Updated 6/21/06
Ok Folks, I'm doing it and you can't stop me. Top 20 movie list in no particular order. It's my list so I'm making the rules. Movie series, no matter how long count as 1. This is probably more interesting to me that to anyone else reading this - but I've tried to pick out movies that I've that are really "Tony" movies as my wife would say. If you haven't seen anyone of these, I of course recommend them since they are my favorites and I'll defend my choices.
If you don't see something really high on the list and you think I'm nuts for forgetting it, I probably just forgot and I'll add it in later. That is unless it didn't make the cut. Miss anything, let me know.
Top 20 List
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Gattaca
Indiana Jones Trilogy
Star Wars (from best to worst - Episode V, IV, III, II,VI,I)
Lord of the Rings Trilogy (Extended)
The 5th Element
Raising Arizona
Moulin Rouge!
A Life Less Ordinary
Hudson Hawk (thanks Zigzag!)
Total Recall
Adaptation (updated 6/21/06 - Thanks Dan!)
Highlander
The Shawshank Redemption
Rob Roy
Lost In Translation
Garden State
L.A. Story
12 Monkeys
Star Trek (II,VI,VIII,IV,VII,III,IX,X,I,V) - Ordered from Best to Greek Tragedy
Honorable Mentions
The Matrix (first one only)
Edward Scissorhands
Strange Days
Die Hard I and III
Big Fish
Harry Potter Series
Goldeneye
Frequency
Real Genius
Office Space
Super Troopers
The Green Mile
Before Sunrise (and Before Sunset)
Terminator 2
The Bourne Identity
Playing by Heart
Love Actually
Finding Neverland
A Guy Thing
Dark City
Pulp Fiction
Titus
High Fidelity
Field of Dreams
Back to the Future Trilogy (how could I forget this?)
Edit: Forgot Hudson Hawk and BTTF.
Try making a list yourself. It is harder than you think!
Thanks for all the suggestions everyone!
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10 comments:
Where is Hudson Hawk? I demand a recount!
Ok, I'll grant you Die Hard I and III... let's face it - II was just bad.
But only the first Matrix? Really? I think the jury can ask for an explanation on that one.
Ok, explanation on the Matrix II and III.
II and III were still good, but not in my top list. The action and special effects on them were unbelieveable but the storyline I just couldn't get into as much.
The beauty of the first Matrix movie was that you didn't know what was happening and the world wasn't what you thought it was. That storyline is amazing. The problem is once you the let cat out of the bag you can't get back. It's like we all took the red pill and couldn't go back into the big surprise again.
My point is that the sequels didn't hold up to the original, but were still good. My problem with them is they try to explain too much.
And now that we are bringing up the matrix, I would have been really disappointed had I seen Dark City a year befordhand (see it!)
On a side note I've forgotten more movies that I need to add. Recheck the list!
I don't really dig on film that much, so I broadened the scope of your challenge.
20 Best Things Ever
Infinite Jest -- David Foster Wallace
Edward Scissorhands -- Dir. Tim Burton
Wm. Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet -- Dir. Baz Lurhmann
Lolita -- Vladimir Nabakov
London Calling -- The Clash
The Beatles (White Album) -- The Beatles
From Hell -- Alan Moore/Eddie Campbell
Moby Dick -- Herman Mellville
Gravity's Rainbow -- Thomas Pynchon
Who's Next -- The Who
Wild Turkey Kentucky Bourbon 101 Proof
Bringing It All Back Home -- Bob Dylan
V For Vendetta -- Alan Moore/David Lloyd
Songs of Innosence/Songs of Experience -- Wm. Blake
The Simpsons -- Created by Matt Groening
Dr. Bloodmoney -- Phillip K. Dick
Hunter S. Thompson and the assorted works thereof
Batman -- Created by Bob Kane
Clockwork Orange -- Dir. Stanley Kubrick
Rushmore -- Dir. Wes Anderson
Hon. Mention:
Crooked Rain/Crooked Rain -- Pavement
No American Beauty?
