There was so much turnover on the AFI list that I had to separate this part of my AFI commentary into two parts – the big risers and new arrivals, and the big fallers and recent departures. So I had to spread my disappointment over two articles.

The Top 25 is unfortunately chock full of some of the most overrated movies ever. Yes, they are easy targets for being labeled “overrated” because they have been rated so highly here. Yet at the same time, so many of them just don’t belong. The last list, like it or not, appeared balanced and objective while this new list seems to be a hodgepodge of individual, isolated critics’ favorites.

The big risers…

Raging Bull rose 20 spots to #4
While many people think this movie is great, I don’t. I find it predictable and boring, famous for the large amount of weight De Niro gained and the surprisingly strong performance of Joe Pesci. I thought I had finally accepted that it was good enough to be in top twenty five, but top five? That one is going to take me awhile.

Vertigo rose 52 spots to #9
Vertigo is probably my favorite of Hitchcock’s movies, and a movie often overshadowed by North by Northwest and Rear Window (both good films, but not my favorites). I can live with this, but at the same time, jumping from 61 to 9 is pretty crazy.

City Lights rose 65 spots to #11
This is the selection that most annoys me. City Lights is a decent (silent) Chaplin film that I thought was mildly better than Duck Soup but not worthy of #11. Of all the movies that didn’t make the new list, I would have liked to see this movie fall off the list. I would probably say that this film is the reason for lots of clichés that plague movies today. And it feels REALLY long

The Searchers rose 84 spots to #12
This biggest jump of them all, this movie is an “ok” early western that the people on the show kept talking about how Wayne’s racist character, was revolutionary in terms of modern protagonists. They can babble about that all they like but the movie belonged where it was, towards the end of the list in a respectable, but unimportant place.

The new arrivals…

The General (18)
The General is a silent film that is supposed to be extremely funny. It wasn’t. How it made it into the top twenty five boggles me. If it took me two years to get used to Raging Bull, it will take me two decades to understand how this film reached such prominence.

Intolerance (49)
I haven’t seen Intolerance, but this is another silent movie that I do not understand how it made the list this year, when it didn’t the year before.

Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (50)
This is the perfect spot for the movie that revolutionized the fantasy genre and restarted the career of Sean Astin. I think few would argue this is the best of the series, and the movie that blends action and adventure the best.

Nashville (59)
Haven’t seen this one, but the clips they showed make this movie look pretty interesting, reminding me of The Best Years of Our Lives for its style and sweeping storylines of several characters.

Sullivan’s Travels (61)
Haven’t seen this movie, and the clips they showed didn’t really help. What movie did they take out that they thought this movie was better than?

Cabaret (63)
Overrated.

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (67)
Boring. Was this movie actually supposed to be funny?

Saving Private Ryan (71)
What more can I say besides that this movie is in my own top ten? The movie that quickly leaped to the top of the “best war movies ever” is very good, and very well acted – I love Barry Pepper in this movie.

The Shawshank Redemption (72)
Likewise as above, but I have to ask, why wasn’t this on the first list? They talked about the metaphors and the power of this movie – aspects that I realized before but the AFI did not? Again, unlikely. Why can’t they admit that this movie was probably better than The Jazz Singer?

In the Heat of the Night (75)
For some reason I always confuse this movie with It Happened One Night, a drastically different flick. While I think this movie belongs here, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner shows similar themes, better and more simply and has a Hepburn in it.

All The President’s Men (77)
All the President’s Men is a movie showing one of our greatest embarrassments with superb acting and directing. I’m not sure which movies, but I feel like Robert Redford should have more movies on this list.

Spartacus (81)
While this movie is good, and likely the inspiration for another great movie (Gladiator), I’m not quire sure this movie belongs here. It seemed cheesy the first time, campy the second, and boring the third. While this is the only movie I can remember Kirk Douglas in, the movie itself is not that memorable.

Sunrise (82)
Again, I haven’t seen this silent movie…

Titanic (83)
One of the most financially successful films of all time, and often underrated, belongs here, in a respectful 83rd spot. While at the time I was annoyed by all the girls in my junior high class swooning over Leo, I can respect his solid performance as well as that of Kate Winslet and Billy Zane.

A Night at the Opera (85)
Haven’t seen it. But I would.

12 Angry Men (87)
One of our featured writers on this site loves this movie, and with good reason. I

The Sixth Sense (89)
The Sixth Sense is a weak choice to update and modernize the list because it doesn’t stay strong on the second viewing – how did they do it 50 First Dates? Seriously though, the movie that is a shocker the first time around seems hokey afterwards (I personally prefer Unbreakable or Signs).

Swing Time (90)
I wish I’d seen this movie, it looks pretty good.

Sophie’s Choice (91)
The film often considered Streep’s crowning achievement finally cracks the list. I guess I won’t complain too loudly.

The Last Picture Show (95)
Another movie I plan on seeing – looks like a more bearable, modern version of Giant.

Do the Right Thing (96)
Another Spike Lee film I haven’t seen.

Blade Runner (97)
While I think this movie is overrated, I can understand why it is here. It did pave the way for movies like Minority Report, I, Robot and The Matrix. At the same time, depending on which cut you’ve seen, this movie is sometimes confusing and convoluted and actually requires several viewings before you can enjoy it.

Toy Story (99)
Probably my favorite animated movie, so I have no real argument here. The voices are perfect and the movie is lots of fun.

Could “Avatar” Win Best Picture?

By Brett Hogan

 

Last week, the trailer for James Cameron’s sci-fi experiment “Avatar” debuted. While initially unimpressed with the teaser, I began to wonder: Could this film win best picture? 

 

Buzz has been generating for this movie for years. Years. The technology to make this movie didn’t exist when Cameron conceived it, so he invented it. When is the last time you heard of a director spearheading the invention of anything? The casting started in 2005. Most movies these days, even epics, are done in half that time. I could go on. 

 

The most important thing to take away from all of this is that people are saying this will be the future of movies. Now, I don’t agree with the idea that CGI will become more prevalent than it already is. But I do believe that this will set the bar miles higher for sci-fi. I mean, that is what Titanic did. And that won some awards if memory serves.

 

I’ll bet you’re asking yourself, how can you even suggest that a film like this will win Best Picture when the initial trailer was nothing better than visual stimulation? Well, there are a couple of reasons. First, the Academy has expanded Best Picture to ten films. This doesn’t guarantee anything other than improved chances for most films on the cusp.

 

Second, after last year’s Oscars debacle, which saw the best film of the year, “The Dark Knight,” not only get shafted in awards but nominations as well, the Academy is pulling out all the stops to appease those with the loudest voices in the film industry, the fanboys. Now, the Academy probably didn’t lose anything because of that other than some viewers of the award show. Perhaps if people are again outraged with the winners or nominees, the heads of the Academy would lose their jobs. So this is all about the Academy protecting itself, which is not so outrageous.  

 

 

Third, there is an economic motive here. I’ve heard this film will cost $190 million, not counting the R&D costs associated with Cameron’s inventions or the cost of getting 3-D cameras into every theater in the country. The Academy will do everything in its power to get people into the seats and make this the next “Titanic” or “The Dark Knight.” But the Academy doesn’t have much power, besides nominating and awarding, so they will slap the “Nominated for Best Picture” moniker onto every commercial and print ad to get the people who didn’t believe the critics to relent and see this movie.

 

Of course, all of this is pure conjecture, and no revolutionary film (Terminator 2, Jurassic Park, etc.) has ever won the Best Picture category because it changed the game. Except maybe Titanic. But still, could this movie actually win? My answer is no but a nomination is certain and who knows what could happen from there. We’ll know more come February 2010.