The 21st Century's 25 Greatest Films

I can't remember seeing anyone wearing a Joy Division t-shirt before Curtis' death, but I do remember seeing Joy Division live, and getting a lukewarm reception, mainly because the "guy's funny dancing" was off putting!

I can only speak for myself, but the reason I tended to seek out "arthouse" cinema is because I was basically fed up with the rather predictable Hollywood fare, and its insistence of leaving no stone unturned, and explaining everything away. I much prefer assembling the pieces myself, and I genuinely prefer this type of cinema to the mainstream, and not because it's perceived as "cool" or "clever", which is why I prefer a list like this to an Empire or Total Film top 100.

I notice Holy Motors getting a great deal of grief here. Similar to Leos Carax's previous film Pola X. I remember reading a rave review of it, and knowing I just had to see it. Problem was the dvd was out of print, and the cheapest was a used copy for about £20 on Amazon marketplace. However when I looked at the reviews, they ranged from the worst film ever made to a masterpiece rivalling Citizen Kane! I just couldn't make up my mind, but pulled the trigger eventually, and was glad I did because it is an exceptional film, but like Von Trier, Carax is reviled and revered in equal measure.

 

1) I love Lost In Translation.
2) Lotta weak films on this list.
3) Where's Snakes On A Plane?

 

A lot of my favorite films are listed here. And they are all films my wife hates having to watch with me. "You like the worst films". This coming from a person who pays hard-earned money to see a Jennifer Lopez movie in the theater. Now I can show her this list.

"Boyhood" is just a bunch of hype. Take away the aging factor and it's pretty weak. I can't believe it's way up there like that. It would barely scrape the top 100 in my book.

I too don't get the love for "Children of Men". It stars Clive Owen, a guy who preps for a role by not shaving for four days, so that should be enough reason to question it's quality. I barely made it through.

"Mad Max" was great but I'm not sure it should be quite so high on the list.

Maybe I'm crazy but I thought "Moonrise Kingdom" was a superior picture to "Grand Budapest Hotel". I like it fine. Maybe it was just the aspect ratio that knocked it down a notch or two for me. I think "Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" should have made the list. It's time for reassessment.

I'm cool with Mulholland Drive being #1, through personally "There Will Be Blood" is my number one.

I hate Jim Carrey and feel he ruins every film he's in but I look past my hatred and love "Eternal Sunshine", though I think it would be even better with a different lead actor.

Good to see "Synecdoche NY" was not overlooked. A real thought provoking maze of a thing.

I'm not the biggest fan of "Social Network". It was an interesting story to tell, but #27? Not so sure. Not sure I'd even put it in the top 100.

Pleased by the placing of "Zodiac". Love that film. Totally overlooked by the oscars that year. Where is best supporting nom for Bob Downey? And what about Jake Gyllenhaal? That guy always brings it. Consistently great.

I think "The Prestige" is better than any of the other Nolan films listed here.

I only saw "Finding Nemo" for the first time in the past couple of years due to the arrival of my daughter. It's a cute film. So is "Wall-E". I'm okay with them being here.

"Almost Famous" would be higher on my list. As would "Wolf of Wall Street". Leo is so great in that film. I'd put it top 20.

I saw "A.I." in the theater twice. I like the film but now I'm hesitant to watch it. It's a bummer. Who doesn't want their Mommy?

"25th Hour" wasn't all that, was it? I only watched it because Phil Hoffman was in it.

I didn't like "Inherent Vice" the first time. Second time better. Third time it all fell into place.

Where is "Apocalypto"? "The Departed"? "The Incredibles"? "The Virgin Suicides"? "Nebraska"? "Broken Flowers"? "American Splendor"? "Sideways"? "Young Adult"? "Clerks II"?

 

Word.

 

Where is The Departed??

 

C'mon?!? It was at best a well done made-for-tv movie. Ugh

 

Look down.

 

Unless I missed it, I didn't see Argo on that list - brilliant film. And Sideways too...

