Free 2017 Movies
Google quietly began rolling out the youtube.com/movies section in 2011. Since then, its library of titles for rent, purchase, or streaming has grown considerably, adding up to more movies than you could watch in a lifetime. If you don’t want to pay for a streaming service like Netflix or HBO, you can view some free movies on YouTube, but it’s tough to find stuff that isn’t illegally uploaded or poor quality.
Free 2017 Movies
Watch a free movie under the stars! Sit back on the ship's flight deck, and take in a great movie, the city skyline and a view of the Hudson.
Further reading
Many of the movies that are available are documentaries, campy horror or action flicks, and older titles from Hollywood’s Golden Age, and it’s not easy to make an educated choice when you’re faced with something you’ve probably never heard of. In most cases, the highest-quality films are also supported by ads, so you’ll need to deal with a few commercials for the best video experience.
In order to help save you some time in your search, we’ve sifted through the site to bring you this list of the best full-length — and, of course, free — movies on YouTube.
Canadian Bacon
The final film of acclaimed comedic actor John Candy, Canadian Bacon is also the only non-documentary movie directed by Michael Moore. The film chronicles the lead-up to a war between the U.S. and Canada that’s drummed up by an American president looking to bolster his polling numbers. Along with Candy, the ensemble cast include Alan Alda as the president, as well as Bill Nunn, Kevin J. O’Connor, Rhea Perlman, Kevin Pollak, G. D. Spradlin, and Rip Torn in supporting roles. Dan Aykroyd, Steven Wright, and various other familiar faces make cameos in the film, which satirizes the relationship between the U.S. and its northern neighbor.
The Terminator
In 2029, as human forces battle for survival against an army of evil machines, the malevolent A.I. known as Skynet decides to stop the fight before it even begins. And so, Skynet sends an assassin robot back to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor, mother of the human savior John Connor, before John is born. Unfortunately, Skynet didn’t plan for Kyle Reese, a freedom fighter who’s more than able to handle anything that the Terminator throws at him, or Sarah, who’s a lot tougher than she seems.
Before you see Terminator: Dark Fate this November, catch up on the film that transformed Arnold Schwarzenegger from a buff camp icon into a legitimate action star, established James Cameron as one of the best sci-fi filmmakers on the planet, and spawned countless catchphrases. Trust us: It still holds up.
Bull Durham
The baseball season is in full swing, which makes it a great time to revisit Kevin Costner’s charming 1988 romantic comedy. In Bull Durham, Costner plays “Crash” Davis, a minor league veteran who returns to the game to help the talented but rough pitching prospect Ebby LaLoosh (Tim Robbins) reach his full potential. There’s just one problem: Susan Sarandon’s Annie has also pegged Ebby as her latest project — i.e., summer fling — even though Crash is clearly her better match.
Bull Durham is one part love triangle and one part tribute to the hard and relentless grind that minor league baseball players face year after year, and while it’s not as beloved as Field of Dreams in the pantheon of baseball flicks, it’s the perfect way to spend a breezy summer evening — provided that you can’t make your way to the ballpark for real, of course.
With Great Power: The Stan Lee Story
With the recent passing of comics icon Stan Lee, there is ample reason to get reacquainted with the man who co-created Spider-Man, Iron Man, The Avengers, Hulk, the X-Men, and so many other world-famous superheroes and their supporting cast of colorful characters. This 2010 documentary chronicled the life and career of the man who helped make Marvel Comics a household name and changed the face of the comics world for generations. While the film offers an origin story of sorts for Stan “The Man” Lee, it also provides a touching look at his life away from all of the superheroes and larger-than-life adventures, as both doting husband and father.
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Steve Martin and Michael Caine play two very different types of con men locked in a competition to swindle an heiress out of $50,000 in this 1988 comedy directed by Frank Oz. While the premise of the film certainly isn’t groundbreaking, the performances of Martin and Caine in their roles as competing tricksters has made this film a comedy classic, with Martin at his silly best in the role of a conniving goofball, while Caine’s character employs more refined, cultured means to separate his marks from their money.
Set amid the beauty of the French Riviera, the film earned Caine a Golden Globe Award nomination, and later inspired a successful Broadway musical of the same name starring John Lithgow and Norbert Leo Butz.
