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

Wait, is that correct? Is your twenty-first pick supposed to be 2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984)? So the person who put Kubrick's 2001 over the top as THE best movie 'round these here parts is possibly the only human being besides maybe Peter Hayams' mother who thinks the sequel is a better film than the original? And additionally that 2010 superfan doesn't even know the film's correct frippin' title?

Irony sure is ironic.

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"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra

And I almost didn't include it at all.

20-25 were just mercy votes I pulled randomly to get the list finished. Thought back to the films that made the biggest impact on me as a kid and that's how it came to be. I almost put the whole Lethal Weapon series after The Hobbit. Almost.

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"This is that human freedom, which all boast that they possess, and which consists solely in the fact, that men are conscious of their own desire, but are ignorant of the causes whereby that desire has been determined." -Baruch Spinoza

Fun bashing part 4 - the final 10

07. The Departed >> Blade Runner - Just plain horrible, Departed should go over this movie

06. Fight Club >> Jaws - The fight club just turned into an underwater fight club, no cages allowed fellas

04 Indiana Jones: Raiders Of The Lost Ark >> Casablanca - Unacceptable dammit!

03. Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope >> Goodfellas - Funny how there was no hope after that one lol

01. The Godfather >> Space Odyssey - Voter fraud detected, space odyssey is now disqualified from this list, Departed is the new #1

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Moviefan1988's Favorite Movies
https://www.movieforums.com/communit...?t=67103<br />

Welcome to the Dance: My Favorite 20 High School Movies
https://www.movieforums.com/communit...02#post2413502

I'll take another bow.

No lie, I didn't even catch that myself. It's been years since I have seen either, and I stupidly didn't check the title.

EDIT: I'll take the public shaming now.

So basically JM voted for stuff that doesn't exist and we have to do this whole list again from the start.

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Like I said: I gots to skew the data.



For what it’s worth I made the list in like five minutes on my phone. Not that that means that y’all shouldn’t publicly shame me.

Go on. I’m ready. I can take it.

Haven't seen these. Embarrassed about some.

99. Suspiria
95. Ikiru
88. Akira
84. The Apartment
82. 8 ½
73. Metropolis
72. A Woman Under the Influence
67. Andrei Rublev
57. North by Northwest
54. Come and See
53. Sunset Boulevard
48. The Third Man
45. Persona
25. Stalker
10. Citizen Kane
4. Casablanca

Pretty fine watch list.

1. Apocalypse Now (1979) [#9]
2. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) [#1]
3. Akira (1988) [#88]
4. The Thing (1982) [#20]
5. Blade Runner (1982) [#7]
6. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) [#8]
7. The Blues Brothers (1980) [DNP]
8. Taxi Driver (1976) [#14]
9. Goodfellas (1990) [#3]
10. Escape From New York (1981) [DNP]
11. Alien (1979) [#13]
12. Princess Mononoke (1997) [DNP]
13. Slacker (1990) [DNP]
14. Stalker (1979) [#25]
15. The Terminator (1984) [#56]
16. The Matrix (1999) [#24]
17. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) [DNP]
18. Persona (1966) [#45]
19. Seven Samurai (1954) [#26]
20. Pulp Fiction (1994) [#5]
21. Repo Man (1984) [DNP]
22. Videodrome (1983) [DNP]
23. Dead Man (1995) [DNP]
24. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) [DNP]
25. It’s Such A Beautiful Day (2012) [DNP]

15/25, then. On with the ten...

The Blues Brothers has been a favourite for as long as I can remember watching movies (for the longest time, it was dueling with Raiders for the #1 spot on my list). I noted earlier how it is kind of an odd choice for a childhood favourite (though it is comparatively light as far as R-rated movies go - outside of a few hard swears and the odd off-colour joke, it's pretty benign) but it's persisted throughout the years due to its peculiar alchemy of buddy comedy, musical numbers, and car chases.

Escape From New York...look, sometimes you just have to maintain your brand.

Princess Mononoke is my favourite Ghibli film - as excellent as Spirited Away is, this one has always had the edge for me. Maybe that's due to it leaning into more overtly mature content with its environmental fable that pits a poisoned prince into the midst of a feud between an industrialist noblewoman and the forest-dwellers she threatens, all of it rendered with appropriate levels of nuance and ambiguity that make for a compelling narrative from start to finish.

Slacker is my favourite Richard Linklater film (all due respect to Dazed and Confused, which was definitely a welcome surprise on the main list) and serves as a touchstone not just for his other films but for a lot of similarly off-beat films that want for plot but not quality with its perpetually-drifting tale of 24 hours in the life of Austin, Texas.

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre may or may not be the best horror movie ever made, but it's definitely one of those movies where I think of it less as a movie than an experience and it's held up in a way that many of its peers simply haven't (or could never reach). I once compared it against Suspiria for how well they worked at building all-encompassing vibes of terror and unease that were at once astounding and horrifying on an audio-visual level. At least one of them made it.

