50 Movies to See Before You Die

[abomb]

Link

Something called "digital channel Film4" in the UK released this list. D-Dogg and I tally our totals against the IMDB.com Top 250 every six months or so, but this list might be fun for the board for now. Not sure what their critieria are.

A-Bomb = 19

1 Apocalypse Now
2 The Apartment
3 City of God
4 Chinatown
5 Sexy Beast
6 2001: A Space Odyssey
7 North by Northwest
8 A Bout de Souffle
9 Donnie Darko
10 Manhattan
11 Alien
12 Lost in Translation
13 The Shawshank Redemption
14 Lagaan: Once Upon A Time in India
15 Pulp Fiction
16 Touch of Evil
17 Walkabout
18 Black Narcissus
19 Boyzn the Hood
20 The Player
21 Come and See
22 Heavenly Creatures
23 A Night at the Opera
24 Erin Brockovich
25 Trainspotting
26 The Breakfast Club
27 Hero
28 Fanny and Alexander
29 Pink Flamingos
30 All About Eve
31 Scarface
32 Terminator 2
33 Three Colours: Blue
34 The Royal Tenenbaums
35 The Ladykillers
36 Fight Club
37 The Searchers
38 Mulholland Drive
39 The Ipcress File
40 The King of Comedy
41 Manhunter
42 Dawn of the Dead
43 Princess Mononoke
44 Raising Arizona 45 Cabaret
46 This Sporting Life
47 Brazil
48 Aguirre: The Wrath of God
49 Secrets and Lies
50 Badlands

 

[dreamcastrocks]

Wow,

50 is a huge list. I would probably create the list, and then go through and edit it about 100 times.

Kudos to you for coming up with a list.

I will try and do the same.

edit....OK wait, are we going to document how many we have seen from the list, or create our own 50 list to compare?

 

[vince56]

Sexy beast? Donnie Darko? Lost in translation?

 

[abomb]

It's their list. I wouldnt put more than 7-8 on my personal 50. I am curious how many of these you all have seen.

 

[Pariah]

I've seen 22 of them...

1 Apocalypse Now
2 The Apartment
3 City of God
4 Chinatown
5 Sexy Beast
6 2001: A Space Odyssey
7 North by Northwest
8 A Bout de Souffle
9 Donnie Darko
10 Manhattan
11 Alien
12 Lost in Translation
13 The Shawshank Redemption
14 Lagaan: Once Upon A Time in India
15 Pulp Fiction
16 Touch of Evil
17 Walkabout
18 Black Narcissus
19 Boyzn the Hood
20 The Player
21 Come and See
22 Heavenly Creatures
23 A Night at the Opera
24 Erin Brockovich
25 Trainspotting
26 The Breakfast Club
27 Hero
28 Fanny and Alexander
29 Pink Flamingos
30 All About Eve
31 Scarface
32 Terminator 2
33 Three Colours: Blue
34 The Royal Tenenbaums
35 The Ladykillers
36 Fight Club
37 The Searchers
38 Mulholland Drive
39 The Ipcress File
40 The King of Comedy
41 Manhunter
42 Dawn of the Dead
43 Princess Mononoke
44 Raising Arizona
45 Cabaret
46 This Sporting Life
47 Brazil
48 Aguirre: The Wrath of God
49 Secrets and Lies
50 Badlands

 

[Bada0Bing]

