SAI's Top 100 Countdown

[SAI]

Edit: 1/10/06

I revised my list a couple of months back so it makes sense to revise these posts as well.

We'll begin with numbers 100 - 96

100: The Fog of War: 11 Lessons From The Life of Robert S. McNamara (2003)
Dir: Errol Morris
http://www.hollywoodjesus.com/movie/fog_of_war/10.jpeg
Errol Morris' outstanding documentary simply sits us down with former US defence secretary Robert S McNamara and lets him talk. He's a riveting subject, with some shocking stories to tell and the kind of person you'll like a lot at one moment and have contempt for the next. Meanwhile Morris keeps it from looking dull with clever use of archive material.

99: Thelma & Louise (1991)
Dir: Ridley Scott
http://myafn.dodmedia.osd.mil/img/tv/criticschoice/thelma.jpg
The two deservedly Oscar nominated performances that this film centres on are certainly the main reason it makes this list but what is often forgotten is the contribution of supporting players like Brad Pitt (whose tiny role made him a star) and Christopher MacDonald (Hillarious as Thelma's husband). Ridley Scott directs with all his customary style but never gets in the way of the action.

98: Take My Eyes (2003)
Dir: Icair Bollain
http://media.movieweb.com/galleries/2906/posters/poster1.jpg
This Spanish drama about an abused wife features a couple of the finest performances of its year. As Pilar Laia Marull is brilliant, convincing despite the many contradictions inherent in her character. Meanwhile the film refuses to let the abuser (Luis Tosar, equally excellent) become simply a monster, affording him more layers than that and thus making the film have more impact.

97: Once Upon A Time In America (1984)
Dir: Sergio Leone
http://gfx.dagbladet.no/fredag/2003/10/27/onceuponatime_sak.jpg
Sergio Leone's sprawling gangster epic has one of the best and most interesting casts in cinema. Everyone is great from DeNiro and Woods right down to people in smaller roles like a very young Jennifer Connelly.
The imagery is stunning, as is the iconic soundtrack.

96: Heat (1995)
Dir: Michael Mann
http://gladstone.uoregon.edu/~bbranch1/actors/actorimages/heat.jpg
Heat is one of the finest crime films of the 90's. That's mainly down to the presence of two of the twentieth century's greatest actors; Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino. If their first on screen meeting is something of an acting olymipics then the race is a dead heat.
It's not merely about the stars though as co-stars like Diane Venora and Val Kilmer also shine as does director Michael Mann who presides over one of the best shootouts ever comitted to film.

[Sigur509]

28 Days Later - 9/10
Have not seen Monster yet.

[Cronos]

28 Days Later - 10/10

[Puck Bond]

100. 28 Days Later...-8/10...the first half of the film was absolutely great...I was a little disappointed with the last third...but that doesn't detract from what really is an intensely very good horror/zombie film.

99. Monster-7/10...the film is good, I wouldn't say great, but Charlize Theron's performance is something to admire and I had no problem with the praise she got and her winning the Oscar.

[TylerDurden182]

28 Days Later- 9/10
Monster- 6/10

[blk_flower]

28 days later- 8.0/10 good
monster- 9.5/10 excellent

[Hannibal21]

28 Days Later - 6/10
Monster - 8/10

[SAI]

95: Jurassic Park (1993)
Dir: Steven Spielberg
http://www.affichescinema.com/insc_j/jurassic_park.jpg
I'm not the world's biggest Spielberg fan but when he gets it right he really gets it right. This is a thrilling example of the best in summer blockbuster fare. The special effects stand up 13 years on, the performances are fun, particularly those of Jeff Goldblum and Laura Dern and the frights still elicit jumps from me now.

94: Punch Drunk Love (2002)
Dir:Paul Thomas Anderson
http://adorocinema.cidadeinternet.com.br/filmes/punch-drunk-love/punch-drunk-love07.jpg
Paul Thomas Anderson's third classic in a row is just about the antithesis of his previous film; Magnolia. A short romantic comedy starring Adam Sandler this is a surprise on all levels. Sandler turns in a creditable dramatic performance and while there are laughs they never feel worked for. Emily Watson is charm itself as his girlfriend.

93: The Truman Show (1998)
Dir: Peter Wier
http://www.american-buddha.com/atrumancover47.jpg
Clever, moving, funny and depressingly plausible reality TV satire from witer Andrew Nicoll and director Weir. The Truman Show stands out not only for its concept but for the excellent performances. Jim Carrey excels as Truman, giving a convincing dramatic turn, leavened with enough of his humor to make you see why people would watch Truman and Laura Linney stands out among the support as his 'wife'

92: Swimming Pool (2003)
Dir: Francois Ozon
http://www.cinemaparadiso.nl/swimmingpool1.jpg
An intriguing mystery in this English language debut from France's premier director of the last decade; Francois Ozon. Casting his two muses Charlotte Rampling and Ludivine Sagnier (the latter also making her English language debut) Ozon elicits layered and memorable performances from both of them before throwing in a final twist that will leave every audience scratching its collective head.

91: Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979)
http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/151/24091~Life-of-Brian-Posters.jpg
Quite wonderful religious satire from the Pythons. It's essentially a series of sketches and everyone has their favourite which they can quote verbatim ('Romanes eunt domus? People called the Romans they go the house?') but this pays dividends in that just about anything that wasn't funny appears to have been cut (which would explain such oddities as the people who turn up to kill themselves in front of Brian's cross).

[AngelDust06]

The Witchfinder General: N/A
Naked Gun: 8/10
Breaking the Waves: N/A

[TylerDurden182]

Witchfinder General- N/A
The Naked Gun- 8/10
Breaking The Waves- N/A

[Katsumoto]

so far...
28 Days Later - 8/10
Monster - 8/10
Witchfinder General - N/A
The Naked Gun - 7/10
Breaking The Waves - 10/10

[SAI]

95: Airplane
http://www.filmsite.org/posters/airplane.jpg
Perhaps the greatest of all spoof movies. Evereywhere you look there's a joke and it's usualy a painfully funny one. Highlights include Lloyd Bridges choosing the wrong week to give up his various addictions and Robert Hays drinking problem.

94: The Fog of War: 11 Lessons From the Life of Robert S McNamara
http://us.movies1.yimg.com/movies.yahoo.com/images/hv/photo/movie_pix/sony_pictures_classics/the_fog_of_war/robert_mcnamara/fog.jpg
Errol Morris' outstanding documentary simply sits us down with former US defence secretary Robert S McNamara and lets him talk. He's a riveting subject, with some shocking stories to tell and the kind of person you'll like a lot at one moment and have contempt for the next. Meanwhile Morris keeps it from looking dull with clever use of archive material.

93: Thelma and Louise
http://images.greencine.com/images/article/thelma-n-louise.jpg
The two deservedly Oscar nominated performances that this film centres on are certainly the main reason it makes this list but what is often forgotten is the contribution of supporting players like Brad Pitt (whose tiny role made him a star) and Christopher MacDonald (Hillarious as Thelma's husband). Ridley Scott directs with all his customary style but never gets in the way of the action.

92: Take My Eyes
http://2004.sydneyfilmfestival.org/persistent/static/movie_pictures/take_my_eyes_1.jpg
This Spanish drama about an abused wife features a couple of the finest performances of its year. As Pilar Laia Marull is brilliant, convincing despite the many contradictions inherent in her character. Meanwhile the film refuses to let the abuser (Luis Tosar, equally excellent) become simply a monster, affording him more layers than that and thus making the film have more impact.

91: Once Upon a Time In America
http://www.museumoftheamericanwest.org/shop/product_images/once_upon_america_1.jpg
Sergio Leone's sprawling gangster epic has one of the best and most interesting casts in cinema. Everyone is great from DeNiro and Woods right down to people in smaller roles like a very young Jennifer Connelly.
The imagery is stunning, as is the iconic soundtrack.

[Cronos]

Airplane - 7/10
Thelma and Louise - 9/10
Witchfinder General - 9/10
The Naked Gun - 9/10

[TylerDurden182]

Airplane- 7/10
Fog Of War- 9/10
Thelma And Louise- 7/10
Once Upon A Time In America- 10/10

[AngelDust06]

Airplane- 7/10
Fog Of War- 8/10
Thelma And Louise- 6.5/10
Once Upon A Time In America- 9/10

[SAI]

90: Heat
http://gladstone.uoregon.edu/~bbranch1/actors/actorimages/heat.jpg
Heat is one of the finest crime films of the 90's. That's mainly down to the presence of two of the twentieth century's greatest actors; Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino. If their first on screen meeting is something of an acting olymipics then the race is a dead heat.
It's not merely about the stars though as co-stars like Diane Venora and Val Kilmer also shine as does director Michael Mann who presides over one of the best shootouts ever comitted to film.

89: Jurassic Park
http://www.affichescinema.com/insc_j/jurassic_park.jpg
I'm not the world's biggest Spielberg fan but when he gets it right he really gets it right. This is a thrilling example of the best in summer blockbuster fare. The special effects stand up 13 years on, the performances are fun, particularly those of Jeff Goldblum and Laura Dern and the frights still elicit jumps from me now.

88: Punch Drunk Love
http://us.movies1.yimg.com/movies.yahoo.com/images/hv/photo/movie_pix/columbia_pictures/punch_drunk_love/_group_photos/adam_sandler1.jpg
Paul Thomas Anderson's third classic in a row is just about the antithesis of his previous film; Magnolia. A short romatic comedy starring Adam Sandler this is a surprise on all levels. Sandler turns in a creditable dramatic performance and while there are laughs they never feel worked for. Emily Watson is charm itself as his girlfriend.

[Cronos]

Heat - 10/10
Jurassic Park - 10/10
Punch Drunk Love - 6/10

[ChemicalRomance]

Heat- 10/10
Jurassic Park- 8/10
Punch-Drunk Love- 10/10

[scottish-movie-freak]

28 Days Later- 4/5
Monster- 4/5
Breaking The Waves- 5/5
Thelma & Louise- 3/5 (must rewatch)
Jurassic Park- 4/5
Punch Drunk Love- 4/5

[TylerDurden182]

Heat- 10/10
Jurassic Park- 9/10
Punch Drunk- 10/10

[Sigur509]

Heat - 8/10
Jurassic Park - 10/10
Punch-Drunk Love - 10/10

[Puck Bond]

98. Witchfinder General-N/A
97. Naked Gun-7/10
96. Breaking the Waves-7/10
95. Airplane!-8/10
94. The Fog of War-N/A
93. Thelma & Louise-9/10
92. Take My Eyes-N/A
91. Once Upon a Time in America-8/10
90. Heat-9/10
89. Jurassic Park-8/10
88. Punch-Drunk Love-9/10

[AngelDust06]

Heat - 9/10
Jurassic Park - 9.5/10
Punch Drunk Love - 6.5/10

[Hannibal21]

Naked Gun - haven't seen for ages, requires a re-watch

Breaking the Waves - An incredible film, where was Emily Watson's Oscar? 9/10

Airplane! - see 'Naked Gun'

Thelma & Louise - One of the few Ridley Scott movies that I *really* like, works well mostly due to the dynamic pairing of Sarandon and Davis. 8/10

Once Upon a Time in America - A brilliantly directed and acted epic that never feels long, given its running time. 9/10

Heat - I really need to see this again, as I didn't care for it much when I first saw it almost 3 years ago.

Jurassic Park - I agree. When summer blockbuster is done right, it's truly something amazing. One of the most entertaining films I've seen in my lifetime, one that I can watch over and over again. 9/10

Punch-Drunk Love - When a film makes Adam Sandler tolerable, it's definitely accomplished something. ;) 8.5/10

[SAI]

mistake

[SAI]

EDIT
Looked again at this post only to realised I missed a film, I'll add a comment later but here's...

87: The Truman Show
http://adorocinema.cidadeinternet.com.br/filmes/show-de-truman/show-de-truman-poster03.jpg

86: Swimming Pool
http://us.movies1.yimg.com/movies.yahoo.com/images/hv/photo/movie_pix/focus/swimming_pool/ludivine_sagnier/pool4.jpg
An intriguing mystery in this English language debut from France's premier director of the last decade; Francois Ozon. Casting his two muses Charlotte Rampling and Ludivine Sagnier (the latter also making her English language debut) Ozon elicits layered and memorable performances from both of them before throwing in a final twist that will leave every audience scratching its collective head.

85: Monty Python's Life of Brian
http://www.filmweb.no/bilder/multimedia/archive/00011/Life_of_Brian_11923c.jpg
Quite wonderful religious satire from the Pythons. It's essentially a series of sketches and everyone has their favourite which they can quote verbatim ('Romanes eunt domus? People called the Romans they go the house?') but this pays dividends in that just about anything that wasn't funny appears to have been cut (which would explain such oddities as the people who turn up to kill themselves in front of Brian's cross).

84: The Mummy
http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/B00000JQB7.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg
An underrated entry in Universal's classic horror cycle. The Mummy features great direction from Karl Freund, making his debut having worked as a cinematographer and a mesmerising central performance from Boris Karloff. Though swathed in bandages for the opening scene Karloff spends most of the film in a much more subtle and hugely effective Jack Pierce make up. It's not an outright scary film but one with a creepy atmosphere which, 74 years on, still gets under your skin.

83: Lost in Translation
http://us.movies1.yimg.com/movies.yahoo.com/images/hv/photo/movie_pix/focus/lost_in_translation/scarlett_johansson/lost2.jpg
Sofia Coppola's second film is a hugely accomplished piece of work. Coppola's literate script which rings true throughout is certainly a large part of that success but it is through its performances that the film becomes truly memorable.
Scarlett Johannson's enchanting young girl adrift in a strange place is a perfect match for Bill Murray's wry, world weary actor. Coppla wisely keeps the relationship platonic, knowing that there's the potential for things to become creepy. A quiet film it is in silence that the indelible moment comes, no fan of this film hasn't tried to work out what Bob's final words to Charlotte are.

82: Star Wars Episode 5: The Empire Strikes Back
http://www.interinfo.co.jp/221%20star%20wars%20empire%20strikes%20back.jpg
The worthwhile entry in cinema's most overrated series. Empire takes away the lumpen screenwriting of George Lucas (who recieves only a story credit) and benefits from a pacy and unpredictable plot, memorable new characters and some strong performances.
Harrison Ford is on top form and contributes one of the world's great ad libs (I know) in his final scene but it's THAT twist, the initial impact of which really can't be overstated, that makes this film live long in the memory.

81: My Life Without Me
http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B00027NVXO.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
Sarah Polley is one of the best young actresses working and this is probably her finest hour on film. As a young mather with terminal cancer Polley is hugely affecting, particularly in a heartwrenching scene in which she makes tapes for her daughters to listen to on their birthdays that she won't be arond for. Sad as the subject is the film never becomes bogged down in melancholy and director Isabelle Coixet never subjects us to the horror of a death scene. As well as Polley's fine turn theres strong support, most notably from Mark Ruffalo.

[TylerDurden182]

Swimming Pool- 5/10
Life of Brian- 8/10
Lost in Translation- 10/10
Empire Strikes Back- 7/10

[AngelDust06]

Swimming Pool- 6.5/10
Life of Brian- N/A
Lost in Translation- 9/10
Empire Strikes Back- 8/10

[Cronos]

Life Of Brian - 8/10
The Mummy - 7/10
Lost In Translation - 3/10
Empire Strikes Back - 10/10

[Sigur509]

Lost in Translation- 10/10
Empire Strikes Back- 9/10

[Hannibal21]

Swimming Pool - Just saw this for the first time back in September. Loved it. An erotic, Hitchcockian thriller with one of the most unexpected twists in recent memory. 8.5/10

The Mummy - 8/10, probably, but again, it's been AGES.

Lost in Translation - Subtle, moving, mesmerizing, and absolutely beautiful. The strength of this film exists in the quiet, tender moments that Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson shared on screen. And that whisper at the end is bound to go down as one of the all time classic film scenes. 9.5/10

The Empire Strikes Back - Not a big fan of ANY of the Star Wars movies. 7/10 (could require another viewing though)

[urbanlegend23]

99. Monster 8/10
96. Breaking the Waves 6/10
93. Thelma & Louise 9/10
89. Jurassic Park 9/10
88. Punch-Drunk Love 8/10
85. Monty Python's Life of Brian 6/10
83. Lost In Translation 9/10
82. The Empire Strikes Back 9/10

[SAI]

80: Happiness
http://www.anyoldactress.com/pictures/janeadams3.jpg
With a cast comprised of some of America's finest character actors (Jane Adams, Dylan Baker, Phillip Seymour Hoffman to name just a few) the least appropriately titled film on this list overcomes it's dark and depressing subject matter with none more black comedy and minimal but effective direction from Todd Solondz. This is a sharply divisive film but one that you'll find hard to forget.

79: Gremlins
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00005J6UR.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
Perhaps the only worthwhile thing Chris Columbus ever contributed to cinema is the witty screenplay for this wonderful horror comedy.
As well as stellar animatronic work (was there ever a movie character you wanted to take home more than Gizmo?) there's some strong performances from the human cast, notably Phoebe Cates whose monlogue about why she doesn't like Chriistmas is something of a seasonal classic. Joe Dante directs with wit and without letting the gremlins become the whole show.

78: Body Heat
http://eu.movieposter.com/posters/archive/main/1/MPW-810
Stunning neo-noir from Lawrence Kasdan, showing in his directorial debut that he's capable of much more than just knocking George Lucas' stories into screenplay shape.
The plot is right out of ye olde booke of movie cliches but it's the dialogue (you're not too bright, I like that in a man), the performances of William Hurt and Kathleen Turner and the chemistry between them that really makes this work.

77: My Summer of Love
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00099BJ66.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg
A relatively straightforward tale of first (lesbian) love gone sour is given a freshness by Director Pawel Pawlikowski whose adaptation of a novel by Helen Cross utterly outclasses its source.
Pawlikowski shoots the hazy English summer beautifully creating a lazy mood that fits with the story and with the wonderful score by Alison Goldfrapp. Newcomers Emily Blunt and Natalie Press give comitted performances, creating a relationship you can believe in and root for, as well as two credilble individual characters.

76: 5 X 2
http://us.movies1.yimg.com/movies.yahoo.com/images/hv/photo/movie_pix/thinkfilm/5x2__cinq_fois_deux_/5x2cinqfoisdeux_bigposter.jpg
All of Francois Ozon's films are great but this is the best.
A cleverly structured look at a crumbling marriage which takes us backwards through the couple's life from their divorce to their first real meeting. The screenplay, despite being written in two halves due to a break in production, is wonderful and, remarkably, flows just as well as if the film had been edited chronologically and the central performances of Stephane Freiss and Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi are both Oscar worthy.

[TylerDurden182]

Gremlins- 7/10
5x2- 6/10

[scottish-movie-freak]

Swimming Pool- 4/5 (my least favourite Ozon film but still damn excellent)
Life Of Brian- 4/5
The Mummy- 3/5
Lost In Translation- 5/5
Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back- 3/5 (haven't seen it in ages)
My Life Without Me- 5/5
Happiness- 4/5
Gremlins- 3/5
My Summer Of Love- 4/5
5X2- 5/5

[Cronos]

Happiness - 8/10
Gremlins - 8/10

[Puck Bond]

Swimming Pool-7/10
Life Of Brian-N/A
The Mummy-8/10
Lost In Translation- 8/10
The Empire Strikes Back-8/10
My Life Without Me-N/A
Happiness-N/A
Gremlins-7/10
My Summer Of Love-N/A
5X2-N/A

[Hannibal21]

Happiness - :eek: /10

Gremlins - A worthwhile Christmas classic, one that rocked my world when I was just a child. 8/10

Body Heat - Fantastic neo-noir, it's pretty much an unofficial remake of 'Double Indemnity', and although it's not as masterful as that film, the script & performances (especially Kathleen Turner as the femme fatale), combined with the eroticism and stylish direction, certainly heighten this film enough for it to become an amazing throwback to Noir. I love watching it. 9/10

5 X 2 - Can't wait to check out more Francois Ozon films, having loved this and Swimming Pool. Valeria Bruni Tedeschi's performance is the best female performance I've seen all year, and I seriously doubt that opinion is going to change. 8.5/10

[ilovemovies]

28 Days Later 7/10
The Naked Gun 8/10
Thelma & Louis 7/10
Airplane! 10/10
Punch-Drunk Love 8/10
Jurassic Park 8/10
Heat 9/10
The Empire Strikes Back 7/10
Lost in Translation 10/10
Gremlins 7/10

[AngelDust06]

Happiness- 7/10
Gremlins- 8/10
My Summer Of Love- 7.5/10
5X2- N/A

[SAI]

Here's the next 5 with comments on each to follow in the morning

75: True Romance
http://images.art.com/images/-/True-Romance-Style-B--C10126415.jpeg
A stunning crime film, the first completed screenplay by Quentin Tarantino, and still the best thing he's written.
Patricia Arquette's Alabama would be a simplistic fantasy figure in other hands but her wounded portrayal gives the character some level of reality. Christian Slater has never been better, relishing every line of dialogue as Tarantino alter ego Clarence. It is, however, the stunning scene between Dennis Hopper and Christopher Walken; by turns menacing and hillariously funny that the film will be remembered for.

