Another Top 100 films

October 4, 2003 5:05 PM

Another Top 100 films, but this is the product of Tv Cream and is more special (and I'd hazard closer to our opinions) than the usual lists. I won't give away the top film but if I mention that 'Psychomania', 'The Belles of St Trinians', 'The President's Analyst' and 'Time Bandits' are all in there you'll get the idea. Purposefully obscure at times? Sure. After all, there are still no places for 'Krush Groove' or 'Electric Dreams' ...
posted by feelinglistless (20 comments total)

hehehehehe... well I have to agree on The President's Analyst and The Bedsitting Room being underappreciated classics, but what's Back to the Future doing there? And please, Diamonds are Forever is not so bad it's good. It's so bad it's bad. Dumpy and balding is no way to play 007, Sean.
posted by condour75 at 5:30 PM on October 4, 2003

I like Diamonds are Forever. However, I don't understand what The Man Who Fell to Earth is doing on that list, even though you'll be hard pressed to find a bigger bowie fanboy than me.
posted by fvw at 5:35 PM on October 4, 2003

it reads like something Glenn Erickson would put together. which is not a terribly bad thing (e.g. Get Carter, Solaris, Duck Soup, Peeping Tom,...)

also: Darby O'Gill and the Little People -- I absolutely love that film for some very, very wrong reason.
posted by dorian at 6:12 PM on October 4, 2003

1. The author of this list is a Michael Caine fanatic.
2. All these murders are unlinked until the final ten minutes when we discover that they are actually members of a Jury about to condemn his son for murder. Huh? Now I'm supposed to want to watch the movie?
3. I was kind of with it all (after all, I've not seen the majority of the list) until I got to #1. The Wicker Man? I saw it for the first time this year—a painfully bad wallow.

posted by Zurishaddai at 6:36 PM on October 4, 2003

re: Caine fanatic

I'm very surprised that The Italian Job was not on there.

not to mention a severe lack of The Ipcress File -- proto-Bond that easily surpasses Bond, in the godly style of Deighton no less.
posted by dorian at 6:43 PM on October 4, 2003

This list is painful to read. The author's writing is (intentionally?) hard to understand. I think he has somehow confused "conversational style" with "unreadable". After the first twenty films, I found myself just browsing through to see the titles because the blurbs were too confusing.
posted by kcalder at 7:36 PM on October 4, 2003

The only people I've ever known who have even heard of "The President's Analyst" are the type of geeks that can make bombs out of water balloons.

So I'm now suspiciously wondering just what is meant by and I'd hazard closer to our opinions and backing away from you all very. Slowly.
posted by WolfDaddy at 7:47 PM on October 4, 2003

I agree with Wolfy. Most of the movies drew either a blank stare or a raised eyebrow for me.

Except Brazil.
posted by The God Complex at 8:14 PM on October 4, 2003

Cool -- I noticed two of the "Carry On" gang movies!

And "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" -- truly genius.

Duck Soup - few better movies than this one.

I've seen better lists -- but I've seen many more WORSE lists.
posted by davidmsc at 10:34 PM on October 4, 2003

And another treat from TV Cream: The REAL Top 100 Singles, featuring classics from Adam & The Ants, Human League, Ian Dury & The Blockheads, Carly Simon, Haircut 100, Malcolm McLaren, Blondie, Chic, Murray Head (!), Style Council, Squeeze, Dee-Lite, John Fred & The Playboy Band, and many many more.
posted by davidmsc at 10:40 PM on October 4, 2003

I suggest that anyone confused about this list should hang on to a copy & use it as a rerference anytime you want to look out something interesting to watch.

This list is a corker...of course, being TV Cream, it is very English & very wedded to that slightly faded post-war to 1979 nostalgia but that just makes it even better. davidmsc's link to the top 100 singles might give a better indication as to where TVC are coming from.

The Time Bandits, Clockwise, Oh, Mr Porter, Passport to Pimlico, Get Carter [probably one of the best endings to any film, ever], The Railway Children, Brazil, Threads (cheating!), The Rebel, The Ladykillers, The Wicker Man, School for Scoundrels, Carry on Screaming, Brighton Rock, Theatre of Blood, The Likely Lads, Rita, Sue & Bob too, Went The Day Well? and Ice Cold in Alex [two of the best WWII films in existence] & The Belles of St Trinian's. If you are 'into' cinema & haven't seen most of the above, then go away. You know nothing! British Cinema isn't just Chariots of Fire ya know.

Just a pity that Gregory's Girl, The Italian Job [original version, natch] & Kes didn't make the list...so it's not definitive but as dmsc says, there are many worse than this. Many, many worse ;-)
posted by i_cola at 3:04 AM on October 5, 2003

How...odd. Interesting, though.
posted by rushmc at 7:54 AM on October 5, 2003

I always find it hard to trust people who consider Time Bandits a good movie.

That's one that has just always eluded me.
posted by obfusciatrist at 9:53 AM on October 5, 2003

I always find it hard to trust people who don't consider Time Bandits to be a good movie.
posted by feelinglistless at 10:36 AM on October 5, 2003

Oh Lord! Oh Jesus Christ!

(sorry, every time The Wicker Man is mentioned, that's what I have to do.)

Seeing A Matter Of Life And Death at #3 made me happy.
posted by Katemonkey at 1:18 PM on October 5, 2003

You know nothing! British Cinema isn't just Chariots of Fire ya know.

Well, the last two great classic British pictures I saw were Neame and Guinness's The Horse's Mouth, and Withnail and I. This Cream TV feller was too busy with The Goonies for those...
posted by Zurishaddai at 4:53 PM on October 5, 2003

Groan, another top 100 list that ignores the work of Werner Herzog (I'm looking at you IMDB and Sight + Sound) but I'll cut some slack cause this seems to be focused around Britain. But you'd think Cream would include a couple Bollywood films considering the population.

Interesting list though, I'd forgotten how interesting Dragonslayer was.
posted by bobo123 at 7:09 PM on October 5, 2003

The only people I've ever known who have even heard of "The President's Analyst" are the type of geeks that can make bombs out of water balloons.

My 1999 positive review of Analyst for epinions.com is one of the few of my on-web writings that still exists...
however my tutorial on how to make water balloons out of bombs has completely disappeared.

BTW, feeling ironic, listless?
posted by wendell at 7:10 PM on October 5, 2003

Stoo-pid Amurricuns...

;-)
posted by i_cola at 12:28 AM on October 6, 2003

Always, wendell, always. In an Alanis Morissette sense of the word.
posted by feelinglistless at 10:37 AM on October 6, 2003