Best of Tarantino's Top 20 Movies Since 1992

Boogie Nights v. Lost In Translation v. Dazed & Confused imo.

7 or 8 dope films in this list, the rest i can take or leave

Seen every one of these and the Korean shit is fucking awesome.

D&C for me

tarantino in awful taste shocker

i could be wrong, i certainly couldn't come up with a better list of 20 films since '92 off the top of my head — if any of the film obsessives would like to explain that film in general has actually been this bad for 20 years then ok

I can't imagine tokin up with this fucker and his terrible taste.

The Host vs The Insider for me.

Only one of these would be on my list (BR) but a bunch of these are quite good and only maybe 4 or 5 are crappy.

i try not to imagine his terrible taste :(

where was this list published?

"Fridays"

Friday sticks out on this list like a sore thumb. I like it (and I watched it A LOT - lol college) but its inclusion here is a bit suspect (surely Little Man woulda been a more challopsy choice)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wz4K-Rxx2Bk

also Fight Club over Zodiac? come on now

Battle Royale With Cheese

"Friday sticks out on this list like a sore thumb."

Compared to Anything Else?!?!?

lol @ anything else
ha xpost

most of these are pretty good movies. I'm gonna say Fight Club, probably that and D&C are the only ones to make my own list. (I think The Thin Red Line, In the Mood for Love, Zodiac would prob fight for top spot...)

This is like the top 20 movie posters from a college dorm + Anything Else.

http://www.cinecultist.com/archives/anythingelse.jpg

I ain't gonna lie, Boogie Nights, Shaun Of The Dead and Friday would be on my top 20 list too

Lost In Translation? Really?

This is not a bad list but there are a few weird anomalies, and it is also a little adrenaline-heavy. Would like to see a few more of the Oriental films before voting. At the moment it's between Boogie Nights/Fight Club/The Matrix.

Off to youtube Police Story 3.

In order, 2-6 are pretty close.

1) Battle Royale
2) Memories of Murder
3) Tsui Hark's Blade
4) Dazed & Confused
5) The Host
6) Joint Security Area
7) Police Story 3
8) Shaun of the Dead
9) Dogville
10) The Insider
11) Boogie Nights
12) Audition
13) Unbreakable
14) Fridays
15) Lost In Translation
16) The Matrix
17) Speed
18) Team America
19) Fight Club
20) Anything Else

oriental films

the host

Yeah it's weird there are these relatively obscure Korean/Japanese/HK greats and then the same Hollywood/Indie garbage that Armond White is probably popping a vein hating on right now.

surely Little Man woulda been a more challopsy choice

Well that's one way of putting it.

I don't know what to go for from these. As I've said this isn't exactly my idea of the best films since '92 (why did he choose this date, because of Reservoir Dogs?), but there's some good stuff in here. I own, or have owned, many of these on DVD. Hearing him talk about Speed makes me want to have another look at that.

No Oldboy, no credibility.

because of Reservoir Dogs?

Yeah

Alex is blaming us for every poll result he doesn't like today.

armond white hates those kinda asian flicks too, though, i think he called HK a "backwards culture" once or something

1992 was when he became a director according to the YouTube thing which I recommend not bothering watching.

"No Oldboy, no credibility."

To be fair, JSA is probably better than Old Boy.

I mean if you are only going to pick one Chan Wook Park movie for some reason.

I still can't quite get behind the resolution of Old Boy, but that's just me, I gues.

"armond white hates those kinda asian flicks too, though, i think he called HK a "backwards culture" once or something"

What doesn't he think is a "backwards culture" though?

also Fight Club over Zodiac? come on now

I know. Or even Fight Club over Seven.

also The Insider over Heat? come on now

JSA is *better*?! Oldboy is in my decade top 3, btw

The resolution deviates from a traditional tragic closure, but I love it for how convincingly cathartic it is

Heat's ruined by the completely stupid final 40 or so minutes and a worse Al Pacino performance.

1) Battle Royale
2) Memories of Murder
3) Tsui Hark's Blade
4) Dazed & Confused
5) The Host
6) Joint Security Area
7) Police Story 3

I mean I really want to see every single one of these, plus Audition, before voting

How can you hate a movie in which Pacino makes these expressions?

http://www.tatteredcoat.com/images/heat-pacino-great-ass.jpg

"JSA is *better*?!"

