The 8 Best Movies of 1996, Ranked

1996 had aliens, a prison island, a phone call you shouldn't answer and a pregnant cop in the snow. The movie.guru score ranked them. Blame the math.

#1 is the bleakest movie here, and it still beat Fargo.

1. 8
   Sleepers (1996)7.1

   Critics shrugged, audiences didn't, and the cast explains why.

   Metacritic 49 against an IMDb 7.5 from 259,766 voters. De Niro, Hoffman and Bacon hold up a heavy story the script keeps fumbling. Guru's Take: 6.4.
2. 7
   Independence Day (1996)7.1

   Dumbest plot on this list. Also the most fun.

   A laptop takes down an alien mothership and nobody blinks. Still pulled $817.4M worldwide on a reported $75M budget, with an A CinemaScore. Goldblum typing saved Earth.
3. 6
   Primal Fear (1996)7.6

   Courtroom popcorn that audiences love way more than critics.

   Audiences beat 93% of movies, critics just 46%. Richard Gere coasts on charm while Laura Linney does the real lifting. Metacritic 47 says the script is thinner than the twist.
4. 5
   The Rock (1996)7.6

   Sean Connery drags Nicolas Cage across this movie, and it works.

   $335M worldwide on a reported $75M, A CinemaScore. Ed Harris gives the villain an actual conscience, which is more depth than the plot gives anyone else.
5. 4
   Scream (1996)7.6

   Ranked too low. It rebooted a whole genre on pocket change.

   Wes Craven turned a reported $14M to $15M budget into $173M worldwide. Guru's Take is 8.2, beating Jerry Maguire's 7.6 one spot up. The math blinked first.
6. 3
   Jerry Maguire (1996)8.1

   Cuba Gooding Jr. is the movie. Tom Cruise is the paperwork.

   Critics beat 79%, audiences 81%, rare agreement. But IMDb sits at 7.3, below Sleepers, because everyone remembers three quotes and forgets the long middle.
7. 2
   Fargo (1996)8.7

   Best movie of 1996. Lost the top spot on a technicality.

   Rotten Tomatoes 95, Metacritic 88, Guru's Take 9.2, all on a reported $7M. Audiences only beat 80% with a B+ CinemaScore. That's the sole reason it's not #1.
8. 1
   Trainspotting (1996)9.5

   Grimmest #1 possible, and the data says it earned it.

   movie.guru score 9.5, audiences beat 98% of movies. Danny Boyle made addiction feel urgent, never glamorous. Then it grossed $17.8M worldwide, less than Sleepers made domestically.

$1,129 says someone in the comments types "Show me the money" before scrolling past #8.

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