The 50 best films on Disney Plus to watch in November 2025
If you look beyond Marvel and Star Wars, Disney+ has some of the best movies on streaming
Disney Plus has some of the most iconic and best films ever made, so you may struggle to pick a movie.
After all, how do you pick between the vast multitudes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, every Star Wars film, countless other franchises, and a broad library of horrors, rom-coms, dramas, and more?
If you’ve already rummaged through the best movies on Amazon Prime and now you’re scrolling through the House of Mouse’s catalogue, don’t worry. We’ve rounded up and ranked the 50 best films on Disney Plus right now.
Contents
50. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
- Genre: Drama, Comedy
- Year: 2013
- Cast: Ben Stiller, Kristen Wiig, Sean Penn
- Director: Ben Stiller
- Runtime: 1 hour 54 minutes
What it’s about: Walter, a quiet, chronic daydreamer, loses a magazine’s important photo. Instead of moping, he sets out to find it, travelling the world and living his dreams for the first time.
Why to watch: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, a sweet, kind-hearted film about uprooting yourself and daring to live the dream, is one of the most underrated movies of the past decade. Remember: “To see the world, things dangerous to come to, to see behind walls, draw closer, to find each other, and to feel. That is the purpose of life.”
49. Miracle
- Genre: Sports, Drama
- Year: 2004
- Cast: Kurt Russell, Patricia Clarkson, Noah Emmerich
- Director: Gavin O’Connor
- Runtime: 2 hours 16 minutes
What it’s about: Herb Brooks has a dream: to lead the US Olympic hockey team to glory against the Soviets, whatever it takes.
Why to watch: Miracle comes from Gavin O’Connor, the director of Warrior (the best sports movie ever made). It is a stirring tribute to the Olympic team’s feat, with thrilling, realistic hockey photography and Kurt Russell in Oscar-worthy form.
48. 500 Days of Summer
- Genre: Romance, Comedy
- Year: 2009
- Cast: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Zooey Deschanel
- Director: Marc Webb
- Runtime: 1 hour 35 minutes
What it’s about: Tom meets Summer and instantly believes she’s the girl of his dreams. She doesn’t want a serious relationship, but he can’t shake the feeling that she could be “the one.”
Why to watch: Is 500 Days of Summer the most misunderstood rom-com of the 21st century? The fact we’re asking that question is a good enough reason to watch it. By the end of its clever, emotionally wise story, hold yourself to account and ask: was Summer a villain?
47. Moulin Rouge!
- Genre: Musical, Romance
- Year: 2001
- Cast: Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor, Jim Broadbent
- Director: Baz Luhrmann
- Runtime: 2 hours 8 minutes
What it’s about: When an idealistic poet is drawn into the Moulin Rouge, a fantastical Parisian nightclub, he falls in love with the club’s leading cabaret actress, Satine.
Why to watch: Moulin Rouge is Baz Luhrmann’s best movie: an arrestingly flamboyant, post-modern Hollywood musical that’s completely and shamelessly over the top.
46. Cocktail
- Genre: Drama
- Year: 1988
- Cast: Tom Cruise, Elisabeth Shue, Bryan Brown
- Director: Roger Donaldson
- Runtime: 1 hour 43 minutes
What it’s about: Brian, a money-obsessed business student, works as a bartender with Doug. They become a popular double act, but their friendship is tested by women and ambition.
Why to watch: Cocktail’s legacy is being “so bad, it’s good”. Except, it’s not bad at all: Cruise is magnetic, he couldn’t ask for a better co-star than Bryan Brown, and as flimsy as its story is, it’s fun. It also has one of the best taglines of all time: “When he pours, he reigns.”
45. Night at the Museum
- Genre: Comedy
- Year: 2006
- Cast: Ben Stiller, Robin Williams, Carla Gugino
- Director: Shawn Levy
- Runtime: 1 hour 48 minutes
What it’s about: Larry, a divorced father, reluctantly takes a job as a night watchman at New York’s Museum of Natural History, where the museum’s exhibits come to life every night.
Why to watch: Shawn Levy may be better known for Deadpool & Wolverine and his work on Stranger Things, but in 2006, he directed one of the most enjoyable movies of the 2000s: Night at the Museum.
It has a winning, Jumanji-esque concept, Ben Stiller in charming everyman mode, and an incredible supporting cast – best of all, Robin Williams as Theodore Roosevelt.
