The best movies of all time?

May 2, 2008 7:46 PM

The top 100 films According to The Times (UK)Another film list? The same old Citizen Kane? No - this one’s different, says The Times’s chief film critic James Christopher

The point of The Times Top 100 Films of All Time is to stimulate argument, and sharpen your own thoughts about the ingredents that make great movies. We shall be horrified if anyone agrees with every one of our choices.

posted by dawson (92 comments total)

#2 is a near fatal case of recentism.

Also, I think they missed that it was a comedy.
posted by synaesthetichaze at 7:52 PM on May 2, 2008

There Will Be Blood at #2? Yikes... you might as well have put Prey for Rock and Roll, Pootie Tang and Showgirls on there (well, except that I actually liked those movies).
posted by MegoSteve at 7:55 PM on May 2, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

There Will Be Blood was the second best movie of 2007. By no means is it the second best movie of all time.
posted by sonic meat machine at 7:58 PM on May 2, 2008

where's juno?
posted by kliuless at 8:01 PM on May 2, 2008

#97 - Point Break. You know what? I don't really have time for the rest of the list. That pretty much tells me what kind of nonsense will be on there.
posted by bradth27 at 8:07 PM on May 2, 2008 [5 favorites has favorites]

For me, this is the list to end all lists. I will never read another one of these stupid lists again.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 8:10 PM on May 2, 2008

The full list.
posted by Rhaomi at 8:14 PM on May 2, 2008

I have never, *ever* heard of film #7.
posted by smackfu at 8:15 PM on May 2, 2008

I'm waiting for full length mashups to get big. I have Children of Paradise meets Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers ready to upload.
posted by jfuller at 8:19 PM on May 2, 2008

#97 - Point Break. You know what? I don't really have time for the rest of the list. That pretty much tells me what kind of nonsense will be on there.

Yup, and yes, and yup again.
posted by nola at 8:23 PM on May 2, 2008

Actually, this list is just like every other Internet list, which is to say that it is another effort at click-whoring by unnecessarily splitting a list over several pages. (And as far as I can tell, you can't navigate from one page to the next, but you have to go back into the original page, which does a full refresh, to get to the next one.)
posted by troybob at 8:25 PM on May 2, 2008

A good list. Much better than all the top 100 book lists, which are all shit. I don't know why.
posted by kozad at 8:30 PM on May 2, 2008

Yeah, that number two is pretty silly. Some review site or another (maybe allmusic.com?) has a rule that nothing can be assigned a five-star rating in the first decade of its existance. A fine rule, that.

I really regret waiting for DVD to see There Will Be Blood. I may have liked it a good deal more in the theater. As is, I'd rather own a DVD of Point Break.
posted by Bookhouse at 8:31 PM on May 2, 2008

The Breakfast Club. The freakin' Breakfast Club, the 22nd greatest movie of all time. And then, in the next slot, The Towering Inferno. I have no words.
posted by argybarg at 8:34 PM on May 2, 2008

Previously from the Times:

50-best movie robots
50-greatest post-WWII authors

And from the Telegraph:

50-best works of art
50-best cult books
posted by stbalbach at 8:36 PM on May 2, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

where's juno?

In hell, where it belongs.
posted by NoMich at 8:43 PM on May 2, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

I've barely heard of half of these movies. Not that I'm a huge film buff but still...
posted by Octoparrot at 8:46 PM on May 2, 2008

you might as well have put Prey for Rock and Roll, Pootie Tang and Showgirls on there

Don't forget J. Lo's tour de force performance in Gigli.

And I always cry when I watch Britney Spear's movie, Crossroads. Not-a-girl-not-yet-a-woman searches for her birth mother while bonding with girlfriends in a convertible.
posted by HotPatatta at 8:48 PM on May 2, 2008

Juno is rotting in movie hell where it belongs.
posted by puke & cry at 8:49 PM on May 2, 2008

*refresh*

Or what NoMich said.
posted by puke & cry at 8:50 PM on May 2, 2008

(Ingrid Bergman) walks through the door with her new husband, Resistance leader Victor Laszlo

Have they even seen the films they're writing about?
posted by evilcolonel at 8:51 PM on May 2, 2008 [3 favorites has favorites]

I have never, *ever* heard of film #7.