Well it's substantially different (by virtue of having a plot that actually sort of makes sense) but yeah I like it a little more. I prefer both the Sympathy movies to Old Boy though so I might not be a reliable of Wook Park quality.

reliable barometer, ahem

Oldboy was okay but the story was a bit lolsome and took forever, I never really got into it.

I still can't quite get behind the resolution of Old Boy, but that's just me, I gues.

it's me too.

if we're just throwing out random Asian films I woulda expected Kung Fu Hustle to be on here

Can't wait for Morbs to find this thread.

Battle Royale

When any of us makes a list, aren't we really telling other people what they should like?

not if we're comfortable in our subjectivity

I mean, I realise it's just a list and there's no shame in being honest, but I dunno, what does it add to the discussion?

It adds QT's belief that these movies are worth your time. Whether or not everyone's heard of them (which I'd question), not everyone agrees they're great. If someone wants to know what obscurities he's into these days, they can ask THAT.

also filling his best-of list with movies so unheralded that even his fanbase has no idea they exist is a political move I can't see him getting behind. Why would we want to imply that the best films are inherently not in your multiplex? He's probably miserable at indie film festivals! Why wouldn't he want to praise it when popular genre directors get it fabulously right in his estimation?

oh man i am so bummed out that obv very few people on this thread have seen JSA, it is nearly perfect and def gets my #1 vote.

I'm actually surprised the entire list wasn't Korean/HK/Japanese stuff actually.

id rather people embrace the silliness of making lists of anything by just putting their favorites on it instead of strategizing as if the outcome of the list is supposed to matter.

Well, "matter" = some people might go rent a movie. It's not exactly of world importance.

Anthony, "It adds QT's belief that these movies are worth your time" = " telling other people what they should like", pretty much, the only differences lie in semantics. I really can't see how a best of list would have any other motivation than "hey, check these out", and I don't think that implies discomfort in subjectivity - we all have people whose taste we know alings more or less frequently with our own. I wouldn't argue that "hey check out these multiplex movies!" listing is inherently inferior to "check out these obscurities", but I can only really see the usefullness of the former if it is in some way annotated - so Tarantino can point out something about the movie that might shine a new light on it.

also filling his best-of list with movies so unheralded that even his fanbase has no idea they exist is a political move I can't see him getting behind.

I've learned about the existence of previously unkown movies each and every time he's made a list/discussed cinema previously, is the thing.

Someone should sort this list by appearances of bare female feet.

"Matrix 2 may not be great but it's still the closest attempt to dramatize Godel's incompleteness theorem we've ever had and that deserves some credit!"

???? How so? If it really tried to do that then it is a crime against math!
I like it when movies are ambitious, but when depth is tacked on in this cynical way what it is really saying is that it is above the trash it is wallowing in. Like if Speed was some intended allegory for technological change moving faster and killing us, it would be saying it's too good to be JUST a movie about a bus that explodes when it slows down, like you couldn't be great on those terms alone.

Like if Speed was some intended allegory for technological change moving faster and killing us

lolz Grant Morrison

choosing Anything Else from Woody Allen's filmography since 1992 is making me suspicious about the greatness of the films i didnt see.

That is the weirdest pick, I'll admit but there are a lot of gems on this list.

I do wonder what he liked about Anything Else, though.

bar none the worst acting in a Woody Allen film. He must've really enjoyed Ricci in her underwear, is all I can come up with

Or he's a huge Jason Biggs fan.

Speed
Lost in Translation
Audition

very unsurprised that he went for LiT instead of what is sadly looking like the only great film Sofia C will make, The Virgin Suicides.

She hasn't made a great film, but I'd say Antoinette is my favorite at this point.

I like Roman Coppola's one movie better than any of her three, but I don't see anything that indicates she's incapable of making anything better than the Virgin Suicides.

"What have you liked lately?

