Empire Strikes Out

Oh, those wacky Brits. Empire magazine has released the results of their poll for "The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time", and the results sure are ... interesting.

Perhaps it's who they polled: 10,000 readers chimed in, but only 150 of "Hollywood's finest" and a paltry 50 film critics were also included. Not quite "the most ambitious movie poll ever attempted" as advertised, the list leans heavily on the recent (as expected with that many civilians in the mix), including five movies from this year alone (The Dark Knight sits at #15), as well as (naturally) a lot of English and other non-US films not quite as well known here in the States.

Furthermore, the mag's readership must be predominantly male (and predominantly straight, for that matter). How else to explain the inclusion of five of the six Star Wars movies (yes, even The Phantom Menace) and all four Indiana Jones adventures? And then there's such other head scratchers as ranking Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (one of the worst movies ever made) above Double Indemnity, To Kill a Mockingbird and All About Eve (among many many others) or seeing Point Break (yes, that Point Break) sitting in between Fargo and Amélie. It's enough to make a true cinephile cry/cringe/dissolve into a gelatinous blob.

I've posted the entire list of 500 films in the comment section below (in ascending order, from #500 to #1); read if you dare ...