Ah, Kes: That would be Ken Loach's own little My Life as a Dog, which is to say it's the overrated Social Realist coming-of-age sob story that somehow got him enough critical acclaim to coast through the rest of his career of overrated Social Realist sob-stories.

It's an okay film, and hugely influential (particularly in the UK), but it's not remotely Top Ten material.
posted by Sys Rq at 8:54 PM on May 2, 2008

The phrase "of all time" has always bugged me, as it seems to include both the entire past and the entire future. All time.
Why isn't it "the best movies so far"?
posted by signal at 9:03 PM on May 2, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

A few quibbles aside (There Will Be Blood at #2? Breakfast Club instead of Ferris Bueller? No fucking Princess Bride?) I thought it was a damn good list, and my own would look pretty similar. I cheered when I saw Eternal Sunshine in the top ten.
posted by Navelgazer at 9:05 PM on May 2, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

You know what was strangely good? Farenheit 451. I caught it by accident on TVO one saturday night and it was actually a pretty cool adaptation of the book. Plus, it has Julie Christie who is still looking pretty awesome for a woman in her sixties. But she was younger back then.

Anyway, what an odd effort - making a Top 100 list you know people will piss all over "to stimulate argument". He could have saved himself a lot of trouble by playing some smooth jazz while putting some menstrual blood on a plastic sheet.
posted by GuyZero at 9:10 PM on May 2, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

At least La Haine beat Point Break, and Chinatown beat The Shining, but still a poor selection for top ten overall.
posted by furtive at 9:30 PM on May 2, 2008

Well, over at idrinkyourmilkshake.com, we were pretty happy with #2.
posted by muckster at 9:33 PM on May 2, 2008

This is the 47th-worst Top 100 Movies list I've ever read.
posted by The Card Cheat at 9:40 PM on May 2, 2008 [4 favorites has favorites]

So they have two animated films on that list (as far as I could tell on a quick skim), which are Toy Story - a solid contender but not actually as good as its sequel - and The freaking Jungle Book? With The Jungle Book ranked higher?!
posted by bettafish at 9:48 PM on May 2, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

OK, maybe you want to be contrary and decide not to put Citizen Kane as #1 like everybody else. But what kind of sad fuck-the-world-and-all-taste mentality makes you decide to leave it off your top 100 list entirely? That's just being a shitty, unobservant, ahistorical asshat. If you don't think that's one of the top 100 films of all time, you don't know anything about movies.
posted by goatdog at 9:55 PM on May 2, 2008 [5 favorites has favorites]

The Jungle Book ranked higher?!

It's only a top 100 list. They only have room for the bear necessities. Trust (in) me.
posted by GuyZero at 10:08 PM on May 2, 2008

Ooo, way to go out on a limb there. Casablanca, huh. That's CRAAAZY. No one has EVER considered that one of the top two or three movies of all time before.
posted by graventy at 10:14 PM on May 2, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

ET is better than The Godfather? I fucking hate lists.
posted by doctor_negative at 10:31 PM on May 2, 2008

only one akira kurosawa? and that rashamon? what about seven samurai, (which became magnificent seven, which in it's own right might be considered one of 100). or hidden fortress? or others...

film noir tributes but no film noir?

jungle book?

blazing saddles was good but suffers from the mel brooks heavy hand, while airplane was simply great.

i've seen most of these and agree they are generally very good films. difficult to rank them though. do agree that any best 100 film list that does not at least include citizen kane is deficient.
posted by altman at 11:28 PM on May 2, 2008

No - this one’s different, says The Times’s chief film critic James Christopher

I WISH TO SPEW MORE LIES, SAYS WALKING LIE-FOUNTAIN
posted by Sticherbeast at 11:55 PM on May 2, 2008 [10 favorites has favorites]

Lists that seek to spark debate are pretty worthless because anyone dumb enough to get riled up by a greatest of all time list is probably not worth debating.
posted by Kiablokirk at 12:12 AM on May 3, 2008

#97 - Point Break. You know what? I don't really have time for the rest of the list. That pretty much tells me what kind of nonsense will be on there.

