When the Movies Were Really Good!
by sarah-48-268710 | created - 09 Jul 2014 | updated - 10 Jul 2014 | PublicIt's tough to find good quality movies in 2014. These are my favorite movies that have a good message in them and that I enjoy watching time and time again; there are no cheesy special effects and most don't require any special effects, just great acting and writing.
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1. Out of Africa (1985)
PG | 161 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
In 20th-century colonial Kenya, a Danish baroness/plantation owner has a passionate love affair with a free-spirited big-game hunter.
Director: Sydney Pollack | Stars: Meryl Streep, Robert Redford, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Michael Kitchen
Votes: 86,028 | Gross: $87.10M
I love the narrative in this movie and how the characters are completely developed, so much so that you feel the angst whenever Denis decides to run away into the African savannah to hunt. It's such a heart wrenching film and so beautiful at the same time. It captures life and the complexities of love and this is rarely seen and felt in today's films.
2. The River Wild (1994)
PG-13 | 111 min | Adventure, Crime, Thriller
Rafting expert Gail takes on a pair of armed killers while navigating a spectacularly violent river.
Director: Curtis Hanson | Stars: Meryl Streep, Kevin Bacon, David Strathairn, Joseph Mazzello
Votes: 50,030 | Gross: $46.82M
3. Rudy (1993)
PG | 114 min | Biography, Drama, Sport
Rudy has always been told that he was too small to play college football. But he is determined to overcome the odds and fulfill his dream of playing for Notre Dame.
Director: David Anspaugh | Stars: Sean Astin, Jon Favreau, Ned Beatty, Greta Lind
Votes: 68,832 | Gross: $22.75M
There is something completely nostalgic about this movie. I can smell the locker room, fresh paint on the football helmets and the autumn and understand what it was like to be at Notre Dame. I don't know how this picture does it...it makes Rudy's experience our experience and again, that is rarely captured in today's films. What was it about the early 80's and 90's? There was creativity in the air.
4. My Girl (1991)
PG | 102 min | Comedy, Drama, Family
Vada is obsessed with death. Her mother is dead, and her father runs a funeral parlor. When Vada's father hires Shelly, a makeup expert, and begins to fall in love, Vada is outraged and does everything in her power to split them up.
Director: Howard Zieff | Stars: Anna Chlumsky, Macaulay Culkin, Dan Aykroyd, Jamie Lee Curtis
Votes: 88,563 | Gross: $59.85M
A gem of a movie about girlhood and the things girls don't quite understand yet, but soon figure out.
5. The War (1994)
PG-13 | 126 min | Drama, History, War
A Vietnam veteran helps his kids battle over a tree house while recovering from his traumatic war experience.
Director: Jon Avnet | Stars: Elijah Wood, Kevin Costner, Mare Winningham, Lexi Randall
Votes: 13,518 | Gross: $16.55M
6. Radio Flyer (1992)
PG-13 | 114 min | Drama
A father recounts a dark period of his childhood when he and his little brother lived in the suburbs.
Directors: Richard Donner, David Mickey Evans | Stars: Lorraine Bracco, John Heard, Adam Baldwin, Elijah Wood
Votes: 14,169 | Gross: $4.65M
7. Lean on Me (1989)
PG-13 | 108 min | Drama
The dedicated but tyrannical Joe Clark is appointed the principal of a decaying inner-city school he is determined to improve by any and all means.
Director: John G. Avildsen | Stars: Morgan Freeman, Beverly Todd, Robert Guillaume, Alan North
Votes: 22,898 | Gross: $31.91M
8. Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)
PG | 105 min | Drama
After his wife leaves him, a work-obsessed Manhattan advertising executive is forced to learn long-neglected parenting skills, but a heated custody battle over the couple's young son deepens the wounds left by the separation.
Director: Robert Benton | Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep, Jane Alexander, Justin Henry
Votes: 154,239 | Gross: $106.26M
9. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
PG | 115 min | Action, Adventure
In 1936, archaeologist and adventurer Indiana Jones is hired by the U.S. government to find the Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis can obtain its awesome powers.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman, John Rhys-Davies
Votes: 1,034,116 | Gross: $248.16M
10. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Approved | 218 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama
The story of T.E. Lawrence, the English officer who successfully united and led the diverse, often warring, Arab tribes during World War I in order to fight the Turks.
Director: David Lean | Stars: Peter O'Toole, Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn, Jack Hawkins
Votes: 313,144 | Gross: $44.82M
11. The Search (1948)
Approved | 104 min | Drama, War
In post-war Berlin, an American private helps a lost Czech boy find his mother.
