Welcome to a curated journey through some of the greatest films ever made. This ranking celebrates unforgettable stories, iconic performances, and timeless quotes
MOVIE RANKING
| Ranking | Title | Genre/Comments | Memorable Quotes |
| 40. | The Road to Morocco | 1940s comedy. Bing Crosby and Bob Hope at their best. | Where we’re going, we hear they do the Dance of the Seven Veils. We would tell you more, but we’d have the censor on our tails/ I’ll lay you eight to five that we meet Dorothy Lamour/ I hope Aunt Lucy didn’t hear that, because the dead have a way of coming back. When they’re dead, they’re dead / not Aunt Lucy — she was a Republican. / This is a dangerous country. Flea! Flea! PS, I am being tortured day and night. |
| 39. | National Lampoon Animal House | Raunchy comedy – John Belushi brilliant. | We gotta take these bastards. Now we could do it with conventional weapons — but that could take years and cost millions of lives. No… I think we have to go all out. I think that this situation absolutely requires that a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody’s part! / It’s not over until we say it’s over! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbour? Hell no! |
| 38. | The Court Jester | Comedy. Danny Kaye at his best. | Get it, got it, good! The pellet with the poison’s in the vessel with the pestle. The vessel with the pestle has the brew that is true. |
| 37. | My Cousin Vinny | 1990s comedy. Joe Peschi and Marissa Thomei brilliant. | Oh, a counteroffer. That’s what we lawyers— I’m a lawyer — we call that a counteroffer. This is a tough decision here: get my ass kicked or collect $200. Let me think… I could use a good ass-kicking, I’ll be honest with you… Nah, I think I’ll just go with the $200/Imagine you’re a deer. You’re prancing along, you get thirsty, you spot a little brook, you put your little deer lips down to the cool clear water… BAM! A fuckin bullet rips off part of your head. Your brains are laying on the ground in little bloody pieces. Now I ask you. Would you give a fuck what kind of pants the son of a bitch who shot you was wearing? |
| 36. | A night to remember | Drama. The best Titanic movie ever made. | Let me give you some advice. Put on your life belts, go and lower yourself down using the ropes hanging over the side. Don’t jump if you can avoid it. When you’re in the water swim away from the ship at once and be well clear of her when she sinks. They’re clearing away two of the collapsible boats. If they succeed, I’m sure there will be a place for you in one of them. |
| 35. | When Harry met Sally | Clever romantic comedy. | A man and a woman can never truly be friends because sex always gets in the way. / I’ll have what she’s having. / If I am going to spend the rest of my life with you, then I want the rest of my life to start right away. |
| 34. | The Caine Mutiny | Drama. Humphrey Bogart as Captain Queeg. Great. | There are four ways of doing things in the navy. The right way, the wrong way, the navy way and my way/I think you should all know that I’ve had a spotless record up until now, and I don’t want it being discredited by these lies and the distortions told by these disloyal officers. |
| 33. | Young Frankenstein | Comedy. Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder brilliant. | He would have an enormous Schwanstucker/That goes without saying/He’d be very popular/I’m going to convince this poor creature that he is loved, even at the cost of my own life. No matter what you hear in there, no matter how cruelly I beg you, no matter how terribly I may scream, do not open this door or you will undo everything I have worked for. Do you understand? Do not open this door! |
| 32. | Lolita | Drama – controversial | Because, my darlin, when my darlin mother finds out she’ll divorce you and strangle me. |
| 31. | A few good men | Drama – Aaron Sorkin’s brilliant screenplay portrayed by Jack Nicholson and Tom Cruise. | I run my unit how I run my unit. You want to investigate me? Roll the dice and take your chances. I eat breakfast three hundred yards from four thousand Cubans who are trained to kill me, so don’t think for one second that you come down here, flash a badge, and make me nervous/I WANT THE TRUTH! /YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH! |
