Screen Rant owner Vic Holtreman originally founded this site with the intention of providing readers with a middle-ground/average person perspective on movie news and reviews – hence our old mantra “movie and TV news without the sugar coating.” While the site has certainly evolved – we now cover a wider range of genres and provide readers with a variety of diverse “voices” – our willingness to champion both entertaining and/or artistic movies (at least on a case by case basis) hasn’t changed.
Which is why we (Vic and myself) jumped at the chance to participate in Film School Reject‘s recent article the “10 Greatest Movies of All Time (According to the Internet).” Now the results are in.
The original idea (read the full FSR list), drummed-up by the host of their popular podcast (Reject Radio), Cole Abaius, was a response to Sight & Sound‘s acclaimed “Greatest Films Poll” – which is revisited every ten years (the 2012 list should be revealed soon). That said, while previous Sight and Sound lists are certainly full of celebrated films – FSR was more interested in discovering which entries would make the cut if the “greatest movies” list was decided by a younger generation of Internet-based personalities (plus, as mentioned, a few bonus filmmakers).
Check out the 2002 Sight and Sound “Critics Top 10 Poll” list below, followed by FSR‘s compiled list of the “10 Greatest Movies of All Time (According to the Internet)”:
2002 Sight and Sound “Critics Top 10 Poll”
- Citizen Kane (46 mentions)
- Vertigo (41 mentions)
- La Règle du Jeu (The Rules of the Game) (30 mentions)
- The Godfather and The Godfather Part II (23 mentions)
- Tokyo Story (22 mentions)
- 2001: A Space Odyssey (21 mentions)
- The Battleship Potemkin (19 mentions)
- Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (19 mentions)
- 8½ (18 mentions)
- Singin’ in the Rain (17 mentions)
- Citizen Kane (73 points)
- Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (61)
- The Godfather (57)
- Raiders of the Lost Ark (53)
- Casablanca (48)
- 8½ (44)
- Back to the Future (44)
- 2001: A Space Odyssey (43)
- Bicycle Thieves (41)
- Vertigo (40)
FSR was intentionally vague about how respondents should interpret the word “greatest” – which certainly allows for more ambiguity than a similar word such as “Best.” As a result, not only were contributor lists presented individually, everyone was also allowed a brief explanation detailing why they selected the films on their list – which, no doubt, offered interesting insight into how online writers approached deciding which films are the “greatest.”
You can check out the full list of contributors over on the original Film School Rejects article – but I have included the lists (and explanations) put forth by Vic and myself below. Without question, our choices should (if nothing else) stir some interesting debate in the comments.
Vic Holtreman (Owner/Editor-In-Chief, Screen Rant)
- Aliens
- It’s a Wonderful Life
- Casablanca
- The Godfather Part 2
- Goodfellas
- The Princess Bride
- Die Hard
- The Matrix
- The Incredibles
- Rocky
On His List: Call me a populist, I don’t care – for me, movies that make my overall top 10 list are those that I can watch over and over again and never tire of them – mostly movies that entertain me, not movies with some deep, meaningful message (if I want that, I’d rather read a novel). Really, I could add another 10-15 films to the list above and just jumble them in no particular order as favorites, but as of the moment when I assembled the list, this is where I stand.
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Ben Kendrick (Screen Rant Editor and Host of the Screen Rant Underground Podcast)
- Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope
- The Dark Knight
- Pulp Fiction
- Up
- The Godfather
- Inception
- Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
- The Sixth Sense
- Se7en
- The Avengers
On His List: While other contributors will no-doubt have a list of superiorly-crafted dramas chock-full of Academy Award winners (and for good reason), I tend to think about the “Top 10 Movies of All Time” in terms of the lasting effect they had on moviegoers and the industry alike. Plenty of my selections could be picked apart for cheesy dialogue and awkward directing choices, among other technical shortcomings. However, these films either set the standard for future entries in their respective genres, offered some genuinely interesting core story ideas, and/or provided flat-out fun moviegoing experiences worthy of repeat viewings – all while remaining grounded in memorable and intriguing character moments.
I’m sure I’ll take a lot of guff for including The Avengers as one of the “greatest” movies of all time (the answer was, admittedly, intended to be a fun underdog choice at #10) but that’s why the FSR list is, ultimately, an enjoyable opportunity for moviegoers – because we all have a few guilty pleasures.
We’d love to hear your lists for the “10 Greatest Movies of All Time” in the comments below – and be sure to check out the full list over at Film School Rejects.
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Follow me on Twitter @benkendrick for more movie, TV, and gaming news.
