The Final Countdown: BOT's Top 100 Movies of All-Time - The List is Complete, The Empire is Dead, I Now Go to the Grey Havens

[That One Girl]

tfw you want to go to bed but you’re waiting for that reveal

[MrPink]

36 minutes ago, Auteur Panda said:

The king is dead!  The Empire has been defeated!  Alabama lost!  American Sniper topped Marvel and Hunger Games at the Box Office!

 

Number 3

The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Lucasfilms, Directed by Irvin Kershner (185 Points, 36 Votes)

 

"That is why you fail."

 

Number 1 Placements: 2

Top 5 Placements: 8

Top 10 Placements: 10

Top 25 Placements: 21

Previous Rankings: 2016 (1, -2), 2014 (1, -2), 2013 (1, -2), 2012 (3, No Change)

Awards Count: Won 1 Oscar

Tomatometer: 95% (8.9 Avg Rating)

Box Office: 209.4m (722.3m Adjusted)

Synopsis: After the rebels are brutally overpowered by the Empire on the ice planet Hoth, Luke Skywalker begins Jedi training with Yoda, while his friends are pursued by Darth Vader.

Critic Opinion: "Indulge me for a moment as I time travel back to 1980. Historically, it was a signficant year -- the Iran hostage crisis raged, Ronald Reagan won the Presidential election, and the United States boycotted the Moscow Summer Olympics in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. But, for science fiction movie lovers, there was only one event: the May 21 opening of The Empire Strikes Back. For the first time in three long, merchandise-clogged years, new Star Wars had reached screens. The movie was a guaranteed success before its first public show.

 

Although it lacks the pioneering "newness" of Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back is in many ways a superior motion picture. The storyline is more interesting and ambitious, the characters -- little more than appealing types in the original -- are allowed to grow and develop, the special effects are more mature, and the tone is deliciously dark and downbeat. It's the latter quality that has made The Empire Strikes Back the least favorite among young Star Wars fans -- excepting Yoda, there's nothing cute to be found, and the film definitely doesn't leave viewers with a warm, fuzzy feeling. In the first film, good triumphed decisively over evil; here, it's almost the other way around.

 

Seventeen years after its intial release, The Empire Strikes Back is still as thrilling and involving as ever. Because of the high quality of the original product, it doesn't show a hint of dating. Neither the first nor the third chapters (or, properly, the "fourth" and "sixth") of the Star Wars saga were able to match the narrative scope of Empire, which today remains one of the finest and most rousing science fiction tales ever committed to the screen." - James Berardinelli

User Opinions: "It's Empire Strikes Back." - @aabattery

 

"I don’t have a review but this is a good A+ movie I’m just putting this here in case Panda sees it and puts it in his user opinion thingy when it inevitably makes the list" - @That One Guy

 

"This movie is not half bad." - @MrPink

 

"The best of the Star Wars films and the best sequel ever made.  Should have won best picture in 1980." - @baumer

Commentary: Our reigning champion has been defeated, just as Luke was defeated by his father in this shocking and polarizing 80s classic.  This movie wasn't always beloved, in fact, upon release, its reception was fairly polarizing in the same manner as The Last Jedi, I suspect history has repeated itself and time will be kind to Rian Johnson's masterpiece.  Anyways, everyone on this forum has seen this movie, or at least has heard enough from everybody else to have practically seen the movie.  It's a sequel that defined sequels, no sequel can ever be made now without being compared to this one.  It's a remarkable movie and you should probably go watch it again, because it's simply perfect (although not THE perfect movie like the one right before this).

Decade Count: 90s (27), 10s (15), '00s (15), 80s (15), 70s (11), 60s (6), 50s (5), 40s (3), 30s (1)

Tomatometer Count: Over 90% (79), 80%-90% (15), 70%-80% (3)

Adjusted Box Office Count: 1b+ (5), 900m (2), 800m (1), 700m (6), 600m (2), 500m (5), 400m (10), 300m (9), 200m (14), 100m (16), Under 100m (26)

Director Count: Steven Spielberg (7), James Cameron (5), Francis Ford Copolla (3), Alfred Hitchcock (3), Ridley Scott (3), Martin Scorsese (3), Damien Chazelle (2), David Fincher (2), Peter Jackson (2), Stanley Kubrick (2), John Lasseter (2), Sergio Leone (2), Richard Linklater (2), John McTiernan (2), Hayao Miyazaki (2), Christopher Nolan (2), Andrew Stanton (2), Quentin Tarantino (2), Lee Unkrich (2), Robert Zemeckis (2), J.J. Abrams (1), Roger Allers (1), Paul Thomas Anderson (1), John Avildsen (1), Brad Bird (1), Ash Brannon (1), Frank Capra (1), Ron Clements (1), Joel and Ethan Coen (1), Alfonso Cuaron (1), Michael Curtiz (1), Jonathan Demme (1), Stanley Donen (1), Frank Darabont (1), Pete Docter (1), Clint Eastwood (1), Victor Fleming (1), Milos Forman (1), Terry Gillam (1), Rian Johnson (1), Terry Jones (1), Gene Kelly (1), Irvin Kershner (1), Akira Kurosawa (1), David Lean (1), Ang Lee (1), Spike Lee (1), George Lucas (1), Sidney Lumet (1), Katia Lund (1), James Mangold (1), Michael Mann (1), Richard Marquand (1), Fernando Meirelles (1), George Miller (1), Rob Minkoff (1), John Musker (1), Jordan Peele (1), Roman Polanski (1), Harold Ramis (1), Rob Reiner (1), Russo Brothers (1), Gus van Sant (1), Bryan Singer (1), Isao Takahata (1), Guillermo Del Torro (1), Gary Trousdale (1), King Vidor (1), Orson Welles (1), Peter Weir (1), Robert Wise (1), David Yates (1), Wachowskis (1)