1 Apocalypse Now
2 The Apartment
3 City of God
4 Chinatown
5 Sexy Beast
6 2001: A Space Odyssey
7 North by Northwest
8 A Bout de Souffle
9 Donnie Darko
10 Manhattan
11 Alien (just got it from the library)
12 Lost in Translation
13 The Shawshank Redemption
14 Lagaan: Once Upon A Time in India
15 Pulp Fiction
16 Touch of Evil
17 Walkabout
18 Black Narcissus
19 Boyzn the Hood
20 The Player
21 Come and See
22 Heavenly Creatures
23 A Night at the Opera (this was really stupid IMHO)
24 Erin Brockovich
25 Trainspotting
26 The Breakfast Club (one of my favorites of all-time)
27 Hero
28 Fanny and Alexander
29 Pink Flamingos
30 All About Eve (I’m actually watching this one right now)
31 Scarface
32 Terminator 2
33 Three Colours: Blue
34 The Royal Tenenbaums
35 The Ladykillers
36 Fight Club
37 The Searchers
38 Mulholland Drive
39 The Ipcress File
40 The King of Comedy
41 Manhunter
42 Dawn of the Dead
43 Princess Mononoke
44 Raising Arizona 45 Cabaret
46 This Sporting Life
47 Brazil (very strange movie)
48 Aguirre: The Wrath of God
49 Secrets and Lies
50 Badlands


Looks like I stand at 24.

 

[dreamcastrocks]

Donnie Darko is an underrated movie.

 

[Chaplin]

Chaplin = 36

FYI "A Bout de Souffle" is Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless.

I'm assuming Dawn of the Dead and The Ladykillers are the original films, NOT the more recent remakes.

Link

Something called "digital channel Film4" in the UK released this list. D-Dogg and I tally our totals against the IMDB.com Top 250 every six months or so, but this list might be fun for the board for now. Not sure what their critieria are.

1 Apocalypse Now
2 The Apartment
3 City of God
4 Chinatown
5 Sexy Beast
6 2001: A Space Odyssey
7 North by Northwest
8 A Bout de Souffle
9 Donnie Darko
10 Manhattan
11 Alien
12 Lost in Translation
13 The Shawshank Redemption
14 Lagaan: Once Upon A Time in India
15 Pulp Fiction
16 Touch of Evil
17 Walkabout
18 Black Narcissus
19 Boyzn the Hood
20 The Player
21 Come and See
22 Heavenly Creatures
23 A Night at the Opera
24 Erin Brockovich
25 Trainspotting
26 The Breakfast Club
27 Hero
28 Fanny and Alexander
29 Pink Flamingos
30 All About Eve
31 Scarface
32 Terminator 2
33 Three Colours: Blue
34 The Royal Tenenbaums
35 The Ladykillers
36 Fight Club
37 The Searchers
38 Mulholland Drive
39 The Ipcress File
40 The King of Comedy
41 Manhunter
42 Dawn of the Dead
43 Princess Mononoke
44 Raising Arizona
45 Cabaret
46 This Sporting Life
47 Brazil
48 Aguirre: The Wrath of God
49 Secrets and Lies
50 Badlands

 

[Mike Olbinski]

Mulholland Drive??? PLEASE....top 50?

 

[Mike Olbinski]

Only seen 15 of 'em

 

[Chaplin]

Mulholland Drive??? PLEASE....top 50?

If you read it carefully, it just says 50 movies to see before you die, NOT that they are the top 50 films of all time.

Even so, if you put your top 50, or if I put MY top 50, there would be a lot of disagreement. If you disagree, that's fine, but does that mean they are wrong?

That said, Mulholland Drive is definitely a terrific movie.

 

[dreamcastrocks]

20, and I am upset that I have not seen a couple of them

1 Apocalypse Now
2 The Apartment
3 City of God
4 Chinatown
5 Sexy Beast
6 2001: A Space Odyssey
7 North by Northwest
8 A Bout de Souffle
9 Donnie Darko
10 Manhattan
11 Alien
12 Lost in Translation
13 The Shawshank Redemption
14 Lagaan: Once Upon A Time in India
15 Pulp Fiction
16 Touch of Evil
17 Walkabout
18 Black Narcissus
19 Boyzn the Hood
20 The Player
21 Come and See
22 Heavenly Creatures
23 A Night at the Opera
24 Erin Brockovich
25 Trainspotting
26 The Breakfast Club
27 Hero (still need to see this one, grrr)
28 Fanny and Alexander
29 Pink Flamingos
30 All About Eve
31 Scarface
32 Terminator 2
33 Three Colours: Blue
34 The Royal Tenenbaums
35 The Ladykillers
36 Fight Club
37 The Searchers
38 Mulholland Drive
39 The Ipcress File
40 The King of Comedy
41 Manhunter
42 Dawn of the Dead
43 Princess Mononoke
44 Raising Arizona 45 Cabaret
46 This Sporting Life
47 Brazil (another one that I am upset for not seeing
48 Aguirre: The Wrath of God
49 Secrets and Lies
50 Badlands

