Important Movies

First of all, this is a most important list, not a most popular list.  Secondly, I think the training sequence more than important enough on its own to make the list.  Thirdly, there is some famous stuff in the second half: there's the sniper sequence, the "inside of every gook there's an American trying to break free" speech, there's the "I'm I'm going to die for a word it's going to be poon tang speech... the list goes on.  And finally, I think the movie is in general a lot more popular than you think, it's definitely a popular movie among the male dorm room set and R. Lee Ermey's various insults are widely quoted. 

As for Wall Street... the notion that it's really all that responsible for inspiring greedy people is a little silly.  Greedy people were doing bullshit like that before Wall Street, they were doing bullshit at the same time as Wall Street, and they were always going to be doing stuff like that after Wall Street.  And given that the film was meant to be and indictment of Wall Street greed with Gordon Gekko as its villain, being held up as the "inspiration" for the modern class of banksters is a rather dubious honor.

Eyeroll. Half of the most respected artists and writers in history have been obscure in their own times and were only appreciated after they died. More often than not the masses embrace the Salieris, not the Motzarts.

You truly are the gift that keeps on giving.

I'm okay with Wings of Desire being there, after looking into it more.

If any Wim Wenders film deserves to get in, I'd argue for Paris, Texas, though it's in what's arguably the most stacked year ever: 1984. I'll make my case for it then though. Good list though.

City of God (?)
Spider-Man
The Ring
The Bourne Identity

The Pianist?
Minority Report?
25th Hour?

Assuming City of God doesn't count....

1. Spider-Man: Massive hit and solidified the superhero genre as the genre for the coming years.

2. Minority Report: It's questions regarding the lengths we go to punish crime were and are extremely timely and relevant.

3. 25th Hour: One of, if not the first film to deal with what life was like in New York City after 9/11. No, that may not be the plot of the movie, but it's undeniably a huge part. Also the last great film from Spike Lee, at least as of yet.

4. The Bourne Identity: Redefined the action/spy genre and had a pretty strong influence on other action films, most notably 007 himself.

5. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers: I debated keeping this off the list given that it's merely the middle entry and didn't have the same impact as the first or third did, but then I remembered Gollum and how cutting edge that CGI seemed in 2002 and reconsidered. In fact, the effects and scale were definitely stepped up from the first and that was a big deal.

Honourable Mentions:

The Pianist: It's a phenomenal and powerful film, but I think Schindler's List will always be considered the definitive Holocaust film.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: It proved the series had legs beyond the first film, but outside of that it's mostly more of the same.

Gangs of New York: Admirable Scorsese passion project, but no one seems to care.

Adaptation: It's another great film, an among the best Charlie Kaufman scripts, but it didn't have the impact of comparable works.

About Schmidt: This is actually my favourite Alexander Payne movie, but it was with Sideways that he truly arrived.

Spider-man
The Ring
Minority Report
City of God
25th hour

In that case Two Towers is out of my list and City of God is in.

I think I agree with JBond's list, but I might need some convincing on 25th hour

Cool, thanks PG. And boy oh boy do I love PTA! Boogie Nights isn't an overblown pile of junk at all!

The BP thing is interesting. I do remember the nominees for 2006 to be odd choices and not very representative of many of the great films that the year had.

Take out The Ring. Add Spirited Away.