This is neither the first nor last list of its type, though its important to note that the judgement of a movie’s rewatchability is about as subjective as it comes. There may be movies on this list that you don’t like or have never seen, but trust us when we say that those who like these movies REALLY like them, so why not dig on our list of The 12 Most Rewatchable Movies of All-Time in the gallery below!
What makes a movie rewatchable? It has to have characters you love spending time with, like revisiting old friends. It has to have dialogue you quote all the time, even when it’s not appropriate. Most importantly it has to be a movie that is, front-to-back, delightful in a way that only those group of actors and filmmakers at the time could have delivered. These may not be the best movies of all-time, but damn if you can’t stop watching them whenever you pass them by on TV.
That said, we understand there are other movies you might find more rewatchable than these, and we want you to let us know about them in the comments sections below!
From The Dark Knight to Singin’ in the Rain, here are our most rewatchable movies!
The 12 Most Rewatchable Movies of All-Time
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The Dark Knight (2008)
Christopher Nolan built on the gritty foundation he laid in Batman Begins for this sequel that took the conventions of the superhero genre and turned them on its head. It presented a Bruce Wayne whose methods are suspect if not borderline fascist (tapping everyone in Gotham's cell phones for one) and a Joker whose anarchistic point of view held a certain degree of truth (his analogy about soldiers to Two-Face). It ends not with a slugfest or a beam shot into the sky but with a psychological test of wills. The Dark Knight represents the Bush era in all its morally murky glory, and contains a performance for the ages in Heath Ledger's Oscar-winning turn as Batman's arch villain. -
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)
As he did with this year's The Nice Guys, Shane Black once again subverted the detective movie tropes he loves with a liberal dose of his trademark quippy humor in his directorial debut Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. The chemistry between Val Kilmer (as a snappy gay private eye) and Robert Downey Jr. (as a thief who gets caught up in a murder case) is joyous, and its evident why this movie served as a career accelerator pad for Downey. -
The Big Lebowski (1998)
The Coen Brothers' LA neo noir screwball comedy casts Jeff Bridges in the role he was born to play: A laid-back pothead thrust into the center of a mystery involving a kidnapped girl, some missing money and a stolen rug. The cast is sterling (Julianne Moore, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, John Turturro, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Sam Elliot) and the f-word-laden dialogue is about as quotable as anything ever made. Although not a hit on release, its gone on to inspire a cult that includes the annual Lebowskifest. Goodman's bittersweet final moment with the dude for the scattering of Donny's ashes still gets us every time. -
Goodfellas (1990)
Martin Scorsese's breezy, fast-paced mob epic spans decades but is told with such wit and precision that the 2+ hours practically feels like a 30-second commercial. Joe Pesci's violent-but-funny turn as well as Robert De Niro's subtle performance were both rightly praised, but the glue holding it all together is Ray Liotta, whose brilliantly-detached/sardonic narration keeps even the most brutal, painful moments in cosmic perspective. -
The Princess Bride (1987)
Rob Reiner's adaptation of William Goldman's novel about the fairy tale love between a princess and a pirate is simultaneously romantic, funny and nuanced in a way much larger-scale fantasies fail to achieve. Andre the Giant is especially charming in his biggest (no pun intended) screen role, and Cary Elwes brings a Douglas Fairbanks/Errol Flynn quality to the lead that pretty much no one else of that era could. -
Withnail & I (1987)
Writer/director Bruce Robinson's semi-autobiographical film is known as one of the most compulsively rewatched films in the UK, there's even a documentary about its cult appeal on the Criterion edition DVD. A kind of British version of Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, it concerns two part-time actors and full-time alcoholics who head out for a holiday retreat to the countryside. Richard E. Grant's Withnail is an astounding manic performance of great depth, and the plotless nature of the story contributes to its rewatchability. -
Back to the Future (1985)
A textbook lesson in Swiss watch screenwriting, Back to the Future is a seemingly terrible idea (a young kid travels back in time and has to stop his mom from wanting to have sex with him) executed so flawlessly that it boggles the mind. Christopher Lloyd's iconic turn as wacky inventor Doc Brown is brilliant character building, and his friendship with Michael J. Fox's Marty is the beating heart at the center of the entire trilogy. -
Caddyshack (1980)
Between Bill Murray's lunatic groundskeeper, Chevy Chase's deadpan playboy and Rodney Dangerfield's endless zingers, it's no wonder that Caddyshack has become less a film than a comedy institution over the years. Essentially a revolving door series of skits played out against the backdrop of a country club golf course, Harold Ramis managed to wrangle the talent involved enough to form a shambolic film that's uproariously funny. -
The Shining (1980)
As the documentary Room 237 proved, there is a whole group of obsessives who love nothing more than to rewatch and dissect every enigmatic inch of Stanley Kubrick's take on Stephen King's beloved novel. The obsession is valid, as the movie's puzzlebox nature constantly rewards new details and ideas upon each successive viewing, and whether its a cartoon on a TV that's not plugged in or Jack Nicholson staring into a mirror every time he talks to a ghost, these details make The Shining scarier upon each successive viewing. -
Star Wars (1977)
There's very little left to be said about George Lucas's sci-fi fantasy masterpiece, except that the movie (and its subsequent sequels) pretty much invented double-digit in-theater viewings for the baby boomer generation and beyond. The effects still hold up pretty good, but its the Joseph Campbell-style mythmaking that's at the heart of Star Wars' durability. -
Jaws (1975)
To quote singer Joe Jackson, "the giant rubber shark really made a mark," but it was the chemistry and camaraderie of lead Richard Dreyfus and the late Robert Shaw and Roy Scheider that gave the movie its bite. Steven Spielberg proved himself not only a master of suspense and spectacle but also at character building, something he has yet to lose. -
Singin' in the Rain (1952)
Gene Kelly & co. pretty much invented the essence of camp with this ridiculously fun musical about the advent of sound in motion pictures. The title number is just as invigorating and wonderful and always, but let's not forget Donald O'Connor's "Make 'Em Laugh" either, as it's physical comedy at its peak.
