The Top 100 English Language Films of All Time (With Commentary)

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i am going to be a shower for next halloween.

also, jess have u seen "toy soldiers"?

― Aaron Grossman (aajjgg), Thursday, 17 April 2003 22:54 (twenty-one years ago) link

Do not make me start a "Barb Wire" thread.

― Chris P (Chris P), Thursday, 17 April 2003 23:09 (twenty-one years ago) link

40-21, no comments

40 Red Dawn
39 Project X
38 Barb Wire (for Chris)
37 Ghost Dad
36 Darkman
35 The Stoned Age (Fuck snotrag, get us some talls!...okay, one comment.)
34 Predator II
33 Stargate
32 Real Genius
31 Ladybugs
30 Death Becomes Her
29 Pet Semetary
28 Dave
27 The Dark Crystal
26 Addams Family Values
25 Karate Kid II
24 Poltergeist II
23 Braveheart
22 Ghostbusters
21 Ghostbusters II

― jess (dubplatestyle), Thursday, 17 April 2003 23:37 (twenty-one years ago) link

i spelled cemetary wrong...i feel they would want it this way

― jess (dubplatestyle), Thursday, 17 April 2003 23:41 (twenty-one years ago) link

There needs to be some more non-Caddyshack Rodney Dangerfield:

I nominate Easy Money and Ladybugs.

jess, at least one of these dystopian gems must be in the Top 100:

Rollerball (1975)
Death Race 2000
The Warriors
No Escape
Prayer of the Rollerboys
National Lampoon's Last Resort

― Cub, Friday, 18 April 2003 00:30 (twenty-one years ago) link

What he's actually missing is Spice World.

― Ally (mlescaut), Friday, 18 April 2003 00:45 (twenty-one years ago) link

While a freakish strange world, I wouldn't call that dystopian, Ally.

Prayer of the Rollerboys

Clearly the best film ever.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 18 April 2003 02:06 (twenty-one years ago) link

Richard E. Grant: What the hell?

― Ally (mlescaut), Friday, 18 April 2003 02:41 (twenty-one years ago) link

Thank you. But Barb Wire is so much better than the Dark Crystal that it makes your whole list suspect.

― Chris P (Chris P), Friday, 18 April 2003 02:44 (twenty-one years ago) link

The Stoned Age is great! I didn't like Death Becomes Her or Pet Sematary. I haven't seen any of the others. (I've seen a few on the film school list.) And Half-Baked sucks.

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Friday, 18 April 2003 02:59 (twenty-one years ago) link

I'm really glad that Dave got some recognition on this thread from someone other than me. Kevin Kline's a Komedic Kgenius. "All hail the chief cuz he's the one we hail to..."

Rounders is a horrible movie, but at the same time, it's the greatest movie ever made. Ya know?

― Yanc3y (ystrickler), Friday, 18 April 2003 03:02 (twenty-one years ago) link

But Barb Wire is so much better than the Dark Crystal

You sick bastard.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 18 April 2003 03:15 (twenty-one years ago) link

It's the god's honest truth, Ned. My bandmate and I will make you watch it next time we're spending so much time together that it makes sense to watch "Barb Wire" instead of, you know, anything else.

― Chris P (Chris P), Friday, 18 April 2003 03:16 (twenty-one years ago) link

17. Glengarry Glenn Ross

"Nice guy? I don't give a shit. Good father? Fuck you, go home and play with your kids! You wanna work here...close."

― Joe (Joe), Friday, 18 April 2003 04:05 (twenty-one years ago) link

i'm not being ironic!!
That's pretty funny. )-;

― nathalie (nathalie), Friday, 18 April 2003 07:48 (twenty-one years ago) link

17. Glengarry Glenn Ross

actorly macho bullshit masquerading as critique of something or other. (ok, great actorly macho bullshit, but i'll take swimming with sharks). what am i missing? also, only one "n".

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Friday, 18 April 2003 10:42 (twenty-one years ago) link

If you want to see actorly macho bullshit, you must check out Hurly-Burly.

― s1utsky, Friday, 18 April 2003 14:27 (twenty-one years ago) link

Rounders is a horrible movie, but at the same time, it's the greatest movie ever made. Ya know?

