48 Hrs.
Jack Cates (Nick Nolte), a gruff alcoholic detective, springs smart-mouthed convict Reggie Hammond (Eddie Murphy) from jail for 48 hours to help him find a cop killer. Reggie knows who the guy is, because he's his former partner in crime. Jack and Reggie get along like oil and water at first, verbally dissin' each other and even engaging in an alleyway fistfight. But gradually they warm to one another and become a good team while tracking the suspect.

About a Boy
Based on the best-selling novel by High Fidelity author Nick Hornby, About a Boy tells the story of a shallow, wealthy man (Hugh Grant) in his mid-30s who begins dating single mothers because they'll be momentarily grateful for the insincere "love," and thus easier to dump down the road. But his plan hits a snag when he unexpectedly falls for his latest target and becomes a father figure to her 12-year-old son.

Adam's Rib
Lawyer Amanda Bonner (Katherine Hepburn) takes on the difficult case after a woman shoots her husband after finding him with another woman. Complicating the trial for Bonner is the fact that the opposing attorney is her own husband (Spencer Tracy).

Airplane!
When the crew of a jumbo jet is knocked out, it's up to a shell-shocked ex-pilot and a stewardess to get the plane to the ground safely. Back at the airport, a flight controller regrets going clean and sober once the stress of the impending crash sets in.

American Graffiti
Curt Henderson (Richard Dreyfuss) and Steve Bolander (Ron Howard) play two high-school buddies in Northern California, circa 1962. They've just graduated and have one last night to hang out with their friends before heading off to college back east.

American Pie
Jim (Jason Biggs), Kevin (Thomas Ian Nicholas), Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas), and Oz (Chris Klein) are four high-school seniors looking to lose their virginity by the end of prom night. They make a pact, each vowing to get it on before the evening's over. While trying to woo a variety of girls, the boys learn about their friendship and growing up.

Annie Hall
Jewish comedy writer and stand-up comedian Alvy Singer (Woody Allen) meets neurotic Annie Hall (Diane Keaton) and the two hit it off and begin a relationship. When Annie gets a chance to move from Manhattan to Los Angeles to pursue a singing career, she does so, leading to the eventual end of their relationship. In between, Alvy muses on love, death, and Jewish life.

The Apartment
A clerk at a large corporation (Jack Lemmon) climbs the business ladder by lending out his apartment to his bosses for extramarital flings. But when he falls for an elevator operator (Shirley MacLaine) who turns out to be his boss's mistress, things get complicated.

Arthur
Dudley Moore plays the title character, a very rich, happy-go-lucky drunk whose fortune will be taken away if he doesn't marry a woman of a certain social status. When he falls for a poor waitress (Liza Minnelli), he must make the choice between money and love.

Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery
In 1969, Dr. Evil (Mike Myers) escapes a fight with British superagent Austin Powers (Mike Myers) by launching himself into space, where he's cryogenically frozen. Austin counters this move by freezing himself, too, in the hopes of battling Dr. Evil in the future. Thirty years later, both men are defrosted. But a lot has changed over the years, and the two rivals find that the life they lived in the '60s no longer exists.

Back to the Future
Director Robert Zemeckis scored a huge hit with 1985's Back to the Future, which stars Michael J. Fox as the ever-so-slightly nerdy but still popular high-school student Marty McFly. Marty befriends an eccentric scientist (Christopher Lloyd) and is given the opportunity to travel back in time in a souped-up DeLorean. Marty heads back to the 1950s, where he meets his parents (Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover). But the very act of meeting them changes the course of history, and Marty realizes that unless he can get things back to normal, he'll cease to exist.

Beverly Hills Cop
Eddie Murphy plays Axel Foley, a Detroit cop who travels from his blue-collar hometown to posh Beverly Hills to investigate the murder of his best friend and manages to antagonize the by-the-book detectives (Judge Reinhold, John Ashton) assigned to assist him.

