Maxim's 300 Movies You Must See Before You Die

This post previously existed on my old blog, but I decided to move it over here as I still update it from time to time. I cancelled my subscription to Maxim Magazine some time ago, but right around the time I did so I received an issue in the mail which contained the list I've re-appropriated for this post. The issue was Maxim #125, the babe on the cover was Elisha Cuthbert, and the list in question was "The 300 Movies To See Before You Die".


Spend five minutes looking up movies on Google and you'll stumble upon dozens of lists just like this one which merely present the opinions of whoever crafted them. There are no real reasons for these lists to exist other than to spark conversation and debate, but I tend to find them irresistible. After all, if you have a blog you must have opinions, and if you have opinions, you most likely take great enjoyment in observing those of other people and comparing them to your own. So here I present Maxim's list, much of which I disagree with, for all to see and critique.

Also, for shits and giggles, all of the films which appear in BLUE are those which I had personally seen as of the original date of this post back when it was on my previous blog (April 17, 2008). All films appearing in ORANGE are those which I have caught up with after the original date of this post. If anyone reading this feels like counting out how many of the films named here they've seen, let me know your count via the comments section at the bottom of this post. I'd love to see how others' viewing experiences stack up.

Without further ado, I present Maxim's 300 Movies You Must See Before You Die:

COMEDY:
Airplane!
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
Animal House
American Pie
Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery
Bachelor Party
Bananas
Beverly Hills Cop
The Big Lebowski
Blazing Saddles
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
Caddyshack
The Cannonball Run
Clerks
Dazed and Confused
Duck Soup
Dumb & Dumber
Election
The 40-Year-Old Virgin
Ghostbusters
Groundhog Day
Happy Gilmore
Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
The Jerk
Kingpin
Modern Times
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
The Nutty Professor (1963)
Office Space
Old School
The Pink Panther Strikes Again
The Princess Bride
Raising Arizona
Sixteen Candles
Some Like It Hot
This Is Spinal Tap
Trading Places
Vacation
Wedding Crashers
Wet Hot American Summer
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971)
Young Frankenstein

WAR:
Apocalypse Now
Black Hawk Down
The Bridge on the River Kwai
The Deer Hunter
The Dirty Dozen
Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Gallipoli
The Great Escape
M*A*S*H
Platoon
Saving Private Ryan

SO BAD THEY'RE GOOD:
Airport 1975
Barbarella
Battlefield Earth
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
Death Race 2000
Glen or Glenda?
Phantom of the Paradise
Reefer Madness
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Showgirls
The Toxic Avenger

REBELS:
Billy Jack
Cool Hand Luke
Dirty Harry
Dirty Mary Crazy Larry
Easy Rider
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
The Graduate
A History of Violence
The Hustler
The King of Comedy
Network
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
Raging Bull
Risky Business
Sid & Nancy
Smokey and the Bandit
Taxi Driver
Three Days of the Condor
Trainspotting

CLASSICS:
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
Ben-Hur
Casablanca
Double Indemnity
Kind Hearts and Coronets
Lawrence of Arabia
Metropolis (1927)
The Night of the Hunter
On the Waterfront
The Third Man
Touch of Evil
Vertigo
White Heat
The Wizard of Oz

SCI-FI/FANTASY:
2001: A Space Odyssey
Alien
Aliens
Back to the Future
Blade Runner
Children of Men
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
E.T.
King Kong (1933)
Planet of the Apes (1968)
Star Wars Episode 4: A New Hope
Star Wars Episode 5: The Empire Strikes Back
Starship Troopers
Terminator
Terminator II: Judgement Day

HORROR:
28 Days Later
Carrie
The Exorcist
Dawn of the Dead (1978)
The Fly
Halloween (1978)
Jaws
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
A Nightmare on Elm Street
Psycho (1960)
Rosemary's Baby
The Shining (1980)
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

WESTERNS:
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
High Noon
High Plains Drifter
Jeremiah Johnson
The Searchers
Tombstone
True Grit
Unforgiven
The Wild Bunch

BUDDY MOVIES:
American Graffiti
The Blues Brothers
Breaking Away
Deliverance
Glengarry Glen Ross
The Goonies
The Last Detail
Lethal Weapon
The Right Stuff
Saturday Night Fever
The Shawshank Redemption
Stand By Me
Stripes
Superbad
Swingers
Top Gun
The Warriors

