AFI: Please stop. No more lists. Please.
I’m a sucker for lists. I really am. I can’t stay away from them, but I’m begging the AFI: please stop. Seriously.
Sure, they probably make tons of money off of this kind of thing, but they’ve long gone past the point of overkill and they’re nearing the frontier of self-parody. Pretty soon they’ll be doing the Top 10 List of AFI Top 10 Lists.
I know, I bit down hard on last year’s 10th Anniversary Top 100, but not this year.
If you must know and don’t already, here are AFI’s Top 10 choices in 10 different genres.
(also, yes, I watched part of the show. I told you I’m a sucker)
Filed under: Miscellaneous
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The biggest problem with lists like this is that they’re still current. If you do best of a decade or an old director’s career, that’s fine, but you can make anything definitive if the entries are still coming in.
Another major problem (for me) are their arbitrary categories.
“Mystery” movies? The greatest film genre of film America has given the world — Film Noir — and AFI homogenizes it into “Mystery” movies? (and then leaves out Double Indemnity!)
Have there been 10 good “Sports” movies, ever? Wake me up when they do the 10 Best Porn Movies. I’m feeling listless,
Anyone here enter the contest? Me neither.
Look at it this way…Leonard Maltin needs the work.
You know, I don’t want to come off all superior (yeah, I know, fat chance), I had the damn show on in the background and I found myself getting caught up in it…but they need to give it a rest for a while.
Of course, next year when they come out with the “10 Best By Decade”, I’ll probably tune in…
I loved Sasha’s comment: “Here is a rare opportunity to regard Raging Bull as a sports movie.” ahahaha
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I agree, AFI needs to seriously stop it with the incessant lists. Next year it’ll be 100 Greatest Movies with Characters Overcoming Obstacles and Conflict. Enough already!
And these categories are really screwed up in many awful ways. Genre classification’s a bitch, and the well-intentioned folks at AFI clearly aren’t up to it! :-)
Sleepless in Seattle and Big? And Titanic deserves only to be on a best special effects or worst script list.
Yeah, these lists are all pretty lame.
Yes they are, but they ALWAYS start arguments!
(Big is awesome…probably not Top 10 material, but nevertheless)
100 Years, 100 Pratfalls. I’ll watch that.
“100 Years” got me thinking Ryan, why doesn’t someone make 100 Years of Solitude? One of the 3 Amigos could direct it. Then again, perhaps it would be better as a big budget mini series.
I didn’t see any list for Top 10 Death Scenes. Then I’m there.
They couldn’t even include “Musicals” much less “Horror”, and the only comedies they could include are “Romantic” (aka the worst kind in my opinion). UGH!
Top 100 Shots of People Being Hit in the Balls: Finally, Dodgeball gets the credit it deserves.
Top 100 Animated Sidekicks by Robin Williams and Eddie Murphy (I think there’s now enough for this list)
Top 100 Uses of the F-word (Any Mamet film up against Big Lebowski for the win!)
Top 100 Movies with Participal Phrases as Titles
Top 100 Movies with the Wilhelm Scream
I watched the whole damn thing, and yeah it was pretty arbitrary. And contradictory of pasts lists…”Gone with the Wind” is in the top 5 of all time yet “Ben-Hur” is a better epic?
And since when is “Schindler’s List” an epic?
Vertigo as a mystery is very odd, considering that it just chucks the mystery plot two-thirds in. The mystery is the maguffin. It’s’ certainly not a classic mystery in any way.
Cat Ballou is one of the ten greatest Westerns?
If it helps get Jane Fonda on the show to introduce a couple of movies, then sure.
Regarding Vertigo, I can see it being called a mystery, to be sure. Yes, the more linear mystery (which is really just one long elaborate set-up) concludes with plenty of time to go, but the whodunit mystery aspect continues on to the climactic conclusion.
Cat Ballou is truly a silly, uninspired choice. No Anthony Mann? How about The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, if Lee Marvin is to be represented?
Must… resist… AFI list’s ability… to… draw out opinions…
Though I disagree with some of AFI’s choices, I figure shows like this are a good thing if they get viewers to seek out the films.
Sounds to me like AFI will continue to think up some new categories so they can do a similar show down the road. Already we have musicals, film noir, horror, and we could add road movies, war stories, biographies. . . .
Weirdest surprise: BLUE VELVET on the Mysteries list.
Also, second Jeff’s questioning of lack of musicals and horror movies, to say nothing of documentaries. Any of these categories would have been better than sports movies or courtroom dramas, both of which strained to include ten notable titles.
Shame about no Leone in Westerns, or RIO BRAVO for that matter. And an AFI special with no CITIZEN KANE? What gives?
Paul, it seems pretty clear that AFI intends to do a follow-up show.
AFI should adopt the motto from my favorite drug-slut T-shirt of all time:
“One more line and I really must go.”
Shall we suggest some categories for future lists?
Top 10 Monkey Comedies
Top 10 Worst Date Movies
Top 10 Preachy Multicharacter Multiracial Melodramas
How about
Top 10 Movies That Are Hard to Watch Now That Salacious Info Has Surfaced About the Star’s or Director’s Personal Life
Wow, that would be great, Pierre.
It’s a good thing most of Woody Allen’s films are at least watchable, aha…
Number 1 on that list for me is The Naked Gun (thanks, O.J.).