You can both comment on the poll results and give your top 10.
I have seen six of the critics top 10 and of those three : 2001, Rules of the Game and Singin in the Rain left me underwhelmed.
My top 10 (in no particular order)
Casablanca
His Girl Friday
Annie Hall
Third Man
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Maltese Falcon
Princess Mononoke
Kind Hearts and Coronets
North by Northwest
The Apartment
Hamburger: The Motion Picture
Man’s Best Friend
Beastmaster II
Who’s That Girl?
Housesitter
Red Dawn
Up The Academy
Dungeons And Dragons
Back To School
Citizen Kane
I’ve seen nine of the critics’ top 10 and think they are all wonderful movies. Vertigo seems to grow more and more in critical appraisal as time goes by, though personally, I’d rank it behind Notorious among Hitch’s films.
At first, I made a list consisting of films taking into account their importance, criticial and popular appeal, my own estimation of their artistic merit, etc., but then decided to go back and just make a personal list of movies that have had the greatest effect on me as a moviegoer. Thus, my (very personal) top 10 movies of all time are as follows:
After Life
The Bicycle Thief
The Bridge on the River Kwai
Gates of Heaven
Grave of the Fireflies
Jean de Florette/Manon of the Spring
The Joy Luck Club
The Killer
The Shawshank Redemption
Shindler’s List
A Clockwork Orange
Bonnie and Clyde
Schindlers List
E.T.
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Network
Buch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Star Wars
The Third Man
Citizen Kane
______Top 10 of mine !!!
Silence of the Lambs Red Dawn
Shindler’s List
The Green Mile
Shawshank Redemption
Forest Gump
Rainman
What Dreams May Come
Dead Poets Society
Dead Zone
Jayster, are you for real??? - Rainman? Green Mile? Dead Poets Society?
You must be taking the piss. They wouldn’t even make a top 1000 film list.
Sorry for the personal attack, just had to get that out of my system…Ahh. I’m ok now.
My top 10, in no discernable order:
Raging Bull
One flew over the Cuckoos Nest
The Godfather (1 & 2)
The Deer Hunter
Fight Club
Drowning by Numbers
Apocalypse Now
Star Wars
The Shawshank Redemption
Pulp Fiction
Green Mile and Dead Poet’s Society are in IMDB’s top 250 (which I think is a pretty good list of films, with some exceptions).
Genseric, I think you unintentionally excluded Drowing Mona!
I have seen only half of the films on that list. Kane is well made but kind of boring. It held my attention somewhat, but the movie overall was better than the story. I thought the same thing about Raging Bull. Beautifully shot but it was so boring that I was trying to saw through my wrists with the sharpest end of the remote control! I know I’ll take heat for admitting that.
My top ten (sequels/series only counting once):
1 Raiders of the Lost Ark Series
2 Shawshank Redemption
3 LA Confidential
4 Goodfellas
5 Godfather Series (not 3)
6 Star Wars Series
7 High Noon
8 The Untouchables
9 Donnie Brasco
10 Election
To echo Bindlestiff, I was surprised to find fully twelve of my top-ten films on those two lists, and at least another four mentioned by Cyberpundit. Obviously, ten is not enough.
I’m not too crazy about the critics’ Top 10–some of the choices, like Rules of the Game are too self-consciously arty, or like Citizen Kane and Battleship Potemkin, are movies that one admires but doesn’t love. IMO, a movie ought to engage the senses and emotions as well as the intellect.
My favorite movies have witty, quotable dialogue, deep emotioanl power, and intellectual depth, like Porky’s.
Kidding, kidding
My Own Top 10:
Seven Samurai Akira Kurosawa’s bleak vision of warriors trapped bhy their own heroism is just enthralling to watch, especially the last stand against the bandits in pouring rain. Actually, you could make a whole top 10 list of nothing but Kurosawa.
Jackie Brown. Not as quotable as Tarantino’s other movies, this is a wonderfully understated romance/crime drama with an emotional wallop at the end.
All About Eve. Bitchy, funny, knowing.
A Clockwork Orange. I was cured all right.
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. A new classic that will be the Star Wars/Wizard of Oz of this generation.
King of Hearts. It’s a gentle fable of war and madness, marred only by Alan Bates’s flabby backside at the end.
Casablanca. There’s not one ounce of wasted effort in this movie–the dialogue, the acting, the direction–absolutely perfect.
Children of Paradise A three-hour love story set in Balzac’s Paris, it’s a wonderful film to savor over and over.
Amarcord. IMO, this bit of childhood nostalgia is Fellini’s greatest film, not 8 1/2.
Frenzy. Really, you could insert any Hitchcock film, but this has always been one of my favorites. It has what it IMO the single scariest shot of all time. We see a man we know to be a serial killer enter a woman’s room and close the door. The camera pans slowly out, down the hall, down the stairs, and out the front door, where we see people walking along the sidewalk, oblivious to a woman being raped and murdered inside.
