“What are the 100 best movies of all time?” It’s a hell of a question to ask, and an even harder one to answer. After all, there are all kinds of reasons why individual films stand the test of time, connecting with viewers on levels both personal and universal. The very best exemplars of the form conjure indelible images, evoke overwhelming emotions, tell unforgettable stories, and bring us characters who — love ’em or loathe ’em — we truly believe in. And, let’s face it, there’s a heck of a lot of films out there! Ever since the movies began well over a century ago, they have been finding new and ever-edifying ways to, well, move us — to joy, to laughter, to fear, to tears, to the edges of our seats and to profound experiences that resonate through the years. From the misadventures of Peruvian bears to the epic quests of almighty fellowships, from painterly whisper-quiet period romances to subversive superhero blockbusters, and from awe-inspiring animated adventures to singular stories about the human experience hailing from all around the world, to try and reach any kind of consensus on the best movies of all time is nigh-on impossible.
And so, in creating this list of the 100 best movies of all time, Empire enlisted our readers’ help, asking you to share your picks for the movies that have comforted, challenged, entertained and inspired you most. Films that blow your mind, help you see things from a new perspective, and that continue to shape cinema as we know it today. Films that, above all else, make you feel something. Combining reader votes with critics’ choices from Team Empire, here we have it – read it in full below.
Paddington 2
When the first Paddington was on the way, early trailers didn’t look entirely promising. Yet co-writer/director Paul King delivered a truly wonderful film bursting with joy, imagination, kindness, and just the odd hard stare from our beloved Peruvian bear. How was he going to follow that? By making one of the greatest sequels — nay, one of the best movies period — of all time, naturally. Matching wits with Hugh Grant’s moustache-twirlingly evil and deliciously outré washed-up actor Phoenix Buchanan, Paddington (Ben Whishaw) is on typically adorable form here as his search for a special present for his Great Aunt Lucy leads to all sorts of hilarious hijinks . Like all great sequels, this one takes everything that made the first so good and builds on it, dialing up the spectacle, the silliness, and the emotional stakes. The result is as sweet as marmalade.
Brokeback Mountain
Ang Lee‘s adaptation of Annie Proulx’s short story (scribed by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana) retains its source’s sensitivity and grace whilst expanding its scope gorgeously, 10,000 words of prose turned into a sweeping cinematic romance for the ages before our very eyes. Played out against the beautiful mountain landscapes of Wyoming (or, in reality, the Canadian Rockies), the decades-spanning love story between shepherds Ennis Del Mar (Ledger) and Jack Twist (Gyllenhaal) — two men who unexpectedly find love on the titular mountainside, only to find it tested over the years as societal mores and heteronormative expectations work against them — is sensually observed and immaculately shot. Not only does it give you hope and breaks your heart in equal measure, but the multiple Oscar-winning movie’s impact on queer cinema continues to be felt today. Even now, almost two decades later, we still don’t know how to quit it (and honestly, we don’t want to).
Léon
In some ways, Luc Besson’s first English-language movie is a spiritual spin-off: after all, isn’t Jean Reno’s eponymous hitman just Nikita‘s Victor The Cleaner renamed and fleshed out? In all seriousness though, Besson’s film — which sees Reno’s titular contract killer caught up in an unlikely coming-of-age tale after his next-door neighbours wind up on the wrong side of a DEA sting — is very much its own beast. Inarguably, its greatest strength however isn’t Reno, or even Gary Oldman’s unhinged baddie Stansfield, but a very young Natalie Portman, who delivers a luminous, career-creating performance as vengeful 12-year-old Mathilda. Despite some of the ickiness inherent in the relationship the film presents between a middle-aged man and a pre-teen girl, Portman’s phenomenal performance helps augment an unlikely kinship that winds up being deeply affecting to watch.
Logan
If you’re going to wrap up your tenure as one of the most loved superhero icons in fiction, it’s hard to think of a better way than how Hugh Jackman — under the direction of a never-better James Mangold — punched out on the time clock of playing Wolverine. Set in a dark near-future world where an ageing Logan is caring for a mentally unstable Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and getting mixed up yet again with some very dangerous people, Logan takes cues from Western greats such as Shane as Wolvie wrestles with his mortality and history of violence. A truly original superhero tale that is mournful without being morbid, Mangold’s mutant masterwork is the perfect end to Logan’s story (even if Jackman is set to flex his adamantium stuff once again in Deadpool & Wolverine).
The Terminator
After his directorial debut Piranha II: Flying Killers fell on its face, James Cameron could’ve been forgiven for calling it quits on a filmmaking career in Hollywood. Instead, he made The Terminator — and the rest, as they say, is history. Shot on a $6 million budget, Cameron’s sophomore feature may crib a little from Michael Crichton’s Westworld and Harlan Ellison’s Outer Limits episode ‘Soldier’, but its action — which revolves around Arnold Schwarzenegger’s instantly iconic shot-gun toting, shades rocking, time travelling cyborg killer — is, outside of Cameron’s own oeuvre since, without comparison. Made with all the relentless tension of a slasher (after all, what is Arnie’s Terminator if not Michael Myers in leathers?) and the kinetic thrills of a balls-to-the-wall blockbuster, nothing has been the same since the T-800 told Linda Hamilton’s Sarah Connor “Come with me if you want to live.”
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