Showgirls rules that genre. (honorable mention: Center Stage)

― felicity (felicity), Friday, 18 April 2003 14:29 (twenty-one years ago) link

Center Stage IS great! Showgirls I've never seen. I'll catch it one of these days...

― Yanc3y (ystrickler), Friday, 18 April 2003 14:30 (twenty-one years ago) link

Arrrgghhhh Showgirls is by no means "horrible"! I've never seen Rounders.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 18 April 2003 14:45 (twenty-one years ago) link

Arrrgghhhh Showgirls is by no means "horrible"!

If you accept the fact that it's a genre film limited by the problems of such a self-conscious construct, then I think you can try and make that argument.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 18 April 2003 14:49 (twenty-one years ago) link

Rounders -- Classic or Dud?

― Yanc3y (ystrickler), Friday, 18 April 2003 14:54 (twenty-one years ago) link

Galaxy Quest is a great movie.

― felicity (felicity), Friday, 18 April 2003 14:56 (twenty-one years ago) link

My friend is in Galaxy Quest! (he's the dorky kid who saves the day; he's also in the NBC show Ed) And yes, it's great.

― Yanc3y (ystrickler), Friday, 18 April 2003 14:57 (twenty-one years ago) link

After I saw that movie about the host of the Gong Show who was also in the CIA, it took me forever to remember what else I had seen Sam Rockwell in. Then it hit me...the character from Galaxy Quest who doesn't have a last name and will therefore die. That movie rules. When they're pulling the spaceship out of the docking bay and it scrapes along the side for like 20 minutes - nevermind that there's no sound in space - it cracks me up.

― Nick A. (Nick A.), Friday, 18 April 2003 15:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

If you accept the fact that it's a genre film limited by the problems of such a self-conscious construct

Huh? Genre is a limitation on form and style, not quality. And how is a genre film any more selfconscious than a non-genre film? I don't grok you at all, Ned.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 18 April 2003 15:03 (twenty-one years ago) link

Yeah, Sam Rockwell's great in it. Best part tho: Tony Shalhoub as the stoner crew member.

― Yanc3y (ystrickler), Friday, 18 April 2003 15:06 (twenty-one years ago) link

Some genre films = The Searchers, Meet Me in St. Louis, Scarlet Street, A Star Is Born

― Amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 18 April 2003 15:07 (twenty-one years ago) link

Tony Shalhoub is always a treat (and watched Center Stage again last night, v. enjoyable)

― H (Heruy), Friday, 18 April 2003 15:10 (twenty-one years ago) link

Most underrated supporting actor ever = Stephen Tobolowsky (Ned Ryerson in Groundhog Day, Sammy Jankis in Memento, etc.)

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 18 April 2003 15:11 (twenty-one years ago) link

Movie I shoulda listed under my "Most Watched Movies" list:

Out of Sight

Actor that should be added to the "Underrated Supporting Actors" list:

Steve Zahn

― Yanc3y (ystrickler), Friday, 18 April 2003 15:12 (twenty-one years ago) link

...Heat, The Thin Red Line, An Angel at My Table, Running out of Time...

― Amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 18 April 2003 15:13 (twenty-one years ago) link

does Steve Zahn count as underrated?

― H (Heruy), Friday, 18 April 2003 15:13 (twenty-one years ago) link

Since I don't think Sarah is reading this thread, I'll just say that Sarah McLusky's mom went to school with Stephen Tobolowsky. They were on the debate team together.

― Nick A. (Nick A.), Friday, 18 April 2003 15:15 (twenty-one years ago) link

You might be right, H. Maybe he's passed underrated and ventured into rated. He consistently makes me laugh, even in horrible movies (ahem... Saving Silverman?), and he's fantastic in Out of Sight.

― Yanc3y (ystrickler), Friday, 18 April 2003 15:16 (twenty-one years ago) link

In this sense more than anything else -- a 'genre' film (like a genre book or whatever) is usually/automatically seen as somehow inferior to the vaunted 'tales of real life' that are the standard by which everything else is measured. Showgirls isn't a 'fantasy' film or a 'mystery' film or the like as defined by the mainstream but it is part of a particular genre/subset of films and stories -- breathless ingenue tries to make it big (A Star is Born is one take on it, certainly) -- that is often seen as its own dumb cliche. I'm not trying to say I agree with this take, but it is the kind of kneejerk response that can happen and does happen.

