Tuesday, July 5, 2011 at 10:46PM Top 100
Movies
of All Time
in no particular order
1. Casablanca
Classic Bogart as the silent, suffering hard-ass who's really a softie.
2. Forbidden Plant
The first top-flight sci-fi pix with a great robot: Robby.
3. Clockwork Orange
Stanley Kubrick's sadistic view of a future gone slightly mad.
4. Fahrenheit 451
In Truffaut's future, firemen set fire to books so people memorize them.
5. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Iconic Clint Eastwood as the iconic Western gunslinger.
6. The African Queen
Bogart, Hepburn and a boat. Do you need anything more?
7. The Front Page
Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau. Billy Wilder set the mark with this one.
8. Breakfast at Tiffany's
Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard. Whimsy meets stoic.
9. The Philadelphia Story
Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, and James Stewart. What a cast.
10. The Pink Panther
David Niven and Peter Sellers. Two extremes.
11. Dr. Strangelove
Kubrick, again. This time he takes nuclear Armageddon over the top.
12. Tunes of Glory
Sir Alec Guinness in a great anti-war film.
13. The Nutty Professor
Eddie Murphy better than Jerry Lewis? Can you believe that?
14. Chinatown
Jack Nicholson. Homage to film noir. Great script.
15. Gone With the Wind
Director David O. Selznick was right. It was the story of the South.
16. Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl
Whimsy, salty, edgy, funny with breath-taking beauty.
17. Barry Lyndon
Damn Kubrick, again. Every scene is a Hobart painting.
18. The Last Waltz
The ultimate band movie. None better.
19. La Dolce Vita
Fellini is just mildly mad in this one. His best work.
20. Sleeper
Vintage Woody Allen: hamburgers, fries and Coke are health food.
21. Apocalypse Now
No war movie hit so hard. It nearly killed Marty Sheen.
22. True Grit
Jeff Bridges beats out the Duke. I know, blasphemy!
23. The French Connection
Cops, robbers, corruption and the archetypical chase scene.
24. Forrest Gump
Only Tom Hanks could pull this off.
25. Cast Away
Hanks, again, with 15-minutes of no dialogue.
26. The Misfits
Monroe, Gable, Cliff, oh my.
27. Run Silent, Run Deep
Prototypical submarine flic: Down Periscope. Dive. Dive. Dive.
28. Bridge Over River Kwai
Guinness, again. "Surprised I speak your language, colonel?"
29. Catch 22
The movie actually organizes the chaos of the book.
30. M*A*S*H
War as it should be: serious with a dash of wacky.
31. Dark Knight
Batman as he originally was written: dark and scary.
32. Goldfinger
James Bond at the top of the form: shaken not stirred.
33. Serpico
Al Pacino before he just played himself.
34. Giant
The money shot: Liz Taylor's heels striking oil as she walks away. James Dean looks on.
35. Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid
Newman & Redford: friends to the end. "Who are those guys?"
36. Night of the Iguna
Burton, raw and edgy as a minister. Taylor played it edgy, too.
37. Rebel Without a Cause
James Dean, again. This time he plays the boy misunderstood.
38. Jaws
I still can't go in the ocean.
39. Annie Hall
A more serious Woody Allen; Diane Keaton as trend setter.
40. Cleopatra
Nothing better: Liz Taylor wrapped in a rug.
41. Sons of Katie Elder
The Duke as Big Brother; Dean Martin, drunk again.
42. North by Northwest
Icons all the way: Alfred Hitchcock, Cary Grant, Mount Rushmore.
43. Blazing Saddles
Mel Brooks' best. "Mongo loves beans."
44. To Have and Have Not
Bogey falls in love with Lauren Bacall, in the film and real life.
45. 48 Hours
My college pal, Steve DeSouza, wrote it. Murphy sang "Roxanne."
46. 2001: A Space Odyssey
Hal: "I can't do that, Dave."
47. Bonnie & Clyde
It was Michael J. Pollard who sold me.
