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

[The Panda]

Number 186

50/50 (2011)

 

"That doesn't make any sense though. I mean... I don't smoke, I don't drink... I recycle..."

 

Most Valuable Player: Joseph Gordon-Levitt's Lead Performance

Box Office: 35m (38.1m adjusted)

Tomatometer: 94%

Notable Awards: Nominated for 2 Golden Globes

Synopsis: Inspired by a true story, a comedy centered on a 27-year-old guy who learns of his cancer diagnosis, and his subsequent struggle to beat the disease.

Critic Opinion: "Director Jonathan Levine (“The Wackness”) finds a rhythm that works for the movie, mostly going for comedy but giving the dramatic moments their due. Gordon-Levitt continues to impress as a leading man of depth and wry comic flair (who’d have thunk it when he was just that weird looking little kid on TV’s “3rd Rock from the Sun”?) and Kendrick and Rogan are sprightly fun.  Add “50/50” to your want to see list. And then make an appointment for your annual physical with your doctor." - Rozen, The Wrap

User Opinion: None

Reasoning: 50/50 is a heartfelt indie comedy that was really overlooked the year it came out and deserved more attention than it received.  Seth Rogen is at his best in this movie, even if he's still pretty much Seth Rogen, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt gives a great comedic performance.  The movie was my favorite from 2011, it was funny, yet also warm hearted and manages to play out its dramatic aspects as well as a movie on this subject matter could be.  What made it really exceptional in my opinion, was how well it played off its themes of sickness and survival, and how it neither treated them lightly or treated them with too much melodramatism that many movies of this genre fall into the convention of doing.  50/50 is one of the finest comedies made this decade.

Decade Count: 1930s: 4, 1940s: 6, 1950s: 4, 1960s: 5, 1970s: 3, 1980s: 12, 1990s: 11, 2000s: 11, 2010s: 9

 

 

 

[The Panda]

Number 185

The Incredibles (2004)

 

"Where. Is. My. Super. SUIT!"

 

Most Valuable Player:  Brad Bird's Direction

Box Office: 261.4m (363.6m Adjusted)

Tomatometer: 97%

Notable Awards: Won 2 Oscars

Synopsis: A family of undercover superheroes, while trying to live the quiet suburban life, are forced into action to save the world.

Critic Opinion: "This Pixar comic-book adventure (2004) is fun for the first half hour, as the world's superheroes are forced into retirement by personal-injury lawsuits and assigned new identities by the government. In a sort of big-screen New Yorker cartoon, the barrel-chested Mr. Incredible lives a life of quiet desperation, dividing his time between an insurance company cubicle and a vanilla tract home he shares with the former Elastigirl and their three moppets. The fun hardens into Fun after he's lured out of retirement and imprisoned in a remote island compound, though the sleek computer animation is spellbinding as usual." - Jones, Chicago Reader

User Opinion: "An awesome film. Brad Bird is really at his best when he's doing odes to retro American culture like this and The Iron Giant. The message may not be subtle, but the numerous quotable lines and terrific action sequences more than make up for it. My second-favorite Pixar film." - tribefan695

Reasoning: A super-power film about family dynamics placed in a retro-50s like environment.  The Incredibles marks the second of four "super hero" movies to make my list.  The score by Giacchino is electric, the screenplay is full of wit and spunk, and the film rockets at a frenetic pace.  This is one of Pixar's most entertaining films on their great list of movies, and it really doesn't lose anything on repeat viewings.  There are a lot of superhero movies out there, but it's really hard to name many of them that can even manage to be half as fun as this film manages to be.  A childhood favorite that carries over as one to your adult life.  Bring on The Incredibles 2, I've only been waiting 13 years.

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

 

 

 

 

[The Panda]

Number 184

The Matrix (1999)

 

"Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You're a plague and we are the cure."

 

Most Valuable Player: The VFX and Stunt Team

Box Office: 171.5m (292m Adjusted)

Tomatometer: 87%

Notable Awards: Won 4 Oscars

Synopsis: A computer hacker learns from mysterious rebels about the true nature of his reality and his role in the war against its controllers.

