Because Nobody Asked For It: The Panda's Top 250 Movies of All Time - COMPLETE

[The Panda]

Number 204

Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

 

"This here's Miss Bonnie Parker. I'm Clyde Barrow. We rob banks."

 

Most Valuable Player: The Acting Ensemble

Box Office: N/A

Tomatometer: 88%

Notable Awards: Won 2 Oscars, and was nominated for Best Picture

Synopsis: Bonnie Parker, a bored waitress falls in love with an ex-con named Clyde Barrow and together they start a violent crime spree through the country, robbing cars and banks.

Critic Opinion: "Arthur Penn’s “Bonnie and Clyde” is about two real thieves of the early thirties who behaved as if they thought of themselves as film stars in a movie. They came of age in the Depression, when their beauty, their dash, and their tough past turned them into folk heroes, and they thought they had charmed lives. The film shows them holding up grocery stores and banks as if the two of them were box-office draws who were bound to survive because of their audience pull. When they are finally run to earth, they die without even reaching for their guns. Their fitful contact with unwelcoming reality affected the planning of the holdups, and the resulting quality of the ludicrous in their crimes seems to have infuriated the police as much as it captivated the out-of-work public. The records of the time show that the cops used a thousand rounds of ammunition to kill them. The movie is full of scenes of giggling and showoff, but the moods belong to the characters, not to the film. “Bonnie and Clyde” could look like a celebration of gangster glamour only to a man with a head full of wood shavings. These two visibly have the life expectancy of dragonflies; their sense of power and of unending gang fun is a delusion, and to see them duping themselves is as harrowing as the spectacle of most other hoaxes. Their motive isn’t gain but an urge to be theatrically remembered. Arthur Penn and the screenwriters—David Newman and Robert Benton—seem to have been especially absorbed by this drive in Bonnie and Clyde to record themselves. The picture often makes you think of Lee Harvey Oswald." - Gilliat, The New York (1967)

User Opinion: None

Reasoning: Bonnie and Clyde is an excellent gangster film and character piece that really set the stage of so many other gangster classics to follow it, its influence on American film should appear obvious.  The film has a tight ensemble, there's a reason it managed to garner 5 acting nominations, and Arthur Penn really takes the time to show off the characters who are obliviously uncaring to their violence, while ensuring that the audience watching is not.  It may have been pretty criticized at the time as seeming like an homage to villains, but it's much less of glorifying the killers but showing them for what they were, carefree to a fault which inevitably leads to their downfall.  Bonnie and Clyde is a thoroughly modern American classic.

Decade Count: 1930s: 4, 1940s: 4, 1950s: 1, 1960s: 3, 1970s: 3, 1980s: 8, 1990s: 6, 2000s: 11, 2010s: 7

 

 

 

 

[The Panda]

Number 203

South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut (1999)

 

"Remember what the MPAA says; Horrific, Deplorable violence is okay, as long as people don't say any naughty woids! That's what this war is all about!"

 

Most Valuable Player: Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the writing and song writing

Box Office: 52m (88.6m Adjusted)

Tomatometer: 81%

Notable Awards: Nominated for 1 Oscar

Synopsis: When the four boys see an R-rated movie featuring Canadians Terrance & Phillip, they are pronounced "corrupted", and their parents pressure the United States to wage war against Canada.

Critic Opinion: "Four little boys looking for excitement in the form of new expletives sneak into a movie theater to see a controversial Canadian musical glorifying scatology and profanity. Their enjoyment winds up setting off World War III, allowing this inspired, self-referential animated musical (1999), set in Colorado and hell, to suggest that the U.S. might evolve as a nation if even a fraction of the energy we spend trying to suppress irreverence went to examining bigotry and hypocrisy. Even more striking than the mockery of whipping boys right alongside sacred cows is the celebration of farting and saying fuck, which makes it seem overwhelmingly obvious that people who worry about the effects of such stuff on children are idiots." - Alspector, Chicago Reader

User Opinion: "One of the most brilliant pieces of social satire ever, packed into a hilariously warped musical." - lisa

Reasoning: You know it has to be a good movie if even lisa raves it.  South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut is one of the best musicals off all time, one of the best comedies of all time, and one of the best animated movies of all time.  The film leaves you rolling on the floor laughing at the satire, referential to other films and the socio-culture at the time, and it also manages to pack so relevant political punch within the hilarity.  Not only that, but the movie is a celebration of profanity, which just elevates it to an even higher level than it was already at.  If you don't like this movie, then you can go fuck yourself and report me to the MPAA for my profanity.

Decade Count: 1930s: 4, 1940s: 4, 1950s: 1, 1960s: 3, 1970s: 3, 1980s: 8, 1990s: 7, 2000s: 11, 2010s: 7

 

 

 

 

[The Panda]

Number 202

October Sky (1999)

 

"No. Coal mining may be your life, but it's not mine. I'm never going down there again. I wanna go into space."

