10 Perfect Movies That Are 90 Minutes or Under

No matter what your genre preference is, be it comedy, Western, or romance, there's a movie that's got you covered, and it'll cover you in under 90 minutes. Classics from the 20th and 21st centuries, a few by the most acclaimed directors of all time, are perfect entertainment at the perfect runtime. Let's take a cue from them and not drag this out: these are ten perfect movies that are 90 minutes or under.

10 'High Noon' (1952)

While the wide open vistas of the Old West seem endless, that doesn't mean the movies set there have to be. There are plenty of epic Westerns to choose from, and plenty that come in under 90 minutes are classics, none more so than the tense masterpiece High Noon. Based on the short story The Tin Star by John W. Cunningham, it's a real-time Western thriller starring Gary Cooper as a town marshal who finds himself standing alone as a showdown approaches.

Will Kane (Cooper) is a newly married town marshal who's ready to retire when he gets news that a dangerous outlaw he sent to prison is coming into town at noon. Kane goes around town looking for any man willing or able to help him fight the outlaw and his gang, but none volunteer. The film's short runtime only amplifies the intensity of the ticking clock at the center of it. High Noon is regarded as one of the greatest of its genre, offering a morally complex portrait of heroism in the Old West.

9 'The Killing' (1956)

Crime thrillers can thrive on tight pacing as much as they can measure patience. There's more of the former than the latter in Stanley Kubrick's classic film noir heist movie The Killing. It's an impeccably crafted thriller that's considered the first masterpiece of Kubrick's career and a major influence on the genre at large and, more specifically, on films like Reservoir Dogs, which shares its nonlinear storytelling techniques.

Johnny Clay (Sterling Hayden) leads a crew of criminals with plans to rob a racetrack. The majority of the runtime is devoted to the heist itself, which tracks each member as they play their part. Complications come in the form of double-crossing wives and boyfriends, and, like all crime films in the era of the Hays Code, it ends in tragedy. The Killing is a true Kubrick classic, and it gets the job done quickly and incredibly effectively, much like a true criminal mastermind would.

8 'The 7th Voyage of Sinbad' (1958)

Fantasy movies often come with epic runtimes befitting the scope and scale of their fictional settings, but plenty of them tell their stories in minimal minutes but with maximum imagination. The 7th Voyage of Sinbad is the most famous film to feature the titular sailor, and that's all thanks to the fantastic monsters it features courtesy of the legendary Ray Harryhausen. The stop-motion monstrosities make every minute they're on screen fantastic fun.

Sinbad (Kerwin Mathews) sails the seven seas to a mysterious island with an evil warlock. The island is home to all manner of magic beasts, including a tremendous Cyclops, a fire-breathing dragon, and a two-headed bird of prey. They're some of Harryhausen's greatest creations, and the animator even gets a dry run on the famous skeleton fight from Jason and the Argonauts. The 7th Voyage of Sinbad may last less than 90 minutes, but you'll enjoy every second of it.

7 'Duel' (1971)

If any genre is designed for a short runtime, it's thrillers. They thrive on tension, and too much slack in the runtime runs the risk of making them less taut. That's why some of the best thrillers run non-stop, like Steven Spielberg's Duel. Made for television, but given a theatrical release in Europe, the movie runs well under 90 minutes even in its extended version. It's an open road thriller that gets up to speed fast and doesn't let its foot off the gas.

David Mann (Dennis Weaver) is just a man on the road trying to make a business meeting and get back home when he makes an enemy of an unseen driver of a tanker truck. The film then speeds toward its destructive climax, with Spielberg making the most of the simple premise with clever visuals and tight editing. Duel was adapted by Richard Matheson from his own short story, and the final film maintains the source material's economy of thrills.

6 'The Texas Chain Saw Massacre' (1974)

If thrills aren't fast enough, try some scares. There are lots of horror movies that manage to put terror in every frame of their relatively short runtimes, but you don't get much more terror per minute than in Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. A low-budget masterpiece that's never been equaled for its grungy intensity, there's not a single frame of Hooper's film that doesn't have blood, sweat, or tears in it.

