My Top 25 Films of All-Time

by brandont98 | created - 11 Apr 2011 | updated - 11 Apr 2011 | Public

All these can literally be in any order.

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1. King Kong (1933)

Passed | 100 min | Adventure, Horror

92 Metascore

A film crew goes to a tropical island for a location shoot, where they capture a colossal ape who takes a shine to their blonde starlet, and bring him back to New York City.

Directors: Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack | Stars: Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong, Bruce Cabot, Frank Reicher

Votes: 90,949 | Gross: $10.00M

This is the movie that inspired me. It opened my eyes to what films could be, and it still amazes me.

2. Seven Samurai (1954)

Not Rated | 207 min | Action, Drama

98 Metascore

Farmers from a village exploited by bandits hire a veteran samurai for protection, who gathers six other samurai to join him.

Director: Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Toshirô Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Keiko Tsushima, Yukiko Shimazaki

Votes: 366,778 | Gross: $0.27M

It's just a masterpiece from beginning to end. This was the first Kurosawa film I ever saw, and it made me an instant fan. Pretty much a perfect movie.

3. The 400 Blows (1959)

Not Rated | 99 min | Crime, Drama

A young boy, left without attention, delves into a life of petty crime.

Director: François Truffaut | Stars: Jean-Pierre Léaud, Albert Rémy, Claire Maurier, Guy Decomble

Votes: 128,062

This movie is basically about me. It's a perfect portrait of a child who is just so uninterested with the world around him.

4. Paths of Glory (1957)

Approved | 88 min | Drama, War

90 Metascore

After a failed attack on a German position, a general orders three soldiers, chosen at random, court-martialed for cowardice and their commanding officer must defend them.

Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Kirk Douglas, Ralph Meeker, Adolphe Menjou, George Macready

Votes: 212,233

The more I think about it, the more I think this is Kubrick's best, it's the perfect anti-war film.

5. Videodrome (1983)

R | 87 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller

58 Metascore

A programmer at a Toronto TV station that specializes in adult entertainment searches for the producers of a dangerous and bizarre broadcast.

Director: David Cronenberg | Stars: James Woods, Debbie Harry, Sonja Smits, Peter Dvorsky

Votes: 102,964 | Gross: $2.12M

Cronenberg is a legend to any wannabe filmmaker growing up in Canada. It's just so screwed up, you can't help but love it.

6. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

PG | 138 min | Drama, Sci-Fi

90 Metascore

Roy Neary, an Indiana electric lineman, finds his quiet and ordinary daily life turned upside down after a close encounter with a UFO, spurring him to an obsessed cross-country quest for answers as a momentous event approaches.

Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Richard Dreyfuss, François Truffaut, Teri Garr, Melinda Dillon

Votes: 216,851 | Gross: $132.09M

This is my favorite Spielberg movie, and probably my favorite 'alien invasion' film.

7. Toy Story (1995)

G | 81 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy

96 Metascore

A cowboy doll is profoundly threatened and jealous when a new spaceman action figure supplants him as top toy in a boy's bedroom.

Director: John Lasseter | Stars: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Don Rickles, Jim Varney

Votes: 1,068,380 | Gross: $191.80M

Not only is it technically brilliant, it was the first film I ever saw in a theatre. So, it kind of got the ball rolling. It's so perfect.

8. The Shining (1980)

R | 146 min | Drama, Horror

68 Metascore

A family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where a sinister presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from both past and future.

Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, Scatman Crothers

Votes: 1,106,500 | Gross: $44.02M

The creepiest film I've ever seen. It's the one movie I can never watch by myself, Kubrick is a genius.

9. Psycho (1960)

R | 109 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller

97 Metascore

A Phoenix secretary embezzles $40,000 from her employer's client, goes on the run and checks into a remote motel run by a young man under the domination of his mother.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, John Gavin

Votes: 718,191 | Gross: $32.00M

It's still so scary. Norman Bates is one of my favorite film characters. You hate him, but love him so much.

10. Modern Times (1936)

G | 87 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

96 Metascore

The Tramp struggles to live in modern industrial society with the help of a young homeless woman.

Director: Charles Chaplin | Stars: Charles Chaplin, Paulette Goddard, Henry Bergman, Tiny Sandford

Votes: 259,432 | Gross: $0.16M

Chaplin's masterpiece. And also, his last 'silent' movie. It's also so funny. A perfect movie about technology gone wrong.

11. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

G | 149 min | Adventure, Sci-Fi

84 Metascore

After uncovering a mysterious artifact buried beneath the Lunar surface, a spacecraft is sent to Jupiter to find its origins: a spacecraft manned by two men and the supercomputer HAL 9000.

Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester, Daniel Richter

Votes: 719,392 | Gross: $56.95M

Holy crap. The best looking film in cinema history. Every shot is so mind-blowing, and you tilt your head wondering how everything was done.

12. The Godfather (1972)

R | 175 min | Crime, Drama

100 Metascore

The aging patriarch of an organized crime dynasty transfers control of his clandestine empire to his reluctant son.

Director: Francis Ford Coppola | Stars: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Diane Keaton

Votes: 2,012,071 | Gross: $134.97M

Pretty much a classic. Not too much to say about it that hasn't been said before. It's brilliant.

13. Reservoir Dogs (1992)

R | 99 min | Crime, Thriller

81 Metascore

When a simple jewelry heist goes horribly wrong, the surviving criminals begin to suspect that one of them is a police informant.

