BOT Top 100 Movies of All Time: The Empire Strikes Back... Again... For the Third Time...

[TalismanRing]

6 hours ago, Baumer said:

I think Civil War being included on the list is silly, not because it just came out but because it's not nearly good enough to be on here...imo.  But then again I have TFA in my top 25 films of all time, so it's all about what appeals to you.

 

 

Sure.  I think Civil War is fantastic whereas I found TFA a nice enough piece of nostalgia tinged movie making but just OK terms of story, acting and even visuals (this is where George was truly missed).

 

As for finding animation to be fluff maybe you should branch out into non US animation and see if that appeals more.  I can't imagine anyone watching Grave of The Fireflies and not being gutted let alone moved.    That's an extreme case but there are other films like Princess Monoke, The Wind Rises, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, Sword Of The Stranger, Ghost in the Shell, Paprika etc.

[Dementeleus]

2 minutes ago, Infernus said:

What does it matter whether its 10 day old or 110 years old?

 

Perspective. Almost everyone here (myself included) gets really enthusiastic about a movie just after we've seen it. If you sustain that enthusiasm at the same level over time, then a movie's earned it for you. If it dips over time (which most do) then perhaps it hasn't.

[Goffe]

3 hours ago, Treetrunk Special said:

Mad Max 2 is a billion times better than Fury Road

the original is the best of them all.

[The Panda]

Just now, Telemachos said:

 

Perspective. Almost everyone here (myself included) gets really enthusiastic about a movie just after we've seen it. If you sustain that enthusiasm at the same level over time, then a movie's earned it for you. If it dips over time (which most do) then perhaps it hasn't.

 

This is true, there are times I leave movies feeling like I just watched the best thing in the world.  These are usually my A+ movies and if I ranked how I felt about it after I just saw it, Id naturally rank it much higher than I might in a few years time.  I loved the Avengers after I first saw it, it would have made my top 25, now I'm skeptical if Id even rank it in my top 250.

 

Now I didn't really want to set limits with the list because these lists are really just a glance in time, as any ranking is.  It's why this is our fourth time doing a list, because they are a general reflection of the forum's taste at a given moment in time.  Time changes things.

 

So while I may not agree with Civil War being on the list, I think it's an interesting reflection of the forum's current state as of right now.  It'll be interesting if the Captain America movies stick it out in the future.

[angeldelmito]

8 hours ago, JohnnY said:

 

plus the movie is quite forgettable 

[The Panda]

Number 83

Saving Private Ryan (1998)

29 Points (16 Votes, Avg Score 46.6875)

 

"James, earn this... earn it."

 

Changes in Rankings Over Time: 2014 (49, -34), 2013 (67, -16), 2012 (29, -54)

Tomatometer: 92%

Box Office: 216.54m (392.51m)

Most Notable Awards Recognition: Won 5 Oscars while being snubbed for the BP win by a much lesser film...

IMDb Synopsis: Opening with the Allied invasion of Normandy on 6 June 1944, members of the 2nd Ranger Battalion under Cpt. Miller fight ashore to secure a beachhead. Amidst the fighting, two brothers are killed in action. Earlier in New Guinea, a third brother is KIA. Their mother, Mrs. Ryan, is to receive all three of the grave telegrams on the same day. The United States Army Chief of Staff, George C. Marshall, is given an opportunity to alleviate some of her grief when he learns of a fourth brother, Private James Ryan, and decides to send out 8 men (Cpt. Miller and select members from 2nd Rangers) to find him and bring him back home to his mother...

Critic Opinion: "Critic and filmmaker Francois Truffaut once told me that he thought it was difficult to make an anti-war film because movies, he said, "glamorize everything and always argue for whatever behavior they show." I wish more directors believed that; we'd get better, more responsible movies. In a recent interview, Spielberg told me that Truffaut, who acted in Spielberg's "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," had told him the very same thing, and that that challenge was very much on his mind during production. Maybe that's why Spielberg took most of the color out of his photography, giving the film a gray-to-silver, wartime snapshot look. When someone is shot, we focus more on the horror of the death than on any blood.

 

Spielberg also tells his heroic story in a different way through adult dialogue. The film's title, very loosely based on a true story, has a squad of arriving American troops, under the command of a captain (Tom Hanks), being asked to find and protect a certain private who parachuted behind enemy lines. It seems his three brothers recently have been killed in action, and Army policy is to try to save families from complete devastation. The casting of Hanks is a master stroke. He has such a sweet persona that to place him in combat is heart-breaking. And Hanks' character and other troops regularly challenge in dialogue the wisdom of the mission, as any reasonable person might.