44. The Greatest Showman
- Genre: Musical, Drama
- Year: 2017
- Cast: Hugh Jackman, Zac Efron, Zendaya
- Director: Michael Gracey
- Runtime: 1 hour 45 minutes
What it’s about: After losing his job, P.T. Barnum begins recruiting “freaks” to boost attendance at his new museum. Soon, he’s leading a popular circus of talented singers and dancers.
Why to watch: The Greatest Showman isn’t a good film, particularly if you consider its heinous fabrications; let’s just say, P.T. Barnum wasn’t a saint. However, as painful as it is to admit, the songs are sensational, and it has Jackman in the role he was born to play: a song-and-dance man. You’ll be humming the soundtrack for weeks.
43. Big
- Genre: Comedy, Fantasy
- Year: 1988
- Cast: Tom Hanks, Elizabeth Perkins, Robert Loggia
- Director: Penny Marshall
- Runtime: 1 hour 44 minutes
What it’s about: A 13-year-old boy tells a fortune-teller machine that he wishes to be “big.” The next day, he realises his wish has come true – but he’s a fully grown adult.
Why to watch: There’s a Big message here: growing up isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be when you’re a kid. That may seem simple and trite, but the film goes to hysterical, endearing lengths to appeal to everyone’s inner child. That’s why it’s so good, as well as Hanks’ wide-eyed, likeable performance.
42. The Mighty Ducks
- Genre: Sports, Comedy
- Year: 1992
- Cast: Emilio Estevez, Joss Ackland, Lane Smith
- Director: Stephen Herek
- Runtime: 1 hour 44 minutes
What it’s about: Gordon, a former hockey prodigy who’s grown up to become a ruthless lawyer, gets caught drunk-driving. He’s forced into a leave of absence and community service… by taking over as the local hockey team’s coach.
Why to watch: Nowadays, The Mighty Ducks is the sort of movie that’d be released directly on… Disney Plus, probably. It’s a mass-market movie of a different era; a sweet, feel-good story that’s appropriate for the whole family.
41. JFK
- Genre: Drama
- Year: 1991
- Cast: Kevin Costner, Gary Oldman, Tommy Lee Jones
- Director: Oliver Stone
- Runtime: 3 hours 8 minutes
What it’s about: Jim Garrison, a New Orleans district attorney, isn’t convinced that Lee Harvey Oswald is solely responsible for the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. As he investigates, he becomes suspicious of a larger conspiracy.
Why to watch: Some movies could be made by other directors, but JFK, a feverish, enthralling, and gargantuan epic that’s part meditation, part polemic, is singular to Oliver Stone. It’ll make a conspiracy theorist out of anyone.
40. Dodgeball
- Genre: Comedy, Sports
- Year: 2004
- Cast: Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Christine Taylor
- Director: Rawson Marshall Thurber
- Runtime: 1 hour 32 minutes
What it’s about: If Peter can’t cough up $50,000 in three days, he’ll lose his gym to White Goodman, the owner of a larger gym. So, he and his friends come up with a way to make some money: competing in a professional dodgeball tournament.
Why to watch: Dodgeball is part of the cultural lexicon; have you ever said, “Dodge, duck, dip, dive, and… dodge” out of context, or, “It’s a bold strategy, Cotton” when someone does something a little risky?
It’s also still hilarious, with Vince Vaughn sensibly letting his deadpan average joe tee up the film’s more profane characters – most of all, Ben Stiller’s ridiculous gym magnate.
39. Sideways
- Genre: Comedy, Drama
- Year: 2004
- Cast: Paul Giamatti, Thomas Haden Church, Virginia Madsen, Sandra Oh
- Director: Alexander Payne
- Runtime: 2 hours 7 minutes
What it’s about: Ahead of his best friend’s wedding, Miles takes him on a week-long trip to wine country to drink, play golf, eat well, and reminisce together. However, things don’t go to plan.
Why to watch: Sideways is widley considered one of the greatest films that didn’t win Best Picture when it was nominated. It’s a comedy-drama that, beyond anything else (like Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church’s terrific performances), strikes the balance between the two. Best paired with a wine (just not a Merlot).
