Board 8 > Presenting: The SephG Top 250 [movies]

(+) Yeah! (+)

American Beauty was one of my faves too, I think it's a good look from the perspective of youth towards 40-50something. I think it marked the shift in mentality towards what "old" people are supposed to be like and what they are supposed to prioritize. The more I think on it, it seems like it deals with the routine of resentment.
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neonreaper posted...

you know how people your are made screen names like GOKUxxXXxxX and SEPHIROTHxooOoox in Runescape.... people my age were starting their blogger.com sites with "tyler_durdent76" types of screen names.

Haha this is great. I would love to hear more about these dudes because it just seems like such a small sliver of a generation that no one has properly profiled yet.
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So what's everyone's favorite movie so far? Has anything piqued your interest enough to watch for the first time?
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Reservoir Dogs is my #2 of all time! Easy pick for my favorite on this list.

I've seen a lot of this list so far, but I'm really interested in Nuovo Cinema Paradiso and It's Such a Beautiful Day.
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Snake5555555555 posted...

Reservoir Dogs is my #2 of all time! Easy pick for my favorite on this list.

I've seen a lot of this list so far, but I'm really interested in Nuovo Cinema Paradiso and It's Such a Beautiful Day.

It's Such a Beautiful Day is really impossible to not like. Definitely recommended for a rainy evening.
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I was happy to see Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Call Me By Your Name, Eyes Wide Shut and all the David Lynch
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I guess my favorite so far is Drive? That's in my top 10 probably but I'm very bad at ranking things. I don't think any others I would put in my top 10 have shown up yet.

Really enjoying the list though, a lot of exceptional films here.
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So much Drive love here. Interesting...
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Nelson_Mandela posted...

neonreaper posted...

you know how people your are made screen names like GOKUxxXXxxX and SEPHIROTHxooOoox in Runescape.... people my age were starting their blogger.com sites with "tyler_durdent76" types of screen names.

Haha this is great. I would love to hear more about these dudes because it just seems like such a small sliver of a generation that no one has properly profiled yet.

3 things in common with them... maybe not that interesting:
1. They all prioritized getting into a house over anything. They'd stay in on weekends, find cheap solutions to everything, and spend their days counting their moneys. They kinda skipped out on their 20s in a way millennials would never dream of, in order to have a decent house and then having nice vacations with their families. And it's always new construction, always.
2. They all married teachers, it's almost unnerving how every house party is filled with teachers complaining about being teachers.
3. They are insane clock watchers. "I got in at 9:13, so I leave at 5:13. It takes me 3 minutes to get to the door so I will leave my desk at 5:10". It's worse than a union.

I would say that 90% of them will be having affairs once the kids move out to college.
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neonreaper posted...

1. They all prioritized getting into a house over anything. They'd stay in on weekends, find cheap solutions to everything, and spend their days counting their moneys. They kinda skipped out on their 20s in a way millennials would never dream of, in order to have a decent house and then having nice vacations with their families. And it's always new construction, always.
2. They all married teachers, it's almost unnerving how every house party is filled with teachers complaining about being teachers.
3. They are insane clock watchers. "I got in at 9:13, so I leave at 5:13. It takes me 3 minutes to get to the door so I will leave my desk at 5:10". It's worse than a union.

Holy shit I know a lot of people who match this exact description. They're still young enough to not realize how much they should be regretting their decisions yet though.
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Reservoir Dogs - the poster for this movie was incredibly popular when I went to college (1996). Back then, you didn't run to the internet and find out what other movies the director made, so you had to have someone tell you. Back then, being hip about anything was easy - someone said "you gotta watch this movie" and you watched it and you then got to be the guy "oh Pulp Fiction is good but Reservoir Dogs is better... oh you haven't heard about Reservoir Dogs...?"

Up - man that wasn't even a gut punch, that was a total kick in the nuts. You can't tough it out, you just crumple and feel sick and you cant use your legs. The rest of the movie is fun (talking dogs and Kevin and floating a house with balloons) though the theme doesn't seem incredibly new. It's a bit picky given that it's a kid's movie that also hits with adults. Like, it's immediately obvious that the kid is going to break through the old guy's defenses at the end. They could have easily put the beginning at the end to give the story a sense of redemption, but they didn't. You don't have to wait until the end to be told why the old guy is the way he is. It's well done. It's not my favorite Pixar movie or anything, nothing will top Inside Out for me, but it's good stuff.

Coco was well done, too. One of the first movies my kid was old enough to follow the plot, and the plot was a little deeper than "friendship is magic". She's been worried about dying ever since, though
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neonreaper posted...

