Raise your hand if you think Quentin Tarantino is one of the most revered filmmakers of all time. He’s one of us too – a film lover through and through. Apart from making all-time classics, he enjoys talking about movies, especially his favorites, which he admits change on a daily basis. It isn’t too difficult to find a bunch of movies that Tarantino recommends, but we found five that we also believe are must-watches for film aficionados. Here they are, and what Tarantino said about them. And with Toy Story 5 now streaming on Disney+ after crossing $1 billion worldwide, his famous refusal to watch past Toy Story 3 is back in the spotlight.
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein: The Childhood Favorite Behind Tarantino’s Genre-Mixing
The classic comedic duo Bud Abbott and Lou Costello star in one of the best-known horror comedies (90% on Rotten Tomatoes). In Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Count Dracula (Bela Lugosi) and Sandra Mornay (Lenore Aubert) have dastardly plans to update Frankenstein’s monster’s (Glenn Strange) brain and make it more obedient, so they choose Wilbur Grey (Costello) as a victim/candidate.
“I would say Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein because I saw that when I was a little boy and it was my favorite movie at that time,” Quentin Tarantino told The Talks. “Part of the reason was the combination of genres – the Abbott and Costello stuff is pretty funny and when Frankenstein’s monster shows up it’s pretty scary. I didn’t know I was making genre distinctions when I was five, but I was. But that’s what I have been doing my whole career, mixing genres together.”
Taxi Driver: The Character Study Tarantino Can’t Stop Praising
Martin Scorsese’s 1976 classic Taxi Driver serves as the prototype for other films portraying disillusioned young men in modern society (89% on Rotten Tomatoes). In this movie, taxi driver and former Marine Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) grows enraged at the perceived filth and corruption in the city and decides to act upon his impulses and emotions.
“I would also put Taxi Driver as one of those [favorite] films,” Quentin Tarantino told The Talks. “Why is a little harder to say. You can’t quite boil Taxi Driver’s power down to one or two sentences. I will say it is probably the most novelistic, complex character study for my money in the history of cinema. It’s only in novels where you find a character treated like that. But at the same time, it’s a very entertaining movie. There are laughs all through Taxi Driver.”
Die Hard: The Screening Tarantino Calls One of His Best
Yippee-ki-yay! At this point, everyone knows the story about the greatest Christmas movie of all time: Die Hard (94% on Rotten Tomatoes). In the story, Detective John McClane (Bruce Willis) wants to make things right with his wife, Holly (Bonnie Bedelia), so he visits her at her workplace at Nakatomi Plaza. Unfortunately for him, he walks into a terrorist plot that takes the building hostage, so it’s up to McClane to save the day (and Christmas).
Quentin Tarantino told The Video Archives Podcast that the Die Hard screening was one of the best he ever attended. “If you live in a world where Die Hard already existed, it means nothing to you or you already know it’s a terrific movie,” the filmmaker said. “What was so great about Die Hard is you didn’t know that walking in. It’s just so clever, and it’s so expertly made.”
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The Thing: The Horror Movie That Actually Scared Tarantino
John Carpenter’s The Thing hits all the spots when it comes to horror (85% on Rotten Tomatoes). Think about it: a research team in Antarctica finds themselves isolated and under attack after a shapeshifting alien lands among them. All of a sudden, no one knows who’s real and who they can trust anymore. It’s perfect.
“One of the reasons that The Thing holds a special place in my heart is that I love horror movies – I’m a big horror movie fan – but I don’t get scared in horror movies,” Quentin Tarantino revealed on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in 2021. “I respond to suspense. I respond to that. ‘Oh, what’s gonna happen next?’ I can jump by a boo scare. But that’s not really terror… The Thing, I got scared in.”
Toy Story 3: Why Tarantino Skips the Sequels
Everyone who followed the story of Woody and Buzz Lightyear felt a little something in their eye during Toy Story 3 (98% on Rotten Tomatoes), as they realized Andy Davis was going to college and questioned what this meant for the toys that were his friends for so long. Ultimately, it’s a heartfelt goodbye to these characters who have been so important for an entire generation.
Of course, the filmmakers couldn’t leave the perfect ending alone and had to make Toy Story 4, which irked Quentin Tarantino, and Toy Story 5. “In the case of Toy Story, the third one is just magnificent,” he said on Club Random in 2024. “It’s one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. And if you’ve seen the other two, it’s just devastating. But the thing is, then three years later or something, they did a fourth. I have no desire to see it. You literally ended the story as perfect as you could, so no, I don’t care if it’s good. I’m done.”
Of course, Tarantino made those comments before Toy Story 5 released in movie theaters on June 19, 2026. But Pixar is well aware of his view on the franchise. At the premiere of the latest film, director Andrew Stanton told The Hollywood Reporter that the story didn’t end with Andy, and Pixar has another trilogy built around Bonnie.
Where to Watch Quentin Tarantino’s Recommended Movies
Toy Story 3 is streaming on Disney+, where Toy Story 5 also landed on September 23. Die Hard, The Thing, Taxi Driver and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein are available to rent or buy digitally on services like Apple TV, and they rotate on and off subscription platforms.
