People actually paid attention to this list, and most people didn’tlike it–with good reason. There wasn’t a single Lubitsch orPreston Sturges movie on it, a lot of the movies had only atangential link to America, and the other omissions were toonumerous to mention. The 3-hour CBS show didn’t help mattersmuch by being really star-studded to the point that ditzy actors andactresses were screwing up details about great movies.

The TNT series, of which this movie was a part, was left in theshadows due to the attention that the CBS show and the list itselfreceived. But the TNT series was very good. Each part focussedon ten movies linked by theme, and instead of being quip-heavy,the shows let the movies themselves show their greatness.

"In Search Of…" was especially entertaining, and featured somegreat, great movies. The script was intelligent, the cutting waswell-done, and in short it made you appreciate these classicfilms.

• After the American Film Institute announced that Citizen Kane (1941) was the best movie, rentals for it shot up 1600 percent.

To see actors and actresses describe their movies and their thoughts whilemaking these movies or watching other’s great movies was the best. HowDustin Hoffman came to tears while discussing his preparation for the roleof Tootsie, i mean, WOW.

10 out of 10

2) And that can be good and bad. This is one of those ‘best of!’ tv showsthat ends up skipping over a LOT of great films, and interviewingpeople- David Copperfield!?- who really aren’t even in the filmbusiness. But, it does offer glimpses of Woody Allen and Clint Eastwoodand some of those greats, so I guess it’s got some credibility. I justgot a little bored by it after a while.

3) No Buster Keaton? No Preston Sturges?Puh-leeze! Keaton has dated far better than Chaplin, yetChaplin got several selections and Keaton got none. Leaving outPreston Sturges was nothing short of criminal

4) The chance to see so many clips from so many GREAT films is a great treatfor any movie lover. It brought back memories of the ones I’d seen andintroduced me to so many that I can’t wait to see. Way to goAFI!

5) I can’t imagine a more pointless presentation than this. It skips alongatan Mtv pace and along the way completely ruins any film one hasn’t yetseenby revealing all the plot points – actually showing some of the mosttremendous moments in film history completely out of context!

Some of the moments cut and pasted into this "Idiots Guide to Cinema" areabsolutely senseless outside of the body of the films they belong to. TheRussian roulette sequence from "The Deer Hunter" has no impact at all(excepting shock violence to anyone that hasn’t seen it) because thepeopleplaying it are NOBODY. They have no history, they are only images playingagame that will water down one of the most electric scenes ever editedtogether. Another example is the shoddy treatment given to "Lawrence ofArabia." You wait 219 minutes for that final moment where you learn T.E.knows he has no future. Well, they rip that scene out and play it after a3minute synopsis of the film, along the way telling you nothing new aboutthefilm that can’t be read in a write-up in TVGuide.

This nonsense is just a collection of vital organs taken out of the bodiesof a bunch of great (and a few not-so-great) films.

What’s really sad is that this thing will be used as a virtual Cliff’sNotesof motion pictures. Why see "Citizen Kane" when you can get all theimportant points here to impress your friends and teachers?

What a rip-off.

6) I thought that most of 100 Years, 100 Films was terrific. It was just theright length to keep one’s attention. If you’re planning on watching theentire 100 though, don’t start with this because it gives away too muchfora few of the pictures. And that song gets really annoying too. But its afantastic documentary and worth a look for any film fan.

7) I wish there were more programs like this on television, entertaining andinformative, looking at the history of the movies in a different andworthwhile way. It is rare that a TV program makes people think and talkabout movies.

This was a great tv special. I thought that The Wizard of Oz, Gone with theWind or Casablanca would have gotten #1. (Honestly I didnt like Casablancaand havent seen GWTW) Total shock when they said Citizen Kane. My personalfav’s from the list were Bringing up Baby, The African Queen and ThePhiladelphia Story.

