World, a cartoon series featuring a vixen named Holli Would. The flesh proves weaker than ink, however, as Holli takes human form in Las Vegas.
Director: Ralph Bakshi | Stars: Gabriel Byrne, Kim Basinger, Janni Brenn, Brad Pitt
Votes: 24,960 | Gross: $14.11M
42. Men in Black³ (2012)
PG-13 | 106 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
Agent J travels in time to M.I.B.'s early days in 1969 to stop an alien from assassinating his friend Agent K and changing history.
Director: Barry Sonnenfeld | Stars: Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin, Jemaine Clement
Votes: 387,299 | Gross: $179.02M
43. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013)
R | 88 min | Action, Fantasy, Horror
Brother/sister duo Hansel and Gretel are professional witch-hunters who help innocent villagers. One day they stumble upon a case that could hold the key to their past.
Director: Tommy Wirkola | Stars: Jeremy Renner, Gemma Arterton, Peter Stormare, Famke Janssen
Votes: 216,826 | Gross: $55.70M
44. They Live (1988)
R | 94 min | Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
They influence our decisions without us knowing it. They numb our senses without us feeling it. They control our lives without us realizing it. They live.
Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Roddy Piper, Keith David, Meg Foster, George 'Buck' Flower
Votes: 145,675 | Gross: $13.01M
45. Mighty Joe Young (1949)
Approved | 94 min | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy
A young woman who has raised a giant gorilla from an infant brings him to Hollywood years later seeking her fortune.
Director: Ernest B. Schoedsack | Stars: Terry Moore, Ben Johnson, Robert Armstrong, Mr. Joseph Young
Votes: 5,788
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