Top Movies – Best Movies of all Time For Filmholic

Best Movies of the time. Photo: owentemple

Whether you agree with their choices or not, there's lots to enjoy on these pages, from the reunion photographs to the whereabouts of famous props to THR critic Todd McCarthy's own assessment of Hollywood's top pick. But keep in mind, movie lists aren't forever. As Michael Bay points out, "Your favorite film could change every day."

1. A Space Odyssey

Photo: cosmosmagazine

Director: Stanley Kubrick

Cast: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester

Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $344,621,600

Famous quote: “Well, I don’t think there is any question about it. It can only be attributable to human error. This sort of thing has cropped up before, and it has always been due to human error.” — Hal

It was the first outer-space movie to take outer space -- and special effects -- seriously (so seriously Kubrick had the sets destroyed after production to make sure they didn't turn up in subsequent inferior sci-fi films). Sure, it creaks beside its successors, including Close Encounters and Star Wars, but 2001 does have one of the most famous match-cuts in movie history (the bone turning into a spaceship). And even though the smooth-talking computer in the film has an operating system that's 46 years old, people still want to own it: The HAL 9000 app on iTunes has been downloaded an estimated quarter-million times, Hollywood reporter wrote.

2. The Godfather

Photo: biography

Director: Francis Ford Coppola

Cast: Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton

Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $202,374,900

Famous quote: "There are many things my father taught me here in this room. He taught me: keep your friends close, but your enemies closer." — Michael Corleone

From the wise guys of Goodfellas to The Sopranos, all crime dynasties that came after The Godfather are descendants of the Corleones: Francis Ford Coppola’s magnum opus is the ultimate patriarch of the Mafia genre. A monumental opening line (“I believe in America”) sets the operatic Mario Puzo adaptation in motion, before Coppola’s epic morphs into a chilling dismantling of the American dream. The corruption-soaked story follows a powerful immigrant family grappling with the paradoxical values of reign and religion; those moral contradictions are crystallized in a legendary baptism sequence, superbly edited in parallel to the murdering of four rivaling dons. With countless iconic details—a horse’s severed head, Marlon Brando’s wheezy voice, Nino Rota’s catchy waltz—The Godfather’s authority lives on.—Tomris Laffly

3. Citizen Kane

Photo: pbs

Director: Orson Welles

Cast: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore, Agnes Moorehead, Ruth Warrick

Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $2,998,000

Famous quote: "It isn't enough to tell us what a man did. You've got to tell us who he was." — Rawlson

Orson Welles' game-changing fictional biopic, that managed to both launch his film career and ruin it at the same time (turns out it's not a good idea to piss off powerful newspaper magnates by viciously satirizing them to a mass audience). Not only did he use impressive new film-making techniques that make it feel like a movie far younger than its 76 years, but his power-corrupts story still resonates loudly, according to Empireonline.

4. The Seven Samurai

Photo: heyuguys

Director: Akira Kurosawa

Cast: Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura

Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $367,500

Famous quote: "What's the use of worrying about your beard when your head's about to be taken?" — Gisaku

Akira Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai" (1954) is not only a great film in its own right, but the source of a genre that would flow through the rest of the century. The critic Michael Jeck suggests that this was the first film in which a team is assembled to carry out a mission--an idea which gave birth to its direct Hollywood remake, "The Magnificent Seven," as well as "The Guns of Navarone," "The Dirty Dozen" and countless later war, heist and caper movies. Since Kurosawa's samurai adventure "Yojimbo" (1960) was remade as "A Fistful of Dollars" and essentially created the spaghetti Western, and since this movie and Kurosawa's "The Hidden Fortress" inspired George Lucas' "Star Wars" series, it could be argued that this greatest of filmmakers gave employment to action heroes for the next 50 years, just as a fallout from his primary purpose, Rogerebert cited.

5. Vertigo

Photo: medium

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Cast: James Stewart, Kim Novak

Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $17,046,200

Famous quote: “Only one is a wanderer; two together are always going somewhere.” — Madeleine

A sexy Freudian mind-bender that’s often considered Alfred Hitchcock’s finest triumph, Vertigo is pitched in a world of existential obsession and cunning doubles. Shape-shifting her way through Edith Head’s transformational costumes, Kim Novak haunts in two roles: Madeleine Elster and Judy Barton, both objects of desire for James Stewart’s curious ex-cop. Completing this vivid psychodrama is Bernard Herrmann’s alarmingly duplicitous score, which twists its way to a towering finale.—Tomris Laffly

6. Avatar

Photo: youtube

Director: James Cameron

Cast: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver

Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $763,396,900

Famous quote: “Everything is backward now, like out there is the true world, and in here is the dream.” — Jake Sully

The US army lands up in Pandora, an earth-sized moon in outer space. Their objective: to extract the much-needed minerals from Pandora's soil. But before they can do that, they must fight the peace-loving indigenous inhabitants of the alien world, relocate or destroy them with their spies and bombs, Indiatimes reported.

