I like Search for the Holy Grail well enough, but as it came out before I was born and I’m not British, it wouldn’t make my top 50. Nor does Shawshank or Godfather. But all of those would probably be in a top 100 list.
In your opinion what's the best movie ever?
- Thread starter 12Nole
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I like Search for the Holy Grail well enough, but as it came out before I was born and I’m not British, it wouldn’t make my top 50. Nor does Shawshank or Godfather. But all of those would probably be in a top 100 list.
For me, it's The Graduate. Not only is it one of my favorites to watch, but the story and execution of the story are basically perfect. It's emblematic of the front-end of the baby boomers becoming the first generation in the US to reject most of all of their parents' values. Benjamin is a poster child for "having it all" (except height 
) yet he is acutely aware that his values are far, far different than his parents' and their "set".
The movie is introspective, personal, illustrative - and still manages to be funny.
) yet he is acutely aware that his values are far, far different than his parents' and their "set". The movie is introspective, personal, illustrative - and still manages to be funny.
I do like it quite a bit, but for me it’s a 50-100 movie as it’s a little slow. I did my list based on movies I would most want to see again and repeatedly and Fargo is more of a once a decade watch for me not a yearly or every two or three years like the rest of my top 25.
Too hard to choose just 1:
1) Back to the Future - just great fun and well done across the board. (if you haven't seen John Mulaney's meditations on what that pitch for this movie must have been, you should check it out)
2) Frequency / great father son movie. If you don't choke up at the end, you might have a mechanical heart.
1) Back to the Future - just great fun and well done across the board. (if you haven't seen John Mulaney's meditations on what that pitch for this movie must have been, you should check it out)
2) Frequency / great father son movie. If you don't choke up at the end, you might have a mechanical heart.
Impossible to pick 1 all time great. I guess if forced to choose I would say the Longest Day. Based on the topic and the names in the movie it was a pretty big deal.
My Cousin Vinny is a GREAT movie, with a capital G. I know it was a pretty big hit at the time, but it doesn't have the legacy it should. So much better than 100 comedies that are considered "classics" from the 80s and 90s.
Definitely a great movie. Just watched it with my son recently. Probably makes my second ten.
I really favor movies where there's something happening onscreen, but there's also something happening under the surface in the mind/persona of the characters...maybe something that's hard to figure out, maybe subtle or maybe not, just something that makes you try to figure out "why the hell is he/she doing this"? Bridge fits that for sure...what's happening onscreen is great...but at the same time, the mental state of Alec Guiness' character, trying to wrap my head around what's happening there, takes it to the next level.
That's probably what makes the best of the best for me in movies...maybe with the exception of Goodfellas, it's a feature of all my very, very favorites.
No way could I pick just one............it also depends upon my mood
My movie "greatness" scale largely tracks with scholar/critic appreciation, not exactly of course, but one movie I would put up there way higher than it's reputation is Quiz Show. Man, I think that's a great movie. Some corny stuff around the Rob Morrow character I guess that is too "on the nose", but boy, I'd have that well into my Top 10.
I have favorites that I honestly can't rate on the "greatest ever" scale, but it doesn't stop me from loving them and being in my personal favorites, like King of Kong:Fistful of Quarters, The Spanish Prisoner, and Top Secret.
But I really think Quiz Show should be much more highly regarded. Also, Let The Right One In...that's genius to me. I guess I could dock it for the cheezy cat scene.
I have favorites that I honestly can't rate on the "greatest ever" scale, but it doesn't stop me from loving them and being in my personal favorites, like King of Kong:Fistful of Quarters, The Spanish Prisoner, and Top Secret.
But I really think Quiz Show should be much more highly regarded. Also, Let The Right One In...that's genius to me. I guess I could dock it for the cheezy cat scene.
Quiz Show was really good, and underrated. Two other underrated films I liked from that era were Tucker and Eight Men Out.
I’ll add Miller’s Crossing to the list of underrated movies.
I agree with you there. That's why most of my "repeat" movie list are action or comedy. There's very few drama/sad/mopey movies I care to see even once let alone multiple times. And suspense movies usually do not stand up to repeat viewings unless there's some other element like the superhero schtick of Unbreakable.
Yeah. Definitely needs a higher place in the pantheon of organized crime pictures. Haven't seen it in 20 years maybe. I should watch it again.
