What is your top ten movies of all time?

[Ginnie]

Just bad editing. I had to do a lot of cutting text from posts and pasting them into a spreadsheet. I had to delete all the 'the' 's, delete comments after movie titles, rename some (Star Wars, SW, LOTR, Lord of the Rings etc.). I had to sort the data by the number of 'votes' and then sub-sort them alpha.
The *'s , I forgot to delete. Sometimes people footnoted their movie with an asterisk in their posts.
I thought the whole process would be quicker.

[Jason]

Interesting. The Lord of the Rings were great movies, but I can't help but wonder if they are at the top simply because they are recent.

That would seem to me to be why Serenity scored so high (don't get me wrong - I am a Firefly fan, but Serenity isn't quite as good as the other top films listed).

[Ginnie]

I dunno...
I'm old, so 2001:A Space Odyssey remains my favourite SF film.
LOTR though is incredibly good, and an amazing achievement. No.2 on my sf/fantasy list.
And Serenity is a movie that I can watch over and over, to the point where I'm mouthing some of the dialogue as it happens. Usually some dumb Jane comment.
I would have liked to see some classics score higher, but we have some young ones here ya know.
I think if I had posted that any film mentioned will be counted towards a list, then the list would have been different.
I like Fifth Element (I own the DVD), but it wouldn't be on my top one hundred movie list, or Indiana Jones either.
Perhaps I will post another thread that will more properly compile the best. Perhaps by catagory...hold on.

[Jason]

What might be interesting would be to put together a top movies list that excludes any movies more recent then, say, ten years ago (1998). Ten years is probably enough time to determine if a movie really is a classic, and worth being on an "all time greatest" list.

[gillianren]

There are a lot of classics on my top 100 list! A friend loaned me a book called something like, 1001 Movies You Should See Before You Die. They're listed in chronological order by release date, and each movie has a little essay about it by a film critic or professor. I have, as of today, seen 295 of them. I copied the whole list onto my computer, so I can keep updating it as I keep watching movies, even after I return the book. My list is heavily weighted toward movies that came out between 1936 and 1956 or so. I've seen a lot of the really recent ones, too, but most of my favourite actors and actresses are dead, and few of them recently. (Well, Katherine Hepburn died pretty recently. But she was also awfully old.)

[Ginnie]

My movie books:

FILM (Eyewitness Companion)
Hollywood: The Pioneers
The Story of Cinema
Leonard Maltins Movie Guide 2007
Silent Movies
The Film Encyclopedia
Hollywood Tricks of the Trade
plus a few others...

'1001 Movies You Must see before You Die"
I remember putting that book into stores last year. I almost bought it, and now I wish I did.

The list is available here:
www.listology.com/content_show.cfm/content_id.20774

I don't think young folks appreciate older films that much. If it doesn't blow up or get butchered by a madman, or if it is a black and white film (Sin City excepted) then they seem to have no interest in it.
Tarantino is the exception - he blows things up, butchers people but still has an excellent script, movie score, editing and directing.

[reynoldbot]

Ten is too hard so I'm gonna do 20. Series count as 1

2001: A Space Odyssey
The Shining
To Kill A Mockingbird
Seven Samurai
Blue Velvet
Videodrome
Chinatown
The Godfather 1 & 2
Alien
Blade Runner
Jurassic Park
Jaws
Rocky
Robocop
Star Wars Episode V
Batman
The Day The Earth Stood Still
Back To The Future trilogy
Raging Bull
Terminator 1 & 2

[reynoldbot]

ugh, I hated the LOTR movies.

[gillianren]

Is there anyone here who simply doesn't watch older/B&W movies? If so, can you explain why? I have a friend who says it's because he'll never get around to seeing all the movies in colour that he wants to see; I reject this. I'll never get around to seeing all the movies I want to see period, more likely than not, but some of the greatest movies ever made (Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, and other movies not necessarily starring Humphrey Bogart) are in B&W. Why cut yourself off from that?

[Ginnie]

Because they are old.

Really. Only reason.

[gwiz]

Just checked back on my list, only two were from the last ten years and four out of ten are B&W. You are missing out on a lot if you neglect them.

[Ginnie]

gwiz said:

Just checked back on my list, only two were from the last ten years and four out of ten are B&W. You are missing out on a lot if you neglect them.

Oh, I should have clarified that.
Young kids today don't watch the old black and white movies.
I certainly DO.
I even have some silent films on DVD: Metropolis, Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Nosferatu, Hunchback of Notre Dame
and B&W talkies like Frankenstein, Night of the Living Dead ...

Lately I've gotten into the habit of watching the AMC or TCM channel on Sunday mornings while my wife goes to church. Watched some great movies that were very enjoyable with Katherine Hepburn, Cary Grant etc.

Generally, I find that the script is the most important part of a movie - there are exceptions of course , especially in the SF catagory, but even then a bad script can totally ruin the film.
And some SF has great scripts, like Serenity, Blade Runner or Planet of the Apes (1968 version!).

[reynoldbot]

hey I'm young and 4 of my movies were in b&w too

[Ginnie]

reynoldbot said:

hey I'm young and 4 of my movies were in b&w too

Maybe so. But I'm getting a strong impression that anyone who joins this forum isn't exactly the model for the average teen or young person. So you don't count. ;D