Critic Opinion: "Extremely violent, extremely preposterous, extremely entertaining, "The Matrix" succeeds at two extremely difficult tasks: as a vast, exciting virtual-reality movie and as a defibrillator for Keanu Reeves' big screen career.  Using the pantheon of movie iconography from the past 100 years - from "High Noon" showdowns, to bad kung fu, to love's first kiss - the writing/directing team of the Wachowski brothers, Larry and Andy, achieves a fantastic, hodgepodge symmetry using hacker noir, comedy and mindless action." - Simanton, The Seattle Times

User Opinion: "What is the Matrix? Well, well I'm not going to give it away. As I said it is one of the parts of the movie that will keep you intrigued and will astonish you at the same time. This is a very good film and it's visionary outbursts are worth the price of a rental alone. But it has a great story to it as well and that should be enough for anyone to want to see it." - baumer

Reasoning: The Matrix has become an all-time classic sci-fi action film, and it didn't take it long to reach that status, and it's not hard to see why.  The action in this movie is blood-pumping and leaves you ready for more, well more until you realize more means The Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions, then it's a solid pass.  Anyways, Keanu Reeves gives one of his most iconic performances and the one-hit wonder Wachowski's reveal their potential before their future movies fall to dreary pretentious drag.  The concepts of the movie are clever, and being able to see some of them pay off is quite a marvel to watch.  The visual effects and action still look like something that could be released today, and the climax of the film is truly fantastic.  The Matrix is an epitome point for 90s action.

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

 

 

 

[The Panda]

Number 183

Young Frankenstein (1974)

 

"What the hell are you doing in the bathroom day and night? Why don't you get out of there and give someone else a chance?"

 

Most Valuable Player: Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder for the Screenplay, Acting and Directing

Box Office: 86.3m (394.8m Adjusted)

Tomatometer: 93%

Notable Awards: Nominated for 2 Oscars

Synopsis: An American grandson of the infamous scientist, struggling to prove that he is not as insane as people believe, is invited to Transylvania, where he discovers the process that reanimates a dead body.

Critic Opinion: "The moment, when it comes, has the inevitability of comic genius. Young Victor Frankenstein, grandson of the count who started it all, returns by rail to his ancestral home. As the train pulls into the station, he spots a kid on the platform, lowers the window and asks, "Pardon me, boy; is this the Transylvania Station"?  It is, and Mel Brooks is home with "Young Frankenstein," his most disciplined and visually inventive film (it also happens to be very funny)." - Roger Ebert

User Opinion: "One of the best comedies ever. Mel Brooks best film." - Michael Gary Scott

Reasoning: One of the flat out funniest comedies ever made.  Young Frankenstein is one giant, clever, restrained, subdued and hilarious sex joke, and it's all the more brilliant for that.  It's a movie about trying to pretend we're more sophisticated and better than we really are, when on the inside we're just stupid monsters wanting to get the jiggy on.  Now, the ending isn't the only funny part of the movie, it is cleverly written and witty the entire way through.  Young Frankenstein is a silly monster movie that manages to be among the best of them.  Also a fun note, the first time I saw this was when I was in high school, my AP English teacher was a nerd, and to reward us for reading Frankenstein we watched this movie, I'm not sure how he got it approved.  The ending was exceptionally funny in a room full of shocked, hormonal and nerdy teenagers.

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

 

 

 

[The Panda]

Number 182

Sicario (2015)

 

"You are not a wolf, and this is a land of wolves now."

 

Most Valuable Player: Benicio Del Torro's Supporting Performance and Supreme Leader Villeneuve's Master Direction

Box Office: 46.9m (46.6m Adjusted)

Tomatometer: 94%

Notable Awards: Nominated for 3 Oscars

Synopsis: An idealistic FBI agent is enlisted by a government task force to aid in the escalating war against drugs at the border area between the U.S. and Mexico.

Critic Opinion: "The word “sicario” is Spanish for hitman, but it sounds like a condition: “I’m not feeling well, I’m suffering from sicario.” Or maybe that’s just the sensation you get coming out of “Sicario.”  This dense, twisty, unsettling, nerve-racking thriller has that kind of effect. It’s about lies and truths, lies packed within truths and questions about what constitutes either, and it’s designed to keep viewers off balance and at attention. By the end, it packs a death stare so potent it will make you want to turn a blind eye to the shadowy brutality of its real-world horrors." - Graham, Detroit News

User Opinion: "God, I loved this movie. My favorite of the year so far. Intense, brutal, terrifying, and visceral. Chris Ryan of Grantland is right- it feels like the Apocalypse Now of the drug war. A hypnotic movie that delves deeper into unspeakable horror and darkness than most movies dare to do. Fascinating, complex politics, too. Feels like No Country meets Platoon meets Traffic meets Prisoners. It's just fucking aces. So much to pull apart here. Deakins and Johannasson's work is just tremendous in adding to the mood and tone of this piece. And dat cast.....jeez. Every player in this matters, and nails it. Blunt and Brolin have never been better. And Del Toro.....one of the most memorable performances and characters of modern times. He's just a presence. Like an unstoppable, otherworldly force taking human form. He's Anton Chigurh in tailored suits. God, it's tremendous." - Cmasterclay

Reasoning: An absolutely haunting experience, this is the movie that really elevated Villeneuve from "Great up and coming unknown indie director" to "Holy shit this is the guy that everyone is claiming Nolan to be," or as a director now to watch.  Sicario is absolutely hypnotic and has become the definitive movie on the modern drug war in my eyes.  When I originally saw this movie, I gave it a B+ and didn't think I'd put it in my top 10 because of how unsettled I was.  Then I realize the movie was really sticking with me, so I saw it again and it was even more haunting the second time, and even more so the third.  Absolutely powerful and intense filmmaking with this one right here, I could see this movie continue to rise higher on my all-time list in the years to come, as this movie only gets better the longer you take to absorb it all and have a chance to re-analyze the whole piece.

