Personal Top 25 Films

[Myth]

Here is my attempt at a list:

Pulp Fiction (#1, the rest are just what comes to mind, they are not in order and it is an ever changing list)
Inglorious Basterds
American Psycho
Oldboy
Fight Club
Scarface
Aliens
The Dark Knight
Being John Malkovich
Sin City
Terminator 2
Total Recall
I Saw The Devil
The Good, The Bad, & The Weird
Unforgiven
High Plains Drifter
The Boondock Saints
Lock, Stock, & 2 Smoking Barrels
Memento
American History X
Grindhouse (Theater cut)
Kill Bill (counting both as 1)
Jackie Brown
Reservoir Dogs
Se7en

Shawshank and City of God didn't make my top 25 after all. I cannot imagine putting those in order, and even then, other movies would jump in the top 25 if I spent more than 4-5 minutes on this list.

[JEFFERSON MONEY]

See the issue with this thread is it's mad predictable. Like if you're good with film then your opinions and top films will mirror the imdb 250.

We had a taste of your personality and you come off as a slick urban faithful street-smart creative Hispanic/Italian guy with a penchant for overcoming struggles. Right off the bat I'd know that the only "outlier" film (imo) which wasn't "conventionally excellent" would be something like a Bronx Tale

Very pleased with the Sling Blade and Metropolis choices. Caught us off guard.

Terminator 1 > Terminator 2 and NCFOM > TWBB are very contrarian viewpoints. Interesting...

I really really really liked your Godfather character analysis thread Hoping you can do something like that for newer films coming out

I'm an uneducated dumbass born in 1990 when it comes to movies and quality so I"ll just put personal favs
He Got Game
Expendables II
Starship Troopers
Silence of the Lambs
Finding Forrester
Identity (really cool thriller)
The Cube (also cool thriller)
Nightmare on Elm Street
Boogie Nights
Jurassic Park
Autobiography of Malc X
Blade II
Eternal Sunshine
Lost in Translation



T2, Godfather 2, Good Will Hunting, Raging Bull, Rocky, Glory, Se7en, and TDK: Rises are top-tier.

[Myth]

J$'s comment about being born in the 90s made me start thinking about years movies came out, I got curious what eras I naturally went with when selecting my movies.

Scarface (1983)
Aliens (1986)
Predator (1987)
Die Hard (1988)
Total Recall (1990)
Terminator 2 (1991)
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Unforgiven (1992)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Se7en (1995)
Jackie Brown (1997)
Lock, Stock, & 2 Smoking Barrels (1998)
American History X (1998)
Fight Club (1999)
Being John Malkovich (1999)
The Boondock Saints (1999)
American Psycho (2000)
Memento (2000)
Oldboy (2003)
Kill Bill (counting both as 1) (2003/2004)
Sin City (2005)
The Dark Knight (2008)
The Good, The Bad, & The Weird (2008)
Inglorious Basterds (2009)
I Saw The Devil (2010)

1980s = 4 movies
1990s = 12 movies
2000s = 8 movies
2010s = 1 movie

Sounds about right given that I was born mid-1980s. I apparently really liked 1999. 3 movies from that year.

By the way, I replaced Grindhouse and High Plains Drifter with Predator and Die Hard.

[JEFFERSON MONEY]

yeah i'm interested in thinking of definining moments that permanently change a boys personality into the man he's gonna become.

So 1999 would mean that you were 14 in the crux of puberty when those films really hit hard.

and what have we here? a film with nihilistic, anarchy, anti-materialist, masculinity-seeking undertones that force you to think about the nature of existence, a film with raw testosterone and violent dudes killing more despicable villains (concept of an antihero) forcing you to think whether or not the saints are a good thing, and a dude who goes into another man's mind and sees things from a different perspective.

no wonder you're so interested in psychology and speed and not money and love and comfort.. the pieces of the puzzle fit so clearly

one of the things that's helped me a lot with connecting with anyone is taking a quick look at them.. guesstimating their age (30's, 40s, 50s) and just talking about the music/movies that they would have from 13-18 without skippin a beat. you get a taste for people's essence that way and potential for a perfect conversation with a stranger.

