100 Best Musical Movies of All Time
The Wizard of Oz celebrates its 85th anniversary, just as Wicked hits theaters!
If you’ve got a song in your heart, we’ve got a list for your eyes: The best-reviewed musicals from Wizard of Oz to La La Land! With Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights finally making the leap from Broadway to screen, we’ve put together 100 showstoppers that’s all-singing, all-dancing!
Every expression of the musical movie is present in this cavalcade of the 100 best-reviewed: the classics (All That Jazz, The Sound of Music), the mostly moderns (La La Land, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, Mary Poppins Returns), the MGMs (Singin’ in the Rain, An American in Paris), the Astaire & Rogers (Top Hat, Swing Time), intimate indies (Once, Dancer in the Dark), and stuff for the kids (Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang). We kept this countdown to live-action musicals, so nothing animated except for the partially so, like Mary Poppins.
And we picked movies where people break into song and dance, not ones where they just perform music; in other words, Crazy Heart, Bohemian Rhapsody, and the 2018 A Star Is Born don’t work for this list, but the Judy Garland A Star Is Born does. Recently, we’ve added Wonka, The Color Purple, and Flora and Son. Then, we sorted all the movies by Tomatometer, with Certified Fresh films first.
And now it’s time for the big showstopper: The 100 Best Musical Movies of All Time!
#1
Adjusted Score: 113706%
Synopsis: A spoof of the turmoil that afflicted the movie industry in the late 1920s when movies went from silent to...
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#2
Adjusted Score: 107932%
Synopsis: The story centers on wealthy Dale Tremont (Ginger Rogers), on holiday in London and Venice. She assumes that American entertainer...
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#3
Adjusted Score: 111902%
Synopsis: "Meet Me in St. Louis" is a classic MGM romantic musical comedy that focuses on four sisters (one of whom...
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#4
Adjusted Score: 109489%
Synopsis: The original Broadway production of the award-winning musical that tells the story of Alexander Hamilton, first secretary of the treasury,...
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#5
Adjusted Score: 122259%
Synopsis: When a tornado rips through Kansas, Dorothy (Judy Garland) and her dog, Toto, are whisked away in their house to...
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#6
Adjusted Score: 110580%
Synopsis: The Beatles in their feature film debut, one of the greatest rock-and-roll comedy adventures ever. The film has a fully...
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#7
Adjusted Score: 102922%
Synopsis: Hollywood actor Norman Maine (James Mason) is a celebrity whose star is on the wane, but when he meets aspiring...
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#8
Adjusted Score: 103082%
Synopsis: Delphine (Catherine Deneuve) and Solange (Françoise Dorléac) are twin sisters who each want to find romance and leave their small...
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#9
Adjusted Score: 103156%
Synopsis: A vacuum repairman (Glen Hansard) moonlights as a street musician and hopes for his big break. One day a Czech...
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#10
Adjusted Score: 111099%
Synopsis: The Marx Brothers run amuck in the world of opera when Otis B. Driftwood (Groucho Marx) meets aspiring singer Ricardo...
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#11
Adjusted Score: 104845%
Synopsis: Geneviève (Catherine Deneuve), a beautiful young Frenchwoman who works at a small-town boutique selling umbrellas, falls for dashing mechanic Guy...
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#12
Adjusted Score: 103350%
Synopsis: When Jane (Karen Dotrice) and Michael (Matthew Garber), the children of the wealthy and uptight Banks family, are faced with...
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#13
Adjusted Score: 104232%
Synopsis: Walter, the world's biggest Muppet fan, is on vacation in Los Angeles with his brother Gary (Jason Segel) and Gary's...
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#14
Adjusted Score: 105245%
Synopsis: In 1985, a Dublin teenager (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) forms a rock 'n' roll band to win the heart of an aspiring...
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#15
Adjusted Score: 112069%
Synopsis: Jerry Mulligan (Gene Kelly) is an American ex-GI who stays in post-war Paris to become a painter, and falls for...
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#16
Adjusted Score: 96669%
Synopsis: The year is 1893 and India is under British occupation. In a small village, the tyrannical Captain Russell (Paul Blackthorne)...
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#17
Adjusted Score: 104213%
Synopsis: In this beloved musical, pompous phonetics professor Henry Higgins (Rex Harrison) is so sure of his abilities that he takes...
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#18
Adjusted Score: 113188%
Synopsis: The creator of "Hamilton" and the director of "Crazy Rich Asians" invite you to the event of the summer, where...
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#20
Adjusted Score: 101881%
Synopsis: In this bittersweet, classic musical drama, the vibrant and beautiful young Fanny Brice (Barbra Streisand) starts out as a bit...