I thank you for that observation. I immediately scrolled down to #1, thought, "Yeah, Casablanca was pretty good," then saw #3, and thought, "You keep using this phrase, best movies. I do not think it means what you think it means."

And then I came here to see that Point Break made the list, and was happy I didn't go through yet another list of pure movie rating shite.

No - this one’s different, says The Times’s chief film critic James Christopher

This one's different, because instead of taking even a reasonable crack at the best movies ever made, we decided to change it up by throwing in a bunch of crap, randomly dispersed throughout the list, and see what people thought of that. Super.
posted by Brak at 12:21 AM on May 3, 2008

Weird weird weird. Maybe he's just taking the piss. I actually took some time looking for some hidden associative logic. . . cause that list is just plain weird. There are some interesting juxtapositions. . . Annie Hall, a quintessential New York movie, next to Metropolis. . . Alien next to 2001. . .Apocalypse Now next to The Jungle Book. . .

but probably I just need to go bed.

But before I do, just to counterbalance all the There Will Be Blood haters--that movie was brilliant, totally fascinating. My favorite movie sucks. Gnite.

One more thing. . .as an interesting exercise in consensus-- I wonder how many movies MeFi could agree, without anyone vetoing, belong on a Best of Movies Of So Far list? That is, without getting into ranking them individually, are there any movies that all of MeFi, without a single dissenter, can agree should go somewhere in the Top 100?
posted by flotson at 12:46 AM on May 3, 2008

flotson
if you can make this so, I'd be delighted to participate, and help as much as possible...that would be quite interesting.
posted by dawson at 1:07 AM on May 3, 2008

I would think Citizen Kane is your best shot. But I'm thinking requiring total consensus is dooming it, as there will be someone who can't understand that you can dislike a movie and still feel it belongs on a 100-greatest list.

I think it'd be easier to get consensus on directors that belong in the top 100 than movies. But then I realize that my obvious picks (hitchcock and billy wilder) are going to get objections from the artier crowd.
posted by Bookhouse at 1:25 AM on May 3, 2008

I wanted to respond to this post, but my response became a monster so I locked it up where it won't hurt anybody over here. If you wanna go over there and poke a stick at it, be my guest.

Any list that puts The Godfather in the top ten makes me gag. Over at the Internet Movie Database it's almost always in the top spot. I've voted The Godfather as a one personally, but that's not enough to tear it down from its lofty throne. Still, as much as I disagree with much of the IMDb top 250 list, I'd give it more respect than one from The Times Online. I'd probably give YOUR list, whatever it is, more respect than The Times Online.
posted by ZachsMind at 1:26 AM on May 3, 2008

This one's different,

I didn't know that different was a synonym of idiotic...
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 1:38 AM on May 3, 2008

(hitchcock and billy wilder) are going to get objections from the artier crowd.

Anyone who doesn't think these two belong on a best 100 directors list is either mad or hasn't seen their films. Artier? Pfffft. Jean-Luc Godard, who is an extremely discerning customer, rates both of these directors extremely highly. If you are artier than Godard, put your hand up.
posted by Wolof at 1:57 AM on May 3, 2008

Needs more Bergman, and less token selection of the sole Bergman film.
posted by fire&wings at 2:10 AM on May 3, 2008

i once decided i hadn't seen enough hitchcock, so i spent a few weeks renting everything i could (favorite? Notorious. that crane shot (1st ever!) during the party scene, with that key, THAT KEY! omg, that's gotta be the most white-knuckled with tension i've ever gotten watching a movie. never makes the lists...tsk) I watched most of the hits, a few of the earlier stuff...then a week or so later watched Serial Mom (yes, the John Waters film) again...and you know what, that movie is every bit as good if not better than anything of the hitch's (don't get me wrong...i LOVE hitchcock) ...every murder is as good as the shower scene and as carefully crafted, and that trial scene is just plain brilliant. every line is delivered perfectly, even by actors who are just plain horrible (it just makes it funnier). it holds up really well, and is still balls-out hilarious. the casting is NUTS! Patty Hearst? Ricki Lake? Suzanne Sommers? The maid from Diff'rent Strokes? And casting an actual insane person as the lead (Kathleen Turner)...genius! Serial Mom, thats my vote for the MeFi 100. If u haven't seen it, do.
posted by sexyrobot at 3:43 AM on May 3, 2008

I disagree with this list almost entirely. The thing I agree with most is the inclusion of Point Break.
posted by dogwalker at 5:36 AM on May 3, 2008

Point Break but no Bad Boys II?
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 5:42 AM on May 3, 2008

The Sound of Music at #11, Breathless at #92.