ACTION:
Batman
Batman Begins
Battle Royale
The Bourne Identity
The Bournce Supremacy
The Bourne Ultimatum
Braveheart
Clash of the Titans
Die Hard
Enter the Dragon
Face/Off
First Blood
48 Hrs.
Gladiator
The Incredibles
Kill Bill Vol. 1
Kill Bill Vol. 2
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
The Matrix
Predator
Raiders of the Lost Ark
The Road Warrior
Rocky
Rocky II
Rocky III
Rocky IV
Speed
Spiderman

NON-GRATUITOUS NUDITY!:
10
Angel Heart
Body Heat
Boogie Nights
Carnal Knowledge
Coffy
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Jackass: The Movie
McCabe & Mrs. Miller
Mulholland Drive
Poison Ivy: The New Seduction
Revenge of the Nerds
Wild Things

ART HOUSE:
Annie Hall
Badlands
The Bicycle Thief
City of God
A Clockwork Orange
The Conversation
Do The Right Thing
Elephant Man
The Last Picture Show
Midnight Cowboy
Repo Man
Rushmore
Short Cuts
There Will Be Blood
Withnail and I

MINDBENDERS:
Akira
Beetlejuice
Blue Velvet
Brazil
Donnie Darko
Edward Scissorhands
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Fight Club
The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
Memento
Pink Floyd: The Wall
The Rocky Horror Picture Show

COPS:
Bad Lieutenant
Bullitt
Chinatown
The Departed
Donnie Brasco
Fargo
The French Connection
Hard Boiled
Robocop
Se7en
Shaft (1971)
The Silence of the Lambs
To Live and Die in L.A.
The Untouchables

CRIMINALS:
Atlantic City
Bad Boys (1983)
Bloody Mama
Bonnie and Clyde
The Boys From Brazil
Boyz N the Hood
Carlito's Way
Casino
Crimes and Misdemeanors
Dog Day Afternoon
The Getaway
Get Carter (1971)
The Godfather
The Godfather Part II
Goodfellas
Heat
In Cold Blood
The Long Good Friday
Mean Streets
Midnight Express
Natural Born Killers
No Country For Old Men
Pulp Fiction
Reservoir Dogs
River's Edge
Scarface
Sexy Beast
Sin City
Super Fly
True Romance

THE MASTER CLASS:
Breathless
Citizen Kane
La Dolce Vita
Seven Samurai
The 400 Blows
The Seventh Seal
Un Chien Andalou

SEQUELS THAT ARE BETTER THAN THE ORIGINAL:
Bride of Frankenstein
Evil Dead II
Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan
Superman II

NON-BORING DOCUMENTARIES:
Brother's Keeper
Don't Look Back
Gimme Shelter
Hoop Dreams
Pumping Iron
Richard Pryor: Live in Concert
When We Were Kings

CONSPICUOUSLY GAY STRAIGHT MOVIES (BEYOND TOP GUN):
300
The Bear
Spartacus
X-Men

CONSPICUOUSLY GAY SWAYZE MOVIES:
Next of Kin
The Outsiders
Point Break
Red Dawn
Road House
Youngblood

ESSENTIAL JAMES BOND MOVIES:
Casino Royale
Goldfinger
Live and Let Die
The Spy Who Loved Me
You Only Live Twice

BEST MOVIES WITH PUPPETS:
Being John Malkovich
The Dark Crystal
The Muppet Movie
Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story
Team America
Weekend At Bernie's

MOVIES YOU NEED TO SEE ONCE, BUT ARE SO TRAUMATIC YOU NEVER NEED TO SEE AGAIN:
Leaving Las Vegas
Million Dollar Baby
Requiem For a Dream
Schindler's List
United 93

Number of Maxim's 300 movies that I had seen as of April 17, 2008: 175

Number of Maxim's 300 movies that I have seen as of February 28, 2010: 207

***Note: While it sounds nice to round down to 300, by my count there were in fact 317 titles on Maxim's list. However, six of these films were mentioned in more than one category, so I've omitted the doubles, leaving a total of 311 individual films recognized on the above list.