MASTER LIST #8: The 101 Greatest Action Movies

I discovered in doing this list that the action genre (as we know it today) was really born in the 1960s. Before then, most movie "action" came in the form of war movies, westerns, film noir, and serials (to which the #1 film on the list is a complete homage). When the long-dominating western started to lose steam in the late '60s, the action genre--which, for the most part, is a wildly-differing urban-based one--took its place. We still had guns a-firing, but instead of horses, we had cars (it was the popularity of the automobile that really changed the genre). Thus, save for a very few titles, you won't see many movies made before 1960 on this list. Now I have lists for the best war movies and westerns, so I left them off this overview (the best film noir/mystery compendium is coming soon). And even though I did a best sci-fi movies list, there are still a few science-fiction-colored movies mentioned here; however, I kept their numbers down to a minimum--the ones that do pop up generally feel as if they could be set in contemporary times (as often they are). The Matrix, The Terminator and Mad Max (to name a few) are sci-fi movies that really let the action-movie in them do all the "talking." Anyway, I was surprised at how many action movies I genuinely love, because I'm always lamenting at how the genre seems to have taken over present-day popular moviemaking. Hell, I even have a few superhero movies on the list, and that's a subgenre I generally abhor! Anyway, based on (1) thrills, (2) overall quality, (3) relevance to genre, and (4) influence, here are the results:

1) Raiders of the Lost Ark (Steven Spielberg, 81)
2) The Matrix (Andy and Larry Wachowski, 99)
3) Die Hard (John McTiernan, 88)
4) Mad Max (George Miller, 79)
5) The Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa, 54)
6) Leon (Luc Besson, 94)
7) The Taking of Pelham One-Two-Three (Joseph Sargent, 74)
8) Dirty Harry (Don Siegel, 71)
9) Hard Boiled (John Woo, 92)
10) Aliens (James Cameron, 86)
11) Goldfinger (Guy Hamilton, 64)
12) The Road Warrior (George Miller, 81)
13) The Terminator (James Cameron, 84)
14) The Warriors (Walter Hill, 79)
15) Gone in 60 Seconds (H.B. Halicki, 74)
16) Kill Bill (Quentin Tarantino, 2003/2004)
17) Bullitt (Peter Yates, 68)
18) 48 HRS. (Walter Hill, 82)
19) The French Connection (William Friedkin, 71)
20) Vanishing Point (Richard C. Sarafian, 71)
21) Heat (Michael Mann, 95)
22) Enter the Dragon (Robert Clouse, 73)
23) The Incredibles (Brad Bird, 2004)
24) Escape from New York (John Carpenter, 81)
25) Deliverance (John Boorman, 72)
26) The Adventures of Robin Hood (Michael Curtiz, 38)
27) Point Blank (John Boorman, 67)
28) The Italian Job (Peter Collinson, 69)
29) Get Carter (Mike Hodges, 71)
30) Bonnie and Clyde (Arthur Penn, 67)
31) Assault on Precinct 13 (John Carpenter, 76)
32) El Mariachi (Robert Rodriguez, 92)
33) Run Lola Run (Tom Tykwer, 99)
34) La Femme Nikita (Luc Besson, 90)
35) Across 110th Street (Barry Shear, 72)
36) Executive Decision (Stuart Baird, 96)
37) The Fugitive (Andrew Davis, 93)
38) Superman (Richard Donner, 78)
39) Truck Turner (Jonathan Kaplan, 74)
40) Thief (Michael Mann, 81)
41) The Poseidon Adventure (Ronald Neame, 72)
42) Sharkey’s Machine (Burt Reynolds, 81)
43) The Blues Brothers (John Landis, 80)
44) Breakdown (Jonathan Mostow, 97)
45) Duel (Steven Spielberg, 71)
46) The Flight of the Phoenix (Robert Aldrich, 65)
47) The Bourne Identity (Doug Liman, 2002)
48) Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (Russ Meyer, 65)
49) Sonatine (Takeshi Kitano, 93)
50) Beverly Hills Cop (Martin Brest, 84)
51) On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (Peter Hunt, 69)
52) The Killer (John Woo, 89)
53) Grindhouse (Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, 2006)
54) Yojimbo (Akira Kurosawa, 61)
55) Casino Royale (Martin Campbell, 2006)
56) Danger: Diabolik (Mario Bava, 68)
57) Foxy Brown (Jack Hill, 74)
58) Predator (John McTiernan, 87)
59) Pusher (Nicolas Winding Refn, 96)
60) Under Siege (Andrew Davis, 92)
61) First Blood (Ted Kotcheff, 82)
62) Southern Comfort (Walter Hill, 81)
63) To Live and Die in L.A. (William Friedkin, 85)
64) Coogan’s Bluff (Don Siegel, 68)
65) City of God (Fernando Meirelles, 2002)
66) Police Story (Jackie Chan, 85)
67) Sorcerer (William Friedkin, 77)
68) Electra Glide in Blue (James William Guercio, 73)
69) Iron Man (Jon Favreau, 2008)
70) Smokey and the Bandit (Hal Needham, 77)
71) Nighthawks (Bruce Malmuth, 81)
72) The Bourne Identity (Doug Liman, 2002)
73) X-Men (Bryan Singer, 2000)
74) Coffy (Jack Hill, 73)
75) Point Break (Katherine Bigelow, 91)
76) Spiderman 2 (Sam Raimi, 2004)
77) Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (Michael Cimino, 74)
78) Charley Varrick (Don Siegel, 73)
79) The Abyss (James Cameron, 89)
80) The Bourne Supremecy (Paul Greengrass, 2004)
81) In The Line of Fire (Wolfgang Petersen, 93)
82) Batman Begins (Christopher Nolan, 2005)
83) The Departed (Martin Scorsese, 2006)
84) Series 7: The Contenders (Daniel Minahan, 2001)
85) The Untouchables (Brian De Palma, 87)
86) Death Race 2000 (Paul Bartel, 75)
87) Prime Cut (Michael Richie, 72)
88) Shaft (Gordon Parks, 71)
89) Deep Cover (Bill Duke, 92)
90) Die Hard: With A Vengence (John McTiernan, 95)
91) Magnum Force (Ted Post, 73)
92) Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry (John Hough, 74)
93) The Mask of Zorro (Martin Campbell, 98)
94) The Gauntlet (Clint Eastwood, 77)
95) Akira (Katsuhiro Otomo, 88)
96) Lethal Weapon 2 (Richard Donner, 89)
97) The Spy Who Loved Me (Lewis Gilbert, 77)
98) Dolemite (D’Urville Martin, 75)
99) Speed (Jan De Bont, 94)
100) Rolling Thunder (John Flynn, 77)
101) Night of the Juggler (Robert Butler, 80)

BREAKDOWN BY DECADE:
Pre-1960 (2):
5) The Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa, 54)
26) The Adventures of Robin Hood (Michael Curtiz, 38)

The 1960s (11, 3 in 1968):
11) Goldfinger (Guy Hamilton, 64)
17) Bullitt (Peter Yates, 68)
27) Point Blank (John Boorman, 67)
28) The Italian Job (Peter Collinson, 69)
30) Bonnie and Clyde (Arthur Penn, 67)
46) The Flight of the Phoenix (Robert Aldrich, 65)
48) Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (Russ Meyer, 65)
51) On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (Peter Hunt, 69)
54) Yojimbo (Akira Kurosawa, 61)
56) Danger: Diabolik (Mario Bava, 68)
64) Coogan’s Bluff (Don Siegel, 68)

The 1970s (Officially the best decade for action, with 32--5 in 71, 73, 74, and 77):
4) Mad Max (George Miller, 79)
7) The Taking of Pelham One-Two-Three (Joseph Sargent, 74)
8) Dirty Harry (Don Siegel, 71)
14) The Warriors (Walter Hill, 79)
15) Gone in 60 Seconds (H.B. Halicki, 74)
19) The French Connection (William Friedkin, 71)
20) Vanishing Point (Richard C. Sarafian, 71)
22) Enter the Dragon (Robert Clouse, 73)
25) Deliverance (John Boorman, 72)
29) Get Carter (Mike Hodges, 71)
31) Assault on Precinct 13 (John Carpenter, 76)
35) Across 110th Street (Barry Shear, 72)
38) Superman (Richard Donner, 78)
39) Truck Turner (Jonathan Kaplan, 74)
41) The Poseidon Adventure (Ronald Neame, 72)
45) Duel (Steven Spielberg, 71)
51) Deliverance (John Boorman, 72)
57) Foxy Brown (Jack Hill, 74)
67) Sorcerer (William Friedkin, 77)
68) Electra Glide in Blue (James William Guercio, 73)
70) Smokey and the Bandit (Hal Needham, 77)
74) Coffy (Jack Hill, 73)
77) Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (Michael Cimino, 74)
78) Charley Varrick (Don Siegel, 73)
86) Death Race 2000 (Paul Bartel, 75)
87) Prime Cut (Michael Richie, 72)
88) Shaft (Gordon Parks, 71)
91) Magnum Force (Ted Post, 73)
92) Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry (John Hough, 74)
94) The Gauntlet (Clint Eastwood, 77)
97) The Spy Who Loved Me (Lewis Gilbert, 77)
98) Dolemite (D’Urville Martin, 75)
100) Rolling Thunder (John Flynn, 77)

The 1980s (23, with 6 in 1981—officially the best year for action movies):
1) Raiders of the Lost Ark (Steven Spielberg, 81)
3) Die Hard (John McTiernan, 88)
10) Aliens (James Cameron, 86)
12) The Road Warrior (George Miller, 81)
13) The Terminator (James Cameron, 84)
18) 48 HRS. (Walter Hill, 82)
24) Escape from New York (John Carpenter, 81)
40) Thief (Michael Mann, 81)
42) Sharkey’s Machine (Burt Reynolds, 81)
43) The Blues Brothers (John Landis, 80)
50) Beverly Hills Cop (Martin Brest, 84)
52) The Killer (John Woo, 89)
58) Predator (John McTiernan, 87)
61) First Blood (Ted Kotcheff, 82)
62) Southern Comfort (Walter Hill, 81)
63) To Live and Die in L.A. (William Friedkin, 85)
66) Police Story (Jackie Chan, 85)
71) Nighthawks (Bruce Malmuth, 81)
79) The Abyss (James Cameron, 89)
85) The Untouchables (Brian De Palma, 87)
95) Akira (Katsuhiro Otomo, 88)
96) Lethal Weapon 2 (Richard Donner, 89)
101) Night of the Juggler (Robert Butler, 80)