Repo Man is another weird cult gem and I'm willing to bet that I'm the only person that put it on their list. You know it's a true cult classic because the appeal is well and truly inexplicable - a scattershot blast of punk energy where Alex Cox's own experiences with repossessing cars form the foundation for an absurdist ensemble comedy that takes jabs at everything from Reaganomics to revolutionaries, alien conspiracies to atomic bombs, teen angst to televangelists. Impossible to recommend, but I do it anyway.

Videodrome is another horror I thought would be a good idea to throw on the list even though it seems like anything outside of the more acceptable winners like Alien or Halloween or The Shining was going to get the shaft (which only makes Suspiria's tail-end appearance all the more miraculous) - it didn't even rank that high on the Horror countdown (where I guest-presented its announcement). Still, I figured it was as indelible a piece of work with its grotesque body-horror satire of the moral issues posed by the advent of cable television and what they could mean for society as we know it.

Dead Man is the only Western on my list. It topped my ballot for the Westerns countdown, a ballot that included just about every Western that actually made this countdown. What made me give it the edge again? As with many of my picks, it just maintains this irresistible vibe - far from the sprawling and bombastic epics of Ford or Leone, Jarmusch goes for a bleak but spiritual death trip that sees Depp's mortally-wounded protagonist wander a monochrome hellscape while fuzzy but melancholy guitar wails on the soundtrack. Not like the other Westerns needed my help anyway.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail - honestly, I think this one might've been a mistake. An instant favourite right from the moment that King Arthur and the Black Knight had one very messy swordfight, it's been at the top of my list time and time again, but I haven't watched it in a while and I haven't felt much like revisiting it in recent years. Maybe it's time to let this one go.

It's Such A Beautiful Day is admittedly an attempt to game the one-pointer system - it's going to be ironic if the reason it didn't work is because somebody else tried the same thing. Still, it left a hell of an impression when I first watched it a few years back. Don Hertzfeldt pieces together a triptych about the life of a stick figure named Bill, starting off with weirdly precise observations about his daily life that eventually give way as he gradually starts to physically and mentally deteriorate. At once absurdly funny in the same vein as other Hertzfeldt works like Rejected but also soaked in a deep sense of depression that bleeds into many of the film's disjointed anecdotes (all animated and narrated by Hertzfeldt himself, making this a decidedly singular piece of work) and gives way to all sorts of audio-visual chaos to match Bill's warped perception. I have to admit that I rewatched this the other day and would probably not put it in my top 25 now, but I stand by it being an excellent film nonetheless.

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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

1. Harry and Tonto
2. La Strada
3. Nashville
4. They Shoot Horses, Don't they?
5. One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest
6. Network
7. The Battle of Algiers
8. Treasure of the Sierra Madre
9. A Woman Under The Influence
10. Buffalo '66
11. harold and maude
12. Umberto D
13. Shadows in Paradise
14. Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
15. La Grande Illusion
16. the seventh seal
17. ace in the hole
18. McCabe & Mrs. Miller
19. Fat City
20. The Bicycle Thief
21. the swimmer
22. mikey and nicky
23. A Child is Waiting
24. on the waterfront
25. wild strawberries

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https://www.youtube.com/c/LoyalOpposition

Brilliant movie.
I first watched when I was about 10 or 11 (around 1992-93) simply because it had Estevez and Stanton in it.
Had absolutely no idea what I was getting into either but the movie stuck with me for years.

I bought the DVD immediately when it was first released as well.

It kinda cuts between borderline surreal and completely surreal.
Even the mundane scenes have surrealist edge to them... cans with white labels, and either "food" or "drink" on them, and everyone basically just cuts open a can of FOOD and eats straight from the can with a fork.
Stanton and Estevez talking about Commies, and Tracey Walter rambling about his dreams and fitting mirrors in John Wayne's bedroom.

Plus there's Miguel Sandoval punking it out with an extreme haircut and string vest.
I genuinely had no idea it was him until about 2 years ago, I suddenly had a penny-drop moment and recognised him in Jurassic Park as the mine owner at the beginning of the movie

The only film in the top-10 I haven't seen is Casablanca.

It's been ages since I last saw Jaws, but I don't remember being too enthusiastic about it (I was about to rewatch all the films some time ago, but the original wasn't on Netflix anymore so I didn't).

Pulp Fiction I saw in theaters, and I've probably rewatched it once or twice too. I've liked it but never loved it. One of the better Tarantino's though.

Goodfellas is, according to my memories, a typical Scorsese mob film. It's pretty good and enjoyable, but like above, I've never loved it.

The Godfather I rewatched quite recently (also the second film), and it was really good. I think I slightly prefer it over the sequel, and it's my favorite mob film along with De Palma's Scarface. Was never in contention to be on my ballot, but could make it to top-100.

