holy god that was the first porno i ever saw, spent the rest of my life looking in vain for better

Me and Ray Zee is agreeing on stuff. Gotta note this in my little notebook!

How do I give this red guy an infraction?

For me, it would be suspect if too many modern films made the list. Then you'd end up with the IMDB top 250.

too many new films????? not one newer than 40 years old.

maybe a bunch of 90 year old men making the list up.

seems for the top film ever to be displaced, it needs to be one that is new to the list.
its not like vertigo improved over the years.

uhm...but you dont know how modern movies will stand the test of time. that's why.

i'm 30 and if i'd be forced to make a list like that, there's no way i'd add a movie that's newer.
maybe i should quote Roger Ebert again: "You're insufficiently evolved as a moviegoer." Or, more simply, "You're wrong."

yeah, and if serious critics are going to compile a top ten list of the greatest novels ever, there'll be nothing in there from the past 40 years... weird how that works. quality of art strongly decreased with the rise of pop culture, why is it hard for people to accept :/

DVDs have done more to keep the list fairly stable as anything. Keep in mind that Hitchcock pulled Vertigo (and four other of his films) out of distribution, and it wasn't rereleased to theaters until the 1980s. A whole generation of viewers had never seen it until then. In addition, The Passion of Joan of Arc was not shown in its present form until a few years ago when it appeared on DVD. It was nearly impossible to see a number of the films on the top fifty until now, so a new generation of critics have been able to see films they've only read about for years. While these are old films according to the date they were made, in effect many are new films for a new audience. And once you get past the top ten, a few of the films have been made in the past twenty years.

I also believe that it helps to be a fairly experienced filmgoer. And DVDs have allowed me to see movies I pretty much thought I'd never get the chance to see. I've seen every movie of the top fifty but one, Pather Panchali, because I've never been able to get it from Netflix. So while I might quibble with a choice here and there, I do know that this list is just about as good as any you'll find.

Experienced filmgoer? The thing about movies is almost everyone is an experienced filmgoer. Almost everyone watches movies all of the time. But I guess with even all the movies I watch I am not an experienced "filmgoer". I consider myself much more of an experienced "moviewatcher". I don't need critics to tell me what I like and what I hate because as a grownup I can figure that out all by myself.

There is a small subset of people who are really into the artistic merit of movies. I'm not one of them I love watching movies for entertainment though and view entertainment value as the most important aspect of any movie. The critic types that make up these lists care nothing about entertainment value. Although for them and their tastes these list kind of movies are entertaining for them but are unlikely to be for typical people. But they are only entertaining for that very small subset of all human beings. For me personally I find many of these arty types of movies cruel and unusual punishment and not only unentertaining but actual torture.

Well im a movie omnivore. I find something to like about almost every movie I watch. Hell I can only think of 2 I actively detest out of maybe 5000 watched. And that doesnt include Sex and the City 2.

and I mostly agree your first measure of a movie should be is it entertaining.

However, some movies transcend that (that doesnt mean they shouldnt have to entertain btw, they should always do that), and leave you thinking about them days, weeks or even years after. These are the greats.

To me, the acid test for a highbrow filmsnob vs movieaste vs filmgeek is the answer to this question.

Rocky and Rocky 4. Which is better?

1. Rocky
2. Rocky 4
3. Neither are good

I know from past posts that your answer is 4 but I like Rocky better. But I really like 4 too. But I think all of the first 4 Rockys are great.

Youre a movieaste then! I like those.

There is probably a flaw in this test

JohnCole, I watched Pather Panchali on youtube. A lot of these old movies you can find on there if you just search for them.

Agree with everything. I've only truly disliked probably less than 10 movies out of the ~2500 that I've seen and I've only ever shut off 2 partway through because I couldn't take it anymore.