Well sorry Aro - but that proves my point that if we all showered with Zesmy dog wouldn’t be able to tell me from you. Also, I’m a FEMALE !!! Ha, bet you didn’t know that did 'ya? I really don’t feel that I have to justify my choices, but I’ll say this much: I have a great deal of respect and admiration for the following people and I have faith in their acting ability. Dustin Hoffman ( who was fantastic in Tootsie), David Morse (who stole my heart in St. Elsewhere and recaptured it in the Green Mile), Tom Hanks who has gone from dressing like a female to battling a stupid volcano to a superb performance in Forest Gump, Robin Williams who is not only the funniest improv in the world, but he REALLY can act, and last but certainly not least, the little girl who graduated from Yale and began reading at the age of 3. Jodie Foster is also known for being very picky about the roles she accepts. Oh, I almost forgot Morgan Freeman and Christopher Walken. As they say in the PGA circle “THESE GUYS ARE GOOD” So you see Aro, I don’t just go and watch a movie, I research the actors so I see depth in them. Hell, if I just wanted to watch a movie, I’d take the easy way out and rent something Disney Animated, so I could just veg and NOT have to think. Not to mention, didn’t your mother teach you that it is extremely rude to attack another persons OPINIONS? This is America ya know and we do enjoy the freedom of speech. But its OK cuz in America it’s OK to disagree with anyone and/or everyone. God Bless You and Old Glory, Dee
Well sorry Aro - but that proves my point that if we all showered with Zest my dog wouldn’t be able to tell me from you. Also, I’m a FEMALE !!! Ha, bet you didn’t know that did 'ya? I really don’t feel that I have to justify my choices, but I’ll say this much: I have a great deal of respect and admiration for the following people and I have faith in their acting ability. Dustin Hoffman ( who was fantastic in Tootsie), David Morse (who stole my heart in St. Elsewhere and recaptured it in the Green Mile), Tom Hanks who has gone from dressing like a female to battling a stupid volcano to a superb performance in Forest Gump, Robin Williams who is not only the funniest improv in the world, but he REALLY can act, and last but certainly not least, the little girl who graduated from Yale and began reading at the age of 3. Jodie Foster is also known for being very picky about the roles she accepts. Oh, I almost forgot Morgan Freeman and Christopher Walken. As they say in the PGA circle “THESE GUYS ARE GOOD” So you see Aro, I don’t just go and watch a movie, I research the actors so I see depth in them. Hell, if I just wanted to watch a movie, I’d take the easy way out and rent something Disney Animated, so I could just veg and NOT have to think. Not to mention, didn’t your mother teach you that it is extremely rude to attack another persons OPINIONS? This is America ya know and we do enjoy the freedom of speech. But its OK cuz in America it’s OK to disagree with anyone and/or everyone. God Bless You and Old Glory, Dee
Actually, I’ve never seen it. If it’s worthy I might have to replace one on my list. Um, maybe Citizen Kane?
(Unfortunately it’s true that I have in fact seen every film on my list (which I hope it is clear to everyone that it is tongue-in-cheek)).
My real, personal, completely subjective top ten would be as follows.
Star Wars
The Empire Strikes Back
The Terminator
Dr. Strangelove
Highlander
2001: A Space Odyssey
Raising Arizona
Raiders Of The Lost Ark
Ghostbusters
Life Of Brian
<climbs on soap box>
You know, it’s things like this that make me hate top ## lists. They are primarily an act of pretension on the part of the lists creators, and those who agree with them, " Look at me, I’ve seen all these critically acclaimed movies, so I shall say they’re my favorites too to sound worldly, even though I actually liked Wayne’s World better." To be perfectly honest, I haven’t seen a single movie from the OP’s link. I have seen six of Jayster’s though, and while I don’t agree that they’re wonderful, I’d probably watch them all again before watching a movie that people only watch because critics tell them they’re great. If I believed some of the critics, I would have liked Storytelling when I saw it last night and thought it was wonderful, not the disjointed trainwreck it is: a mundane movie by an otherwise sensationally subversive writer/director.
</climbs off soap box>
I stand by my selections on the second page of this old thread. Because I realize some of y’all won’t follow the link, here they are, with my reasons for selecting each, in no particular order:
“They are primarily an act of pretension on the part of the lists creators, and those who agree with them, " Look at me, I’ve seen all these critically acclaimed movies, so I shall say they’re my favorites too to sound worldly…”
Well speak for yourself; each one of the movies on my top ten list I have hugely enjoyed and that’s why they are there. I suspect it’s the same with everyone else. There are many critically acclaimed movies I haven’t much enjoyed.
Having said that I agree we should lay off the “your list sucks” posts. (although I have to admit a few of Jayster’s choices were like waving a red flag at a bull;) ) I think Aro’s comments weren’t meant to be taken too seriously anyway.
I should have done it in my first post but better late than never. Let me follow gobear and max torque and offer comments on my top ten.
Casablanca: Hollywood craft at its best. Near perfect performances by both the main and supporting cast and a dramatic plot which leaves you guessing till the end.
His Girl Friday: The ultimate example of screen “chemistry” between the leads. I can’t think of another film where the lead pair match the energy and wit of Russell and Grant. A terrific satirical look at the press and politics as well.
Annie Hall: Another great romantic comedy and my top Woody film. I just love the cinematic inventiveness of the film; all those famous tricks which Allen uses to draw laughs.
Third Man:Great thriller in a post-war Vienna setting, a superb musical score and a terrific perfomance by Orson Welles.
The Last Crusade: A great adventure film. What sets it apart from the other Indiana Jones is relationship between Indiana and his dad which provides some great comic relief and a surprsing amount of emotion as well.
Maltese Falcon: Great film noir with excellent performanaces by Bogart,Astor and Greenstreet and some terrific dialogue.
Princess Mononoke: Great anime by the master Miyazaki. A complex fantasy epic with some beautiful animation and in Lady Eboshi a fascinating and charimatic heroine/villain.
Kind Hearts and Coronets:Great black comedy and a wicked look at class distinctions in Edwardian England.Terrific perfomances by Dennis Price andAlec Guiness in multiple roles.
North by Northwest: . All the familiar Hitchcock themes: the innocent man on the run, the train scenes, the cliff hanger climax but superbly executed.
The Apartment: Bitter-sweet romantic comedy with superb, touching perfomances by McClaine and Lemmon.
Hey Cyberpundit - I really didn’t take Aros comments that seriously (only the research part). This is all in fun and it amazes me how there can be so many opinions. It sometimes makes me wonder if we all saw the same movies :-)))))