top 50 movies (40-31)

If you're wondering what my criteria are for deciding the Top 50 Movies of All-Time, here's the process:

1. Go to numerous web sites and write down movies that I like.
2. Open a Word document, and type in the name of the first one on the list. For example, The Godfather.
3. Locate the second one on the list (for example, Superbad), and ask myself, Which one is better? In some cases (this is probably one), the answer is obvious, so I put Superbad in there below The Godfather. In some cases, it's trickier (Dog Day Afternoon v. The Negotiator), so I try to decide, when I am lying on my deathbed and only have 2 hours left to live, which I will want to watch. In this case, it's The Negotiator, so there you go.
4. Locate the next movie on the list, and go through the same process. (In this case, The Godfather is better than Superbad, but Superbad is better than The Negotiator.) And so on.

And now, #40-31...

40. Superbad (Greg Mottola, 2007)
IMDB PLOT OUTLINE: Two co-dependent high school seniors are forced to deal with separation anxiety after their plan to stage a booze-soaked party goes awry.
PERFORMERS: Jonah Hill, Michael Cera
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Christopher Mintz-Plasse (Foggell)
INTERESTING FACTS: Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg started writing this movie when they were 13...In the party scenes, apple juice was used for hard liquor, water was used for vodka, and non-alcoholic beer was used for beer...Because Mintz-Plasse was 17 at the time of shooting, his mother had to be on set for his sex scene
BEST SCENE: The home ec scene.
BEST LINE: "Muhammad is the most commonly-used name on Earth. Read a f***ing book for once."

39. Finding Nemo (Andrew Stanton & Lee Unkrich, 2003)
IMDB PLOT OUTLINE: A father-son underwater adventure featuring Nemo, a boy clownfish, stolen from his coral reef home. His timid father must then travel to Sydney, and search Sydney Harbour find Nemo.
PERFORMERS: Albert Brooks, Ellen DeGeneres, Alexander Gould
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Andrew Stanton (Crush)
INTERESTING FACTS: Holds the all-time record for first day home release sales with 8 million copies sold in the United States...Andrew Stanton claims to have modeled the voice for Crush after Sean Penn's character in Fast Time at Ridgemont High...A stuffed version of Nemo appears in Boo's room in the movie Monsters, Inc., which was released two years earlier
BEST SCENE: Dory trying to communicate with the whales.
BEST LINE: "Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming."

38. Ocean's Eleven (Steven Soderbergh, 2001)
IMDB PLOT OUTLINE: Danny Ocean and his ten accomplices plan to rob three Las Vegas casinos simultaneously.
PERFORMERS: George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Andy Garcia
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Carl Reiner
INTERESTING FACTS: The following actors were all slated for roles in the movie but dropped out for one reason or another: Bruce Willis, Mark Wahlberg, Luke Wilson, Owen Wilson, Danny Glover, and Alan Alda (Wilson, Wilson, and Glover dropped the project to film The Royal Tennenbaums)...At Danny's parole board hearing, there was originally a line in the script where he asks the parole board members how much they make, but the line was cut when actual parole board members advised Soderbergh that an inmate would never be granted parole if he asked such a question
BEST SCENE: The final heist.
BEST LINE: "I'm not sure what four nines does, but the ace, I think, is pretty high."

37. To Kill A Mockingbird (Robert Mulligan, 1962)
IMDB PLOT OUTLINE: Atticus Finch, a lawyer in the Depression-era South, defends a black man against an undeserved rape charge, and his kids against prejudice.
PERFORMERS: Gregory Peck, Mary Badham
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Estelle Evans (Calpurnia)
INTERESTING FACTS: The character Dill was modeled after Harper Lee's childhood friend Truman Capote...The film marked Robert Duvall's big screen debut (he played Boo Radley)...Atticus Finch was chosen as #1 on the American Film Institute's Top 100 Screen Heroes of All-Time, and the film was chosen as #2 on the AFI's Most Inspiring Movies of All-Time and #25 on their Top 100 Movies of All-Time
BEST SCENE: The dog scene.
BEST LINE: "Jean Louise, stand up. Your father's passing."

36. Rain Man (Barry Levinson, 1988)
IMDB PLOT OUTLINE: Selfish yuppie Charlie Babbitt's father left a fortune to his savant brother Raymond and a pittance to Charlie; they travel cross-country.
PERFORMERS: Tom Cruise, Dustin Hoffman
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Michael D. Roberts (Vern)
INTERESTING FACTS: Dustin Hoffman originally wanted Bill Murray to play the part of Charlie...Raymond was originally supposed to be mentally challenged, but Hoffman insisted that he be an autistic savant...The screenplay was written with Dennis and Randy Quaid in mind for the leads
BEST SCENE: Raymond and the toothpicks.
BEST LINE: "I'm sorry ma'am, I lied to you. I'm very sorry about that. That man right there is my brother and if he doesn't get to watch People's Court in about 30 seconds, he's gonna throw a fit right here on your porch. Now you can help me or you can stand there and watch it happen."

