Ranking Only the Best (and the Very Worst) of a Movie Year Project

[CinemaInternational]

Today, we shall be doing 1986 as our first foray into the 1980s. It is a bit of an uneven year, but there is some choice material here. The next year will be a very quiet year, 1930.

The Best:

1 Blue Velvet
2 Little Shop of Horrors
3 True Stories
4 Manon of the Spring
5 Peggy Sue Got Married
6 The Green Ray
7 Round Midnight
8 Hoosiers
9 The Mosquito Coast
10 Children of a Lesser God
11 Desert Bloom
12 Duet for One
13 The Great Mouse Detective
14 Mona Lisa
15 Something Wild
16 Jean de Florette
17 That's Life!
18 Hannah and Her Sisters
19 Jumpin' Jack Flash
20 Lucas
21 Stand by Me
22 Heartburn
23 The Color of Money
24 Aliens
25 Manhunter
26 Crimes of the Heart
27 Crocodile Dundee
28 Ruthless People
29 Just Between Friends
30 The Morning After
31 Night, Mother
32 At Close Range
33 An American Tail
34 Legal Eagles
35 She's Gotta Have It
36 About Last Night...
37 Ferris Bueller's Day Off

The Worst:

1 Care Bears II: A New Generation
2 Brighton Beach Memoirs
3 Saving Grace
4 Wise Guys
5 No Mercy
6 Off Beat
7 F/X
8 The Big Easy
9 Top Gun
10 The Money Pit

[Detective Jim McLeod]

1986 films seen-37

The Best

Blue Velvet
Hoosiers
Manhunter
Little Shop Of Horrors
The Mission
Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer
F/X
Mona Lisa

The Worst

Shanghai Surprise
The Name Of The Rose
Half Moon Street
A Judgment In Stone
The Golden Child
Psycho III
Gothic

[LawrenceA]

1986 (286 seen)

Favorites
Aliens
Big Trouble in Little China
Blue Velvet
The Fly
Manhunter
Platoon
At Close Range
Betty Blue
Children of a Lesser God
The Decline of the American Empire
Down By Law
Hannah and Her Sisters
Jean De Florette
Manon of the Spring
The MIssion
Salvador
The Seventh Curse
Sid & Nancy
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Three Amigos
True Stories

Least Favorites
Las Vegas Serial Killer
Alien Predators
Black River Monster
Death Reel
Gore-Met Zombie Chef from Hell
Nightmare Weekend
Raiders of the Living Dead
Revenge
Robot Holocaust
Vicious Lips

[Swithin]

1986 in alphabetical order, a good year, with my favorite Meryl Streep movie, my second favorite Merchant/Ivory, and not one but two great Mary Woronov flicks!

The Green Ray (Le Rayon Vert)
Hannah and Her Sisters
Little Shop of Horrors
The Mission
Mona Lisa
Nomads
Out of Africa
A Room with a View
Stand by Me
TerrorVision

[Feinberg]

1986

Out of the 117 films that I have seen from this year these are my favourites ranked in order ...

Platoon
Hannah and Her Sisters
Jean de Florette
Manon of the Spring
Sid and Nancy
The Decline of the American Empire
Aliens
The Color of Money
Salvador
Peggy Sue Got Married
Down by Law
Children of a Lesser God
Something Wild
Stand by Me
The Mission
Sherman's March
Mona Lisa
Crimes of the Heart
Blue Velvet
The Fly
The Name fo the Rose
Labyrinth
Hoosiers
Wolf at the Door
Mosquito Coast
Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer
Big Trouble In Little China
The Morning After
Sweet Liberty
The Sacrifice
I Hate Actors

and here are some that I didn't care for at all ...

The Money Pit
Bullies
The Morning Man
9 1/2 Weeks
Heartbreak Ridge
Invaders From Mars
Streets of Gold
Highlander
Cobra
That's Life!
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2
Golden Eighties

[CinemaInternational]

Not all film years have as much to offer as others do, and our next year 1930 is rather murky and obscure, still a bit creaky from the switch to sound. But there are some interesting films here, and fortunately, there is only one bad film, so let's see what we can muster up. The next post will be a joint year post of 2008/2015/2022, placed together because Lawrence and Feinberg/Bogie aside (who have both been admirable completists), I'm not sure the rest of us here have have delved as deeply into these more recent years.