Director: Fred Zinnemann | Stars: Montgomery Clift, Ivan Jandl, Aline MacMahon, Wendell Corey
Votes: 4,823
12. War Horse (2011)
PG-13 | 146 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
A young farm boy enlists to serve in World War I after his beloved horse is sold to the cavalry. His hopeful journey takes him out of England and onto the front lines as the war rages on.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Jeremy Irvine, Emily Watson, David Thewlis, Benedict Cumberbatch
Votes: 165,270 | Gross: $79.88M
13. Gorillas in the Mist (1988)
PG-13 | 129 min | Biography, Drama
The story of Dian Fossey, a scientist who came to Africa to study the vanishing mountain gorillas, and later fought to protect them.
Director: Michael Apted | Stars: Sigourney Weaver, Bryan Brown, Julie Harris, John Omirah Miluwi
Votes: 29,088 | Gross: $24.72M
14. Iron Will (1994)
PG | 108 min | Adventure, Family
A brave young man is thrust into adulthood as he and his courageous team of sled dogs embark on a grueling and treacherous cross-country marathon.
Director: Charles Haid | Stars: Mackenzie Astin, Kevin Spacey, David Ogden Stiers, August Schellenberg
Votes: 9,370 | Gross: $21.01M
15. White Fang (I) (1991)
PG | 107 min | Adventure, Drama, Family
Jack London's classic adventure story about the friendship developed between a Yukon gold hunter and the mixed dog-wolf he rescues from the hands of a man who mistreats him.
Director: Randal Kleiser | Stars: Ethan Hawke, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Jed, Seymour Cassel
Votes: 22,369 | Gross: $34.79M
Just a beautiful story and so artfully captured.
16. Big (1988)
PG | 104 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
After wishing to be made big, a teenage boy wakes the next morning to find himself mysteriously in the body of an adult.
Director: Penny Marshall | Stars: Tom Hanks, Elizabeth Perkins, Robert Loggia, John Heard
Votes: 239,239 | Gross: $114.97M
This movie is so endearing. Elizabeth Perkins is just so delicate in this film, a lovely accent to Tom Hanks childish character. Their chemistry is perfect. I can't even explain it, but I think this movie is by far the most memorable of movies I've seen in my life.
17. Chances Are (1989)
PG | 108 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Romance
A reincarnated man unknowingly falls in love with his own daughter from his previous life. Once he realizes this, he tries to end their relationship before angels erase his memory.
Director: Emile Ardolino | Stars: Cybill Shepherd, Robert Downey Jr., Ryan O'Neal, Mary Stuart Masterson
Votes: 13,794 | Gross: $16.28M
18. Forrest Gump (1994)
PG-13 | 142 min | Drama, Romance
The history of the United States from the 1950s to the '70s unfolds from the perspective of an Alabama man with an IQ of 75, who yearns to be reunited with his childhood sweetheart.
Director: Robert Zemeckis | Stars: Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, Sally Field
Votes: 2,246,404 | Gross: $330.25M
19. Cast Away (2000)
PG-13 | 143 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
A FedEx executive undergoes a physical and emotional transformation after crash landing on a deserted island.
Director: Robert Zemeckis | Stars: Tom Hanks, Helen Hunt, Paul Sanchez, Lari White
Votes: 636,420 | Gross: $233.63M
20. Dead Poets Society (1989)
PG | 128 min | Comedy, Drama
Maverick teacher John Keating returns in 1959 to the prestigious New England boys' boarding school where he was once a star student, using poetry to embolden his pupils to new heights of self-expression.
Director: Peter Weir | Stars: Robin Williams, Robert Sean Leonard, Ethan Hawke, Josh Charles
Votes: 542,717 | Gross: $95.86M
Oh Captain, my captain! This movie is completely amazing.
21. Finding Forrester (2000)
PG-13 | 136 min | Drama
Forrester, the author of a famous book, decides to help Jamal, a 16-year-old student, discover his writing prowess by mentoring him and enrolling him into a prestigious private school.
Director: Gus Van Sant | Stars: Sean Connery, Rob Brown, F. Murray Abraham, Anna Paquin
Votes: 89,424 | Gross: $66.40M
22. The Emperor's Club (2002)
PG-13 | 109 min | Drama
An idealistic prep school teacher attempts to redeem an incorrigible student.