I'm exactly the opposite. I rarely watch movies over and over anyway...even some of my favorites I've probably only seen 4-5 times. But what I need for repeat viewings is something to really chew on, to think about while I'm watching something I've already seen happen. Could be in the filmmaking, but I'm really not enough of an auteur to pick out real filmmaking technique. But in some movies I can dig in and really appreciate how they film certain things and frame scenes, but usually only if it's really obvious and ostentatious, like another one of my favorites I watched recently Night of the Hunter. Super dark movie, and it was shot really weird and surreal for an American movie in the 50s. I know what's going to happen, but can still get engrossed in the shots and how strange they are.
But most of the time, rewatchability means I have to be picking up subtle things in the performances, the writing, something I maybe never saw before, or maybe I interpret differently, or I just forgot. Maybe I pick up stuff because I'm different on another viewing, or know more now, but sometimes just because it's dense. Got to be more meat on those bones.
Action movies almost never get me that, and comedies rarely do. Sometimes that's like a joke a minute like Airplane or Naked Gun or Arrested Development yields rewatchability for me because it's simply too much to remember them all so jokes, so jokes I've seen before can still catch up on me. Or something that's a little sophisticated because maybe I don't get what it's satirizing/parodying the first time around that well. But otherwise, most comedies have very little watchability for me, something like Ghostbusters that really has about 4-5 actual high spots to hit, and just a bunch of general amusement surrounding those bits...I just don't get anything out of those over and over.
It's like if you tell me a joke today, I might laugh. But if you tell me the same joke tomorrow, I'm probably not going to laugh. I don't really understand how people watch comedies over and over, unless it's years apart so you can still get an element of surprise, or at least don't remember exactly how it was executed. It's just something I don't have in me.
Forrest Gump is in my Top 10 but number 1 may be Godfather 1. Godfather 2 is in my top 5.
Lou, a few years ago you gave some great advice about marriage. I think you said that one should pick their "5 non-negotiables" and then should "Yes dear" everything else.
Could you let me know? My brother got married a year ago and I was telling him your advice. Thanks.
Dont have a favorite movie, but anything written by John Milius, the Coen Bros, Scorsese or Tarantino are in my upper echelon. Throw in a few from Coppola and Darabont and you have a damn amazing list of some of the best films ever made.
I knew you would post this.
The correct answer is The Godfather. Pretty convenient that it is also the best novel ever written too.
Let's be real, it would be something with Eva Lovia, Stoya, Racquel Darrian, Chasey Lain, Teri Weigel, or Katie Morgan in it, but if not that then one of these........
Beautiful Girls
A Beautiful Mind
300
Lucky#Slevin
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (US version, UK version were also great))
Snatch
Gran Torino
The Big Blue (Le grand bleu - original title)
The Four Feathers
Inside man
The Shawshank Redemption
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Gator
Léon: The Professional
Once Upon a Time in the West
The Natural
Out of Africa
Deliverance
Good Will Hunting
Jeremiah Johnson
V for Vendetta
The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)
Hacksaw Ridge
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
American Flyer
The Bourne Identity
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Cool Hand Luke
Dune
The Town
Brubaker
Chariots of Fire
Finding Forrester
Rounders
Man on Fire
The Legend of Bagger Vance
The Magnificent Seven
The Usual Suspects
The Last Samurai
Office Space
The Boondock Saints
Taken
Thank You for Smoking
Kingdom of Heaven
Empire of the Sun
Moneyball
Legends of the Fall
Meet Joe Black
Remember the Titans
The Road Warrior
Gallipoli
Only the Brave
Hell or High Water
Seabiscuit
Cinderella Man
Layer Cake
Beautiful Girls
A Beautiful Mind
300
Lucky#Slevin
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (US version, UK version were also great))
Snatch
Gran Torino
The Big Blue (Le grand bleu - original title)
The Four Feathers
Inside man
The Shawshank Redemption
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Gator
Léon: The Professional
Once Upon a Time in the West
The Natural
Out of Africa
Deliverance
Good Will Hunting
Jeremiah Johnson
V for Vendetta
The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)
Hacksaw Ridge
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
American Flyer
The Bourne Identity
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Cool Hand Luke
Dune
The Town
Brubaker
Chariots of Fire
Finding Forrester
Rounders
Man on Fire
The Legend of Bagger Vance
The Magnificent Seven
The Usual Suspects
The Last Samurai
Office Space
The Boondock Saints
Taken
Thank You for Smoking
Kingdom of Heaven
Empire of the Sun
Moneyball
Legends of the Fall
Meet Joe Black
Remember the Titans
The Road Warrior
Gallipoli
Only the Brave
Hell or High Water
Seabiscuit
Cinderella Man
Layer Cake
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62Nole
Seminole Insider
Young Frankenstein
"WHAT A LOVELY PAIR OF KNOCKERS"
"WHAT A LOVELY PAIR OF KNOCKERS"
