Best Movies Ever Made, In My Opinion At Least Options

[bat19]

Im sure there are already hundreds of topics just like this one, but seeing as how they are not on the first page, I don't care. haha. Pretty simple, what movies do you consider the greatest of all time and why? No top ten bullshit, just give a genre and give a movie. Easy, huh?

• Mafia: This is painfully obvious, The Godfather is without a doubt the best mafioso movie ever if not the greatest movie ever made. I've heard some people question this and I'll give you a simple answer. Marlon Brando as Vito Corleone was f**kin cool as shit. He's the Jack Sparrow of the early 70's for those of you still too young to have seen this masterpiece. It's not for restless types, three hours long and almost all dialogue, but trust me this is a friggin gem.
  
• Cult Classics: John Carpenter's Escape from LA is in my opinion one of the best movies because it's so friggin pointless. This is the movie that Snakes on a Plane would have been if they had taken it seriously. There is an infamous scene in which Snake Plisken(for all you Metal Gear fans this might sound familiar. Hideo Kojima pretty much stole this character directly) has just been shot in the leg and is then able to surf a tidal wave and then jump from his surfboard onto a moving car, then commandeer the vehicle and drive off. Greatest stupid scene in any movie I've ever seen. It's worth the watch just for that one part. f**kin histerical.
  
• Science Fiction: This might throw you off a little. Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain is quite possibly the best movie I have ever seen, but it is not a movie for everyone. To enjoy this movie fully, you have to meet some criteria. First, you have to be a little open minded. Second, you have to see films as an art form and as entertainment, not merely the latter. The Fountain is cinema art, from the heartbreaking story to the astounding visuals all backed by a great soundtrack composed solely by Clint Mansell. And it was all done under a modest budget, as opposed to a movie like Spiderman 3 which has almost 8 times it's budget and absolutely no depth whatsoever. Hugh Jackman more than makes up for his horrible performance in Van Helsing. I could go on and on about this movie, just watch it. If you didn't understand all of it the first time, watch it again. Eventually you will see just how extraordinary this movie is.
  
• Horror: With the immense outpour of incredibly bad horror movies of recent years, it's no real wonder why I go to a classic. Candyman was in my opinion the scariest movie I have ever seen. Not so much anymore unfortunately, with the constant release of gore flicks that go strictly for shock value, I'm afraid I've become desensitized. When I first saw this movie, I was about seven. This was the only movie I have ever left the room it was playing in out of pure fear. Any kid who has ever actually gone to the projects in Brooklyn, New York can possibly relate. I unfortunately had to visit my grandmother the next day who lived in a project building and I was shaking the entire time. This is a fairly simple movie about a former slave turned demon-like character now residing in an abandoned project building who frames an innocent woman of murder in order to take her deeper into his world. Horrible synopsis but I refuse to ruin anything about this movie. It will not have the same effect it did almost 20 years ago, but it's interesting to see what real horror used to be.
  
• Action: I am not a big action movie fan, but I'd have to say the best action movie I've ever seen was Terminator 2: Judgement Day. Better than the original and enormously better than the piece of shit third one that young kids of today are forced to relate upon. Great story, great acting(even for Arnold who can't act his way out of a nutsack), this is the perfect movie for movie lovers.
  
• Historical: Gladiator by Ridley Scott is an intentionally great movie. They probably went into production knowing how good this would turn out. Russel Crowe gives a good performance but he could have been terrible and probably not have made much difference. Ridley Scott is one of the best directors in movie history, one of the very few directors around today that I will pay to see, regardless of plot and I am rarely disappointed. This is a man who brought us the original Alien, Blade Runner, Black Hawk Down(screw the cynics, this was a great movie), Kingdom of Heaven, and other great epic movies, another of which has made this list.
  