Director: Michael Hoffman | Stars: Kevin Kline, Emile Hirsch, Joel Gretsch, Embeth Davidtz
Votes: 17,846 | Gross: $14.06M
23. Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984)
PG | 143 min | Adventure, Drama
A missing heir of respected Scottish family, raised in African jungles by animals, finally returns to his estate only to realize that difference between the two worlds is really significant.
Director: Hugh Hudson | Stars: Christopher Lambert, Andie MacDowell, Ralph Richardson, Ian Holm
Votes: 21,192 | Gross: $45.90M
24. The Color Purple (1985)
PG-13 | 154 min | Drama
A tale spanning forty years in the life of Celie, an African-American woman living in the South who survives incredible abuse and bigotry.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Danny Glover, Whoopi Goldberg, Oprah Winfrey, Margaret Avery
Votes: 96,931 | Gross: $98.47M
25. The Help (2011)
PG-13 | 146 min | Drama
An aspiring author during the civil rights movement of the 1960s decides to write a book detailing the African American maids' point of view on the white families for which they work, and the hardships they go through on a daily basis.
Director: Tate Taylor | Stars: Viola Davis, Emma Stone, Octavia Spencer, Bryce Dallas Howard
Votes: 491,104 | Gross: $169.71M
26. Fried Green Tomatoes (1991)
PG-13 | 130 min | Drama
Evelyn, an ordinary housewife, visits a nursing home and befriends the old lady Ninny. Together, they bond over stories from the past about two intrepid women of Whistle Stop Cafe.
Director: Jon Avnet | Stars: Kathy Bates, Jessica Tandy, Mary Stuart Masterson, Mary-Louise Parker
Votes: 83,035 | Gross: $82.42M
27. Secondhand Lions (2003)
PG | 109 min | Comedy, Drama, Family
Fourteen-year-old Walter Caldwell's irresponsible mother Mae sends him to live with his bachelor uncles, Hub and Garth, so that she can go on yet another husband-hunting trip.
Director: Tim McCanlies | Stars: Haley Joel Osment, Michael Caine, Robert Duvall, Kyra Sedgwick
Votes: 61,464 | Gross: $41.41M
28. Empire of the Sun (1987)
PG | 153 min | Drama, War
A young English boy struggles to survive under Japanese occupation of China during World War II.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Christian Bale, John Malkovich, Miranda Richardson, Nigel Havers
Votes: 133,948 | Gross: $22.24M
29. Twister (I) (1996)
PG-13 | 113 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
Bill and Jo Harding, advanced storm chasers on the brink of divorce, must join together to create an advanced weather alert system by putting themselves in the cross-hairs of extremely violent tornadoes.
Director: Jan de Bont | Stars: Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton, Cary Elwes, Jami Gertz
Votes: 212,518 | Gross: $241.72M
For 1996 I am STILL impressed with the special effects in this movie. They weren't cheesy.
30. Escape from Alcatraz (1979)
PG | 112 min | Action, Biography, Crime
Alcatraz is the most secure prison of its time. It is believed that no one can ever escape from it, until three daring men make a possibly successful attempt at escaping from one of the most infamous prisons in the world.
Director: Don Siegel | Stars: Clint Eastwood, Patrick McGoohan, Roberts Blossom, Jack Thibeau
Votes: 146,956 | Gross: $43.00M
31. Mystic Pizza (1988)
R | 104 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Three teenage girls come of age while working at a pizza parlor in the Connecticut town of Mystic.
Director: Donald Petrie | Stars: Annabeth Gish, Julia Roberts, Lili Taylor, Vincent D'Onofrio
Votes: 32,314 | Gross: $12.79M
32. Funny Farm (1988)
PG | 101 min | Comedy
A couple swap city life for the country, but their picturesque new hometown turns out to be just a little bit different to what they were expecting.
Director: George Roy Hill | Stars: Chevy Chase, Madolyn Smith Osborne, Kevin O'Morrison, Joseph Maher
Votes: 24,940 | Gross: $25.54M
33. Baby Boom (1987)
PG | 110 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
The life of super-yuppie J.C. is thrown into turmoil when she inherits a baby from a distant relative.
Director: Charles Shyer | Stars: Diane Keaton, Sam Shepard, Harold Ramis, Kristina Kennedy
Votes: 19,058 | Gross: $26.71M
34. The Secret of My Success (1987)
PG-13 | 111 min | Comedy, Romance
A talented young man can't get an executive position without rising through the ranks, so he comes up with a shortcut, which also benefits his love life.
Director: Herbert Ross | Stars: Michael J. Fox, Helen Slater, Richard Jordan, Margaret Whitton
Votes: 36,862 | Gross: $67.00M
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