7. Jurassic Park

Photo: nytimes

Director: Steven Spielberg

Cast: Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough

Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $686,198,500

Famous quote: “Hold on to your butts.” — Ray Arnold

When dinosaurs first ruled the movie-Earth, they did so in a herky-jerky stop-motion manner that while charmingly effective, required a fair dose of disbelief-suspension. When Steven Spielberg brought them back on Isla Nublar, we felt for the first time they could be real, breathing animals (as opposed to monsters). And that's as much thanks to Stan Winston's astonishing animatronics work as to ILM's groundbreaking CGI.

8. The Usual Suspects

Photo: lyrictheatre

Director: Bryan Singer

Cast: Kevin Spacey, Stephen Baldwin, Gabriel Byrne, Chazz Palminteri, Kevin Pollak

Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $42,712,400

Famous quote: “After that my guess is that you will never hear from him again. The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he did not exist. And like that... he is gone.” — Verbal

Ninety-five's other super-twisted, über-cool crime thriller starring Kevin Spacey (next to Seven — see entry 30). While the line-up team-up is a great concept, director Bryan Singer and writer Christopher McQuarrie's movie attains true greatness through its supernatural-horror-style backdrop, conjuring a phantom menace — Keyser Soze — who terrifies even the most hardened criminal.

9. Titanic

Photo: wordpress

Director: James Cameron

Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet

Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $1,021,633,200

Famous quote: “I'll never let go, Jack. I'll never let go.” — Rose

Star-crossed lovers Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Rose (Kate Winslet) develop feelings for each other while on board an ill-fated ship, the R.M.S. Titanic. The winner of 11 Academy Awards is a little over three hours long, but with a story as compelling as this one, it'll seem like no time at all, Marieclaire cited.

10. The Matrix

Photo: analyzingmarket

Directors: Andy and Lana Wachowski

Cast: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss

Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $268,696,900

Famous quote: “This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill - the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill - you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.” — Morpheus

How two sibling indie film-makers with only a slick, sexy little crime film to their name (Bound) created their own blockbuster sci-fi franchise. And opened up western audiences to the truth that kung-fu acrobatics are so much more fun than watching American or European muscle-men waving guns around. While also making everyone examine some fundamental philosophical questions about reality. Thanks to the Wachowskis, we all took the red pill, and we've never regretted it.

11. The Wizard of Oz

Photo: theconversation

Director: Victor Fleming

Cast: Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr, Jack Haley

Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $32,950,500

Famous quote: "Lions, and tigers, and bears! Oh, my!" — Dorothy

"If I was on a desert island, I'd bring The Wizard of Oz with me," says Elizabeth Daley, dean of the USC School of Cinematic Arts. "It always makes me feel alive. I could watch it over and over." And people have, generation after generation. In fact, it's the most-watched film of all time, according to the Library of Congress, thanks to regular showings on broadcast television since the mid-1950s (and on cable since the '90s). That's not including sequels and prequels, which Hollywood keeps releasing each decade like swarms of flying monkeys. The most recent, Oz the Great and Powerful, starring James Franco as a hunky young wizard, grossed more than $230 million domestically. That yellow brick road clearly is made of gold.

12. Star Wars

Photo: gamesradar

Director: George Lucas

Cast: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher

Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation 2014): $1,136,162,800

Famous quote: "Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid." — Han Solo

Star Wars set the bar for lots of things: special effects, box-office receipts, the incorporation of mythological storytelling structure, the number of aliens that can fit comfortably into a bar. But its real legacy is The Deal: Lucas negotiated rights to both the merchandising and the sequels -- deemed worthless by Fox in 1977, but today they are worth billions.

13. Back to the Future

Photo: newsweek

Director: Robert Zemeckis

Cast: Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover

Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $470,043,200

Famous quote: “If my calculations are correct, when this baby hits 88 miles per hour... you're gonna see some serious shit.” — Dr. Emmett Brown

Part science-fiction caper, part generational culture-clash movie, part weirdo family drama (in which the hero has to rescue his own existence after his mother falls in lust with him, eww), Back To The Future still manages to be timeless despite being so rooted in, well, time. And it might just have the best title of anything on this entire list.

14. Gone With the Wind

Photo: thesouloftheplot

Director: Victor Fleming

Cast: Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh

Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $1,592,000,000

Famous quote: “I can't think about that right now. If I do, I'll go crazy. I'll think about that tomorrow.” — Scarlett

It's still the longest film to win best picture (nearly four hours) and the first to have an African-American cast member win an Oscar (Hattie McDaniel). Ironically, its only surviving star is Olivia de Havilland, 97, whose character was the main one to die.

15. To Kill a Mockingbird

Photo: wordpress

Director: Robert Mulligan

Cast: Gregory Peck, Robert Duvall, Mary Badham, Phillip Alford

Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): No numbers available

Famous quote: “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view ... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.” — Atticus Finch

More than 50 years later, this is still a pitch-perfect portrait of race and rural America during the Great Depression. No wonder it's Superman's favorite movie (according to Clark Kent's Wikipedia page, at any rate).

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