So somehow Vertigo got named the best movie of all time. I watched it a while ago, but barely remember any of it. I liked it okay, but it just didn’t super impress and I have no idea how it got named the best movie ever.
So what do you think is the best movie of all time. Citizen Kane — the traditional best movie ever — is actually kind of blah to me, but Casablanca always impressed. Though that’s certainly not as good as Die Hard. And I like The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly a lot. But, if I have to pick one, I have to go with Princess Bride as the best move ever.
What say you?
Meet John Doe. Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck. And it’s in the public domain, so it’s free!
The Princess Bride, with Sling Blade being a close 2nd.
Army of Darkness, no question, end of discussion.
The Princess Bride had the best lines ever. Maybe as many good lines as the next best two movies combined.
Favorite movie: Princess Bride (I think I could watch it once a week and not get sick of it)
Best movie: Schindler’s List (By far IMAO the best crafted and impactful movie I have seen, but while I am glad I went to see it when it came out, I don’t think I am ready yet to watch it again)
The Big Lebowski.
The Quiet Man with John Wayne and Maureen Ohara.
We note your kid’s name ain’t “Rosebud.”
(I don’t get Vertigo hitting the top of the heap, either.)
I’d have to say 4-way tie between Blade Runner, Dark City, Young Frankenstein, and Airplane!
Any movie that has been made in the last 30 years is complete junk
My father-in-law said the last movie he ever saw in a theatre was “Tora! Tora! Tora!” He said it was the best movie ever made and he hasn’t been back to a movie theatre since. As a point of reference, it came out in 1970.
given the source of the list, I’m a little surprised it’s not “An Inconvenient Truth” or something by Michael Moore.
any list that puts Mulholland Drive before Taxi Driver…just screams “I’m more interested in being pretentious than I am about actual movies”.
Star Wars
kingdom of heaven wins by a landslide. must see
“The Best Years of Our Lives.” It swept the Academy Awards. It’s one of those eternal movies that has easily withstood the test of time. There’s simply no way anyone can see that movie and not have appreciation for what military veterans go through after they’ve served. If you haven’t seen it… well, then you’re just not an American!
The Wizard of Oz It has insinuated itself into our culture in a way no other movie has (She hasn’t been the same since someone dropped a house on her sister . . . I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore . . . over the rainbow . . . follow the yellow brick road! . . . pay no attention to that man behind the curtain . . . if I ooooooonly had a brain . . . there’s no place like home . . . flying monkeys . . . ding-dong, the witch is dead! . . . lions and tigers and bears, oh my! . . . and your scruffy little dog, too!).
It’s a Gift (W.C. Fields. His best movie by a mile.) If Vertigo made it because of craftsmanship and/or directorial genius, then It’s a Gift should have been the winner. It is a perfect gem from beginning to end.
Casablanca is right up there. I would also nominate The Best Years of Our Lives.
Gran Torino is a truly great movie. I have only seen in once, but I expect it to hold up well.
Scent of a Woman is in the Top Five.
Starship Troopers
2012
The Day After Tomorrow
The movies that always keep me in quotable quoes are Princess Bride, O Brother, Where Art Thou? And Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
the thief of bagdad (sic) with sabu
The best movie ever is Tremors.
Jeez, people. It’s so obvious.
Bambi vs. Godzilla.
Choommmmmmmmmm!!!!
I’ve never understood Hitchcock’s hollywood offerings getting as much attention as they have. I would say “Rear Window” was very good,
but not in the running for Best Of All Time.
His b&w movies from the UK and even his early stuff from Hollywood were much better…”Strangers on a Train” for instance.
My vote, and it would have been my vote for the last 45 years, for directing, acting, and in particular, the perfectly written dialogue is for,
“Man For All Seasons”
…Not the 2nd version some jelly-brains did with Charlton Heston, but the 1966 original with Paul Scofield as Sir Thomas Moore.
Theme: A man literally goes to the edge of the abyss for his beliefs.
Accolades to #8 Apostic’s comment!
Citizen Kane is without a doubt the WORST, MOST BORING movie ever made….or Weekend at Bernie’s 2…..
My #3 is “Everybody’s All American.”
No love for Pulp Fiction? Definitely one of the best modern films made.
But, my vote for “Best Movie of All-Time” has to go to Casablanca.