35. Reservoir Dogs (Quentin Tarantino, 1992)
IMDB PLOT OUTLINE: After a simple jewelery heist goes terribly wrong, the surviving criminals begin to suspect that one of them is a police informant.
PERFORMERS: Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Steve Buscemi
INTERESTING FACTS: Aside from the opening credits, the film makes no reference to the term "reservoir dogs"...During filming, a paramedic was kept on site to make sure that Mr. Orange's blood loss was consistent with that of a real gunshot victim...The following actors were all under consideration for parts in the movie: James Woods, George Clooney, David Duchovny, and Christopher Walken
BEST SCENE: Mr. Blonde cutting off the cop's ear to "Stuck in the Middle."
BEST LINE: "If you shoot me in a dream, you'd better wake up and apologize."

34. Fargo (Joel Coen, 1996)
IMDB PLOT OUTLINE: Jerry Lundegaard's inept crime falls apart due to his and his henchmen's bungling and the persistent police work of pregnant Marge Gunderson.
PERFORMERS: Frances McDormand, William H. Macy, Steve Buscemi
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: John Carroll Lynch (Norm Gunderson)
INTERESTING FACTS: The film is not, as it claims, "based on a true story"...William H. Macy begged the directors for the role of Jerry Lundegaard. He did two readings for the part, and became convinced he was the best man for the role. When the Coens didn't get back to him on the subject, he flew to New York (where they were commencing production) and said, "I'm very, very worried that you are going to screw up this movie by giving this role to somebody else. It's my role, and I'll shoot your dogs if you don't give it to me"
BEST SCENE: Marge interviewing Jerry at the car dealership.
BEST LINE: "And I guess that was your accomplice in the wood chipper."

33. Shrek (Andrew Adamson & Vicky Jenson, 2001)
IMDB PLOT OUTLINE: An ogre, in order to regain his swamp, travels along with an annoying donkey in order to bring a princess to a scheming lord, wishing himself King.
PERFORMERS: Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Conrad Vernon (The Gingerbread Man)
INTERESTING FACTS: Chris Farley was originally cast as Shrek and even recorded the dialogue, but after he died, the part was given to Myers...The principal actors never read together...First winner of the Best Animated Feature Film Oscar
BEST SCENE: The Gingerbread Man's interrogation.
BEST LINE: "Blue flower, red thorns. Blue flower, red thorns. Blue flower, red thorns. This would be so much easier if I wasn't COLOR BLIND!"

32. Chicago (Rob Marshall, 2002)
IMDB PLOT OUTLINE: Murderesses Velma Kelly (a chanteuse and tease who killed her husband and sister after finding them in bed together)and Roxie Hart (Who killed her boyfriend when she discovered he wasn't going to make her a star) find themselves on death row together and fight for the fame that will keep them from the gallows in 1920s Chicago.
PERFORMERS: Richard Gere, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Renee Zellweger
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: John C. Reilly
INTERESTING FACTS: Chicago joins American Gigolo, Days of Heaven, and An Officer and a Gentleman as films that John Travolta has turned down and eventually went to Richard Gere...An earlier film version of the musical starring Frank Sinatra, Goldie Hawn, and Liza Manelli was canceled when Bob Fosse, who was to be involved, died in 1987...Was named one of the 20 Most Overrated Movies of All-Time by Premiere
BEST SCENE: The Cell Block Tango.
BEST LINE: "You're a free woman, Roxie Hart. And God save Illinois."

31. Little Miss Sunshine (Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris, 2006)
IMDB PLOT OUTLINE: A family determined to get their young daughter into the finals of a beauty pageant take a cross-country trip in their VW bus.
PERFORMERS: Abigail Breslin, Toni Collette, Greg Kinnear
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Alan Arkin
INTERESTING FACTS: All of the girls participating in the beauty pageant, except for Breslin, were actual beauty pageant regulars...When producers cast Steve Carell for the film, they worried that he wasn't a big enough star and didn't have enough acting experience; between the time the movie wrapped and the time it was released, The 40-Year-Old Virgin was released and The Office debuted on NBC
BEST SCENE: Olive dancing to "Super Freak."
BEST LINE: "I'm madly in love with you, and it's not because of your brains or your personality."

Later gators.