Least Deserving Top Movie

From the 5/24 IMDb daily poll:

“Of the following top ten films in the IMDb’s Top 250 movies, which one least deserves to be there?”

Amelie’s way in front, but I bet not many people have seen it.

“Amelie’s way in front, but I bet not many people have seen it.”

I saw it. It’s not Great Cinema, and it drags a little (too many false endings) but it was entertaining and IMHO worth what I paid to see it.

And before anyone else names it, I thought Titanic was a decent movie. :slight_smile: Nothing to write home about, but IMHO not even close to being a stinker either.

I’d say Amelie or LOTR. Not because either of them are bad films, just that I don’t think either of them quite holds up to the rest of that pretty impressive list.

Before I even looked, somehow I KNEW “Lord of the Rings” would be in the top ten, and NOT because it was a great movie- just because the kind of person who worships J.R.R. Tolkien is the same kind of person who casts millions of votes for his favorite movie on Internet sites.

I haven’t seen “Amelie,” but from what I’ve heard of it, it’s far too lightweight to deserve such a high ranking.

Frankly, I think “Citizen Kane” is highly overrated, too.

But “LOTR” is definitely the one that needs to be taken down a few pegs. I enjoyed it, but it’s not a masterpiece by any means.

The Professional (#63)
The Green Mile (#93)
Attack of the Clones (#129)
Arsenic and Old Lace (#147)
Forrest Gump (#160)

Okay, let’s look at movies 11 through 30, i.e. those that have been bumped downward by Amelie (which I thoroughly agree is the least deserving of the top ten films listed).

11 - Memento
12 - Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
13 - One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
14 - Rear Window
15 - Usual Suspects, The
16 - Raiders of the Lost Ark
17 - Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back
18 - Pulp Fiction
19 - Psycho (1960)
20 - American Beauty
21 - North by Northwest
22 - Silence of the Lambs, The
23 - 12 Angry Men (1957)
24 - It’s a Wonderful Life
25 - Goodfellas
26 - Lawrence of Arabia
27 - Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, Il (1966) (i.e., Good, Bad, & Ugly)
28 - Sunset Blvd.
29 - Vertigo
30 - Paths of Glory

Which of these should go in Amelie’s slot?

Whoops, misread the OP. As for Top 10 ejects, I gotta go with either Star Wars or Amelie, and as for Cervaise’s question, without a doubt:

Vertigo

(though I wouldn’t have too strong an objection to any of the pre-1970 ones listed there)

I haven’t seen most of the movies in the list, but I have seen The Shawshank Redemption. I would say it’s a good movie, but ranking it as the second best of all time is a little crazy.

I haven’t seen all the movies in Cervaise’s list either, but of those I have seen, the ones that could take Amelie’s slot (assuming Amelie doesn’t deserve it - I haven’t seen that either :)) are nos 12, 13, 14, 19, 21, 25, 26, 28, 29 and 30. If you held a gun to my head I guess I would narrow it to Dr. Strangelove or Sunset Boulevard.

I’ll vote for Gone with the Wind. Borrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr-ing!

How would such a recent movie get to the top of the heap anyway? IMDb’s Top 250 seems to be subject to a lot of newer or younger users voting for the last movie they’ve seen and enjoyed (not to take anything away from a well-liked movie).

I’d say a lot of the moives in the top 250 list are insane selections; I would know where to start.

“The Shawshank Redemption” is not the second best movie of all time, and in fact is not the 302nd best movie of all time.

Ever since I saw that The Shawshank Redemption was number 2 at the IMDB’s top 250 list, I lost interest. It was a good, entertaining movie alright. But in the top ten? Of all time? Puhleeze.

The Shawshank Redemption stands out, being at number 2. I enjoyed Lord of the Rings but not as the third best film ever ( and anyway it’s far too soon to tell). Schindler’s List and Casablanca are both good, but not that good and Star Wars and Amelie are both far too lightweight for such high rankings. The 11-30 list contains some worthy replacements: the Hitchcock films, the Kubrick pair and Sunset Boulevard ( Wilder’s best film, I think). But what is missing from this, and most, popular polls are foreign-language films ( the sublime Seven Samurai is there, of course, along with Amelie but what about La Grande Illusion or La Regle du Jeu, Wild Strawberries, Tokyo Story, Sansho the Bailiff or L’Atalante) and silent films ( Battleship Potemkin, October, Intolerance, The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, Nosferatu, Napoleon or The Passion of Joan of Arc).