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#21
Adjusted Score: 100641%
Synopsis: Banished by an evil queen, Princess Giselle (Amy Adams) from a fairy-tale world lands in modern Manhattan, where music, magic...
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#22
Adjusted Score: 101492%
Synopsis: Single mom Flora (Eve Hewson) is at a loss about what to do with her rebellious teenage son, Max (Orén...
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#23
Adjusted Score: 97704%
Synopsis: An extraordinary girl with a sharp mind and vivid imagination takes a daring stand to change her story -- with...
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#24
Adjusted Score: 100721%
Synopsis: In 1960s Baltimore, dance-loving teen Tracy Turnblad (Nikki Blonsky) auditions for a spot on "The Corny Collins Show" and wins....
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#25
Adjusted Score: 106432%
Synopsis: A musical in which a modern day Romeo and Juliet are involved in New York street gangs. On the harsh...
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#26
Adjusted Score: 95879%
Synopsis: A German emigrant living in a trailer in Kansas is the victim of a botched sex-change operation. Adapted from the...
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#27
Adjusted Score: 99023%
Synopsis: The last of five coveted "golden tickets" falls into the hands of a sweet but very poor boy. He and...
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#28
Adjusted Score: 111173%
Synopsis: Love at first sight strikes when young Tony spots Maria at a high school dance in 1957 New York City....
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#29
Adjusted Score: 114133%
Synopsis: Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) and Mia (Emma Stone) are drawn together by their common desire to do what they love. But...
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#30
Adjusted Score: 97188%
Synopsis: A would-be music promoter (Chris O'Dowd) sees something special in a girl group of four Australian singers and takes them...
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#31
Adjusted Score: 96098%
Synopsis: Meek flower shop assistant Seymour (Rick Moranis) pines for co-worker Audrey (Ellen Greene). During a total eclipse, he discovers an...
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#32
Adjusted Score: 94699%
Synopsis: Decades after his apprentice betrays him, a once joyful toymaker finds new hope when his bright young granddaughter appears on...
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#33
Adjusted Score: 100893%
Synopsis: In this award-winning adaptation of the Broadway musical based on the Charles Dickens novel, 9-year-old orphan Oliver Twist (Mark Lester)...
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#34
Adjusted Score: 97325%
Synopsis: In Berlin in 1931, American cabaret singer Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli) meets British academic Brian Roberts (Michael York), who is...
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#35
Adjusted Score: 94088%
Synopsis: The lives of the Victorian Era operatic composers Gilbert and Sullivan. Takes place during the original composition of the 1884...
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#36
Adjusted Score: 91135%
Synopsis: Davy and Ally have to relearn how to live in Edinburgh after serving in Afghanistan....
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#37
Adjusted Score: 112288%
Synopsis: Wicked, the untold story of the witches of Oz, stars Emmy, Grammy and Tony winning powerhouse Cynthia Erivo (Harriet, Broadway's...
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#38
Adjusted Score: 110390%
Synopsis: Young Reginald Dwight changes his name to Elton John and collaborates with singer-songwriter Bernie Taupin to become one of the...
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#39
Adjusted Score: 102610%
Synopsis: Javed is a Pakistani teenager who experiences racial and economic turmoil while living in Luton, England, in 1987. He writes...
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#40
Adjusted Score: 92209%
Synopsis: Two mermaid sisters become caught in a love triangle when they fall for the same man....
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#41
Adjusted Score: 93946%
Synopsis: After Kermit the Frog decides to pursue a movie career, he starts his cross-country trip from Florida to California. Along...
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#42
Adjusted Score: 100247%
Synopsis: Gaston (Louis Jourdan) is a restless Parisian playboy who moves from one mistress to another, while also spending time with...
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#43
Adjusted Score: 99877%
Synopsis: Lorelei Lee (Marilyn Monroe) is a beautiful showgirl engaged to be married to the wealthy Gus Esmond (Tommy Noonan), much...
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#44
Adjusted Score: 92251%
Synopsis: Dispatched on an assignment, New York City-based fashion photographer Dick Avery (Fred Astaire) is struck by the beauty of Jo...
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#45
Adjusted Score: 98094%
Synopsis: Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner Lin-Manuel Miranda makes his feature directorial debut with tick, tick...BOOM!, an adaptation of the...
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#46
Adjusted Score: 91273%
Synopsis: When he is not planning for his upcoming stage musical or working on his Hollywood film, choreographer/director Joe Gideon (Roy...
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#47
Adjusted Score: 96218%
Synopsis: Nightclub sensation Velma (Catherine Zeta-Jones) murders her philandering husband, and Chicago's slickest lawyer, Billy Flynn (Richard Gere), is set to...
