My Favorite Movies
by edshu33 | created - 30 Sep 2012 | updated - 09 Aug 2015 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
G | 149 min | Adventure, Sci-Fi
After uncovering a mysterious artifact buried beneath the Lunar surface, a spacecraft is sent to Jupiter to find its origins: a spacecraft manned by two men and the supercomputer HAL 9000.
Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester, Daniel Richter
Votes: 719,650 | Gross: $56.95M
2. L'Avventura (1960)
Not Rated | 144 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
A woman disappears during a Mediterranean boating trip. During the search, her lover and her best friend become attracted to each other.
Director: Michelangelo Antonioni | Stars: Gabriele Ferzetti, Monica Vitti, Lea Massari, Dominique Blanchar
Votes: 32,643
3. Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
PG-13 | 166 min | Western
A mysterious stranger with a harmonica joins forces with a notorious desperado to protect a beautiful widow from a ruthless assassin working for the railroad.
Director: Sergio Leone | Stars: Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson, Claudia Cardinale, Jason Robards
Votes: 349,139 | Gross: $5.32M
4. Blue Valentine (2010)
R | 112 min | Drama, Romance
The relationship of a contemporary married couple, charting their evolution over a span of years by cross-cutting between time periods.
Director: Derek Cianfrance | Stars: Ryan Gosling, Michelle Williams, John Doman, Faith Wladyka
Votes: 211,380 | Gross: $9.74M
5. Dirty Harry (1971)
R | 102 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
When a man calling himself "the Scorpio Killer" menaces San Francisco, tough-as-nails Police Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan is assigned to track down the crazed psychopath.
Directors: Don Siegel, Clint Eastwood | Stars: Clint Eastwood, Andrew Robinson, Harry Guardino, Reni Santoni
Votes: 168,321 | Gross: $35.90M
6. Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972)
Not Rated | 95 min | Action, Adventure, Biography
In the 16th century, the ruthless and insane Don Lope de Aguirre leads a Spanish expedition in search of El Dorado.
Director: Werner Herzog | Stars: Klaus Kinski, Ruy Guerra, Helena Rojo, Del Negro
Votes: 62,303
Herzog is the Schopenhauer of the film world
7. Reservoir Dogs (1992)
R | 99 min | Crime, Thriller
When a simple jewelry heist goes horribly wrong, the surviving criminals begin to suspect that one of them is a police informant.
Director: Quentin Tarantino | Stars: Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Chris Penn
Votes: 1,088,423 | Gross: $2.83M
8. 8½ (1963)
Not Rated | 138 min | Drama
A harried movie director retreats into his memories and fantasies.
Director: Federico Fellini | Stars: Marcello Mastroianni, Anouk Aimée, Claudia Cardinale, Sandra Milo
Votes: 125,208 | Gross: $0.05M
9. Amadeus (1984)
R | 160 min | Biography, Drama, Music
The life, success and troubles of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, as told by Antonio Salieri, the contemporaneous composer who was deeply jealous of Mozart's talent and claimed to have murdered him.
Director: Milos Forman | Stars: F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hulce, Elizabeth Berridge, Roy Dotrice
Votes: 428,139 | Gross: $51.97M
Well of course the soundtrack is great
10. Red Desert (1964)
Not Rated | 117 min | Drama
In an industrial area, unstable Giuliana attempts to cope with life by starting an affair with a co-worker at the plant her husband manages.
Director: Michelangelo Antonioni | Stars: Monica Vitti, Richard Harris, Carlo Chionetti, Xenia Valderi
Votes: 17,637
11. The Samurai (1967)
GP | 101 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
After professional hitman Jef Costello is seen by witnesses his efforts to provide himself an alibi drive him further into a corner.
Director: Jean-Pierre Melville | Stars: Alain Delon, François Périer, Nathalie Delon, Cathy Rosier
Votes: 57,180 | Gross: $0.04M
12. Spring Breakers (2012)
R | 94 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Four college girls hold up a restaurant in order to fund their spring break vacation. While partying, drinking, and taking drugs, they are arrested, only to be bailed out by a drug and arms dealer.
Director: Harmony Korine | Stars: Vanessa Hudgens, Selena Gomez, Ashley Benson, Rachel Korine
Votes: 148,806 | Gross: $14.12M
13. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)
R | 120 min | Drama, Western
A gambler and a prostitute become business partners in a remote Old West mining town, and their enterprise thrives until a large corporation arrives on the scene.
Director: Robert Altman | Stars: Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, Rene Auberjonois, William Devane
Votes: 27,654 | Gross: $8.20M
Distancing itself from the existing Western tradition, McCabe & Mrs. Miller is set in its own unique, amoral version of the American west. My favorite element of the film is the representation of man's inability to construct utopia. The town itself is called Presbyterian Church, signifying a desire for purity. However, before Presbyterian Church can even be called worthy of its name, the seeds of corrupt business are planted, grow, and die as they compete for limited soil. This is best illustrated in a montage near the beginning, which cuts between a silhouette nailing the cross atop the unfinished church, and John McCabe transporting his prostitutes to the rugged town. The character of McCabe is an enigmatic portrayal of the disgruntled youth of the 1970's. The people of Beatty's generation were consistently bothered by their inability to live up to the achievements of their fathers (namely, winning World War Two.) The struggle of the young man coming to terms with his masculine identity is perfectly manifested in McCabe, whose self-destructive attachment to dealer-actualization leads him to inevitable pain and death.
14. Grizzly Man (2005)
R | 103 min | Documentary, Biography
A devastating and heart-rending take on grizzly bear activists Timothy Treadwell and Amie Huguenard, who were killed in October of 2003 while living among grizzly bears in Alaska.