 

[nathan]

30. I guess my efforts to watch all the movies on the IMDB 250 have paid off.

1 Apocalypse Now
2 The Apartment
3 City of God
4 Chinatown
5 Sexy Beast
6 2001: A Space Odyssey
7 North by Northwest
8 A Bout de Souffle
9 Donnie Darko
10 Manhattan
11 Alien
12 Lost in Translation
13 The Shawshank Redemption
14 Lagaan: Once Upon A Time in India
15 Pulp Fiction
16 Touch of Evil
17 Walkabout
18 Black Narcissus
19 Boyzn the Hood
20 The Player
21 Come and See
22 Heavenly Creatures
23 A Night at the Opera
24 Erin Brockovich
25 Trainspotting
26 The Breakfast Club
27 Hero
28 Fanny and Alexander
29 Pink Flamingos
30 All About Eve
31 Scarface
32 Terminator 2
33 Three Colours: Blue
34 The Royal Tenenbaums
35 The Ladykillers (I'm guessing this doesn't refer to the Tom Hanks version)
36 Fight Club
37 The Searchers
38 Mulholland Drive
39 The Ipcress File
40 The King of Comedy
41 Manhunter
42 Dawn of the Dead
43 Princess Mononoke
44 Raising Arizona
45 Cabaret
46 This Sporting Life
47 Brazil
48 Aguirre: The Wrath of God
49 Secrets and Lies
50 Badlands

 

[abomb]

30. I guess my efforts to watch all the movies on the IMDB 250 have paid off.

That has been my goal too. I have a long way to go. I will start the official IMDB thread in a few days, using a good spreadsheet.

 

[Pariah]

If you read it carefully, it just says 50 movies to see before you die, NOT that they are the top 50 films of all time.

Why wouldn't you want to see the top-50 movies before you die instead of these?

I think this is someone's de facto top-50 list.

 

[Bada0Bing]

That has been my goal too. I have a long way to go. I will start the official IMDB thread in a few days, using a good spreadsheet.

I'm game. I've been working on that for a while myself.

I actually used to track the top 250 in a spreadsheet. Some of the changes make no sense, so I think they have a slight problem with their formulas.

I have the data for each day of October thru May saved (no joke). Some of their data made no sense, so I stopped. Come on now, how can City Lights (1931) drop 9 spots in one day? Some movie called Cabinet des Dr. Caligari, Das from 1920 came out of nowhere to take over #166.

I haven't looked at the IMDB top 250 in a few months. However, their website is still #1 in my book for researching the movies that I watch.

 

[Chaplin]

Why wouldn't you want to see the top-50 movies before you die instead of these?

I think this is someone's de facto top-50 list.

Simple. Think of it this way. Would your top 50 movies to see before you die include movies like Fletch or The Goonies? Or even Raiders of the Lost Ark? I know at least 2 of those would be in my top 50 to see before you die, but neither Fletch or The Goonies would probably end up in my top 50. It's just semantics.

Doesn't make those the top 50 of all time, just movies that you should see at least once in a lifetime.

Besides, if you look at most top movies from British publications, they almost always include at least one Japanese movie, Citizen Kane and the Third Man.

 

[Chaplin]

I'm game. I've been working on that for a while myself.

I actually used to track the top 250 in a spreadsheet. Some of the changes make no sense, so I think they have a slight problem with their formulas.

I have the data for each day of October thru May saved (no joke). Some of their data made no sense, so I stopped. Come on now, how can City Lights (1931) drop 9 spots in one day? Some movie called Cabinet des Dr. Caligari, Das from 1920 came out of nowhere to take over #166.