... i wonder if there will be ever be a fifty or sixty year old who considers the culture of his old age to be premier and superior to that of his past adolescence.. that would be an awfully funny conundrum and a fukk u to the principles of nostalgia and "things were way better back then" type philosophy many adhere to

[Derka]

Gonna give this a go, but I'm cutting it at 10. They're not in any order at all...they're just the 10 films I feel most strongly about. Small blurbs for each and I'm counting some trilogies and multi-part stories as singles where applicable.

ONCE AGAIN. THESE ARE NOT IN ANY KIND OF ACTUAL ORDER. The numbers are literally just for numbering them.

Who agrees with me on these...I really don't care too much, but I'll defend where I feel like it. And I'm not going to argue against "OMG This movie I like is so much better than that one!" type comments.

10 - Up
I don't even rank this movie specifically against animated films. I put this one up against any family-friendly film, animated or live action. So much packed into 90 minutes: great characters who develop wonderfully, great pacing and just a really endearing, very moving adventure tale that you rarely get anymore. I cried from sadness, cried from happiness, laughed hysterically (Alpha's f*cked up voice? Perfect touch) and felt every emotion a person can feel while viewing it. I relate wholeheartedly to Carl Fredericksen's personal quest. As good as Toy Story 3 was, this is Pixar's crowning achievement.

9 - Rashomon
Of Kurosawa's wide body of work with Toshiro Mifune, I was torn between this and Yojimbo/Sanjuro. Kurosawa's epics were excellent, too...but the films where he kept the running length short I think forced his scripts to be so much more precise and better-paced, and thus he was able to draw fiery performances out of his actors. Less attention given to the exposition and more given to the performances. This is why I come back to Rashomon. As good as Mifune was as Tajomaru the bandit, I find the other performances so to be more understated, and so effective at communicating the various strands of the overall story. The samurai's wife and Takashi Shimura's farmer come to mind. Great stuff.

8 -The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
A classic storyline flecked from top to bottom with healthy doses of pessimism and jealousy. I love it. A refreshing change of taste from the technicolor "hero gets the girls, rides off" Westerns that were the standard of the genre. Again, the performances...Lee Marvin, Jimmy Stewart ("Well, I'm a lawyer!!"), Vera Miles and John Wayne...that's some heavy hitters right there and John Ford really brings out the best in each. And I loved the payoff at the end regarding the truth of Ransom Stoddard's heroic past. Great stuff.

7 - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.
Three hours of cinema purism: a camera telling a story. Forget that its Eastwood, van Cleef and Wallach. Sergio Leone uses minimal dialogue but conveys reams of story just in how he's using the camera. A timely series of close-ups on the eyes that builds the tension for the three-way Mexican standoff. Big wide angle shots of the desolate Spanish countryside that was standing in for the American West convey how desolate, lonely and lawless this time in America's history could be. And Ennio Morricone's score...fuhgedabout it. A lot of friends of mine think its boring shit. F*ck those guys.

6 - Clerks/Clerks II
I'm gonna catch shit for this because liking Kevin Smith isn't the cool thing to do anymore apparently, and I don't care. Dante and Randall are great characters who make me piss myself laughing. Every single one of us sees a lot of our own experiences in copious amounts of the random, seemingly inane shit they sit around talking about in a much funnier way than you or I would and it makes them that much more endearing to me. They are the anti-Leone...but I guess that's what they're intended to be. The conversations and the characters tell the story, which works because the guy writing/directing these flicks isn't all that much of a camera wizard. He's pretty funny, though. In the realm of comedies, these two rank as favorites for me.

5 - The Dark Knight trilogy
Its undeniable at this juncture that they transcend the "comic-book movie" sub-genre and belong in the pantheon of great action movies right along with your Die Hards and Terminators and the two or three good movies Van Damme and Seagal did. My kids will see these movies when they're conceived and born and aged appropriately. Nolan and Goyer really did their homework when wrapping their heads around what makes Bruce Wayne tick and they couldn't have cast the role any better. No hero is a flawless Mary-Sue and the villains are utterly compelling. The movies get a bit long, but there's plenty of stuff going on so that it doesn't get overly strenuous. I think Aaron Eckhart's Harvey Dent will go down as the vastly underrated performance of the series due to Ledger going Legendary on our asses. I will forever associate Alfred with Michael Caine. Gary Oldman does very little wrong in my eyes. My only complaint in the casting...neither Katie Holmes nor Maggie Gyllenhall were particularly good...but neither is a complete drag.