Director: Werner Herzog | Stars: Timothy Treadwell, Amie Huguenard, Werner Herzog, Carol Dexter
Votes: 61,897 | Gross: $3.17M
Perhaps the saddest film ever made, Grizzly Man is a sucker-punch of a documentary that left me in tears. The greatness of the film is that it's not a pity party for Treadwell. It's not about the sadness of his death, but the sadness of his personality, and those of others like him. He wasn't naturally obsessed with grizzly bears. He just felt a need to obsess over them because his personality didn't really allow him to communicate with other people and have them love him. The unresponsivness of the bears allowed Treadwell a chance to feed himself an illusion that he finally found reprocated love with them. His death is certainly one of the saddest points in the film, but it's not simply because of his non-preservation-- it's sad because he was driven to that extreme by his inability to relate to other people.
15. Contempt (1963)
Not Rated | 102 min | Drama, Romance
A French writer's marriage deteriorates while working on Fritz Lang's version of "The Odyssey", as his wife accuses him of using her to court favor with the film's brash American producer.
Director: Jean-Luc Godard | Stars: Brigitte Bardot, Jack Palance, Michel Piccoli, Giorgia Moll
Votes: 36,043 | Gross: $0.04M
What I see in Contempt is an Antonioni wrapped inside a Godard wrapped inside a widescreen epic. The film's visual style is so distinct, its ambiguity so literary, I just don't know what to say about it.
16. Nosferatu (1922)
Not Rated | 94 min | Fantasy, Horror
Vampire Count Orlok expresses interest in a new residence and real estate agent Hutter's wife.
Director: F.W. Murnau | Stars: Max Schreck, Alexander Granach, Gustav von Wangenheim, Greta Schröder
Votes: 105,453
17. Little Big Man (1970)
PG-13 | 139 min | Adventure, Comedy, Drama
Jack Crabb, looking back from extreme old age, tells of his life being raised by Native Americans and fighting with General Custer.
Director: Arthur Penn | Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Faye Dunaway, Chief Dan George, Martin Balsam
Votes: 37,899 | Gross: $31.56M
a masterpiece of style
18. Betty Blue (1986)
Unrated | 119 min | Drama, Romance
A lackadaisical handyman and aspiring novelist tries to support his younger girlfriend as she slowly succumbs to madness.
Director: Jean-Jacques Beineix | Stars: Jean-Hugues Anglade, Béatrice Dalle, Gérard Darmon, Consuelo De Haviland
Votes: 23,346 | Gross: $2.00M
19. Vivre sa vie (1962)
Not Rated | 85 min | Drama
Twelve episodic tales in the life of a Parisian woman and her slow descent into prostitution.
Director: Jean-Luc Godard | Stars: Anna Karina, Sady Rebbot, André S. Labarthe, Guylaine Schlumberger
Votes: 35,006
20. Citizen Kane (1941)
PG | 119 min | Drama, Mystery
Following the death of publishing tycoon Charles Foster Kane, reporters scramble to uncover the meaning of his final utterance: 'Rosebud.'
Director: Orson Welles | Stars: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore, Agnes Moorehead
Votes: 466,041 | Gross: $1.59M
Spectacular visual aesthetic, second only to Aguirre in my mind. Citizen Kane is really an amazing work of mise en scene, montage, and cutting-edge technique. Some of the cuts are amazing, my favorite being the zoom into a still photograph of a group of men and its subsequent reserruction as living, cinematic truth. I also hold a deeply personal connection to the character of Kane and his declaration, "...if I hadn't been rich, I might have been a really great man." Now there's an honest, believable archetype.
By the way, this in not a strict attack on William Hearst. Even if you shrug off the Word of God (Welle's support of the first statement of this paragraph) in favor of Death of Author theory like I do, there's no reason why such an enormous film should be interpreted as something so narrow. Do you really believe that one of the mightiest films of all time is a strict attack on a single person? I'll be damned if that doesn't diminish the film's relevancy after Hearst's death.
21. Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)
PG | 107 min | Drama, Horror
Count Dracula moves from Transylvania to Wismar, spreading the Black Plague across the land. Only a woman pure of heart can bring an end to his reign of horror.
Director: Werner Herzog | Stars: Klaus Kinski, Isabelle Adjani, Bruno Ganz, Roland Topor
Votes: 40,541
Klaus Kinski
22. Masculine Feminine (1966)
Not Rated | 103 min | Drama, Romance
A romance between young Parisians, shown through a series of vignettes.
Director: Jean-Luc Godard | Stars: Jean-Pierre Léaud, Chantal Goya, Marlène Jobert, Michel Debord
Votes: 17,332 | Gross: $0.20M
23. The Room (2003)
R | 99 min | Drama
In San Francisco, an amiable banker's seemingly perfect life is turned upside down when his deceitful fiancée embarks on an affair with his best friend.
Director: Tommy Wiseau | Stars: Tommy Wiseau, Juliette Danielle, Greg Sestero, Philip Haldiman
Votes: 95,024 | Gross: $0.22M
24. The General (1926)
Passed | 78 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
After being rejected by the Confederate military, not realizing it was due to his crucial civilian role, an engineer must single-handedly recapture his beloved locomotive after it is seized by Union spies and return it through enemy lines.
Directors: Clyde Bruckman, Buster Keaton | Stars: Buster Keaton, Marion Mack, Glen Cavender, Jim Farley
Votes: 98,158 | Gross: $1.03M
25. Pulp Fiction (1994)
R | 154 min | Crime, Drama
The lives of two mob hitmen, a boxer, a gangster and his wife, and a pair of diner bandits intertwine in four tales of violence and redemption.
Director: Quentin Tarantino | Stars: John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis
Votes: 2,220,733 | Gross: $107.93M
Sally Menke's editing
26. Dead Man (1995)
R | 121 min | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy
On the run after murdering a man, accountant William Blake encounters a strange Native American man named Nobody who prepares him for his journey into the spiritual world.