 

Most Valuable Player: Lewis Colick's Screenplay and Homer Hickman's Story

Box Office: 32.5m (55.4m Adjusted)

Tomatometer: 90%

Notable Awards: Nominated for a WGA

Synopsis: The true story of Homer Hickam, a coal miner's son who was inspired by the first Sputnik launch to take up rocketry against his father's wishes.

Critic Opinion: "The tension in the movie is not between the boys and their rocket, but between the boys and those who think that miners' sons belong down in the mines and not up in the sky. Homer's father is not a bad man; he fights for the jobs of his men, he rescues several in a near-disaster, he injures his eye in another emergency. He wants Homer to follow in his footsteps. The mine may seem an unhealthy and hateful place to some, but when John takes Homer down for his son's first day on the job, his voice glows with poetry: "I know the mine like I know a man. I was born for this.'' The high school principal (Chris Ellis) sees the job of the school to send miners' sons down to the coal mine. But a young teacher (Laura Dern) tells Homer she feels her life will have failed if some of the kids don't get out and realize their dreams. Then there's a crisis (did a rocket set a forest fire?), and a scene in which Homer and his friends use trigonometry to argue their innocence." - Roger Ebert

User Opinion: "Jake Gyllenhaal plays a young Homer Hickam in this feel good film about a boy dreaming to change his destiny from ending up in the coal mines like his father (Chris Cooper) to being a pioneer in rocketry. I love this movie so much, it's so inspirational & well acted. The setting & music really set it apart." - GiantCALBears

Reasoning: This is a movie that is really overlooked and not really remembered all to well, that doesn't mean it's not a really solid film though, because it is.  October Sky is an inspiring and crowd pleasing film about pursuing your dreams and what you're good at, as well as balancing that with the idea of fulfillment in family.  The score is beautiful, the writing is excellent, and watching this in school was something that helped inspire me to pursue academics (not the sole reason or anything, but it was a nice).  I also love how the film is also a bit of a homage to math and science, so that gets it kudo points from me.  Great, underrated film.

Decade Count: 1930s: 4, 1940s: 4, 1950s: 1, 1960s: 3, 1970s: 3, 1980s: 8, 1990s: 8, 2000s: 11, 2010s: 7

 

 

 

 

[The Panda]

Number 201

What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)

 

"No shimmering. You shimmer, and you glow."

 

Most Valuable Player: Johnny Depp and Leonardi DiCaprio's performances

Box Office: 10m (20.8m Adjusted)

Tomatometer: 89%

Notable Awards: Nominated for 1 Oscar

Synopsis: After his father's death, Gilbert has to care for his mentally disabled brother, Arnie, and his morbidly obese mother, which is suddenly challenged when love walks into his life.

Critic Opinion: "“What’s Eating Gilbert Grape” is an offbeat, middleweight charmer that is lent a measure of substance by its astute performances and observational insight. A modest effort of uninsistent qualities but many felicitous moments, this is not the sort of self-trumpeting, broadly commercial release normally associated with the year-end holidays. But word of mouth, probably starting with teenage girls but potentially extending to a wide variety of audiences, could reward distrib patience with good long-term results." - McCarthy, Variety

User Opinion: "At first I thought this movie was some average movie that had a solid performance from DiCaprio. While the beginning of it suggested that, throughout the movie, it gets more and more emotional. One of the saddest scenes I've ever seen was when their mother came out of that police station and everyone was kind of staring at her (a few people even laughing). Reminds me in what a shitty society we live.
 
The ending was also quite emotional, especially with the house burning down. It didn't hit me until the 'epilogue', near Arnier's nineteenth birthday. The scene starts off as it does, with the voice over from Gilbert, but then the theme starts playing and you're just going to have to let it out.
 
That's one thing that always gets me. In this movie, everyone lived together until their mother died. At the end you find out that they split ways and that Gilbert was going 'on the run' with Arnie, deciding to travel around the country with Becky. These kind of situations always get me.
 
In the end, this movie was pretty great. Of course I won't forget DiCaprio's amazing performance and Depp's gorgeous hair." - ChD

Reasoning: Another movie from the nineties that is criminally underrated.  Often seen as the movie that had DiCaprio's breakout role, there is a lot more going on here than just a wonderful performance by DiCaprio.  The movie is a quiet take on the lives of people feeling trapped in a life where their duty is to take care of their family, and how they long to be free to pursue their own desires.  While the movie does get Depp a plot point to finally pursue this at the end of the film, it has a sort of poetic poignancy that I found particularly moving and relate-able.  Where does one's duty lie?  How far are you allowed to run before you have to return to normalcy and take care of that duty?  It's a subtle film that really does the trick if you let it.

Decade Count: 1930s: 4, 1940s: 4, 1950s: 1, 1960s: 3, 1970s: 3, 1980s: 8, 1990s: 9, 2000s: 11, 2010s: 7

 

 

 

 

 

 

[The Panda]

Number 200

The Ten Commandments (1956)

 

"The man stupid enough to use you as a footstool would not be wise enough to rule Egypt."

 

Most Valuable Player: The VFX Team and Cinematography

Box Office: 65.5m (1.133b Adjusted)

Tomatometer: 94%

Notable Awards: Won 1 Oscars, was nominated for Best Picture

Synopsis: The Egyptian Prince, Moses, learns of his true heritage as a Hebrew and his divine mission as the deliverer of his people.

