The review-aggregation website reviews movies and television shows and averages them, creating the percentages for the Tomatometer (critics score) and the Audience Score. If you’ve been feeling let down from recent movie or television viewings, Rotten Tomatoes is a great way to see what viewers think about any given movie or television show.
There is, of course, a list of movies with 100% on the Tomatometer. From the 1940s to today, here are ten movies with 100% ratings that might just be worth your time.
Pinocchio (1940)
Based on The Adventures of Pinocchio, written by Carlo Collodi in 1883, Pinocchio is a classic Walt Disney movie that became the first animated feature to win a competitive Academy Award. In 1941, Pinocchio became the first Disney film to win an Academy Award for Best Original Score and Best Original Song.
Following the traditional tale, Italian woodcarver Geppetto wishes that a wooden puppet he carved would become a real boy. After the Blue fairy brings the puppet to life, Pinocchio must prove himself to be “brave, truthful, and unselfish” in order to become a real boy.
As Pinocchio navigates learning right from wrong with the help of his conscience, aka Jiminy Cricket, he interacts with various characters whose behavior quickly demonstrates the consequences of one’s actions.
The Philadelphia Story (1940)
Starring movie icons Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, James Stewart, and John Howard, The Philadelphia Story, is a romantic comedy following socialite Tracy Lord (Hepburn) as she navigates her feelings for three different men. The men include C.K. Dexter Haven (Grant,) Lord’s ex-husband, George Kittredge (Howard,) Lord’s fiance, and Macaulay Connor (Stewart,) a reporter.
After romantic (and comedic) mishaps along the way, Lord must decide who she ultimately wants to be with.
The Philadelphia Story won an Academy Award for Best Screenplay and was inducted into the National Film Registry in 1995.
12 Angry Men (1957)
Adapted from the 1954 teleplay 12 Angry Men, the 1957 movie of the same name is a courtroom drama about 12 jurors deliberating whether or not the teenage defendant is, without a doubt, guilty of murder.
Finding him guilty would send him to the electric chair. The verdict must be unanimous, and the jurors are forced to navigate the difficulties of coming to an agreement when there are so many differing and conflicting personalities at play.
12 Angry Men was nominated for three Academy Awards in 1958, and although it didn’t win, it was recognized by the National Board of Review in 1957 as one of nine “Top Ten Films.” The movie also won Best Written Drama in 1958 at the Writers Guild of America Awards and was selected for preservation by the National Film Registry in 2007.
Toy Story (1995)
One of the most famous Pixar movies, it’s no surprise that Toy Story has 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. The animated film follows young boy Andy’s secretly living toys, primarily new toy Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) and classic favorite toy Woody (Tom Hanks), as they embark on a wild adventure.
After falling out of the car and getting left behind by Andy’s family, Buzz and Woody have to find their way home while trying to escape the grips of Sid, Andy’s troubled next-door neighbor.
In 2005, Toy Story was added to the National Film Registry after being deemed “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.” The National Film Registry said, “This film changed animation’s face and delivery system as the first full-length animated feature created entirely by artists using computer tools and technology. Andy’s current toys must learn to live with his new favorite playmate, ‘to infinity and beyond,’ galactic superhero Buzz Lightyear.”
Toy Story 2 (1999)
In the second of soon-to-be five installments of the Toy Story franchise, Toy Story 2 revolves around Buzz Lightyear enlisting the help of Andy’s other toys to rescue Woody from toy collector Al McWhiggin.
As the toys find clues that lead them to Woody’s location, Woody has to decide whether he wants to return to his old life or be brought to a museum in Japan with his new toy friends, Jessie, Bullseye, and Stinky Pete.
The gang faces many obstacles on their wild adventure to save a friend.
Toy Story 2 has been nominated for and won several awards, including a Golden Globe in 2000 for Best Picture- Musical or Comedy. It was recognized by the American Film Institute in 2003 for Buzz Lightyear being a nominated hero in 100 Heroes and Villains, in 2004 for the nominated song “When She Loved Me” on the “100 Years…100 Songs” list, and in 2008 nominated for AFI’s 10 Top 10 list for Animated Film.
Man On Wire (2008)
This documentary film, directed by James Marsh, tells the story of Philippe Petit, a French high-wire artist who walked on wire 1350 feet in the air between The Twin Towers of New York City’s World Trade Center in 1974
Man On Wire is based on Petit’s book To Reach the Clouds, published in 2002. Petit’s story is told through a combination of real footage, photographs, reenactments, and present-day interviews.
In 2008, Man On Wire won the Grand Jury Prize: World Cinema Documentary and the World Cinema Audience Award: Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival. It also won an Academy Award for Best Documentary at the 2009 Oscars, as well as a BAFTA for Outstanding British Film.
Leave No Trace (2018)
Based on My Abandonment, a 2009 film based on a true story novel by Peter Rock, Leave No Trace is a drama about Will (Ben Foster) and Tom, Will’s daughter (Thomasin McKenzie), who live remotely in the forest near Portland, Oregon.
The two have to stick together to find a new home after authorities are alerted to Tom’s living conditions and isolation.
Leave No Trace has won several awards, some of which include Breakthrough Performance and Top Ten Independent Films by the National Board of Review, as well as Best Director by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.
Minding the Gap (2018)
Directed by Bing Liu, this documentary film follows three skateboarding friends, Bing Liu, Keire Johnson, and Zack Mulligan. With documentary footage spanning over a decade, audiences witness the three men growing in their own ways while experiencing fatherhood, abuse, racism, and alcoholism.
Minding the Gap premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2018 and won the U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Filmmaking. It was also named one of the Top Documentaries by the National Board of Review, won a Peabody Award and New York Film Critics Circle award for Best Non-Fiction Film, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
Honeyland (2019)
Honeyland is a documentary directed by Ljubo Stefanov and Tamara Kotevska, filmed in North Macedonia, a country in southeastern Europe. The documentary follows Hatidze Muratova, of Turkish descent, one of the last female wild beekeepers in Europe, as she tries to repair the disturbed natural balance a family of beekeepers caused.
The documentary chronicles three years and 400 hours of footage as it explores topics including climate change, the exploitation of natural resources, and a mother-daughter dynamic.
Honeyland won the American Society of Cinematographers Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Documentary, Best Non-Fiction film by the National Society of Film Critics, and New York Film Critics Circle Awards. It also won three awards at the Sundance Film Festival.
His House (2020)
His House is a horror thriller film following Rial (Wunmi Mosaku), Bol (Sope Dirisu), and their daughter Nyagak’s (Malaika Abigaba) escape from South Sudan during wartime. The family faces stormy waters across the English Channel and trouble assimilating to English culture.
As Bol attempts to assimilate, Rial struggles to do so, clinging to her culture. The couple begins to face strange and frightening occurrences and must survive the evil in their house.
The director, Remi Weekes, won a British Independent Film Award, as did Mosaku for Best Performance by an Actress. His House also won a British Independent Film Award for Best Effects and Best Production Design and a British Academy Film Award for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director, or Producer.
These are just 10 of a long list of movies with 100% ratings. From a Studio Ghibli movie to a documentary about Musa Hadid, former Palestinian mayor, and the first movie of the franchise, The Terminator, the list goes on and on and is filled with diverse films and documentaries that have a 100% rating for a reason!
What 100% rating movie are you going to watch first?