1. They Live - John Carpenter
2. Fightclub - David Fincher
3. Braindead aka Dead Alive - Peter Jackson
4. Donnie Darko - Richard Kelly
5. American History X - Tony Kaye
6. The Exorcist - William Friedkin
7. 25th Hour - Spike Lee
8. Videodrome - David Cronenberg
9. A Clockwork Orange - Stanley Kubrick
10. Matrix - Wachowski bros

Death Poets Society
The Untouchables
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
V for Vendetta
Matrix

Recently I appreciated The King's Speech and Inception.

In no particular order

Pulp Fiction
The Matrix
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
The Dark Knight
Fight Club
Silence of the Lambs
The usual Suspects
Bladerunner

Ice Cold in Alex
Ruthless People
Kind Hearts and Coronets
Total Recall
Demolition Man
Trading Places
Watership Down
Star Wars
LOTR
Enemy at the Gates

Honestly, some people here seem to be far too keen on picking films that the critics rave about.

Damn it! I left off Airplane and the Naked Gun series!

@Sargmacher: I liked Gladiator, but it doesn't make my cut for great movies.

Story-wise, the thing I liked was Maximus shaping his fate and the fate of Rome in all of the circumstances through which he was put. His character was compelling and his personal excellence didn't feel abused (like in Chronicles of Riddick). For acting, Joaquin Phoenix gave a tremendous performance as Commodus. Even his cut scenes were creepy and wonderful (for those who have the DVD). If Crowe hadn't been such a strong Maximus, Phoenix could have stolen the show like Ledger did in The Dark Knight.

I thought Lucilla was unnecessarily fickle and her character was inconsistent or just poorly written. The rest of the characters were non-complex at best. Proximo had potential, but he was written as a means to Maximus' end. Modest-to-good acting abilities were hurt by weak writing.

The special effects were beautiful, of course, and the story was well-paced. The music and the visuals enhanced the theatrical experience.

3 stars out of 4.

@Svidrigailov: Interesting. I felt like Scarface was the same kind of thing (I have only seen the Al Pacino remake).

Oh, yeah. I forgot about Scarface. Up there with American Gangster as my favorite crime movie (but that's only because I have never seen The Godfather OR Goodfellas; they are both on my short list to watch)

Some more films:

Withnail and I
This is England
Children of Heaven
Waltz with Bashir
City of God
The Thin Red Line
I Love Phiilip Morris
Napoleon Dynamtie
Welcome To the Doll House
Funny Games (the original. I have not seen the remake with Naomi Watts)

Casablanca
The Wizard Of Oz
The Empire Strikes Back
The Full Monty
Brassed Off
Airplane!
Die Hard (best Xmas movie)
Reservoir Dogs
The Dark Knight (not seen TDKR yet)
Up
Toy Story 1,2 & 3 (the perfect trilogy)
Unforgiven
The Terminator
Alien
Bladerunner
Monty Python & The Holy Grail
Cyrano de Bergerac (Gerard Deperdieau (sp?))
Fargo
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Chariots Of Fire
Spinal Tap
Four Weddings and a Funeral

Octavius, "Honestly, some people here seem to be far too keen on picking films that the critics rave about."

My response is cringe-worthily pedestrian, but...

Sometimes the critics are right. Sometimes they know from a good movie. There are mediocre or moderately good movies that get raves, and there are gems that get panned (or, more likely, ignored), but sometimes critics are spot-on. There's no shame in having a list of favorite movies of which most were box-office hits.

@Gunfighter06: If you watch them back-to-back, watch Goodfellas first and you'll like them both. But if you watch Godfather first, Goodfellas may disappoint.

On the flipside I hate:

Withnail & I (sorry spyman)
Avatar
Forrest Gump
The Hangover
Donnie Darko
Titanic
Transformers
...and Avatar (smurfahontas needs to be mentioned twice because it is so brain-numbingly awful)

I have to also include these three films:

Spinal Tap
Waiting for Guffman
Best in Show

@Pete U: Lolz! "Smurfahontas"...

Willtor's movies to avoid:
Johnny Mnemonic (1995)
U-571 (2000)
Sister Act (1992) and sequel (seriously? It got a sequel? Why did I watch it?)
Anything by Tim Burton.

Willtor's "Not Masterpieces of Filmography, but Make Sure You See" movies:
The Mothman Prophecies (2002)
Cloverfield (2008)
Below (2002)
Thank You For Smoking (2005)

Avatar was horrible.

Hostel is one of the worst films I've ever seen.

Jurassic Park
Star Wars: A New Hope
The Wizard of Oz (1939 only)
Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark
Indiana Jones: The Last Crusade
Star Wars: Return of the Jedi
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
all other in the Vacation series.

Vegas Vacation is my favorite of the Vacation series. Way more mature humor.

Why does nobody put Forrest Gump in their list?
(Pete U's dislike list doesnt count :) )

Anyone see the new trailer for Cloud Atlas. It looks amazing. Im going to pick up the book in a few hours.

Forrest Gump was entertaining and the numerous fake historic tie-ins made it interesting, but it was simply not good enough or bad enough for me to like or dislike it. It was one of Tom Hanks' better performances, but his best were Apollo 13 (which almost made it into my best movies list above) and Saving Private Ryan.

A Bridge Too Far (1977)
Last of the Mochicans (1992)
American History X (1998)

Mohicans

Seven Samurai
Touch of Evil
Bridge on the River Kwai
Seventh Seal
Miller's Crossing (Not a bad guy, if looks, brains, and personality don't count.)
Vertigo (anything by Hitchcock, really)
Zombieland
Primer
Carlito's Way
Brazil
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
High Noon
1941
Night of the Hunter
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
Inception
And seconds for Dark Knight. Heath Ledger played such an amazing Joker. Philosophical, yet shallow.

I forgot about A Bridge Too Far. One of my favorite war movies.

I also forgot about 1941. 1941 is the dumbest, funniest comedy ever.

@Subutai: Oh, snap! I forgot about Seven Samurai and Bridge on the River Kwai. Those are classics.

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)

I want to go on record saying that I actually like the matrix sequels. I think that they were by far, not great films, in large part due to executive meddling, but they were good enough to not deserve the reputation they've been given.