| 30. | In the heat of the night | Drama. Rod Steiger an Oscar winning performance. | Virgil? That’s a funny name for a nigger boy that comes from Philadelphia. What do they call you up there? /They call me Mr Tibbs! / I got the motive which is money and the body which is dead. |
| 29. | Me and the Colonel | Comedy – a humorous whimsical look at antisemitism. | Less and less I like this Yacobovsky./ My mother used to say – There are always two possibilities./ In the cathedral of my heart, a candle always burned for you./That must be the best lit Cathedral in Europe. |
| 28. | Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid | Historical Western | Jump! You’ll probably die before you hit the water anyway. |
| 27. | America Graffiti | Coming of age movie with an ensemble cast. Radio hit songs play throughout. | I don’t like that surfin’ shit. Rock and roll’s been going downhill ever since Buddy Holly died. / Did anyone ever tell you that you look like Connie Stevens? |
| 26. | Hannah and Her Sisters | Semi-comedic relationship movie. | I spent the worst night of my life on my first date with you! I spent a great evening. It was like the Nuremberg Trials./ It’s ironic. I used to always have Thanksgiving with Hannah and I never thought I could love anybody else. And here it is, years later, and I’m married to you and completely in love with you. The heart is a very, very resilient little muscle. It really is. |
| 25. | One flew over the Cuckoo’s nest | Drama. | You guys do nothing but complain about how you can’t stand it in this place and you don’t have the guts to just walk out. What do you think you are, crazy or somthin? |
| 24. | Three Amigos | Comedy, satire of westerns. | Do you have anything besides Mexican food here? / After dinner, we could take a walk. You could kiss me under the veranda/Lips would be fine! /You son of a motherless goat. / I like these guys. These guys are funny. Just kill one of them. |
| 23. | Dr. Strangelove | Stanley Kubrick’s brilliant anti-war satire | Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here! This is the War Room! / Fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous communist plot we have ever had to face. |
| 22. | Singin’ in the Rain | Great musical comedy. | Oh, Donny. You couldn’t kiss me like that and not mean it just a teensy-weensy bit/Meet the greatest actor in the world. I’d rather kiss a tarantula. Here, Joe! Bring me a tarantula./Lina, I wouldn’t do that to her in a million years. Why, you’d be taking her career away from her. People just don’t do things like that – people? I ain’t people! |
| 21. | The Godfather – Part 2 | Outstanding sequel to the original movie. | Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer./ I don’t feel I have to wipe anybody out. Just my enemies. |
| 20. | West Side Story | Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim, Romeo and Juliet musical. | I think I’ll go back to San Juan/I know a boat you can get on/everyone there will give big cheer/everyone there will have moved here. / I’m depraved on account of I’m deprived. |
| 19. | Z | Superb political thriller. | He jumped onto the back of the truck. Lithe and fierce like a tiger./ The military regime banned: long hair, miniskirts, Sophocles, Tolstoy, strikes, Sartre, Pinter, freedom of the press, Dostoyevsky, modern music, pop music and the letter Z, which means HE LIVES in ancient Greek. |
| 18. | Raiders of the Lost Ark | Adventure movie with Harrison Ford the hero. | Snakes. Why’d it have to be snakes? /The ARK of the Covenant for the chest that the Hebrews used to carry around the Ten Commandments. |
| 17. | Sophie’s Choice | Psychological drama, Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline brilliant. | You are a Polack, not a Yid. That gives you a privilege of choice. |
| 16. | To be or not to be | Wonderful comedy with Jack Benny. | Heil myself! / The man sitting in the chair next to me appears to be dead./ Her husband is a great, great Polish actor, Josef Tura. You’ve probably heard of him. |
| 15. | Pulp Fiction | Drama – crime. | You know what they call a Quarter Pounder with Cheese in Paris?/ I do believe Marcellus Wallace, my husband, your boss, told you to take ME out and do WHATEVER I WANTED. Now I wanna dance, I wanna win. I want that trophy, so dance good./ Zed’s dead baby. Zed’s dead! |
| 14. | Schindler’s List | Wartime drama. | Stern, if this factory ever produces a shell that can actually be fired, I’ll be very unhappy./ I could have got more out. I could have got more. I don’t know if it will stop. If I just … I could have got more. |
