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Empire top 500 films of all time

Started by El Unicornio, mang, September 30, 2008, 12:12:29 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

Shoulders?-Stomach!

Quote from: El Unicornio, mang on September 30, 2008, 03:10:02 PM
You can see the full list on the link I posted, with short reviews for each. Also they've put out 100 (!) different covers to collect

So obsessive Empire collectors are going to be quite out of pocket.

I wonder what will deter them more, having to collect all those different covers or reading the contents of the magazine to discover it's become a meaningless corporate dustbin.

Catalogue Trousers

Anchorman placing above The Princess Bride and Duck Soup? Don't get me wrong, I like Anchorman a lot, but those other two films are both far superior comedy pieces (and comedy adventure to boot, in Bride's case).

Casino Royale over Goldfinger? Donnie Darko over The Wizard Of Oz, Ghostbusters and Ed Wood? Eggs over easy? There's about as much sense being talked by Empire's voters as in that non sequitur.

Of course "absolute" lists of The Best Ever Whatever are always subjective, but this really is a pretty scrappy example.

mothman

I tried to read through the list and after a couple of "ooh!" moments (Come and See being one of them) I gave up. It's such a large list, it's meaningless. And reminds all-too-uncomfortably of a very low point in my life when I became seriously obsessed with film lists and making sure I'd seen everything important, ever.

For me the benchmark of a film worthy of a best-ever list is one that I can watch over and over again. Which probably precludes me ever sharing such a list with you lot since it includes decidedly unhip (and actually shit) films like, er, Ghosts of Mars. . .

imitationleather

Has anyone ever come across a decent list of this type? A couple of weeks ago I went searching because I fancied going on a film-watching binge, but all the ones I found (especially ones selected by the public) were terrible and proclaimed whatever big blockbuster had just come out the previous week as the best film evaaaah. In one list Man On Wire - a film I thoroughly enjoyed - was ranked as something ridiculous like the third best film in the history of cinema. It's a brilliant film, but it's definitely not that!

I suppose I'm likely to have more luck with lists based on decade of release.

QuoteQuote from: Shoulders?-Stomach! on Today at 01:12:32 PM
Fight Club?? Which bag did they pull that one from? Oh wait, I know- The one marked 'much worse than it thinks it is'. Stupid smug self aware and grasping for cult status from the off.


Yup, that would only get in the Top 20 of the Most Shitty, Self-Satisfied Movies Ever list, in my opinion.

But then it's at least a decade since I realised that all of these lists are only fluffy filler – in the eyes of those who compile them, of the journalists who knock up stories about them, and nearly everyone who reads them. It's only a small group who like to test their blood pressure by taking such tripe seriously.



In fairness 'Fight Club' is arguably one of the best book to film adaptations of all time, endorsed by the author, the critics and has a rabid cult following not to mention a sterling acting performance from Edward Norton and a mighty fine soundtrack.

Glengarry Glen Ross (470), Fear and loathing in Las Vegas (469)  and The Deer Hunter (467) are criminally low down on the list

El Unicornio, mang

Quote from: mothman on September 30, 2008, 03:25:05 PM


For me the benchmark of a film worthy of a best-ever list is one that I can watch over and over again. Which probably precludes me ever sharing such a list with you lot since it includes decidedly unhip (and actually shit) films like, er, Ghosts of Mars. . .

Don't worry, Stanley Kubrick's daughter made a list of her father's favourite films and White Men Can't Jump was on it!

Quote from: imitationleather on September 30, 2008, 03:29:37 PM
Has anyone ever come across a decent list of this type?

There's the 1001 movies you must see before you die, which is very good and varied but is criminally missing The Insider
http://www.listology.com/content_show.cfm/content_id.20774

VegaLA

Disapointing to see Dawn of the Dead at only No. 415, thought it might at least make the top 100. I'll take Shoulders positioning over Empire's ! Didn't see where Night of the Living Dead sat though, I gave up after the Dawn page!

Shoulders?-Stomach!

Quote from: confettiinmyhair on September 30, 2008, 03:39:19 PM


In fairness 'Fight Club' is arguably one of the best book to film adaptations of all time, endorsed by the author, the critics and has a rabid cult following not to mention a sterling acting performance from Edward Norton and a mighty fine soundtrack.

That's not 'in fairness' though, that's all your opinion. I've acknowledged the cult following already by saying it was clearly targeting that from the get go and it's no accurate marker of taste. Fairness would centre around objective things we could agree on, and that post doesn't have any.

Emma Raducanu

I thought Fight Club was pretty good, I just need to try not imagining Brad Pitt pretending to be engrossed by the philosophy behind it all, stroking his fashionably shaven stubbled beard.

El Unicornio, mang

I think it's a great film, but I like all of Fincher's output, Alien3 included

mothman

I actually quite like Fight Club, it's a film I can watch over and over again - but it wouldn't be on my list.

whorespital

no cinema paradiso in the top 25. shame on the nerds.

buttgammon


Quote from: Shoulders?-Stomach! on September 30, 2008, 04:05:00 PM
That's not 'in fairness' though, that's all your opinion. I've acknowledged the cult following already by saying it was clearly targeting that from the get go and it's no accurate marker of taste. Fairness would centre around objective things we could agree on, and that post doesn't have any.


I gave my opinion about it being one of the best movie adaptations of a book, that's my opinion, fair enough. Yet it is not incorrect of me to say that the author did indeed endorse the film because he did.


