A while ago some friends and I were talking about which films we would list as our top ten favourites. Have you ever tried to do this? It is such a hard question. It is a hard question because there are so many different reasons why you like a film. For example it could be that you like the director, actor or the story, production values, special effects or the emotion it makes you feel. Trying to list your top ten is made even harder by looking at the finished list and realizing all the films you like that are not on it. It is easier to name your top ten in a genre like horror or comedy; but even this is complicated by the fact that some genres overlap each other and get blurry as to which category to put them in.
I have been thinking about this for some time and I find it nearly impossible to settle on a final list. Because of this I have been thinking about splitting my favourite films into different groups. The lists below are some of the films I have come up with already. This doesn’t mean that these are the only films I like; they are just the ones that came to mind as I was trying to put together the lists. The more I think about the lists the more films I think of, so it is an ever growing list with new entries being added all the time.
This month I have listed my favourite films to do with crime. There are so many that I have broken them down into different categories, thriller, drama and comedy.
CATEGORY DIRECTOR YEAR
CRIME (Thriller)
- 13 Tzameti Gela Babluani 2005
- Layer Cake Matthew Vaughn 2004
- Lock. Stock and Two Smoking Barrels Guy Ritchie 1998
- Now You See Me Louis Leterrier 2013
- Ocean’s Eleven Steven Soderbergh 2001
- Se7en David Fincher 1995
- Shade Damian Nieman 2003
- Sin City Frank Miller/Robert Rodriguez/Quentin Tarantino 2005
- Snatch Guy Ritchie 2000
- The Usual Suspects Bryan Singer 1995
CRIME (Drama)
- Casino Martin Scorsese 1995
- Following Christopher Nolan 1998
- Goodfellas Martin Scorsese 1990
- Harry Brown Daniel Barber 2009
- Once Upon A Time In America Sergio Leone 1984
- Pulp Fiction Quentin Tarantino 1994
- Rounders John Dahl 1998
- Sea of Love Harold Becker 1989
- The Godfather Francis Ford Coppola 1972
- The Shawshank Redemption Frank Darabont 1994
CRIME (Comedy)
- Analyze This Harold Ramis 1999
- Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery Jay Roach 1997
- Bad Boys Michael Bay 1995
- Bulletproof Ernest R. Dickerson 1996
- Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid Carl Reiner 1982
- Love, Honour and Obey Dominic Anciano/Ray Burdis 2000
- Red Robert Schwentke 2010
- Seven Psychopaths Martin McDonagh 2012
- The Big Lebowski Joel Coen/Ethan Coen 1998
- The Longest Yard Peter Segal 2005
Next month I will add another list but in the mean time I would be interested to know what great films you think I have left off the list.