The Search For The Objectively Best Movie!

As good as the LoTR movies are, they have some major faults, imo. Like Denethor, who is a majestic figure in the books and your garden-variety power-hungry bumbling fool in the movies...

As for the best movie, there are so many great ones (Casablanca, Citizen Kane, Kagemusha, Stalker, Amadeus and so on) that I am going to contradict the OP: there is no such thing as "objective best" movie. You can only say which one is the best in your opinion.

For me it is "All That Jazz".

I'll happily give a nod to many mentioned movies, 'All That Jazz', 'Casablanca', the LoTR trilogy (a truly remarkable work, particularly the expanded),..
Personally, from the well known, I find that I really like some old Scott movies, 'Alien' and 'Blade Runner'. And Peckinpah's 'The Wild Bunch'.

But ultimately, there are the movies the rest of you haven't seen:
'Aguirre, Wrath of God' Werner Herzog (Warning: Not an optimistic or happy movie, does not progress hopefully.)
'Picnic at Hanging Rock' Peter Weir (Warning: May scar you emotionally for life.)
'The Blade' Tsui Hark

I recommend watching them alone, late at night, stark sober, well rested and not sleepy. Meditative mood. Apologies for the quality, but they are old movies.

The really disturbing thing, is I don't think really good movies are really made any more? ...Or is it just me having some overdeveloped respect and regard for old, slow and technically limited movies?
But then I remember some really cool newer movies: 'The Usual Suspects', 'Memento', 'Fight Club',.. ...But then again, I think maybe they only depend upon the tricks they play on the audience in the way they tell their story? They wouldn't stand a comparison with the above if the story told, was the story seen? ...But then again, don't they also play a sort of trick on their audience? Like hope?
...And I even think tragedy is overrated. So why do I like the movies I like? Come to think about it, I even liked shit like 'Winter's Bone', 'Boys don't Cry', Billion Dollar Baby'. I won't ever see them again, but I liked them.  ...And 'Twelve Monkeys'... And 'The Mission'...

Toss up between The Seventh Seal and The Night of the Hunter.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

It was a brilliant idea that made a good play and a great movie. And I agree that Hudson Hawk is seriously underappreciated.

For me it would be more like a top 50 or even a top 100 movies of all time it's just impossible for me to pick just one.

I don't think there is such a thing as an objectively best movies, as movies are art and art will always be inherently subjective.

However, I would submit Inception as a movie with a lot of well crafted aspects to it.
- The plot is very complex, yet internally logical and allow for a whole slew of different interpretations.
- The characters have believable motivations for their actions and unique backstories. There is a decent amount of drama between them
- The cinematography is professional and in places it is innovative (helped by the CGI and effects of course)
- the CGI and SFX are spectacular (for the time of course)
- Good acting all around
- Action scenes are plentiful and over-the-top spectacular, yet they fit the plot well (due to the dream topic)
- Decent amount of comic relief but also not too much
- OST is memorable and fits well.

Personally, I thought Inception was one of the best movies within the last 30 years at least. But even if I try to constrain my fanboyism, I think there is still just a whole lot well crafted movie-making in this film. I think the same can be said for pretty much all of Christopher Nolans work. I don't necessarily "like" all his movies but he certainly knows what he's doing.

That's one of my mantras. I always hate it whenever somebody says "this is objectively the worst movie ever," because movies are not objective. Sure you have objective qualities on what makes a movie good like sound design, cinematography, and acting, but the overall enjoyability of a movie is a very subjective thing.

I originally created this thread as a game to see people give me a movie they say is Objectively the best, then crush them by showing that neither the Rotten Tomatoes, Amazon Reviews, or iMDB results ALL have 100% ratings.

Maybe I should rename this thread to "movies you like but don't get enough love."

Okay, everybody! Important heads up! The thread will now be called "MOVIES YOU LIKE BUT DON'T GET ENOUGH LOVE!" This means that if there's a movie you enjoy but people don't seem to talk about it much, give it here for us movie fans to consume and try out!

For example, have any of you heard of the movie State of Play, starring Russel Crowe, Ben Affleck, and Rachel McAdams? In my opinion, it's a very underrated political thriller movie about a newspaper reporter trying to get to the bottom of a supposed government conspiracy that resulted in two murders. It's got great performances, a mystery with some pretty neat twists and suspense, and just an all-around cool movie.