Top 100 Favorite Films Of All Time

To commemorate my 40th birthday, and all that I experienced so far, I created four all-time favorite lists.

The first one up was fairly obvious, considering what I normally write about on this site: my Top 100 favorite films of all time.

Honestly, I have never ever accomplished this type of list before, even with my expansive passion for the cinema. From my child years to my college years, I never spent the time or energy to write one up. One of the few times I was "forced" to do one was back in the early days of Facebook, aka college-people-only Facebook. For my "Favorite Movies" on my profile, I just typed down anything and everything I could think of, including films that I just saw for the first time via film school, before reaching the word count limit. I would add and remove some stuff but never treated it too seriously, nor could I make it to 100 films.

My last noted personal attempt to make a Top 100 was in 2018. And even then, I somehow couldn't get to a full 100. But now, I was finally able to do it. And it only took 40 years.

To help determine what made the final cut (hah hah, film humor), I set some guidelines that each film had to clear.

1. A Worth Watch

I had to have seen the feature-length film before and thoroughly enjoyed it, regardless of its "quality". Fairly obvious but a necessary rule.

2. Replayability

I had to have watched the film in its entirety at least twice in my lifetime. This rule was the biggest one enforced, as it helped eliminate a ton of films that would have an easier chance to make the list.

3. Longevity

The film lived beyond any viewing. I would often quote from it, often thought about it, and/or have a passion to rewatch clips from it via YouTube.

4. The Shut Down Factor

If I came across the film playing on television, I would be more likely to straight up shut down whatever I was doing and watch it.

5. Audience Of One

This is my favorite films list, not a list of the greatest films I've seen. The only person I need to appease is me, not Cahiers du Cinéma.

For a couple last minute details: as briefly stated, this is just a list of what people normally refer to as a film or movie, that being something that is feature-length. That means no short films and no music videos.

Below the full list, I will have notes and comments about the process of making this list and the thinking behind some of my choices.

Also, like all personal inventories, this favorite list is just a moment of time. It could literally change tomorrow. Films have and will continue to come and go from this list as time moves forward and I grow older.

Here are my top 100 favorite films of all time, in alphabetical order.

12 Angry Men (1957)

The Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert

Akira

Aliens

The American President

Army Of Darkness

Bambi

Beauty And The Beast (1991)

Billy Madison

The Birds

Black Book

The Blob (1988)

Blue Velvet

Breakfast At Tiffany’s

Brick

Bull Durham

Choose Me

Civil War

Cobra

Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid

Deep Red

Deep Rising

The Deer Hunter

Demolition Man

Die Hard

Do The Right Thing

Fantasia

Farewell My Concubine

Fargo

The Fifth Element

Freaked

Full Metal Jacket

Gaea Girls

Ghostbusters

Glengarry Glen Ross

Godzilla, Mothra And King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack

Good Night, And Good Luck

Hard Ticket To Hawaii

Home Alone

In Bruges

Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade

Jurassic Park

L.A. Confidential

The Last Boy Scout

The Lego Movie

The Lion King

Mortal Kombat (1995)

Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie

The Nest (2002)

Pain & Gain

Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure

Perfect Blue

The Philadelphia Story

Platoon

The Player

Playtime

Predator

Psycho (1960)

Purple Rain

Quiz Show

Raiders Of The Lost Ark

The Ref

Reservoir Dogs

Return Of The Jedi

River’s Edge

RoboCop

The Rock

Rock & Rule

Rollerball (1975)

The Royal Tenenbaums

Run Lola Run

Saving Private Ryan

Seven Samurai

Sex, Lies And Videotape

Shattered Glass

The Shining

Show Business: The Road To Broadway

Singin’ In The Rain

Spaceballs

Spirited Away

Stagecoach

Starship Troopers

Stop Making Sense

Strange Days

Streets Of Fire

Sunset Boulevard

Suspiria (1977)

The Taking Of Pelham One Two Three (1974)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)

Terminator 2: Judgment Day

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

The Thing (1982)

Tremors

Vertigo

Waking Life

WALL-E

The Warriors

West Side Story (1961)

Wet Hot American Summer

Who Framed Roger Rabbit

I don't have a one and only favorite film. Never have, never will. No, not even the film that's been my website header for forever.

However, if I had to make a Top 10 or Top 20 favorite films list, I could come up with one. Unfortunately, it would be pretty boring, consisting mainly of films (spoiler) that start with a "B" or "S". Hence, why I think it's bullshit to do them and I would rather spend more time celebrating a ton of other films.

I said I was very strict with the "must seen twice" rule but I lied, but only just a little bit. There are five films on the list that I have only seen once. I only allowed five to be included to help make it tougher for myself and prevent including a bunch of other "better" films. Also, if I didn't have these five films on this list right here, right now, I would have gone mad and hate myself for not doing it.

My international representation has Japan with five films, France and Italy tied with two films, and Australia, Canada, China, Germany, and The Netherlands with one film each.

I only ended up with 12 animated films, if you include Who Framed Roger Rabbit, which is a big shock to me. Considering how much I adore animation, I thought there would be at least 20 films.

Only two documentaries and they both focus on entertainment that I also love. Wow, what a stretch in that department.

Gee, can you tell I love Christmas, considering there are three films on the list tied to the holiday? Yes, I do still consider In Bruges as a Christmas film. I wrote a whole piece about it back in 2010!

I have a more negative than positive opinion about Michael Bay and yet he has two films on my all time list. Life is so weird at times.

The oldest film on the list is Stagecoach (1939), while the newest film is Civil War (2024).

It may be a little recency bias, which I normally loathe, but Civil War is just right up my alley and I have grown to love it more and more.

The most obscure film on the list would probably be The Nest. Not to be confused with the similarly named 1988 bug horror flick or the 2020 Sean Durkin film, this is a kickass French action film that's also a modern European take on Assault On Precinct 13. Fun fact: next to the The Prince Of Tides, this was the best film I ever saw via Netflix's Watch Now streaming platform before it was revamped and became far more popular and influential.

I had to cut so many old favorites, it really hurt. Unfortunately, a lot of them just haven't stick around with me or I haven't rewatched them in a long while or they simply dimmed in my opinion. Five examples of films that got cut: Almost Famous, Batman, The Big Heat, A Man And A Woman, and Sholay.

The last two films to make the list before it was sealed were The Blob (1988) and Choose Me. The former has been an eternal fascination for me, ever since I first saw the VHS cover of it at my local Blockbuster. It being a sly critique on Reagan's America under the guise of a gooby and gory monster flick also helped. As for the latter, I highly recommend it, especially since the film continues to be underseen and undervalued, even with it now being part of the Criterion Collection.

I wanted the list to have some seriousness to it but I still wanted to cater to my love of so-called "trashy" movies, hence the inclusion of both Cobra and Hard Ticket To Hawaii. Including Can't Stop The Music, on the other hand, is a step too far.

If you think that I included Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie just because I utterly love the show, please note: I vividly remember coming across the show back when it was on Comedy Central but can't remember anything else other than I liked the episodes with Mike and not that other boring guy. It was the movie that really sealed the deal with my deep affection for the series.