• Gangsta Movies: There seemed to be a lot of these types of movies in the mid-90's but they seemed to have settled down a bit. My choice would be 187 starring the great Samuel L. Jackson. This movie gives a fairly in-depth look on a good man pushed to do evil things. Jackson gives one of the best performances in his career which is definitely saying something. There is not one thing I would change in this movie, it is great throughout.
  
• Fantasy: Ridley Scott makes the list again with his fantasy classic Legend, starring a very young Tom Cruise. Some of the people who have actually taken the time to read this might be thinking "Hey, why not Lord of the Rings?" I'll tell you why. Legend was made over 20 years ago with almost no computer effects because at the time the technology didn't exist to the extent it does today. Lord of the Rings is about 75% CGI using the most advanced special effects ever with three books that gave such precise detail on everything that almost any good director could have done just as well with the material. The original Legend is not as good as the re-released Director's Cut which is to say the movie that Ridley Scott originally intended. This is a great movie that the whole family can watch, seeing as it's rated PG.
  
• Comedy: This was the hardest genre to choose from seeing as how there are endless amounts of great comedies that come out every year, particularly since the millenium, but after careful deliberation and a very strenuous thinking process(which is to say I got up and looked through my DVDs), I have to go with the Dude. The Big Lebowski was made by the Cohen brothers and is definitely the best movie they have ever made. Jeff Bridges and John Goodman both give the best performances of their careers. This is the kind of movie you put on when you're really bored(or stoned) that always stays fresh and funny no matter how many times you watch it. I'm sure that there are much better comedies than this one, but I'm hardpressed to find one at 1:30 in the morning.
  
• Foreign Independent: Alexandra's Project is a creepy friggin movie from Australia, I believe. It's about a woman who is fed up with the way her husband treats her as an object and gets revenge in a pretty twisted way, by locking him in the house and taking the kids, but not before filming herself f**king the neighbor and forcing him to watch. Weird, weird movie and entirely believable which is the main reason why I added this movie.
  
• Martial Arts Films: I would have expected myself to say Enter the Dragon with Bruce Lee, but alas I am thinking of another one. A fairly unknown movie entitled Mortal Combat: Crippled Avengers a.k.a. Return of the Five Deadly Venom, not to be confused with the video game movie which pales in comparison. This Mortal Combat has the typical elements to any great Martial Arts movie with a great taste of originality. The story is fairly simple, two feuding clans are at war. One clan sends assassins to kill the head of the main clan but instead they find his wife and son. They rape and murder his wife and chop his sons hands off. The son grows into a skilled martial arts fighter with special metal arms that happen to shoot darts from the fingers. He and his now insane, tyrannical father share a hatred for anyone who might stare or accidentally bump into them or just talk back, and they show that hatred by crippling anyone who crosses them. One they blind, another they make mute, then deaf. Another they cut off his legs and the last they make him retarded through the use of some special helmet with levers on the sides. These now crippled men go off to learn kung fu and come back to settle the score. Great movie, if you can find it.
  
• Animated: Seeing as how computer animated movies have taken over, probably for good, I'm gonna split this group into classic and computer.
  1. Classic: This is a very simple choice for me. A Goofy Movie is such an underated movie but so worth the time to watch it. Based on the incredible show Goof Troop from the Disney renaissance of the early 90's, this movie had me in stitches from start to finish as a kid. Great characters, great plotline, awesome songs, this is a great kids movie.
  2. Computer: This is another easy choice and it is so obviously a Pixar movie. The Incredibles was a great kids movie that I found suprisingly enjoyable for adults as well, especially the jokes that would intentionally go way over the kids heads. Great animation, though now it seems like any studio with a will and a way will make a computer animated movie, this along with all the Pixar movies remains at the top.

That's it, I'm done. haha. Kind of tired. Please feel free to disagree with me. You might notice there are no Star Wars, Spiderman, Star Trek, Indiana Jones, or Alfred Hitchcock movies listed here. I'm not a huge fan of Star Wars, I hate the Spiderman movies with a passion, Didn't care too much for Star Trek, possibly because I didn't see the original show until I was 14. I like Indiana Jones but the place it would have taken was full and Hitchcock movies were dated when I was a little kid so I never got into them, though I have seen one or two of them. If you can think of any others or would like to critique my choices, be my guest. Seeing as how I work for a movie survey place, I am fairly well versed in both classic and upcoming movies.