*has seen enough, wanders off*
posted by languagehat at 6:03 AM on May 3, 2008

What kind of list is this that even get the year of the movie right? LA Confidential 1997 not 77 or was that a different movie that was made before the book was even written?
posted by Xurando at 6:06 AM on May 3, 2008

#1: Ishtar. I swear to God I told my editor I wasn't fucking taking this anymore, and he could take his unconventional top100 and shove it up his ass. But later, I realized that I needed the paycheck if I was going to be able to buy any more Ramen (nothing but the finest for journalists! I hear Jay Z is claiming he got into the wrong line of business if he wants to make real money. He should have been a reporter!) so here's your fucking unconventional top 100. Ishtar is #1 on the list. Happy now? So go fuck yourselves, guys.
posted by shmegegge at 6:12 AM on May 3, 2008

Which 70's film one all five, major Oscars?

I have know, idea.
posted by hal9k at 6:18 AM on May 3, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

I recently obtained a secret recording of the production meeting between Christopher and the group of Times interns who came up with this list:

JC: OK, our employer needs some more ad revenue for this quarter, so we need to come up with a "Top 100 Films list."

Interns: ***GROAN*** not another one!

JC: I know, I know. Its tedious and silly, but we have to do it. Oh, and my boss says to make it "controversial," so that blogs will link to it and we'll get more clickthroughs. So, lets have some ideas.

Intern #1: OK, all of these lists have Citizen Kane at #1. Lets put something else at #!.

Intern #2 (bucking for a promotion): I've got it, lets put it waaay down the list at like #42.

Intern #3 (also bucking for a promotion): No, I've got it, let's leave it off the list altogether!

JC: That's great. You've got a future in this business, Intern #3.

Intern #3: : Just trying to do my part.

JC: OK, so what is #1?

Intern #2: Well, we can't do anything too radical, or no one will take it seriously. So let's just bump "Casablanca" up to #1, since its #2 on every other list.

JC: I like it. Now, for the rest of the list?

Intern #1 (pissed off at not getting credit for her last idea): Why don't we each choose two movies that we think have no business being on a Top 100 list, and sprinkle them randomly throughout?

JC: Excellent idea, #1. OK, draw 'em up, team!

...

JC: Good. Here are the films: "Jurassic Park," "Point Break," "Terminator 2," "The Breakfast Club," "The Towering Inferno," and "ET." Wow. This is really going to piss some people off. Any other ideas?

Intern #2: I know! Let's put something really recent really high up on the list.

JC: Great idea. Suggestions?

Intern #1: "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind?"

JC: Pretty good. Not recent enough. Let's put it at #9.

Intern #3: "Lost in Translation?"

JC: Ugh. Even I think Sofia Coppola is overrated. Stick it lower on the list, just above "Point Break."

Intern #2: "There Will Be Blood?"

JC: I like it. Barely a year old, and not not even as good as "No Country for Old Men." OK, I think that about wraps it up. Now just fill out the rest of the list with the same shit as every other list, some obscure foreign films, and a few random British flicks for the local readers. And make it quick - I want to get to the pub by 11:30 today.
posted by googly at 6:45 AM on May 3, 2008 [6 favorites has favorites]

Point Break in a list of top hundred best films?

Okay let's give it the benefit of a doubt and start by ranking it a Ten.

Gary Busey's disturbingly creepy performance drops it to a Nine.

Keanu Reeves as an FBI agent on a SURFER beat? Typecasting. Eight.

Patrick Swayze's hair attempting to look like it grew naturally in a micro gravity environment. Seven.

The advertising promised "100% pure adrenaline," but they had to throw in the predictable romantic subplot which dragged everything down to a crawl halfway through. Six.

Guys getting away with multiple bank robberies wearing masks of the former presidents. How deliberately corny. Five.

