Ranking Only the Best (and the Very Worst) of a Movie Year Project

[Detective Jim McLeod]

1991 films seen-34
The Best

What About Bob?
Dead Again
The Commitments
Let Him Have It

The Worst

Harley Davidson And The Marlboro Man
Freddy's Dead The Final Nightmare
The People Under The Stairs
For the Boys

[LawrenceA]

1991 (275 seen)

Favorites
The Silence of the Lambs
Barton Fink
JFK
Boyz n the Hood
Bugsy
Cape Fear
Delicatessen
The Doors
The Fisher King
Naked Lunch
Raise the Red Lantern
Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky

Favorite Documentaries
Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse
Perverse Preachers, Fascist Fundamentalists & Kristian Kiddie Kooks
Blood in the Face
35 Up

Least Favorites
The Malibu Beach Vampires
Mannequin Two: On the Move
Cool as Ice
Child's Play 3
Suburban Commando
Highlander 2: The Quickening
Eve of Destruction

[kingrat]

1991

Number of films seen: (20-25)

Movie quote of the year: "The life of the mind!"--Barton Fink

Favorites (alphabetical order):

Beauty and the Beast
Enchanted April
The Fisher King
Soapdish
Tous les matins du monde

Also liked:

Fried Green Tomatoes
Queens Logic
Grand Canyon
Bugsy
The Naked Gun 2 1/2
Little Man Tate
Point Break
Dead Again
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
Barton Fink (though I don't have a clue what's real and what isn't in the last half hour)

[kingrat]

Hey, a cool 1991 double feature would be Thelma and Louise and Grand Canyon!

[Feinberg]

1991

Of the 166 films that I have seen from this year these are my favourites ranked in order ...

The Silence of the Lambs
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Raise the Red Lanterns
Les Amants du Pont Neuf
Beauty and the Beast
City of Hope
Little Man Tate
Thelma and Louise
The Commitments
Cape Fear
JFK
Rambling Rose
Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse
Mediterraneo
The Prince of Tides
White Fang
Black Robe
New Jack City
A Woman's Tale
The Fisher King
Class Action
Let Him Have It
Delicatessen
City Slickers
Barton Fink
Riff Raff
Frankie and Johnny
The Object of Beauty
Scream of Stone
K2
Proof
The Miracle
Once Upon a Time In China
Impromptu
Mississippi Masala

and here are some that I didn't care for at all ...

Kurt Vonnegut's Monkey House
Until the End of the World
Queens Logic
V.I. Warshawski
Once Around
A Kiss Before Dying
Back In the USSR
Ricochet
Late For Dinner
Hard Promises
Switch
Kootenai Brown
The Favour, the Watch and the Very Big Fish
Only the Lonely
The Events Leading Up to My Death
Hudson Hawk
The People Under the Stairs
Tiger Claws
The Maid
Midnight Fear
Night and Day
I Can No Longer Hear the Guitar
Love In the Time of Hysteria

[CinemaInternational]

And now, let's take a look back at 1959, a year with several remarkable films.... The next year up will be 1981.

1959

Films seen:87

The Best:

1 The World of Apu
2 The Nun's Story
3 Pillow Talk
4 Sleeping Beauty
5 The Diary of Anne Frank
6 Rio Bravo
7 North by Northwest
8 Some Like It Hot
9 Shake Hands with the Devil
10 Career
11 Imitation of Life
12 Libel!
13 Lil Abner
14 Take a Giant Step
15 The Five Pennies
16 Ben-Hur
17 The Best of Everything
18 The 400 Blows
19 Porgy and Bess
20 Good Morning
21 Ask Any Girl
22 Solomon and Sheba
23 Tiger Bay
24 Suddenly Last Summer
25 The Gazebo
26 Floating Weeds
27 Alias Jesse James
28 A Summer Place
29 The Scapegoat
30 Compulsion
31 Pickpocket
32 Room at the Top
33 The Wonderful Country
34 The Young Philadelphians
35 That Kind of Woman
36 The Mating Game
37 The FBI Story
38 Say One For Me
39 Beloved Infidel
40 Gidget


The Worst:

1 The Tingler
2 It Started with a Kiss
3 Too Many Crooks
4 The Man who Understood Women
5 Third Man on the Mountain
6 Green Mansions
7 The Devil's Disciple

[Detective Jim McLeod]

1959 films seen-38

Best

Sleeping Beauty
Pillow Talk
The Nun's Story
North By Northwest
A Summer Place
Compulsion

The Worst

Horrors Of The Black Museum
The Alligator People

[LawrenceA]

1959 (229 seen)

Favorites
Anatomy of a Murder
The Human Condition (Parts 1 & 2)
North By Northwest
Ballad of a Soldier
Ben-Hur
The Bridge
The Diary of Anne Frank
Fires on the Plain
Floating Weeds
Good Morning
House on Haunted Hill
The Mummy
On the Beach
Pickpocket
Rio Bravo
The World of Apu

Favorite Documentaries
Jazz on a Summer's Day

Least Favorites
Gangster Story
High School Big Shot
Revenge of the Virgins
Santa Claus

[Swithin]

Many great films in 1959, alphabetical apart from the first one, which remains one of my top ten films of all time. It was my favorite film of childhood and it remains a favorite.

