Top 10 Favorite Movies

#1. Citizen Kane  (1941)
#2. Seven Samurai  (1954)
#3. Patton  (1970)
#4. Dr. Strangelove  (1960)
#5. Monty Python and the Holy Grail  (1975)
#5. Monty Python's Life of Brian  (1979)

My Top 5, with spot five tied by two Monty Python movies. I have a lot of favorite films, at least a hundred, but I can't organize them any better than a Top 5. Even Top 10 is too difficult to assemble.

Ghostbusters
The Big Lebowski
Pale Rider
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
Empire Strikes Back
Deer Hunter
Once Upon a Time in the West
Tombstone
Gladiator
About Time

It's nice to see "The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly" on so many lists.

BLONDIE!

Yes, people feel a need to seek consensus and therefore falsify preferences for "best" but favorite implies personal preference so people don't feel that pressure.

1. Big Trouble in Little China - Big fucking shocker I know....

2. Evil Dead Trilogy - Yeah I can't pick a favorite out of the three. Each one scratches a different itch and I love them all. The first one works for it's low budget charm and gross out horror. The second is a horror comedy slapstick gorefest. Army of Darkness is the shiny big budget flop that I'll always adore. One of the most quotable and funny films of all time. That stop motion skeleton army of the dead makes me long for the days of Harryhausen.

3. Field of Dreams - Sort of a sentimental pick. This movie always makes me think about my dad and brother and playing catch out in the back yard. As I've gotten older, I've gotten more wistful about that bygone era in my life where nothing made you happier than grabbing your glove and asking your dad to play catch. The movie itself is sentimental and a tad bit too saccharine. However, when Costner sees his Dad towards the end of the film and he asks to play catch with him I'm usually holding back a big lump in my throat. For me playing baseball defined most of my childhood and teenage years...this movie was a big part of that.

4. Lord of the Rings Trilogy - It's one story and breaking up the films is impossible. Each one is incomplete without the other. However, for fantasy films it just doesn't get any better than this.

5. Ghostbuster - Love this film. I was just watching it yesterday and I find myself cracking up at different parts each time I watch it. Sometimes it's Louis Tully doing ANYTHING. Other times it's Bill Murray performing his psychic tests. The film itself is the magical combination of awesome special effects, SMART humor and excellent performances. There will never be anything like this film again.

6. Star Wars - The Original Trilogy - Not much needs to be said. These movies rock.

7. The Thing - John Carpenter's remake of The Thing From Another World is so fucking good. Rob Bottin's special effects are proof positive that nothing can beat practical effects. The film is so scary and suspenseful and Kurt Russell kills it.

8. Who Framed Roger Rabbit - I saw this film at such a young age and it made a tremendous impact on me. It had cartoons, but it was sort of fucking dark. The noir setting was something I totally dug and still really enjoy. Judge Doom scared the shit outta me. Jessica Rabbit has probably subconsciously made me really attracted to red heads for the rest of my days. It was adult, but still for kids. The mixture of cartoons in a sorta series film really struck a chord with me. As a child I loved all the slapstick stuff. As an adult I like the story and all the dirty jokes that flew over my head as a kid.

9. Back to the Future - The best time traveling, science fiction, high school romance, comedy, action film ever made.

10. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade - My favorite Indiana Jones film. I love the interaction with Indy and his dad, plus hunting for the grail was awesome. I really dig all of the Indy films (even Crystal skull), but this one just edges out Raiders for me. I think I could watch this one endlessly and never tire of it. So many cool scenes and a great ending. Plus Sean Connery. Le tits now!

So hard to narrow down to just ten. Here's what first came to mind, in no particular order.

Raiders of the Lost Ark
Star Wars
Lawrence of Arabia
Forbidden Planet
Singin' in the Rain
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
The Big Lebowski
Joe vs. the Volcano
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Alien
The Rocketeer

Egg Shen wrote: 10. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade - My favorite Indiana Jones film. I love the interaction with Indy and his dad, plus hunting for the grail was awesome. I really dig all of the Indy films (even Crystal skull), but this one just edges out Raiders for me. I think I could watch this one endlessly and never tire of it. So many cool scenes and a great ending. Plus Sean Connery. Le tits now!

