Film Site's Top Films

 Original List

The Big Sleep (1946):  I still don't care for Humphry Bogart or Film Noir.

Greed (1924): Apparently considered by many to be the greatest film ever made.  While it's certainly impressive for its time, it can seem disjointed.  This is probably because it was cut down from an original nine hour runtime by the studio.  

Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948): A sad, boring movie about a deranged stalker.

My Darling Clementine (1946): A pretty average cowboy movie.  That is to say, really boring and slow with basically no redeeming qualities.

Paths of Glory (1957): I'm not generally a fan of war movies or Stanley Kubrick films.  This is both of those things, but I still found myself engaged and enjoying it.  I think that's because this is much less bizarre than any Kubrick film I can recall watching while also being extremely cynical about the military.  Pretty good.

Trouble in Paradise (1932):  Boring and stupid beginning to end.

Second List

The 39 Steps (1935): Fairly unremarkable.

The Asphalt Jungle (1950):  More film noir.  Not my genre.

The Bad and the Beautiful (1952):  Movies about making movies still seem to be universally bad.

Bad Day At Black Rock (1955): This movie seems to be an AARP version of the Karate Kid.  For about an hour a young(ish) Ernest Borgnine bullies Spencer Tracy until he goes too far.  Then Spencer Tracy (55 at the time) starts karate chopping and flipping him.  While it is an all white cast, it does try to make a statement about the anti-Asian racism that swept the country during WWII, which seems progressive for the time.

Badlands (1973): A disturbing but surprisingly riveting movie about a spree killer from South Dakota.

The Bank Dick (1940): Terrible.

The Big Heat (1953): Some more film noir.  These films are really running together in my mind.

The Big Parade (1925):  Not bad for a silent film about war.  Take from that what you will.

Brief Encounter (1945):  I can't really enjoy films about cheating, even if they're otherwise engaging. This one wasn't.

Broken Blossoms (1919): Pretty depressing.

Cat People (1942): A very weird movie about a woman who turns into a panther when she's aroused or angry.

Days of Heaven (1978): I find it hard to root for characters that are trying to trick a dying man into a marriage to get all of his money.

Don't Look Now (1973):  I don't think I (or anyone) needed to see a naked Donald Sutherland.  It's not quick either, it goes on for an extended period of time.  And just when you think "that's more naked Donald Sutherland than anyone needs in a lifetime" it turns into Donald Sutherland having really explicit sex, also for an extended period of time. This movie has lots of cuts that I assume are supposed to be artistic, but really just gave me a headache.  If you can look past all of that, you'll find a weird and stupid story that seems to believe it's a mystery/thriller.

Gun Crazy (1950): A weird, sad movie with annoying characters.  

The Killers (1946): It is weird to me how many film noir movies are about insurance.

Kiss Me Deadly (1955): Even more film noir.  Such a waste of time.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962):  I can't recall having to endure both Jimmy Stewart and John Wayne in the same film, and this one is really terrible.  You have John Wayne acting like a jerk, as usual, and calling someone "pilgrim" every 20 seconds.  Then you have Jimmy Stewart bumbling, ranting, and condescending in turns.  The culmination of the film is patently absurd.  He shot someone who had called him out for a duel and was shooting at him.  The big debate is whether he's guilty of murder.  I don't think the idea would have even occurred to anyone in that time and place.  It's ridiculous.

Mean Streets (1973): Mostly stupid and with really annoying characters.

Murder, My Sweet (1944):  So boring.

Only Angels Have Wings (1939): Ew.

Queen Christina (1933): Best of this bunch, but that's not saying much.

Shadow of a Doubt (1943): I was mainly distracted by the obnoxious little girl.

Winchester '73 (1950):  Another Western with Jimmy Stewart.  Both things I hate in a movie.

Written On the Wind (1956):  Basically an overly long soap opera.

Third List

Baby Doll (1956):  Creepy and weird throughout.

Blowup (1966): Not bad.

Bus Stop (1956): I already had a headache when I started watching, so it may be overly harsh, but I hated everyone and everything in this movie.

Cabin In the Sky (1943): It's amazing to me that there was a mainstream film with an all-Black cast this early.  As historically important as it may be, I just didn't care for it.

East of Eden (1955): Pretty ridiculous.

Enter the Dragon (1973):  Probably one of the best martial arts films ever made.  But it's still a martial arts film, so I wasn't really interested.

Footlight Parade (1933):  The performances are technically impressive, but the music is terrible.  This also seems like it was really racist even if you take into account when it was released.

Freaks (1932): Pretty much every part of this was bizarre and terrible.

Henry V (1989): Decent.

Inherit the Wind (1960):  A ridiculous dramatization of a trial that was already a publicity stunt.

Jailhouse Rock (1957): Not my cup of tea.

Key Largo (1948): More film noir.

The Kid (1921): Silent and boring.

The Killing (1956): A fairly basic heist film with gratuitous violence.

The King of Comedy (1982): Pretty good.  I hadn't realized that The Joker was, in some ways, a retelling of this story.

Koyaanisqatsi (1982): Sort of a low rent Planet Earth with no narration.

The Lady From Shanghai (1948): I honestly don't understand why there's so much film noir.  It's all terrible.

The Road Warrior (1981):  Such a weird movie.

The Man Who Would Be King (1975): Alternates between really boring and really weird and also seems really inappropriate culturally.

A Matter of Life and Death (1946): Basically a worse British version of Heaven Can Wait.

Repulsion (1965): I didn't care for this.  I suppose it's a fairly good horror film for its time from a technical perspective but, like its creator, there's too much rape involved.

Saturday Night Fever (1977): This was mostly John Travolta being obnoxious and making bad decision, with some dancing thrown in.  The car ride at the end is horrifying.

The Scarlet Empress (1934):  Not bad for its time, but overly dramatic.

Way Out West (1937): Laurel and Hardy have absolutely no appeal for me.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988):  This is such a weird movie.  It surprises me that Disney used all of their IP in this film that, despite its PG rating, doesn't seem targeted toward children.  Or adults.  Or any demographic I can discern.

The Wind (1928): Terrible.

Last updated June 21, 2021