Jump to content

The 10 Best Movies You've Ever Seen


ztejas

Recommended Posts

I thought this would be a fun thread to start. 

Basically, what are the 10 films you've seen that you consider the "best"? Not necessarily your 10 favorites (although how much you like the film should definitely be a factor - not looking for a copy/past of Ebert's top 10).

If you can, include the year it came out. 

I'll put myself on the chopping block to start (chronological order):

Casablanca (1942)
Cinema Paradiso (1988)
Goodfellas (1990)
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Princess Mononoke (1997)
The Matrix (1999)
Lord of The Rings Trilogy (2001-2003)
There Will Be Blood (2007)
The Dark Knight (2008)
Moonlight (2016)

Others: Pulp Fiction (1994), The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Alien (1979), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1975), The Good, The Bad, The Ugly (1966)

 

Edited by ztejas
Can you tell I'm a child of the 90s?
  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

My list would have  couple of those. Casablanca for sure, maybe Shawshank, I like it, but am not in love with it.

 

I'd be going Lawrence of Arabia, Godfather (I and II), A face in the crowd,   One flew over the cuckoos nest, the good the bad the ugly, To Sir with Love

(list to be continued after some more thought) 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

53 minutes ago, ztejas said:

Casablanca (1942)
Cinema Paradiso (1988)
Goodfellas (1990)
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Princess Mononoke (1997)
The Matrix (1999)
Lord of The Rings Trilogy (2001-2003)
There Will Be Blood (2007)
The Dark Knight (2008)
Moonlight (2016)

That's 12

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

29 minutes ago, Onboard 2.0 said:

My list would have  couple of those. Casablanca for sure, maybe Shawshank, I like it, but am not in love with it.

 

I'd be going Lawrence of Arabia, Godfather (I and II), A face in the crowd,   One flew over the cuckoos nest, the good the bad the ugly, To Sir with Love

(list to be continued after some more thought) 

Lawrence of Arabia is badass. I haven't seen that in some time. Will go on my rewatch list.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

They Were Expendable (1945)

Blazing Saddles (1974)

The Wild Bunch (1969)

Apollo 13 (1995)

The Right Stuff (1983)

Some Like it Hot (1959)

North by Northwest (1959)

The Long Voyage Home (1940)

Dr. Strangelove (1964)

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, RPM said:

The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

They Were Expendable (1945)

Blazing Saddles (1974)

The Wild Bunch (1969)

Apollo 13 (1995)

The Right Stuff (1983)

Some Like it Hot (1959)

North by Northwest (1959)

The Long Voyage Home (1940)

Dr. Strangelove (1964)

Strangelove for damn sure.  If I have to pick a Hitchcock flick it would be Rear Window, Rope or maybe even Suspicion (still Cary Grant vehicle)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, Onboard 2.0 said:

 If I have to pick a Hitchcock flick it would be Rear Window, Rope or maybe even Suspicion (still Cary Grant vehicle)

Picking the best Hitchcock film is definitely subjective. They're all excellent. I just have a soft spot for NxNW. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, RPM said:

Picking the best Hitchcock film is definitely subjective. They're all excellent. I just have a soft spot for NxNW. 

Oh yeah, I like most of them. I love grace Kelly, Jimmy, and Cary so those are always my favorites.

Rope is a particular favorite for me because of the seamless way it was filmed. Only 2 breaks in scenes I believe the entire film. That and it was just so creepy with the play on the Leopold and Loeb thing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, RPM said:

I'm ashamed I couldn't shoehorn The Grapes of Wrath in there somewhere. 10 is too tight of a window.

Yeah, and it's a list that moves and shifts for me over the years.  GOW is an amazing film, it had preeeeeety good material to work with.  The Joads  were like my great grandparents, so I always loved that movie.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, Onboard 2.0 said:

GOW is an amazing film, it had preeeeeety good material to work with.

