The folks at Zagat have made a list of the top 1,000 movies. What cheats. 1,000 movies?!? There aren’t a thousand films worth your time unless you’re an absolute addict — and even then, there aren’t. But I’d been meaning for some time to expand my 150 movies list to a more appealing 200 and I felt bad for a cheat of my own (by lumping trilogies into one listing).
As an aside to the now five different people who’ve been emailing me about making their way through most of the 150 movies list — there should be only about thirty additional films here for you, given that I’ve just expanded the sequels to separate entries, etc.
So here’s a revised and expanded list of 200 movies you really ought to see. Again, it is very light on Kubrick, Fellini, Herzog, Malick and a great many others. It includes several entries from Hitchcock, but not Vertigo. There is no Woody Allen. But I hope this fills out your Netflix queue for the time being.
1. Citizen Kane
2. North by Northwest
3. Miller’s Crossing
4. Patton
5. Charade
6. Chinatown
7. Last of the Mohicans (1992)
8. To Kill a Mockingbird
9. Bullitt
10. The Sting
11. Ben Hur
12. Ronin
13. Blade Runner
14. The Godfather
15. The Godfather Part II
16. The Fellowship of the Ring
17. The Two Towers
18. The Return of the King
19. Star Wars
20. The Empire Strikes Back
21. Return of the Jedi
22. Braveheart
23. Apocalypto
24. The Right Stuff
25. City of God
26. Before the Rain
27. Bridge on the River Kwai
28. The Untouchables
29. Sexy Beast
30. Kagemusha
31. Rashomon
32. Yojimbo
33. Empire of the Sun
34. The Mosquito Coast
35. The Year of Living Dangerously
36. Thief
37. Heat
38. Rocky
39. Apocalypse Now
40. The Getaway (1972)
41. The Natural
42. The Big Sleep
43. Unforgiven
44. The Searchers
45. The French Connection
46. Gone With the Wind
47. Psycho
48. The Exorcist
49. Taxi Driver
50. Spartacus
51. The Manchurian Candidate
52. Paths of Glory
53. Dr. Strangelove
54. Walk the Line
55. The Killing
56. The Killers (1964)
57. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
58. Anatomy of a Murder
59. Twelve Angry Men
60. The Third Man
61. The Maltese Falcon
62. Casablanca
63. Metropolis (1927)
64. The Great Escape
65. All the Presidents’ Men
66. The Apartment
67. How to Murder Your Wife
68. Lethal Weapon 2
69. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
70. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
71. The Magnificent Seven
72. Planet of the Apes (1968)
73. Terminator
74. Terminator 2
75. Jaws
76. Alien
77. Aliens
78. The Thing (1982)
79. Goldfinger
80. Goldeneye
81. Raiders of the Lost Ark
82. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
83. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
84. The Blues Brothers
85. Groundhog Day
86. Caddyshack
87. Happy Gilmore
88. Ghostbusters
89. Stand By Me
90. It’s a Wonderful Life
91. Henry V (1989)
92. The Silence of the Lambs
93. Reservoir Dogs
94. Pulp Fiction
95. Kill Bill (combined)
96. Spider Man 2
97. Batman (1989)
98. The Dark Knight
99. Die Hard
100. Die Hard With a Vengeance
101. L.A. Confidential
102. Gladiator
103. 300
104. Schindler’s List
105. Saving Private Ryan
106. A Few Good Men
107. Goodfellas
108. The Departed
109. The Usual Suspects
110. The Prestige
111. The Hustler
112. Hud
113. Cool Hand Luke
114. The Wild Bunch
115. Cinderella Man
116. Master and Commander
117. There Will Be Blood
118. Snatch
119. Seven
120. Fight Club
121. Leon (The Professional)
122. The Matrix
123. Memento
124. Heist
125. Spartan
126. Touch of Evil
127. The Shawshank Redemption
128. The Wizard of Oz
129. O Brother Where Art Thou
130. The Hudsucker Proxy
131. The Big Lebowski
132. Midnight Run
133. The Brothers Bloom
134. American History X
135. In the Name of the Father
136. The Apostle
137. Rear Window
138. The Omen (1966)
139. The New World
140. A Very Long Engagement
141. The Last Picture Show
142. The Painted Veil
143. To Catch a Thief
144. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
145. The Life Aquatic
146. His Girl Friday
147. The Princess Bride
148. Sense and Sensibility (1995)
149. Searching for Bobby Fischer
150. Shaun of the Dead
151. Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
152. Dazed and Confused
153. Blazing Saddles
154. Predator
155. Cop Land
156. Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior
157. Dune
158. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
159. Star Trek (2009)
160. The Count of Monte Cristo (2002)
161. Starship Troopers
162. Juno
163. Rushmore
164. Lost in Translation
165. On the Waterfront
166. Double Indemnity
167. Tombstone
168. Once Upon a Time in the West
169. No Country for Old Men
170. A History of Violence
171. Michael Clayton
172. Breaker Morant
173. The Game
174. Wall Street
175. American Psycho
176. Glengarry Glen Ross
177. Manhattan
178. All About Eve
179. Arsenic and Old Lace
180. Philadelphia Story
181. Hoosiers
182. Crimson Tide
183. The Hunt For Red October
184. Out of Sight
185. Taken
186. The Fugitive
187. Poltergeist
188. The Orphanage
189. Drag Me to Hell
190. Army of Darkness
191. South Park: Bigger Longer and Uncut
192. Team America: World Police
193. Nightmare Before Christmas
194. Pan’s Labyrinth
195. The Incredibles
196. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
197. The Goonies
198. Toy Story 2
199. Wall-E
200. Primer
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Yikes! “Starship Troopers”? Seriously? I almost walked out of that, but my buddy and I stuck around for the whole thing to soak in how awesomely bad it was.
“The Incredibles” is woefully under-ranked, as is “Gladiator” and (especially) “LA Confidential.” And what the hell is the Colonial-era-romance-with-some-violence-thrown-in “Last of the Mohicans” doing in there at all — let alone in the Top 10.
I actually like this list. Light on the pretentious crap and right up my alley. Bonus points for including Spartan.
Good choices, mostly. but: Team America: World Police!? Well, it was funny for 5 minutes. And I thought “Eternal Sunshine” ranked right down there with “My Dinner with Andre”.
But one *excellent movie* I'm surprised you didn't include: “Frantic” (1988), with Harrison Ford and Emmanuelle Seigner.
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