The Panda's Top 250 Movies of All Time Countdown (FINISHED)

[The Panda]

58

The Terminator

The first one may be excellent (I put it in my top 100), but this one in my opinion is a good step above it as my favorite movie that James Cameron has made.  Although the time travel plot doesn't make much sense the more you think into it, that doesn't mean it isn't incredibly clever, with characters you care about, and exhilarating action.

[The Panda]

57

King Kong (1933)

The movie has one of my favorite quotes from cinema, "It wasn't the airplanes, it was beauty that killed the beast."  King Kong is the king of the monster movies (despite how much I loved Godzilla), and it is an epic, as well as horrific and saddening, adventure movie with groundbreaking special effects for its time.  

[The Panda]

56

The Great Dictator

Charlie Chaplin delivers his powerful classic (and one of the first of its kind) through this great World War 2 propaganda film that had a message that was quite bold for its time when fascism was what was trending.  What's more interesting is how the bold message can still be molded to fit today, and still remain powerful today.

 

[The Panda]

55

The Bridge on the River Kwai

One of the best war movies to ever be created, and one that is bold in the message it rings out (plus the catchy theme it rings out).  The performances also ring out in their power, and David Lean directs this masterpiece to near perfection.  One of the strongest of the many, many World War 2 films.

[The Panda]

55

The Bridge on the River Kwai

One of the best war movies to ever be created, and one that is bold in the message it rings out (plus the catchy theme it rings out).  The performances also ring out in their power, and David Lean directs this masterpiece to near perfection.  One of the strongest of the many, many World War 2 films.

[The Panda]

54

Taxi Driver

I guess Scorsese and Spielberg seem like my go to directors for spots on this list, but Scorsese has just made so many great movies so it wouldn't be fair to exclude one, especially Taxi Driver.  The characters are as complex as they are in all of Scorsese's movies and the themes are invoking and strong.

Edited March 23, 2014 by The Panda

[The Panda]

53

Airplane!

It is often times considered one of the funniest movies ever made, and boy is that statement correct, Airplane! is a hilarious spoof comedy that keeps you laughing the entire way through.  The script isn't good, the actors can be quite bad, there is absolutely no point to the whole thing, and the humor can get awfully low, and despite all that I absolutely love it.

[The Panda]

52

Sunset Boulevard

Hollywood sure does love its movies about Hollywood, and I love them too when they're as good as Sunset Boulevard.  The movie remains darkly funny to this day, and the actors delve deep into the psyche of their characters.  Sunset Boulevard brilliantly mixes genres and is one of the great classics from the 50s.

[The Panda]

51

Star Wars

This isn't Episode 4, this isn't A New Hope, this is just Star Wars, Star fucking Wars, are you hearing me George Lucas?  Thank the lord your hands are now off these movies because you continually kept showing evidence that these films may have just been a stroke of luck after trying to tamper and edit his mastery with stupid shit like Greedo trying to shoot first.  Rant aside, Star Wars is awesome, we all know that.

[The Panda]

50

Gravity

Yes, you just read that right, Star Wars is number 51 and Gravity is number 50 (and this is a movie I see climbing up the rankings in the future, I just didn't feel right putting a barely 6 month old movie any higher than this).  Gravity is a nerve-wrecking, spine-chilling, masterpiece by Alfonso Cuaron that is crafted to such amazing detail.  I absolutely loved this movie, Cuaron went above and beyond by turning a vast space of nothingness into the most terrifying antagonists ever put to screen.  I've seen this movie 3 times already, in 3 different venues, and each time I leave effected, chilled, and wanting more.

[Dark Jedi Master 007]

I respect Gravity more than I like it. 

[mahnamahna]

