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

Or maybe Fargo is out and Lebowski is in?

The Matrix in the Top 25?

Was hoping it would no the the case, but alas, here we are.

I like The Matrix, but at this point, I think it is sort of the very definition of an overrated film. I thought at this point, some of its luster might have worn off for most MoFos. Well, at least it dropped some!

TGTBATU is top notch Leone, but did not make my list.

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The Matrix as I've mentioned above... I don't consider it to be a great film. I think I thought it was decent enough when I first watched it, but I've caught it on TV a couple of times since and I've always found it unappealing and hard to watch. Not for me sorry. I don't get the hype and why so many people regard it as one of the greatest films ever.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (yay I got a guess right!) is a great film. Very stylish, lots of fun, great score, and many iconic scenes. It didn't make my list but I'm happy to see it here. It's probably in my brother's top 10 films. Maybe expected it to be a bit higher actually.

78/78 seen.

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Two movies I think are really good but probably wouldn't show up till the last third of a 250 list for me. I really need to see The Matrix again, it's been a long time. TGTBATU is great and iconic. I think OUATITW is superior though and should be much higher.

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Letterboxd

I saw The Matrix pretty recently for the first time and while it is good, I don't think it's top 25 best ever good. Maybe somewhere in a backhalf of a top 250.

The Good The Bad and the Ugly is classic greatness. Id like to think it would still be a top 119 film for me as it was in my last one.

The Matrix was #11 on both the MoFo '90s and the MoFo Sci-Fi Lists while The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly was #3 on the MoFo '60s List and #1 on the MoFo Westerns List.

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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

Hmm, The Matrix, okay. Well, I think it's fine, if a bit surprising to see this high up. It played as a good fun action flick when it came out and my sense of it hasn't changed in the couple of times I've seen it since. Its philosophic pretensions are a comic book gloss--there's nothing really wrong with that but it does seem to lead to some overheated interpretations of the film (and, I imagine to the Wachowskis' dismay, genuine idiocy like "redpilling").

As for The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, it's a fine Leone film, but I already had one on my list.

Still shocked that I didn't select a single Coen, my second favorite director(s)). A major faux pas on my part. Of the ones I've seen, rank them as:

1. Miller's Crossing
2. Fargo
3. On Brother, Where Art Thou?
4. The Big Lebowski
5. Inside Llewyn Davis
6. No Country for Old Men
7. Raising Arizona
8. A Serious Man
9. Burn After Reading
10. Barton Funk
11. The Hudsucker Proxy
12. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
13. True Grit
14. Intolerable Cruelty
15. Hail, Caesar
16. The Ladykillers

The Matrix was my #16. Such a pastiche of influences - cyberpunk, anime, martial arts, heroic bloodshed, solipsism - collide in what could have been an unwatchable mess that truly changed the game for genre cinema. I certainly consider it a personal Rosetta stone when it comes to tracing the development of a lot of my interests, cinematic and otherwise.

I gave The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly a five-star review and put it on at least one top 100, but I did not vote for it. Its position seems secure enough without me.

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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

Hint explanations:






The main character in TGTBATU is named "Blondie." (And it nods to the flying and hanging.)




Angel Eyes.

The ship in The Matrix is called the Nebuchadnezzar, a Babylonian king.

One who faced lions = Daniel and the Lion's Den.

Nebuchadnezzar is in the Book of Daniel.

"Civil" and "War," the backdrop of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

The Civil War, and:



Iron Pyrite is known as Fool's Gold. The gold in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is buried in a grave (marked "Arch Stanton").

"The Matrix", seriously...top 25?!? I'll let it go at that since I'm new here. But, seriously?


Now "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" is a fine film and in dire need of a revisit.
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60/76 films seen

Cue a whole bunch of people leaping on to say how much they hate The Matrix; in fact since some have you have said it several times in this thread already, perhaps you don't need to.