Director: Jim Jarmusch | Stars: Johnny Depp, Gary Farmer, Crispin Glover, Lance Henriksen
Votes: 103,099 | Gross: $1.04M
27. Paris, Texas (1984)
R | 145 min | Drama
Travis Henderson, an aimless drifter who has been missing for four years, wanders out of the desert and must reconnect with society, himself, his life, and his family.
Director: Wim Wenders | Stars: Harry Dean Stanton, Nastassja Kinski, Dean Stockwell, Sam Berry
Votes: 118,999 | Gross: $2.18M
28. Blow-Up (1966)
Not Rated | 111 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A fashion photographer unknowingly captures a death on film after following two lovers in a park.
Director: Michelangelo Antonioni | Stars: David Hemmings, Vanessa Redgrave, Sarah Miles, John Castle
Votes: 67,660
29. Lost in Translation (2003)
R | 102 min | Comedy, Drama
A faded movie star and a neglected young woman form an unlikely bond after crossing paths in Tokyo.
Director: Sofia Coppola | Stars: Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson, Giovanni Ribisi, Anna Faris
Votes: 489,172 | Gross: $44.59M
too hipster but Kevin Shields and nice cinematography
30. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
PG | 122 min | Drama
Disturbed Blanche DuBois moves in with her sister in New Orleans and is tormented by her brutish brother-in-law while her reality crumbles around her.
Director: Elia Kazan | Stars: Vivien Leigh, Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter, Karl Malden
Votes: 114,361 | Gross: $8.00M
31. Videodrome (1983)
R | 87 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A programmer at a Toronto TV station that specializes in adult entertainment searches for the producers of a dangerous and bizarre broadcast.
Director: David Cronenberg | Stars: James Woods, Debbie Harry, Sonja Smits, Peter Dvorsky
Votes: 103,012 | Gross: $2.12M
32. Taxi Driver (1976)
R | 114 min | Crime, Drama
A mentally unstable veteran works as a nighttime taxi driver in New York City, where the perceived decadence and sleaze fuels his urge for violent action.
Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd, Albert Brooks
Votes: 920,909 | Gross: $28.26M
The paste holding the Schraeder-Scorsese-DeNiro collaboration of Taxi Driver together is the main character's sincere intentions. He may be seriously ill, but one gets the feeling that he is motivated by pure altruism, the desire to liberate his two love interests from what he sees as pure oppression. There's no Freudian psychosexuality here-- bear in mind that Bickle consistently REFUSES to have sex with Jodie Foster despite her protests. In a way, this element might come off as guilt-inducing to a thoughtful viewer. Bickle may be a sick man, but his actions betray his virtuous heart, one perhaps more pure than most of us out there. Bickle's Achilles Heel is his moralizing nature, his unwillingness to live and let live at the expense of a slightly less-than-ideal (to him) world.
33. The Road (1954)
Not Rated | 108 min | Drama
A care-free girl is sold to a traveling entertainer, consequently enduring physical and emotional pain along the way.
Director: Federico Fellini | Stars: Anthony Quinn, Giulietta Masina, Richard Basehart, Aldo Silvani
Votes: 66,593
Here is a film that renewed my hope in life and my hope in cinema. I'm not going to intellectualize it; that would be dumb. It's awesome.
34. Say Anything (1989)
PG-13 | 100 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A noble underachiever and a beautiful valedictorian fall in love the summer before she goes off to college.
Director: Cameron Crowe | Stars: John Cusack, Ione Skye, John Mahoney, Lili Taylor
Votes: 95,946 | Gross: $20.78M
35. Fitzcarraldo (1982)
PG | 158 min | Adventure, Drama
The story of Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald, an extremely determined man who intends to build an opera house in the middle of a jungle.
Director: Werner Herzog | Stars: Klaus Kinski, Claudia Cardinale, José Lewgoy, Miguel Ángel Fuentes
Votes: 38,601
my love life
36. Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
R | 111 min | Action, Biography, Crime
Bored waitress Bonnie Parker falls in love with an ex-con named Clyde Barrow and together they start a violent crime spree through the country, stealing cars and robbing banks.
Director: Arthur Penn | Stars: Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, Michael J. Pollard, Gene Hackman
Votes: 120,625
beauty in decay
37. Drive (I) (2011)
R | 100 min | Action, Drama
A mysterious Hollywood action film stuntman gets in trouble with gangsters when he tries to help his neighbor's husband rob a pawn shop while serving as his getaway driver.
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn | Stars: Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Albert Brooks
Votes: 704,621 | Gross: $35.06M
love violence
38. Romeo + Juliet (1996)
PG-13 | 120 min | Drama, Romance
Shakespeare's famous play is updated to the hip modern suburb of Verona still retaining its original dialogue.
Director: Baz Luhrmann | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Claire Danes, John Leguizamo, Harold Perrineau
Votes: 244,828 | Gross: $46.35M
Baz Luhrmann's visionary direction makes an already great script by Shakespeare into an awesome action movie as well as a profound meditation on how people relate to the media. The film is bookended by scenes of a television anchor setting up and giving closure to the story, as though to imply that the entire film is a made-for-TV news special about the events of the film. Analyzing the film from this angle, one finds that it does what Natural Born Killers tried to do, the only difference being that the former actually pulls it off. The emotional intensity is definitely augmented from the play. The key literary device in the play was irony, ultimately burying the emotional qualities beneath mounds of sarcastic humor. In this film adaptation, emotions are naked, like the private lives of the burgeouise protagonists. To me, this seems like the only film in which Baz Luhrmann's talents are actualized. The fact of the matter is that he took an existing work of art and added yet another layer of meaning to it, and that is the true mark of an artist.
39. L'Eclisse (1962)
Not Rated | 126 min | Drama, Romance
A young woman meets a vital young man, but their love affair is doomed because of the man's materialistic nature.
Director: Michelangelo Antonioni | Stars: Monica Vitti, Alain Delon, Francisco Rabal, Lilla Brignone
Votes: 22,075
40. The Terminator (1984)
R | 107 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
A human soldier is sent from 2029 to 1984 to stop an almost indestructible cyborg killing machine, sent from the same year, which has been programmed to execute a young woman whose unborn son is the key to humanity's future salvation.