9) I loved this show! It was so great I just HAD to buy the video of it. Ihad one small regret though. "Gone With the Wind"should have been #1 instead of #4. The comments from each ofthecelebrity guests were very true and easy for the audience to comprehendtheir viewpoint. I loved Whoopi Goldberg’s comments on "Doctor Zchivago" ("Iremember the scene where Omar Sharif was showing Julie Christie the snow.And you were just like a little kid in that scene. There was Julie and therewas Oamr and there was you.") and also on "The Wizard of Oz" ("It neveroccurred to me that there was anything odd in Oz because there were greenpeople. So, I just assumed that the black folks were there too. You know,East Oz, or something"). Those are comments that I love to make when givinga commentary on my favorite films too. I am glad that this specificdocumentary was made. We need our future generations to see this special andthen watch those movies specified in it because those later generations willnever see the kind of talent that this show focused on.

A list of my 25 personal favorite films: Gone With the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, The Pride of the Yankees, Sunset Boulevard, High Noon, Picnic, On the Waterfront, Lady and the Tramp, Sergeant York, It’s a Wonderful Life, West Side Story, A Farewell to Arms (1932), Mr. DeedsGoes to Town, My Fair Lady, Meet Me In St. Louis, The Godfather Part II, Amadeus, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, The Godfather, Good Will Hunting, Little Women (1933), National Velvet, All About Eve, Titanic (1997), Meet John Doe

10) Boring "special" showing clips from AFI’s picks of the top 100 films of thecentury (1898-1998). The narration is (to be nice) insipid, the categoriesfilms are put in are truly mystifying ("All About Eve" in the monstercategory?????) and there are some really stupid choices ("Dr. Zhicago????" Come on!) My biggest complaint is that they show all the movies full frame. With some of the old movies that’s fine, but when we get to big-budgetwide-screen epics like "Ben-Hur" and "2001" it makes no sense! They shouldbe shown letter-boxed. The chariot scene they show from "Ben-Hur" isvirtually incomprehensible. Boring, stupid, bad choices, lousy fullframe…a real disappointment. Don’t bother.

• Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) and Dr. Hannibal Lecter from The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Hannibal (2001), Red Dragon (2002), and Hannibal Rising (2007) were listed as the #1 hero and villain.
• Only one character appears on both the heroes and villains list. The Terminator is the 48th ranked hero for Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), and the 22nd villain for The Terminator (1984).
• Villain #20 – “Man” from Bambi (1942) – is the only character on the list that does not appear on-screen.

Travis Bickle from TAXI DRIVER is not a villain. The first time hecommits an act of violence in the film, he shoots a robber who'sthreatening to kill a convenience store clerk. Then he saves a younggirl from a life of prostitution by killing the pimps. This guy is nomore a villain than Dirty Harry Callahan.

Then there's Hans Grubber from DIE HARD. No matter how well-written andacted Hans is, he's the main bad guy in an action film. His main reasonfor being is to be ultimately defeated by the hero. We all knew Hanswould be beaten before the first time we even saw DIE HARD. I also feltthe same way about Goldfinger, but at least James Bond made the bestheroes list. Why isn't John Mclaine on the hero's list?

Now, I know millions more would have been greatly upset with AFI ifthey didn't include her on the list, or if they hadn't ranked her sohigh, but one villain I think really dosen't belong anywhere on thelist of greatest villains (much less in the #3 slot!) is the WickedWitch Of The West. Already I'm sure thousands of internet users willhate me and think I'm an idiot for even suggesting such a thing, but Ithink the Witch from The Wizard Of Oz has got to be the most grosslyoverrated villain in the whole history of film for just one reason: theway she is killed. She sets her broom on fire and is ready to burn theScarecrow, and then Dorothy pours water on the broom, and some watergets on the Witch, and she evaporates. WOW! How convenient that waterJUST HAPPENED to be her Achellie's Heel! I mean, come on! A big part ofwhat defines a hero in a story is how s/he defeats the villain. AsRenny Harlin once said,"The more powerful your villain is, the morepowerful the hero is." Dorothy doesn't use her brains to figure out howto beat the Witch, it's just a happy accident that water gets on herand that just happens to be the thing that kills her. I mean, what the@#%*?! After seeing that scene, I wondered whether the Witch perhapshad some cousin somewhere who'd vaporize if someone sneezed in herdirection.