Critic Opinion: "His latest spectacular production of "The Ten Commandments" was unveiled to the world at the Criterion Theater last night by Paramount Pictures. It is not only the longest motion picture ever released by Hollywood — it runs three hours and 39 minutes, plus a 10-minute intermission — but it has the trickiest photography ever displayed on the screen.  There are scenes in the picture that were never dreamed of until DeMille and his expert cinematographers got to work on them and discovered that they could command their VistaVision cameras to perform miracles for them.  The photographing of the Exodus, for instance, is a major miracle in itself. Although the picture is too long for one sitting, it is, nevertheless, an absorbing and exciting historical record, documented with excerpts from the Books of Exodus and Numbers of the Old Testament, the Psalms and from the works of such ancient historians as Josephus, Philo and Eusebius." - Kate Cameron, New York Daily News (1956)

User Opinion: None

Reasoning: The Ten Commandments, while once a massive box office smash of the levels of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, has become an underappreciated epic that deserves more attention than it really gets.  The visual effects of this movie were groundbreaking for its time, even if they appear pretty dated today.  The production and costume designs are on an epic scale, Bernstein's score is soaring, and the cinematography is incredibly impressive.  Whether or not you're a Biblical believer, it's really hard to not watch this film and be able to appreciate it for everything that it was.  It still stands strong upon watching today, and deserves the title of being an all-time classic.

Decade Count: 1930s: 4, 1940s: 4, 1950s: 2, 1960s: 3, 1970s: 3, 1980s: 8, 1990s: 9, 2000s: 11, 2010s: 7

 

 

 

[The Panda]

Number 199

The Birds (1963)

 

"Don't they ever stop migrating?"

 

Most Valuable Player: Hitchock's Direction

Box Office: N/A

Tomatometer: 96%

Notable Awards: Nominated for 1 Oscar

Synopsis: A wealthy San Francisco socialite pursues a potential boyfriend to a small Northern California town that slowly takes a turn for the bizarre when birds of all kinds suddenly begin to attack people.

Critic Opinion: "It is one of the most disturbing sequences in cinematic history: a woman tiptoes through a house until – in three staccato shots – she discovers the bloody corpse of its occupant on the bedroom floor, his eye sockets two black holes dripping with gore.  The scene is just one of several grisly moments in Alfred Hitchcock's peerless horror flick, The Birds, made three years after his scorching success with Psycho." - Sooke, The Telegraph

User Opinion: "the build up to the bird attacks were pretty perfect, but the attacks itself were pretty meh, except the last one inside the house, which was one of the most tense scenes I've seen, just brilliantly constructed.
I really liked the first act, the drama was well made and Melanie was a interesting character that still feels fresh today. The chemistry between her and Mitch was unbelievable, it was really fun to watch when they were on screen.
I think I don't need to tell you how visually good looking the film is." - Goffe

Reasoning: The first entry on my list of Alfred Hitchcock, and it definitely won't be the last, while The Birds isn't the best of his work, it is an exceptionally well-made horror features that leaves you fearful of the most unlikely of enemies.  It's a real testament of Hitchcock's power and ability as a director that this picture works as well as it does, because on paper it really shouldn't, at all.  However, the slow and eerie build up really creates a mood and atmosphere, something Hitchcock excels at doing, Hitchcock realizes that the horror in a horror feature is in the build up, not the final delivery of the kill.  That's why The Birds succeeds, it builds up the premise so well, that it practically forces the final delivery to do its job.

Decade Count: 1930s: 4, 1940s: 4, 1950s: 2, 1960s: 4, 1970s: 3, 1980s: 8, 1990s: 9, 2000s: 11, 2010s: 7

 

 

 

 

[The Panda]

Number 198

Dazed and Confused (1993)

 

"That's what I love about these high school girls, man. I get older, they stay the same age."

 

Most Valuable Player: The Ensemble of the cast

Box Office: 8m (16.7m Adjusted)

Tomatometer: 94%

Notable Awards: Nada

Synopsis: The adventures of high school and junior high students on the last day of school in May 1976.

Critic Opinion: "The teenage wasteland, 1976-style, of Dazed and Confused is smack-dab between The Brady Bunch and Children of the Damned , and it’s a scary, if sometimes giddily amusing, place to visit. This is Richard Linklater’s followup to his no-budget Slacker.  All the action takes place within 24 hours, as listless Austin, Texas, teens endure their last day of school, making bongs in shop and cataloguing every episode of Gilligan’s Island in history, before the summer’s serious business of drinking, fighting and generally humiliating each other and themselves." - Variety Staff