Shot on location in Texas in the sweltering heat, the film follows five friends on a road trip in the Lone Star state who take a wrong turn into the backwoods home of some good old boy cannibals, including the chainsaw-wielding, mask-made-of-flesh-wearing killer Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen). Economically made without sacrificing an ounce of potency, the whole movie is a pure example of less is more, featuring far less on-screen gore than most people remember and managing to get way more scares out of its limited budget.

5 'Stand by Me' (1986)

Stephen King knows a thing or two about horror, but less about brevity. Most of his epic-sized novels can't fit into a film with a runtime of 90 minutes or less, but he does have some work that can make the cut, and not all of it is horror either. King's novella The Body became Rob Reiner's coming-of-age classic Stand by Me, a boyhood drama that manages to tug on all your heartstrings in less time than it takes to read the book.

Gordie (Wil Wheaton), Chris (River Phoenix), Teddy (Corey Feldman), and Vern (Jerry O'Connell) are childhood friends in Oregon who've got a notion to see a dead body. Their journey to view the corpse will make them grow and leave them changed, and it's likely Reiner's film will leave you moved. It's one of the best Stephen King adaptations of all time, a sentimental and bittersweet ode to childhood and the friendships that come with it that will make quick work of your tear ducts as well.

4 'Toy Story' (1995)

The vast majority of animated movies manage to come in under 90 minutes, particularly since so many of them are aimed at young audiences with short attention spans. Not all the best short animated films are strictly for ankle-biters, though, and some can entertain their parents just as much. That's the magic behind the best movies by Pixar, and it's been there since their very first film, Toy Story.

The tale of Woody (Tom Hanks) and Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) and their competition to be considered the favorite toy of their kid owner, Andy, has been embedded in pop culture by now, but it hasn't lost any of its effectiveness. It's a sweet, funny, fast-paced film filled with great visual gags, colorful characters and a beautifully written story that won't test parents or their children's patience. Add some catchy tunes courtesy of Randy Newman, and you've got yourself a masterpiece of the genre that packs quite a punch in just one and a half hours.

3 'Best in Show' (2000)

Thrills, chills and charms are good and all, but sometimes the best thing you can do in 90 minutes or less is laugh. There are lots of comedies that can make you bust a gut in no time, but if you want those guffaws to come from the highest quality humor, spend 90 minutes with the mockumentary Best in Show. From director Christopher Guest, the film features all his regular comedy assassin collaborators in perfect killing form.

There's John Michael Higgins and Michael McKean as an eccentric gay couple with a pair of Shih Tzus, Jennifer Coolidge as a trophy wife with a Standard Poodle and a butch trainer played by Jane Lynch, Guest himself as a southern-fried fisherman with a Bloodhound, and Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara as a mismatched couple with a Yorkie. Add in Fred Willard as a color commentator at the central dog show, and there's nothing that's not funny about all 90 minutes of this movie.

2 'Before Sunset' (2004)

Romance usually takes time, but in the movie world, sparks can fly in 90 minutes or less. That much and more is proven by the second installment of Richard Linklater's romantic trilogy, Before Sunset. Each film follows its two characters throughout a night, an afternoon, and a vacation as they connect, reconnect, and become a couple over nine-year intervals. Together, the Before films are a beautiful and complex portrait of a relationship, and Before Sunset is the perfect middle chapter.

After having spent a night together in Vienna nine years earlier, Céline (Julie Delpy) and Jesse (Ethan Hawke) reconnect in Paris, where they spend the day together reminiscing and sharing their regrets. It's a poignant and potent romance played in an equal partnership between the two lead actors. The entire Before trilogy should be watched and enjoyed for its subtle and simple pleasures, but if you've only got 90 minutes, this journey is well worth the trip.

1 'Attack the Block' (2011)

With only 90 minutes to spare, and both action and sci-fi to cover, there's one quickly paced and quick-witted film that covers both. Attack the Block was the directorial debut of Joe Cornish and the acting debut of John Boyega, and both came out swinging. The film is a fierce, and fiercely funny, cult classic that hits the ground running and only gets gooier and goofier from there on out.

When aliens land in South London, they end up having to contend with some streetwise hood kids led by the tenacious Moses (Boyega). The film mixes alien action with some social commentary as the lower-income heroes rise to save their entire block. Attack the Block is bloody fun and features a true star-making turn by Boyega, and it manages to serve up the kind of satisfying sci-fi action generally reserved for bloated blockbusters in under 90 minutes.