PREVIOUS: Introduction

100) SOUTHPAW (2015)

Kicking off this list is Southpaw, a movie about a boxer who suffers a terrible tragedy and goes down a dark path because of it. The movie details this struggle, as well as his journey to pick up the pieces. Part of the reason I loved this movie was because of the amazing performance by Jake Gyllenhaal, but I also just thought it was a really powerful movie about coming back from a terrible tragedy. It struck a real cord for me when it came out, and while I may not have thought about it much since I first watched it, I definitely still thought it was an amazing movie.

99) BLACK PANTHER (2018)

Black Panther received both overblown praise and overblown hate at the time of its release, which can make it easy to forget that it’s a really solid movie when you look past the social justice discussions surrounding it. While it suffers from a bit of an uninteresting lead, the rest of the movie is really good. It gives us a glimpse into a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe we hadn’t seen before. It has some really strong directing and visuals from director Ryan Coogler, and an amazing villain in Michael B. Jordan’s Killmonger. While I’ve never considered it the cultural milestone that others have, I still thought Black Panther was an amazing movie that deserves a spot on this list.

98) PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 3 (2011)

When the first Paranormal Activity movie came out, it blew audiences away, myself included. While the series saw some diminishing returns with its later sequels that ended up dragging the franchise’s name down for some people, I consider Paranormal Activity 3 to be the last great entry in the series. I remember seeing this movie in theaters, and being scared out of my mind the whole time. There are tons of great scares in this one, and it deepened the lore in an interesting way before getting too convoluted in the rest of the sequels. Some may disagree with me on this one, but I thought Paranormal Activity 3 was an awesome horror sequel.

97) SHAZAM! (2019)

Shazam is a significant movie on this list for me, because while you’ll find quite a few Marvel Cinematic Universe movies on this list, this is the only DC Cinematic Universe movie you’ll find on here. I’ve considered most of the movies in this universe to not be all that good, to the point where I had almost given up on the franchise. Then Shazam came along and actually blew me away. This movie is just pure fun, with a hilarious portrayal of the character from Zachary Levi. The movie does have a few problems, but where other DC movies had major issues that accentuated the little problems, Shazam is so fun that the little stuff didn’t bother me.

96) WARRIOR (2011)

I typically have little interest in MMA, but Warrior was a special exception to this. That’s because of the stakes that Warrior sets up. The movie stars Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton, brothers that are estranged from each other. The two of them take part in a MMA tournament, and inevitably find themselves in a position where they’re going to have to face off against each other, confronting their emotional issues in the process. It’s this dynamic that makes Warrior as good as it is. Many people dismiss a sports/fighting movie if they’re not into the sport itself, but Warrior is the kind of movie where the story is so good that the rest doesn’t matter.

95) ISLE OF DOGS (2018)

Isle of Dogs is one of the movies that makes my cut not because of how much I personally enjoyed the movie, but because of how high-quality of a movie it is. My enjoyment wavered a bit throughout the movie, but I never stopped being impressed by what I was seeing on-screen. The entire thing is stop-motion animation, and if you watch any behind-the-scenes stuff on how it was made, it’s hard not to be impressed. The animation was simply breathtaking, and it gave me an experience at the movies that no other movie has really been able to match.

94) MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – ROGUE NATION (2015)

Rogue Nation is the fifth movie in the Mission: Impossible franchise, and is the follow-up to Ghost Protocol, where the series really reinvented itself and started to hit a new stride. Rogue Nation is a worthy follow-up to Ghost Protocol, but it isn’t quite as good. There are some really great action set-pieces in this one, including hanging off of a plane and having a fight on a catwalk, but the story left a little bit to be desired. While it’s not my favorite in the franchise, I still really liked it.

93) DREDD (2012)

I remember Dredd being one of the biggest surprise hits of 2012 for me. When I saw the awful trailers for the movie, I thought it looked terrible, so I didn’t even bother seeing it in theaters. However, I gave it a shot at home, and I’m glad I gave it a chance, because it’s one of the best non-Marvel/DC superhero movies I’ve seen. The concept is incredibly fun, and the action was way better than I could have imagined.

92) THE REVENANT (2015)

For a long time, people thought it was a huge injustice that Leonardo DiCaprio had never won an Oscar due to how good of an actor he was, but The Revenant finally turned that around for him. While I personally think he’s had other performances that were better than this, he acts his ass off in this one, playing a frontiersman that’s mauled by a bear and left for dead by his own team. It’s a story of survival that’s incredibly painful to watch. I remember this one being hard to watch, so much so that I haven’t had a desire to watch it since. Still, it’s an amazing journey to take, and one that has you on the edge of your seat the whole time.

91) HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON (2010)

Dreamworks Studio has a reputation for being the “not as good Disney,” and I’ve mostly agreed with this myself. Most of their movies aren’t anything special, but there are exceptions, and the How to Train Your Dragon series has always been one of them. All three movies are exceptional and worth watching, to the point where I consider this to easily be Dreamworks’ best franchise. However, the first How to Train Your Dragon seemed to come out of nowhere, and it blew me away. I didn’t expect the deep level of storytelling that the movie gave, and so it winded up being way more profound than I ever thought it would be. The movie got me hooked on the characters and the world, and so I think it deserves a spot on the list.