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#48
Adjusted Score: 95396%
Synopsis: Evil Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman) lusts for the beautiful wife of a London barber (Johnny Depp) and transports him to...
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#49
Adjusted Score: 97700%
Synopsis: Award-winning director Joe Wright envelops moviegoers in a symphony of emotions with music, romance, and beauty in Cyrano, re-imagining the...
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#50
Adjusted Score: 91717%
Synopsis: Based on the beloved Roald Dahl tale, this comedic and fantastical film follows young Charlie Bucket (Freddie Highmore) and his...
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#51
Adjusted Score: 93353%
Synopsis: A tuneful, heartwarming story, it is based on the real life story of the Von Trapp Family singers, one of...
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#52
Adjusted Score: 89068%
Synopsis: In New York City for the first time while on his way to enlist in the U.S. Army during the...
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#53
Adjusted Score: 100651%
Synopsis: Based on the extraordinary character at the center of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl’s most iconic children's book...
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#54
Adjusted Score: 88942%
Synopsis: The girlfriend (Teyonah Parris) of a Chicago gang leader (Nick Cannon) persuades other frustrated women to abstain from sex until...
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#55
Adjusted Score: 89350%
Synopsis: After record producer Swan (Paul Williams) steals the music of songwriter Winslow Leach (William Finley) and gives it to one...
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#56
Adjusted Score: 95319%
Synopsis: A story of love and resilience based on the novel and the Broadway musical, THE COLOR PURPLE is a decades-spanning...
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#57
Adjusted Score: 90127%
Synopsis: A lavishly produced and critically acclaimed screen adaptation of the international stage sensation tells the life-affirming story of Tevye (Topol),...
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#58
Adjusted Score: 89411%
Synopsis: Dominic Badguy (Ricky Gervais), the Muppets' new manager, convinces the gang to embark on a world tour. Kermit the Frog...
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#59
Adjusted Score: 85186%
Synopsis: In this cult classic, sweethearts Brad (Barry Bostwick) and Janet (Susan Sarandon), stuck with a flat tire during a storm,...
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#60
Adjusted Score: 95123%
Synopsis: In 1979 young Donna, Tanya and Rosie graduate from Oxford University -- leaving Donna free to embark on a series...
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#61
Adjusted Score: 100182%
Synopsis: Now an adult with three children, bank teller Michael Banks learns that his house will be repossessed in five days...
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#62
Adjusted Score: 87603%
Synopsis: Deena (Beyoncé Knowles),Effie (Jennifer Hudson) and Lorrell (Anika Noni Rose) form a music trio called the Dreamettes. When ambitious manager...
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#63
Adjusted Score: 82855%
Synopsis: At an isolated mansion in the snowy countryside of 1950s France, a family is gathered for the holiday season. But...
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#64
Adjusted Score: 82044%
Synopsis: In this experimental musical set in 1930s Winnipeg, Canada, amputee baroness Lady Port-Huntley (Isabella Rossellini) organizes a competition offering $25,000...
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#65
Adjusted Score: 81558%
Synopsis: The Muppets perform the classic Dickens holiday tale, with Kermit the Frog playing Bob Cratchit, the put-upon clerk of stingy...
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#66
Adjusted Score: 81872%
Synopsis: Frustrated with babysitting on yet another weekend night, Sarah (Jennifer Connelly), a teenager with an active imagination, summons the Goblins...
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#67
Adjusted Score: 79510%
Synopsis: The daughter of wealthy Manhattanites Joe (Woody Allen) and Steffi (Goldie Hawn), D.J. (Natasha Lyonne) has to contend with her...
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#68
Adjusted Score: 81057%
Synopsis: Two talented song and dance men (Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye) team up after the war to become one of...
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#69
Adjusted Score: 84843%
Synopsis: A celebration of love and creative inspiration takes place in the infamous, gaudy and glamorous Parisian nightclub, at the cusp...
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#70
Adjusted Score: 80785%
Synopsis: After his release from prison, Jake (John Belushi) reunites with his brother, Elwood (Dan Aykroyd) -- collectively known as the...
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#71
Adjusted Score: 101826%
Synopsis: Hoping to keep his financially unstable cafe in business, Henri (Jean Gabin) takes a trip to Monmartre, where he witnesses...
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#72
Adjusted Score: 100077%
Synopsis: Victoria Grant (Julie Andrews), a down-and-out British soprano, struggles to find work in the nightclubs of 1930s Paris. While trying...
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#73
Adjusted Score: 100171%
Synopsis: Former carnival performer Hubert Hawkins (Danny Kaye) and maid Jean (Glynis Johns) are assigned to protect the infant royal heir...
