# Improve on IMDb's Top 20 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 14, 2011, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/improve-on-imdbs-top-20/578376 "2011-04-14T16:01:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2011, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/improve-on-imdbs-top-20/578376/1 "2011-04-14T16:01:43Z")
The _Godfather_ vs. _Goodfellas_ thread has prompted another spin-off. Using [IMDb Top 250 Movies](http://www.imdb.com/chart/top) as a starting point, which movies would you pull out for your own personal Top 20? If there’s enough participation in this exercise, say 50 or more replies, I’ll build us a poll for the ultimate SDMB Top 20. ---
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2011, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/improve-on-imdbs-top-20/578376/2 "2011-04-14T16:20:14Z")
I have not seen 3 of the top 20. Them being: 1. Seven Samurai 2. City of God 3. Once Upon a Time in the West Otherwise…boy, you could do a lot of shuffling within the top 20. A couple on the outside looking in could justifiably get a bump up. Nothing strikes me as \*completely \*egregious. For me, and I know I’m in a minority, Pulp Fiction is #1. I think it’s just about the perfect movie. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2011, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/improve-on-imdbs-top-20/578376/3 "2011-04-14T16:28:06Z")
Ask me again in a week, it’s gonna be a little different, but these will do for now. Numbers are their IMDb ranking: _Casablanca_ - 17 _Breaker Morant_\* _The Incredibles_ - 200 _Groundhog Day_ - 157 _Aliens_ - 60 _Star Wars: A New Hope_ - 16 _The Fellowship of the Ring_ - 19 _True Lies_ Trading Places\* Raiders of the Lost Ark\* - 22 _The Matrix_ - 23 _Memento_ - 29 _Saving Private Ryan_ - 43 _Back to the Future_ - 70 _Monty Python and the Holy Grail_ - 74 _Gladiator_ - 95 _The Sixth Sense_ - 132 _The Big Lebowski_ - 135 _Notorious_ - 149 _Galaxy Quest_\* Honorable mentions: _Cinema Paradiso_ - 76 _Se7en_ - 27 _It’s a Wonderful Life_ - 28 _Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan_\* _Iron Man_ Dark City\*\* \*Not, I guess, in the IMDb Top 250. ---
**Author:** ![Alka\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Alka\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alka_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2011, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/improve-on-imdbs-top-20/578376/4 "2011-04-14T17:17:27Z")
I’ve never understood the attraction of either **Pulp Fiction** or **Goodfellas**. I don’t think **Inception** , **The Dark Knight** , **The Empire Strikes Back** , **Fight Club** or the **LOTR** films belong either, they are all good but I wouldn’t rate them that highly. I haven’t seen **12 Angry Men** , **Casablanca** , **City of God** or **Once Upon a Time in the West**. My replacements: **Amadeus Lawrence of Arabia L.A. Confidential Pan’s Labyrinth Raiders of the Lost Ark Fargo In Bruges Shadow of the Vampire** Ask me on another day and you’ll get a slightly different list. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2011, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/improve-on-imdbs-top-20/578376/5 "2011-04-14T17:42:57Z")
Okay. To participate in my own thread I decided to approach the task by copying the IMDb list into a Notepad work space and stripping away those in their Top 20 that I don’t like (or didn’t see yet) and then to bring up the ones in the lower group – one at a time – until I got 20 listed. After that I stopped looking but I would bet that if I stayed at it I could bring other lower ones up and bump out some in this list. These are not in order of my preference, but they would be in a Top 20 (preliminary) grouping: 1. 9.2 The Godfather (1972) 451,637 2. 9.0 The Godfather: Part II (1974) 275,113 3. 8.9 Pulp Fiction (1994) 463,323 4. 8.9 Schindler’s List (1993) 307,999 5. 8.9 12 Angry Men (1957) 138,136 6. 8.8 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) 240,949 7. 8.8 Seven Samurai (1954) 106,985 8. 8.7 Fight Club (1999) 429,726 9. 8.7 Goodfellas (1990) 255,619 10. 8.7 Casablanca (1942) 182,326 11. 8.7 The Usual Suspects (1995) 292,423 12. 8.6 Leon: The Professional (1994) 228,091 13. 8.6 Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) 168,385 14. 8.5 Taxi Driver (1976) 175,252 15. 8.5 Vertigo (1958) 100,928 16. 8.5 Lawrence of Arabia (1962) 86,254 17. 8.4 To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) 90,062 18. 8.4 L.A. Confidential (1997) 178,595 19. 8.4 Chinatown (1974) 86,662 20. 8.3 Singin’ in the Rain (1952) 60,763 ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2011, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/improve-on-imdbs-top-20/578376/6 "2011-04-14T19:56:32Z")
> [@Alka\_Seltzer](#): > > …I haven’t seen… **Casablanca** … :eek:☹ May I send you a DVD? Anyone who loves movies should see it at least once. It’s deservedly a classic (and my all-time favorite). ---
**Author:** ![Chum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3ab097/32.png) [@Chum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chum)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2011, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/improve-on-imdbs-top-20/578376/7 "2011-04-14T20:04:48Z")
I took **Zeldar** ’s approach, too. But I got all the way to the bottom of the list with plenty of space to fill in my own favorites (full disclosure: I haven’t seen 111 of the top 250). There were plenty that I deleted because I liked, rather than loved, them. These are in order of my own favorite, followed by their IMDB ranking. Groundhog Day, 157 Amélie, 46 Hedwig and the Angry Inch\* Fight Club, 14 I Heart Huckabees\* Rushmore\* What About Bob?\* 2001: A Space Odyssey, 89 Adaptation\* World’s Greatest Dad\* Sense and Sensibility\* Beauty and the Beast, 247 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, 61 The Prestige, 73 The Station Agent\* All About Eve, 85 It Happened One Night, 140 There Will Be Blood, 147 My Neighbor Totoro, 186 A Streetcar Named Desire, 205 ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2011, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/improve-on-imdbs-top-20/578376/8 "2011-04-14T20:12:51Z")
This will take time to rank, but a quick survey takes me out of the Top 250 with a couple of slots left in my Top 20. I can’t believe some of the garbage that made that list. I only have 3 of their Top 20 on my list. ---
**Author:** ![Alka\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Alka\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alka_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2011, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/improve-on-imdbs-top-20/578376/9 "2011-04-14T20:24:42Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > :eek:☹ > > May I send you a DVD? Anyone who loves movies should see it at least once. It’s deservedly a classic (and my all-time favorite). I’ve heard it’s a good film, but I don’t like the out-of-context clips I’ve seen. Bogart’s speech at the end has been much parodied. I also know how it ends. In an ideal world I’d be able to scrub all this from my memory and give it the go it probably deserves, but it does put me off.