Top 10 of the past 25 years

Goodshape · 08-11-2002 7:13pm #1

Got this from an artical at empireonline.co.uk; Aparently these are the top 10 films of the past 25 years....

1. Apocalypse Now

2. Raging Bull

3. Fanny and Alexander

4. GoodFellas

5. Blue Velvet

6. Do the Right Thing

7. Blade Runner

8. Chungking Express

9. Distant Voices, Still Lives

10. Once upon a Time in America.

Not the worst of charts, but I'm sure someone will find something to complain about (ie. no Kubrick! :mad: )

mike65 · 08-11-2002 7:43pm

Where's Barry Lyndon! Nah, Kubrick had done all his best by Clockwork Orange. Not a bad list, interesting how Apocolypse
reputation has grown as the years pass, it was considered a
great misfire by many in 1979, and Deer Hunter was seen as the defintive Vietnam flick. Most of the film are 1979-1985 vintage which may say something about the recent state of the film business(?).

Fanny and Alexander was made for Swedish telly as a mini-series
then edited down to a three hour release.

Mike

Dustaz · 08-11-2002 7:45pm

How could they possibly have overlooked Hulk Hogans masterpiece Mr Nanny?!

LoGiE · 08-11-2002 9:06pm

1 Godfather, The (1972) 9.0/10 (62950 votes)
2 Shawshank Redemption, The (1994) 8.9/10 (80959 votes)
3 Godfather: Part II, The (1974) 8.8/10 (34364 votes)
4 Citizen Kane (1941) 8.7/10 (35944 votes)
5 Schindler's List (1993) 8.7/10 (57511 votes)
6 Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The (2001) 8.7/10 (74710 votes)
7 Casablanca (1942) 8.7/10 (38590 votes)
8 Shichinin no samurai (1954) 8.7/10 (14504 votes)
9 Star Wars (1977) 8.7/10 (85785 votes)
10 Memento (2000) 8.6/10 (41915 votes)
11 Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) 8.6/10 (35863 votes)
12 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) 8.6/10 (39407 votes)
13 Rear Window (1954) 8.6/10 (23152 votes)
14 Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) 8.6/10 (55415 votes)
15 Usual Suspects, The (1995) 8.6/10 (61238 votes)
16 Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) 8.6/10 (66223 votes)
17 Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain, Le (2001) 8.6/10 (24498 votes)
18 North by Northwest (1959) 8.5/10 (20849 votes)
19 Pulp Fiction (1994) 8.5/10 (73891 votes)
20 Psycho (1960) 8.5/10 (31863 votes)

Just thought i'd post the top films of all time from IMDB(Some are over 25yrs ago)....The empire list is a critics top 10 and well we know that most critics are tosser's:) Apocalypse Now No.1?? I found the first half entertaining then it was ZZzzzz...
It's a shame there's no Taxi Driver or Aliens both should be imo

sceptre · 08-11-2002 10:16pm

Originally posted by mike65
Where's Barry Lyndon!

2002-1975 = 27 years

mike65 · 08-11-2002 11:37pm

****! Time flyes...:(

Mike.

beardedchicken · 09-11-2002 4:00am

empire top ten:
approximate number of films seen by me = 0

imdb top twenty:
approximate number of films seen by me = 14

go figure.

Pigman · 09-11-2002 6:26am

Originally posted by beardedchicken
go figure.

Ok! How about ... you're a philistine?:rolleyes:

beardedchicken · 09-11-2002 6:56pm

pardon me?? a philistine? i think you'll find that i'm not.

anyway, you've just beautifully illustrated my point that the two lists which purport to be roughly the same thing i.e. the top ten/ twenty fims ever, are entirely subjective, because they were compiled by two radically different groups of people with different emphases. there is no such thing as a definitive, objective top ten films, beacuse it depends so much on your criteria for judgement.

also, it's interesting to note that there is no film that appears on both lists, so which is the more correct?

ObeyGiant · 09-11-2002 11:18pm

Originally posted by mike65
Nah, Kubrick had done all his best by Clockwork Orange.

Sure - but only if you completely ignore The Shining and Full Metal Jacket.

so which is the more correct?

As you said - these are both completely subjective lists. One is compiled by any moron who can access the IMDb and push a button, the other by a bunch of film 'experts' (although, personally, I'd like to see exactly who made it onto this list before I give it a second thought). So, there are two answers to your question.

1. It depends on what kind of film you are looking for. If you're looking for something that's managed to entertain Joe Public, head towards the IMDb's list. If you're looking for something that is interesting from a more technical or 'socially important' (eugh) standpoint, go with the Sight and Sound list.

2. Neither. By their very nature, opinions are neither 'right' nor 'wrong'. Except mine, of course.

Dustaz · 09-11-2002 11:25pm

I had a post written about the two types of list, but deleted it cos it was far too rambling, obeygiant hit my nail on the head tho

(Id tend to go with the experts more than the 'random clod list' tho. The more Star Wars votes you see in a list, the more MTV Movie Awards the list tends to be

)

Shinji · 10-11-2002 2:05am

Dustaz - what, you mean it's more likely to include films that people have actually seen and enjoyed?