Anyway. With each hero and villain we get commentary from stars beinginterviewed on their thoughts on the character. Sometimes I did notdisagree with the hero or villain being placed, but I disagreed withsome of the comments. For example, Hal 9000 from 2001: A SPACE ODDESSYwas on the list, and someone described Hal as being pure evil andwanting very badly to kill the astronauts. This oversimplification justisn't true. What happens is (for reasons never given in the film) Halmakes a mistake while on the voyage and tells the two astronauts asystem will break down, and upon examination they find there's nothingwrong with it. The two men then discuss shutting Hal down. Hal findsout, and acts out in a move of self-preservation and for the sake ofcompleting the mission they've been sent out on.

Also, Reagan McNeil from THE EXORCIST is on the best villains list. Forthe record, people, Reagan was a victim (or, rather, THE victim) in THEEXORCIST. The villain was the demon possessing her. Is that all clear?

Then there's the opening prologue just before Arnold Swartzenaggergives his introduction, where classical music plays over quick imagesfrom various films. Strangely enough, there are some films that havescenes shown during the prologue where nether any of the heroes orvillains from that film made the main list. The characters from thesefilms (Shall we call them the runners up?) are:

For the heroes: "Bandit" Bo Darville (SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT) ForrestGump, Josey Wales (THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES) Coffie, Dick Tracy, JohnRambo(The RAMBO trilogy) Lee (ENTER THE DRAGON) Natalie Cook, DylanSanders & Alex Munday (CHARLIE'S ANGELS) Egon, Raymond, Peter & Winston(GHOSTBUSTERS) Gene Kranz (APOLLO 13) The Enterprize crew (STAR TREK)Lt. Pete "Maverick" Mitchell (TOP GUN) Lara Croft (TOMB RAIDER) BenHur, William Wallace, (BRAVEHEART) Thomas "Neo" Anderson (THE MATRIX)

For the villains: Agent Smith (THE MATRIX) Dr. Evil (AUSTIN POWERS)Gillman (THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON) Jason Voorhees (the FridayTHE 13TH saga) Larry Talbot (THE WOLFMAN) Graf Orlok (NOSFERATU: THEVAMPIRE)The zombies (NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD) Maleficent (SLEEPINGBEAUTY) The Butcher (GANGS OF NEW YORK)

Finally, just for the sake of nit-picking, here are two other heroesand two villains who I would have liked to have seen make the list butdidn't: Kyle Reese and Luke Skywalker, The Predator and Michael Meyers(from the HALLOWEEN movies)

2) I estimate only 40% of viewers can actually agree with the finalresults.

In case you didn’t notice, the choices this year were all about RidleyScott. General Maximus, Hannibal, the Alien, Lt. Ripley, Thelma & Louise,that makes up the bulk of what you see. They are all good on varying levelsand I can agree with their choices. More conventional heroes (& baddies)like William Wallace, John Rambo, Jason Vorhees, and Michael Meyersare–thankfully–abandoned for a combination of goodies and nasties from alltime periods. Interestingly enough, all three dominant gangsters from the30s (Little Caesar, Tom Powers, and Tony Camonte) are used, just not in thatorder. Is it me or was the AFI starting to get a little sexist in their Top10 pickings?

That aside, the results are a composition of Arnold Schwarzenegger, HenryFonda, Robert Mitchum, Harrison Ford, Jimmy Stewart, Robert Redford, andJack Nicholson. That said, I found Gordon Gekko, the Shark, Man (you’llsee what I mean), Hans Gruber, HAL 9000, the Terminator, and Amon Goeth tobe my pick from villains while Harry Callahan, Patton, and Popeye Doylereceive my kudos from the heroes listing.

3) Just a few choices I agree with:

The Terminator

Annie Wilkes

Hannibal

Hans Gruber

et al.

Villains and heroes who should have been on the list:

Vito Corleone

Frankenstein’s Monster

Riggs and Murtaugh ("Lethal Weapon")

William Wallace ("Braveheart")

John McClane (THE action hero — c’mon, AFI!)