38. Edward Scissorhands
- Genre: Fantasy, Drama
- Year: 1990
- Cast: Johnny Depp, Winona Ryder, Dianne Wiest
- Director: Tim Burton
- Runtime: 1 hour 45 minutes
What it’s about: Edward, a lonely synthetic man with scissors for hands, leaves his dark, desolate mansion to live with Peg and her family in a nearby town, where he befriends her daughter, Kim.
Why to watch: Edward Scissorhands is among the strangest pop culture phenomena, but its iconic stature is well-deserved. This is a filmmaker and actor working at the peak of their powers in a melancholic, swooning, and surreal fairytale for the ages.
37. Chronicle
- Genre: Superhero, Thriller
- Year: 2012
- Cast: Dane DeHaan, Alex Russell, Michael B. Jordan
- Director: Josh Trank
- Runtime: 1 hour 23 minutes
What it’s about: When three high-schoolers stumble on a hole in the woods, they emerge with telekinetic abilities. At first, they use their powers for fun, but darkness soon pits them against each other.
Why to watch: Chronicle is a superhero movie in the found-footage mould, but it doesn’t shirk thrills with shaky-cam. Even now, it has a “how the hell did they do that?” quality, and while it’d be disingenuous to call it scary, its format makes its in-air, telekinetic tussling more intense than we’ve ever seen.
36. Father of the Bride
- Genre: Comedy
- Year: 1991
- Cast: Steve Martin, Diane Keaton, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, Martin Short
- Director: Charles Shyer
- Runtime: 1 hour 45 minutes
What it’s about: George Banks has a perfect life: a loving wife, a nice home, a stable job, and two happy kids. However, when his daughter announces her engagement, he has a hard time letting go.
Why to watch: Father of the Bride marked Nancy Meyers’ first collaboration with Steve Martin. Though she didn’t direct, he’s still one of her finest leads; flawed and frenzied, yet amiable and poignantly pitched.
You’ll smile from beginning to end – and then you can watch the sequel, because it’s on Disney Plus too.
35. Marley and Me
- Genre: Comedy, Drama
- Year: 2008
- Cast: Owen Wilson, Jennifer Aniston, Eric Dane, Alan Arkin
- Director: David Frankel
- Runtime: 1 hour 55 minutes
What it’s about: Before they commit to starting a family, newlyweds John and Jenny get a dog: Marley, a rambunctious Labrador retriever who changes their lives.
Why to watch: Marley and Me, for reasons you can probably deduce, is an emotional assault; if you’ve seen it and you’re reading this, you’re probably grimacing at the memory.
Yet, just because it has a heart-crushing wallop, doesn’t mean its praises shouldn’t be sung. The main reason it’s so upsetting is because the film’s cosy resonance and grace go mostly undetected until it’s too late – that’s a real skill.
34. It’s Complicated
- Genre: Romance, Comedy
- Year: 2009
- Cast: Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin, Steve Martin
- Director: Nancy Meyers
- Runtime: 2 hours
What it’s about: Jane, a divorcee with a successful baking business, has a one-night fling with her ex-husband. They start falling in love again, but as the title says, “it’s complicated.”
Why to watch: When Nancy Meyers makes a rom-com, you buy a ticket (or, in this case, press play), it’s that simple. It’s Complicated, one of only two films she’s directed since 2009, is wonderful; like a warm hug with a bottle of wine in tow. Alec Baldwin steals the film, but everyone is great.
33. The Simpsons Movie
- Genre: Animation, Comedy
- Year: 2007
- Cast: Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright
- Director: David Silverman
- Runtime: 1 hour 27 minutes
What it’s about: When Homer pollutes the lake, his family escapes Springfield before it’s imprisoned under a huge dome. Wracked with guilt and Marge’s judgement, he sets out to save his home.
Why to watch: The Simpsons is a faint shadow of itself now (yes, it’s still airing). However, it’s hard to imagine just how much of an ask it must have been for the creators to make a movie that lived up to fans’ hype in 2006.
Amazingly, they pulled it off, with the movie featuring essential scenes in the franchise’s canon, whether it’s Spider-Pig or Bart’s nude skateboard ride.
32. The High School Musical trilogy
- Genre: Musical, Romance
- Year: 2006–2008
- Cast: Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale
- Director: Kenny Ortega
- Runtime: 5 hours 14 minutes
What it’s about: Troy, the playmaker of the basketball team, meets Gabriella, a self-confessed nerd. They love to sing together, but they’re from different worlds – can they make it work?
