Sunday, June 22, 2008

MY TOP 100 OF LAST 25 YEARS

A few days ago, I strongly criticized a new list from Entertainment Weekly that purported to identify "The 100 Best Films of the Last 25 Years." I feel it is only fair and right, therefore, to share my own list of "The 100 Best Films of the Last 25 Years." No list of this sort fully pleases anyone but its maker—a few exclusions, inclusions, or oddly-ordered choices will always tick off people—but I'd like to think that my list, at the very least, reflects more consideration than the 15 minutes that EW apparently devoted to theirs. You can check it out and decide for yourself by clicking below...

  1. Schindler's List (1993, S. Spielberg)
  2. Sideways (2004, A. Payne)
  3. Do the Right Thing (1989, S. Lee)
  4. The Shawshank Redemption (1994, F. Darabont)
  5. Pulp Fiction (1994, Q. Tarantino)
  6. GoodFellas (1990, M. Scorsese)
  7. Groundhog Day (1993, H. Ramis)
  8. Titanic (1997, J. Cameron)
  9. Unforgiven (1992, C. Eastwood)
  10. The Color Purple (1985, S. Spielberg)
  11. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004, M. Gondry)
  12. Amadeus (1984, M. Forman)
  13. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007, J. Schnabel)
  14. L.A. Confidential (1997, C. Hanson)
  15. Saving Private Ryan (1998, S. Spielberg)
  16. Mystic River (2003, C. Eastwood)
  17. Forrest Gump (1994, R. Zemeckis)
  18. About Schmidt (2002, A. Payne)
  19. Platoon (1986, O. Stone)
  20. Field of Dreams (1989, P.A. Robinson)
  21. Glengarry Glen Ross (1992, J. Foley)
  22. Rain Man (1988, B. Levinson)
  23. The Squid and the Whale (2005, N. Baumbach)
  24. The Killing Fields (1984, R. Joffe)
  25. The Thin Blue Line (1989, E. Morris)
  26. The Player (1992, R. Altman)
  27. There's Something About Mary (1998, B. Farrelly/P. Farrelly)
  28. The Usual Suspects (1995, B. Singer)
  29. The Lord of the Rings (2001-2003, P. Jackson)
  30. Back to the Future (1985, R. Zemeckis)
  31. Lost in Translation (2003, S. Coppola)
  32. Gone Baby Gone (2007, B. Affleck)
  33. House of Sand and Fog (2003, V. Perelman)
  34. Toy Story (1995, J. Lasseter)
  35. Million Dollar Baby (2004, C. Eastwood)
  36. Goodbye, Lenin! (2003, W. Becker)
  37. The Truman Show (1998, P. Weir)
  38. Traffic (2000, S. Soderbergh)
  39. Glory (1989, E. Zwick)
  40. American Beauty (1999, S. Mendes)
  41. The Departed (2006, M. Scorsese)
  42. The Apostle (1997, R. Duvall)
  43. Braveheart (1995, M. Gibson)
  44. Juno (2007, J. Reitman)
  45. Tsotsi (2005, G. Hood)
  46. Broadcast News (1987, J.L. Brooks)
  47. The Pianist (2002, R. Polanski)
  48. Fatal Attraction (1987, A. Lyne)
  49. Beauty and the Beast (1991, G. Trousdale/K. Wise)
  50. Sense and Sensibility (1995, A. Lee)
  51. Ray (2004, T. Hackford)
  52. Pleasantville (1998, G. Ross)
  53. The Silence of the Lambs (1991, J. Demme)
  54. Jurassic Park (1993, S. Spielberg)
  55. The Big Lebowski (1998, J. Coen)
  56. The Sea Inside (2004, A. Amenabar)
  57. Crash (2005, P. Haggis)
  58. Dogville (2003, L. Von Trier)
  59. The Fugitive (1993, A. Davis)
  60. No Country for Old Men (2007, E. Coen/J. Coen)
  61. Die Hard (1988, J. McTiernan)
  62. Wall Street (1987, O. Stone)
  63. Casino (1995, M. Scorsese)
  64. Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004, M. Moore)
  65. Witness (1985, P. Weir)
  66. United 93 (2006, P. Greengrass)
  67. Election (1999, A. Payne)
  68. Letters from Iwo Jima (2006, C. Eastwood)
  69. Far from Heaven (2002, T. Haynes)
  70. A Beautiful Mind (2001, R. Howard)
  71. The Passion of the Christ (2004, M. Gibson)
  72. Superbad (2007, G. Mottola)
  73. Thirteen (2003, C. Hardwicke)
  74. Before Sunset (2004, R. Linklater)
  75. Talk to Her (2002, P. Almodovar)
  76. The March of the Penguins (2005, L. Jacquet)
  77. Hoop Dreams (1994, S. James)
  78. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit of Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006, L. Charles)
  79. A Bronx Tale (1993, R. De Niro)
  80. Fargo (1996, J. Coen)
  81. Fight Club (1999, D. Fincher)
  82. Y Tu Mama Tambien (2001, A. Cuaron)
  83. Apollo 13 (1995, R. Howard)
  84. In America (2003, J. Sheridan)
  85. Mrs. Doubtfire (1993, C. Columbus)
  86. Elephant (2003, G. Van Sant)
  87. Home Alone (1990, C. Columbus)
  88. Cinderella Man (2005, R. Howard)
  89. Munich (2005, S. Spielberg)
  90. Jesus Camp (2006, H. Ewing/R. Grady)
  91. Boogie Nights (1997, P.T. Anderson)
  92. In the Valley of Elah (2007, P. Haggis)
  93. The Virgin Suicides (1999, S. Coppola)
  94. City of God (2002, F. Meirelles)
  95. Lone Star (1996, J. Sayles)
  96. The Lion King (1994, R. Allers/R. Minkoff)
  97. Gladiator (2000, R. Scott)
  98. Se7en (1995, D. Fincher)
  99. Amores Perros (2000, A.G. Inarritu)
  100. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007, S. Lumet)
Posted by Editor at 08:54:17 | Permanent Link | Comments (5) |
Comments
1 - Hmm, well...it's definitely better than EW's list, but The Color Purple was mediocre at best, and certainly does not deserve to be in the top 100. Ditto for Forrest Gump, Field of Dreams, A Bronx Tale, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, The Passion of the Christ, and Glory. I'm also a little suspicious of Sideways at the second spot. I mean, it's a great film, but better than Pulp Fiction and GoodFellas? I don't know about that. I also noticed that you placed Juno above No Country for Old Men and didn't even bother to mention There Will Be Blood. Uh, yeah, right, that's more than a little off. Fahrenheit 9/11 but no Roger & Me? Oh my. And why on Earth would you put City of God so low on the list? That deserves a spot on the top twenty, a least, along with Election and Fight Club. And finally, putting that piece of garbage Crash on the list but not even mentioning Brokeback Mountain is just shameful.