Coco was well done, too. One of the first movies my kid was old enough to follow the plot, and the plot was a little deeper than "friendship is magic". She's been worried about dying ever since, though

Just watch Melancholia with her and she'll forget all about it
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Nelson_Mandela posted...

So what's everyone's favorite movie so far? Has anything piqued your interest enough to watch for the first time?

i already gave my favorite.

oh, aside from a ghost story there's a lot of movies on this list i haven't seen yet that i want to watch. roma, spider-verse, pi and nuovo cinema paradiso come to mind.
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I was really impressed by Spider-verse. I still prefer the Nolan Batman trilogy, but it was definitely the superhero movie that best captured the feel of comics.

The first scene of Up was great, but the rest of the movie was just okay imo. Coco was great the entire way through.

Speaking of Inside Out, I retroactively have a greater appreciation for the movie since it ended up serving as the theme for the 2017 MIT Mystery Hunt and it worked really well (the different emotions inspired some pretty cool puzzles).
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Might be able to pick this up today
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#99. Life of Pi
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/57/Life_of_Pi_2012_Poster.jpg
Dir: Ang Lee
Genre: Adventure, Fantasy
Year: 2012

Ang Lee has a penchant for making movies that are just stunning to look at. Even his lambasted interpretation of the Incredible Hulk was way ahead of its time visually. But nothing quite comes close to Life of Pi, which might simply be the prettiest movie ever made.

I can't state enough how much this movie is driven by the visuals. As you'll see from the rest of this list, I am generally turned off by CG-reliant films (other than animation). But Life of Pi uses these elements perfectly to capture the magic realism of the narrative itself. The story is essentially a fantasy itself, so these aren't just images for the sake of aesthetic beauty. They add to the tale and to the spirit of the entire film, making for a magical experience.
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#98. Vertigo
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/75/Vertigomovie_restoration.jpg/800px-Vertigomovie_restoration.jpg
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
Genre: Suspense/Thriller, Mystery
Year: 1958

I waited wayyy too long to watch Vertigo for the first time. It was only after it supplanted Citizen Kane in the famous Sight & Sound poll for best movie ever that I made it a mission to finally watch it. It's hard to claim one of the 100 best movies ever made was disappointing, but needless to say, it is not the greatest film of all time. But it's really, really damn good.

The mystery in Vertigo has a real gothic feel to it. The whole movie reminds me of an Edgar Allen Poe story brought to screen, which adds a fun layer of uncanny creepiness to what could have otherwise been a typical thriller. But what I liked about Vertigo most, and what makes it so lauded by film historians, is the use of color and lighting--especially in the dream sequence halfway through. That uncanny feeling is elevated even more with these techniques, and you can almost see a window into the psychedelic 60s opening up years ahead of time.
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#97. Alien
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c3/Alien_movie_poster.jpg
Dir: Ridley Scott
Genre: Horror, Science Fiction
Year: 1979

Alien is, at its core, a slasher film. That's why I labeled it in the horror genre before sci-fi. Its sequels certainly go down the sci-fi route a lot deeper, but I think that's why the original Alien is easily the best in the series. It doesn't attempt to explore the science behind the alien. Rather, it's a completely unknown entity that is killing the crew of the Nostromo--and that's precisely what makes it so terrifying.

Alien is a slasher film, and a flawlessly executed one at that. The (incredible) set design and sound effects create a sense of claustrophobia unmatched in just about any other horror film, and there is always an undercurrent of tension. And of course, I have to mention the Geiger alien itself, which still looks fucking amazing for a low-budget prop. It goes to show what great lighting and some water effects can do under the watch of a capable director. It's still the best creature design in all of cinema.
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#96. Barton Fink
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1b/BartonFink.jpg
Dir: Joel and Ethan Coen
Genre: Drama, Comedy
Year: 1991

A lot of the intelligentsia in my circles look down on screenwriters. To them, they are failed novelists and playwrights who now have to settle for writing pulpy bullshit for a living. And they're mostly correct! But then you look at a screenplay like Barton Fink, written by a Princeton philosophy graduate, and you realize that sometimes film can transcend into high literature.

Barton Fink is one of the most layered films on this list. It's simultaneously a character study and a fever dream populated by allusions to Faulkner's works, Dante, Keats, and countless others. It's the Coen Brothers' most abstract movie about making movies, but more so the creative process behind it. After years in the industry, you get a sense that they were reaching a boiling point--and this is wonderful byproduct of their strife.
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#95. The Man from Earth
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/3b/The_Man_from_Earth.png
Dir: Richard Schenkman
Genre: Science Fiction, Drama
Year: 2007

I am going to assume that this is the least heard-of movie on my list. And that makes me even more excited to share my thoughts on it with you and hopefully convince a number of you to check it out.

