Top 20 Films/Movies Thread - Up now: toro (Page 25)

[Kwyjibo]

Jaws is just absolutely awesome, I'm kind of sorry for those who don't see the entertainment in this movie.

[BlackInk]

Maybe I will love it if I saw it, but I have just never felt the urge to actually watch it. Still don't.

[tapsmiled]

JAWS is phenomenal. The scene with Quint talking about the Indianapolis is one of the greatest scenes ever....and it was mostly ad-libbed if I read correctly.  There was actually talk some time ago of a movie based on that story, but it has never happened.  The movie is a bit slow in parts, but I just love it.

[Accelerando]

My next entry may or may not surprise you

5. The Lion King (1994) directed by Rob Minkoff and Roger Allers

This is the majestic epic in all of the famed catalogue of Walt Disney Animation. With it is one of the most heart-wrenching stories ever drawn, and is a staple for American animation. It has high heights of melodrama, a revival of Walt Disney's formula for comedy, and a sheaf of great music and tunes from Sir Elton John and Hans Zimmer.

Anyone who has not seen The Lion King might assume it's another talking animal movie, which are a dime a dozen these days. Or because it's an animated film, it's automatically a film for kids, which drives me nuts. Surely, it's a family friendly film that the kids are going to enjoy. However, adults can resonate with the universal themes of guilt, betrayal, death, and acceptance, which creates an emotional journey. The themes in this movie are definitely dark, but handled with such finesse that on the whole, it's a movie for everyone-Everyone will find something to take away from it, something of a rarity with animated films these days that are not Pixar.

Part of what makes this movie so great is the voice actors. It's funny because the film contains very recognizable voices; Mufasa was Darth Vader, young Simba was Randy from Home Improvement, grown up Simba was Ferris Bueller, Zazu was Mr. Bean, and Shenzi was Sister Mary Clarence. Such an amazing cast, but they were casted into their roles perfectly. The stand out to me, besides the presence of James Earl Jones, is Jeremy Irons as Scar. Be brought insinuating sarcasm and eloquence to this dastardly villain, who to me is among the greatest Disney villain. The character's depth had so much stake, such as murder. Not just killing but PLANNING on it so it's a murder on his own brother and his nephew, and Scar is shown enjoying every moment, especially in the song "Be Prepared", which was brilliantly sung by Disney legend Jim Cummings when Iron's voice gave out during production.

The Lion King boasts some of the best hand-drawn animation to emerge from Disney. Colors are vibrant and nature-inspired, with oranges, greens and blues everywhere. Character designs are classy and human-like, while still maintaining the fun anthropomorphic flair expected by Disney. There are just too many standout sequences in the movie, such as the opus that is the opening sequence, from when the hairs on the back of our neck stands from "NAAAAANTS INGONYAMAAAA" to when the animals are bowing at Rafiki holding up baby Simba. One of the greatest opening sequences of all time.

I can go on and on and on about this movie because it was my favorite movie as a 7 year old boy, and it is still among my favorites. I can go back to the soundtrack and listen to it all the way. Elton John's songs are mostly why people go for the soundtrack, but to me, Hans Zimmers score, like "This Land", elevates the emotional weight of the movie. This is such a great triumph of a movie, and one of the greatest in all of animation.

[senecadawg2]

This does surprise me, in the best way possible 


Lion King rocks

[masterthes]

Lion King is greatness

[sueño]

Lion King is probably my favorite animated film  And so much more pleasing than Pixar style animation.  2D all day for me!

The story,  the voices -superb. The music is breathtaking.

If you can ever see the Broadway production, "Be Prepared" to have your minds BLOWN!  It's just too much beauty.   

[BlackInk]

I usually prefer live action movies, but when it comes to animation The Lion King is the top of the line. Great one.

[Mister Gold]

I love The Lion King, but there is another Disney animated film that I personally rank above it. Also, while the film he appeared wasn't necessarily the best Disney film ever, I have to say John Hurt as the Horned King in The Black Cauldron was Disney's greatest villain. Perhaps he wasn't as deep a character as Scar, but the HK was definitely the most frightening and haunting of Disney's wide roster of villains. LOVE Scar though. "Be Prepared" is absolutely terrific.

Funny enough, I've never really cried whenever I watched Mufasa's death scene, even as a kid. That being said, I almost always get tears in my eyes in both the scene where Simba talks to Mufasa's Spirit with Rafiki and at the very end when Simba ascends to the throne of Pride Rock. Both of those scenes most likely rank as the two most powerful scenes in any animated Disney film to date, not counting Pixar.