Why to watch: For a certain generation, High School Musical is the reference point for movie musicals; not Grease, not The Wizard of Oz, not even Singin’ in the Rain.
It can fall victim to cheese and melodrama, but that’s part of the trilogy’s charm, not to mention its playlist-destined soundtrack of ballads. Bop it to the top of your (re)watch list.
31. The Fly
- Genre: Horror, Sci-fi
- Year: 1986
- Cast: Jeff Goldblum, Geena Davis
- Director: David Cronenberg
- Runtime: 1 hour 36 minutes
What it’s about: When a brilliant scientist invents a teleportation machine, he decides to test it himself. However, a fly enters the machine at the same time, splicing their DNA.
Why to watch: The Fly is the saddest horror movie ever made: a gut-churning, gruesome love story that’s tragic beyond compare. Just don’t watch it while you’re eating your dinner.
30. Pretty Woman
- Genre: Romance, Comedy
- Year: 1990
- Cast: Julia Roberts, Richard Gere, Jason Alexander
- Director: Garry Marshall
- Runtime: 1 hour 59 minutes
What it’s about: Edward, a lonely corporate raider, spends a night with Vivian, an escort who works on Hollywood Boulevard. He ends up hiring her for a week, but they become closer than they ever expected.
Why to watch: Pretty Woman is a fairytale with an edge. It ends with Roxette’s ‘It Must Have Been Love’, a song totally at odds with its swooning conclusion, a marker of how well thought-out and touching its romance is. It’s no wonder Julia Roberts got an Oscar nomination.
29. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
- Genre: Action
- Year: 2003
- Cast: Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley
- Director: Gore Verbinski
- Runtime: 2 hours 23 minutes
What it’s about: Captain Jack Sparrow, a rum-guzzling pirate, joins forces with a local man to recapture his stolen ship and save Elizabeth, the governor’s kidnapped daughter.
Why to watch: Pirates of the Caribbean was a preposterous pitch: a movie based on one of Disney’s theme park rides, with Johnny Depp playing its drunken buffoon of a pirate. Who knew it’d end up being a swashbuckling, Oscar-nominated launchpad for a billion-busting franchise, with Depp in his most iconic role?
28. Fight Club
- Genre: Drama, Thriller
- Year: 1999
- Cast: Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, Helena Bonham Carter
- Director: David Fincher
- Runtime: 2 hours 19 minutes
What it’s about: An unhappy man suffering from insomnia meets Tyler Durden, a charismatic soap salesman. Together, they form an underground fight club, but their secret becomes a movement that spirals out of control.
Why to watch: Fight Club (yes, we’re breaking the first rule) is a difficult movie to praise in blurb form. Its subversion and twists (which are masterfully employed) are instrumental to the film’s impact, and you’ll be intoxicated from the first frame.
It may be classified as a “cult classic”, but it’s transcended its seedier allure: it’s now a foundational text for any new moviegoer.
27. Signs
- Genre: Thriller, Sci-fi
- Year: 2002
- Cast: Mel Gibson, Joaquin Phoenix, Rory Culkin
- Director: M. Night Shyamalan
- Runtime: 1 hour 46 minutes
What it’s about: When crop circles appear on his farm, a widowed priest and his family start to believe there are extraterrestrial forces at play.
Why to watch: Signs boasts the scariest scene of the 2000s and Mel Gibson at his absolute best. It also has an eerie, wistful tone, like a post-9/11 Field of Dreams.
It’s only after many frights (and an ending that’s great, actually) that its outlook awakens anew: a reclamation of faith (not religion), and the belief that belief isn’t futile.
26. Tron: Legacy
- Genre: Sci-fi, Action
- Year: 2010
- Cast: Garrett Hedlund, Jeff Bridges, Olivia Wilde
- Director: Joseph Kosinski
- Runtime: 2 hours 5 minutes
What it’s about: Twenty years after his father’s disappearance, Sam finds himself sucked into the Grid, a virtual reality where he’s forced to fight for his life.
Why to watch: If you judge Tron: Legacy solely on its story, it’s… fine; symptomatic of ‘legacy sequelitis’ before it was really a thing. However, it’s jaw-droppingly dazzling, and here’s a big claim: it has the best film score ever composed, courtesy of Daft Punk.
25. Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water
- Genre: Science fiction, Adventure
- Year: 2009, 2022
- Cast: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang
- Director: James Cameron
- Runtime: 5 hours 54 minutes
What it’s about: Jake Sully, a paraplegic former Marine, is recruited by a government agency after his twin brother’s death. He’s tasked with exploring Pandora, a faraway moon with powerful resources, by transferring his consciousness into an alien-hybrid body.
Why to watch: How did we allow people to claim that two of the biggest and most affecting spectacles ever made have left no cultural footprint?
Let the ignoramuses dwell in their insistent misery: the Avatar movies are awe-inspiring escapes the likes of which will only be topped by their successors. There’s a reason it led to Post-Avatar Depression Syndrome.
24. The Sound of Music
- Genre: Musical, Drama
- Year: 1965
- Cast: Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer
- Director: Robert Wise
- Runtime: 2 hours 54 minutes
What it’s about: Maria, an aspiring nun, is hired as a governess to look after a widower’s seven children. It isn’t long before she’s part of the family, but their lives are upended by the Nazi regime.
Why to watch: The Sound of Music is beyond anything we could say. It’s one of the most famous movies ever made, no matter where you are in the world.
Just watch the opening four minutes: the camera drifts across Salzburg’s mountainous, cloudy landscape and floats into the vibrant hills – and, as Julie Andrews starts singing, there’s no doubt that they’re alive.
23. Gosford Park
- Genre: Drama, Mystery
- Year: 2001
- Cast: Maggie Smith, Michael Gambon, Kristin Scott Thomas
- Director: Robert Altman
- Runtime: 2 hours 17 minutes
What it’s about: In 1930s England, Sir William McCordle gathers his friends and other rich and famous people for a shooting party at his country estate. However, they all become suspects when a murder takes place.
Why to watch: The idea of a new Robert Altman movie being a box office success in 2025 is (depressingly) laughable. It’s a testament to Gosford Park, a wickedly funny, perceptive mystery that directly led to Downton Abbey, that it made nearly $90 million at the turn of the millennium.
22. The Banshees of Inisherin
- Genre: Drama, Comedy
- Year: 2022
- Cast: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Kerry Condon
- Director: Martin McDonagh
- Runtime: 1 hour 54 minutes
What it’s about: On a remote island off the coast of Ireland, Pádraic struggles to accept his best friend telling him that he “just doesn’t like him no more.” He tries to mend their relationship, but they may be too far gone.
Why to watch: Always beautiful, sharply and irresistibly funny, and often bleak, with one of Martin McDonagh’s greatest scripts. It’ll make you crave a pint of Guinness more than any other film, so make sure you have some in your fridge… or else, “there goes that dream”.
21. Logan
- Genre: Action, Drama
- Year: 2017
- Cast: Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Dafne Keen
- Director: James Mangold
- Runtime: 2 hours 17 minutes
What it’s about: In a world where mutants are nearly extinct, Logan leads a quiet life driving a limo and caring for Professor X. However, he’s forced to become the Wolverine once more when he meets a young girl with extraordinary abilities.
Why to watch: A bold and bloody neo-Western against a backdrop of decaying, corporately tooled superheroes; if Logan was the genre’s last-ever film, there could be no greater finale. It’s the Wolverine movie fans always wanted. “So, this is what it feels like.”
20. Starship Troopers
- Genre: Sci-fi, Action
- Year: 1997
- Cast: Casper Van Dien, Denise Richards, Dina Meyer
- Director: Paul Verhoeven
- Runtime: 2 hours 9 minutes
What it’s about: Johnny Rico enlists in the United Citizen Federation’s infantry unit, “doing his part” alongside his friends to fight the Arachnid alien threat against humanity.
Why to watch: Starship Troopers is a blatant (and brilliant) satire of America’s military-industrial complex; against, not aligned, and you’d have to be a clown to think otherwise.
It just happens to be directed by RoboCop’s Paul Verhoeven, an architect of glorious violence and misunderstood characters.
19. Soul
- Genre: Animation, Drama, Family
- Year: 2020
- Cast: Jamie Foxx, Tina Fey, Graham Norton
- Director: Pete Docter, Kemp Powers
- Runtime: 1 hour 41 minutes
What it’s about: Joe, a music teacher with dreams of becoming a professional jazz pianist, falls down a manhole. He’s transported out of his body into another realm, where he desperately tries to find his way home.