I tried to pick films I thought were important. The sacrifice and recovery of WWII, a lightning in a bottle that couldn't be remade... Had to include Hitchcock, Wilder, Ford and Kubrick. 10 is way too restrictive.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, RPM said:

I tried to pick films I thought were important. The sacrifice and recovery of WWII, a lightning in a bottle that couldn't be remade... Had to include Hitchcock, Wilder, Ford and Kubrick. 10 is way too restrictive.

Yeah I try to do that, but sometimes I just love a movie so much. A face in the crowd is that movie for me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, RPM said:

The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

They Were Expendable (1945)

Blazing Saddles (1974)

The Wild Bunch (1969)

Apollo 13 (1995)

The Right Stuff (1983)

Some Like it Hot (1959)

North by Northwest (1959)

The Long Voyage Home (1940)

Dr. Strangelove (1964)

I'll have to catch up on a few of these. Super cool list. Loved that you included 2 comedies and 2 astronaut movies. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

26 minutes ago, ztejas said:

Loved that you included 2 comedies and 2 astronaut movies. 

2 comedies? I count 3. Strangelove, SLiH and Blazing. Really wanted to include The Great Race. Biggest pie fight ever filmed. (Prime Natalie Wood is a plus.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Onboard 2.0 said:

My list would have  couple of those. Casablanca for sure, maybe Shawshank, I like it, but am not in love with it.

 

I'd be going Lawrence of Arabia, Godfather (I and II), A face in the crowd,   One flew over the cuckoos nest, the good the bad the ugly, To Sir with Love

(list to be continued after some more thought) 

Gotta add Manchurian candidate (the original)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In no particular order

Patton 

Shawshank or the Green Mile they're weirdly interchangeable to me and I flip back and forth on which is better.

Empire is Better but Star Wars was probably my first blew me away movie. Also the first movie I saw multiple times in the theather, first movie I sat with my dad and watched twice.

Godfather I've went through 3 phases. Love for the first, then seeing the 2nd one as the best, now I'm back to thinking the 1st is better.

Schindlers List Peak Spielberg

The Right Stuff - Glad to see someone else giving this some love. This came on two tapes when we rented it when I was a kid. I remember watching it all a couple of times before we took it back.

Pulp Fiction - Peak Tarantino and so different than everything else at the time.

Braveheart - This one is starting to drop for me but it's up there.

Goodfellas - Peak Scorsese yeah I take this over Raging Bull

The Silence of the Lambs - The best bad guy ever.

10 is not enough. No Clint Eastwood western, my mom would kill me for no Bogart, no To Kill A Mockingbird, Citizen Kane etc. etc.

 

 

 

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, Robin Masters said:

10 is not enough. No Clint Eastwood western, my mom would kill me for no Bogart, no To Kill A Mockingbird, Citizen Kane etc. etc.

I had Paint Your Wagon on my original list but it got bumped.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Some to consider:

The Seven Samurai

It Happened One Night

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

Full Metal Jacket

Badlands

From Here to Eternity

Alien

 

I'm just throwing some new names out there. I can't do a top ten.

There are probably at least 25 movies that I've characterized as being in my top ten over the years. All of Kubrick's movies except his last one are brilliant to me. And how do I rate Michael Mann's Thief, a tight, tight movie or Big Trouble in Little China? Rushmore is another great one to me.

The Best Years of Our Lives is definitely one of the greatest movies ever made. It used to play on AMC a million years ago when they didn't have commercials. If I flipped past that channel and it was on, I usually couldn't turn it off. 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 minutes ago, RomaVicta said:

Rushmore is another great one to me.

Fucking fantastic movie. Tenenbaums is my favorite Wes Anderson but Rushmore takes a close 2nd. 

41 minutes ago, XYZ said:

No Citizen Kane? I feel like I’m taking crazy pills!

