#276. Mary Poppins (1964)
This is a childhood favorite that I wouldn’t necessarily seek out in adulthood, but is still a fond memory, as evidenced by another of those Simpsons spoofs that I treasure just about equally. Ah, who am I kidding? Julie Andrews was hot in this movie, and Dick Van Dyke is pretty classic.
#277. Fantasia (1940)
What Pixar is to the current generation, Disney (at least from the rental store) was to mine, and this is like an animated symphony, the kind of movie experience that it’s a little weird isn’t a little more ordinary, given that there are so many possibilities but most filmmakers tend toward expository. When you have a visual and audio experience possible, why do there have to be so many stories? I’m not against stories, but when a medium doesn’t necessarily have to be constrained by them, why force them on everything?
#278. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
This is a totally breakthrough Western, one that broke the John Wayne mold that had come to dominate the genre, operating more as a buddy flick, with Paul Newman and Robert Redford and “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head” (I still can’t figure out why, exactly) and is probably responsible for every buddy film that followed (Crosby and Hope don’t count). If more filmmakers were to take inspiration from this, and not just for the buddy formula, we’d be better off.
#279. Three Kings (1999)
See? Here, George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, and Ice Cube do a Gulf War version of Butch Cassidy, and we were all the better for it. Incredibly, this was another example of Clooney as bona fide movie star, but critics still weren’t having it. He had to wait pretty much a decade for the credit he richly deserved, and even then, it’s still dodgy. Critics are assholes.
#280. Rocky (1976)
The Rocky movies in general are something of a treasure. This is the only one on the list, but I recommend the whole series to posterity. There’s a line in Rocky Balboa (the sixth and most recent one) about persistence in the face of adversity, and that’s pretty much what these films are all about. There’s a lot more integrity to Sylvester Stallone’s opus (yeah, I’m saying it) than most people are willing to admit. So start here, and continue on with the rest of them.
#281. Easy Rider (1969)
This was one of those things that I knew (or thought I knew) by reputation for a long time, so when I finally did see it, I was pretty surprised. Peter Fonda is pretty much what you would expect, but Dennis Hopper, I really had to reevaluate everything I thought I knew. But Jack Nicholson steals this movie. That was the best discovery.
#282. The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1989)
Here’s a cult Terry Gilliam flick that ought to be considered one of his defining masterpieces, rather than relegated behind the likes of the inferior Time Bandits and Fisher King. Here he finds a sufficient outfit to dress his usual predilection for oddity, much like Doctor Parnassus and Brazil. Also, Uma Thurman.
#283. Philadelphia (1993)
The only time icons Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington have worked together almost doesn’t really count, because Hanks is really too busy working with AIDS, the first of two Best Actor awards from the Oscars.
#284. Cold Mountain (2003)
Jack White! No, I’m kidding. It’s great to have him on the soundtrack, of course, but this is really all about the most interesting Civil War story no one else apparently ever thought about, as portrayed by Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, and Renee Zellweger.
#285. The Family Man (2000)
The actor who never gets any respect (okay, sometimes, but most of the time, when people are bitching about his style, it cancels those moments out) is Nicolas Cage. Movies like The Family Man ought to shut his critics up. When you’re the only actor who could play a role that way, that means you’re a pretty singular actor. That, in case you were wondering, means he’s special. In a good way.
#286. Wall Street (1987)
Charlie Sheen in the only role he’s really going to be remembered for (unless people actually start respecting Two and a Half Men in the future), what I may in the future be considering the prequel to its sequel, which I think might actually be the better film. But this one is pretty interesting, too. Oh, and I think someone named Michael Douglas is also in it. He may or may not play someone with a fairly famous name.
#287. Thelma and Louise (1991)
See? And without Butch Cassidy, you wouldn’t have this one, either. Geena Davis for a while had a career she deserved because of this movie. Brad Pitt owes his entire career to this movie. How often does that even happen, one of the medium’s biggest stars coming from something where he’s not even referenced in the title?
#288. Dude, Where’s My Car? (2000)
This is not even because I’m a huge fan of both Ashton Kutcher and Seann William Scott (not to mention Jennifer Garner), but because I absolutely believe this is a classic. Dude! Sweet!
#289. Natural Born Killers (1994)
Aside from everything else people have managed to talk about this movie over the years, there’s also Robert Downey, Jr. in a supporting role that steals the show, which is about the one thing all those people tend to overlook.
#290. A League of Their Own (1992)
I consider this to be Geena Davis, plus Tom Hanks warming up for Woody. A film that really needs to be rediscovered.
#291. Broken Lizard’s Club Dread (2003)
For pretty much everyone else, Broken Lizard is a comedy troupe that produced Super Troopers, and that’s pretty much it. I actually saw this one first, and even after I saw Super Troopers, I still ended up preferring Club Dread, almost entirely because of Coconut Pete. But the Broken Lizard players are pretty awesome, too.
#292. 10 Things I Hate About You (1999)
This was ostensibly a Heath Ledger vehicle, but the central figure in the movie is actually portrayed by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, the actor who gets to continue the legacy of Ledger, so that makes this one increasingly important, to see the two working together. Ledger clearly had some fun making this one, one of his earliest Hollywood performances, and closest to what he pictured for himself.
#293. True Romance (1993)
This is one of those cult flicks that I only somewhat recently had a chance to catch, and need to watch a few more times to truly catch up with, but it deserves a place on this list regardless.
#294. Top Gun (1986)
Sometimes an instant classic is an all-time classic, too, a box office blockbuster that truly stands up. You’ve got Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer, and a bunch of other stuff, “a need for speed,” and what else do you need?
#295. Blazing Saddles (1974)
My family became obsessed with Mel Brooks at one point (seeing most but not all of his films, including many that have become unfairly obscure, even though he’s generally much better than critics are willing to concede), and this is a classic by any regard. Gene Wilder at one point actually had a career, and this is the movie to thank for that.
#296. True Grit (1969)
It’s funny, because the recent new adaptation made it clear just how long ago and fuzzy my experience with this one actually is, because I remember very little, but it was a John Wayne standout then, and it’s a John Wayne standout now. Wayne, I should explain, is my dad’s favorite actor, so my childhood was a mix of Disney and Westerns. Now it’s easy to assume most of the Westerns were in fact Disney movies, because they might as well have been. Just sayin’.
#297. Trading Places (1983)
Saturday Night Live has a long history of providing Hollywood with new stars, and this is one of those weird confluences where two of those stars actually aligned from different eras of the show. They were, of course, Dan Ackroyd and Eddie Murphy. I would love if they did a follow-up to Trading Places, actually. Except now, both of them would be trading up.
#298. Road Trip (2000)
There are other things to love about this movie (the creepy/cool DJ Qualls, for instance), but this is otherwise known as the one time Tom Green was unabashedly entertaining.
#299. Heaven and Earth (1993)
The awesome thing about Oliver Stone is that where other filmmakers are content to touch on subjects and then movie on, he tends to meditate a bit longer. It’s more than safe to say that he’s the Vietnam War’s Spielberg, at the very least. Here he tries to help Tommy Lee Jones find some piece. Ha! And it turns out okay for everyone!
#300. Grumpy Old Men (1993)
This is another of those movies that might as well be a prequel to its sequel, nice to see in order to find out how Matthau and Lemmon ended up as retirement age chick magnets in the first place.
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Thursday, January 20, 2011
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Film Fan #226-275
#226. L.A. Confidential (1997)
After Titanic, this was probably 1997’s most-loved movie by critics, but interest in it sort of petered out after a while. The cast is the greatest thing about it: Russell Crowe, Kevin Spacey, Guy Pearce, Kim Basinger, James Cromwell, David Strathairn, even Danny DeVito, who gives the film its pulpy gimmick with his narration.
#227. S.W.A.T. (2003)
You might almost consider this the junior version of L.A. Confidential, the TV age edition starring Colin Farrell, Samuel L. Jackson, Michelle Rodriguez, LL Cool J, and Jeremy Renner in an early standout role. In fact, I came mostly to see Farrell, but it’s Renner who pretty much steals the show as his rival.
#228. The Losers (2010)
Here’s the 2010 version of Desperado, with Jeffrey Dean Morgan taking over for Antonio Banderas, and leading a gang of equally low-key but exceptional actors (this was the best version of a formula also seen during this year with The A-Team and The Expendables) including Zoe Saldana in one of her many recent supporting roles (which also happened to include Takers, another similar movie), Chris Evans, and in another of his chameleon roles, Jason Patric.
#229. Gattaca (1997)
Incredibly, at one time I basically overlooked this movie because it was something my brother was trying to recommend, and I was in a phase where it simply wasn’t cool to like what my brothers did. Well, forget that. This is a piercing drama that happens to take place in the future, with an effective and edgy cast headlined by Uma Thurman, Jude Law, and Ethan Hawke.
#230. Tigerland (2000)
Colin Farrell’s first starring role immediately landed on Hollywood’s A-list (which effectively screwed him over, because he became as inexplicably ubiquitous as Jude Law did for a while, and when critics and/or audiences don’t actually demand it, the overall perception of the audience will inevitably distort the actual quality of the resulting work). No wonder, anyway, because he’s absolutely dynamite here. I would without much hesitation call him Brando’s true heir.
#231. Lost in Space (1998)
Here’s another of those TV show movies that keep cropping up on this list (S.W.A.T. a little earlier is one of them, too, but aside from a brief cameo by that show’s theme song, you’d hardly know it). I don’t care one way or another about the original show, never having actually seen it, but any movie that can combine such eclectic actors as William Hurt, Gary Oldman, Mimi Rogers, Heather Graham, Lacey Chabert, and even Matt LeBlanc (in probably the one film role that suggests he really should have gotten a better break in this particular medium), has to be worth something, even if just as a curiosity. But it’s better than you might think. Hurt helps to ground it, but really just about everything works just fine.
#232. Doomsday (2008)
A lot of people got confused about how to react to this one because of the director (Neil Marshall, who’d done some minor pop cultural hits with Dog Soldiers and The Descent before it) and its apparent and overwhelming debts to earlier films like the Mad Max series, but they really missed the point. Here is sheer movie delirium, with a strong center in the underrated Rhona Mitra, whose charm is so elusive that it’s actually proven a detriment to her career, even though it’s undeniable. In fact, I would recommend seeing this movie just for her, but the rest of it is pretty fun, too.
#233. A Knight’s Tale (2001)
Here’s one of those period movies that tries to snag a modern audience with some contemporary cues. In fact, here’s pretty much the prototypical example of that genre, and that’s exactly how it was marketed, and how pretty much everyone remembers it, beyond the fact that it was Hollywood’s best bet to try and make Heath Ledger into the new Mel Gibson-circa-Braveheart (I gotta admit, whatever Hollywood was trying to do with Ledger, I never really understood it). Ledger is fine in the leading role, but he’s got a terrific supporting cast, including standouts Mark Addy and Paul Bettany, the actor who really did absolutely refuse to play the typical Hollywood game (something Ledger claimed to do, and what brad Pitt has made a career of attempting, even though he has failed miserably at it). Addy and Bettany, if you were wondering, represent the real tone of this movie. If Ledger had followed suit, or if he had been allowed to, everyone would have a lot different opinion of it. The Brothers Grimm, which he made with Terry Gilliam and Matt Damon, is probably an indication of the direction he would have pursued with a little more experience under his belt. Shannyn Sossamon has her debut role here, beginning a long chain of underappreciation.
#234. Whale Rider (2003)
A charming tale of great critical acclaim from New Zealand, which has unfortunately been somewhat forgotten in recent years, even though it really is just as good as it ever was.
#235. The Last Kiss (2006)
Zach Braff had a brief period where he was making acclaimed movies while he was still mugging on TV on Scrubs, and Garden State is the most well-known of these efforts, but The Last Kiss is probably the best of them, fully capturing his ability to convey real pathos, which is his most underrated gift. Rachel Bilson, another TV refugee, costars, as do Tom Wilkinson and Casey Affleck.
#236. Minority Report (2002)
During a period where he was trying to diversify in every possible sense, Spielberg turned to a great many unexpected sources for inspiration. Famously, he finished a Kubrick film with A.I. during this time, but with Minority Report, he also turned to Philip K. Dick, and ended up with future noir, which he layered with a considerable helping of Homer’s Odyssey, and had it star Tom Cruise. Remember what I was saying about Colin Farrell a little earlier, how filmmakers started putting him everywhere after Tigerland? Well, here was one of those projects. Max Von Sydow has one of his early standout latterday roles, which like Danny DeVito in L.A. Confidential helps set the tone perfectly.
#237. United 93 (2006)
It’s almost a shame that this will forever be remembered as a 9/11 film, because it deserves to remembered as a great film. But then, because it’s a 9/11 film, it will probably be remembered anyway.
#238. The Godfather, Part II (1974)
As part of Hollywood mythology, this is supposed to be the perfect sequel. I don’t know that I would necessarily agree, since there’s not a lot here that actually has anything to do with the first movie, so much as enriches certain characters and backstory from it. Part III is the true sequel, but then, that one doesn’t get any respect.
#239. A Clockwork Orange (1972)
Speaking of Kubrick, I guess no matter what they say, this is his true masterpiece, the movie that absolutely could not be made without him, a story that perfectly combines the twin concepts of anarchy and conformity.
#240. The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)
As part of Will Smith’s incredible hotstreak in the latter half of last decade, this is still a standout, a rare subdued performance whose only gimmick is that Smith is better than his circumstances. Come to think of it, that’s pretty much all of his movies…
#241. Mystery, Alaska (1999)
Russell Crowe headlines this ensemble drama about a small town’s pride, and how it can be entangled in petty things, which happen to involve hockey. One of the movie that solidified Crowe as one of my all-time favorites, where he, like Smith in the above movie, plays it a little more quietly than usual.
#242. Up in the Air (2009)
The movie that finally allowed critics to unabashedly embrace George Clooney as a movie star. Incredibly, even though he was born to be one, he spent years tooling away, and even when he caught his big break on TV (ER, in case you don’t remember), the transition to the big screen was a long and often painful one, and those pesky critics time and again found ways to downplay his natural charisma, until they finally found the movie where he finally worked for them. Up in the Air is up to the challenge, by the way.
#243. The Name of the Rose (1986)
Based on the best-known book by Umberto Eco, what you really need to know is that Sean Connery has a lot of fun in this movie, which probably did a good portion of saving his post-Bond career.
#244. The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
Another movie that’s made by its cast, which in this instance means Gwyneth Paltrow and Cate Blanchett, who are forced to contend with Jude Law and Matt Damon. You could choose any of these actors to focus on, and you wouldn’t go wrong.
#245. Glory (1989)
Matthew Broderick, Morgan Freeman, and Denzel Washington star, but this is basically the Black Regiment in the Civil War movie to me, a sort of gimmick that maybe doesn’t actually do as much as its reputation suggests, but is still an important film, one worth revisiting every now and then.
#246. The Commitments (1991)
Combine rowdy Irish and classic rock, and you can’t possibly go wrong, and this film doesn’t.
#247. Don Juan DeMarco (1995)
This one has long been a personal favorite, and why it’s been basically overlooked by everyone else can only be explained by the facts that Johnny Depp did not yet have the clout to interest audiences outside of gimmick roles (to be fair, he still doesn’t) and Marlon Brando at this point in his career had absolutely no respect at all. But combine the two, and you still have a surefire winner, no matter what people do (or don’t) say.