Why to watch: A balm for the soul as much as it is a wrecking ball, this is the most sneakily devastating movie in Pixar’s entire filmography. It came and went quietly in the middle of the COVID pandemic, so you may have missed it.
Be warned: as gorgeous and amusing as it is, it’s profoundly moving, and you’ll be a soggy-eyed mess by the end. Also, it may not be on the same level as The Graham Norton Show’s funniest moments, but the talk show host has a great role.
18. True Lies
- Genre: Action, Comedy
- Year: 1994
- Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Arnold
- Director: James Cameron
- Runtime: 2 hours 21 minutes
What it’s about: As far as his wife knows, Harry is a mild-mannered computer salesman – but he’s actually a secret agent. As he tries to track down missing nuclear warheads, his personal and work lives collide.
Why to watch: True Lies is James Cameron’s take on a James Bond movie. It’s every bit as explosive, exciting, and funny as that would suggest, and you could argue it has Arnold Schwarzenegger’s most underrated performance. Yes, there’s also that scene with Jamie Lee Curtis.
17. Sunshine
- Genre: Sci-fi, Thriller
- Year: 2007
- Cast: Cillian Murphy, Rose Byrne, Chris Evans
- Director: Danny Boyle
- Runtime: 1 hour 47 minutes
What it’s about: In a not-too-distant future, the Sun is dying. With Earth facing a second Ice Age, a brave team of astronauts embarks on a mission to reignite the star.
Why to watch: Sunshine defies Icarus’ fable by seeing the unseeable, with Danny Boyle creating some of the most awe-inspiring images committed to film.
It also has an extraordinary pre-A-list cast, and that’s before we get to John Murphy’s ‘Adagio in D Minor’, perhaps the most powerful piece of movie music ever composed. “What do you see?”
16. Mrs Doubtfire
- Genre: Comedy, Drama
- Year: 1993
- Cast: Robin Williams, Sally Field, Pierce Brosnan
- Director: Chris Columbus
- Runtime: 2 hours
What it’s about: Daniel, an irresponsible voice actor, comes up with a plan to see his kids after his wife asks for a divorce: he poses as an elderly female housekeeper.
Why to watch: Surely they must have known that Mrs Doubtfire would become an all-timer. You have Robin Williams in what may be his defining theatrical role, Sally Field as his heartbreaking foil, Pierce Brosnan, and, most importantly, it says the exact right thing by the end. It’s a film for all ages, forever.
15. Man on Fire
- Genre: Action, Thriller
- Year: 2004
- Cast: Denzel Washington, Dakota Fanning, Christopher Walken
- Director: Tony Scott
- Runtime: 2 hours 26 minutes
What it’s about: A former CIA officer is hired by a wealthy family in Mexico to protect their daughter, Pita, amid a spate of brutal kidnappings. When she’s taken, Creasy promises to do whatever he can to find her – no matter how much blood he needs to shed.
Why to watch: Man on Fire, a violent, exhilarating revenge movie, is Tony Scott and Denzel Washington at their berserk best. Some will say it’s too disorientating (parts were shot with hand-cranked cameras) – they’re weak and don’t deserve cinema like this.
14. Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy
- Genre: Action, Sci-Fi
- Year: 2014–2023
- Cast: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldaña, Dave Bautista
- Director: James Gunn
- Runtime: 6 hours 48 minutes
What it’s about: Peter Quill, aka Star-Lord, travels the universe with unlikely allies who become his closest friends. The Avengers look after Earth, but the Guardians protect the galaxy.
Why to watch: For all the MCU’s peaks and troughs, only one trilogy has kept us hooked on a feeling: Guardians of the Galaxy.
Even now, it was the franchise’s biggest gamble, but it’s proof of what Marvel can accomplish when it’s uncompromised. It’s a cohesive trilogy (emotionally and plot-wise) that sticks the landing.
13. Heat
- Genre: Crime, Thriller
- Year: 1995
- Cast: Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Val Kilmer
- Director: Michael Mann
- Runtime: 2 hours 50 minutes
What it’s about: Neil McCauley, the leader of a group of bank robbers who’ve never been caught, plans one last job that will allow him to retire. There’s just one problem: LAPD detective Vincent Hanna is determined to stop him.
Why to watch: Heat is the definitive cops-and-robbers epic: a slick, brutal, and soulful action movie that set a gold standard for cinematic gunplay.