Source: Film School Rejects
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My Top 10 list is based on movies I wouldn’t mind watching time and again as well as films that, in my humble opinion, reinvigorated certain movie ideas or franchises…
1)Lord of the Rings Trilogy (if I must pick just one then ‘The Return of the King’)
2)Shutter Island
3)The Avengers
4)Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
5)Toy Story 3
6)The Muppets Christmas Carol
7)Star Trek (2009)reinvigorated the Star Trek movie franchise
8)Forrest Gump
9)Aliens
10)Casino Royale- reinvigorated the James Bond franchise
Honourable mentions:
Terminator 2
Braveheart
Life is Beautiful
American Pie 3
The Wedding Singer
Let Me In
Ip Man
500 Days of Summer
Father of the Bride (1991) with Steve Martin
Home Alone
Enter the Dragon
The Ten Commandments
Slumdog Millionaire
I’m the only one that has Gojira (Godzilla) and Seven Samurai in my top 10? Does nobody think that Japanese films shouls be in the top 10 (other than me)?
That’s the problem with these lists, all the great japanese films that America ripped off but still managed to make a great film outright. Gojira… yeah, but what about King Kong? Magnificent Seven… yeah, but what about Seven Samurai? The Hidden Fortress or Star Wars? It’s impossible to choose so you just give up and type Iron Man, ironically.
I’m totally shocked by how many times Aliens is mentioned rather than Alien.
Sadly, I’m not shocked at all. Most peeps I talk to rave about Aliens.
Makes no sense to me. Ridley Scott’s ” Alien ” (1979) is #1 on my list. The Blu Ray is impeccable. I don’t even own Cameron’s ” Aliens. ” It’s a fine film but not better than Alien.
Well, to each their own!
I made two separate list (Pre 1990 & Post 1990).. It took hell a lot of time for me to sort it out..
Pre 1990:
1.Apocalypse Now
2.2001: A Space odyssey
3.Taxi Driver
4.The Godfather
5.Lawrence of Arabia
6.Bicycle Thieves
7.A Clockwork Orange
8.Persona
9.81/2
10.Blade Runner
11.Citizen Kane
12.The Good, the Bad & the Ugly
Almost made it: Vertigo, Dr.Strangelove, Come and See, Seven Samurai & Casablanca!!
Post 1990:
1.Pulp Fiction
2.Schindler’s List
3.The Dark knight
4.There Will Be Blood
5.The Silence of the Lambs
6.Goodfellas
7.American Beauty
8.Saving Private Ryan
9.The Lord of the Rings
10.Memories of Murder
11.The Social Network
12.Terminator 2:Judgment Day
Almost made it: No Country for Old Men, Wall.E, Memento, The Shawshank Redemption & The Usual Suspects!!
More:
1. Chinatown
2. Don’t Look Now
3. Rosemary’s Baby
4. LA Confidential
5. Lost Highway
6. On The Waterfront
7. The Haunting (original, for god’s sake!!!)
8. The Getaway (ditto)
9. Night Of The Demon
10. Le Samourai
It’s amazing how many people have movies on their top 10 list that I can’t stand and will never, EVER watch again in my life. The Godfather movies are the biggest snoozefests I ever watched and having to listen to Marlon Brando try to talk with a mouthful of marbles was agonizing. I couldn’t make it through Pulp Fiction (or any other Tarentino film). I had to watch Citizen Kane in college and fought to keep my eyes open. Just goes to show how subjective these lists really are.
I’m like that with The Shawshank Redemption, The Dark Knight, Citizen Kane, and 2001. Like you say, nothing more subjective.
I liked Pulp Fiction but I agree with The Godfather films. Goodfellas was superior.
Goodfellas was pretty epic with Joe Pesci and Ray Liotta. I liked Pulp Fiction, but only the first time, people keep mentioning it like it’s the best thing since sliced bread, but I don’t see it. I didn’t hate it but I don’t think it’s awesome, it’s just OK. But the rest of tarantino’s films besides Reservoir Dogs, which I find OK like Pulp Fiction, are terrible, the Kill Bill movies were some of the dumbest movies ever made and they still managed to bore me to death even being as dumb as they were…
The Shawshank Redemption, I liked the individual stories and the acting, but the actual plot was so full of coincidences it was just too ridiculous. It’s like it so happens he had a motive to kill his wife, and it so happens he planned to kill his wife, and on that exact night it so happens someone else killed his wife, while he throws his gun away that so happens to use the same ammo. I mean, seriously??? Sounds to me like he made that all up and he’s really guilty… Like 99.99% of the time when a convict tells you a tale like that to say he’s innocent, it’s exactly that, a tale…
1. Stand by Me
2. The Princess Bride
3. Blade Runner
4. Raising Arizona
5. The Breakfast Club
6. Reservoir Dogs
7. Brazil
8. The Natural
9. Legend
10. Platoon
Must… stop commenting… must… go back… to the real worl..