Journey to the Center of the Earth
The 400 Blows
Black Orpheus
Blue Denim
Carry On Nurse
Carry On Teacher
The Diary of Anne Frank
Hiroshima Mon Amour
Horrors of the Black Museum
I’m All Right Jack
Imitation of Life
Li’l Abner
On the Beach
Some Like It Hot
The Young Philadelphians

[kingrat]

1959: One of the Great Movie Years

Best of the Best:

The Nun's Story
Day of the Outlaw
North by Northwest
Some Like It Hot
Odds Against Tomorrow
Rififi
The Journey
The World of Apu
Anatomy of a Murder
Ride Lonesome
Warlock
Ben-Hur
Shake Hands With the Devil
Room at the Top
Fires on the Plain
Odd Obsession

Also mighty good:

The 400 Blows
Black Orpheus
The Crimson Kimono
The Hanging Tree
Libel
Marie-Octobre
Our Man in Havana
Pickpocket
Sapphire
These Thousand Hills
Tiger Bay
They Came to Cordura
The Wreck of the Mary Deare

[Feinberg]

One year when I was over in London I tried to get to the bottom of the true initial release date of Room at the Top and after a trip to the BFI Resource Centre determined it to be 1958. It was up for BAFTAs in that year and had an initial release in the north of England in 1958 as well.

[Feinberg]

1959

Of the 108 films that I have seen from this year these are my favourites ranked in order ...

North by Northwest
The 400 Blows
Some Like It Hot
I'm All Right Jack
Anatomy of a Murder
Ben-Hur
Compulsion
The Bridge
Fires on the Plain
The Diary of Anne Frank
Hiroshima, Mon Amour
The World of Apu
On the Beach
Journey to the Center of the Earth
General delle Rovere
Shake Hands With the Devil
The Bridal Path
Rio Bravo
Nazarin
Black Orpheus
Career
Carry on Teacher
Expresso Bongo
Night Train
Pickpocket
Samurai Saga
We Are the Lambeth Boys

and here are some that I didn't care for at all ...

The Tingler (though I liked it when I first saw it at the age of 12)
The Last Blitzkrieg
The Journey
Solomon and Sheba
The Return of the Fly
Revenge of the Dead
Plan Nine From Outer Space
Imitation of Life
Have Rocket Will Travel
A Midsummer Night's Dream
The 30 Foot Bride From Candy Rock
The Big Circus
Le Testament du Docteur Cordelier
The Ugly Duckling
The Rough and the Smooth
A Room For Rent

[LawrenceA]

1959

and here are some that I didn't care for at all ...

Plan Nine from Outer Space

Wait...are you sure about that?

[CinemaInternational]

And now it is time for 1981, an uneven year, but there are several wonderful films here. The next year will be 1969.

The Best:

1 Pennies from Heaven
2 One from the Heart
3 Ragtime
4 Body Heat
5 S.O.B.
6 Excalibur
7 Four Friends
8 The French Lieutenant's Woman
9 The Great Muppet Caper
10 Blow Out
11 All the Marbles...
12 Arthur
13 They All Laughed
14 Fort Apache, the Bronx
15 Only When I Laugh
16 Raggedy Man
17 Eye of the Needle
18 Looker
19 On Golden Pond
20 Rich and Famous
21 Diva
22 Cutter's Way
23 An American Werewolf in London
24 All Night Long
25 The Chosen
26 Prince of the City
27 Dragonslayer
28 For Your Eyes Only
29 The Postman Always Rings Twice
30 Chariots of Fire
31 Absence of Malice


The Worst:

1 Under the Rainbow
2 Buddy Buddy
3 Ghost Story
4 Rollover
5 Sphinx
6 Back Roads
7 Whose Life is It Anyway?
8 Eyewitness
9 Time Bandits
10 Nighthawks
11 Outland
12 The Howling

[LawrenceA]

1981 (243 seen)

Favorites
Raiders of the Lost Ark
The Road Warrior
An American Werewolf in London
Das Boot
The Evil Dead
Excalibur
The Howling
Reds
Time Bandits
Escape from New York
Scanners
Southern Comfort
Thief
A War Story

Likes
Absence of Malice
Arthur
The Beyond
Body Heat
The Bunker
Chariots of Fire
Christiane F.
Circle of Deceit
Corpse Mania
Dead & Buried
Dragonslayer
For Your Eyes Only
Gallipoli
Halloween 2
Ms. 45
My Young Auntie
Possession
Prince of the City
Quest for Fire
Ragtime
Samurai Reincarnation
Son of the White Mare
Stripes
Taps
Three Brothers
Threshold
True Confessions

Favorite Documentaries
The Decline of Western Civilization
The Killing of America
Urgh! A Music War
Vernon, Florida
Document of the Dead
This Is Elvis

Least Favorites
Night of Horror
Chu Chu and the Philly Flash
Inchon
Mystery on Monster Island
Night of the Zombies