#248. Monsters, Inc. (2001)
One of my sister’s favorite movies and the source of a really adorable cat’s name, this is easily one of the best Pixar variations (y’know, combine unusual stars with a story that hides a Deeper Message), with John Goodman and Billy Crystal forming a surprising effective comic duo, much like Tom Hanks and Tim Allen before them.
#249. South Park: Bigger, Louder & Uncut (1999)
If The Simpsons Movie didn’t play to expectations, that’s exactly what this quick cash grab did for its predecessor (from a TV successor). But if South Park is not usually your cup of tea, then the movie ought to pull you in, including the instant classics “What Would Brian Boitano Do?” and “Blame Canada.”
#250. What About Bob? (1991)
You can actually think of this one as a live action Pixar movie before Pixar actually existed, with Bill Murray and Richard Dreyfuss providing the mismatched laughs.
#251. The Patriot (2000)
How Heath Ledger ended up in the Hollywood mindset of the new Mel-Gibson-circa-Braveheart was by costarring in this actual Mel Gibson historical epic, set during the American Revolution. If you ask me, I actually prefer this to Glory, insofar as a modern perspective on old wars. Jason Isaacs memorably provides the nasty British snarl that earned the movie most of its complaints that it was “fair.” As a vivid slice of one version of events, though, it’s as good as moviemaking can be.
#252. K-PAX (2001)
A lot of the talk about this movie when it was released was based around the fact that Jeff Bridges had once starred in Starman, a nominally similar movie. I still haven’t seen that one, but I have this one, and Kevin Spacey provides one of his trademark roles in the lead, as a man who doesn’t quite fit in, but is eventually accepted in spite of his faults. Watch as the story both confirms and subverts your expectations.
#253. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)
Somewhere along the way, I became a true fan of this franchise, in the same way I love any franchise, by enjoying individual installments. This is the first one that didn’t have participation from James Cameron, but it doesn’t matter, because his replacements figure out that one of the key elements is actually watching how Skynet takes over, which provides an incredibly powerful ending to this one.
#254. Legends of the Fall (1994)
One of the movies where Brad Pitt played right into Hollywood’s hands, as a nominal but romantic outsider whose family undergoes a series of trials, and he suffers beautifully through all of them. Despite how that wording seems, I’m not really mocking this movie.
#255. U-Turn (1997)
Oliver Stone went from being one of Hollywood’s most acclaimed and beloved filmmakers to a goat fairly quickly. It’s too bad, too, because somewhere along the way, he easily became one its most interesting, and this is easily his most interesting film, a quirky examination of a small town Sean Penn has the sad misfortune of stumbling upon. On the plus side, he does get to stumble into Jennifer Lopez, still at a point in her career where it was okay to respect her as an artist, which ironically only became taboo once she proved she could sing, and then tried to make a career out of that, too. I swear, in some form of logic, that actually makes sense.
#256. Platoon (1986)
Hey! Well, here’s Stone when he really was loved, making Willem Defoe into a martyr in his best performance, smack dab in the middle of the Vietnam War.
#257. Red Dragon (2002)
Among all the Hannibal Lecter films, here, improbably, is my favorite, nominally a remake of Manhunter and “sequel” (or rather prequel) of Silence of the Lambs, with Edward Norton getting to try and figure out Anthony Hopkins. Also along for the ride is a game Ralph Fiennes.
#258. Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979)
There was never a comic entity with a better sense of satire than the collective known as Monty Python, who even got away with skewering Jesus Christ, in this parody that follows a man who stumbles his way through a mediocre messianic career. Highlight: the song “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life,” the perfect singalong for all your crucifixions!
#259. Signs (2002)
Before his meltdown in the eyes of the public, M. Night Shyamalan snuck one last blockbuster past audiences, with the help of Mel Gibson (this is his last starring-role hit, too) and Joaquin Phoenix, an unusual and unexpectedly funny look at alien invasions.
#260. Planet of the Apes (1968)
Much as I like the Tim Burton version (can’t call it a remake, because like the two versions of True Grit, or The Maltese Falcon for that matter, the original is actually a book), I can’t deny good old Charlton Heston, who is the best reason to see this movie. Also, without it, you can’t really understand the parody The Simpsons did decades later…
#261. Hart’s War (2002)
This was another of the movies Hollywood did with Colin Farrell in the wake of Tigerland, and while Bruce Willis is supposedly the lead actor, it’s Farrell the film actually follows. Also present is Terrence Howard. If he was ever wondering why critics never really got behind him, even though they sometimes seemed like they might (such as with Hustle & Flow), Howard can always remind himself by remembering how they ignored him in this.
#262. The Lookout (2006)
Joseph Gordon-Levitt has had a remarkably interesting career, but he officially became one of my favorite actors after this movie, in which his emotional performance plays well against his character’s desperation, as well as off of Jeff Daniels, an actor who doesn’t get any respect, even though he’s earned it time and again.
#263. 28 Days (2000)
No, not the Danny Boyle zombie flick, the detox drama starring Sandra Bullock, in one of the key performances that audiences overlooked on the road to the “surprise” successes of 2009 (The Proposal, The Blind Side), costarring Viggo Mortensen, Dominic West, Alan Tudyk, and Steve Buscemi.
#264. Shattered Glass (2003)
Speaking of overlooked acting showcases, here’s Hayden Christensen, supported by the likes of Peter Sarsgaard, Rosario Dawson, Steve Zahn, and Hank Azaria, game to prove despite reactions to his Star Wars performances that he really can act.
#265. Almost Famous (2000)
Kate Hudson and Billy Crudup run away with this movie, which sees Cameron Crowe reminiscing about his days writing for Rolling Stone, allowed to play all the awesome music he wants.
#266. Cloverfield (2008)
Like Signs, this movie is an unusual look at an alien invasion. It also happens to have J.J. Abrams involved, plus a terrific young cast that includes Odette Yustman. A lot of films, including the vastly overrated Blair Witch Project, have used the pseudo-documentary style, but this is probably the best of those efforts.
#267. The Book of Eli (2010)
Denzel Washington is an actor of singular magnetism, capable of making just about anything work (how is it that he and Tom Hanks have only worked together in Philadelphia?). Here he actually makes a credible action star, but the twist at the end is what really makes this movie. Costars Gary Oldman and Mila Kunis.
#268. The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band (1968)
This otherwise entirely obscure movie is a family favorite, and my pick for the vintage Hollywood musical, filled to bursting with memorable songs, all built around the presidential contest between Benjamin Harrison and Grover Cleveland, of all things.
#269. The Godfather, Part III (1990)
Just as part of Hollywood mythology as Part II being the perfect sequel is that this one is an irredeemable dud, but it’s here where Al Pacino really gets to shine, really replaces Marlon Brando at the heart of the saga, as he attempts to go legit. But as with the rest of Michael Corleone’s life, it ain’t easy. Joe Mantegna, who went on to become Springfield’s most famous gangster in The Simpsons, is a standout. Sofia Coppola, who later became an acclaimed director, is the subject of much scorn in a minor supporting role, but she’s not really that bad. Sweetly innocent, really.
#270. Dead Poets Society (1989)
Combine the usual earnestness of Ethan Hawke with Robin Williams in one of his most charismatic performances, and you’ve got a winner.
#271. The Rundown (2003)
Dwayne Johnson has become a real movie star, even though audiences and filmmakers still don’t really know what to do with him. I would suggest they look no further than one of his earliest transition roles after his WWE career as The Rock. Among his excellent costars are Rosario Dawson, Christopher Walken, and Seann William Scott, who similarly stole Cop Out last year. Seriously, when he’s gonna get a break?
#272. Highlander (1986)
One of the best cinematic mythologies, Christopher Lambert is an immortal trying to survive not only an untrusting world, but others like him. I do think this is one property ripe for a clarifying remake, but the original, with its Queen soundtrack, Sean Connery, and Clancy Brown, is equally immortal.
#273. Superman III (1983)
I think it helps not to take this one too seriously, because it is seriously good, maybe not in comparison to the heavy mythology of its predecessors, but Richard Pryor is absolutely worth the price of admission. If you think this was a huge failure, consider that Paramount had every intention of basically doing the same thing with Eddie Murphy in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home three years later.
#274. Man of la Mancha (1972)
Sophia Loren and Peter O’Toole lend star power to this musical adaptation of Don Quixote. I guess this movie doesn’t have a very good reputation, but as always, I don’t really care.
#275. Yellow Submarine (1968)
The only Beatles movie I have seen to date is appropriately surrealistic, and animated! I can’t imagine how its live action predecessors can possibly improve on this.
After Titanic, this was probably 1997’s most-loved movie by critics, but interest in it sort of petered out after a while. The cast is the greatest thing about it: Russell Crowe, Kevin Spacey, Guy Pearce, Kim Basinger, James Cromwell, David Strathairn, even Danny DeVito, who gives the film its pulpy gimmick with his narration.
#227. S.W.A.T. (2003)
You might almost consider this the junior version of L.A. Confidential, the TV age edition starring Colin Farrell, Samuel L. Jackson, Michelle Rodriguez, LL Cool J, and Jeremy Renner in an early standout role. In fact, I came mostly to see Farrell, but it’s Renner who pretty much steals the show as his rival.
#228. The Losers (2010)
Here’s the 2010 version of Desperado, with Jeffrey Dean Morgan taking over for Antonio Banderas, and leading a gang of equally low-key but exceptional actors (this was the best version of a formula also seen during this year with The A-Team and The Expendables) including Zoe Saldana in one of her many recent supporting roles (which also happened to include Takers, another similar movie), Chris Evans, and in another of his chameleon roles, Jason Patric.
#229. Gattaca (1997)
Incredibly, at one time I basically overlooked this movie because it was something my brother was trying to recommend, and I was in a phase where it simply wasn’t cool to like what my brothers did. Well, forget that. This is a piercing drama that happens to take place in the future, with an effective and edgy cast headlined by Uma Thurman, Jude Law, and Ethan Hawke.
#230. Tigerland (2000)
Colin Farrell’s first starring role immediately landed on Hollywood’s A-list (which effectively screwed him over, because he became as inexplicably ubiquitous as Jude Law did for a while, and when critics and/or audiences don’t actually demand it, the overall perception of the audience will inevitably distort the actual quality of the resulting work). No wonder, anyway, because he’s absolutely dynamite here. I would without much hesitation call him Brando’s true heir.
#231. Lost in Space (1998)
Here’s another of those TV show movies that keep cropping up on this list (S.W.A.T. a little earlier is one of them, too, but aside from a brief cameo by that show’s theme song, you’d hardly know it). I don’t care one way or another about the original show, never having actually seen it, but any movie that can combine such eclectic actors as William Hurt, Gary Oldman, Mimi Rogers, Heather Graham, Lacey Chabert, and even Matt LeBlanc (in probably the one film role that suggests he really should have gotten a better break in this particular medium), has to be worth something, even if just as a curiosity. But it’s better than you might think. Hurt helps to ground it, but really just about everything works just fine.
#232. Doomsday (2008)
A lot of people got confused about how to react to this one because of the director (Neil Marshall, who’d done some minor pop cultural hits with Dog Soldiers and The Descent before it) and its apparent and overwhelming debts to earlier films like the Mad Max series, but they really missed the point. Here is sheer movie delirium, with a strong center in the underrated Rhona Mitra, whose charm is so elusive that it’s actually proven a detriment to her career, even though it’s undeniable. In fact, I would recommend seeing this movie just for her, but the rest of it is pretty fun, too.
#233. A Knight’s Tale (2001)
Here’s one of those period movies that tries to snag a modern audience with some contemporary cues. In fact, here’s pretty much the prototypical example of that genre, and that’s exactly how it was marketed, and how pretty much everyone remembers it, beyond the fact that it was Hollywood’s best bet to try and make Heath Ledger into the new Mel Gibson-circa-Braveheart (I gotta admit, whatever Hollywood was trying to do with Ledger, I never really understood it). Ledger is fine in the leading role, but he’s got a terrific supporting cast, including standouts Mark Addy and Paul Bettany, the actor who really did absolutely refuse to play the typical Hollywood game (something Ledger claimed to do, and what brad Pitt has made a career of attempting, even though he has failed miserably at it). Addy and Bettany, if you were wondering, represent the real tone of this movie. If Ledger had followed suit, or if he had been allowed to, everyone would have a lot different opinion of it. The Brothers Grimm, which he made with Terry Gilliam and Matt Damon, is probably an indication of the direction he would have pursued with a little more experience under his belt. Shannyn Sossamon has her debut role here, beginning a long chain of underappreciation.
#234. Whale Rider (2003)
A charming tale of great critical acclaim from New Zealand, which has unfortunately been somewhat forgotten in recent years, even though it really is just as good as it ever was.
#235. The Last Kiss (2006)
Zach Braff had a brief period where he was making acclaimed movies while he was still mugging on TV on Scrubs, and Garden State is the most well-known of these efforts, but The Last Kiss is probably the best of them, fully capturing his ability to convey real pathos, which is his most underrated gift. Rachel Bilson, another TV refugee, costars, as do Tom Wilkinson and Casey Affleck.
#236. Minority Report (2002)
During a period where he was trying to diversify in every possible sense, Spielberg turned to a great many unexpected sources for inspiration. Famously, he finished a Kubrick film with A.I. during this time, but with Minority Report, he also turned to Philip K. Dick, and ended up with future noir, which he layered with a considerable helping of Homer’s Odyssey, and had it star Tom Cruise. Remember what I was saying about Colin Farrell a little earlier, how filmmakers started putting him everywhere after Tigerland? Well, here was one of those projects. Max Von Sydow has one of his early standout latterday roles, which like Danny DeVito in L.A. Confidential helps set the tone perfectly.
#237. United 93 (2006)
It’s almost a shame that this will forever be remembered as a 9/11 film, because it deserves to remembered as a great film. But then, because it’s a 9/11 film, it will probably be remembered anyway.
#238. The Godfather, Part II (1974)
As part of Hollywood mythology, this is supposed to be the perfect sequel. I don’t know that I would necessarily agree, since there’s not a lot here that actually has anything to do with the first movie, so much as enriches certain characters and backstory from it. Part III is the true sequel, but then, that one doesn’t get any respect.
#239. A Clockwork Orange (1972)
Speaking of Kubrick, I guess no matter what they say, this is his true masterpiece, the movie that absolutely could not be made without him, a story that perfectly combines the twin concepts of anarchy and conformity.
#240. The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)
As part of Will Smith’s incredible hotstreak in the latter half of last decade, this is still a standout, a rare subdued performance whose only gimmick is that Smith is better than his circumstances. Come to think of it, that’s pretty much all of his movies…
#241. Mystery, Alaska (1999)
Russell Crowe headlines this ensemble drama about a small town’s pride, and how it can be entangled in petty things, which happen to involve hockey. One of the movie that solidified Crowe as one of my all-time favorites, where he, like Smith in the above movie, plays it a little more quietly than usual.