I haven't looked at the IMDB top 250 in a few months. However, their website is still #1 in my book for researching the movies that I watch.

"Some" movie? I take it you've never seen The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari then. It's a classic. A little bit of trivia--the "monster" in that movie is a very young Conrad Veidt, who played Nazi Major Strasser in Casablanca.

That said, imdb is not the greatest top 250 in the world, but it shows a pretty good consensus. I mean, I love Shawshank Redemption, but #2 all-time?

 

[Pariah]

Simple. Think of it this way. Would your top 50 movies to see before you die include movies like Fletch or The Goonies? Or even Raiders of the Lost Ark? I know at least 2 of those would be in my top 50 to see before you die, but neither Fletch or The Goonies would probably end up in my top 50. It's just semantics.

I gues I disagree. If I'm dying tomorrow, I'd probably pass on Fletch in order to see "Seven Samurai." I'd rather spend my time watching quality film (if I could do nothing but watch movies, that is...I'd probably not choose to spend my final hours in front of a television).

 

[Bada0Bing]

"Some" movie? I take it you've never seen The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari then. It's a classic. A little bit of trivia--the "monster" in that movie is a very young Conrad Veidt, who played Nazi Major Strasser in Casablanca.

That said, imdb is not the greatest top 250 in the world, but it shows a pretty good consensus. I mean, I love Shawshank Redemption, but #2 all-time?

I hear you, it was probably a great movie, but it jumped up to #166 one day. Why wasn't it there the day before? It wasn't even on the list the day before.

 

[Bada0Bing]

"Some" movie? I take it you've never seen The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari then. It's a classic. A little bit of trivia--the "monster" in that movie is a very young Conrad Veidt, who played Nazi Major Strasser in Casablanca.

That said, imdb is not the greatest top 250 in the world, but it shows a pretty good consensus. I mean, I love Shawshank Redemption, but #2 all-time?

Chap, maybe there's an explanation for this. Did it just come on DVD or something? Maybe it had enough new 10 votes to shoot up the chart. What about Battaglia di Algeri, La? On May 16, 2006 it came from nowhere to #186 on the list.

Or Out of the Past (1947). How could this shoot up from nowhere to #198 back in May.

I lost all faith in the IMDB list a few months ago. It used to be my bible of movies, but now I have zero interest.

 

[D-Dogg]

Donnie Darko is badass. Great movie.


edit to fix spelling...Why the hell did I spell it like that when I own the damn thing?

 

[Bada0Bing]

Donny Darko is badass. Great movie.

Totally. One of the 7 or so movies that I actually own. I still ponder that movie.

 

[Chaplin]

Chap, maybe there's an explanation for this. Did it just come on DVD or something? Maybe it had enough new 10 votes to shoot up the chart. What about Battaglia di Algeri, La? On May 16, 2006 it came from nowhere to #186 on the list.

Or Out of the Past (1947). How could this shoot up from nowhere to #198 back in May.

I lost all faith in the IMDB list a few months ago. It used to be my bible of movies, but now I have zero interest.

I hear ya.

As for why the jump, I have no idea. My guess is that we're seeing maybe the students in a summer class somewhere all getting on imdb. Don't know for sure what the deal is.

 

[Chaplin]

I gues I disagree. If I'm dying tomorrow, I'd probably pass on Fletch in order to see "Seven Samurai." I'd rather spend my time watching quality film (if I could do nothing but watch movies, that is...I'd probably not choose to spend my final hours in front of a television).

Well, I'd prefer Seven Samurai over just about every other movie, including the three I mentioned. But if you were talking to somebody from work, it's easy to say "See Seven Samurai before you die", but they'll be much more receptive if you say, "See The Goonies before you die". I guess the main thing would be a) their audience, and b) perhaps they wanted to take an alternative look at a traditional list. The movies on that list are pretty good, regardless of whether we believe they should be on a top 50 all-time list.

It's a good discussion, if just a little dorky.