Decade Count: 1930s: 4, 1940s: 6, 1950s: 4, 1960s: 5, 1970s: 4, 1980s: 12, 1990s: 12, 2000s: 11, 2010s: 9

 

 

 

 

[The Panda]

Number 181

The King of Comedy (1983)

 

"Better to be king for a night than schmuck for a lifetime."

 

Most Valuable Player: Robert De Niro's Performance

Box Office: 2.5m (7m Adjusted)

Tomatometer: 90%

Notable Awards: Won 1 BAFTA

Synopsis: Aspiring comic Rupert Pupkin attempts to achieve success in show business by stalking his idol, a late night talk-show host who craves his own privacy.

Critic Opinion: "The King of Comedy, which Film Forum is presenting in a new 4K restoration for a week-long run, brilliantly keeps viewers unmoored, the result of its consistently off-kilter tone. Though filled with sight gags and corny jokes, the movie is also darkened by genuine menace, as Rupert, aided by fellow unhinged Jerry Langford superfan Masha (Sandra Bernhard), becomes ever more desperate to get the icon's attention. But the most generative tension in the film emerges from the clash of performance styles — and from the incongruous jolt, still potent all these decades later, of watching a 55-year-old Lewis, that longtime avatar of extremely regressed imbecility, in his first serious role." - Anderson, Village Voice

User Opinion: "scorsese was on fucking form in his early years. brilliant and ridiculously uncomfortable." - lisa

Reasoning: Some of Scorsese's best works were the movies critics, audiences and the academy really overlooked when they originally came out, and later learned to appreciate over time.  The King of Comedy is one of those movies, a brilliant, funny and fairly uncomfortable movie to watch.  The film is off-beat, and watch De Niro star in this film is really something else, he completely owns the role.  This was a film that was really released before its time, and it shows the brilliance of Scorsese to be able to recognize the story to be told here and to have the guts to go for it, all hinges detached.  It's a brilliant movie, and I am glad that it's regarded for being the fantastic film it is now.

Decade Count: 1930s: 4, 1940s: 6, 1950s: 4, 1960s: 5, 1970s: 4, 1980s: 13, 1990s: 12, 2000s: 11, 2010s: 9

 

 

 

 

[chasmmi]

Temple of Doom is fine being there, so long as there are still installments to come. 

 

Some good animated stuff there too. But can't comment more until I see what animations if any, beat them. 

[The Panda]

Number 180

Aliens (1986)

 

"Get away from her, you bitch!"

 

Most Valuable Player: Signourney Weaver in the Leading Role

Box Office: 85.2m (198.6m Adjusted)

Tomatometer: 98%

Notable Awards: Won 2 Oscars

Synopsis: The moon from Alien (1979) has been colonized, but contact is lost. This time, the rescue team has impressive firepower, but will it be enough?

Critic Opinion: ""Aliens" is a perfectly honorable sequel, taut, inexorably paced but it's blaster action, not Gothic future-horror. Fortunately, director-screenwriter James Cameron has shaped his film around the defiant intelligence and sensual athleticism of Weaver, and that's where "Aliens" works best. In a funny way, she's become an image ripped from today's statistics: the Single Parent Triumphant--if not absolutely Rampant." - Benson, Las Angeles Times

User Opinion: "Probably one of the most influential sci-fi pieces of fiction of the past 50 years. So many contemporary sci-fi novels, comics, films, and video games have nods to or have elements lifted from this film." - Numbers

Reasoning: Count me in the Alien is better crowd, and go ahead and plan my murder for not putting it in my top 100, but also realize that Aliens is a really phenomenal movie and I am placing it around other movies I also find phenomenal.  The film was highly influential, and it'd take a fairly culturally oblivious person to not realize how this movie has shaped future Sci-Fi and Action movies to take place after it.  Signourney Weaver gives a career defining performance, and really cemented herself as an action star in a period of time that wasn't as accepting (or had a high demand for) female action stars.  James Cameron really proves himself as an excellent filmmaker with this one, and the entire movie is also a testament to his strength.  This is one of his strongest films.

Decade Count: 1930s: 4, 1940s: 6, 1950s: 4, 1960s: 5, 1970s: 4, 1980s: 14, 1990s: 12, 2000s: 11, 2010s: 9

 

 

 

 

[The Panda]

Number 179

Minority Report (2002)

 

"Sometimes, in order to see the light, you have to risk the dark."