1930

Films Seen: 52

The Best:

1 All Quiet on the Western Front
2 The Divorcee
3 Ladies of Leisure
4 Monte Carlo
5 Animal Crackers
6 King of Jazz
7 City Girl
8 The Royal Family of Broadway
9 Min and Bill
10 The Devil's Holiday
11 Paid
12 Anna Christie
13 Just Imagine
14 Sweet Kitty Bellairs
15 The Unholy Three

The Worst Film:

The Green Goddess

[Swithin]

1930

All Quiet on the Western Front
Animal Crackers
The Big Pond (for its song and for inspiring the Marx Brothers)
The Blue Angel
The Golden Age (L'Age D'Or)
Hell’s Angels
Journey’s End
Monte Carlo
Morocco
Outward Bound
Under the Roofs of Paris (Sur les Toits de Paris)
The Unholy Three

The Worst Film:

Ingagi (I have no problem if women want to have sex with gorillas; there is just too much stock travelogue in this movie.)

[KayFrancis]

CI love that you picked Something Wild and Just Between Friends. Love both those films

[LawrenceA]

1930 (141 seen)

Favorites
All Quiet on the Western Front
L'Age d'Or
Westfront 1918
Animal Crackers
The Big House
The Blue Angel
City Girl
The Divorcee
Earth
Ladies of Leisure
Morocco
Outward Bound
People on Sunday
Under the Roofs of Paris

Least Favorites
Check and Double Check
The Apache Kid's Escape
The Code of Honor
Ingagi
Rogue of the Rio Grande

[Detective Jim McLeod]

1930 films seen- only 4, and they are all really good so I have no "worst" list-

The Best

Animal Crackers
All Quiet On The Western Front
The Criminal Code
The Unholy Three

[Feinberg]

1930

Out of the 47 films that I have seen from this year these are my favourites ranked in order ...

All Quiet on the Western Front
Westfront 1918
The Blue Angel
Outward Bound
Animal Crackers
The Big House
The Divorcee
Tom Sawyer
Anna Christie
Morocco
Min and Bill
Au Bonheur des Dames
Hell's Angels
The Dawn Patrol
Under the Roofs of Paris
The Big Trail
The Royal Family of Broadway
L'Age d'Or

and here are some that I didn't care for at all ...

The Lottery Bride
Putting' on the Ritz
The Unholy Three
The Matrimonial Bed
River's End
Madam Satan
Du Barry, Woman of Passion
Soup to Nuts
Captain Thunder

[CinemaInternational]

Well, let's get something out of the way, and do a triple dip into the 21st century. I know the years are not as fruitful but let's see; I am however going to apologize to Lawrence in advance for the worst list of 2008. I

2008
Films Seen:38

The Best:

1 Australia
2 Changeling
3 Frost/Nixon
4 Frozen River
5 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
6 Doubt
7 The Secret Life of Bees
8 Two Lovers
9 The Reader
10 Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
11 Revolutionary Road
12 Rachel Getting Married

The Worst:

1 Milk (My ears are still ringing from the torture of hearing the name Anita Bryant so often)
2 Marley and Me
3 WALL-E
4 Vicky Cristina Barcelona
5 The Wrestler
6 The Dark Knight (Fine performances across the board but too nihilistic for me)


2015
Films Seen: 53

The Best:

1 Brooklyn
2 45 Years
3 Inside Out
4 Far from the Madding Crowd
5 The End of the Tour
6 Woman in Gold
7 Irrational Man
8 Spotlight
9 Eddie the Eagle
10 Joy
11 Mad Max: Fury Road
12 Room
13 Steve Jobs
14 Maggie's Plan
15 A Royal Night Out
16 De Palma
17 The Intern
18 Suffragette
19 The Peanuts Movie
20 Danny Collins
21 I'll See You in My Dreams
22 Cinderella
23 McFarland USA
24 Truth

The Worst:

1 The Revenant
2 Green Room
3 Trumbo
4 Demolition
5 The Big Short
6 Queen of Earth
7 Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
8 The Good Dinosaur
9 Anomalisa


2022
Films Seen: 17

The Best:

1 Three Thousand Years of Longing
2 Women Talking
3 Elvis
4 Living
5 Till
6 Downton Abbey: A New Era


The Worst:

1 The Whale
2 Death on the Nile
3 Top Gun: Maverick
4 Everything Everywhere All At Once
5 Marlowe

[Detective Jim McLeod]

2008 films seen-53

The Best

Departures
Iron Man
Gran Torino
The Hurt Locker

The Worst

The Happening
Autopsy
Quarantine

[Detective Jim McLeod]

2015 films seen-31

The Best

Listen To Me Marlon
The Gift
Spectre
Black Mass
The Lobster

The Worst

Trumbo
Danny Collins

[CinemaInternational]

Oh, forgot to say, the next year up will be 1924.