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The Lens: That's a loooong list

This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon: October 17, 2008 - With all of the arguments and hand-wringing taking place these days over the status of film criticism, surely one way to raise the level of discussion would be to abolish the increasingly silly compilation of lists for everything from the Top 10 underrated Bill Murray performances  to the Best Nicole Kidman Sex Scenes .

But now Empire magazine, which is evidently a publication for people who felt that the now-defunct Premiere was too bogged down in continental theory, has published a list of the "500 Greatest Movies." 500? Isn't that a bit much? Well, I suppose that depends on how you look at it. It's a big number, but it still manages to skip Buster Keaton altogether, while finding room for "Danger:Diabolik," "The Goonies," "Grease," "A.I." and Peter Jackson's remake of "King Kong."

And while Post-Dispatch readers may be dismayed by the absence of the Greatest Movie Ever Made , others will be relieved to know that "Citizen Kane" made the cut. At Number 28. Well, it's not exactly "Back to the Future" (Number 23), is it?

I'll spare you the difficulty of slogging through Empire's online version; you can find the complete list here