Citizen Kane is great because of what it did for film imo. I don't really find it that enjoyable of a watch and not something that I'm going to get sucked into if I'm flipping channels. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

29 minutes ago, RomaVicta said:

Some to consider:

The Seven Samurai

It Happened One Night

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

Full Metal Jacket

Badlands

From Here to Eternity

Alien

 

I'm just throwing some new names out there. I can't do a top ten.

There are probably at least 25 movies that I've characterized as being in my top ten over the years. All of Kubrick's movies except his last one are brilliant to me. And how do I rate Michael Mann's Thief, a tight, tight movie or Big Trouble in Little China? Rushmore is another great one to me.

The Best Years of Our Lives is definitely one of the greatest movies ever made. It used to play on AMC a million years ago when they didn't have commercials. If I flipped past that channel and it was on, I usually couldn't turn it off. 

 

 

Alien I included in my "Others" list. 

FMJ is great. Thought about it while doing my list. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 minutes ago, ztejas said:

 

Citizen Kane is great because of what it did for film imo.

Well what's this thread about?  The ten best movies is the ten greatest motion pictures you've ever seen, whether you've enjoyed them or not.

My ten favorite movies (enjoyable) off the top of my head:

1) Diner

2) Rushmore

3) Godfather

4) Goodfellas

5) Spartacus

6) On the Waterfront

7) Stangelove

8 - From Here to Eternity

9) Boyhood

10) Fast Times at Ridgmont High

 

 

Edited by tantric superman
Link to comment
Share on other sites

If I could only take one with me: Heat

two: jumping jack flash

three: empire strikes back

i realize the question was top ten but for me it’s impossible bc categories. 

Four: The Stand mini series

Five: jaws

Six: Halloween

seven: basic instinct

eight: 50 first dates

Nine: predator the original

Ten: Roadhouse

Link to comment
Share on other sites

30 minutes ago, Nicole44 said:

Lol. I went with only ten movies you could take with you  vs ten movies of all time? It too difficult man. I still go with Heat as my first. 

Oh, I'm not ridiculing you. It's just ever since I saw that episode of Family Guy I hear that in my head. I was DJ/bartender/bouncer at a club on Possum Kingdom in the early 90's. I lived in a fishing cabin for about the first 6 weeks. I had shitty/no TV reception and 2 tapes, The Living Daylights and Road House. Can't tell you how many cedar hacker chicks I nailed while Dalton kicked ass.

 

Addendum: When I was first in the Coast Guard I served my tour as messcook. Part of my duties included setup, serving refreshments and cleanup after movies nightly on the mess deck. I had 6 weeks of Mr. Billion and Convoy as the double feature in the middle of the Bering Sea.

Edited by RPM
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, tantric superman said:

Well what's this thread about?  The ten best movies is the ten greatest motion pictures you've ever seen, whether you've enjoyed them or not.

My ten favorite movies (enjoyable) off the top of my head:

1) Diner

2) Rushmore

3) Godfather

4) Goodfellas

5) Spartacus

6) On the Waterfront

7) Stangelove

8 - From Here to Eternity

9) Boyhood

10) Fast Times at Ridgmont High

 

 

Open for interpretation. It could be a great movie because of its merit as a film in various circles, or it could be great simply because in one's subjective opinion it's rewatachable and enjoyable for the viewer in question. (Hence why I said don't just list the AFI's top 10 - I want to hear what others think the best films they've seen are in THEIR opinion).

My list of 10 "favorites" would be different. But there is a lot of overlap between my favorites and what I think the best films I've seen are. 

For example, Anchorman is probably one of my 10 favorite movies. But I don't think it's one of the 10 BEST movies I've seen. 

I tend to like "great" movies. Is Citizen Kane more impressive than The Dark Knight? Sure. That doesn't mean I'd rather watch it or that it does more for me. 

All that said, I like the approach you took. You have your pantheon of great films and you have your top "creature comfort" films.

I figured I would get different takes and that everyone would have different criteria. 

