Pajiba

I'd like Gladiator and Forrest Gump to switch places, and A Beautiful Mind goes allll the way to number 25. Not that it isn't good, but, it's surely no Silence of The Lambs.

Also I'm bummed I forgot a lot of these movies existed. Out of Africa? Oh yeahhhhhh......

My favorite is No Country but the list is basically in step with my opinion.

Reading this list is incredibly underwhelming though. When they're all there in front of you, you really notice how mediocre and forgettable most are. Did Chicago really win? I have no memory of that.

Unpopular though this opinion is, holy hell did I hate American Beauty. I found it incredibly pretentious and boring. And actually laughed at the plastic bag monologue. Seriously? However, that is just me. So I'd move it down the list quite a bit.

I also think I'd move Schindler's List up. That movie is stunning and incredible every time i watch it (which, admittedly, is a limited amount since it is also so emotionally demanding).

Ugh, a Beautiful Mind. That should really be #25. Not only was an awful film, it isn't even remotely an accurate portrayal of the guy's life. My friend's dad knows John Nash. Not only is he still rather mentally ill, because mental illness doesn't magically go away, even with treatment, he's as gay as a unicorn on Christmas. So that whole "the love of a good wife will get you through the darkest times," just grates on me.

Braveheart...."these guys are clearly good, those other guys are obviously bad, things work out well for good people"

Posted by: sars at February 23, 2011 10:45 AM

Eeeeh if by "work out well" you mean getting drawn and quartered then I guess it really did work out well for him.

Eeeeh if by "work out well" you mean getting drawn and quartered then I guess it really did work out well for him.

Jeez, that's a very good point. I suppose I should remove that "good things happen to good guys" statement, although the moral simplicity is still there. I stand corrected.

Silence of the Lambs was good, but #1? I think I'm going to go with Schindler's List. I agree 100% with KatSings regarding American Beauty. #25, right there. Loathe. Also: Braveheart is better than Gladiator? No way. I admit my undying love for Russell Crowe, and I don't think he really should have gotten Best Actor for it, but it's still a pretty enjoyable movie.

I think a high percentage of these movies, especially the ones in the top 15, have aged badly. But I will say that Silence of the Lambs is not one of them. I watched it a year ago and it still scared the bejeezus out of me.

Oh, so The English Patient and Dances With Wolves (which, while it shouldn't have beaten GoodFellas is still an aMAZingly good movie) are relatively crappy, but Driving Miss Fucking Daisy was better than both?

Are you trying to be deliberately inflammatory/contrary again? If so, you suck. If not, you suck.

Schindler's List has to be #1.

Woah, when did we all start hating Lord of the Rings?

I do not agree with your rankings, sir, but you're ability to compile and order a list of 25 things is impressive. Most impressive.

I second Figgy. Where do you even begin? This is - just - wow, it's not a list of great films, that's all I'm saying. Flipping heck. That's made me feel actually a little bit sad.

I cannot believe you'd put The English Patient behind Forrest Gump (or Braveheart or American Beauty, frankly). I've honestly never understood people's beef with that movie. I thought it was a beautiful, sweeping epic exemplifying the best of that genre.

Also, sue me on this, but I'm going to go right out there and say I saw both in the theatre and enjoyed Titanic more than Slumdog Millionaire.

Wow, a ballsy ranking. The top 5 threw me off. Thoughts:

-You got last place right, for sure
-No way is LOTR worse than Shakespeare in Love
-No way is Driving Miss Daisy better than The Hurt Locker
-No way is American Beauty better than The Departed (or The Hurt Locker, for that matter)
-I really want to argue for No Country in the top slot, but I haven't seen Platoon, and Silence of the Lambs is a damn good movie. A solid top three, if nothing else.

I know a few window lickers liked No Country for Old Men. That movie was terrible. I've seen every movie on this list except Chicago. And Titanic and No Country are by far the worst! I have serious hate for both movies.