#242. Up in the Air (2009)
The movie that finally allowed critics to unabashedly embrace George Clooney as a movie star. Incredibly, even though he was born to be one, he spent years tooling away, and even when he caught his big break on TV (ER, in case you don’t remember), the transition to the big screen was a long and often painful one, and those pesky critics time and again found ways to downplay his natural charisma, until they finally found the movie where he finally worked for them. Up in the Air is up to the challenge, by the way.
#243. The Name of the Rose (1986)
Based on the best-known book by Umberto Eco, what you really need to know is that Sean Connery has a lot of fun in this movie, which probably did a good portion of saving his post-Bond career.
#244. The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
Another movie that’s made by its cast, which in this instance means Gwyneth Paltrow and Cate Blanchett, who are forced to contend with Jude Law and Matt Damon. You could choose any of these actors to focus on, and you wouldn’t go wrong.
#245. Glory (1989)
Matthew Broderick, Morgan Freeman, and Denzel Washington star, but this is basically the Black Regiment in the Civil War movie to me, a sort of gimmick that maybe doesn’t actually do as much as its reputation suggests, but is still an important film, one worth revisiting every now and then.
#246. The Commitments (1991)
Combine rowdy Irish and classic rock, and you can’t possibly go wrong, and this film doesn’t.
#247. Don Juan DeMarco (1995)
This one has long been a personal favorite, and why it’s been basically overlooked by everyone else can only be explained by the facts that Johnny Depp did not yet have the clout to interest audiences outside of gimmick roles (to be fair, he still doesn’t) and Marlon Brando at this point in his career had absolutely no respect at all. But combine the two, and you still have a surefire winner, no matter what people do (or don’t) say.
#248. Monsters, Inc. (2001)
One of my sister’s favorite movies and the source of a really adorable cat’s name, this is easily one of the best Pixar variations (y’know, combine unusual stars with a story that hides a Deeper Message), with John Goodman and Billy Crystal forming a surprising effective comic duo, much like Tom Hanks and Tim Allen before them.
#249. South Park: Bigger, Louder & Uncut (1999)
If The Simpsons Movie didn’t play to expectations, that’s exactly what this quick cash grab did for its predecessor (from a TV successor). But if South Park is not usually your cup of tea, then the movie ought to pull you in, including the instant classics “What Would Brian Boitano Do?” and “Blame Canada.”
#250. What About Bob? (1991)
You can actually think of this one as a live action Pixar movie before Pixar actually existed, with Bill Murray and Richard Dreyfuss providing the mismatched laughs.
#251. The Patriot (2000)
How Heath Ledger ended up in the Hollywood mindset of the new Mel-Gibson-circa-Braveheart was by costarring in this actual Mel Gibson historical epic, set during the American Revolution. If you ask me, I actually prefer this to Glory, insofar as a modern perspective on old wars. Jason Isaacs memorably provides the nasty British snarl that earned the movie most of its complaints that it was “fair.” As a vivid slice of one version of events, though, it’s as good as moviemaking can be.
#252. K-PAX (2001)
A lot of the talk about this movie when it was released was based around the fact that Jeff Bridges had once starred in Starman, a nominally similar movie. I still haven’t seen that one, but I have this one, and Kevin Spacey provides one of his trademark roles in the lead, as a man who doesn’t quite fit in, but is eventually accepted in spite of his faults. Watch as the story both confirms and subverts your expectations.
#253. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)
Somewhere along the way, I became a true fan of this franchise, in the same way I love any franchise, by enjoying individual installments. This is the first one that didn’t have participation from James Cameron, but it doesn’t matter, because his replacements figure out that one of the key elements is actually watching how Skynet takes over, which provides an incredibly powerful ending to this one.
#254. Legends of the Fall (1994)
One of the movies where Brad Pitt played right into Hollywood’s hands, as a nominal but romantic outsider whose family undergoes a series of trials, and he suffers beautifully through all of them. Despite how that wording seems, I’m not really mocking this movie.
#255. U-Turn (1997)
Oliver Stone went from being one of Hollywood’s most acclaimed and beloved filmmakers to a goat fairly quickly. It’s too bad, too, because somewhere along the way, he easily became one its most interesting, and this is easily his most interesting film, a quirky examination of a small town Sean Penn has the sad misfortune of stumbling upon. On the plus side, he does get to stumble into Jennifer Lopez, still at a point in her career where it was okay to respect her as an artist, which ironically only became taboo once she proved she could sing, and then tried to make a career out of that, too. I swear, in some form of logic, that actually makes sense.
#256. Platoon (1986)
Hey! Well, here’s Stone when he really was loved, making Willem Defoe into a martyr in his best performance, smack dab in the middle of the Vietnam War.
#257. Red Dragon (2002)
Among all the Hannibal Lecter films, here, improbably, is my favorite, nominally a remake of Manhunter and “sequel” (or rather prequel) of Silence of the Lambs, with Edward Norton getting to try and figure out Anthony Hopkins. Also along for the ride is a game Ralph Fiennes.
#258. Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979)
There was never a comic entity with a better sense of satire than the collective known as Monty Python, who even got away with skewering Jesus Christ, in this parody that follows a man who stumbles his way through a mediocre messianic career. Highlight: the song “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life,” the perfect singalong for all your crucifixions!
#259. Signs (2002)
Before his meltdown in the eyes of the public, M. Night Shyamalan snuck one last blockbuster past audiences, with the help of Mel Gibson (this is his last starring-role hit, too) and Joaquin Phoenix, an unusual and unexpectedly funny look at alien invasions.
#260. Planet of the Apes (1968)
Much as I like the Tim Burton version (can’t call it a remake, because like the two versions of True Grit, or The Maltese Falcon for that matter, the original is actually a book), I can’t deny good old Charlton Heston, who is the best reason to see this movie. Also, without it, you can’t really understand the parody The Simpsons did decades later…
#261. Hart’s War (2002)
This was another of the movies Hollywood did with Colin Farrell in the wake of Tigerland, and while Bruce Willis is supposedly the lead actor, it’s Farrell the film actually follows. Also present is Terrence Howard. If he was ever wondering why critics never really got behind him, even though they sometimes seemed like they might (such as with Hustle & Flow), Howard can always remind himself by remembering how they ignored him in this.
#262. The Lookout (2006)
Joseph Gordon-Levitt has had a remarkably interesting career, but he officially became one of my favorite actors after this movie, in which his emotional performance plays well against his character’s desperation, as well as off of Jeff Daniels, an actor who doesn’t get any respect, even though he’s earned it time and again.
#263. 28 Days (2000)
No, not the Danny Boyle zombie flick, the detox drama starring Sandra Bullock, in one of the key performances that audiences overlooked on the road to the “surprise” successes of 2009 (The Proposal, The Blind Side), costarring Viggo Mortensen, Dominic West, Alan Tudyk, and Steve Buscemi.
#264. Shattered Glass (2003)
Speaking of overlooked acting showcases, here’s Hayden Christensen, supported by the likes of Peter Sarsgaard, Rosario Dawson, Steve Zahn, and Hank Azaria, game to prove despite reactions to his Star Wars performances that he really can act.
#265. Almost Famous (2000)
Kate Hudson and Billy Crudup run away with this movie, which sees Cameron Crowe reminiscing about his days writing for Rolling Stone, allowed to play all the awesome music he wants.
#266. Cloverfield (2008)
Like Signs, this movie is an unusual look at an alien invasion. It also happens to have J.J. Abrams involved, plus a terrific young cast that includes Odette Yustman. A lot of films, including the vastly overrated Blair Witch Project, have used the pseudo-documentary style, but this is probably the best of those efforts.
#267. The Book of Eli (2010)
Denzel Washington is an actor of singular magnetism, capable of making just about anything work (how is it that he and Tom Hanks have only worked together in Philadelphia?). Here he actually makes a credible action star, but the twist at the end is what really makes this movie. Costars Gary Oldman and Mila Kunis.
#268. The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band (1968)
This otherwise entirely obscure movie is a family favorite, and my pick for the vintage Hollywood musical, filled to bursting with memorable songs, all built around the presidential contest between Benjamin Harrison and Grover Cleveland, of all things.
#269. The Godfather, Part III (1990)
Just as part of Hollywood mythology as Part II being the perfect sequel is that this one is an irredeemable dud, but it’s here where Al Pacino really gets to shine, really replaces Marlon Brando at the heart of the saga, as he attempts to go legit. But as with the rest of Michael Corleone’s life, it ain’t easy. Joe Mantegna, who went on to become Springfield’s most famous gangster in The Simpsons, is a standout. Sofia Coppola, who later became an acclaimed director, is the subject of much scorn in a minor supporting role, but she’s not really that bad. Sweetly innocent, really.
#270. Dead Poets Society (1989)
Combine the usual earnestness of Ethan Hawke with Robin Williams in one of his most charismatic performances, and you’ve got a winner.
#271. The Rundown (2003)
Dwayne Johnson has become a real movie star, even though audiences and filmmakers still don’t really know what to do with him. I would suggest they look no further than one of his earliest transition roles after his WWE career as The Rock. Among his excellent costars are Rosario Dawson, Christopher Walken, and Seann William Scott, who similarly stole Cop Out last year. Seriously, when he’s gonna get a break?
#272. Highlander (1986)
One of the best cinematic mythologies, Christopher Lambert is an immortal trying to survive not only an untrusting world, but others like him. I do think this is one property ripe for a clarifying remake, but the original, with its Queen soundtrack, Sean Connery, and Clancy Brown, is equally immortal.
#273. Superman III (1983)
I think it helps not to take this one too seriously, because it is seriously good, maybe not in comparison to the heavy mythology of its predecessors, but Richard Pryor is absolutely worth the price of admission. If you think this was a huge failure, consider that Paramount had every intention of basically doing the same thing with Eddie Murphy in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home three years later.
#274. Man of la Mancha (1972)
Sophia Loren and Peter O’Toole lend star power to this musical adaptation of Don Quixote. I guess this movie doesn’t have a very good reputation, but as always, I don’t really care.
#275. Yellow Submarine (1968)
The only Beatles movie I have seen to date is appropriately surrealistic, and animated! I can’t imagine how its live action predecessors can possibly improve on this.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Film Fan #176-225
#176. The Simpsons Movie (2007)
Chances are this was released about a decade too late to truly be relevant, but it was still amusing, with a format that was completely unexpected (the only real song was “Spider-Pig”!) and a complete story that really worked, a disaster for the town of Springfield and Simpsons family that Homer was responsible for and was able to fix (both of them). Anyway, I really like The Simpsons and so it was easy for me to like this, too. It was also about as far from a Pixar movie as it could get, too, and that was pretty awesome, too.
#177. Planet of the Apes (2001)
The Tim Burton remake with Mark Wahlberg and a host of familiar actors in fantastic and fantastically realistic chimp makeup deserves a lot more praise than it gets, but that’s what you get when there was no real interest for a remake in the first place. This one was released before the summer blockbuster tradition really made its comeback a few years later, and that might explain what happened to it. Best of all is the clever Charlton Heston cameo. Seriously, if you love nothing else about this film, you’ve got to love how Tim uses Chuck.
#178. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
A slightly less naïve version of Forrest Gump, you can also consider this Hollywood’s most shameless effort to milk audiences for what Brad Pitt was supposed to elicit out of them, especially as he ages backwards all the way to the young face he sported but never really capitalized on, a heartbreaker cross between Thelma and Louise (when he really did settle for that role) and Meet Joe Black (when audiences really rejected him for it) But then you’ve also got Cate Blanchett in what amounts to her most mainstream role, and a good running bit about a guy who keeps getting hit by lightning. A lot of the attention this one got was for the effects, but it’s the movie’s own magic that wins out.
#179. Erin Brokovich (2000)
Otherwise known as Julia Roberts Wins Her Oscar, with an unabashed performance and truly outstanding supporting actors around her, Albert Finney and Aaron Eckhart (no really, under all that mustache), who let her be just another actor, even if she does get to enjoy the most boobs she’s ever had onscreen.
#180. State of Play (2009)
Russell Crowe as a crusading journalist, attempting to take the opposite role he sported in The Insider, and finding corruption at every turn, as he tries to figure out what the heck Ben Affleck was up to. Turns out, Affleck isn’t as innocent as he first seems. But yeah, Rachel McAdams is.
#181. The Hunting Party (2007)
Hardly anyone’s heard of this one, and those who have probably only heard the tepid reviews, but the moment I saw the trailer, I knew that it was an important film. Richard Gere and Terrence Howard star in this story based on real events, about TV journalists who become embroiled in an improbable series of events, and a story that’s bigger than they can handle.
#182. In the Valley of Elah (2007)
Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron, and Josh Brolin star in this drama that attempts to take a nuanced look at the war on terror. It’s one of those message films that drove audiences away with its politics, and on some level, it’s one of those films that seems like it’s got a certain message, but it’s really just an excellent and piercing narrative. I don’t necessarily agree with Jones when he suggests at the end of the film that the US is itself in trouble, but when a story makes you think anything at all, and this one does, I call that a success.
#183. Insomnia (2002)
Al Pacino, Robin Williams, and Hillary Swank have the good fortune to star in Christopher Nolan’s first foray into regular Hollywood fair (that number would pretty much include this and, nominally, his two Batman films), after the success of Memento. This was during the period where Williams was receiving a renewed bit of critical acclaim, but I’d say the show really belongs to Pacino, who gives one of his classic haunted performances.
#184. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)
During the period (like the one I just mentioned with Robin Williams, relatively brief) that Kevin Costner could do no wrong, he pulled off an American-accented version of a classic English character. But really, everyone let it slide because of Alan Rickman. That man really can do no wrong.
#185. Avatar (2009)
James Cameron, giant blue people, Pocahontas, the environment, billions of dollars at the box office, 3D…I still like to think of this as a film starring Sam Worthington and Zoë Saldana, with Worthington pulling off a challenging lead performance after a breakthrough supporting one in Terminator: Salvation, solidifying him as one of my new favorite actors. It’s easy to see why Saldana seemed so listless in Star Trek, meanwhile, when she had this huge challenge otherwise.
#186. A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)
Known as the Kubrick film that Spielberg finished, starring that kid from The Sixth Sense…I think Jude Law stole it, with his charismatic Gigolo Joe, easily, and the journey Haley Joel Osment undertakes, and its mystical conclusion, works better than E.T.’s, a far better payoff. Plus the robot teddy bear! And how can you discount Robin Williams’ Doctor Know? As Joe puts it, “He’s who you see when you’ve got to know.”
#187. Star Trek: Insurrection (1998)
I love the first couple of acts, when Picard has to track down Data after the android runs amok on a surveillance mission, especially the chase sequence. I love Anthony Zerbe as Admiral Dougherty, and F. Murray Abraham as the villain, who is among the most straight-forward Star Trek villains since Christopher Lloyd in the third film. I love Donna Murphy. Oh, in the movie. The movie itself, well, I don’t know that Jonathan Frakes had as keen a grasp of this one as he did First Contact. But there’s still a lot to love here.
#188. Charlie Wilson’s War (2007)
Tom Hanks gets to play almost himself here, in a story that helps makes sense of how complicated the modern world really is, while Julia Roberts and Philip Seymour Hoffman have a good time along with him. In fact, you might say having a good time is a little of why things get so screwy. But there’s food for thought. We’ll see.