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#74
Adjusted Score: 99121%
Synopsis: When revered Broadway director Julian Marsh (Warner Baxter) falls on hard times with both his health and his finances, he...
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#75
Adjusted Score: 98368%
Synopsis: In an effort to keep his business, Hotel de Cocoanuts, from bankruptcy, owner Hammer (Groucho Marx) flatters and cajoles the...
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#76
Adjusted Score: 95409%
Synopsis: When Harold Hill, a traveling con man, arrives in River City, he convinces the locals to start a band by...
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#77
Adjusted Score: 98691%
Synopsis: Fun-loving sailors Gabey (Gene Kelly), Chip (Frank Sinatra) and Ozzie (Jules Munshin) have 24 hours of shore leave in New...
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#78
Adjusted Score: 97885%
Synopsis: Dexterous and risk-taking Lucky Garnett (Fred Astaire) pursues dancing and gambling with equal verve. Engaged to the pretty Margaret Watson...
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#79
Adjusted Score: 96653%
Synopsis: In this film adaptation of the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical, widowed Welsh mother Anna Loenowens (Deborah Kerr) becomes a governess...
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#80
Adjusted Score: 94154%
Synopsis: American sibling song-and-dance team Tom (Fred Astaire) and Ellen Bowen (Jane Powell) are in London in 1947, when all of...
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#81
Adjusted Score: 93765%
Synopsis: In this lavish musical, Broadway star Don Hewes' (Fred Astaire) dancing partner (Ann Miller) goes solo, and Don declares that...
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#82
Adjusted Score: 94306%
Synopsis: Gambler Nathan Detroit (Frank Sinatra) has few options for the location of his big craps game. Needing $1,000 to pay...
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#83
Adjusted Score: 95310%
Synopsis: Brought to the White House to receive a Congressional Gold Medal from President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Broadway legend George M....
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#84
Adjusted Score: 91769%
Synopsis: During the 1850s, Milly (Jane Powell), a pretty young cook, marries Adam (Howard Keel), a grizzled woodsman, after a brief...
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#85
Adjusted Score: 89738%
Synopsis: All musically gifted race-driver Lucky Jackson (Elvis Presley) wants in Las Vegas is to score enough money for a new...
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#86
Adjusted Score: 90037%
Synopsis: There's a box social coming up, and Curly (Gordon MacRae) asks Laurey (Shirley Jones) if she'll be his date. Trouble...
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#87
Adjusted Score: 89098%
Synopsis: When the draft selects rock star Conrad Birdie, his fans are devastated, but none more than struggling songwriter Albert Peterson...
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#88
Adjusted Score: 89324%
Synopsis: The stages of life are told through multiple sketches and songs by the British comedy troupe. The seven parts of...
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#89
Adjusted Score: 89183%
Synopsis: In the follow-up to their successful debut musical, "A Hard Day's Night," the Beatles once again offer up a melding...
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#90
Adjusted Score: 89483%
Synopsis: Father Charles O'Malley (Bing Crosby) is an easy-going, golf-playing young priest whose entry into a tough neighborhood parish in midtown...
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#91
Adjusted Score: 86765%
Synopsis: When Kermit the Frog and friends start a stage act, they decide to take the show from their college town...
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#92
Adjusted Score: 84764%
Synopsis: Nate Foster struggles to land roles in his middle school's drama productions while he fantasizes about becoming a Broadway star....
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#93
Adjusted Score: 85217%
Synopsis: This heavily stylized production with lip-synched musical numbers follows Arthur Parker (Steve Martin), a Depression-era sheet-music salesman with big dreams....
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#94
Adjusted Score: 84385%
Synopsis: Young men and women audition for coveted spots at the New York High School of Performing Arts. Those who make...
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#95
Adjusted Score: 80123%
Synopsis: Young people struggle to make accomplishments in their own way during the 1950s....
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#96
Adjusted Score: 82098%
Synopsis: Fat Sam (John Cassisi), Bugsy (Scott Baio) and Tallulah (Jodie Foster) are kids playing adults in Roaring '20s New York....
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#97
Adjusted Score: 78145%
Synopsis: Hsiao-Kang reunites with Shiang-chyi during a water shortage....
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#98
Adjusted Score: 79995%
Synopsis: In the second live-action Muppets film, intrepid journalists Kermit, Fozzie and Gonzo snag an assignment reporting on a British jewel...
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#99
Adjusted Score: 82100%
Synopsis: Young Jakie Rabinowitz (Bobby Gordon) loves jazz and ragtime, and wants to be a performer. But his father (Warner Oland)...
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#100
Adjusted Score: 77230%
Synopsis: Screen version of the musical "Carmen Jones," which adapted Bizet's opera Carmen for an African-American cast. A soldier falls for...
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