90) LA LA LAND (2016)

It’s very rare to see an original movie musical these days, and that’s what made La La Land all the more special. This movie seemingly came out of nowhere, and went on to become one of the best musical films I’ve seen in a long time. It featured some really tremendous song and dance numbers, absolutely stunning cinematography, and a pair of amazing leads with Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling. If you have any interest in musicals, you need to make sure to see this.

89) LIGHTS OUT (2016)

Lights Out is one of the best of the random small horror movies that I’ve seen this decade. It was one of those movies that had little marketing, and I decided to randomly give it a shot at home. It’s effective because of its simplicity. The movie has a surprisingly simple premise, with a monster that is only visible in the dark. This simple idea leads to some really great scares, and winds up making the movie as fun as it is. Running at only about 80 minutes, this was a very easy watch, and one that I’m glad I took a chance on.

88) THE DARK KNIGHT RISES (2012)

While I definitely had my share of issues with this movie and consider it to be the weak link of Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises was still an amazing ride. It concluded the trilogy in a really satisfying way, and turned Bane into a truly menacing villain. I remember being incredibly excited for this movie when it came out, and I appreciated getting an end to this story in a world where superhero movies are only aiming to be part of a franchise.

87) HER (2013)

Her might be one of the movies on this list that not many people recognize. While it was up for awards when it came out, I haven’t really heard it talked about since. I thought this was a fascinating movie about a man who falls in love with his computer’s operating system, which is simply a female voice that’s “designed to meet his every need.” Some people might have hang-ups about watching the movie just because of its concept, but if you’re able to get behind what the movie is, it’s really an interesting experience.

86) GREEN HORNET (2011)

This is probably one of the movies that people are going to disagree with me for making the list. Green Hornet is a movie that’s truly been forgotten, and wasn’t really very well-received to begin with. I don’t know what it was, but I enjoyed the hell out of this movie when I saw it. Admittedly, I haven’t really had the desire to watch it since, but I can’t ignore how much fun I had with it when I saw it. It features Seth Rogen as a superhero with an Asian sidekick named Kato, and the whole thing is just a wild ride. I don’t consider it to be a pinnacle of filmmaking, or even one of the best in the superhero genre, but I do think it’s a really entertaining movie.

85) THE BABADOOK (2014)

The Babadook is a bit of a polarizing horror movie, but regardless it’s become recognized as one of the more unique horror movies of the decade. I don’t quite think it’s the masterpiece that some people do, but I do think it’s a really interesting movie, at the very least. It’s the kind of movie where the lore itself isn’t that interesting to me, but the symbolism of it all makes it worth it. The Babadook monster itself is a metaphor for depression, and so if you replace the word Babadook with depression in the movie, things become much more interesting. I liked the themes and story that this movie told, and it does have an amazing performance from lead actress Essie Davis, but I also understand if this wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea.

84) THE NICE GUYS (2016)

This may be a weird basis for liking this movie as much as I did, but The Nice Guys is a movie that I loved purely for its style. It’s got a 70s aesthetic that comes to life from director Shane Black, who’s a very stylistic director to begin with. The main reason to watch this, though, is the brilliant chemistry between leads Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe, who are so entertaining to watch as they investigate the death of a porn star. I’ve never considered this a must-watch, but I really enjoyed it, and it’s worth watching if you’re into this sort of thing.

83) THE MARTIAN (2015)

The Martian tells a story of survival, and a mission to rescue one man. Matt Damon plays astronaut Mark Watney, who finds himself left behind by his team on a space expedition after they believe him to be dead. He’s now stranded on Mars, and must find a way to survive long enough for his team to come back and rescue him. This is the kind of movie that got me really excited to see what Mark was going to have to do in order to stay alive (including making potatoes out of literal shit), and the tension that came over wanting to see him get rescued in time.

82) THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN (2016)

I mentioned in my introduction to this list that the western genre is one that I generally don’t care for, and so I admittedly don’t watch many of them. Because of this, I’ll be the first to say that I don’t really know how something like The Magnificent Seven compares to other westerns. Regardless, this was one that actually captured my interest due to its stellar cast, and so I winded up really enjoying it. This is one that I recognize didn’t garner as much praise as I’m giving it, but I enjoyed myself in a genre that I don’t typically seek out.

81) THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (2012)

The two Amazing Spider-Man movies starring Andrew Garfield get a lot of hate, but I actually thought that the first one was a really solid movie. I even like the second one a decent bit, although I definitely recognize that one has its fair share of problems. This first movie, though, I thought was really good. I don’t consider it to be as good as the Spider-Man movies that came before or after, but I still defend this one when it gets a lot of hate. I also recognize that I’m a bit biased on this one since Spider-Man is my favorite superhero, so I tend to watch these movies through rose-colored glasses a bit, but I still think that this is a really good movie.

NEXT: #80-61