#189. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
Jack Nicholson in the prototypical Jack Nicholson role, before old age just made him seem crotchety, playing opposite Louise Fletcher, who would perfect this performance decades later in ‘Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.’
#190. Toy Story 2 (1999)
I don’t mean to keep picking on Pixar, because this sequel (unlike this past summer’s kind of grossly overrated Pixar Effect threequel) really did have a lot of magic to it, with an inspired parody of one of the most celebrated sequels as Buzz learns his archnemesis is his father, and, hey, Stinky Pete. Plus I loved Robert Goulet singing “You’ve Got a Friend in Me.”
#191. Rent (2005)
The famed Broadway musical translates beautifully to the big screen, thanks in no small part to Rosario Dawson joining what is otherwise pretty much the original stage cast.
#192. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001)
It seemed like a sweet and innocent children’s story, in the beginning, and that’s because that’s exactly what it was, with child stars being children (but who would grow into real maturity soon enough). So let’s say Alan Rickman and Robbie Coltrane really run this one, and keep the magic alive. It’s the original John Williams score that really helps set the stage anyway.
#193. Meet Joe Black (1998)
Ah, yes! I just referenced this one back at #178! Here’s Brad Pitt in the apparently thankless role of traditional leading man, with Claire Forlani acting luminously as his love interest, and Anthony Hopkins lending the gravity as he rarely actually does. Usually he’s just the classical sounding guy, the one who lends credibility. But here he really does get to play the old and wizened man he actually is. It suits him, just as playing the ethereal, not-quite-what-he-seems does Pitt.
#194. Lords of Dogtown (2005)
As a portrait for alienated youths developing and thriving in their own culture, this one is fairly by the books. As a vehicle for Heath Ledger to unexpectedly stretch his character instincts, this one’s off the charts. Seriously, you don’t need his death or the Joker to enjoy this performance.
#195. The Bingo Long-Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings (1976)
As a study of the Negro Leagues, it’s fascinating enough, but with a cast as terrific as Billy Dee Williams, James Earl Jones, and Richard Pryor, you don’t need to define it any further than great drama and a really good time.
#196. Brazil (1985)
Terry Gilliam in an early effort to really explore his potential is a wild trip, and one of the most awesome things about it is Robert De Niro casually appearing now and again as an unassuming sanitation worker. Anyone who claims they understand De Niro needs to see and really watch him here. And then watch and rewatch this movie until you can safely claim you understand it, too.
#197. Sideways (2004)
The cast is terrific and the camaraderie is, too, almost like visually drinking one of the many fine wines flowing across the screen as Paul Giamatti, Thomas Haden Church, Sandra Oh, and Virginia Madsen try to figure out life.
#198. Body of Lies (2008)
Ridley Scott, Russell Crowe, and Leonardo DiCaprio do their part in trying to make sense of the absurdly complicated modern world we live in, a sort of modern version of the historical epics Scott and sometimes Crowe have been doing.
#199. Juno (2007)
Ellen Page, Michael Cera, and J.K. Simmons have a good time exploring the angst of modern youth, reliable fodder for fiction of any stripe.
#200. North by Northwest (1959)
I don’t have a lot of experience with Hitchcock or Cary Grant, but I know this one really works. Plus it involves Mount Rushmore. I happen to love Mount Rushmore.
#201. Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994)
In some of my younger years (we may even say circa 1994), this would have been in the top ten, easily. It made Jim Carrey a star, and it’s still a classic. I wouldn’t need Friends, the Scream movies, or Cougar Town to remember Courtney Cox. And Dan Marino will live forever. Laces out! Come to think of it, I may have to worm it back further up the list in some later edition…
#202. The Fifth Element (1997)
In fact, we’re entering into a whole stretch of films that’ve been nosed out of rightful spots…I’ve loved this one almost as much for almost as long. What is essentially almost a parody of a Bruce Willis film also does a good job by Milla Jovovich, Chris Tucker, Ian Holm, and Gary Oldman. Did I mention Milla is perfect? It’s a silly movie, but it also has an awesome alien opera singer. It’s better than it seems, that kind of movie.
#203. Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)
Without this, Will Ferrell would never have become a big star. Okay, maybe that’s just me. Also, Mike Myers becomes an icon twice over, and Elizabeth Hurley is guaranteed immortality. Plus Seth Green almost definitely owes his career to this film.
#204. Galaxy Quest (1999)
Somehow, even with Home Improvement, The Santa Clause, and Toy Story, I still think I will always best remember Tim Allen for this Star Trek spoof, with Alan Rickman in another classic role, while Enrico Colantoni and Sam Rockwell basically steal the movie in supporting roles.
#205. American History X (1998)
Edward Norton in what will probably remain his career defining role, absent a lot of the gimmicks he’s employed in other famous roles, except that of a reformed Neo Nazi who finds his way back and then has to help his kid brother do the same. One of the few movies Avery Brooks, the commanding lead actor from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, managed to make, too, and he makes the most of it as Norton’s spiritual mentor.
#206. Liar, Liar (1997)
A movie my brother loved so much, he couldn’t stop watching it. So it’s possible to love a Jim Carrey movie even if you’re not technically obsessed with Jim Carrey, and this is an easy one to love, and even become obsessed with, in many ways more a pattern for his later comedic performances than Ace Ventura (see: Yes Man, Fun With Dick and Jane), with Maura Tierney and Cary Elwes (hilariously butchering Carrey’s “The Claw”) trying their best to keep up. Some of the best stuff is in the outtakes that follow the feature presentation…
#207. A Shot in the Dark (1964)
The Clouseau film that basically set the standard for all the Clouseau films is by definition a classic, wouldn’t you say?
#208. Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Likewise with this debut Tarantino, which if it doesn’t have quite the complete thrust of later films by the director, coasts amiably on a terrific cast, great dialogue, and a clever story, the three keys to any Quentin Tarantino masterpiece.
#209. The Santa Clause (1994)
Tim Allen tackles the ultimate gimmick in his quest to break out of television and become a movie star, and it totally works, because as it turns out, Tim Allen was born to play Santa Claus. Who knew? You just have to see it to believe it.
#210. Mortal Kombat (1995)
A direct product of my particular childhood, since this still to this day defines the martial arts flick for me, even though it’s based on a video game. I loved the game, and loved this movie, with a handful of classic performances (notably Cary Tagawa, Christopher Lambert, Linden Ashby, and Talisa Soto, plus the immortal Trevor Goddard as Kano). The sequel wasn’t as good, but it did have Brian Thompson, and retained the essentials (Soto and Robin Shou, the nominal lead actor).
#211. The Negotiator (1998)
The acting showdown between Kevin Spacey and Samuel L. Jackson is enough to make this memorable, but the story and the supporting cast (including perennial standouts Ron Rifkin and Paul Giamatti) are equally gripping.
#212. Schindler’s List (1993)
Spielberg assured his legacy when he made it, and Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes assured their careers when they did.
#213. Following (1999)
This is Christopher Nolan’s first movie, and you can see shades of it all the way through to Inception (you may hear a familiar name among lead characters if you’ve ever seen it). A clever study of identity, just in case you were wondering.
#214. Hoodwinked (2006)
One of my favorite computer animated movies (a sequel has been delayed for a while now), packed with more cleverness than any of the Shreks or Toy Storys, with the only problem being a lack of a truly lead character, at least a really good one. Plenty of excellent support, though, including a goat who is (or may not be) cursed to sing everything he says. Andy Dick and Patrick Warburton are among the voice actors.
#215. Hamlet (1990)
Mel Gibson proves his dramatic worth (if not his PR skills) in this adaptation of the Shakespeare staple, and that’s the best reason to see this one.
#216. Cast Away (2000)
Tom Hanks in his acting tour de force, proving he can make it interesting acting against a volley ball (Wilson!), while Helen Hunt proves a perfect romantic foil for a story that doesn’t take the obvious way out once Hanks returns to civilization.
#217. Grumpier Old Men (1995)
Lemmon, Mathieu, Burgess Meredith, and the whole cast work absolutely wonderfully together in this sequel that’s better than the original, proving that a little snow can sometimes be a good thing indeed.
#218. Shakespeare in Love (1998)
Joseph Fiennes’ best chance to prove his own cinematic worth is really stolen from him by an enchanting Gwyneth Paltrow, while Geoffrey Rush and Ben Affleck offer ample support. If Shakespeare were writing in modern times, he might do something like this himself. Though the title would be a little awkward.
#219. Apollo 13 (1995)
A fantastic score ushers Tom Hanks into space (and cruelly keeps Gary Sinese right here on Earth) in this dramatic retelling of the failed attempt to reach the moon again, but the successful effort at bringing the crew back home. An early Ron Howard blockbuster.
#220. Lethal Weapon 4 (1998)
For a lot of people, this was merely the fourth Lethal Weapon, but for me, it was actually the first, so I enjoyed Chris Rock just as much as any of the established cast, though Mel Gibson fighting Jet Li was pretty awesome, too.
#221. Patch Adams (1998)
Robin Williams had reached the end of another phase of his career, and critics really hated to see him go. They hated seeing him right out the door! They hated saying goodbye! They hated being the ones to relay the message! Anyway, I find it to be perfectly enjoyable, and I loved discovering Philip Seymour Hoffman in it, and I liked Monica Potter, too, and not just as a slightly older version of Emma Roberts.
#222. The Insider (1999)
Combine Russell Crowe, Al Pacino, and Christopher Plummer in any feature, and you’ve got a winning cast. No, please, do it again, Hollywood.
#223. Road to Perdition (2002)
You’ve got Tom Hanks, Paul Newman, Jude Law, Daniel Craig, and some of the best-ever cinematography. You’ve got a story of redemption, a father and son team, a son who isn’t a distraction from the rest of the movie. Why does this movie not have more love?
#224. Walk the Line (2005)
I actually didn’t hate Reece Witherspoon in this, and this was a first. But I loved Joaquin Phoenix in it, and I love Johnny Cash. The origins of the title song, as depicted in this movie, are some real movie magic, too. Crazy Heart was like the coda to what seemed like the inevitable conclusion to this film. But Johnny had other ideas.
#225. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)
Leonard Nimoy waits until one of his last performances to give one of his best portrayals of Spock, or at least what I would call one of his most cinematic, while Christopher Plummer steals the movie as a bold Klingon. It would have to be Plummer for something like that to happen. As a final goodbye to the complete original cast, it’s pretty nice, too.
Chances are this was released about a decade too late to truly be relevant, but it was still amusing, with a format that was completely unexpected (the only real song was “Spider-Pig”!) and a complete story that really worked, a disaster for the town of Springfield and Simpsons family that Homer was responsible for and was able to fix (both of them). Anyway, I really like The Simpsons and so it was easy for me to like this, too. It was also about as far from a Pixar movie as it could get, too, and that was pretty awesome, too.
#177. Planet of the Apes (2001)
The Tim Burton remake with Mark Wahlberg and a host of familiar actors in fantastic and fantastically realistic chimp makeup deserves a lot more praise than it gets, but that’s what you get when there was no real interest for a remake in the first place. This one was released before the summer blockbuster tradition really made its comeback a few years later, and that might explain what happened to it. Best of all is the clever Charlton Heston cameo. Seriously, if you love nothing else about this film, you’ve got to love how Tim uses Chuck.
#178. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
A slightly less naïve version of Forrest Gump, you can also consider this Hollywood’s most shameless effort to milk audiences for what Brad Pitt was supposed to elicit out of them, especially as he ages backwards all the way to the young face he sported but never really capitalized on, a heartbreaker cross between Thelma and Louise (when he really did settle for that role) and Meet Joe Black (when audiences really rejected him for it) But then you’ve also got Cate Blanchett in what amounts to her most mainstream role, and a good running bit about a guy who keeps getting hit by lightning. A lot of the attention this one got was for the effects, but it’s the movie’s own magic that wins out.
#179. Erin Brokovich (2000)
Otherwise known as Julia Roberts Wins Her Oscar, with an unabashed performance and truly outstanding supporting actors around her, Albert Finney and Aaron Eckhart (no really, under all that mustache), who let her be just another actor, even if she does get to enjoy the most boobs she’s ever had onscreen.
#180. State of Play (2009)
Russell Crowe as a crusading journalist, attempting to take the opposite role he sported in The Insider, and finding corruption at every turn, as he tries to figure out what the heck Ben Affleck was up to. Turns out, Affleck isn’t as innocent as he first seems. But yeah, Rachel McAdams is.
#181. The Hunting Party (2007)
Hardly anyone’s heard of this one, and those who have probably only heard the tepid reviews, but the moment I saw the trailer, I knew that it was an important film. Richard Gere and Terrence Howard star in this story based on real events, about TV journalists who become embroiled in an improbable series of events, and a story that’s bigger than they can handle.
#182. In the Valley of Elah (2007)
Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron, and Josh Brolin star in this drama that attempts to take a nuanced look at the war on terror. It’s one of those message films that drove audiences away with its politics, and on some level, it’s one of those films that seems like it’s got a certain message, but it’s really just an excellent and piercing narrative. I don’t necessarily agree with Jones when he suggests at the end of the film that the US is itself in trouble, but when a story makes you think anything at all, and this one does, I call that a success.
#183. Insomnia (2002)
Al Pacino, Robin Williams, and Hillary Swank have the good fortune to star in Christopher Nolan’s first foray into regular Hollywood fair (that number would pretty much include this and, nominally, his two Batman films), after the success of Memento. This was during the period where Williams was receiving a renewed bit of critical acclaim, but I’d say the show really belongs to Pacino, who gives one of his classic haunted performances.
#184. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)
During the period (like the one I just mentioned with Robin Williams, relatively brief) that Kevin Costner could do no wrong, he pulled off an American-accented version of a classic English character. But really, everyone let it slide because of Alan Rickman. That man really can do no wrong.
#185. Avatar (2009)
James Cameron, giant blue people, Pocahontas, the environment, billions of dollars at the box office, 3D…I still like to think of this as a film starring Sam Worthington and Zoë Saldana, with Worthington pulling off a challenging lead performance after a breakthrough supporting one in Terminator: Salvation, solidifying him as one of my new favorite actors. It’s easy to see why Saldana seemed so listless in Star Trek, meanwhile, when she had this huge challenge otherwise.
#186. A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)
Known as the Kubrick film that Spielberg finished, starring that kid from The Sixth Sense…I think Jude Law stole it, with his charismatic Gigolo Joe, easily, and the journey Haley Joel Osment undertakes, and its mystical conclusion, works better than E.T.’s, a far better payoff. Plus the robot teddy bear! And how can you discount Robin Williams’ Doctor Know? As Joe puts it, “He’s who you see when you’ve got to know.”
#187. Star Trek: Insurrection (1998)
I love the first couple of acts, when Picard has to track down Data after the android runs amok on a surveillance mission, especially the chase sequence. I love Anthony Zerbe as Admiral Dougherty, and F. Murray Abraham as the villain, who is among the most straight-forward Star Trek villains since Christopher Lloyd in the third film. I love Donna Murphy. Oh, in the movie. The movie itself, well, I don’t know that Jonathan Frakes had as keen a grasp of this one as he did First Contact. But there’s still a lot to love here.