2001, eh? I've already said how I feel about Kubrick. The book is excellent (I've read it twice), but the movie is a boring tech demo. I think I've seen all of it, but I've never been able to watch it in its entirety (and it's not for the lack of trying, there have been at least three attempts).

Seen 77/100
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Here's my whole ballot:

01: The Exorcist (1973)
02: Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
*03: Let the Right One In (2008)
*04: Robocop (1987)
05: Aliens (1986)

06: Blade Runner (1982)
07: Conan the Barbarian (1982)
08: The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (1976)
*09: Léon: The Professional (1994)
10: The Matrix (1999)

11: Starship Troopers (1997)
12: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
13: The Seventh Seal (1957)
14: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
15: The Terminator (1984)

16: Ringu (1998)
17: Pulse (2001)
18: The Thing (1982)
19: Ginger Snaps (2000)
20: Fireworks (1997)

21: Brimstone (2016)
22: The Reflecting Skin (1990)
23: Excalibur (1981)
24: In a Glass Cage (1986)
25: Poison of the Fairies (1984)

In retrospect, I'd probably drop Ginger Snaps in favor of Argento's Suspiria. The only film that got into my list with only one viewing was In a Glass Cage, which I've recently rewatched for the HoF, and it was just as good as I remembered.

*I was really surprised that none of these three made it.

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Unlucky 13 then. Some stray thoughts on my films that didn’t make the cut:
I was sure Once never had a chance of making our list, but was hoping Before Sunrise might just sneak on. Oh well. They are equal in my mind as two of the most staggeringly romantic films of all time, both with a distinctly low-key, intimate feel that lets the characters and dialogue do the heavy lifting. Amelie and Lost In Translation are similarly romantic, one unapologetically whimsical, the other bittersweet, both beautiful. Quite a surprise not to see them, particularly the former. I had to include a Woody Allen film and Annie Hall has everything I love about his movies. Hausu is mind-blowingly weird and wonderful, and Barry Lyndon an absolutely astonishing technical achievement, a film I adore (and yet another “sprawling historical epic,” a phrase I’m getting sick of typing) from a filmmaker I have a difficult relationship with. Almost Famous is a coming-of-age tale that’s just pure joy to spend time with, and the awesome music certainly doesn’t hurt it. Network is probably the one I’m most sad (along with Amelie) to see miss. It’s a masterful script, masterfully acted and directed. Fanny and Alexander captures the intricacies of family with such resonance and in vivid detail the likes of which no other film I've seen comes close to, and is stunningly beautiful to look at. The Graduate is one of the films that really got me into movies so I had to include it somewhere, and again I’m surprised to see it fall short of the points required to break the 100. Finally, Sweet Smell of Success is a superbly sleazy noir with great performances and one of the most quotable scripts ever written, with a biting, lovingly-constructed one-liner never far from Burt Lancaster or Tony Curtis’ lips.

I won't say it's better (I barely even know how to parse 2001, particularly as a narrative), but I like the ending a lot better.

EDIT: to clarify, this isn't just a shot at 2001's weird ending (though there's some of that). This is like 90% just complimenting 2010's ending, which I think is brilliant and lovely. I also think it's really interesting that one of these can be a better movie but not necessarily a better story.

I love Once, but as wonderful as it is, even just in terms of movies about musicians it'd be somewhere like sixth or seventh for me.

There are so many weird little running gags in that movie that give it so much character on repeat viewings. Like the Christmas tree air fresheners that Tracey Walter says can be found in every car showing up in every car, or how Estevez's nerdy buddy ends up in hospital because he happens to be at the supermarket manager's house when the repo men show up to beat up said manager.

Sandoval is borderline-unrecognisable in Repo Man because he looks so young and skinny and is putting on a dopey voice the whole time. It's wild that he went from looking like that to the paunchy mustachioed look he's kept for basically his whole career by the time Do the Right Thing came out only five years later (speaking of which, that definitely feels like one of the most glaring omissions from this list, subjectivity or no)

What are the 5/6 you'd put above it?

Movies on my list that didn’t make the top 100, you monsters:

Ghostbusters (the highest in my list to not make it at #4)
Road Warrior
Mad Max: Fury Road (I expected one of these to make it, or at least one George Miller movie. I guess you guys just don’t like good movies )
Get Out (the most recent movie on my list)
Inglourious Basterds
American Psycho
Shaun of the Dead (No Edgar Wright made the top 100 either, heartbreaking)
Clerks
Galaxy Quest
Tremors
Cabin in the Woods

Making a follow-up to one of the most ambitious and impressive scifi films is a daunting AND futile task by any way you look at it. But I think that 2010 is a fairly decent, albeit too straightforward, scifi film.

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Kudos for including this. I had it at #63 myself, but overall, it's probably my #3 romantic film, so I'm glad someone else loved it well enough to include it.