Edit: on your point about "whether you enjoyed them or not" I largely enjoy films because I think they are good/worthy of being considered as great films. Regardless of how well the film might be received in critics minds or how well it rates on lists, if I don't like it or have issues with certain aspects I'll probably dock it on my list.

Edited by ztejas
Link to comment
Share on other sites

54 minutes ago, Nicole44 said:

Lol. I went with only ten movies you could take with you  vs ten movies of all time? It too difficult man. I still go with Heat as my first. 

That sounds more like your ten favorites. But maybe "best" to you means the films you enjoy the most. Like my comment above, interpret it how you choose. I'm liking the differences in criteria posters are using that I'm observing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, ztejas said:

That sounds more like your ten favorites. But maybe "best" to you means the films you enjoy the most. Like my comment above, interpret it how you choose. I'm liking the differences in criteria posters are using that I'm observing.

Is this a survey course? To me best is rewatchable. I would say usual suspects and a few other films but the actors have kinda ruined it for me. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Citizen Kane -> The greatest film by the most talented director of all time

Casablanca -> The most likable movie ever made

Seven Samurai -> The greatest film by the greatest Japanese director of all time

The Searchers -> The greatest film by the most influential director of all time

The Godfather -> The greatest screenplay ever written

8 1/2 - > The greatest film by the greatest Italian director of all time

Dr Strangelove -> The most accessible film of a giant

Raging Bull -> Scorese's masterpiece

The Rules of the Game -> The greatest film by the greatest French director of all time

Lawrence of Arabia - > The greatest epic ever made

Edited by Michael Knight
Link to comment
Share on other sites

26 minutes ago, Michael Knight said:

Citizen Kane -> The greatest film by the most talented director of all time

Casablanca -> The most likable movie ever made

Seven Samurai -> The greatest film by the greatest Japanese director of all time

The Searchers -> The greatest film by the most influential director of all time

The Godfather -> The greatest screenplay ever written

8 1/2 - > The greatest film by the greatest Italian director of all time

Dr Strangelove -> The most accessible film of a giant

Raging Bull -> Scorese's masterpiece

The Rules of the Game -> The greatest film by the greatest French director of all time

Lawrence of Arabia - > The greatest epic ever made

Of these, which is your favorite? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 pulp fiction

2 shawshank

3 dark knight

4 apollo 13

5 full metal jacket

6 godfather 1 and 2

7 goodfellas 

8 american Beauty 

9 empire strikes back

10 smokey and the bandit

I realize that putting smokey and the bandit just took down the entire list but fuck it. I loved it. 

Edited by Butch Had Not
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Best means it has to be nearly impeccable in almost every way - casting, acting, direction, score, dialog, photography, story, set, etc.  And enjoyable, too.

 

So hard to think of one, especially one that fulfills even half of those criteria. 

 

But Interstellar has to be on the short list.  (And it's not part of my personal favorite).

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Michael Knight said:

Citizen Kane -> The greatest film by the most talented director of all time

Casablanca -> The most likable movie ever made

Seven Samurai -> The greatest film by the greatest Japanese director of all time

The Searchers -> The greatest film by the most influential director of all time

The Godfather -> The greatest screenplay ever written

8 1/2 - > The greatest film by the greatest Italian director of all time

Dr Strangelove -> The most accessible film of a giant

Raging Bull -> Scorese's masterpiece

The Rules of the Game -> The greatest film by the greatest French director of all time

Lawrence of Arabia - > The greatest epic ever made

Dude knows his shit.

I feel bad about leaving Renoir out.  A always go with Grande Illussion -- I want to like Rules of the Game but leaves me too cold. The whole Renoir filmography is really great. 

Can never get myself to love Lawrence either or Zhivago, so end up falling back toe the perfect Bridge on the River Kwai.

So many great Italians and French films (and Japanese and Mexican) -- fill up top 100 but maybe not my 10.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.



×
×
  • Create New...