IMDB Top 250 films

[Impenitent]

I've seen 149 of them - don't worry, I won't list them! I've included 4 films I'm pretty sure I've seen but I can't recall details of them.

I'll save the list and try to rate them, and if I manage to do that, I'll post with my rating. Won't happen today though; I'm stealing time to procrastinate.

[Beutlin]

No more grades?

[Frelga]

Well, at least there was some Japanese animation on the list. I think.

Sorry to go all hipster on you, but we had wider access to international movies from behind the Iron Curtain than what is reflected by this list. Bollywood's finest, German (East and West) spaghetti Westerns, Italian and French comedies, Hollywood, and of course the Eastern block and the USSR itself, which made some really excellent stuff. Americans barely see foreign movies, mostly as the "artsy" option, and the popular movies tend to be remade rather than dubbed or subtitled.

Of course, this is the board with Teremia on it, who has seen movies from every point on time and space continuum.

[yovargas]

Well, at least there was some Japanese animation on the list. I think.

Japanese animation Studio Ghibli has 7 entries on the list, tying Kubrick for most spots. There are actually more from Ghibli than from Pixar/Disney!


While the list is English-centric (understandably, IMO), I do think non-English films are pretty well represented, including multiples from Fellini, Bergman, and Kurosawa amongst modern beloved non-English films such as Amelie, City of God, and A Separation.

[Frelga]

That's what I mean, yov - the foreign movies are the ones that are considered the high points of cinematic art, and those were available in the Soviet years as well. I'm talking about the fun stuff, like comedies with Louis de Funes.

My undereducated opinion is that the USA's greatest contribution to the 20th century cinema were the action blockbusters and B movies.

[yovargas]

I kinda feel like comedy can have a hard time crossing cultural boundaries a lot of the times. Monty Python gets 2 spots on the list, for example, but I have a hard seeing anything like that made in France crossing over into the US.

[Frelga]

The major difference I've spotted between French/Italian and American comedy is the less, well, Puritan approach. I can't imagine an American movie in which a married man spends a vacation with a prostitute (without realizing who she is because she is the retirement gift from his friends) and ends up not only having a great time, but promoting his career, doing right by the girl, and salvaging his failing marriage.

However, most of the comedy is actually very easily translatable (I feel that English humor is a bit on its own island, pun intended).

Well, I was trying to find a subtitled Louis de Funes movie, but found Le Grande Vadrouille subbed in Russian instead. See you in two hours.

[yovargas]

Your post made me wanna check how comedies do on the list and the answer is - very poorly. Though light-hearted "popcorn" fare from Back to the Future to Pirates of the Caribbean make it to the list, the last time a movie I would call a true comedy made it to the list was indeed Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979). Possible exceptions are Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998), The Big Lebowski (1998), and Snatch. (2000), which some might count as comedies but I don't think they would fit into the kind of thing you're talking about.

[Frelga]

That's an interesting observation. Speaking only about US-made comedies, what would you say are some highlights?

The first one I can think of is Beverly Hills Cop.

ETA: I've seen some American remakes of French/Italian comedies. Pure Luck was a remake of La Chevre with Martin Short taking over for Pierre Richard and Danny Glover for Gerard Depardieu with limited success. On the other hand, I found Oscar, a remake of Louis de Funes's movie starring Stallone and the gorgeous Ornella Muti, to be as hilarious as the original.

[yovargas]

I thought about it a bit and the only comedy I can think of from my lifetime that I would say deserves a spot on that list is the South Park movie which is definitely a brand of humor that is not for everyone. But that movie is both crazy smart and crazy funny.

[Alatar]

I'd probably have gone for "Something about Mary" because it was such an impactful movie. Its changed what was acceptable in comedy movies forever.

(Aside: Why is Firefox underlining "impactful" as an unrecognised word? Is it slang? Grammatically incorrect? Also, why do spell checkers refuse to accept "Movie" as a valid word?)

[yovargas]

I haven't seen Something about Mary in ages (and never saw Lethal Weapon). Does that still hold up?

[Alatar]

I don't know really, I just remember its one of the few movies that ever had me laughing so hard I thought I'd be sick. I can't imagine it would have the same effect now because those gags are no longer so unexpected and over the top as they were then.

ETA: The same is true of most comedy though. Most people can appreciate how talented Chaplin, Harold Lloyd and Laurel and Hardy were, but few people still find them hilarious. Their material has become the language of comedy and is so universally widespread that it no longer has the power to surprise us. Even "Some Like It Hot" isn't as funny now as it was 20-30 years ago, never mind when it first came out.