Director: James Cameron | Stars: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Michael Biehn, Paul Winfield
Votes: 924,358 | Gross: $38.40M
This is really one of the coolest movies ever made. The style and the violence are bold and original. The plot, despite its relative simplicity, is built around a great concept.
41. Sid and Nancy (1986)
R | 112 min | Biography, Drama, Music
The relationship between Sid Vicious, bassist for British punk group Sex Pistols, and his girlfriend Nancy Spungen is portrayed.
Director: Alex Cox | Stars: Gary Oldman, Chloe Webb, David Hayman, Debby Bishop
Votes: 34,692 | Gross: $2.83M
42. In Bruges (2008)
R | 107 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
After a job gone wrong, hitman Ray and his partner await orders from their ruthless boss in Bruges, Belgium, the last place in the world Ray wants to be.
Director: Martin McDonagh | Stars: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Ciarán Hinds, Elizabeth Berrington
Votes: 461,583 | Gross: $7.76M
43. Splendor in the Grass (1961)
Not Rated | 124 min | Drama, Romance
The love of high school sweethearts Deanie and Bud is weighed down by the oppressive expectations of their parents and society in smalltown Kansas in 1928, threatening the future of their relationship.
Director: Elia Kazan | Stars: Natalie Wood, Warren Beatty, Pat Hingle, Audrey Christie
Votes: 22,646 | Gross: $8.72M
44. Chicago (2002)
PG-13 | 113 min | Comedy, Crime, Musical
Two death-row murderesses develop a fierce rivalry while competing for publicity, celebrity, and a sleazy lawyer's attention.
Director: Rob Marshall | Stars: Renée Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Richard Gere, Taye Diggs
Votes: 243,387 | Gross: $170.69M
45. The Hurt Locker (2008)
R | 131 min | Drama, Thriller, War
During the Iraq War, a Sergeant recently assigned to an army bomb squad is put at odds with his squad mates due to his maverick way of handling his work.
Director: Kathryn Bigelow | Stars: Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, Guy Pearce
Votes: 473,832 | Gross: $17.02M
46. M (1931)
Passed | 99 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
When the police in a German city are unable to catch a child-murderer, other criminals join in the manhunt.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Peter Lorre, Ellen Widmann, Inge Landgut, Otto Wernicke
Votes: 168,489 | Gross: $0.03M
What do you mean, it's not didactic?
47. Inglourious Basterds (2009)
R | 153 min | Adventure, Drama, War
In Nazi-occupied France during World War II, a plan to assassinate Nazi leaders by a group of Jewish U.S. soldiers coincides with a theatre owner's vengeful plans for the same.
Director: Quentin Tarantino | Stars: Brad Pitt, Diane Kruger, Eli Roth, Mélanie Laurent
Votes: 1,584,551 | Gross: $120.54M
48. Cobra Verde (1987)
Not Rated | 111 min | Adventure, Drama
During the 1800s, paroled Brazilian bandit Cobra Verde is sent to West Africa with a few troops to man an old Portuguese fort and to convince the local African ruler to resume the slave trade with Brazil.
Director: Werner Herzog | Stars: Klaus Kinski, King Ampaw, José Lewgoy, Salvatore Basile
Votes: 8,427
underrated as *beep*
49. Safety Last! (1923)
Not Rated | 74 min | Action, Comedy, Thriller
A boy leaves his small country town and heads to the big city to get a job. As soon as he makes it big his sweetheart will join him and marry him. His enthusiasm to get ahead leads to some interesting adventures.
Directors: Fred C. Newmeyer, Sam Taylor | Stars: Harold Lloyd, Mildred Davis, Bill Strother, Noah Young
Votes: 22,919 | Gross: $1.36M
50. The Fall (I) (2006)
R | 117 min | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy
In 1920s Los Angeles, a bedridden patient in a hospital captivates a young girl with a fantastic tale of heroes, myths, and villains on a desert island.
Director: Tarsem Singh | Stars: Lee Pace, Catinca Untaru, Justine Waddell, Kim Uylenbroek
Votes: 116,702 | Gross: $2.28M
It's almost as though the writers and Tarsem took Herzogian imagination-poetry and spliced in with Tarantinian violence, Monty Pythonian absurdity, Spielbergian adventure, and a Malikian visual aesthetic. Arguably the most memorable element of the fall is the landmark filmmaking. The use of disparate, unlikely backdrops from history is the perfect supplement to the girl's imagination. The fact that such a feat was pulled off with only one scene of CGI makes it even more impressive to me.
51. Apocalypse Now (1979)
R | 147 min | Drama, Mystery, War
A U.S. Army officer serving in Vietnam is tasked with assassinating a renegade Special Forces Colonel who sees himself as a god.
Director: Francis Ford Coppola | Stars: Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Frederic Forrest
Votes: 710,377 | Gross: $83.47M
I'm torn between the redux and the original in terms of preference. The voice-over narration and French planatation scene were both worthy additions in my mind, but the rest of the redux I would have done without. Either way, Apocalypse Now is a stunning Aguirrian journey into madness. It's not really about war itself, though I guess that's a part of it. It's really more about human nature as a whole. Of particular interest is the brutal death of Marlon Brando at the end. It's made much more disturbing by splicing tame footage of Martin Sheen hacking Marlon Brando's head off his body with very graphic footage of villagers hacking the head off a cow, set to the most bizarre song of one of my favorite bands. I don't know why, but I thought that the use of the cow in this scene was really effective.
It's one of the few films I find myself talking about with my friends.
52. Requiem for a Dream (2000)
R | 102 min | Drama
The drug-induced utopias of four Coney Island people are shattered when their addictions run deep..
