The best free movies on YouTube right now (July 2023)

It seems like every few months, streaming service executives raise prices or make it harder for people to access their platforms. Once upon a time, having several streaming subscriptions was still significantly cheaper than cable. Today, that’s not really the case. So, if you’re cutting back on your streaming to save your wallet, you may have a little bit of content withdrawal.

Well, don’t worry, you can still get your movies for free. Believe it or not, YouTube has a large collection of ad-supported free movies and TV shows available to all users.

That said, it’s not a very good collection. Still, there are some gems, and the library refreshes frequently, so we keep tabs on it every month to make sure you can find great movies for free. These are the best free movies on YouTube right now.

Looking for more stuff you can watch for free? Check out our guides to the best free shows on YouTube and the best sites for watching free movies online.

Recently added to YouTube

Who Framed Roger Rabbit
pg 1988
Dumb and Dumber
pg-13 1994
Planes, Trains and Automobiles
r 1987
Big
pg 1988

Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) new

Genre Fantasy, Animation, Comedy, Crime

Stars Bob Hoskins, Christopher Lloyd, Joanna Cassidy

Directed by Robert Zemeckis

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Groundbreaking for its integration of animation and live-action, Who Framed Roger Rabbit? is an all-time classic. When Toontown star Roger Rabbit (Charles Fleischer) becomes concerned his wife Jessica is playing pattycake on him, the studio hires Eddie Valient (Bob Hoskins) to snoop on her. But not only is Jessica in the clear, Valiant mistakenly falls down the rabbit hole when Marvin Acme turns up dead and Roger is the prime suspect in his murder.

Dumb and Dumber (1994) new

Genre Comedy

Stars Jim Carrey, Jeff Daniels, Lauren Holly

Directed by Peter Farrelly

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Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels play Lloyd and Harry, two of comedy’s iconic characters, in Dumb and Dumber. Lloyd and Harry are, well, dumb, and things aren’t going so well for them in life. But when the beautiful Mary (Lauren Holly) loses a suitcase filled with money before she leaves for Aspen, the two friends discover it and embark on a mission to return it to her. Getting to Aspen is hard enough for the lovable doofuses, but when they finally get there, they realize they’re both hopelessly in love with Mary, complicating matters.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987) new

Genre Comedy

Stars Steve Martin, John Candy, Laila Robins

Directed by John Hughes

watch on YouTube

When a freak storm hits the US right before Thanksgiving, travel is shut down all over the country. Uptight marketing executive Neal Page (Only Murders in the Building‘s Steve Martin) is desperate to get home to Chicago for Thanksgiving, but he doesn’t fully understand what his desperation led him into when he joins forces with shower ring curtain salesman, Del Griffith (John Candy), to get back by any means possible.

Big (1988) new

Genre Fantasy, Drama, Comedy, Romance, Family

Stars Tom Hanks, Elizabeth Perkins, Robert Loggia

Directed by Penny Marshall

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It’s a month of comedy classics on YouTube, rounded out by the movie that took Tom Hanks to new heights. In Big, 13-year-old Josh Baskin makes a wish all children do at some point or another. He wishes to be a grown-up, but when he wakes up the next day, he may look like a 30-year-old man (Hanks), but he’s still 13 years old inside. Now, he must cope with an unfamiliar, strange adult world of responsibility, expectations, and romance.

The Sisters Brothers (2018)

Genre Comedy, Drama, Western

Stars John C. Reilly, Joaquin Phoenix, Jake Gyllenhaal

Directed by Jacques Audiard

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Based on Patrick Dewitt’s novel, The Sisters Brothers follows hired gunmen Eli and Charlie Sisters (John C. Reilly and Joker‘s Joaquin Phoenix) as they track down a gold prospector who has stolen a profitable secret from their boss in 1851 Oregon. The genre-bending Western stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Riz Ahmed, and Rutger Hauer in supporting roles.

Skiptrace (2016)

Genre Action, Comedy, Thriller, Mystery

Stars Jackie Chan, Johnny Knoxville, Fan Bingbing

Directed by Renny Harlin

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Jackie Chan stars as Hong Kong detective Benny Chan in this high-octane comedy thriller. For years, Chan has tried to work by the book, working within the system to avenge his partner’s murder. But when he learns that American gambler Connor Watts (Johnny Knoxville) has the evidence he needs to bring the murderer to justice, he might just bend the rules a little.

I Kill Giants (2018)

Genre Fantasy, Drama

Stars Madison Wolfe, Imogen Poots, Sydney Wade

Directed by Anders Walter

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This fantasy film follows Barbara Thorson (Madison Wolfe), a young girl who finds solace from the realities of her difficult family life by retreating into a magical world where she is the greatest giant fighter the world has ever seen. But as the giants’ threat to her world becomes greater, Barbara finds help in the form of her new friend Sophia (Sydney Wade) and her school counselor, Mrs. Mollé (Avatar: The Way of Water‘s Zoe Saldana).

My Friend Dahmer (2017)

Genre Drama, History, Crime

Stars Ross Lynch, Alex Wolff, Anne Heche

Directed by Marc Meyers

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Someone at YouTube has very deftly picked up on the renewed interest in Jeffrey Dahmer by getting the rights to stream My Friend Dahmer. This serial killer movie is based upon the true story of John “Derf” Backderf (Alex Wolff), a cartoonist who was the closest friend that Jeffrey Dahmer (Ross Lynch) had in high school. In this adaptation of Backderf’s graphic novel, he and his fellow outcasts befriend Dahmer, but they aren’t blind to his bizarre behavior. However, they couldn’t have predicted that the awkward young man that they knew would go on to become one of the most infamous serial killers of the last century. It’s also a tragic tale, as no one notices how monstrous Dahmer has become until it’s far too late to stop him.