Lethal Weapon wasn't really a comedy. The sequels were, but Lethal Weapon was about a cop coming apart at the seams.

[yovargas]

Funny you mention Chaplin. He has a whopping 5 films on the list (tied for 3rd place of director with most movies on the list) and as part of my project I watched his City Lights a couple weeks ago. I was frankly baffled. I barely cracked a smile the whole time. The humor is soooooooooooooooooooooo dated I can't imagine an audience in 2015 finding any of it even mildly amusing. But apparently they do. It made me all .

[Frelga]

I saw Something About Mary while pregnant. I remember sitting patiently waiting for it to become funny. It didn't. It's not that I have a highbrow sense of humor, either, I laughed my tail off at Dumb and Dumber.

I don't think City Lights was meant to be hilarious, more of a poignant story. Gold Rush, on the other hand, I find very funny. I also successfully tried out Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd on my son, who loved them.

Lethal Weapon wasn't a comedy, but its spoof, Loaded Gun (?) was great.

How about Tootsie, does that count as a notable American comedy?

[yovargas]

I don't think City Lights was meant to be hilarious, more of a poignant story.?

I'd say 90% of City Lights is gags like this so yeah, it's definitely supposed to be a laugh riot....

[Sunsilver]

Humour is such an individual thing. I find Mel Brooks' movies hilarious. Spaceballs and Robin Hood: Men in Tights really had me ROTFLOL. To Be or Not To Be was both funny and poignant.

Chaplin's Tramp was a character developed for the silent screen, so of course the humour is dated. Chaplin refused to have the Tramp speak, even when sound came to the screen. I still think he was a genius. I saw The Great Dictator for the first time a couple of years ago. It was both funny and chilling at the same time.

Although I love a sharp, funny verbal exchange, I'm also a sucker for visual humour (maybe my hearing impairment has a lot to do with it?) Remember that scene from Victor/Victoria where Julie Andrews slams the door on the spy's finger? (Was that Peter Sellers?) Comedy gold! (Yes, I LOVED that movie!)

[Primula Baggins]

I think some older comedy is still funny—I'm thinking of the Marx Brothers (particularly Duck Soup) and some W. C. Fields (particularly It's a Gift)—because the humor depends on the peculiarities of the actors, which have not become cliches because they were specific to those guys. I've seen tributes to the mirror scene in Duck Soup, but it's never been matched. And W. C. Fields was inimitable. (He played Mr. Micawber in the 1930s David Copperfield and never, never understood why this British director insisted that this quintessentially American comedian was the only man for the role in this godawful boring incomprehensible old-fashioned story. But I hear his voice in that character when I reread the book.)

[Smaug's voice]

Okay, so here's my ratings for the movies I've seen off the top 50 of the list. I'm sort of new with the alphabetical grading system so I'll just rate them out of 10. Anything above 7 meaning very good but not flawless, and 9 and above meaning I totally loved it.)


Shawshank Redemption 9
Godfather I 10
Godfather II 9
The Dark Knight 8
Pulp Fiction 7
Schindler's List 7
The Good, the bad and the ugly 5
RotK 9.5
TTT 9
Empire Strikes Back 8
Forrest Gump 7
Inception 6.5
One flew over the cuckoo's nest 9
FotR 10
The Matrix 8.5
A New Hope 6.5
Seven Samurai 9
Silence of the Lambs 7.5
Interstellar 7
Saving Private Ryan 6.5
Spirited Away 8
Raiders of the Lost Ark 4
Modern Times 7
Whiplash 6.5
Terminator 2 6
The Pianist 7
Gladiator 7
Apocalypse Now 7.5

... and a handful of Bollywood movies that weirdly snuck into the list (sorry India)

Just to clarify, yov, Bollywood and Indian cinema are not one and the same and at times can actually be totally different entities.
As someone who really dislikes most of the drivel that comes out of Bollywood, I'd really suggest you to take a broader look into Indian cinema. There are some real classics - good enough to challenge the best of hollywood and totally opposite to what you'd expect from the melodrama of bollywood. I guess they didn't make into the imdb list because the public here prefers glamour than heart, sadly.

Edit:

Hiya folks

[Beutlin]

Welcome back, Smaug's voice! (even though your grade for The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly brings dishonor upon you )
I heard that there are some great Indian films out there and when cinema critics rate their favorites at least on Indian movie makes the list. That said, for most Westerners Indian cinema equals Bollywood, dance choregraphies, and schmaltzy melodrama.
Could you recommend a couple of good Indian films?

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