Top 100 Films
It's been more than 2 years in the making, but I've finally compiled, ranked and finalised my Top 100 Films. The hardest part of making a list like this is always the question of what to leave out; it broke my heart, for example, to ditch A Streetcar Named Desire. I couldn't find a place either for, amongst countless others: 2001: A Space Odyessy, Alien, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Beauty and the Beast, Big, Broken Flowers, Casablanca, Casino, Cronos, Chungking Express, The Dark Crystal, Ed Wood, Edward Scissor Hands, The Elephant Man, The Exorcist, Fargo, Forrest Gump, Full Metal Jacket, Ghandi, Gladiator, Glory, Hannah and Her Sisters, Heat , The Incredibles, the Indianna Jones films, Kind Hearts and Coronets, Kingpin, L.A. Confidential, Little Miss Sunshine, Lost in Translation, Once Upon a Time in America, The Princess Bride, Rocky, Shrek, Serpico, Terminator 2, and The Usual Suspects; all films I love dearly and/ or rate extremely highly, films that would make up the remaining ranks of a possible Top 200. But the list is all the more honest and representative of my taste for it. I used a much stricter principle for choosing one film over another than I did in any of my previous lists, partly because I've probably seen 1000s of films in my time (haven't we all). Whereas before I might have considered such things as historical importance, critical reputation, "objective value" and the personal impact the thing had on me, now there is only one criteria - if given a choice between only having film A or film B which would it be. This eliminates any possible charge of pretentiousness on my part and also accounts partly for why it's taken more than 2 years to make (it's actually surprisingly hard to make a Top 100 list of films). It also does away with any claim to objectivity or definitiveness, if I was to construct an "objective" Top 100 it would look quite different and there are quite a few films in the list that I'd give less than 5 stars to in a review, and quite a few 5 star movies I've left out. "So why share the list if it is so personalised?", you might be thinking. Well, there are a few reasons, I share it in the hope that some readers:
1. Will come across some films they recognise, smile to themselves or nod in agreement,
2. Will come across some films they recognise, mutter angrily to themselves and wonder why anyone would place it in their Top 100.
3. Will come across some films they've never heard of but might be interested in watching.
Before you go to the list though, there here are a few things to guide you through the list:
Legend:
Rank No. Film Title (Director's Name, Country of Origin, Year of Release)
Starring: The main actors of the film
Oscars: The number of Oscars the film was awarded, if any of the actors won an award it will be demarked in the "Starring" list with an "*", if the director won the award for Best Director, it is demarked with an "*" next to his/ her name. These details are included, partly, to show how picky the Academy can be about which films they hand awards out too. Sometimes they get it right but looking at how many great films get "0" there, it's clear to see how often they get it wrong too.
AMG Rating: The rating out of 5 stars given by the All Movie Guide. I find this is a highly reliable website because their critics tend to gauge and reflect general opinion quite well. A 5 star movie there is likely to have been given 5 stars by most reviewers, a film with 4 stars will generally have received about 4 stars from the majority, etc. etc.
Halliwell's Rating: The rating from one of the most famous and harsh film guides, a bible to some film buffs. They rate out of 4 stars with the vast majority of films receiving no stars at all! To give you an idea of thier ruthlessly elite standards, they give The Deer Hunter, which received 5 Oscars and gets 5 stars from AMG and most other places, only 1 star.
Comment: To give a true sense of hierarchy to the rankings, I've decided to comment on the films proportionally so the first 50 films only get a sentence each, films from100 to 91 only get 1 word of comment with the word allowance increasing by 1 at 10 film incriments. From film 50 onwards I will comment on the films as normal.
Hope you enjoy the list and that it convinces you to watch or re-watch at least one of the movies it recommends.
On to 100-51
It's been more than 2 years in the making, but I've finally compiled, ranked and finalised my Top 100 Films. The hardest part of making a list like this is always the question of what to leave out; it broke my heart, for example, to ditch A Streetcar Named Desire. I couldn't find a place either for, amongst countless others: 2001: A Space Odyessy, Alien, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Beauty and the Beast, Big, Broken Flowers, Casablanca, Casino, Cronos, Chungking Express, The Dark Crystal, Ed Wood, Edward Scissor Hands, The Elephant Man, The Exorcist, Fargo, Forrest Gump, Full Metal Jacket, Ghandi, Gladiator, Glory, Hannah and Her Sisters, Heat , The Incredibles, the Indianna Jones films, Kind Hearts and Coronets, Kingpin, L.A. Confidential, Little Miss Sunshine, Lost in Translation, Once Upon a Time in America, The Princess Bride, Rocky, Shrek, Serpico, Terminator 2, and The Usual Suspects; all films I love dearly and/ or rate extremely highly, films that would make up the remaining ranks of a possible Top 200. But the list is all the more honest and representative of my taste for it. I used a much stricter principle for choosing one film over another than I did in any of my previous lists, partly because I've probably seen 1000s of films in my time (haven't we all). Whereas before I might have considered such things as historical importance, critical reputation, "objective value" and the personal impact the thing had on me, now there is only one criteria - if given a choice between only having film A or film B which would it be. This eliminates any possible charge of pretentiousness on my part and also accounts partly for why it's taken more than 2 years to make (it's actually surprisingly hard to make a Top 100 list of films). It also does away with any claim to objectivity or definitiveness, if I was to construct an "objective" Top 100 it would look quite different and there are quite a few films in the list that I'd give less than 5 stars to in a review, and quite a few 5 star movies I've left out. "So why share the list if it is so personalised?", you might be thinking. Well, there are a few reasons, I share it in the hope that some readers:
1. Will come across some films they recognise, smile to themselves or nod in agreement,
2. Will come across some films they recognise, mutter angrily to themselves and wonder why anyone would place it in their Top 100.
3. Will come across some films they've never heard of but might be interested in watching.
Before you go to the list though, there here are a few things to guide you through the list:
Legend:
Rank No. Film Title (Director's Name, Country of Origin, Year of Release)
Starring: The main actors of the film
Oscars: The number of Oscars the film was awarded, if any of the actors won an award it will be demarked in the "Starring" list with an "*", if the director won the award for Best Director, it is demarked with an "*" next to his/ her name. These details are included, partly, to show how picky the Academy can be about which films they hand awards out too. Sometimes they get it right but looking at how many great films get "0" there, it's clear to see how often they get it wrong too.
AMG Rating: The rating out of 5 stars given by the All Movie Guide. I find this is a highly reliable website because their critics tend to gauge and reflect general opinion quite well. A 5 star movie there is likely to have been given 5 stars by most reviewers, a film with 4 stars will generally have received about 4 stars from the majority, etc. etc.
Halliwell's Rating: The rating from one of the most famous and harsh film guides, a bible to some film buffs. They rate out of 4 stars with the vast majority of films receiving no stars at all! To give you an idea of thier ruthlessly elite standards, they give The Deer Hunter, which received 5 Oscars and gets 5 stars from AMG and most other places, only 1 star.
Comment: To give a true sense of hierarchy to the rankings, I've decided to comment on the films proportionally so the first 50 films only get a sentence each, films from100 to 91 only get 1 word of comment with the word allowance increasing by 1 at 10 film incriments. From film 50 onwards I will comment on the films as normal. Hope you enjoy the list and that it convinces you to watch or re-watch at least one of the movies it recommends.
On to 100-51