[NoSex]

This is so uninspired and boring. Nothing interesting, unique, or special here. Pretty much just a bunch of trash.

Gladiator, I can't believe you said Gladiator.

[bat19]

This is so uninspired and boring. Nothing interesting, unique, or special here. Pretty much just a bunch of trash.

Gladiator, I can't believe you said Gladiator.

haha, thanks for your pointless and misguided opinion. I am so sorry I didn't put cinema greats like Catwoman and Battlefield Earth, I'm sure you would have preferred that. And in my defense, I did say that there are hundreds of posts already like this, it's hard to make an original post when there's only one topic moron. And the last time I checked, Gladiator kicked the f**kin shit out that retarded black and white borefest known as Blair Witch Project, biggest waste of 5 grand ever. It was a genius move having their friends hit the side of the tent, I actually started laughing.

[NoSex]

haha, thanks for your pointless and misguided opinion. I am so sorry I didn't put cinema greats like Catwoman and Battlefield Earth, I'm sure you would have preferred that.

I don't think you know me.

And in my defense, I did say that there are hundreds of posts already like this, it's hard to make an original post when there's only one topic moron.

I love posts like this. I have no guff with the fact that you made a topic which happened to be rather common. In fact, I would encourage that in this case. You missed the point, apparently.

My gripe is with your list, specifically. Your list is boring, tired, and unoriginal. A good number of the movies you listed consistently show up on internet top 10 lists: people love them. It doesn't take any passion, actual interest, or personality to slap The Godfather on the top of your favorite movies list. Monkeys and morons do it every day. Nothing special. The Godfather probably wouldn't even make it's way into a Top 100 list of mine. Sure, it's a good movie - maybe even great (no where near as great as The Godfather 2). But, to include it as one of the best is to show how painfully ignorant you truly are of cinema, or, at the worst, how contemptibly boring and uninspired your taste in film is.

Frankly, your list sucks. It's a carbon copy of 5,000,000 other lists, and I couldn't care less for it.

And the last time I checked, Gladiator kicked the f**kin shit out that retarded black and white borefest known as Blair Witch Project, biggest waste of 5 grand ever. It was a genius move having their friends hit the side of the tent, I actually started laughing.

Gladiator kicked the shit out of nothing. Marcus Aurelius would have abandoned the philosophy of stoicism just so he could vomit in disgust at that technical disgrace and murder people in hatred of that contrived mess. I don't think I have ever rolled my eyes so much - In slow motion!

Further, The Blair Witch Project is a crowning masterpiece of modern horror cinema. For someone who seemed to despise the "gore" and "shock value" horror films of today's theaters, you sure don't have much of an enlightened attention span. Shallow much? God forbid a film requires the resurrection of imagination, and actually studies human behavior. Slow burning just a bit too slow for you? Black and white? I guess it makes sense that you would have a problem with that: Did you even have a single film before 1970 on your list? The genius is in the realization that what you don't see is far more terrifying than what you do. The genius is there - and I laughed too, in fact, I still laugh, and that's what makes the movie so fantastic. hilarious, haunting, and hopeless.

In the very least, The Blair Witch Project never insulted its audience's intelligence. It never murdered our imagination. If you're excited about Ridley Scott talking down to you, maybe you should start watching Battlefield Earth and Catwoman - they seem fitting to your taste.

[bat19]

My gripe is with your list, specifically. Your list is boring, tired, and unoriginal. A good number of the movies you listed consistently show up on internet top 10 lists: people love them. It doesn't take any passion, actual interest, or personality to slap The Godfather on the top of your favorite movies list. Monkeys and morons do it every day. Nothing special. The Godfather probably wouldn't even make it's way into a Top 100 list of mine. Sure, it's a good movie - maybe even great (no where near as great as The Godfather 2). But, to include it as one of the best is to show how painfully ignorant you truly are of cinema, or, at the worst, how contemptibly boring and uninspired your taste in film is.

