Movie Auditor › Rankings › 1989
Best Movies of 1989, Ranked by IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic and TMDB
97 films from 1989 are in our catalog; the 50 best are ranked below. Top of the list is Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade ('1989), at 8.2 on IMDb. The average IMDb score across this list is 7.3. Biggest split between audiences and critics: UHF, 6.9 on IMDb against 32 on Metacritic.
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| # | Movie | Genre | IMDb | Tomato | Meta | TMDB | Director |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade '1989 | Action | 8.2 | 84% | 65 | 7.9 | Steven Spielberg |
| 2 | Dead Poets Society '1989 | Drama | 8.1 | 85% | 79 | 8.3 | Peter Weir |
| 3 | Back to the Future Part II '1989 | Comedy / Sci-Fi | 7.8 | 63% | 57 | 7.8 | Robert Zemeckis |
| 4 | Kiki's Delivery Service '1989 | Animation / Fantasy | 7.8 | - | 85 | 7.8 | Hayao Miyazaki |
| 5 | Do the Right Thing '1989 | Drama | 7.9 | 92% | 93 | 7.8 | Spike Lee |
| 6 | When Harry Met Sally... '1989 | Comedy / Romance / Drama | 7.7 | 90% | 76 | 7.4 | Rob Reiner |
| 7 | Glory '1989 | Drama / War | 7.8 | 95% | 78 | 7.5 | Edward Zwick |
| 8 | The Little Mermaid '1989 | Animation / Fantasy | 7.6 | 92% | 88 | 7.4 | John Musker |
| 9 | Batman '1989 | Fantasy / Action / Crime | 7.5 | 77% | 69 | 7.2 | Tim Burton |
| 10 | My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown '1989 | Drama | 7.8 | 98% | 97 | 7.5 | Jim Sheridan |
| 11 | National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation '1989 | Comedy | 7.5 | 72% | 49 | 7.2 | Jeremiah S. Chechik |
| 12 | The Abyss '1989 | Thriller / Sci-Fi | 7.5 | 75% | 62 | 7.4 | James Cameron |
| 13 | Crimes and Misdemeanors '1989 | Comedy / Drama / Crime | 7.8 | 92% | 77 | 7.4 | Woody Allen |
| 14 | Field of Dreams '1989 | Drama / Fantasy | 7.5 | 88% | 57 | 7.1 | Phil Alden Robinson |
| 15 | The Killer '1989 | Action / Crime / Drama / Thriller | 7.7 | 96% | 82 | 7.6 | John Woo |
| 16 | Lethal Weapon 2 '1989 | Action / Thriller / Crime | 7.3 | 82% | 70 | 7.1 | Richard Donner |
| 17 | Driving Miss Daisy '1989 | Drama | 7.3 | 85% | 81 | 7.2 | Bruce Beresford |
| 18 | Say Anything... '1989 | Romance / Comedy / Drama | 7.3 | 98% | 86 | 7.0 | Cameron Crowe |
| 19 | Major League '1989 | Comedy | 7.3 | 83% | 62 | 6.9 | David S. Ward |
| 20 | The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover '1989 | Crime / Drama | 7.5 | 87% | 62 | 7.3 | Peter Greenaway |
| 21 | Born on the Fourth of July '1989 | Drama / War | 7.2 | 84% | 75 | 7.0 | Oliver Stone |
| 22 | Steel Magnolias '1989 | Drama / Comedy | 7.3 | 73% | 56 | 7.2 | Herbert Ross |
| 23 | Henry V '1989 | War / Drama | 7.5 | 98% | 83 | 7.1 | Kenneth Branagh |
| 24 | Mystery Train '1989 | Comedy | 7.5 | 89% | 80 | 7.3 | Jim Jarmusch |
| 25 | Heathers '1989 | Comedy / Crime | 7.1 | 95% | 72 | 7.2 | Michael Lehmann |
| 26 | Uncle Buck '1989 | Comedy / Drama | 7.1 | 61% | 51 | 6.8 | John Hughes |
| 27 | sex, lies, and videotape '1989 | Drama | 7.2 | 96% | 86 | 7.0 | Steven Soderbergh |
| 28 | Roger & Me '1989 | Documentary / Comedy | 7.5 | 100% | 70 | 7.1 | Michael Moore |
| 29 | Santa Sangre '1989 | Horror / Drama / Thriller | 7.4 | 88% | - | 7.2 | Alejandro Jodorowsky |
| 30 | Drugstore Cowboy '1989 | Drama / Crime | 7.2 | 94% | 82 | 7.1 | Gus Van Sant |
| 31 | The Seventh Continent '1989 | Drama | 7.6 | 67% | 89 | 7.5 | Michael Haneke |
| 32 | Parenthood '1989 | Comedy / Drama | 7.1 | 92% | 82 | 6.7 | Ron Howard |
| 33 | Lean On Me '1989 | Drama | 7.4 | 71% | 58 | 7.3 | John G. Avildsen |
| 34 | Casualties of War '1989 | Drama / War | 7.1 | 82% | 75 | 7.2 | Brian De Palma |
| 35 | Knick Knack '1989 | Animation / Comedy | 7.4 | - | - | 7.0 | John Lasseter |
| 36 | Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure '1989 | Comedy / Sci-Fi | 6.9 | 83% | 50 | 6.8 | Stephen Herek |
| 37 | The War of the Roses '1989 | Comedy / Drama | 6.9 | 84% | 80 | 6.9 | Danny DeVito |
| 38 | See No Evil, Hear No Evil '1989 | Comedy / Crime | 6.9 | 29% | 44 | 6.8 | Arthur Hiller |
| 39 | UHF '1989 | Comedy | 6.9 | 64% | 32 | 6.7 | Jay Levey |
| 40 | Violent Cop '1989 | Crime / Thriller / Action / Drama | 7.1 | 83% | - | 7.2 | Takeshi Kitano |
| 41 | The 'Burbs '1989 | Comedy / Horror / Thriller | 6.8 | 57% | 45 | 6.8 | Joe Dante |
| 42 | Tetsuo: The Iron Man '1989 | Horror / Sci-Fi | 6.9 | 78% | - | 7.0 | Shinya Tsukamoto |
| 43 | The Fabulous Baker Boys '1989 | Comedy / Drama / Musical / Romance | 6.9 | 97% | 85 | 6.6 | Steve Kloves |
| 44 | Valmont '1989 | Drama / Romance | 7.0 | 50% | 55 | 6.7 | Miloš Forman |
| 45 | All Dogs Go to Heaven '1989 | Drama / Animation / Comedy / Fantasy | 6.8 | 46% | 50 | 6.8 | Don Bluth |
| 46 | Sea of Love '1989 | Crime / Drama / Romance | 6.8 | 76% | 66 | 6.6 | Harold Becker |
| 47 | Dead Calm '1989 | Thriller / Drama / Horror | 6.8 | 84% | 70 | 6.6 | Phillip Noyce |
| 48 | Miracle Mile '1989 | Sci-Fi / Thriller / Comedy / Romance | 7.0 | 91% | - | 6.8 | Steve De Jarnatt |
| 49 | The Gods Must Be Crazy II '1989 | Action / Comedy | 6.8 | 50% | 51 | 7.1 | Jamie Uys |
| 50 | Licence to Kill '1989 | Action / Thriller | 6.7 | 79% | 58 | 6.4 | John Glen |
Our catalog covers roughly the 8,800 most-rated films on TMDB, so lesser-known titles may be missing. Order uses a confidence-weighted IMDb score so a perfect score from a handful of votes does not beat a well-established classic; the scores shown are the raw ones.
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