1. Apocalypse Now
2. Exorcist 3: Legion
3. Wall Street
4. The Kid Stays In The Picture
5. Point Blank
6. Touch Of Evil
7. The Devil In Miss jones (!)
8. Eraserhead
9. Night Of The Iguana
10. PINK FLAMINGOES!!!
In no particular order:
Children of men
Akira
2001: A Space Odyssey
Star Wars Episode IV
Pulp Fiction
The Matrix
Batman Begins
Ghost in the Shell
Scarface
Wow. Love Ben’s list! He pretty much chose everything I would’ve chosen besides Inception. Kudos for showing love for the Last Crusade. I always thought it was the best Indy film. Fond memories as a kid watching that movie over and over on vhs with my younger brothers.
Cheers! Yah, I know people love Raiders but for me Last Crusade was always my favorite.
I agree! I think Indy 1 is just a weebit better but Indy 3 is close. The other two aren’t even on the same level. No idea why people say 3 wasn’t that great, it had Sean Connery in it! C’mon!
Exactly, not only it’s the best Indy film; but that honour also makes it one of THE best adventure/fantasy films out there!
1) Lonesome Dove* (see below)
2) True Grit (remake)
3) Wall-e
4) Waterworld (i know)
5) o’ brother where are thou
6) Star Trek (09)
7) Dirty Mary, Crazy larry
8) Friday
9) Dumb and Dumber
10) Open range
* i know its a miniseries but its still my favorite form of film/tv PERIOD.
Open range was a movie with Kevin Costner. It was a good movie.
Yea i know i was saying lonesome dove was a miniseries
1.Unleashed-I watched this and the Incredibles once every day for a week, now i just watch them every once in a while.
2.The Incredibles
3.2004 Punisher
The rest of the movies are in no particular order
TDK
The Incredible Hulk
The Avengers
Ip Man
Kung Fu Panda
True Lies
Blade
2001: A Space Odyssey? ….no
A few Thst people might have forgotten:
Saving private Ryan
Something about Mary
Groundhog day
Bridge on the River Kwai
Braveheart
Crouching Tiger
Lol @ Something About Mary
But I agree, Saving Private Ryan is part of my top 10 also!
1. Amadeus
2. The Goonies
3. Searching for Bobby Fisher
4. Star Wars: A New Hope
5. A Nightmare on Elm Street
6. The Lost Boys
7. Back to the Future
8. Ghostbusters
9. The Monster Squad
10. The Lord of the Rings
11. Blade Runner
12. The Crow
13. E.T.
14. Gremlins
15. Sunshine
This is really hard. Amadeus HAS to be #1, it’s a masterpiece. I’m really surprised it didn’t make the lists. The rest, plus a few more, could pretty much be interchangeable.
It might HAVE to be #1 on your list, but if I never see that movie again in my life it’d be soon.
I think it’s one where either you love it or you can’t stand it.
That’s one of the fun things about these lists, looking at people’s choices and thinking “Are you *$%!ing kidding me?”.
my top 10 according to my Flickchart page
1. Star Wars a new hope
2. Raiders of the lost ark
3. Die Hard
4. The Big Lebowski
5. American Psycho
6. The Dark Knight
7. Back to the Future
8. Pulp Fiction
9. The Avengers
10. Night of the Living dead (original romero one)
1) Lonesome Dove* (see below)
2) True Grit (remake)
3) Wall-e
4) Waterworld (i know)
5) o’ brother where are thou
6) Star Trek (09)
7) Dirty Mary, Crazy larry
8) Friday
9) Dumb and Dumber
10) Open range
* i know its a miniseries but its still my favorite form of film/tv PERIOD.
I’m currently into my third year of film study and don’t think it’s entirely appropriate to label a film the “best”. Film-making is an art; and art is one of those things that is purely subjective, so it’s impossible to say one piece of art is better than another. Having said that, these would be my top 10 favourite films
thus far…
1. Pulp Fiction (1994)
2. The Lord of the Rings (2001,2002,2003)
3. Psycho (1960)
4. Blade Runner (1982)
5. Taxi Driver (1976)
6. Lolita (1962) In my opinion, one of Kubrick’s most underappreciated films.
7. District 9 (2009)
8. Citizen Kane (1941)
8. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
10. Goodfellas (1990)
Honourable mentions:
11. Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2
12. Casablanca (1942)
13. Sin City (2005)
14. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
15. Fight Club (1999)
16. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
17. Scarface (1932)
18. Forrest Gump (1994)
19. Léon: The Professional (1994)
20. Inception (2010)
Come at me
Yeah ok, I’ll play
1. Lost In Translation
2. In The Mouth Of Madness
3. Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade
4. Event Horizon
5. Pulp Fiction
6. Superman
7. Return Of The Jedi
8. Star Trek (09)
9. Melancholia
10. Taken
I frickin’adore ”Madness” – as you know!
