It’s been 20 years since Julia Roberts stepped into the real-life shoes of Erin Brockovich, and won herself an Oscar for her critically acclaimed performance. And for more movies that critics loved, These Are the Top-Rated Movies on Rotten Tomatoes. High Fidelity was based on a 1995 novel by Nick Hornby. In addition to inspiring the John Cusack-led film, it was also adapted into a 2006 Broadway musical and a 2020 Hulu series starring Zoë Kravitz. Zoë Saldana made her film debut as part of a young and dextrous ensemble cast in Center Stage, a movie about aspiring ballet dancers that didn’t wow critics but did find an audience of adoring teen fans. Gladiator won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor for star Russell Crowe, but the film might be best remembered for Joaquin Phoenix’s Commodus saying, “It vexes me. I’m terribly vexed.” And for Oscar winners that have stood the test of time, here are 11 Academy Award Best Picture Winners That Still Hold Up. Cameron Crowe’s coming-of-age dramedy was set in the early 1970s, and now it’s also a time capsule of the year 2000, thanks in large part to young stars Patrick Fugit and Kate Hudson. Hot women dancing on a bar might not sound like high art, but Coyote Ugly was really a movie about female empowerment and friendship between women—or at least, an attempt was made. And for a longer walk down memory lane, revisit these 40 Movies Turning 40 This Year. Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was a huge crossover hit, especially at a time when foreign language films weren’t necessarily as likely to draw massive crowds. The film earned $213.5 million at the box office, and received the most ever Oscar nominations for a non-English language film until 2018’s Roma. The 2000 X-Men wasn’t the first superhero movie, but it certainly helped set the stage for the genre’s dominance of the last 20 years, introducing us to Patrick Stewart’s Professor X, Ian McKellen’s Magneto, and Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine in the process. And to find out what the critics thought of X-Men and all its sequels, check out Ranking Every Marvel Movie, From Worst Reviewed to Best. Every April 25, we celebrate Miss Congeniality, a movie that gave us an essential Sandra Bullock performance, but also the all-time greatest answer to, “describe your perfect date.“ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb If you want to feel old, take a look at Jamie Bell, who played the titular 11-year-old ballet aspirant: He’s now a 34-year-old father of two. And for more fun content delivered straight to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter. Twenty years before Netflix’s Cheer, there was Bring It On, in which the showdown between the Toros and the Clovers showed us just how intense cheerleading competitions could be. Based on the Michael Chabon novel, Wonder Boys has the distinction of featuring a romance between two future Marvel superheroes, Tobey Maguire (who played Spider-Man in the Sam Raimi trilogy) and Robert Downey Jr. (the MCU’s Iron Man). Over the course of five films—with a sixth on the horizon—death has gotten increasingly creative as a force to be reckoned with in the Final Destination series. The first movie, relatively simple in comparison, is still scary good fun. Depending on when you grew up, you have your favorite Angels, and children of the ’90s and early 2000s remain loyal to Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu, and Cameron Diaz thanks to this cinematic reboot of the TV series. With Scream 5 coming to theaters in 2022, Scream 3 is no longer the conclusion of a trilogy so much as one less-than-stellar stop in a series. Even so, we will never forget Parker Posey’s performance, Carrie Fisher’s cameo, and Courteney Cox’s abysmal bangs. Tom Hanks earned plenty of recognition (and an Oscar nod) for his performance as stranded FedEx employee in Cast Away, but the breakout star of the movie might have been his volleyball companion, Wilson. Christopher Guest’s mockumentaries don’t get much funnier than Best in Show, featuring the improvisational talents of Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara, Jennifer Coolidge, and Jane Lynch—not to mention a slew of well-trained dogs. A Chicken Run sequel is on the way, but it will be hard to top the heights of this Great Escape-inspired stop motion animation classic from Aardman Animations. The same year Scream 3 hit theaters, Scary Movie made its debut, mercilessly lampooning the Scream series and starting a franchise of its own. Some of the irreverent humor may not have aged well, but it still has its charms. A remake-ish of the 1974 film of the same name, Gone in 60 Seconds delivered fast-paced action and, well, not much else, according to critics. Still, it was hard not to be captivated by Angelina Jolie.