Four for the dialogue. "I'm so hungry I could eat the ass end out of a dead rhino." There's worse where that came from.

Swayze takes the last parachute. Jumps out first. Reeves dives out after him with no parachute. This is lauded by some as one of the greatest moments of cinema in the 1990s. They are falling at different speeds because Swayze is in the belly formation (120mph) and Reeves is head down (150mph) in order to catch up. They jumped out at, say, 20 thousand feet (probably more like 14 thousand but I'm giving the benefit of the doubt here). It takes a minute or so for Reeves to catch up. After Reeves catches up with Swayze, they have a conversation which lasts a couple minutes. Dismissing the fact that you can't hear shit with wind in your ears travelling at 120 mph in freefall, by the time they ran out of dialogue, they'd have no shortage of ground.

Three.

Two.

One.

Splat.

Yes I know the boys at MythBusters busted this one on their show, but even if they'd been able to prove it could be done, I still woulda cried fowl cuz jumping out after Swayze without a parachute was fucking stupid for an FBI agent to do: you call in reinforcements and let them catch him while you land safely in the plane.

The only list Point Break belongs on is a list of films worse than Plan Nine From Outer Space, and believe me there's plenty. Here's a sampling in mostly reverse alphabetical order. Zapped. Young Doctors In Love. Xanadu. Videodrome. Uncle Buck. Timecode. Throw Momma From The Train. Swamp Thing. Superman IV. Stroker Ace. Snow White And The Three Stooges. She Devil. Road House. All the Police Academys. Oh God You Devil. Mister Wrong. Mitchell. Millenium. Manos The Hands of Fate. Liquid Sky. Lifeforce. Leonard Part 6. Killer Klowns From Outer Space. Laserblast. Lair of the White Worm. Jaws 3. The Indian In The Cupboard. Innerspace. Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter. Innerspace. Home Alone 2. the 1998 version of Godzilla. Ghost Dad. G-Men From Hell. Fletch Lives. Ever After. Death Becomes Her. Deadly Friend. Constantine. Johnny Pneumonic. Condorman. the original Casino Royale. Chain Reaction. The Clonus Horror. Blair Witch Part Two. Bird On A Wire. Blind Date. Beastmaster Two. BASEketball. Angel Heart. April Fool's Day. Alien From LA. Pluto Nash. Against All Odds. Three Men And A Little Lady. Agnes of God. Return of the Killer Tomatoes... and POINT fuckin BREAK.

"Vaya con Dios, Brah."
posted by ZachsMind at 6:51 AM on May 3, 2008 [4 favorites has favorites]

I was surprised by Towering inferno at 21 but then they switched it with Bonny and Clyde also at 21.
posted by bhnyc at 6:53 AM on May 3, 2008

I liked "Point Break" and feel sorry Kathryn Bigelo hasn't had a better Hollywood career, but having it on a list of 100 best films of all time? Hell, no.

Speaking as a professional film critic and commentator, for this and other reasons, I officially declare this list craptastical.
posted by jscalzi at 7:06 AM on May 3, 2008

No, ZachsMind. Leave Condorman alone, you hear me? He was my childhood hero.
posted by kolophon at 7:09 AM on May 3, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Okay let's give it the benefit of a doubt and start by ranking it a Ten.

Gary Busey's disturbingly creepy performance drops it to a Nine.

You have your numbers mixed up.
posted by Bookhouse at 7:36 AM on May 3, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

#97 - Point Break. You know what? I don't really have time for the rest of the list. That pretty much tells me what kind of nonsense will be on there.

Really. That's interesting. Tokyo Story, Chungking Express, A Touch of Evil, Wild Strawberries, Rashomon, Roman Holiday, and onward. All nonsense because Point Blank is on there. All my friends are nonsense as well because they fart, and the farts stink, and this makes their other qualities moot. That's why I'm so fuckng cool, yo.
posted by juiceCake at 8:13 AM on May 3, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

Casablanca is always my #1, so I had a bit of a positive disposition when I read the rest.

