Pajiba

Hell, yeah. Trainspotting. The end.

I like Withnail better than Trainspotting. Good list though. I unabashedly adore the crap out of Four Weddings as well, despite the "Is it raining? I hadn't noticed."

Love, Actually is better than 4 Weddings and a Funeral (same writer, I think). I don't know much about British film. If About A Boy was actually made by Brits, that's definitely better than Slumdog and 4 Weddings.

I love Trainspotting, and of course Ewan McGregor. But the best British film? No wonder Hollywood makes more money than London.

no love for Dirty Pretty Things?

"My Beautiful Laundrette" is a great film: it was my introduction to Daniel Day Lewis, so I owe it a world of gratitude.

My question, given the standard of all the other films on the top ten is how in hell did "Four Weddings" make it on there? I mean it's pretty and doesn't make you want to puke and the hats are great, but really, the top ten???
What about "Letter to Breshnev" or "East is East".

Also, I don't want to re-open this argument from a few weeks ago but I must reiterate the fact that "Love Actually" sucks a thousand million lemons. It is an awful film that should never have been released without extensive editing and the removal of at lest three story lines.

John W:

"The Commitments" was an Irish film. Absolutely. Definitively. Undisputably. NOT BRITISH.

PaddyDog,
I TAKE IT THAT GOES FOR ONCE TOO?

Paddy, I agree-I hate Love Actually with the fire created by a unfairly labeled fat girl's thighs rubbing together. Bill Nighy is funny and there are some decent performances, but it's so cheesey and so overwrought. BLECH.

Brazil? No? Not British enough? Fail?

Yes, John W., that goes for "Once" also. And "The Wind that Shakes the Barley". I can't believe they had the nerve to list "Hunger". Given the subject matter, it's an insult to call it a British film. Has anyone else noticed that there are no Welsh films on there?

TSF:

"I could have died.

I didn't though. He did. So I think I probably came out on top in that particular arrangement."

That must be comment of the week, right there.

Good shout on Red Road though.... I have a few friends that were in that, and a few that stay in those towers. Also, Hunger should be at the top of every list. Every list. It's the best film I've seen in years.

Add Layer Cake to the list.

Jesus Christ, I think this is a really shabby list if you're looking at the last 25 years. I think if you did the same thing for France you'd turn up ten absolute masterpieces - but this is pretty poor.

Four Weddings has not aged well, and Withnail & I is nice enough but hardly up there with any of the classics - and it should be Naked instead of Secrets & Lies. I'm so ultra-jazzed to see Ratcatcher there, and also the Terence Davies film - but I'd like to see some Ken Loach in there, certainly, and maybe This Is Britain and My Summer of Love. As for Trainspotting: weeell, it's OK.

Sexy Beast was awesome.

No Brazil?

No Shallow Grave?

Trainspotting kicked ass. The soundtrack(s) kicked ass. The book? One of the hardest goddam things I've ever read. It almost helped to read it aloud.

...while drunk and faking the accent.

What about Billy Elliot? Isn't that a British movie? I adore that movie.

And my number one British movie, for years has been The Madness of King George.

Okay, I have an old VHS of Brazil that says it was a 1983 release. Both IMDB and Leonard Maltin say 1985. The director was American and I don't know how that affects how they judge the film.

I'm just going to assume that they hated it and we should hit them with sticks.

#11 Touching the Void is an inspired pick. Never have I felt such suspense and dread from a talking head documentary. I mean, clearly the men get through the whole ordeal alive since they're all interviewed, yet I was convinced over every bit of dramatic music that something bad would happen.

Where's "The Crying Game?"

Where's "Enchanted April?" I loved that movie.

Where's "The Full Monty?"

Bweaves - YES. "The Crying Game" is fucking brilliant.

Or "Waking Ned Devine?"

Samantha: I've seen "Brassed Off" with Ewan McGregor and Pete Postelthwaite. It's a cute little movie.

Where's "A Fish Called Wanda?"

(sigh) ... The Crying Game was Irish. And brilliant.

Full Monty should definitely be on this list.

How about "Somers Town'? Another brilliant Shane Meadows film.

Was hoping to see "24-Hour Party People" on there, cool. Too bad I had to click through so many fucking pages to get to it. Whatever, guess I can't fault a website for click whoring.