I'm with you on your Matrix explanation, but I'd put the Star Wars prequels in the same category. There were a lot of fantastic special effects, but the story wasn't all that engaging. Not to mention the fact that most of the actors were about as animated as blocks of wood.
If I may, I'd like to nitpick two of your choices --
I think that you might be including LOTR based on the source material, rather than on it's filmic merits -- because there were some pretty awkward cliffhangers, rewrites, and false endings in the film. Not to mention that the seat time in II & III far outweighed the actual excitement.
And while I enjoyed Spotless Mind, I think Malkovich and Adaptation and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind are all stronger Kaufman scripts. And while Spotless Mind is pretty, Gondry has done way more inventive stuff (visually) -- especially in his music videos.
Tony thanks to you and all 10 star trek movies, the winter break of senior year, I barely past my physics final. Who needs physics anyways?
To answer everyone's comments -
Wes -
American Beauty was definitely good and it is up there, but it just isn't in my top list. Requiem for a Dream is in the same category as this, but neither one of those movies can I watch regularly without feeling a little bit ill.
I need to order the Star Wars movies because in fairness anything with Jar Jar probably should be there.
Dan -
I'm going to defend LOTR. Part of the reason it was on there is correct - for the source material. That being said, as much as I was upset by the rewrites it brought a story that was inaccessible to a lot people since they aren't willing to read anything harder than the Da Vinci Code. Plus, I belive the Extended editions bring a lot more to it. I saw all 3 extended editions in one day and boy did my ass hurt. :)
I NEED TO ADD ADAPTATION. What the heck is wrong with me??? I just forgot to put it in.
Jen -
whatever I can do to make everyone
flunk out, I do. :)
I find it interesting no one had issue with Hudson Hawk - since it is often considered in top 10 worst movies of all time by most critics and from a dollars lost standpoint.
Ok, i'll put a list of my own.
BTW, mind you - this is intermixing good things with guilty pleasures. I know what's techinically "impressive", but these movies are the ones I truly, truly, enjoy:
Top 20 List
1. Bright Young Things
2. Bon Voyage (2003)
3. Romeo + Juliet (1996)
4. Less Than Zero
5. Nowhere
6. The Dreamers
7. Stealing Beauty
8. Before Sunrise
9. Before Sunset
10. Trainspotting
11. Sabrina (1995)
12. Secret of Nimh
13. Real Genius
14. The Lost Boys
15. Terminator 2
16. Hable Con Ella
17. Johnny Stecchino
18. Lola Rennt
19. Chasing Liberty
20. Bad Boys
Honorable Mention
A Fish Called Wanda
À la folie... pas du tout
Abre Los Ojos
Addams Family Values
Amélie
Back to the Future
Big
Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure
Blow-Up
Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown
Celebrity (1998)
Ciao! Manhattan
Coming To America
Die Hard
Dobermann
Donnie Darko
Downtown 81
Everyone Says I Love You
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Gattaca
Ghostbusters
Hackers
He Loves Me.. He Loves Me Not
Heathers
High Fidelity
Hysterical Blindness
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
In America
It's All About Love
James Bond: Goldeneye
James Bond: The Spy Who Loved Me
La Fille sur le pont
L.A. Story
Lost in Translation
Mean Girls
Merchant of Venice (2004)
Mission Impossible
Party Girl (1995)
Pitch Black
Raising Arizona
Romancing the Stone
Rushmore
Solaris (2002)
Star Trek - The Motion Picture
Star Trek - The Wrath of Khan
Star Wars III - Revenge of the Sith
Star Wars V - The Empire Strikes Back
The Chronicles of Riddick
The Crow
The English Patient
The Fifth Element
The Godfather, Part I
The Godfather, Part II
The Legend of Billie Jean
The Motorcycle Diaries
The Royal Tenenbaums
Trading Places
Trainspotting
Urban Cowboy
Wall Street
Wedding Crashers
Zoolander
* One thing that I want to add to that, which might not be so obvious is that some of those movies, which may be... um, more "sexual" at parts - I actually would have preferred that element of it edited out (like "The Dreamers", for example).
Everything else in those movies is what makes them stellar.
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