Better Off Dead
Although it was panned when it initially hit theaters, John Cusack’s 1985 teen comedy Better Off Dead went on to become a cult classic due to its famously weird tone, which mixed traditional teen coming-of-age laughs with dark humor (the title comes from the lead character’s desire to kill himself after a breakup) and some bizarre animation sequences created by director Savage Steve Holland. Cusack himself wasn’t a fan of the final cut of the film, but eventually softened his criticism as the years went by and the film became a cult hit.
Along with Cusack in the role of suicidal teenager Lane Myer, the cast of Better Off Dead also includes Curtis Armstrong (“Booger” in Revenge of the Nerds) as Lane’s best friend, Charles De Mar.
Fists of Fury (aka The Big Boss)
Bruce Lee’s first major film, Fists of Fury (titled The Big Boss outside the U.S.) was the movie that first earned him the attention of Hollywood and much of Asia, showcasing his formidable martial arts skills and seemingly boundless charisma. The feature casts Lee as Cheng Chao-an, a young man who travels from China to Thailand to work in an ice factory with his cousins. A vow he made to his mother never to fight again is soon tested, however, when a drug trafficking operation based in the factory puts his cousins in danger.
A surprise hit around the world, Fists of Fury became the highest-grossing film in Hong Kong’s history when it was released (only to be surpassed by Lee’s next film), as well as a bona fide box-office success in U.S. theaters. The initial cut of the film was brutal even by today’s standards, but it’s been cut significantly over time for domestic and international audiences. The version of the film on YouTube is one of the more tame cuts, but it’s still a phenomenal showcase of everything that made Lee a cinematic icon.
The General
While Charlie Chaplin remains a household name more than 40 years after his death, Buster Keaton is an oft-overlooked film pioneer, and one of the first true silent film stars. The General met mixed reviews and poor box office returns upon release in 1926, but has since become regarded as Keaton’s greatest film and an all-time classic.
Adapted from Union soldier William Pittenger’s memoir, The Great Locomotive Chase, The General follows a Confederate train engineer forced into action after the father of his love interest (Marion Mack) is wounded in battle. The film includes two train chase scenes that proved to be the most expensive stunts ever in a silent movie, and features some impressive historical detail, all things considered.
Kung Fury
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, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and David Hasselhoff involved in varying capacities. Yeah.
Reefer Madness
If you’ve never heard of Reefer Madness, you might be living under a rock. No matter your views on marijuana use, this absurd 1936 movie was made to “educate” young Americans on the dangers of drug abuse, but really it’s a propaganda film produced by a church group and distributed by notorious exploitation producer Dwain Esper.
In the film, pot abuse drives several young adults to violence, murder, and (of course) madness. At the end, Dr. Alfred Carroll (Josef Forte) breaks the fourth wall (uh, spoilers?) to warn viewers that their children might die after consuming marijuana. After a sort of reappearance in the 1970s, Reefer Madness took on a new life as a parody film for supporters of drug reform and cannabis legalization.
Night of the Living Dead
A seminal entry for American horror cinema, George A. Romero’s classic 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.
Free to Play: The Movie
More than a year after the Overwatch League was founded, esports 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 esports athletes to those of traditional athletes.
His Girl Friday
One of the best second-wave feminist films, His Girl Friday is a hilarious farce with electric chemistry between stars Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell. Hildy (Russell) may be newspaper editor Burns’ (Grant) protégée (and ex-wife), but when she announces to Burns that she’s leaving the business to get married, he concocts a scheme to delay her departure. Hijinks ensue and Hildy, not quite as unwitting a pawn in Burns’ game as he thinks, shows that the student has surpassed the master — while discovering that the student might also still be in love with the master.
Nosferatu (1922)
This silent adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula is often regarded as one of the most influential films in the history of cinema. After failing to acquire the proper rights to Dracula, German film studio Prana Film rebranded the legendary vampire as Count Orlok, and resorted to calling vampires “Nosferatu.” While it won’t scare the pants off you, director F.W. Murnau perfectly tells the story, harnessing the haunting atmosphere associated with German Impressionist cinema to great effect (in Nosferatu, you can see the influences of such seminal works as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari). Production designer Albin Grau birthed the film’s concept after speaking with a Serbian farmer who believed his father was one of the undead.
Editors' Recommendations
For movie fans, there is more fantastic content available now than ever before, in theory. The rise of streaming has made it possible for vast film libraries to be accessible to the entire world via the Internet. That content is owned by rights holders, however, and those rights holders want to get paid when people see their movies. Some holders have been fairly generous about this, and have been willing to license out their material at reasonable prices so that it could reach a wide audience. Other folks have been a little less forthcoming.