 

At least there is some justice in this world

Dwayne Johnson world's highest paid actor.

Dwayne Johnson Named World’s Highest-Paid Actor »

Did I say that?

 

His biggest role - playing an actor.

 

LOL

 

The only ones that I can comment on:

Momento - confused and ultimately annoyed me
The Master - good film!
Caché - I have got to see this. Auteil is an awesome actor.
Lost In Translation - bored the pants off me
The Grand Budapest Hotel - fantastic!
Mad Max Fury Road - Fffffffantastic! A game-changing action movie
The White Ribbon- interesting but ultimately dreary and boring
Pan's Labyrinth - Stunning ( not for the under 12s!)
Holy Motors - weird for the sake of it? I turned off after 15 mins
Children Of Men - superb!
Zodiac - I gotta see it!
Inside Llewyn Davis - Bored me
No Country For Old Men - Fascinating but the end disappointed me
The Eternal Sunshine - Excellent. Moving
There Will Be Blood - Awesome!
In The Mood For Love - Bored me
Mulholland Drive - I can't remember much about it. I think I enjoyed it.

 

Yang's A Brighter Summer Day was, up until this year's Criterion release, probably the hardest great film of the 1990's to actually track down. Yi Yi is no slouch either.

 

The Tree of life?
Mulholland Drive?
The Grand Budapest Hotel?
Lost in Translation?

Cutting these would allow for better follow s to be added to the list. Hotel is trivial entertainment, whimsical but hardly great and it's the best of the four I listed. The Tree of Life demonstrates the more movies he becomes less and less talented and more and more pretentious.

10. Whiplash (Damien Chazelle, 2014)
9. The Hunt (Thomas Vinterberg, 2012)
8. The Grey (Joe Carnahan, 2011)
7. Step Brothers (Adam McKay, 2008)
6. Zodiac (David Fincher, 2007)
5. American Psycho (Mary Harron, 2000)
4. The Prestige (Christopher Nolan, 2006)
3. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Peter Jackson, 2001)
2. O Brother, Where Art Thou? (Joel and Ethan Coen, 2000)
1. Children of Men (Alfonso Cuarón, 2006)

I find myself agreeing with these more except for Step Brothers.

 

Yes, I'm finding this out. It's often the case with Asian arthouse films, and especially on the Region 2/B format. Looks like I will have to pass on it.

 

It seems to me that people also forget this was a poll, just like the one Sight and Sound magazine runs every ten years, the last one in 2012. In that one, the #1 film did not appear on 77% of the lists submitted. The #1 film chosen by directors did not appear on 86% of the lists submitted.

The results usually suggest at best a light consensus but the way some folks here get offended by either the placement or even omission of a single title you would think there was total unanimity about these choices, and there isn't.

 

I think I can understand what's behind the adoration of the new Mad Max. Maybe it's a matter of being an average or above-average action flick. Actually, there's nothing about it, beside obvious technical aspects, that the two original ones haven't done better but it's really above all action movies released in 2015 and it's still true to this day. But one of the best 20 movies in 16 years? Really? Hm, no. Any BatNolan is better. I don't want to sound like a snob, my problem isn't the fact it's a genre piece; I just think that this choice was made purely on momentum and hype. In fact, since I brought the Nolan's Batman to the table, anybody remember the shockwaves these movies sent back in the day? Now, you can clearly see that none of them top lists anymore or are so celebrated around the IMDB playground. You can even criticize some aspects of it today without having some crazy fanboy sticking a knife on your stomach. That's good, when the hype is gone, the greatest films are still great but the good and average fall to their earthly places.

 

What was the #1 film?

 

"Now we rebuild" - Dwayne Johnson
(last line from perhaps the worst film of all-time, ostensibly written by a 13 year old??)
- San Andreas

 

QUOTE="The Zodiac, post: 14910520, member: 19719"]


"Boyhood" is just a bunch of hype. Take away the aging factor and it's pretty weak. I can't believe it's way up there like that. It would barely scrape the top 100 in my book.

