The 50 Biggest Movies in 2010

The movies most likely to dominate the box-office charts this year

50 Red Sonja

The most likely candidate on this list to slip into 2011, Red Sonja has, like her male counterpart Conan, been knocking around Hollywood for quite some time, with a star (Rose McGowan) and a script, but no firm shooting schedule. Current wisdom indicates an uncompromisingly adult-themed Hyborian epic with nudity, violence and swordplay. And, if brunette McGowan is still in it, wigs.

49 Red Dawn

The guilty pleasure 1980s classic is back. This time, instead of the rather implausible plot of teenagers fighting back against Soviet invaders, we have the slightly more implausible plot of teenagers fighting back against Chinese invaders. Captain Kirk’s dad (and future Thor) Chris Hemsworth leads the charge against those pesky reds, and former stuntman Dan Bradley steps bravely into the director’s chair.

48 Clash of The Titans

The 1981 fantasy epic comes roaring back into cinemas to infuriate Mary Beard and entertain those of us who maintain a sketchier handle on Greek myth. Louis Leterrier, who gave us the ‘good’ Hulk movie and helped shape the Transporter series assembles a cracking cast including Ralph Fiennes, Liam Neeson and Pete Postlethwaite to lend thespian authenticity to his freewheeling take on the story of Perseus. Sam Worthington is the suspiciously buzz-cut warrior who takes on Medusa and the Kraken.

47 Date Night

Coming across as a mélange of The Honeymooners and underrated 1985 comedy After Hours, this sounds like an efficient mid-table comedy until you take a look at the cast, which combines tireless US Office star Steve Carrell and Sarah Palin’s personal favourite, 30 Rock's Tina Fey. Ray Liotta and Mark Wahlberg are also along for what promises to be an hilarious, if sometimes downright uncomfortable, ride

46 London Boulevard

With a plot that sounds like a rerun of Performance, a stellar British cast and spectacular London locations, this promises to be a British gangster flick in the classic mould. Ray Winstone, Colin Farrell, David Thewlis and Anna Friel feature in the story of a reclusive actress (Kiera Knightley) who ends up playing host to a recently released former convict. How well that will play overseas is anybody’s guess but support for the home team should make this movie a very strong contender on UK release.

45 Beastly

A modern take on the Beauty And The Beast fairytale, Beastly has High School Musical star Vanessa Hudgens forced to live in the home of bewitched prom king Alex Pettyfer. Although ostensibly a fantasy teen romance, this is the kind of property, like Enchanted or Stefanie Meyer’s Twilight series, that could break out into a far wider demographic. We’ll find out if I’m right or not in July.

44 The Green Hornet

Will this first outing for a little-known superhero be another Iron Man? Or another Spirit? Like The Spirit, The Green Hornet is a classic 1930s crimefighter. The character first appeared on radio, before transferring to weekly cinema serial and ultimately a TV show that ran alongside and sometimes through the marvellously daft Batman show.

The TV show now is best remembered as an early break for the young Bruce Lee, who used his martial arts expertise to intimidate Burt Ward, who played Batman’s sidekick Robin.

Trivia fans might care to know that Brett Reid, the newspaper editor who fights crime as the Green Hornet, is a descendant of that other masked crimefighter the Lone Ranger. A bit of a longshot for major success.

43 Resident Evil: Afterlife

Continuing the apparently deathless series based on the popular survival horror videogame. This time, of course, it’s in 3D. Milla Jovovitch returns as Alice (and a handful of her clones) to combat the evil Umbrella Corporation. If you’ve seen one of these movies before and liked it, you’ll have a fair idea of what to expect. If you haven’t, then brace yourselves for an army of zombies, some futuristic guns and gallons of gore.

42 The Losers

Another comic book adaptation, but this time super-secret-agents rather than superheroes. The Losers are a squad of maverick CIA operatives, each one of which happens to conform to a recognisable videogame or movie archetype. Accused, of course, of a crime they did not commit they go undercover and ... well you know the rest. With both Salt and The A Team out in 2010 this will be well-trodden ground. Probably less silly than 2009’s GI Joe but no less entertaining for all that, The Losers should provide some undemanding cinema fun in April.

41 The Rum Diary

Johnny Depp’s star power should ensure that this adaptation of an early unsuccessful novel by his hero, Hunter S Thompson, gets plenty of attention. Adapted and directed by Bruce Robinson, who gave us Withnail and I, this take of unruly and perilously thirsty journalists will be near-unavoidable this spring, if only because we journalists love films about journalists.

40 Unstoppable

The runaway train came down the track and she blew. Luckily, Denzel Washington was there to stop her, because this particular train was loaded with all manner of toxic nastiness and headed straight for a Pennysylvania town. Based on a real event that took place in 2001 near Columbus, Ohio, Unstoppable will be putting us all off rail travel in November 2010.

39 Wall Street 2

Michael Douglas’s unscrupulous stock market trader, jailed at the end of Wall Street, has served his 20 year sentence and is back on the street. It’s 2008 and he wants to prevent a global financial crash. We all know how that turns out. He’ll need an impressionable young trader to explain things to so that those of us who don’t know anything about big business (and that includes quite a few hedge fund managers) can understand the plot. Cue Shia LeBoef, who seems to specialise in these roles. It will be interesting to see whether the global financial hullabaloo will sharpen interest in this belated sequel, or whether the overdose of real financial news we’ve been exposed to of late will make Wall Street 2 an irrelevance.

38 When In Rome

Older readers, and I include myself in that cohort, may remember Three Coins In The Fountain, a 1950s romantic drama with a devilishly memorable theme song that seemed to be on TV every afternoon throughout the Sxities. When In Rome is the same story brought up to date and with a few extra chuckles added for good measure. Starring Kristen Bell and featuring Danny Devito and Napoleon Dynamite’s Jon Heder, this sounds like an agreeable enough romcom but one which will struggle to compete with Sex And The City 2, which is released at around the same time.

