Comments on: The 50 Best Movies Ever

By: Garret Planks

Garret Planks — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 04:09:08 +0000

This is the worst list of all time

You, sir, are a failure

By: pace

pace — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 17:54:19 +0000

I would have to rank my top five like this:

1. The Empire Strikes Back

2. The Usual Suspects

3. Silence of the Lambs

4. Shawshank Redemption

5. Resevoir Dogs

By: [ro]Fish

[ro]Fish — Wed, 30 Nov 2005 17:47:42 +0000

Yes well I have to say that my favourite movies are
1)star wars*1—6*
2)LOTR*1—3*
3)godfather*1—3*
4)Pirates of the carabean
E pa pul coaieee I’m from Roumania dude . respect )

By: suzero

suzero — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Wow, Arjan! Great list. It must have taken you ages. What did you have to wait for? A UPC repairman?

Why do some numbers have “-”? instead of the number?

By: Arjan

Arjan — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

the hyphens are movies that have the same rank… that’s the danger of making average rankings

I handed in the first draft of my final thesis last Friday and I was waiting for my counselor to e-mail her remarks and comments to me. I was at uni and waiting for her e-mail to come in. I couldn’t do anything in the mean time and was reading Empire wondering if I could combine that list with the on IMdB…

By: Arjan

Arjan — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

BTW: some really well-known titles are not in the list, to my surprise, including Alien (in fact was #51), The Exorcist, Titanic, Jurassic Park, some Indiana Jones movies…

By: paco

paco — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

What surprises me is the hogh ranking of Shawshank Redemption (saw that already on Imdb). Nice movie, but not that special.

Where’s The Shining?
I also find the ranking of new movies a bit distorting. Lots of people have short memories and a lot of the good movies predate ImdB/internet.

By: weefselkweekje

weefselkweekje — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

I think it makes sense that there are many recent movies in lists like this. I’m having trouble looking at an appreciating older movies (70′s and before) because of their tempo and style. That even goed for movies I adored when they came out. Newer movies reflect current ‘zeitgeist’ and appeal to me more for that reason.

Good to see Aliens make the list. That movie probably was a major factor in my becoming a sci-fi fan and move lover.

By: weefselkweekje

weefselkweekje — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

P.S. Titanic was voted the worst movie of all time recently by readers of a british magazine, so I’m not surprised to not see it on this list-of-lists.

By: damian

damian — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

I think Shawshank Redemption deserves it’s place up there – and possibly more so than The Godfather. I think people just accept that the Godfather is one of the best films ever, because everybody says so – like Citizen Kane.
Revisiting them both lately I’m still in awe of the process and invention surrounding Citizen Kane, but it stands out more as an impressive work of its period than an important movie of our time. It still has the power to influence many films today (Tarantino uses the deep focus technique, Todd Haynes’ Velvet Goldmine copies the plot structure completely) and for that reason I think it serves it’s place high up.
The Godfather part 1 is a good film, I’m not denying it – but I wouldn’t put it up there so high – in fact I doubt it would make my top 20. I think teh problem I have with it is I saw the Godfather after I’d seen so many other Mob films. The effect of the movie has been diluted. For instance – imagine if you’d seen Goodfellas, Casino, and just about every other Mob film from the 80′s and 90′s and THEN watched the Godfather – it would feel quite old hat and it does. Godfather part 2 however, is a MUCH better film. Although it carries on from part one – and you definitely need to be familiar with part 1 before you see it – I find it a much more fulfilling experience – everything’s bigger in scope and more impressive.

Back to Shawshank – I went to see thsi whe it came out at the pictures and loved it. As did everybody else who saw it. It never made huge box office – but it got good word of mouth – and through video – people found this film. It’s a perfect Sunday film. Lounge on the couch, press play and immerse yourself in the story for three hours. It never bores, it’s full of classic scenes and lines, and it hits every emotion you’ve got. I know a lot of people who have seen this movie and I’ve never met one of them who’s said anything other than – “That was a great film”. I think it deserves to be up there.

BTW – my personal top five would be:
1. Clockwork Orange / The Lord of the Rings (all three parts)
3. The Thin Red Line (T. Malick)
4. Nobody’s Fool
5. Miller’s Crossing
4.