John Matrix (dumb movie, great hero)

Dutch Schaeffer (a true screen macho hero)

John Rambo (the sequels weren’t good, but he’s still an infamoushero)

Michael Myers (there’s no Freddy without him!)

Andy Dufresne

Hjalmar Poelzig ("The Black Cat")

Kyle Reese

Sarah Connor

John Connor

Tony Montana (say hello to a favorite villain!)

George Bailey (he was on, but should have been higher up — same for RickBlaine!)

I could go on!

–

Okay, I agreed with some of the choices, but Thelma and Louise did notbelong on there any more than Tony Montana or Hjalmar Poelzig. In fact, thislist seemed to be ranked by popularity of films — not by actual villainsand heroes. Not many people have heard of Boris Karloff’s Hjalmar Poelzigfrom "The Black Cat" (1931), but he deserved to be on there. WHY WASN’T HEON THERE? He’s creepy, scary, and truly evil.

Also, what was it with Ridley Scott? "Thelma and Louise," "Alien," EllenRipley, Maximus from "Gladiator" (who did NOT deserve to be on that list),etc. Some of them (Ripley, "Alien") belonged to be on there, but come onalready…

Arnie does a good job presenting this, but I don’t believe that the choiceswere as good as they should have been — there are TONS of truly greatheroes out there not even touched by this little compilation.

Oh, and all the people who deserved to be on there seemed to be misplaced.Travis Bickle is better than the psycho killer in "Fatal Attraction" anyday. And what about De Niro’s character in the remake of "Cape Fear"? Anyoneseen "Halloween"? Where are these villains and heroes?

Worth a look, but I bet you’ll disagree with at least 70 % of thechoices.

4) This was like one of those 100 Greatest lists, except with a differenttitle and countdown, this was an essential list counting down 50 greatmovie heroes, and 50 great movie villains. Hosted by ArnoldSchwarzenegger and with contributions by Hayden Christensen (youngDarth Vader), Glenn Close, Wes Craven, Geena Davis, Kirk Douglas, KathyBates, Robert Englund, Sally Field, Louise Fletcher, Harrison Ford,Milos Forman, Jodie Foster, William Friedkin, Dennis Hopper, MichaelKeaton, Frank Langella, Angela Lansbury, Janet Leigh, George Lucas,Roger Moore, Christopher Reeve, Susan Sarandon, Ridley Scott, SylvesterStallone, Sigourney Weaver and many more. The heroes included GeneralMaximus (Gladiator), Andrew Beckett (Philadelphia), Terminator (2),Batman, Zorro, Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle (The French Connection), Obi-WonKenobi (Star Wars), Tarzan, Marge Gunderson (Fargo), Erin Brockovich,Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein (All the President's Men), Superman,Thelma Dickerson and Louise Sawyer, Terry Malloy (On the Waterfront),Spartacus, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Virgil Tibbs (In theHeat of the Night), Robin Hood, Harry Callahan (Dirty Harry), Han Solo(Star Wars), Oskar Schindler (Schindler's List), T.E. Lawrence(Lawrence of Arabia), George Bailey (It's a Wonderful Life), EllenRipley (Alien films), Clarice Starling (The Silence of the Lambs), WillKane (High Noon), Rick Blaine (Casablanca), James Bond, Indiana Jonesand winner Atticus Finch (To Kill a Mockingbird). The villains includedAuric Goldfinger, Verbal Kint (The Usual Suspects), Hans Gruber (DieHard), The Joker (Batman), Tom Powers (The Public Enemy), Joan Crawford(Mommie Dearest), Freddy Krueger (Nightmare on Elm Steet films),Cruella De Vil (101 Dalmatians), Harry Lime (The Third Man), FrankBooth (Blue Velvet), Dr. Szell (Marathon Man), Count Dracula, BonnieParker and Clyde Barrow, Mrs. Danvers (Rebecca), Travis Bickle (TaxiDriver), Martians (The War of the Worlds, Mars Attacks!), Jack Torrance(The Shining), Gordon Gekko (Wall Street), Terminator (1), Man (Bambi),The Shark (Jaws), Annie Wilkins (Misery), Noah Cross (Chinatown), AmonGoeth (Schindler's List), Alien, HAL 9000 (2001: A Space Odyssey), AlexDe Large (A Clockwork Orange), Michael Corleone (The GodfatherTrilogy), The Queen (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs), Regan MacNeil(The Exorcist), Phyllis Dietrichson (Double Indemnity), Alex Forrest(Fatal Attraction), Mr. Potter (It's a Wonderful Life), Nurse Ratched(One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest), The Wicked Witch of the West (TheWizard of Oz), Darth Vader (Star Wars), Norman Bates (Psycho) and thewinner Hannibal Lecter. Outstanding!

5) AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Heroes and Villains is by far the best of all ofthe AFI 100 Years lists, although I think that all of the lists werepretty good. I think that the AFI did an excellent job of incorporatingheroes and villains from all kinds of movies. The top ten heroes andthe top ten villains were perfectly selected.

It’s frustrating to see that so many people dislike the AFI lists justbecause their own lists are different. Of course there are movies,quotations, heroes, villains, and songs which I wanted to be on thelists but were left off. None of my four favorite movies were even onthe 100 films list. I know that no list could possibly pleaseeverybody, and the AFI lists do a very good job of having at least acouple of selections that everyone can agree with.

6) Jack Ryan(Harrison Ford,Alec Baldwin,Ben Affleck)(Clear And PresentDanger,The Hunt For Red October,Patriot Games,The Sum Of All Fears) savesthe world from a nuclear holocaust, protects his family from irishterrorrists, rescues jailed special opts men in colombia.Fights forfamily,fights for freedom, fights to bring safely a defecting russian captain andthis is just him in the movies not the Tom Clancy book series and he isn’teven in the top 50 heroes. or where are the heroes such as Presidentjamesmarshall(Harrison Ford) or luke skywalker(Mark Hamill). Also where thevillians like Capt. Siato from "Bridge On The River Kwai" Saruman & Sauronfrom LOTR ot what about AGENT SMITH(Hugo Weaving"The Matrix")I Give it a6/10 because Hannibal and Indy where placed at 1# and 2#

2) Ron Howard…you should do a remake of the classic thriller, The daythe earth stood still! This is one of the best classics ever Imaginethe different slants on this story line A great movie to begin adaptingto todays technology Could be your best movie yet Saw it today on TCMPut it on your "to do" list I'll be one of the first to watch it! Getback to me. so i guess i have to write ten lines to get this messageposted. why do i have to write so much to express such a simplethought? Someone should revise this so that a simple message can bedisplayed without having to write a story just to get an idea across.This is one of the man things wrong with todays society!

• The interviews of Martin Scorsese and Samuel L. Jackson are taken from AFI's 100 Years… 100 Movies (1998) (TV). Morgan Freeman’s interview is an outtake from AFI's 100 Years… 100 Stars (1999) (TV).

What this TV-special does provide is an hour of fascinating film clips fromsome of the best movies of all time. The narrative is provided by a varietyof film-makers, actors and critics. William Friedkin and surprisingly CarlWeathers provide the best insight and commentary, and at the other end ofthe spectrum, Jean Claude Van Damme’s mumbling makes you wonder if he’s everseen the movies that he’s talking about. Some of the comments help inproving the intensity of the films, while others reveal bad choices by theAFI. Case in point: One actor’s comment on All the President’s Men – "Itrequired you to listen to a lot of details, a lot of facts". OOOOhhh, i canfeel my heart pounding!

All in all, the program was entertaining and educational for those who don’tthink that old films can be exciting. Except for the criticisms above aswell as the spoiling of some movies (especially Psycho), AFI’s top 100 heartpounders is a good way to spend 2 hours. Just don’t take it too seriously.

2) The choices weren’t extraordinarily good but I enjoyed watching theinterviews in yet another flawed AFI program. Honestly, I don’t knowanyonewho actually agrees with these shows–it’s more or less just a matter ofocassionally agreeing with a choice or two.

