Movies - TV
The Best Ranked Lists of the All-Time Best Movies, Ranked
By BLAKE TAYLOR
13. Honorable Mention
Esteemed movie critic and UCLA professor Leonard Maltin created two volumes that are less all-time best movies lists and more synopses and reviews of over 26,000 films. While the books are disqualified from the ranking, “Leonard Maltin’s Classic Movie Guide” and “Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide: The Modern Era” make the perfect film guides.
12. Metacritic
Metacritic assigns scores out of 100 in a process it describes as distilling “the opinions of the most respected critics writing online into a single number.” While its top-rated titles database is filled with great films, the reason for their ranking isn’t clear, as some movies with the same score and fewer critic reviews place higher than those with more reviews.
11. TIME
Compiled by Richard Corliss and Richard Schickel in 2005, TIME Magazine’s “All-TIME 100 Movies” presents its findings in alphabetical order rather than as an actual ranking. The design leaves readers with the choice of scrolling through the visually underwhelming bulleted entries or clicking their way through all 100 slides and critiques.
10. AFI
The American Film Institute’s “100 Years... 100 Movies” list brought 1,500 “leaders from across the American film community” to vote for their top 100 movies from a pre-nominated list of 400. AFI has acknowledged the list’s flaws with representation, stating it “has marginalized the diversity of voices that make our nation and its stories strong.”
9. Parade
Parade has described its 2022 list, filled with a variety of genres and styles of filmmaking, as “the definitive ranking of the 100 greatest films ever made.” Credited author Samuel R. Murrian revealed some criteria for its rankings, including artistic merits, and has introduced some wildcards like “Shrek,” which may have never made it into a traditional list.