My best friend going on a few decades now loves Point Break. It's his favorite movie. I used to give him shit for it all the time. Because, yeah, it's kinda lame if you're looking at it through a film school lens. But really, can you watch that movie and say it didn't give you what you expected? (Don't. Stop it. You. Right there. With your fingers poised to rant about the evils of pandering to expectations. Who was the cinematographer for Citizen Kane? You don't know, do you? Can you name me even three cinematographers? Of course you can't. Damn near no one can [although if you want to you can start here.]) So, off the high horse with you. Some movies are made for muching popcorn and some movies are made for you to appreciate the artsy filming. Stop mixing your apples and oranges because sometimes you want a nice crunchy apple but other times you just might want to spend the time peeling an orange.

I dunno. I haven't seen Point Break in forever. But I'm kinda getting an itch to rewatch it just 'cause. I think Eternal Sunshine is going to slip out of the movie going consciousness eventually, which is kinda sad.

I think this is actually a pretty good list. If you told me these were the only 100 movies I'd ever get to watch again in my whole life, I'd be hurting for a few omissions (and inclusions) but I'd still be OK with it overall.
posted by Cyrano at 8:16 AM on May 3, 2008

It'd be bad enough if they were American, but they are British, for the love of biscuits, and no Brazil? I am going to go out on a limb and say they could have put it in at #96 or #3, and thrown those two in the trash.
posted by 8 Bit at 9:01 AM on May 3, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Casablanca is always my #1.

Likewise. I mean, I'm not going to sit here and knock Citizen Kane, and to leave it off a list of even the top TEN films of all time is nutso, but Casablanca is one of only two* movies that are as good as people make them out to be. Citizen Kane is not. Not by a long shot. I'd choose Lady From Shanghai above it even just talking about Orson Welles.

Point Break: dumb as a sack of hammers, lots of fun. I would put it on my list of top 100 somewhere if I could make it understood that it isn't SPECIFICALLY Point Break that I was putting on there - it is a ready stand-in for any of the dozens (hundreds?) of enjoyably retarded cop/action/hiest movies that are out there, and which have given me more enjoyment than Citizen Kane many times over.

*the other movie that is as good as people say it is? Annie Hall.
posted by dirtdirt at 9:09 AM on May 3, 2008

I think it's more like:

Intern #1: Hey, we can get like 500 ad-views per person if we split the list up over dozens of pages for no reason at all. And if we put a bunch of crap on there, we'll get all the traffic routed from people sending emails to their friends saying "can you believe they put this piece of crap on the top-100 list." This will get me on permanent hire for sure!

Intern #2: Yeah, whatever. dork
posted by troybob at 9:32 AM on May 3, 2008

altman: blazing saddles was good but suffers from the mel brooks heavy hand, while airplane was simply great.

If you like Airplane!, you should see Zero Hour!, the (terrible) serious movie that Airplane! parodies. The Zuckers lifted vast swaths of dialog verbatim - truly LOL material for Airplane! fans.
posted by workerant at 10:17 AM on May 3, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

#22 - Breakfast Club
#46 - All About Eve

FAIL.
posted by rtha at 11:00 AM on May 3, 2008

flotson
if you can make this so, I'd be delighted to participate, and help as much as possible...that would be quite interesting.

I am forced to wait 1 day and 11 hours for my AskMe timer to reset, and then shall inaugurate

The 100% Consensual MeFi List of the X Best Movies of So Far

where X is defined as the number of movies that we can agree are best, with no dissention.
posted by flotson at 11:06 AM on May 3, 2008

Really. That's interesting. Tokyo Story, Chungking Express, A Touch of Evil, Wild Strawberries, Rashomon, Roman Holiday, and onward. All nonsense because Point Blank is on there. All my friends are nonsense as well because they fart, and the farts stink, and this makes their other qualities moot. That's why I'm so fuckng cool, yo.

No, you're friends aren't nonsense - they simply don't belong, say, on a list entitled "Top 100 People Who Do Not Fart." Because, you know, they fart.

See what I mean there? Good.
posted by bradth27 at 11:26 AM on May 3, 2008

This list makes me so angry, I just want to go out and punch someone in the face. RAAAAWWWRRR!!!!
posted by cazoo at 11:48 AM on May 3, 2008

So far as I can tell, they just picked a random bunch of movies and put them in a list.

