Best fill in the blank movies of all time

We are flooded with lists of the 25 best car chases, the 60 greatest vampire films, Entertainment Weekly's 50 sexiest movies, etc. In class we'll consider the genre ramifications of this MSM preoccupation with "listing," which serves to create genre canons. I'm posting this morning though with a Who Watches the Watchmen kind of question. When EW lists the sexiest movies, and it's incredibly wrong, how do regular people protect themselves from being imprinted with this list. (At its root, there's this suspicion that Citizen Kane gets listed as greatest film of all time more because of stare decisis than any real understanding of its actual greatness.)

One question to ask is whether or not "sexy movie" is a genre? If it makes the cover of EW, and thousands of people post messages on EW online complaining of omissions, and there seems to be rules about what doesn't qualify, i.e. porn, then on some level doesn't it qualify as a "genre." But here's a list that doesn't include Brokeback Mountain, M. Butterfly, or Women in Love (Oliver Reed and Alan Bates wrestling in the nude) -- does that mean sexy is hetero. Does "genre" help establish our concept of societal norms. (I should say in full disclosure that the EW list isn't exclusively hetero, it includes Maurice and Yossi & Jagger, but those are obscure films and don't have the influence of Brokeback)

The other interesting question raised by the sexiest list is how we as a culture define sexy vs. romantic.

Anyway, just in case my students pick up this EW issue because they like the cover, let me say on the record that you shouldn't simply accept on face value that the 50 sexiest movies should automatically include:
His Girl Friday, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Once, Titanic, The 1981 Postman Always Rings Twice, The Bodyguard, King Kong, Bridges of Madison County, 300, or How Stella Got her Groove Back.

And if you're looking for the sexiest movies of all time, I'd personally suggest you go past EW's love of neo-noir and instead look at early Stanwyck or the original Postman instead of the remake. Also I can't believe there's no mention of Choose Me, The End of the Affair, The Big Easy, Sea of Love, Barbarella (or Cat Ballou), Damage, Last Tango in Paris, Cabaret, All that Jazz, Dead Ringers, A History of Violence and the list could go on forever.

If amateur genre lisitng is completely subjective (Do Republicans get more aroused by watching Wall Street or Top Gun?) , then what's the point. At the same time, there's an undeniable pleasure in seeing the cover, and instantly naming your list to see if it matches, i.e "Let's see, I know Bull Durham is in the top ten, but I bet body Heat is number one ...."

So my Thanksgiving question is "Should we beware of canons, or at least ones that don't include Death Proof on its 20 greatest car chases?"