Tuesday, August 28, 2007

The Top 25 Films of the Last 25 Years

In 2006 Entertainment Tonight asked their resident film critic Leonard Maltin to commemorate his 25th year working with them by compiling a list of 25 of his favorite films. However, instead of simply picking his 25 all-time favorite movies, they asked him to name his favorite movie from each year for the past 25 years, beginning in 1982 and ending in 2006. Taking a cue from Maltin's list, I've compiled a list of my own favorite films by year. For some years it was hard to find more than one movie that I felt was worth mentioning and then there were others with seemingly too many great films to pick from. Keep in mind that, while I'm doing my best to catch up, I haven't seen nearly as many movies as Leonard Maltin, so there are surely some good ones that I'll be neglecting as I haven't gotten around to watching them yet. I thought about waiting until I'd seen some more of the seminal films that are out there before compiling my list, but I figure that I should either do this now or wait another 25 years, so without any further excuses I present my list of the Top 25 Films of the Last 25 Years:

1982: John Carpenter's The Thing
runner-up: Poltergeist

1983: Christine
runner-up: Videodrome

1984: Ghostbusters
runner-up: The Terminator

1985: Back to the Future
runner-up: Brazil

1986: Aliens
runner-up: The Fly

1987: Predator
runner-up: Full Metal Jacket

1988: Die Hard
runner-up: Akira

1989: The Abyss
runner-up: Back to the Future Part II

1990: Tremors
runner-up: Total Recall

1991: Terminator 2: Judgement Day
runner-up: The Silence of the Lambs

1992: Alien 3
runner-up: Reservoir Dogs

1993: Jurassic Park
runner-up: The Nightmare Before Christmas

1994: Pulp Fiction
runner-up: Clerks

1995: Se7en
runner-up: Toy Story

1996: Fargo
runner-up: Primal Fear

1997: LA Confidential
runner-up: Cube

1998: Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels
runner-up: The Big Lebowski

1999: Fight Club
runner-up: The Matrix/American Beauty (an unavoidable tie)

2000: Snatch
runner-up: Memento

2001: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
runner-up: Frailty

2002: The Rules of Attraction
runner-up: Spiderman

2003: X-Men 2
runner-up: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

2004: Spiderman 2
runner-up: The Incredibles

2005: Sin City
runner-up: War of the Worlds

2006: Children of Men
runner-up: Slither

BONUS
2007 (thus far): Grindhouse
runner-up (thus far): Superbad

* To view Leonard Maltin's list, Click Here.

** My choices for 2007 are based on the selection of films released on or before Monday, August 27, 2007.

*** I have omitted Kill Bill from the running because it's two parts came out in separate years. Together they would undoubtedly be on this list, but separated I had to go with some other choices.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I know this is your opinion, but there is no way Spiderman 2 is better than The Incredibles. It was better direted and a superior story compared to Spiderman 2

Rian said...

anonymous - Well...I disagree.

Rob Tornoe said...

T2- Thumb up! (As my unemotional metal brain is melted in the river of molten steel)

Here are some of my notables in terms of movies that I feel are better than the ones you've selected (said in a snob-like voice):

1982- Blade Runner, Ghandi and Sophie's Choice

1984- Terminator (How could you pick T2, and not the original, which is a MUCH better movie)

1985- Ran

1986- The Color of Money, Blue Velvet, Ferris Bueller's Day Off

1987- The Last Emperor, The first hour of Full Metal Jacket

1988- The Naked Gun, Last Temptation of Christ, Iron Eagle II :)

I don't have time to keep going now...I think you've inspired me to come up with my own list that YOU can scoff at.

Rian said...

Rob - I would love to see a full list from you. Definitely let me know if you make one. As for your comments on mine:

Terminator better than Ghostbusters? Not a chance. You honestly like T1 better than T2? You may be the only person I know who feels that way. T2 is one of the few sequels that I think exceeds the original. Others being Aliens, X-Men 2, and From Russia With Love.

I've never seen Ghandi, Sophie's Choice, Ran, The Color of Money, Blue Velvet, The Last Emporer, The Last Temptation of Christ, or Iron Eagle II (which I can only assume is a joke...I hope). I've never liked any of the silly Leslie Nielsen movies like Naked Gun. Just not my kind of humor. Also, I've never had the adoration of Ferris Bueller's Day Off that the rest of the world seems to. Finally, if you go back a few episodes to my Philip K. Dick post, you'll see that I don't think Blade Runner is nearly as phenomenal as most people do.

Thanks for the insight, and please do make your own full list. I'd love to see it.