Ah… one more:
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
For my first perfect movie pick, I’m going with Miller’s Crossing. It’s just about as perfect as a movie can be. Every line of dialog drives some part of the story forward. Several side stories, some out in the open, some are buried a bit deeper. Fantastic cinematography. Great acting and dialog. Easter eggs? Check. This screenplay and subsequent movie is just about perfect and has it all.
Rashomon (1950, Kurosawa)
I need to think about the rest.
I think I did well to prune down to Eight; and will resort to trickery in hopes of avoiding sanctions:
Those three are OK but how about the following FIVE? :
Mystic River
Amadeus
Memento
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
This isn’t a competition, and the fact that you are absolutely wrong should not deter you from posting your own list.
So many of mine have been mentioned, but I’ll add Hitchcock’s “Rebecca” and Peckinpah’s “The Wild Bunch.”
Tossing out my original list and doing over:
Psycho
The Sting
Casablanca
The Great Escape
King Kong
Bearing in mind that I could probably list 10 or 20, I’ll go with five that are top of mind for me at this time:
Downfall
Zero Dark Thirty
2001: A Space Odyssey
Jésus de Montréal
Six Days
Oh! 
See, this is why I’m not even playing this game.
Rashomon (1950, Kurosawa)
The Thing (from Another World) (1951, Hawk/Nyby)
Charade (1963, Donen)
Jurassic Park (1993, Spielberg)
One more! So many to chose from…
Can a single scene prevent a movie from being “perfect?”
I’m seeing Jurassic Park a lot here but I’ve always thought that scene where Hammond and Laura Dern (forgot her character’s name) eat ice cream and talk about flea circuses and “the people we care about” was boring and brought the whole movie to a screeching halt.
Maybe “That One Scene That Keeps a Movie From Perfection” deserves its own thread?
It’s hard for me to limit it to five. I might come up with a different list if I re-thought it. The first one in my list, though, really is perfect. There isn’t a false note in it from beginning to end.
- The Third Man
- Casablanca
- The Godfather
- The Apartment
- No Country for Old Men
The further I read this thread, the harder the question got.
- The Godfather
- The Shawshank Redemption
- The Naked Gun
- Jaws
- City Lights
Not for that scene!
I was just listening to someone talk about this (maybe Bill Hader) and they pointed out that the mother is pretty weak, and I have to agree.
- Jaws
- Fury Road
- Pulp Fiction
Can’t be Jurassic Park because of the T-rex pen turning into a cliff. I’d have to re-watch, but Fargo is a good contender. Also would need to re-watch The Big Lebowski. Raiders of the Lost Ark? Depends on if I can convince myself the sub isn’t stupid.
- Dodes’ka-Den
- Car Wash
- Meant To Be Broken
- The Last Detail
- The Fly (1986)
Badlands
Cool Hand Luke
Whiplash
Searching For Bobby Fischer
Fargo
Apocalypse Now
The Godfather
Jaws
Full Metal Jacket
O Brother Where Art Thou?
Just thought of a pair of my favorites that I think belong in this thread:
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - Some might not like Jim Carrey in the cast, but he infuses the dream sequences with just the right kind of mania for Gondry’s vision. Still one of my favorite movies of the millenium, a sci-fi romance with a message that sticks.
Lone Star - a John Sayles classic that would be as timely today as ever. Murder mystery, border drama, race and family intersect in south Texas as the action and viewpoint moves between generations and subplots. A message movie, but rarely preachy.
I’d probably also go with Casablanca and Star Trek II and then be hard pressed to choose between Young Frankenstein and Dr. Strangelove for a comedy.
Perfect movie, hmmmm… that’s different from great movie or entertaining movie or favorite movie. My take is that, among other things, a perfect movie matches all it’s actors to their roles, is balanced in it’s progression and makes it’s point concisely… Of course, as mentioned upthread, these are value judgments that depend on our moods.
So, maybe perfect is a fleeting property.
For perfect movies, I’ll go with:
“Some Like it Hot” - Comedy
“The Red Pony” - Suspense
“They Shoot Horses Don’t they” - Social commentary
“Treasure of the Sierra Madre” - Story telling
“12 O’Clock High” - WW2
@Czarcasm - Thank you for this thread. It sparked a very lively family conversation tonight.
All picks are in no particular order.
My picks:
Pulp Fiction
The Godfather
Jerry and Tom
Unforgiven
Iron Man
ZakWife’s picks:
Pulp Fiction
The Shawshank Redemption
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
Pirates of the Caribbean
Toy Story 3
ZakDaughter:
The Great Gatsby (with Leo)
Scream
Breakfast at Tiffany’s
Little Women (2019 version by Gerwig)
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
ZakSon:
2001: A Space Odyssey
The Godfather
The Empire Strikes Back
Back to the Future
Into the Spiderverse
Honorable mentions that were heavily discussed, but didn’t make anybody’s list:
The Incredibles (both 1 and 2 interestingly)
Ocean’s Eleven