74: Garden State
http://www.mikejonze.com/images/movies/gardenstate.jpg
A fine romantic comedy marks an unexpectedly strong directorial debut for Scrubs star Zach Braff. Braff is excellent in the lead role and gets strong performances from his cast, most notably Natalie Portman who has seldom been better.
Good gags are plentiful and there's plenty of variety as Braff mines laughter from both visuals and dialogue.

73: Toy Story
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/d/dc/Movie_poster_toy_story.jpg/220px-Movie_poster_toy_story.jpg
The first fully computer animated film is still one of the very best. It's because the story has been well thought out that Toy Story works, it's not just funny put is in fact quite thought provoking at times. The vocal performances are all spot on, particularly that of Tim Allen, perfect as Buzz Lightyear. Technology has moved on considerably in 11 years but Toy Story holds up because the visuals are just the way the story is told and it is the story and the jokes that demand your attention.

72: Halloween
http://www.cyber-cinema.com/gallery/halloweenRepnt.jpg
One of the earliest slasher films and the one that set the blueprint for the genre for the next 20 years. Though endless sequels have done him no favours the Michael Myers of this film is one of cinema's great boogeymen, emotionless, silent and seemingly indestructible he's a truly scary presence. John Carpenter's direction is stunning. Carpenter shows off somewhat, opening with a long tracking shot which is still mimicked to this day. Acting may not be the most important facet of films like this but as Laurie Jamie Lee Curtis created an iconic horror character and provides someone you can root for.

71: Robocop
http://www.robocoparchive.com/wide/robo3.jpg
It's not a promising title really. Robocop succeeds because the intelligence of the film so exceeds that which you expect from the title. Director Paul Verhoven makes a rollicking sci-fi action adventure, one of the best in fact, but what distinguishes it is how Verhoven and screenwriter Ed Neumier stuff the film with social comment and satire. They'd revisit some of these themes in Starship Troopers but their mock news bulletins and adverts work best here.
The film would also have floundered without the sensetive performance of Peter Weller, who actually manages to emote from under the Robocop armour.

[ilovemovies]

Garden State 9/10
Toy Story 8/10
Halloween 7/10
RoboCop 8/10

[Hannibal21]

True Romance - 8/10
Garden State - 5/10
Toy Story - 8.5/10
Halloween - 9.5/10
RoboCop - 8.5/10

[TylerDurden182]

True Romance- 10/10
Garden State- 9/10
Toy Story- 8/10
Halloween- 8/10
Robocop- 7/10

[zombievictim]

True Romance- 8/10
Garden State- 9/10
Toy Story- 8/10
Halloween- 8/10

[AngelDust06]

True Romance- 8/10
Garden State- 9/10
Toy Story- 8.5/10
Halloween- 8.5/10
Robocop- 7/10

[ChemicalRomance]

True Romance- 10/10
Garden State- 6.5/10
Toy Story- 10/10
Halloween- 9/10

[Puck Bond]

missed one...

Body Heat-8/10

True Romance-9/10
Garden State-8/10
Toy Story-8/10
Halloween-10/10
RoboCop-8/10

[Cronos]

True Romance - 10/10
Toy Story - 10/10
Halloween-10/10
RoboCop - 9/10

[SAI]

70: The Nun's Story
http://www.thefairestlady.com/audrey/galleries/nun15.jpg
Dramatically speaking; Audrey Hepburn's finest hour. Hepburn works hard and turns in a nuanced dramatic performance in this epic tale from Fred Zinneman. She's completely believeable as the nun suffering a crisis of faith and from the relatively unenticing synopsis (15 years in the life of a nun who isn't sure she wants to be a nun) evolves a hugely involving story. The colour photography (at first rather puzzling given the amount of black and white imagery) is stunning once we arrive in the jungle to follow Hepburn on her expedition as a nurse. Of it's time and not for everyone this may be but I found it spellbinding.

69: Last Resort
http://us.movies1.yimg.com/movies.yahoo.com/images/hv/photo/movie_pix/the_shooting_gallery/last_resort/_group_photos/artiom_strelnikov1.jpg
The second Pawel Pawlikowski film on this list (see My Summer of Love at 77). This tells the story of a Polish immigrant and her son newly arrived in the UK (in Margate, not really where you'd choose to be) and already abandoned by the man Tanya was supposed to be meeting and marrying on her arrival.
It chronicles her efforts to stay in the UK, her exploitation by just about everyone she meets and the burgeoning friendship between first her son and amusement arcade worker Alfie and then Alfie and Tanya.
A moving film which tells the story of immigrants to the UK from their perspective this has the ring of truth about it both in former documentarian Pawlikowski's direction and the performances of Dina Korzun and Paddy Considine.

68: Bonnie and Clyde
http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B00004RYE6.03.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
Arthur Penn's definitive telling of the story of this outlaw couple is now almost 40 years old but stands up to scrutiny thanks to Penn's stylish (and daringly violent for the time) shooting and the performances of his eclectic and accomplished cast. Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway are excellent as the titular couple but the performances of Michael J Pollard, Gene Hackman and a brief but funny turn from Gene Wilder in his debut add colour. The cast of characters are hugely engaging company and it's always sad to see the ending of the movie, despite the fact you probably know it going in.

67: Carlito's Way
http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B0001IMCRU.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
For a long time my very favourite film don't let the big drop in its placing fool you: Carlito's Way is an exceptional gangster film. It's a crime that while Al Pacino won an Oscar for his 'hoo hah' showboating in Scent of a Woman he wasn't even nominated for his more subtle and far more effective work here. It's not the Al Pacino show though as an unrecognisable Sean Penn is at his best as Carlito's crooked lawyer, hell even Penelope Ann Miller is good.
The film overflows with memorable moments; from the confrontation in the pool hall to the brilliant chase through Grand Central station to Pacino's final speech. At the end of the day it's not Carlito's Way's fault that it's not The Godfather and this is certainly an underappreciated film that needs reappraisal.

66: Downfall
http://www.alexandra-maria-lara.com/pics_filmography/pics_untergang02.jpg
The best film of 2005 by some considerable distance was this tremendous German telling of the story of the last week of Hitler's life.
The direction of Oliver Hirschbiegel is outstanding placing us in the claustrophobic atmosphere of Hitler's bunker while occasionally taking us up to the frontline of the battle for Berlin in some authentic feeling sequences. However it's the performances you'll remember. Bruno Ganz is now surely the definitive screen Hitler his portrayl going in seconds from oddly sympathetic to the ranting lunatic we expect Hitler to be. Every performance is stunning but it's Corrinna Harfouch as the loathsome Magda Goebbels who provides the film its true monster in an utterly shocking scene where she poisons six of her seven children.

[ChemicalRomance]

Downfall was spectacular. 10/10

[Cronos]

Carlitos Way - 10/10
Downfall - 10/10

[TylerDurden182]

Bonnie and Clyde- 9/10
Carlito's Way- 9/10
Downfall- 9/10

[AngelDust06]

Bonnie and Clyde- 810
Carlito's Way- 9/10
Downfall- 8.5/10

[Hannibal21]

The Nun's Story - 9/10
Bonnie and Clyde - 9/10
Carlito's Way - 9/10

[SAI]

65: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
http://faculty.cua.edu/johnsong/hitchcock/pages/gein/texas-chainsaw.jpg
Alarmingly Tobe Hooper originally wanted a PG certificate for his pant wettingly terrifying feature debut. Fascinated by the local legend of Ed Gein (also the inspiration for two films further up this list) Hooper used Gein as a blueprint and from there extrapolated a whole family of canniballistic rednecks headed by the iconic Leatherface (a great silent performance from Gunnar Hansen).
In the interests of that PG certificate there's barely a drop of blood spilled onscreen and less violence than you might think but what there is absolutely horrific and completely convincing. The violence here isn't balletic and beatuiful it's short, sharp and impactful, almost palpably painful and this creates an atmosphere of dread which permeates the whole of this great film.

64: Ratcatcher
http://us.movies1.yimg.com/movies.yahoo.com/images/hv/photo/movie_pix/first_look_pictures/ratcatcher/_group_photos/leanne_mullen3.jpg
The story of a twelve year old boy who dreams of escaping his life on the mid 70's Glasgow council estate on which he lives to a new development outside of time and his relationships with both the adults and children around him. Lynne Ramsay's first feature is hardly event packed by the writer/director finds drama and beauty in the mundanity. Striking images abound, with the opening shot of James dancing, wrapping himself in a curtain, being one of the most unexpectedly arresting. Ramsay's script is also strong with well crafted relationships, particularly a touching friendship between James and an older girl; Margaret Anne. Aiding Ramsay are the performances of the children; all admirably natural.

63: Beauty and the Beast
http://us.movies1.yimg.com/movies.yahoo.com/images/hv/photo/movie_pix/walt_disney/beauty_and_the_beast/beast2.jpg
The first and with the introduction of the Animated feature category surely the only animated film to be nominated for the Best Picture Oscar and it's one of a very few that is worthy of that recognition.
Right from the outset it's clear that this is Disney at their very best. The animation is gorgeous, clean, with appealing character design and a wonderful level of detail and even the songs are stong (Belle is a lovely opener, Be Our Guest a spectacular set piece). It's in the writing and performance that the film earns its accolades, the voice casting is flawless and the acting excellent. The real surprise though is the degree of emotional involvement the film extracts from audiences. Even now when I see it I still care desperately about the characters and the outcome and that's something that's all too rare in any kind of cinema.

62: The Killer
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~pq3t-wtnb/cinema/CHOW-IMAGES/killer-dvd.jpg
John Woo's heroic bloodshed films reached their zenith here. True Hard-Boiled has more action but it is the storytelling and performances of The Killer that place it here. Chow Yun Fat and Danny Lee are teriffic as, respectively, the contract killer and the cop who develop a grudging respect for each other. Sally Yeh also puts in a strong show as the singer that Chow has accidentally blinded and is now taking jobs so he can pay for an operation to fix this mistake.
The action is awesome, completely outside reality but stunningly coreographed. This isn't really intended as serious drama but you do get caught up in the central triangle and Woo also manages to exploit the relationships for comic gain in one fantastic scene where Lee and Chow share tea with Yeh while pointing guns at each other yet making up anecdotes to keep Yeh in the dark about their relationship.
Action cinema doesn't get much better.

61: Raiders of the Lost Ark
http://indianajones.ugo.com/images/movies/raiders_of_the_lost_ark/large/raiders_of_the_lost_ark_4.jpg
With it's never ending rollercoaster of thrills and laughs Raiders of the Lost Ark is often seen as the high watermark for the blockbuster and it's not even the best Indiana Jones film.
Harrison Ford becomes yet another iconic character for George Lucas (who, fortunately, only contributed the story). Ford is so utterly perfect in the role it is impossible to imagine anyone else doing it. The same can be said for Karen Allen, the perfect Indiana Jones girl; as Marion she's sexy, funny, but also resourceful and some use in a tight spot.
The set pieces are unfailingly exciting running the whole length of the film from the brilliant opening with Indy running from a boulder to the deeply scary (well, when I was 8) opening of the ark.
If only more of the films that only aspire to be entertainment today did it even a tenth as well as Raiders.

[TylerDurden182]

Texas Chainsaw- 7/10
Beauty and the Beast- 7/10
The Killer- 9/10
Raiders of the Lost Ark- 9/10

[Cronos]

Texas Chainsaw- 10/10
Beauty and the Beast- 7/10
The Killer- 10/10
Raiders of the Lost Ark- 9/10

[Hannibal21]

Texas Chainsaw Massacre - 9/10
Beauty and the Beast - 9.5/10 or 10/10
The Killer - 8/10
Raiders of the Lost Ark - 9/10

[Puck Bond]

The Nun's Story-N/A
Bonnie and Clyde-10/10
Carlito's Way-8/10
Downfall-N/A
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre-9/10
Beauty and the Beast-8/10
The Killer-9/10
Raiders of the Lost Ark-10/10

[SAI]

Here's the next 5 comments will follow tomorrow

60: Oldboy
http://us.movies1.yimg.com/movies.yahoo.com/images/hv/photo/movie_pix/tartan/oldboy/ji_tae_yu/old6.jpg
An extreme and original tale of revenge from South Korea's outstanding new wave. Choi Min Sik is simply outstanding as Oh Dae Su imprisoned for 15 years without knowing his crime and set free with 5 days to discover it. Revelations come thick and fast and most are surprising, particularly the gut wrenching twists of the last act. Executed with style and wit by writer/director Park Chan Wook this is an outstanding piece of work with memorable shots all the way but few more so than the single take hammer fight.

59: Die Hard
http://www.diehardmovies.com/diehard1/image6.jpg
Just about the perfect action film. Bruce Willis contributes an iconic and much mimicked performance as John McClane and the script is much more intelligent than that of your typical actioner, allowing the audience more knowledge than the characters (something Hitchcock always knew was a perfect recipe for suspense). Alan Rickman's scenery chewing is also a ot of fun. Obviously though it's the action and the one liners that are the main draw and both are brilliant. The action is clever, varied, and exciting but director John McTiernan is smart enough to let us draw breath after each. Really what can be said but... Yippe ki yay motherfucker.

58: Raging Bull
http://www.moma.org/images/collection/FullSizes/Scorsese_RagingBull_2.jpg
Yes Robert DeNiro is amazing, he first got in ludicrously good shape, learnt to box with the real Jake LaMotta (to a level that led LaMotta to suggest that DeNiro could have been a middlewight) and then ate his way round Italy to gain weight for the bookending scenes of an older Jake. He EARNT that Oscar. Yes Martin Scorsese's black and white imagery is stunning with the punisihing boxing matches standing out. All that is often said. It's less often noted how good the support is, notably a brilliant Joe Pesci as Jake's brother and a debuting Cathy Moriarty as his young wife. Technically the film is also strong with the key assistance coming from Scorsese's brilliant editor Thelma Schoonmaker, whose cutting gives the boxing matches much of thei impact.

57: Double Indemnity
http://www.grandperformances.org/images/bio_images_pu/doubleIndemnity.jpg
The greatest of the classic Films Noir. Fred MacMurray is great as the insurance man duped by Femme Fatale Barbara Stawyck into murdering her husband and Edward G Robinson puts in sterling support as MacMurray's boss; an insurance investigator who smells a rat.
Billy Wilder's film may seem a touch cliché now but he invented all those cliches here. The crisp black and white photography suits the hard boiled story down to the ground but it's in the performances that the true genius lies. Every femme fatale since has owed a debt to Barbara Stanwyck's seductive performance here and Robinson gives a masterclass in the supporting role, stealing every scene he's in.

56: Vertigo
http://www.cinemacom.com/noir/vertigo402.gif
An exceptional, puzzling, thriller from Alfred Hitchcock. James Stewart takes the lead as a man trying to recreate his lost love (Kim Novak in an excellent dual role) but doomed to lose her a second time. Stewart is teriffic playing completely against type, creepy and unhinged and Hitchcock plays with surreal images, dream sequences and other techniques to come up with an enduringly disturbing and brilliant film.

[Cronos]

60: Oldboy - 10/10
59: Die Hard - 10/10
58: Raging Bull - 3/10
56: Vertigo - 2/10

[TylerDurden182]

Oldboy- 10/10
Die Hard- 10/10
Raging Bull- 10/10
Double Indemnity- 9/10
Vertigo- 10/10

[Hannibal21]

Oldboy - 8.5
Die Hard - 9
Raging Bull - 10
Double Indemnity - 10
Vertigo - 10

[AngelDust06]

Texas Chainsaw- 8/10
Beauty and the Beast- 6/10
The Killer-N/A
Raiders of the Lost Ark- 9/10
Oldboy- 9/10
Die Hard- 9/10
Raging Bull- 9.5/10
Double Indemnity- N/A
Vertigo- 9.5/10

[Sigur509]

Oldboy - 10/10
Vertigo - 10/10

[Puck Bond]

Oldboy-N/A
Die Hard-10/10
Raging Bull-10/10
Double Indemnity-10/10
Vertigo-10/10

[morricone]

Oldboy - 10/10
Die Hard - 8/10
Raging Bull - 10/10
Vertigo - 10/10
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre - 9/10
Raiders of the Lost Ark - 9/10
Bonnie and Clyde - 9/10
Downfall - 9/10
True Romance - 5/10
Toy Story - 7/10
Halloween - 9/10
RoboCop - 9/10

[SAI]

55: Kng Kong (1933)
http://www.leconcombre.com/serials/kong/kong-poster-1933.jpg
Truly the King (sorry) of all monster movies. Unlike Peter Jackson's remake, which I haven't seen and won't be this Kong is a short one which gets in very short order to the main attraction. When Willis O'Brien's 17 inch rabbit fur covered ape appears it is, from the first instant, a masterpiece. The stop motion animation is beautiful and really makes the character live in a tangible way that cg still really can't do. Yes there are technical limitations but this is 1933 and for the time the integration of Kong into the action is truly exceptional. Fay Wray is cinema's original scream queen but does a fine job with the paper thin character she has (something that can be said of all the cast) and the famous ending, satggeringly, actually wrings tears from you, O'Brien's work having made Kong truly sympathetic.

54: Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
http://us.movies1.yimg.com/movies.yahoo.com/images/hv/photo/movie_pix/greycat/henry__portrait_of_a_serial_killer/michael_rooker/henry2.jpg
Filmed in 1985 and not released for five years there's a reason Henry has had such a difficult time getting seen in Director John McNaughton's original form. Based upon the life story of real life serial killer Henry Lee Lucas this is probably the most disturbingly realistic portrayl of murder ever put on screen.
There's nothing here to release you, no police, no reporter connecting Henry's random crimes, no sense that he's in danger of being stopped. From the still images of his victims in the opening credits to the horrendous videotaped murder in the middle of the film and the unresolved ending Henry is confrontational and upsetting.
Thanks to Michael Rooker's spectacular performance Henry is anything but an easy watch but it's a rewarding one for a horror fan.

53: Far From Heaven
http://us.movies1.yimg.com/movies.yahoo.com/images/hv/photo/movie_pix/focus/far_from_heaven/_group_photos/dennis_haysbert5.jpg
Todd Haynes and Julianne Moore first collaborated on the quite remarkable [safe]. This is even better. Haynes' overt homage to the 50's melodramas of Douglas Sirk uses that decade's cinematic language in a way which, to begin with, takes some getting used to but ends up bringing out the best in all concerned. Haynes and cinematographer Ed Lachman make sure that every frame looks ravishing, the compositions are slightly formal but it's the colour that really impresses, leaping off the screen at every turn.
The actors also excel. Julianne Moore puts in one of her finest performances as the housewife who feels under such pressure to have a perfect family and Dennis Quaid is better than he's ever been as her husband. Also great is Dennis Haysbert, sadly passed over for an Oscar nomination.

52: This is Spinal Tap
http://us.movies1.yimg.com/movies.yahoo.com/images/hv/photo/movie_pix/mgm/this_is_spinal_tap/christopher_guest/spinaltap.jpg
Rob Reiner's first film as director is the zenith of the mockumentary. Spinal Tap, the hillariously inept British metal band, are followed by a film crew as they embark on a disastarous tour of America to promote their 'Smell the Glove' album. The convincing construction of the film owes as much to the wonderfully straight faced performances of Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer as Tap as it does to Reiner's direction and for much of the running time it feels like you are indeed watching a real documentary (indeed there's many a rock doc that feels like Spinal Tap). Evereyone has a favourite bit be it Stonehenge, 'these go to eleven', that Shark Sandwich review or the endless array of exploding drummers but the whole thing is gut bustingly funny.


51: Boys Don't Cry
http://us.movies1.yimg.com/movies.yahoo.com/images/hv/photo/movie_pix/fox_searchlight/boys_don_t_cry/_group_photos/chloe_sevigny1.jpg
An upsetting film based upon the real case of Teena Brandon; a female to male transsexual murdered when her friends discovered she was indeed a she. Much talked about is Hillary Swank's performance as Teena and an astonishing piece of acting it surely is as she sheds all femininity to really embody the character. Less well noted are the supporting performances of Chloe Sevigny, whose charming turn as Teena's girlfriend (who thinks she's a man but is unfazed when the truth comes out) really helps you root for Teena, who can be unsympathetic and of Peter Sarsgaard. Sarsgaard is one of the great acting discoveries of the last decade and this is his first significant role. As Teena's killer John Lotter he's chilling but in a realistic way, never does he stray into melodrama or simply being eeevil.
A tough film to watch, particualry in it's final third this is still one of the most rewarding independent films of the 90's.

[CheekyShepherd]

King Kong - 9/10
The original and best of the Kong movies.

Henry; Portrait Of A Serial Killer - 6/10
A powerful and disturbing movie, nut too depressing.

Far From Heaven - 8/10
Excellent performances, cinematography and music. One of the best movies of 2002.

This Is Spinal Tap! - 9/10
Hilariously funny spoof-documentary.

Boys Don't Cry - 8/10
Fine performances from Hilary Swank & Chloe Shevigny.