Big
Thirteen-year-old computer nerd Josh Haskin suddenly finds himself as an adult (Tom Hanks). With the help of his best friend, Billy, he parlays his computer expertise into a full-time job at a toy company.

Breakfast at Tiffany's
Based on Truman Capote's novella, Breakfast at Tiffany's opens with a young socialite (Audrey Hepburn) shopping at Tiffany's in New York City in the wee hours, following a "date." She's secretly a call girl and is running messages for the mob on the side, plus she has a past life as a housewife who abandoned her family. She meets a young writer (George Pepard) on the day he moves into her apartment building and discovers he's also being paid for services by a wealthy older woman. The two become friends as they search for their true identities.

Bullets Over Broadway
Set in 1929, Woody Allen's Bullets Over Broadway stars John Cusack as a playwright who agrees to cast a mobster's girlfriend in a lead role to secure financing for his work. Sent along to watch the proceedings is a bodyguard named Cheech (Chazz Palminteri), who sits in on rehearsals and watches the actors struggle with bad dialogue. Though he's not a playwright, Cheech begins making suggestions for improvement.

Caddyshack
A young caddy competes in a golf tournament in order to win a scholarship in this sports comedy from director Harold Ramis. Meanwhile, a trio of rich men (Chevy Chase, Rodney Dangerfield, Ted Knight) place their bets and a strange groundskeeper (Bill Murray) battles a gopher.

Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
DR. STRANGELOVE OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB is Stanley Kubrick's Cold War masterpiece. Based on the novel RED ALERT by Peter George, the film is set at the height of the tensions between Russia and the United States, when all it would take to destroy the world was one push of a button. And General Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) is just the man to do it.

Convinced that the Russians have infiltrated America's "vital essence," the crazed Ripper gives the go code to the 843rd bomb wing to attack Russia, setting in motion a series of darkly hilarious vignettes involving gung-ho soldiers, wacky generals, spying Russians, drunken premiers, battles with soda machines, fights in the War Room, and the Russians' top-secret Doomsday Machine. Shot in black and white, the film has three main centers of action: one of the B-52 bombers, on which a group of loyal men know they are about to start World War III; Burpelson Air Force Base, where Group Captain Lionel Mandrake (Peter Sellers) is trying to convince everyone that Ripper has gone mad and the bombing must be stopped; and the War Room, where President Merkin Muffley (Sellers again) is trying to make peace with the Russians. The finale featuring Sellers as Dr. Strangelove is a comic gem. Hayden, George C. Scott, Slim Pickens, Keenan Wynn, and Sellers (in three roles) are especially terrific in what may be the funniest, most poignant black comedy ever made, a vicious satire on the farcical aspects of the military and the cold war.

Election
Reese Witherspoon stars as perky Tracy Flick in Election. She's an ambitious-to-a-fault high-school student running for class president, much to the chagrin of her teacher, Jim McCallister (Matthew Broderick), who's had so much of Tracy's goodie-goodie antics that he attempts to sabotage her campaign.

Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Based on the book (and script) by Cameron Crowe — who spent a year undercover at a California high school getting all the dirty details and specific slang of teen life just right — the story follows several characters: good guy Brad (Judge Reinhold), who loses his girl, his job, and his dignity (thanks to a no-knocking knockout famously played by Phoebe Cates); shy nerdy Rat, who has the hots for new girl Stacey (Jennifer Jason Leigh); and the slimy ticket scalper Damone. But at the center is surfer dude Jeff Spicoli (Sean Penn), the class stoner, who's always having run-ins with his history teacher, Mr. Hand (Ray Walston).

Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Illinois high-schooler Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick) doesn't play by the rules. He makes his own and does what he pleases. Everyone at school loves him, especially his recently-depressed best friend Cameron (Alan Ruck). One day, Ferris devises the ultimate fake-sick day, and gets away with it, because Ferris, to the ire of his sister (Jennifer Grey), leads a charmed life. He, his girlfriend (Mia Sara), and Cameron head to Chicago in Cameron's father's prized Ferrari. The trio take in all the Windy City has to offer, including art walks, lunch, a parade, and a Cubs game, all the while Principal Ed Rooney (Jeffrey Jones) tries to catch Ferris playing hooky.

Fletch
While working on a story about the Los Angeles Police Department and the drug trade, a newspaper reporter (Chevy Chase) goes undercover on the beaches of Santa Monica, where he's approached by a businessman looking to take out a contract on his own life.

Ghostbusters
Three scientists (Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis) find themselves laid off from their university research jobs. They decide to set up shop in an old firehouse and open a business tracking, capturing, and disposing of ghosts, specters, poltergeists, and other supernatural pests. Soon their business is booming, but the Ghostbusters are challenged when they discover that a gateway to another dimension is about to open, releasing a very powerful, very evil demon.

The Graduate
New college grad Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) is seduced by family friend Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft), who is old enough to be his mother. Shortly thereafter, Benjamin is encouraged by his parents and Mr. Robinson to date the Robinsons' daughter, Elaine.

Groundhog Day
Phil Connors, a sarcastic Pittsburgh weatherman (Bill Murray), reluctantly travels to Punxsutawney, Penn., with his producer (Andie McDowell) and his cameraman (Chris Elliot) to cover the Groundhog Day festivities. The day turns out to be one of the worst of his life, but his nightmare has just begun: He wakes up the next morning to discover that it's Groundhog Day again. The same thing happens the next day and the next day and the day after that. Phil realizes he's stuck in time and it's driving him crazy. No matter what he tries, including suicide, his day begins anew. But by repeating the day, Phil learns from his mistakes and uses the unique opportunity to make the moves on the lovely Rita, his producer.

Harold and Maude
Harold (Bud Cort) is a depressed 20-year-old with a penchant for faking his own death and hanging out at funerals. When he meets 80-year-old Maude, a woman who shares his fascination with death but not his gloomy nature, an odd friendship is formed.

His Girl Friday
Chicago newspaper editor Walter Burns (Cary Grant) learns one morning that his ex-wife Hildy (Rosalind Russell), who's still his star reporter, is remarrying the next day and plans to quit the biz. But Burns is a schemer with a sharp wit and a silver tongue, and he manages to concoct untrue stories about her fiancé, a boring insurance salesman, while trying to sucker Hildy into covering one more story.

It Happened One Night
Ellie Andrews (Claudette Colbert) marries wealthy aviator King Westley (Jameson Thomas), to the dismay of her controlling father (Walter Connolly). Ellie runs away, hoping to return to her husband, but on a bus bound for New York, she meets an out-of-work newspaper reporter who offers her a choice: Either she sticks with him until he gets her back to her husband, or he'll blow the whistle on Ellie to her father. Either way, the reporter gets what (he thinks!) he wants

The Jerk
Navin Johnson (Steve Martin) might just be the stupidest man alive. Example: He's a white guy raised by a black family, and has no idea he's adopted. But somehow, over the course of his life, a series of crazy inventions make him rich, and lead him to fall in love with a beautiful motorcycle racer.

L.A. Story
Harris K. Tellemacher (Steve Martin) is an unlucky-in-love Los Angeles weatherman who just wants to find a date. He gets romantic advice from an unlikely source: an electronic billboard.

Lost in Translation
The second feature film from writer-director Sofia Coppola (The Virgin Suicides) is set in Tokyo, where two bored, melancholy Americans — a fading movie star (Bill Murray) shooting an ad for Suntory whiskey and a young married woman (Scarlett Johansson) with an ambitious, neglectful husband (Giovanni Ribisi) — become fast friends after meeting in a hotel bar. The two spend an adventure-filled week together taking in the sights and getting to know each other.