Director: Darren Aronofsky | Stars: Ellen Burstyn, Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly, Marlon Wayans
Votes: 898,915 | Gross: $3.64M
53. The Big Gundown (1967)
Approved | 110 min | Drama, Western
An unofficial lawman and would-be senator is tasked by a railroad baron with hunting down a knife-wielding Mexican peasant accused of raping and killing a young girl.
Director: Sergio Sollima | Stars: Lee Van Cleef, Tomas Milian, Walter Barnes, Nieves Navarro
Votes: 7,091
54. Persepolis (2007)
PG-13 | 96 min | Animation, Biography, Drama
A precocious and outspoken Iranian girl grows up during the Islamic Revolution.
Directors: Vincent Paronnaud, Marjane Satrapi | Stars: Chiara Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve, Gena Rowlands, Danielle Darrieux
Votes: 100,198 | Gross: $4.45M
Thus far, Persepolis is the only animated film on my list. Truthfully, I consider animation and live action film different mediums, but I couldn't resist the temptation to include Persepolis on my all-time favorites list. I'm sort of obsessed with the graphic novels by Marjane Satrapi, and the film for Persepolis gives everything that the novels promised.
55. Bigfoot (2006 Video)
87 min | Comedy, Horror
In a place, where man and nature have co-existed for years. Man has finally overstepped his bounds and nature is fighting back.
Director: Bob Gray | Stars: Todd Cox, Liza Foster, Bob Gray, Brooke Beckwith
Votes: 256
Hilarious! I had a blast watching this. Don't watch it alone, though. If you really want to enjoy it to its full potential, there have to be other people there.
56. Blow Out (1981)
R | 108 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A movie sound recordist accidentally records the evidence that proves that a car accident was actually murder and consequently finds himself in danger.
Director: Brian De Palma | Stars: John Travolta, Nancy Allen, John Lithgow, Dennis Franz
Votes: 63,302 | Gross: $13.75M
While similar in story and theme, in many ways De Palma's Blow Out is the polar opposite of the film's Antonioni framework. Blow-Up is a film about a character who finds meaning and satisfaction in voluntary altruistic involvement in a murder, whereas Blow Out is about a well-adjusted and satisfied character who gets involved in a murder and comes out with despair and humiliation. Either one works.
It also appeals to me as a film about how the cinematic medium has the ability to express opinions and change thoughts and feelings. John Travolta plays a director in this film trying to sell the point that the car accident was a deliberate murder like any director tries to sell a point. However, he has to struggle against all sorts of external forces to see his vision realized, a pursuit which ultimately ends in failure. What's great about the ending is that he uses his failure to cultivate success, making art from the death of his girlfriend. Oops, forgot to say spoiler alert.
57. Unforgiven (1992)
R | 130 min | Drama, Western
Retired Old West gunslinger William Munny reluctantly takes on one last job, with the help of his old partner Ned Logan and a young man, The "Schofield Kid."
Director: Clint Eastwood | Stars: Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, Richard Harris
Votes: 436,248 | Gross: $101.16M
58. Jerry Maguire (1996)
R | 139 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
When a sports agent has a moral epiphany and is fired for expressing it, he decides to put his new philosophy to the test as an independent agent with the only athlete who stays with him and his former colleague.
Director: Cameron Crowe | Stars: Tom Cruise, Cuba Gooding Jr., Renée Zellweger, Kelly Preston
Votes: 287,082 | Gross: $153.95M
59. Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999)
R | 116 min | Crime, Drama
An African-American Mafia hit man who models himself after the samurai of old finds himself targeted for death by the mob.
Director: Jim Jarmusch | Stars: Forest Whitaker, Henry Silva, John Tormey, Cliff Gorman
Votes: 96,975 | Gross: $3.31M
60. Face/Off (1997)
R | 138 min | Action, Crime, Sci-Fi
To foil a terrorist plot, FBI agent Sean Archer assumes the identity of the criminal Castor Troy who murdered his son through facial transplant surgery, but the crook wakes up prematurely and vows revenge.
Director: John Woo | Stars: John Travolta, Nicolas Cage, Joan Allen, Alessandro Nivola
Votes: 400,977 | Gross: $112.23M
61. The Seventh Seal (1957)
Not Rated | 96 min | Drama, Fantasy
A knight returning to Sweden after the Crusades seeks answers about life, death, and the existence of God as he plays chess against the Grim Reaper during the Black Plague.
Director: Ingmar Bergman | Stars: Max von Sydow, Gunnar Björnstrand, Bengt Ekerot, Nils Poppe
Votes: 198,500
not sure
62. Life of Brian (1979)
R | 94 min | Comedy
Born on the original Christmas in the stable next door to Jesus Christ, Brian of Nazareth spends his life being mistaken for a messiah.
Director: Terry Jones | Stars: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Michael Palin, Terry Gilliam
Votes: 421,882 | Gross: $20.05M
How incidental that this film should fall right beneath The Seventh Seal on my list! The Ingmar Bergman film is obviously different than Life of Brian on countless levels, yet they are united by the common theme of confused men searching for meaning in a meaningless life.
I'm most impressed with the existential imperative demonstrated in Monty Python's most philosophical endeavor. A mediocre film would have spoofed Biblical epic-type movies, a good film would have spoofed religion, but Life of Brian is spectacular because it spoofs the absurdity of human existence. The comic image of Brian running away from his newly founded religion (particularly the look on his face) is the most memorable part to me, but there's a lot more to it than the absurd gag of an accidental messiah.
63. My Left Foot (1989)
R | 103 min | Biography, Drama
Christy Brown, born with cerebral palsy, learns to paint and write with his only controllable limb - his left foot.
Director: Jim Sheridan | Stars: Daniel Day-Lewis, Brenda Fricker, Alison Whelan, Kirsten Sheridan
Votes: 79,803 | Gross: $14.74M
64. 21 Jump Street (2012)
R | 109 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
A pair of underachieving cops are sent back to a local high school to blend in and bring down a synthetic drug ring.