#188. Charlie Wilson’s War (2007)
Tom Hanks gets to play almost himself here, in a story that helps makes sense of how complicated the modern world really is, while Julia Roberts and Philip Seymour Hoffman have a good time along with him. In fact, you might say having a good time is a little of why things get so screwy. But there’s food for thought. We’ll see.
#189. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
Jack Nicholson in the prototypical Jack Nicholson role, before old age just made him seem crotchety, playing opposite Louise Fletcher, who would perfect this performance decades later in ‘Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.’
#190. Toy Story 2 (1999)
I don’t mean to keep picking on Pixar, because this sequel (unlike this past summer’s kind of grossly overrated Pixar Effect threequel) really did have a lot of magic to it, with an inspired parody of one of the most celebrated sequels as Buzz learns his archnemesis is his father, and, hey, Stinky Pete. Plus I loved Robert Goulet singing “You’ve Got a Friend in Me.”
#191. Rent (2005)
The famed Broadway musical translates beautifully to the big screen, thanks in no small part to Rosario Dawson joining what is otherwise pretty much the original stage cast.
#192. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001)
It seemed like a sweet and innocent children’s story, in the beginning, and that’s because that’s exactly what it was, with child stars being children (but who would grow into real maturity soon enough). So let’s say Alan Rickman and Robbie Coltrane really run this one, and keep the magic alive. It’s the original John Williams score that really helps set the stage anyway.
#193. Meet Joe Black (1998)
Ah, yes! I just referenced this one back at #178! Here’s Brad Pitt in the apparently thankless role of traditional leading man, with Claire Forlani acting luminously as his love interest, and Anthony Hopkins lending the gravity as he rarely actually does. Usually he’s just the classical sounding guy, the one who lends credibility. But here he really does get to play the old and wizened man he actually is. It suits him, just as playing the ethereal, not-quite-what-he-seems does Pitt.
#194. Lords of Dogtown (2005)
As a portrait for alienated youths developing and thriving in their own culture, this one is fairly by the books. As a vehicle for Heath Ledger to unexpectedly stretch his character instincts, this one’s off the charts. Seriously, you don’t need his death or the Joker to enjoy this performance.
#195. The Bingo Long-Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings (1976)
As a study of the Negro Leagues, it’s fascinating enough, but with a cast as terrific as Billy Dee Williams, James Earl Jones, and Richard Pryor, you don’t need to define it any further than great drama and a really good time.
#196. Brazil (1985)
Terry Gilliam in an early effort to really explore his potential is a wild trip, and one of the most awesome things about it is Robert De Niro casually appearing now and again as an unassuming sanitation worker. Anyone who claims they understand De Niro needs to see and really watch him here. And then watch and rewatch this movie until you can safely claim you understand it, too.
#197. Sideways (2004)
The cast is terrific and the camaraderie is, too, almost like visually drinking one of the many fine wines flowing across the screen as Paul Giamatti, Thomas Haden Church, Sandra Oh, and Virginia Madsen try to figure out life.
#198. Body of Lies (2008)
Ridley Scott, Russell Crowe, and Leonardo DiCaprio do their part in trying to make sense of the absurdly complicated modern world we live in, a sort of modern version of the historical epics Scott and sometimes Crowe have been doing.
#199. Juno (2007)
Ellen Page, Michael Cera, and J.K. Simmons have a good time exploring the angst of modern youth, reliable fodder for fiction of any stripe.
#200. North by Northwest (1959)
I don’t have a lot of experience with Hitchcock or Cary Grant, but I know this one really works. Plus it involves Mount Rushmore. I happen to love Mount Rushmore.
#201. Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994)
In some of my younger years (we may even say circa 1994), this would have been in the top ten, easily. It made Jim Carrey a star, and it’s still a classic. I wouldn’t need Friends, the Scream movies, or Cougar Town to remember Courtney Cox. And Dan Marino will live forever. Laces out! Come to think of it, I may have to worm it back further up the list in some later edition…
#202. The Fifth Element (1997)
In fact, we’re entering into a whole stretch of films that’ve been nosed out of rightful spots…I’ve loved this one almost as much for almost as long. What is essentially almost a parody of a Bruce Willis film also does a good job by Milla Jovovich, Chris Tucker, Ian Holm, and Gary Oldman. Did I mention Milla is perfect? It’s a silly movie, but it also has an awesome alien opera singer. It’s better than it seems, that kind of movie.
#203. Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)
Without this, Will Ferrell would never have become a big star. Okay, maybe that’s just me. Also, Mike Myers becomes an icon twice over, and Elizabeth Hurley is guaranteed immortality. Plus Seth Green almost definitely owes his career to this film.
#204. Galaxy Quest (1999)
Somehow, even with Home Improvement, The Santa Clause, and Toy Story, I still think I will always best remember Tim Allen for this Star Trek spoof, with Alan Rickman in another classic role, while Enrico Colantoni and Sam Rockwell basically steal the movie in supporting roles.
#205. American History X (1998)
Edward Norton in what will probably remain his career defining role, absent a lot of the gimmicks he’s employed in other famous roles, except that of a reformed Neo Nazi who finds his way back and then has to help his kid brother do the same. One of the few movies Avery Brooks, the commanding lead actor from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, managed to make, too, and he makes the most of it as Norton’s spiritual mentor.
#206. Liar, Liar (1997)
A movie my brother loved so much, he couldn’t stop watching it. So it’s possible to love a Jim Carrey movie even if you’re not technically obsessed with Jim Carrey, and this is an easy one to love, and even become obsessed with, in many ways more a pattern for his later comedic performances than Ace Ventura (see: Yes Man, Fun With Dick and Jane), with Maura Tierney and Cary Elwes (hilariously butchering Carrey’s “The Claw”) trying their best to keep up. Some of the best stuff is in the outtakes that follow the feature presentation…
#207. A Shot in the Dark (1964)
The Clouseau film that basically set the standard for all the Clouseau films is by definition a classic, wouldn’t you say?
#208. Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Likewise with this debut Tarantino, which if it doesn’t have quite the complete thrust of later films by the director, coasts amiably on a terrific cast, great dialogue, and a clever story, the three keys to any Quentin Tarantino masterpiece.
#209. The Santa Clause (1994)
Tim Allen tackles the ultimate gimmick in his quest to break out of television and become a movie star, and it totally works, because as it turns out, Tim Allen was born to play Santa Claus. Who knew? You just have to see it to believe it.
#210. Mortal Kombat (1995)
A direct product of my particular childhood, since this still to this day defines the martial arts flick for me, even though it’s based on a video game. I loved the game, and loved this movie, with a handful of classic performances (notably Cary Tagawa, Christopher Lambert, Linden Ashby, and Talisa Soto, plus the immortal Trevor Goddard as Kano). The sequel wasn’t as good, but it did have Brian Thompson, and retained the essentials (Soto and Robin Shou, the nominal lead actor).
#211. The Negotiator (1998)
The acting showdown between Kevin Spacey and Samuel L. Jackson is enough to make this memorable, but the story and the supporting cast (including perennial standouts Ron Rifkin and Paul Giamatti) are equally gripping.
#212. Schindler’s List (1993)
Spielberg assured his legacy when he made it, and Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes assured their careers when they did.
#213. Following (1999)
This is Christopher Nolan’s first movie, and you can see shades of it all the way through to Inception (you may hear a familiar name among lead characters if you’ve ever seen it). A clever study of identity, just in case you were wondering.
#214. Hoodwinked (2006)
One of my favorite computer animated movies (a sequel has been delayed for a while now), packed with more cleverness than any of the Shreks or Toy Storys, with the only problem being a lack of a truly lead character, at least a really good one. Plenty of excellent support, though, including a goat who is (or may not be) cursed to sing everything he says. Andy Dick and Patrick Warburton are among the voice actors.
#215. Hamlet (1990)
Mel Gibson proves his dramatic worth (if not his PR skills) in this adaptation of the Shakespeare staple, and that’s the best reason to see this one.
#216. Cast Away (2000)
Tom Hanks in his acting tour de force, proving he can make it interesting acting against a volley ball (Wilson!), while Helen Hunt proves a perfect romantic foil for a story that doesn’t take the obvious way out once Hanks returns to civilization.
#217. Grumpier Old Men (1995)
Lemmon, Mathieu, Burgess Meredith, and the whole cast work absolutely wonderfully together in this sequel that’s better than the original, proving that a little snow can sometimes be a good thing indeed.
#218. Shakespeare in Love (1998)
Joseph Fiennes’ best chance to prove his own cinematic worth is really stolen from him by an enchanting Gwyneth Paltrow, while Geoffrey Rush and Ben Affleck offer ample support. If Shakespeare were writing in modern times, he might do something like this himself. Though the title would be a little awkward.
#219. Apollo 13 (1995)
A fantastic score ushers Tom Hanks into space (and cruelly keeps Gary Sinese right here on Earth) in this dramatic retelling of the failed attempt to reach the moon again, but the successful effort at bringing the crew back home. An early Ron Howard blockbuster.
#220. Lethal Weapon 4 (1998)
For a lot of people, this was merely the fourth Lethal Weapon, but for me, it was actually the first, so I enjoyed Chris Rock just as much as any of the established cast, though Mel Gibson fighting Jet Li was pretty awesome, too.
#221. Patch Adams (1998)
Robin Williams had reached the end of another phase of his career, and critics really hated to see him go. They hated seeing him right out the door! They hated saying goodbye! They hated being the ones to relay the message! Anyway, I find it to be perfectly enjoyable, and I loved discovering Philip Seymour Hoffman in it, and I liked Monica Potter, too, and not just as a slightly older version of Emma Roberts.
#222. The Insider (1999)
Combine Russell Crowe, Al Pacino, and Christopher Plummer in any feature, and you’ve got a winning cast. No, please, do it again, Hollywood.
#223. Road to Perdition (2002)
You’ve got Tom Hanks, Paul Newman, Jude Law, Daniel Craig, and some of the best-ever cinematography. You’ve got a story of redemption, a father and son team, a son who isn’t a distraction from the rest of the movie. Why does this movie not have more love?
#224. Walk the Line (2005)
I actually didn’t hate Reece Witherspoon in this, and this was a first. But I loved Joaquin Phoenix in it, and I love Johnny Cash. The origins of the title song, as depicted in this movie, are some real movie magic, too. Crazy Heart was like the coda to what seemed like the inevitable conclusion to this film. But Johnny had other ideas.
#225. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)
Leonard Nimoy waits until one of his last performances to give one of his best portrayals of Spock, or at least what I would call one of his most cinematic, while Christopher Plummer steals the movie as a bold Klingon. It would have to be Plummer for something like that to happen. As a final goodbye to the complete original cast, it’s pretty nice, too.
Friday, December 3, 2010
Film Fan #151-175
#151. Zoolander (2001)
This is Ben Stiller’s Austin Powers, simply put, plus a really good movie for Owen Wilson. Blue Steel!
#152. Adaptation (2002)
Twisty-turny Nicholas Cage tour-de-force, portraying both Charlie Kaufman and his fictional twin brother, who are trying to figure out how to make The Orchid Thief, a piece of nonfiction, into compelling fiction. One of my favorite Meryl Streep movies, too, before everyone started to believe too much of the hype, which kind of soured me on her in later years. The way to ruin a good actor is to start casting them, instead of their performances. That’s not as difficult to understand as it seems…
#153. The Break-Up (2006)
Superior relationship drama featuring Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston playing their iconic roles to best possible effect. Turns out they’re romantic losers, and it’s not a completely bad thing. Stick around for “Rainbow Connection” in the credits!
#154. In Bruges (2008)
Colin Farrell takes his Phone Booth and Cassandra’s Dream performances to their logical end, as a hitman cracking up after a botched job, with Brendan Gleeson attempting to help him past the trauma. Ralph Fiennes has a delicious supporting role as the man who gleefully seeks to make sure everything turns out as it should.
#155. The Majestic (2001)
Anytime a modern filmmaker attempts something that calls to mind the hallowed grounds of Hollywood past, critics take the automatic stance that it’s going to suck. That’s what doomed this Jim Carrey project, from director Frank Darabont, who had already made two exceptional prison dramas (The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile), this time taking his impeccable eye for casting for a completely wistful vision of a man on an equally unlikely path toward redemption. “Too much like Capra.” Or, captivating.
#156. Shrek (2001)
The computer animated movie that exploded the myth of what animated movies are supposed to do, by completely turning the old tropes on their head. Excellent voice casting with Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, and John Lithgow. None of the sequels make the list, but not because they aren’t worth watching. The second and fourth are of note.
#157. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)
The best part of this Potter is the epic duel between Voldemort and Dumbledore, which is one of the best in cinema lore, no matter the context. This is exactly why the Hogwarts headmaster had to go.
#158. Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007)
If history takes a backseat to high drama, then I could think of worse fates than to play second fiddle to Cate Blanchett, Clive Owen, and Geoffrey Rush.
#159. Catch Me If You Can (2002)
Combine Steven Spielberg, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks, and a jazzy John Williams, and you got pure cinematic dynamite. The story of Frank Abagnale is pretty fascinating, too.
#160. A Beautiful Mind (2001)
Ron Howard walks Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, and Ed Harris through an amazing true story about the human spirit. It pays to lose yourself in its magic.
#161. I Am Legend (2007)
Will Smith in perhaps the purest presentation of his undeniable skills as a one man show, as seemingly the last man on a planet that has been overrun with zombies.
#162. The Other Boleyn Girl (2008)
Natalie Portman and Scarlet Johansson spar as sisters caught under the gaze of Eric Bana, with Jim Sturges (star of Across the Universe and 21) playing a supporting role as their brother. Nobody wins, but it’s a lot of beautiful misery.
#163. World Trade Center (2006)
Oliver Stone guides Nicholas Cage, Michael Shannon, and others through the harrowing experiences of 9/11 with a transcendent feel throughout.
#164. The Perfect Storm (2000)
George Clooney, Mark Walberg, William Fichtner, Diane Lane, and others recreate a peculiar form of heroism, the courage to own up to your own mistakes, and try and make the best of it.
#165. Black Hawk Down (2001)
I was originally drawn to this one because of a personal connection, but Ridley Scott’s version of the battlezone of Mogadishu and his stellar casting (some of his stars weren’t even stars yet; Eric Bana and Tom Hardy appear, for instance, before anyone really knew who they were, which was still true for Hardy years later, at least until this year’s Inception, in fact) serve to create a true sense of the chaos of war. Josh Hartnett’s one real starring role, like Martin Sheen in Apocalypse Now.
#166. W. (2008)
Oliver Stone takes Josh Brolin, who was just starting to gain a film presence (after too many years), appearing in numerous movies clustered in their release dates, and retells the famous moments of George Bush’s life, leaving the ultimate conclusions up to the viewer. It was bravely stupid for many critics; me, I just saw Stone doing his visionary thing again.
#167. Stick It (2006)
Sometimes, an attitude can make a movie, and this one’s all about attitude, with Missy Peregrym displaying a distinct lead appeal (something nobody else seems to have noticed), with an assist from Jeff Bridges.
#168. 300 (2007)
Oh, and attitude is all over this, too, like the super-macho version of Black Hawk Down, with Gerard Butler finally finding his perfect role, after years of searching (seriously; you can see past efforts like Timeline and Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life for evidence).
