It’s the Sunday Movie Showdown, The American Film Institute’s (AFI)
Top 100 vs. the Internet Movie Databases’ (IMDb) Top 100.
This week:
#24: E.T. the Extra
Terrestrial vs. Psycho
#23: The Grapes of Wrath
vs. Toy Story 3
My sister-in-law tells me
that your tastes in food change every seven years. The thing is, you never know
when that seven year change is going
to occur. That’s why you should always try food you don’t like whenever it is
on your plate: because it may be TODAY that your palate changes and you begin
to like that always-hated food. Of course, you may have another six and a half
years of trying the grossness before your palate changes. Bummer.
 |
| Yawn. |
I guess I was hoping the
same may be true about my intense loathing for E.T. That if I watched it again, now, as an adult, my palate may
have changed and I would begin to enjoy that always-hated movie.
Well, it didn’t. I
still disliked it as much as I ever had. And I don’t plan on putting it on
my plate any time again soon to see if my tastes change.
Seriously, could that E.T.
goodbye scene be any longer? And did anybody else but me wonder where the heck
the cornfields where E.T. is first found are in the middle of Elliot’s suburban neighborhood? Whatever. I
feel bad now for calling Jimmy Stewart’s last couple of films
overly-sentimental. E.T. has them
beat, hands glowing finger down.
So even though I couldn’t
actually watch Psycho this week
because it’s so back-logged on Netflix, it gets my vote.
#23:
Grapes of Wrath vs. Toy Story 3 was a much more difficult decision. I hadn’t actually seen either of them before, and
enjoyed them both immensely, although the two couldn’t be more different.
 |
| Phenomenal acting by Henry Fonda & Jane Darwell |
Wrath was directed by the John Ford (more well known for his Westerns) and had
stunning performances by a very young Henry Fonda and Jane Darwell. It’s
another one of those classic films that you might have missed but you should
definitely see. (Plus it’s on Netflix Instant.)
Toy
Story 3 is also a gem. I am not a general fan of animated films, but I did
enjoy this one. It’s touching end to the series. But at the same time it seemed
like most of the story had already been told before (Toys are about to be
thrown away, how can they get out of this mess? Oh, they’ll have to work
together as a team. And now they’re all friends forever – yay!) But even with
the similarities to the other two, I still liked
this Toy Story the best of the three.
 |
| Here we go again, guys! |
But I can’t give Toy Story my vote over a class like Grapes of Wrath. Comparatively, it’s too inconsequential.
So this week, one vote each for AFI and
IMDb. AFI wins for Grapes of Wrath, IMDb wins for Psycho. (Psycho will show up again as AFI’s #14 against, wait for it… Star Wars). IMDb had the good sense not
to put E.T. on its list at all.
The overall score is now: AFI – 44, IMDb
– 36
AFI’s
Top 100
|
IMDb’s
Top 100 (as of 1/1/12)
|
|
44
|
36
|
|
| #11 | City Lights (1931) | LoTR: Return of the King (2003) |
| #19 | On the Waterfront (1954) | LoTR: Fellowship of the Ring (2001) |
#20
|
It's
a Wonderful Life (1946)
|
Rear Window (1954)
|
#23
|
The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
|
Toy
Story 3 (2010)
|
#24
|
E.T.
the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
|
Psycho (1960)
|
#25
|
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
|
The Usual Suspects (1995)
|
#26
|
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
|
The Matrix (1999)
|
#27
|
High Noon (1952)
|
Silence of the Lambs (1991)
|
#28
|
All About Eve (1950)
|
Se7en
(1995)
|
#29
|
Double
Indemnity (1944)
|
It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
|
#30
|
Apocalypse Now (1979)
|
Memento
(1990)
|
| #31 | The Maltese Falcon (1941) | LoTR: The Two Towers(2002) |
#32
|
The Godfather Part II (1974)
|
Sunset
Boulevard (1950)
|
#33
|
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
|
Dr.
