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

[narniadis]

Weir's films go back and forth for me but I adore Dead Poets (that turn by Williams and a tight script make it really work) and Truman, the only 2 on my list - master and commander is meh compared with those two for me.

 

And with the latest additions I am up to 15 so far (+3 honorable Mentions)

[The Panda]

Hopefully I put this in the right thread this time

 

Number 47

Beauty and the Beast (1991)

45 Points (20 Votes, Avg Score 47.45)

 

"For who could ever learn to love a beast?"

 

Top 5 Placements: 1 Placement

Top 10 Placements: 2 Placements

Changes in Rankings Over Time: 2014 (44, -3), 2013 (68, +21), 2012 (77, +30)

Tomatometer: 93%

Box Office: 145.86m (300.01m Adjusted)

Most Notable Awards Recognition: Won 2 Oscars and first Animated movie to be nominated for Best Picture

IMDb Synopsis: Belle is a girl who is dissatisfied with life in a small provincial French town, constantly trying to fend off the misplaced "affections" of conceited Gaston. The Beast is a prince who was placed under a spell because he could not love. A wrong turn taken by Maurice, Belle's father, causes the two to meet.

Critic Opinion: "It’s difficult to over-appreciate this classic film, which features a wonderful message about seeing the true beauty in people. The love story is wonderfully-told and the main characters are fully realized. Aside from that, the film’s vibrant colors are wonderful to behold, and the 3-D only adds to that. The new effects are more subtle than the typical 3-D effects where objects come flying off the screen.

 

The music remains one of the film’s main selling points. The soundtrack is phenomenal. From the exciting lyrics of “Be Our Guest” to the calm melodies of the title track, this film captures many of the reasons why Disney films are often a magical experience. Listening to the title song in the middle of the film actually gave me goosebumps.

 

“Beauty and the Beast” remains a Disney classic for many reasons. It may be a simple story that children can understand, but its themes and its presentation are magical. It’s no wonder that this film remains a modern-day classic." - John Hanlon

User Opinion: "One of the best Disney Animation Classics. Everything's really just perfect, and the best aspect of the movie for me is characterizations. Every characters, especially the leads and the villain, are so well crafted with layers and back stories. 
 
Gaston is such a great villain, whereas other villains of Disney are purely evil, cruel, ruthless,etc... Gaston is absolutely despicable in many ways. I don't know why, but I always find that type of antagonist very interesting. 
 
Belle is one of my favorite Disney female protagonists, good and aspiring character." - Sam

Personal Comment: Beauty and the Beast comes in as the second movie from Walt Disney, the 5th animation so far, and the 10th movie from the 90s tying the decade with the 80s and 2000s for second place in the decade contest.  There's few movies out there that are able to play out as true of a classic as Beauty and the Beast can.  The animation in the movie is gorgeous to watch, the songs stick to the memory, and the film is cut to being flawless in its form and how it flows.  The movie is an example of a film being absolutely everything it could have been and playing it perfectly.

 

 

[angeldelmito]

can't wait for the live action version of it 

[cannastop]

One of my least favorite animated Disney features. I really don't like the "heal the Beast with your love" dynamic.

[The Panda]

Number 46

Fargo (1996)

45 Points (21 Votes, Avg Score 47)

 

"You're darn tootin'!"

 

Top 5 Placements: 1 Placement

Top 10 Placements: 3 Placements

Changes in Rankings Over Time: 2014 (74, +28), 2013 (53, +7), 2012 (55, +9)

Tomatometer: 94%

Box Office: 24.61m (47.35m Adjusted)

Most Notable Awards Recognition: Won 2 Oscars

IMDb Synopsis: Jerry works in his father-in-law's car dealership and has gotten himself in financial problems. He tries various schemes to come up with money needed for a reason that is never really explained. It has to be assumed that his huge embezzlement of money from the dealership is about to be discovered by father-in-law. When all else falls through, plans he set in motion earlier for two men to kidnap his wife for ransom to be paid by her wealthy father (who doesn't seem to have the time of day for son-in-law). From the moment of the kidnapping, things go wrong and what was supposed to be a non-violent affair turns bloody with more blood added by the minute. Jerry is upset at the bloodshed, which turns loose a pregnant sheriff from Brainerd, MN who is tenacious in attempting to solve the three murders in her jurisdiction.