But I have to give you credit, it's hard to argue with your number one pick. And props to you for putting The Thin Blue Line on there, as well (although not also putting The Fog of War on the list puzzles me). Also giving Glengarry Glenn Ross and The Apostle their due...good job.

I think you've just inspired me to do a top 100 of the last 25 years as well. Stay tuned... (Comment this)

Written by: Robert Hamer at 2008/06/27 - 10:03:00
2 - Robert, Thanks for looking this over so carefully--I look forward to seeing yours!
Scott (Comment this)

Written by: Editor at 2008/06/27 - 15:00:48
3 - While I would most likely place Groundhog Day, The Squid and the Whale, and There's Something About Mary in my top 100, they are much too high in your list (ahead of Back to the Future? Really? Silence of the Lambs?). But, some of your pics (especially those of the recent past) are outright ludicrous. Gone Baby, Gone was not a good film (Casey Affleck and Amy Ryan were very good, but that was about all that I liked); the ending was atrocious and was no better than your standard Kiss the Girls-type fare. How are Fargo and Boogie Nights so far down? Those would be in my top 20, maybe top 15. Your Paul Haggis fetish is a little out of hand (I will give you Crash, considering I bet a lot of people would have it on their top 100, even though I think it is the most overrated movie of the past 10 years), I mean, In the Valley of Elah!?!? That heavy hand of its weighs down your list. Elephant is actually one of the worst films I have seen in the past 25 years, so I really don't know what you see in it (GVS is AWFUL, except for My Own Private Idaho, Drugstore Cowboy, and Good Will Hunting). Where the heck is the Wes Anderson love! The EW list was utter crap, yours is better, but you have some odd picks on there. But, everyone has their own opinion; if they all had mine then I wouldn't be able to argue that mine is better. (Comment this)

Written by: Anonymous at 2008/06/30 - 07:24:34
4 - Nobody seems to watch foreign language films much. Also if this is supposed to be the past 25 years there needs to be more from the 1980's. (Comment this)

Written by: Anonymous at 2008/07/08 - 05:07:51
5 - 1.) American Beauty
2.) Sideways (Comment this)

Written by: Anonymous at 2008/07/09 - 22:15:26
Write a comment