Directors: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller | Stars: Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Ice Cube, Brie Larson
Votes: 598,612 | Gross: $138.45M
A highmark of postmodern American comedies. Works as both propoganda and deconstruction of the War on Drugs. Also, it's hilarious. I mean it.
65. Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe (1980)
22 min | Documentary, Short
A short documentary in which directors Werner Herzog and Errol Morris make a bet which results in Herzog being forced to eat his own shoe.
Director: Les Blank | Stars: Werner Herzog, Tom Luddy, Michael Goodwin, Alice Waters
Votes: 2,731
In Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe, Herzog turns his philosophy up to eleven and demonstrates the filmmaker's role as a clown in a profound, comic fashion. Now consumed by an aura of self-parody, Herzog's statements about great filmmakers being clowns seem unbelievably prophetic. Herzog's statements about television and media are also particularly worthy and deep.
66. The Shining (1980)
R | 146 min | Drama, Horror
A family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where a sinister presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from both past and future.
Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, Scatman Crothers
Votes: 1,106,917 | Gross: $44.02M
I'm rather fond of the theory that The Shining is largely about the slaughter of the indigenous population of North America. Presumed symbolisms like this are the reason why I love Kubrick-- they open up rainbows of opportunities for fans to over-analyze the film, which is truly an excellent intellectual exercise as well as great fun. And if you don't know what I mean by over-analysis, bear in mind that at least one respected scholar of the film thinks of the film as a confession that Kubrick helped NASA fake the moon landing.
Whatever you say.
67. Black Sunday (1960)
Approved | 87 min | Horror
A vengeful witch and her fiendish servant return from the grave and begin a bloody campaign to possess the body of the witch's beautiful look-alike descendant.
Director: Mario Bava | Stars: Barbara Steele, John Richardson, Andrea Checchi, Ivo Garrani
Votes: 17,600
Most often I find horror films excruciatingly boring, but there was something about Black Sunday that really captivated me. In many regard, this Mario Bava gem belongs in the same category as campy, dated, black & white anti-classics like White Zombie, but with great cinematography (!) and much more audacity. Was it in bad taste? Perhaps. What matters is that it affected me on a visceral level, and that is the greatest complement I can pay to any horror film.
68. Magnolia (1999)
R | 188 min | Drama
An epic mosaic of interrelated characters in search of love, forgiveness and meaning in the San Fernando Valley.
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson | Stars: Tom Cruise, Jason Robards, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman
Votes: 328,547 | Gross: $22.46M
It has everything. Like, really.
69. The Killer (1989)
R | 111 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A disillusioned assassin accepts one last hit in hopes of using his earnings to restore vision to a singer he accidentally blinded.
Director: John Woo | Stars: Chow Yun-Fat, Danny Lee, Sally Yeh, Kong Chu
Votes: 51,084
70. Marley (2012)
PG-13 | 144 min | Documentary, Biography, Music
A documentary on the life, music, and legacy of Bob Marley.
Director: Kevin Macdonald | Stars: Bob Marley, Ziggy Marley, Rita Marley, Jimmy Cliff
Votes: 14,494 | Gross: $1.41M
Bob Marley, king of fools... god of fools
71. True Romance (1993)
R | 119 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
In Detroit, a pop-culture nerd steals cocaine from his new wife's pimp and tries to sell it in Hollywood, prompting the mobsters who own the drugs to pursue the couple.
Director: Tony Scott | Stars: Christian Slater, Patricia Arquette, Dennis Hopper, Val Kilmer
Votes: 242,540 | Gross: $12.28M
72. Se7en (1995)
R | 127 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Two detectives, a rookie and a veteran, hunt a serial killer who uses the seven deadly sins as his motives.
Director: David Fincher | Stars: Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt, Kevin Spacey, Andrew Kevin Walker
Votes: 1,799,450 | Gross: $100.13M
73. Barry Lyndon (1975)
PG | 185 min | Adventure, Drama, War
An Irish rogue wins the heart of a rich widow and assumes her dead husband's aristocratic position in 18th-century England.
Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Ryan O'Neal, Marisa Berenson, Patrick Magee, Hardy Krüger
Votes: 183,109
74. Trapped in the Closet: Chapters 1-12 (2005 Video)
R | 43 min | Short, Drama, Music
The first twelve chapters of R. Kelly's rap opera in which a one-night stand triggers a series of revelations about the sexual deceits of its characters.
Directors: R. Kelly, Jim Swaffield | Stars: R. Kelly, Cat Wilson, Rolando Boyce, LeShay N. Tomlinson
Votes: 2,183
R. Kelly's serial film Trapped in the Closet is an underappreciated masterpiece. The writing of characters and dialogue is enough to make Shakespeare, Chekhov, and Twain envious. There's a delightful comic spirit which carries this Kudzu plot through the running time, but the irony does little to veil the obvious dramatic tension in this medium-pushing exercise in audacity.
75. Trapped in the Closet: Chapters 13-22 (2007 Video)
R | 48 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
The second ten chapters of R. Kelly's rap opera in which a one-night stand triggers a series of revelations about the sexual deceits of its characters.
Directors: R. Kelly, Victor Mignatti, Jim Swaffield | Stars: R. Kelly, Eric Lane, LeShay N. Tomlinson, LaDonna Tittle
Votes: 1,171
As Trapped in the Closet progresses, R. Kelly seems to become more experimental with the music. In the 2007 installments, there are many breaks from the generally conversational rhythm of other parts. For example, look to the scene when the pimp goes to church. The way that the choir tells him to change as he struggles against his own past and his pimp friend is mind-blowing. The first two sagas of Trapped in the Closet are the perfect, modern combination of cinema, theater, and music, and I look forward to the next installment in this series, whenever it may come.
