Tuesday, October 09, 2007

To heck with the AFI. Here are the real top 100 movies.

To heck with the AFI. Here are the real top 100 movies (in no particular order, except that the top ten are the top ten, although in no particular order.).

This is a work in progress. Suggestions would be appreciated. Of course, since this is my list, I will feel free to reject anything that I don't like.

And the winners are:

A Clockwork Orange
Brazil
Blade Runner
Casablanca
Galaxy Quest
Zardoz (That's a joke... I say, that's a joke, son.)
Big Trouble in Little China
This Is Spinal Tap
Beavis and Butt Head Do America
Star Wars
Raiders of the Lost Ark
The Seventh Seal
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
The Matrix

Next 90 (and yes, I know that was more than 10 and what follows doesn't round out 100. One or more of the top ten and elsewhere might not really belong there, and there might be a few others that belong on the list.):

The Princess Bride
12 Monkeys
The Godfather
The Seven Samurai
Pulp Fiction
Apocalypse Now
Maltese Falcon
Labyrinth
Taxi Driver
Jaws
South Park Bigger, Longer, Uncut
Rocky
The Outlaw Josey Wales
Shall We Dance (Japanese version)
The Adventures of Robin Hood
Captain Blood
Citizen Kane (but only because it's the most overrated movie of all time and it has the Witch of Endor)
The Third Man
Repo Man
City of God
Escape From New York
My Father's Glory
My Mother's Castle
Airplane
An American Werewolf in London
Arsenic and Old Lace
Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure
Wayne's World
Boogie Nights
Blast From the Past
The Bridge On the River Kwai
A Christmas Story
Cyrano de Bergerac
Dawn of the Dead
Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn
Fargo
Fight Club
A Fish Called Wanda
Forrest Gump
Goodfellas
Highlander
Henry V (Branaugh)
Independence Day
Kagemusha
Les Miserables (1998)
Lawrence of Arabia
Magnolia
Harakiri
The Maltese Falcon
The Sea Hawk
Men in Black
Merry Christmas (Joyeux Noel)
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Monty Python's Life of Brian
My Cousin Vinny
My Man Godfrey
National Lampoon's Animal House
Office Space
The Outlaw Josey Wales
Pee-Wee's Big Adventure
Ran
Red Dawn
Repo Man
Requiem for a Dream
Sanjuro
Shaun of the Dead
Singles The Sixth Sense
The Terminator
Titus
Tremors
True Romance
The Truman Show
The Twilight Samurai
Unbreakable
Wallace & Gromit: Three Amazing Adventures
Withnail and I
Yojimbo


A few observations: The critics seem to insist on including silent films. Granted, they might be "important," and they might have been good in their time, but even the best of them (and that would be Metropolis and Nosferatu) just don't hold up. The tools were not available when those movies were made, and however good they may be for what they are, they just don't make the cut.

Citizen Kane really doesn't make the cut either, but it gets extra points for being incredibly overrated for more than half a century.

And before the list is finalized, Zardoz will be eliminated. It's hardly better than Citizen Kane.

4 Comments:

Blogger TBM said...

Thanks for posting this list! There were a couple on your "top 10" and good number on "the Next 90" that we haven't seen.

Thursday, October 18, 2007 4:11:00 AM  
Blogger Laurie said...

Just when I thought my NetFlix list was semi-complete...

Thursday, October 18, 2007 7:20:00 AM  
Blogger Susan in St. Paul said...

There are a several in your top 90 that are better than at least a quarter of your top 10.

How did you decide what makes a top 10? Especially since Princess Bride was your favorite movie?

I am really not sure Beavis and Butthead can stay the test of time like many of your top 90 have.

Thursday, October 18, 2007 11:06:00 AM  
Blogger Mommy said...

As I understand your list, the first group is your “top ten” and the second group, in no particular order (other than some alphabetical grouping in places), completes the rest of your top 100 (approx.) movies. Just wanted to make sure I understood that because, knowing what I know of you, you did not seem like the type of man that would place The Princess Bride in the very top spot on his list. Don’t get me wrong… TPB is an excellent movie, but I find it "inconceivable" that you’d list it as your all-time favorite. ;)

But, I must say that this list is an excellent personal list of favorites.

Personally, I think Beavis & Butthead are classic characters. They represent the apathy and gradual "dumbing-down" of our country's youth. And with the current state of our education system, that fact makes them very relevant characters in our society.

Thursday, October 18, 2007 2:21:00 PM  

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