48. The Big Easy
Ellen Barkin is too sexy. Dennis Quaid is too smooth.
49. The Day the Earth Stood Still
Klaatu saves the earth from itself.
50. Ben Hur
Charlton Heston drives the chariot like his life depended on it.
51. The Agony & The Ecstasy
Heston, again, this time working for Rome, not against her.
52. Dirty Dozen
War as it could have been.
53. Pappilon
Dustin Hoffman at his grungy best.
54. The Man Who Would Be King
Sean Connolly and Michael Caine as "fellow travelers."
55. Roger Rabbit
Animation meets real life. Animation wins.
56. Psycho
If I had a shower curtain, I wouldn't be able to pull it back.
57. Patton
George C, Scott was really Patton.
58. Lawrence of Arabia
The epic story of a flawed man and a senseless cause.
59. Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?
Sidney Poitier meets Spencer Tracy.
60. Some Like It Hot
Tony Curtis in drag. Works for me.
61. The Seven Year Itch
Marilyn Monroe and Tom Ewell. Yes, it can happen to you.
62. Grapes of Wrath
You live the Okie's pain in every scene/
63. Citizen Kane
Ok: "Rosebud."
64. The Godfather
Makes you want to convert to Italian.
65. The Wizard of Oz
I'll follow the yellow brick road anywhere.
66. The Graduate
How could the kid resist Bankcroft's legs?
67. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
A nuts film about nuts in a nutsy time.
68. King Kong (original)
It was beauty that killed the beast.
69. Raiders of the Lost Ark
I wanted to buy a big hat and a bullwhip and leave for Egypt
70. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
That witch scared the bejeez out of me, to this day.
71. The Sound of Music
Sappy but how could you not put it on the list.
72. Hunchback of Notre Dame
The Lon Chaney Sr. silent version. Worth the watch.
73. Schindler's List
Spielberg's tribute to his heritage.
74. On the Waterfront
Brando: "I could have been a contende'"
75. The Maltese Falcon
Bogie, yet again: the stuff dreams are made of...
76. Duck Soup
Marx Brothers' over-the-top spoof on government. Priceless.
77. The Wild Bunch
Sam Peckinpah's view of the end of the West.
78. The Manchurian Candidate
Frank Sinatra's dramatic triumph in a chilling, "real" story.
79. Fantasia
Imagine, Disney did this in 1940 before LSD.
80. Bringing Up Baby
One of four Hepburn-Grant triumphs. Screwball at its best.
81. Streetcar Named Desire
Brando, again, in New Orleans: "Stellllllla."
82. Rear Window
Alfred Hitchcock, yet again; Jimmy Stewart. Grace Kelly. A broken leg. Wow!
83. Star Wars
George Lucas' tribute to Saturday morning sci fi television.
84. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
A movie that defies imagination and gravity. Stunning.
85. 12 Angry Men
Sidney Lumet's social conscience with a huge cast of stars.
86. It's a Wonderful Life
Capra's schmaltz at its best. Only watched it 300 times.
87. Animal House
College the way some of wanted it; or feared it would be.
88. Rashomon
America discovered Akira Kurosawa and foreign films.
89. Wild Strawberries
Bergman's lesson in tedium and beauty. Again waking up America.
90. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Who could think up a story like this?
91. Cool Hand Luke
"What we have here is a failure to communicate."
92. Zorba the Greek
Don't you want to just dance?
93. The Shawshank Redemption
Brilliant acting. Great story line.
94. The Exorcist
Really frightening. And Jason Miller can act.
95. High Noon
Grace Kelly in a western! Gary Cooper. Lloyd Bridges.
96. The High and the Mighty
Number Two (co-pilot John Wayne) saves the day and the plane.
97. Rocky
New meaning to "pounding beef." Race ya to the top!
98. Field of Dreams
If you build it, they will come. Another great life lesson.
99. Rosemary's Baby
It's not everyone who can spawn the Devil.