The Man from Earth has an interesting story behind it. The guy who wrote it, Jerome Bixby, was a fairly unknown writer who penned a few episodes of the original Twilight Zone and Star Trek series. He actually started writing The Man from Earth in 1946 and finished it literally on his death bed in 1998. It took about a decade of work to get this made after he died, but what was accomplished was nothing short of a sci-fi masterpiece.

The Man from Earth isn't your typical sci-fi story. It's set entirely in one place--a cabin in the woods where a group of co-workers are toasting their friend who is leaving town. The entire movie revolves around the friend gradually telling stories about his past--the places he has been, the people he's met. Without spoiling anything, let's just say that his stories get quite interesting, and his friends (and the audience) start to wonder what is true and what is a fantasy.

Although it's minimalist in presentation, the story is so sweeping and the dialogue so crisp that you really do get why this movie was Mr. Bixby's life work. It's a tale about history, humanity, and existence itself--and it's something I guarantee you'll never forget. Add this to your watch-list immediately.
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I remember watching Midnight In Paris as a writing major in college and being so excited about it and trying to show it to some of my non writer friends and having them all feel like it was just a shitty romcom and being so disappointed in them.
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Yeah Alien is absolutely a horror movie while Aliens is an action movie.
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vertigo may not provide the popcorn entertainment of some of hitchcock's other movies (north by northwest, rear window) but it's absolutely his best one imo.

makes total sense that david lynch said it's one of his favorite movies.
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Lasa I think you would love the man from earth
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yeah, i'd already put it on my "to watch" list!

pretty intruiging that it took the screenwriter 52 years to write the screenplay. i'm struggling to think of other works of fiction by one author that took that long to complete. tolkien's silmarillion? technically that doesn't count as he personally didn't finish it, but...
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Mr Lasastryke posted...

yeah, i'd already put it on my "to watch" list!

pretty intruiging that it took the screenwriter 52 years to write the screenplay. i'm struggling to think of other works of fiction by one author that took that long to complete. tolkien's silmarillion? technically that doesn't count as he personally didn't finish it, but...

The cantos by famous Nazi Ezra pound
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Hey guys, watch The Man from Earth
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Never even heard of it but will get it on my list
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Good!
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Any of you Drive superfans watch Too Old to Die Young yet?
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Back at it tomorrow I hope
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#94. Full Metal Jacket
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/99/Full_Metal_Jacket_poster.jpg
Dir: Stanley Kubrick
Genre: War
Year: 1987

Full Metal Jacket is one of the most unique war movies ever. Typically, these all follow a formula--we get to briefly know the soldiers as naive boys, then we watch as they face the reality of battle, they learn and grow and some of them die, then the movie ends in a big battle that shows the duality of war. Full Metal Jacket takes that formula and completely deconstructs it.

The "main" part of FMJ that everybody remembers is the basic training section. This is ironically where the real horror of war is on full display. R. Lee Ermy basically plays himself and punishes Private Pyle to the point of murder-suicide, and the soldiers immediately get a preview of what war is like. This section (and the others) is shot in full Kubrickean madness, with its uncanny ability to make you feel like you're going as insane as the characters on screen. It's not your typical war film, but it's undoubtedly one of the best.
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#93. Akira
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5d/AKIRA_%281988_poster%29.jpg
Dir: Katsuhiro Otomo
Genre: Animated, Science Fiction
Year: 1988

Akira is my favorite anime ever despite being older than any other anime film on this list. But its influence on the things that had the most profound impacts on me growing up is insane. There would be no Final Fantasy VII without Akira. Virtually every JRPG with a sci-fi element was influenced by this film. The Matrix, Dark City, the cyberpunk wave of the 90s, Kanye West--everything can be traced back to Akira.

