It’s hard to know what to watch because there are so many movies on streaming, but these 10/10 masterpieces stand head and shoulders above the rest. Nearly every streaming platform on the market has a huge catalog of movies from every era. While that is an exciting prospect, it also means there are heaps of films to sort through.
Quantity rarely beats quality, and most movies available on streaming are mediocre at best. However, there are absolute gems on all the major platforms that make the monthly fee worth it. Sometimes they are celebrated classics from Hollywood’s Golden Age, while others are modern hits. Either way, these movies deliver the promise of streaming as an unbeatable source for entertainment.
10 Goodfellas (1990) – The Roku Channel
While most 10/10 classics are kept behind pay walls, Martin Scorsese’s seminal gangster flick, Goodfellas, currently streams for free. The semi-biographical epic follows the rise and fall of Henry Hill, a mobster who rises through the ranks of the Lucchese crime family. The Oscar winner set a new standard for gangster movies, and kicked off a renaissance for the genre.
The movie’s large ensemble is populated by brilliant performers like Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, and Ray Liotta, and the snappy dialogue has been forever etched into the pop culture lexicon. Scorsese’s direction deftly pulls the huge story together in a cohesive experience, and it’s one of the few two-and-a-half-hour movies that actually justifies its extended running time.
9 The Dark Knight (2008) – HBO Max
After Christopher Nolan reinvigorated the franchise with Batman Begins, he delivered his superhero opus with 2008’s The Dark Knight. The Caped Crusader must do battle with this greatest foe, The Joker, as the Clown Prince of Crime invades Gotham with his own brand of chaos. Eschewing the pulp heroics of years past, The Dark Knight is gritty, violent, and raw.
Released the same year that Marvel’s MCU began, The Dark Knight also set the pace for future DC movies. There are bombastic action sequences, but the movie’s real strength is the tense relationships between the characters. Heath Ledger’s Joker is arguably the best superhero movie performance ever, and no other comic flick has matched The Dark Knight’s cinematic prowess.
8 Gladiator (2000) – Paramount+
Ridley Scott also directed the 2024 sequel, but the original Gladiator has yet to be topped. A Roman general is forced into slavery where he uses his celebrity as a gladiator to exact revenge against the royals who betrayed him. Gladiator is one of the pinnacles of blockbuster cinema, and started the new millennium off on the right foot.
As Maximus, Russell Crowe cemented himself as an action star, and the movie spawned a legion of imitators that tried to replicate its historical action epic formula. Though Gladiator certainly plays fast and loose with history, it makes up for any shortcomings with strong screencraft. The production design is immaculate, and Hans Zimmer’s score perfectly sets the mood.
7 Godzilla Minus One (2023) – Netflix
Across the franchise’s 70-plus-year history, the Godzilla movies have seen their fair share of ups and downs. Godzilla Minus One is one of the series’ highest achievements, and rivals even the original film in its greatness. In the aftermath of WWII in Japan, a veteran tries to rebuild his life while being tormented by the arrival of Godzilla.
While giant monsters are the usual selling point, Minus One’s humans are the most compelling part. At times horrific and tragic, it returns the franchise to its roots as an allegory for the nuclear war inflicted on the Japanese people. In doing so, Godzilla Minus One makes its title character a legitimately frightening monster for the first time in decades.
6 Raiders Of The Lost Ark (1981) – Paramount+
The first film in the Indiana Jones franchise, Raiders of the Lost Ark is a beloved institution in the annals of action/adventure history. Archeologist Indiana Jones is dispatched to find the Ark of the Covenant before it falls into the hands of the Nazis. The globetrotting story is a love letter to the classic adventure serials of days gone by.
Harrison Ford’s swaggering performance as Indiana Jones rewrote the book on cool, and Steven Spielberg’s direction gives everything the twinkle of whimsy that he’s known for. Though cartoonish at times, the action is still crisp and exciting, with just a little bit of edge. Indie’s other adventures are worth watching too, but Raiders is the peak of the franchise.
5 A Fistful Of Dollars (1964) – Amazon Prime Video
Kicking off Sergio Leone’s Dollars trilogy, A Fistful of Dollars launched the movie star career of Clint Eastwood and popularized the spaghetti western. A nameless drifter wanders into a small Mexican village and stirs up a dormant rivalry between two clans. With its whip-smart script and emphasis on violence, Leone’s gem was nothing like other westerns at the time.
A stealthy remake of Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo, the movie borrows many of the Japanese classic’s best story beats. A Fistful of Dollars is methodically paced, and it gets by with minimal dialogue. That’s because Leone’s visual storytelling is top-notch, and information is often conveyed with a glance instead of pages of talk. It’s one of the few perfect westerns.
4 Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986) – Paramount+
John Hughes rode a wave of success throughout the 1980s, and his teen comedies peaked with Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. A precocious teen decides to play hooky and goes on a wild adventure in Chicago with two of his friends. Like all of Hughes’ youthful movies, Ferris Bueller captures the enthusiasm and idealism of being young.
The film balances various types of humor, from sensational physical comedy to absurdist fourth-wall-breaking quips, and it never takes its foot off the gas. The archetypal characters are simple and relatable, and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is crafted to be as appealing as possible. This makes it a perfect movie for streaming because it can be watched on repeat.
3 Pulp Fiction (1994) – Netflix
Quentin Tarantino’s second film as a director, Pulp Fiction introduced that auteur filmmaker to his largest audience yet. The lives of two wise-cracking hitmen intertwine with various other characters who are involved in crime and debauchery. Crafted with Tarantino’s signature wit and fast pace, Pulp Fiction is like 10 movies jammed into one.
Borrowing from all of his favorite cult movies, the director assembles something new that perfectly embraces the attitude of the 1990s. Pulp Fiction is sharp, self-aware, and abundantly over-the-top, but the little moments are really where the film shines the brightest. The masterpiece firmly established Tarantino as the voice of his generation, and it’s still one of his best films.
2 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) – HBO Max
2001: A Space Odyssey marked a major shift in science fiction, and few films have reached its level since. Beginning at the dawn of humanity, the film chronicles points in human evolution which are influenced by a monolith from space. The bulk of the film takes place aboard Discovery One as the astronauts grapple with the rogue AI, HAL 9000.
Melding ideas of hard sci-fi with psychedelic concepts, 2001 is an examination of humanity. It showcases how far man has come, but also reminds the viewer how little we still know about inner and outer space. Stanley Kubrick’s stunning visuals serve an airtight script, and it all amounts to an unrivaled cinematic experience.
1 The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring (2001) – HBO Max
Adapting J.R.R. Tolkien’s groundbreaking fantasy trilogy, The Lord of the Rings, into live-action feature films seemed impossible. Peter Jackson proved those doubters wrong when The Fellowship of the Ring premiered in 2001. Peaceful young Hobbit, Frodo Baggins, is tasked with destroying the One Ring, and he is joined by a band of allies in the first stage of his quest.
The entire Lord of the Rings trilogy is available to stream on HBO Max.