I've seen

[*]Gravity (2013) [*]Star Wars (1977) [*]Sunset Boulevard (1950)  [*]Airplane! (1980) [*]Taxi Driver (1976) [*]The Great Dictator (1940)  [*]King Kong (1933) [*]The Terminator (1984)  [*]Saving Private Ryan (1998)  [*]Rear Window (1954)  [*](500) Days of Summer (2009) [*]Beauty and the Beast (1991)  [*]Forrest Gump (1994)  [*]The Social Network (2010) [*]Annie Hall (1977)  [*]Goldfinger (1964)  [*]The Silence of the Lambs (1991)  [*]The Shining (1980)  [*]Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) [*]Life of Pi (2012)  [*]Star Trek (2009)  [*]Rosemary's Baby (1968)  [*]Blade Runner (1982) [*]The Evil Dead (1981)  [*]Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988)  [*]Mean Girls (2004)  [*]The Avengers (2012) [*]Frankenstein (1931) [*]Back to the Future (1985) [*]Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)  [*]A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)  [*]A Fistful of Dollars (1964)  [*]The Matrix (1999)  [*]The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)  [*]Bride of Frankenstein (1935)  [*]South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut (1999) [*]Ghostbusters (1984)  [*]To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)  [*]The LEGO Movie (2014)  [*]Spaceballs (1987) [*]Men in Black (1997)  [*]The Elephant Man (1980)  [*]The Hurt Locker (2009)  [*]Silver Linings Playbook (2012)  [*]Singin' in the Rain (1952)  [*]Beetlejuice (1988)  [*]The Iron Giant (1999)  [*]Great Expectations (1947)  [*]Fargo (1996)  [*]The Birds (1963)  [*]Mary Poppins (1964) [*]Wall Street (1987)  [*]Young Frankenstein (1974)  [*]The Exorcist (1973) [*]Apollo 13 (1995)  [*]A Hard Day's Night (1964)  [*]Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)  [*]Poltergeist (1982)  [*]Groundhog Day (1993)  [*]Pinocchio (1940)  [*]True Grit (2010) [*]The Goonies (1985)  [*]Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) [*]Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)  [*]Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) [*]Some Like it Hot (1959)   [*]Memento (2000)  [*]Monsters, Inc. (2001)  [*]Up (2009) [*]Bambi (1942)  [*]Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)  [*]Toy Story (1995)  [*]Steamboat Willie (1928)  [*]Zero Dark Thirty (2012)  [*]Tropic Thunder (2008)  [*]Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987) [*]The Fly (1986)  [*]Shrek (2001)  [*]O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)  [*]Requiem for a Dream (2000)  [*]This is the End (2013)  [*]The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)  [*]Rain Man (1988)  [*]Argo (2012)  [*]The Incredibles (2004)  [*]Return of the Jedi (1983)  [*]Aliens (1986)  [*]Dumbo (1941) [*]Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 2 (2011) [*]Rocky (1976)  [*]Aladdin (1992)  [*]Dracula (1931)  [*]The Jungle Book (1967)  [*]Reservoir Dogs (1992)  [*]Braveheart (1995)  [*]Tarzan (1999)  [*]Batman Begins (2005)  [*]Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)  [*]The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)  [*]On the Waterfront (1954)  [*]The Prince of Egypt (1998)  [*]The Dark Knight (2008)  [*]District 9 (2009)  [*]All About Eve (1950)  [*]Ratatouille (2007) [*]Iron Man (2008)  [*]The Sound of Music (1965)  [*]Ben-Hur (1959) 