I'll add my voice to the Greek chorus of American Beauty haters. That was middle aged guy pandering saved only by Annette Bening. Without her, it's an unfunny Old School.

INRE: Titanic - Nothing with David Warner is all bad, but boy does this come close

samantha t, I can't speak for everyone else but I find Anthony Minghella's stuff kind of frustrating. It sure is pretty, but after 3 hours of the lead couple staring longingly at eachother I've had enough. And The English Patient is extra frustrating because the Sikh sapper guy has a way bigger role in the book and I thought he was a more interesting character than the bored rich people.

with the inclusion of schindler's list and platoon in the top 5, you have guaranteed that i beat my cat on my lunch break. why do you hate my cat?

I think Chicago's a post-Modern American musical masterpiece. Rob Marshall managed to capture all the energy of a proper staging of the show without literally filming the stage show. It's breathtaking. Furthermore, Richard Gere was robbed of his Oscar nomination for making Billy seem effortless in his mechinations (which is the fucking point of the role) and Queen Latifah should have won over Catherine Zeta-Jones (all flash, no substance). Rob Marshall should have won director, too. Zellweger, however, didn't deserve to be nominated at all.

Crash was where it should be. That's all I care about.

Also, I wish I hadn't been reminded that half these movies won what is supposed to be the highest award in the field. Not that I'd kick most of em outta bed for emotionally manipulative, hacky scripts. Most have something redeeming about them, with a few notableCRASHexceptions.

Only 1 complaint. American Beauty is way to high on the list. That movie has not aged well. Other than that, everything else is near enough where I'd rank them to account for personal taste.

Here's the thing with Shakespeare in Love. It has all the elements I would think I should enjoy in a film. Period Setting. Shakespeare. Colin Firth. Judi Dench. Geoffrey Rush. Beautiful costumes. Barges on the Thames. I even liked Gynneth back then in the pre-GOOP days and yet, I hated it. Bored to tears. Apologized to Mr. PD for dragging him to it. And to this day, I can't put my finger on why (why I hated it not why I apologized).

Hey all you American Beauty haters, you are seriously wrong. It should be #24. NOTHING is worse than Crash on that list.

And seriously, why is Unforgiven not in single digits?

Woah, woah. Gladiator deserves to at least be in the top ten.

What elevates Gladiator? It's an enjoyable movie, but I don't feel it goes much beyond a standard sword-fighting flick with revenge factored in. It's got some good performances; I like Russell Crowe a lot back then, and I loves me some Roman history.

What struck me the most was how many movies on this list I absolutely detest: Crash, The English Patient, Dances with Wolves, Braveheart, Titanic... Clearly, whatever the Academy voting demo is, I am not it.

I love the action-adventure genre. I enjoy Gladiator and Braveheart, and I love the LOTR. But I find Gladiator adequate. The filmwork is beautiful, but it strives for a high-mindedness that comes off merely as pretension to me.

Out of the 21 of these that I've seen, there's only about 6 that I would still sit through willingly (and no, DarthCorleone, you leaving the cable edited version on just to bug me while I'm having my coffee does not count as a willing viewing).

Sorry, man, Million Dollar Baby sucks too much to be even among the 25. That's a huge freaking Mexican soapie.

Also, The Hurt Locker is just a... nothing. Nice flick, far from award-wining material, but what the hell did people see in it??

It's similar to Forrest Gump in that, since Gump is entertaining, but only that, same case of Gladiator.

I'd put The Silence of the Lambs in the top 5 too, even if it's a slightly overrated movie. The acting is great, the villain is legendary, the story is good, but people tend to confuse that with the whole of the movie, which is mostly "very good", not "excellent".

Unicorns are gay on Christmas? What about the other 364 days of the year? How gay are they on Thanksgiving - somewhat gay or gayer than old Paree? I think they would be more gay in the springtime for some reason. Don't unicorns hibernate or something? I don't think they'd be awake at Christmas.

shunnnnnnnnnnn

No comments? That won't happen with me.

25. Crash

Fuck this movie, I've seen Saturday Morning Cartoons with more realistic depictions of race relations.