Critic Opinion: "In a performance that will finally gain him the respect he deserves, Chicago actor William H. Macy plays the Minneapolis car salesman whose life is in ruins. He's got huge debts -- for reasons refreshingly never identified -- and he wants his wife kidnapped and his wealthy father-in-law to pay him the ransom, most of which he'll pocket himself before paying off a couple of a thugs.  The whole plot goes terribly wrong, violently and comically. And the less I tell you about it, the more you will enjoy this masterpiece. There are murder, low comedy, bad Midwestern accents and a crippling tension between the haves and have nots. And standing above it all is the most unlikely looking heroine, played beautifully by Frances McDormand ("Mississippi Burning").  I've credited Macy and McDormand with fine work, but I'm sure they would be the first to admit that these are the roles of a lifetime." - Gene Siskel

User Opinion: "Can't believe no one has reviewed this:Even though it's serious, it's just so darn funny!, 26 June 2000This is a strange film. Most of the time, when it comes to films that are reality based, I get tired of them real fast. Take a film like Affliction. That film was about an alcoholic father and the abuse of his sons. It got real old real fast because there was just too much reality in there. And it didn't manage to mesh the reality with even a modicum of entertainment. Fargo is different. This is a very serious film with a whole slew of funny moments. I don't think I have laughed this hard in a film when people weren't doing anything particularly funny. But when a guy with a shovel in his hand tells you than there are clouds coming in over the horizon, and you find that gut-splittingly funny, then you are in for a special film. Fargo is that film.But besides the hilarity, what makes this film work is the breakthrough performance of William H. Macy. Macy plays Jerry Lundergard the only way he should be played. Lundergard is a troubled man. He is in some financial difficulty and he has rich relatives that wouldn't give him any money for any reason. They don't particularly like him. Lundergard is a normal man. He comes from a small town and he ends up hatching a big scheme to get the money. He will have his wife kidnapped and then set up a ransom for her that will go to him. His wife won't be harmed and then he can pay off his financial debt. So he hires a couple of idiots, violent idiots, but idiots nonetheless. Of course this being a crime movie, and a Coen crime movie at that, everything is going to go wrong. And it does.Macy captures the true feel of what it would be like to be in Lundergard's position. He is nervous. He is nervous because he is so inept at crime that he hasn't even bothered to get the kidnappers phone numbers and he tried to supply them with a car by smudging some numbers when sending in a fax to GM. In one of the best scenes in the film, what starts out as a friendly meeting between Marge, the police detective, and Jerry turns into disaster for Jerry. He can't even lie well enough to a police officer who really isn't questioning him about the crime, just the possibility that the crooks stole a car from his lot. Now I'm no expert in kidnapping, but wouldn't it have been better for him to just say that he had a car stolen from the lot? But he can't even figure that out properly.Marge is played by Academy Award winner Frances McDormand. She is from the small town of Fargo, she is pregnant and she has trouble starting her car in the morning. But she is also a gifted police officer. Upon investigating the scene of the first crime, she figures it out with common sense and logic. " I don't think I agree with some of your police work there..." she tells the other officer that seems to have it all backwards. When she gets to the big city, the first thing she does is look for a buffet, then she goes onto trying to solve a crime. She still has her priorities straight.The two kidnappers are played by Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare. Buscemi is Showalter and Stormare is Grimsrud and they couldn't be more opposite. Buscemi is "funny looking" and a nervous, talkative fellow while Stormare is a quiet, almost dumb looking dork. But they are ruthlessly violent and quick to pull the trigger. Buscemi provides the film with some of the bigger laughs as his character is always described as being funny looking by the locals.The Coens have made some movies that were considered good, although not my taste ( Miller's Crossing, Barton Fink ) but Fargo is a step above most other films. It is smarter than any film should be and it is honest and deceptively funny. If something is supposed to go wrong then it does. In most films, when a crime is committed, the only reason it is solved and the good guys win is because that is the way scripts are written. The good guys have to win because that is the formula for a film. But in Fargo, everything that happens does so because there are reasons for it and reasons given for it. If Marge is going to figure out the crime, she does so because she has done her homework and found out where the bad guys are. The script doesn't let her down.Fargo was one of the best films to come out of 1996 and it sure as hell was much better than English Patient. I don't think we are meant to figure out the academy though. One year it gives out best picture to a worthy film like Titanic and overlooks unworthy opponents like L.A. Confidential and then other years it gives best picture to crap like Shakespeare In Love and English Patient overlooking films like Saving Private Ryan and Fargo. Fargo is one of the most original films ever made and it is a perfect one to watch when you are tired of the formula that Hollywood releases time and time again." - baumer

Personal Comment: The Coen Brothers strike the list for a third, and final, time with one of their beloved crime drama, Fargo.  Fargo is the 11th movie from the 1990s to make our list, tying it with the 2010s for the most amount of movies in a single decade so far.  The Coen Brothers are two of the most highly thought of directors still working in the industry right now, and it shows with Fargo.  Whether it's the quirky, dark humor buried within the film, or the powerful award wining performances within the film, Fargo has left itself as a staple in the Coen Brothers cinematic legacy.

 

 

[Amadeus]

The best disney since Bambi! and still not surpassed by the studio (not even with Pixar under its wings). Very honest (not ironic, tounge in cheeky) movie making with moral sense! The music is professionally written and executed; the animation is gorgeous; the (voice) acting is great! 9/10

[narniadis]

Beauty is one of my favorite films - landing at place #2 on my list behind only Sorkin's Political masterpiece....