Director: Quentin Tarantino | Stars: Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Chris Penn

Votes: 1,088,060 | Gross: $2.83M

This is one of the coolest movies ever. The whole film is 100% badassery.

14. High and Low (1963)

Not Rated | 143 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery

90 Metascore

An executive of a Yokohama shoe company becomes a victim of extortion when his chauffeur's son is kidnapped by mistake and held for ransom.

Director: Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Toshirô Mifune, Yutaka Sada, Tatsuya Nakadai, Kyôko Kagawa

Votes: 53,182

My 2nd favorite Kurosawa movie. This invented the formula for every other 'crime' film. Pretty daring for its time.

15. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)

Approved | 178 min | Adventure, Western

90 Metascore

A bounty hunting scam joins two men in an uneasy alliance against a third in a race to find a fortune in gold buried in a remote cemetery.

Director: Sergio Leone | Stars: Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach, Lee Van Cleef, Aldo Giuffrè

Votes: 811,100 | Gross: $6.10M

An awesome spaghetti western. Eastwood is just 110% cool throughout the entire film, and it has one of the greatest scores ever made.

16. Taxi Driver (1976)

R | 114 min | Crime, Drama

94 Metascore

A mentally unstable veteran works as a nighttime taxi driver in New York City, where the perceived decadence and sleaze fuels his urge for violent action.

Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd, Albert Brooks

Votes: 920,537 | Gross: $28.26M

This film is my favorite of Scorsese's. DeNiro is fantastic as Travis, and the environment he's in is like a character itself. It's so great.

17. American Movie (1999)

R | 107 min | Documentary, Comedy

84 Metascore

Documentary about an aspiring filmmaker's attempts to finance his dream project by finally completing the low-budget horror film he abandoned years before.

Director: Chris Smith | Stars: Mark Borchardt, Mike Schank, Tom Schimmels, Monica Borchardt

Votes: 19,334 | Gross: $1.16M

The only documentary I ever loved. Mark is one of the coolest guys in the world. He just swears and drinks in the classiest way possible.

18. Back to the Future (1985)

PG | 116 min | Adventure, Comedy, Sci-Fi

87 Metascore

Marty McFly, a 17-year-old high school student, is accidentally sent 30 years into the past in a time-traveling DeLorean invented by his close friend, the maverick scientist Doc Brown.

Director: Robert Zemeckis | Stars: Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover

Votes: 1,306,591 | Gross: $210.61M

My favorite 80's popcorn movie. It's so famous and iconic, it's kind of hard to leave it out.

19. M (1931)

Passed | 99 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller

When the police in a German city are unable to catch a child-murderer, other criminals join in the manhunt.

Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Peter Lorre, Ellen Widmann, Inge Landgut, Otto Wernicke

Votes: 168,440 | Gross: $0.03M

This movie was made 80 years ago? Everything from the cinematography, editing, and camera work is amazing.

20. Godzilla (1954)

Not Rated | 96 min | Horror, Sci-Fi

79 Metascore

American nuclear weapons testing results in the creation of a seemingly unstoppable dinosaur-like beast.

Director: Ishirô Honda | Stars: Takashi Shimura, Akihiko Hirata, Akira Takarada, Momoko Kôchi

Votes: 39,632 | Gross: $2.42M

What an awesome movie! 50's monster movies at its finest!

21. Apocalypse Now (1979)

R | 147 min | Drama, Mystery, War

94 Metascore

A U.S. Army officer serving in Vietnam is tasked with assassinating a renegade Special Forces Colonel who sees himself as a god.

Director: Francis Ford Coppola | Stars: Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Frederic Forrest

Votes: 710,090 | Gross: $83.47M

Another Coppola classic. Nothing much to say!

22. The Big Lebowski (1998)

R | 117 min | Comedy, Crime

71 Metascore

Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski, mistaken for a millionaire of the same name, seeks restitution for his ruined rug and enlists his bowling buddies to help get it.

Directors: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen | Stars: Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi

Votes: 860,239 | Gross: $17.50M

One of the only films that I can call 'perfect'. This movie cemented me as a Jeff Bridges and Coen Brothers fan.

23. The Thin Red Line (1998)

R | 170 min | Drama, History, War

78 Metascore

Adaptation of James Jones' autobiographical 1962 novel, focusing on the conflict at Guadalcanal during the second World War.

Director: Terrence Malick | Stars: Jim Caviezel, Sean Penn, Nick Nolte, Kirk Acevedo

Votes: 199,584 | Gross: $36.40M

Another awesome anti-war film. You can tell of love those. This film has an excellent ensemble cast, and the battle scenes are crazy!

24. Brazil (1985)

R | 132 min | Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller

84 Metascore

A bureaucrat in a dystopic society becomes an enemy of the state as he pursues the woman of his dreams.

Director: Terry Gilliam | Stars: Jonathan Pryce, Kim Greist, Robert De Niro, Katherine Helmond

Votes: 211,205 | Gross: $9.93M

This is just a great movie all around. It's brilliant, hilarious and creepy at the same time.

25. The Magician (1958)

Not Rated | 101 min | Comedy, Drama

86 Metascore

A traveling magician and his assistants are persecuted by authorities in Sweden of the 19th century. Their capture, however, didn't bring victory to those in power.

Director: Ingmar Bergman | Stars: Max von Sydow, Ingrid Thulin, Gunnar Björnstrand, Naima Wifstrand

Votes: 10,950

This is my first Bergman film, and I thought it was great. It wasn't about the traveling magic show, but the people they meet on the way.



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