The Unstuffiest List of the 500 Best Movies Ever

We don’t know about you, but we love lists; especially ones that deal with the greatest movies of all time. Luckily for us, Empire Magazine has given us a massive list of just that! For their “Top 500 Greatest Movies of All Time” feature, the magazine interviewed 150 Hollywood industry veterans (including Sam Mendes, Cameron Crowe and Quentin Tarantino), 50 select film critics, and of course, 10,000 Empire readers. As a result, the rankings aren’t nearly as stuffy as other lists, like the AFI Top-100: Citizen Kane, routinely highlighted at the greatest movie of all time, only rates as the 28^th movie here, behind both Back to the Future and Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, and just one slot ahead of Die Hard. Lower down on the chain, Casino Royale (#56) beats Lawrence of Arabia (#57) and The Graduate (#62), while School of Rock (#188) inexplicably edges out Ghostbusters (#189). What gives people!

Still, we think the list is pretty solid, even if it’s a little too current minded and reads suspiciously like the IMDB User Ranked Top-250. For instance, The Dark Knight checks in at #15 on the list, seemingly just because it’s the flavor of the moment. While we loved it, is the latest Batman movie really better than Casablanca (#18)? We think not.

Below, the Top-10 :

1. The Godfather (dir. Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)

2. Raiders of the Lost Ark (dir. Steven Spielberg, 1981)

3. Star Wars Episode V: Empire Strikes Back (dir. Irvin Kershner,1980)

4. Shawsank Redemption (dir. Frank Darabont, 1994)

5. Jaws (dir. Steven Spielberg, 1975)

6. GoodFellas (dir. Martin Scorsese, 1990)

7. Apocalypse Now (dir. Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)

8. Singin’ in the Rain (dir. Stanley Donen, 1952)

9. Pulp Fiction (dir. Quentin Tarantino, 1994)

10. Fight Club (dir. David Fincher, 1999)