Haha. Very entertaining and intelligible, but still misguided. Hmm, I wonder had I worded the title of the topic differently if you still would have disagree so feverishly. I should have posted it as The Most Entertaining Movies Ever Made: In My Opinion at Least. That might clear up a few things for you. Now, onto my rebuttal:

I never said that The Godfather was my favorite movie of all time, just the best in the genre of Mafia movies. The fact that it was at the top of the list has no relevance whatsoever to how much I enjoy the movie, just that I was listing off movies as they came to me. If anything, I'd say The Fountain is my favorite movie right now, and it does change frequently as the years progress. To disagree that The Godfather is a great movie simply because everyone else thinks so is pure ignorance. There is a reason why so many people like this movie(and most of the other movies I've listed that you so eloquently described "Monkeys and morons" choose on a daily basis), and seeing how at the time it was a low-budget movie I am quite suprised at your contempt when lined up against your choice of favorites. The fact that you chose The Blair Witch project as your favorite movie(I'm guessing from your sig) is quite laughable. True, it was highly successful to the elitist crowd and sort of thought-provoking the first time you watch it. After a second viewing you realize it's just three dumb people in the woods with their parent's video camera. Since when did theatres begin showing excerpts from America's Funniest Home Videos? "I'm so scared right now..." Yeah, so was the studio.
I will agree that The Godfather 2 is a great sequel(infinantly better than that godawful Book of Shadows crap the studios tried to cash in on, that was just horrendous), possibly the best sequel to any movie, but pales slightly in comparison to the original. Francis Ford Coppola took a great book and made an even better movie which rarely happens. Mario Puzo never wanted Fredo killed, in a real sicilian family that would almost never happen.
The fact that I have to explain my goddamn Gladiator choice yet again makes it painfully obvious that you failed to actually read what I put, merely glanced at the names and immediately disagreed. In my opinion Ridley Scott's Gladiator is one of the most entertaining historical movies. I say historical(and pay attention now) not because it was historically accurate, but because it was set in historical times. I couldn't give a damn if Derek Jacobi took up a sword and started hacking people up at the end, if it was entertaining I'd enjoy it. Screw historical significance, who gives a shit. And for your information, if you cared to do your research, there are records that indicate there once was a Gladiator who killed a Caesar(possibly a Caesar, they are not specific on that, it may have been a Senator). Obviously not for the reasons given in the movie, you'd have to be an idiot to believe a single word of that. But it's entertaining nonetheless. As for not putting anything before 1970 on my list, no shit. Those movies are boring as hell. Sure they were awe-inspiring 60 years ago, but now they are out-dated.

P.S. I guess I should apologize that I don't spend all my time in front of the tv-screen watching every movie ever made, but I do have a life outside of movies. I rarely even go on CB, I have 216 posts and Ive been here since January.

[NoSex]

Haha. Very entertaining and intelligible, but still misguided. Hmm, I wonder had I worded the title of the topic differently if you still would have disagree so feverishly. I should have posted it as The Most Entertaining Movies Ever Made: In My Opinion at Least. That might clear up a few things for you. Now, onto my rebuttal:

Yeah, I'm misguided because you're a master of misnomers.
Oh, and, no. Changing the title wouldn't have helped so much. Certainly your post would have been less offensive given the omission of that "best movie ever made" business, but it's still rather sorry to call Gladiator enjoyable, nonetheless one of the most enjoyable films ever made. I hate your list either way.