Free 2017 Movies Online
Also see our article How To Watch Movies on Kodi
Back in the days of broadcast TV, there were only a few channels available, but they were all ad-supported and thus free at the point of use. Today there are numerous streaming service, but most of them want a monthly subscription fee. Although services like Netflix, Hulu, and HBO all offer trials, it’s not actually possible to obtain those services for free for more than a month or so – and the subscription fees for paid streaming channels run anywhere from $5.99 to $14.99 a month.
There are lower-cost alternatives. RedBox, the 21st century equivalent of the video store, is still a thriving concern, with kiosks around the country offering a cheap way to rent DVDs, but not everyone is able to access those platforms, and the selection at RedBox is limited at best. There are torrenting sites that provide access to commercial movies and TV shows for free, but there come a ton of legal and ethical problems when looking for free streaming movies online. For one, streaming a movie for free through most torrent websites means you’re breaking copyright law. Illegally streaming copyrighted material is covered under the Copyright Act of 1976, and allows for people caught pirating content to be fined anywhere between $750 to $30,000 per copyrighted work. And while this usually involves settlements and other deals worked out—along with a strike system that usually lets people stop pirating before they get fined officially—there are plenty of legal examples of pirates going bankrupt when caught with their hands in the cookie jar. Believe us: you do not want to be one of these people.
However, there are alternatives to both torrenting and the RedBox kiosk. There are many legal ad-supported streaming sites that are absolutely free, and while you may have to shop around to find the content you’re looking for, you can get a wealth of entertainment without having to pay anything other than a bit of your time for ads. Below, we present our favorite sites and apps that will let you legally watch movies for free online without having to hand over your credit card. These are primarily ad-supported services, without any kind of hidden fees or charges, and they are all 100% legitimate – no pirating allowed. It’s the ethical way to go.
The Free Trial Option
Speaking of ethics…every college student and broke 20-something in the world knows about the free trials offered by Netflix, Hulu, and the rest. Personally, I can remember rotating credit card numbers and email addresses so I could keep my Hulu premium subscription going for a few months. However, those trials are limited, and you’ll eventually run out of credit cards and email addresses, right?
Nope. Hulu and the rest identify unique customers by a combination of the credit card number, the e-mail address, and the IP address used to subscribe to the service – but mainly by the credit card number. You can use a given credit card number to subscribe to one free trial, but you won’t be able to use that card again on that service other than to start paying for the subscription. Rotating your email address and IP address won’t overcome that limitation. It’s how these services prevent the whole world from just free-trialing them to death.
Most of us only have a couple of credit cards, and so we can only sign up for a few trials before we have to sigh, bite the bullet, and start shelling out the $7.99 a month. But what if you had an infinite number of credit cards?
Free 2017 Movies Online Without Downloading
“That’s crazy!” you cry. “Not even Bill Gates has an infinite number of credit cards!” Ah, but he does. Many credit card companies offer their members virtual credit card numbers, designed specifically for use in online transactions as a fraud prevention device. A virtual credit card number is indistinguishable from a regular card number, but it is temporary, with its own expiration date and CVV code, and points to an existing real credit card. So for example, someone wanting to buy something from Amazon could register their virtual card number on the site and make a purchase, but Amazon would have no record of their real credit card number – just the virtual number. If the Mad Hacking Bandit steals Amazon’s entire database, all he or she has access to is your virtual card – the one that you set to expire the day after you made your purchase.
When the trial expires, you repeat the process. Since you have an endless supply of credit card numbers, you can continue doing this for as many months as you want the subscription service. It’s a hassle, yes – but it’s free.
Let’s not fool ourselves, however. This is unethical behavior; we are taking advantage of the subscription service’s desire to give people a chance to preview their service in order to get that service without paying for it. So, decide if you can live with yourself or not before taking this route.
Also note that there are some real downsides. The main one is that you’re going to lose all your watched-show history, because you’re creating a “new” account every time. So you’re going to be retraining the site’s algorithms over and over, and never really enjoying the benefit of having the site know that you WILL watch anything related to the Redneck Comedy Tour, but DON’T want to see anything by Amy Schumer (or the other way around). Also, you’ll lose your place in any movies or shows that you’ve started to watch when the trial period ends. And of course, you always run the risk that Hulu or Netflix or whoever will get wise to your shenanigans and cut you off.
And now, on to the free (and ethical!) places to get movie content!