LIKE, but I agree. Too much hype



I too don't get the love for "Children of Men". It stars Clive Owen, a guy who preps for a role by not shaving for four days, so that should be enough reason to question it's quality. I barely made it through.

Love this film.



"Mad Max" was great but I'm not sure it should be quite so high on the list.

Easy to give up on as the rhythm of the film seems to put people off. Once you're in the 'pocket', it's entertaining. That said, I agree. Too high on the list.



Maybe I'm crazy but I thought "Moonrise Kingdom" was a superior picture to "Grand Budapest Hotel". I like it fine. Maybe it was just the aspect ratio that knocked it down a notch or two for me. I think "Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" should have made the list. It's time for reassessment.

Agreed.



I'm cool with Mulholland Drive being #1, through personally "There Will Be Blood" is my number one.

MDrive is outstanding and a great choice. It's a perfect film the first 120 minutes. When the old couple run out of the blue box near the end is where it gets a little murky. There Will Be Blood is so damn good.


I hate Jim Carrey and feel he ruins every film he's in but I look past my hatred and love "Eternal Sunshine", though I think it would be even better with a different lead actor.

Another great film. I was happy he turned his "thing" off for this.



I think "The Prestige" is better than any of the other Nolan films listed here.

Never seen it but will be fixing this weekend !


I didn't like "Inherent Vice" the first time. Second time better. Third time it all fell into place.

I need to see it again


The Departed - The Virgin Suicides - Sideways - Young Adult
LOVE THESE

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Thank you. I got pounced on for saying it was the worst film I've seen in many-a-day. Incredibly stupid. Oh, here's my rant that got me in trouble:

I couldn't believe how inept "San Andreas" was. Worse than a made for TV movie. Completely brain-dead script with couples "nearly" divorced swept together again by catastrophe; cowardly rich guys; moronic young lovers: This movie has everything you don't want in a cliched movie and more. One of the most laughably bad scripts I've had to sit though in a long time. And people here poke fun at "Interstellar?" This is a reminder how we need to fall down on our knees and praise movies like "Interstellar" that at least try to say something smart. At least if the effects in "San Andreas" were worth waiting out the doldrums, I might have made it further through the movie, but they weren't even that good. Just average. And you know the pace: SPFX -- talk -- SPFX -- talk --- and talk -- and talk. And what talk. Who writes scripts like "San Andreas" -- some rich producer's wife while she's having her nails done, chatting on the phone and watching a Lifetime movie?" Baaaarff! Even the mass of muscle known as The Rock looked kind of lost and helpless about making this dog work. Word to director: When you're filming the apocalypse, next time try not to shoot the whole thing in medium closeup -- just ready for that leap to TV where it belongs. I bailed....

 

Well put. I hope any difficulties you may have had was short-lived cos San Andreas was a hot mess of a turd.

 

I hope you're not disappointed. I've seen most of the films in the '100 list' and it's the only one I couldn't stomach. I ended up donating the disc to a charity. I think I stopped watching about 30 min in. One of only a few films I've not watched all the way through. Of course as always, your mileage may vary. I can see that a lot of people liked it. Would be curious what you think once you've had the chance to watch it.

 

Exactly!

 

I rate every movie I see (just for my own reference, so I can remember what I liked), and the following were all 'A's in my opinion, and aren't on the BBC list:

Blue Valentine (Derek Cianfrance, 2010)
Source Code (Duncan Jones, 2011)
The Kids Are All Right (Lisa Cholodenko, 2010)
A Single Man (Tom Ford, 2009)
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (Tomas Alfredson, 2011)
Take Shelter (Jeff Nichols, 2011)
Beginners (Mike Mills, 2011)
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (David Fincher, 2011)
The Girlfriend Experience (Steven Soderbergh, 2009)
Martha Marcy May Marlene (T. Sean Durkin, 2011)