User Opinion: "What gets me is how exceptionally generous it is - Linklater could have taken the easy road and judged some characters but not the others, or firmly put you into someone specific's shoes for the entire duration, instead he really gives equal attention to everybody, and their joy and pain/humiliation and everything in between are equally vivid and relatable, no one's experience is more legitimate than someone else's. Like how Affleck's character could have just been a one-dimensional bully, but for all his genuine hostility, in that moment where they dump paint all over him you go from cheering to feeling sorry for him too. Or McConaughey is kind of a creep and pretty clearly a loser if he can't find people his own age to socialize with, but of course I would have been drawn to him in that age as much as the high schoolers here are. Goldberg works up the courage to start a fight, then the whole thing predictably turns nasty and messy instead of triumphant. The atmosphere is infectious, but you know this won't last and Pink's smart enough to recognize it, at the same time it's very possible that, as an adult, he'd laugh at his "Remind me to kill myself" line and just chalk it up to having been an over-dramatic high schooler. The entire thing just absolutely nails that wild mix of emotions of being a teenager through everything including throwaway lines and tiny moments, and without a slightest hint of detachment or condescension." - Jake Gittes

Reasoning: While this movie really wasn't much of a hit when it was released, it has since become a cult classic in a sense, and it features some iconic performances and hilarious one liners from various famous actors who were once in their youth and worked on these kinds of movies.  Linklater is a director who works incredibly well at making fantastic movies that focus little on plot and much on the authentic simplicity of human relationships, and Dazed and Confused is Linklater pulling off this magical formula again, only this time in the day and the life of high school in the 70s.  The soundtrack is jamming, the screenplay is right on point, and Linklater proves himself as one of the greatest and most overlooked directors of all time.

Decade Count: 1930s: 4, 1940s: 4, 1950s: 2, 1960s: 4, 1970s: 3, 1980s: 8, 1990s: 10, 2000s: 11, 2010s: 7

 

 

 

[The Panda]

Number 197

This is Spinal Tap (1984)

 

"It's like, how much more black could this be? and the answer is none. None more black."

 

Most Valuable Player: Authentic cast and rocking soundtrack

Box Office: 4.7m (11.6m Adjusted)

Tomatometer: 95%

Notable Awards: Being regarded as an all time great comedy?

Synopsis: Spinal Tap, one of England's loudest bands, is chronicled by film director Marty DeBergi on what proves to be a fateful tour.

Critic Opinion: "Since the antics of so many heavy metal bands already teeter on the edge of self-parody, it would have been no surprise if this spoof 'rockumentary' about a comeback tour by a has-been English rock group had turned out to be a one-joke movie. In the event, Reiner's brilliantly inventive script and smart visuals avoid all the obvious pitfalls, making this one of the funniest ever films about the music business. Filmed in cinéma vérité style, it follows the group from venue to venue, observing the trials and tribulations of life on the road, personal tensions within the group, and problems with expanding egos. Interviews with the group fill in the details of their chequered musical career: they have trouble keeping their drummers, one of whom choked on vomit (somebody else's), while another spontaneously combusted on stage. Most importantly of all, the musical numbers acutely mimic the crashing drums, thudding bass lines, whining lead guitar solos, and juvenile, sexist lyrics of heavy rock." - Andrew, Time Out

User Opinion: "One of my favorite rock and roll related cult movie. (along with Rocky Horror Picture Show and Hedwig And The Angry Inch).
The Rutles of Hard Rock.
-"Why don't you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder?"
-"These go to eleven!"
Stonehenge part had me in tears." - dashrendar44

Reasoning: Another cult classic comedy to pop up on my list, and This is Spinal Tap is most definitely a deserving one.  I wouldn't go as far as calling this an actual musical, but if I did, I would regard it as one of the greatest musicals of all time.  The film if frenetic and never ceases to give away its energy and electricity, not to leave out that it's also hilarious the entire way through as well, it almost makes me respect metal as an actual musical genre.  I shouldn't have to be telling you this, but This is Spinal Tap is definitive satire and it's one of the most creative films of its genre that you're going to see.  If you haven't seen this movie, what are you doing?  Go watch it.

Decade Count: 1930s: 4, 1940s: 4, 1950s: 2, 1960s: 4, 1970s: 3, 1980s: 9, 1990s: 10, 2000s: 11, 2010s: 7

 

 

 

 

[The Panda]

Number 196

White Christmas (1954)

 

"When I figure out what that means I'll come up with a crushing reply."

 

Most Valuable Player: Bing Crosby for his performance and singing

Box Office: N/A

Tomatometer: 77%

Notable Awards: Nominated for 1 Oscar

Synopsis: A successful song-and-dance team become romantically involved with a sister act and team up to save the failing Vermont inn of their former commanding general.

Critic Opinion: "Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye, along with VistaVision, keep the enteratinment going in this fancifully staged production, clicking well.  The directorial handling by Michael Curtiz gives a smooth blend of music (13 numbers plus snatches of others) and drama, and in the climax creates a genuine heart tug that will squeeze tears." - Variety Staff

User Opinion: None

Reasoning: An all-time Christmas classic, with a joyful soundtrack.  This movie is an absolute blast to watch every time, and a fairly strong plot with an emotional hook near the end. The film may be a bit sappy, but that just makes it all the better for Christmas.  The musical numbers leave you singing along, and it's a film you can always get everyone to agree on to watch during Christmas time.  Maybe it's not as technically great as other movies on my list, but it has certainly stood the test of time, and that definitely lends it credence.  It's one of the greatest Christmas movies ever made, 'nuff said.

