The 50 best movies of all time, according to critics

marlon brando the godfather

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 established classics.

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 over time, we turned to the reviews aggregator Metacritic for this ranking, 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."

Here are the 50 best movies of all time, according to the critics on Metacritic:

50. "Pulp Fiction" (1994)

Critic score: 94/100

User score: 9.1/10

Plot summary: "The lives of two mob hitmen, a boxer, a gangster's wife, and a pair of diner bandits intertwine in four tales of violence and redemption."

49. "The Manchurian Candidate" (1962)

Critic score: 94/100

User score: 8.3/10

Plot summary: "A former prisoner of war is brainwashed as an unwitting assassin for an international Communist conspiracy."

48. "Taxi Driver" (1976)

Critic score: 94/100

User score: 7.0/10

Plot summary: "A mentally unstable veteran works as a nighttime taxi driver in New York City, where the perceived decadence and sleaze fuels his urge for violent action, while attempting to liberate a twelve-year-old prostitute."

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