The 1990s (19, with 4 in 1992)
2) The Matrix (Andy and Larry Wachowski, 99)
6) Leon (Luc Besson, 94)
9) Hard Boiled (John Woo, 92)
21) Heat (Michael Mann, 95)
32) El Mariachi (Robert Rodriguez, 92)
33) Run Lola Run (Tom Tykwer, 99)
34) La Femme Nikita (Luc Besson, 90)
36) Executive Decision (Stuart Baird, 96)
37) The Fugitive (Andrew Davis, 93)
44) Breakdown (Jonathan Mostow, 97)
49) Sonatine (Takeshi Kitano, 93)
59) Pusher (Nicolas Winding Refn, 96)
60) Under Siege (Andrew Davis, 92)
75) Point Break (Katherine Bigelow, 91)
81) In The Line of Fire (Wolfgang Petersen, 93)
89) Deep Cover (Bill Duke, 92)
90) Die Hard: With A Vengence (John McTiernan, 95)
93) The Mask of Zorro (Martin Campbell, 98)
99) Speed (Jan De Bont, 94)

The 2000s (14, with 4 in 2004):
16) Kill Bill (Quentin Tarantino, 2003/2004)
23) The Incredibles (Brad Bird, 2004)
47) The Bourne Ultimatum (Paul Greengrass, 2007)
53) Grindhouse (Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, 2006)
55) Casino Royale (Martin Campbell, 2006)
65) City of God (Fernando Meirelles, 2002)
69) Iron Man (Jon Favreau, 2008)
72) The Bourne Identity (Doug Liman, 2002)
73) X-Men (Bryan Singer, 2000)
76) Spiderman 2 (Sam Raimi, 2004)
80) The Bourne Supremecy (Paul Greengrass, 2004)
82) Batman Begins (Christopher Nolan, 2005)
83) The Departed (Martin Scorsese, 2006)
84) Series 7: The Contenders (Daniel Minahan, 2001)

BREAKDOWN BY DIRECTOR:
WITH 3 FILMS:
John McTiernan: Die Hard (3), Predator (58), Die Hard: With A Vengence (90)
Don Siegel: Dirty Harry (8), Coogan’s Bluff (64), Charley Varrick (78)
James Cameron: Aliens (10), The Terminator (13), The Abyss (79)
Walter Hill: The Warriors (14), 48 HRS. (18), Southern Comfort (62)
William Friedkin: The French Connection (19), To Live and Die in L.A. (63), Sorcerer (67)

WITH 2 FILMS:
Steven Spielberg: Raiders of the Lost Ark (1), Duel (45)
George Miller: Mad Max (4), The Road Warrior (12)
Akira Kurosawa: The Seven Samurai (5), Yojimbo (54)
Luc Besson: Leon (6), La Femme Nikita (34)
John Woo: Hard Boiled (9), The Killer (52)
Quentin Tarantino: Kill Bill (16), Grindhouse (53)
Michael Mann: Heat (21), Thief (40)
John Carpenter: Escape from New York (24), Assault on Precinct 13 (31)
John Boorman: Deliverance (25), Point Blank (27
Robert Rodriguez: El Mariachi (32), Grindhouse (53)
Andrew Davis: The Fugitive (37), Under Siege (60)
Richard Donner: Superman (38), Lethal Weapon 2 (96)
Paul Greengrass: The Bourne Ultimatum (47), The Bourne Supremecy (80)
Martin Campbell: Casino Royale (55), The Mask of Zorro (93)
Jack Hill: Foxy Brown (57), Coffy (74)

NEXT: The 101 Greatest Romantic Movies Ever Made

MASTER LIST #7: The 101 Greatest War Movies

An amazing list of movies here, I guess because war is perhaps the most dramatic of subjects. I didn't include documentaries or films with war as a peripheral subject (like Casablanca, Since You Went Away, The Wild Bunch or The Best Years of Our Lives). So here, based on (1) quality, (2) relevance to genre, and (3) influence, are the results:

1) Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick, 57)
2) Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 79)
3) Pork Chop Hill (Lewis Milestone, 59)
4) Das Boot (Wolfgang Petersen, 82)
5) Ran (Akira Kurosawa, 85)
6) Grand Illusion (Jean Renoir, 37)
7) They Were Expendable (John Ford, 45)
8) The Thin Red Line (Terrence Malick, 98)
9) Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Stanley Kubrick, 64)
10) Alexander Nevsky (Sergei Eisenstein, 38)
11) Throne of Blood (Akira Kurosawa, 57)
12) Overlord (Stuart Cooper, 75)
13) Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean, 62)
14) Rome, Open City (Roberto Rossellini, 45)
15) Culloden (Peter Watkins, 64)
16) Come and See (Elim Klimov, 85)
17) Threads (Mick Jackson, 84)
18) Schindler’s List (Steven Spielberg, 93)
19) Gallipoli (Peter Weir, 81)
20) All Quiet on the Western Front (Lewis Milestone, 30)
21) The Deer Hunter (Michael Cimino, 78)
22) Saving Private Ryan (Steven Spielberg, 98)
23) It Happened Here (Kevin Brownlow and Andrew Mollo, 65)
24) Kanal (Andrzej Vajda, 57)
25) Zulu (Cy Endfield, 64)
26) The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo, 66)
27) Full Metal Jacket (Stanley Kubrick, 87)
28) The Killing Fields (Roland Joffe, 84)
29) The Gladiators (Peter Watkins, 69)
30) Fixed Bayonets (Sam Fuller, 51)
31) Black Hawk Down (Ridley Scott, 2001)
32) The Great Dictator (Charles Chaplin, 40)
33) Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (Peter Weir, 2003)
34) Three Kings (David O. Russell, 99)
35) Spartacus (Stanley Kubrick, 60)
36) Empire of the Sun (Steven Spielberg, 87)
37) Battleground (William Wellman, 49)
38) Europa Europa (Agnieszka Holland, 90)
39) Stalingrad (Joseph Vilsmeier, 93)
40) The Sullivans (Lloyd Bacon, 44)
41) Downfall (Oliver Hirschbiegel, 2004)
42) M*A*S*H* (Robert Altman, 70)
43) Cross of Iron (Sam Peckinpah, 77)
44) Fail-Safe (Sidney Lumet, 64)
45) The Big Red One (Sam Fuller, 80)
46) Letters from Iwo Jima (Clint Eastwood, 2006)
47) Play Dirty (Andre De Toth, 68)
48) The Bridge over the River Kwai (David Lean, 57)
49) A Midnight Clear (Keith Gordon, 92)
50) Children of Men (Alfonso Cuaron, 2006)
51) The Day After (Nicholas Meyer, 83)
52) The Dirty Dozen (Robert Aldrich, 67)
53) The Great Escape (John Sturges, 63)
54) The General (Buster Keaton, 27)
55) The Red Badge of Courage (John Huston, 51)
56) Glory (Edward Zwick, 89)
57) Dunkirk (Christopher Nolan, 2017)
58) Hope and Glory (John Boorman, 87)
59) The Beast (Kevin Reynolds, 88)
60) Catch-22 (Mike Nichols, 70)
61) Twelve O’Clock High (Henry King, 49)
62) Beau Geste (William Wellman, 39)
63) Kagemusha (Akira Kurosawa, 80)
64) United 93 (Paul Greengrass, 2006)
65) Patton (Franklin J. Schaffner, 70)
66) Hell in the Pacific (John Boorman, 68)
67) The Desert Fox (Henry Hathaway, 51)
68) Sergeant York (Howard Hawks, 41)
69) The Longest Day (Andrew Marton, Ken Annikis & Bernard Wicki, 62)
70) The Steel Helmet (Sam Fuller, 51)
71) Attack! (Robert Aldrich, 56)
72) Go Tell The Spartans (Ted Post, 78)
73) Black Rain (Shohei Imamura, 89)
74) Wings (William Wellman, 27)
75) Born on the Forth of July (Oliver Stone, 89)
76) The Duellists (Ridley Scott, 77)
77) Sands of Iwo Jima (Allan Dwan, 49)
78) Breaker Morant (Bruce Beresford, 80)
79) Merrill’s Marauders (Sam Fuller, 62)
80) Enigma (Michael Apted, 2001)
81) Salvador (Oliver Stone, 86)
82) Buffalo Soldiers (Gregor Jordan, 2003)
83) Kelly’s Heroes (Brian G. Hutton, 70)
84) Platoon (Oliver Stone, 86)
85) The Train (John Frankenheimer, 64)
86) Johnny Got His Gun (Dalton Trumbo, 71)
87) The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow, 2008)
88) Bataan (Tay Garnett, 43)
89) The Odd Angry Shot (Tom Jeffrey, 79)
90) Lebanon (Samuel Maoz, 2009)
91) The Dawn Patrol (Howard Hawks, 30)
92) Seven Beauties (Lina Wertmuller, 76)
93) Mister Roberts (John Ford and Mervyn LeRoy, 55)
94) Courage Under Fire (Edward Zwick, 96)
95) Tigerland (Joel Schumacher, 2000)
96) Taps (Harold Russell, 81)
97) The Execution of Private Slovik (Lamont Johnson, 74)
98) Zentropa (Lars Von Trier, 91)
99) Fear and Desire (Stanley Kubrick, 53)
100) Zero Dark Thirty (Kathryn Bigelow, 2012)
101) Joyeux Noel (Christian Carion, 2005)