[Hannibal21]

King Kong - 9/10
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer - 7/10
Far From Heaven - 9/10
This is Spinal Tap - 6/10
Boys Don't Cry - 8.5/10

[Cronos]

King Kong - 9/10
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer - 9/10
This is Spinal Tap - 10/10
Boys Don't Cry - 8/10

[TylerDurden182]

King Kong- 9/10
Henry- 7/10
This Is Spinal Tap- 8/10
Boys Don't Cry- 7/10

[AngelDust06]

King Kong- 9/10
Henry- N/A
This Is Spinal Tap- N/A
Boys Don't Cry- 9/10

[Puck Bond]

King Kong(1933)-9/10
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer-N/A
Far from Heaven-7/10
This Is Spinal Tap-8/10
Boys Don't Cry-N/A

[SAI]

50: The Prodigal Son
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0001NBMN0.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg
Of all genres it is perhaps the martial arts film that is the most critically maligned. When I first saw this film I loathed it. Obviously when I first saw this film it was in a badly panned and scanned print and with dialogue dubbed by people who couldn't act, in voices as camp as a row of tents. In fact The Prodigal Son, directed by Sammo Hung and starring Yuen Biao and Lam Ching Ying who often featured as stunt and supporting players in Sammo's films is a gold standard genre classic. The story of Leung Jaan (Yuen Biao), a young man who believes he is a kung fu master because everyone in town is paid by his wealthy father to lose to him but who discovers the ruse only to try and train under the opera star (Lam Ching Ying) who beat him. There's no great complexity to the script but it is in the performances that this film really surprises. Lam Ching Ying has real gravitas as an actor and puts in an excellent performance as well as posessing a physical grace which makes it a pleasure to watch his action sequences.
Yuen Biao is also good as the naïve Leung Jaan hitting the comic beats just as well as his more dramatic scenes. However it's ultimately about the action and the fights are truly spectacular with the mid movie face off between Lam Ching Ying and leading villain Frankie Chan being the crowning glory. The fighting is all the close quarters wing chun style and while it lacks a little of the balletic beauty of others it makes up for that in dazzling exchanges of fast and furious technique. This is a wonderful film which should transcend its genre and get more respect than it does.

49: Peeping Tom
http://www.webhorror.com/reviews/m_r/peeping_tom/peeping_tom_07.jpg
A masterpiece from Michael Powell which nearly destroyed his career. Misunderstood at the time of it's release as merely a purient film Peeping Tom is in fact a clever comment on the power of cinema featuring a cameraman who kills his female victims with a sharpened leg on his camera's tripod as he films them. A creepy performance from unknown Carl Boehm and superb direction from Powell add to its great power.

48: Lilya 4 Ever
http://us.movies1.yimg.com/movies.yahoo.com/images/hv/photo/movie_pix/newmarket/lilya_4_ever/oksana_akinshina/lilya.jpg
Lukas Moodysson's second film is a difficult, confrontational depiction of one young Russian girl's experience of people traffiking. Working for the bulk of the film in Russian, a language which he doesn't speak, Moodysson extracts quite remarkable performances from his young and inexperienced cast. Particularly brilliant is star Oksana Akinshina whose looks and performance belie her tender age (she was just fourteen at the time of shooting). Perhaps her finest moment comes in a silent and heartbreaking scene where she is read a letter which makes her realise she has been abandoned by her mother. This is an honest film. Moodysson doesn't shy from depictions of Lilya's new life as a prostitue on leaving Russia nor does he sugarcoat her situation either before or after the move. That makes Lilya 4 Ever an often depressing and distressing viewing experience but, harsh though it is, this is a truly outstanding piece of work.

47: The Adventures of Robin Hood
http://otherstuff.laurelandhardycentral.com/pixm/robin.jpg
Seldom was swash as well buckled as it is by Errol Flynn here. A troubled production often spells disaster for the final product but here it seems that replacing director William Keighley with Michael Curtiz was a smart move as apparently most of the action was lensed by Curtiz.
A breathlessly and endlessly exciting film Robin Hood has much great action but no sequence that lives as long in the memory as the near peerless swordfight between Flynn and Basil Rathbone a sequnce which, more than 65 years on, is still the standard that Holywood sets itself to meet when coreographing swordfights. The performances are very much of their time but no less entertaining for that. Flynn's Robin Hood is the iconic interpretation of the character and chances are if you've seen Robin depicted outside of movies since this film his image owes at least some debt to Flynn. Olivia DeHaviland's Maid Marian fulfils her role as damsel in distress well and she and Flynn certainly have chemistry. Both Basil Rathbone and Claude Rains chomp scenery wonderfully well as the villains of the piece but the surprisingly witty screenplay gives everyone strong, witty dialogue.

46: The Day The Earth Stood Still
http://us.movies1.yimg.com/movies.yahoo.com/images/hv/allposters/58/1800054358p.jpg
It's a rare film that, 55 years after it's original release, retains not only all it's power but all it's political resonance. Robert Wise's brilliant film has been read in many ways, as an allegory about christianity, as a protest aginst nuclear arms, as an anti-racist film but whther it is intended as one, none or even all of those is largely beside the point as at the end of the day The Day the Earth Stood Still is simply a rip-roaringly good story. The story of a benevolent alien landing in middle america who wishes to meet with the governments of the world but is met with first suspicion and ultimately with force. Beautifully written by Edmund North (who gave sci-fi one of it's iconic lines of dialogue: 'Klattu, barada, nikto' a phrase which has endlessly been paid homage to) and benfitting from the sure hand of Robert Wise it's a film that's clever but not pretentious, sweet but unsentimental and entertaining without being empty, they really don't make them like this anymore.

[TylerDurden182]

Peeping Tom- 8/10
Robin Hood- 8/10
Day The Earth Stood Still- 7/10

[CheekyShepherd]

Peeping Tom - 7/10 (Great performances, but not that memorable for me)

The Adventures Of Robin Hood - 8.5/10 (Haven't seen this in years, still a classic though)

The Day The Earth Stood Still - 8/10 (One of the definitive sci-fi movies)

[AngelDust06]

Peeping Tom- 7/10
Robin Hood- 8/10
Day The Earth Stood Still- N/A

[Hannibal21]

Peeping Tom - 9.5/10
The Adventures of Robin Hood - 8/10
The Day The Earth Stood Still - 9/10

[Cronos]

Peeping Tom - 9/10
The Adventures of Robin Hood - 7/10
The Day The Earth Stood Still - 10/10

[SAI]

45: Ghostbusters
http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B00004D07Y.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
From the very first time I saw it, aged about seven, I loved this mix of light horror (oh come on we all jumped the first time we saw the ghost in the library) and comedy. Spinning off from an original story by star Dan Aykroyd much of the film has a loose improvised feel to its dialogue, thanks mainly to Bill Murray's sharp comic timing. Looked at now the script is almost a litany of quotable lines ('Yes it's true, this man has no dick'. 'Listen... you smell something'?) but the effects which still hold up, the performances (which include a strong turn from Sigourney Weaver in much lighter hearted mood than usual) and the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man (a moment of genius which makes you wonder what drugs Aykroyd was ingesting the day he thought of it) which earn it a place on this list. Oh and there's that song too.

44: Leon [a.k.a.: The Professional]
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0006GVJEE.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg
It's hard to believe, even with such clunky direlogue, that the wooden girl at the centre of the last three Star Wars films is the same Natalie Portman who made her debut in this brilliant action thriller by Luc Besson. Besson wrote the character of Leon with actor Jean Reno in mind, and it shows, Reno's strong, quiet performance hits all the right bases and manages to keep Leon's relationship with his 12 year old charge Mathilda from being creepy, which it easily could have been. As Mathilda Natalie Portman is a revelation at twelve years old she's obviously a mature actress already as she never misses an emotional beat and manages to hold her own not just with Reno but with Gary Oldman on such scenery chewing form that he'd steal the whole movie but for the strength of the leads.
The action is indeed spectacular but it's not the centre of the film and it is the relationships rather than the gunfights that you'll remember (something that many an action movie would do well to learn from.

43: Scarface (1932)
http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B000BWOZBM.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
An unjustly forgotten film. For all the strengths of the Al Pacino starring remake this original, toplining Paul Muni and directed by the great Howard Hawks, is my pick of the two versions by some distance. Muni is excellent as Tony Camonte whose rise through the mob and fall from grace are chronicled by the film. For a film of its vintage this Scarface is shockingly violent and quite sexually provocative, hinting at an incestuous interest by Tony towards his little sister and this was almost certainly a film that was instrumental in provoking the Hays Code.
Beyond that historical note you'll find an exceedingly well acted film with memorable turns from both Muni (not much more subtle than Pacino but, for my money, more effective) and from George Raft (in a role equivalent to Stephen Bauer's in the remake) and strong direction from Hawks, whose final image of the dead Camonte lingers in the mind.

43: Went the Day Well?
http://www.britmovie.co.uk/studios/ealing/filmography/images/029a.jpg
The first film in English of French director Alberto Cavalcanti was one I first saw in film studies class and certainly one of the best we were shown. Released in 1942, when the Second World War was not going particularly well for the allies this depicts the covert invasion of a small British village by a contingent of Nazis who are then beaten back by the residents. It's a disturbing idea which retains its power to a very large degree but one can only imagine the feelings it must have evoked in the cinema in 1942. Went the Day Well is an extremely real film, surely something that comes from Cavalcanti having worked as a documentarian and it's also one which refuses to pull its punches, with several shocking deaths being inflicted both by and on either side. This is a film you don't hear spoken of much and that's a shame as it's a genuine classic ripe for rediscovery.

41: Short Cuts
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000305ZXO.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg
Robert Altman's best film is an adaptation of several short stories by Raymond Carver all given space to breathe, and most interconnected, in an intricate and impressive whole.
The cast is absolutely stellar and reciting the names of every person who gives a great performance would take pages and pages. There are, of course, standouts. Julianne Moore (whose words to Altman on trading roles with Madeline Stowe were, reportedly, 'By the way I really am a redhead') is stunning, particularly in the famous scene in which she has a five minute argument with husband Matthew Modine while proving just how real a redhead she is. Jennifer Jason Leigh is funny and affecting as a woman who works as a phone sex operator while changing her kids nappies. Jack Lemmon is at his best as a man whose grandchild is injured in a car accident. The ensemble cast all do outstanding work and Altman keeps all of the stories riveting, getting the pace just right so we're never itching to get back to some other story.

[TylerDurden182]

Ghostbusters- 7/10
Leon- 10/10
Short Cuts- 8/10

[AngelDust06]

Ghostbusters- 9/10
Leon- N/A
Short Cuts- 8/10

[Hannibal21]

Ghostbusters - 9/10 (nostalgia is the first word that comes to mind whenever this movie is mentioned, those memories..........)
Leon - 5/10 (don't care for it, borders on being over melodramatic at times IMO and Natalie Portman's performance was beyond grating)
Scarface - 9/10 (excellent classic gangster picture, much better than the crappy remake)
Short Cuts - 7/10 (like how I feel about most Altman films, excellent performances but the film itself fails to engage me throughout its running time)

[SAI]

Comments in the morning

40: Charade
http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B0000C42C2.03.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
The con movie is a balancing act. It has to be surprising, but its twists also have to be plausible when you step back and look at the film as a whole. Few pull it off but Charade is an exceptional example of the genre. The casting is sublime. Cary Grant brings both a strong dramatic performance and his light comic touch. Audrey Hepburn demonstrates that she was as talented as she was beautiful, something of a feat.Grant and Hepburn's relationship, key to the film, works well because they have fantastic chemistry. Charade mixes genres; mystery, romance, comedy and is that rare hybrid which manages to be a great example of all its constituent parts.

39: Monty Python and the Holy Grail
http://www.corbinstreehouse.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/monty_python.jpg
Python fans constsantly argue over whether Life of Brian or Holy Grail is the group's crowning glory. It's Holy Grail. More loosely structured even than Brian this low budget surreal romp through dark ages England is among the funniest films ever made. The jokes range from the satirical (The mud collector whose village elects a representative leader on a bi-weekly basis) to the farcical ('Bring out your dead') to the outright surreal (The Knights who say NI). Graham Chapman's fine, straight faced, performance as King Arthur holds the whole enterprise together and is a wonderfully selfless bit of acting, allowing co-stars almost every laugh.
As with all Python it's not going to be for everyone but if you get it it's likely you'll love it as much as I do.

38: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
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It seemed that, with Temple of Doom, the usualy incontrovertible law of diminishing returns had set into the Indiana Jones series. That makes the fact that Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade exceeds both previous films a genuine shock.
The credit for the fact that this is the best of the trilogy goes, almost entirely, to new recruit Sean Connery. James Bond as Indiana Jones' dad is a genius piece of casting as Connery doesn't take it seriously for a second, giving a ripe, enormously enjoyable, comic performance.
Indiana Jones now fits Harrison Ford like, well, a comfortable old hat and his game is only lifted by having Connery to play off, their exasperation with one another leading to some very funny exchanges.
The action is non-stop and as good as any that has gone before it in the series. The sequence in the catacombs beneath Venice and the boat chase it leads to are stunning, one running into the other beautifully never letting the pace or the excitement flag. Also outstanding is a lengthy sequence cutting between Indy fighting ON a tank his father is a prisoner IN which eventually brings Henry onto the tank as well, ratcheting up the action a notch.
I think the series should be left at this, a nigh perfect film that even raises a cheer with its final frames.

37: Chasing Amy
http://images.art.com/images/-/Chasing-Amy--C10281222.jpeg
Kevin Smith's most mature film is also his best by some considerable distance. Smith takes the dick and fart jokes, the bad language, the Star Wars and comic obsessions and everything else audiences had liked about Clerks and Mallrats and here weds them to an obviously deeply personal and surprisingly poigniant story. The best films provoke reaction in an audience and Chasing Amy certainly does that. Spending time with lead characters Holden and Banky you get to like them and this means that Smith's brave ending works brilliantly with the audience both trying to guess what's coming and echoing the characters when it is said. Not that Amy forgets about the jokes, it's hugely funny with Jason Lee nicking every scene as Banky, sometimes with just a look or a gesture but both he and Ben Affleck also put in credible dramatic shows (anyone who says Affleck can't act can't have seen Amy's famous 'I love you' scene).

36: Adam's Rib
http://www.moderntimes.com/palace/40_image/adam.jpg
Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy were, on and off screen, one of Hollywood's great couples and this battle of the sexes comedy finds both at their best. Cast as married attorneys representing opposite sides in the case of a woman accused of shooting her husband both seem to be having enormous fun as they trade the fantastic dialogue of Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon. The film has some fun with sexual politics, allowing Hepburn to espouse some of her genuine women's lib views. It's also notable for a wonderfully funny performance from bell voiced Judy Holliday as the accused woman.

[Cronos]

Ghostbusters - 9/10
Leon - 9/10
Holy Grail - 10/10
Last Crusade - 10/10
Chasing Amy - 10/10

[Hannibal21]

Charade - 8/10 (The chemistry shared by Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn helps to elevate this film immensely)

Monty Python and the Holy Grail - 7/10 (not the biggest fan of the Monty Python movies, but they are entertaining)

The Last Crusade - 7/10 (good escapism entertainment)

Chasing Amy - 9/10 (one of the most refreshing, smartest romantic comedies of the past 10 years)

Adam's Rib - 9/10 (Hepburn & Tracy = brilliance)

[TylerDurden182]

Charade- 8/10
Holy Grail- 9/10
Last Crusade- 7/10
Chasing Amy- 9/10

[AngelDust06]

Last Crusade - 9/10
Chasing Amy - 8.5/10

[SAI]

35: Jackie Brown
http://www.thei.aust.com/film97/images/cellrvjb.jpg
I have the feeling I have some explaining to do. Yes I think Jackie Brown is Quentin Tarantino's best film, by quite some way. The script bears the hallmarks of the man who adapted the source novel (Elmore Leonard's Rum Punch) but retains the complex and fascinating plotting of it's original author. However, for perhaps the first time, Tarantino is not the star of this movie. Pam Grier's performance is, simply put, a rvelation. She oozes strength, intelligence and sex appeal, there's nobody else you could imagine playing this character after seeing this performance. Robert Forster is similarly brilliant, his Max Cherry making you wonder why he'd done no work of note for years until Jackie Brown. Samuel L Jackson's Ordell Robbie and Robert DeNiro's excellent supporting role (his last great performance?) provide the film both its villains and its comic relief, never letting the the comic aspect get in the way of reminding you how dangerous these men are.
Tarantino doesn't show off much but his handling of the vital mall scene, which he shows us from three different perspectives, each with a different bit of music as a theme tune is absolutely masterful.

34: Hoop Dreams
http://www.sacticket.com/static/movies/dvd_video/images/hoopdreams01.jpg
Hoop Dreams was nominated for precisely one Oscar. Best Editing. It's one of AMPAS' great all time oversights not to nominate this masterpiece for the Documentary Feature award.
Shot over five years the film follows two young black men (William Gates and Arthur Agee) throughout their high school basketball careers as they dream of going to college and then on to the NBA. The filmmakers don't just concentrate on Gates and Agee, they turn the focus on their often troubled family lives, their failures as well as their successes both on and off court. From 300 hours of footage Director Steve James has carved out a riveting three hour film. He's very fortunate with his subjects, Gates is particularly engaging but it's Agee whose story is most compelling as he experiences so many ups and downs but you like both of them, you want them to succeed. The basketball sequences are brilliantly exciting and spread throughout the film at regular intervals at just the right times to remind you what this film is really about. Hoop Dreams is an outstanding documentray, one that should be seen whether or not you're interested in basketball or not.

33: LA Confidential
http://www.moviequotequiz.com/reviews/LAConfidentialBig.gif
There aren't enough Film Noir being made and LA Confidential is perhaps the last great example. It takes both the styling and the twisting plot, full of double and triple crosses and gives both a contemporary edge with both the violence and the language able to be more explicit than would have been allowed for the makers of earlier Noir.
Curtis Hanson directs with a sure hand and creates a wide selection of memorable images, making notably good use of reflections several times with the character of Ed Exley (Pearce). As Exley Guy Pearce is revelatory, the former Neighbours star sheds his aussie accent to perfection and gives a thoughtful but intense performance that fits his character like a glove.
Russel Crowe has never been as good again as he is here. The coiled spring tension in Bud White is masterfully controlled by Crowe and he lets himself off the leash occasionally in believeable and chilling fashion.
Kim Basinger's Oscar should have gone to Julianne Moore but that's not to say Basinger isn't terrific. The role is cliche, the tart with a heart but she brings an affecting sadness to the role that will win all but the hardest hearted audience members over.
The hard boiled script is intricately plotted; so much so that to get some of the connections you may want to watch the film again but there aren't any holes in it and the dialogue, much, apparently, retained from Ellroy, has the ring of truth to it.

32: Strangers on a Train
http://hitchcock.tv/mov/strangers_on_a_train/images/train.gif
One of Hitchcock's best this brilliant thriller hangs on its concept. What if you wanted to kill someone, met someone else who had someone they wanted dead and what, then, if you simply swapped murders?
Farley Granger and Robert Walker give excellent performances as the two men who talk over this idea on meeting on the train but when Walker commits "Granger's' murder he expects Granger to fulfil his side of the bargain. Hitchcock ratchets up the tension expertly and shooots the film with great style, particularly in the murder scene, set at a fairground.

31: Frankenstein (1931)
http://www.lessing-hochschule.de/2004/bilder_generale/frankenstein.jpg
No other movie has ever had such an effect on how something is seen. Chances are that whenever you picture Frankenstein's Monster it is the flat head, bolts through neck make up created by Jack Pierce and worn by Boris Karloff. There's a strong performance from Colin Clive as the titular Doctor but, as in The Mummy Karloff is the star. It's a mute role but incredibly sensetively played by Karloff who is especially good in a heart rending scene, banned and missing from the print for years, in which the Monster accidentally drowns a little girl.

[Cronos]

Jackie Brown - 8/10
LA Confidential - 9/10
Frankenstein - 9/10

[Hannibal21]

Jackie Brown - 8.5/10
L.A. Confidential - 9.5/10
Strangers on a Train - 9/10
Frankenstein - 9/10

[TylerDurden182]

Jackie Brown- 8/10
Hoop Dreams- 8/10
L.A. Confidential- 10/10
Strangers On A Train- 10/10

[Pulp_Joker]

Ghostbusters 10/10
Leon 8.5/10
Scarface 9/10
Short Cuts 9/10
Monty Python and the Holy Grail 7.5/10
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade 7/10
Chasing Amy 9.5/10
Adam's Rib 8/10
Jackie Brown 10/10
Hoop Dreams 9.5/10
L.A. Confidential 9/10
Strangers on a Train 8.5/10
Frankenstein 8.5/10

[SAI]

The last post in this format. From Number 25 onwards I'll be posting films one at a time with a full review and much more for each. But first...

30: Say Anything...
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d6/Sayanythingmovie.jpg
Cameron Crowe's directorial debut is one of those movies you can show to just about anyone and, chances are, they'll fall in love with it to some degree. Crowe has always been a writer first and foremost and that shows here. In Lloyd Dobler and Diane Court he's created two great characters, people you like, sure, but more important they're people you recognise, something that's true of all the majot characters.
The acting is also top notch. John Cusack and Ione Skye are both completely charming and convincing and they have tremendous chemistry which helps sell the relationship. It's not a visually exquisite film by any means but Crowe's deft touch with the actors and his funny, affecting, screenplay mean that his still forming directorial style serves the film well.

