FAVORITE 100 Movies

Submitted by friedgoatee on Fri, 09/11/2009 - 18:39
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  1. Gone with the Wind (1939)
  2. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
  3. Network (1976)
  4. There Will Be Blood (2007)
  5. El laberinto del fauno (2006)
  6. Dodsworth (1936)
  7. Magnolia (1999)
  8. Dancer in the Dark (2000)
  9. Children of Men (2006)
  10. Now, Voyager (1942)
  11. Stand by Me (1986)
  12. North by Northwest (1959)
  13. Harold and Maude (1971)
  14. Todo sobre mi madre (1999)
  15. Rear Window (1954)
  16. The Pianist (2002)
  17. The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
  18. The Exorcist (1973)
  19. Sleeping Beauty (1959)
  20. The Lord of the Rings (franchise)
  21. Young Frankenstein (1974)
  22. The Philadelphia Story (1940)
  23. La mala educación (2004)
  24. In America (2002)
  25. Finding Neverland (2004)
  26. Blazing Saddles (1974)
  27. Star Wars (franchise)
  28. The Station Agent (2003)
  29. Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
  30. Double Indemnity (1944)
  31. Amadeus (1984)
  32. Finding Nemo (2003)
  33. WALL•E (2008)
  34. The Sword in the Stone (1963)
  35. Volver (2006)
  36. The Heiress (1949)
  37. The Sound of Music (1965)
  38. Gone Baby Gone (2007)
  39. Hable con ella (2002)
  40. Elizabeth (1998)
  41. Dogville (2003)
  42. The World According to Garp (1982)
  43. American History X (1998)
  44. Schindler's List (1993)
  45. The Descent (2005)
  46. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
  47. Gaslight (1944)
  48. Shaun of the Dead (2004)
  49. Jurassic Park (1993)
  50. The Sixth Sense (1999)
  51. Wet Hot American Summer (2001)
  52. Enchanted (2007)
  53. The Lion King (1994)
  54. Wedding Crashers (2005)
  55. Cidade de Deus (2002)
  56. 28 Days Later... (2002)
  57. Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
  58. The Apartment (1960)
  59. The Graduate (1967)
  60. Frida (2002)
  61. Clueless (1995)
  62. Lars and the Real Girl (2007)
  63. Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999)
  64. El orfanato (2007)
  65. Goodfellas (1990)
  66. Atonement (2007)
  67. Dark Victory (1939)
  68. The Poseidon Adventure (1972)
  69. 13 Going on 30 (2004)
  70. Blood Diamond (2006)
  71. Midnight Cowboy (1969)
  72. Kill Bill (franchise)
  73. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)
  74. Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
  75. Titanic (1997)
  76. Peter Pan (1953)
  77. Juno (2007)
  78. Cold Mountain (2003)
  79. Charade (1963)
  80. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)
  81. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
  82. Junebug (2005)
  83. Harry Potter (franchise)
  84. Le fate ignoranti (2001)
  85. Her husband dies, she mourns, she finds out he's been having an affair...with a guy. This Italian film is known as "His Secret Life" which is a little more obvious and much less interesting. This may sound overly dramatic, but the film veers to the feel-good genre and does so successfully. Odd characters abound as the wife Antonia reels from her husband's death and infidelities which she eventually shares with her husband's lover Michele.
  86. Yours, Mine and Ours (1968)
  87. Remember vitameatavegamin? Lucille Ball plays the best drunk in the world and again lives up to it in the original (much less painful than the remake) Yours, Mine and Ours. Henry Fonda and Ball offer up one of the best family comedies of all time with this not-always-witty but always-charming film about two widowed parents with too many children falling in love and getting married. Not only was it a huge hit at the box office, but critics adored the film as complete and utter entertainment, though obviously not an award contender. The public's love for Lucille Ball was fueled and re-fueled by her performance as a worried, loud-mouthed mother of eight. This movie always tends to show up around the holiday season and gives me that certain warmth that only a yule log and hot eggnog can provide.