Manhattan
In Woody Allen's Manhattan, 42-year-old New Yorker Isaac (Allen) begins dating a high-school girl (Mariel Hemingway) during the fallout from his previous marriage to Jill (Meryl Streep), who has moved in with a woman and penned a best-selling tell-all book about her relationship with him. Meanwhile, Isaac's best friend, Yale (Michael Murphy), is having an affair with Mary (Diane Keaton), whom Isaac also finds strangely compelling.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Seminal British sketch comedy troupe Monty Python takes on the legend of King Arthur in its second film together. Graham Chapman plays the king, with the rest of the crew (John Cleese, Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones) portraying all manner of characters, from the famous Knights Who Say "Ni!" to the Black Knight to the Self-Abusing Monks, and many, many more.

Monty Python's Life of Brian
Taking place in Galilee more than 2,000 years ago, the Monty Python religious satire Life of Brian follows Brian, a hapless guy who keeps getting mistaken for a messiah. He teams up with a radical anti-Roman sect and tries to avoid his growing mass of followers. Ultimately unsuccessful, he's sentenced to crucifixion by Pontius Pilate (who sports an Elmer Fudd speech impediment).

The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!
In this zany comedy, L.A. cop Lt. Frank Drebin nearly destroys the world several times over (while trying to save it) as he uncovers an insidious plot to assassinate the Queen of England during an L.A. Dodgers game.

National Lampoon's Animal House
National Lampoon's classic frat-house flick, Animal House, features John Belushi's most famous performance and still stands as the first true gross-out comedy. The plot centers on the Delta house, the worst frat on the campus of Faber University, at least in the eyes of the school's strict Dean Wormer. For everyone else, it's party central. Wormer invokes a "double secret probation" in hopes of kicking the members of Delta off campus, but the beer-addled crew fights back with a slew of gags, toga parties, and other mayhem.

Old School
Three former college buddies (Luke Wilson, Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn), now in their 30s, are unhappy with their lives and try to find fulfillment by reliving their college glory days. The three move into a house not far from their old college campus and start their own fraternity, where parties rage, anything goes, and there are no university frat rules.

The Philadelphia Story
Socialite Tracy Lord (Katharine Hepburn) is about to get remarried in a private ceremony, but her ex-husband (Cary Grant), is blackmailed into sneaking a tabloid reporter (James Stewart) in to cover the event.

The Pink Panther
Bumbling French Inspector Clouseau (Sellers) tries to track down "The Phantom," a renowned jewel thief hiding at a ski resort in Switzerland.

Pretty Woman
A wealthy, ruthless businessman (Richard Gere) who is in Los Angeles closing a deal gets lost on Hollywood Boulevard and asks a prostitute (Julia Roberts) for directions. He gets more than he bargained for (literally) after he takes a liking to her and asks if she'll spend the week with him. She agrees and spends the time being wined and dined, but her profession could stand in the way of a long-term relationship.

The Producers
In Mel Brooks' classic 1968 farce, his directorial debut, Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder (the latter also making his debut) star as Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom. Bialystock is a past-his-prime producer who swindles elderly ladies out of their money. Bloom is an ambitious auditor whose book-checking inspires Bialystock: He'll launch an intentionally terrible production (titled Springtime for Hitler), pre-sell a load of tickets and make off with the cash when the show bombs and closes after one night.

Raising Arizona
A policewoman (Holly Hunter) falls for a convenience-store robber (Nicolas Cage) while she's taking his mug shot, and after he's released from prison, they get married. Both are disappointed, however, to learn that they can't have children. When they read a report in a local paper about a furniture-store owner who's had quintuplets, the two would-be parents hatch a scheme to kidnap one of the newborns.

Rushmore
Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman compete mano a mano for the affections of Olivia Williams in director Wes Anderson's coming-of-age comedy Rushmore. Schwartzman plays Max Fischer, an ambitious yet strangely unsuccessful student in danger of flunking out of school. Murray is Mr. Blume, a businessman and alumnus of Max's school who is suffering through a midlife crisis. When they meet a young, attractive teacher (Williams), they both develop a dangerous crush.

