28 January 2011

The Empire Five-Star 500

The Empire Five-Star 500
Empire magazine has published an alphabetical list of 500 films, selected from those that it has awarded five stars when they were released at the cinema or on video. The special issue, titled The Empire Five-Star 500, also includes an article on George A Romero's original Living Dead trilogy written by Kim Newman.

Empire published a list of all its five-star reviews in its 100th issue (October 1997), a total of ninety-one films. More recently, the magazine published a 500 Greatest Movies poll.

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15 comment(s):

Edward Hall said...

I came across your blog while researching into my quest to watch The Empire Five-Star 500 (your blog ranks highly on Google on the keywords "Empire" and "500"!)

Having just finished the painstaking task of writing out the list, I thought it might be of interest if you need a reference point.

http://empire500.blogspot.com/p/complete-500-001-020.html

Regards,

wizzardSS

Matthew Hunt said...

Hi wizardSS,

Thanks for your comment. I like your idea to see all of the films, and I also like the DVD montage on your blog.

Empire has published two different 500 lists:

The Five-Star 500 is a collection of films that Empire has previously awarded five stars in its reviews, published this Christmas.

The Greatest Movies list was voted by readers and critics, published in 2008.

Your blog lists the films in the 2010 version, but your banner and 'about' page refer to the 2008 version.

Mat.

Edward Hall said...

Mat,

I was aware of the different lists about 2 days after I first designed my blog. This obviously led to discrepancies in my lists. I've actually just had a new banner idea back in from my brother on Friday so that should be going up at some point today.

Hopefully that should remove any final references to the 2008 version...

Thanks for the comment on A.I.!

Matthew Hunt said...

Ed,

I like the new banner!

The five-star 500 was selected only by Empire staff, from the magazine's previous five-star reviews.

It was the earlier 500 list that was voted by readers/critics. (That list therefore includes some non-five-star films.)

I'm a bit obsessed with greatest-film lists :-) I've tried to put all from the past five years on the blog (with the tag "film lists"), and collect all the ones published previously.

Mat.

Edward Hall said...

Wow, that's a lot of lists.

Nothing wrong with an obsession of something that you're interested in!

Out of interest, do you know roughly how many films there are if you combine the two 500 lists together (once all duplicates have been removed)? Just wondering how many more films would have to be watched in order to have seen both lists...

Matthew Hunt said...

Good question. We'd need to compare your typed version of the recent list

http://empire500.blogspot.com/p/complete-500-001-020.html

with my typed version of the old list

http://blog.matthewhunt.com/2008/09/empire-500-greatest-movies-of-all-time.html

But Empire has also published a top-201 list (in 2006), a top-50 list (in 2001), and three top-100 lists (in 1996, 1999, and 2004!). And the Australian edition of Empire had two top-100 lists (in 2007 and 2002).

:-)

Mat.

Edward Hall said...

Having put both lists together, I reckon that only about 245 movies are duplicated across both lists which is far less than I thought. That means that there are 755 movies in total assuming I've removed all duplicates!

As for the other lists, well that'll have to wait for another time ;-)

Fonzie684 said...

GreatBlog! I'm a vivid reader of Empire and love their lists. Now i'm looking to find an excel version of this top 500 5 star review list. Anyone?

Edward Hall said...

Yep, I have one at home which I has the names, years, lengths (minutes) etc on.

I can forward this over when I return from work. I'll add it onto my website so you can download it from there and then forward you on the link. Either that or email, whichever is easier.

Ed

Fonzie684 said...

That would be Great!!!! I'm looking forward to getting it!

Edward Hall said...

http://www.wizzard-shiny-shoes.co.uk/Empire%20500-2.xls

It should be downloadable from there for you!

You may notice that I've got a bit lazy towards the end of the list as this is my personal list for checking through the films, and as I'm only at film 25 so far I haven't bothered formatting after so many!

Alternatively, see the list at http://empire500.blogspot.com

PS @matthewhunt, Annie Hall is a deserved film for your top 15!

Fonzie684 said...

wizzardSS that link points to an empty file?

Edward Hall said...

Hi Matt,

I don't mean to plug my own blog on yours, but because I had all sorts of issues yesterday the link to the Complete 500 has changed. I receive quite a lot of traffic from your blog, so it is probably wise for me to point people in the right direction.

The new link is: http://empire500.blogspot.com/p/complete-500.html

PS, keep up the good work!

Matthew Hunt said...

That's fine - as long as you call me Mat not Matt. :-)

Edward Hall said...

Sorry Mat! :)

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