Decade Count: 1930s: 4, 1940s: 4, 1950s: 3, 1960s: 4, 1970s: 3, 1980s: 9, 1990s: 10, 2000s: 11, 2010s: 7

 

 

 

 

[The Panda]

Number 195

High Noon (1952)

 

"You risk your skin catching killers and the juries turn them loose so they can come back and shoot at you again. If you're honest you're poor your whole life and in the end you wind up dying all alone on some dirty street. For what? For nothing. For a tin star."

 

Most Valuable Player: Gary Cooper's Lead Performance

Box Office: N/A

Tomatometer: 96%

Notable Awards: Won 4 Oscars, was nominated for Best Picture

Synopsis: A marshall, personally compelled to face a returning deadly enemy, finds that his own town refuses to help him

Critic Opinion: "A Western of stark, classical lineaments: Cooper, still mysteriously beautiful in ravaged middle-age, plays a small town marshal who lays life and wife on the line to confront a killer set free by liberal abolitionists from the North. Waiting for the murderer's arrival on the midday train, he enters a long and desolate night of the soul as the heat gathers, his fellow-citizens scatter, and it grows dark, dark, dark amid the blaze of noon. Writer Carl Foreman, who fetched up on the HUAC blacklist, leaves it open whether the marshal is making a gesture of sublime, arrogant futility - as his bride (Kelly), a Quaker opposed to violence, believes - or simply doing what a man must. High Noon won a fistful of Oscars, but in these days of pasteboard screen machismo, it's worth seeing simply as the anatomy of what it took to make a man before the myth turned sour." - Adams, Time Out

User Opinion: "One of my favorite western films." - bartonfinke

Reasoning: Do not forsake me oh my darling!  A classic western, bolstered by a powerful performance by Gary Cooper and another remarkable score by Tiomkin, it's easy to see why this movie is regarded so highly in history.  This is a movie that defined a variety of the "Western Cliches", yet for its time it was a highly unconventional film and that's what makes it so important to cinematic history. The movie defies time in its themes and brevity, and its something that's serves well to multiple re-watches.  I'm not entirely sure what to say about it other than, duh this is an -All-American classic.

Decade Count: 1930s: 4, 1940s: 4, 1950s: 4, 1960s: 4, 1970s: 3, 1980s: 9, 1990s: 10, 2000s: 11, 2010s: 7

 

 

 

 

Edited February 28, 2017 by The Panda

[The Panda]

Number 194

National Lampoon's Vacation (1983)

 

"You want me to strap her to the hood? She'll be fine. It's not as if it's going to rain or something."

 

Most Valuable Player: John Hughes for the Screenplay

Box Office: 61.4m (168.6m Adjusted)

Tomatometer: 93%

Notable Awards: It was awarded a terrible remake

Synopsis: The Griswold family's cross-country drive to the Walley World theme park proves to be much more arduous than they ever anticipated.

Critic Opinion: "John Hughes' screenplay is a nominally updated adaptation of his original National Lampoon story "Vacation '58," one of the best comic fantasies the magazine ever published. Reprinted in the July issue to help promote the movie, it still reads beautifully and enjoys a stylistic concentration that the movie, subject to the collaborative input of several humorists, fails to duplicate. There were two irresistible psychological keys to the story's effectiveness: The father of the family goes certifiably crazy as a consequence of the trip's frustrations and this process is described, with admiring affection, through the eyes of his adolescent son, who derives considerable pride and excitement from the sequence of events that drive dad around the bend." - Arnold, Washington Post

User Opinion: None

Reasoning: A more controversial, yet still hysterical, comedy classic that should be much higher regarded than it actually is.  Chevy Chase delivers an exceptional comedic lead performance, and John Hughes' story turns out to be one of his best.  The film is loud, screwy, obnoxious and profane but that doesn't stop it from being a consistent and re-watchable favorite to turn on.  Over thirty years since this comedy came out, and it still resonates just as perfectly as it did upon its initial release, it's 90 minutes of laughter that never ages.

Decade Count: 1930s: 4, 1940s: 4, 1950s: 4, 1960s: 4, 1970s: 3, 1980s: 10, 1990s: 10, 2000s: 11, 2010s: 7

 

 

 

Edited February 28, 2017 by The Panda

[The Panda]

Last one for tonight!

 

Number 193

A Fistful of Dollars (1964)

 

"When a man's got money in his pocket he begins to appreciate peace."

 

Most Valuable Player: Ennio Morricone for his Scoring

Box Office: 14.5m (104.5m Adjusted)

Tomatometer: 98%

Notable Awards: Won Best Score at Italian Syndicate Film Journalists

Synopsis: A wandering gunfighter plays two rival families against each other in a town torn apart by greed, pride, and revenge.