76. Psycho (1960)
R | 109 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A Phoenix secretary embezzles $40,000 from her employer's client, goes on the run and checks into a remote motel run by a young man under the domination of his mother.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, John Gavin
Votes: 718,408 | Gross: $32.00M
77. Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
R | 120 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
A teenager from the slums of Mumbai becomes a contestant on the show 'Kaun Banega Crorepati?' When interrogated under suspicion of cheating, he revisits his past, revealing how he had all the answers.
Directors: Danny Boyle, Loveleen Tandan | Stars: Dev Patel, Freida Pinto, Saurabh Shukla, Anil Kapoor
Votes: 877,924 | Gross: $141.32M
The nonlinear storytelling in Slumdog Millionaire does more than make the plot interesting. It binds the entire film to the theme of determinism. The film makes it evident that every event depicted in the past is of the same essence as the present, emphasizing each character's redemption from the past.
78. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
PG | 91 min | Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy
King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table embark on a surreal, low-budget search for the Holy Grail, encountering many, very silly obstacles.
Directors: Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones | Stars: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam
Votes: 570,365 | Gross: $1.23M
79. Point Break (1991)
R | 122 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
An F.B.I. Agent goes undercover to catch a gang of surfers who may be bank robbers.
Director: Kathryn Bigelow | Stars: Patrick Swayze, Keanu Reeves, Gary Busey, Lori Petty
Votes: 202,340 | Gross: $43.22M
80. The Virgin Suicides (1999)
R | 97 min | Drama, Romance
A group of male friends become obsessed with five mysterious sisters who are sheltered by their strict, religious parents in suburban Detroit in the mid 1970s.
Director: Sofia Coppola | Stars: Kirsten Dunst, Josh Hartnett, James Woods, Kathleen Turner
Votes: 169,237 | Gross: $4.86M
81. Pretty Woman (1990)
R | 119 min | Comedy, Romance
A man in a legal but hurtful business needs an escort for some social events, and hires a beautiful prostitute he meets... only to fall in love.
Director: Garry Marshall | Stars: Richard Gere, Julia Roberts, Jason Alexander, Laura San Giacomo
Votes: 362,481 | Gross: $178.41M
my pretty woman in a ballgown I'm Richard Gere in a tux
82. Rome, Open City (1945)
Not Rated | 103 min | Drama, Thriller, War
During the Nazi occupation of Rome in 1944, the Resistance leader, Giorgio Manfredi, is chased by the Nazis as he seeks refuge and a way to escape.
Director: Roberto Rossellini | Stars: Anna Magnani, Aldo Fabrizi, Marcello Pagliero, Vito Annichiarico
Votes: 28,977
83. An Unreasonable Man (2006)
Not Rated | 122 min | Documentary, Biography
A look at the career of consumer advocate Ralph Nader.
Directors: Henriette Mantel, Steve Skrovan | Stars: Ralph Nader, Pat Buchanan, Howard Zinn, Eric Alterman
Votes: 1,767 | Gross: $0.18M
Ralph Nader is one of the most interesting characters to grace American politics in our short history. To me, he's a lot of things: a role model, a god, a buffoon, a success, and a failure. There's plenty of political talk in the documentary about him, but more of it is about him as a person. It's sort of like Grizzly Man, if Timothy Treadwell had decided to put his devotion to good use and worked hard to change the world.
84. Superhero Movie (2008)
PG-13 | 75 min | Action, Comedy, Sci-Fi
Orphaned high school student Rick Riker is bitten by a radioactive dragonfly, develops super powers (except for the ability to fly), and becomes a hero.
Director: Craig Mazin | Stars: Drake Bell, Leslie Nielsen, Sara Paxton, Christopher McDonald
Votes: 75,609 | Gross: $26.64M
in much better taste than Mazin's other films. The comedy is a rapid-fire blitzkreig with a lot of memorable lines. Leslie Nielsen is awesome. Unlike most recent entries in this genre, there are few tediously long and vulgar sequences. Finally, there's the camp value of Drake Bell as the main character. His cluelessness about acting is the perfect match for the character's cluelessness, making this a watchable film indeed.
85. Three Colors: Blue (1993)
R | 94 min | Drama, Music, Mystery
A woman struggles to find a way to live her life after the death of her husband and child.
Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski | Stars: Juliette Binoche, Zbigniew Zamachowski, Julie Delpy, Benoît Régent
Votes: 110,518 | Gross: $1.32M
There's a magnificent irony in the contrast between the low-key scenes of French life and the bombastic classical music in the background. That's why I like this film.
86. Rubber (2010)
R | 82 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Horror
A homicidal car tire, discovering it has destructive psionic power, sets its sights on a desert town once a mysterious woman becomes its obsession.
Director: Quentin Dupieux | Stars: Stephen Spinella, Roxane Mesquida, Wings Hauser, Jack Plotnick
Votes: 40,324 | Gross: $0.10M
87. My Best Fiend (1999)
Not Rated | 95 min | Documentary, Biography
The love-hate relationship between Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski, the deep trust between the director and the actor, and their independently and simultaneously hatched plans to murder one another.
Director: Werner Herzog | Stars: Werner Herzog, Klaus Kinski, Claudia Cardinale, Eva Mattes
Votes: 12,198 | Gross: $0.10M
This documentary is really a personal, exhilarating gem. Werner Herzog shamelessly displays the intricacies of his relationship with my favorite actor, Klaus Kinski. Overall, this film deals in a lot of themes, but the most significant to me are about Kinski's personality. It's obvious that Kinski is a vicious and deplorable man man (come on, we all know it's true. I have absolutely no doubt that his daughter's recent allegations are completely true.) However, it's also apparent that he is not only an actor of incredible talent, but a reflection of the perceived ugliness in all of us. It's weird, because in a way, this film makes us come to love Klaus Kinski by the end. These mixed feelings of remorse and relief accompanying the death of a film character are rare-- the closest comparison I can draw is the gundown at the end of Bonnie and Clyde, which doesn't even come close to the low-key dual death scene at the end of My Best Friend (meaning the death of Kinski's character in Cobra Verde, with voiceover narration about the death of Kinski himself superimposed on the scene.) This death scene would be effective enough on its own, but Herzog takes the film's quality up to eleven when he includes a excerpt from Nosferatu (probably the most moving example of acting I've ever seen) and footage of Kinski's effervescent joy playing with a butterfly. The butterfly clip seems to codify the film's message-- Kinski may have died in 1991, but the cinematic medium enables him to live on forever as an idealized facsimile of his persona, his memory forever imprinted upon the fabric of existence itself.