And There Will Be Blood was seriously overrated. The score drove me apeshit bananas, and prevented me from tolerating what would othewise have been a rather forgettable period piece, devoid of meaningful character development or discernable plot points.
posted by Afroblanco at 11:51 AM on May 3, 2008

#97 - Point Break. You know what? I don't really have time for the rest of the list. That pretty much tells me what kind of nonsense will be on there.

you're not the only one who's sick of it not making the top ten
posted by mannequito at 12:09 PM on May 3, 2008

I haven't seen There Will Be Blood, though there's essentially no way that it could be worthy of the #2 spot. E.T., while I've never been a huge fan, at least makes sense at #3 on a list of great movies people actually love. If this list were made a year from now, I seriously doubt TWBB would still have a space on it. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, however, probably would. That's what I like about this list - that it doesn't revere the old above the new simply by the virtue of it being old. That leads to some weird results, but Also some more accurate ones than the lists where the entire top-twenty is from the 30's or the 70's.
posted by My Bloody Pony at 12:10 PM on May 3, 2008

worst movies ever? ok my votes go to:
Time Walker (alien mummy kills co-eds) and
Runaway Car (saw it on late-night tv in england...so bad it had to leave the country. Judge Reinhold stars in a low budget rip-off of Speed. Unintentionally hilarious. Features random passengers, an obviously rubber baby, and some of the worst dialog you've ever heard. "This is Ida's drawbridge, and nobody tells Ida when to move her drawbridge!")
posted by sexyrobot at 12:41 PM on May 3, 2008

I was disappointed that Hudson Hawk didn't make the list.
posted by and for no one at 1:01 PM on May 3, 2008

As a list it's more interesting than the AFI list, I'll give it that. But really, top 100 lists are boring, and are far more an measure of consensus than of quality (assuming quality can be quantified in any meaningful way). So I can't work myself up into a fervor over these things as I used to, since I don't find them too meaningful. Maybe they should try something like "Top Films that never make it onto Top 100 Lists." That'd probably be a more interesting list.

What these lists are useful for, though, is for discerning the tastes and politics of whoever comes up with these lists. I'd say of these editors that they are unabashedly (and sometimes painfully) pop, guiltily anglophilic, not completely willing to give up the pretense of good-taste but certainly not happy with those terms, termite-art enthusiasts more often than not, and definitely more sensualists than cerebralists.
posted by Weebot at 1:06 PM on May 3, 2008

Never mind dawson, at least no one is pissing all over your thread because it doesn't include television shows.
posted by Artw at 1:26 PM on May 3, 2008

I don't know as I agree with the exact ranking or everything on it, but I did enjoy most of the 50+ movies I've seen off this and I assume I'd enjoy seeing most of the others. I'm probably better off not expecting more than that from this type of list.
posted by Nabubrush at 1:28 PM on May 3, 2008

guiltily anglophilic

Or, as we say here, "British".
posted by influx at 1:32 PM on May 3, 2008

Never mind dawson, at least no one is pissing all over your thread because it doesn't include television shows.

heh, thanks Artw, there's some hostility in yr '100 best' thread but it's going better than this one I think.
posted by dawson at 1:43 PM on May 3, 2008

This list is nothing without Super Fuzz, a truly great movie.
posted by KokuRyu at 3:35 PM on May 3, 2008

Aw, how cute. They bothered to put a handful of films on the list that aren't in English.
posted by desuetude at 6:09 PM on May 3, 2008

I liked Uncle Buck.
posted by stargell at 6:36 PM on May 3, 2008

> they are unabashedly (and sometimes painfully) pop, guiltily anglophilic, not completely
> willing to give up the pretense of good-taste but certainly not happy with those terms,
> termite-art enthusiasts more often than not, and definitely more sensualists than
> cerebralists.

It's just a pose. They left out Carry On, Nurse.
posted by jfuller at 7:53 PM on May 3, 2008

any list that misses Naked, In the Mood for Love & 2046 is not worth reading.
posted by UbuRoivas at 1:57 AM on May 4, 2008

any list that misses Naked, In the Mood for Love & 2046 is not worth reading.