29: The Philadelphia Story
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00004RF97.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg
It's hard to fathom in retrospect but this was Katharine Hepburn's last ditch effort to save her career, having been dubbed 'Box office poison' following the failure of Bringing Up Baby and Holiday. The Philadelphia Story began life as a play by Phillip Barry who wrote the Tracy Lord part specifically for Hepburn, tailoring the role to her cadence. Hepburn cannily got Howard Hughes to buy the movie rights for her and therefore had a lot of control; she asked for Spencer Tracy and Clark Gable for the male leads, she got Cary Grant and James Stewart “Not Bad” she later opined. From it's clever opening which, in an hillarious, wordless, slapstick 30 odd seconds tells us all we need to know about Tracy and Dexter's marriage to the golriously unexpected ending The Philadelphia Story is an absolute joy. The entire cast is excellent, it really shows that Hepburn's role was tailored to her and Grant and Stewart both give outstanding supporting performances, the latter winning the film's sole Oscar.

28: Psycho
http://daily.greencine.com/archives/leigh-psycho.jpg
Confession time. I actually saw Gus Van Sant's version before this Hitchcock masterpiece, I think that experience actually increased my admiration for this great film.
Hitch reveled in throwing his audience and Psycho plays perhaps his greatest trick in which he kills his main character an hour into the movie, it's genius, simply because from there on out anything could happen, once you knife the heroine to death the rulebook is out the window.
As that heroine Janet Leigh is excellent, doing an admirable job of carrying the first half of the film but at the end of the day from his very first appearance this is the Norman Bates show and Anthony Perkins is simply outstanding. Norman was interpreted in the remake as a giggling effeminate misfit. Perkins underplays though, which means that it's a shock when Norman turns out to be a dress wearing, knife weilding loon. Hitchcock shows complete mastery of the thriller genre knowing exactly how to pace his films and giving the shocks real impact.

27: Duck Soup
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/6300181367.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
Sublime comedy from the Marx Brothers. Duck Soup is at once an uproariously funny comedy and a fascinatingly prescient political satire, as it approaches its 75th anniversary there are still paralells to be drawn between the way 'Freedonia' acts in the film and the way world powers act today. Lets not kid ourselves though, that's not the intent, Duck Soup merely wants to make you laugh like a drain and it does so for almost its entire run time.
The humour is both visual (the wonderfully coreographed sequence of Groucho standing in a doorway and Harpo, disguised, pretending to be his reflection) and verbal, with Groucho's wisecracks as funny now as ever they were (there's no sell by date on lines like: 'Remember, you're fighting for this woman's honour, which is probably more than she ever did.')
Duck Soup is broad comedy and it's not going to be to all tastes but if this is your kind of humour it doesn't get any better than this.

26: The Wicker Man
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00005KHJR.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg
A creepy tale which starts out as a mystery before becoming, with its final twist, an absolutely horrifying piece of work as you realise with the main character that you have been tricked by all that has gone before this point. Edward Woodward and Christopher Lee (in fact Lee regards this as the best work he's ever done, and he's not wrong) are both exceptional and director Robin Hardy cooks up a creepy atmosphere throughout the film with the use of symbols, rituals and music. Simply put this is one of the best films ever to come out of Britain.

[AngelDust06]

Jackie Brown- 9/10
Hoop Dreams- 8/10
L.A. Confidential- 8.5/10
Strangers On A Train- N/A

[Cronos]

Say Anything - 9/10
Psycho - 9/10
Wicker Man - 10/10

[TylerDurden182]

Say Anything- 9/10
Psycho- 10/10
Duck Soup- 8/10

[SAI]

25: Ed Wood (1994)
Dir: Tim Burton
Cast: Johnny Depp, Martin Landau, Sarah Jessica Parker,
Patricia Arquette, Bill Murray
http://www.the-reel-mccoy.com/movies/classics/images/EdWood2.jpg
This biopic of one of the worst directors ever to work in Hollywood, Edward D Wood Jr, surprised everyone by being absolutely brilliant, easily Tim Burton's best work.
Ed Wood was born in 1924 and discovered cinema through the Universal horror films of the 30's, becoming a particular fan of Dracula and Bela Lugosi. The film picks up Wood's (played by Depp) story in Hollywood in the mid 1950's, he's trying to scratch out a lving, working as a playwright and trying to get a movie idea picked up. His luck looks up when, by chance, he meets and befriends Bela Lugosi (Landau) and gets him to agree to attatch his name to Wood's script; Glen or Glenda which allows him to get his first film off the ground. The film covers the making of Glen or Glenda, Bride of the Monster and Wood's best known film Plan 9 From Outer Space.
Ed Wood is a wonderful film for a movie lover, it's about a man who loves cinema as much as us, more even, and Depp's performance captures that enthusiasm, Ed's giddy as a schoolboy reaction to being allowed to make his own movies. There's not a lot of real footage of Ed to draw on but Depp feels real in the role and even looks enough like Wood that you never see Johnny Depp. Martin Landau won an Oscar as Bela Lugosi and it was fully deserved, buried beneath prosthetics to make him look like Bela Landau's performance perfectly captures both the public face of the man and the private pain brought about by the downward spiral of his career and his morphine addiction.
Tim Burton wisely shoots in black and white, it would have been very strange indeed to look at the recreated moments from Ed's films in colour and the people making them have to exist in the same world as those films, hence black and white. It lends an immediate sense of period authenticity and the cinematography is crisp and impressive.
Most importantly though, as kooky as he was, Ed Wood never mocks its main character and while it nods to some of his flaws it is an overwhelmingly affectionate portrait.

Classic Quotes
Ed: I like to dress in women's clothing.
George Weiss: You're a fruit?
Ed: No, not at all. I love women. Wearing their clothes makes me feel closer to them.
George Weiss: You're not a fruit?
Ed: No, I'm all man. I even fought in W.W.2. Of course, I was wearing women's undergarments under my uniform.

Dolores Fuller: Ed, what's my motivation?
Ed: You're the file clerk. You're running into the next room and you run into Janet.
Dolores Fuller: But are we good friends or is she just a casual acquaintance?
Ed: Dolores, I have five days to complete this picture. Don't get goofy on me.

Ed: Cut! That was perfect!

Ed: Why if I had half a chance, I could make an entire movie using this stock footage. The story opens on these mysterious explosions. Nobody knows what's causing them, but it's upsetting all the buffalo. So, the military are called in to solve the mystery.
Editor on Studio Lot: You forgot the octopus.
Ed: No, no, I'm saving that for my big underwater climax.

Ed: [on phone with Mr. Feldman] Really? Worst film you ever saw. Well, my next one will be better. Hello. Hello.

EXTRA REVIEW
Plan 9 From Outer Space
Dir: Edward D Wood Jr
Cast: Gregory Walcott, Bela Lugosi (sort of), Vampira, Tor Johnson
http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B0006J0IM0.03.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
A pair of aliens, angered by the "stupid minds" of the people of planet Earth, invade. Their plan: to resurrect the dead to form an army that will march on the world’s capitals. An intrepid airline pilot living near the cemetery must rescue his wife from this terror.
In all honesty Plan 9 From Outer Space is an abysmal film. From a technical standpoint its greatest achievement is to show just how badly it is possible to make films. But the question when coming to Plan 9 has always been "Is it really the worst film of all time?" Absolutely not. It's far too much fun to earn that tag.
The reason I say that this film sort of stars Bela Lugosi is that, despite having a prominent character, he is in two sequences. These are both played at frequent intervals during the film. The rest of the time the character is played by a stand in, who is not only markedly taller than Lugosi but looks so unlike him that he must hold a cape in front of his face at all times
Much of this film is hysterically funny; the hubcaps that are meant to pass for UFO's, the constant, unexplained, switches from day to night and back. The fact that none of the stock footage Wood employs matches his own work, the endless repeats of shots and, my own favourite, the explanation of Solaronite.
There are very few films that MUST be seen at least once, Plan 9 is one of these. Yes it's ineptly shot, badly acted, written and edited but how can you fail to like a film that contains the line: "Inspector Clay is dead, murdered, and someone's responsible."?

http://www.geocities.com/reverendsteveg/pictures/eddie-face.jpg
Edward D Wood Jr (1924 - 78)

[TylerDurden182]

Ed Wood- 10/10

[Hannibal21]

Say Anything - 9/10 (the only Cameron Crowe film that I truly loved)

The Philadelphia Story - 9.5/10 (one of the greatest screwball comedies ever made)

Psycho - 10/10 (one of Hitchcock's greatness lies in his ability to completely mislead you, he always manages to stay ahead of the game and never has been a finer example than in this film)

Duck Soup - 9/10 (absolutely hilarious)

Ed Wood - 9.5/10 (a fascinating biopic of a fascinating director)

[Cronos]

Ed Wood - 10/10

[SAI]

24: Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
Dir: Otto Preminger
Cast: James Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazarra, George C Scott
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/images/directors/02/anatomy.jpg
Made as the Hays code crumbled Anatomy of a Murder was controversial for its language, words like rape and panties were heard for the first time because they were essential to the plot.
The plot revolves around lawyer Paul Biegler (Stewart) defending Lt. Frederick Manion (Gazzara) against the charge of murder having shot a man he believes raped his wife (Remick). Beigler's defence strategy is to suggest that Manion was temporarily insane, under an 'irresistible impulse' to shoot his victim.
I like courtroom dramas and this is the pinnacle of the genre. That's down to a few things, first amongst them being the source. Anatomy of a Murder was based on the novel of the same name by Robert Traver, a pseudonym because Traver was in fact a serving justice in the US courts. It's this that gives both novel and film their ring of truth. It never allows the procedural detail to get in the way of the story but provides enough to keep you from getting lost.
James Stewart is the great everyman of American cinema and he takes us through the story with his familliar drawl and easy charisma, but to say that's all he does would be to take away from what is a magnificent performance, particularly when he gets a chance to get truly animated in the courtroom scenes. Even when he's not talking it's a pleasure to watch Stewart as you can always see Biegler's cogs turning as he listens to other characters.
Ben Gazzara makes an early mark as Manion managing to keep us guessing as to just how in control of himself he really was when comitting his crime. It's often a chilling performance and Gazarra is exceptional.
Even better is Lee Remick as Manion's wife, for somebody who'd only seen her in The Omen before her performance here is simply a revelation and, like Gazarra she walks a fine line with her character between the audience thinking she may just be scheming and that she's simply a victim and plays both sides expertly.
Director Otto Preminge also extracts fine performances from George C Scott as the state prosecutor and Joseph N Welch as a fair minded judge.
At close to three hours Anatomy of a Murder could easily have dragged but the case is riveting, the characters interesting and the performances stunning which means that the running time simply flies by.

Classic Lines
Paul Biegler: [after cross-examining a convicted felon] Your Honor, I don't think I can dignify this - -creature - - with any more questions.

Paul Biegler: If you do that one more time, I'll punch you all the way out into the middle of Lake Superior!

Parnell McCarthy: Twelve people go off into a room: twelve different minds, twelve different hearts, from twelve different walks of life; twelve sets of eyes, ears, shapes, and sizes. And these twelve people are asked to judge another human being as different from them as they are from each other. And in their judgment, they must become of one mind - unanimous. It's one of the miracles of Man's disorganized soul that they can do it, and in most instances, do it right well. God bless juries.

Paul Biegler: Mr. Paquette, what would you call a man with an insatiable penchant for women?
Alphonse Paquette: A what?
Paul Biegler: A penchant... a desire... taste... passion?
Alphonse Paquette: Well, uh, ladies' man, I guess. Or maybe just a damn fool!
[laughter in the courtroom]
Judge Weaver: Just answer the questions, Mr. Paquette. The attorneys will provide the wisecracks.

[SAI]

23: Boogie Nights
Dir: Paul Thomas Anderson
Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Heather Graham, Julianne Moore, Burt Reynolds
http://blogsimages.skynet.be/images/000/628/676_cbc01c40bf16bb7741344775b8784b92.jpg

Eddie Adams (Wahlberg) is discovered by porn director Jack Horner (Reynolds) while working in a night club. Jack puts Eddie, now renamed Dirk Diggler, and his "talent" on the top of the porn industry. But when the 80s arrive, Dirk and his colleagues; who include high-school dropout "Rollergirl" (Graham), experienced pornstar and "mother to all those who need her" Amber Waves (Moore) and black, country music loving, cowboy Buck Swope (Don Cheadle), in the porn industry have to cope with a new era, as well as the baggage they bring with them from the 70s.
Though it was not, as many think, Paul Thomas Anderson's debut film (that's the underseen, and rather good, Hard Eight) Boogie Nights is still a film that heralded the arrival of the most promising young American director (26 when he shot Boogie Nights) since Quentin Tarantino. It wasn't massive at the box office, most people discovered it on video, but it netted three academy award nominations, including a first nod (as Best Supporting Actress) for Julianne Moore.
The story of Boogie Nights is a familiar rise and fall one, the difference being that this time it is set in the thriving porn industry in California in the 70's and 80's. When the film begins porn was in its heyday, with stars like John Holmes and films like Deep Throat crossing over to the mainstream. We don't really see that side of things, the people Boogie Nights introduces us to are lower down the ladder, at least until Eddie makes an impression.
It is to Paul Thomas Anderson's credit that, even with such a huge cast, he gives each of the characters proper attention and a complex, compelling personality. This is perhaps best shown in his writing of Julianne Moore's character "Amber Waves" (I use quotation marks because that is her professional name, her real name is Maggie). She's a truly complex individual; on the one hand a prolific pornstar, hopelessly addicted to cocaine, on the other a devoted mother, both to her estranged son and to the extended family she works with. It is the motherly side of Amber that provides Moore her best moments in the film; a genuinely upsetting moment when she stands alone crying after losing the right to see her son, and telling "Rollergirl" that she will be her mother as they both do vast amounts of coke.
Moore is wonderful in the part, it remains her best performance (Though Far From Heaven comes close). You never feel that you are watching an actor giving a performance, just a person living her life.
The rest of the cast excel as well. Mark Wahlberg is better than he's been before or since, hitting all the right notes as Eddie, particularly in the first half of the movie as his star rises in the industry. John C Reilly is a gifted character actor (and actually looks a little like real pornstar Ron Jeremy) and puts in a funny turn as Dirks second banana "Reed Rothchild". The characters that Dirk and Reed play in their films, apparently parodies of John Holmes films, are screamingly funny and a real highlight, along with the documentary Amber makes about Dirk, of the first half of the film.
Heather Graham is hardly renowned for her range or even her acting ability but as "Rollergirl" she impresses. The rest of the ensemble cast are, without exception, brilliant. I think Paul Thomas Anderson may be the best actors director working today.
Boogie Nights is far more fun in its first half, after Eddie leaves the porn industry the film takes on a different tone, becoming incredibly dark as we enter the 1980's, fortunately it never stops being entertaining and some stunning set pieces (not least Alfred Molina's turn as the unhinged Rahad Jackson) come up in the latter half of the film.
I've made much of how good Anderson's script but he is not a Kevin Smith type figure; a writer who happens to direct his own work. Anderson is, potentially, the greatest technical and stylistic American director since Martin Scorsese. This is chiefly shown by two early shots. The first shot in the film is a two and a half minute steadicam tour of a disco that introduces us to all the main character, this is an impressive way for Anderson to start his film but he tops himself fast with a brilliant shot at a pool party which goes round the pool, into the water and back out again.
Some have denigrated Boogie Nights simply for its subject matter but the film is deceptive, its really more about family than it is pornography and to see it just as a film about porn is to do it a great disservice. I would urge anyone over 18 to discover this complex, brilliant piece of cinema (and PLEASE do so in its proper widescreen version, Anderson is a great visualist and this movie loses a vast amount in the pan and scan process) and Anderson's even better follow up; Magnolia.

Classic Lines

[In Dirks first film]
Amber Waves: Let me just check on something.
[takes off Dirk's pants]
Amber Waves: That is a giant cock.

Dirk: What can you expect when you're on top? You know? It's like Napoleon. When he was the king, you know, people were just constantly trying to conquer him, you know, in the Roman Empire. So, it's history repeating itself all over again.

Dirk: [to the mirror's reflection of his thirteen-inch penis] I am a star. I'm a star, I'm a star, I'm a star. I am a big bright shining star. Yeah, that's right.

Little Bill: My wife has an ass in her cock in the drive way, all right? I'm sorry if my thoughts are not on the photography of the film we're shooting tomorrow.

[SAI]

22: The War Zone
Dir: Tim Roth
Cast: Lara Belmont, Freddie Cunliffe, Ray Winstone, Tilda Swinton
http://us.movies1.yimg.com/movies.yahoo.com/images/hv/photo/movie_pix/lot_47/the_war_zone/lara_belmont/warzone.jpg

Tom (Cunliffe) has just moved to Devon with his elder sister Jessie (Belmont) and their Mum (Swinton) and Dad (Winstone). He has become suspicious that his Father and Sister are having an incestuous relationship and, one day, follows them on one of their walks to see if he is right. The answer tears the family apart.
Whatever you think about The War Zone one thing can not be denied: This is a truly shocking and disturbing film. Any film that takes incest as its subject is going to have a difficult time getting screened but few either tackle the subject as head on, or had as much trouble getting a wide release, as The War Zone.
The first thing one must say about this film is that the performances are remarkable.
Lara Belmont was 17 and had never acted before this film was shot. She really is thrown in at the deep end, Jessie's is the most important role in the film and a very complex character for such a young and inexperienced actress. Belmont delivers in the role, she gives easily the best performance in the film. There is a horrible, yet cathartic moment towards the end of the film when she turns on Dad (In a brilliant touch neither parent is named) and screams at him "You fuck me" she tells him. Though everyone (in the scene and the audience) knows this Dad still denies it.
The other challenge for Belmont is how graphic the material here is, she spends an inordinate amount of her screen time naked and halfway through the film is subjected to a graphic and horrifying rape scene. It can't have been a comfortable situation for her and that only helps her performance. In fact Belmont is so good that it almost seems wrong to call it a performance, the whole film has a great sense of realism and much of the time you feel you could be watching a documentary.
Given her performance here it astounds me that Belmont had never acted before, if there were any justice she would have won, at least, a nomination for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar.
The other participant in that rape scene is Ray Winstone. His performance as Dad is a fascinating one, aside from the rape scene he plays him as a good man, and an excellent parent. This an interesting choice, before the rape scene we like Dad, he seems like the kind of parent we'd all want; responsible and caring. Of course this all goes out the window once Tom has his suspicions confirmed.
Winstone has said that he found the rape scene hard to shoot because he has a daughter Belmont's age. The scene is hard to watch for just that reason, most of us know someone like Jessie, and someone like Dad.
We see each of the events in the film (just as we did the novel from which it is adapted) through the eyes of Tom.
Freddie Cunliffe, like Lara Belmont, had never acted before he won this part, and he too gives an excellent, understated, performance. He was 15 years old when The War Zone was shot and he gives a much more mature performance than that would suggest. He plays Tom as a more quiet character than the book suggested and the deletion of some of the background information on the character has made him more likeable and easier to empathise with.
Tilda Swinton is a bit underused as Mum, her performance less memorable purely because she falls outside the main conflict of the film, between Jessie, Dad and Tom. Take nothing away from her though, she does her job well but the script gives us fewer memorable moments with her than with the others. Tim Roth took the decision to shoot his directorial debut in a ratio of 2.35:1. His shot composition is wonderful, using the whole of the frame beautifully; this is a film that loses a lot on video. The bleak landscapes are nicely captured by Roth and his DP and serve as a perfect metaphoric backdrop for the story.
I have made much of how disturbing and hard to watch the rape scene in the middle of the film is, and I stand by my words. The question is; is it justified? Do we need to see this abuse depicted so graphically and upsettingly? My answer is a resounding YES. It is useful to draw comparison here with another excellent film; The Accused in that film it was vital that (however difficult an experience it was) we see what Sarah Tobias (Jodie Foster) was subjected to and prove a court case. Here it serves only to prove Tom right. An interesting choice in comparison to the book was to make it crystal clear that this is a case of rape. In the novel Jessie is much more complicit in the incest (Indeed it is inferred that she instigated the whole thing). The scene makes the issue entirely unambiguous, something it could never be if we only heard about it.
You won't enjoy The War Zone, I'd be concerned if anyone did, but it is hard not to be impressed by the dedication of the cast and director to making such an honest portrayal of such a challenging subject. This is a brilliant film, one I'd recommend to any adult (it is certainly not suitable for anyone under 18), but be warned it is far from an easy viewing experience.

[TylerDurden182]

Boogie Nights- 10/10

[ChemicalRomance]

Originally posted by TylerDurden182
Boogie Nights- 10/10

Bingo.