Strangelove (1964)
|
#34
|
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
(1937)
|
Forrest
Gump (1994)
|
#35
|
Annie
Hall (1977)
|
Leon: The Professional (1994)
|
#36
|
The
Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
|
Citizen Kane (1941)
|
| #37 | The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) | Apocalypse Now (1979) |
| #38 | The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) | North By Northwest (1959) |
| #39 | Dr. Strangelove (1964) | American Beauty (1999) |
| #40 | The Sound of Music (1965) | American History X (1998) |
| #41 | King Kong (1933) | Taxi Driver (1976) |
| #42 | Bonnie and Clyde (1967) | Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) |
| #43 | Midnight Cowboy (1969) | Saving Private Ryan (1998) |
| #44 | The Philadelphia Story (1940) | Vertigo (1958) |
| #45 | Shane (1953) | Amelie (2001) |
| #46 | It Happened One Night (1934) | Alien (1979) |
| #47 | A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) | Wall E (2008) |
| #48 | Rear Window (1954) | Lawrence of Arabia (1962) |
| #49 | Intolerance (1916) | The Shining (1980) |
| #50 | LoTR: Fellowship of the Ring (2001) | Spirited Away (2001) |
| #51 | West Side Story (1961) | Paths of Glory (1957) |
| #52 | Taxi Driver (1976) | A Clockwork Orange (1971) |
| #53 | The Deer Hunter (1978) | Double Indemnity (1944) |
| #54 | M*A*S*H* (1970) | To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) |
| #55 | North by Northwest (1959) | The Pianist (2002) |
| #56 | Jaws (1975) | The Lives of Others (2006) |
| #57 | Rocky (1976) | The Departed (2006) |
#58
|
The Gold Rush (1925)
|
Memento
(2000)
|
| #59 | Nashville (1975) | City Lights (1931) |
#60
|
Duck
Soup (1933)
|
Aliens (1986)
|
#61
|
Sullivan's Travels (1941)
|
Eternal
Sunshine of a Spotless Mind (2004)
|
#62
|
American
Graffiti (1973)
|
Requiem for a Dream (2000)
|
#63
|
Cabaret
(1972)
|
Das Boot (1981)
|
#64
|
Network (1976)
|
The
Third Man (1949)
|
#65
|
The African Queen (1951)
|
L.A.
Confidential (1997)
|
#66
|
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
|
Reservoir
Dogs (1992)
|
#67
|
Who’s
Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
|
Chinatown (1974)
|
#68
|
Unforgiven
(1992)
|
The Treasure of Sierra Madre (1948)
|
#69
|
Tootsie
(1982)
|
Modern Times (1936)
|
#70
|
A
Clockwork Orange (1971)
|
Life is Beautiful (1997)
|
#71
|
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
|
Monty
Python & the Holy Grail (1975)
|
#72
|
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
|
Back
to the Future (1985)
|
#73
|
Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid
(1969)
|
The
Prestige (2006)
|
#74
|
Silence of the Lambs (1991)
|
Pan’s
Labyrinth (2006)
|
#75
|
In
the Heat of the Night (1967)
|
Raging Bull (1980)
|
#76
|
Forrest
Gump (1994)
|
Cinema Paradiso (1988)
|
#77
|
All
the President’s Men (1976)
|
Singing In the Rain (1952)
|
#78
|
Modern
Times (1936)
|
Some Like it Hot (1959)
|
#79
|
The
Wild Bunch (1969)
|
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
|
#80
|
The
Apartment (1960)
|
Rashomon (1950)
|
#81
|
Spartacus
(1960)
|
All About Eve (1950)
|
#82
|
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)
|
Amadeus
(1984)
|
#83
|
Titanic (1997)
|
Once
Upon A Time in America (1984)
|
#84
|
Easy
Rider (1969)
|
The Green Mile (1999)
|
#85
|
A
Night at the Opera (1935)
|
Full Metal Jacket (1987)
|
#86
|
Platoon (1986)
|
2001:
A Space Odyssey (1968)
|
#87
|
12
Angry Men (1957)
|
Inglorious Basterds (2009)
|
#88
|
Bringing Up Baby (1938)
|
The
Great Dictator (1940)
|
#89
|
Sixth Sense (1999)
|
Braveheart
(1995)
|
#90
|
Swing
Time (1936)
|
The Bicycle Thief (1948)
|
#91
|
Sophie’s Choice (1982)
|
The
Apartment (1960)
|
#92
|
Up (2009)
|
Goodfellas
(1990)
|
#93
|
The French Connection (1971)
|
Downfall
(2004)
|
#94
|
Pulp Fiction (1994)
|
Gran
Torino (2008)
|
#95
|
The
Last Picture Show (1971)
|
Metropolis (1927)
|
#96
|
Do The Right Thing (1989)
|
The
Sting (1973)
|
#97
|
Blade Runner (1982)
|
Gladiator
(2000)
|
#98
|
Yankee
Doodle Dandy (1942)
|
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
|
#99
|
Toy Story (1995)
|
Unforgiven
(1992)
|
#100
|
Ben Hur (1959)
|
The
Elephant Man (1980)
|
Next week is Some Like it Hot vs. Raiders
of the Lost Ark and Chinatown vs.
Once Upon a Time in the West. The first will be very easy for me, the second I
can’t speak to yet, since I haven’t seen Once
Upon a Time yet.