 

Most Valuable Player: Steven Spielberg's Direction

Box Office: 132.1m (196.6m Adjusted)

Tomatometer: 90%

Notable Awards: Nominated for 1 Oscar

Synopsis: In a future where a special police unit is able to arrest murderers before they commit their crimes, an officer from that unit is himself accused of a future murder.

Critic Opinion: "Completed the same month Joseph McCarthy was censured by the U.S. Senate, Philip K. Dick's paranoid sci-fi story “The Minority Report” posits a future in which prophets wired to a supercomputer enable the cops to bust people for crimes they haven't yet committed. To a nation that wants potential terrorists detained indefinitely, this premise might not seem as dystopian as the filmmakers seem to think, but Steven Spielberg has turned the material into a highly effective thriller whose futuristic panoramas rival those of A.I. Artificial Intelligence. Tom Cruise plays a police chief who considers the “precrime” system infallible until he's fingered for a future murder and has to prove his innocence. The first 15 minutes are masterful, as Cruise hunts down a killer-to-be; the last 30 are mediocre, as screenwriters Scott Frank and Jon Cohen untangle the mystery they've grafted onto Dick's story. In between lies a conventional but expertly realized cop-on-the-run drama incorporating elements of The Matrix (a subterranean detention center where people are filed away like manila folders), Mission: Impossible (a high-speed chase on a vertical freeway), Blade Runner (some biting satire of consumer culture), and 2001: A Space Odyssey (the star-child image of clairvoyant Samantha Morton)." - Jones, Chicago Reader

User Opinion: "A very well made sci-fi movie with quite a few unexpected twists and turns. Very well acted, especially by Cruise and Farrell and obviously with great direction by Spielberg." - darkelf

Reasoning: Often one of Spielberg's more overlooked or lesser works, Minority Report is propulsive film that is fistful of energy and action.  Tom Cruise continues to show his ability to headline a film as a movie star in this one, giving one of the stronger performances in his career.  The film is high in ideas, like many of Spielberg's films, but Minority Report is a case where Spielberg is able to fully realize and execute many of his thoughts in themes into a wildly entertaining ride, something that doesn't happen in comparable films such as A.I. Artificial Intelligence.  This dystopian sci-fi offers many outlooks that are relevant in today's political culture, and especially the political culture in 2002, when Minority Report was originally released.  A great sci-fi movie.

Decade Count: 1930s: 4, 1940s: 6, 1950s: 4, 1960s: 5, 1970s: 4, 1980s: 14, 1990s: 12, 2000s: 12, 2010s: 9

 

 

 

 

[The Panda]

Number 178

The Immigrant (2014)

 

"I have gone through so many trials. Has it become a sin for me to try so hard to survive? Aunt... Is it a sin to want to survive when I have done so many bad things?"

 

Most Valuable Player: Marion Cotillard's Performance

Box Office: 2m (2.1m Adjusted)

Tomatometer: 87%

Notable Awards: Weinstein intentionally threw this film under the bus because he had a grudge.  So Karma from the downfall of Weinstein?

Synopsis: 1921. An innocent immigrant woman is tricked into a life of burlesque and vaudeville until a dazzling magician tries to save her and reunite her with her sister who is being held in the confines of Ellis Island.

Critic Opinion: "The production design and visual effects get Gray close to the sort of old-world epics of directors like Francis Ford Coppola and Bernardo Bertolucci. Darius Khondji’s breathtaking cinematography, with its gauzy, hazy, gilded tarnish, simultaneously imposes immediacy and remembrance. The past is alive and yellowing before your eyes. But The Immigrant is closer to the frustrated attractions of Gray’s Two Lovers than to any kind of generational saga. This is actually the sort of expensive-looking attempt to authentically inhabit a bygone era that regularly came along during Gray’s go-to cinematic era — the 1970s — in films as different as McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Paper Moon, Chinatown, Hester Street, and Wise Blood. Gray’s movie is close to Emanuele Crialese’s 2006 Ellis Island masterpiece Nuovomondo (Golden Door) in that sense. But Crialese’s a dreamer. Gray, by comparison, doesn’t sleep.  The Immigrant is the most fevered of his films. It might also be the least sentimental. The movie’s final image is also the shot of the year. You don’t know how much fakery was involved in pulling it off. But it manages to tell a dispiriting truth about divergent approaches to old-world perseverance while dropping jaws, many more of which, incidentally, ought to be hitting the floor." - Morris, Grantland

User Opinion: "It sounds like obvious melodrama fodder, but instead the character work here is brilliantly subversive. In a less intelligent film, Ewa would be naive and helpless, Bruno would be charming and sleazy, Orlando would be a noble white knight, and the three of them would form a love triangle. Gray, however, writes them as real people with messy and complicated feelings who make decisions for reasons lying beyond convention and expectation. They reveal new strengths and weaknesses in almost every new scene in an entirely natural and consistent way. Even Orlando, who seems to be included in the film just so it can have more than two major characters (my only issue with the movie), makes up for it with his complexity. 
 