@DrSamBeckett
Kudos on having In The Mouth Of Madness on your list.
While it’s not on mine I recently watched it about a month ago and was really impressed. For some reason it just fell through the cracks with me and I had no idea of what I was missing.
My list in no order
1. Die hard
2. Teenage muntant ninjas turtles (89)
3. Blazing saddles
4. Munich
5. The untouchables
6. Coming to america
7. Saving private ryan
8. Goodfellas
9. Oscar (stallones best acting)
10. Airplane
Man that was hard. So many movies, too many movies.
Munich is a top choice, it would be in my top 20.
I agree with you DSB, Munich would be in my top 20.
When it comes to X-Men II and III, I just cannot figure out the reasoning behind killing off everyone. Since the X-Men franchise has never-ever had a movie series, up until now, would not Marvel want to keep everyone around for further economic success? They shot themselves in the foot and face at the same time.
As for “Batman: The Dark Knight”, I consider it to be a pretty good movie. I do not care about what percentages of the population likes or dislikes the movie. I like some of the realism in “Batman: The Dark Knight”; however, I also think this movie embraced too much of it. I had to watch Michael Keaton’s “Batman” to remember the ‘fun’ nature the franchise was while I grew up. It is a movie about a ‘comic book’. It should be fun and exciting.
I like Ben’s list, a lot.
The Dark Knight, Inception, Shutter Island is all I can think of off the top lol
Cheers! Shutter Island could have been an honorable mention for me…
I like movies where the main character is flawed, far from perfect, sad or just twisted, angry, etc. Main characters like that make for far more interesting stories. And stories with a twist, something that’ll have you saying “whoa, did that just really happen?”, something that’ll have you scratching your head without being boring.
1. Superman (1978) – Brought superheroes to the big screen for real
2. Star Wars (1977) – almost 4.5 BILLION
Grr! Stupid keyboard!!
1. Superman (1978) – Brought Superheroes to the big screen for real
2. Star Wars (1977) – 4.5 BILLION box office sales for the series to date
3. One flew over the cuckoo’s Nest (1975) – A crazy Jack Nicholson
4. The Goonies (1985) – Harry Potter notwithstanding, still the best kid adventure film ever made.
5. The Matrix (1999) – Changed film-making forever.
6. 300 (2006) – Filmography, story, action, and historical all in one.
7. Avengers (2012) – “Let’s raise that bar a bit.. shall we?”
8. Wizard of Oz (1939) – Inspired a legion of new idea’s and imagination in us all
9. Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind- SE (1977) – Not all Aliens are evil
10. Alien (1979) – Some Aliens are way past evil. Took scary to a whole new level.
This was Fun!!!
1. The Dark Knight.
2. Empire Strikes Back.
3. Kingdom of Heaven.
4. In The Mouth Of Madness
5. The Prestige
6. Iron Man
7. The Fellowship of the Ring
8. Open Range
9. Pride and Prejudice ( 2005 )
10. Event Horizon
In no particular order:
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Red Cliff
House of Flying Daggers
Inn of The Sixth Happiness
Curse of The Golden Flower
The Warlords
Angel Heart
China Town
Psycho (original)
Fiddler On The Roof
Jaws
Honourable mentions: The Truman Show, The Game, Seven, Fight Club, Casablanca, Silence of The Lambs, Goodfellas
Sci/Fi
Star Wars Ep IV
Star Wars Ep V
Alien
The Day The Earth Stood Still (original)
War of The Worlds (original)
The Time Machine (original)
2001: A Space Odyssey
Journey To The Centre of The Earth (original)
Children of Men
Bladerunner
Terminator 2: Judgement Day
Honourable mentions: The Terminator, Star Trek (09), Conan The Barbarian (original Arnie version), Forbidden Planet
Some other great flicks:
Das Boot
The Enemy Below
Saving Private Ryan
Enemy At The Gates
In Which We Serve
The Cruel Sea
Zulu
Tora, Tora, Tora
Reach For The Sky
Band of Brothers
Generation Kill
Yes, Band of Brothers and Generation Kills were TV stuff, but they were filmed so brilliantly they feel like very long, drawn out, really good flicks!
in no order.
1. Back to the Future
2. Mean Streets
3. The Dark Knight
4. Training Day
5. 300
6. Superbad
7. Memento
8. Ferris Buellers Day Off
9. Scarface
10. Heat
WOW no Jaws!
Going to cheat bit here because alot of these will be franchises.
1).Rocky (all of them. Yes even 5 lol)
2).Star Wars (the entire saga)
3).Rambo (all of them)
4).Die Hard (all of them)
5).Lethal Weapon (all of them)
No particular order for the final five
Jaws
Aliens
T2
The Expendables
Predator