37 The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Nicolas Cage, seemingly the busiest man in cinema right now, heads up a live-action junior wizard story inspired by the Mickey Mouse segment in Disney’s Fantasia. He reunites here with director Jon Tureltaub, with whom he combined so effectively on the National Treasure movies. Set apparently in the present day and co-starring the exquisitely vampy Monica Bellucci, this film is likely to capitalise on the younger cinemagoers’ seemingly inexhaustible appetite for boy wizard stories.

36 A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas

The irrepressible marijuana enthusiasts get a third outing despite Kal Penn (who plays Kumar) securing a White House staff post. Only about three million or so Britons have used marijuana in the last year but the respectable box office figures of the previous Harold and Kumar movies demonstrate that the rest of us find drug use somewhat amusing as a spectator sport. If you enjoyed the gormless antics of Bill and Ted or Wayne and Garth and you would like to see one of President Obama’s staff make a potentially career-ending mistake, this is the film for you.

35 Highlander

There can be only one. Or, in this case, dozens. Shorn of the egregious accent work from Christopher Lambert and Sean Connery, what kind of immortal Scot swordplay movie can we expect? Justin Lin, director of Fast & Furious, has been tasked with reinventing the 1986 fantasy action flick that spawned a decreasingly sensible movie franchise and an impossibly daft TV series. No cast has been set at time of writing but expect mystical dialogue and as many beheadings as a PG13 certificate will allow.

34 Grown Ups

Adam Sandler assembles a stellar collection of Saturday Night Live alumni to portray a group of old high school chums meeting at their old basketball coach’s funeral. Sandler’s work is very much a thing to either love or hate. I personally regard You Don’t Mess With The Zohan as the worst film in celluloid history. Nevertheless, he’s a very popular comedian and I’m sure this will do reasonably well. After all, Salma Hayek and Steve Buscemi are in it. How bad can it be?

33 Hot Tub Time Machine

John Cusack, Chevy Chase and curiously spelled TV stalwart Lyndsy Fonseca star in a lighthearted time travel fantasy that is more Peggy Sue Got Married than The Terminator. Four pals climb into a jacuzzi, start reminiscing and find that they’ve fallen back into 1987. Fonseca play the sweetheart that slipped through Cusack’s fingers first time around.

32 Jonah Hex

Jonah Hex started life, as so many movie heroes seem to these days, in a comic book. Although the spooky gunfighter is an Old West character, he has cropped up in a number of DC Comics’ nominally contemporary series such as Batman and The Justice League Of America. In the film, though, he’s expected to be firmly rooted in his post-Civil War milieu sparring with Quentin Turnbull, the man with the eagle-topped cane. Turnbull, played by John Malkovitch in the film, is a Confederate sympathiser trying to reignite the conflict that nearly tore America apart. The always delightfully off-message Megan Fox is Leila, a gun-toting tart with a heart who supplies Hex with extra backup and the film with extra glamour.

31 Edge of Darkness

This Hollywood version of the 1985 conspiracy thriller made by the BBC stars Mel Gibson as Thomas Craven, a Boston cop who tried to solve his daughter’s murder only to have an enormous political conspiracy unravel in his hands. Ray Winstone turns up as a CIA operative and the original TV show’s director, Martin Campbell, is back in the big chair.

30 Legion

The basic premise of Legion is this: God, specifically the God of the Christians, is the bad guy. As he periodically does, he’s decided to kill everyone on Earth. A fallen angel is humanity's only defence against a horde of destroying angels, a foul-mouthed old lady vampire thing and a demonic ice cream man. It's three parts Dogma to one part I am Legend with a dash of Left Behind. The angels appear to be armed with maces. The plucky American resistance holed up in a diner have guns. Lots of guns. How this will play to traditionally rather conservative US audiences I wouldn't like to say but for more playful British sensibilities this looks like the guilty pleasure treat of 2010.

29 Season of the Witch

Rather strange casting for this 14th-century adventure: Nicolas Cage, loved for his diverse roles such as the manic wild-eyed American agent in The Rock and the manic wild-eyed American historian in National Treasure, plays a medieval knight escorting a prisoner accused of witchcraft to her trial. Containing (according to Cage) allusions to The Wages of Fear and (according to me) The Last Detail, this movie is bound to irritate historians. To what extent it thrills mainstream audiences is more open to question. You’ll have to wait until March to find out.

28 Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Movies based on video games are rarely classics. Prince of Persia stands a better chance than most, roping in Jake Gyllenhaal as the eponymous prince with Alfred Molina as his father figure and Ben Kingsley as the villainous Grand Vizier. The 1989 game is still spawning sequels, whether the film adaptation will do the same remains to be seen.

27 Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang

Emma Thompson’s supernatural childcare expert visits a new family. This time it’s to help overworked parent Maggie Gyllenhaal while her soldier husband is away. Expect motorcycles to fly, statues to come to life and piglets to climb trees. It’ll definitely be a heartwarming family adventure. Just don’t mention

26 Daybreakers

What, more vampires? Daybreakers is not your average vampire movie. Starting where the bleakest vampire stories end, it posits a world where the bloodsuckers won. A few regular people are being kept alive as a food source. It's not a sustainable policy. Cue a colossal firearms jamboree with machine-pistol toting vamps fighting crossbow-equipped humans. With a weaker cast it would probably end up in straight-to-DVD hell but some fine scenery-chewing work from Sam Neill and some classic laconic hero stuff from Ethan Hawke should lift this antidote to Twilight out of the genre ghetto and into the upper reaches of box-office charts.

25 The Wolfman

Benicio Del Toro’s long-delayed classic horror remake is supposedly howling into cinemas in February. Set in late-19th-century Britain, this gothic horror will either be a cracking update of the 1941 Universal creature feature that, with Dracula and Frankenstein, established the horror genre or a big over-CGI’d mess. Director Joe Johnston brings a respectable pedigree of Star Wars and Indiana Jones effects work as well as directing credits on some kid-friendly adventures such as Jumanji and The Rocketeer. If you’re looking for a romantic Valentine’s Day date movie, and neither of the participants are conspicuously hairy, this one might be it.

24 Diary of a Wimpy Kid

The bestselling children's book makes the jump to the silver screen courtesy of director Thor Freudenthal, who previously helmed Hotel For Dogs. Few details are available on this movie as yet but as the books evoke the thoughts of a teenager through diary extracts and comic strips you should expect a certain amount of Adrian Mole and a degree of playful animation. You should also expect your young relatives to know all about this film already and be desperate to see it.

23 Green Zone

Bourne director Paul Greengrass reconnects with Matt Damon to make this searching drama about the war in Iraq. As he did with United 93, which depicted the events of September 11 2001, Greengrass shows no fear of touching on contemporary events to inform his work. Based on Rajiv Chandrasekaran’s 2006 book Imperial Life in the Emerald City, the movie is likely to express a somewhat jaundiced view of America’s involvement in Iraq.

22 Gulliver's Travels

Jack Black stars in a big-budget adaptation of Jonathan Swift’s 1726 satire. Black will be raising his talented eyebrow at Billy Connolly, King of the Lilliputians as well as an appropriate number of other computer-rendered midgets, giants and talking horses.

1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Ok, we've done books so let's move on to movies. From the book by Steven Jay Schneider comes a list of 1001 movies you must see before you die. Since it's less time consuming to watch movies rather than read books, I did a lot better on this list...I've seen 214/1001 movies on the list. My favorites are marked with an asterisk.

Nosferatu, A Symphony of Terror(1922)
The General (1927)
King Kong (1933)
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
Gone With the Wind (1939)
Pinocchio (1940)
Citizen Kane (1941)
Casablanca (1942)
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
On the Waterfront (1954)
Rear Window (1954)
The Seven Samurai (1954)
Touch of Evil (1958)
The 400 Blows (1959)
North by Northwest (1959)
La Jetee (1961)
West Side Story (1961)
Lolita (1962)
Goldfinger (1964)
Dr. Strangelove (1964)*
A Hard Day's Night (1964)
The Sound of Music (1965)
Faster, Pussy Cat! Kill! Kill! (1965)
The Graduate (1967)
Cool Hand Luke (1967)
Rosemary's Baby (1968)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
A Clockwork Orange (1971)*
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)
Harold and Maude (1971)
Dirty Harry (1971)
Deliverance (1972)
The Godfather (1972)*
The Sting (1973)
American Graffiti (1973)
The Conversation (1974)
Young Frankenstein (1974)
Chinatown (1974)
Blazing Saddles (1974)
The Godfather Part II (1974)*
Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
Barry Lyndon (1975)
The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)
All the President's Men (1976)
Rocky (1976)
Taxi Driver (1976)
Network (1976)*
Star Wars (1977)*
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Annie Hall (1977)
Saturday Night Fever (1977)
The Deer Hunter (1978)
Grease (1978)
Alien (1979)
Life of Brian (1979)
Apocalypse Now (1979)
The Jerk (1979)
The Muppet Movie (1979)
The Shining (1980)*
Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)*
Airplane! (1980)
Raging Bull (1980)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)*
Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1981)
E.T.: The Extra-Terestrial (1982)
Blade Runner (1982)
Tootsie (1982)
Gandhi (1982)
A Christmas Story (1983)
Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983)
The Right Stuff (1983)
Scarface (1983)
Amadeus (1984)
The Terminator (1984)
This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
Beverly Hills Cop (1984)
Ghostbusters (1984)
The Killing Fields (1984)
The Natural (1984)
The Breakfast Club (1985)
Back to the Future (1985)
Brazil (1985)
Stand By Me (1986)
Blue Velvet (1986)
Aliens (1986)
Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)
A Room with a View (1986)
Platoon (1986)
Top Gun (1986)
Raising Arizona (1987)
Full Metal Jacket (1987)
Withnail and I (1987)
Good Morning, Vietnam (1987)
The Princess Bride (1987)
The Untouchables (1987)
Fatal Attraction (1987)
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988)
The Thin Blue Line (1988)
Akira (1988)
A Fish Called Wanda (1988)
The Naked Gun (1988)
Big (1988)
Dangerous Liaisons (1988)
Die Hard (1988)
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
Rain Man (1988)
The Accidental Tourist (1988)
Batman (1989)
When Harry Met Sally (1989)
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (1989)
Do the Right Thing (1989)
Roger & Me (1989)
Glory (1989)
Say Anything (1989)
Goodfellas (1990)
Jacob's Ladder (1990)
Dances with Wolves (1990)
Pretty Woman (1990)
Edward Scissorhands (1990)
Total Recall (1990)
Boyz 'n the Hood (1991)
Raise the Red Lantern (1991)
Thelma & Louise (1991)
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)*
JFK (1991)
Slacker (1991)
The Player (1992)
Reservoir Dogs (1992)*
Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)
Unforgiven (1992)
The Crying Game (1992)
Groundhog Day (1993)
Philadelphia (1993)
Jurassic Park (1993)
Schindler's List (1993)
The Piano (1993)
Hoop Dreams (1994)
Forrest Gump (1994)
Clerks (1994)
Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)
The Lion King (1994)
Natural Born Killers (1994)
Pulp Fiction (1994)*
Muriel's Wedding (1994)
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)*
Heavenly Creatures (1994)
Casino (1995)
Babe (1995)
Toy Story (1995)
Braveheart (1995)
Clueless (1995)
Heat (1995)
Seven (1995)*
Smoke (1995)
The Usual Suspects (1995)
Fargo (1996)
Independence Day (1996)
The English Patient (1996)
Shine (1996)
Trainspotting (1996)
L.A. Confidential (1997)
Princess Mononoke (1997)*
The Butcher Boy (1997)
The Ice Storm (1997)
Boogie Nights (1997)*
Titanic (1997)*
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Buffalo 66 (1998)
The Big Lebowski (1998)
Run Lola Run (1998)
Rushmore (1998)*
Pi (1998)
Happiness (1998)
The Thin Red Line (1998)
There's Something About Mary (1998)
Magnolia (1999)*
The Blair Witch Project (1999)
Three Kings (1999)
Fight Club (1999)
Being John Malkovich (1999)
American Beauty (1999)
The Sixth Sense (1999)
The Matrix (1999)*
Gladiator (2000)
Requiem for a Dream (2000)
Amores Perros (2000)
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
Traffic (2000)
Memento (2000)
Dancer in the Dark (2000)
Amelie (2001)
Spirited Away (2001)
No Man's Land (2001)
Moulin Rouge (2001)
Monsoon Wedding (2001)
Mulholland Dr. (2001)
The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)*
The Pianist (2002)
Lost in Translation (2003)
Oldboy (2003)
Good Bye Lenin! (2003)
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)*
Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)
A Very Long Engagement (2004)
Sideways (2004)
Caché (2005)
Brokeback Mountain (2005)
The Constant Gardener (2005)

If you'd like to post your movie list, I used this list along with a list of additions and subtractions.
Update: The very latest edition of the book adds and subtracts some more movies to/from the list; here are the added movies that I've seen:
Crash (2004)
Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
The Prestige (2006)
United 93 (2006)
Children of Men (2006)
El Laberinto del Fauno (2006)
The Queen (2006)
Apocalypto (2006)
The Departed (2006)
Volver (2006)
And deleted from the list:
Monsoon Wedding (2001)
Mulholland Dr. (2001)
A Very Long Engagement (2004)
Caché (2005)

ALL ABOUT MOVIES

the Bottom Line If you had to pick one movie from each country, what would it be? Here are ten of my favorite movies from ten different nations.

Foreign movies come in a variety of languages, cultures, emotions, genres and themes. That is their beauty. I love American films and find the ones that I see very entertaining, but the real surprises, the ones that actually provide new insights and delightful world commentary, come from overseas. My last geography class was over 30 years ago, but I am still learning about the people, cultures and civilizations of the world through movies.
Earlier in my career I spent two years out of the country, speaking another language (Spanish) and living in a different country. Those years did not prepare me to write this article, but it did show me that not everyone thinks like an American, and that art and the life realities it represents are totally different from a different culture's perspective.
To pick one movie to represent a country is actually absurd. Can anyone pick a movie to represent the United States? I can't and I have seen more Hollywood movies in the last year that I have probably seen foreign movies in my life. But if someone, out of curiosity, is interested in seeing a movie from a different country in a different language, then these are the ones that I would recommend.

CZECHOSLOVAKIA or CZECH REPUBLIC

The Shop around the Corner - 1965
There have been some great movies that have come out of the Eastern European countries both before and after the fall of the Iron Curtain. Poland and the Czech Republic have created my favorites. The Shop around the Corner is a film about the Holocaust from a small community and distinctly occupied country point of view. It tells the story of a simple laborer whose authoritative family member gives him the ownership of a Jewish button shop. The real owner is a feeble senile old lady that has no idea what is going on around her and does not realize that her world is coming to an end. The new owner plays along for as long as he can. Just like the actual history, the story becomes more tragic as events transpire. This film won an academy award for Best Foreign Film, and despite not speaking a word of English in the movie, Ida Kaminska was nominated for her terrific performance as the shopkeeper.

FRANCE

The 400 Blows - 1959
I don't know how many "coming of age" films have been made. This one seems to provide more insight, than most of the other films combined. Supposedly, based on Director Francois Truffaut's stormy childhood, the story looks at how a good normal boy can be tempted to do things because of situational, environmental and attitudinal influences. Those decisions in a young boy's life create consequences that continue to build throughout the movie and judging by the last scene, throughout his lifetime.

GERMANY

Aguirre, The Wrath of God - 1972
The feature about this movie that I found most fascinating was the German interpretation of the exploration of South America as seen through the eyes of Klaus Kinski's explorer Lope de Aguirre. Europe conquered South America through might, treachery, and broken promises as it pursued gold and riches. This is all represented in the true historic account of one Spanish explorer, whose total motivation was power and fame. Although not a movie about Germany, the film illustrates the attitude of the divine European conquering nation that has been paralleled throughout history.

INDIA

The World of Apu - 1959
Director Satyajit Ray made three installments of the life of an Indian peasant Apu. The previous movies, Pather Panchali and Aparajito, centered on the childhood of Apu, whereas the latest installment tells the story of his marriage and fatherhood. Hollywood would never make a trilogy around a basic family drama, but that is what makes this movie so unique. Although intended for an Indian audience, the movie provides a great understanding as to food, shelter, recreation and family roles as they existed and still exist in India.. The differences between my environment and Apu's are extreme yet the similarities are just as extreme. Loving one's mother, suffering though a boring class, and building confidence to find a job are universal and affectionately portrayed in this movie.

ITALY

Cinema Paradiso - 1989
I think that I have an special love for Italian movies over most other countries. Fellini films are remarkable and they get better with each showing. I was very tempted to list 8 1/2 as my selection, and it would have been a good one and I recommend that everyone see it. But Cinema Paradiso is a love note to cinema. The story is about a young man, a projectionist, a theater, and a small town. All of the movies that come to the city are prescreened and censored by the local Priest, before they can be enjoyed by the whole community. The theater, on one side of the central plaza, is the centerpiece of the movie, the people's lives, and the young man's heart. This is a film that views movies as a movie lover view movies.

JAPAN

The Seven Samurai - 1954
Akira Kurosawa has made a lot of good movies but I find this one the most entertaining. It has been remade several times, most successfully as The Magnificent Seven, but I see the same elements in several movies that combine different individuals, with different strengths and traits under a common cause. The most recent Oceans Eleven comes to mind. Although moviemaking and cinematography have come a long way in the last 50 years, this plot will hold up forever and it is well worth seeing the original idea.

MEXICO

The Exterminating Angel - 1962
Director Luis Bunuel was a communist and good friend of Salvador Dali. That may or may not have anything to do with this movie. The film takes place at a dinner of upper class guests that find that they cannot leave the room. It is never explained why they can't leave the room, or why the crowds that gather outside the house can never come in, it just happens to be that way. As the people become more desperate with their plight, the story becomes more bizarre. It reminds me of the lyrics to "Hotel California." The movie actually starts out saying that it is not about anything but even that is deceiving, and was probably intended to be.

RUSSIA

Burnt by the Sun - 1994
Main actor and director Nikita Mikhalkov examines what it was like to be loyal and yet disregarded by Stalin. The Russian aristocracy was very much alive and supportive of the revolution and this movie shows the beauty, naivety, and repercussions of that class of society during Stalin's reign. Although Stalinism has been downplayed for years, this story could not have been presented or this movie made prior to the last decade.

SWEDEN

The Seventh Seal - 1957
It took me a long time to see the movie because I could not get past the brooding and dark scenes that I had seen in clips on television. But clips do not do justice to this great film that is neither as dark or brooding as I had anticipated. This may be the definitive movie about life and death and the journey between the two. The material is certainly opinionated, as defined by Ingmar Bergman, but it is also very clever and it has been the source of countless parodies.

UNITED KINGDOM

The Up Chronicles - 1963, 1970, 1977, 1984, 1991, 1998
An argument has been raised that English films do not count as foreign films since they do not involve a foreign language. My argument to include this film under the foreign heading is twofold. 1) It is certainly foreign as it was not created on US soil and 2) a US filmmaker has never created a movie like this one. Michael Apted filmed fourteen seven year olds in 1963, depicting different social strata. Each child was interviewed about his life and goals and the boys and girls provided cute and entertaining answers regarding their dreams and ambitions. Apted filmed the same (now teenagers) kids in 1970, then again in 1977 and every seven years thereafter until, most recently, he updated their lives in 1998. Over the course of these films, each complete with flashbacks, the viewer experiences changes that take place over 35 years of an individual's life. Every one of these people have faced decisions regarding school, jobs, marriage, children, death, disappointment and happiness in the same way that everyone faces it as we grow older. It is just recorded here for the world to see and we can all relate to these lives in one way or another. In talking with others that have watched these films, you can't help but become attached to these special people and you can't wait to find out where they are at and what they are doing in the next installment.

ALL ABOUT MOVIES TAKEN FROM WIKIPEDIA

Every decade, the British film monthly Sight & Sound asks an international group of film professionals to vote for their greatest film of all time. The Sight & Sound accolade has come to be regarded as one of the most important of the "greatest ever film" lists. Roger Ebert^[1] The first poll, in 1952, was topped by Bicycle Thieves (1948).^[2] The 2002 Sight and Sound critics' Top Ten Films: described it as "by far the most respected of the countless polls of great movies--the only one most serious movie people take seriously."

1. Citizen Kane

2. Vertigo

3. The Rules of the Game

4. The Godfather and The Godfather Part II

5. Tokyo Story

6. 2001: A Space Odyssey

7. The Battleship Potemkin

8. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans

9. 8½

10. Singin' in the Rain

Orson Welles' Citizen Kane (1941) has been consistently voted number one in each of the last five Sight & Sound polls. A separate poll of established film directors, held for the first time in 1992, has also placed Citizen Kane at the top.^[2] The film was selected as number one in a Village Voice and in a Time Out critics' poll. It was listed as the greatest American film by the American Film Institute in both the first (1998) and second (2007) versions of its 100 Years... 100 Movies list.

The Searchers (1956) is the film most often mentioned in a poll of the favorite films of directors by German language Steadycam magazine in 1995.^[3]

Tokyo Story (1953) by Yasujirō Ozu topped a critics' poll conducted by Asian film magazine Cinemaya in 1998. It was followed by Satyajit Ray's Pather Panchali (1955) and Kenji Mizoguchi's Ugetsu (1953) tied at second place.^[4]

La Règle du Jeu (The Rules of the Game) (1939) by director Jean Renoir was named the greatest film by the French film magazine Positif in 1991.^[5] It also holds the second slot in the Village Voice poll,^[6] and is one of only two movies to have appeared in every one of the Sight & Sound polls.^{[citation needed]}

The Brussels World’s Fair, organized in 1958, offered the occasion for the organization by thousands of critics and filmmakers from all over the world, of the first universal film poll in history.^[7] These were the films chosen as most artistically fulfilled:

Rank	Film	Director	Year
1	Броненосец Потёмкин (The Battleship Potemkin)	Sergei Eisenstein	1925
2	The Gold Rush	Charles Chaplin	1925
3	Ladri di biciclette (Bicycle Thieves)	Vittorio De Sica	1948
4	La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc (The Passion of Joan of Arc)	Carl Theodor Dreyer	1928
5	La Grande Illusion (Grand Illusion)	Jean Renoir	1937
6	Greed	Erich von Stroheim	1924
7	Intolerance: Love's Struggle Through the Ages	D. W. Griffith	1916
8	Мать (Mother)	Vsevolod Pudovkin	1926
9	Citizen Kane	Orson Welles	1941
10	Земля (Earth)	Alexander Dovzhenko	1930

Audience polls

Seven Samurai (1954) was voted number one in an audience poll conducted by MovieMail in 2000. It was followed by The Third Man (1948) at second place.^[5]

The Godfather (1972) was voted number one by Entertainment Weekly's readers^[8] and voted as number one in a Time Out readers' poll in 1998.^[9] The film was also voted as the "Greatest Movie of All Time" in September 2008 by 10,000 readers of Empire magazine, 150 people from the movie business and 50 film critics.^[10] It currently holds the #1 spot on the Top 200 at Everyone's a Critic,^[11] and the #2 spot on the IMDb list.^[12]

The Godfather Part II (1974) was voted best movie ever by TV Guide readers^[13] in 1998, and is currently in third place on the IMDb list.^[12]

Star Wars (1977) and its sequel The Empire Strikes Back (1980) were chosen as the greatest films by readers of Empire magazine in November 2001 and by voters in a Channel 4 (Film4) poll.^[14] The Empire Strikes Back is also #1 on the top rated sci-fi titles at the Internet Movie Database,^[15] was voted number one in Total Film's Top 100 Movies of All Time, and number one in the 2006 Empire "Greatest Movies Ever" special.^[16]

Raise the Red Lantern (1991) was voted the best Asian film in another audience poll conducted by MovieMail in 2000. It was followed by The Apu Trilogy (1955–1959) at second place.^[5]

Schindler's List (1993) was voted the best film ever made by the German film magazine Cinema.^[17]

The Shawshank Redemption (1994) currently holds the top spot on the Internet Movie Database's list of the top 250 films.^[12] It was voted the best film not to have won an Academy Award in a 2004 Radio Times poll and again in 2008.^[18] In January 2006 Empire magazine readers named it the best film ever.^{[citation needed]} It also holds the #8 spot at Yahoo! Movies as of 16 September 2009.^[19] It is currently ranked #1 on FilmCrave.com's top 100 movies list.^[20]

The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001–2003) was voted the most popular film of all time by an audience poll for the Australian television special My Favourite Film and by a poll cast by 120,000 German voters for the TV special "Die besten Filme aller Zeiten".^[21] Its first film, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), was the pick of readers in a poll by Empire magazine in November 2004.^[22] The third film, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, was voted the best movie of all time by Yahoo movies and Movies.com's annual reader's poll in 2006 and 2007.^{[citation needed]}

Gone with the Wind (1939) was ranked as the greatest film in a poll surveyed by Harris Interactive between January 15 and 22, 2008. Star Wars came in second place and Casablanca^[23] in third.

Casablanca (1942) was voted the greatest film by readers of the Los Angeles Daily News in 1997.^[24] It is also regarded the "best Hollywood movie of all time" by the influential Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide.^{[citation needed]} On April 7, 2006, the Writers' Guild of America declared Casablanca's screenplay the best ever written.^[25]

Cross of Iron (1977) was voted the greatest film of all time by Cinemag.^{[citation needed]}

Particular genres or media

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Action

Die Hard (1988) was voted greatest action movie of all time by both Entertainment WeeklyMTV2,^{[citation needed]} and the best disaster movie by Channel 4.^{[citation needed]} and music channel

Jaws (1975) was the first film to gross over $100 million at the box office. It was ranked 2nd on AFI's list 100 Years... 100 Thrills.^[26]

Animation

Akira (1988) was chosen as the top anime film ever by Anime Insider in fall 2001.^{[citation needed]}

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984) was the highest-ranked animated film in an audience poll (with 80,402 voters) of 100 best animations, conducted by Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs in 2007. It was also the second highest animation overall on the list after the animeNeon Genesis Evangelion. They were followed by Castle in the Sky (1986) in third place.^[27] series

Samurai X: Trust & Betrayal (1999) has been voted #1 on Anime News Network's Top 500 anime list.^[28]

Sita Sings the Blues (2008) is currently #1 on the Rotten Tomatoes list of the best animated movies.^[29]

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) was selected as the best American animated movie ever by the American Film Institute during their 10 Top 10.^[30]

Tale of Tales (Сказка сказок) (1979) was voted by a large international jury to be the greatest animated film of all time at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympiad of Animation and the 2002 Zagreb World Festival of Animated Films.^[31][32]

Toy Story (1995) was voted #1 on the Top 100 Animated Features of All Time by the Online Film Critics Society (list published March 2003).^[33]

Toy Story 2 (1999) topped a Rotten Tomatoes poll of the 50 best animated movies ever made.^[34] It is also #1 on their list of the best kids movies,^[35] and is #1 on the Movie Review Query Engine's list of the best animated movies.^[36]

WALL-E (2008) is currently #1 on the list of top rated animated titles at the Internet Movie Database.^[37]

What's Opera, Doc? (1957) was voted the greatest animated short in animation historian Jerry Beck's 1994 poll of animators, film historians and directors.^[38]

Christmas

It's a Wonderful Life (1946) is #1 on the Movie Review Query Engine's list of the best holiday movies,^[39] and also topped AFI's 100 Years…100 Cheers list.^[40]

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) is ranked #1 on Rotten Tomatoes' Top 25 Best Christmas Movies list.^[41]

Comedy

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) A 2004 poll by UK arm of Amazon and the Internet Movie Database named Monty Python and the Holy Grail as the best British comedy picture of all time.^[42]

Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979) was voted the greatest comedy ever in polls conducted by Total Film magazine in 2000,^[43] the British TV networks Channel 4 in 2006 ^[44] and Channel Five in 2007 ^[45], and The Guardian newspaper in 2007.^[46]

National Lampoon's Animal House (1978) was voted #1 on the Bravo list of funniest movies of all time.^[47]

Some Like It Hot (1959) was listed Best American Film Comedy by the American Film Institute^[48] in June 2000.

City Lights (1931) was selected as the best romantic comedy ever by the American Film Institute during their 10 Top 10.^[30]

Comicbook/Superhero

The Dark Knight (2008) has the highest rating of any reviewed comic book film, on both the action/adventure list at Rotten Tomatoes,^[49] and the top rated action titles at the Internet Movie Database.^[50] It is also #1 on the Movie Review Query Engine's list of the best comic and superhero movies.^[51]

Spider-Man 2 (2004) Listed number one on Rotten Tomatoes Comix Best to worst^{[citation needed]}

Courtroom

To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) was selected as the best courtroom drama ever by the American Film Institute during their 10 Top 10.^[30]

Crime/Gangster

The Godfather (1972) was selected as the best gangster movie ever by the American Film Institute during their 10 Top 10.^[30] It also tops the Rotten Tomatoes list of the best drama movies.^[52]

GoodFellas (1990) was chosen as the greatest crime film out of the 25 movies by the IGN^{[citation needed]} website.

Disaster

The Poseidon Adventure (1972) was voted best disaster movie in a poll commissioned by UCI cinemas in May 2004.^[53]

Documentary

Bowling for Columbine (2002), Michael Moore's controversial documentary relating gun control and the culture of fear in the United States, heads the list of 20 all-time favorite non-fiction films selected by members of the International Documentary Association (IDA).^[54][55]

Seven Up! (1964) was voted as the greatest ever documentary in a Channel 4 poll of the 50 Greatest Documentaries in 2005.^{[citation needed]}

Man On Wire (2008) was voted greatest Documentary and Film of all time by Rotten Tomatoes.^{[citation needed]}

Epic

Lawrence of Arabia (1962) was voted best epic by readers of Total Film in May 2004. It was selected as the best epic movie ever by the American Film Institute during their 10 Top 10.^[30]

Fantasy

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) is #1 on the list of the top rated fantasy titles at the Internet Movie Database.^[56]

The Wizard of Oz (1939) was selected as the best American fantasy movie ever by the American Film Institute during their 10 Top 10.^[30]

Horror

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919) is currently #1 on the Rotten Tomatoes list of the best horror movies.^[57]

The Exorcist (1973) was voted scariest movie of all time by Entertainment Weekly and Movies.com,^{[citation needed]} and by viewers of AMC in 2006.^[58]

Halloween (1978) is currently #1 on DigitalDreamDoor.com's list of the 100 Greatest Slasher Movies.^[59]

Psycho (1960). The Alfred Hitchcock classic tops AFI’s list of the 100 most thrilling American films,^[26] the top rated horror titles at the Internet Movie Database,^[60] and Rotten Tomatoes' list of the 50 greatest horror movies.^{[citation needed]}

The Silence of the Lambs (1991). Ranks #1 on AFI’s list for Heroes and Villains,^[61] and is the last film to win all of the Big Five at the Academy Awards.^{[citation needed]}

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) Ranks #1 on Total Film's list of the greatest horror films.^[62]

Musical

Singin' in the Rain (1952) tops the American Film Institute's list of the 25 best American musicals of all time,^[63] and the top rated musicals at the Internet Movie Database.^[64]

West Side Story (1961) was chosen as the best screen musical by readers of The Observer in a 2007 poll.^[65]

Mystery

Rear Window (1954) is currently #1 on the Rotten Tomatoes list of the best thrillers.^[66]

Vertigo (1958) was selected as the best mystery movie ever by the American Film Institute^[30] during their 10 Top 10.

Propaganda

Triumph of the Will (1935), Leni Riefenstahl's documentary film glorifying Adolf Hitler and the 1934 Nazi Party Convention, in Nuremberg is widely perceived, renowned and acknowledged as the best propaganda film ever,^[67] although Riefenstahl asserted she intended it only as a documentary.

Romance

Casablanca (1942) was voted the top romantic American film on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Passions list,^[68] and is currently #1 on the top rated romance titles at the Internet Movie Database.^[69]

North by Northwest (1959) is currently #1 on the Rotten Tomatoes list of the best romance films,^[70] and #2 on their list of top action/adventure films.^[49]

Romeo & Juliet (1968) is currently #1 on DigitalDreamDoor.com's list of the 100 Greatest Romance Movies.^[71]

Science fiction

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) tops the Online Film Critics Society list of greatest science fiction films of all time.^[72] It is also the only science fiction film to make the Sight and Sound American Film Institute during their 10 Top 10.^[30] poll for ten best movies, and was selected as the best sci-fi movie ever by the

Aliens (1986) is currently #1 on the Rotten Tomatoes list of the best science fiction movies.^[73]

Blade Runner (1982) was voted the best science fiction film by a panel of scientists assembled by the British newspaper The Guardian in 2004.^[74] In New Scientist, Blade Runner was voted "all-time favourite science fiction film" in both the staff^[75] and reader's^[76] 2008 polls.

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) topped a Rotten Tomatoes poll of the 100 best Science Fiction movies ever made.^[77]

Metropolis (1927) was the first film ever to be registered in the "Memory of the World-Register" of the UNESCO in 2001.

Serenity (2005) was voted the greatest Science Fiction film of all time by SFX magazine in 2006.^[78][79][80]

Sports

Murderball (2005) was number 1 on the Rotten Tomatoes countdown of the top sports movies.^[81]

Raging Bull (1980) was selected as the best sports movie ever by the American Film Institute 10 Top 10,^[30] and is currently #1 on the top rated sport titles at the Internet Movie Database.^[82] during their

Rocky (1976) was voted as the best sports film of all time by film fans in a poll conducted by LoveFilm.^[83][84]

War

Apocalypse Now (1979). Topped the list on moviefone as the greatest war film.^{[citation needed]}

Cross of Iron (1977) by Sam Peckinpah was voted greatest war film of all time by Sightsense^{[citation needed]} magazine in 1983, for its portrayal of Germans and the battles on the Eastern Front in 1943.

Paths of Glory (1957) is #1 on the Movie Review Query Engine's lists of both the best military movies,^[85] and the best World War II movies (though it is actually about WWI).^[86]

Saving Private Ryan (1998) was voted as the greatest war film, in a 2008 Channel 4 poll of the 100 greatest war films.^[87]

Western

The Searchers (1956) was selected as the best western movie ever by the American Film Institute during their 10 Top 10.^[30] (See also: films acclaimed by critics and filmmakers above).

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo) (1966). Currently #1 on the top rated western titles at the Internet Movie Database,^[88] and listed as the 4th best film ever on the IMDb Top 250.^[12]

Countries

Australia

Bangladesh

Belgium

Brazil

Canada

China

Denmark

Finland

France

Germany

Hong Kong

Hungary

In 2000, Hungarian film critics chose the so-called "Budapest 12",^[108] the twelve best films of Hungary:

Szegénylegények (The Round-Up) - Miklós Jancsó

Szerelem (Love) - Károly Makk

Szindbád (Sinbad) - Zoltán Huszárik

Emberek a havason (Men on the Mountain) - István Szőts

Valahol Európában (Somewhere in Europe) - Géza von Radványi

Megáll az idő (Time Stands Still) - Péter Gothár

Hyppolit, a lakáj (Hyppolit) - István Székely

Körhinta (Merry-Go-Round) - Zoltán Fábri

A kis Valentino (Little Valentino) - András Jeles

Az én XX. Századom (My 20th Century) - Ildikó Enyedi

Apa (Father) - István Szabó

Hannibál tanár úr (Professor Hannibal) - Zoltán Fábri

India

See also: Cinema of India and Lists of Indian films

The Apu Trilogy (1955–1959), a Bengali film trilogy by the acclaimed Indian independent Satyajit Ray, appeared on the 1992 edition of the Sight & Sound Critics' Poll (ranked #88)^[109] and on The Village Voice's top 250 "Best Films of the Century" critics' poll (ranked #54).^[6][110] It is the highest-ranking trilogy in both polls. filmmaker

Pather Panchali (Song of the Little Road) (1955), the first part of The Apu Trilogy and Satyajit Ray's debut film, appeared on the Sight & Sound Critics' Poll several times, in 1962 (ranked #11),^[109] 1992 (ranked #6)^[111][112] and 2002 (ranked #22).^[113][114] It also appeared on The Village Voice top 250 "Best Films of the Century" critics' poll (tied at #12 with The Godfather).^[6][110]

Apur Sansar (The World of Apu) (1959), the final part of Satyajit Ray's The Apu Trilogy, was the highest-ranking Indian film in the 1982 Sight & Sound Critics' Poll (ranked #42), followed by two other Ray films The Music Room (1958) and Charulata (1964) tied at #56.^[115]

Sholay (Embers) (1975), a "Curry Western" Hindi film directed by Ramesh Sippy, topped the British Film Institute's poll of "Top 10 Indian Films" of all time.^[116]

Gandhi (1982), an Indian English biographical film about Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi Richard Attenborough, is the highest-ranked Indian co-production on the Internet Movie Database's "Top 250 Movies" list.^[117] directed by

Junoon (1978), produced by Shashi Kapoor and directed by acclaimed director Shyam Benegal, is an Indian film about the violent uprising during the year 1857 and a beautiful love story at the backdrop. This film has received the highest acclaims from the reviewers. The film received awards for the best feature film and also swept many other awards such as the best cinematography, best editing, best dialogues and so on. According to Khalid Mehmood, film critic, the film set high standards and was then considered to be an all time epic movie.^[118]

Nayagan (The Leader) (1987), a Tamil film directed by Mani Ratnam, is the highest-ranking Indian film and second highest-ranking Asian film on Time Magazine's "Readers Top Rated" list. Guru Dutt's Pyaasa (1957) is the second highest-ranking Indian film and third highest-ranking Asian film on the list.^[99]

Iran

Ireland

Israel

Italy

Japan

Mexico

Netherlands

New Zealand

Norway

Pakistan

Philippines

Poland

Romania

Russia

Броненосец Потёмкин (Battleship Potemkin): see Films acclaimed by critics and filmakers above.

Serbia

See also: Cinema of Serbia and Cinema of Yugoslavia

Who's That Singing Over There (Ko to tamo peva, 1980) was in 1996 voted the best Serbian movie made in the 1947-1995 period by the members of the Yugoslavian Board of the Academy of Film Art and Science (AFUN).^[145]

South Korea

Sri Lanka

Sweden

United Kingdom

United States

See also: Cinema of the United States, National Film Registry, and American Film Institute Since 1998, the American Film Institute has assembled juries of film community leaders and polled them for a series of top 100 lists. Two of the lists from the series, AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) from 2007, identified Citizen Kane as the best American film ever. In other years, AFI's jury members selected Some Like It Hot the greatest American comedy, Psycho as the most thrilling American movie, Casablanca as the greatest American love story, Singin' in the Rain as the greatest American film musical, and It's a Wonderful Life as the most inspiring American film. from 1998 and

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