5 Great Places to Watch Free Movies Online (Legally that Is...)

During these tough economic times, everyone's looking to save a buck by cutting back where they can. One way to do that is to stay home and watch some free movies on the ol' computer. Believe it or not, there are thousands of free full-length movies online just waiting for you to find them, and here's five great places to look.

1.) Archive.org - The Internet Archive or Archive.org is a digital library of internet sites, and just like most physical libraries, it's a wonderful resource for classic films, especially those in the public domain. If you're a black and white movie buff, ("Night of the Living Dead" is very popular here) then this is the place for you.

2.) Google Video - Not to be confused with Google's YouTube video site, Google Video is an index of Videos from all over the web. This index includes thousands of full-length movies in many genres, all available via a quick Google Search. Try using an "Advanced Search" and selecting "long (greater than 20 mins)." as a filter, to find movies quicker.

3.) Hulu - This video site, a joint venture between NBC and News Corp., is known for it's large collection of primetime television shows, but it's also a great place for free full-length movies. While you won't find brand new movies, you can find some hit feature films like "Master and Commander" or "Ghostbusters" and take a walk down memory lane. Hulu also lets you add movies to a "Queue," so you can line them up for later viewing.

4.) Entertainment Magazine - (also known as emol.org) Like Archive.org, this site specializes in classic horror films and documentaries. Also like Archive.org, you can download the movies to your hard drive, at which point they can be burned to a disc or copied to an iPod.

5.) Crackle - This is the newest site out of the bunch, and it's also the most well organized. To get to the movies, all you have to do is click the "Movies" link on the navigation bar and then either browse the films, or check out the "Most Popular" list. A quick view of the list yielded several hit movies like "Stripes", "Rudy" or "The Karate Kid" (1 and 2). You have to sit through a short ad at the beginning, but it's worth it to see free movies of this caliber. The site also suggests similar movies to the one you're watching, guaranteeing many hours of happy viewing.