Items19The creator’s order
  1. 1Paddington 2 (2017)Paddington 2 (2017) 7.8/10 on IMDbReleased Nov 5, 2017The safest opener here, because almost nobody comes out the other side unmoved. A polite bear in a duffel coat takes odd jobs to buy his aunt a present, and every mishap is built with the precision of silent-movie slapstick, so the laughs land for adults first and kids second. Don't let "kids'…0
  2. 2Back to the Future (1985)Back to the Future (1985) 8.5/10 on IMDbReleased Jul 3, 1985If the objection is that movies are slow, start here. Marty McFly is in 1955 before anyone has time to check their phone, and from then on the script never wastes a scene. Small setups early on, a flyer here, a skateboard there, all pay off later, which gives a first-time viewer the satisfying…0
  3. 3Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) 8.4/10 on IMDbReleased Jun 12, 1981The opening temple raid, with the idol, the boulder and the getaway plane, is the best argument ever made that movies can be pure fun. Harrison Ford plays Indiana Jones as a hero who gets hurt, improvises and visibly hates snakes, which makes him easy to root for. It's the first Indiana Jones…0
  4. 4Speed (1994)Speed (1994) 7.3/10 on IMDbReleased Jun 9, 1994The pitch fits on a napkin: a bomb on a Los Angeles bus will go off if it drops below 50 miles an hour. That is all a reluctant viewer needs to know, and it keeps them leaning forward to the end. Keanu Reeves plays the cop, Sandra Bullock the passenger who ends up behind the wheel, and their easy…0
  5. 5Groundhog Day (1993)Groundhog Day (1993) 8.0/10 on IMDbReleased Feb 11, 1993The premise is the joke: Bill Murray's sour TV weatherman wakes up to the same day in Punxsutawney, again and again. That repetition makes it the easiest movie in the world to follow, and every loop gets funnier as he learns the day by heart and starts bending it to his will. Under the comedy it…0
  6. 6The Princess Bride (1987)The Princess Bride (1987) 8.0/10 on IMDbReleased Sep 25, 1987A fairy tale for people who roll their eyes at fairy tales. It's framed as a grandfather reading a story to a sick grandson who would rather be playing video games, and the boy's grumbling about the kissing parts voices every objection your skeptic might have. Then the sword fights, the giant and…0
  7. 7Jaws (1975)Jaws (1975) 8.1/10 on IMDbReleased Jun 20, 1975At 124 minutes this is one of the few picks past the two-hour mark, and it earns the exception. The shark stays mostly out of sight for much of the movie, so the dread comes from yellow barrels, a two-note theme and three very different men stuck on a small boat together. It plays like an…0
  8. 8Get Out (2017)Get Out (2017) 7.8/10 on IMDbReleased Feb 24, 2017Tell a skeptic it's a horror movie and they'll groan; tell them it's about meeting your girlfriend's parents for the first time and they'll lean in. Jordan Peele's debut starts as an excruciatingly awkward weekend upstate and tightens into a thriller, with enough laughs along the way that it never…0
  9. 9A Quiet Place (2018)A Quiet Place (2018) 7.5/10 on IMDbReleased Apr 3, 2018The one that makes phones impossible. A family lives in near silence on a farm while creatures that hunt by sound roam outside, so every creak and dropped object becomes an event, and the whole room goes quiet along with the characters. It runs about 90 minutes, and John Krasinski directed it for…0
  10. 10Free Solo (2018)Free Solo (2018) 8.1/10 on IMDbReleased Sep 28, 2018For someone who would rather be outdoors, a documentary can be the way in. Alex Honnold sets out to climb Yosemite's 3,000-foot El Capitan with no ropes or safety gear, and the film is as much about the people who love him, and the crew filming him, as it is about the climb. You can look up how it…0