But there’s something deeper beneath the bullets: two men bound by obsession, chasing purpose in a world that only makes sense when they’re on opposite sides.
12. Finding Nemo
- Genre: Animation, Family
- Year: 2003
- Cast: Albert Brooks, Ellen DeGeneres, Alexander Gould
- Director: Andrew Stanton
- Runtime: 1 hour 40 minutes
What it’s about: When Nemo swims out beyond the reef to prove himself, he’s abducted by a scuba diver. Marlin, his overprotective father, vows to find him – and he meets Dory, a forgetful fish, along the way.
Why to watch: There’s a moment near the (devastating) start of Finding Nemo where Thomas Newman’s piano creeps in, the harsh moonlight on the rippling water turns to sun, and it feels like the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen. It does this multiple times; it’s just a bonus that it has Albert Brooks voicing a fish.
11. The Star Wars movies
- Genre: Sci-fi, Acton
- Year: 1977 – present
- Cast: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Ewan McGregor, Daisy Ridley
- Directors: George Lucas, Irvin Kershner, Richard Marquand, J.J. Abrams, Rian Johnson
- Runtime: 20 hours 30 minutes
What it’s about: In a galaxy far, far away, the light (good) and dark (evil) sides clash in a decades-long story, starting with Luke Skywalker discovering his destiny as a powerful Jedi.
Why to watch: How do you pick just one Star Wars movie? You could have valid arguments for almost every entry, whether it’s the spellbinding 1977 original, The Empire Strikes Back and its historic twist, the operatic intensity of Revenge of the Sith, or The Last Jedi’s breathtaking, provocative approach to the lore.
They deserve to be bundled together (Attack of the Clones is rubbish, though, so we’re sorry whenever you have to endure that).
10. Lilo and Stitch
- Genre: Animation, Family
- Year: 2002
- Cast: Daveigh Chase, Chris Sanders, Tia Carrere, Ving Rhames
- Director: Chris Sanders, Dean DeBlois
- Runtime: 1 hour 25 minutes
What it’s about: Lilo, a young orphan in Hawaii, makes an unexpected friend: Stitch, a feisty blue alien on the run from the United Galactic Federation.
Why to watch: Lilo and Stitch is arguably Disney’s greatest post-millennium success; if you walk into any of its stores, Stitch plushies are everywhere, and its live-action remake made over $1 billion.
It’s all wholly deserved, because the original is a fun, charming, and richly animated classic. Also, ‘Hawaiian Rollercoaster Ride’ is the best Disney song – talk to the wall!
9. Little Miss Sunshine
- Genre: Comedy, Drama
- Year: 2006
- Cast: Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Abigail Breslin, Alan Arkin, Greg Kinnear, Paul Dano
- Director: Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris
- Runtime: 1 hour 41 minutes
What it’s about: When Olive decides to compete in a beauty pageant, her family embarks on a hectic cross-country trip across the US in a camper van.
Why to watch: Little Miss Sunshine is a delight; an uplifting, dark (but not too dark), and grin-stretchingly outrageous road trip comedy with one of the finest ensemble casts of the aughts. If there are only winners and losers, this is definitely one of the former.
8. Avengers: Infinity War & Endgame
- Genre: Superhero, Action
- Year: 2018, 2019
- Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Josh Brolin
- Director: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo
- Runtime: 5 hours 31 minutes
What it’s about: Thanos vows to balance the universe; in other words, use the Infinity Stones to wipe out half of all living things in the universe. It’s up to the Avengers to stop him, a mission that will change them (and the world) forever.
Why to watch: Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame altered the gravity of pop culture. Across five-and-a-half hours of some of the most rousing superhero filmmaking put to screen, the Marvel Cinematic Universe reached an unassailable peak.
It’ll never see those heights again, but that’s okay; you can just relive that moment with Thor’s hammer.
7. Titanic
- Genre: Romance, Drama
- Year: 1997
- Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet
- Director: James Cameron
- Runtime: 3 hours 15 minutes
What it’s about: Jack, a poor artist, wins a ticket to board the Titanic, where he meets (and falls in love with) Rose, who’s already agreed to marry another man.
Why to watch: Titanic has a claim to the “best blockbuster of all time” crown; after all, it made James Cameron the king of the box office world.
How can you not be swept up by Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet’s chemistry, James Horner’s score, and its devastating inevitability? It’s one of the biggest movies ever made, in budget, scale, and legacy; its heart (and ours) will go on.