3) Rating: 8.0 out of 10.0

The American Film Institute, after creating quite a controversy with theirgreatest movies list, was able to redeem itself with their Greatest Starsand Funniest Movies lists. Now, they present their latest: America’s MostHeart-Pounding Movies.

The list is top-heavy with Alfred Hitchcock. The `Master of Suspense’ hasnine films, including three in the top ten alone (Psycho, North byNorthwest, The Birds). Steven Spielberg has seven, including Jaws andRaiders of the Lost Ark in the top ten. The late, great Stanley Kubrickhasfive on the list, though none made the top ten.

The list, naturally, goes from number 100 to number 1. No complaints aboutPsycho being named the most thrilling movie of all time. It’s also nice tosee some of the movies that did not make the greatest movies list (TheExorcist, Deliverance, Dirty Harry, Jurassic Park, Goldfinger, etc.). Ialso thought the interviews with various stars and filmmakers were ratherinteresting and informative.

But, like every AFI list or Academy Awards show, there are things I didnotlike about this list. Here are four movies I was sure would make the list.

1. Apocalypse Now: Recently, I went on the AFI’s website and checked thelist of nominees. They nominated The Blair Witch Project, The General andeven Ghostbusters. But not Apocalypse Now! Don’t they know the First AirCavalry’s charge to Wagner’s `Dance of the Valkyries’ and Martin Sheen’sbattle with Marlon Brando is more thrilling than watching some girlvideotape herself screaming?

2. Archnophobia: Again, it was not even nominated. The movie that made meafraid of spiders should have made the list for the heart-pounding battlebetween Jeff Daniels and the mother Tarantula.

3. The Hunt for Red October: Well, at least they nominated it, thoughttheyselected other less thrilling films over it. The scene where the RedOctober`Disappears’ in front of the U.S.S Dallas and the final battle againstthatother Russian Sub should have been enough for this film to make it.

4. Patriot Games: Also nominated, but not chosen. You have to love howthrilling the terriost attack on Buckingham Palace and the high-speed boatchase near the end are.

Honorable Mentions that weren’t even nominated: Live and Let Die,Thunderball.

Like I said, You have to give the AFI some credit for choosing films thatdid not make the greatest movies list. But should have spent more time onthe nominees and on the films that were selected. Worth watching, but notrecommended.

The AFI’s top ten:

1. Psycho2. Jaws3. The Exorcist4. North by Northwest5. The Silence of the Lambs6. Aliens7. The Birds8. The French Connection9. Rosemary’s Baby10. Raiders of the Lost Ark

4) Once again AFI has gathered what they believe to be a good list. This timeit’s a list of "America’s Most Heart-Pounding Movies" and as always, themovies on the list are the ones I find to be absolute crap. However, thecast of interviewees [such as Anne Archer, Linda Blair, Sandra Bullock,JohnCarpenter, Morgan Freeman, Samuel L. Jackson, Denis Leary, Lucy Liu,RidleyScott, Steven Seagal, and Harrison Ford] is very good. Let’s hope this isthe last AFI list we have to see for a while.

5) A shortlist of 400 American films was drawn up and those in the `business’were allowed to vote on which they thought were the most exciting andthrilling. The top 100 were taken and screened on this programme. HarrisonFord presents.

I’m not a big fan of movie lists or movie list programmes. I’ll give them agood try if they are one offs or publicly voted from an open list, but many,like this one, are professionals voting from a set list. Here we arerestricted to 400 movies and all of them American. The opening clips showthat this 400 included Twister and Shanghai Noon! I mean come on – how canyou expect anything different from the same old names and faces. But to behonest the list is still OK – I imagine that even if they had left it openthen most of the top 100 would have been more of less thesame.

My problem with this programme was the total lack of value in the almost 3hour running time. If all I wanted was the list then I could have got itoff the internet or a newspaper. No, a programme about the list should haveadded something of value to most if not all of the films on the list. Sadlyfor the majority of the films there is only a clip and then a celebritysaying `oh yeah I liked it’ etc. My favourite was the way they used JeanClaude Van Damme as a contributor – he says nothing of any valuewhatsoever!

