700Stanley

(Photo by Warner Bros/courtesy Everett Collection)

Eyes Wide Shut celebrates its 25th anniversary!

Stanley Kubrick is one of the most influential directors in movie history, working across a remarkable number of genres. He began with noirs like The Killing and Fear and Desire, before moving to big blockbuster filmmaking in Spartacus. Paths of Glory and Dr. Strangelove take very different viewpoints on war. And the end-of-the-’60s’ 2001: A Space Odyssey remains his opus, and still casts a looming shadow over movies today. Meanwhile, adaptations of A Clockwork Orange and The Shining are dark masterpieces. And now we celebrate a legend of film as we rank all Stanley Kubrick movies by Tomatometer! —Alex Vo

#1

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Adjusted Score: 108964%

Critics Consensus: Stanley Kubrick’s brilliant Cold War satire remains as funny and razor-sharp today as it was in 1964.

Synopsis: A film about what could happen if the wrong person pushed the wrong button — and it played the situation… [More]

#2

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Adjusted Score: 107415%

Critics Consensus: Paths of Glory is a transcendentally humane war movie from Stanley Kubrick, with impressive, protracted battle sequences and a knock-out ending.

Synopsis: During World War I, commanding officer General Broulard (Adolphe Menjou) orders his subordinate, General Mireau (George Macready), to attack a… [More]

#3

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Adjusted Score: 102943%

Critics Consensus: An expertly crafted noir with more on its mind than stylishly staged violence, The Killing establishes Stanley Kubrick as a filmmaker of uncommon vision and control.

Synopsis: Career criminal Johnny Clay (Sterling Hayden) recruits a sharpshooter (Timothy Carey), a crooked police officer (Ted de Corsia), a bartender… [More]

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#4

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Adjusted Score: 101895%

Critics Consensus: Featuring terrific performances and epic action, Kubrick’s restored swords-and-sandals epic is a true classic.

Synopsis: The rebellious Thracian Spartacus, born and raised a slave, is sold to Gladiator trainer Batiatus. After weeks of being trained… [More]

#5

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Adjusted Score: 107670%

Critics Consensus: One of the most influential of all sci-fi films — and one of the most controversial — Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 is a delicate, poetic meditation on the ingenuity — and folly — of mankind.

Synopsis: An imposing black structure provides a connection between the past and the future in this enigmatic adaptation of a short… [More]

#6

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Adjusted Score: 95978%

Critics Consensus: Kubrick’s Lolita adapts its seemingly unadaptable source material with a sly comedic touch and a sterling performance by James Mason that transforms the controversial novel into something refreshingly new without sacrificing its essential edge.

Synopsis: With a screenplay penned by the author himself, Stanley Kubrick brings Vladimir Nabokov’s controversial tale of forbidden love to the… [More]

#7

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Adjusted Score: 97971%

Critics Consensus: Intense, tightly constructed, and darkly comic at times, Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket may not boast the most original of themes, but it is exceedingly effective at communicating them.

Synopsis: Stanley Kubrick’s take on the Vietnam War follows smart-aleck Private Davis (Matthew Modine), quickly christened “Joker” by his foul-mouthed drill… [More]

#8

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Adjusted Score: 96586%

Critics Consensus: Cynical, ironic, and suffused with seductive natural lighting, Barry Lyndon is a complex character piece of a hapless man doomed by Georgian society.

Synopsis: How does an Irish lad without prospects become part of 18th-century English nobility? For Barry Lyndon (Ryan O’Neal) the answer… [More]

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#9

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Adjusted Score: 96004%

Critics Consensus: Disturbing and thought-provoking, A Clockwork Orange is a cold, dystopian nightmare with a very dark sense of humor.

Synopsis: In an England of the future, Alex (Malcolm McDowell) and his “Droogs” spend their nights getting high at the Korova… [More]

#10

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Adjusted Score: 94584%

Critics Consensus: Though it deviates from Stephen King’s novel, Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining is a chilling, often baroque journey into madness — exemplified by an unforgettable turn from Jack Nicholson.

Synopsis: Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) becomes winter caretaker at the isolated Overlook Hotel in Colorado, hoping to cure his writer’s block…. [More]

#11

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Adjusted Score: 84283%

Critics Consensus: Kubrick’s intense study of the human psyche yields an impressive cinematic work.

Synopsis: After Dr. Bill Hartford’s (Tom Cruise) wife, Alice (Nicole Kidman), admits to having sexual fantasies about a man she met,… [More]

#12

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Adjusted Score: 85893%

Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.

Synopsis: Davey Gordon (Jamie Smith), a New York City boxer aging out of his profession, meets dancer Gloria Price (Irene Kane),… [More]

#13

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Adjusted Score: 71879%

Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.

Synopsis: Four soldiers must confront their fears and desires behind enemy lines…. [More]

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