The performances are all as powerful as the material demands them to be - Cotillard does the best work of her career here, Phoenix delivers another flawless turn as far removed from his other recent work as it can be, and Renner again shows how effective he can be as a character actor. They combine emotion and expression with depth, as does the whole film: presenting itself at first as an old-fashioned melodrama, it proceeds to move and develop like a 1970s New Hollywood character study. The fusion is masterful: it's a period piece that frees itself from formula and consequently feels more energetic and alive than most contemporary movies. Ewa's story here is one you could imagine her telling her grandchildren 50 years after the events of the film, but as written and acted, it has genuine immediacy and verve that makes it feel like you're watching personal history unfold right before your eyes, all the way to an exhilarating ending and the final shot that is my pick for the best - and most beautiful - of the whole year." - Jake Gittes

Reasoning: Alright, you probably haven't heard of this film, let alone seen this film, and you really need to.  It's easily one of, if not the, most overlooked films of the decade for a variety of a reasons.  The themes of the film are timely, and while the plot sounds trite and sentimental, it's about as opposite of that as you could be.  Cotillard gives a career defining performance, to bad nobody actually decided to watch it (thanks Weinstein for purposefully botching the release and campaign).  Eva is an inspiring character, trying to survive and being placed in situations which test her morality, and how far she is willing to go.  Phoenix's character manages to give a harrowing presence, while never being irredeemable or anything other than human.  The cinematography, production design and costumes all absorb you into the time frame, and it all manages to be a masterful small and unnoticed drama.

Decade Count: 1930s: 4, 1940s: 6, 1950s: 4, 1960s: 5, 1970s: 4, 1980s: 14, 1990s: 12, 2000s: 12, 2010s: 9

 

 

 

 

[elcaballero]

Minority Report absolutely deserves more attention. It's probably my favorite 21st century Spielberg film.

[The Panda]

Number 177

Blazing Saddles (1974)

 

"Badges? We don't need no stinking badges."

 

Most Valuable Player: Mel Brooks for Writing and Directing

Box Office: 119.6m (546.9m Adjusted)

Tomatometer: 90%

Notable Awards: Nominated for 3 Oscars

Synopsis: In order to ruin a western town, a corrupt politician appoints a black sheriff, who promptly becomes his most formidable adversary.

Critic Opinion: "There are some people who can literally get away with anything -- say anything, do anything -- and people will let them. Other people attempt a mildly dirty joke and bring total silence down on a party. Mel Brooks is not only a member of the first group, he is its lifetime president. At its best, his comedy operates in areas so far removed from taste that (to coin his own expression) it rises below vulgarity.  "Blazing Saddles" is like that. It's a crazed grabbag of a movie that does everything to keep us laughing except hit us over the head with a rubber chicken. Mostly, it succeeds. It's an audience picture; it doesn't have a lot of classy polish and its structure is a total mess. But of course! What does that matter while Alex Karris is knocking a horse cold with a right cross to the jaw?" - Roger Ebert

User Opinion: "Excuse me while I whip this out....
 
 
A+" - CoolioD1

Reasoning: Brooks really rode the Blazing Saddle with this one!  Mel Brooks has a number of proves that really elevate him as one of the greatest straight comedy directors of all-time, and Blazing Saddles proves this.  The movie 'blazes' forward with outrageous comedy and it doesn't stop until it ends.  The film isn't just hilarious though, it also offers an insightful take on race-relations at the time.  The film is a brilliant parody of the Western genre and stands near the top of Mel Brooks' filmography.  The movie is completely out there, given its time, and it's all the more better for it.  Blazing Saddles is a comedic classic that should be a priority viewing for anybody who hasn't seen it.

Decade Count: 1930s: 4, 1940s: 6, 1950s: 4, 1960s: 5, 1970s: 5, 1980s: 14, 1990s: 12, 2000s: 12, 2010s: 9

 

 

 

[The Panda]

Number 176

The Breakfast Club (1985)

 

"We're all pretty bizarre. Some of us are just better at hiding it, that's all."

 

Most Valuable Player: John Hughes' Screenplay

Box Office: 45.9m (111.8m Adjusted)

Tomatometer: 89%

Notable Awards: Being a reference in many later future films?

Synopsis: Five high school students meet in Saturday detention and discover how they have a lot more in common than they thought.