BREAKDOWN BY DECADE:
The 1920s (2 in 1927):
54) The General (Buster Keaton, 27)
74) Wings (William Wellman, 27)

The 1930s (5, 2 in 1930):
6) Grand Illusion (Jean Renoir, 37)
10) Alexander Nevsky (Sergei Eisenstein, 38)
20) All Quiet on the Western Front (Lewis Milestone, 30)
62) Beau Geste (William Wellman, 39)
91) The Dawn Patrol (Howard Hawks, 30)

The 1940s (9, 3 in 1949):
7) They Were Expendable (John Ford, 45)
14) Rome, Open City (Roberto Rossellini, 45)
32) The Great Dictator (Charles Chaplin, 40)
37) Battleground (William Wellman, 49)
40) The Sullivans (Lloyd Bacon, 44)
61) Twelve O’Clock High (Henry King, 49)
68) Sergeant York (Howard Hawks, 41)
77) Sands of Iwo Jima (Allan Dwan, 49)
88) Bataan (Tay Garnett, 43)

The 1950s (12, 4 in 1957)
1) Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick, 57)
3) Pork Chop Hill (Lewis Milestone, 59)
11) Throne of Blood (Akira Kurosawa, 57)
24) Kanal (Andrzej Vajda, 57)
30) Fixed Bayonets (Sam Fuller, 51)
48) The Bridge over the River Kwai (David Lean, 57)
55) The Red Badge of Courage (John Huston,
67) The Desert Fox (Henry Hathaway, 51)
70) The Steel Helmet (Sam Fuller, 51)
71) Attack! (Robert Aldrich, 56)
93) Mister Roberts (John Ford and Mervyn LeRoy, 55)
99) Fear and Desire (Stanley Kubrick, 53)

The 1960s (15, 5 in 1964--the best year for war movies):
9) Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Stanley Kubrick, 64)
13) Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean, 62)
15) Culloden (Peter Watkins, 64)
23) It Happened Here (Kevin Brownlow and Andrew Mollo, 65)
25) Zulu (Cy Endfield, 64)
26) The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo, 66)
29) The Gladiators (Peter Watkins, 69)
35) Spartacus (Stanley Kubrick, 60)
44) Fail-Safe (Sidney Lumet, 64)
47) Play Dirty (Andre De Toth, 68)
52) The Dirty Dozen (Robert Aldrich, 67)
66) Hell in the Pacific (John Boorman, 68)
69) The Longest Day (Andrew Marton, Ken Annikin, Bernard Wicki and Darryl F. Zanuck, 62)
79) Merrill’s Marauders (Sam Fuller, 62)
85) The Train (John Frankenheimer, 64)

The 1970s (15, 4 in 1970):
2) Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 79)
12) Overlord (Stuart Cooper, 75)
21) The Deer Hunter (Michael Cimino, 78)
42) M*A*S*H* (Robert Altman, 70)
43) Cross of Iron (Sam Peckinpah, 77)
60) Catch-22 (Mike Nichols, 70)
65) Patton (Franklin J. Schaffner, 70)
72) Go Tell The Spartans (Ted Post, 78)
76) The Duellists (Ridley Scott, 77)
83) Kelly’s Heroes (Brian G. Hutton, 70)
86) Johnny Got His Gun (Dalton Trumbo, 71)
89) The Odd Angry Shot (Tom Jeffrey, 79)
92) Seven Beauties (Lina Wertmuller, 76)
97) The Execution of Private Slovik (Lamont Johnson, 74)

The 1980s (Officially the best decade for war movies—20, 3 in 1980, 1981, 1984, 1987, and 1989)
4) Das Boot (Wolfgang Petersen, 82)
5) Ran (Akira Kurosawa, 85)
16) Come and See (Elim Klimov, 85)
17) Threads (Mick Jackson, 84)
19) Gallipoli (Peter Weir, 81)
27) Full Metal Jacket (Stanley Kubrick, 87)
28) The Killing Fields (Roland Joffe, 84)
36) Empire of the Sun (Steven Spielberg, 87)
45) The Big Red One (Sam Fuller, 80)
51) The Day After (Nicholas Meyer, 83)
56) Glory (Edward Zwick, 89)
58) Hope and Glory (John Boorman, 87)
59) The Beast (Kevin Reynolds, 88)
63) Kagemusha (Akira Kurosawa, 80)
73) Black Rain (Shohei Imamura, 89)
75) Born on the Forth of July (Oliver Stone, 89)
78) Breaker Morant (Bruce Beresford, 80)
81) Salvador (Oliver Stone, 86)
84) Platoon (Oliver Stone, 86)
96) Taps (Harold Becker, 81)

The 1990s (10, 3 in 1993):
8) The Thin Red Line (Terrence Malick, 98)
18) Schindler’s List (Steven Spielberg, 93)
22) Saving Private Ryan (Steven Spielberg, 98)
34) Three Kings (David O. Russell, 99)
38) Europa Europa (Agnieszka Holland, 90)
39) Stalingrad (Joseph Vilsmeier, 93)
49) A Midnight Clear (Keith Gordon, 92)
94) Courage Under Fire (Edward Zwick, 96)
98) Zentropa (Lars Von Trier, 91)

The 2000s (13, 3 in 2006):
31) Black Hawk Down (Ridley Scott, 2001)
33) Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (Peter Weir, 2003)
41) Downfall (Oliver Hirschbiegel, 2004)
46) Letters from Iwo Jima (Clint Eastwood, 2006)
50) Children of Men (Alfonso Cuaron, 2006)
57) Dunkirk (Christopher Nolan, 2017)
64) United 93 (Paul Greengrass, 2006)
80) Enigma (Michael Apted, 2001)
82) Buffalo Soldiers (Gregor Jordan, 2003)
87) The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow, 2008)
90) Lebanon (Samuel Maoz, 2009)
95) Tigerland (Joel Schumacher, 2000)
100) Zero Dark Thirty (Kathryn Bigelow, 2012)
101) Joyeux Noel (Christian Carion, 2005)

BREAKDOWN BY DIRECTOR:
WITH 5 FILMS:
Stanley Kubrick: Paths of Glory (1), Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (9), Full Metal Jacket (27), Spartacus (35), Fear and Desire (99)

WITH 4 FILMS:
Sam Fuller: Fixed Bayonets (30), The Big Red One (45), The Steel Helmet (70), Merrill’s Marauders (79)

WITH 3 FILMS:
Akira Kurosawa: Ran (5), Throne of Blood (11), Kagemusha (63)
Steven Spielberg: Schindler’s List (18), Saving Private Ryan (22), Empire of the Sun (36)
William Wellman: Battleground (37), Beau Geste (62), Wings (74)
Oliver Stone: Born on the Forth of July (75), Salvador (81), Platoon (84)

WITH 2 FILMS:
Lewis Milestone: Pork Chop Hill (3), All Quiet on the Western Front (20)
John Ford: They Were Expendable (7), Mister Roberts (93)
David Lean: Lawrence of Arabia (13), The Bridge over the River Kwai (48)
Peter Watkins: Culloden (15), The Gladiators (29)
Peter Weir: Gallipoli (19), Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (33)
Ridley Scott: Black Hawk Down (31), The Duellists (76)
Robert Aldrich: The Dirty Dozen (52), Attack! (71)
Edward Zwick: Glory (56), Courage Under Fire (94)
John Boorman: Hope and Glory (58), Hell in the Pacific (66)
Howard Hawks: Sergeant York (68), The Dawn Patrol (91)
Kathryn Bigelow: The Hurt Locker (87), Zero Dark Thirty (100) 

BREAKDOWN BY CONFLICT:
World War I: Paths of Glory, Grand Illusion, Lawrence of Arabia, Gallipoli, All Quiet on the Western Front, Beau Geste, Sergeant York, Wings, Johnny Got His Gun, The Dawn Patrol, Joyeux Noel
World War II: Das Boot, They Were Expendable, The Thin Red Line, Overlord, Rome-- Open City, Come and See, Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan, It Happened Here, The Great Dictator, Empire of the Sun, Battleground, Europa Europa, Stalingrad, The Sullivans, Downfall, Cross of Iron, The Big Red One, Letters from Iwo Jima, Play Dirty, The Bridge over the River Kwai, A Midnight Clear, The Dirty Dozen, The Great Escape, Dunkirk (2017), Hope and Glory, Catch-22, Twelve O’Clock High, Patton, Hell in the Pacific, The Desert Fox, The Longest Day, Attack!, Sands of Iwo Jima, Merrill’s Marauders, Enigma, Kelly’s Heroes, The Train, Bataan, Black Rain, Seven Beauties, Mister Roberts, The Execution of Private Slovik, Zentropa, Fear and Desire
Vietnam: Apocalypse Now, Full Metal Jacket, The Deer Hunter, The Killing Fields, Go Tell The Spartans, Born on the Forth of July, Platoon, The Odd Angry Shot, Tigerland
Korea: Pork Chop Hill, Fixed Bayonets, M*A*S*H*, The Steel Helmet
The American Civil War: The General, The Red Badge of Courage, Glory
Pre-20th Century: Alexander Nevsky, Throne of Blood, Culloden, Ran, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Spartacus, Kagemusha, The Duellists
Post-1980 American conflicts: Black Hawk Down, Three Kings, United 93, Courage Under Fire, The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty
20th Century Sideshows: Zulu, The Battle of Algiers, Breaker Morant, The Beast, Salvador, Lebanon
War for the hell of it: Taps, Buffalo Soldiers
Future war: The Gladiators, Children of Men
Nuclear War: Dr. Strangelove, Threads, Fail-Safe, The Day After, Black Rain

NEXT MASTER LIST: The 101 Greatest Action Movies

2009 Academy Awards: The Overview

Well, I'm sort of all Oscared out, as I blogged about it live here on The Flaming Nose. But I do wanna mention my top Oscar moments:

1) Anne Hathaway playing "Nixon" in Hugh Jackman's opening number.
2) Danny Boyle hopping like Tigger upon his win.
3) Sean Penn claiming fellow nominee Mickey Rourke as "his brother."
4) Anne Hathaway, teary-eyed, thanking Shirley MacLaine for her comments about her talent (if you can't tell, I'm totally enamoured of Miss Hathaway!)
5) Tina Fey and Steve Martin introducing the inventively-mounted Screenplay awards.
6) The fun short film by Judd Apatow
7) And another great short by Albert Maysles
8) The orchestra up on the stage
9) Hugh Jackman
10) A well-produced show.