To disagree that The Godfather is a great movie simply because everyone else thinks so is pure ignorance. There is a reason why so many people like this movie(and most of the other movies I've listed that you so eloquently described "Monkeys and morons" choose on a daily basis)

I don't wholly disagree that The Godfather might indeed be a great movie. I openly confessed such a position. But, great or not, this is not to say that I would not disagree in its inclusion in a "Greatest Movies Ever Made" list. Because, I would disagree with such an inclusion - there are much greater films. The reason that I feel you put the film in your list in the first place is because of its immense popularity. I was not arguing that its popularity causes it some sort of defect, not in the least. I was merely pointing out that its position as "The Greatest Movie Ever Made" (or at least one of them) is shortsighted and ignorant - a position only so repeated due to its popularity and the persistent ignorance of those "monkeys and morons."

, and seeing how at the time it was a low-budget movie I am quite suprised at your contempt when lined up against your choice of favorites.

What an arbitrary point. I contrasted your taste in smart horror and now, somehow (since I like the Blair Witch Project?) you're going to somehow assume I prefer (for some inane reason) that my movies be made on a minimalist budget? I like movies because of content - a budget is merely a budget. Further, your premise does not even stand up; The Godfather wasn't a low-budget production. "Low-budget" for an enormous studio like Paramount Pictures, maybe. But, The Godfather had a production budget that was well enough above the average 1970's film; definitely not low budget.

The fact that you chose The Blair Witch project as your favorite movie(I'm guessing from your sig) is quite laughable. True, it was highly successful to the elitist crowd and sort of thought-provoking the first time you watch it. After a second viewing you realize it's just three dumb people in the woods with their parent's video camera. Since when did theatres begin showing excerpts from America's Funniest Home Videos? "I'm so scared right now..." Yeah, so was the studio.

(1) I chose no film whatsoever, let alone as my favorite. [But, your skills of extrapolation are impeccable. I promise.]
(2) Thought-provoking? Maybe. Successful to elitist crowds? Eh? The movie was an immense box office success for a good number of reasons [one of which happened to be its near zero-budget], but the film does not happen to have any particular critical success - neither in the cases of "elitist crowds" or the general public.
(3) You're suppose to realize that after the second viewing? Given the dozens and dozens of times I've seen The Blair Witch Project - something must be wrong with me?
(4) America's Funniest Home Videos? Since it was infinitely entertaining [I thought that's what this was about?] and enlightening.
(5) The studio was scared? What studio? The hell are you talking about?

The fact that I have to explain my goddamn Gladiator choice yet again makes it painfully obvious that you failed to actually read what I put, merely glanced at the names and immediately disagreed. In my opinion Ridley Scott's Gladiator is one of the most entertaining historical movies. I say historical(and pay attention now) not because it was historically accurate, but because it was set in historical times. I couldn't give a damn if Derek Jacobi took up a sword and started hacking people up at the end, if it was entertaining I'd enjoy it. Screw historical significance, who gives a shit. And for your information, if you cared to do your research, there are records that indicate there once was a Gladiator who killed a Caesar(possibly a Caesar, they are not specific on that, it may have been a Senator). Obviously not for the reasons given in the movie, you'd have to be an idiot to believe a single word of that.

You really don't understand. The historical significance argument is generally quite arbitrary. And, since you haven't noticed, I'll spell it out for you: I'm not making that argument. I don't care if Gladiator is historically accurate or not (obviously it's not, but how cares?). What I care about is the actual on-screen drama and the content of the film - the artistry. I dislike the film because it has an uninteresting story, with flat characters, and ridiculous plot lines. Technically, the film looks like vomit: it's so full of slow motion and hyper cuts that I'm not sure that the movie isn't a giant commercial or possibly an MTV styled music video. It's just a terrible movie. Has nothing to do with historical accuracy - so there really is no need for research in this matter.

As for not putting anything before 1970 on my list, no shit. Those movies are boring as hell. Sure they were awe-inspiring 60 years ago, but now they are out-dated.