Critic Opinion: "If you had an asymmetrical haircut and a collection of new-wave vinyl in 1985, you probably remember the release of "The Breakfast Club" as a powerful moment in your young life. The definitive movie from writer-director John Hughes, which returns to theaters this month for its 30th anniversary, became a cultural touchstone for several generations and a landmark for movies overall. "The Breakfast Club" shattered nearly every teen-film convention, just as its opening quote -- a lyric from David Bowie's adolescent anthem, "Changes" -- exploded into smithereens across the screen.  The story is deceptively modest: On a dreary Saturday, five teens from different cliques gather for detention at Shermer High in Illinois. They barely leave the school library and do almost nothing but talk, but by the film's end, these five stereotypes -- "a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess and a criminal," according to the famous voice-over -- will break through each other's social and emotional walls." - Guzman, Newsday

User Opinion: "What makes Breakfast Club or even Ferris Bueller (I'll leave Sixteen Candles out of this) even more impressive than their terrific screenplays and teenage performances suggest is how no high school movies since have been able to reflect their respective generations this well. The closest this generation has gotten is Mean Girls and Easy A, which are funny but really lightweight movies. Few movies aimed at teens today, and none that are massively popular, are as honest and poignant and revelatory as The Breakfast Club was.Shame." - Gopher

Reasoning: With little plot to be hard, it's not easy to forget about The Breakfast Club and how remarkable of a movie that it really is.  The Breakfast Club managed to capture an era of teenagers in a single movie solely built on authenticity and conversations.  There is still truth in The Breakfast Club's revelations today, and it's one of the best "teen experience" movies that you'll ever see.  John Hughes is an excellent director at capturing real relationships between young actors, and the Breakfast Club is a movie that manages to prove that.  Screenplay and authentic relationships and characterization carry this film a long ways and to far reaching heights.

Decade Count: 1930s: 4, 1940s: 6, 1950s: 4, 1960s: 5, 1970s: 5, 1980s: 15, 1990s: 12, 2000s: 12, 2010s: 9

 

 

[The Panda]

Number 175

Donnie Darko (2001)

 

"I hope that when the world comes to an end, I can breathe a sigh of relief, because there will be so much to look forward to."

 

Most Valuable Player: Richard Kelly for his Screenplay and Direction

Box Office: 0.5m (0.8m Adjusted)

Tomatometer: 86%

Notable Awards: #222 on IMDb Top 250

Synopsis: A troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a man in a large rabbit suit who manipulates him to commit a series of crimes, after he narrowly escapes a bizarre accident.

Critic Opinion: "Donnie Darko (Jake Gyllenhaal) is an emotionally troubled teen, prone to sleepwalking and hallucinating a monstrous rabbit. One night, the man-sized lepus – named Frank – calls Donnie to the local golf course, where he informs the high-schooler that the world will end in 28 days, 6 hours, 4 minutes and 12 seconds. Writer-director Richard Kelly’s subsequent efforts to create enigmatic, cult cinema – see the interesting-but-messy Southland Tales and The Box – emphasise how freakishly special this, his debut feature, was. Perhaps jet engines never strike the same place twice." - Brady, Irish Times

User Opinion: "Haunting movie that I can never seem to get out of my head because Mad World gets played all the time in various ways through our pop culture. Wouldn't be anything special without the amazing work of a young Jake Gyllenhaal, puts his heart into this role & it shows. Fantastic cult classic." - GiantCALBears

Reasoning: Sinister, smart and genuinely creepy.  Perhaps the lowest grossing movie (Adjusted) on my list, Donnie Darko was a breakout for Gyllenhaal and rather lowkey cult classic.  Now, it's not my favorite movie about giant, talking, imaginary rabbits (you'll see that one much later), but it might just be my second favorite one about that subject.  It's also a much darker and sinister film than that one.  The film is packed with dark comedy, a haunting mood, and an intelligent script which follows teenage Gyllenhaal on his decent to madness of a sorts.  The performances are great, but I do think the star of the movie is the director and writer Richard Kelly, who never managed to replicate the sheer originality and daring punch that Donnie Darko manages to make.  An indie film that is definitely worth everyone's time.

Decade Count: 1930s: 4, 1940s: 6, 1950s: 4, 1960s: 5, 1970s: 5, 1980s: 15, 1990s: 12, 2000s: 13, 2010s: 9

 

 

 

 

Edited March 2, 2017 by The Panda

[RandomCat]

I have two thoughts. Three if you include that this is an awesome list.

 

First. Fuck Christmas story.

 

Second. Fistful of Dollars is the best movie that ever ripped off a better movie. (I love the Dollars Trilogy.)

[The Panda]

Number 174

My Fair Lady (1964)

 

"Come on, Dover! Come on, Dover! Move your bloomin' arse!"