In the case of this film in particular, I seem to remember you arguing that Verhoeven/Eszterhas knew the genre and its cliches well and were trying to subvert it -- personally I think that's reading too much into it and it's just an extremely dumb movie (and entertaining on that level because it's so bad) made by people who regard themselves as smarter than the material (though in this case I find the blame will always lie with Eszterhas more). So maybe I wasn't initially clear with my point, but I think we both agree that Showgirls's story is generic and that the creators knew it was generic, and that dismissing the film as horrible because of its genre would be a bad move.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 18 April 2003 15:16 (twenty-one years ago) link

Sarah McLusky's mom went to school with Stephen Tobolowsky.

That totally rules!

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 18 April 2003 15:18 (twenty-one years ago) link

I never made the argument you mention, Ned. In fact I'm typically pretty averse to any analysis that involves the word "subvert" in some fashion.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 18 April 2003 15:22 (twenty-one years ago) link

I feel like I'm getting carciatured as Mr. Film Studies, which is funny since I never went to film school nor did I major in film as an undergrad. First Jess draws up some imagined list of what I would endorse as the greatest movies of all time (about which I could care less) and now I'm being credited with some asinine Film Studies 101 argument about Showgirls being "subversive" that I never made.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 18 April 2003 15:25 (twenty-one years ago) link

In the words of Xenia Onatopp, "Stop it -- you're like boys with toys!"

If you would all write in the active voice and leave the straw men at home you would get into fewer of these arguments.

― felicity (felicity), Friday, 18 April 2003 15:36 (twenty-one years ago) link

I never made the argument you mention, Ned.

Hm, in that case I do apologize, because I thought you had done something similar on a previous thread. I was not trying to put words in your mouth! I only recalled that being your take.

leave the straw men at home

But they are friends! I create armies of them and they follow me around. It's a pity when they get wet in the rain, though.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 18 April 2003 15:39 (twenty-one years ago) link

ha ha!

They really are like some of our best friends sometimes.

― felicity (felicity), Friday, 18 April 2003 15:39 (twenty-one years ago) link

I feel that Jess and Ned are caricaturing me as Mr. Film Studies. I think Showgirls is a good film (not great) not because it subverts the conventions of the girl-makes-it-big genre but because it applies them so faithfully to the milieu of Las Vegas and does so with remarkable visual panache. I think that Film Studies prizes altogether to much the idea of "subversiveness" without being clear on why that should be a prized value, or without even having much sense of what it is they want to subvert and why.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 18 April 2003 15:40 (twenty-one years ago) link

I might have set up Jess as a straw man. I'm sure he does enjoy the film she listed and for the reasons he mentions. I guess I just felt that titling the list "The Top 100 English Language Films of All Time" smacked of adolescent provocation but the fact that I was provoked (even mildly) says more about me than it does about Jess, perhaps.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 18 April 2003 15:42 (twenty-one years ago) link

film she = films he

― Amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 18 April 2003 15:42 (twenty-one years ago) link

Felicity you keep me honest.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 18 April 2003 15:43 (twenty-one years ago) link

The straw men are like what Barry Sobel describes in LA as what you have instead of friends: "people who are like, your friends."

― felicity (felicity), Friday, 18 April 2003 15:43 (twenty-one years ago) link

Has anyone else noticed the biggest omission from this list?

Jaws.

― j.lu (j.lu), Friday, 18 April 2003 15:45 (twenty-one years ago) link

Because we're all ghosts in the machines, Amateurist. ;-) Anyway, if the key point is that it's a 'faithful' reapplication, then I'm just not seeing that particular virtue. Subversion may be overrated but conscious recreation/reapplication could be its equally overrated counterbalance in the end, at least for me. As for 'panache,' eh -- not in this case. But someone like Baz Luhrmann, say, probably would have made it all the more skullpoundingly crazy, and not necessarily for the better. Again, I just think it's a big bad dumb movie, and that's reason enough to enjoy. ;-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 18 April 2003 15:47 (twenty-one years ago) link

Ned if you continue with the smiley faces I will strangle you.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 18 April 2003 15:49 (twenty-one years ago) link

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