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

often misquoted lyrics of Stealers Wheel.

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"My Dionne Warwick understanding of your dream indicates that you are ambivalent on how you want life to eventually screw you." - Joel

"Ever try to forcibly pin down a house cat? It's not easy." - Captain Steel

"I just can't get pass sticking a finger up a dog's butt." - John Dumbear

Time well spent

Early guesses for tomorrow:

. . The Scarlet Clue

. . . . . . . and

Revenge Of The Nerds

. . . . . . . .

The first time I saw It's a Wonderful Life was in a class of film students you could tell had already dismissed it as hokey/sentimental/old-fashioned/whatever else. Every one of them fell under its spell, and by the end of the film everyone loved it. I watched it again this Christmas with my family and enjoyed it just as much as ever. It wasn't in my top 25 but it's a film I hold very dear, top 100 certainly.

After my early flurry I haven't had a choice show up in a while. I still expect 4 more to make it for sure, bringing my total to 14, which I predicted early. Still quietly hoping for one or two more to surprise us.

My ballot predictions:

1 Heat
2 Andrei Rublev
3 100%
4 Akira
5 10%
6 10%
7 100%
8 100%
9 75%
10 100%
11 100%
12 10%
13 1%
14 0%
15 The Tree of Life
16 50%
17 Enter the Dragon
18 1%
19 1%
20 25%
21 100%
22 Schinder's List
23 1%
24 1%
25 99%

'bout to re-enact some Fight Club up in here if suckas keep calling me nerd!

Xenodork is fine

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Let me guess - the bit where he cries?

(there may well be no such scene - I've never seen Fight Club)

And I'll play the How Many More of My Choices Will Show Up? game. I have five on the group list so far. Of my remaining twenty titles I expect eleven more to show (including my top nine picks) in the final 36, which leaves nine that will not make it. Four or five of those never had much of a chance, the others were going to pop up in the bottom third of the list if they were going to pop up at all. Alas.

That is surely a much lower percentage than my picks usually place. For example all but two of my choices made The MoFo Top 100 Westerns and all but three of mine were part of The MoFo Top 100 of the 1970s. But I expected a lower rate of return when absolutely everything ever made is eligible. That is too deep a lake to fish from.

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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

I wonder if anyone will have all their choices show up a la @Daniel M's 80s list

Gloria Grahame as Violet was a peach!

Oh yeah! Two from my list! It's a Wonderful Life is my favorite Capra movie and tied with a few other Jimmy Stewart films for top tier Stewart. And for those dissing Stewart as annoying, I think he's one of the greatest actors who ever lived! And boy did he go dark in that movie. Not many people touch on the scene where he's roughing up Uncle Billy, calling him a "silly, drunk old fool!" and "Well, somebody's going to jail and it's not gonna be me!" Tough stuff, yet Uncle Billy forgives him. Phew!

Aliens is a movie that I go back and forth with To Kill a Mockingbird as my favorite movie. Sometimes I tell people it's a tie, sometimes I flip-flop them, I love both of them so much. I saw Aliens at the theater 4 times on its initial run, had the VHS, the laser disc, and theatrical DVD, then the Director's Cut, which I prefer. Just a badass movie, with one of Sigourney Weaver's finest performances. And I love that Cameron set it up with us getting to know most of the Marines in the first half before they were (mostly of them) slaughtered very easily by a superior enemy. The Director's Cut also includes a scene where the Marines are in the drop ship and we get to see blowhard Hudson (Bill Paxton) brag to Ripley about what badasses they are, and shows her different weapons, some of which they don't get to even use after the ambush they're not expecting due to their hubris. That bragging scene lends a lot to the relationship between Ripley and Hudson as she's seen face-palming herself in annoyance while Hudson makes his spiel. It connects up to the scene later where she's had enough and tells him she's sick of his bulls*** and to "calm down" when he's shown to be a scaredy cat. Yes, it's less moody than the original but I think it's just as tense. And the action is beyond belief, still.


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

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"Miss Jean Louise, Mr. Arthur Radley."

Just like Die Hard, I saw Aliens the first Friday and Saturday when it came out, and it's just behind Die Hard as my favorite action film. 5 years ago it makes my list, but I've seen a lot of great movies the past 5 years and I haven't seen Aliens during that span. My favorite sequel and I prefer it over Alien.

It's a Wonderful Life one of the greatest classics.

1. Definitely
2. Thought maybe but now very doubtful
3. Definitely
4. Only countdown it'll make is the top 100 movies to use a piece of chicken in a fowl sexual manner.
5. Not now
6. American Beauty (1999)
7. Never had a chance.
8. I think it's a definite.
9. Definitely
10. Never had a chance.
11. Definitely
12. Would have to have been one of the first to show.
13. Definitely
14. Looks like it'll be one of the most surprising omissions.
15. Nope
16. Nope
17. Not now
18. City of God (2002)
19. The Apartment (1960)
20. Never a chance.
21. Die Hard (1988)
22. Same as #2
23. Nope
24. Nope
25. Nope

It's a Wonderful Life is a perfectly fine film (by the way, it was the stars and moon part that gave it away to me). But it wouldn't make my top 100. The dance sequence and the impromptu honeymoon are highlights...found Mary's mom a bit annoying though. I've gone through loving it, can't standing it and now I'm back to appreciating it. For some reason, after awhile, I tend to be super critical of films I've seen year after year. It's happened to me with Ferris Bueller and more recently, Bad Santa.

I guess I'm more of a fan of Liberty Valance, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, his Hitchcock works and The Philadelphia Story when it comes to Stewart. But hey, Capracorn can hit the right spot particularly in the holiday season.

Aliens would probably make my top 100. Not sure whether I'd prefer this one or the original. Some good thrills and the narrative between Ripley and Newt just clicked.

Since everyone else is predicting about their list's likelihood of making the cut, I guess I will as well:

1. 98 percent
2. Gone with the Wind
3. 100 percent
4. 100 percent
5. 50 percent
6. Metropolis
7. 25 percent
8. 80 percent
9. There Will Be Blood
10. City of God
11. Sunset Boulevard
12. 85 percent
13. Night of the Hunter
14. 22 percent
15. 10 percent
16. 40 percent
17. 10 percent
18. 5 percent
19. 0 percent
20. 2 percent
21. 60 percent
22. 5 percent
23. 0 percent
24. 0 percent
25. 57 percent

I have had 8 show up if you include my one pointer

7 more definite

2 possible

That will give me 8 no shows. Not completely shocked by any but given a couple things on the list I am a little surprised. If one of my maybe doesn't make it then that director got shutout which will also surprise me a little.

Still have to see 2 from the list ( Young Frankenstein and Suspiria) Nothing else should show up I haven't seen.

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Letterboxd

Here's my ballot:

1. 50%
2. 100%
3. 0%
4. The Tree of Life
5. 5%
6. Persona
7. 90%
8. 100%
9. 0%
10. Come and See
11. The biggest 0% of my list
12. Andrei Rublev
13. 10%
14. 20%
15. 0%
16. 0%
17. 5%
18. 80%
19. 0%
20. 0%
21. 0%
22. 0%
23. 0%
24. 30%
25. 20%

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IMDb
Letterboxd

Stay close to your loved ones
Dispose of the jeering
Leave the fair weather friends
Who won't give you a fair hearing

With their glowing red eyes
And their envious green
With their blanched machinations
Hiding, unseen

Walk no road alone
Bring them along for the ride
For you'll always be home
With your family beside

The Wizard of Oz and...