Critic Opinion: "A cracker-jack western made in Italy and Spain by a group of Italians and an international cast, this is a hard-hitting item, ably directed, splendidly lensed, neatly acted, which has all the ingredients wanted by action fans and then some.  Basically, it’s about a loner, Joe (Clint Eastwood), who arrives in a small Southwestern settlement split by the rivalry of two families. For money, he plays both sides against the middle, eventually winning his longstanding battle with the heavy. Tale [by Toni Palombi, based on the 1961 Japanese film Yojimbo] is well developed, and though there is plenty of cliche, it’s handled with an all-stops-out style, vigorous use of widescreen camera, effective juggling of closeups and long shots." - Variety Staff (1963)

User Opinion: "The start of Leone's dollars trilogy, and Clint Eastwood's career as a leading man. A nameless gun-for-hire plays two feuding families against each other in a small town - the plot is a rehash of Kurosawa's "Yojimbo" but works well enough. There' a lot to love here: Camerawork, Eastwood's squint, Morricone's unrivaled music, and even some Austrian contribution (Josef Egger, as "Joe Edger", lends his characteristic face to the town's undertaker)" - IndustriousAngel

Reasoning: As a Western fan, Sergio Leone is literally the king of it all, and A Fistful of Dollars marks a remarkable start to the legacy of his most famous trilogy, The Dollars Trilogy. The score is absolutely sprawling and wonderfully Western, Morricone proves himself a masterclass in this film.  This film set the groundwork for all of his even greater movies to come after, and although it may have been fairly ignored upon release, it has left an impactful and lasting legacy.  The long shots and close ups are brilliant, Eastwood begins his career on fire in his most iconic role, there's really everything to love and nothing to hate about this movie.  If I had any negatives its that its somehow the least of Leone's big four, which is why I was being modest by putting it a bit lower than it probably deserves.  Fantastic western.

Decade Count: 1930s: 4, 1940s: 4, 1950s: 4, 1960s: 5, 1970s: 3, 1980s: 10, 1990s: 10, 2000s: 11, 2010s: 7

 

 

 

[The Panda]

Number 192

All the King's Men (1949)

 

"Jack, there's something on everybody. Man is conceived in sin and born in corruption."

 

Most Valuable Player: Robert Penn Warren's novel

Box Office: N/A

Tomatometer: 97%

Notable Awards: Won 4 Oscars, including Best Picture

Synopsis: The rise and fall of a corrupt politician, who makes his friends richer and retains power by dint of a populist appeal.

Critic Opinion: "Robert Rossen, a top Hollywood producer- director-writer, has made a tremendously impressive picture from Robert Penn Warren’s Pulitzer prize-winning novel, “All the King’s Men.” It is one of the most vital and honest films to come out of Hollywood in a long time.  Produced by Columbia Pictures, “All the King’s Men” had its first New York exhibition at the Victoria Theatre yesterday. Election Day was an appropriate time to release the picture, since it is concerned with political shenanigans and serves to remind us that when politicians are too long in this elective jobs, they are apt to abuse the power the public has given them and may fall into dictatorial ways." - Kate Cameron, New York Daily News (1949)

User Opinion: None

Reasoning: All the King's Men is a story that doesn't lose its power or timeliness overtime, the words and themes still resonate as strongly today as they did back in 1949 when the dangers of authoritarianism and corruption were just as prevalent in the world as they are now.  All the King's Men is a picture how men become corrupted in power and the corrosive effects that office and the appeal of a crowd have on a man.  Broderick Crawford delivers an excellent performance as the lead, and Rossen directs and adapts the novel finely.  All the King's Men is an excellent Best Picture winner that deserves to be seen.

Decade Count: 1930s: 4, 1940s: 5, 1950s: 4, 1960s: 5, 1970s: 3, 1980s: 10, 1990s: 10, 2000s: 11, 2010s: 7

 

 

 

[baumer]

I'm sooooo interested in this one.

 

I'll pin this one and unpin mine.  This is much more interesting.

[The Panda]

35 minutes ago, baumer said:

I'm sooooo interested in this one.

 

I'll pin this one and unpin mine.  This is much more interesting.

 

I really enjoy your countdown!  Yours are always some of the most interesting!

[The Panda]

Number 191

The Treasure of Sierra Madre (1948)

 

"I think I'll go to sleep and dream about piles of gold getting bigger and bigger and bigger."

 

Most Valuable Player: John Huston for Directing and Writing

Box Office: N/A

Tomatometer: 100%

Notable Awards: Won 3 Oscars, was also nominated for Best Picture

Synopsis: Fred Dobbs and Bob Curtin, two Americans searching for work in Mexico, convince an old prospector to help them mine for gold in the Sierra Madre Mountains.