[SAI]

Carrie (1976)
Dir: Brian DePalma
Cast: Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie, William Katt, Nancy Allen,
John Travolta, Amy Irving
http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/72/039_39789~Carrie-Sissy-Spacek-Posters.jpg

Stephen King's first novel is the best of his I've read by some distance. Presented as a retrospective investigators report into the events of the novel it takes the hoariest of horror cliches (High school; isn't it horrific?) and gives it life. Brian DePalma remains relatively true to the book, changing just a few things to make them more cinematic, adding his own coda to the end and adopting a more straightforward structure.
The auditions for Carrie are legend. DePalma was friends with George Lucas and sat in while Lucas auditioned for Star Wars, knowing his friend couldn't use all the talent that came through the door (imagine how different both films might have been... Sissy Spacek as Leia anyone?).
The process yielded a fine cast of young up and comers, most of whom have gone on to do more great work.
As Carrie Sissy Spacek is never less than brilliant. Unlike so many she is able to convince both as the plain wallflower of the bulk of the film and blossom brilliantly for the pivotal prom sequence as well as looking young enough at 26 to convince as a 17 year old. Those are just the most obvious facets of her performance though, the brilliance is in her complete shock and revulsion at having her first period in the school showers, it's in Carrie's growing confidence which Spacek lets build in every scene and it's in the silent, purposeful, revenge at the prom. It is simply one of the best performances in any horror film, ever.
The rest of the young cast also impress. William Katt triumphs over perhaps the worst hairdo in movie history to create a likeable character out of Tommy Ross, despite the fact his motives for taking Carrie out are, at best, suspect. Nancy Allen excels as megabitch Chris Hargensen, and seems to have enormous fun doing so and John Travolta lends support in an early film role.
The other truly great performance in the film is given by Piper Laurie who came out of semi-retirement to play Carrie's religious zealot of a mother. She's utterly unhinged as the parent from hell and completely deserving of the Oscar nomination she got (Spacek was also nominated). It's a chilling piece of work and provides the film all of it's true horror until the prom sequence.
The prom is where DePalma gets to cut loose and have fun indulging himself with inventive use of camera and split screen. Some of these effects themselves are dated now but the way DePalma uses the camera and the screen to show what is going on in Carrie's head shows a director with a real feel for both his medium and his material. This sequence also provides us one of the truly iconic images of cinema, that pictured, of Spacek covered in pigs blood.
Carrie really has two endings, the first is from the Novel; Carrie kills her mother (though more cinematically in the film) and their house sinks into the ground. The second, and most memorable, is DePalma's. The eerie dream sequence that ends the film has been spoofed over and over and reused by hundreds of lesser film but none has captured the sheer oddness of the original which is down to DePalma having shot the sequence backwards and then running the footage backwards.
It may not be a traditional horror film but Carrie is the pinnacle of the genre so far.

Standout moment: The pigs blood

Classic Lines
Margaret White: [Referring to Carrie's prom gown] Red. I might have known it would be red.
Carrie: It's pink, Mama.

Margaret White: I should've killed myself when he put it in me. After the first time, before we were married, Ralph promised never again. He promised, and I believed him. But sin never dies. Sin never dies. At first, it was all right. We lived sinlessly. We slept in the same bed, but we never did it. And then, that night, I saw him looking down at me that way. We got down on our knees to pray for strength. I smelled the whiskey on his breath. Then he took me. He took me, with the stink of filthy roadhouse whiskey on his breath, and I liked it. I liked it! With all that dirty touching of his hands all over me. I should've given you to God when you were born, but I was weak and backsliding, and now the devil has come home. We'll pray.

Margaret White: Witch. That's Satan's Power.
Carrie: It has nothing to do with Satan, Mama. It's me. Me. If I concentrate hard enough, I can move things.

Margaret White: They're all going to laugh at you.

[TylerDurden182]

Carrie- 7/10

[Cronos]

Boogie Nights - 8/10
The War Zone - 2/10
Carrie - 9/10

[morricone]

Carrie - 7/10
Boogie Nights - 9/10
Ed Wood - 9/10

[Hannibal21]

Anatomy of a Murder - 9/10
Boogie Nights - 8/10
Carrie - 9.5/10

[screamer581]

Not a huge Carrie (6/10) fan, but I am really digging your list so far SAI! Hell, anyone that has Boogie Nights in the their top 100 list is cool in my book.

[SAI]

20: The Last Seduction (1993)
Dir: John Dahl
Cast: Linda Fiorentino, Peter Berg, Bill Pullman, JT Walsh
http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B00005AY0Y.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

Femme's Fatale feature quite heavily on this list and this film features, for me, the very best of them. If Barbra Stanwyck's Phyllis Deitrichson (in Double Indemnity) was the screen's greatest femm fatale for almost 50 years then Linda Fiorentino's Bridget Gregory is a worthy successor to her.
The plot is convoluted, intricate and should reveal itself to an audience as they watch it so I'll provide only the setup. Bridget Gregory and her Doctor Husband (Pullman) pull of a drug deal and she runs off with all the proceeds while he's in the shower. She moves, gets a new place, a new 'designated fuck' (Berg). However she can't just wait around for the years it might take to get a divorce before she starts spending.
The Last Seduction might just have ended up as another DTV quality 'thriller', the kind with precious few thrills; the title and the ad campaign certainly make it look like that. However there's quality here in every department.
Most notable is Linda Fiorentino. It's a crying shame that The Last Seduction was first shown in the US on cable TV as this fact meant Fiorentino was ineligible for an Oscar Nomination. Whether she'd have got it is debateable but she certainly deserved on and, in a weak field in 1994, deserved the win too. Awards or no awards Fiorentino is brilliant. Her Bridget is a layered and complex character and she embodies all the aspects of her perfectly. There's always something going on beneath the surface with this performance, which allows you to buy into the massive intelligence the character has to pull off her plan. There's also a malevolence about her but wirter/director Dahl and Fiorentino are both smart enough never to make her unlikeable. Scared though you are of her, dangerous as she is, you're always attracted to Birdget.
That's also true of Peter Berg's character; Mike. Berg is great as the not too smart small town guy who gets his world turned upside down by Bridget, it's a shame he hasn't continued acting, instead concentrating od directing.
Bill Pullman hams it up as Bridget's husband and gets a lot of the laughs in the film.
That's it for the main cast, it's almost a 3-hander, but it's worth mentioning JT Walsh's excellent cameo as Bridget's Lawyer which contributes the single best line in the movie.
The Last Seduction is free to be more explicitly violent, more sexual and use more explicit language but it uses these things well and in service of its riveting plot.
The brilliant open ending led to a sequel which involved none of the original team and is by all accounts a film to give a wide berth.
If you love the classic noir and want to see the themes of those films brought in to the present day then The Last Seduction is as good a film as you'll ever get.

Classic Scene: The first 'sales pitch'

Classic Quotes:
Bridget: You still a lawyer?
Frank Griffith: You still a self-serving bich?

Bridget: Could you leave? Please?
Mike: I haven't finished charming you yet.
Bridget: You haven't started.
Mike: Gimme a chance.
Bridget: Look, go find yourself a nice little cowgirl and make nice little cowbabies and leave me alone.
Mike: I'm hung like a horse. Think about it.
[pause]
Bridget: Let's see.
Mike: Excuse me?
Bridget: Mr. Ed, let's see.

Bridget: You're my designated fuck.
Mike: What if I don't want to be?
Bridget: Then I'll designate someone else.

[Hannibal21]

The Last Seduction - 9/10

[SAI]

19: Heathers (1989)
Dir: Michael Lehmann
Cast: Winona Ryder, Christian Slater
http://winona.fan-sites.org/gallery/albums/userpics/movies/heathers/normal_04.jpg

Veronica (Ryder) is part of the most powerful clique at Westerburg high school. The Heathers (Kim Walker, Shannen Doherty and Lisanne Falk) so called because the other 3 members are all named Heather. When Veronica meets, and begins dating JD (Slater), she starts pulling away from the clique, while some of the more popular students start showing up dead with suicide notes.
Heathers is a modern classic. It is all but unprecedented for a film to become more socially relevant as time goes on but this is exactly what has happened here. In these post-columbine times JD's vision of how to improve the world is even more brilliant and scathing a piece of satire than it was in 1988.
Perhaps the greatest strength of the film is it's script.
This was Dan Waters first produced screenplay and it sets a benchmark, not only is the dialogue brilliant but the structure is perfect. Nothing seems tacked on, or indeed missing.
Christian Slater's performance (an excellent show unfairly denigrated as Jack Nicholson lite) made, and defined, his career into the 90's and it remains his best role (though Clarence, in True Romance comes close). Good as Slater is the script does him a lot of favours, how can you not establish your character well when one of your first lines is:
Kurt Kelly: Hey Ram, doesn't this cafeteria have a no fags allowed rule?
Jason Dean: (Slater) Well, they seem to have an open door policy for assholes though don't they?
Ryder is also good, aided by a screenplay that grants her more intelligence than most high school movies do their female characters she gives an often funny, multi-layered performance that she's not matched since.
It is also good to see actors playing their own age. high school films always seem filled with 20 somethings who look like they should have finished college, never mind their senior year. The casting gives another layer of authenticity to what is a very believable film (this is even more true since the films release)
Glenn Shadix also gets to have a lot of fun with a recurring cameo as the priest presiding at the various funerals in the story.
Some of the cultural references have dated badly, always a problem with 80's movies, and Big Fun and swatches are not exactly big news these days but no matter. The film has some serious points to make about suicide and it does this well while making us laugh (Veronica shooting JD's finger when he flips her off is a great moment).
This was the first feature by Michael Lehmann and what a fall from grace he had. Legendary turkey Hudson Hawk came next.
It should be noted that there has, over the years, been talk of a sequel. This may be the worst idea in history. This brilliant film ought to be left to stand alone.

Classic Scene: JD and Veronica try to decide what drink to give Heather no 1 to wake her up.

Classic Quotes:
Veronica: This may seem like a really stupid question...
J.D.: There are no stupid questions.
Veronica: You inherit 5 million dollars the same day aliens land on the earth and say they're going to blow it up in 2 days. What do you do?
J.D.: That's the stupidest question I've ever heard.

Veronica: Dear Diary, my teen-angst bullshit now has a body count.

Veronica: I just killed my best friend.
J.D.: And your worst enemy.
Veronica: Same difference.

Heather Chandler: Well, fuck me gently with a chainsaw. Do I look like Mother Theresa?

Veronica: That knife is filthy.
J.D.: What do you think I'm going to do with it, take out her tonsils?
Veronica: Excuse me, I think I know Heather a little bit better than you do. If she were going to slit her wrists, the knife would be spotless.

Principal: Now I've seen a lot of bullshit... angel dust, switchblades, sexually perverse photography involving tennis rackets...

[Cronos]

Heathers - 8/10

[TylerDurden182]

Heathers- 7/10

[SAI]

Sorry it's taken me so long to get back to this thread. I'll try and get at least three reviews written up today.

18: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
Dir: Don Siegel
Cast: Kevin McCarthy, Dana Wynter
http://www.filmfanzine.com/data/images/invasion%20of%20the%20body%20snatchersOrig.jpg

The first film version of Jack Finney's novel about the people of a small town being assimilated by aliens, becoming emotionless clones of their former selves. It is, however, not really about that. This version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers is, in common with most of the sci-fi films of the fifties, about communism. It is very easy to draw the paralell between the emotionless aliens slowly replacing the people of a small town and the very real fear in America at the time that people were covertly communists.
There have been plenty of versions of the story (the latest; Invasion, is in production as I write) as the central metaphor of the story is easily adaptable to the times but this is far and away the best version.
Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter star as the couple who discover what is going on in their town and try desperately to escape both the place and the fate of assimilation.
In any other story they'd succeed, they'd probably find out that if you kill the main alien you can kill them all and set about saving the world. This is a much bleaker story than that, there's no sense of victory, or even hope for victory, just a creeping doom which comes closer and closer as more and more characters become 'pod people'.
The end leaves us hanging as a desperate McCarthy tries to stop traffic in order to escape his fate, a bravely distressing note for the film to end on as we really come to care for McCarthy and Wynter.
Director Don Siegel's style is economical and grounds the film solidly in reality allowing the film to play brilliantly both as sci-fi thriller and contemporary allegory.

Stand out moment: The ending

Classic Lines
Dr. Miles J. Binnell: They're here already! You're next! You're next, You're next...

[Cronos]

Invasion of the Body Snatchers - 4/10

[SAI]

17: Mr Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
Dir: Frank Capra
Cast: James Stewart, Jean Arthur, Claude Rains, Edward Arnold, Harry Carey
http://www.manumilitari.net/wp-image/mrsmith.gif

Frank Capra has his detractors these days and it's true that many of his films (this one included) are spectacularly unsubtle and that some (this one not included) are overly sentimental but this wonderful film from what many have described as the single best year in the history of cinema finds Capra at his best, with a star perfectly suited to his style of filmmaking and to his role here.
James Stewart played the decent, upstanding, all-american man like nobody else (perhaps because, by all accounts, that's how he was offscreen as well) and as Jefferson Smith, a principled young man elected to the senate after the death of an incumbent, he's at his very best. In the early part of the film Stewart makes Smith's niaeveity charming and funny and come the second half he brings passion and conviction to every word he speaks in the senate, particularly in the justly celebrated fillibustering scene.
Bell voiced Jean Arthur is actually first billed and though her performance can't match Stewart's she's wonderful as his secretary who starts out cynical but is won round by Smith and his passion for his bill.
There are fine supporting performances from Claude Rains, Harry Carey (both Oscar Nominated, along with Stewart) and Edward Arnold.
In typical Capra fashion Smith plays by the rules and through passion and determination gets what he wants, defating the political manouveriongs of the corrupt politicians.
As well shot as it is acted Mr Smith Goes to Washington is intelligent, uplifiting entertainment, they truly don't make 'em like this anymore.

Standout Moment: Fillibustering

Classic Lines
Jefferson Smith: You see, boys forget what their country means by just reading The Land of the Free in history books. Then they get to be men they forget even more. Liberty's too precious a thing to be buried in books, Miss Saunders. Men should hold it up in front of them every single day of their lives and say: I'm free to think and to speak. My ancestors couldn't, I can, and my children will. Boys ought to grow up remembering that.

Jefferson Smith: You think I'm licked. You all think I'm licked. Well, I'm not licked. And I'm going to stay right here and fight for this lost cause. Even if the room gets filled with lies like these, and the Taylors and all their armies come marching into this place.

[SAI]

16: The Dreamlife of Angels (1998)
Dir: Erick Zonca
Cast: Natacha Regnier, Elodie Bouchez, Gregorie Colin
http://www.sonyclassics.com/dreamlifeofangels/images/dreamlife_poster.jpg

Isa (Bouchez) is a stranger in Lille on her first day at a new job she meets Marie (Regnier) and, having nowhere else to go, ends up staying in the flat Marie is looking after while it's owner, a car crash victim, lies in a coma.
They form a close friendship which becomes strained when Isa begins visiting the teenager in whose room she lives in hospital and Marie begins a relationship with Chriss (Colin) which becomes, for her, an obsession.
That sounds like a lot of plot there. It's not. In fact The Dreamlife of Angels is that rare beast, a truly character and dialogue driven film. Essentially it just asks us to watch people live their lives.
The key is the performances and it's a joy to report that they are absolutely fantastic. Regnier and Bouchez shared the best actress prize at Cannes '98 and it was thoruoghly deserved. Bouchez has the less showy role and she brings to life an impressively shaded character who reveals more layers on each viewing and never really provides answers to some key questions you might have about her (for example we see Marie in two relationships while Isa never strikes one up, does she want more than friendship from Marie?) It's a quietly impressive piece of acting. By contrast Regnier is allowed to let herself off the leash more, particularly in the last act of the film. Regnier's performance is a tour de force from the shy, but explosive, character of the beginning to the heartbreakingly damaged girl at the end of the film she always feels completely natural, you'd have to look very hard indeed to catch her acting at all.
Gregorie Colin also impresses as the irredeemable git Regnier develops an obsession with.
Debuting director Erick Zonca, who also wrote the film, uses a spare, almost documentary, shooting style. Only the romantic scenes between Colin and Regnier are truly cinematic but this style works perfectly for the gritty down to earth story he is telling.
The Dreamlife of Angels is an exceptional film which deserves a much bigger audience than it gets. See it if only for two of the finest pieces of acting you'll ever see.

[TylerDurden182]

Mr. Smith- 9/10

[AngelDust06]

Mr. Smith: 8/10

[SAI]

15: Heavenly Creatures (1994)
Dir: Peter Jackson
Cast: Kate Winslet, Melanie Lynskey, Sarah Pierse
http://www.art-en-stock.com/fabienne/DVD/Heavenly%20Creatures.jpg

Years before even embarking on the ludicrously overpraised Lord of the Rings trilogy Peter Jackson made this fact based film about two young girls whose obsessive friendship leads them to murder.
Heavenly Creatures is now mostly remembered for being the first leading role for Kate Winslet. Then 17 she played Juliet Hulme, the naive, sickly fantasist newly arrived in New Zeland. Juliet is still alive, she has spun the talent for storytelling that Jackson makes much of in the film into a career and is now known as Anne Perry, a prolific author of detective fiction.
The other lead was also an unknown; NZ native Melanie Lynskey, whose career has never taken off in the way Winslet's did.
Both leads are extraordinary. Winslet announces herself as a very special talent right off the bat, creating an enchanting character and allowing us to appreciate why Lynskey's Pauline becomes some attatched to Juliet. We also can see through Winslet how Juliet slips further from reality through her stories and how they mingle with her relationship with Pauline.
A more abrasive role means that Lynskey gets less audience sympathy but it's a selfless and fearless performance and one that is mesmerisingly convincing.
The girls are so closely the focus of most of the film that they take it over somewhat but Sarah Pierse makes a strong impression as Pauline's worried mother (the girls eventual victim).
Jackson brings his filmmaking style down to earth for the first time, making the period (the early 50's) setting believeable and bringing home the mundanity of the girls home lives and their need for an escape through Juliet's stories. This also applies to the murder, one of the last things we see in the film, which is horrific and quite protracted.
WETA, Jackson's effects house, recieved their first real workout on this film, creating computer generated versions of the clay figures that Juliet builds based on characters from her stories. The effects are strong and Jackson integrates fantasy and reality beautifully in a way that gives some idea of how the girls minds are working.
An exceptional film which marked Jackson's maturation as a director after his gore driven first few films Heavenly Creatures is his crowning achievement and will likely remain so.

Standout Moment: The Fourth World

Classic Lines
Juliet Hulme: Only the best people fight against all obstacles in pursuit of happiness

Juliet Hulme: All the best people have bad chests and bone diseases. It's all frightfully romantic.

Pauline Parker: [narrating] We realised why Deborah [Juliet] and I have such extraordinary telepathy and why people treat us and look at us the way they do. It is because we are MAD. We are both stark raving MAD!

Pauline Parker: [narration] The next time I write in this diary, Mother will be dead. How odd... yet how pleasing.

[Cronos]

Heavenly Creatures - 9/10

[Hannibal21]

The Last Seduction - 9/10
Heathers - 8/10
Invasion of the Body Snatchers - 9/10
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington - 10/10
Heavenly Creatures - 9/10

[SAI]

14: 12 Angry Men (1957)
Dir: Sidney Lumet
Cast: Henry Fonda, Lee J Cobb, Martin Balsam, Jack Warden
http://www.mgm.com/mgm/uk_images/box-dvd/12_ANGRY_MEN_DVD_hires.jpg

Even though it has a reputation as one of the very best films ever made it took me by surprise just how much I liked 12 Angry Men. The story is simple. In the opening seconds a Judge discharges a Jury to consider their verdict, making clear to them that it must be unanimous as if a guilty verdict is returned the young man on trial will be sent to death row. The rest of the film is then spent in the claustrophobic jury room as Juror number 8 (Fonda), the only one to vote Not Guilty at the outset, tries to win support among the other 11 jurors.
The great problem for the director (a debuting Lumet) is how to keep the film looking interesting. He finds endless angles around the table and, just when we feel we need them, allows us breaks with the foreman (Balsam) opening the door to request exhibits from the trial or a quick bathroom break. The characters are diverse and cleverly revealed, along with the evidence in the case, as the drama plays out. Fonda excels at winning not just the sympathy of his fellow jurors of but of us the audience. At the outset we have only very basic facts about the case and witnesses and Fonda appears to be reaching for ways to keep discussion going ('But it's possible' is his catchphrase in the first act of the film) but as we learn more we are swayed, probably at the same time as one of the jurors, and the tension ratchets up. Lee J Cobb matches Fonda beat for beat as Juror 3 (none are named). 3 is immediately and, it seems, irrevocably convinced that the kid is guilty. His performance becomes better and better as he clings to the straws that remain of his faith in the guilt of the defendant. The performances are uniformly excellent with other notables turns coming from a grounded Balsam, Jack Warden (who just wants to go to his baseball game), Ed Begley (whose appallingly racist monologue is one of the most memorable moments in the film, as all his fellows walk away and turn their backs to him one by one) and Joseph Sweeny as the old, but smart and observant Juror 9.
This is a spectacular film and, almost 50 years on, is as powerful and relevant as the day it was shot. I recommend highly that you see it, as soon as possible.

Standout Moment
The jurors turning their backs to Juror 10.

Classic Lines
Juror #3: You're talking about a matter of seconds. Nobody can be that accurate.
Juror #8: Well I think that testimony that can put a boy into the electric chair SHOULD be that accurate.

Juror #6: Well, I'm not used to supposin'. I'm just a workin' man. My boss does all the supposin' - but I'll try one. Supposin' you talk us all out of this and, uh, the kid really did knife his father?

Juror #8: It's very hard to keep personal prejudice out of a thing like this. And no matter where you run into it, prejudice obscures the truth. Well, I don't think any real damage has been done here. Because I don't really know what the truth is. No one ever will, I suppose. Nine of us now seem to feel that the defendant is innocent, but we're just gambling on probabilities. We may be wrong. We may be trying to return a guilty man to the community. No one can really know. But we have a reasonable doubt, and this is a safeguard which has enormous value to our system. No jury can declare a man guilty unless it's SURE. We nine can't understand how you three are still so sure. Maybe you can tell us.