(Rear Window & Psycho are both better Hitchcock movies than Vertigo anyway)
I don’t know if it is the “Best” movie ever made but it is the greatest movie ever made, it says so right in the title http://archive.org/details/KennethAndersonTheGreatestMovieEverMade I haven’t watched it yet, just found it this morning, but it was made by a bunch of U.S. Marines stationed in Montery, CA.
‘The Godfather’ is clearly the best movie of all time.
‘Citizen Kane’ was brilliant from a cinemagraphics standpoint, it changed the way movies were shot; but the movie itself is almost unwatchably boring.
‘Gone with the Wind’ – somebody needed to mention it.
‘White Christmas’ – also needed to be mentioned.
@John – I love ‘The Quiet Man’! It always makes me happy to see it listed among the best all-time movies.
@Sarah Rolph – ‘Gran Torino’ was truly great, but it’s not even in the top three Eastwood movies, his Spaghetti Westerns are amazing.
Serioisly no star wars a new hope? How has no one said this yet?
The Princess Bride, of course.
Some of the Star Wars movies and The Avengers would be up there, though.
And I liked It’s A Wonderful Life a lot.
Passion of the Christ
Without a doubt, it is The Road Warrior. If I’m flipping through the channels and it’s on, then I have to stop and watch it.
Also love: Dumb and Dumber; Christmas Vacation; Planes, Trains, and Automobiles; and Napoleon Dynamite. Some comedies are just plain timeless.
Robocop.
Perfect as is. Why are they doing a remake?
Serenity with Clue being a close second
Two words people………..Blazing Saddles!
No, no, no, no — you people have it all wrong — the best movie of all time is Slap Shot!
We can only solve this disagreement peacably by using rock, paper, scissors, lizard, spock.
The Room. End of discussion.
[“Oh, hai, best movie ever. -Ed.]
Das Boot.
I was coming in here all sure of what was darn sure the best movie of all time when I saw saw this comment from KnitterChick
The best movie ever is Tremors.
Jeez, people. It’s so obvious.
It’s hard to argue with that.
Tremors, of course, has Bert Gummer and one of the most important movie lines of all time.
“Running’s not a plan. Running’s what you do when a plan fails.”
“Sunset,” starring James Garner and Bruce Willlis, is a pretty good western. Totally recommended.
Animal House. It is the Mozart of movies.
I look through the list above, and see a bunch of fantastic candidates – for example (I added a couple, and in no particular order):
Schindler
ARGH – posting error… Hang on…
I look through the list above, and see a bunch of fantastic candidates – for example (I added a couple, and in no particular order):
Schindler’s List
Army of Darkness
Young Frankenstein
Blazing Saddles
Blade Runner
Star Wars (the original, un-updated, back when it was the only one)
The Empire Strikes Back (the original, un-updated, back when it was the only sequel in the series)
Casablanca
The Godfather
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Road Warrior
Serenity
And of course I will be shot if I don’t include:
The Princess Bride
But honestly folks, the Best Movie Ever is:
Monty Python’s The Life of Brian
Forget “Holy Grail”… OK, well not actually “forget” per se, but seriously, the Pythoners themselves see “The Life of Brian” as their best work, and I completely agree.
Shawshank Redemption.
Outlaw Josey Wales.
“Brick”
Seriously.
Best movie of all time???
Plan 9 From Outer Space. (OK, not the whole thing, just the opening monologue. The rest has its moments, but that opening is solid gold!)
Seriously, Lawrence of Arabia, almost all of it. There’s a painful, angsty part in the middle that can be skipped, but the rest… Great acting, breathtaking cinematography, real character development, memorable music, and, in no particular order after Alec Guinness and Claude Rains: Omar Sharif, Anthony Quinn, Anthony Quayle. Theres also this other guy that wears too much eye makeup, but he’s OK, I guess.
Oh, forgot my favorite quotes:
“Oww! That b****y hurts! What’s the trick, then?”
“The trick is not minding that it hurts.”
“I’ll need quite a lot of money.”
“You can have all there is!”
“Not quite that much.”
Unforgiven
Brick? I’m terribly sorry to disagree, but I’d suggest that it isn’t in the running because it didn’t really need to be a film. it was so linguistically well written it would have worked almost as well as a radio play.
It wasn’t a visual treat, but in its defense – it didn’t need to be.
Chaplin’s CITY LIGHTS.
Animal House all the way.
“The General” featuring Buster Keaton.
A year ago, i would have said Braveheart, hands down. But, now, imao, Avengers is the best move ever. For a comic book geek to see what was going on in his 12 year old mind come alive on the screen, nothing beats that.