6. The Devil Wears Prada
- Genre: Comedy, Drama
- Year: 2006
- Cast: Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt
- Director: David Frankel
- Runtime: 1 hour 49 minutes
What it’s about: Andy, a young aspiring journalist, lands a job as an assistant to Miranda Priestly, New York’s scariest and most demanding fashion editor.
Why to watch: What is a “perfect movie”? Is it a film that’s immaculate in every facet of its being, or is it something that’s so irresistibly entertaining that you could watch it again, again, and again?
The Devil Wears Prada is among the best examples of the latter. Anne Hathaway is fantastic, Emily Blunt is hilarious, the costuming is divine, it’s paced to perfection, and it may be Meryl Streep’s career-defining performance.
5. Jaws
- Genre: Thriller, Horror
- Year: 1975
- Cast: Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss
- Director: Steven Spielberg
- Runtime: 2 hours 4 minutes
What it’s about: After a young woman is killed by a shark, Amity Island’s police chief Martin Brody teams up with a marine biologist and a local fisherman to find and kill it.
Why to watch: What is there to say about Jaws that hasn’t already been said? After all, it’s rightly lauded as one of the best films ever made; remarkable, considering it was only Steven Spielberg’s fourth feature film. It began the New Testament of blockbuster cinema, and decades on, it’s still worthy of worship.
4. Alien
- Genre: Sci-fi, Horror
- Year: 1979
- Cast: Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, John Hurt
- Director: Ridley Scott
- Runtime: 1 hour 56 minutes
What it’s about: When the crew of the Nostromo respond to a transmission on a faraway moon, things go terribly wrong, pitting them against a dangerous alien life form.
Why to watch: Alien is a true all-timer; an immersive, brooding, viscerally invasive space opera that birthed the most iconic monster in the history of cinema and one of its great heroines.
3. Rye Lane
- Genre: Romance, Comedy
- Year: 2023
- Cast: David Jonsson, Vivian Oparah
- Director: Raine Allen-Miller
- Runtime: 1 hour 22 minutes
What it’s about: Yas and Dom, two newly single twenty-somethings reeling from bad break-ups, have a chance encounter and end up spending an unusual day walking around South London.
Why to watch: Rye Lane is the best rom-com of the past 10 years; grin-inducing, achingly earnest, and wonderfully performed by two perfect leads.
It’s indebted to the Before trilogy’s winning walk-and-talk-in-a-day, but this still feels original and, best of all, vividly alive. It’s also the best film on BBC iPlayer, if you’re looking for something to watch on another platform.
2. The Lion King
- Genre: Animation, Drama
- Year: 1994
- Cast: Matthew Broderick, Jeremy Irons, James Earl Jones
- Director: Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff
- Runtime: 1 hour 28 minutes
What it’s about: Simba, a lion cub destined to rule over the animal kingdom, is forced to leave his life behind after an unexpected tragedy. Years later, he returns to face off against his Uncle Scar.
Why to watch: Likening a children’s animated film to Shakespeare may seem like a gross overestimation. However, The Lion King is literally inspired by Hamlet – and, dare we say it, it’s rightly the play’s most popular adaptation.
This is a film that defined (and continues to define) a studio’s quality. Magnificent visuals, soul-tingling music, and quite simply one of the best animated films of all time.
1. The Toy Story movies
- Genre: Animation
- Year: 1995 – present
- Cast: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack
- Director: John Lasseter, Lee Unkrich, Josh Cooley
- Runtime: 6 hours 20 minutes
What it’s about: In a world where toys come alive when their owners aren’t looking, Woody is forced to befriend Buzz, Andy’s new favourite plaything. Over four movies, they go on bonkers, emotional adventures together.
Why to watch: Toy Story may be the most iconic franchise in the entire Disney canon. Not only did the first film revolutionise animated filmmaking, but they are all brilliant and beloved.
Don’t just take our word for it, either: Quentin Tarantino said the first three movies make up one of the greatest trilogies ever made, and the only reason he hasn’t watched the fourth is because he cherishes the memory.
That’s a shame, because the fourth – against all odds, including this writer’s scepticism – is a wonderful, touching epilogue. Or so we thought: Toy Story 5 is coming out next year!
Read more: The best series on Disney Plus to stream right now