[SAI]

13: The Last Picture Show (1971)
Dir: Peter Bogdanovich
Cast: Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepherd,
Ben Johnson, Cloris Leachman, Ellen Burstyn
http://www.mvps.org/st-software/Movie_Collection/images/4700f.jpg

When this, his second major film, opened Peter Bogdanovich got a phone call from a colleague who suggested he sit down. He then proceeded to read Bogdanovich a review that called The Last Picture Show the best film by an American director since Citizen Kane.
That means less to me as I find Kane rather overrated but it gives some idea of just how great this film is.
Covering a year [1952] in the life of the small town of Abilene, Texas The Last Picture Show isn't a film of earth shaking events, instead it finds drama in the everyday interactions of normal people; teenagers, their parents and older people.
For the film Bogdanovich assembled one of the finest ensemble casts ever seen. Between them the cast netted 4 Oscar nominations and two wins. It's almosst ludicrous to try and pick standout performances as everyone is brilliant. The Oscar winners were the veterans; Ben Johnson won in a small supporting role as Sam the Lion and Cloris Leachman won for a hugely moving performance as Ruth Popper, the wife of the high school basketball coach whose desperate loneliness leads her to an affair with one of his students.
Cybill Shepherd hasn't done anything of note in years but a couple of early performances suggested that she's a real talent, this is one of them. As the high school beauty Jacy she's scheming and manipulative, but sexy enough that you can see why her various suitors are chasing her. Particularly excellent is the scene where she and Jeff Bridges have taken to a hotel room to lose their virginity. Bridges is also excellent in his first really notable role as the high school jock who doesn't really know what he's going to do after high school ends.
Bogdanovich creates an immediate sense of period by shooting in black and white and keeps things stylistacally sedate, letting the performances do the work.
It's not short and moves slowly and the lack of big events may leave some audiences cold but with a script and perfromances that ring true throughout and Bogdanovich's sure handed direction I think it's a masterpiece.

Standout Moment
The sex scene between Ruth Popper (Leachman) and her young lover (Bottoms)

Classic Lines
Sam the Lion: If she was here I'd probably be just as crazy now as I was then in about 5 minutes. Ain't that ridiculous?... Naw, it ain't really. 'Cause being crazy about a woman like her is always the right thing to do. Being an old decrepit bag of bones, that's what's ridiculous.

Duane Jackson: I'll see you in a year or two if I don't get shot.

Jacy Farrow: [to Duane, as they're leaving motel room after having sex] Oh, quit prissing. I don't think you done it right, anyway.

[Cronos]

12 Angry Men - 8/10

[TylerDurden182]

12 Angry Men- 9/10
Last Picture Show- 8/10

[Hannibal21]

12 Angry Men - 9.5
The Last Picture Show - 10

Both landmarks.

And on a sidenote, I've noticed in the '2006 Movie Journal' thread that you gave 'Some Like it Hot' a 5/5. Well, is it a new addition to your top 100?

[SAI]

I don't revise the list film by film (it probably WILL go in next time I do a revision though). Aside from a few little changes this is the list I came up with last year, I'll probably do a big revision in the summer.

[SAI]

12: Se7en
Dir: David Fincher
Cast: Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kevin Spacey
http://us.movies1.yimg.com/movies.yahoo.com/images/hv/photo/movie_pix/new_line_cinema/seven/_group_photos/brad_pitt4.jpg

I've always loved police procedurals and the upper reaches of this list feature the the two finest examples of the genre.
Se7en surprised me on so many levels. First there's the obvious; the utterly brilliant screenplay by Andrew Kevin Walker. The concept is pretty simple, it is the way in which Walker orchestrates each of the films murders, each time twisting what you might expect, which makes the film work. Se7en came out at around the same time as The Usual Suspects and as they both shared Kevin Spaxey and a jaw dropping twist in the tail were often spoken about in the same breath. The twist in Se7en is among the best I've seen. I've seen the film, at a conservative estimate, 10 times, and still that moment shakes me, still I hope it will turn out differently.
Walker's characters are excellent and served well by a high quality cast. Brad Pitt had done 12 Monkeys but all I'd seen him in was Thelma and Louise and his performance here blew the pretty boy image apart and revealed a superb actor clearly relishing a chance at part that allowed him to stretch his acting muscles.
Pitts nervous energy is balanced by a quiet and authoritative performance from Morgan Freeman. Freeman's performance may seem less impressive to an audience coming new to the film now but that's because all he's really done since is play variations on Detective Somerset.
Kevin Spacey is barely in the film, he's got about 15 or 20 minutes of screentime and still creates an unforgettable, utterly real and deeply scary villain.
David Fincher directs with a down and dirty feel for the crimes and the city but also knows how to create an image, there are moments of unexpected beauty (the library sequence) and memorable shots galore (Victor).
I loved Se7en when I first saw it and my affection and admiration for it grows with each viewing.

Classic Moment
So very many. Some personal faves include...
Waking up Victor
The Box
John Doe giving himself up

Classic Lines
John Doe: A woman... so ugly on the inside she couldn't bear to go on living if she couldn't be beautiful on the outside. A drug dealer, a drug dealing pederast, actually! And let's not forget the disease-spreading whore! Only in a world this shitty could you even try to say these were innocent people and keep a straight face. But that's the point. We see a deadly sin on every street corner, in every home, and we tolerate it. We tolerate it because it's common, it's trivial. We tolerate it morning, noon, and night. Well, not anymore. I'm setting the example. What I've done is going to be puzzled over and studied and followed... forever.

David Mills: Fuckin' Dante... poetry-writing faggot! Piece of shit, motherfucker!

John Doe: Realize detective, the only reason that I'm here right now is that I wanted to be.
David Mills: No, no, we would have got you eventually.
John Doe: Oh really? So, what were you doing? Biding your time? Toying with me? Allowing five innocent people to die until you felt like springing your trap? Tell me, what was the indisputable evidence you were going to use on me right before I walked up to you and put my hands in the air?

David Mills: I've been trying to figure something in my head, and maybe you can help me out, yeah? When a person is insane, as you clearly are, do you know that you're insane? Maybe you're just sitting around, reading "Guns and Ammo", masturbating in your own feces, do you just stop and go, "Wow! It is amazing how fucking crazy I really am!"? Yeah. Do you guys do that?

William Somerset: Ernest Hemingway once wrote, "The world is a fine place and worth fighting for." I agree with the second part.

[SAI]

11: Breakfast At Tiffany's
Dir: Blake Edwards
Cast: Audrey Hepburn, George Peppard, Patricia Neal
http://www.acclaimposters.com/_gallery/large/10101730.jpg

Holly Golightly (Hepburn) is a high class escort living in New York. She meets writer Paul Varjak (Peppard) as he is moving in to the apartment above her and, over time, they become interested in each other. The course of true love doesn't run smooth though as relics from Holly's past (Ebsen) and others offering a possible future (Villalonga) get in the way of Paul's pursuit of her.
Audrey Hepburn was nominated for an Oscar (her fourth nod, she won only on her first)) as Holly Golightly and, unlike so many today, she earnt that recognition. In Holly she created not only an enduring fashion icon but an indelible, and massively enjoyable, screen character. Hepburn is utterly delightful in the role, her distinctive voice doing George Axelrod's fine script real justice. She appears to be having fun and it is infectious, we get swept through the film by Holly and thus come to really care for her. The thing that makes it more than just a fun performance into something really special are the hints of the darker side to Holly, her speech about 'the mean reds' and other hints that she's probably rather damaged.
George Peppard can't have had to act very much, his main role is to be in love with Hepburn and the delightful character combined with her jaw dropping beauty mean that it's easy for us to see why he would be. Let this take nothing away from Peppard though as he gives a fine and funny performance.
Point of fact the whole cast turns in top class work, except for Mickey Rooney. Rooney is insultingly cast as an offensively stereotyped Japanese upstairs neighbour of Holly and the slapstick scenes involving him are cringemaking. Put it in the context of the time it was made and it is more explicable why he's here, but no more excusable. That said Rooney's role is small enough that it takes nothing away from the film
Blake Edwards directs well, contributing several moments that have become iconic in cinema. Even people who don't know this film have probably seen Hepburn with her hair up and that massively long cigarette holder. The film has also been endlessly referenced in other films, look again at the end of Four Weddings And A Funeral and tell me Mike Newell isn't a fan.
The script, while it's never massively surprising, is wonderfully well written with sparklingly good dialogue for both Hepburn (As Miss Golightly was saying before she was so rudely interrupted...) and Peppard (So what? So plenty) but its indisputible highlight comes midway through when Paul and Holly embark on a day of doing things they've never done before. In that sequence you really feel and root for their connection.
I could write much much more about how great this film is but I'll leave it at this: You should see Breakfast At Tiffany's because you'll leave the film happier than you came to it.

Classic Scene: So many. Two in particular leap to mind.
Moon River: Very simple, just Holly sitting on the fire escape strumming a guitar and singing Henry Mancini's famous song (which he said he wrote specifically for Hepburn). Audrey Hepburn sings it herself, she wasn't a great singer but Holly doesn't have to be and the scene is full of emotion, despite its simplicity.
Things we've never done: Holly and Paul spend a day running around town doing things they've never done before. It's a sequence that starts out funny and ends up gloriously romantic, with the first kiss.

Classic Lines:
Holly Golightly: I'm like cat here, a no-name slob. We belong to nobody, and nobody belongs to us. We don't even belong to each other.

Holly Golightly: I'll tell you one thing, Fred, darling... I'd marry you for your money in a minute. Would you marry me for my money?
Paul Varjak: In a minute.
Holly Golightly: I guess it's pretty lucky neither of us is rich, huh?
Paul Varjak: Yeah.

Holly Golightly: Thursday! It can't be! It's too gruesome!
Paul Varjak: What's so gruesome about Thursday?
Holly Golightly: Nothing, except I can never remember when it's coming up.

Holly Golightly: You know those days when you get the mean reds?
Paul Varjak: The mean reds, you mean like the blues?
Holly Golightly: No. The blues are because you're getting fat and maybe it's been raining too long, you're just sad that's all. The mean reds are horrible. Suddenly you're afraid and you don't know what you're afraid of. Do you ever get that feeling?
Paul Varjak: Sure.
Holly Golightly: Well, when I get it the only thing that does any good is to jump in a cab and go to Tiffany's. Calms me down right away. The quietness and the proud look of it; nothing very bad could happen to you there. If I could find a real-life place that'd make me feel like Tiffany's, then - then I'd buy some furniture and give the cat a name!

Paul Varjak: You know what's wrong with you, Miss Whoever-you-are? You're chicken, you've got no guts. You're afraid to stick out your chin and say, "Okay, life's a fact, people do fall in love, people do belong to each other, because that's the only chance anybody's got for real happiness." You call yourself a free spirit, a "wild thing," and you're terrified somebody's gonna stick you in a cage. Well baby, you're already in that cage. You built it yourself. And it's not bounded in the west by Tulip, Texas, or in the east by Somali-land. It's wherever you go. Because no matter where you run, you just end up running into yourself.

Holly Golightly: It should take you exactly four seconds to cross from here to that door. I'll give you two.

Paul Varjak: I love you.
Holly Golightly: So what.
Paul Varjak: So what? So plenty!

[Cronos]

Se7en - 10/10
Breakfast At Tiffanys - 9/10 (i love this film more and more every time i see it)

[TylerDurden182]

Se7en- 10/10
Breakfast- 8/10

[SAI]

We're into the home stretch at last and a recent set of rewatches has forced me to rejig the list.

10: Bringing Up Baby (1938)
Dir: Howard Hawks
Cast: Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn
http://www-leland.stanford.edu/~brooksie/Stars/bubaby.JPG

It is hard to fathom now but in 1938 Bringing Up Baby crashed and burned at the box office. It was the latest in a string of flops for star Katharine Hepburn and led to her labelling as 'box office poison' (a label she'd triumphantly escape two years later in The Philadelphia Story).
Baby is a madcap screwball romantic comedy. The main thrust of the story concerns an heiress (Hepburn) who falls in love with a paleontologist (Grant) who is to be married the next day, she goes to ever more outlandish lengths to keep him around her. Also wrapped up in the story are a lost dinosaur bone and a lost leopard (the titular Baby). Grant and Hepburn had previously worked together in a drama; Sylvia Scarlet but Baby was the first of their three classic comedies together and allowed both stars to play against type.
As the paleontologist Grant abandons his usual suave, charming, handsome persona. Hidden behind glasses and with a character who is constantly flustered and seldom allowed to finish a sentence by either his fiance or Hepburn's heiress the Cary Grant persona vanishes and a different, but equally brilliant and memorable, creation appears.
Hepburn hadn't really done comedy on film up to this point and she shows wonderful facility for it, her distinctive voice gives the script's already brilliant dialogue added bite and she shows off beautiful comic timing and excellent physical comedy skills.
The two performances individually are wonderful but as a double act it is just sublime.
The ultimate test of comedy is, i suppose, how much and how hard it makes you laugh. Bringing Up Baby is, for me, the funniest pure comedy film ever made. The physical routines, such as the almost balletic scene where Grant has to use his hat to cover the fact that the back has come off Hepburn's dress, are masterful, drawn out just enough to heighten step by step the absurdity of the situation but never going on too long and allowing us to be bored. The dialogue too is uproariously funny, with Hepburn getting, and relishing, most of the best lines.
There's a strong supporting cast too with May Robson the standout as Hepburn's aunt.
With his film set in just a few locations and most scenes being quite long Howard Hawks direction could easily be stagey but he keeps things interesting and scores a few laughs simply through his contributions (a well placed cut here and there).
Remarkably for a film that, in two years time, celebrates its 70th birthday Bringing Up Baby has barely dated and that's because jokes like this really are timeless. This film is an utter joy, an one that I love more as time goes on.

Classic Moments
Hepburn's dress tearing: At the end of an already hysterically funny scene this beautifully carried off piece of verbal and physical comedy demonstrates the wonderful timing of both stars and director.

Cross Dressing Cary: Grant gets one of the funniest lines in the film, clad in Hepburn's dressing gown.

The police station: Hepburn's hillarious spoof of a gangsters moll.

Classic Lines
David Huxley: Now it isn't that I don't like you, Susan, because, after all, in moments of quiet, I'm strangely drawn toward you, but - well, there haven't been any quiet moments.

Susan Vance: You mean you want me to go home?
David Huxley: Yes.
Susan Vance: You mean you don't want me to help you any more?
David Huxley: No.
Susan Vance: After all the fun we've had?
David Huxley: Yes.
Susan Vance: And after all the things I've done for you?
David Huxley: That's what I mean.

Susan Vance: Well, don't you worry, David, because if there's anything that I can do to help you, just let me know and I'll do it.
David Huxley: Well, er - don't do it until I let you know.

[last lines]
Susan Vance: Oh, David, can you ever forgive me?
David Huxley: I... I... I...
Susan Vance: You can! And you still love me.
David Huxley: Susan, that... that...
Susan Vance: You do. Oh, David.
David Huxley: Oh, dear. Oh, my.

Did You Know?
Susan pretends that she and David (Cary Grant) are gangsters. The underworld nickname she gives police for David is "Jerry the Nipper", a nickname that Jerry (Grant) had in The Awful Truth (1937). David protests to the police, "Officer, she's making it up from motion pictures she's seen!"

The theatrical trailer is made up mostly of unused alternate takes of the scenes in the film. For instance, in the take used in the trailer, Grant doesn't jerk downward when Hepburn rips his coat like he does in the take used in the movie.

Katharine Hepburn was generally fearless around the young leopard Nissa who played "Baby" and even enjoyed petting it. Cary Grant was less fond of the big cat and a double was used in the scenes where his character and the leopard had to make contact.

[TylerDurden182]

Bringing Up Baby- 7/10

[Hannibal21]

Se7en - 8/10
Breakfast at Tiffany's - 9.5/10
Bringing Up Baby - 10/10

[SAI]

9: The Princess Bride (1987)
Dir: Rob Reiner
Cast: Cary Elwes, Robin Wright, Mandy Patinkin,
Andre the Giant, Wallace Shawn
http://au.i1.yimg.com/movies.aunz.yimg.com/2005/photos/main/32471.jpg

One of my fondest memories of childhood is how, every night, my Mother would read stories to my Brother and I. Mum really knew how to make a story come alive, she'd even have different voices for each character. Perhaps that's why I connected so immediately and so strongly with The Princess Bride.
William Goldman's original novel had a brilliant conceit; he presented it as an edited version of an existing book the way he remembered his father reading it to him. In the film Fred Savage (who, though he's never given a name we can take to be Goldman) is read the story by his grandfather (Peter Falk) and the reading comes to life before our eyes.
At its heart The Princess Bride is (as the title would imply). It is a story of beautiful damsels in distress (Wright), dashing heores (Elwes), the search for revenge (Patinkin's), Giants (Andre) and dastardly villains (Christopher Guest and Chris Sarandon). From first frame to last it is utterly and unfailingly enchanting.
Robin Wright is Texan. I have to remind myself of that every time I write about The Princess Bride (which, frankly, I do more often than is perhaps healthy). As Buttercup she's perfectly cast. Ravishingly beautiful, graceful, and with an English accent so good you'd never imagine she's not a native.
Cary Elwes never really capitalised on his stunning performance here. After playing Westly he should have become the new Errol Flynn, instead he's floundered. That's sad but shouldn't take anything away from him here. As the swashbuckling hero Elwes proves as adept with a quip ('you seem a decent fellow, I hate to die') as he is with a sword.
Ah yes, the swords. Midway into the film is the single greatest swordfight ever put on film. It's stunningly coreographed, varied, exciting, funny and it is performed entirely by Elwes and Mandy Patinkin. The legendary Hollywood swordfight co-ordinator Bob Anderson worked on both this and the frankly awesome sequence at the end of Errol Flynn's Robin Hood and this is his best work.
I could spend acres of print eulogising each and every cast member; suffice it to say that this is that rare film where not a single role seems like it could have been better cast. Special mention is, however, due the often undervalued contributions of Chris Sarandon as the evil Prince Humperdink and Christopher Guest as his right hand slimeball Count Rugen. Sarandon chomps scenery, relishing his every bastardly one liner and both manage to be really hissable villains at the same time as being funny. Also worth noting is an uproarious cameo from Peter Cook as the Bishop who is to marry Humperdink and Buttercup.
As well as being funny the script is surprisingly affecting, you really root for Buttercup and Westly, you want desperately for Inigo to find the six fingered man and tell him 'Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die'.
Tellingly Goldman and Reiner have only approached such brilliance once each since and that's with Misery on which they both worked but even if neither ever produces anything of worth again The Princess Bride stands as one of the most perfect comdies, one of the most perfect adventures and probably the best fairytale ever filmed.

Classic Moments
The Swordfight

'To the pain': A brillaintly understated way to defeat the villain. Unexpected and hillarious.

Battle of wits: Wallace Shawn's Vizzini is another of the film's great creations and this sublime piece of comic writing is his best moment.


Classic Lines
Westley: I told you I would always come for you. Why didn't you wait for me?
Buttercup: Well... you were dead.
Westley: Death cannot stop true love. All it can do is delay it for a while.

[Buttercup kisses the senile King]
The King: What was that for?
Buttercup: Because you have always been so kind to me, and I won't be seeing you again since I'm killing myself once we reach the honeymoon suite.
The King: Won't that be nice. She kissed me.

[Vizzini has just cut the rope The Dread Pirate Roberts is climbing up]
Vizzini: HE DIDN'T FALL? INCONCEIVABLE.
Inigo Montoya: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

Count Rugen: Ah. Are you coming down into the pit? Wesley's got his strength back. I'm starting him on the machine tonight.
Prince Humperdinck: [sincerely] Tyrone, you know how much I love watching you work, but I've got my country's 500th anniversary to plan, my wedding to arrange, my wife to murder and Guilder to frame for it; I'm swamped.

Vizzini:...You fell victim to one of the classic blunders! The most famous is never get involved in a land war in Asia, but only slightly less well-known is this: never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha - [Vizzini stops suddenly, and falls dead to the right]

[as Buttercup prepares to commit suicide with a dagger]
Westley: There's a shortage of perfect breasts in this world. It would be a pity to damage yours.


Did You Know?
The Fencing Masters that Inigo and Wesley talk about studying are all real fencing masters from the 14th to 16th centuries (although the styles of fighting they are using have little to do with what those masters actually taught).

Director Rob Reiner left the set during Billy Crystal's scenes because he would laugh so hard that he would become nauseous.

Most of the movie was filmed on location in England. The castle used for the film dated back to 1065 and had original tapestries on the walls.

While shooting scenes on top of a high grassy slope, Cary Elwes broke his toe. Andre couldn't walk up those hills, which was a huge slab, so he drove a rented, small four-wheeler and threw Elwes the keys to try it. Elwes went over a rock and the rock got caught in between his toes and the pedal, crushing his toe. He couldn't delay the shoot and thus shot his scene. In the film, you can see him limping when he's running into the swamp. Costume designer Phyllis Dalton made a special shoe for him.