You're an idiot. Storytelling is timeless. The living vibrant cinematography of today was establish in America in the early 1940's. Literature breathes centuries and centuries past. Paintings still haunt and affect peoples generations and generations apart. Film is a medium of art which has evolved, just as any art, but those earlier pieces of art are in no way dispensable - many are greater than a grand majority of today's world cinema. Granted the evolution of film has been rather unique, but you are doing a great disservice to yourself in ignoring film that is merely 30 or 40 years old.

[bat19]

Yeah, I'm misguided because ...

You're missing the main point of this entire thread. What you've failed to see was my subtitle, my safety net if you will. These are the movies I've listed as best movies ever(most entertaining, whatever), but my failsafe was when I wrote "In My Opinion at Least." Granted you clearly disagree with my opinion, which is fine, I love debating but also tire of it quickly when it obviously goes nowhere. This may sound like a cop-out(I don't like it any more than you do), but I completely disagree with practically everything you've said and vice-versa, so we've kind of reached a stale-mate. For the record, I never chose The Godfather because it was popular. I was 8 when I first saw this and barely knew what a classic movie was. I didn't even like it the first time I saw it, I thought it was boring, but tastes change and people change(I used to like COLD and Trust Company, what the f**k was I thinking?). Then I read the book and watched it again and grew to love it. The reason I like this movie so much and honestly believe it to be the best in the genre has absolutely nothing to do with public opinion. I am a fan of well-written, well-delivered dialogue(which is my main complaint with Kevin Smith movies, especially Clerks. Decent dialogue, poor delivery). Marlon Brando, I know almost none of his movies. I watched street car named desire and like I said, I found it boring and outdated. Same with Bogart, same with Heston, same with Hitchcock, I don't find them entertaining. Granted I do also appreciate the artistry in a movie, but it at least has to hold some interest which those movies did not. The Godfather did keep my interest for the same reason Reservoir Dogs, which is almost entirely dialogue, did. Great dialogue, great delivery. I have seen a good number of Al Pacino movies, though certainly not all of them and I honestly feel The Godfather was his best movie. Scarface I didn't much care for and really don't see what is so great about it. It is among the most overrated movies ever(again, In my Opinion), and shares that list with the Blair Witch Project, which though I'm sure you see as a crowning achievement in horror cinema, I found dull and pointless, and I'm definitely not the only one. But my main handicap has to be the fact that though I have seen my fair share of films, I dont make it a point to do so. That is to say, I don't put forth an effort to find movies that are classic and old and worthy of your goddamn stamp of approval because to be honest I really dont care. If it's good, I'll watch it, but Im not gonna watch something that does not entertain me just because everyone else says it's a classic and I should like it. If anyone is following public opinion, it's you my friend, though our publics seem to be very seperate. So how does my genuine opinion have anything at all to do with public opinion? Screw public opinion when they say movies like Spiderman and King Kong are groundbreaking achievements. f**k those movies, they were both horrible. One movie with horrible dialogue, horrible acting(even the good actors, what the f**k Dafoe?), cartoon effects, absolutley no f**king depth whatsoever(though of course it is for kids as well, so I'll let that slide), and the other a 3 1/2 hour long chase scene that grew tiresome 5 minutes into it. I guess one of the point's I'm making is that though I'm sure you don't believe so, I don't follow anyone's opinion but my own. The other point I'm trying to make is that I'm a fan of dialogue and delivery more than special effects.
Towards my Gladiator argument, I'll refer to what I said towards the top, we're all entitled to our opinion. Mine says that even though it had flaws, even though it was not historically accurate, it was still one of the most entertaining movies I've ever seen. And I'm definitely not alone in that way of thinking, other people in this same post have agreed with me. So Godfather and Gladiator aside, what other movies would you object to? Don't you dare f**kin say Escape from LA, I already explained that it was bad which was what made it so damn good.
P.S. Im not ignoring old movies because they're old, I've seen plenty of old ass movies from the early black and white, hitchcock, citizen kane era. My argument is that I find them very, very boring. Artistic? Sure. But soooo f**king boring.