Sabrina
Sabrina (Audrey Hepburn), a chauffeur's daughter, falls hopelessly in love with David (William Holden), the son of a rich Long Island man her father works for. To forget her heartbreak, Sabrina travels to Paris, and while there, she meets a baron who helps transform her into a sophisticated woman. Upon Sabrina's return to New York, David becomes enchanted with her, but his older brother has already arranged for him to marry a wealthy woman in order to seal a business deal.

Sleepless in Seattle
Tom Hanks plays Sam Baldwin, a depressed widower whose son calls a national radio talk show in hopes of finding a new mother for himself and a new wife for his father. Thousands of single women across the country listen to Sam's sad story, and many respond, including Annie Reed (Meg Ryan), a Baltimore writer who's already engaged. But she can't get Sam's voice out of her mind. As fate would have it, however, the two never can find a way to meet, even as both crisscross the country. The film, directed by Nora Ephron (When Harry Met Sally …), has similarities to the Cary Grant-Deborah Kerr classic An Affair to Remember and was one of the most popular romantic comedies of the 1990s.

Some Like It Hot
Two Chicago musicians (Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis) accidentally witness the 1929 St. Valentine's Day Massacre and decide to dress in drag to join an all-girl orchestra and flee town. Aboard a train bound for Miami, Joe (Curtis), a k a "Josephine," falls for the group's lead singer, Sugar Kane (Marilyn Monroe), who's searching for a millionaire. Joe takes the cue, claiming to be an oil heir who owns a yacht, a boat that actually belongs to a married man (Joe E. Brown) making the moves on Jerry (Lemmon), a k a "Daphne," while the gangsters descend on Miami.

There's Something About Mary
Ben Stiller plays Ted, a likable loser who still pines for his first true love, Mary (Cameron Diaz) — even though the pair's prom date years earlier was particularly embarrassing and painful for Ted and was over before it began. We fast-forward several years to find Ted hiring Pat Healy (Matt Dillon), a sleazy private investigator, to find Mary. When he does, Pat falls for Mary, who's somehow still single, and Ted worries he's blown his chance with her again.

This Is Spinal Tap
This mockumentary about a British hair band trying to make it big in the U.S.A. has become a cult classic at college campuses across the country. Led by lanky lead singer David St. Hubbins (Michael McLean), sensitive co-lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest), and lead bass player Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer), Spinal Tap embarks on a comeback tour supporting their controversial 12th album, Smell the Glove. The band's ups and downs are chronicled by rockumentary auteur Marty DiBergi (Rob Reiner). The film, which was written (and also ad-libbed) by McKean, Guest, Shearer, and Reiner, also features Billy Crystal, Anjelica Huston, Bruno Kirby, and Paul Shaffer.

Tootsie
Dustin Hoffman plays Michael Dorsey, a frustrated, often-unemployed New York City actor with a reputation for being difficult. Out of work and entirely desperate, he dresses in drag and auditions for a female part on a soap opera. Surprisingly, he not only gets the role but also becomes an overnight sensation. Things get complicated, though, when he falls for his co-star (Jessica Lange).

When Harry Met Sally …
Harry (Billy Crystal) and Sally (Meg Ryan) first meet on a post-college road trip and keep bumping into each other over the years. There's an attraction, but there's also playful bickering and both wonder if they aren't better off being buds. But after they sleep together, everything changes. Her best friend (Carrie Fisher) and his best friend (Bruno Kirby) watch it all unfold and try to offer advice.

Young Frankenstein
Young Frankenstein is Mel Brooks' spoof of the classic Mary Shelly tale and focuses on Frederick Frankenstein (Gene Wilder) and his effort to resume experiments in reanimation pioneered by his late grandfather.