Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Kimota94's Top 20 Movies Circa February 2005

Several of us, including a few of the contributors to this very blog, periodically produce a Top 20 Movies list. These are each person's favourites, not necessarily the films they're holding up as the greatest, or most artistic, or anything judgmental like that (although they certainly might be). And we do them in order, meaning that # 1 is the absolute favourite, # 2 is the next, and so on. We often say that a good criterion for making these selections is imagining that you could only watch one movie for the rest of your life (that's # 1), and then you get to pick another one (# 2), and so on. Or anything else that works.

Anyway, we haven't done it for awhile, but rather than do a new poll now I figured I'd publish my picks from 30 thirty months ago. To be honest, not much has changed for me over that period of time, so today's list probably wouldn't be significantly different (I might bump The Ring out and bring John Carpenter's The Thing back in, after it got bumped from previous lists). I had previously posted this list on my own blog back in November of last year, but since this site's all about movies and TV, I think it belongs here, too! So here they are, from the bottom right up to the top!

20. Best in Show
19. The Ring
18. Dark City
17. Wonder Boys
16. Exotica
15. The Contender
14. Fearless
13. The Matrix
12. Apocalypse Now
11. 12 Monkeys
10. Cider House Rules
9. Schindler's List
8. Young Frankenstein
7. The Day the Earth Stood Still
6. The Sixth Sense
5. Alien
4. Lone Star
3. The Lord of the Rings
2. Citizen Kane
1. Casablanca

I'd encourage others to provide their own list, if they're so inclined. I have Boneman's, Tammy's and Tim's from Feb 2005 which I'd be happy to post, or they could produce a more current one instead. It'd also be great if we got any sort of discussion on this topic going, whether it be debates about inclusions, or questions about why someone put that title so low (or high).

3 comments:

T said...

I hope Dark City gets moved off this list.

The hokum plot and that main actor wrecked the movie for me. Besides you already have the Matrix in your list as a 'Superhero awakened' type flick.

;)

Anonymous said...

I'm not a big fan of The Ring. I would put Wonderboys a bit higher and Cider House Rules a bit lower (maybe just switch them). I really approve of your top 4, I think they are well ordered.

Kimota94 aka Matt aka AgileMan said...

Cider House Rules has so many scenes in it that truly, deeply affect me everytime I watch it that it's probably right around where it belongs in the list. I love pretty much every scene in that film, which is another good reason for its high seating.

Dark City's a fine bit of noir within a science fiction vein, which somehow works better for me than Bladerunner, even though the latter is clearly a better film. Maybe it won't make the next Top 20 of mine, but it won't be far off, if so. And Darren Aronofsky, director of Requiem for a Dream like it enough to include an homage to it with Jennifer Connelly, so clearly he didn't see it the way you do, Tim. But personal tastes - and reactions - are what make this whole exercise fun, so keep the comments coming!!!