Empire Announces the 500 Greatest Films of All Time

That was one of the worst lists I have ever seen. I would be fine with it if they called it "the 500 most cherished films of all time". But they are telling me that Fight Club, The Empire Strikes Back, and The Dark Knight are all ahead of the 400 Blows, Vertigo, and Citizen Kane? Really?

this list is insane and a waste of time

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The list pretty much lost me when it had all four Indiana Jones movies on it. Raiders and Last Crusade, I would've accepted. The other two don't belong anywhere near the word "best." Anything remotely non-mainstream had the air of "well, okay, I suppose we should acknowledge that, say, Asia makes films too, so we'll throw on a couple of Kurosawas - George Lucas liked him, right?" But I shouldn't expect anything else from Empire, really - for a list of 500 great popcorn flicks, it's not too bad, and it's fun to flip through and see the pictures. :)

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There are a lot of silly movie lists, but this one just started out ridiculous and got worse. Pirates of the Caribbean 2? Seriously?

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I presume some staff at Empire read this blog, If you do then my suggestion would be to give up and go work for a celebrity gossip magazine instead.

I went straight to number 1 to make sure that The Godfather was there, thank god for that. But Raiders of the lost Ark at number 2? It just got worse from there.

I will stick to the flawed but overall just about right IMDB list for a while longer I think.

Although just noticed that with the fall out of The Dark Knight thankfully leaving the top spot on IMDB (Don't get me wrong, great movie - just not the best) I notice that Shawshank has taken top place back from Godfather. mmmmm..

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This was just utterly horrific! so wrong. classics just pushed aside..i suggest they brush up on their old cinema. OOhhh and their top 5 was a joke!! anyone who reads this will need a drink and some painkillers in order to withstand it.

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Akira deserves to be much higher than 440
Cloverfield's a little iffy
Get Scarface off of there
The Seventh Seal is worse than The Revenge of the Sith?

But I guess it's not that bad as long as there are no Michael Bay movies... nope, there's Transformers. this list sucks.

And Heat should be #1

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Instead of being upset with the top of the list, I'll chose examples from lower down: Any list that has Transformers, Indiana Jones 4, Gremlins ahead of Spider-Man, Titanic, and Breakfast Club is just wackycrazy. I'm already done with looking at this list, and I've only gotten to 250.

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Also: School of Rock ahead of No Country For Old Men; Anchorman head of There Will Be Blood and Princess Bride. The top 100 are just a HUGE mix-up of great movies - some of the right picks, completely wrong spots.

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wait, Transformers? What is this list again?

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i dont get whats wrong with saw 1 . saw one was very good and its twist kinda changed the game in a sense. i will never classify saw as a horror flick and i dont know why people do. its a psychological thriller.

still 500 definitely in there especially ebcause the bad guy is not really the bad guy

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Well, one could argue that EVERYBODY KNOWS what the, at least, 100 best films are. What's the point of making a list and having, let me guess, The godfather as number 1?

SEE!? My god. I wrote it and then checked!
No point for insane list that plays it safe at the last moment.
It would be better to make 500 recomendations, in no particular order, with some highlights.

How bout it, cinematical?

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It's incredible how difficult the notion of opinion is for some people.

I mean, how hard is it to grasp? You liked a particular film? Fine, that's your opinion... You didn't? Well that's fine too. Doesn't make any purveyor of an differerent opinion then yours wrong... It just makes it a different opinion.

And frankly, there were very few films I've cherished that didn't make it on the list and I think we'd all be hard pressed to do little more then re-arange what they already put up, with perhaps a dozen or so additions and subtractions, so who really cares if the numbering doesn't match your own "OMG. Best. Movies. Ever." list.


Anyhow, personally I thought it was an enjoyable way to re-visit many of my favorite films in under an hour and gave me a nice little list of ones I may have missed over the years. Thanks for the heads up, Scott... Even if it is months late.

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What a JOKE of a list.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - 105 or so, The Dark Knight - 15?? It shouldn't even be top 200.

Embarrassing.

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I'm sorry, as good as Evil Dead 2 may be (from a certain perspective) there's no way it's a top 100 movie. And on this list it comes in at #49 being ranked ahead of the likes of Lawrence of Arabia (#57), The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (#74), The Maltese Falcon (#273), Trainspotting (#316) and Ben-Hur at an astounding # 491.

Yes, these lists are subjective at best. For example, I personally don't think Citizen Kane is the best movie ever made, Yes, it was beautifully shot, but I don't think the story is that great. For me it's in the top 30 at best (Lawrence of Arabia, Casablanca and The Godfather are my top 3) but that is my opinion. While I did enjoy Back to the Future (#23), there's no way it ranks next to The Third Man (#21), it's really not even in the top 100, let alone the top 25. And Raiders at #2, even AFI didn't rank it above 60 (but then again, they did include Titanic on their 10th anniversary list, so even they get it wrong sometimes).

This list really should have been entitled the Top 500 Popcorn Favorites because it's obvious this list was decided by movie novices and not cinema fans. Nothing against the average movie go-er, but they just wanted to be distracted and entertained for a few hours and really don't want to think. That's why Transformers made the list.

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The list should be called the "Top 500 Favorite Movies", because that's apparently how everyone voted. A lot of those movies shouldn't be on a "best of" list at all, let alone as high as some of them are ranked (Anchorman at, what was it, 115).

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It's a waste of time to construct these lists. We all know "The Godfather" will be number 1 (I still need to see all of it) and we all know Spielberg will be all over it. It's like a puzzle. Movie A is better than Move B, and Movie C is better than Movie A, but Movie B is better than Movie B. It's completely illogical. It's impossible. But I think it applies.

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I agree with Mike that this list seems to have been mis-named. A recent discussion with a good mate over just this issue yielded the idea that there is a big difference between what makes a "Great" film and what makes a "Favourite" film.

A film could be poorly made, poorly acted and cinematically a disaster but it might be a favourite because of what it means to us. Whereas, there are many films that are and should be, considered "Great" because of a number of factors, such as the roles of individual actors, the writing of the film, the cinematography, how ground-breaking it was, even the soundtrack. While such films may not be a favourite of all who view them, those with appreciation for film-making can recognise how well made and how important those films are.

I for one, am not a fan of Pulp Fiction. However, I can recognise the skill of Tarantino and the actors in that movie, and how it is put together, so that I can recognise why it frequently is referred to as a "Great" movie.

While I applaud Empire's intentions with their list, it does MANY films a disservice to have them ranked so low or not at all on that list, while other films have been undeservedly promoted to Great status.

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asking 10,000 movie watchers was a good idea... while I disagree with quite a few of the results *School of Rock over Ghostbusters for example* Thsi was a survey of what people enjoy watching not which movie was made well and which wasn't... and by the info they give you before they show the list tells you this. opinions be as they may. Fun list and even gives me a few movies to put on my netflix list :)

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