Another top 10 movie question.

[DMT]

I thought I was the only person in the world who thought this was a better movie than Saving Private Ryan.

I watched it when it first came out and thought it was long and boring, but then I re-watched it again a couple years ago and thought it was so great that I immediately watched it again. I can count the instances of watching a 3 hour movie back-to-back with 1 finger.

I actually thought Saving Private Ryan was great too, but not as great as TRL.

[DMT]

Casablanca is my clear #1. The rest could almost more or less be in any order. Casablanca is thought of as being a romantic, boy-girl movie and it is but actually it's more about being noble and self-sacrifice for a greater good. And at the time it was made WW II was very much in doubt and of course we ended up winning. That's the reason it's #1 above other great movies. And of course, Ingrid and Bogey were great together. The tune "As Time Goes By" running thru the whole thing also was a nice touch.

Casablanca is the one classic movie that could have made my list.

[rhd]

I do enjoy classic movies, particularly Hitchcock movies, but I have to say that they just pale in comparison to modern movies. The acting in classics is generally embarrassingly bad and the characters portrayed are often unrealistic and just plain silly. Sure, there are plenty of "On the Waterfront" efforts but there are loads of subpar acting jobs that don't appear to ever have been taken to task. The over-the-top theatrical style employed all the way up to the 1970s is just painful to watch, imo. The silly women's upper class accents, the "Mid-Atlantic English" ones, (and the woman is inevitably either a conniver or a victim) are grating. Supposedly Bette Davis (a frequent transgressor) stated that she actually wanted people to know she was acting. Well, mission accomplished. Although I think the masterpieces get buried in the tripe, just like they did in the classic days of cinema, the quality of the upper echelon of movies far surpasses the quality pre, say, 1960 or so. I prefer realism over theatrics, though, so perhaps it's just me.

I dont think the acting in modern movies is any better. The things I dont like about modern movies are excessive overuse of special effects and their blatant attempts at manipulating your emotions. I really resent someone trying to manipulate my emotions. Present a good, entertaining story w a message and you'll impress me much more. They try to dazzle you w special effects which usually dont impress me and add little if anything to the movie. And excessive graphic violence and sexual content dont make a movie better or even more "real". Older movies accomplish much more thru subtlety and represent more skillful movie-making.

That said, there probably are quite a few modern movies that I would like that I just havent seen.

BTW, anyone have any suggestions for "modern" movies that I might like? Some that I like:
- Slumdog Millionaire
- Miller's Crossing
- Shawshank Redemption
- Unforgiven
- A Beautiful Mind
- Into the West
- Schindler's List

[johnnya24]

I would tend to consider newest to be from 2000 onwards. There were a lot of classic movies made in the 90's. These spring to mind as being exceptional ... each for different reasons:

There Will Be Blood - for me the best movie of the last 15 years.

Gravity - as far as cinematic experiences go, Gravity blew me away like no other movie. I had to back and see it again and again.

The Tree of Life - been meaning to watch this again ... I know I missed a lot of stuff the first time around. This movie just chimed with me.

Blue Is The Warmest Colour - probably the best coming of age movie I've ever seen ... as well as being one of the most intense relationship movies.

[revo]

Some movies from the last 10 yrs that might crack my top 20:
- Dallas Buyers Club
- Argo
- Inglorious Basterds
- District 9
- Milk
- Changeling
- There Will Be Blood
- No Country for Old Men
- Into the Wild
- Letters from Iwo Jima
- The Prestige
- The Illusionist
- The Island
- Lucky Number Slevin

[heyelander]

the most recent into my top 10 would Life of Pi

[overkill94]

I wonder how much of one's top 10 comes within a certain time period? My sweet spot is the early 2000's when I was in college and started watching more mature movies (in high school it was mostly dumb comedies and cheesy action flicks). Here's an off-the-cuff top 10 (the order's not concrete):

Almost Famous
Adaptation
The Big Lebowski
Casablanca
Pulp Fiction
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Goodfellas
High Fidelity
Star Wars
Dazed and Confused

There have been some movies that I've loved in the last 10 years or so (Anchorman, Little Children, 40-Year-Old Virgin, 500 Days of Summer, Up in the Air, The Social Network, Little Miss Sunshine, Sideways), but none that have resonated enough to crack the top 10.

[GwynnInTheHall]

Hardest Question for me to answer as I love watching movies of all genres.

Rolling through the Oscar Nominees right now, but my favorite of this year was............

Guardians of the Galaxy. Fun, clever and the BEST soundtrack ever!!


ok maybe not ever, but it is fun!

[Papa Deuce]

Hardest Question for me to answer as I love watching movies of all genres.

Rolling through the Oscar Nominees right now, but my favorite of this year was............

Guardians of the Galaxy. Fun, clever and the BEST soundtrack ever!!


ok maybe not ever, but it is fun!

I tried to watch this movie on a Redbox DVD...... the audio was horrific. Loud, quiet, can't hear it, blasting loud..... After 15 minutes I took it back to Redbox.

[Gregg]

I do enjoy classic movies, particularly Hitchcock movies, but I have to say that they just pale in comparison to modern movies. The acting in classics is generally embarrassingly bad and the characters portrayed are often unrealistic and just plain silly. Sure, there are plenty of "On the Waterfront" efforts but there are loads of subpar acting jobs that don't appear to ever have been taken to task. The over-the-top theatrical style employed all the way up to the 1970s is just painful to watch, imo. The silly women's upper class accents, the "Mid-Atlantic English" ones, (and the woman is inevitably either a conniver or a victim) are grating. Supposedly Bette Davis (a frequent transgressor) stated that she actually wanted people to know she was acting. Well, mission accomplished. Although I think the masterpieces get buried in the tripe, just like they did in the classic days of cinema, the quality of the upper echelon of movies far surpasses the quality pre, say, 1960 or so. I prefer realism over theatrics, though, so perhaps it's just me.

I bet you would enjoy the 1957 12 Angry Men.

[bryanbutler]

agree with a few already mentioned (There Will Be Blood, No Country..., Requiem for a Dream, Shawshank, Lebowski), but one i haven't seen mentioned that i will always watch if i see it on is Se7en. another is The Usual Suspects. there are others, but those two come to mind immediately.

[Pogues]

I'd have to spend some time figuring out what my top 10 is before I could figure out which movie was the newest.

[Gregg]

agree with a few already mentioned (There Will Be Blood, No Country..., Requiem for a Dream, Shawshank, Lebowski), but one i haven't seen mentioned that i will always watch if i see it on is Se7en. another is The Usual Suspects. there are others, but those two come to mind immediately.

I am big fan of Se7en. The fact that I forget about it means that it cannot be in my top 10. I will say that it is time for me to watch it again. Maybe this weekend.

[Gregg]

I'd have to spend some time figuring out what my top 10 is before I could figure out which movie was the newest.

Yep this is a tough one. Top 50 easy, top 20 much harder, top 10 really really hard. A bunch of the movies listed would make my top 50. Some of them my top twenty.

But you know me, I ask the tough questions!

[Riff Raff]

In no particular order ...

Usual Suspects
Pulp Fiction
A Beautiful Mind
Braveheart
Dazed and Confused
Fight Club
Stand By Me
Shawshank Redemption
Platoon (my fav war flick though there are a few others close)
Office Space (the one movie Jennifer Anniston didn't suck in)

Quite a few others are close but this is my go to.