And the negatives:
1) Mickey Rourke didn't win! Wahhhhh!
2) Poorly directed "In Memorium" segment
3) Odd Joachin Phoenix bit (which I didn't get at first) by Ben Stiller
4) Not enough Jerry Lewis
5) Having to look at Sarah Jessica Parker for even a moment
6) Absolutely no surprises, award-wise.

Anyway, here's the lineup, with commentary relating to my predictions.

BEST PICTURE
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
"Frost/Nixon"
"Milk"
"The Reader"
"Slumdog Millionaire" (Winner, predicted)

BEST ACTRESS
Anne Hathaway, "Rachel Getting Married"
Angelina Jolie, "Changeling"
Melissa Leo, "Frozen River"
Meryl Streep, "Doubt"
Kate Winslet, "The Reader" (Winner, predicted)

BEST ACTOR
Frank Langella, "Frost/Nixon"
Sean Penn, "Milk" (Winner)
Brad Pitt, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
Mickey Rourke, "The Wrestler" (my prediction--he wuz robbed)
Richard Jenkins, "The Visitor"

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Amy Adams, "Doubt"
Penelope Cruz, "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" (Winner)
Viola Davis, "Doubt" (my prediction--she wuz robbed)
Taraji P. Henson, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
Marisa Tomei, "The Wrestler"

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Josh Brolin, "Milk"
Robert Downey Jr., "Tropic Thunder"
Philip Seymour Hoffman, "Doubt"
Heath Ledger, "The Dark Knight" (Winner, predicted)
Michael Shannon, "Revolutionary Road"

BEST DIRECTOR
Danny Boyle, "Slumdog Millionaire" (Winner, predicted)
Stephen Daldry, "The Reader"
David Fincher, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
Ron Howard, "Frost/Nixon"
Gus Van Sant, "Milk"

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Dustin Lance Black, "Milk" (Winner, predicted, unfortunately)
Courtney Hunt, "Frozen River"
Mike Leigh, "Happy-Go-Lucky"
Martin McDonagh, "In Bruges"
Andrew Stanton, and Jim Reardon; original story by Stanton and Pete Docter"WALL-E"

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Simon Beaufoy, "Slumdog Millionaire" (Winner, predicted)
David Hare, "The Reader"
Peter Morgan, "Frost/Nixon"
John Patrick Shanley, "Doubt"
Eric Roth, Robin Swicord, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
"The Baader-Meinhof Complex" (Germany)
"The Class" (France)
"Departures" (Japan) (Winner)
"Revanche" (Austria)
"Waltz with Bashir" (Israel) (my prediction)

BEST ANIMATED FILM
"Bolt"
"Kung Fu Panda"
"WALL-E" (Winner, predicted--and well-deserved)

BEST ART DIRECTION
"Changeling"
"The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button" (Winner, predicted)
"The Dark Knight"
"The Duchess"
"Revolutionary Road"

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
"Changeling" Tom Stern
"Slumdog Millionaire," Anthony Dod Mantle (Winner, predicted)
"The Reader," Chris Menges
"The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button," Claudio Miranda
"The Dark Knight," Wally Pfister

BEST FILM EDITING
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," Kirk Baxter, Angus Wall
"The Dark Knight," Lee Smith
"Frost/Nixon," Daniel P. Hanley, Mike Hill
"Milk," Elliot Graham
"Slumdog Millionaire," Chris Dickens (Winner, predicted)

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
"Australia," Catherine Martin
"The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button," Jacqueline West
"The Duchess," Michael O'Conner (Winner, predicted)
"Milk", Danny Glicker
"Revolutionary Road," Albert Wolsky

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
"The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)"
"Encounters at the End of the World"
"The Garden"
"Man on Wire" (Winner, predicted and well-deserved)
"Trouble the Water"

BEST ORIGINAL SONG
"Slumdog Millionaire," "Jai Ho" (Winner)
"Slumdog Millionaire," "O Saya"
"WALL-E," "Down To Earth" (my prediction)

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
"The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button," Alexandre Desplat
"Defiance," James Newton Howard
"Milk," Danny Elfman
"Slumdog Millionaire," A.R. Rahman (Winner, predicted)
"WALL-E," Thomas Newman

BEST MAKEUP
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,"(Winner, predicted)
"The Dark Knight,"
"Hellboy II: The Golden Army,"

BEST SOUND EDITING
"The Dark Knight"(Winner)
"Iron Man"
"Slumdog Millionaire"
"WALL-E" (my prediction)
"Wanted"

BEST SOUND MIXING
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
"The Dark Knight"
"Slumdog Millionaire" (Winner)
"WALL-E" (my prediction)
"Wanted"

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Winner, predicted)
"The Dark Knight"
"Iron Man"

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM
"Auf der Strecke (On the Line)"
"Manon on the Asphalt"
"New Boy"
"The Pig" (my prediction)
"Spielzeugland (Toyland)" (Winner)

BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM
"La Maison en Petits Cubes" (Winner)
"Lavatory - Lovestory" (my prediction)
"Oktapodi"
"Presto"
"This Way Up"

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT FILM
"The Conscience of Nhem En" (my prediction)
"The Final Inch"
"Smile Pinki" (Winner)
"The Witness - From the Balcony of Room 306"

15 out of 24. Not terrible. I shouldn't have oughta gone for the underdog so many times. Hopefully, I've learned my lesson. Now on to 2009...

MASTER LIST #6: The 101 Greatest Musicals

In thinking about the best musicals, I had to reflect, of course, on the traditional view we all have of the genre--you know, those kind of movies with people rather surrealistically breaking out into song. But I also felt I had to mix in nods to musical bio-pics, animated films, films in which instrumental music was central to the picture, and films in which dancing--sans singing--takes center stage. I also admit I need perhaps more exposure to films in this genre, particularly musicals from the '30s and "40s. That said, based on (1) tunefulness, (2) overall quality, (3) relevance to genre, and (4) influence, here are the results:

1) All That Jazz (Bob Fosse, 79)
2) Meet Me In St. Louis (Vincente Minnelli, 44)
3) West Side Story (Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins, 61)
4) The Music Man (Morton De Costa, 62)
5) Nashville (Robert Altman, 75)
6) Moulin Rouge! (Baz Luhrmann, 2001)
7) Fiddler on the Roof (Norman Jewison, 71)
8) Oliver! (Carol Reed, 68)
9) On The Town (Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, 49)
10) Tommy (Ken Russell, 75)
11) The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Jacques Demy, 64)
12) Guys and Dolls (Joseph L. Manckiewicz, 55)
13) Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (Stanley Donen, 54)
14) Cabaret (Bob Fosse, 72)
15) Singin’ in the Rain (Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, 52)
16) Pennies from Heaven (Herbert Ross, 81)
17) La La Land (2016, Damian Chazelle) 
18) Coal Miner’s Daughter (Michael Apted, 80)
19) The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T (Roy Rowland, 53)
20) Top Hat (Mark Sandrich, 35)
21) Swing Time (George Stevens, 36)
22) Bugsy Malone (Alan Parker, 76)
23) Funny Face (Stanley Donen, 57)
24) A Star is Born (George Cukor, 54)
25) Hedwig and the Angry Inch (John Cameron Mitchell, 2001)
26) An American in Paris (Vincente Minnelli, 51)
27) Fame (Alan Parker, 80)
28) O Lucky Man! (Lindsey Anderson, 73)
28) A Hard Day's Night (Richard Lester, 64)
30) Round Midnight (Bertrand Tavernier, 86)
31) This Is Spinal Tap (Rob Reiner, 84)
32) Lady and the Tramp (Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson and Hamilton Luske, 55)
33) The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 39)
34) The Jungle Book (Wolfgang Reitherman, 67)
35) Duck Soup (Leo McCarey, 33)
36) Beauty and the Beast (Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, 91)
37) Dancer in the Dark (Lars Von Trier, 2000)
38) Hair (Milos Forman, 78)
39) Godspell (David Greene, 73)
40) Mary Poppins (Robert Stevenson, 64)
41) Yankee Doodle Dandy (Michael Curtiz, 42)
42) The Blues Brothers (John Landis, 80)
43) Damn Yankees (George Abbott and Stanley Donen, 58)
44) Chicago (Rob Marshall, 2002)
45) Funny Girl (William Wyler, 68)
46) Victor/Victoria (Blake Edwards, 82)
47) A Prairie Home Companion (Robert Altman, 2006)
48) The Sound of Music (Robert Wise, 65)
48) The King and I (Walter Lang, 56)
50) Oklahoma! (Fred Zinnemann, 55)
51) Yellow Submarine (George Dunning, 68)
52) Saturday Night Fever (John Badham, 77)
53) Viva Las Vegas (George Sidney, 64)
54) Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (Mel Stuart, 71)
55) South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut (Trey Parker, 99)
56) The Buddy Holly Story (Steve Rash, 78)
57) Rock N’ Roll High School (Allan Arkush, 79)
58) Phantom of the Paradise (Brian De Palma, 74)
59) The Girl Can’t Help It (Frank Tashlin, 56)
60) The Muppet Movie (James Frawley, 79)
61) The Boy Friend (Ken Russell, 71)
62) Head (Bob Rafelson, 68)
63) Bound for Glory (Hal Ashby, 76)
64) One Trick Pony (Robert M. Young, 80)
65) The Committments (Alan Parker, 90)
66) Bird (Clint Eastwood, 88) 67) Anchors Aweigh (George Sidney, 45)
68) Absolute Beginners (Julian Temple, 86)
69) Jailhouse Rock (Richard Thorpe, 57)
70) Bye Bye Birdie (George Sidney, 63)
71) Hairspray (John Waters, 87)
72) Help! (Richard Lester, 65)
73) Once (John Carney, 2006)
74) New York New York (Martin Scorsese, 77)
75) Amadeus (Milos Forman, 84)
76) Pink Floyd: The Wall (Alan Parker, 82)
77) The Rose (Mark Rydell, 79)
78) Streets of Fire (Walter Hill, 84)
79) That’ll Be The Day (Claude Whatham, 73)
80) Breaking Glass (Brian Gibson, 80)
81) Holiday Inn (Mark Sandrich, 42)
82) Cinderella (Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, 50)
83) Flashdance (Adrian Lyne, 83)
84) Little Shop of Horrors (Frank Oz, 86)
85) Shock Treatment (Jim Sharman, 81)
86) Enchanted (Kevin Lima, 2007)
87) The Band Wagon (Vincente Minnelli, 53)
88) A Night at the Opera (Sam Wood, 35)
89) The Ruling Class (Peter Medak, 72)
90) Pinnochio (Ben Sharpsteen and Hamilton Luske, 40)
91) One From The Heart (Francis Ford Coppola, 82)
92) Babes in Arms (Busby Burkley, 39)
93) The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Jim Sharman, 75)
94) Annie Get Your Gun (George Sidney, 50)
95) Wild in the Streets (Barry Shears, 68)
96) A Mighty Wind (Christopher Guest, 2003)
97) A Funny Thing Happened on the Way To The Forum (Richard Lester, 66)
98) The Little Mermaid (Ron Clements and John Musker, 89)
99) The Wicker Man (Robin Hardy, 73)
100) Walk the Line (James Mangold, 2005)
101) Hans Christian Andersen (Charles Vidor, 52)