88. Hercules in New York (1970)
G | 92 min | Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy
Hercules is sent to Earth where he finds true love and starts a promising career in the bodybuilder business.
Director: Arthur Allan Seidelman | Stars: Arnold Stang, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Deborah Loomis, James Karen
Votes: 19,599
89. The Red Balloon (1956)
Not Rated | 34 min | Short, Comedy, Drama
A red balloon with a mind of its own follows a little boy around the streets of Paris.
Director: Albert Lamorisse | Stars: Pascal Lamorisse, Sabine Lamorisse, Georges Sellier, Vladimir Popov
Votes: 20,131
I thought it was very cute. If I ever have kids, I'll show them this film.
90. Persona (1966)
Not Rated | 83 min | Drama, Thriller
A nurse is put in charge of a mute actress and finds that their personae are melding together.
Director: Ingmar Bergman | Stars: Bibi Andersson, Liv Ullmann, Margaretha Krook, Gunnar Björnstrand
Votes: 130,942
I didn't "get" this film, but I could tell there was something there. I'll have to return to it in future years and see what I can discern.
91. Irreversible (2002)
Not Rated | 97 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Events over the course of one traumatic night in Paris unfold in reverse-chronological order as the beautiful Alex is brutally raped and beaten by a stranger in an underpass tunnel.
Director: Gaspar Noé | Stars: Monica Bellucci, Vincent Cassel, Albert Dupontel, Philippe Nahon
Votes: 147,680 | Gross: $0.75M
There are some technically impressive shots in Irreversible, such as the opening scene in which the camera chaotically maneuvers a conversation between two guys and then pans out a window to begin telling the story. Another film makes great use of that one awesome Beethoven song. At first I wasn't buying the use of reverse storytelling (was it all just a gimmick for the brief mention of determinism on the train?), but by the end I came to see it as an important part of the film's thematic structure. It's like, even with determinism there can still be chaos. Hmm.
92. Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
R | 111 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
After awakening from a four-year coma, a former assassin wreaks vengeance on the team of assassins who betrayed her.
Director: Quentin Tarantino | Stars: Uma Thurman, David Carradine, Daryl Hannah, Michael Madsen
Votes: 1,194,261 | Gross: $70.10M
93. Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004)
R | 137 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
The Bride continues her quest of vengeance against her former boss and lover Bill, the reclusive bouncer Budd, and the treacherous, one-eyed Elle.
Director: Quentin Tarantino | Stars: Uma Thurman, David Carradine, Michael Madsen, Daryl Hannah
Votes: 805,795 | Gross: $66.21M
94. In the Mood for Love (2000)
PG | 98 min | Drama, Romance
Two neighbors form a strong bond after both suspect extramarital activities of their spouses. However, they agree to keep their bond platonic so as not to commit similar wrongs.
Director: Kar-Wai Wong | Stars: Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Maggie Cheung, Siu Ping-Lam, Tung Cho 'Joe' Cheung
Votes: 166,916 | Gross: $2.73M
I was a bit sleepy when I saw this, but I have a feeling I'd really like it if I was to rewatch it more attentively.
95. It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
PG | 130 min | Drama, Family, Fantasy
An angel is sent from Heaven to help a desperately frustrated businessman by showing him what life would have been like if he had never existed.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Thomas Mitchell
Votes: 499,205
96. The Circus (1928)
Passed | 72 min | Comedy, Family, Romance
The Tramp finds work and the girl of his dreams at a circus.
Director: Charles Chaplin | Stars: Charles Chaplin, Merna Kennedy, Al Ernest Garcia, Harry Crocker
Votes: 36,060
97. Django Unchained (2012)
R | 165 min | Drama, Western
With the help of a German bounty-hunter, a freed slave sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal plantation owner in Mississippi.
Director: Quentin Tarantino | Stars: Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington
Votes: 1,695,588 | Gross: $162.81M
98. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
R | 133 min | Drama
In the Fall of 1963, a Korean War veteran and criminal pleads insanity and is admitted to a mental institution, where he rallies up the scared patients against the tyrannical nurse.
Director: Milos Forman | Stars: Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, Michael Berryman, Peter Brocco
Votes: 1,072,557 | Gross: $112.00M
I don't really know what to think of this movie. On one hand, it has all of the directorial trademarks that made Amadeus one of my favorites. The acting is spot-on, the cinematography is appropriate, and the story is captivating. On the other hand, I find its philosophy convoluted and the overall feeling that it's too gimmicky to really commit to being a great movie.
99. Meet the Spartans (2008)
PG-13 | 87 min | Comedy, Fantasy
A spoof of 300 (2006) and many other movies, TV series/shows/commercials, video games and celebrities. King Leonidas of Sparta and his army of 12 go to war against Xerxes of Persia to fight to the death for Sparta's freedom.
Directors: Jason Friedberg, Aaron Seltzer | Stars: Sean Maguire, Kevin Sorbo, Carmen Electra, Ken Davitian
Votes: 111,554 | Gross: $38.23M
100. Wayne's World (1992)
PG-13 | 94 min | Comedy, Music
Two slacker friends try to promote their public-access cable show.
Director: Penelope Spheeris | Stars: Mike Myers, Dana Carvey, Rob Lowe, Tia Carrere
Votes: 170,941 | Gross: $121.70M
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