[Elite]

The Lion King is absolutely fantastic, splendid choice!

[Joshin U]

I usually prefer live action movies, but when it comes to animation The Lion King is the top of the line. Great one.

Toy Story would like a word with you.
 

[masterthes]

The Black Cauldron is one of the few animated Disney movies I still have not seen (Rescuers Down Under is the other one)

[BlackInk]

I have to say John Hurt as the Horned King in The Black Cauldron was Disney's greatest villain. Perhaps he wasn't as deep a character as Scar, but the HK was definitely the most frightening and haunting of Disney's wide roster of villains.

Coolest fucking Disney villain ever, hands down. I'm not really a fan of the rest of the movie but the Horned King is really awesome.

[Mister Gold]

I have to say John Hurt as the Horned King in The Black Cauldron was Disney's greatest villain. Perhaps he wasn't as deep a character as Scar, but the HK was definitely the most frightening and haunting of Disney's wide roster of villains.

Coolest fucking Disney villain ever, hands down. I'm not really a fan of the rest of the movie but the Horned King is really awesome.

Yeah as a fan of the original Prydain Chronicle novels that the film was loosely based on, I don't care that much for the rest of the film either. It's not necessarily 'bad', but it's not all that great either. Having said that, the Horned King definitely steals the show in that film.

[masterthes]

Bump

[Adami]

Can someone else just start? I actually enjoy reading these interesting lists, but this specific list has been going on for 2 months now. There has to be some rule about taking so long.

[Elite]

Yeah, this is getting ridiculous, it would be fine by me for masterthes to just go ahead and start.

[jingle.boy]

Perhaps, like the Top 50 albums threads, each user should have their own thread, and this becomes a tracker thread?  We could run two of these at a time to keep them moving along, and to keep updates fairly regular.

[Elite]

I suppose that could work too. Maybe I'll have to check with the mods, because that would mean more cluttering in the GD forum. Would you be ready to go now if this can be pulled through? Because I actually think it would be a good idea, we'll just leave this thread here as is and Accelerando can finish his list in this thread while the next two already get their own threads.

[jingle.boy]

Oh shit!  Guess I shoulda checked when I was up  .  I have my list, but wanted to watch through them to get a decent writeup together... as it's been years since I watched some of them.  I've only done that for 5 of them so far.  So, no, I'm not ready.  Guess I have a compelling reason to get off my ass and watch some of them now.

Give me a couple of weeks.  So, if this is what we're going to do, and Toro is ready to go, he can have at it.  If not, it'll be at least a week for me.

[Accelerando]

I'm sorry everyone. I got a new job, and currently moving from Orlando to Los Angeles. My personal life is just a little more important than my forum life at the moment. Moving and getting situated is just going to take up a lot of my time, and i like writing detailed commentary, which I sit down and write something meaningful. You're all right, it isn't fair for the people up next, but trust me when i say I wasn't stalling on purpose or anything. I have lots of exciting things going on in my life. So i'll just complete it right now with no commentary.

4. Raiders of the Lost Ark
3. The Empire Strikes Back
2. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
1. The Dark Knight


ok, next up.

Again, I'm sorry. I do feel bad.

[senecadawg2]

Glad to see Empire Strikes back and FOTR so high. Dark Knight is good too, so I can't complain much about that.

Despite the delay, I enjoyed following your list, thanks for sharing! I hope all goes well with your move and new job!

[toro]

So do I go ahead and do mine?

[BlackInk]

I won't argue with any of those. Thanks for the list!

[Elite]

So do I go ahead and do mine?

According to the list masterthes is up next. Since Accelerando has finished now (good finish by the way!) he can go in this same thread. I'm not really bothered creating separate threads, as long as this one moves at a reasonable pace. I PM'd masterthes that he can start his list.

Thanks for your explanation Acc, it's completely understandable

[jingle.boy]

No need to feel so bad dude.  Maybe on your road trip of flight to LA, you could put at least a sentence or two as to why those are your top 4?  Which, are 4 awesome movies... although, I don't know how you chose some of those in the context of the trilogy that they are part of.  I think you got them all "right" though, as the best in the trilogy.