| 13. | My fair lady | Outstanding musical – Rex Harrison superb. | The difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she is treated. / There are even places where English completely disappears. In America, they haven’t used it for years. |
| 12. | Annie Hall | Drama – comedy. | The food in this restaurant is terrible/yes, and such small portions. Love is too weak a word for what I feel for you./ It’s funny, you meet somebody, you fall in love, you get married, you have kids… it’s the whole thing. And then you look up and you’re forty and you’re in the middle of a divorce. |
| 11. | Sunset Boulevard | Drama. | I AM BIG. It’s the pictures that got small. / Tell Mr De Mille that I am ready for my close-up. |
| 10. | The Producers | Comedy – Mel Brooks brilliant satire at its best. | You know, not many people know this, but the Führer was a terrific dancer. / We had the wrong play, the wrong actors, the wrong theatre, and the wrong director. Where did we go RIGHT? |
| 9. | Mulholland Dr. | David Lynch’s dreamlike drama. | When you see the girl in the picture that was shown to you earlier today, you will say “this is the girl”. The rest of the cost can stay, that’s up to you. But that lead girl in NOT up to you. / Diane, the car is waiting. |
| 8. | Barry Lyndon | Stanley Kubrick’s brilliant historical drama. | It was in the reign of George III that the aforesaid personages lived and quarrelled; good or bad, handsome or ugly, rich or poor, they are all equal now. |
| 7. | Back to the future | Comedy adventure. | Chuck, this is your cousin Marvin, Marvin Berry. Listen to this. / Roads? Where we’re going, we wont need roads! |
| 6. | Fargo | Drama (with dark humour). | I want you to tell me what these fellas looked like – well, the little guy was kind of funny lookin’ – in what way? – I dunno, just funny lookin’ – Can you be any more specific? – I couldn’t’ really say. He wasn’t circumcised./ There’s more to life than a little money, you know. Don’tcha know that? And here ya are, and it’s a beautiful day. Well… I just don’t understand it. |
| 5. | Psycho | Alfred Hitchcock’s horror drama. | A boy’s best friend is his mother. |
| 4. | Cabaret | Drama – musical – set during the gestation of Nazism. | Do you still think you’ll be able to control them when they come to power? |
| 3. | The Godfather | Seminal drama crime movie. | I need a man who has powerful friends. I need a million dollars in cash. I need, Don Corleone, those politicians you carry around in your pocket like so many nickels and dimes. / Leave the gun. Take the cannoli./ Make him an offer he can’t refuse. |
| 2. | A man for all seasons | Historical drama. | So, now you’d give the Devil the benefit of law? / What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil? / I’d cut down every law in England to do that./ Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you, where would you hide? The laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, man’s laws, not God’s! And if you cut them down, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I’d give the Devil the benefit of law, for my own safety’s sake!/ When I was practising law, the convention was before sentencing to ask the prisoner if he had anything to say./ The world must construe according to its wits. This Court must construe according to the law. |
| Honourable Mentions (in no particular order) The ApartmentArmedeus La La Land Inglourious Basterds The big LabowskiElection Midnight cowboy Tin MenThe Man Who Would Be King. A serious man. | |||
| 1. | Casablanca | Drama – the movie with the best quotes, romance, intrigue and historical context. | I am shocked — shocked! — to find that gambling is going on in here. /You must remember this: a kiss is still a kiss, a sigh is just a sigh/Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine. / Rick, what brought you to Casablanca? My health. I came to Casablanca for the waters. The waters? What waters? We’re in the desert. I was misinformed. / Round up the usual suspects. /My gun is aimed at your heart. That’s my least vulnerable spot. / The problems of two people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world/Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. |
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