 

Most Valuable Player: Andre Previn's Score and Songs, as well Audrey Hepburn's leading performance

Box Office: 72m (519m Adjusted)

Tomatometer: 96%

Notable Awards: Won 8 Oscars, Including Best Picture

Synopsis: "A misogynistic and snobbish phonetics professor agrees to a wager that he can take a flower girl and make her presentable in high society."

Critic Opinion: " A marvelous restoration of the 30-year-old musical, precisely the kind of high-class popular entertainment that Hollywood can't seem to make these days. Audrey Hepburn is a physical wonder; Rex Harrison defines his role; and production designer Gene Allen is the hidden star. A big screen production for the entire family." - Gene Siskel, Chicago Tribune

User Opinion: None

Reasoning: This movie makes me want to dance all night, if I could dance, just like a classic musical should.  I know musicals that don't star Ryan Gosling or are produced by Disney aren't all the hots around here, but that doesn't mean they aren't essential aspects of cinematic history, and My Fair Lady is one of the best of the many great musicals to be put to screen.  Audrey Hepbrun and Rex Harrison are wonderful in their title roles, the songs are placed throughout the film are plentiful and really help the soul to soar.  The technical design of the movie is beautiful, it's no wonder it killed it at the Oscars when it was released.  Wonderful, wonderful musical.

Decade Count:  1930s: 4, 1940s: 6, 1950s: 4, 1960s: 6, 1970s: 5, 1980s: 15, 1990s: 12, 2000s: 13, 2010s: 9

 

 

 

 

 

[The Panda]

Number 173

Full Metal Jacket (1983)

 

"I bet you're the kind of guy that would fuck a person in the ass and not even have the goddamn common courtesy to give him a reach-around. I'll be watching you."

 

Most Valuable Player: Stanley Kubrick for his Direction

Box Office: 46.4m (102.6m Adjusted)

Tomatometer: 95%

Notable Awards: Nominated for 1 Oscar

Synopsis: A pragmatic U.S. Marine observes the dehumanizing effects the Vietnam War has on his fellow recruits from their brutal boot camp training to the bloody street fighting in Hue.

Critic Opinion: "In the final burst of action, Douglas Milsome's gliding camera moves like another squad member as a sniper--or perhaps a handful of them--pin down Joker's group in another of Hue's moonscape ruins. This agonizing scene, including the sniper's identity, is meant to illuminate the moral dilemma of Vietnam. But the final one does it better: the young Marines, silhouetted against guttering flames, moving forward as they sing "M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E," is Kubrick's vision of a war that leads nowhere but into the pit, fought by boys whose basic innocence has been warped and cynically lost." - Benson, LA Times

User Opinion: "the first 45 mins in the bootcamp and last 30 mins - especially with the sniper - were brilliant, so it was still very good overall." - lisa

Reasoning: It's shocking to think I would regard Full Metal Jacket as one of Kubrick's lesser works given how excellent it is, especially when compared to the work of other directors, it just speaks to Kubrick's powerful ability as a director of film.  The film has a high octane level of intensity, and there's even a sense of comicality to the whole affair.  The movie offers challenging themes, as do all of Kubrick's films, and it boasts a rocking awesome soundtrack to go with it all.  All around, Full Metal Jacket is one of your quintessential classic war movies to go and watch.

Decade Count: 1930s: 4, 1940s: 6, 1950s: 4, 1960s: 6, 1970s: 5, 1980s: 16, 1990s: 12, 2000s: 13, 2010s: 9

 

 

 

 

[The Panda]

Number 172

Of Mice and Men (1939)

 

"I shouldn't a oughta let no stranger shoot my dog. I shoulda shot my dog myself, George."

 

Most Valuable Player: John Steinback's Novel

Box Office: N/A

Tomatometer: 100%

Notable Awards: Nominated for 4 Oscars

Synopsis: Two itinerant migrant workers, one mentally disabled and the other his carer, take jobs as ranch hands during the Great Depression to fulfill their shared dream of owning their own ranch.

Critic Opinion: "It’s interesting how the reputation of this film has waned and peaked over time. Directed and produced by Lewis Milestone from a screen adaptation by Eugene Solow, it received four Oscar nominations, including one for Best Picture. It was the first major film adaptation of a Steinbeck property, rushed into theaters before 1940’s “The Grapes of Wrath,” which went on to enjoy a much more hallowed reputation.  The 1939 version saw something of a revival in the 1970s and ’80s, including a stage adaptation at the Steppenwolf Theatre starring Gary Sinise and John Malkovich, which they would go on to reprise in a 1992 film directed by Sinise. Still, other than Lon Chaney’s portrayal of Lennie, his film has faded in memory, and unfairly so." - Lloyd, Sarasota-Herald Tribune

User Opinion: None

Reasoning: The novel that this film is based on is one of my favorite novels ever written, and while I don't think any film could truly be able to capture Steinback's words as well as Steinback himself, this 1939 film is about as close as you're going to get.  Steinback is quite possibly the greatest American author to ever live, and the language and themes of his novel are so potent to the self-identity of the country.  Of Mice and Men captures so much of the thoughts of the American Dream, of brotherhood, of duty, it's fantastic.  As for this film itself, the performances are portrayed near perfectly, and Aaron Copland's score is gorgeous.  Of Mice and Men is potent and heartbreak, and a great American classic.

