Film Vocabulary – Top 3 Movies EVER!!!

Look out for some useful film vocabulary throughout the blog I’m a bit of a film buff and like to think that I have good taste in that department (but of course, everyone thinks that they’ve got good taste, but it’s impossible for everyone to have good taste, isn’t it?) and there are quite a few films out at the moment by good directors that I’d like to catch at the cinema: Super 8 by JJ Abrams and The Skin I Live In by Pedro Almodovar. It’s difficult to find the time though and a night out at the flicks in London can mean a big splash of cash. Thankfully, I’m not too keen on popcorn, so I can save a bit of money there. When I was at the cinema on Saturday though, I saw a woman walk in with what looked like a dustbin of popcorn and a bucket of coca-cola – hadn’t she eaten for a week? Anyway, I was there to see the summer blockbuster Inbetweeners. It was a UK TV comedy series and now the film adaptation has smashed all box office records here. It’s even had a bigger opening than Avatar! So, I was chatting with a mate about the ultimate top 10 films of all time and what we thought they were. After pointless arguing (I like quality films. He likes shit!), we decided to look at the best known film-related web sites for their top 10 lists. There are lots of different lists, categorised by different genres (Comedy, Thriller, Classic etc), but we were interested in what the critics rate as the top ten films ever! The lists were quite surprising… IMDB (The Daddy of film sites)

  1. Shawshank redemption
  2. Godfather
  3. Godfather 2
  4. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
  5. Pulp fiction
  6. 12 angry men
  7. Schindler’s List
  8. One flew over the cuckoo’s nest
  9. The Dark Knight
  10. Inception

Rotten Tomatoes (Where anyone can add their own review and rating – I haven’t even heard of no# 3, 7, 9 and 10!!!)

  1. Man on Wire (2008)
  2. Toy Story 2 (1999)
  3. Taxi to the Dark Side (2007)
  4. The Wizard of Oz (1939)
  5. Toy Story (1995)
  6. A Hard Day’s Night (1964)
  7. Bus 174 (Ônibus 174) (2002)
  8. The Godfather (1972)
  9. Deliver Us From Evil (2006)
  10. Waste Land (2010)

Empire Magazine (The Daddy of Proper Film Reviews)

  1. The Godfather
  2. Raiders of the Lost Ark
  3. The Empire Strikes Back
  4. The Shawshank Redemption
  5. Jaws
  6. Good Fellas
  7. Apocalypse Now
  8. Singin in the Rain
  9. Pulp Fiction
  10. Fight Club

Obviously, films can be culturally specific and so only appeal to certain people. This is what Hollywood tries to avoid, I suppose to increase their customer base. But, just because a lot of people see a film, does that make it good? Yes, I’m talking about you Transformers! I’m interested to know what the SGI students like as their Top 3 movies ever. I know it’s difficult to pin it down to just 3 films, but think of the question like this – Which 3 films would you ALWAYS watch if you saw them come on the TV and also that you would pay to go and see at the cinema, even though you’ve seen it loads of times?? I’m sticking my neck out here, but I think my Top 3 films (in terms of my definition above) would be:

  1. Glee – The Movie
  2. 2 Fast, 2 Furious
  3. Saw VI

I’m joking of course!!! My choice would be something more like…

  1. Jaws
  2. 12 Angry Men
  3. There Will Be Blood

What about yours? Leave your Top 3 films in the comments section below.

FILM Vocabulary

Film buff
someone really into films and knows a lot about them
good taste
appreciate the better, more sophisticated things in life
director
a person who is in charge of making a film
flicks
slang for ‘the cinema’
blockbuster
a huge film (usually from Hollywood) that a lot of people will like
adaptation
a book or TV show that then gets made into a film e.g. Lord of the Rings / Sex and the City
smashed all box office records
“is the most financially successful film ever”
opening
a term in the film industry meaning “how much money did a film make in its first weekend at the cinema”
genres
different types of film e.g. sci-fi, horror etc
critic
a person who writes an article which says whether a film is good or bad
review
the article about a film that a critic writes
appeal
how much people will like a film

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