Topic: Top 5 movies of all times?

[Piffi]

For no reason at all really. Just curious really, and looking for some good movies. So whats your top 5 favorite movies of all times? Mine are..

1, Platoon.
2, Casablanca
3, Scarface
4, Heat
5, Casino

[DJ Doena]

I don't create these kinds of lists because they don't make much sense to me.

For example, is Gladiator better than The Empire Strikes Back. On what real basis would I compare these two?

I can't even compare Star Trek II with Star Trek IV because it solely depends on which I am in the mood for.


What I can say is that I was often disappointed with these so-called must-see classics. A few years ago I bought myself The Godfather trilogy and forced myself through the first part. I found it to be rather boring.

It's not because these movies are old, for example I really like both The Seven Samurai and Yojimbo but 2001? Sleep-inducing.


Ask me a genre and I will tell you which movies I like and why. But don't ask me to give any movie a "X out Y" rating or put them in a specific order.

[Piffi]

Well, thats fair enough I'll give you 3 genres then

1. War - Since thats maby my favorite genre out there. And you wont get enough war movies.

2. Suspence\thriller - Dont have too many really great suspence\thrillers yet. Doesnt matter when the movies are made. Old or new, doesnt matter.

3, Comedy - Never been big on comedys. But i'm trying to change that.

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

War:
1) Das Boot (Director's Cut)
2) The Hurt Locker
3) Flags of Our Fathers / Letters from Iwo Jima
4) Catch - 22
5) Blackhawk Down

Thriller:
1) The Fugitive
2) Mississippi Burning
3) The Salton Sea
4) The Constant Gardener
5) Heat

Comedy:
1) A Fish Called Wanda
2) Being John Malkovich
3) Moonrise Kingdom
4) Harvey
5) The Great Dictator

[GSyren]

I guess I'm going to disappoint you, Thomas, because war movies aren't really my cup of tea. Not unless you count films like The Guns of Navarone or Where Eagles Dare, but those are more action movies than war movies, in my opinion.

Also, I find it hard to rank films against each other, so I'll just list 5 of my favorite films in alphabetic order:
* 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
* Back to the Future
* Jason and the Argonauts
* King Kong (1933)
* Mary Poppins

Runners up are The African Queen, Casablanca, Grave of the Fireflies, Police Story, Rear Window, Some Like it Hot and The Wizard of Oz.

[DJ Doena]

Well, thats fair enough I'll give you 3 genres then

1. War - Since thats maby my favorite genre out there. And you wont get enough war movies.

2. Suspence\thriller - Dont have too many really great suspence\thrillers yet. Doesnt matter when the movies are made. Old or new, doesnt matter.

3, Comedy - Never been big on comedys. But i'm trying to change that.

1) never big on war movies if you count war as something that happened in the 20th century. I have yet to watch both Platoon and Apocalypse Now (two more DVDs on my "classic pile" I've never seen before).

I did like the combo of Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima.

And I liked both the original First Blood as well as John Rambo but I guess they fall more into the action genre.

2) Thriller is yet another genre I don't care for much (What do I like? I ask myself just now...).

I would suggest
The Fugitive
The Siege (not to mix up with Under Siege), a movie more current than it was when it was made
A Few Good Men
Four Brothers
The Town
The Negotiator
Taken

Let's face it, I'm more of the popcorn movie variety. Action flicks, Sci-fi flicks with lots of action.


3) Regarding comedy: There are as many sub-genres to comedy as there are genres in general. There's everything from sentimental and subtle to gross and vulgar and everything in between and mixes of them.

My favourite sub-genre of comedy is the parody because I can laugh about the stuff I'm a fan of as long as it's well made. The best parodies were made in the 80s with the two Airplane! movies, Spaceballs and the two Hot Shots! (and Bill & Ted if you consider it a parody on time-travel movies in general).

[Rogmeister]

  What?  I don't get to pick favorite westerns?  Then maybe I won't play! 

[Piffi]

Hehe, please feel free to post from whatever genre you like!