[TylerDurden182]

The Princess Bride- 9/10

[AngelDust06]

Princess Bride - 8/10

[SAI]

8: The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Dir: Jonathan Demme
Cast: Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Scott Glenn,
Ted Levine, Brooke Smith
http://www.geocities.com/maewza/hanbill/Silence-of-the-Lambs.jpg

The Silence Of The Lambs is one of just three films ever to win all five of the main Oscars (Best Picture, Actor, Actress, Screenplay and Director). I'm not a big Oscar fan, particularly in the last five years they have become more about politics than merit, so it is good to be able to say that this is a film that truly deserves all the awards and accolades heaped upon it.
The greatest achievement of The Silence Of The Lambs is to be a brilliant example of many genres of cinema. It works as a horror film, a thriller, a police procedural and a character piece. The main reason this film is so stunning is the performances, Anthony Hopkins is given the most credit but of the three leads his performance is (while excellent) far from the best.
The Silence Of The Lambs belongs to Jodie Foster, she's possibly the finest actress of her generation and here she is at her very best. The part of Clarice Starling is not a showy one, there are few big acting moments of the type that usually win awards but Foster's quiet, considered Starling is utterly compelling and believable. Her best moments come in her scenes with Anthony Hopkins, it is in these scenes, as she reveals herself to Lecter, that we see the vulnerability of the character. Foster is more willing to play this trait than you might imagine the other people considered for the role would have been (Michelle Pfeiffer was in the frame for a long time but turned the film down because it was too violent) and it is this that really humanises Starling for us, had we not seen that vulnerability she would have been a simple, stereotypical heroine.
Hopkins, too, is brilliant. Rather than the showboating hammery that marred Red Dragon and Hannibal Hopkins gives a restrained and extremely frightening performance. The performance is exemplified by the first time we see Hopkins, he stands in the middle of his cell, seemingly waiting for Starling. The one point that Hopkins does push the boat out a shade too far is the famous lip smacking finish to the line "I ate his liver with some fava beans, and a nice chianti." It doesn't damage the performance but after the endless parodies it can not be denied that this moment comes off as more comic than chilling. This though is the sole chink in Hopkins armour, the rest of his performance is utterly chilling and the one moment of violence we see is very shocking.
Perhaps because he won no awards the contribution of Scott Glenn to this film is often forgotten. He brings real credibility to the role of Jack Crawford and the mere fact that we can buy the fact that he dominates a character as strong as Starling is a testament to how good he is. As well as the much noted chemistry between Lecter and Starling there is an undeniable, yet largely unmentioned frisson between Crawford and Starling. Glenn's performance is a masterclass in playing a supporting role and he too should really have been recognised by the academy.
It is not often remembered that this film is not really about Hannibal Lecter, it is about Buffalo Bill and Ted Levine is terrifying in the role. Bill is one of the most credible and frightening serial killers yet seen on film (elements of Bills modus operandi were drawn from real killers Ed Gein, Ted Bundy and Gary Heidnik). It was important that Bill was frightening, as the climax of the film would not work if we didn't feel he was a real danger.
Before this film Jonathan Demme had made Something Wild and Married To The Mob, both pretty good films, but nothing that suggested the tone, or the quality of Silence Of The Lambs. His direction is brilliant, always maintaining the tension in the Starling/Lecter scenes, mainly through extensive use of close ups, then pulling back to lend a realistic feel to the action centred around the FBI. Demme's greatest directorial flourish comes with the final scene of the film when the action is plunged into darkness and we are lent a privileged view through night vision goggles worn by Buffalo Bill. This is a masterpiece of a suspense/horror scene truly terrifying and nailbiting.
Though the film straddles many genres it is a rather atypical example of most of those genres, though this is a horror film rather than going for the 'boo' type scares of slasher films Demme opted to weave the scares throughout the film, there are few jumps, but always a creepy atmosphere which adds up to make The Silence Of The Lambs a deeply scary experience.


Classic Moments
Searching for Bill: Starling alone in the dark in Buffalo Bill's house, being stalked by a killer in night vision goggles, nail-biting just doesn't do it justice.


Classic Lines
Hannibal Lecter: Now then, tell me. What did Miggs say to you? Multiple Miggs in the next cell. He hissed at you. What did he say?
Clarice Starling: He said, "I can smell your cunt."
Hannibal Lecter: I see. I myself cannot. You use Evian skin cream, and sometimes you wear L'Air du Temps, but not today.

Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb: It rubs the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again.

Clarice Starling: If you didn't kill him, then who did, sir?
Hannibal Lecter: Who can say. Best thing for him, really. His therapy was going nowhere

Hannibal Lecter: [on telephone] I do wish we could chat longer, but... I'm having an old friend for dinner. Bye.

Hannibal Lecter: Why do you think he removes their skins, Agent Starling? Enthrall me with your acumen.
Clarice Starling: It excites him. Most serial killers keep some sort of trophies from their victims.
Hannibal Lecter: I didn't.
Clarice Starling: No. No, you ate yours.


Did You Know?
Gene Hackman bought the rights to "The Silence of the Lambs" and was planning to direct the film as well as taking on the role of Jack Crawford , but he withdrew after watching a clip of himself in Mississippi Burning (1988) at the The 61st Annual Academy Awards, which made him uneasy about taking more violent roles. When Jonathan Demme took over as director, he offered the role of Clarice first to Michelle Pfeiffer and also to Meg Ryan.

John Hurt was considered for the role of Hannibal Lector.

[Cronos]

Princess Bride - 8/10
Silence Of The Lambs - 10/10

[TylerDurden182]

Silence- 9/10

[SAI]

The sole tie. Two movies that I love equally and couldn't imagine watching apart from one another.

7: Before Sunrise (1995) / Before Sunset (2004)
Dir: Richard Linklater
Cast: Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke
http://pulp.bluecircus.net/archives/05.jpg

http://us.movies1.yimg.com/movies.yahoo.com/images/hv/photo/movie_pix/warner_independent/before_sunset/_group_photos/ethan_hawke20.jpg

Sunrise
It’s that old, old story. Boy (Hawke) meets Girl (Delpy), Boy and Girl get off the train together in a city (Vienna, this movie’s third star) neither of them know, Boy and Girl spend the day walking around and talking and begin falling in love, Boy loses Girl… maybe.
Before Sunrise was the third film by Richard Linklater and, coming after Dazed and Confused, hardly the film that most people expected him to make next.
Ordinarily I'd find a 90 minute romantic film in which our two protagonists spend almost all their time walking around and talking would be as enticing as a trip to the dentist but a few things really make Before Sunrise work.
First among these are two fantastic pieces of acting from Delpy and Hawke. I defy any red blooded male not to fall in love with Celine during the film, she’s enchanting; beautiful, intelligent, funny but Delpy is too smart an actress to make her a simple male fantasy of a French girl they may meet on holiday (even commenting on this at a pivotal moment). The performance is multi-layered and so natural that it is hard to catch Delpy acting at all.
Hawke is just as impressive. His is the funnier role but also the more philosophical and his performance is just as intricate as Delpy’s, he too makes his character Jesse feel completely real. These people have flaws and distinct voices in a way that we don’t often see in films like this.
Another great strength is the dialogue, it’s never less than interesting and never feels forced, indeed it barely feels written. Many topics are covered in this night we spend with the characters, from politics to religion to sex and many exchanges stick in the mind, in partiular Celine’s fear that men invented feminism so they could sleep around more and a charming scene in which both pretend to phone friends back home to talk about this meeting.
Surprisingly for a film so heavy and so reliant on dialogue it is in a silent scene that Before Sunrise has its most effective and indelible moment as Jesse and Celine, still only having known each other for, perhaps, a couple of hours listen to a record in a store listening booth. In a few beautifully underplayed moments we learn all we need to know about how these characters are feeling, without words.
Vienna is a stunning setting both in the early evening and as we go through the night and Linklater handles the camera beautifully and his direction and editing are unobtrusive, as they should be.
Before Sunrise is a brilliant film, a perfect date movie that both people should find rewarding.

Sunset
It is (at the time of writing) 10 years since Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke spent a summer in Vienna making Before Sunrise, the best romantic film of the 90’s.
Before Sunset picks up the characters of Celine and Jesse in summer 2003 in Paris, their first meeting since Vienna, some nine years earlier.
When this film was announced I thought it highly unnessecary; Sunrise is as near perfect as any film I've seen and has a wonderful ending that let its audience finish the story (and this is addressed in the film) and so it is a joy to report that this is niether a cynical exercise in filmmaking nor merely a retread of old ground. Before Sunset as good a film as its predecessor.
Jesse and Celine’s meeting is engineered by the fact that he is on tour promoting a book based on that night in Vienna and she shows up to see him in Paris (where she now lives). 9 years have passed since they last met and their initial conversation as they walk round Paris, filling the few minutes before Jesse must leave for the airport, is tentative and trivial but they fast come around to the ending of the previous film and the question of whether they were in Vienna to meet six months later as they had arranged. One of them was.
The two soon become comfortable again and the structure of Sunset is much like that of Sunrise, a series of conversations between two interesting people we can really identify with and it is here that the key strength of this film becomes clear; These characters have CHANGED.
Sequels today are generally horrible, the same set of people thrown into a new adventure, hitting the same beats as before but usualy bigger, better (?), louder, faster. Sunset differs here, while Jesse and Celine are still recognisably the people they were in Sunrise the tone of their conversation has changed, they are less blindly optimistic, less naïve, in short they have grown up.
This is also reflected in the things they talk about; post 9/11 politics, sex, age, death and most crucially Jesse’s unhappy marriage (“I feel like I’m running a small creche with somone I used to date” he says).
The film plays out in real time and this, even more than in Sunrise, gives an audience the sensation of being voyeuristic, of peering into the lives of real people. Of course this sense is only possible because of masterful acting by Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke. It would be impossible, ludicrous, to say that one of them is better than the other as each performance is flawless to the point that it is hard to think of what you are seeing as acting, so natural does it seem. The scene that should net both Oscar nominations comes near the end of the picture in a car. The two are nearing the end of their time together and they have what is both their first real argument and their most intense and intimate conversation. Jesse’s admission of imagining Celine in his dreams and her reaching out to touch him and then pulling away is a moment as beautiful and resonant as any in Sunrise (or any other film you care to name).
The ending of the film is wonderful. Rather than the mindset I had at the end of Sunrise which was to want to finish the story myself it is really my hope now that Linklater will revisit these characters again. It is so rare to find ONE character as well defined, as easy to empathise with and as real as these in a film and it would be a shame if these two were left on the shelf when there is much story left to tell.

These are great films, wonderfully romatic and among the easiest to identify with I've ever seen. Watch them with someone you love.


Classic Moments

Sunrise
Phoning Home
In one of the sweetest moments of a film overflowing with them Jesse and Celine are sitting in a cafe when she announces that she's going to ring her best friend. She then abruptly starts making a 'ring, ring' noise and telling Jesse to pick up. They take turns, Jesse playing Celine's friend and vice versa and allow themselves to say things they've not felt able to up to that point.
It's funny, it's touching and it's gloriously romantic. What's not to love?

Listening Booth
The single most resonant moment in the film. There's not one among us who hasn't been in this situation of checking out another person while trying not to get caught.

Sunset
Car Ride
Jesse has a plane to catch and he's already cutting it close but in order to spend more time with her asks his driver to take Celine back to her home first.
In the car the masks both have been wearing for the past hour slip. Celine relates how she feels she can't have a successful relationship because she thinks she left a lot of her romanticism behind in Vienna that morning. Jesse talks about his dreams about Celine, and about thinking he saw her on the way to his wedding and then, in the indelible image of this pair of films, Celine reaches out to touch him, but pulls away unseen. A tiny piece of acting, but one that makes the film.


Classic Lines

Sunrise
Jesse: I know happy couples... but I think they lie to each other!

Celine: I used to think that if none of your family or friends knew you were dead, it was like not really being dead. People can invent the best and the worst for you.

Celine: You know, I have this awful paranoid thought that feminism was mostly invented by men so that they could like, fool around a little more.

Jesse: Everybody's parents fucked them up. Rich kids parents gave them too much. Poor kids, not enough. You know, too much attention, not enough attention. They either left them or they stuck around and taught them the wrong things.

Jesse: You know what's the worst thing about somebody breaking up with you? Is when you remember how little you thought about the people you broke up with and you realize that is how little they're thinking of you. You know, you'd like to think you're both in all this pain but they're just like 'Hey, I'm glad you're gone'.

Sunset
Celine: Do I look any different?
[long pause]
Celine: I do?
Jesse: I'd have to see you naked.

Jesse: [describing how she looks different] Skinnier, I think. A little thinner.
Celine: Did you think I was fat before?
Jesse: [laughing] No!
Celine: Yeah, you thought I was a fatty. No, you thought I was a fatty! Yeah, you, you wrote a book about a fat French girl!
Jesse: No, listen...
Celine: [laughing] Oh, no...
Jesse: Seriously, all right, you look beautiful.

Jesse: At least now we don't have to pretend that each new sexual experience is a life-altering event.
Celine: I know. By now, you know, you've stuck it in so many places, it's like about to fall off.
Jesse: Yeah, you know, and I can't realistically expect that you've become anything but a total ho, at this point.

Celine: The concept is absurd. The idea that we can only be complete with another person is evil! Right?

Jesse: [On his marriage]: I feel like I'm running a small nursery with someone I used to date.

Jesse: In the months leading up to my wedding, I was thinking about you all the time. I mean, even on my way there; I'm in the car, a buddy of mine is driving me downtown and I'm staring out the window, and I think I see you, not far from the church, right? Folding up an umbrella and walking into a deli on the corner of 13th and Broadway. And I thought I was going crazy, but now I think it probably was you.
Celine: I lived on 11th and Broadway.

[TylerDurden182]

Both are 8's

[SAI]

6: Toy Story 2 (1999)
Dir: John Lasseter / Ash Brannon / Lee Unkrich
Cast: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Wayne Knight,
Kelsey Grammer
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000B8QG0O.01._PE30_.Toy-Story-2-2Disc-Special-Edition._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

Sequels are easy; redo the original just MORE so but this is hardly condusive to great filmmaking. Disney have done more than most in the last few years to sully the perception of sequels, churning out sub par follow ups to most the films in their catalogue including the much beloved likes of The Jungle Book and Bambi.
Toy Story 2 was supposed to be a direct to video money spinner, 65 minutes of cash in. There was a twist in the tale though when Disney saw some work in progress, so bowled over were they that they upped the requested running time to 90 minutes and prepared Toy Story 2 for cinema release.
I had loved Toy Story from the first time I saw it and was in a preview audience for the sequel as well. It was simply astonishing, not only had Pixar attained the lofty standard they had set themselves with the first film but they'd actually made a better film.
While the first film saw cowboy doll Woody (Hanks) coming to terms with the arrival of space toy Buzz (Allen) and then rescuing him this second installment reverses the roles when Woody is stolen by a toy collector and Buzz has to save him. The story is deeper than that of the first film as it explores the ultimate fate of any toy; abandonment by children who grow up. While this never diminshes the comedy it does make this a film that engages more emotionally than the first.
Just as before Tom Hanks and Tim Allen are perfect as Buzz and Woody but Allen again steals the acting honours doing two versions of Buzz and making each a wonderfully funny and engaging piece of characterisation. The new cast members are also excellent with Joan Cusack playing both comedy and pathos beautifully.
The in jokes come thick and fast with some brilliant spoofing of sci-fi classics in the sequences with Buzz's arch enemy; Zurg and a self-reflexive joke about merchadising, delivered by Barbie, proving highlights.
Simply put everything works. The comedy is funny, the action is brilliantly carried off and exciting and the serious elements are played with skill and conviction by both cast and animators.
The key to the success of Pixar is that they never seem impressed solely by their (breahtaking) technology and always weld it to a strong story, one which would work whichever medium it was told in. Toy Story 2 is their high watermark but if anyone can meet or beat it then it's Pixar.


Classic Moments
The Toy Shop: A cavalcade of in jokes which also gives us the film's most entertaining character; a freshly opened Buzz who still thinks he's really a spaceman.

Classic Lines
Barbie: And this is the Buzz Lightyear aisle. Back in 1995, short-sighted retailers did not order enough dolls to meet demand.

Mrs. Potato Head: [to Mr. Potato Head] I'm packing your extra pair of shoes, and your angry eyes just in case.

Jessie: You never forget kids like Emily or Andy, but they forget you.

Buzz Lightyear: You killed my father.
Emperor Zurg: No Buzz, I am your father.

Ham: Excuse me. Could any of you ladies tell us where we can find the Al of Al's Toy Barn?
Tour guide Barbie: I can. I'm Tour Guide Barbie. Please keep your arms in the car at all times, and no flash photogtaphy. Thank you.
Mr. Potato Head: I'm a married spud, I'm a married spud...

[to Jessie]
Buzz Lightyear: Uh, ma - ma'am? I, uh, um, well, I just wanted to say you're a bright young woman with a beautiful yarn full of hair. A hair full of yarn. It's ah... um... I must go.


Did You Know?
In the opening sequence, when Buzz is on an alien planet, and ultimately battles the Emperor Zurg, many of the sound effects are directly from the Star Wars trilogy, including lightsaber sound effects, the torture droid's hum, and the scraping metal noise the AT-AT's make as they lumber across the plains of Hoth in Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back

Heimlich the caterpillar from A Bug's Life (1998) can be seen crawling up a branch right before Buzz cuts through it.

The partially missing ear on the Rock-em-Sock-em Robot is a reference to the notorious Mike Tyson - Evander Holyfield match, in which Tyson bit off a piece of Holyfield's ear.

[TylerDurden182]

Toy Story 2- 8/10

[Cronos]

Toy Story 2 - 9/10

[SAI]

Sorry about another long break. I'm going to try and reach number 1 in the next couple of days... but first.

5: The Godfather (1972)
Dir: Francis Ford Coppola
Cast: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall,
John Cazale, Diane Keaton
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0001NBNB6.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg
Is there really anything left to be said about The Godfather? Anything to add to the three Oscars and endless praise?
Probably not, but sod it.
The acting is the main reason this film sits so high on the list. Every single performance, from leads to bit parts, is well cast and strongly acted.
Brando, of course, is extraordinary. Like Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs his performance has been so often parodied that it could be herd to take seriously, if, that is, he weren't so mesmerisingly brilliant as he is. Convincingly playing a much older man than himself Brando convinces both as the hardened gangster and as a reflective man, trying to spare his sons the same choies he ad to make.
Al Pacino's Michael is the film's true standout though. You never question for an instant his journey from rather a naive returning soldier to a ruthless gangster who won't have even the slightest trouble ordering the massacre of his enemies not only because Coppola and novellist Mario Puzo's script takes you on this journey so skillfully but because Pacino's total conviction in the role means you are never watching an actor, just a character.
While I could eulogise each and every performance I shan't, because there's so much more to say.
Gordon Willis' cinematography (scandalously not nominated for an Oscar) and Francis Ford Coppola's direction are as key to the films success as any of the performances. Though it's long The Godfather never feels indulgent, you never feel that Coppola is keeping things he doesn't absolutely need because he likes them and thus your interest in the story and characters never wanes. He also creates some truly memorable moments, iconic even, now that 34 years have passed.
The extraordinary scene in which Michael kills both the head of another family and a corrupt police chief is one of the finest in American cinema. A perfect match of acting; Pacino managing to show the audience, silently, his struggle over whether to go through with the plan and his moment of decision, without overplaying and direction; Coppola's tigh close ups and use of the sound of an elevated train to heighten the tension.
Look at this scene, at the final massacre of Michael's enemie's, cross cut with his son's (Sofia Coppola, just a few months old in her first screen appearence) christening and the masterful final shot of Michael, now confirmed as Don Corleone and it seems very strange indeed that Coppola didn't win Best Director at the 1973 Oscars (Bob Fosse did, for Cabaret).
At the end of the day though The Godfather could have won no prizes at all and it would still remain one of the best things ever comitted to celluloid.

Classic Moments
The Killing of Sollozo

The Horse's head


Classic Lines
Michael: My father is no different than any powerful man, any man with power, like a president or senator.
Kay Adams: Do you know how naive you sound, Michael? Presidents and senators don't have men killed.
Michael: Oh. Who's being naive, Kay?

Bonasera: I believe in America. America has made my fortune. And I raised my daughter in the American fashion. I gave her freedom, but I taught her never to dishonor her family. She found a boyfriend; not an Italian. She went to the movies with him; she stayed out late. I didn't protest. Two months ago, he took her for a drive, with another boyfriend. They made her drink whiskey. And then they tried to take advantage of her. She resisted. She kept her honor. So they beat her, like an animal. When I went to the hospital, her nose was a'broken. Her jaw was a'shattered, held together by wire. She couldn't even weep because of the pain. But I wept. Why did I weep? She was the light of my life beautiful girl. Now she will never be beautiful again. I went to the police, like a good American. These two boys were brought to trial. The judge sentenced them to three years in prison - suspended sentence. Suspended sentence! They went free that very day! I stood in the courtroom like a fool. And those two bastards, they smiled at me. Then I said to my wife, for justice, we must go to Don Corleone.

Michael: My father made him an offer he couldn't refuse.
Kay Adams: What was it?
Michael: Luca Brasi held a gun to his head, and my father assured the bandleader, that either his signiture or his brains would be on the contract.
Kay Adams: ...
Michael: ...That's a true story.
[cut to Johnny singing again for about 10 more seconds before going back to Michael]
Michael: That's my family Kay, it's not me.