#169. Ratatouille (2007)
Lots of people would try and make the arguments with The Incredibles or Wall-E, but here’s where Pixar finally broke free of the formula, the only time, really, when it allowed a gimmick to truly transcend itself, looking past the rat chef and allowing food critic Peter O’Toole to deliver its true message: good things are easier to find than you think, but great things are rare indeed.
#170. The Illusionist (2006)
Edward Norton finally breaks free from his usual persona, but not his favorite gimmick, still pulling the wool over Rufus Sewell’s eyes, with admiration from Jessica Biel and Paul Giamatti.
#171. The Constant Gardener (2005)
Ralph Fiennes tries to improve his life by chasing the ideals of his late wife, Rachel Weisz. It ain’t easy, and Danny Huston doesn’t make it easier, but that’s the world for you.
#172. The Hurt Locker (2009)
This one just won the Best Picture Oscar, so I don’t have to make too strong a case for it, so I’ll just say how much I love that Jeremy Renner finally found some wide acclaim. Also, Ralph Fiennes, Guy Pearce, Anthony Mackie, and Evangeline Lilly rock supporting roles.
#173. The 25th Hour (2002)
Spike Lee makes one of the earliest and most thought-provoking reactions to 9/11, with Edward Norton struggling to reconcile his life before heading off to jail. Philip Seymour Hoffman and Rosario Dawson are among an excellent supporting cast.
#174. Nixon (1995)
Oliver Stone and Anthony Hopkins tackle one of the giant of 20th century politics, and end up figuring out he’s not just there to push around.
#175. Moon (2009)
Sam Rockwell found his perfect starring role, playing opposite himself as an astronaut trying to figure out how to make good with his assignment. Plus, years after audiences grew tired of him, Kevin Spacey figures out how to sneak his way back to the big screen. As a robot’s voice!
This is Ben Stiller’s Austin Powers, simply put, plus a really good movie for Owen Wilson. Blue Steel!
#152. Adaptation (2002)
Twisty-turny Nicholas Cage tour-de-force, portraying both Charlie Kaufman and his fictional twin brother, who are trying to figure out how to make The Orchid Thief, a piece of nonfiction, into compelling fiction. One of my favorite Meryl Streep movies, too, before everyone started to believe too much of the hype, which kind of soured me on her in later years. The way to ruin a good actor is to start casting them, instead of their performances. That’s not as difficult to understand as it seems…
#153. The Break-Up (2006)
Superior relationship drama featuring Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston playing their iconic roles to best possible effect. Turns out they’re romantic losers, and it’s not a completely bad thing. Stick around for “Rainbow Connection” in the credits!
#154. In Bruges (2008)
Colin Farrell takes his Phone Booth and Cassandra’s Dream performances to their logical end, as a hitman cracking up after a botched job, with Brendan Gleeson attempting to help him past the trauma. Ralph Fiennes has a delicious supporting role as the man who gleefully seeks to make sure everything turns out as it should.
#155. The Majestic (2001)
Anytime a modern filmmaker attempts something that calls to mind the hallowed grounds of Hollywood past, critics take the automatic stance that it’s going to suck. That’s what doomed this Jim Carrey project, from director Frank Darabont, who had already made two exceptional prison dramas (The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile), this time taking his impeccable eye for casting for a completely wistful vision of a man on an equally unlikely path toward redemption. “Too much like Capra.” Or, captivating.
#156. Shrek (2001)
The computer animated movie that exploded the myth of what animated movies are supposed to do, by completely turning the old tropes on their head. Excellent voice casting with Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, and John Lithgow. None of the sequels make the list, but not because they aren’t worth watching. The second and fourth are of note.
#157. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)
The best part of this Potter is the epic duel between Voldemort and Dumbledore, which is one of the best in cinema lore, no matter the context. This is exactly why the Hogwarts headmaster had to go.
#158. Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007)
If history takes a backseat to high drama, then I could think of worse fates than to play second fiddle to Cate Blanchett, Clive Owen, and Geoffrey Rush.
#159. Catch Me If You Can (2002)
Combine Steven Spielberg, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks, and a jazzy John Williams, and you got pure cinematic dynamite. The story of Frank Abagnale is pretty fascinating, too.
#160. A Beautiful Mind (2001)
Ron Howard walks Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, and Ed Harris through an amazing true story about the human spirit. It pays to lose yourself in its magic.
#161. I Am Legend (2007)
Will Smith in perhaps the purest presentation of his undeniable skills as a one man show, as seemingly the last man on a planet that has been overrun with zombies.
#162. The Other Boleyn Girl (2008)
Natalie Portman and Scarlet Johansson spar as sisters caught under the gaze of Eric Bana, with Jim Sturges (star of Across the Universe and 21) playing a supporting role as their brother. Nobody wins, but it’s a lot of beautiful misery.
#163. World Trade Center (2006)
Oliver Stone guides Nicholas Cage, Michael Shannon, and others through the harrowing experiences of 9/11 with a transcendent feel throughout.
#164. The Perfect Storm (2000)
George Clooney, Mark Walberg, William Fichtner, Diane Lane, and others recreate a peculiar form of heroism, the courage to own up to your own mistakes, and try and make the best of it.
#165. Black Hawk Down (2001)
I was originally drawn to this one because of a personal connection, but Ridley Scott’s version of the battlezone of Mogadishu and his stellar casting (some of his stars weren’t even stars yet; Eric Bana and Tom Hardy appear, for instance, before anyone really knew who they were, which was still true for Hardy years later, at least until this year’s Inception, in fact) serve to create a true sense of the chaos of war. Josh Hartnett’s one real starring role, like Martin Sheen in Apocalypse Now.
#166. W. (2008)
Oliver Stone takes Josh Brolin, who was just starting to gain a film presence (after too many years), appearing in numerous movies clustered in their release dates, and retells the famous moments of George Bush’s life, leaving the ultimate conclusions up to the viewer. It was bravely stupid for many critics; me, I just saw Stone doing his visionary thing again.
#167. Stick It (2006)
Sometimes, an attitude can make a movie, and this one’s all about attitude, with Missy Peregrym displaying a distinct lead appeal (something nobody else seems to have noticed), with an assist from Jeff Bridges.
#168. 300 (2007)
Oh, and attitude is all over this, too, like the super-macho version of Black Hawk Down, with Gerard Butler finally finding his perfect role, after years of searching (seriously; you can see past efforts like Timeline and Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life for evidence).
#169. Ratatouille (2007)
Lots of people would try and make the arguments with The Incredibles or Wall-E, but here’s where Pixar finally broke free of the formula, the only time, really, when it allowed a gimmick to truly transcend itself, looking past the rat chef and allowing food critic Peter O’Toole to deliver its true message: good things are easier to find than you think, but great things are rare indeed.
#170. The Illusionist (2006)
Edward Norton finally breaks free from his usual persona, but not his favorite gimmick, still pulling the wool over Rufus Sewell’s eyes, with admiration from Jessica Biel and Paul Giamatti.
#171. The Constant Gardener (2005)
Ralph Fiennes tries to improve his life by chasing the ideals of his late wife, Rachel Weisz. It ain’t easy, and Danny Huston doesn’t make it easier, but that’s the world for you.
#172. The Hurt Locker (2009)
This one just won the Best Picture Oscar, so I don’t have to make too strong a case for it, so I’ll just say how much I love that Jeremy Renner finally found some wide acclaim. Also, Ralph Fiennes, Guy Pearce, Anthony Mackie, and Evangeline Lilly rock supporting roles.
#173. The 25th Hour (2002)
Spike Lee makes one of the earliest and most thought-provoking reactions to 9/11, with Edward Norton struggling to reconcile his life before heading off to jail. Philip Seymour Hoffman and Rosario Dawson are among an excellent supporting cast.
#174. Nixon (1995)
Oliver Stone and Anthony Hopkins tackle one of the giant of 20th century politics, and end up figuring out he’s not just there to push around.
#175. Moon (2009)
Sam Rockwell found his perfect starring role, playing opposite himself as an astronaut trying to figure out how to make good with his assignment. Plus, years after audiences grew tired of him, Kevin Spacey figures out how to sneak his way back to the big screen. As a robot’s voice!
Monday, November 29, 2010
Film Fan #101-150
#101. O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
Farces were a big thing in the early days of Hollywood. Unfortunately, I don’t really have much experience with them, whether they be Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, or the Marx Brothers. I’ve seen Stooges! But for my money, this is my kind of farce, starring George Clooney, the man who ended up defying conventions because he had no other choice (anytime he attempts to fit them, the critics hate it, even though he was born for them, too; the man is probably the consummate film star), and under the direction of the famed Coen Brothers, with whom I have precious little experience. It seems appropriate. Anyway, this one is a treasure all the way around.
#102. Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2005)
Talk about a crime: this was a cult favorite in the making for years, until it was actually made. But I cannot emphasize how much I adore it, from the perfect casting to the exquisite sense of how Douglas Adams worked best.
#103. Batman Begins (2005)
Christopher Nolan’s first pass at the Dark Knight is a riveting character study, which is appropriate to the director, but it lacks a sense of surprise, other than the awesome twist revolving around Liam Neeson, so I’ve struggled a good deal with my exact level of appreciation for it. Tom Wilkinson is another standout in the cast.
#104. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
The popcorn blockbuster, in the years before it was perfected by Hollywood, in one of its purest forms, the best of the Terminator films; just a rollicking series of set pieces, with some good performances and standout casting choices, and a good sense of scale.
#105. Toy Story (1995)
The first Pixar flick is also the first Pixar flick on the list, in every sense the most pure experience of the studio’s sense of modern animation magic, an irreverent (but, as with every Pixar experience, always bordering a little too close to total reverence) look at the inner life of toys, with Tim Allen and Tom Hanks in some of their defining roles, which is saying something, because both are known better for others.
#106. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)
This second hundred of the list is a walkthrough of films that could have and at one time or another actually did make the top hundred in previous editions. This is the first Harry Potter to make this version, and has been my favorite since its original release, the first of the series to reach true maturity, and real transcendence, which is what the whole experiment of this series of films based on books that were still being released at the time was all about. Harry doesn’t ask for anything that happens to him, and it’s never more true than when he’s drafted into the Tri-Wizard Tournament, where he competes against, among others, a pre-Twilight Robert Pattinson, whose death still manages to elicit the most emotional moment in the films to date. Also Michael Gambon’s breakout movie as Dumbledore. Oh, and Ralph Fiennes debuts as Voldemort. It’s been hard to rank any of these films while they’re still being made, since this is the longest continuous, single-story movie saga ever. There’s the constant sense that the best is yet to come, and that a lot of the momentum points forward. That the one in the middle has done it best, but that others since have managed to maintain a lot of the momentum, might suggest that in the future, Harry will permanently crack the top hundred, along with other favorite series.
#107. The Proposition (2005)
A good year continues, with Guy Pearce, Ray Winstone, and Danny Huston leading an Australian western that cuts to the emotional bone with a saga of justice that spares very little. Exquisite.
#108. Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004)
Daniel Handler’s clever books about some really hard-luck orphans takes a backseat to Jim Carrey unleashing some of his most inspired character acting, in a number of iterations. If this one wasn’t successful enough to bring about, oh, twelve sequels (it’s okay, since this one already squeezed a lot of them together, so there wouldn’t really have been so many), it was enough to just sit back and enjoy this one.
#109. Kingdom of Heaven (2005)
Ridley Scott sets out to prove that Gladiator was no fluke, bringing his historical focus to the bloody mess of the Crusades, with a more complicated story revolving around Orlando Bloom (another guy attempting to win some much-deserved acclaim) and his quest for redemption, both for a wife who committed suicide and a father (Liam Neeson, naturally) who helped point the way. An embarrassment of riches in casting includes an unlikely turn by Edward Norton.
#110. Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince (2009)
The next Harry is the one that got to put the spotlight squarely on Michael Gambon, who here gets to outclass Ian McKellen (this one gets to explore all the depth Tolkien left out of his Lord of the Rings, which Peter Jackson also overlooked, flattening even what McKellen did in Fellowship of the Ring for the next two in that epic), while Tom Felton stirs horribly as Draco Malfoy and Alan Rickman gets some of his best material as Snape.
#111. Cradle Will Rock (1999)
An incredible ensemble piece, with a lot of great performances, including Bill Murray and Hank Azaria, revolving around the Great Depression and a bunch of artists and performers attempting to make the best of it.
#112. The New World (2005)
Colin Farrell in one of his standout performances, mostly holding it in, but occasionally unleashing some of his latent Alexander incredulity, in this Terrence Malick version of Pocahontas and John Smith, incredibly lush, and packed with supporting roles.
#113. The Prestige (2006)
Christopher Nolan, Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, and Michael Caine spin real magic out of a deadly rivalry that exposes the extent, and limits, of ego. This time, it’s really about Jackman, however, in perhaps his career performance.
#114. The Princess Bride (1987)
Disney has cornered the market for modern fairy tales, except for this adaptation of the William Golding book, spinning Cary Elwes into a modern Errol Flynn, with Robin Wright an enchanting prize, and a host of character actors rounding out an iconic fable.
#115. Lady in the Water (2006)
Speaking of fables, here’s one from M. Night Shyamalan, supposedly from the point of his career where he’d become completely irrelevant, but really when he started doing some of his most interesting work. Paul Giamatti had one of his last leading roles in that sudden hotstreak that finally won him so much deserving acclaim as a man caught in an incredible bedtime story come to life.
#116. Back to the Future (1985)
Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd gain immortality as a pair of unlikely time-travelers who actually make an unforgettable trip to the past.
#117. 3:10 to Yuma (2007)
Russell Crowe and Christian Bale match macho wits in this version of an enduring western fable about a family man drafted into escorting a notorious outlaw to prison.
#118. Braveheart (1995)
Mel Gibson, as it later turned out, had this one chance to step into history, and he made the most of it, defining warrior poets for the ages.
#119. Jackie Brown (1997)
Quentin Tarantino understand pure acting magic better than anyone, how it can literally shape movies. Here’s his most unexpected outing, matching a pair of has-beens (Pam Grier and Robert Forster) in career-defining performances, with supporting work from, among others, Chris Tucker and Robert De Niro, neither of whom have appeared in any other film from the director. That’s a dirty shame. But there’s also Samuel L. Jackson, probably in a better all-around appearance than Pulp Fiction.
#120. Daredevil (2003)
As far as Marvel movies go, most people prefer X-Men or Spider-man or Iron Man, but here’s where I get my jollies. Ben Affleck has everything to do to keep up with Jennifer Garner, taking her Alias appeal to a whole new level, while Michael Clarke Duncan tries to keep up with Colin Farrell as the opposition.
#121. Terminator: Salvation (2009)
Christian Bale, Anton Yelchin, and Moon Bloodgood all play second-fiddle to Sam Worthington, exploding onto the screen in his first major role, months before Avatar, a film he actually stars in, but lacking the same impact.
#122. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (2007)
What I like about this one, more than the increasingly zany Jack Sparrow, in the expanded sense of storytelling, with an opening that makes no bones about how pirates were really treated, no matter all the adventures going on with the main cast. A fitting…segue to the upcoming four-quel.
#123. The Aviator (2004)
Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio return! This time they attempt to explore the psychoses of Howard Hughes, the man who obscured his own legacy by succumbing to obsessive compulsive behaviors, which this film in its best moments foreshadows.