Yeah, I could have included Last Crusade with Raiders on mine, as well. Raiders is such a tour-de-force of filmmaking, though, and being the first of its kind it still holds a little more weight for me. Temple of Doom is really great, too, and I also have come to appreciate Crystal Skull, though it would definitely be in fourth place.

Great thread.

1. The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly
2. The Wild Bunch
3. Cool Hand Luke
4. Star Wars Trilogy
5. The Third Man
6. Blade Runner
7. Alien
8. Children of Men
9. City of God
10. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Very close and if you asked on a different day may have swapped onto the list:

Raiders of the Lost Ark
Saving Private Ryan
Apocalypse Now
Reservoir Dogs
The Seven Samurai

For a 'favourite' movie list I have to go with the old 'Woah, that really blew me away' factor, so these all date back to a few years of my callow youth, which was my first period of intense movie watching and when I was easier to impress. In vaguely chronological order then:

1. Pyscho: watching this alone aged 11 was truly terrifying.
2. Cool Hand Luke: my teenage introduction to the prison movie genre.
3. The Defiant Ones: the racial divide on the chain gang? Oh be still my beating liberal heart!
3. The Crazies (original 1973 version): my first 'zombie' movie, a gem from the master. 'Nuff said.
5. Star Wars: that star destroyer moment, the sheer loving detail of all the other FX, plus great space opera. Truly eye-popping!
6. Dr. Strangelove: my mate and I saw this in the local art house one night. It was the first time we had that epic experience of stumbling across an unknown classic. Truly memorable.
7. Alien: my first night out at an X-movie (R-rating in the US). SF/horror mash-ups are so common these days that it's easy to forget how groundbreaking this movie was back in 79.
8. Indiana Jones: single-handedly reviving the pulp genre in movies was no mean feat, whatever became of the franchise.
9. Bladerunner: simply in a league of its own for me, a Top 5 Best for sure.
10. Ran: my introduction to Kurosawa, I was very much taken by the epic sweep of this Japanese retelling of Shakespeare's King Lear story.

A list in which I was staking out a claim to calling the best 5 or 10 movies would be completely different. These are all 30-something year old memories of the breathless excitement movies can bring. Hence their inclusion on this list. which has left out many equally worthy candidates, naturally enough..

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
I'd hope this is obvious but the reasons I love this one besides nostalgia, are: we learn Vader's identity and Luke's reaction is awesome. We also are introduced to Yoda, the best old man in the woods ever. The emotion of watching Chewie and Leia as Han is frozen in carbonite and his "I know" pimptastic response to Leia when she tells him she loves him. C-3PO freaking out when Solo takes them into the asteroid field, and Han and Chewie pulling off the escape in full badass mode.

Kung Fu Panda
This movie cracks me up and makes me feel all fuzzy, plus I get to add a second Jedi master to my list with Master Oogway. His final scene is touching. Jack Black as Po is pure genius and I love the message behind the movie, that there is no secret ingredient in accomplishing the impossible. All it takes is a little faith. The other theme I love is to never judge a book by it's cover, so no one believes in Po as the Dragon Warrior but in the end he steps up to the plate and delivers.

The Iron Giant
Essentially a boy and his dog story becomes so much more with the central message; that you are who you choose to be. "I am not a gun." Indeed. To top it off the Giant idolizes Superman and does what he can to save lives.

Aliens
The mood and atmosphere are incredible, and the characterization of the marines before and after the conflict with the aliens hooks me every time. The fact that Ripley may be the protagonist ever put on screen cements Aliens as one of the best action films ever.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
I have loved all the Tolkien/Jackson movies to date but Fellowship is still my favorite. I think that's in large part due to Boromir and his final stand against the Uruk-Hai. In the books his death is off-screen and barely noted, so it never had an impact on me when I read it. But in the movie we get to see his temptation in trying to take the ring from Frodo, but in the end he gives his life trying to protect Merry and Pippin from the enemy. The score and scripting are superb with Bormir taking not one or two, but three nasty shots before succumbing to his wounds. Awesome. Oh, not to mention the battle in Moria with the cave troll and company and Gandalf facing down the Balrog. Epic fantasy.

