The Best Movies of 1994, Ranked by Tomatometer

Pulp Fiction and The Shawshank Redemption celebrates their 30th anniversaries! You can cast votes for your favorites in our 1994 movie showdown!

We’re ranking the best-reviewed and most popular movies of 1994! It was a banner year for film, including the full-throated arrival of the American independent scene with Clerks breaking through and Pulp Fiction‘s nomination for Best Picture, the apex of the Disney Renaissance with The Lion King, and the release of The Shawshank Redemption, an easy argument for most beloved movie of the past 30 years.

There are three tiers to our ranking of the best movies of 1994. The first are Certified Fresh movies — films that reached a 75% Tomatometer score from at least 40 reviews. Besides everything mentioned in the opening paragraph, 1994 Certified Fresh movies include the Keanu Reeves/Sandra Bullock thriller Speed, Gillian Armstrong’s adaptation of Little Women, Tim Burton’s biopic of Ed Wood, and The Professional with prime scary Gary Oldman.

The next batch of movies are Fresh films with a positive Audience Score, including Studio Ghibli‘s Pom Poko, James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s last collaboration True Lies, John Waters’ twisted suburban satire Serial Mom, and Dumb & Dumber, co-starring Jim Carrey who was deep in his strong ’90s run (The Mask of this same year is Certified Fresh).

Following the Fresh movies are Rotten movies with strong Audience Scores. These are films that general crowds have propped up as some enduring favorites, including Stargate (which launched a sci-fi media franchise), Norman Jewison’s rom-com Only You, the controversial Natural Born Killers, and the bizarre Martin Short/Charles Grodin cult comedy Clifford.

Forrest Gump won the Academy Award for Best Picture, beating Four Weddings and a Funeral, Pulp Fiction, Quiz Show, and Shawshank. The top 10 grossing movies were led by Lion King with over $300 million, followed by Gump, True Lies, The Santa Clause, The Flintstones (with its Rotten Tomatometer and negative Audience Score, it’s the only movie here not to appear on this best-of guide), Clear and Present Danger, Speed, The Mask, Interview with the Vampire, and Maverick.