Wees suckers for those AFI top whatever specials that air every year on CBS. Although it appears as if they’re running outta ideas already (as well as talking heads… Amy Madigan? guess she had the most spare time outta anyone), as last night’s affair was the top 10 films for 10 different genres: Animation, Romantic Comedies, Westerns, Sports, Mystery, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Gangster, Courtroom Drama and Epics. While they did a purty decent job with their picks, some of the choices didn’t seem to fit the category they were filed under, like Field of Dreams getting listed under ‘Fantasy’ instead of ‘Sports’, and who ever considered Pulp Fiction to be a ‘Gangster’ film? And whatta bout the absence of Horror films? And why no love for Documentaries, ever (here’s our flavs)? To hells with that shiz, so we decided to come up with a bunch o random lists of our own…
Horror
(not including anything by Stephen King or Hitchcock)
1. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
2. Alien
3. The Exorcist
4. The Wicker Man
5. Jacob’s Ladder
6. The Silence of the Lambs
7. Halloween
8. Rosemary’s Baby
9. The Omen
10. Poltergeist
boo-nus: Time To Leatherface The Music
Stephen King
1. The Shawshank Redemption
2. Stand By Me
3. The Shining
4. Carrie
5. Misery
6. The Mist
7. The Running Man
8. The Dead Zone
9. The Lawnmower Man
10. Children of the Corn
boo-nus: visit Mansfield, Ohio for the Shawshank Redemption trail tour, which includes a stop at the Ohio State Reformatory
Alfred Hitchcock
1. Psycho
2. Strangers On A Train
3. North By Northwest
4. Rear Window
5. Notorious
6. Rebecca
7. Vertigo
8. Rope
9. The Birds
10. Dial M For Murder
boo-nus: Saul Bass‘ storyboards for the Psycho shower scene
TV Shows Turned Into A Movie
(doesn’t include characters plucked from a show, like Borat or the Blues Brothers)
1. The Untouchables
2. The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!
3. The Fugitive
4. The Brady Bunch Movie
5. The Addams Family
6. Jackass: The Movie
7. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me
8. Star Trek IV
9. Beavis and Butt-Head Do America
10. Dragnet
boo-nus: 30 Upcoming Movie Sequels You Didn’t Know About, including an Untouchables prequel
Drugs
1. Trainspotting
2. Requiem for a Dream
3. Pulp Fiction
4. Midnight Express
5. Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas
6. Boogie Nights
7. Scarface
8. The Big Lebowski
9. Carlito’s Way
10. New Jack City (and no, we aint kidding)
boo-nus: when in Scotland, take the Trainspotting literary tour
Music
1. Pink Floyd The Wall
2. Tommy
3. The Commitments
4. The Devil and Daniel Johnston
5. Hedwig and the Angry Inch
6. The Filth and the Fury
7. A Hard Days Night
8. Buena Vista Social Club
9. DiG!
10. The Blues Brothers
and this list goes to
11. This Is Spinal Tap
boo-nus: I Need A Dirty Woman, I Need A Dirty Girl
Dystopia
1. A Clockwork Orange
2. Planet of the Apes
3. THX 1138
4. Children of Men
5. Twelve Monkeys
6. Sleeper
7. Starship Troopers
8. A.I.
9. Gattaca
10. 1984
boo-nus: Real Horrorshow
Awful Movies We
Kinda Sorta Vouch For
1. Zardoz
2. Can’t Stop The Music
3. Escape From The Planet of the Apes
4. The Terminal
5. The Apple
6. Ghost Dad
7. Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle
8. 2 Fast 2 Furious
9. She’s All That
10. Bratz/From Justin To Kelly (tie)
boo-nus: the Zardoz trailer, which may well be the greatestest trailer EVER
previously AFIing it up:
100 Songs Mostly Wrong
& Quothing At The Mouth