[Dragonfire]

Picking just 5 movies is hard for me. 

I don't like war movies either.  I was forced to watch Apocalypse Now in English senior year of high school.  I still don't know how she was able to show that without sending home permission slips..most in the class weren't 19 yet at that point.  I hated that movie.  I saw Full Metal Jacket years ago...no clue why.  Didn't like it.  I might have seen some of Platoon.

What movies to pick....

Die Hard - the first one, though I have managed to enjoy the sequels.
Beauty and the Beast - Disney version
Original Star Wars Trilogy
Indiana Jones movies
Lord of the Rings
Pixar Movies
Airplane!
Spaceballs
North by Northwest
Psycho
Rebecca
Dead Again
Harry Potter - all of them
The Muppet Movie
Princess Bride

See?  Told you I couldn't stop at 5.   

[Danae Cassandra]

at least right now ... may change at any time

WAR
1. Hotaru no Haka (Grave of the Fireflies)
2. Lawrence of Arabia
3. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
4. Hadashi no Gen (Barefoot Gen)
5. Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

Honorable mention: La nuit de la vérité (The Night of Truth) - I was so very impressed with what this movie had to say, but it's low budget is apparent

COMEDY
1. Arsenic and Old Lace
2. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
3. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
4. Snatch
5. The Great Race

SUSPENSE/THRILLER
1. Perfect Blue
2. M
3. The Third Man
4. Bab el hadid (Cairo Station)
5. Charade

[Dragonfire]

Arsenic and Old Lace is wonderful.  I need to watch that one again.

[Rogmeister]

  Such lists are difficult.  I pick my choices quickly using whatever movies come to mind first.  So here we go...

WESTERNS
1. Rio Bravo
2. The Searchers
3. Unforgiven
4. Stagecoach
5. Support Your Local Sheriff

SUPER-HERO MOVIES
1. Superman
2. Marvel's The Avengers
3. Spider-Man
4. Iron Man
5. The Incredibles

SPORTS FILMS
1. A League of Their Own
2. Field of Dreams
3. Rookie of the Year
4. Pride of the Yankees
5. The Longest Yard (original version)

[DSig]

Maybe top 10+ would be better (undecided)

These are in no particular order .. depends on the moment

Westerns ...
  Tin Star
  Unforgiven
  High Noon
  The Searchers
  Once Upon a Time in the West .... or Winchester 73

Comedies ...
  Arsonic and Old Lace
  You Can't Take it With You
  Harvey
  Defending Your Life
  The Princess Bride

Drama ...
  To Have and Have Not
  Key Largo
  North by Northwest
  The Quiet Man
  Vertigo or Rear Window

Sports ...
  It Happens Every Spring
  Angels in the Outfield (paul douglas)
  Field of Dreams
  Sandlot

SciFi ...
  Avatar
  2001
  A Boy and His Dog
  Darkstar
  Alien

[VirtualScot]

Lists are to hard to make. But you seem to like Bogart so i recommend the desperate hours. Interesting 1950's home invasion film William Wyler. Who ever suggested Defending Your Life was spot on with that. A very under seen film at least outside of the US anyway.

I suggest Come and See as possibly the best anti war film you could ever watch. And speaking of war films Glory is underrated masterpiece of the modern age of cinema.

Westerns not exactly my favourite genre. Still there are a lot of westerns i enjoy. Like The Ox Bow incident. It's credited with being the film that turned westerns from being viewed as a genre of low culture value. To something meaningful and respectful. I'm sure western enthusiasts dispute this though.

Also watched Cloud Atlas recently which i enjoyed. Tom Hanks playing various eccentric characters was one of the highlights of it. So i would not pass it by despite what the critics say. Pretty much they don't like because of the unconventional narrative structure.


Have fun.

[DSig]

Lists are hard.  For me it is 'the moment' and what comes to mind.  I agree with Cloud Alas also.  I really really enjoy that film.  When it finally came out I did get it on blu-ray and have seen it 4-5 times since.  Yep .. like most of Bogart's films and Desperate Hours is another fine one.  Great catch