24. The English Patient

Haven't seen it.

23. Titanic

Overrated when it came out, but it's underrated nowadays.

22. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King

Fantastic movie, despite your irrational hatred of it. I liked it even more than Finding Nemo, and there would've been a riot if it didn't win.

21. Shakespeare in Love

Aside from the fact that it completely missed the point of Romeo and Juliet, Lebowski and Private Ryan got beat by this?

Though you shouldn't have ranked it higher than LOTR, but I know that you're endless hatred of that movie can't be rectified.

20. Chicago

I know animated movies never win, but Spirited Away and Monsters Inc were so much better than Chicago it's not even funny.

19. Forrest Gump

Rather underrated around these parts.

Hear me out, Forrest Gump, Pulp Fiction, and Shawshank Redemption were all deserving, and there wasn't a satisfactory winner that year. Sometimes it just happens like that.

Forrest Gump shouldn't be crucified because it beat two fantastic movies, we should be thankful that 1994 was such a good year for movies instead.

18. Dances with Wolves

What was this movie even about? The worst sound setup in the history of film, I couldn't hear a world of dialogue throughout it. Even if Goodfellas and Beauty and the Beast didn't come out that year, it had no business being nominated.

17. A Beautiful Mind

This movie had no business beating out Fellowship of the Ring, but it was alright.

16. Gladiator

The same thing as Beautiful Mind, but replace LOTR with Memento.

15. Slumdog Millionaire

The movie was alright, but Danny Boyle is still a fucking asshole for what he did to those people. Hell, out of the five best pictures of the year (Doubt, Wall-E, The Dark Knight, The Wrestler, Milk) four didn't even get nominated. What a fucking travesty.

14. Out of Africa

Haven't seen it, like most, I was too busy watching Back to the Future.

13. Million Dollar Baby

Clint Eastwood is a genius, this movie wasn't quite as good as Sunshine, but they're both in the same quality level.

12. The Hurt Locker

I prefer Inglorious Basterds, but that's just me.

11. The Last Emperor

I haven't seen it.

10. Unforgiven

Best movie of the year, including Reservoir Dogs.

9. Rain Man

Die Hard was more fun, but this was still deserving.

8. Driving Miss Daisy

I can't believe Do the Right Thing didn't get nominated that year.

7. The Departed

Just fantastic, Scorsese finally won the big one, with my personal favorite Scorsese movie, and he deserved every ounce of his Oscar. It'

6. Braveheart

Hard to believe Mel Gibson went from being an artistic genius to the same level of society as Chris Benoit and Phil Spector. But at least the bigoted fuck has the ability Benoit and Spector had.

The best we can hope now is that he O.D.'s before he kills someone, and puts out one last good movie so he can get back to Michael Jackson's level of respectability.

5. American Beauty

Fuck this movie, especially for beating Fight Club.

4. Schindler’s List

Highly deserving.

3. No Country for Old Men

Highly deserving.

2. Platoon

I haven't seen it.

1. The Silence of the Lambs

Hell yes, one of the few horror films that's actually scary. What more can you ask for?

You ranked The English Patient 24th?! Ack. It was a great movie. The book is a million times better, but I thought the film adaptation stayed fairly true to it.
Aaaaand I think Rain Main and Driving Miss Daisy are ranked way too high here. Otherwise, your list isn't that bad.

I don't know what's up with the Lord of the Rings bashing going on but that movie was amazing & was well deserved & was the best picture out of all the other films nominated that year (except maybe Mystic River).
LOVE the Crash hating because even if Brokeback Mountain didn't get nominated that year Crash still won over great films like Capote and Munich which both were sooooo much better & more well-deserved.
And I would put Schindler's List at #1 cause it's just simply fantastic.

Move up: LOTR, Gladiator, Hurt Locker, Unforgiven, Schindler's List

Move down: Platoon, American Beauty, Braveheart, Driving Miss Daisy, Rain Man, A Beautiful Mind, Forrest Gump