#124. The Time Traveler’s Wife (2009)
Eric Bana had an exceptional year in 2009, and this was, technically speaking, his only starring performance, as a man who flits through time, while the love of his life, Rachel McAdams, struggles to accept her role as his anchor. Powerfully compelling, but was mostly overlooked by critics and audiences.
#125. Children of Men (2006)
Such a defining role that Clive Owen himself later parodied it (Shoot ‘em Up), with Michael Caine and Julianne Moore offering support in a story that explores a world driven to utter desperation, and falling apart at the seams.
#126. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
Daniel Radcliffe’s best film to date is the first one that asked him to carry the story himself, based on what still remains my favorite book of the series. David Thewlis and Gary Oldman offer support, but clearly it’s all about Harry this time around, with the young wizard now old enough to begin grasping the terrible mess he’s inherited.
#127. The 13th Warrior (1999)
Antonio Banderas in one of the last starring performances from his brief foray as a Hollywood leading man, an atmospheric version of Michael Crichton’s riff on Beowulf.
#128. Training Day (2001)
Denzel Washington unleashes a fiery persona in this ultimate portrait of police corruption, with Ethan Hawke pulling in one of his typical roles as an overwhelmed observer just trying to keep up. Alas, an impossible task.
#129. Cassandra’s Dream (2007)
Here’s perhaps another instance of my overall ignorance perhaps being an asset; where critics saw just another unremarkable Woody Allen excursion, perhaps weary from all the other Woody Allen excursions they’ve taken (and that’s pretty much all I read in every review I’ve come across during my lifetime and/or movie going experience), I saw brilliance. Colin Farrell and Ewan McGregor struggle with impossible decisions, made worse by a demanding Tom Wilkinson, and the tangled web they weave together feels like nothing else I’ve seen from Allen.
#130. Lethal Weapon (1987)
Mel Gibson erred when he entered Hollywood when his first role cast him as a sort of descendent of Marlon Brando from On the Waterfront, a man desperate to escape a past that has done him no favors. That’s what this one really is for me. Gibson essentially follows the same past for the rest of his career to date, and like Brando, the public has grown less and less kind.
#131. Frank Miller’s Sin City (2005)
Robert Rodriquez at his most focused, following the pulp noir curves of Miller with a stellar cast, including Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis, and Jessica Alba. Benecio Del Toro steals Clive Owen’s segment with a completely atypical gonzo vibe, during a sequence directed by Quentin Tarantino.
#132. Phone Booth (2003)
Colin Farrell often does a lot of jumping around in his films, in whatever sense he needs to, but here he’s stuck in the eponymous public service, which is now even more antiquated than when the film was released. Forest Whitaker and Kiefer Sutherland serve as ample support, but it’s really Farrell, performing a variation on the kind of performance that would win him back critical acclaim with In Bruges after several rough years, that must be seen.
#133. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
Marlon Brando dominates this one for me, a sheer force of will, portraying a desperate man in a bad spot of love and little sense of how to handle it. One of the ways to identify someone as great at what they do is to have a hard time picturing anyone else doing it the same way. That’s kind of acting Brando exhibits here, what he did throughout his career.
#134. Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006)
Will Ferrell had done a few films by this point (Old School, Elf, Anchorman) that were popular favorites, but it wasn’t until this one where I found the movie star version of the Saturday Night Live standout that I could call my own, where he completely loses himself in a role without it feeling like a sketch, probably because he’s got a lot of help around him, including Sasha Baron Cohen as a rival on the racetrack.
#135. Grindhouse (2007)
Robert Rodriquez and Quentin Tarantino, filmmaking brothers, collaborate in this combo pack of b-movies: Planet Hell, with Rose McGowan and Josh Brolin, among others, under Rodriquez, and Death Proof, raging with a powerful female cast and Kurt Russell under Tarantino. The fake trailers that got most of the attention (and an actual spin-off this year) are icing on the cake. The films themselves are terrific.
#136. Desperado (1995)
Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek are the hottest outlaws since Bonnie & Clyde in Robert Rodriquez’s best original film, itself a quasi-remake of his breakout pre-Hollywood debut.
#137. Fight Club (1999)
Edward Norton and Brad Pitt, two actors who avoid convention at every possible term, one out of necessity, the other because it amuses him, share the highpoint of their impulses, one struggling to understand what’s going on (the reverse of what Norton usually does), the other seemingly in total control (the opposite of what Pitt normally experiences). What I’m saying is, don’t just watch this for the twists and conceits, but for the actors who drive it.
#138. Smokin’ Aces (2007)
Joe Carnahan is a directing ace that has worked sparingly, best known for Narc but better seen with this one, a riveting and madcap ensemble piece that centers around Jeremy Piven and Ryan Reynolds, both displaying more depth than they typically get to. You can also catch Chris Pine and Ben Affleck, among others, going against type.
#139. Titanic (1997)
I still remember all the fuss about how this was going to blow up in James Cameron’s face, the extravagant expense of it, which was all going to go to waste. Well, we all know how that actually turned out. Thing is, I didn’t see it until years later. Leo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet are every bit as captivating as the mass audiences made them seem. I also enjoyed Billy Zane, for the record.
#140. (500) Days of Summer (2009)
Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel in one of my personal favorite romances, one that was doomed to fail from the start. I shared Levitt’s heartbreak, but couldn’t find myself capable of despising Zooey, who is just too adorable and captivating. Plus, technically she made it pretty clear that it was going to end that way (okay, maybe not exactly that way) right from the start. Anyway, inventive and fun and incredibly moving.
#141. We Are Marshall (2007)
Matthew McConnaughey is technically the star, but the love of football, plus Matthew Fox and Anthony Mackie, that’s what’s really worth it here. After Lost, Fox got a chance to become a movie star, and this has been his best effort to date.
#142. Marie Antoinette (2005)
Sophia Coppola is better known for other movies, but this one’s my favorite, with a typically captivating Kirsten Dunst as a monarch who would recognize our times quite nicely, inhabiting the gray areas we seldom appreciate about life, someone who didn’t even luck into a posh life, but who suffered through it, with a little extravagance thrown in to make it bearable. Really, the story about bad timing, all the way around, so Coppola’s decision to use a lot of modern touches fits right in.
#143. The Happening (2008)
M. Night Shyamalan does the post-9/11 film that seems to be about anything but 9/11, but the effects are all there, from the bodies falling from tall buildings to a world that suddenly doesn’t make any sense, no matter how hard Mark Walberg and Zooey Deschanel fight with all their reasoning. They do what they can to survive, whatever works. Seldom is so little pretense used to such great effect. Ah, but isn’t that Shyamalan directing?
#144. The Doors (1991)
Only Oliver Stone, it seems, is capable of piecing together a tapestry that includes the Vietnam War, JFK, and Jim Morrison. Val Kilmer was born to play the eccentric, elevated, and altogether unknowable mind of the Lizard King, whose descent is seen as his attempt to connect with a past he barely understood.
#145. Elizabethtown (2005)
Orlando Bloom, Kirsten Dunst, and Cameron Crowe weave this enchanting vision of a life (Bloom’s, technically), spinning out of control in a way that presaged the Great Recession, an existential crisis set to great music.
#146. Across the Universe (2007)
Speaking of great music, here’s the Beatles, cleverly interpreted for new audiences, great performances and expert staging all the way around, from the obvious to the transcendent.
#147. Finding Nemo (2003)
Pixar has attempted just about every new permutation of Toy Story possible, but the most natural effort was the one that transposed the bond of boy and sheriff doll (and/or space ranger) with that of father and son, who happen to be clown fish, with oceans of personalities covering the space of toy boxes.
#148. There’s Something About Mary (1998)
Cameron Diaz (Mary) and Ben Stiller (in his perfect showcase) explore a modern kind of romance (strangely, it’s a lot more pathetic than you might care to admit), with a lot of zaniness and quirky music thrown into the mix.
#149. Match Point (2005)
Woody Allen in the recent film critics actually loved, featuring Jonathan Rhys Myers in an unlikely romantic quest for Scarlett Johansson, a meditation on the vagaries of fate that unfolds like a poem.
#150. The Avengers (1998)
Here’s a movie that most people don’t even remember, and even if they did, they would still dismiss. Ralph Fiennes, Uma Thurman, and Sean Connery star in this update of a TV show that oozes effortless British cool, and doesn’t need much more than that. Like A Series of Unfortunate Events, could have resulted in a lot of sequels, but is as enjoyable now on its own as ever.
Farces were a big thing in the early days of Hollywood. Unfortunately, I don’t really have much experience with them, whether they be Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, or the Marx Brothers. I’ve seen Stooges! But for my money, this is my kind of farce, starring George Clooney, the man who ended up defying conventions because he had no other choice (anytime he attempts to fit them, the critics hate it, even though he was born for them, too; the man is probably the consummate film star), and under the direction of the famed Coen Brothers, with whom I have precious little experience. It seems appropriate. Anyway, this one is a treasure all the way around.
#102. Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2005)
Talk about a crime: this was a cult favorite in the making for years, until it was actually made. But I cannot emphasize how much I adore it, from the perfect casting to the exquisite sense of how Douglas Adams worked best.
#103. Batman Begins (2005)
Christopher Nolan’s first pass at the Dark Knight is a riveting character study, which is appropriate to the director, but it lacks a sense of surprise, other than the awesome twist revolving around Liam Neeson, so I’ve struggled a good deal with my exact level of appreciation for it. Tom Wilkinson is another standout in the cast.
#104. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
The popcorn blockbuster, in the years before it was perfected by Hollywood, in one of its purest forms, the best of the Terminator films; just a rollicking series of set pieces, with some good performances and standout casting choices, and a good sense of scale.
#105. Toy Story (1995)
The first Pixar flick is also the first Pixar flick on the list, in every sense the most pure experience of the studio’s sense of modern animation magic, an irreverent (but, as with every Pixar experience, always bordering a little too close to total reverence) look at the inner life of toys, with Tim Allen and Tom Hanks in some of their defining roles, which is saying something, because both are known better for others.
#106. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)
This second hundred of the list is a walkthrough of films that could have and at one time or another actually did make the top hundred in previous editions. This is the first Harry Potter to make this version, and has been my favorite since its original release, the first of the series to reach true maturity, and real transcendence, which is what the whole experiment of this series of films based on books that were still being released at the time was all about. Harry doesn’t ask for anything that happens to him, and it’s never more true than when he’s drafted into the Tri-Wizard Tournament, where he competes against, among others, a pre-Twilight Robert Pattinson, whose death still manages to elicit the most emotional moment in the films to date. Also Michael Gambon’s breakout movie as Dumbledore. Oh, and Ralph Fiennes debuts as Voldemort. It’s been hard to rank any of these films while they’re still being made, since this is the longest continuous, single-story movie saga ever. There’s the constant sense that the best is yet to come, and that a lot of the momentum points forward. That the one in the middle has done it best, but that others since have managed to maintain a lot of the momentum, might suggest that in the future, Harry will permanently crack the top hundred, along with other favorite series.
#107. The Proposition (2005)
A good year continues, with Guy Pearce, Ray Winstone, and Danny Huston leading an Australian western that cuts to the emotional bone with a saga of justice that spares very little. Exquisite.
#108. Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004)
Daniel Handler’s clever books about some really hard-luck orphans takes a backseat to Jim Carrey unleashing some of his most inspired character acting, in a number of iterations. If this one wasn’t successful enough to bring about, oh, twelve sequels (it’s okay, since this one already squeezed a lot of them together, so there wouldn’t really have been so many), it was enough to just sit back and enjoy this one.
#109. Kingdom of Heaven (2005)
Ridley Scott sets out to prove that Gladiator was no fluke, bringing his historical focus to the bloody mess of the Crusades, with a more complicated story revolving around Orlando Bloom (another guy attempting to win some much-deserved acclaim) and his quest for redemption, both for a wife who committed suicide and a father (Liam Neeson, naturally) who helped point the way. An embarrassment of riches in casting includes an unlikely turn by Edward Norton.
#110. Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince (2009)
The next Harry is the one that got to put the spotlight squarely on Michael Gambon, who here gets to outclass Ian McKellen (this one gets to explore all the depth Tolkien left out of his Lord of the Rings, which Peter Jackson also overlooked, flattening even what McKellen did in Fellowship of the Ring for the next two in that epic), while Tom Felton stirs horribly as Draco Malfoy and Alan Rickman gets some of his best material as Snape.
#111. Cradle Will Rock (1999)
An incredible ensemble piece, with a lot of great performances, including Bill Murray and Hank Azaria, revolving around the Great Depression and a bunch of artists and performers attempting to make the best of it.
#112. The New World (2005)
Colin Farrell in one of his standout performances, mostly holding it in, but occasionally unleashing some of his latent Alexander incredulity, in this Terrence Malick version of Pocahontas and John Smith, incredibly lush, and packed with supporting roles.
#113. The Prestige (2006)
Christopher Nolan, Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, and Michael Caine spin real magic out of a deadly rivalry that exposes the extent, and limits, of ego. This time, it’s really about Jackman, however, in perhaps his career performance.
#114. The Princess Bride (1987)
Disney has cornered the market for modern fairy tales, except for this adaptation of the William Golding book, spinning Cary Elwes into a modern Errol Flynn, with Robin Wright an enchanting prize, and a host of character actors rounding out an iconic fable.
#115. Lady in the Water (2006)
Speaking of fables, here’s one from M. Night Shyamalan, supposedly from the point of his career where he’d become completely irrelevant, but really when he started doing some of his most interesting work. Paul Giamatti had one of his last leading roles in that sudden hotstreak that finally won him so much deserving acclaim as a man caught in an incredible bedtime story come to life.
#116. Back to the Future (1985)
Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd gain immortality as a pair of unlikely time-travelers who actually make an unforgettable trip to the past.
#117. 3:10 to Yuma (2007)
Russell Crowe and Christian Bale match macho wits in this version of an enduring western fable about a family man drafted into escorting a notorious outlaw to prison.
#118. Braveheart (1995)
Mel Gibson, as it later turned out, had this one chance to step into history, and he made the most of it, defining warrior poets for the ages.
#119. Jackie Brown (1997)
Quentin Tarantino understand pure acting magic better than anyone, how it can literally shape movies. Here’s his most unexpected outing, matching a pair of has-beens (Pam Grier and Robert Forster) in career-defining performances, with supporting work from, among others, Chris Tucker and Robert De Niro, neither of whom have appeared in any other film from the director. That’s a dirty shame. But there’s also Samuel L. Jackson, probably in a better all-around appearance than Pulp Fiction.
#120. Daredevil (2003)
As far as Marvel movies go, most people prefer X-Men or Spider-man or Iron Man, but here’s where I get my jollies. Ben Affleck has everything to do to keep up with Jennifer Garner, taking her Alias appeal to a whole new level, while Michael Clarke Duncan tries to keep up with Colin Farrell as the opposition.
#121. Terminator: Salvation (2009)
Christian Bale, Anton Yelchin, and Moon Bloodgood all play second-fiddle to Sam Worthington, exploding onto the screen in his first major role, months before Avatar, a film he actually stars in, but lacking the same impact.