The first half of Akira had me thinking that it would be in my top 10 of all time. The way the atmosphere and postapocalyptic landscape is established is unprecedented in any media. The motorcycle scenes, meeting up at the grimy neo-Tokyo bar, the rioting--everything is perfectly molded to create this very real depiction of a future Tokyo in the wake of a nuclear attack. Unfortunately, the second and especially the third acts of the movie become a little too batshit crazy hyper-anime for my taste. Not to say it really takes away from the film, but I loved the quiet moments so much that I wish they could give me hours and hours of content.
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#92. Office Space
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8e/Office_space_poster.jpg
Dir: Mike Judge
Genre: Comedy
Year: 1999

Mike Judge is a comedy genius. I don't think this is a controversial opinion in the industry, but a lot of people tend to overlook his oeuvre. Beavis and Butt-head, King of the Hill, Silicon Valley--all helped transform the comedy landscape with some of the most biting satire that deftly evolved for each new generation. In the midst of these groundbreaking comedies, Office Space remains his magnum opus.

Office Space funnier than the countless movies that ripped off it's style in the 20 years since its release and is far and away the most poignant of the bunch. What could have just been a farcical movie about white collar office life became a brilliant satirical commentary on peoples' obsession with achieving personal fulfillment through their jobs. Somehow ignored upon release, I am glad to see this moving beyond "cult status" and into the pantheon of all-time comedies now.
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#91. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ad/Lord_of_the_Rings_-_The_Two_Towers.jpg
Dir: Peter Jackson
Genre: Adventure, Fantasy
Year: 2002

I think this write-up is going to be more of a defense of my LOTR rankings than a glowing praise of The Two Towers. So I'll begin here: Return of the King is the worst of the trilogy. I don't consider it a "bad" movie, but given how well made the first two are, it's certainly disappointing. I hate the multiple non-endings, I hate the cheesy lines (the overwrought "girl power" moment was particular gag-inducing), and I hated how long it was.

So I probably have the least popular of the LOTR rankings: 2 > 1 > 3. But I think The Two Towers is an incredible piece of filmmaking. People forget how mind-blowing the mo-cap Gollum was, and the focus on his "light" and "dark" side was the iconic part of the series for a lot of fans. People forget about how insane the final siege was and is--setting the standard for any big battle for years to come. This is my favorite LOTR movie because of how simultaneously grand yet contained it feels. It's a simple arc done on a magnificent scale, and it supersedes anything that came before or after it.
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#90. Jackie Brown
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/89/Jackie_Brown_%281997%29.png
Dir: Quentin Tarantino
Genre: Drama, Crime
Year: 1997

Quentin Tarantino set himself up to fail with Pulp Fiction. The movie was such a phenomenon that anything he did afterward would be panned for feeling too different or too much the same. So it's no surprise that Jackie Brown is probably the least-discussed movie of his despite being the most mature and restrained one that he's ever done.

Jackie Brown is a crime thriller with the thematic undertone of getting older. For a dude writing this in his mid-30s, it's pretty damn profound. Pam Greer and Robert Forster are perfect for these roles--aging workers in the crime world who just want something more out of their lives. The action is appropriately subdued, and by the end of it, you wind up loving these characters more than any other Tarantino film. It's the last QT movie that removed the campiness from its call-backs--and as much as I love the more overt homage period of his career, this is something I wish he would return to one last time.
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I think you're severely overstating Akira's influence. Just because you did something early doesn't really mean later things that do similar stuff necessarily needed you to get there. Nothing about the movie really screams that it completely invented anything to me. Cyberpunk as a world setting is kinda about mixing other existing settings to begin with.

It's an influential film, but there are a lot of things that do post-apocalyptic stuff, many of which predate Akira and many others still that were probably for the most part unaware of Akira.

Not that you're the only one to do this, but something like "Final Fantasy VII doesn't exist with Akira" is an incredible stretch to me.
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I don't know if anything could overtake Fellowship, but Two Towers has a rough bit of pacing in the middle. I think you've got like a half hour+ of Elf romance and Ents. Everything Rohan is top tier though. Helmsdeep is amazing.

As far as series, I think I go 1 > 3 > 2 due to pacing, but 3 suffers from what little carelessness Jackson engaged in with the trilogy (Army of the dead, Saruman, Gandalf v Witch King)... and yeah extended edition or bust.
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Jackie Brown is a really great movie. Sometimes I think it's my favorite Tarantino film (not best, but favorite yes).
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TTT is my least favorite of the trilogy, mainly because i'm in the minority of people who think that gollum, well, sucks (this is one of the reasons why FotR is my favorite: almost no gollum). sure, technically he's well done and serkis does an awesome job playing him, but the dual personality is only interesting for so long (namely not long at all). i was about to throw up after the 86th "WE'VE GOT TO GET THE PRECIOUS" scene. this is a problem in RotK as well, but that movie is not as gollum-heavy and i do think the gollum scenes in it are more interesting.

