Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

[8] Tom Cruise returns, 36 years later, to the role that made him a star. Top Gun: Maverick bests the original film as drama and entertainment, putting characters with universal appeal in thrilling, high stakes situations. The film opens with…
Goldfinger (1964)

Goldfinger (1964)

[8] In the third James Bond film, agent 007 (Sean Connery) is trying to stop the title character, a nefarious gold tycoon, from breaking into Fort Knox. Goldfinger is a standalone story, without any connection to the overarching SPECTRE storyline,…
Weapons (2025)

Weapons (2025)

[8] After his strong debut film, 2022's Barbarian, writer/director Zach Cregger returns with a sophomore effort as good or better. Weapons starts off with a compelling mystery -- why did seventeen school children, all in the same class, suddenly get…
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)

[8] Russell Crowe stars as a British naval captain pushing his ship's crew to the breaking point in pursuit of the Acheron, a stealthy French vessel he's been ordered to track and destroy. The plot of Master and Commander isn't…
Reservoir Dogs (1992)

Reservoir Dogs (1992)

[8] Quentin Tarantino made his auspicious writing/directing debut with this claustrophobic drama about a group of armed robbers who rendezvous in an abandoned warehouse after their heist is botched, resulting in deaths and injuries. Harvey Keitel plays 'Mr. White,' who's…
The Magnificent Seven (1960)

The Magnificent Seven (1960)

[8] In this American western adaptation of Akira Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai, seven gunslingers are hired to protect a small Mexican village from a posse of relentless bandits who steal all their food and goods. The motley 'seven' teach the…
The Karate Kid (1984)

The Karate Kid (1984)

[8] Teenaged Daniel (Ralph Macchio) moves with his single mother from New Jersey to Los Angeles, where he's immediately targeted by a gang of school bullies who practice karate together. After a few beatings, Macchio is taken under the wing…
The Remains of the Day (1993)

The Remains of the Day (1993)

[8] Anthony Hopkins stars as Stevens, an emotionally repressed English butler working for an influential Lord in the years leading up to World War II. When he hires a new head housekeeper, Miss Kenton (Emma Thompson), the two slowly develop…
The Nice Guys (2016)

The Nice Guys (2016)

[8] Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling star as private detectives who team up to solve the mystery of a missing porn star in this action-comedy from writer/director Shane Black (Lethal Weapon, The Long Kiss Goodnight). Black does a terrific job showcasing…
Ex Machina (2015)

Ex Machina (2015)

[8] Writer/director Alex Garland (Annihilation, Men) delivers a thoughtful, character-driven psychological thriller with sci-fi overtones in Ex Machina. Domhnall Gleeson plays a computer programmer summoned to a remote research facility where an eccentric entrepreneur (Oscar Isaac) has created a highly…