BREAKDOWN BY DECADE:
The 1930s (6, with 2 in 1939)
19) Top Hat (Mark Sandrich, 35)
20) Swing Time (George Stevens, 36)
32) The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 39)
34) Duck Soup (Leo McCarey, 33)
87) A Night at the Opera (Sam Wood, 35)
91) Babes in Arms (Busby Burkley, 39)

The 1940s (6, 2 in 1942)
1) Meet Me In St. Louis (Vincente Minnelli, 44)
9) On The Town (Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, 49)
40) Yankee Doodle Dandy (Michael Curtiz, 42)
67) Anchors Aweigh (George Sidney, 45)
81) Holiday Inn (Mark Sandrich, 42)
89) Pinnochio (Ben Sharpsteen and Hamilton Luske, 40)

The 1950s (17, with 3 in 1955)
12) Guys and Dolls (Joseph L. Manckiewicz, 55)
13) Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (Stanley Donen, 54)
15) Singin’ in the Rain (Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, 52)
18) The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T (Roy Rowland, 53)
22) Funny Face (Stanley Donen, 57)
23) A Star is Born (George Cukor, 54)
25) An American in Paris (Vincente Minnelli, 51)
31) Lady and the Tramp (Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson and Hamilton Luske, 55)
42) Damn Yankees (George Abbott and Stanley Donen, 58)
48) The King and I (Walter Lang, 56)
49) Oklahoma! (Fred Zinnemann, 55)
58) The Girl Can’t Help It (Frank Tashlin, 56)
65) The Band Wagon (Vincente Minnelli, 53)
69) Jailhouse Rock (Richard Thorpe, 57)
82) Cinderella (Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, 50)
93) Annie Get Your Gun (George Sidney, 50)
100) Hans Christian Andersen (Charles Vidor, 52)

The 1960s (16, with 4 in 1964 and in 1968)
3) West Side Story (Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins, 61)
4) The Music Man (Morton De Costa, 62)
8) Oliver! (Carol Reed, 68)
11) The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Jacques Demy, 64)
28) A Hard Day's Night (Richard Lester, 64)
33) The Jungle Book (Wolfgang Reitherman, 67)
39) Mary Poppins (Robert Stevenson, 64)
44) Funny Girl (William Wyler, 68)
47) The Sound of Music (Robert Wise, 65)
50) Yellow Submarine (George Dunning, 68)
52) Viva Las Vegas (George Sidney, 64)
61) Head (Bob Rafelson, 68)
70) Bye Bye Birdie (George Sidney, 63)
72) Help! (Richard Lester, 65)
94) Wild in the Streets (Barry Shears, 68)
96) A Funny Thing Happened on the Way To The Forum (Richard Lester, 66)

The 1970s (23--Officially the best decade for musicals—with 4 in 1973)
2) All That Jazz (Bob Fosse, 79)
5) Nashville (Robert Altman, 75)
7) Fiddler on the Roof (Norman Jewison, 71)
10) Tommy (Ken Russell, 75)
14) Cabaret (Bob Fosse, 72)
21) Bugsy Malone (Alan Parker, 76)
27) O Lucky Man! (Lindsey Anderson, 73)
37) Hair (Milos Forman, 78)
38) Godspell (David Greene, 73)
51) Saturday Night Fever (John Badham, 77)
53) Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (Mel Stuart, 71)
55) The Buddy Holly Story (Steve Rash, 78)
56) Rock N’ Roll High School (Allan Arkush, 79)
57) Phantom of the Paradise (Brian De Palma, 74)
59) The Muppet Movie (James Frawley, 79)
60) The Boy Friend (Ken Russell, 71)
62) Bound for Glory (Hal Ashby, 76)
74) New York New York (Martin Scorsese, 77)
77) The Rose (Mark Rydell, 79)
79) That’ll Be The Day (Claude Whatham, 73)
88) The Ruling Class (Peter Medak, 72)
92) The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Jim Sharman, 75)
98) The Wicker Man (Robin Hardy, 73)

The 1980s (20, with 5 in 1980)
16) Pennies from Heaven (Herbert Ross, 81)
17) Coal Miner’s Daughter (Michael Apted, 80)
26) Fame (Alan Parker, 80)
29) Round Midnight (Bertrand Tavernier, 86)
30) This Is Spinal Tap (Rob Reiner, 84)
41) The Blues Brothers (John Landis, 80)
45) Victor/Victoria (Blake Edwards, 82)
63) One Trick Pony (Robert M. Young, 80)
66) Bird (Clint Eastwood, 88)
68) Absolute Beginners (Julian Temple, 86)
71) Hairspray (John Waters, 87)
75) Amadeus (Milos Forman, 84)
76) Pink Floyd: The Wall (Alan Parker, 82)
78) Streets of Fire (Walter Hill, 84)
80) Breaking Glass (Brian Gibson, 80)
83) Flashdance (Adrian Lyne, 83)
84) Little Shop of Horrors (Frank Oz, 86)
85) Shock Treatment (Jim Sharman, 81)
90) One From The Heart (Francis Ford Coppola, 82)
97) The Little Mermaid (Ron Clements and John Musker, 89)

The 1990s (3)
35) Beauty and the Beast (Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, 91)
54) South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut (Trey Parker, 99)
64) The Committments (Alan Parker, 90)

The 2000s (9, with 2 in 2001)
6) Moulin Rouge! (Baz Luhrmann, 2001)
17) La La Land (Damian Chazelle, 2016) 
24) Hedwig and the Angry Inch (John Cameron Mitchell, 2001)
36) Dancer in the Dark (Lars Von Trier, 2000)
43) Chicago (Rob Marshall, 2002)
73) Once (John Carney, 2006)
86) Enchanted (Kevin Lima, 2007)
95) A Mighty Wind (Christopher Guest, 2003)
99) Walk the Line (James Mangold, 2005)


BREAKDOWN BY DIRECTOR:
WITH 5 FILMS:
Stanley Donen: On The Town (9), Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (13), Singin’ in the Rain (15), Funny Face (22), Damn Yankees (42)

WITH 4 FILMS:
George Sidney: Viva Las Vegas (52), Anchors Aweigh (67), Bye Bye Birdie (70), Annie Get Your Gun (93)

WITH 3 FILMS:
Vincente Minnelli: Meet Me In St. Louis (1), An American in Paris (25), The Band Wagon (65)
Alan Parker: Bugsy Malone (21), Fame (26), Pink Floyd: The Wall (76)
Richard Lester: A Hard Day's Night (28), Help! (72), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way To The Forum (96)
Hamilton Luske: Lady and the Tramp(31), Cinderella (82), Pinnochio (89)

WITH 2 FILMS:
Bob Fosse: All That Jazz (2), Cabaret (14)
Robert Wise: West Side Story (3), The Sound of Music (47)
Robert Altman: Nashville (5), A Prairie Home Companion (46)
Gene Kelly: On The Town (9), Singin’ in the Rain (15)
Ken Russell: Tommy (10), The Boy Friend (60)
Mark Sandrich: Top Hat (19), Holiday Inn (81)
Clyde Geronimi: Lady and the Tramp(31), Cinderella (82)
Wilfred Jackson: Lady and the Tramp(31), Cinderella (82)
Milos Forman: Hair (37), Amadeus (75)
Jim Sharman: Shock Treatment (85), The Rocky Horror Picture Show (92)

NEXT MASTER LIST: The 101 Greatest War Movies

MASTER LIST #5: The 150 Greatest Comedies

Since, unlike with many genres, comedies have been steadily produced since the advent of the camera, and routinely take up half of every video store's catalogue, I decided to expand my usual 101 films on these lists to a fairer 150. Even with this extension (which I will only use again with my master list on DRAMAS), this was a VERY difficult list to make, mostly because it really forced me to think about which movies I thought were the very funniest, and which movies I thought were perhaps less humorous but obviously exuded quality nonetheless. I think I struck a good balance. So, based on (1) laughs and smiles, (2) overall quality, (3) relevance to genre, and (4) influence, here are the results:

1) Annie Hall (Woody Allen, 77)
2) Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder, 59)
3) Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Stanley Kubrick, 64)
4) City Lights (Charles Chaplin, 31)
5) This is Spinal Tap (Rob Reiner, 84)
6) Blazing Saddles (Mel Brooks, 74)
7) Sullivan’s Travels (Preston Sturges, 41)
8) Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam, 75)
9) Duck Soup (Leo McCarey, 33)
10) The Graduate (Mike Nichols, 67)
11) The General (Buster Keaton, 27)
12) The Lady Eve (Preston Sturges, 41)
13) Manhattan (Woody Allen, 79)
14) It Happened One Night (Frank Capra, 34)
15) American Graffiti (George Lucas, 73)
16) Local Hero (Bill Forsyth, 83)
17) The Big Lebowski (Joel and Ethan Coen, 98)
18) Airplane! (Jim Abrahams and David & Jerry Zucker, 80)
19) Tootsie (Sydney Pollack, 82)
20) The Awful Truth (Leo McCarey, 37)
21) The Gold Rush (Charles Chaplin, 25)
22) Breaking Away (Peter Yates, 79)
23) Paper Moon (Peter Bogdanovich, 74)
24) Ball of Fire (Howard Hawks, 41)
25) Toy Story (John Lasseter, 95)
26) Young Frankenstein (Mel Brooks, 74)
27) Brazil (Terry Gilliam, 85)
28) O Lucky Man! (Lindsey Anderson, 73)
29) M*A*S*H* (Robert Altman, 70)
30) Twentieth Century (Howard Hawks, 34)
31) Animal Crackers (Victor Heerman, 30)
32) Groundhog Day (Harold Ramis, 93)
33) National Lampoon’s Animal House (John Landis, 78)
34) It’s A Gift (Norman Z. McLeod, 34)
35) Modern Romance (Albert Brooks, 81)
36) The Palm Beach Story (Preston Sturges, 42)
37) Borat: Cultural Learning of American for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (Larry Charles, 2006)
38) Arthur (Steve Gordon, 81)
39) Citizen Ruth (Alexander Payne, 96)
40) What’s Up, Doc? (Peter Bogdanovich, 72)
41) Richard Pryor: Live in Concert (Jeff Margolis, 79)
42) The Bad News Bears (Michael Richie, 76)
43) Being There (Hal Ashby, 79)
44) Napoleon Dynamite (Jared Hess, 2004)
45) A Hard Day’s Night (Richard Lester, 64)
46) To Be or Not To Be (Ernst Lubischt, 42)
47) Office Space (Mike Judge, 99)
48) Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure (Tim Burton, 85)
49) Safety Last (Fred C. Newmeyer and Sam Taylor, 23)
50) Galaxy Quest (Dean Parisot, 99)
51) After Hours (Martin Scorsese, 86)
52) Bedazzled (Stanley Donen, 67)
53) A Shot in the Dark (Blake Edwards, 64)
54) Bad Santa (Terry Zwigoff, 2003)
55) Broadway Danny Rose (Woody Allen, 84)
56) Harold and Maude (Hal Ashby, 72)
57) Arsenic and Old Lace (Frank Capra, 44)
58) The In-Laws (Arthur Hiller, 79)
59) Used Cars (Robert Zemeckis, 80)
60) Rushmore (Wes Anderson, 98)
61) Playtime (Jacques Tati, 67)
62) The MST3K version of Mitchell (Andrew McLagen, 75/MST3K, 93)
63) Nothing’s Sacred (William Wellman, 37)
64) Diner (Barry Levinson, 82)
65) Dazed and Confused (Richard Linklater, 93)
66) The Heartbreak Kid (Elaine May, 72)
67) Oh, God! (Carl Reiner, 77)
68) Flirting with Disaster (David O. Russell, 96)
69) Modern Times (Charles Chaplin, 36)
70) Gregory’s Girl (Bill Forsyth, 81)
71) A Night at the Opera (Sam Wood, 35)
72) Raising Arizona (Joel and Ethan Coen, 87)
73) Shaun of the Dead (Edgar Wright, 2004)
74) Monsters Inc. (Pete Docter, David Silverman, Lee Unkrich, 2001)
75) The Bellboy (Jerry Lewis, 60)
76) His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks, 40)
77) Lost in America (Albert Brooks, 85)
78) The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek (Preston Sturges, 44)
79) Ed Wood (Tim Burton, 94)
80) Sleeper (Woody Allen, 73)
81) Ghostbusters (Ivan Reitman, 84)
82) Clueless (Amy Heckerling, 95)
83) Trading Places (John Landis, 83)
84) The Jerk (Cark Reiner, 79)
85) The More The Merrier (George Stevens, 43)
86) Sherlock Jr. (Buster Keaton, 24)
87) Head (Bob Rafelson, 68)
88) Love and Death (Woody Allen, 75)
89) Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story (Michael Winterbottom, 2006)
90) Slap Shot (George Roy Hill, 77)
91) Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life (Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam, 83)
92) The Blues Brothers (John Landis, 80)
93) Life is Sweet (Mike Leigh, 91)
94) Last Night at the Alamo (Eagle Pennell, 83)
95) Planes, Trains and Automobiles (John Hughes, 87)
96) The Nutty Professor (Jerry Lewis, 63)
97) My Cousin Vinny (Jonathan Lynn, 92)
98) Desperate Living (John Waters, 77)
99) O Brother Where Art Thou? (Joel & Ethan Coen, 2000)
100) The Knack and How to Get It (Richard Lester, 65)
101) The Hudsucker Proxy (Joel and Ethan Coen, 94)
102) Rubin and Ed (Trent Harris, 92)
103) Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (John Hughes, 86)
104) Stranger Than Paradise (Jim Jaramusch, 85)
105) Bottle Rocket (Wes Anderson, 96)
106) Election (Alexander Payne, 99)
107) One, Two, Three (Billy Wilder, 61)
108) Mr. Hulot’s Holiday (Jacques Tati, 53)
109) The Freshman (Fred C. Newmeyer and Sam Taylor, 25)
110) The 40-Year-Old Virgin (Judd Apatow, 2005)
111) Take The Money and Run (Woody Allen, 69)
112) Dark Star (John Carpenter, 74)
113) Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (H.C. Potter, 48)
114) A Day at the Races (Sam Wood, 37)
115) Kentucky Fried Movie (John Landis, 77)
116) I Wanna Hold Your Hand (Robert Zemeckis, 78)
117) Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid (Carl Reiner, 82)
118) The Longest Yard (Robert Aldrich, 74)
119) Repo Man (Alex Cox, 84)
120) Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (Terry Gilliam, 98)
121) Bringing Up Baby (Howard Hawks, 38)
122) Quick Change (Howard Franklin and Bill Murray, 90)
123) Ghost World (Terry Zwigoff, 2001)
124) Female Trouble (John Waters, 74)
125) My Favorite Year (Richard Benjamin, 82)
126) Rock n’ Roll High School (Allen Arkush, 79)
127) Steamboat Bill Jr.(Buster Keaton, 28)
128) Sylvia Scarlett (George Cukor, 35)
129) Going in Style (Martin Brest, 79)
130) The Major and the Minor (Billy Wilder, 42)
131) Withnail and I (Bruce Robinson, 87)
132) Superbad (Greg Mottola, 2007)
133) Starting Over (Alan J. Pakula, 79)
134) Trees Lounge (Steve Buscemi, 96)
135) Being John Malkovich (Spike Jonze, 99)
136) The Front Page (Lewis Milestone, 31)
137) Best In Show (Christopher Guest, 2000)
138) Sons of the Desert (William A. Seitner, 33)
139) The Groove Tube (Ken Shapiro, 74)
140) Nine to Five (Colin Higgins, 80)
141) The Odd Couple (Gene Saks, 68)
142) Wet Hot American Summer (David Wain, 2001)
143) It Happens Every Spring (Lloyd Bacon, 49)
144) Bring It On (Peyton Reed, 2000)
145) The Producers (Mel Brooks, 68)
146) Half-Baked (Tamra Davis, 98)
147) Showgirls (Paul Verhoeven, 95)
148) The Loved One (Tony Richardson, 65)
149) Tropic Thunder (Ben Stiller, 2008)
150) They Might Be Giants (Anthony Harvey, 71)

I decided also to do the decade breakdown a little differently this time. Now you can see that my bigger list holds water, because if you look at each decade, and look at the order in which I put its films, I think you'll find that the list is fair: these ARE the best comedies of each decade.

