Just because it's popular doesn't mean it's that good

I used to be annoyed when old-time sportswriter Dick Young used to refer to my generation as the "Gee Whiz" generation.

What he meant -- and where I didn't fit in -- was that an awful lot of younger writers acted as if the world started the day they were born, and the players they had seen were of course far better than any old-timers.

I don't know if all that's true, but one place where fans certainly are of the "gee whiz" variety is movie fans. Look at the Internet Movie Database's top 250 films of all time, which is selected totally by the fans. Six of the top 10 have been released in the last 20 years, hardly a golden age of cinema.

If you listen to IMDB fans, "The Dark Knight" and "Fight Club" are among the 10 best movies ever made, not to mention "Pulp Fiction," the third "Lord of the Rings" movie and "The Shawshank Redemption."

Gee whiz.

It gets worse. All three LOTR movies are in the top 17. "Good Will Hunting" ranks just above "The Maltese Falcon." And "The Wizard of Oz," one of the most beloved and most influential movies ever made, ranks 178th, two spots behind "The Avengers."

Vertigo

If you want a more accurate look -- a more intelligent list -- look at the British film magazine "Sight & Sound" and its 2012 list selected by film critics.

Only five of the top 10 are American films, and the newest one on the list was released in 1968.

Gee whiz.

It's an impressive list, and all 10 are films that have stood the test of time. Here is the list, with each film's correspondent standing on the IMDB list.

1. "Vertigo," 1958. (66 on IMDB); 2. "Citizen Kane," 1941. (62); 3. "Tokyo Story," 1953. (--); 4. "La Regle de Jeu," 1939. (--); 5. "Sunrise," 1927. (--); 6. "2001: A Space Odyssey," 1968. (109); 7. "The Searchers," 1956. (--); 8. "Man With a Movie Camera," 1927. (--); 9. "Passion of Joan of Arc," 1927. (--); 10. "8 1/2," 1963. (191).

Gee whiz.