Yeah, Naked, In the Mood for Love was hott!!
posted by languagehat at 6:31 AM on May 4, 2008

No, you're friends aren't nonsense - they simply don't belong, say, on a list entitled "Top 100 People Who Do Not Fart." Because, you know, they fart.

See what I mean there? Good.

No. So bad. This is a different take on the original statement. With statements like these, I know what kind of nonsense is going to follow.
posted by juiceCake at 8:02 AM on May 4, 2008

any list that misses Naked, In the Mood for Love & 2046 is not worth reading.

I'm totally with you on In the Mood for Love (just a stunning film), but I thought 2046 was awful - gorgeous design and slow-motion pathos with nothing behind it does not a great movie make.
posted by OverlappingElvis at 10:26 AM on May 4, 2008

This "different" list contains nothing but really popular movies. I like most of them, but calling this controversial is a stretch. Where's "A Matter of Life and Death," "Ace in the Hole," "Green For Danger," "Dead of Night," "Greed"...? Where are all the gems of cinema history that aren't on the tip of everyone's tongue?

This is an old journalistic trick: take a bunch of commonly-ranked stuff, put it in a different order, and proclaim yourself edgy.
posted by grumblebee at 7:40 PM on May 4, 2008

(I'm not claiming any of the films I mentioned should be on a "best list." I'm saying how come I've heard-of and -- for the most part -- watched every film on this list? I guess people can't argue about obscure stuff they've never seen, but I wish there was some honesty: "The Best Films You've Already Heard Of.")
posted by grumblebee at 7:54 PM on May 4, 2008

As has been mentioned above, the ommission of Brazil makes this whole list utterly pointless and stupid.
posted by pompomtom at 8:32 PM on May 4, 2008

great list, now all we have to do is watch them all...
posted by upick at 3:22 AM on May 5, 2008

Uh oh, looks like I'd better bring up my Netflix queue before opening this. Thanks for posting.
posted by daHIFI at 9:12 AM on May 5, 2008

KoloPhon: "No, ZachsMind. Leave Condorman alone, you hear me? He was my childhood hero."

Alright.

I dutifully retract Condorman from my list of worst movies and replace it with Remo Williams. Fortunately for the world, that adventure ended as soon as it began.
posted by ZachsMind at 8:23 AM on May 18, 2008

I am amusing myself by comparing the ill-concieved Times Online list to my own ill-concieved list. I happen to list six films on my list that are also on the Times Online list.

05. North by Northwest
08. The Empire Strikes Back
25. Vertigo
27. This Is Spinal Tap
29. The Life of Brian
30. Jaws

I only bothered going to fifty. I could probably say that Jurassic Park would fall somewhere between 50 and a 100, as might some of the others (Casablanca, Maltese Falcon, Duck Soup, Blade Runner, A Touch of Evil, Metropolis) but after fifty it seems kinda pointless. My personal choice just doesn't solidify enough after fifty. It changes so much. One day I'd think Annie Hall was better than A Clockwork Orange and the next day I'd change my mind, or think The Graduate was better than either of them. A week later I'd wonder why I was contemplating any of them for position 63, when there's far better candidates out there. Or I'd find A Clockwork Orange rocketed up ten points cuz I'd seen it again recently.

And even my top fifty changes day to day. If I actually decided to do this on a daily basis for a month, the list would change and morph and it'd just be a fruitless and pointless endeavour.

It would perhaps be fun though. =)

What frustrates me is that some movies don't belong on the same list. For example, The Gods Must Be Crazy is a pathetic film that is ill-concieved, horribly written, the acting is atrocious, the editing appears to have been done using gardening shears, and it's painful to listen to the film's incidental music. Objectively there's nothing good about the movie, but I adore the stuffing out of it. I can't put it in the top ten. I can't even put it in the top hundred, but in some ways I adore The Gods Must Be Crazy more than I do anything ever made by Alfred Hitchcock, and I really like North By Northwest, Vertigo, and Rear Window. Ooh! And The Birds!

Making different lists for different kinds of movies is just paving a way to all new levels of Hades. It's a nightmare. Some movies would inevitably qualify for both lists. I honestly can't fathom how this list making process can be objectively done without driving a person insane.
posted by ZachsMind at 8:55 AM on May 18, 2008