I realise that artistic merit and entertainment value aren't always easy bedfellows, but that Empire list is rubbish - full of painfully arty films which constitute nothing more then celluloid masturbation for their pretentious makers. Unfortunately film "experts" tend to be rather taken with that kind of rubbish; after all, if they stood up and said "The Matrix was a good film", then what would the difference between them and Joe Soap in the street be!

ObeyGiant · 10-11-2002 2:27am

Just so we're not all rubbishing the wrong people here - this top 10 list was not compiled by Empire, it was compiled by Sight and Sound, and is the result of polling fifty movie 'experts' (directors, critics etc). Empire merely reported it.

DeadBankClerk · 10-11-2002 2:51am

From a statistical viewpoint, the bigger a sample you take, the more accurate your model is. Since IMDB has a much larger sample than the Sight and Sound survey, I would agree with its findings more. If millions of people all think that a film is good, I am pretty sure that I will like it too.

I have seen a lot of films in my short time on this planet. I have never heard of six films on the Sight and Sound list. I have seen the other four. I really liked only two of them. I have seen 15* of the 20 on the IMDB list, and i heartily enjoyed each one of them. The other five are films that I have never got around to seeing, but they have been recommended to me.
* I think Seven Samauri was a film I have seen late at night on channel 4. I am not 100% sure however.

Seen = Bold
Enjoyed = *

1. Apocalypse Now*
2. Raging Bull
3. Fanny and Alexander
4. GoodFellas*
5. Blue Velvet
6. Do the Right Thing
7. Blade Runner
8. Chungking Express
9. Distant Voices, Still Lives
10. Once upon a Time in America.

1 Godfather, The*
2 Shawshank Redemption, The*
3 Godfather: Part II, The*
4 Citizen Kane
5 Schindler's List *
6 Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The *
7 Casablanca
8 Seven Samauri*
9 Star Wars*
10 Memento*
11 Dr. Strangelove
12 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest*
13 Rear Window
14 Raiders of the Lost Ark*
15 Usual Suspects*
16 Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back*
17 Amélie*
18 North by Northwest
19 Pulp Fiction *
20 Psycho*

Now my dear friends, let the 'OMG YUO DIDNT LIEK BLAED RUNNERZ OMGZ!' flaming begin.

phreak · 10-11-2002 3:05am

OMG YUO DIDNT LIEK BLAED RUNNERZ OMGZ!

:rolleyes:

ObeyGiant · 10-11-2002 3:10am

Originally posted by DeadBankClerk
From a statistical viewpoint, the bigger a sample you take, the more accurate your model is. Since IMDB has a much larger sample than the Sight and Sound survey, I would agree with its findings more. If millions of people all think that a film is good, I am pretty sure that I will like it too.

From a mathematical standpoint, what you're saying is absolutely correct. Unfortunately, it doesn't make the IMDb's results any more 'definitive' than the smaller Sight and Sound poll. This is for a number of reasons...
1. The Demographic
The IMDb represents the views of, mainly, 15-30 year old males (since this is the largest group of society on the internet). Males from, primarily, the United States. This is an important thing to bear in mind, because European tastes differ slightly from American audiences.

For this reason alone, the IMDb is no more 'definitive' than any other list of opinions. But let me give you one more reason, just in case there was any doubt.

2. The uh.. 'penetration' (giggle) of a film.
You must remember that the reason these films are in the top 250 list in the IMDb is that a great many people have seen these films, and voted on them. This means that Film A (1996), which everyone has seen and voted in, will rank higher than Film B (1957), which may be a better film, but is simply out of public consciousness, meaning few people are seeing it and voting on it.

If you care to look over the IMDb's top 250, the vast majority of the films listed have been made in the past 30 years. Again, this ties in with what I was saying before, about the IMDb's list being the results of the opinions of a lot of 18-30 year olds.

sceptre · 10-11-2002 4:51am

Nice points ObeyGiant.

it's not irrelevant to remember that LOTR was number one in the list within two weeks of its coming out. Since IMDB only relies on "regular voters" for its top 250, it's gradually slipped down the list since (the rating for it on the top250 list is a different x/10 than the rating when you just look up the movie)

Sort of like when Q did a "best albums ever" a few years ago and OK Computer was top of the list even though it was only released two months earlier. It was in the mind of the core Q readership when they were voting (as most of them had probably bought it very recently) so they voted for it.

I usually check empireonline and IMDB when checking out a movie. Neither of them are totally reliable on their own - put together I usually get a better idea. Where they conflict, I'll go with the Empire reviewers.

The IMDB ratings have a nice feature though (which most of you are probably familiar with anyway) - clicking on the rating when you diaplay the movie info will tell you about the demographics that voted for it. So checking out the user ratings for FOTR, surprisingly the group that rated it highest was women between 18-29 and 30-44. 60+% of those gave it a 10. I suppose on its own that doesn't say much, given that far too many idiots give movies 10/10 in any case. Interesting to go through though.

DapperGent · 10-11-2002 12:05pm

Originally posted by Dustaz
How could they possibly have overlooked Hulk Hogans masterpiece Mr Nanny?!

I was more disappointed by the absence of his early 90s triumph "Suburban Commando".

mike65 · 10-11-2002 2:09pm

I wonder which version of Apocalypse Now was voted for, ditto Blade Runner.

Not to mention Once Upon a Time in America, was it the 150 min version or the 4 hour version they loved?

Mike.

Top 10 of the past 25 years

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