  88. The Shining (1980)
  89. Jack Nicholson's shining moment is as Jack Torrance, the blocked writer turned off-season hotel caretaker. Stanley Kubrick's more-than-successful attempt to bring the Stephen King novel of the same title to the screen results in one of the most eerie films of all time. Nicholson's facial structure is probably the most effective as a villain (that strained forehead, that face-wide grin and the thin hair outlined by a retreating hairline) and Nicholson doesn't waste his natural talent here. His slow descent into possessed madness is of the perfect pace while his acting agility is at it's best as Jack Torrance fights boredom and insanity while smoothly giving in to the sly, mysterious villain. Kubrick shows off that he's a Renaissance man here, tackling the horror genre with subtle panache. The sweeping exterior shots and grand symmetry in an even grander hotel are spooky and awesome at the same time. Amazing movie, even if Shelley Duvall thinks crying is acting.
  90. What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
  91. Joan Crawford actually starred in this film with Bette Davis. Both actresses were aging and their careers fading and in this case turned to a cult-thriller that shortly revived their careers. However, topsy-turvey was the theme of filming as Crawford and Davis were rumored (neither of which denied) to have a most spiteful relationship, some even go so far to say that they hated each other. Davis made jabs at Crawford for marrying the Chairman of Pepsi-Cola, seizing part of the company's shares and taking control of the conglom only to be kicked out by executives. Luckily, the actresses played two sisters that hated each other, and, in this case, art imitates life as the tension between them is out of this world, transcending the screen unlike most attempts at great acting chemistry. Crawford in a wheel chair + a delusional, barbed Davis who strains to reclaim her childhood stardom by appealing to their deceased parents = a dead rat for dinner (you interested yet?). Bon appetit!
  92. Mommie Dearest (1981)
  93. No wire hangers! Joan Crawford may have fervently avoided wire hangers, according to her adopted daughter, but if clothes were to rely on her she would fall of even a wire hanger made of tin foil. Mentally, emotionally, and physically abusive, Crawford, a classic, venerated actress of Hollywood's Golden Age, supposedly adopted her two children to cast a bright light of kindness and generosity upon her. Her daughter, who by the end of Crawford's life was completely estranged, wrote a memoir of the same title, chronicling her tumultuous relationship with her mother, who was deemed slightly unstable (an understatement, I'm sure). However, some critics and close friends of Crawford claimed her daughter's memoir to be bogus and spite-driven. Regardless, it made for a great cult film starring Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford. Poorly received by critics, but greatly remember, Mommie Dearest is one damn entertaining guilty pleasure.
  94. Saved! (2004)
  95. Saved! makes me feel safer from religious zealots than receiving redemption from God. This surprisingly feel-good dark comedy left me bobbing out of the theatre with "God Only Knows" stuck in my head and a toothy smile smeared across my face. Pointing out all the wrong parts of Christianity only to come to a Christianity-can/should-be-good ending. Love is the message of the film and your heart can only be filled with it after watching Saved!.
  96. The Land Before Time (1988)
  97. As a child nothing was sadder when Little Foots mother died. I can still picture the gash on her back, the vague outline of chunk of flesh ripped out by the assumed-dead T-Rex or...Sharptooth. Little Foot, Sara, Petrie, Ducky (Yep yep yep!) and Spike did truly represent what family is. I learned, along with many other children (even to this day), that family is not purely biological, but more inexplicable and cannot be confined to one definition. This emotional flick spurred my love of dinosaurs that extends to the present and sparked the great idea of a Land Before Time Themed 5th birthday party (which might have stemmed from that Pizza Hut birthday commercial that played before the actual movie on the VHS.
  98. Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
  99. Noir meets comedy in the form of live action engaging animation in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. As a child, I was fascinated with the interactions between Roger Rabbit and Bob Hoskins's "toon-hating" detective Eddie Valiant. A big wet kiss on Eddie Valiant's cheek from Roger Rabbit was startlingly real as a child and inspiring. For, you see, I wanted to be able to experience those cartoons in real life, just as Hoskins had. Alas, Robert Zemeckis's movie magic was simply that: movie magic; but one that earned Oscars and set new standards for animation and creativity.
  100. Wait Until Dark (1967)
  101. Audrey Hepburn takes on the role of Susy Hendrix, a recently blinded single woman living in an apartment by herself in this film adapted from the hit stage play of the same title. Unfortunately for Susy, three thugs believe she has a heroin-stuffed doll in her apartment and their efforts to recover the doll are terrifying and suspenseful. With Hitchcockian tension and release, Wait Until Dark is immediately entertaining and deniably
  102. Good Will Hunting (1997)
  103. I would kill for a man with a Boston accent. For now, I'll settle with this Matt Damon/Ben Afleck helmed movie about a genius janitor who sees his talents as a weakness. Minnie Driver and Robin Williams round out the cast with loveable performances. But let's be honest, it's Matt Damon's Irish bad ass Will that we yearn for. This is a timeless movie that I'd only watched a couple of years ago (how did I miss out for that long? no one knows) and immediately fell in love with. The Damon/Afleck team actually gave us a more than decent script that turned into a wonderfully emotive film. Props!
