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I originally intended this as a thread about Jurassic Park, which was to begin thusly:

I love this movie. I watched it a few weeks back on HBO, DVR'd it, and I'm now watching it again for about the third time since then. My brother and I watched it together one of those times, and we remarked that it's one of only about three movies that we can still distinctly recall seeing in the theater. I'm repeatedly amazed at how well the 1993 special effects have aged. They don't look chintzy at all to me. Jurassic Park is unquestionably in my top 10 films, probably even top 5.

Then I realized that the discussion of Jurassic Park would probably be of limited relevance (and longevity). On the other hand, I know a bunch of us are big movie people, so I figured a survey on our favorites could be fun. I chose Top 10 because for me, it's pretty hard to delimit my choices any further. Mine are as follows, in alphabetical order (don't ask me to rank them):

1. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
2. Elf
3. The Empire Strikes Back
4. The Goonies
5. Home Alone
6. Jurassic Park
7. Kill Bill (Tarantino himself considers the two volumes to be one complete film, so I can too. If we're picking, though, put me down for Kill Bill 2, because the "Cruel Tutelage of Pai Mei" chapter is among my favorite few minutes in all of film.)
8. The Last Waltz
9. The Muppet Movie
10. The Princess Bride
11. The Shawshank Redemption

I realize this list has eleven entries, but if the Big Ten can have eleven schools, then my Top Ten Films list can have eleven films.

In no order:

1. Wayne's World
2. Almost Famous
3. High Fidelity
4. Bull Durham
5. The Sting
6. UHF
7. Best in Show
8. L.A. Confidential
9. Return of the King
10. My Blue Heaven

To Kill a Mockingbird
Goldfinger
Life is Beautiful
Lawrence of Arabia
Westside Story
Casablanca
Shawshank Redemption
The Sting
A Night at the Opera
Rocky

And my 11th is...
A Hard Day's Night

Lavabe wrote:To Kill a Mockingbird
Goldfinger
Life is Beautiful
Lawrence of Arabia
Westside Story
Casablanca
Shawshank Redemption
The Sting
A Night at the Opera
Rocky

And my 11th is...
A Hard Day's Night

...and my first is A Hard Day's Night
You Can't Take it with You
Holy Grrrrrrail
Wizard of Oz
A Day at the Races
Blazing Saddles
Harvey
Return of the Pink Panther
the last two are damn tough...

Patton
The Great Escape

No. 11-The Bishop's Wife
12-tie-Jabberwocky/Monkey Business (Cary Grant/Ginger Rogers mb) BTW Ms Rogers was the most beautiful woman in films
Gracie Allen was the most beautiful woman in Hollywood

Oh Oh Oh....Horsefeathers comes in next. Professor Wagstaff has always been my hero. Imagine his surprise.

How could anyone forget Pootytang?
Planet 9 from Outer Space?
So many others

Patton
The Seven Samurai
Schindler's List
Casablanca
The Godfather
Cidade de Deus(City of God)
Apocalypse Now
North by Northwest
American Beauty

Not sure what to put for the 10th...

Say Anything? Princess Bride?

MASH
Casablanca
Harold and Maude
Blade Runner
Apocalypse Now
The Last Waltz
City Lights
Cabaret
In the Heat of the Night
Pulp Fiction

Alien, Repo Man, Miller's Crossing, Badlands and Godfathers I and II could easily be in there somewhere, depending on mood.

I have trouble with lists like these, but here's a go in random order

The Princess Bride
LA Confidential
Michael Clayton
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Singin' in the Rain
Casablanca
The Bourne Identity (including my all time favorite screen kiss)
His Girl Friday
This is Spinal Tap
Rear Window

In no order...

Empire Strikes Back
Bladerunner
Full Metal Jacket
King Kong (the original)
Any of the following Pixar movies (Toy Story, Wall*E, Finding Nemo)
Goodfellas
The Matrix
Apocalypse Now
The Dark Knight
Rear Window

I'm gonna cheat terribly and put series together, cause I just love too many movies. And I'm going top 20 cause I just can't cut it down. In no particular order:

1. The original Star Wars trilogy
2. Indiana Jones series (except the last one though I'm such an Indy homer I even enjoyed that one)
3. Tron
4. Princess Bride
5. Lethal Weapon series
6. Die Hard series (except maybe the third one)
7. Beverly Hills Cop series
8. Harry Potter series
9. Fellowship of the Ring trilogy
10. Bourne trilogy
11. The Ref
12. Heat (I still get chills when I see that scene with Pacino and DeNiro in the diner)
13. Reservoir Dogs/Pulp Fiction/Usual Suspects (I love all three of these movies, and think they should have been made a trilogy)
14. Stargate
15. Blade Runner
16. The Rock
17. Highlander
18. Face/Off
19. Terminator series (liked the first two best)
20. Matrix series (especially the first one)

Not necessarily one of my top 20, but I like Maverick with Mel Gibson a lot. The movie always cracks me up, and it's about poker. Rounders was good too for card movies. I even left off Braveheart and Gladiator, and I loved both of those movies. I liked the first Pirates of the Caribbean a lot too. I just have too many that I like. Crap.

bjornolf wrote:I'm gonna cheat terribly and put series together, cause I just love too many movies. And I'm going top 20 cause I just can't cut it down. In no particular order:
14. Stargate

I was very tempted to include that one, as well as The Fifth Element. Both are favorites of mine.

CameronBornAndBred wrote:

bjornolf wrote:I'm gonna cheat terribly and put series together, cause I just love too many movies. And I'm going top 20 cause I just can't cut it down. In no particular order:
14. Stargate

I was very tempted to include that one, as well as The Fifth Element. Both are favorites of mine.

Oh, crap, the Fifth Element. I LOVED that movie. I remember somebody over on kumquat complaining about that (I think it was Jason). He was saying how cheesy he thought it was that LOVE was the fifth element. He totally misunderstood the ending. It wasn't LOVE that was the fifth element. SHE was the fifth element. It was LOVE that convinced her that life was worth saving after she saw all the horrible stuff in humanity.

I'm following the cheating trend and grouping series together

Lord of the Rings trilogy
Star Wars trilogy (the original 3)
Indiana Jones - the first one
Bourne trilogy
Blazing Saddles (still funny after all these years)
The Dark Night
Casablanca
Highlander (the first one)
Matrix series
The Godfather series (1 and 3 were the best)

Honorable mention:
Princess Bride
Blade Runner
Bridge on the River Kwai
The Graduate
Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid
Silence of the Lambs
Schindlers List

I left out a bunch I really like......so hard to trim the list.

That's funny, Windsor, I was never a big fan of The Dark Night, or La Noche Oscura. One of my spanish teachers made me watch it once. It was pretty bad.

windsor wrote: The Godfather series (1 and 3 were the best)

I'm sorry, did you MEAN to put 1 & 3???

Sue71 wrote:

windsor wrote: The Godfather series (1 and 3 were the best)

I'm sorry, did you MEAN to put 1 & 3???

Eegads - no I didn't. Damn I hate when people at work interupt my postings and distract me!

windsor wrote:

Sue71 wrote:

windsor wrote: The Godfather series (1 and 3 were the best)

I'm sorry, did you MEAN to put 1 & 3???

Eegads - no I didn't. Damn I hate when people at work interupt my postings and distract me!

Phew. I thought I was going to have to have Wilson make you walk the plank.

Sue71 wrote:
Phew. I thought I was going to have to have Wilson make you walk the plank.

Hah, glad to know I serve as sufficient threat to keep people in line around here.
I gotta say though, while I agree that Godfather 3 is the worst of the series, I think it's pretty underrated. I like the ways in which it ties up the series' narrative arcs. It occupies a similar place in my mind to Temple of Doom...if it's the worst of those three films, then it's still really not that bad.

wilson wrote:

Sue71 wrote:
Phew. I thought I was going to have to have Wilson make you walk the plank.

Hah, glad to know I serve as sufficient threat to keep people in line around here.
I gotta say though, while I agree that Godfather 3 is the worst of the series, I think it's pretty underrated. I like the ways in which it ties up the series' narrative arcs. It occupies a similar place in my mind to Temple of Doom...if it's the worst of those three films, then it's still really not that bad.

Sophia Coppola single-handedly made it that bad. Ugh. The movie theatre simultaneously laughed & applauded when she met her demise.

And I feel that the writing/story is a stretch. Yes, obvious arcs, ties up loose ends, good ideas in any event but I felt that if the "statute of limitations", so to speak (whatever it's called when the rights are up), weren't about to expire, it wouldn't have felt so forced. Well it felt forced to me anyway.