Freedom Movie or Horrible Movie

[Alben Barkley]

Three of these movies are great. Maybe not the three greatest of all-time, but worthy of being in the conversation about truly great movies. The other is The Dark Knight. I don’t hate it like John Dule does, but it’s at least a whole tier down from the other three.

Anyway, since the poll’s messed up I just voted FM for The Godfather as I think that’s the best one here. Although I actually prefer the second one. Also prefer Fellowship of the Ring to Return of the King, though really all of LOTR is basically one giant movie.

[Alben Barkley]

The LotR movies got worse both as adaptations and as movies as they went on, although they stayed eminently watchable and there'll always be something very special to me about the vindication that RotK got critically and in awards season when I was a bereft nerdy preteen bumming around South Jersey in Dubya's first term wishing I could live in Middle-earth instead. Christopher Nolan's take on Batman was fascinating at the time but has not improved with age, to say the least. The Shawshank Redemption is a good movie and The Godfather a great one, but neither would be in my personal three or five greatest; The Godfather might be in my ten greatest, though, and probably would be in my twenty.

Gotta agree with that. I think the Nolan Batman movies have aged so poorly that I’m now of the opinion Tim Burton’s Batman movies were better simply because they were a little more timeless. I couldn’t even finish the latest Batman movie though so have to disagree with those saying that’s better.

[Alben Barkley]

I can't help but think Ralph Bakshi's Part II would've been more fascinating. Really can't forgive scouring out The Scouring of The Shire.

I guess everyone is entitled to his opinion, but this is a terrible one.

Peter Jackson managed something even Tolkien couldn't do: Make LOTR interesting!

Bakshi's version is only interesting if you're exceptionally stoned. And the Scouring of the Shire was bad even in literature, and would have been even worse in film.

Jackson managed to take source material that's generally difficult for anyone other than 13 year old virgin boys to get into and turned it into an absolute cinematic masterpiece. No small feat AT ALL. All three LOTR movies are 10/10 IMO, Fellowship bordering on 11/10. And this is coming from someone who could never even finish the first book without getting bored.