Critic Opinion: "When John Huston came back from the war and Humphrey Bogart was a star big enough to choose his next project, the two of them chose to make a film about a seedy loser driven mad by greed. "Wait till you see me in my next picture," Bogart shouted to a movie critic outside a New York nightclub. "I play the worst s--- you ever saw." The movie was desolate and despairing, the nicest character in it dies trying to defend men who were about to kill him, and the ending is not merely unhappy but like a cosmic joke against the hero's dreams. Jack L. Warner, the studio boss who sent the crew to Mexican locations and yanked them back when the budget ran out of control, thought it was "definitely the greatest motion picture we have ever made."  "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" (1948) is a story in the Joseph Conrad tradition, using adventure not as an end in itself but as a test of its characters. It involves moral disagreements between a wise old man and a paranoid middle-aged man, with a young man forced to choose sides. It tells this story with gusto and Huston's love of male camaraderie, and it occasionally breaks into laughter -- some funny, some bitterly ironic. It happens on a sun-blasted high chaparral landscape, usually desolate, except for the three gold prospectors, although gangs of bandits and villages of Indians materialize when required. At the end, it has Bogart in a delirious mad scene that falls somewhere between "King Lear" and "Greed."" - Roger Ebert

User Opinion: None

Reasoning: As a Western fan, a massive Indiana Jones fan, and a fan of tragedies showing a man's fall from grace, it's no wonder why I really loved this picture.  Despite hitting all of the right spots for me personally as a movie fan, the film is also just technically masterful and stands as one of John Huston's best.  There is plenty of laughter and fun to be had in watching the film, but there's also a much darker tale of greed, paranoia and the nature of man mixed into it all as well.  The film is energetic, lively and visually appealing.  The Treasure of Sierra Madre is another all-time great Western, and all-time great classic.

Decade Count: 1930s: 4, 1940s: 6, 1950s: 4, 1960s: 5, 1970s: 3, 1980s: 10, 1990s: 10, 2000s: 11, 2010s: 7

 

 

 

[The Panda]

Number 190

Aladdin (1992)

\

 

"Oi! Ten thousand years will give you such a crick in the neck."

 

Most Valuable Player: Robin Williams' Genie

Box Office: 217.4m (453.6m Adjusted)

Tomatometer: 94%

Notable Awards: Won 2 Oscars

Synopsis: When a street urchin vies for the love of a beautiful princess, he uses a genie's magic power to make himself off as a prince in order to marry her.

Critic Opinion: "Aladdin is a dream come true for moviegoers.  Yes, I know how excruciatingly press-agent-like that must sound. But this hilariously hip and thoroughly gorgeous motion picture is nothing less than the crowning achievement - so far - of Disney's revitalized animation department." - Boyer, Orlando Sentinel

User Opinion: "If anyone does't give Aladdin at least an A Im not sure we can be friends.... if a B+ though we can keep in touch maybe.: - Jay Hollywood

Reasoning: A Disney musical that even lisa admits is good, and that says something.  Aladdin is a Disney classic and easily one of the best animated movies to have ever been made.  The film is a massive jolt of energy, adventure, exciting and whimsical music, romance and laughter.  I don't think I need to tell you how great of a movie Aladdin is, because honestly, you should know that by now.  Not to mention, Robin Williams' genie might just be the most iconic animated character to ever be created.  The songs are also some of the most sing-a-long-able of nearly any Disney classic.  Aladdin is a wonderful animated musical.

Decade Count: 1930s: 4, 1940s: 6, 1950s: 4, 1960s: 5, 1970s: 3, 1980s: 10, 1990s: 11, 2000s: 11, 2010s: 7

 

 

 

 

[The Panda]

Fun fact for @AABATTERY, Ricky Baker (or Rick Baker) got an Oscar nom for this one.

 

Number 189

An American Werewolf in London (1981)

 

"Queen Elizabeth is a man! Prince Charles is a ----! Winston Churchill was full of shit! Shakespeare's French!"

 

Most Valuable Player: John Landis for his direction and writing

Box Office: 30.6m (95.1m Adjusted)

Tomatometer: 89%

Notable Awards: Just as many Oscars as the Academy Award Winning Suicide Squad

Synopsis: Two American college students on a walking tour of Britain are attacked by a werewolf that none of the locals will admit exists.

Critic Opinion: "It’d be interesting to see polling data on how many Brits recall John Landis’s hysterical gore-spattered masterpiece as that all-important rite of passage: their first 18. Well, the folks at the BBFC have ruined all that: in reclassifying the film, they’ve made all our childhoods seem that little bit less dangerous. Which is no reflection on the film: horror-comedy is overfamiliar nowadays, with diminishing returns, but this only makes Landis’s achievement more impressive. Not just gory but actually frightening, not just funny but clever, ‘American Werewolf…’ has its flaws, but these are outweighed by the film’s many, mighty strengths: the soundtrack is astounding, the characterisation is marvellous and the one-liners are endlessly memorable (‘a naked American man stole my balloons!’). A classic, no less." - Huddleston, Time Out

User Opinion: None

Reasoning: A definitive addition to the horror-comedy genre.  John Landis delivers a film that is not just hysterical in its wit and screenplay, but a movie that also manages to leave you frightened.  The blend of a well-crafted original score, as well as creative uses of music in the soundtrack, also really help to highlight this film as not just your typical monster movie.  It's also exceptional because the majority of the film is made up of a psychological analysis of everything David Naughton goes through mentally as he makes his transition into becoming a werewolf.  An American Werewolf in London is the horror genre at its finest.