I expected them to try and interview the director or star of the film inquestion for a little insight to the film or a funny tale. In some casesthis happens but for a lot of them the contributors have nothing to do withthe film (Carl Weathers, Lucy Liu, Van Damme) who have nothing to say. LucyLiu is used a lot but says nothing that a man in the street couldn’t havesaid. I know that each film is only given 2 or 3 minutes but when a lot ofthem are a clip and an unrelated celeb saying that they liked it and it wasa great movie etc.

The flip side of this is that lots of those interviewed called the film `thegreatest yada yada ever’. Charlton Heston is the worst one of this. In histhree pieces for his three films he calls them the greatest ever – does hereally believe that everything he does is great and worthy of being on thelist! A Touch of Evil is `the greatest thriller ever made’, Planet of theApes is `the greatest sci-fi movie ever made’ and Ben-Hur has `the greatestaction scenes in history’. I found that for the vast majority of the filmsthat nothing of any value or interest was said, so I was left with clips offilms that I had already seen.

The most interesting bit of watching the show was seeing how messed upAmerican TV is. For any clip with swearing is bleeped out throughout thewhole show. However any violence is shown in all it’s glory, including theclimax of the Wild Bunch for God’s sake! Why are they so scared of badlanguage but will happily show people getting killed or bleeding? The otherthing of note is how incredibly wooden Harrison Ford has become since thedays of Han Solo and Indiana Jones.

Overall this was a waste of three hours for me. I should have just read thelist in 3 minutes instead. I had hoped that the three minutes given to eachfilm were wasted. For the vast majority nothing of any value was said andit could easily have been a clips show without any comments. Total waste oftime.

• The interviews of Jim Carrey, Bridget Fonda, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Spacey are taken from unused footage of their interviews for AFI's 100 Years… 100 Stars (1999) (TV). Dustin Hoffman’s interview is from AFI's 100 Years… 100 Movies (1998) (TV).

• Continuity: At Elliott Gould’s first appearance, his name is displayed as “Elliot Gould”. Later it is spelled correctly.

AFI’s 100 Years…100 Laughs reveals America’s 100 funniest movies, aschosen by leaders of the entertainment community from a list of 500nominated movies, in a three-hour television event. Drew Barrymore hostedthe AFI special, which featured interviews from some of today’s funnieststars.

The top ten funny movies were :1. Some Like It Hot2. Tootsie3. Dr. Strangelove4. Annie Hall5. Duck Soup6. Blazing Saddles7. M*A*S*H8. It Happened One Night9. The Graduate10. Airplane!

2) Yes, I have seen all the funny films included in this TV special. I hadn’tseen any other movies older than "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" (1975)before I started this so it was quite an experience for me. If anyone outthere has an interest in working on this list, feel free to send me aprivate message to me and I’ll give you some helpful tips.

OK, so the list isn’t perfect. Some of the films I didn’t particularly carefor. Others were good, but not as funny as one might hope. However, humor isvery subjective so one person may see a film as very funny while anothermight hate it.

I repeat, please click on the link that says (ajdagreat) and send me aprivate message if you have an interest in these fine films.

The other commenter here has already taken the liberty of telling you thetop 10, so I’ll continue on to 11-25. 11. The Producers 12. A Night at the Opera 13. Young Frankenstein 14. Bringing Up Baby 15. The Philadelphia Story 16. Singin’ in the Rain 17. The Odd Couple 18. The General 19. His Girl Friday 20. The Apartment 21. A Fish Called Wanda 22. Adam’s Rib 23. When Harry Met Sally… 24. Born Yesterday 25. The Gold Rush

• Arnold Schwarzenegger’s interview was taken from footage of his interview during “AFI’s 100 Years, 100 Thrills: America’s Most Heart Pounding Movies” (2001)

I personally think that the One Hundred Scariest Movie Moments is thebest countdown that you can find on television. Anyway, I am here tocomment of One Hundred Movie Quotes. This is one of the better AFIcountdowns and some of the movies are in the right place. I said some!It does not mean that all of the quotes are in the right place. Also, Iwould like to point something out. There is like six Casablanca quotesin there! I mean, you could at least get rid of one.