Franchise Count: Best Picture Winner (16), Pixar (7), Steven Spielberg (6), James Cameron (5), Star Wars (5), Toy Story (3), Alien and Predator (3), Studio Ghibli (3), WDAS (3), Dead Wife Cinematic Universe/Nolan (2), Marvel (2), Terminator (2), The Godfather (2), Middle Earth (2), Indiana Jones (2), 'Before' (1), Blade Runner (1), Monty Python (1), X-Men (1), MCU (1), Captain America (1), Die Hard (1), Harry Potter (1), Rocky (1), Oz (1), Nemo (1), Dollars (1), Hannibal (1), Mad Max (1), Jurassic Park (1), Jaws (1), Back to the Future (1), Matrix (1)

Genre Count: Drama (39), Adventure (35), VFX Driven (34), Sci-Fi (26), Fantasy (26), Epic (25), Thriller (24), Comedy (21), Action (21), Novel Adaption (20), Period Piece (20), Family/Children (17), Romance (16), Sequel (16), Crime/Noir (15), Animation (13), War (13), Horror (12), Tragedy (12), Indie (11), Musical (7), Foreign Language (6), Cult Classic (6), Western (5), Romantic Comedy (5), Melodrama (5), Spy/Detective (4), Bio-Pic (4), Christmas (3), Sports (3), Superhero (3), Comic Book (2), Satire (2), Remake (2)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Rorschach]

2 minutes ago, aabattery said:

@MrPink prepares his final ritual

 

[Amadeus]

So TDK is one of the two best movies ever made. A true American Classic. The purest of movies. Art. Unique. Perfect direction and editing. Magical in every possible way. 

 

[MrGamer]

6 minutes ago, aabattery said:

@MrPink prepares his final ritual

 

[Daxtreme]

2 minutes ago, MrGamer said:

 

I watched this loop way too many times

[Rorschach]

6 minutes ago, MrPink said:

 

 

 

[Ozymandias]

You can't fully understand TDK until you've dressed up like a bat and battled a crazy ass clown

[Arlborn]

A superhero movie winning a BOT's list would definitely make for an interesting commentary.

[Goffe]

5 minutes ago, Amadeus said:

So TDK is one of the two best movies ever made. A true American Classic. The purest of movies. Art. Unique. Perfect direction and editing. Magical in every possible way. 

 

Agreed.

[Fancyarcher]

11 minutes ago, aabattery said:

@MrPink prepares his final ritual

 

[MrGamer]

12 minutes ago, That One Guy said:

tfw you want to go to bed but you’re waiting for that reveal

[That One Girl]

[The Panda]

I want to do one last thing before doing these final two write ups (I'll do them simultaneously in two separate tabs)

 

Here are what I'd say were some of the big 5 winners and losers of this list

 

Five Winners

New Zealand - Not only did Ragnarok and Hunt for the Wilderpeople place fairly highly, The Lord of the Rings is doing better than it ever has whether Fellowship ends up as number 1 or 2

 

James Cameron and Steven Spielberg - The Cameronites came in full force for this list, getting 5 of his movies to place, many of them ranking near record heights (or past record heights).  Steven Spielberg also did a smackdown of the rest of the directors on this list.

 

Star Wars - Star Wars managed to get every single one of its movies into the top 250, and all of the OT and ST into the top 100.  Sure, ESB, TFA and Star Wars decreased, but the fact that it was the top ranking franchise says something.

 

New Movies - The 2010s did really well this go around, with three movies from 2017 making the final cut, and many getting fairly close to doing so.  It's evident that this forum has a bit of recency bias when judging movies

 

Studio Ghibli - Wow, Studio Ghibli managed to get three of its movies into the list and they all managed to place remarkably higher than they ever had before.  There was an evident push for Japanese animation, as even films like Your Name (which wasn't Ghibli) placed very high despite missing the top 100.

 

Five Losers

The Coen Brothers and WrathofHan - The Coen Brothers, sadly, saw a fairly decent drop-off from previous years, and it must hurt even more than No Country and Big Lebowski were both 1 simple vote away from getting in.

 

Comic Book Movies - Even though the Dark Knight will either place 1st or 2nd, that can't make up for the fact that only 3 comic book movies managed to make it onto the list, whereas in the past we saw upwards of 8.  The MCU did make a good showing, but it seemed like the MCU fans cannibalized each others votes, as with the exception of the Winter Soldier, everyone seemed to place different MCU movies on their list.  Maybe take that as a sign of the MCU having to many good movies?  Or maybe BOT came to their senses

 

Before Sunset - It's all your fault Ethan

 

Classic Horror - While Horror had a decent showing, in the past it had done better, especially classic horror as movies like Halloween and The Thing all barely missed the cut.

 

The Classics - I weep for Dr. Strangelove, A Clockwork Orange, To Kill a Mockingbird, North by Northwest, Gone with the Wind, The Grapes of Wrath, etc.

 

 

Now the winners will be revealed shortly.

[MrPink]

All you fuckers draining my likes with this Nolan spam.

[MrGamer]

[Rorschach]

Nolanites when TDK doesn't get #1:

 

[MrGamer]

1 minute ago, MrPink said:

All you fuckers draining my likes with this Nolan spam.

[aabattery]

3 minutes ago, Auteur Panda said:

Five Winners

New Zealand - Not only did Ragnarok and Hunt for the Wilderpeople place fairly highly, The Lord of the Rings is doing better than it ever has whether Fellowship ends up as number 1 or 2

 

 

[Rorschach]