I liked "Enchanted April" and "Cold Comfort Farm," too.

And "28 Days Later" should be on that list.

I feel like there are a couple other UK films I've seen that I'd like to mention, but their names escape me. Not because they're not memorable, but because my memory fails. Could "Croupier" be considered a British movie?

I love that Hope and Glory was on the list, fantastic film.Way Underappreciated.

What about all the Guy Richie flix and the movie that defines bittersweet? Truly, Madly, Deeply?

I think we need our own list. I haven't even looked at theirs, but looking through the comments I can tell that it'd just make me angry.

Frances Begbie has something to say to all those who scoff at the greatness of Trainspotting...

"Well, this is a good fucking laugh, ain't it, ya doss cunts? You sweat that shite out of your system. 'Cause if I come back and it's still here...I'll fucking kick it out. Okay?"

The exclusion of Shallow Grave is all kinds of wrong.

I couldn't stand The English Patient and could easily replace it with The Escapist. And how about Orlando?

I LOVE Brassed Off. And Cold Comfort Farm is absolutely the BEST book-to-movie adaptation I have ever seen (that cast? swoon). I also remember Enchanted April being gorgeous. Blasphemously, though, I must say I got horribly tired of Kate Winslet in Sense and Sensibility.

After reading this, I heartily agree with those suggesting a Pajiba Top 10 British Films. And then a Top 10 Irish Films so nobody gets huffy.

Kudos for having Secrets and Lies...but where the fuck is Hot Fuzz?!

Great list. Haven't seen a lot of these films, and you all are giving me some more great suggestions.

I must admit, to my shame, my darling Paddy, that I also have an adoration for Love, Actually. I am constantly quoting it...."thighs like tree trunks," "trained killers are just a phone call away," and the greatest stream of curse words ever strung together on film, "Fuck wank bugger shitting arse head and hole!"

VERY happy Shaun made the list. My love for Simon Pegg is endless. And, finally, I must admit my very unhealthy love for Hope and Glory. If that is on any station, at any time, everything stops. I will watch that movie no matter what. You don't like it? Bugger off, you bloody sod!

A big hell NO to "Shakespeare in Love," although a lot of that probably has to do with seeing it on a date with a guy who turned out to be a creep, in a packed theater, and needing to pee so bad near the end I was terrified to even get up for fear that any jostling would open the floodgates. Having the movie end with people floundering around in water didn't help. Paltrow was in that, wasn't she? Hate her.

"Shaun of the Dead" and "Hot Fuzz" should be in the top ten. Brilliant stuff.

fitzwilly, you're the second person I've come across on this site who has tried to convince me that "Alien 3" didn't suck. And as for the "direction it took the franchise"--didn't everyone die? Even poor Ripley who had her chest burst open before falling into lava or some shit? I had the feeling while watching it that they meant the series to actually end there, with Ripley dying a hero, and only came up with the fourth film because they figured they could still squeeze some cash out of it. Either way I'm going to have to rent it again to see if my memory is faulty--it has been a while.

I also saw a film about an older guy swimming the English channel in memory of a son who died while swimming--can't remember the name but it had Billy Boyd (Pippin from LOTR) in it, and was really kind of sweet, if not necessarily a Top Ten movie.

I get the feeling some of you people are purposefully naming Irish films. Are you trying to whip up some sort of Anglo-Irish conflict? No good has ever come of that. No good at all. Just pain, suffering and countless Liam Neeson movies.

Stop it.

I actually think Hot Fuzz is better than Shaun of the Dead, but maybe that's because I know the genre of homage better.

In Bruges was fantastic, but it was two Irish actors in, well, Bruges...

I do think we need a better definition of "British movie." Does it mean the majority of the principals are British? Does it mean the location is British? Does it mean the setting is British? Is it just the technicality that the production company is located in Britain? I mean, you could make a case that Star Wars is British as it was largely filmed in Britain with a great many British actors.

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels?

Anyone?

In Bruges is my new favorite movie. Or, has been for about a year now.

And while it has two Irish actors, the writer/director is English. As is (I believe) the production company.

Donalb, I think PaddyDog is using a cinematic variant of the "grandmother rule" so beloved of the Irish football team. If Tony Cascarino can be an Irish player, Hunger can be an Irish movie.