  104. The African Queen (1951)
  105. It's not Bogey and Bacall in a 1940's mystery/romance noir, this time it's an older, gruffer Bogart (to whom I am related) and a pre-shaky head Katharine Hepburn (to whom I am also related) who head this prissy woman-meets-blue collar sea captain comedy based on the novel of the same title. Hepburn was nominated for an Oscar and Bogart won an Oscar for his performance. Old fashioned banter abound in what I consider to be one of the great comedies of Hollywood's heydays.
  106. American Beauty (1999)
  107. Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening take their acting chops to new heights as the ultimate disfunctional suburban family. However, it's Chris Cooper's marine colonel Fitts is beautiful and harrowing and a show-stealer. All of the characters' inner torments are expressed beautifully by the actors and director Sam Mendes takes visual story-telling to unforgettable heights (no one has looked at rose pedals in the same way since). A beautiful story and a beautiful movie make this an irresistable movie on so many levels.
  108. Auntie Mame (1958)
  109. Rosalind Russell kicks major acting ass in the story about an orphan moving in with his eccentric aunt Mame. The film goes through changes in periods of the characters' lives, beautifully and hilariously reflected in Mame's style and the decor of her high-rise apartment. Light comedy and dark comedy both play their rightful parts in what I consider to be an amazing adaptation of a broadway hit, which was headlined by Rosalind Russell herself. Flamboyant is the best word to describe this film and my love for it.
  110. Aladdin (1992)
  111. One night I was able to recreate Abu's voice in perfect unison with Aladdin's feisty side-kick--I've never been able to recreate that moment. No worries, however, I had witnesses. Let's face it, Aladdin and Jasmine are the hottest couple to grace Disney's legacy, Robin Williams's animation peak was as the genie and the movie itself made for an awesome seventh birthday party theme (I personally thank Chuckee Cheese). Though all characters could have had darker skin, Aladdin practically reaks of good, old-fashioned Disney fun, and that's how it made my prestigious list.
  112. Au revoir les enfants (1987)
  113. No, it's not just "yet another WWII film," Au revoir les enfants ("Goodbye, Children") is a finely crafted ode to the friendships of childhood; friendships built on the innocence and naivete that children so appropriately embody. In Louis Malle's emotionally charged film, a young Jewish boy is taken in by a French boarding school to hide him from the Nazi's. The boy, Jean, makes petty enemies with snotty Julien. Soon the boys put aside their differences and become good friends, showing that children are blind to the atrocities of inequality in tumultuous times. As you might expect, there is a tragic ending, but it's not one without compassion, both between the characters and for the audience.
  114. Scream (1996)
  115. The return of the slasher movie turned to, oddly enough, van Gogh for inspiration for the now-indelible Scream mask. And Neve Campbell was to die for as Sidney Prescott, the best snivelling, tear-drenched victim/hero since Jamie Lee Curtis ruled Halloween. If we weren't graced with Jamie Kennedy's ironic rules of horror movies, Courtney Cox as a journo-bitch and Rose McGowan dying in a garage door doggy-door, we'd be stuck with...oh, I don't know...I Know What You Did Last Summer. Best of the slasher film revival and unabashedly fun, Scream really is a scream.
  116. Love Story (1970)
  117. The title says it all, right? Not entirely. Yes, we do have the typical story of Harvard-legacy Oliver pining after a sardonic, less-than-Harvard Jennifer who initially rejects Oliver, only to marry him; however, the audience is treated to witty dialogue delivered by two great actors--something that I'm proned to appreciate. "Love means never having to say you're sorry" may sound ridiculously contrived (as if a thirteen-year-old girl dawning braces has just forgiven Tiger Beat-cover-story Leif Garrett for not knowing who she is), but sheer emotion captures you and falling into their sappy grasp is unavoidable and irresistable. Love Story means never having to feel guilty for crying at a movie named Love Story.