[masterthes]

All right, before I start, few things: I'm going to do things slightly different. I'm doing a Top 25, because some of the 25-20 were influential in me becoming the movie fan I am today. Also, because I was born in '79, expect a lot of 80's movies. I'll also try to make the updates within a 12 hour period so we can get things moving. We'll be starting things shortly, so please make sure your tray tables are at the upright position and be sure to buckle up, because this is sure to be a bumpy ride   

[jingle.boy]

All right, before I start, few things: I'm going to do things slightly different. I'm doing a Top 25, because some of the 25-20 were influential in me becoming the movie fan I am today. Also, because I was born in '79, expect a lot of 80's movies. I'll also try to make the updates within a 12 hour period so we can get things moving. We'll be starting things shortly, so please make sure your tray tables are at the upright position and be sure to buckle up, because this is sure to be a bumpy ride   

Updates every 12 hours is too fast (imo) - unless it's just one movie you're posting.  Give people time to digest.  Plus, not everyone logs in everyday, so if they go a few days, and then have 5 writeups to read, they might skip it (depending on how detailed you get).

[masterthes]

25. E.T. The Extra Terrestrial - As stated previously, I was born in 1979 and therefore I had the pleasure of seeing this in the theaters. Now I had seen my fair share of movies up to this point, but this was one of the first films that I can remember thinking to myself that movies were something magical (there's another film out there that had an even bigger impact on me, but we'll talk about that later). Even though I haven't watched this film in years, I can still recall virtually everything from memory. Who can ever forget that image of Elliot being lifted off his bike by E.T. as they go sailing past the moon. That image really seeps through your brain at 3 years old.

Because of the impact E.T. had on me, it should probably be no suprise Steven Speilberg became my favorite director growing up. Nearly everything he came out with in the following years, I tried to make a point to see. With that being said, E.T. is the only Speilberg film you will see on this list. Raiders and Jurassic Park would be on here most likely if this was a top 40




24. Kill Bill - Because this is my list, I'm not going to differentiate between Parts 1 and 2, and just consider Kill Bill as one long movie. My first exposure to Tarantino came many years before when I rented an older movie of his that I wanted to check out because I heard it got all this hype and I wanted to see what it was all about. Well, I got so turned off by all the violence and profanity I vowed never to watch another Tarantino movie ever again. I was a little bit more a conservative movie watcher before I hit my 20's. Don't get me wrong, in my teen years I saw my share of R rated movies like Braveheart which is extremely violent, and I didn't mind that one too much. I guess I didn't care for the way it was portrayed I guess. Anyway, back to the film at hand

So, I see the trailer to the first part of Kill Bill and I'm absolutely fascinated by it, and well, I absolutely loved it: the dialouge, the action, Uma. Uma definitely ranks up there as one of my all time favorite celebrity crushes, especially growing up. Like I said before, I'm treating this as one full movie, but if I was going to separate them, you know Part 2 would be the one being chosen here. Part 2 is just miles away far more superior. It was such a shame Carradine didn't get any recognition, because he owned the movie hands down


Yeah, these writeups are going to suck, I know. I'll try to give more thought to the rest of them. For me, it's kind of difficult to explain why I like something. I just do. We'll see how the rest go. So, I'll be back tomorrow with 23 and 22 

[BlackInk]

Haven't seen E.T. in soo many years, I can barely remember it. Maybe it's time to revisit.

Also, haven't seen part 2 of Kill Bill yet, but I really like part 1.

[tapsmiled]

Kill Bill will be appearing on my list too. Great choice!

[BlackInk]

Dude, spoilers much? 

[tapsmiled]

Oops, jumping the gun

[masterthes]

23. The Exorcist - No matter how many scary movies I have seen, The Exorcist is still my favorite scary movie of all time. It is so well done and everything a good scary movie should be. It has a slow burn quality to it and such an unsetttling vibe to it that when the shit starts hitting the fan, it creeps us out even more. Thankfully, this movie was made in the 70's where directors knew that in order to produce a good horror film, you have to get inside the viewer's mind rather than simply provide "jump scares". I highly recommend the book as well



22. The Departed - Growing up, I tended to avoid Scorcese like the plague, as the idea of people shooting each other, snorting cocaine, and dropping every four letter word known to existence never exactly seemed the way to pass 2 hours. My Scorcese cherry eventually got popped when The Aviator came out. It ended up becoming one of my favorite movies that year, so i decided after seeing it to give some of Scorcese's movies a try, but I really didn'y start to become a fan of his until The Departed came out. I'll admit, I initially only wanted to check it out becauase of Jack. He's always been one of my favorites. Everything about this movie clicks. The acting is solid from all the leads and the story is gripping and engaging. I was thrilled when it won best picture.

[jingle.boy]

The Departed is a brilliant movie.  So many hooks and twists.  Love it.