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Sheer, unadulterated, side-splitting, class. A brilliant movie, clever, original and very, very funny, as is Life Of Brian. One of those movies (and they are not many) that I can watch again and again.

Oh I agree about anything Python really. Especially those two films and the old series.

In fact what you said is the best measure of a great (or favorite film) -which film would you pay to own and watch again and again (or go to the theater) rather than just see once.
 
So many great movies, I'm having trouble pinning down one or two.
I'm sure there's one I missed and I rack my brains but here's what I have. Basically if I like to watch the movie over and over, then I consider it the category

Star Wars series (both old and new)
Star Trek Wrath of Kahn
Dr. No
Groundhog Day

I would also have to say Star Trek: Insurrection. And anything by Mel Brooks, Blazing Saddles being my favorite...
 
Raiders of the Lost Ark and it's not even close!

I can watch that movie endlessly.
 
Brave Sir Robin had minstrels following him around singing of his exploits and then he ran away. Some great scenes and gags in that movie. :D

YouTube: video

Castle Antrax: :D

YouTube: video

Killer Bunny: :D

YouTube: video

I just love the 'Brave Sir Robin' sequence; especially the faithful rendition of the sort of chords and singing you would have heard in late medieval music - it is absolutely brilliant, supremely hilarious and wonderful comedy. Bravo, thanks for posting it.
 
Not sure anymore!

Was Shawshank

Then Zombieland, which just kills me....

Now I think it might be Life of Pi......but got Django down loaded, but haven't got round to watching it yet!?!?!
 
I would also have to say Star Trek: Insurrection. And anything by Mel Brooks, Blazing Saddles being my favorite...

Mel Brooks is hit and miss for me. His number one hit was Young Frankenstein. It's unique, a stroke of genius. :)

Raiders of the Lost Ark and it's not even close!

I can watch that movie endlessly.

Set a standard for adventure hard to replicate.

I just love the 'Brave Sir Robin' sequence; especially the faithful rendition of the sort of chords and singing you would have heard in late medieval music - it is absolutely brilliant, supremely hilarious and wonderful comedy. Bravo, thanks for posting it.

At one time I thought the "bring out your dead" sequence was fiction... :eek:

Was Shawshank

Then Zombieland, which just kills me....

Shawshank is on my top 10 list. Zombieland, surprisingly good but no where near "greatest". ;)
 
The Godfather part 2 and The Dark Knight

I agree that the Godfather is epic. The baptismal scene gave me chills.

The scene that really gripped me was the scene in The Godfather part 2 where Vito (played by Robert de Niro), having come to the seminal fork, or cross-roads in his life, has made his choice, and then scrambles across the roof-tops on his way to kill Fanucci (and thus, 'make his bones'), while the religious procession takes place in the street below; stunning cinematography, impeccable timing and spine-tingling music.
 
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First, I realize that the choice of "The Greatest Movie Ever Made" is an issue purely of personal taste. (You know when some know-it-all says that, it really means my taste is better than yours:p:rolleyes:))

I cannot understand how a current film (I'm old, so for me "current" goes back a good way) can be seen as "The Best Film Ever Made". The current films stand on the shoulders of the true innovators...the Lumière brothers, Welles, Carol Reed, De Mille, and others. Those early to mid-Century films created the techniques (directorial, cinemagraphic, lighting) that all the current films employ. Those early films created the language of film making, which the current films also employ. They were the innovators and experimentalists.

While I have no problem with the choices made above as excellent, even grand, films (well, "Forrest Gump" not so much :)), to call them the Greatest Films Ever Made gives me pause.

OK, I'm sure that there will be many who disagree with my opinion, and I welcome the disagreements and arguments.:D

The Annoying-Know-It-All-Movie-Pedant Strikes Again!;):D
 
First, I realize that the choice of "The Greatest Movie Ever Made" is an issue purely of personal taste. (You know when some know-it-all says that, it really means my taste is better than yours:p:rolleyes:))

I cannot understand how a current film (I'm old, so for me "current" goes back a good way) can be seen as "The Best Film Ever Made". The current films stand on the shoulders of the true innovators...the Lumière brothers, Welles, Carol Reed, De Mille, and others. Those early to mid-Century films created the techniques (directorial, cinemagraphic, lighting) that all the current films employ. Those early films created the language of film making, which the current films also employ. They were the innovators and experimentalists.

While I have no problem with the choices made above as excellent, even grand, films (well, "Forrest Gump" not so much :)), to call them the Greatest Films Ever Made gives me pause.

OK, I'm sure that there will be many who disagree with my opinion, and I welcome the disagreements and arguments.:D

The Annoying-Know-It-All-Movie-Pedant Strikes Again!;):D

I find myself pretty much in agreement with you, but we both discussed criteria by which I (we?) think a 'great' movie should be judged. From what I have read so far, most who have taken the time and trouble to answer have posted the movies they really liked when offering an example, rather than what they might have seen as a really 'great' movie; or maybe they assume that they are one and the same thing. I don't think they are (although there are some that overlap, the obvious, such as Citizen Kane, The Third Man and others which we have already discussed), and I can accept movies as thought-provoking, or clever, or witty, or splendid entertainment without conferring the adjective 'great' on them. That is an accolade I reserve for the truly sublime.

However, I suspect we are also dealing with a loss or erosion of cultural/historical memory and understanding of context here. Many who post here have no memory of the 1980s, let alone the 70s, 60s, 50s, 40s..........to them, I suspect that is a world that is as unfathomable, as unknowable and as incomprehensible as the dawn of time itself.
 
I find myself pretty much in agreement with you, but we both discussed criteria by which I (we?) think a 'great' movie should be judged. From what I have read so far, most who have taken the time and trouble to answer have posted the movies they really liked when offering an example, rather than what they might have seen as a really 'great' movie; or maybe they assume that they are one and the same thing. I don't think they are (although there are some that overlap, the obvious, such as Citizen Kane, The Third Man and others which we have already discussed), and I can accept movies as thought-provoking, or clever, or witty, or splendid entertainment without conferring the adjective 'great' on them. That is an accolade I reserve for the truly sublime.

However, I suspect we are also dealing with a loss or erosion of cultural/historical memory and understanding of context here. Many who post here have no memory of the 1980s, let alone the 70s, 60s, 50s, 40s..........to them, I suspect that is a world that is as unfathomable, as unknowable and as incomprehensible as the dawn of time itself.

I agree completely with all you have said. But one need not be my age to explore the films of the 30s, 40s, 50s, and so on. The wonderful part of films is that learning a bit about the history, the foundation, of cinema is right there before one. No books with someone else interpreting historical events (you know about those historians!:p)...you can see the material first hand...as it was seen when it was first made.

Certainly there are some wonderful current, and recent past, films. But the accolade of a "great" film is reserved for a very few... and "the greatest" for even fewer.
 
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