Decade Count: 1930s: 4, 1940s: 6, 1950s: 4, 1960s: 5, 1970s: 3, 1980s: 11, 1990s: 11, 2000s: 11, 2010s: 7

 

 

 

Edited February 28, 2017 by The Panda

[The Panda]

Number 188

The Big Short (2015)

 

"I have a feeling in a few years people are going to be doing what they always do when the economy tanks. They will be blaming immigrants and poor people."

 

Most Valuable Player: Charles Randalph and Adam McKay for the Screenplay

Box Office: 70.3m (70.5m Adjusted)

Tomatometer: 88%

Notable Awards: Won 1 Oscar, and was nominated for Best Picture

Synopsis: Four denizens in the world of high-finance predict the credit and housing bubble collapse of the mid-2000s, and decide to take on the big banks for their greed and lack of foresight.

Critic Opinion: "It’s funny because it’s true. And it’s tragic and frightening for the same reason.  Adapted from Michael Lewis’s bestselling book The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, Adam McKay’s stylized comedic take on the international banking collapse of 2007-08 nerds up Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt and an Oscar-baiting Christian Bale as real-life money-managing eccentrics who, independently, come to realize a market based on subprime loans is going to tank. They decide to short the booming housing market, basically betting on the collapse of the world’s economy." - Wheeler, Globe and Mail

User Opinion: "So, so, good. Vigorously emotional (in an atypical manner) while totally self-assured and driven by its messages. McKay makes a ton of gutsy choices here that pay off so well." - Spaghetti

Reasoning: If you want a film that manages to explain the housing/financial crisis from 2007-2008, you aren't going to find a better one than this one.  The Big Short is a terrifically acted and directed comedy that manages to explain a complicated subject in delicate detail, while also being vigorously entertaining and harrowing at the same time.  There's plenty of gags to keep you engaged to the details and complexities of the matter, and film is shot in an up close and personal style, putting you right into the action of everything that is happening.  The ending also leaves a hollow punch in your gut, and almost in a state of disbelief, even if you already understood everything that happened going in beforehand.  A great movie that pulls off an incredibly difficult task while leaving you entertained and satisfied at the same time.

Decade Count: 1930s: 4, 1940s: 6, 1950s: 4, 1960s: 5, 1970s: 3, 1980s: 11, 1990s: 11, 2000s: 11, 2010s: 8

 

 

 

[The Panda]

Number 187

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)

 

"Nothing shocks me. I'm a scientist."

 

Most Valuable Player: Harrison Ford as Dr. Jones

Box Office: 179.9m (463.1m Adjusted)

Tomatometer: 85%

Notable Awards: Won 1 Oscar

Synopsis: After arriving in India, Indiana Jones is asked by a desperate village to find a mystical stone. He agrees, and stumbles upon a secret cult plotting a terrible plan in the catacombs of an ancient palace.

Critic Opinion: ""Nothing shocks me," says the rugged man-about-the-Far East who has survived a lot of shocking situations. I'm a scientist." The truth is the well-known archeologist seems to dig up trouble wherever he goes. In Madagascar they were so displeased with his work that there was some talk of cutting off his...Well, why go on? You should recognize this cool character by now, for he is none other than Indiana Jones, that reckless seeker of fortune who first endeared himself to audiences in Steven Spielberg's wonderfully giddy adventure movie, "Raiders of the Lost Ark."  Indie, you will be happy to learn, hasn't changed a bit. Played with gruff determination by the appealingly rugged Harrison Ford, he continues to set quite a pace for himself in Spielberg's rip-roaring, boldly imaginative sequel to his blockbuster hit." - Carrol, The New York Daily News (1984)

User Opinion: "It is a great film and it is a great sequel to Raiders and a perfect prequel to Last Crusade. It remembers its roots as it has Indy reaching for his gun in a dangerous situation only to find that it is not there and it creates some of its own new history as there are many breath taking action sequences. I don't know how George and Steven do it but they just keep on entertaining us with movies like this and Star Wars. I sincerely hope they make a fourth installment of the Indiana Jones series. It has been ten years since the last one and that is way too long." - baumer

Reasoning: While, The Temple of Doom may be the most inherently flawed on the Indiana Jones movies, that doesn't stop it from still being an absolute blast of a movie the entire way through.  This one tends to have its haters, but I personally find it vastly underrated, even if it's my least favorite of the original three movies.  John Williams' score is still soaring and excitable, Harrison Ford is still charismatic as ever, Short Round is one of the best sidekicks of the series, and I actually like the darker tone this film takes compared to the other movies in the series.  The action scenes are still shot ingeniously by Spielberg, and the visual effects age about as well as it's possible for VFX to age.  While it has its flaws, I still re-watch the shit out of this movie, and it never ceases to put a smile on the face from the excitement of an Indy adventure.  One of the only franchises that can stand toe to toe with Star Wars as one of the greatest of all-time.

Decade Count: 1930s: 4, 1940s: 6, 1950s: 4, 1960s: 5, 1970s: 3, 1980s: 12, 1990s: 11, 2000s: 11, 2010s: 8