Tuesday, August 02, 2005

Matt's Top Ten Movies

The time has come. I have assembled a list of my favorite movies. These are MY favorites. Their presence on the list does not necessarily indicate critical acclaim ... in fact, the critics panned about half of them.

I went with gut instinct for the most part, and I’ll give a word or a line about each as an explanation. Also, I've included a list of honorable mentions.

10. The Muppet Movie (nostalgia)
9. Rocky (inspiration)
8. The Empire Strikes Back (best of the 6)
7. Dumb & Dumber (influence on current generation of comedies)
6. Zoolander (no reason necessary)
5. Waiting for Guffman (Levy, Guest and Willard are geniuses ... their 2 follow-up movies were commercially more successful, but this one is the real deal)
4. Raising Arizona (Coen brothers best ... Hudsucker Proxy also makes my top 20)
3. The Bourne Identity (I just liked it. I'd also put a Tom Clancy movie or two [the Harrison Ford ones] into my top 20)
2. Mystery Men (I don't know why. It was simply spectacular. This cannot be number 1, but it can be number 2 or 3)
1. Raiders of the Lost Ark (simply the best)

Honorable mentions: Napoleon Dynamite (it hasn't cracked the top ten, because I'm waiting to see if it stands the test of time), The Return of the Pink Panther, Back to the Future (Back to the Future II & III making the top 50), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (Temple of Doom doesn't crack the top 100, but the other two are among the best of all time), The Karate Kid I & II, the original Star Wars, the original Batman (Keaton/Nicholson), Ishtar, and finally Luther (perhaps the only movie with any redeeming (literally) value. What's on your top ten? Just go with your gut.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

My top 10 (but not in order) off the top of my head...

Die Hard
Braveheart
Office Space
Happy Gilmore
Raiders of the Lost Arc
Zoolander
Ocean's 11
Almost Famous
The Village
Waking Ned Devine

Honorable Mention:
Guffman, Big Daddy, Italian Job, 12 Monkies, Rounders, The Ring (#1 in the horror/thriller category), Return to Me (Chick-flicks were automatically disqualified from the actual top ten)

Burly said...

Excellent list ... I'm going to get my friend Aaron to post his ... similar to yours ... I forgot the Italian Job as an honorable mention on mine ... better than Ocean's 11 in my book ...

Anonymous said...

I have to disagree about the Italian Job v. Ocean's 11, but different strokes for different folks. Also I forgot about Blue Streak and Pirates of the Caribean. I think Blue streak would probably beat out a couple of the movies on the top ten, and pirates deserves an honorable mention.

Anonymous said...

Pride and Prejudice
Harry Potter Series (seen as one ongoing movie)
Blue Streak
National Treasure
Waking Ned Devine
Grand Canyon
Fools Rush In
Pirates of the Carribean
Princess Bride

Anonymous said...

...The Village

Burly said...

I noticed that Lord of the Rings was missing from both of your lists. It was missing from mine as well. My reason is that I didn't personally enjoy them, though I can acknowledge that they are incredibly well done, and I am surprised when they're missing from other people's top ten lists. Oh, and I acknowledge Ocean's 11 to be a better made movie than The Italian Job, but I just enjoyed the Italian Job more. Just like the Bourne movies shouldn't make my top five on the merit of their quality, they make it because I enjoyed watching them.

Coming soon ... top ten worst movies of all time! Feel free to get it started. I'll let you know that "Radioland Murders" is on the list, but I'll leave the #1 worst movie of all time (that I've actually seen ... therefore Dumb and Dumberer doesn't make the cut) for the actual list. Another one that makes the list is McHale's Navy (probably #2).

Anonymous said...

I did like the Lord of the Rings alot, but I also thought they missed capitalizing on the best aspects of the books that I loved. The first in the series would probably make my top 50, while the others would make my top 100.

so here's the worst of the worst, once again not in particular order...

Stella
Mr. and Mrs. Bridges
one hour photo
the transporter (transporter 2 comes out soon!)
Dude where's my car
snake eyes
8mm
Raising Arizona
Leaving Las Vegas
falling down

Honorable mentions
Steel
Kazaam
Barton Fink

Anonymous said...

I have to also give some more good titles since I keep thinking of them... maybe one day I'll boil this all down to a top 25 list with actual rankings. but some other honorable mentions go to Basic, the game, the perfect murder, and shining through.

Notablogger said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Notablogger said...

I am shocked and disgusted by the apparent overindulgence in the satanic media known as the "movie". We are called to be salt and light, looks more like sugar and tootsie pops to me.

Burly said...

One more honorable mention:

UHF (brilliant)