also, gimli, who was an honorable dwarf prince in FotR, is utterly ruined in TTT. it seems like every time he was on-screen in this one he had to provide some pathetic attempt at comic relief. "NOT THE BEARD!" "TOSS ME!" "PEOPLE THINK THERE'S NO DWARF WOMEN LOL!" the list goes on and on. what the fuck was jackson thinking? wasn't there already enough of this kind of thing with merry and pippin's "humor"?

the battle of helm's deep is amazing, though. no argument there. and i agree that the multiple endings of RotK drag on too long. but all three LotR movies are extremely long so it seems weird to single out RotK for this.

overall, i definitely prefer RotK to TTT.
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RotK is the only LotR that really drives home that "we're still doing this?" feeling to me, even if all three movies are long. RotK is long with the worst pacing, basically.

FotR is my favorite by a good margin though, and I like Gollum.
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Lopen posted...

It's an influential film, but there are a lot of things that do post-apocalyptic stuff, many of which predate Akira and many others still that were probably for the most part unaware of Akira.

I would love for you to give me movies like Akira that were developed independently of Akira. I love the setting so much so anything that gives me more Japanese cyberpunk would be awesome.

All I can really think of is Blade Runner, but I secretly dislike that movie.
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Blade Runner was the big one I was thinking of that predates it, though I would say stuff like The Road Warrior is close enough to the same kinda idea that I can't really say much stuff wouldn't exist without Akira. The Running Man is kind of a similar idea too. Hell even Escape from New York, kinda. Just some mainstream stuff off the top of my head. Akira is just an alternately stylized version of what those movies offer, really. To me it's like saying Cherry Coke wouldn't exist without Cherry Pepsi or something, like adding cherry to an existing formula would never be thought of without it. I've always had a beef with the idea that Akira was integral to much because yeah that style is sort of a hybrid of things that were already being explored to begin with.

If you want a quirky pick that I've been a fan of that does the dystopia thing pretty well the Tales From A Parallel Universe movies from the mid 90s (and the show that spawned from it Lexx) have always been favorites of mine. Kinda campy and over-sexualized at times though, and honestly, given it's me recommending it you probably wouldn't like it (since I hardly agree with this list at all) so forget it but you know. It's also not really like Akira at all, but it's a unique take on dystopia society. I won't pass up an excuse to mention it!

All that being said I'm with you that Akira is better than Blade Runner. Though it probably goes without saying I'm not exactly a huge fan of either movie.
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I agree that Akira didn't invent the post-apocalyptic steam/cyberpunk genre (that was really a reaction to the crime/economy of the 1970s), but I think there is a uniquely Japanese take on it that I haven't seen in anything prior to Akira. And while you could piece together its influences nudging it forward, I still think it was a gigantic step in a different direction from anything of that era.
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i guess the matrix trilogy wouldn't exist without akira? pretty sure the wachowskis cited it as an influence.

for the majority of other post-apocalyptic/cyberpunk movies it's hard to say, though.
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Lopen gimme your top 5 because I don't know how you could disagree with a list as perfect as this.
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Frankly I think the Matrix would still exist in a virtually identical form and they're just giving it lipservice cause they respect the movie. To me it's just hard to see anything that needs Akira to exist because it doesn't really do anything truly unique. It offers a cool spin on ideas, but they're ideas that already exist in plenty of places.

It's just a peeve of mine I guess. Akira is cited as like, a cornerstone of its genre and I just don't really see it. The pieces were already well in motion when Akira came out. People act like it's a Super Mario Bros when really it's more like a Super Mario World.
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My top 5 films are like casual central. Cinemasnobs universally turn their nose up at it.

The Dark Knight
Kill Bill Vol 1
Terminator 2
Edge of Tomorrow
Captain America Civil War

I'm not sure that's actually right but it's close enough to right that I'll allow it as a good enough window into the kinda stuff I like. They're all action movies but hey I have simple tastes.
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Lopen posted...

My top 5 films are like casual central. Cinemasnobs universally turn their nose up at it.

The Dark Knight
Kill Bill Vol 1
Terminator 2
Edge of Tomorrow
Captain America Civil War

I'm not sure that's actually right but it's close enough to right that I'll allow it as a good enough window into the kinda stuff I like. They're all action movies but hey I have simple tastes.

Well you might be pleasantly surprised by the top 50 ;)
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Lopen posted...

My top 5 films are like casual central. Cinemasnobs universally turn their nose up at it.

Nothing to be ashamed of. You fit right in with the super casualness of this topic's list, which is a combination of IMDb pre-2008, and reddit.
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