The Matrix was my #7. At one time it was my #1 movie. It has slipped a little but not that far. I was braced for a big fall in this countdown, so I am delighted to see it in the top 25. I've watched it fairly recently after not having seen it for a couple of years and was prepared to not enjoy it as much as I did in 1999, but a couple of reservations aside, it is a stone cold classic. I watched it again more recently with my teenage son. Matrix haters will be glad to hear that he didn't like it - but then again he doesn't like many movies because they are all, quote, 'fake'. What struck me, though, was how even though I have seen it a dozen or so times (and I don't tend to rewatch movies that much), there were still new things that I appreciated that I hadn't noticed before. I like it as a sci-fi action film, I think it's clever and can be interpreted in a number of different ways. I think the effects are good and still hold up better than a lot of cgi overloaded movies from the early 2000s. I like the soundtrack. I like the way it looks, with the deliberately placed shots and reflections.

Basically, the Matrix is awesome and you are wrong.

Rewatched The Matrix very recently, it's not unenjoyable but I'm really surprised to see it show up so high here.

The Good, The Bad And The Ugly was #5 on my westerns ballot, very happy to see it here.

Seen: 68/78 (Own: 34/78)


Faildictions (Eternal vsn 1.0):
22. TLOTR: The Fellowship Of The Ring (2001)
21. Inception (2010)

Considering that it came in at #20 on the "Directed by Women" countdown, I fully expect Strange Days and We Need to Talk About Kevin and Wonder Woman to be on this list now.

I will say that although there are plenty of movies on this list that would not be on my list (and even, in a few cases, anywhere near it), I am interested to see the reasoning of people who picked those movies. Having one's own opinions validated is, of course, pleasant, but not as useful as learning what others saw in something that you missed.

What I'm trying to say is, by all means, bring on Paul Blart Mall Cop and tell me about it.

I know I'm in the minority, but I really don't like The Matrix that much. I've seen it a couple of times and I've always liked Hugo Weaving's performance, but that's about it. With rewatches, I've warmed up to a couple of things and setpieces, most of them in the first act, but as a whole, I don't like it.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is good, but it's not my favorite from the Dollars trilogy. I haven't seen it in a good while, but I have some slight issues with its pacing. Still, the final confrontation is iconic with a reason, and the three leads are great.

Obviously, none of them made my list, though.

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My Summary:

Seen: 69/78
My list: 10/25

This feels like votes operating on an old system. When I was a teenager and went to see this in theaters with my friend I couldn't help but mark out because it seemed built for that audience. Action for kids and philosophy that exists just above a teenage mind. I don't think it's a bad movie now but I dunno.

Another one to the list of directors with Multiple Entries...

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. Sergio Leone - The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (#23), Once Upon a Time in the West (#32)
2. Andrei Tarkovsky - Stalker (#25), Andre Rublev (#67)
3. Akira Kurosawa - Seven Samurai (#26), Ikiru (#95)
4. Peter Jackson - The Return of the King (#28), The Two Towers (#42)
5. David Fincher - Seven (#29), Fight Club (#52)
6. Milos Forman - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (#33), Amadeus (#50)
7. Robert Zemeckis - Back to the Future (#34), Forrest Gump (#65)
8. Victor Fleming - The Wizard of Oz (#36), Gone with the Wind (#55)
9. Billy Wilder - Sunset Boulevard (#53), The Apartment (#84)
10. Paul Thomas Anderson - There Will Be Blood (#60), Magnolia (#74)

LOTR: Return of the King - I saw it once. Would need to be strapped down ala A Clockwork Orange to see it again. Gave it a , one star for every hour.

Psycho No surprise here. If I were to rank Hitch this would probably be my third fav. . Wouldn't have had a problem if this had made it all the way into the top ten even if it isn't my favorite.

Seven Samurai Only watched it once and I was surprised by how funny it was. I have it rated a little low but I think I just need to see it again. A lot can go wrong watching a 3 hour plus movie if you're not in the right mood. I did have one Kurosawa on my list but at this point, not too confident about it showing up.

Stalker Haven't seen it. Last summer I was planning to plow through a couple of Tarkovsky movies as a few were on the Criterion channel. Watched Solaris and that's as far as I got.

The Matrix It's alright. Never was a huge fan of it and haven't seen any of the sequels.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly I like this one a lot and it was number 3 for me on the Western Countdown, but if OUaTitW didn't make my top 25 this didn't have a chance . Eli Wallach steals the show as Tuco, one of my favorite characters of all time. As much as I like this it does not hold up on repeated viewings all that well. At least for me. Was a five star movie for me just a year ago but dropped a bit after watching it for a MoFo HoF. The music is great.