Chuck Palahniuk said this about the film
"The first time I saw dailies of the movie was when I went down to the film's location, and David Fincher would drag me off the set to his trailer to show me dailies. He would be watching me for my reaction, and I had little or no idea where these scenes fit together. Here were these wonderful reaction shots and things like that which seemed so random, beautifully composed, attractive and funny in their own way, but I had no idea how they went together. I felt so self-conscious with David watching me. Now that I see the movie, especially when I sat down with Jim Uhls and record a commentary track for the DVD, I was sort of embarrassed of the book, because the movie had streamlined the plot and made it so much more effective and made connections that I had never thought to make. There is a line about "fathers setting up franchises with other families," and I never thought about connecting that with the fact that Fight Club was being franchised and the movie made that connection. I was just beating myself in the head for not having made that connection myself. "

Jemble Fred

The fact that the Fight Club book/movie/t-shirt/videogame/novelty soap itself is a cash-cow franchise is precisely why I hate it. I don't see it as a 'delicious irony' or whatever, it's just hypocritical guff.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

Quote from: Jemble Fred on September 30, 2008, 05:10:07 PM
The fact that the Fight Club book/movie/t-shirt/videogame/novelty soap itself is a cash-cow franchise is precisely why I hate it. I don't see it as a 'delicious irony' or whatever, it's just hypocritical guff.
I remember you talking about this before and it still baffles me. The film was a box office flop but you're describing it like it's Star Wars. That it found some success on video, which marketing men tried to cash in on, isn't the fault of Fincher or anyone else responsible for the film.

sirhenry

I'm just glad to see Harold and Maude in the top 100. Though if they'd swapped its position with Dark Knight it would have been more appropriate.

Lee Van Cleef

Quote from: mothman on September 30, 2008, 04:15:49 PMI actually quite like Fight Club, it's a film I can watch over and over again - but it wouldn't be on my list.

I think I agree with this person.  Hugs time!

BamBam

I thought this was Fight Club except with puny types.

mycroft

I've looked through the list twice and am not seeing any sign of Where Eagles Dare. The list is therefore declared void.

Old Thrashbarg

Quote from: Jemble Fred on September 30, 2008, 05:10:07 PM
The fact that the Fight Club book/movie/t-shirt/videogame/novelty soap itself is a cash-cow franchise is precisely why I hate it. I don't see it as a 'delicious irony' or whatever, it's just hypocritical guff.

It's already been mentioned, but I can't leave this without commenting. You're criticising the film for decisions made, by people with no connection to the making of the film, long after it's completion and release. That hardly seems fair. If you don't like the content of the film, then fair enough, but to hate it purely for after-the-event marketing seems a little daft. (I may be a bit biased though, with it being in my top three of all time).

Jemble Fred

You're not telling me that didn't know that they were making a chic, cool, edgy, highly marketable film when they were making it? When they cast Brad Pitt? Sorry, but I can't swallow that at all. It may well be the fault of the source material – the movie world is a very commercial one, so it was never possible for the novel to go through that system without ending up neutered and laughable.

To be fair, I do dislike the film itself as well, outside of the marketing. Even on the first watch, before any of the spin-off merchandising, I found it to be smug and overly flashy. The eventual marketing of the franchise was just the cherry on top. And I think a film's subsequent merchandising can be said to be an integral part of the package when criticising it – especially when it's in a list like this one.

Because whether you like it or not is beside the point – it's the fact that it's supposedly the TENTH GREATEST FILM OF ALL TIME that has reopened the wounds here.

ziggy starbucks

I count only two shirley maclaine films

12. The Apartment (Billy Wilder, 1960)
160. Being There (Hal Ashby, 1979)

no Two Mules For Sister Sara?

no Cannonball Run 2?

El Unicornio, mang

Quote from: Jemble Fred on September 30, 2008, 07:06:03 PM
You're not telling me that didn't know that they were making a chic, cool, edgy, highly marketable film when they were making it? When they cast Brad Pitt? Sorry, but I can't swallow that at all. It may well be the fault of the source material – the movie world is a very commercial one, so it was never possible for the novel to go through that system without ending up neutered and laughable.

I assumed he cast Pitt because he had worked with him on his previous film, Se7en. He was the perfect choice for the role I thought, Fincher doesn't seem like the type to use cynical marketing ploys.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth


Waking Life

The Brad Pitt part was supposed to be a good looking stud.  "I look how you want to look, I fuck how you want to fuck"

I don't really like the film and never understood the hype.  Really despised the ending.

Jemble Fred

Quote from: El Unicornio, mang on September 30, 2008, 07:18:33 PM
I assumed he cast Pitt because he had worked with him on his previous film, Se7en. He was the perfect choice for the role I thought, Fincher doesn't seem like the type to use cynical marketing ploys.

I like Fincher, and I like Pitt, and I adore Se7en. But I think the central conceit of the Fight Club story makes it impossible to turn into a Major Motion Picture without ending up with, at best, an interesting paradox. The way the film is worshipped is just nonsensical.

Hobes

Does the casting of Pitt in Twelve Monkeys count against it?

Fight club is about consumerism, its style is very much intentional. It is a great film, well acted.


Jemble Fred

Quote from: Hobes on September 30, 2008, 07:31:37 PM
Does the casting of Pitt in Twelve Monkeys count against it?

No – why on earth should it? Especially given the nature of the character he was playing. It's a very different film.

lactating man nips

I think you could have a great thread about films not on this list, where is Sidney Lumets' The Hill?! Fantastic film that.