The Movie Forums Top 100 of All-Time Refresh: Countdown

Return of the King is a brilliant wrap-up to an awesome film series. I will admit I'm a Tolkien reader but nothing in the films (added by the writers/director or taken straight from the book) made me think that it was a bad adaptation of the book (as it was meant to be one book but broken up by the publishers for sales reasons). Instead, I was beyond jazzed that I was finally, in my lifetime, seeing a respectful, big-budget representation of the book on the big screen. This was something I thought would never happen. But it wasn't just out of a "finally, they filmed it!" feeling---it was that all three were damn fine movies, better than I had reason to hope. I'm glad all three (if Fellowship makes it and I have no reason to doubt that) made this list. Didn't put RotK on my list, though. But my list representation is not over yet.

Psycho is a great movie by Hitchcock and although it's not my favorite by him (I've already posted my favorite by him), it's truly deserving of its classic status. All of the movie is awesome, but the final image of Norman Bates looking at the screen and the skull superimposed over his face still can give me the shudders! Didn't make my list either.

19. The Searchers #97
1. To Kill a Mockingbird #85
25. Die Hard #63
14. Rear Window #40
8. It's a Wonderful Life #38
2. Aliens #37
13. The Wizard of Oz #36
9. Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back #30

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"Miss Jean Louise, Mr. Arthur Radley."

Or the blue bomb that went off in the money bag?
Or the literal bomb/grenade that went off, killing the motorcycle guy?

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Empire Strikes Back is the best of the original trilogy. Return of The King is fast paced for a 3 hour movie and probably has one of the best battle sequences of all time.

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It's unlikely that Return of the Jedi will top the other two Star Wars movies, but we're obviously getting LOTR 1. So we're getting more LOTR movies than Star Wars movies.

There's still Attack of the Clones.

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Now, that would be something to see on this list

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Die, Jedi dogs.

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is my least favorite of the three LOTR movies, but I enjoyed the whole trilogy. I'm not at all surprised that all three of the LOTR movies will make the countdown.


Psycho is a top tier Hitchcock movie, but it was not one of the Hitchcock movies that made my list.

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OPEN FLOOR.

I'm curious if any of those five people who had The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in their top three had all three of the LOTR movies in their top 3, or even if all three LOTR movies were anywhere on their list.

I know the answer to this, but @Yoda has forbidden me from speaking anything regarding the list. If I do, I lose a thumb.

That's okay. I'm a very patient person. I can wait until people post their lists after the countdown is over.

Although Psycho made my list I have always rated The Birds higher. But with Hitchcock there are so many greats to choose from.

Permit me a final word on ROTK.

I think for me the experience was very different for it because I'd watched Fellowship and Two Towers in the Cinema (and dvd), THEN I read the books for the first time before ROTK came out, so perhaps that led me to be a bit more critical of it and scenes I was looking forward to were either vastly different or non existent, so I was a bit like "why did they do that". I stand by my main criticisms though regarding the battle in particular. I would rather watch a battle decided by tactics and soldiering than a Deus Ex gimmick, like going back to earlier discussions about Braveheart's outstanding battle.

Someone mentioned the pacing aswell, I think caused by the decision to have the middle of Two Towers the book, the battle for Helm's Deep, become the big finale. Which makes Two Towers better but incurs a pacing debt with the finale. Also having I think the end of book 2 for Frodo's journey now taking place somewhat in the middle of ROTK (Shelob's lair) led everything to get a bit squashed and hurried, especially in the theatrical cut.

It still has great moments, but I give it 7.5/10 and the first 2 a 10/10.

Ok that's it, I'm sorry I'll shut up now.

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Whoa, didn't see these two coming based on the clues!

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This is the most surprising and the best pair yet. Wow.

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Two more to the list...

Three Films:

1. Alfred Hitchcock - Psycho (#27), Rear Window (#40), North by Northwest (#57)
2. Steven Spielberg - Schindler's List (#41), Saving Private Ryan (#83), E.T. (#89)
3. James Cameron - Aliens (#37), The Terminator (#56), Terminator 2 (#71)

Two Films:

1. Akira Kurosawa - Seven Samurai (#26), Ikiru (#95)
2. Andrei Tarkovsky - Stalker (#25), Andrei Rublev (#67)
3. Peter Jackson - The Return of the King (#28), The Two Towers (#42)
4. David Fincher - Seven (#29), Fight Club (#52)
5. Milos Forman - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (#33), Amadeus (#50)
6. Robert Zemeckis - Back to the Future (#34), Forrest Gump (#65)
7. Victor Fleming - The Wizard of Oz (#36), Gone with the Wind (#55)
8. Billy Wilder - Sunset Boulevard (#53), The Apartment (#84)
9. Paul Thomas Anderson - There Will Be Blood (#60), Magnolia (#74)

Now we're talking. I can't remember my list but at least one of these is in my top 25 if not both. Phenomenal films.

I felt like it was too early for Dr Strangelove.