BREAKDOWN BY DECADES:
The 1920s (6 films):
11) The General (Buster Keaton, 27)
21) The Gold Rush (Charles Chaplin, 25)
49) Safety Last (Fred C. Newmeyer and Sam Taylor, 23)
86) Sherlock Jr. (Buster Keaton, 24)
109) The Freshman (Fred C. Newmeyer and Sam Taylor, 25)
127) Steamboat Bill Jr.(Buster Keaton, 28)

The 1930s (15 films, 3 in 1934 and in 1937):
4) City Lights (Charles Chaplin, 31)
9) Duck Soup (Leo McCarey, 33)
14) It Happened One Night (Frank Capra, 34)
20) The Awful Truth (Leo McCarey, 37)
30) Twentieth Century (Howard Hawks, 34)
31) Animal Crackers (Victor Heerman, 30)
34) It’s A Gift (Norman Z. McLeod, 34)
63) Nothing’s Sacred (William Wellman, 37)
69) Modern Times (Charles Chaplin, 36)
71) A Night at the Opera (Sam Wood, 35)
114) A Day at the Races (Sam Wood, 37)
121) Bringing Up Baby (Howard Hawks, 38)
128) Sylvia Scarlett (George Cukor, 35)
136) The Front Page (Lewis Milestone, 31)
138) Sons of the Desert (William A. Seitner, 33)

The 1940s (12 films, 3 in 1941 and in 1942):
7) Sullivan’s Travels (Preston Sturges, 41)
12) The Lady Eve (Preston Sturges, 41)
24) Ball of Fire (Howard Hawks, 41)
36) The Palm Beach Story (Preston Sturges, 42)
46) To Be or Not To Be (Ernst Lubischt, 42)
57) Arsenic and Old Lace (Frank Capra, 44)
76) His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks, 40)
78) The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek (Preston Sturges, 44)
85) The More The Merrier (George Stevens, 43)
113) Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (H.C. Potter, 48)
130) The Major and the Minor (Billy Wilder, 42)
143) It Happens Every Spring (Lloyd Bacon, 49)

The 1950s (Officially the least funny decade, with only 2 films):
2) Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder, 59)
108) Mr. Hulot’s Holiday (Jacques Tati, 53)

The 1960s (14 films, 3 in 1964 and 1967):
3) Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Stanley Kubrick, 64)
10) The Graduate (Mike Nichols, 67)
45) A Hard Day’s Night (Richard Lester, 64)
52) Bedazzled (Stanley Donen, 67)
53) A Shot in the Dark (Blake Edwards, 64)
61) Playtime (Jacques Tati, 67)
75) The Bellboy (Jerry Lewis, 60)
87) Head (Bob Rafelson, 68)
96) The Nutty Professor (Jerry Lewis, 63)
100) The Knack and How to Get It (Richard Lester, 65)
107) One, Two, Three (Billy Wilder, 61)
111) Take The Money and Run (Woody Allen, 69)
141) The Odd Couple (Gene Saks, 68)
145) The Producers (Mel Brooks, 68)

The 1970s (Officially the funniest decade, with 34 films, with 9 in the funniest year ever, 1979):
1) Annie Hall (Woody Allen, 77)
6) Blazing Saddles (Mel Brooks, 74)
8) Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam, 75)
13) Manhattan (Woody Allen, 79)
15) American Graffiti (George Lucas, 73)
22) Breaking Away (Peter Yates, 79)
23) Paper Moon (Peter Bogdanovich, 74)
26) Young Frankenstein (Mel Brooks, 74)
28) O Lucky Man! (Lindsey Anderson, 73)
29) M*A*S*H* (Robert Altman, 70)
33) National Lampoon’s Animal House (John Landis, 78)
40) What’s Up, Doc? (Peter Bogdanovich, 72)
41) Richard Pryor: Live in Concert (Jeff Margolis, 79)
42) The Bad News Bears (Michael Richie, 76)
43) Being There (Hal Ashby, 79)
56) Harold and Maude (Hal Ashby, 72)
58) The In-Laws (Arthur Hiller, 79)
66) The Heartbreak Kid (Elaine May, 72)
67) Oh, God! (Carl Reiner, 77)
80) Sleeper (Woody Allen, 73)
84) The Jerk (Cark Reiner, 79)
88) Love and Death (Woody Allen, 75)
90) Slap Shot (George Roy Hill, 77)
98) Desperate Living (John Waters, 77)
112) Dark Star (John Carpenter, 74)
115) Kentucky Fried Movie (John Landis, 77)
116) I Wanna Hold Your Hand (Robert Zemeckis, 78)
118) The Longest Yard (Robert Aldrich, 74)
124) Female Trouble (John Waters, 74)
126) Rock n’ Roll High School (Allen Arkush, 79)
129) Going in Style (Martin Brest, 79)
133) Starting Over (Alan J. Pakula, 79)
139) The Groove Tube (Ken Shapiro, 74)
150) They Might Be Giants (Anthony Harvey, 71)

The 1980s (28 films, 4 in 1982):
5) This is Spinal Tap (Rob Reiner, 84)
16) Local Hero (Bill Forsyth, 83)
18) Airplane! (Jim Abrahams and David & Jerry Zucker, 80)
19) Tootsie (Sydney Pollack, 82)
27) Brazil (Terry Gilliam, 85)
35) Modern Romance (Albert Brooks, 81)
38) Arthur (Steve Gordon, 81)
48) Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure (Tim Burton, 85)
51) After Hours (Martin Scorsese, 86)
55) Broadway Danny Rose (Woody Allen, 84)
59) Used Cars (Robert Zemeckis, 80)
64) Diner (Barry Levinson, 82)
70) Gregory’s Girl (Bill Forsyth, 81)
72) Raising Arizona (Joel and Ethan Coen, 87)
77) Lost in America (Albert Brooks, 85)
81) Ghostbusters (Ivan Reitman, 84)
83) Trading Places (John Landis, 83)
91) Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life (Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam, 83)
92) The Blues Brothers (John Landis, 80)
94) Last Night at the Alamo (Eagle Pennell, 83)
95) Planes, Trains and Automobiles (John Hughes, 87)
103) Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (John Hughes, 86)
104) Stranger Than Paradise (Jim Jaramusch, 85)
117) Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid (Carl Reiner, 82)
119) Repo Man (Alex Cox, 84)
125) My Favorite Year (Richard Benjamin, 82)
131) Withnail and I (Bruce Robinson, 87)
140) Nine to Five (Colin Higgins, 80)

The 1990s (23 films, 4 in 1998):
17) The Big Lebowski (Joel and Ethan Coen, 98)
25) Toy Story (John Lasseter, 95)
32) Groundhog Day (Harold Ramis, 93)
39) Citizen Ruth (Alexander Payne, 96)
47) Office Space (Mike Judge, 99)
50) Galaxy Quest (Dean Parisot, 99)
60) Rushmore (Wes Anderson, 98)
62) The MST3K version of Mitchell (Andrew McLagen, 75/MST3K, 93)
65) Dazed and Confused (Richard Linklater, 93)
68) Flirting with Disaster (David O. Russell, 96)
79) Ed Wood (Tim Burton, 94)
82) Clueless (Amy Heckerling, 95)
93) Life is Sweet (Mike Leigh, 91)
97) My Cousin Vinny (Jonathan Lynn, 92)
101) The Hudsucker Proxy (Joel and Ethan Coen, 94)
102) Rubin and Ed (Trent Harris, 92)
105) Bottle Rocket (Wes Anderson, 96)
106) Election (Alexander Payne, 99)
120) Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (Terry Gilliam, 98)
122) Quick Change (Howard Franklin and Bill Murray, 90)
134) Trees Lounge (Steve Buscemi, 96)
135) Being John Malkovich (Spike Jonze, 99)
146) Half-Baked (Tamra Davis, 98)

The 2000s (14 films, 3 in 2001):
37) Borat: Cultural Learning of American for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (Larry Charles, 2006)
44) Napoleon Dynamite (Jared Hess, 2004)
54) Bad Santa (Terry Zwigoff, 2003)
73) Shaun of the Dead (Edgar Wright, 2004)
74) Monsters Inc. (Pete Docter, David Silverman, Lee Unkrich, 2001)
89) Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story (Michael Winterbottom, 2006)
99) O Brother Where Art Thou? (Joel & Ethan Coen, 2000)
110) The 40-Year-Old Virgin (Judd Apatow, 2005)
123) Ghost World (Terry Zwigoff, 2001)
132) Superbad (Greg Mottola, 2007)
137) Best In Show (Christopher Guest, 2000)
142) Wet Hot American Summer (David Wain, 2001)
144) Bring It On (Peyton Reed, 2000)
149) Tropic Thunder (Ben Stiller, 2008)

Breakdown by Director:
WITH SIX FILMS:
Woody Allen: Annie Hall (1), Manhattan (13), Broadway Danny Rose (55), Sleeper (80), Love and Death (88), Take The Money and Run (111)

WITH FOUR FILMS:
Preston Sturges: Sullivan’s Travels (7), The Lady Eve (12), The Palm Beach Story (36), The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek (78)
Terry Gilliam: Monty Python and the Holy Grail (8), Brazil (27), Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life (91), Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (120)
Joel and Ethan Coen: The Big Lebowski (17), Raising Arizona (72), O Brother Where Art Thou? (99), The Hudsucker Proxy (101)
Howard Hawks: Ball of Fire (24), Twentieth Century (30), His Girl Friday (76), Bringing Up Baby (121)
John Landis: National Lampoon’s Animal House (33), Trading Places (83), The Blues Brothers (92), Kentucky Fried Movie (115)

WITH THREE FILMS:
Billy Wilder: Some Like It Hot (2), One, Two, Three (107), The Major and the Minor (130)
Charles Chaplin: City Lights (4), The Gold Rush (21), Modern Times (69)
Buster Keaton: The General (11), Sherlock Jr. (86), Steamboat Bill Jr.(127) Mel Brooks: Blazing Saddles (6), Young Frankenstein (26), The Producers (145)
Carl Reiner: Oh, God! (67), The Jerk (84), Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid (117)

WITH TWO FILMS:
Leo McCarey: Duck Soup (9), The Awful Truth (20)
Frank Capra: It Happened One Night (14), Arsenic and Old Lace (57)
Bill Forsyth: Local Hero (16), Gregory’s Girl (70)
Peter Bogdanovich: Paper Moon (23), What’s Up, Doc? (40)
Albert Brooks: Modern Romance (35), Lost in America (77)
Terry Jones: Monty Python and the Holy Grail (8), Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life (91)
Alexander Payne: Citizen Ruth (39), Election (106)
Hal Ashby: Being There (43), Harold and Maude (56)
Richard Lester: A Hard Day’s Night (45), The Knack and How to Get It (100)
Tim Burton: Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure (48), Ed Wood (79)
Fred C. Newmeyer and Sam Taylor: Safety Last (49), The Freshman (109)
Terry Zwigoff: Bad Santa (54), Ghost World (123)
Robert Zemeckis: Used Cars (59), I Wanna Hold Your Hand (116)
Wes Anderson: Rushmore (60), Bottle Rocket (105)
Jacques Tati: Playtime (61), Mr. Hulot’s Holiday (108)
Sam Wood: A Night at the Opera (71), A Day at the Races (114)
Jerry Lewis: The Bellboy (75), The Nutty Professor (96)
John Hughes: Planes, Trains and Automobiles (95), Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (103)
John Waters: Desperate Living (98), Female Trouble (124)