Decade Count: 1930s: 5, 1940s: 6, 1950s: 4, 1960s: 6, 1970s: 5, 1980s: 16, 1990s: 12, 2000s: 13, 2010s: 9

 

 

 

[The Panda]

Number 171

Manhattan (1979)

 

"My analyst warned me, but you were so beautiful I got another analyst."

 

Most Valuable Player: George Gershwin's Score

Box Office: 39.9m (137.7m Adjusted)

Tomatometer: 98%

Notable Awards: Nominated for 2 Oscars

Synopsis: The life of a divorced television writer dating a teenage girl is further complicated when he falls in love with his best friend's mistress.

Critic Opinion: "With "Manhattan," a sparkling romance about the overspecialized anxieties of overintellectualized New Yorkers, Woody Allen has bounced back from the sobriety of "Interiors" to an exhilarating new comic high.  Consistently amusing and discreetly affecting, "Manhattan" achieves a tangier blend of social commentary, wit and romantic pathos that did "Annie Hall," which collected its awards a little prematurely." - Arnold, Washington Post

User Opinion: "Gorgeously shot, love Woody." - Jay Hollywood

Reasoning: I have never been the biggest Woody Allen fan, I've liked quite a bit of his movies, but I rarely love them.  Manhattan is the exception.  Manhattan has a realistic wit to the dialogue and plot the transacts throughout the film.  I found the performances charming and believable, and the film is subtle enough that it really works in a charming/amusing sort of way.  The film has a certain balance to it that really strikes well for me, and the cinematography of the movie is some of the best from Allen's films.  Also, Gershwin's score really pulls the whole movie to me, it's a score strong enough that would be worth going to a concert to hear alone, and it also manages to enhance the movie instead of just itself.  Manhattan is a lovely film.

Decade Count: 1930s: 5, 1940s: 6, 1950s: 4, 1960s: 6, 1970s: 6, 1980s: 16, 1990s: 12, 2000s: 13, 2010s: 9

 

 

 

[The Panda]

Number 170

Stand By Me (1986)

 

"It happens sometimes. Friends come in and out of our lives, like busboys in a restaurant."

 

Most Valuable Player: Raynold Gideon for the Screenplay

Box Office: 52.3m (121.9m Adjusted)

Tomatometer: 91%

Notable Awards: Nominated for 1 Oscar

Synopsis: After the death of a friend, a writer recounts a boyhood journey to find the body of a missing boy.

Critic Opinion: "When you are an adventure-seeker stuck in that odd transition between early youth and adolescence, few movies resonate more than “Stand by Me.” Our suspicions suggest all the right notes are found not so much on the basis of having gifted filmmakers telling this story, but in the implication that its ideas come from within a collective experience that all men recall with some fondness (or alarm) as they grow older. Rob Reiner, Stephen King and Bruce Evans often find this trait meandering through many of their endeavors, and it’s a wonder they even bother referring to some of those stories as works of fiction. Together, they seem destined to write the prototype for what nearly all male youths will endure on their journey towards a more informed state of wisdom, and here it is all told in a setting where a quiet community is altered by fate’s own sleight of hand, and four spirited individuals are challenged by an event that will compel them to grow up much sooner than they should." - Reeves, Cinemaphile

User Opinion: "What Stand By Me does is brings you back to a time when friendship was more pure and innocent and meant more. You can't help but get caught up in the nostalgia. Perhaps this film means more to me for personal reasons ( as I've already stated ) but it is a wonderful film and it should be enjoyed by everyone.The last line of the movie is so true. Do we really ever have friends as good as the ones when we were twelve? I doubt it." - baumer

Reasoning: The coming of age genre is quite a vast one and Stand By Me manages to find its way somewhere near the top of that list.  Stephen King's novel and Gideon's screenplay are what really elevate this film, however, and allow so much of what happens on screen to work, as well as giving the young actors rich material to work and thrive with.  It's out there, it's funny, it's intense in sections, it's relateable in a hearkening back to your childhood kind of way, and it's also fairly emotional.  I think most people should have seen Stand By Me, and if you haven't then it should be a priority watch, so I don't think I need to do much selling of how good and sweet of a movie this is.

Decade Count: 1930s: 5, 1940s: 6, 1950s: 4, 1960s: 6, 1970s: 6, 1980s: 17, 1990s: 12, 2000s: 13, 2010s: 9