Haven't seen

[*]The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)  [*]Boogie Nights (1997) [*]The Last Picture Show (1971)  [*]M (1931)  [*]Modern Times (1936) [*]There Will Be Blood (2007)  [*]City of God (2002)  [*]Cabaret (1972)  [*]Pan's Labyrinth (2006)  [*]Mean Streets (1973)  [*]Shanghai Express (1936) [*]The Last of the Mohicans (1992)  [*]Repulsion (1965)  [*]The Great Escape (1963)  [*]Fiddler on the Roof (1971)  [*]Gone with the Wind (1939)  [*]Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) [*]Donnie Darko (2001)  [*]Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) [*]My Fair Lady (1964)  [*]L.A. Confidential (1997) [*]Her (2013) [*]Dr. No (1962)  [*]Touch of Evil (1958)  [*]The King of Comedy (1983)  [*]Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror (1922)  [*]Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003) [*]Kill Bill Vol. 2 (2004)  [*]Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)  [*]The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)  [*]Perserpolis (2007) [*]The Hunt for Red October (1990)  [*]The Departed (2006) [*]Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)  [*]Anatomy of a Murder (1959)  [*]In the Heat of the Night (1967)  [*]An American in Paris (1951)  [*]For a Few Dollars More (1965)  [*]Gojira (1954)  [*]Stalag 17 (1953)  [*]Django Unchained (2012)  [*]Young Mr. Lincoln (1939)  [*]Amadeus (1984)  [*]Lifeboat (1944)  [*]Of Mice and Men (1939)  [*]Minority Report (2002)  [*]National Lampoon's Animal House (1978)  [*]Million Dollar Baby (2004)  [*]Good Will Hunting (1997)  [*]The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)  [*]This is Spinal Tap (1984)  [*]12 Years a Slave (2013)  [*]Zodiac (2007)  [*]Grave of the Fireflies (1988)  [*]The Ladykillers (1955)  [*]Seven Samurai (1954)  [*]The Killing Fields (1984) [*]A History of Violence (2005)  [*]The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)  [*]Adaptation (2002)  [*]Hot Fuzz (2007)  [*]All the King's Men (1949)  [*]Starship Troopers (1997)  [*]Doctor Zhivago (1965)  [*]Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)  [*]The Bourne Identity (2002)  [*]sex, lies, and videotapes (1989)  [*]Risky Business (1983)  [*]Gypsy (1993)  [*]Lost in Translation (2003)  [*]Shadow of a Doubt (1943)  [*]Casino Royale (2006)  [*]Y Tu Mama Tambien (2001)  [*]Cast Away (2000)  [*]The Last Waltz (1978)  [*]Stagecoach (1939)  [*]20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)  [*]Lethal Weapon (1987) [*]Three Kings (1999)  [*]From Here to Eternity (1953)  [*]The Bells of St. Mary's (1945)  [*]Master and Commander - The Far Side of the World (2003) [*]For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943) [*]The Mark of Zorro (1940)  [*]Caddyshack (1980)  [*]Snakes on a Plane (2006)  [*]East of Eden (1955)  [*]Mrs. Miniver (1942)  [*]Ocean's Eleven (2001)  [*]Hellboy (2004)  [*]The French Connection (1971)  [*]Road to Morocco (1942)  [*]The Caine Mutiny (1954) 

Edited March 23, 2014 by mahnamahna

[Blankments]

I've liked every movie I've seen

 

Interesting list, definitely will continue following it

[The Panda]

49

Glengarry Glen Ross

"Nice Guy?  I don't give a shit."  This features one of the best film monologues of all times (it may be my favorite movie speech, at least up there), seriously Alec Baldwin is in the movie for 7 minutes and completely steals it, a phenomenal performance (surrounded by a lot of great performances).  It is one of the most engaging, social commentaries that is out there.

Edited March 25, 2014 by The Panda

[The Panda]

48

The Truman Show

I really think this movie was out of its era, as great as it was in the 90s, it completely fits the reality television situation of today with modern television shows.  The plot is engaging, the script is layered with many thought provoking symbols (I have taken that the whole Truman Show is a symbol of religion/Christianity, with Christof being the head), and it remains as a phenomenal twisty drama that I am always able to find more thoughtful complexity in.

Edited March 25, 2014 by The Panda

[The Panda]

47

Unforgiven

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dngw8LbM39U

A very violent and dark western that re-captures what I loved about many of the classic westerns, while also making it a bit more modern in appeal.  Unforgiven is Clint Eastwood's best directorial work, and it also boasts one of his strongest performances as an actor he has given.  It goes into a more realistic Western world than an idealized one, and it's also one of the most deserving Oscar winners out there.

[Dark Jedi Master 007]

The Truman Show as a metaphor for religion? I'm going to need to hear more about this.

[The Panda]

46

Alien

The absolute best of the franchise by a pretty far margin, while Cameron's was definitely a jam-packed fun movie, Ridley Scott's slow moving, tension building, sci-fi masterpiece is by the far the superior installment.  It is an influential film to its genre, while also being the rare sci-fi movie with an acting nomination (That speaks a lot of how well Sigourney Weaver was).

[The Panda]

45

No Country For Old Men

It's been a little bit since I've put a Coen Bros piece, but here is another one, and this is one of their strongest.  It is a remarkable movie that is a unique blend of drama, black comedy, and a thrilling Coen adventure-esque film.  No Country For Old Men is definitely a great choice by the academy for The Coens first best picture win.

 

 

[The Panda]

44

Children of Men

One of the movie's I'd like to say is the most underrated movie of this generation but (thankfully) it has picked up a very strong following since it's lacking debut and Oscar notice.  It is a powerful, instant science fiction classic that captures the tone and themes through groundbreakingly striking cinematography.  I may eventually rate Gravity higher than this, but as of now this is Alfonso Cuaron's masterpiece (although he still has a long career ahead of him).