Thursday, June 26, 2008

Forget Entertainment Weekly: Here's the REAL Top 100 Movies and TV Shows of the Last 25 Years

- Okay, so Entertainment Weekly last week came out with their big 1000'th issue, in which they listed the top movies, TV shows, etc. of the last 25 years. The lists caused all kinds of controversy online and amongst my friends, so I thought I'd put together my own lists of movies and television shows to take a stab and see if I could do them one better. EW obviously relied heavily on the pop-culture-influencer factor, hence movies like Clueless and Titanic making their lists ... and they also typically only gave big name directors one or at most two spots each on the list, even if luminaries like the Coens clearly deserve several spots on any legit list. But I thought it'd be fun to do my own lists, as, hey, I'm 25, it's the best of the Last 25 Years, I've seen too many movies and watched too much TV, and really enjoy making Top 100 lists. So why not? As for my lists, a few quick notes:

- I'm grouping movie trilogies in a few cases where the series is pretty much seamless.
- For TV especially, there's a lot of undoubtedly quality TV that I just haven't seen - so you won't find Buffy, Dexter, Deadwood, etc on my list simply because I haven't seen them.
- I include late night shows, but not news or sports.
- This is the last 25 years only, so nothing before 1983. I made an exception for Saturday Night Live, because it really is almost a different show year to year.
- As Abby W pointed out to me: are these "the" Top 100 movies and shows, or my picks for the "New Classics?" Well - my answer is this: there's no difference! If I say it's a Top 100 film or show, then by default it's a New Classic! This blog makes me that damn authoritative, baby!
- Okay, on with the lists - feel free to leave comments about how horrible my taste is!

DANNY'S TOP 100 MOVIES OF THE LAST 25 YEARS:

1.The Lord of the Rings trilogy
2. The Big Lebowski
3. Memento
4. Fargo
5. Unforgiven
6. Kill Bill
7. The Princess Bride
8. Mulholland Drive
9. Silence of the Lambs
10. Terminator 2: Judgement Day
11.Robocop
12. Glengary Glenross
13. Dumb and Dumber
14. Beauty and the Beast
15. Pulp Fiction
16. The Nightmare Before Christmas
17. The Lion King
18. Jurassic Park
19. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
20. Wet Hot American Summer
21. The Breakfast Club
22. Aliens
23. Gladiator
24. Wayne’s World
25. No Country For Old Men
26. The Shawshank Redemption
27. Rushmore
28. Miller’s Crossing
29. Edward Scissorhands
30. Austin Powers
31. Cars
32. There Will Be Blood
33. The Little Mermaid
34. The Crow
35. Back to the Future trilogy
36. Fight Club
37. Dark City
38. A History of Violence
39. Donnie Darko
40. Thelma and Louise
41. Saving Private Ryan
42. Malcolm X
43. The Usual Suspects
44. Seven
45. Groundhog Day
46. The Truman Show
47. Batman Begins
48. Ghostbusters
49. A Mighty Wind
50. The King of Kong
51. Munich
52. Monsters Inc.
53. The Rock
54. Blue Velvet
55. Casino
56. Hustle & Flow
57. Fletch
58. Juno
59. Reservoir Dogs
60. Aladdin
61. Amelie
62. 12 Monkeys
63. Ed Wood
64. Goodfellas
65. Spiderman 2
66. Oldboy
67. School of Rock
68. Evil Dead II
69. This Is Spinal Tap
70. True Romance
71. The Life Aquatic
72. Unbreakable
73. The Naked Gun
74. Schindler’s List
75. Napoleon Dynamite
76. Office Space
77. Big Fish
78. Hero
79. Before Sunrise
80. Dazed and Confused
81. The Royal Tannenbaums
82. The Neverending Story
83. Lost In Translation
84. Punch Drunk Love
85. Waiting for Guffman
86. Pirates of the Carribbean
87. Sin City
88. Little Miss Sunshine
89. Die Hard
90. Master and Commander
91. Finding Nemo
92. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
93. The Assassination of Jesse James
94. Scarface
95. The Departed
96. Raising Arizona
97. Adaptation
98. Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
99. Forest Gump
100. Clerks


DANNY'S TOP 100 TV SHOWS OF THE LAST 25 YEARS:

1. The Simpsons
2. The X-Files
3. Seinfeld
4. Freaks and Geeks
5. Saturday Night Live
6. Late Night with Conan O’Brien
7. The Office (UK)
8. 24
9. Lost
10. Arrested Development
11. Futurama
12. King of the Hill
13. My So Called Life
14. Twin Peaks
15. Batman: The Animated Series
16. Veronica Mars
17. Ren & Stimpy
18. Malcolm in the Middle
19. La Femme Nikita
20. The State
21. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
22. Millenium
23. Da Ali G Show
24. The Adventures of Pete & Pete
25. The Real World
26. Curb Your Enthusiasm
27. The Sopranos
28. Gilmore Girls
29. Star Trek: The Next Generation
30. Beavis and Butthead
31. Perfect Strangers
32. Family Guy
33. NYPD Blue
34. Flight of the Conchords
35. Andy Richter Controls the Universe
36. Family Matters
37. The Muppet Babies
38. Sliders
39. The Colbert Report
40. 30 Rock
41. Pee Wee’s Playhouse
42. In Living Color
43. Married … With Children
44. Party of Five
45. Six Feet Under
46. Da Ali G Show
47. Doug
48. You Can’t Do That On Television
49. Aeon Flux
50. Stella
51. The Late Show With David Letterman
52. Jeopardy!
53. The Critic
54. The Office (US)
55. Prison Break
56. The Kids in the Hall
57. The Cosby Show
58. Justice League Unlimited
59. Charles In Charge
60. Reading Rainbow
61. The OC
62. Space Ghost Coast 2 Coast
63. Extras
64. Pushing Daisies
65. Melrose Place
66. Mr. Show
67. Dinosaurs
68. Boy Meets World
69. Are You Afraid of the Dark?
70. Rosanne
71. Animaniacs
72. Murder: She Wrote
73. Smallville
74. Survivor
75. Beverly Hills 90210
76. The Golden Girls
77. Herman’s Head
78. The Nanny
79. Double Dare
80. Full House
81. Fraggle Rock
82. Superman: The Animated Series
83. The Maxx
84. The Ray Bradbury Theater
85. Undeclared
86. 3rd Rock From the Sun
87. Night Court
88.Dave’s World
89. Punky Brewster
90. Monsters
91. Hercules: The Legendary Journeys
92. Where In the World Is Carmen Sandiego?
93. Jack and Bobby
94. X-Men: The Animated Series
95. Salute Your Shorts
96. Hey Dude
97. Duck Tales
98. Saved by the Bell
99. Clarissa Explains It All
100. That 70’s Show

2 comments:

  1. Your Brother is going to tell it like it is:

    WORST. LIST. EVER.

    i mean... EVER.

    i think you just lost all credibility as a critic, a writer, and possibly as a human being.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Matt, you're just upset that I didn't include "Chairman of the Board" starring Carrot Top. Apologies.

    ReplyDelete