4 - Cool Hand Luke
Every performance is damn near perfect. George Kennedy owned me and Paul Newman does so much with so little actual stuff to say. I see this one on TV all the time and I have to stop and watch. Not much else to say...this is just a movie that gets me every single time.

3 - Schindler's List
Heart-wrenching. A dramatic telling of one of humanity's most dramatic episodes. Ralph Fiennes is absolutely haunting and Ben Kingsley and Liam Neeson are on top of their respective games. I think the use of black and white as a device made the storytelling even more effective: an emotionless state machine going about the murder of an entire people in the way some people might change a flat tire. Stark shadows and greys everywhere...everything is about as dreary and colorless as you would expect it to be given the subject matter. Film making at its most powerful.

2 - 2001: A Space Odyssey
The bar against which all science-fiction is set, in my mind. You have to put yourself in the mind set of a person seeing this at the time of its release. "WTF, computers talk back to people? Ok. And what are we doing going to Jupiter anyway. And what the shit is with this floating baby?" Kubrick was a freakin' master.

1 - The Lord of the Rings
If had to have a #1, this is it. Not by any objective standard, mind you...this is completely personal to me. I am the person I am today because of this story. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings got me into reading at age 11. The exhaustive chronology Tolkien crafted for his world turned me into a lover of history and mythology, which led to an interest in politics and government, which in turn influenced my course of study in college AND my career choice. My life is completely different without this story's existence. "Favorite" doesn't quite do it service. Seeing it made into a 12-hour long cinematic experience, and seeing it made to the highest quality possible at the time was just about the coolest thing I could have imagined. There was not a single moment in the theater and there's hasn't been a single moment since buying the extended edition blu-rays that I haven't enjoyed watching these time and time again. My favorite movies, hands down.

Star Wars? Loved them, not all-time favorites.

Godfather 1 and 2? Love them both, but not *that* much.

I love some of other people's mentions and God knows there are tons more I'd like to put on here.

[pauk]

1. Pulp Fiction
2. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
3. Shawshank Redemption
4. Schindlers List
5. Saving Private Ryan
6. Forrest Gump
7. Lord of the Rings
8. The Green Mile
9. Lawrence of Arabia
10. Full Metal Jacket
11. Seven Samurai
12. Star Wars
13. The Usual Suspects
14. Se7en
15. Silence of the Lambs
16. Leon
17. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
18. A Clockwork Orange
19. Raiders of the lost ark
20. Back to the Future
21. The Matrix
22. Yojimbo
23. For a Few Dollars More
24. Blade Runner
25. Casino


Godfather I & II? (Part 2 i thought was better) Classics, good.... and overrated.... and to boring & draged out to ever watch again (Part 2 is better in that aspect aswell)... The Untouchables, Once upon a time in America, Goodfellas, Casino, Carlitos Way, Scarface, Reservoir Dogs, Donnie Brasco are good example of gangster movies that entertain more.......

[Myth]

So 1999 would mean that you were 14 in the crux of puberty when those films really hit hard.

and what have we here? a film with nihilistic, anarchy, anti-materialist, masculinity-seeking undertones that force you to think about the nature of existence, a film with raw testosterone and violent dudes killing more despicable villains (concept of an antihero) forcing you to think whether or not the saints are a good thing, and a dude who goes into another man's mind and sees things from a different perspective.

no wonder you're so interested in psychology and speed and not money and love and comfort.. the pieces of the puzzle fit so clearly

Although I do love love.

[Myth]

1 - The Lord of the Rings
If had to have a #1, this is it.

Fascinating how 1 man's #1 could be outside of another's top 1000.

[Stuckey]

See the issue with this thread is it's mad predictable. Like if you're good with film then your opinions and top films will mirror the imdb 250.

We had a taste of your personality and you come off as a slick urban faithful street-smart creative Hispanic/Italian guy with a penchant for overcoming struggles. Right off the bat I'd know that the only "outlier" film (imo) which wasn't "conventionally excellent" would be something like a Bronx Tale

Very pleased with the Sling Blade and Metropolis choices. Caught us off guard.