The Incredibles
This movie is all around fun. I love the premise of watching a bunch of supers come out of retirement to save the day. Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl are great protagonists and each one learns that what makes them strong is their family bond. We get to watch Violet and Dash react to their parents in action and how they learn to use their own abilities in becoming heroes. This movie is just fun and the climactic battle with Omnitron is icing on the cake.

Gladiator
Fantastic score and performances from Russel Crowe and Djimon Hounsou really bring this story to life. The arena combat is done very well as is the political struggle between Commodus and the senate, and that could have been a real bummer if not done well.

Terminator 2: Judgement Day
I love watching the Terminator learn to be more than a killing machine so all his scenes with John are great. Sarah Connor finds hope by the end of the movie, and we get a great self sacrifice in the end with Arnold's machine being lowered into the fire. Plus, that damn T-1000 is still one of the scariest villains ever.

Guardians of the Galaxy
Vin Diesel gets a second Iron Giant moment, Rocket owns me with his nasty attitude and mad genius tactics, and Star Lord's story combined with a classic soundtrack are my favorite elements.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
"The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the many, or the one." I get choked up every time I watch Spock save the ship and say goodbye to his friend, and Kirk's eulogy tears me down after I think I'm okay. Farewell Mr. Nimoy.

This is subject to change 10 minutes from now when I remember some movie that I completely blanked on but for the most part I think its pretty accurate.

1. The Dark Knight - This is still my favorite movie of all time. I'm really not a huge Batman fan either, but this just worked on all levels for me. Heath Ledger, of course is the best Joker in my mind and really nailed what the character should be like in my mind.

2. Aliens - I think I saw this in the theater 20 times and probably wore out at least 2 VHS tapes. So good.

3. The Empire Strikes Back - I'm so glad the internet wasn't around when I saw this. Going back and forth with my friends imagining scenarios where Darth Vader could or couldn't be Luke's father would have probably been spoiled in about 5 minutes after I got home from the movie. This made the anticipation for Return of the Jedi so unbearable yet so fulfilling.

4. The Shawshank Redemption - Every time this used to come on TBS or TNT I was mezmerized and had to stick around until it finished. Such a great story and memorable characters and situations.

5. - Raiders of the Lost Ark - Oh man, this was such a good film and it set the bar for what an action packed adventure should feel like. Videogames and movies are still copying this one today and they never measure up.

6 - The Matrix - simply mind-blowing when this came out and innovative as hell.

7 - Predator - I think this movie came out when I was 13 during the summer. I would mow lawns for cash and ride my bike several miles to the movie theater to watch this over and over. To this day I still catch myself looking in the trees in certain scenes trying to see if I can catch a glimpse of it.

8. Terminator 2 - This is another one that just blew everything else away at the time and I watched the hell out of it. I wish James Cameron still made good movies.

9. Nightmare on Elm Street - The original Freddy movie that kept me awake at night terrified. I probably shouldn't have watched this when I was so young and I couldn't sleep for several nights. I still think its one of the most original and scary horror movies I've seen. Then again, this is probably why I don't watch many horror movies so take that with a grain of salt.

10. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade - This movie is just so fun and a joy to watch. It was also the movie we all went to for Senior Week in high school so it was perfect.

It's interesting to see these big iconic movies everybody picked, the overlap, and how 90% of them are OLD now.

Hex Sinister wrote: It's interesting to see these big iconic movies everybody picked, the overlap, and how 90% of them are OLD now.

Boardgames are a bit expensive for millennials, so the demographics of F:AT probably skew older than average for the internet.

Shellhead wrote:

Hex Sinister wrote: It's interesting to see these big iconic movies everybody picked, the overlap, and how 90% of them are OLD now.

Boardgames are a bit expensive for millennials, so the demographics of F:AT probably skew older than average for the internet.

Valid points, but I think there's also the factor that any "favorite" object has to stand the test of time. I see movies I love every year, but it's the ones that I keep thinking about or revisiting year after year that become favorites.

Goddammit it shrunk to half