 

In a summer of films with lot of explosions and firepower, "Saving Private Ryan" is the only one with ideas." - Gene Siskel

User Opinion: "I, like many young people had a grandfather that was in the war. I know he faced death many times but I don't know how many times or any of the details of his ordeal in WWII. He wouldn't ever talk about them, not even to my mother or her sister. Sometimes I could never understand that, but now I do. If this is really what it was like to be a soldier, no matter what war you are fighting, then it must be an incredibly difficult ordeal to drudge up memories that are this disturbing, this vivid and this real. I have never been to war and I hope that I never have to experience war, but after seeing this movie I believe I can tell you at least what it may have been like. This movie is that vivid and that honest.The first half an hour of this film is some of the most amazing direction I have seen in any film in my entire life. I have even read that Spielberg toned it down some. That is hard to believe knowing what is up there on screen.This film is brilliant in every capacity. The direction is so clear and crisp that you feel like you know these men when the film is over. You feel like you understand the war a little better than you did before. The acting is terrific. And not just Hanks and Damon, but everyone from Sizemore to Ribisi to the grunt that gets his guts blown out ( take your pick as to who that is.) I can't believe a film like Shakespeare in Love, a film that could have been an after school special, was chosen as best picture. Best picture? Over this? How is that possible? If you haven't seen this ( and there aren't many of you out there ) please do yourself a favour, see it tonight. It is such an amazing film and it is one that I will never forget.A final note: Even though my grandfather has been gone for about 20 years now, I salute him and every other guy that put it on the line and did so because they believed in what they were doing. I have a new understanding and appreciation for people like my grandfather. And that a film could make me feel that way is something special in itself. As a Canadian, I'd recommend watching this and Passchendaele, Paul Gross's incredible film about Canadians in WWI. While Ryan has the bigger budget, both films taught me a lot about war and the horrors of it." - baumer

Personal Comment: Saving Private Ryan is one of the films that received many votes but fell victim to not receiving many top 10 and top 4 placements to catapult it as high as it has been in previous years, however its popularity still managed to grab it a spot on the list.  Saving Private Ryan is the first Spielberg film to make the list and it is also our first Hanks piece.  The film also marks the fourth film from the 90s to make the countdown.  The movie itself was a combination of summer blockbuster and Oscar contender, and it's been one that has stayed in the hearts of many since its release.  The film also has the legacy of one of the most WTF Oscar snubs in history, winning 5 Oscars (including director), only to be snubbed by a random period piece.

 

 

[Dementeleus]

Y'know, back in the day I was pissed SPR didn't win. Now I think it's pretty awesome that it didn't. Go figure.

[baumer]

2 minutes ago, Telemachos said:

Y'know, back in the day I was pissed SPR didn't win. Now I think it's pretty awesome that it didn't. Go figure.

 

You're dead to me.

[Ethan Hunt]

Shit... Pretty sure I forgot to include SPR on my list 

[DAJK]

Barry Pepper had so much promise. Thanks Battlefield Earth.

[mldardy]

8 minutes ago, The Panda said:

 

 

Most Notable Awards Recognition: Won 5 Oscars while being snubbed for the BP win by a much lesser film...

 

 

 

[The Futurist]

The last action/ set piece scene of Ryan is so virtuositic I am not quite sure how Uncle Steven pulled it off.

It s so perfect in every way.

[rukaio101]

6 minutes ago, Telemachos said:

Y'know, back in the day I was pissed SPR didn't win. Now I think it's pretty awesome that it didn't. Go figure.

I do find it pretty funny that the movie which beat it (Shakespeare in Love) seems to be mainly well known nowadays for being 'That film which the Academy snubbed SPR for'. Same goes for Crash in regards to Brokeback Mountain.

[CoolioD1]

shakespeare in love deserves better. it shouldn't be known as "the film that beat saving private ryan"

 

it should be known as "the film that beat the thin red line"

[Dementeleus]

Just now, CoolioD1 said:

shakespeare in love deserves better. it shouldn't be known as "the film that beat saving private ryan"

 

it should be known as "the film that beat the thin red line"

 

I was gonna say something along the lines of SPR wasn't even the best WWII film that year, but yours is better.

[4815162342]

16 minutes ago, The Panda said:

 

 

 

When was this made? The year 300? God it looks so fake. Where are all the CGI dragons and wizard rays and angsty teens?

[CoolioD1]

while it is immaculate filmmaking i never liked how the final set piece just seems to turn into the good guys vs. the bad guys. felt antithetical to the rest of the picture.

[baumer]

Typical shit from Tele.....I forgot you have a hard on for pretentious films....no wonder you think Mallick's TRL was better than SPR.  This is one time....well one of many....that you are just flat out wrong.  

[Dementeleus]

1 minute ago, Baumer said:

Typical shit from Tele.....I forgot you have a hard on for pretentious films....no wonder you think Mallick's TRL was better than SPR.  This is one time....well one of many....that you are just flat out wrong.  

 

SPR is two amazing setpieces, two awful wraparounds, and a decent film stuck in between all of that.

 

TRL is transcendent and majestic from start to finish.

[The Futurist]

3 minutes ago, Telemachos said:

 

SPR is two amazing setpieces, two awful wraparounds, and a decent film stuck in between all of that.

 

TRL is transcendent and majestic from start to finish.

 

Why Lubezki doesn't pay the John Toll God Shot Tax ?