“My Bodyguard”
Starship Troopers is the *only* perfect movie because it has the required 3 elements: 1) Humor, 2) Gratuitous nudity, and 3) Giant bugs from space trying to destroy the world.
Surprised no one mentioned Caddyshack, however
“Kelly’s Heroes” or “GhostBusters”
The Outlaw Josey Wales, then Soldier, then The Fifth Element, then The Long Kiss Goodnight,
Aliens – all time fave. Cinematic genius. Suspense that never lets up. The metaphor of the two mothers. The perfect movie.
The Thing – again, the suspense. FX are a little dated now, but still scares the crap out of me. Lovecraft-ian in its gore. Accomplishes the impossible creature feature feat: the monster is just as scary when it is on-screen as off.
Honorable mention of a personal fave:
Army of Darkness – “This…is..my BOOMSTICK!”; “Klaatu. Verada. Necktie.” “Good? Bad? I’m the guy with the gun.” And, of course, the immortal c’mon line: “Gimme some sugar, baby”. So much cheesiness coupled with quoteable goodness.
What, no love at all for Gladiator? Still my #1. I would say that The Chronicles of Riddick is a close #2 but apparently I’m the only person in the world who likes that movie even though TNT and AMC play it every other Saturday. I mean, c’mon, “I’ll kill you with my teacup.”
G (#3) is correct. Army of Darkness: Romance, zombies, medieval castle seiges, humor – it’s got it all
Jaws. Yes, JAWS. If for no other reason the unbelievably haunting story told by Quint about the USS Indianapolis. #2 movie of all time is The Party Animal from 1983. Desert island must haves.
I agree with #21 KnitterChick and #39 Veeshir.
Tremors is the bestest movie of all time.
Action, humor, romance, disaster, monsters, explosions…
“Broke into the wrong God damn rec room, didn’t ya you bastard!”
Lord of the Rings was pretty good too, but it doesn’t count since it was technically a trilogy, I guess.
Best Comedy: Young Frankenstein. Best Western: The Searchers. Best Drama: 12 Angry Men. Best All-Round Movie: To Kill A Mockingbird. Worst movie ever made: Manos.
“2001” was top of my list for a long time. “das boot” & “blade runner” were up there too.
“lord of the rings” is the best *trilogy*, “the incredibles” is the best animated movie, but i don’t know what to call my favorite.
and “princess bride” is the most *quotable*, despite what my trekkie & pythonite friends say.
p.s. similar as they are, “to have and have not” beats “casablanca” by a long shot…
I’m sorry, I’m just taken aback. VERTIGO??!!
I mean, really. I’d pick The Ghost and Mr. Chicken over Vertigo. Maybe only partly out of spite, but still.
Vertigo. Sheesh. Who picks these things?
While I have the deepest respect for Ghibli Studios, I have to insist that the best Anime movie ever made is:
Project A-Ko
Granted that it isn’t as technically excellent as, well, anything from Ghibli, it still reigns supreme because:
1) It has it all! It covers pretty much every main anime element base shy of demonic tentacle porn – this isn’t hentai after all – although it does skirt into one character’s imaginary lesbian fantasy for a bit, and there is considerable “fan service”.
2) It is not only faithful to the Anime genre, it is also a delicious spoof of it. Robot Colonel Sanders? Dr. Pepper (back when it was almost impossible to find outside of Texas)? And those weren’t so much “in the movie” per se, but “within a movie in the movie”… Super-human schoolgirl, comedy, mechas, a lost princess, female schoolyard bullies, alien invasion, a disguised spy, inedible sushi, fight sequences, helpless frustrated adults, etc., etc., etc. It is an absolute romp!
To quote Wikipedia: “Project A-ko is a 1986 animated parody film that had several sequels and a spin-off. This series references a number of other works of anime from the 1970s and 1980s, such as Macross, Fist of the North Star and Gundam. The title itself is a reference to the 1985 Jackie Chan movie Project A, although the film bears no resemblance to Project A; the working title ended up sticking.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_A-ko)
Pure gold. I’ve loved it since it was new.
Key Largo
The Maltese Falcon
“I can always get another son, but there is only one Maltese Falcon!”
Well,if we’re gonna categorize:
Best Western?
“The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance”
Musical?
“My Fair Lady”
Comedy?
“The Princess Bride”
I could give many honorable mentions but here’s only one:
“The Treasure of Sierra Madre”
Apocalypse Now
Deerhunter
Thief
It’s A Wonderful Life
Flash Gordon (1980)