Finally, another new feature:
THE ONES THAT DIDN'T MAKE IT (in alphabetical order)
Adam’s Rib (George Cukor, 49)
Adaptation (Spike Jonze, 2002)
All of Me (Carl Reiner, 84)
Amelie (Jean-Claude Jeunot, 2001)
An American Werewolf in London (John Landis, 82)
Auntie Mame (Morton DaCosta, 58)
Babe (Chris Noonan, 95)
Back to School (Alan Metter, 86)
Back to the Future (Robert Zemeckis, 85)
Bananas (Woody Allen, 71)
The Bank Dick (Edward F. Kline, 40)
Beat The Devil (John Huston, 53)
Between the Lines (Joan Micklin Silver, 77)
Beetlejuice (Tim Burton, 88)
Best Friends (Norman Jewison, 82)
Beverly Hills Cop (Martin Brest, 84)
Big (Penny Marshall, 88)
Blood Simple (Joel and Ethan Coen, 85)
Box of Moonlight (Tom DiCillo, 96)
The Brady Bunch Movie (Betty Thomas, 95)
Broadcast News (James L. Brooks, 87)
Bronco Billy (Clint Eastwood, 80)
Bull Durham (Ron Shelton, 88)
The Cable Guy (Ben Stiller, 96)
Caddyshack (Harold Ramis, 80)
California Dreaming (John Hancock, 79)
Car Wash (Michael Schultz, 76)
Catch-22 (Mike Nichols, 70)
Chuck and Buck (Miguel Arteta, 2000)
Comfort and Joy (Bill Forsyth, 84)
The Commitments (Alan Parker, 91)
Continental Divide (Lawrence Kasdan, 81)
Cotton Comes to Harlem (Ossie Davis, 71)
The Court Jester (Melvin Frank and Norman Panama, 55)
Dave (Ivan Reitman, 93)
Death Race 2000 (Paul Bartel, 75)
Defending Your Life (Albert Brooks, 91)
Delicatessen (Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 91)
Destry Rides Again (George Marshall, 39)
The Dinner Game (Francis Veber, 98)
Divorce Italian Style (Pietro Germi, 62)
Do The Right Thing (Spike Lee, 89)
Eating Raoul (Paul Bartel, 82)
Educating Rita (Lewis Gilbert, 83)
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask) (Woody Allen, 72)
The Family Jewels (Jerry Lewis, 65)
Fargo (Joel and Ethan Coen, 96)
Fast Times at Ridgemont High (Amy Heckerling, 82)
Fatso (Anne Bancroft, 80)
A Fish Called Wanda (Charles Chrichton, 88)
Fletch (Michael Richie, 85)
48 HRS. (Walter Hill, 82)
Foolin’ Around (Richard T. Heffron, 80)
Four Weddings and a Funeral (Richard Curtis, 94)
The Freshman (Andrew Bergman, 90)
The Full Monty (Peter Catteano, 97)
The Fuller-Brush Man (S. Sylvan Simon, 48)
Get Out Your Hankerchiefs (Bertrand Blier, 78)
The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (Alan Rafkin, 66)
The Gig (Frank D. Gilroy, 85)
The Girl Can't Help It (Frank Tashlin, 56)
The Goodbye Girl (Herbert Ross, 77)
The Great Dictator (Charles Chaplin, 40)
Hairspray (John Waters, 88)
Handle With Care (aka Citizen’s Band) (Jonathan Demme, 77)
Hannah and Her Sisters (Woody Allen, 86)
Harry and Tonto (Paul Mazursky, 74)
Harvey (Henry Koster, 50)
Heaven Can Wait (Warren Beatty and Buck Henry, 78)
Heaven Help Us (Michael Dinner, 85)
Help! (Richard Lester, 65)
Here Comes Mr. Jordan (Alexander Hall, 41)
High Anxiety (Mel Brooks, 78)
High Hopes (Mike Leigh, 88)
Hollywood Shuffle (Robert Townsend, 87)
Hope and Glory (John Boorman, 87)
The Hospital (Arthur Hiller, 71)
How High (Jesse Dylan, 2001)
How To Get Ahead in Advertising (Bruce Robinson, 89)
I Heart Huckabees (David O. Russell, 2004)
I’m Gonna Git You, Sucka (Keenan Ivory Wayans, 88)
In The Soup (Alexandre Rockwell, 92)
The Incredible Mr. Limpet (Arthur Lubin, 64)
The Incredibles (Brad Bird, 2004)
It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (Stanley Kramer, 63)
The Kid (Charles Chaplin, 21)
Kikujiro (Takeshi Kitano, 99)
Kung Fu Hustle (Stephen Chow, 2005)
L.A. Story (Mick Jackson, 91)
The Ladykillers (Alexander Mackendrick, 55)
The Lavender Hill Mob (Charles Crichton, 51)
Let It Ride (Joe Pytka, 89)
Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World (Albert Brooks, 2005)
Lord Love A Duck (George Axelrod, 66)
The Major and the Minor (Billy Wilder, 42)
Manhattan Murder Mystery (Woody Allen, 93)
Meatballs (Ivan Reitman, 79)
Men In Black (Barry Sonnenfeld, 97)
Mister Roberts (John Ford and Mervyn LeRoy, 55)
Moonstruck (Norman Jewison, 87)
Mon Oncle (Jacques Tati, 58)
Monsiuer Verdoux (Charles Chaplin, 47)
Monkey Business (Howard Hawks, 52)
The Muppet Movie (James Frawley, 79)
My Bodyguard (Tony Bill, 80)
My Little Chickadee (Edward F. Cline, 40)
Mystery Train (Jim Jarmusch, 89)
Neighbors (John G. Avildsen, 1981)
Network (Sidney Lumet, 76)
Night Shift (Ron Howard, 82)
Ninochka (Ernst Lubischt, 39)
1941 (Steven Spielberg, 79)
No Time for Sergeants (Mervyn LeRoy, 58)
Noises Off! (Peter Bogdanovich, 92)
The Opposite of Sex (Don Roos, 98)
Parenthood (Ron Howard, 89)
Parents (Bob Balaban, 89)
The Party (Blake Edwards, 68)
Party Girl (Daisy Von Scherler Mayer, 95)
The Personals (Peter Markle, 81)
Pink Flamingoes (John Waters, 72)
Plan 9 From Outer Space (Edward D. Wood, Jr, 58)
The Princess Bride (Rob Reiner, 87)
Prizzi's Honor (John Huston, 85)
The Purple Rose of Cairo (Woody Allen, 85)
Putney Swope (Robert Downey Sr., 69)
The Quiet Man (John Ford, 52)
Radio Days (Woody Allen, 87)
Rancho Deluxe (Frank Perry, 75)
Real Life (Albert Brooks, 79)
The Ref (Ted Demme, 94)
The Return of the Living Dead (Dan O’ Bannon, 85)
Rhubarb (Arthur Lubin, 51)
Romancing the Stone (Robert Zemeckis, 84)
The Royal Tenenbaums (Wes Anderson, 2001)
The Ruling Class (Peter Medak, 72)
Schitzopolis (Steven Soderburgh, 96)
Seems Like Old Times (Jay Sandrich, 80)
Seven Beauties (Lina Wertmuller, 76)
She’s Gotta Have It (Spike Lee, 86)
Showgirls (Paul Verhoven, 95)
Sidewalk Stories (Charles Lane, 89)
Sideways (Alexander Payne, 2004)
Silent Movie (Mel Brooks, 76)
Silver Streak (Arthur Hiller, 76)
Sixteen Candles (John Hughes, 84)
Sleuth (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 72)
Smile (Michael Richie, 75)
Smiles of a Summer Night (Ingmar Bergman, 55)
Smiley Face (Gregg Araki, 2008)
Smokey and the Bandit (Hal Needham, 77)
S.O.B. (Blake Edwards, 81)
Something Wild (Jonathan Demme, 86)
Spanking the Monkey (David O. Russell, 94)
Splash (Ron Howard, 84)
Starship Invasions (Ed Hunt, 77)
The Sting (George Roy Hill, 73)
Stolen Kisses (Francois Truffaut, 68)
Stripes (Ivan Reitman, 81)
Stuart Saves His Family (Harold Ramis, 95)
The Stunt Man (Richard Rush, 80)
The Sure Thing (Rob Reiner, 85)
Swingers (Doug Liman, 96)
The Tall Guy (Mel Smith, 89)
Talledega Nights: The Legend of Ricky Bobby (Adam McKay, 2006)
Tampopo (Juzo Itami, 86)
Tatie Danielle (Etienne Chatiliez, 91)
They All Laughed (Peter Bogdanovich, 81)
The Thin Man (W.S. Van Dyke, 34)
Things Change (David Mamet, 88)
Time Bandits (Terry Gilliam, 81)
To Die For (Gus Van Sant, 95)
Tommy Boy (Peter Segal, 95)
Topper (Norman Z. McLeod, 37)
The Twelve Chairs (Mel Brooks, 70)
Unfaithfully Yours (Preston Sturges, 48)
Up in Smoke (Lou Adler, 78)
Waiting for Guffman (Christopher Guest, 97)
Wallace and Grommit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (Nick Park, 2005)
Way Out West (James W. Horne, 37)
The Wedding Singer (Frank Coraci, 98)
What About Bob? (Frank Oz, 91)
What’s Up, Tiger Lily? (Woody Allen/Senkichi Tanaguchi, 66)
Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (Robert Zemeckis, 88)
The Witches of Eastwick (George Miller, 87)
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Pedro Almodovar, 88)
The World of Henry Orient (George Roy Hill, 64)
W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings (John G. Avildsen, 75)
You Can’t Take It With You (Frank Capra, 38)

NEXT UP: Master List #6--The 101 Greatest Musicals