 

Fargo is great.

Edited May 21, 2016 by narniadis

[4815162342]

Fargo you betcha.

[The Panda]

Number 45

Alien (1979)

45 Points (22 Votes, Avg Score 49.3636)

 

"I can't lie to you about your chances, but... you have my sympathies."

 

Top 5 Placements: 1 Placement

Top 10 Placements: 2 Placements

Changes in Rankings Over Time: 2014 (40, -5), 2013 (45, --), 2012 (50, +5)

Tomatometer: 97%

 

Box Office: 78.94m (269.86m Adjusted)

Most Notable Awards Recognition: Won 1 Oscar

IMDb Synopsis: A commercial crew aboard the deep space towing vessel, Nostromo is on its way home when they pick up an SOS warning from a distant planet. What they don't know is that the SOS warning is not like any other ordinary warning call. Picking up the signal, the crew realize that they are not alone on the spaceship when an alien stowaway is on the cargo ship.

Critic Opinion: "After 30 years, the “Boo!” and gross-out moments are permanently cemented in the cultural psyche—from the face-hugger’s leap out of the translucent egg to John Hurt’s dinner-table stomach burst. So what’s left to discover about Ridley Scott’s great deep-space horror show? Mainly it’s the sense of pace and craft that the once-promising director would soon trade in, post--Blade Runner, for empty, pretense-laden spectacle. When Scott introduces us to the crew and corridors of the interplanetary mining ship Nostromo, he emphasizes silence and languor, the better to immerse us in the cavernous physical and mental playground that the alien (designed by Oscar-winning Swiss surrealist H.R. Giger) will use to its merciless advantage.

 

It’s the creature’s instinctual murder spree that makes the immediate impression, but that would be nothing without the simmering tensions among the human counterparts. At times, Alien plays like an upstairs-downstairs comedy of manners, complete with disenchanted, proletarian grunts (Harry Dean Stanton and Yaphet Kotto’s union-men mechanics) and effete, eye-rolling snobs (Ian Holm’s above-it-all science officer) trading class-specific aspersions. What it all comes down to, of course, is Sigourney Weaver in her underwear facing off with a drooling, phallus-shaped nightmare made flesh. The dissertations practically write themselves." - Keith Uhlich

User Opinion: "One of my top 25 films of all time.
 
I mean its fucking perfect! The tension in the first half is Kubrick esqe and you having this invisible driving force building the whole movie.
 
Watch this movie then look me in the eye and tell me your digital over film, I won't believe you.
 
HOLY FUCK ITS SO GOOD" - Jay Hollywood

Personal Comment: Sir Ridley Scott returns to the list with one his most beloved films, Alien.  Alien is the 5th movie from the 1970s to make the list, far behind every decade that came after it, but that's still progress.  As I said before, the Alien vs. Aliens argument may come back up, and it did as it seems while this forum loves both, the consensus definitely seems to favor Alien, and I'd personally agree.  Alien is a slow and suspenseful film, and it manages to do something that the sequel didn't, and that was legitimately leave me in terror.  Either way, Alien spawned a franchise that has made a lasting legacy in the film industry.

 

 

[narniadis]

@The Panda this may have already been asked in this thread and I missed it, but how many films in total were submitted? Just curious to see where everyone's #1 ended up and how many films we left off.

[The Panda]

3 minutes ago, narniadis said:

@The Panda this may have already been asked in this thread and I missed it, but how many films in total were submitted? Just curious to see where everyone's #1 ended up and how many films we left off.

 

1327 different movies were submitted

[Amadeus]

1 hour ago, The Panda said:

 

1327 different movies were submitted

By how many voters?

[narniadis]

22 minutes ago, The Panda said:

 

1327 different movies were submitted

 

WOW That is a WIDE net to sift through lol

[Fancyarcher]

I love Beauty and The Beast. Fargo and Alien are also great.

[Daxtreme]

Did Aliens pop in the list before? I can't remember.

 

Anyway, Alien is a masterclass of Horror movie-making. Glad to see it.

[WrathOfHan]

3 of my Top 5 has made it so far (Alien, Lebowski, Lambs), just waiting for Pulp Fiction and ESB

[Ethan Hunt]

12 minutes ago, Daxtreme said:

Did Aliens pop in the list before? I can't remember.

 

Anyway, Alien is a masterclass of Horror movie-making. Glad to see it.

Yeah, Aliens was like 70ish I think

Edited May 22, 2016 by Ethan Hunt

[Empire]

Alien is maybe my favorite horror film of all-time! 

[JohnnY]

inside out is in this list, right?

[narniadis]

2 minutes ago, JohnnY said:

inside out is in this list, right?

 

Above Beauty and the Beast? I hope not lol.... I know there are several more animated films to come but yeah....