The 50 best movies of all time, according to critics on Metacritic

Many of the notable lists that rank the greatest movies of all time - like the American Film Insitute's "100 Years... 100 Movies" from 1998 - have enlisted thousands of movie-industry names to come up with a consensus of the best films.

When film critics are the only factor taken into account for such a list, however, it's a given that the results may not reflect what's most popular.

We turned to review aggregator Metacritic for its list of the all-time greatest movies, which ranks films by their composite critical reception. The list excludes re-releases and films with less than seven total reviews on the site, so a number of classics like "The Godfather" and "Citizen Kane" are absent for lack of data, and the data skew toward contemporary movies. But it's an odd, fascinating assortment all the same.

Check out the 50 best movies of all time, according to the critics on Metacritic: