Top mainstream movies since 1933

[RGC]

Love the feedback system, DEL!

I'm thinking it's probably worth ditching the honourable mentions altogether, and sticking with single best movie for each year. Of course, that will make things ridiculously hard for certain years. But no one is about to etch this list in stone, and it should be taken as a given that single choices are purely about how people feel at the moment they post. If you cannot suggest a single best alternative title for a given year, then try another year.

So, here's some titles previously mentioned that did very little for me:

Constantine, Black Hawk Down, Menace II Society, New Jack City, Escape from New York

And some which I thought were good or maybe even great, but didn't beat my elected best for their year:

Training Day, Ronin, Heat, Trespass, Evil Dead II, Hamburger Hill, Platoon, Ghostbusters, Once Upon a Time in America, Rumblefish, Caddyshack, Enter the Dragon, Planet of the Apes

More to add to my watchlist:
Street Kings, Harsh times, Small Time Crooks, Ninth Gate, Deep Rising, The Big Hit, Clear & Present, Danger, Blood in Blood out, King of New York, State of Grace, Down by Law, Neighbors, 1941, Charley, Varrick, My Name is Nobody, Two Lane Blacktop, Coogan's Bluff, Ace High, Once Upon a Time in the West, In the Heat of the Night...! Thanks DEL!

In fact, think I'll update the OP with the films I need to watch in order to get my mind right

From your list, I have to back 14 years before I find films I like.

What was wrong with Moon?! eh?

The Royal Tenenbaums

I imagined a few would react that way.

1996 From Dusk Till Dawn

Actually, 1996 was one of the weakest years, in terms of what I've seen. Would be good to hear from people on what is the definitive (single) best for that year!

[PC Engine Fan X!]

1983 - Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (was originally going to be titled "Revenge of the Jedi" but George Lucas said "revenge" wasn't a part of a Jedi's vocabulary -- hence the slightly reworked title that we have today) / Videodrome / The Keep

Three very different sci-fi films released within that same pivotal year.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[CMoon]

1981 - Road Warrior and Excalibur need to be here. Possibly Escape from New York & Scanners.
1980 - Shining and Airplane should be added.

OK, but assuming we wanted to whittle it down to one per year, which is the best of 1980 and 81 in your view?

That's why I think this idea doesn't really work (at least not for me.) The 60's through the early 80's are loaded with an enormous number of classic movies every year. Just picking Raiders for 81 is a complete joke, when you consider that more good movies may have come out in 81-82 than all of the last decade combined.

[RGC]

edit: apologies for weird, 50-hour-with-no-sleep post.

[Drum]

Imagine being so crap that you give The Royal Tennenbaums two angry faces. Imagine it.

[rapoon]

++ Giant, Pope of Greenwich Village, Paths of Glory, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest , 8½, Breathless, Doctor Zhivago, Papillon, Mean Streets, Serpico, Badlands. multiple from 73'
A cinematic revival in France and Japan during the 50's, there's an absurd amount of excellent films during the 50's and 60's.

add Rebel Without a Cause (there's your 55'), A Streetcar Named Desire, Ben-Hur

[DEL]

Drum wrote;

Imagine being so crap that you give The Royal Tennenbaums two angry faces. Imagine it.

Ooooooh there's a Reason.
The Royal Tenenbaums DESTROYED MY SEX LIFE!

I took a girl to see it and we both didn't like it. The rest of that night went badly

----------------
Others to mention.
1993 Sonatine
1984 The Hotel New Hampshire

RGC wrote;

What was wrong with Moon?! eh?

Nothing. Bowie's Son did well there. Its just not a re-watch film for me.
I judge the Greats by rewatchability.

RGC wrote; More to add to my watchlist:

Street Kings, Harsh times, Small Time Crooks, Ninth Gate, Deep Rising, The Big Hit, Clear & Present Danger, Blood in Blood out, King of New York, State of Grace, Down by Law, Neighbors, 1941, Charley, Varrick, My Name is Nobody, Two Lane Blacktop, Coogan's Bluff, Ace High, Once Upon a Time in the West, In the Heat of the Night...! Thanks DEL!

Yup, you won't go far wrong watching those.

[DEL]

RGC - Ok just distilling it to 1 per year (really hard for some years).


2011 Minuit a Paris
2010 Despicable Me
2009 Up
2008 Street Kings
2007 No Country for Old Men
2006 Borat
2005 Constantine
2004 Dawn of the Dead
2003 Old Boy
2002 City of God
2001 Black Hawk Down
2000 Small Time Crooks
1999 The Ninth Gate
1998 The Big Lebowski
1997 The Fifth Element
1996 From Dusk Till Dawn
1995 Heat
1994 Pulp Fiction
1993 Sonatine
1992 Trespass
1991 The Silence of the Lambs
1990 Predator 2
1989 Licence to Kill
1988 Dangerous Liasons
1987 Hamburger Hill
1986 Platoon
1985 Ran
1984 The Terminator
1983 Scarface
1982 The Thing
1981 Escape from New York
1980 Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back
1979 Alien
1978 The Deer Hunter
1977 Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope
1976 Assault on Precinct 13
1975 Nashville
1974 The Godfather Part II
1973 My Name is Nobody
1972 The Godfather
1971 Two Lane Blacktop
1970 Kelly's Heroes
1969 Midnight Cowboy
1968 Planet of the Apes
1967 Cool Hand Luke
1966 The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
1965 For a Few Dollars More
1964 A Fistful of Dollars
1963 From Russia with Love
1962 Dr No
1961 The Guns of Navarone
1960 The Time Machine

----------------------
1986 was the toughest of all, plus you didn't mention Big Trouble in Little China
1998 & 1979 were tough too.
1995 also had The Usual Suspects.
1997 was difficult between The Apostle, Grosse Point Blank & Luc Besson's best to date. A new one coming out from him soon, starring Guy Pearce.
1992 has Resevoir Dogs also.
Gaps to fill in later, plus maybe some changes.
I need to think more Walter Hill and Sam Peckinpah....

[Skykid]

I don't agree with many of those, but Predator 2 ha ha! Wtf DEL?!

[DEL]

Come on then Skykid - BRING YOUR LIST
1 for each year.

& yes you Know Predator 2 can't be tested There's no stoppin' what can't be stopped.

(Taste in movies will always vary from person to person. That's why critics' reviews can't be trusted)

[Ed Oscuro]

Some thoughts after speaking with Bloodreign:

Wow, some films get FAR worse in their TeeVee dubs. "How'd you get that scar? Eating pineapple?"

Some more random films to add, the first three from Sean Connery:
A Bridge Too Far (unfortunately, this one is facing some stiff competition in 1977), Time Bandits, and The Name of the Rose (Christian Slater gave more of a cameo than he intended in one scene in that film...)

Also Ghost Story (hat tip to Bloodreign, who is way too amused by the naked dude at the beginning of the film) and Vampire Buster (has English subtitles, supposedly...we'll see if they work - and edit, they do, although "Chairman Moa" for some reason.)

[Skykid]

Come on then Skykid - BRING YOUR LIST
1 for each year.

You couldn't take that heat.

Nah, not really. I can't be fucked to make a list. I always find it impossibly challenging when someone asks me to name my top five movies, letalone compile a list this size. There's so much I like, it's not really justifiable to place certain films over others that are respectively on par. Like, you got some veritable classics in there: Hamburger Hill, Planet of the Apes, Old Boy, City of God (needs more Southern Comfort methinks,) it's not right to pick and choose between other equally decent stuff that came out in the same year.

It's easier for me to mock your choices instead.

[DEL]

Skykid wrote;

You couldn't take that heat.

Nah, not really. I can't be fucked to make a list. I always find it impossibly challenging when someone asks me to name my top five movies, letalone compile a list this size. There's so much I like, it's not really justifiable to place certain films over others that are respectively on par. Like, you got some veritable classics in there: Hamburger Hill, Planet of the Apes, Old Boy, City of God (needs more Southern Comfort methinks,) it's not right to pick and choose between other equally decent stuff that came out in the same year.

It's easier for me to mock your choices instead.

Yeah, but i'd still like to see your choices, even if its just to check your recommended ones that I missed.
You're right that equally decent stuff from the same year is very difficult to choose between. A top 3 per year would be more fair (except for some recent years that seem devoid of anything good).
Southern Comfort - yes of course - I have it on tape

[R79]

2001 Mulholland Drive is a mainstream movie? Hmm
Not sure why 1933 is the start point. That's excluding Cagney, Garbo, Dietrich, Louise Brooks, and early Joan Crawford

I don't really watch many films made after the '80s, but two modern ones I did see recently were Shutter Island and Vanilla Sky, which were pretty good in their own way.

I guess my fave mega mainstream picture would be Return of the Jedi, back in '83. Seen it at the cinema twice now, and about 200 times on video and disc

[Skykid]

Skykid wrote;

You couldn't take that heat.

Nah, not really. I can't be fucked to make a list. I always find it impossibly challenging when someone asks me to name my top five movies, letalone compile a list this size. There's so much I like, it's not really justifiable to place certain films over others that are respectively on par. Like, you got some veritable classics in there: Hamburger Hill, Planet of the Apes, Old Boy, City of God (needs more Southern Comfort methinks,) it's not right to pick and choose between other equally decent stuff that came out in the same year.

It's easier for me to mock your choices instead.

Yeah, but i'd still like to see your choices, even if its just to check your recommended ones that I missed.
You're right that equally decent stuff from the same year is very difficult to choose between. A top 3 per year would be more fair (except for some recent years that seem devoid of anything good).
Southern Comfort - yes of course - I have it on tape

Well I could do a list where I just put down everything I thought was of genuine value in each year, but to recall all the movies I've seen would be impossible, and I'd need to refer to both mainstream Hollywood and foreign cinema lists just to compile it. It would be a bit of a marathon!