Train to Busan (2016)

Genre Action, Horror, Thriller

Stars Gong Yoo, Jung Yu-mi, Ma Dong-seok

Directed by Yeon Sang-ho

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Train To Busan is a Korean action film that may be the best zombie movie of the last 10 years. An American remake is already in the works, with the less memorable title of The Last Train To New York. In the original film, Seok-woo (Gong Yoo) regrets his personal failures as a father, which is why he takes his daughter, Su-an (Kim Su-an), on a trip to Busan to see his estranged ex-wife, who is also Su-an’s mom, on her birthday. Wouldn’t you know it, but a zombie plague breaks out on the bullet train right at the same time it’s happening everywhere else. But inside the train, there’s less room to run. Seok-woo, Su-an, and the other passengers also come to realize that their fellow survivors may become threats as well.

The Illusionist (2006)

Genre Fantasy, Drama, Thriller, Romance

Stars Edward Norton, Paul Giamatti, Jessica Biel

Directed by Neil Burger

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The Illusionist beat the similarly themed film, The Prestige, to theaters by about two months, but Christopher Nolan’s movie is the superior of the two. Regardless, The Illusionist has its charms, largely in the core trio of Edward Norton, Jessica Biel, and Paul Giamatti. When they were young, Eduard Abramovich (Norton) and Duchess Sophie Von Teschen (Biel) had a passion for each other that was forbidden by her parents. Upon adulthood, Edward reinvented himself as Eisenheim The Illusionist and reunited with Sophie before she could be married to the malevolent Prince Leopold (Rufus Sewell). When Sophie is murdered, Chief Inspector Walter Uhl (Giamatti) is unnerved when Eisenheim appears to be able to summon Sophie’s spirit at will.

Dear Mr. Watterson (2013)

Genre Documentary

Stars Seth Green, Berkeley Breathed, Stephan Pastis

Directed by Joel Allen Schroeder

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If you’ve never read the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, then you’ve missed out on one of the all-time greats. Writer and artist Bill Watterson ended his incredible creation in 1995 and stepped away from a life in public. Nearly a quarter century later, documentarian Joel Allen Schroeder’s film Dear Mr. Watterson explores the ongoing impact of Calvin and Hobbes even years after its conclusion. Don’t expect any on-camera interviews with Watterson himself. He was quite serious about not wanting to be a public figure any longer. But several of Watterson’s colleagues and admirers do share their perspective on his seminal work.

More Streaming Roundups

Free to Play (2014)

Genre Documentary

Stars Benedict Lim, Danil Ishutin, Clinton Loomis

Directed by Valve Company

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More than a year after the Overwatch League was founded, e-sports are still carving out a niche and establishing itself as a legitimate form of entertainment. Those who don’t game on a competitive level might not understand the level of dedication required for such endeavors, not to mention the physical and mental tolls placed on young players who train for hours on end each day. Free to Play, a documentary from game developer/distributor Valve Entertainment, focuses on two athletes and one coach who are competing in the 2011 International Defense of the Ancients (DotA) tournament. It explores the stresses the players are forced to deal with and deftly compares the struggles of e-sports athletes to those of traditional athletes.

Kung Fury (2015)

Genre Action, Comedy, Science Fiction, Fantasy

Stars David Sandberg, Jorma Taccone, Leopold Nilsson

Directed by David Sandberg

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A rare example of a successful Kickstarter film, Kung Fury promised its backers a spectacular homage to ’80s action films, and it delivered. Director David Sandberg also plays the lead, Kung Fury, a detective who gained superhuman fighting abilities after being simultaneously struck by a bolt of lightning and bitten by a cobra. Kung Fury uses his supreme combat skills to clean up the filthy streets of Miami but faces his greatest challenge when no less a villain than Adolf Hitler (Jorma Taccone) arrives, intent on conquering all of time through his own mastery of kung fu. If it’s not apparent already, Kung Fury is a film that makes no attempts at seriousness. That’s not all, either; a full-length sequel is on its way, with Michael Fassbender, FUBAR‘s Arnold Schwarzenegger, and David Hasselhoff involved in varying capacities. Yeah.

Night of the Living Dead (1968)

Genre Horror, Thriller

Stars Duane Jones, Judith O'Dea, Karl Hardman

Directed by George A. Romero

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A seminal entry for American horror cinema, George A. Romero’s classic horror movie follows seven people who find themselves trapped in Pennsylvania as the terrifying walking dead surround them. They have to try to survive without understanding the terror that lurks outside.

The movie has been noted as the first zombie film, and its influences can be seen in everything from 28 Days Later to Shaun of the Dead. Romero’s debut — he wrote, directed, edited, and acted in the film — made him into a superstar, quickly revolutionizing the genre on a budget of a mere $114,000.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) new

Dumb and Dumber (1994) new

Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987) new

Big (1988) new

The Sisters Brothers (2018)

Skiptrace (2016)

I Kill Giants (2018)

My Friend Dahmer (2017)

Train to Busan (2016)

The Illusionist (2006)

Dear Mr. Watterson (2013)

Free to Play (2014)

Kung Fury (2015)

Night of the Living Dead (1968)

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