Terminator 1 > Terminator 2 and NCFOM > TWBB are very contrarian viewpoints. Interesting...

I really really really liked your Godfather character analysis thread Hoping you can do something like that for newer films coming out

I'm an uneducated dumbass born in 1990 when it comes to movies and quality so I"ll just put personal favs
He Got Game
Expendables II
Starship Troopers
Silence of the Lambs
Finding Forrester
Identity (really cool thriller)
The Cube (also cool thriller)
Nightmare on Elm Street
Boogie Nights
Jurassic Park
Autobiography of Malc X
Blade II
Eternal Sunshine
Lost in Translation



T2, Godfather 2, Good Will Hunting, Raging Bull, Rocky, Glory, Se7en, and TDK: Rises are top-tier.

I get bashed for putting that in my top 10

here's my list, in no order

oldboy
memento
lost in translation
pulp fiction
shawshank redemption
chinatown
high noon
american psycho
he got game
do the right thing
inglorious basterds
infernal affairs
dark knight
space odyssey
the fountain
silence of the lambs


i've yet to see classics like Green Mile, forrest gump or schindler's list, not really interested in films as much as me in my earlier days

[Myth]

DMV2 - Kevin Smith just came out saying that he will make Clerks 3. It will be his final film.

[Jackass18]

I'll also do a top 25 fav movies (top 25 best movies would be a fairly different list)

No particular order other than being grouped by decade:

City Lights
Citizen Kane
Psycho
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Raiders of the Lost Ark
The Terminator
Beverly Hills Cop
The Goonies
Back to the Future
Platoon
Aliens
Predator
Die Hard
Goodfellas
The Silence of the Lambs
Reservoir Dogs
Dazed and Confused
Menace II Society
Tombstone
The Usual Suspects
The Big Lebowski
Rounders
Boiler Room
The Bourne Trilogy (it might be cheap to count 3 movies as one, but oh well)
Iron Man

The list would probably be a bit different if I did it again next week

[Myth]

Thank goodness!!!! He should have retired after J&SBSB(which was good but everything he made after that hasn't been good).

I enjoyed Clerks 2 (even though it didn't feel like Clerks, I cracked up throughout), and most of Red State.

[TheeBeast]

I enjoyed Clerks 2 (even though it didn't feel like Clerks, I cracked up throughout), and most of Red State.

He said if he ever made a clerks 3, it would represent his 30's

[ROCSteady]

Go watch Trainspotting. NOW

thanks never got around to that one for some reason

[ROCSteady]

[QUOTE=Jackass18]Just to nitpick - "Hundreds of years"? It'll be a while before it evens hits 200.

25. A.I. - It's been a long time since I've seen it, but I don't remember being enthralled with it.
24. The Lion King - I'm not a big fan of animated movies, but I have no problem with The Lion King.
23. The Dark Knight - Not the superhero movie I would have gone with, but still a nice choice.
22. In Bruges - Haven't seen.
21. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Haven't seen.
20. Bicycle Thieves - Haven't seen, but it's been on my list for a while.
19. True Romance - I really like the movie, but just not as much.
18. Planet of the Apes - I haven't seen the original, but the atrocious remake, which has kind of dampened my desire to watch the original.
17. Psycho - My fav from the '60s. Great choice.
16. There Will Be Blood - Great movie, but not what I'd consider one of my favs.
15. Pulp Fiction - I actually prefer Reservoir Dogs to this, but I like PF more every time I see it. Maybe the problem is everyone was talking about it, endlessly praising it and quoting it when it came out. I think I got burned out on it early, but I've warmed up to it over time.
14. No Country For Old Men - Same as TWBB, though I like No Country more.
13. Leon - Another really good movie, but I haven't gotten around to seeing the director's cut yet.
12. A Bronx Tale - I really like it, and it's shame that this movie doesn't get more recognition.
11. Terminator 2: Judgment Day - Nah, I'd say Die Hard takes the crown as top action movie, and I gotta say I'm a bit disappointed it's not on your list. I also prefer the first one to this. I find John to be kind of annoying.
10. Carlito