One of the best movies this year is Observe and Report. That's a real movie. Somebody said it's Seth Rogen's Punch-Drunk Love. Well, fuck Punch-Drunk Love—it's Taxi Driver. That's fucking Travis Bickle. I find it hard to believe there's going to be another moment as cathartic as him shooting the flasher."

http://www.villagevoice.com/2009-08-18/film/quentin-tarantino-the-inglourious-basterds-interview/4

He just loves cool shootings, and being filmdom's Honorary Black Man (cleaned up the terminology).

also filling his best-of list with movies so unheralded that even his fanbase has no idea they exist is a political move I can't see him getting behind.

I'm not sure how much sarcasm is in this, da croupier, but "my top movies" has no qualification attached to it. And I really think even Tarantino's fan base (most of it, obv) has no idea who, say, Pedro Costa and Roy Andersson are, to name two guys whose films are "heralded" yet barely seen in America. (Though I have no idea if he likes em.) I think you mean "movies so undistributed."

also, where the fuck is Kiyoshi Kurosawa instead of half-crazy shit like The Host that kills a little kid at the end?

Kiyoshi Kurosawa = zzzzzz

That's kind of unfair, but honestly I wouldn't put one of his films in my top 20 either.

Pulse is easily in my top 10 of the '00s.

Doesn't shock me at all.

Might be in mine too! I keep forgetting it qualifies. As does, in an utterly different vein, Jia Zhangke's Platform. xp

I do like Memories of Murder very much.

xp Not sure why that dude's excessively slow version of j-horror is any better than anyone elses, but I'll leave that for another thread.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Watched Lady Vengeance last night. It was pretty good. The scene with the parents was really the only part of the movie that really impressed me.

Battle Royale is really awesome, but if Speed doesn't win this it'll be all of your faults.

I take full responsibility.

Memories of Murder is the bst film on this list.

Battle Royale is a typical best film choice for Tarantino:
genius in the technical category - shallow in almost everything else.

Of the 15 or so movies I've seen on this list, I think the only one I liked less than Basterds or Death Proof was Fight Club.

For me, it came down to Boogie Nights v. Lost In Translation, maybe my favorite film of last decade and maybe my favorite film of this decade. I figure Boogie Nights may get a few votes, so I voted for Lost In Translation, for which I assume I'm casting the only vote.

boogie nights v battle royale v dazed & confused

although now that i think abt it even though theres a number of great movies here boogie nights is the clear winner

hav not seen:

Anything Else
Joint Security Area
Police Story 3

Yup, definitely Dogville.

i had jsa on my dvr but erased it without watching, regret it now. also haven't seen blade, anything else and dogville. saw police story 3 as supercop way back in the day but feel like i should resee it, as at the time i was bummed it wasn't as goofy as rumble in the bronx.

audition or dogville.

caught unbreakable on cable the other night for the first time in eons and wtf q.t.

oh wait, i didn't see the host there. nevermind.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Heat's ruined by the completely stupid final 40 or so minutes and a worse Al Pacino performance.

― Alex in SF, Monday, 17 August 2009 bookmarkflaglink

I was watching Heat for the first time last night. Am half an hour from the end. Will watch the rest in a bit but lol @ reading this before I get to do so.

Ok this was fine.

I was at a rep screening last night (scheduled weeks before Val Kilmer's death). I like the film, but I'd agree that some of Pacino's performance--the very lines that are most famous--is embarrassing. When he's quiet, like at the restaurant with De Niro, he's very good.

Thankfully, the quiet part accounts for 90-95% of his performance.

Yeah its like v little, just a tad eyerolly. You almost always get this crap from Al Pacino after the late 70s.

The bank robbery scene and shoot out is an amazing sequence.

And I really liked just how well drawn out all the women were. All of whom were such an active part of the plot, which you never get in action films. That's what makes the film for me.

Every scene with Ashley Judd.

I'm also taken with De Niro at the bookstore.

I rewatched Heat a few weeks ago and skipped the early domestic scenes up until the two simultaneous dinners between cops and robbers. Nothing wrong with domestic scenes in general, but those were good ones to skip on a rewatch.

Pacino notably is, per Doylism, specifically supposed to be on coke in the scenes where he bugs out and yells silly things.