[to his associate, who has killed Paulie in the car]
Clemenza: Leave the gun.
[pause]
Clemenza: Take the cannolis.


Did You Know?
Fabrizio, the Italian bodyguard who kills Appolonia, was supposed to be caught by Michael Corleone at a pizza parlor he opens in America and subsequently blown away with a shotgun at the end of the movie as per the Godfather novel. This scene was filmed but ultimately cut because the Italian makeup artists plastered the actor playing Fabrizio with so much fake blood that the scene just looked ridiculous. Photos of Michael Corleone with a hat, shotgun blazing, appeared in many magazines, despite the scene's eventual omission.

Robert De Niro read for the parts of both Sonny and Michael Corleone. Coppola decided that he wasn't right for the role of Sonny, and already had Pacino in mind for Michael. De Niro was almost cast in the role of Carlo, the husband of Connie as well.

The actor playing Luca Brasi, Lenny Montana, was so nervous about working with Marlon Brando that, in the first take of their scene together, he flubbed some lines. Coppola liked the genuine nervousness and used it in the final cut. The scenes of Luca Brasi practicing his speech were added later.

During the scene in the study when the family decides Michael needs to kill Sollozzo and McClusky, Sonny is seen idly toying with a cane naturally assumed to belong to the aging Don Vito; in reality, the cane belonged to Pacino, who had badly injured his leg while filming Michael's escape from the restaurant after having killed Sollozzo and McClusk

[Cronos]

The Godfather - 9/10

[AngelDust06]

The Godfather: 10/10

[TylerDurden182]

The Godfather- 10/10

[FilmKing2000]

The Godfather - 10/10

[ChemicalRomance]

5. THE GODFATHER- 10/10

[ChemicalRomance]

Hey SAI, you got so far and I liked this countdown? Ya gonna finish!? ;)

[Andrew Ratto]

the

[SAI]

Bugger, keep meaning to update, been offline a while.

I shall attempt to get at least 4 and 3 up tomorrow.

Sorry people

[SAI]

4: Taxi Driver (1976)
Dir: Martin Scorsese
Cast: Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Harvey Kietel, Cybill Shepherd, Peter Boyle
http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B00004RYUS.03.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
For a time Taxi Driver was best known for the wrong reasons. In 1980 President Ronald Reagen was shot by John Hinkley Jr. Hinckley was an obsessive fan of Jodie Foster and Taxi Driver was his favourite film. It seemed that Hinkley had reenacted the actions of Travis Bickle. The first really high profile copycat case relating to a movie.
Of course Hinkley was a nut and the movie no more culpable than Candleshoe or Bugsy Malone.
Fortunately that's not ALL Taxi Driver is remembered for.
The second collaboration between Scorsese and De Niro remains perhaps the best work of both.
Travis Bickle is an astonishing creation and watching as he slides ever further into madness is mesmerising as De Niro seems incapable of striking a false note in his performance. Vitally you do feel sorry for Bickle, really he's just what he says 'God's lonely man' and watching as he tries to romance Cybill Shepherd (taking her to a porn movie, the only kind he knows) is both funny and heartrending.
Jodie Foster is, if anything, even better. Just 13 when the film was made she had to jump through all sorts of hoops (including taking a psychological test to make sure she'd not be 'corrupted') to win the role of child prostitute Iris. Her Oscar nominated performance remains, for me, the best by any child. The matter of fact attitude of the character revals itself as affectation as the film goes on through a performance that feels like it is coming from someone with decades more acting experience than Foster.
Scorsese's direction is brilliant throughout but for me the standout moment is a tiny one. As Travis talks to Betsy (Shepherd) on the phone, trying to get another date after the porn movie, the camera leaves him and pans across to look down an empty hallway. I's a stunning shot, not only because it showss such confidence to leave the actor who is giving a hugely powerful performance but becasue it symbollises and sums up everything about Travis at that moment. There are plenty of other moments of greatness; Shepherd emerging 'like an angel' in slow motion, the famous 'You talkin' to me' scene and a beautifully shot sequence of Iris dancing with her pimp Sport (Kietel). Scrosese also puts in an excellent performance as a psychotic passenger Travis picks up.
Taxi Driver is still as relevant and brilliant now as when it was released, which is why it's ranked so high on this list.

Classic Moments
Travis and Betsy's date

Breakfast with Iris

The Phone Call

You talkin' to me?

The massacre

Classic Lines
Travis Bickle: Hello Betsy. Hi, it's Travis. How ya doin'? Listen, uh, I'm, I'm sorry about the, the other night. I didn't know that was the way you felt about it. Well, I-I didn't know that was the way you felt. I-I-I would have taken ya somewhere else. Uh, are you feeling better or oh you maybe had a virus or somethin', a 24-hour virus you know. It happens. Yeah, umm, you uh, you're workin' hard. Yeah. Uh, would you like to have, uh, some dinner, uh with me in the next, you know, few days or somethin'? Well, how about just a cup of coffee? I'll come by the, uh, headquarters or somethin', we could, uh... Oh, OK, OK. Did you get my flowers in the...? You didn't get them. I sent some flowers, uh... Yeah, well, OK, OK. Can I call you again? Uh, tomorrow or the next day? OK. No, I'm gonna... OK. Yeah, sure, OK. So long.

Travis Bickle: June twenty-ninth. I gotta get in shape. Too much sitting has ruined my body. Too much abuse has gone on for too long. From now on there will be 50 pushups each morning, 50 pullups. There will be no more pills, no more bad food, no more destroyers of my body. From now on will be total organization. Every muscle must be tight.

Travis Bickle: I realize now how much she's just like the others, cold and distant, and many people are like that, women for sure, they're like a union

Passenger (Scorsese): [to Travis] You see that window with the light? The one closet to the edge of the building? you know who lives there? Of course you don't know who lives there, but I'm saying "Do you know who lives there?" A Nigger lives there, and that isn't my apartment. My wife is in there and.... I'm gonna kill her.

Did You Know?
Robert De Niro worked twelve hour days for a month driving cabs as preparation for this role. He also studied mental illness.

The scene where Travis Bickle is talking to himself in the mirror was completely ad-libbed by Robert De Niro. The screenplay details just said, "Travis looks in the mirror."

Harvey Keitel rehearsed with actual pimps to prepare for his role. The scene where his character and Iris dance is improvised, and is one of only two scenes in the film that don't focus on Bickle.

The girl with whom Jodie Foster studied in order to prepare for her role as Iris also appears in the film, as Iris' friend on the street.

Due to the bloody content of the brothel shootout scene, cinematographer Michael Chapman agreed to desaturate the colors in post-production. This explains why the blood appears to be pink instead of red in that scene. Later, when the DVD was being prepared, Martin Scorsese wanted to replace it with the original shot, with the blood in its original vivid redness, but no print of that original scene could be found, so the DVD still has the muted colors.

[SAI]

3: Untitled (2000)
Dir: Cameron Crowe
Cast: Patrick Fugit, Kate Hudson, Billy Crudup, Jason Lee, Frances McDormand, Phillip Seymour Hofffman
http://www.cameroncrowe.com/eyes_ears/films/almostfamous/almost_pix/ustheatrical.jpg
I knew Almost Famous was special when I saw the theatrical release. I fell in love with both the movie and the music (this film was the catalyst for an ever expanding album collection) and I bought the dvd the second it came out in the US. Then six months later I bought the Bootleg cut dvd including Untitled, Cameron Crowe's director's cut of the film.
43 minutes longer than the original version the extensions aren't just the regular 'unrated dvd' style few extra frames of breasts or couple of extra F bombs. There are, of course, whole new scenes, plot points given far greater clarity but what really adds to the film are the small, subtle, extensions to almost every existing scene.
What remains constant in both versions is the quality of both Cameron Crowe's script and the performances.
The script is based on Crowe's own experiences as a 15 year old Rolling Stone journalist and apparently many of the events of the film are drawn directly from tours with bands like The Allman Brothers and Led Zeppelin.
It has that easy mix of funny and touching (often within a single line) which Crowe first really mastered on Say Anything and though, for obvious reasons, it feels like an incredibly personal film it also has wide appeal.
Patrick Fugit must have been a bit scared. A lead role in is first film, playing a version of his director. He pulls it off wonderfully with a performance of initially wide-eyed wonder which becomes shaded as the film goes on.
As much as I love Sarah Polley, who Crowe so wanted he thought of not making the film when he couldn't get her, I couldn't imagine anyone but Kate Hudson as Penny Lane. The character is one of Crowe's best; an amalgam of several 'band aids' he knew at the time and Hudson's bright, breezy, utterly charming performance should have just about any red blooded man in the audience falling head over heels for Penny.
All Cowe's films have benefitted from his interest in music, he uses it better than just about any other director and Untitled is packed with tunes. Led Zeppelin, famously unwilling to let their music be used for films, gave Crowe almost every track he wanted (except Stairway to Heaven) but it's Elton John's Tiny Dancer, with the whole cast singing along, which proves a cathartic moment in the film and one of the most memorable musical moments in cinema.
The other musical element is the band; Stillwater (THIS band may be fictional but there was a band called Stillwater about this time, i keep seeing their records around and meaning to pick one up, just to find out what they soundlike). The actors play their own instruments and do their own singing and the songs by Crowe and his wife Nancy Wilson (of the band Heart) work well, sounding like they could have stepped out of 1973 when the film is set.
There's so much quality to talk about; Jason Lee and Billy Crudup as Stillwater's singer and guitarist,Frances McDormand, hillarious as Crowe's mother and Phillip Seymour Hoffman's great little turn as Lester Bangs among them that I'd here all day if i went into detail.
As director Crowe has grown from his previous films which often seemed like filmed renditions of a screenplay rather than a complete visual piece. Here he's got many a memorable shot (Penny dancing to 'The Wind' after a show, Penny running through William's fingers as he flies home) and seems far more confident as a director than before.
Almost Famous was a great film. Untitled is one of the greats.


Classic Moments
Tiny Dancer

'What kind of Beer'

'I am a golden god'


Classic Lines
Penny Lane: Call me if you need a rescue, we live in the same city.
William Miller: Heh, I think I live in a different world.

Penny Lane: I always tell the girls, never take it seriously, if ya never take it seriosuly, ya never get hurt, ya never get hurt, ya always have fun, and if you ever get lonely, just got to the record store and visit your friends.

Russell Hammond: And you can tell Rolling Stone magazine that my last words were... I'm on drugs!
[crowd cheers]
William Miller: Russell! I think we should work on those last words!
Russell Hammond: I got it, I got it. Last words - I dig music.
[a few claps]
Russell Hammond: [beat]
Russell Hammond: I'm on drugs!

Penny Lane: How old are you?
William Miller: Eighteen.
Penny Lane: Me too! How old are we really?
William Miller: Seventeen.
Penny Lane: Me too!
William Miller: Actually, I'm sixteen.
Penny Lane: Me too. Isn't it funny? The truth just sounds different.
William Miller: I'm fifteen.

[Regarding the t-shirt picture]
Russell Hammond: Can we just skip the vibe, and go straight to us laughing about this?
Jeff Bebe: Yeah, okay.
Russell Hammond: Because I can see by your face you want to get into it.
Jeff Bebe: How can you tell? I'm just one of the out-of-focus guys.


Did You Know?
To look like a real rock band, the four actors in Stillwater rehearsed for four hours a night, five nights a week, for six weeks.

Penny Lane asks William if he'd like to go to Morocco with her. He says, "Yes... ask me again." According to director Crowe, "ask me again" was Patrick Fugit stepping out of character and asking 'Kate Hudson' to repeat her lines for another take. But Crowe like the take as-is and kept it in the final cut

At the party, when he is on acid, Russell Hammond cries out, "I am a Golden God!" This is a reference to Robert Plant of the band Led Zeppelin, who is purported to have said the same thing (sober) while looking over Sunset Strip from a hotel balcony.

Featuring over 50 songs, the film's music budget was $3.5 million. Most music budgets for films are less than $1.5 million.

Cameron Crowe says he got Billy Crudup's line: "Well, yeah, on my better days, I am Russell from Stillwater," directly from John Cusack's response to a girl in a bar who asked, "Aren't you Lloyd Dobler?"

[SAI]

2: Magnolia (1999)
Dir: Paul Thomas Anderson
Cast: Julianne Moore, Tom Cruise, Melora Walters, John C Reilly, William H Macy, Jason Robards, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Phillip Baker Hall
http://us.movies1.yimg.com/movies.yahoo.com/images/hv/photo/movie_pix/new_line_cinema/magnolia/_group_photos/jason_robards6.jpg
Paul Thomas Anderson's idea for Magnolia was to get out of town while his second film; Boogie Nights opened and run around and make a short, personal film on digital video. The idea evolved a bit. Magnolia is every inch the epic and an example of something too seldom seen in cinema, audacity. Three hours long, with a cast list that takes almost as long to read and plot that no blurb writer could summarise the odds are stacked against Magnolia, so why is it one of the best films of all time?
This is a film about coincidence. About how our lives connect with those of people we may never meet. Anderson tells many stories in this film but draws them together into a single narrative.
As he amply demonstrated with Boogie Nights Anderson has the ability to get stunning performances from all his actors and he does it again here. However two performances are worth singling out. Cruise is simply astonishing as Frank TJ Mackey and must have had real fun playing this character (coming to it from a very repressed character for over two years in Eyes Wide Shut). If you only remember one line from the movie it will be his 'Respect the cock and tame the c**t'. Cruise gets to play every emotion in the book, from his grandstanding seminar to his bedside scene with Jason Robards, he never hits a false note. It is a crime that he was not given an (overdue) Oscar for this part.
Melora Walters was pretty well unknown at the time Magnolia came out, her only other work of real note being in Boogie Nights, In that film she did not have enough to do but Anderson remedies that here. Claudia is the centre of the film (Anderson says that all the stories were written branching off Claudia's story). She is utterly convincing in her role and, if her behaviour is hard to explain early in the film, you feel for her deeply when you know of the abuse the character has suffered. Walters delivers what is perhaps Magnolia’s best line when, in a restaurant, she asks John C Reilly 'Now that you've met me would you object to never seeing me again?' However, her finest hour is the film's last shot and after three hours wait it is a joy to see Claudia smile.
By singling these two out I am by no means trying to infer that the rest of the cast are unimpressive, quite the reverse. I think Julianne Moore should be in everything Paul Thomas Anderson ever shoots, that is the quality of the parts he writes her. She's perhaps not quite as impressive here as in Boogie Nights but the pharmacy scene alone should have netted her another Oscar nomination. John C Reilly does well as the nicest cop you'll ever meet, and this is key to the fact that we end up rooting for Jim and Claudia. All in all this film is a perfect example of why we need an Oscar for ensemble performance.
Another participant well worth mentioning is Aimee Mann, her music permeates the film, leading to it's most audacious, and it’s best, scene; in which the entire cast sing along to her gorgeous song 'Wise Up'. This movie made me an Aimee Mann fan and I would highly recommend that any viewer who likes the movie's music pick up all her solo albums
Anderson uses his camera brilliantly, designing the film to exploit it's widescreen frame to the fullest. This is particularly evident in Claudia’s apartment as she and Jim talk, each of them at one edge of the frame.
Some complain that film is too long, or that it leaves loose ends. It is true that all the plot points are not neatly tied up as the film ends but this is a film about the lives of ordinary people, loose ends are to be expected.

Classic Moments
Wise Up

Frank's Seminar

Jim and Claudia's date

The Pharmacy

Classic Lines
Jimmy Gator: The book says, "We might be through with the past, but the past ain't through with us."

Claudia Wilson Gator: Now that I've met you, would you object to never seeing me again?

Linda Partridge: Fuck you, too. Don't call me "lady". I come in here, I give these things to you, you check, you make your phone calls, look suspicious, ask questions. I'm sick. I have sickness all around me and you fucking ask me about my life? "What's wrong?" Have you seen death in your bed? In your house? Where's your fucking decency? And then I'm asked fucking questions. What's... wrong? You suck my dick. That's what's wrong. And you, you fucking call me "lady"? Shame on you. Shame on you. Shame on both of you


Did You Know?
Director/Writer Paul Thomas Anderson also designed the poster and cut the trailers for the film.

Claudia was the first character created, and the other characters were branched off from her.

The telephone number (877) TAME-HER is shown on the "Seduce and Destroy" infomercials within the movie. Dialing this number used to give a recording of Tom Cruise giving the Seduce and Destroy pitch.

The word "fuck" is used 190 times.

[SAI]

1: Badlands (1973)
Dir: Terence Malick
Cast: Sissy Spacek, Martin Sheen
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0790739240.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
http://www.follow-me-now.de/assets/images/Badlands-Sissy_Spacek.jpg
I first saw Badlands six or seven years ago and was immediately a fan, I've returned to it time and time again and it is those repeat viewings that have led me to put it on top of this list.
It was actually Badlands that led to the creation of this list. Revising my top 10 for the first time in an age I wanted to find a place for Bandlands but, at that point, couldn't and so, in slotting it in at number 11 I decided to go the whole hog and do a top 100. Another rewatch later and here we are.
That, for me, is the essential reason that Badlands is number one; every time I've seen it I've loved it more and more.
The directorial debut of Terence Malick (who has made just three films since, only two of which I've seen, liking neither very much) it never feels like the work of a novice being among the most beautiful looking films ever made. Malick has a fondness for the real world and for nature and we see much of it in Badlands, the lanscape shots are breathtaking, the sequence where Kit (Sheen) burns Holly's (Spacek) house is also particularly gorgeous but Malick also finds beauty in the more mundane things.
the characters Kit and Holly, their relationship and character and Kit's crimes were based on the real story of Charles Starkweather and his girlfriend Caril Ann Fugate. Their spree took place in 1958 when Starkweather was 19 and Fugate just 13.
The film adds a couple of years to the age of each of the characters.
Sissy Spacek was 23 when Badlands was made but her cute youthful looks mean that she absolutely convinces as 15 year old Holly. There's more to her performance than that though, she portrays Holly's youthful naivety with great intelligence and manages to suggest, subtly, the mixed emotions of this young girl once her boyfriend starts killing. Spacek also contributes narration from Holly's diary, not only are these beautifully written by Malick, never seeming like a screenwriter, rather than a 15 year old girl, came up with them but Spacek's reading of them is one of the most touching and memorable things in the film.
Martin Sheen was also a good deal older than his character, 10 years in fact, but he too is perfectly cast as the James Dean like Kit. Kit's matter of fact way about everything is very funny and Sheen gets plenty of mileage out of that and crucially he remains interesting and charming enough to make you believe that Holly would stay with him.
There are few other people in the film but it's worth noting that the man who comes to the door when Kit and Holly take over a rich man's house for an afternoon and 'borrow' things from him is Terence Malick himself stepping in for an actor who hadn't shown up.
It's difficult to encapsulate the brilliance of this film as it almost sneaks up on you but it's a riveting, almost hypnotic, experience and one which repays repeat viewings as the strength of Spacek and Sheen's wonderful performances impresses more each time.

Classic Moments
Holly tossing her baton

Holly's narration

The Rich man's house


Classic Lines
Holly Sargis: At this moment, I didn't feel shame or fear, but just kind of blah, like when you're sitting there and all the water's run out of the bathtub.

Holly Sargis: [a while after Kit has shot his friend Kato] How is he?
Kit Carruthers: I got him in the stomach.
Holly Sargis: Is he upset?
Kit Carruthers: He didn't say nothing to me about it.

Holly Sargis: One day, while taking a look at some vistas in Dad's stereopticon, it hit me that I was just this little girl, born in Texas, whose father was a sign painter, who only had just so many years to live. It sent a chill down my spine and I thought where would I be this very moment, if Kit had never met me? Or killed anybody… this very moment... if my mom had never met my dad… if she had never died. And what's the man I'll marry gonna look like? What's he doing right this minute? Is he thinking about me now, by some coincidence, even though he doesn't know me? Does it show on his face? For days afterwards I lived in dread. Sometimes I wished I could fall asleep and be taken off to some magical land, and this never happened.

Holly Sargis: He needed me now more than ever, but something had come between us. I'd stopped even paying attention to him. Instead I sat in the car and read a map and spelled out entire sentences with my tongue on the roof of mouth where nobody could read them.


Did You Know?
Sissy Spacek met her husband Jack Fisk working on this film, he was the art director.

[TylerDurden182]

Taxi Driver- 10/10
Almost Famous- 8/10
Magnolia- 10/10
Badlands- 9/10

[Hannibal21]

The Princess Bride - 8.5 or 9
The Silence of the Lambs - 10 (in my top 20)
Before Sunrise/Before Sunset - 8.5; 9
Toy Story 2 - 8.5
The Godfather - 10
Taxi Driver - 10
Magnolia - 9.5
Badlands - 9

Have yet to see the director's cut of 'Almost Famous', but the movies in your top 10 great and contribute to a perfect cap off of a fantastic, unique list! Very well done, I hope to see your revisions in the summer, if you're planning on posting them. :)

[ThirdOuting]

Blimey, that was good of you to have done a Top 100, pal. I haven't been commenting on your posts, but I've been a regular visitor of this thread. It wasn't done in a shoddy way either, you put in plain words as to why a the films are on that list, in major detail. I wish I had the patience to do one myself, first I need to figure out what films I like! Well done. Good stuff.