Tuesday, October 07, 2008

Empire Magazine recently posted their list of the 500 Greatest Movies of All Time. 500 is just too big a list to deal with... so, using just THEIR TOP 50, I made a list of MY TOP 10 of EMPIRE's TOP 50. Without further adieu, here they are in alphabetical order:

  • Aliens (James Cameron, 1986): Took the Alien concept and made it a franchise... and the best movie of the series.

  • Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942): Bogie at his best.

  • Die Hard (John McTiernan 1988): Redefined the action genre and turned Bruce Willis into a star.

  • Dr. Strangelove (Stanley Kubrick, 1964): "There's no fighting in the war room!" -- Need I say more?

  • Godfather, The (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972): Perhaps the best cast movie of all time.

  • Godfather Part II (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974): One of the rare movies that is as good as the original... especially when the original is as good as The Godfather.

  • Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, The (Sergio Leone, 1967): Classic title + classic theme + Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Eli Wallach, and Sergio Leone = All Time Greatest Movie

  • Matrix, The (The Wachowski Brothers, 1999): Redefined the action genre. If only the sequels had been as good.

  • Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, 1994): Made Tarantino a star... and rightly so.

  • Terminator 2: Judgement Day (James Cameron, 1991): Like Godfather II and Aliens, a sequel that was as good as the original.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good list. Don't know how close it would be to mine, but man I'm just too lazy to figure it out. I have to disagree on the Matrix, though. I think it's really overrated. The action was pretty derivative of John Woo movies and the sci-fi concept didn't amaze me that much. I look at the Matrix as kind of a major power trip for computer geeks.

Crowmagnumman

Anonymous said...

By using just their top 50 my top 10 would be, and not in order:

Alien
2001: A Space Odyssey
The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
Apocalypse Now
The Godfather
Taxi Driver
Die Hard
Jaws
Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
Raiders of the Lost Ark

Quite a bit different from your list Craig. ;)

I tried to mix it up and not use two from the same franchise, I was torn between Back to the Future, Die Hard, and Empire Strikes Back but McClane won. My real top 10 list would look somewhat different.

The Empire list is quite flawed imo though. No way Dark Knight should be in the top 15 of all time.

I also prefer the original Terminator to T2, and of course like Alien to Aliens.

Slyclone

Anonymous said...

One problem with me is that I like too many movies equally. I like Alien as much as I like Aliens as much as I like Raiders of the Lost Ark as much as I like Predator as much as I like Die Hard as much as I like Empire Strikes Back as much as I love Jaws as much as I love The Good the Bad and the Ugly as much as I love Apocalypse Now as much as I love 2001...

Crowmagnumman

Anonymous said...

Based on their top 50, mine would read something like:

1. The Godfather
2. Raging Bull
3. The Godfather, Part II
4. The Empire Strikes Back
5. Goodfellas
6. E.T.
7. Citizen Kane
8. Taxi Driver
9. Casblanca
10. Chinatown

RockyB1976

Anonymous said...

My list (with the movies in no particular order):

1. The Godfather
2. Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
3. Raiders of The Lost Ark
4. The Good, The Bad & The Ugly
5. Die Hard
6. Terminator 2: Judgement Day
7. Heat
8. Jaws
9. Once Upon A Time In The West
10. Apocalypse Now

Rambo88

Anonymous said...

alphabetical order:

A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick, 1971)
Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)
Casablanca (Michael Curtiz)
Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)
Dr. Strangelove (Stanley Kubrick, 1964)
Gone with The Wind (Victor Fleming, George Cukor, Sam Wood, 1939)
Jaws (Steven Spielberg, 1975)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (Steven Spielberg, 1981)
The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)
2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)

PapaStas