10 Greatest Rob Reiner Movies, Ranked

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10 Greatest Rob Reiner Movies, Ranked

Rob Reiner made some of the most beloved American movies of the 1980s and '90s, including classics like Stand by Me, Misery, and This Is Spinal Tap.

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The passing of Rob Reiner was shocking news, and there isn't really any other way to put it. At the time of writing, details regarding what happened are minimal, but Reiner (78) and his wife, Michele Singer (68), were both found dead at their home. Reports have mentioned that the deaths were caused by stab wounds, suggesting a homicide. So, it's just awful.

Reiner did more than just direct movies, being recognized for his acting roles, too (like his starring role in the 1970s sitcom, All in the Family , and a memorable supporting role in 2013's The Wolf of Wall Street ), but his work as a filmmaker is what he'll likely be remembered most for. He even made a movie that came out in 2025, Spinal Tap II: The End Continues , which drives home just how long he was active for (but also suggests he would've remained active longer, had his tragic death not occurred so suddenly and horrifically). If there can be comfort taken from the work he's left behind (easier said than done, when feelings are still raw and details about the terrible event are still unknown), then these films stand the best chance; they're the ones Reiner will likely be most well-remembered for .

10. 'The Bucket List' (2007)

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A movie that mostly works because it stars both Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman , and the two can do very little wrong (so long as they have adequate screenplays to work with), The Bucket List is a gentle and not super memorable movie, but it's nice enough. It's just kind of pleasant, albeit in a bittersweet way, with a story about two old men forming an unlikely friendship and departing on a road trip together.

As the title suggests, they want to cross off things to do from their respective bucket lists, motivated further to do so by the idea that neither might be around for much longer. And that's where the bitter part of "bittersweet" comes in here, or the stuff that adds the "dram" to "dramedy," but The Bucket List works in the ways you'd expect it to. It does the job, and isn't really exceptional , but it's nice enough and deserves a spot in this particular ranking.

9. 'The American President' (1995)

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Before creating The West Wing , Aaron Sorkin wrote the screenplay for The American President , which is interesting to consider as a precursor of sorts to his more well-known American politics-related drama. Also, Martin Sheen is in both, but he doesn't play the titular role in The American President , with Michael Douglas instead playing the fictional president here: a man named Andrew Shepherd.

It's sort of a political drama, but it's also a romance film, with politics and the pursuit of a romantic partner being two things that don't mix, and ultimately lead to obstacles regarding approval ratings and all that for the president himself. The American President is a bit like The Bucket List , in that it's not remarkable or anything, but it is quite good for what it is , and proves to be an interesting (and peaceful, in hindsight) snapshot of what constituted political drama back in the mid-1990s.

8. 'Flipped' (2010)

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Another romance film (of sorts) directed by Rob Reiner, Flipped is about a young girl who has feelings for a young boy her age, but he doesn't feel quite the same way she does. The narrative here plays out over a few years, and things change, because that's just what happens when time passes, and the two lead characters start to feel differently.

It's a bit like another Reiner-directed movie about a certain someone named Harry meeting a certain someone named Sally , but less comedic, and the fact that this is a coming-of-age movie makes it reminiscent of another Rob Reiner film that'll be mentioned in a bit (from 1986). Flipped is charming and perhaps the last of the really strong films Rob Reiner ended up directing during his filmmaking career.

7. 'The Sure Thing' (1985)

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The most noteworthy hot streak of Rob Reiner's lasted between 1984 and 1992 , when the director made a bunch of movies across various genres that were all good, at worst, or genuine classics, at best. Between his 1984 debut and a certain courtroom drama from 1992, you can't really go wrong with Reiner, and of this batch of movies, the one that tends to get overlooked the most is The Sure Thing .

It's not a perfect movie, but it is better than you'd expect a mid-1980s rom-com to be, and so it's not a stretch to call it underrated overall. The plot of The Sure Thing has two mismatched people forced together, clashing, and then developing feelings for each other. That premise is one that also summarizes another Rob Reiner rom-com well, and that one is better, but The Sure Thing still deserves more love, in any event.

6. 'A Few Good Men' (1992)

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Assembling one of the best casts of the 1990s, A Few Good Men is the kind of movie that works because of the performances alone. Of course, it thankfully has more to work with than just good performances, since Reiner directed another winning Aaron Sorkin screenplay here, and he also does well - as he usually did, throughout the 1980s and most of the 1990s - as a director , keeping an ambitious screenplay and some rather grand performances all in line quite effectively.