Here is the basis of this countdown. It is quite obvious what it is allabout. It is basically a countdown of the top one hundred best moviequotes of all time in movie history. Celebritites are interviewed andthey talk about the quotes and the movie with the quote in it. Somemovies you have heard about, some you have never even heard about.There is more than one quote for some movies. Some of those moviesinclude Gone With The Wind, The Wizard Of Oz, and Casablanca.

Overall, this probably the best AFI countdown that I have seen so far.Trust me, I have only seen three. I would also like to point out thatthe quote "No, I am your father." is not even in this countdown. Imean, you could bump out one Casablanca quote and get in that EmpireStrikes Back quote. Also, I do not think that "Frankly, my dear, Idon't give a damn." should not have been number one. It is a fantasticquote, but should not be number one. Anyway, this is an entertainingcountdown that any movie buff will enjoy.

9/10

Recommended Titles: The whole AFI series.

After some home movies laying out Lucas' early years (narrated byhimself) Robert Duval and Richard Dreyfuss earnestly introduce segmentson THX 1138 and American Graffiti. 2002 AFI recipient Tom Hanks comesout quoting lines from Star Wars, which to all the Hollywood alumsseems like some kind of sidesplitting comedy monologue (because theydon't know every line by heart like some of us do). Let's be honest:although it's called a Life Achievement award, Lucas is really beinghonored for just one film, the one that changed cinema history anddefined the summer blockbuster. Therefore a lot of time is spend on theoriginal Star Wars, with Darth Vader's voice introducing the variousJoseph Campbell archetypes, who one by one they take the stage toreenact the final Throne room scene (not sure if it was actually PeterMayhew and Anthony Daniels in those suits again, certainly not KennyBaker).

As the first Star Warrior speaker, Mark Hamill steals a bit of CarrieFisher's thunder by mentioning the Pez-dispenser and the Underoos withhis likeness (dont worry, she repeats the joke with vigor anyway).Carrie seems to have had her lips done preparing for a rant worthy ofDean Martin's Celebrity Roast while Harrison plays it bitter, once forHan Solo and then again for Indy Jones. The second time he starts doingimpressions and makes a not so subtle plea to hurry up with the nextone, otherwise 'Sean Connery will be too old to play his dad". To makeup for all the mock-negativity, Peter Jackson, having lost his glassesand so much weight that he looks almost exactly like Merry and/orPippin (proving all the hairstyles in his Lord of the Rings were basedon his own), leads a group of pre recorded directors raving about StarWars.

Strangely enough, Jimmy Smits is the only prequel trilogy star toattend (Sam Jackson was no doubt filming a dozen moviessimultaneously), and only introduces Maroon 5, the Lucas kid's favoriteband. During their number there are a few clips from other Lucasfilmproductions like Willow and Tucker(the man and his dreams) projected ona view-screen, so they don't need any further mention. In fact, theonly thing worth mentioning about Willow these days is that it featuresILM's very first morphing effect. The prequels also gets the short endof the stick, when interviews with Lucas make it seem these three filmswere only made 'because digital technology allowed it' Lastly there isa montage of gushing fans thanking George for creating Star Wars (onlytwo of them mention his other films) and when The Maker himself takesthe stage, he reasons that the two trilogies are really one movie,meaning he only made three films in his entire career (Irvin Kerchnerand the late Richard Marquand are neither mentioned nor thanked).

7 out of 10

2) The tribute was very nicely done, a real testament to the life and workof George Lucas, but the part that just didn't work was how they werecutting back and forth between little montages from star wars, andintroducing actors on stage, to give their own congrats to George. Itis the somewhat unfortunate thing for Lucas (though given financial andpopularity gains, not really) that the main film focused on was thestar wars franchise. Other works played a small role in video tributesand memories of old days, but the main focus was on star wars, andfrankly its hard to drag on a two hour show just thanking George andcongratulating him, while cutting back and forth to star wars montagesfeaturing the voice of James Earl Jones. Still an okay show though,good enough that it got my attention to watch at least.