[evil_ash_xero]

Lord Of The Rings

-Fin

[RGC]

Thanks for the counter-list, DEL. Looks like we have about a 30% overlap in movie taste. Or, another way of looking at it: one of us is 70% wrong! :p

Skykid, a task like this is made a lot easier if you use a system like IMDB to rate movies in the first place. Then, you can simply export as .csv, and sort/fliter til your little heart's content.

Not sure why 1933 is the start point. That's excluding Cagney, Garbo, Dietrich, Louise Brooks, and early Joan Crawford

I've seen so little from that era, it was pointless listing bests. I mean, really pointless, not just like this list level of pointlessness..ess.

[Acid King]

The early years are pretty bare, so I'll ring out some suggestions for good stuff from the 40's to watch and consider, with my personal faves in bold.

1949 White Heat
1948 Key Largo, The Street With No Name (Richard Widmark is the fucking man in this one), Raw Deal, Call Northside 777
1947 Dark Passages, Dead Reckoning, Kiss of Death, Lady from Shanghai
1946 The Big Sleep, The Blue Dahlia, The Dark Corner, Gilda, The Postman Always Rings Twice, The Stranger
1945 Mildred Pierce
1944 Arsenic and Old Lace, Double Indemnity, Laura, Murder My Sweet

1942 This Gun For Hire, The Glass Key (Incidentally, both movies star Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake)
1941 Dumbo, I Wake Up Screaming, The Maltese Falcon

[Moniker]

Actually, 1996 was one of the weakest years, in terms of what I've seen. Would be good to hear from people on what is the definitive (single) best for that year!

96 had The English Patient, Fargo, and Sling Blade. A weak year indeed.

[GaijinPunch]

1995 Twelve Monkeys | [Se7en ] - Heat

Fun Fact: I have owned all 3 of the above on first LaserDisc, then DVD, and now BluRay.

[Ed Oscuro]

1995 Twelve Monkeys | [Se7en ] - Heat

Fun Fact: I have owned all 3 of the above on first LaserDisc, then DVD, and now BluRay.

I need to see Twelve Monkeys, and I suppose I ought to watch through Se7ven too.

96 had The English Patient, Fargo, and Sling Blade. A weak year indeed.

A great year for booby-trapped pianos?

[DEL]

RGC wrote;

Thanks for the counter-list, DEL. Looks like we have about a 30% overlap in movie taste. Or, another way of looking at it: one of us is 70% wrong! :p

30% is just dandy.
Like I said, everyone has different tastes in films. I'm not saying that your 70% films are not excellent quality in themselves, its just that our taste differs.

Skykid wrote;

Well I could do a list where I just put down everything I thought was of genuine value in each year, but to recall all the movies I've seen would be impossible, and I'd need to refer to both mainstream Hollywood and foreign cinema lists just to compile it. It would be a bit of a marathon!

Well, list everything and then make harsh choices to distill them down to 1 or 3.

[RGC]

The early years are pretty bare, so I'll ring out some suggestions for good stuff from the 40's to watch and consider, with my personal faves in bold.

1949 White Heat
1948 Key Largo, The Street With No Name (Richard Widmark is the fucking man in this one), Raw Deal, Call Northside 777
1947 Dark Passages, Dead Reckoning, Kiss of Death, Lady from Shanghai
1946 The Big Sleep, The Blue Dahlia, The Dark Corner, Gilda, The Postman Always Rings Twice, The Stranger
1945 Mildred Pierce
1944 Arsenic and Old Lace, Double Indemnity, Laura, Murder My Sweet

1942 This Gun For Hire, The Glass Key (Incidentally, both movies star Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake)
1941 Dumbo, I Wake Up Screaming, The Maltese Falcon

Thanks, your grace. I think I will make a start filling in some of the early year gaps. Watch this space for some eventual feedback!

Cheers also to rapoon for his recommendations.

[RGC]

My current 1953 choice really needs supplanting

OP updated.

I need to see Twelve Monkeys

I only found out recently it was a remake of La Jetée (1962), which is incidentally yet another film on my watchlist. I can see myself having to pare that list down to a number I can realistically achieve before my hearing and vision go.

[Zeron]

1935 obviously belongs to "The Triumph of the Will"

[rapoon]

My current 1953 choice really needs supplanting

OP updated.

51 - A Streetcar Named Desire
53 - Shane, The Wages of Fear
55 - Rebel Without a Cause <-- how was this missed?
56 - Giant, The Killing
57 - Paths of Glory
59 - Ben-Hur
65 - Doctor Zhivago

[GaijinPunch]

I need to see Twelve Monkeys, and I suppose I ought to watch through Se7ven too.

I actually watched Se7en in the theaters hallucinating. Wow!

[Moniker]

I actually watched Se7en in the theaters hallucinating. Wow!

That kind of experience is almost exactly how I picture Hell.

[GaijinPunch]

It was definitely intense... The reel ripped right in the last scene though, and the lights came up for about 5 minutes. It was a bit too much reality.

[CMoon]

I need to rewatch Se7en. One of those amazing experiences that belongs on this and many other lists.