The premise here is the usual sort of thing, as far as courtroom dramas go, except, perhaps, the fact that the trial here is one held in a military court. A Few Good Men is also a slow burn in the way some other legal dramas are, but it's never boring, and that burning is never too slow. And, yeah, the performances are great, as mentioned before. There are more than a few good performances here.

5. 'Misery' (1990)

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The point where things start getting really good, Misery was the second time Rob Reiner directed a movie based on a Stephen King story, and saw him taking on a more typically King-esque kind of thing. That is to say, Misery is a horror story, as well as a thriller, and it keeps things both tense and horrifying by restricting its main character to the one location throughout, and having an exceptionally frightening villain also at that same location.

Well, she's keeping him there, being an obsessive fan of his writing, and what initially seemed like a rescue instead turns out to be a kidnapping, and she forcefully makes him continue a series he thought he'd concluded already. Basically, a perfect Stephen King novel was made into a near-perfect movie here, with both Misery (1986) and Misery (1990) proving engrossing for similar reasons , even with a handful of not-too-significant changes made to the source material in the latter.

4. 'This Is Spinal Tap' (1984)

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Making a music mockumentary post-1984 is difficult, since any attempt to do so will ultimately get whatever you do compared to This Is Spinal Tap . This was the first movie Rob Reiner ever directed, too, so it was one hell of a directorial debut, and he also plays the "director" of the movie being made about Spinal Tap, which is a band that exists within the world of the film, but not real life.

The most important thing to consider here is that This Is Spinal Tap is up there among the funniest movies of all time.

Well, the "members" of Spinal Tap have played music outside This Is Spinal Tap . A mockumentary became reality or something. Anyway, the main thing is that This Is Spinal Tap is up there among the funniest movies of all time , and that might sound like hyperbole, in line with calling Misery an all-timer as far as Stephen King adaptations go, but this really is a very positive part of an already positive ranking. Reiner's hot streak, from about 1984 through to the early to mid-1990s, was just that good.

3. 'When Harry Met Sally' (1989)

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See, more hyperbole is in store for When Harry Met Sally , since this is about as good as rom-coms get, and watching it nowadays, it feels just as charming as it would've been back three and a half decades ago, when it first came out. And it's really just about the two titular characters meeting each other, initially being at odds, and then reconnecting a while later, finding that, you know, actually, maybe they don't hate each other.

Which sounds like the same sort of thing most rom-coms do, narratively, but none are quite as effortless or as funny as When Harry Met Sally is. Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan are both perfectly utilized here, Nora Ephron 's screenplay is an all-timer, and Reiner's steady direction throughout also keeps everything feeling right and balanced. You might think you hate romantic comedies altogether, but you can't know for sure unless you've at least tried watching the best of them , and When Harry Met Sally really might be just that: the best of them.

2. 'Stand by Me' (1986)

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A few years before Misery , Rob Reiner also directed Stand by Me , which was based on The Body , a novella by Stephen King. Both are masterful, as far as King adaptations go, with Stand by Me obviously not being part of the horror genre, instead focusing on a group of young boys who decide to go on an adventure of sorts to find a dead body. Okay, that sounds a bit horrific, or like it could be the set-up for something genuinely horror-related, but it's not.

There are intense parts of Stand by Me , and it's certainly impactful on an emotional front, but it mostly functions as a coming-of-age movie, and one of the greatest of all time, too. There's something intensely bittersweet about the whole thing , and a certain reality captured regarding both the good and the bad of being young and more than a little lost (in various ways).

1. 'The Princess Bride' (1987)

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There might exist some people who don't like The Princess Bride , but there aren't likely to be too many of them. Here, you get a movie that feels like a fairy tale and a gentle parody of fairy tale sort of stories at the same time, as the movie begins with an old man reading a story to his grandson, and the grandson gradually gets more into it as it goes along, even if it starts out feeling like one of those "kissing books."

You can get swept up in the romance here if you want, or you can enjoy The Princess Bride as more of a comedy, since it's consistently hilarious and benefits from having an exceptionally clever screenplay (courtesy of William Goldman , adapting his own source material). One more bit of hyperbole: The Princess Bride is one of the best movies of all time, of any genre . There are half a dozen or more great movies for which Rob Reiner will be remembered, but of those, if you had to try and pick the best (easier said than done), The Princess Bride feels like the one.