Many of the notable lists that rank the greatest movies of all time — like the American Film Institute's "100 Years ... 100 Movies" from 1998 — have enlisted thousands of movie-industry names to come up with a consensus on the well-established classics.
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The 50 best movies of all time, according to critics
Classic movies like "The Godfather" and "Casablanca" appear alongside modern masterpieces like "Moonlight" and "Pan's Labyrinth."
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When film critics are the only factor taken into account for such a list, however, the results skew in unexpected directions.
To find out which films have been the most critically acclaimed in history, we turned to the reviews aggregator Metacritic for its ranking of the all-time greatest movies, which scores films by their composite critical reception.
The resulting list includes modern masterpieces, like "Moonlight" and "Pan's Labyrinth," in contention with classics like "The Godfather."
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Here are the 50 best movies of all time, according to the critics on Metacritic:
50. "Maborosi" (1994)
Critic score:94/100
User score: N/A
Plot summary: "A young woman's husband apparently commits suicide without warning or reason, leaving behind his wife and infant."
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49. "Carlos" (2010)
Critic score: 94/100
User score: 7.8/10
Plot summary: "The story of Venezuelan revolutionary Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, who founded a worldwide terrorist organization and raided the 1975 OPEC meeting."
48. "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" (2003)
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Critic score: 94/100
User score: 9.1/10
47. "We Were Here" (2011)
Critic score: 94/100
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User score: 7.0/10
46. "Apocalypse Now" (1979)
Critic score:94/100
User score: 8.8/10
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45. "Sideways" (2004)
Critic score: 94/100
User score: 6.7/10
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44. "Inside Out" (2015)
Critic score: 94/100
User score: 8.7/10
43. "The Hurt Locker" (2009)
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Critic score: 94/100
User score: 7.3/10
42. "Mr. Turner" (2014)
Critic score: 94/100
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User score: 7.0/10
41. "Killer of Sheep" (1978)
Critic score: 94/100
User score: 6.9/10
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40. "Pulp Fiction" (1994)
Critic score: 94/100
User score: 9.1/10
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39. "The Manchurian Candidate" (1962)
Critic score: 94/100
User score: 8.3/10
38. "Dunkirk" (2017)
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Critic score:94/100
User score: 8.4/10
37. "45 Years" (2015)
Critic score: 94/100
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User score: 7.5/10
36. "Before Midnight" (2013)
Critic score: 94/100
User score: 8.3/10
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35. "WALL-E" (2008)
Critic score: 95/100
User score: 8.9/10
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34. "Faces Places" (2017)
Critic score: 95/100
User score: N/A
33. "A Separation" (2011)
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Critic score: 95/100
User score: 8.8/10
Plot summary: "A married couple are faced with a difficult decision - to improve the life of their child by moving to another country or to stay in Iran and look after a deteriorating parent who has Alzheimer's disease."
32. "Zero Dark Thirty" (2012)
Critic score: 95/100
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User score: 6.8/10
Plot summary: "Osama bin Laden
31. "I Am Not Your Negro" (2017)
Critic score: 95/100
User score: 5.4/10
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30. "The Social Network" (2010)
Critic score: 95/100
User score: 8.2/10
Plot summary: "Mark Zuckerberg
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29. "Call Me by Your Name" (2017)
Critic score: 95/100
User score: N/A
28. "Toy Story" (1995)
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Critic score: 95/100
User score: 9.0/10
27. "Carol" (2015)
Critic score: 95/100
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User score: 7.9/10
26. "Beauty and the Beast" (1991)
Critic score:95/100
User score: 8.8/10
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25. "Spirited Away" (2001)
Critic score: 96/100
User score: 9.0/10
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24. "Gravity" (2013)
Critic score: 96/100
User score: 7.8/10
23. "Ratatouille" (2007)
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Critic score: 96/100
User score: 8.6/10
22. "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" (1964)
Critic score: 96/100
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User score: 8.3/10
21. "Rosemary's Baby" (1968)
Critic score:96/100
User score: N/A
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20. "Manchester by the Sea" (2016)
Critic score:96/100
User score: 8.2/10
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19. "12 Angry Men" (1957)
Critic score:96/100
User score: 9.5/10
18. "12 Years a Slave" (2013)
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Critic score: 97/100
User score: 8.0/10
Plot summary: "Solomon Northup
17. "Ran" (1985)
Critic score: 96/100
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User score: 8.3/10
16. "A Fantastic Woman" (2017)
Critic score:96/100
User score:TBD
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Plot summary:"The story of Marina, a waitress and singer, and Orlando, an older man, who are in love and planning for the future. After Orlando suddenly falls ill and dies, Marina is forced to confront his family and society, and to fight again to show them who she is: complex, strong, forthright, fantastic."
15. "American Graffiti" (1973)
Critic score:97/100
User score:
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14. "Psycho" (1960)
Critic score:97/100
User score:
13. "Some Like It Hot" (1959)
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Critic score:97/100
User score:
12. "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" (2008)
Critic score: 97/100
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User score: 7.9/10
11. "Gone With The Wind" (1940)
Critic score:97/100
User score: 8.5/10
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10. "My Left Foot" (1990)
Critic score:97/100
User score: N/A
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9. "Hoop Dreams" (1994)
Critic score: 98/100
User score: 8.2/10
8. "Pan's Labyrinth" (2006)
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Critic score: 98/100
User score: 8.6/10
7. "Moonlight" (2016)
Critic score: 99/100
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User score: 7.2/10
6. "Singin' In The Rain" (1952)
Critic score:99/100
User score: N/A
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5. "Three Colors: Red" (1994)
Critic score: 100/100
User score: 7.9/10
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4. "Boyhood" (2014)
Critic score: 100/100
User score: 7.7/10
3. "Casablanca" (1943)
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Critic score: 100/100
User score: 9.3/10
2. "The Godfather" (1972)
Critic score: 100/100
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User score: 9.2/10
1. "Citizen Kane" (1941)
Critic score: 100/100
User score: 8.5/10
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