#122. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (2007)
What I like about this one, more than the increasingly zany Jack Sparrow, in the expanded sense of storytelling, with an opening that makes no bones about how pirates were really treated, no matter all the adventures going on with the main cast. A fitting…segue to the upcoming four-quel.
#123. The Aviator (2004)
Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio return! This time they attempt to explore the psychoses of Howard Hughes, the man who obscured his own legacy by succumbing to obsessive compulsive behaviors, which this film in its best moments foreshadows.
#124. The Time Traveler’s Wife (2009)
Eric Bana had an exceptional year in 2009, and this was, technically speaking, his only starring performance, as a man who flits through time, while the love of his life, Rachel McAdams, struggles to accept her role as his anchor. Powerfully compelling, but was mostly overlooked by critics and audiences.
#125. Children of Men (2006)
Such a defining role that Clive Owen himself later parodied it (Shoot ‘em Up), with Michael Caine and Julianne Moore offering support in a story that explores a world driven to utter desperation, and falling apart at the seams.
#126. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
Daniel Radcliffe’s best film to date is the first one that asked him to carry the story himself, based on what still remains my favorite book of the series. David Thewlis and Gary Oldman offer support, but clearly it’s all about Harry this time around, with the young wizard now old enough to begin grasping the terrible mess he’s inherited.
#127. The 13th Warrior (1999)
Antonio Banderas in one of the last starring performances from his brief foray as a Hollywood leading man, an atmospheric version of Michael Crichton’s riff on Beowulf.
#128. Training Day (2001)
Denzel Washington unleashes a fiery persona in this ultimate portrait of police corruption, with Ethan Hawke pulling in one of his typical roles as an overwhelmed observer just trying to keep up. Alas, an impossible task.
#129. Cassandra’s Dream (2007)
Here’s perhaps another instance of my overall ignorance perhaps being an asset; where critics saw just another unremarkable Woody Allen excursion, perhaps weary from all the other Woody Allen excursions they’ve taken (and that’s pretty much all I read in every review I’ve come across during my lifetime and/or movie going experience), I saw brilliance. Colin Farrell and Ewan McGregor struggle with impossible decisions, made worse by a demanding Tom Wilkinson, and the tangled web they weave together feels like nothing else I’ve seen from Allen.
#130. Lethal Weapon (1987)
Mel Gibson erred when he entered Hollywood when his first role cast him as a sort of descendent of Marlon Brando from On the Waterfront, a man desperate to escape a past that has done him no favors. That’s what this one really is for me. Gibson essentially follows the same past for the rest of his career to date, and like Brando, the public has grown less and less kind.
#131. Frank Miller’s Sin City (2005)
Robert Rodriquez at his most focused, following the pulp noir curves of Miller with a stellar cast, including Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis, and Jessica Alba. Benecio Del Toro steals Clive Owen’s segment with a completely atypical gonzo vibe, during a sequence directed by Quentin Tarantino.
#132. Phone Booth (2003)
Colin Farrell often does a lot of jumping around in his films, in whatever sense he needs to, but here he’s stuck in the eponymous public service, which is now even more antiquated than when the film was released. Forest Whitaker and Kiefer Sutherland serve as ample support, but it’s really Farrell, performing a variation on the kind of performance that would win him back critical acclaim with In Bruges after several rough years, that must be seen.
#133. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
Marlon Brando dominates this one for me, a sheer force of will, portraying a desperate man in a bad spot of love and little sense of how to handle it. One of the ways to identify someone as great at what they do is to have a hard time picturing anyone else doing it the same way. That’s kind of acting Brando exhibits here, what he did throughout his career.
#134. Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006)
Will Ferrell had done a few films by this point (Old School, Elf, Anchorman) that were popular favorites, but it wasn’t until this one where I found the movie star version of the Saturday Night Live standout that I could call my own, where he completely loses himself in a role without it feeling like a sketch, probably because he’s got a lot of help around him, including Sasha Baron Cohen as a rival on the racetrack.
#135. Grindhouse (2007)
Robert Rodriquez and Quentin Tarantino, filmmaking brothers, collaborate in this combo pack of b-movies: Planet Hell, with Rose McGowan and Josh Brolin, among others, under Rodriquez, and Death Proof, raging with a powerful female cast and Kurt Russell under Tarantino. The fake trailers that got most of the attention (and an actual spin-off this year) are icing on the cake. The films themselves are terrific.
#136. Desperado (1995)
Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek are the hottest outlaws since Bonnie & Clyde in Robert Rodriquez’s best original film, itself a quasi-remake of his breakout pre-Hollywood debut.
#137. Fight Club (1999)
Edward Norton and Brad Pitt, two actors who avoid convention at every possible term, one out of necessity, the other because it amuses him, share the highpoint of their impulses, one struggling to understand what’s going on (the reverse of what Norton usually does), the other seemingly in total control (the opposite of what Pitt normally experiences). What I’m saying is, don’t just watch this for the twists and conceits, but for the actors who drive it.
#138. Smokin’ Aces (2007)
Joe Carnahan is a directing ace that has worked sparingly, best known for Narc but better seen with this one, a riveting and madcap ensemble piece that centers around Jeremy Piven and Ryan Reynolds, both displaying more depth than they typically get to. You can also catch Chris Pine and Ben Affleck, among others, going against type.
#139. Titanic (1997)
I still remember all the fuss about how this was going to blow up in James Cameron’s face, the extravagant expense of it, which was all going to go to waste. Well, we all know how that actually turned out. Thing is, I didn’t see it until years later. Leo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet are every bit as captivating as the mass audiences made them seem. I also enjoyed Billy Zane, for the record.
#140. (500) Days of Summer (2009)
Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel in one of my personal favorite romances, one that was doomed to fail from the start. I shared Levitt’s heartbreak, but couldn’t find myself capable of despising Zooey, who is just too adorable and captivating. Plus, technically she made it pretty clear that it was going to end that way (okay, maybe not exactly that way) right from the start. Anyway, inventive and fun and incredibly moving.
#141. We Are Marshall (2007)
Matthew McConnaughey is technically the star, but the love of football, plus Matthew Fox and Anthony Mackie, that’s what’s really worth it here. After Lost, Fox got a chance to become a movie star, and this has been his best effort to date.
#142. Marie Antoinette (2005)
Sophia Coppola is better known for other movies, but this one’s my favorite, with a typically captivating Kirsten Dunst as a monarch who would recognize our times quite nicely, inhabiting the gray areas we seldom appreciate about life, someone who didn’t even luck into a posh life, but who suffered through it, with a little extravagance thrown in to make it bearable. Really, the story about bad timing, all the way around, so Coppola’s decision to use a lot of modern touches fits right in.
#143. The Happening (2008)
M. Night Shyamalan does the post-9/11 film that seems to be about anything but 9/11, but the effects are all there, from the bodies falling from tall buildings to a world that suddenly doesn’t make any sense, no matter how hard Mark Walberg and Zooey Deschanel fight with all their reasoning. They do what they can to survive, whatever works. Seldom is so little pretense used to such great effect. Ah, but isn’t that Shyamalan directing?
#144. The Doors (1991)
Only Oliver Stone, it seems, is capable of piecing together a tapestry that includes the Vietnam War, JFK, and Jim Morrison. Val Kilmer was born to play the eccentric, elevated, and altogether unknowable mind of the Lizard King, whose descent is seen as his attempt to connect with a past he barely understood.
#145. Elizabethtown (2005)
Orlando Bloom, Kirsten Dunst, and Cameron Crowe weave this enchanting vision of a life (Bloom’s, technically), spinning out of control in a way that presaged the Great Recession, an existential crisis set to great music.
#146. Across the Universe (2007)
Speaking of great music, here’s the Beatles, cleverly interpreted for new audiences, great performances and expert staging all the way around, from the obvious to the transcendent.
#147. Finding Nemo (2003)
Pixar has attempted just about every new permutation of Toy Story possible, but the most natural effort was the one that transposed the bond of boy and sheriff doll (and/or space ranger) with that of father and son, who happen to be clown fish, with oceans of personalities covering the space of toy boxes.
#148. There’s Something About Mary (1998)
Cameron Diaz (Mary) and Ben Stiller (in his perfect showcase) explore a modern kind of romance (strangely, it’s a lot more pathetic than you might care to admit), with a lot of zaniness and quirky music thrown into the mix.
#149. Match Point (2005)
Woody Allen in the recent film critics actually loved, featuring Jonathan Rhys Myers in an unlikely romantic quest for Scarlett Johansson, a meditation on the vagaries of fate that unfolds like a poem.
#150. The Avengers (1998)
Here’s a movie that most people don’t even remember, and even if they did, they would still dismiss. Ralph Fiennes, Uma Thurman, and Sean Connery star in this update of a TV show that oozes effortless British cool, and doesn’t need much more than that. Like A Series of Unfortunate Events, could have resulted in a lot of sequels, but is as enjoyable now on its own as ever.
Friday, November 12, 2010
Film Fan #76-100
#76. Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)
A Star Trek that definitely suffers from being a Star Trek (but then, a lot of it does), especially coming in between a film that really pleased the fans (The Wrath of Khan) and another that really pleased audiences (The Voyage Home). The trick is, this one’s probably better; even though it comes between them and doesn’t therefore have, technically speaking, a complete story, it makes for a more complete film experience, clocking in with an endless series of fearless events, from Spock’s dad telling Kirk, of all people, to man up, to McCoy having some of his best scenes ever, channeling, of course, Spock. In fact, Spock’s everywhere, more than ever, including behind the camera, but most of all at the emotional ending, when he finally, technically speaking, returns.
#77. A Few Good Men (1992)
Coming in at the start of the modern obsession of procedural dramas, at least on television (speaking of which, JAG still owes this film a thank-you), with an appropriate cinema-size cast, headlined by Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, and Demi Moore (right before her career flared up and then basically died). But it’s Nicholson who really steals the show, with a single scene. You know which one.
#78. Taxi Driver (1976)
Scorsese and De Niro in their first immortal pairing, which I would term their On the Waterfront, not so much a portrait of a deranged individual, but a tapestry of modern angst, as vocalized by Peter Boyle in an unfairly unsung performance.
#79. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
This has been my favorite of the Indy films for a long time, since it’s the most strictly adventurous (and probably the one that inspired the young Dan Brown), and happens to co-star Sean Connery in one of his most fun performances.
#80. Return to Oz (1985)
Like a lot of kids, I grew up with The Wizard of Oz, but I also discovered the original L. Frank Baum book, which had a completely different feel, a lot less reverent but more real in its total immersive experience. I knew about this film for a long time, but only recently had a chance to see it. Sure enough, it’s a lot more accurate to the spirit of Baum’s fiction than Judy Garland singing about rainbows. I’m not knocking a treasured cultural classic, so much as suggesting…this one’s probably better.
#81. Gangs of New York (2002)
Scorsese and his other muse, Leo DiCaprio, in an early collaboration. If they aren’t quite in sync yet, Marty does have the benefit of Daniel Day-Lewis doing that There Will Be Blood bluster the first time around, and that much is absolute magic, with the actor legitimately tearing up the screen with pizzazz and dangerous charisma. There’s also Cameron Diaz in one of her periodic dramatic roles. Like Raging Bull, there’s also some pretty awesome imagery to be savored, even though no one seems to talk about it.
#82. The Phantom Menace (1999)
The first of the prequels is the last of the Star Wars on the list, with Liam Neeson kicking off the rest of his career as probably the definitive Jedi, even if that snotty council never wanted to admit it. George Lucas packs this one with so many details, it’s difficult to catch your bearing, and I think that’s what people notice, more than all that sniping that’s still so popular. Any film that’s awesome enough to dream up Darth Maul can’t possibly be that bad. The dude carries the best ever lightsaber battle. If Errol Flynn had done it, everyone would still be fondly remembering it. And I’m pretty sure Errol Flynn never actually did anything that awesome.
#83. Born on the Fourth of July (1989)
Oliver Stone has done a lot of Vietnam films (he’s been rumored to be developing even more), but probably none that explored more territory than this one. Clearly, Tom Cruise takes a big gulp of disillusionment, mostly because of personal tragedy and not because of any particular political beliefs (remember all that “Love it or leave it!” talk in the early scenes?), but that’s not really what the movie is about. And that’s what I love about Stone and what I wish more people would realize, that the dude likes to really study his stories before making them.
#84. The Godfather (1972)
This was like a men’s club, the perfect one, but I like to think of it as a study of two, Marlon Brando and Al Pacino, around whom the story clearly circles, two generations of Italian Americans struggling to handle the vagaries of fate. It’s probably the only time in cinema history where an epic was possible with little more necessary than a lot of bloody deaths.
#85. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)
The last Star Trek in the top hundred is as much about ecological message-making as trying to recapture something that’s been lost, without having the slightest clue how to do it. Seriously, that’s what this one basically boils down to, Kirk stumbling into victory, the most clearly comedic Star Trek film, because it’s really a comedy of errors.
#86. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)
What I eventually realized I loved so much about this one is that it perfectly encapsulates the spirit of Russell Crowe, a movie that broods big, on the perfect stage, the wide open seas, the only one big enough to capture it.
#87. Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
No other film has been able to figure out how this particular era represented such a perfect romantic vision of the American outlaw, figuring out that it literally takes a romantic pairing to pull it off, with Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty doing their iconic star turns to make it work. Gene Hackman has a supporting role, the one that probably made his career.
#88. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
Ah, so what I said a little early was technically a lie. I’ve had a rather contentious relationship with this one, but it’s still a pretty memorable experience, especially as concerns the death of Spock, which ironically ties into that whole Kirk-never-really-faced-the-no-win-scenario thing from earlier in the film. First he meets the son who hates him, then he loses his best friend. Khan wasn’t much fun either.
#89. The Sixth Sense (1999)
Since this film, M. Night Shyamalan has been a consistent favorite filmmaker of mine. This list is littered with his movies, which has just consistently failed to wow audiences since. It’s the specific and unexpected pairing of Bruce Willis and Haley Joel Osment that really makes this one work, rather than the trick ending, which is what everyone else fixates on.
#90. The Fall (2008)
This is a mythic-sized glimpse at one man’s depression, and the unintended efforts of a little girl to make it better. I’ve been talking this one up since originally seeing it, trying to get it more awareness. Still working on it.
#91. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (2006)
You’ll begin to see a pattern or two in this list, and here’s at least one of them: this is the most clearly action-oriented entry in the Pirates films, everything that was awesome about the first one legitimately supersized, without becoming a gross parody, because secretly, the story is actually advancing. Jack Sparrow, for instance, is finally forced to confront basic causality, which until now he’s been able to effectively avoid, even when his former shipmates turned into the freakish undead. Bill Nighy represents the next generation of that one, by the way.
#92. Office Space (1999)
A former member of the top ten is one of the most consistently inventive comedies ever filmed, catching the wave when it was popular to point out that the work place really, really hates employees. Hey, whatever happened to that? (Well, see: Burn After Reading and Jim Carrey's Fun with Dick and Jane. They may be on the list later on.)
#93. Superman Returns (2006)
Bryan Singer had the balls to try and directly revive a franchise that had been down and out for twenty years, and to actually make it better than it ever was (funny thing to say, considering that I ranked two of that series ahead of this one, but I swear that, on the whole, this one really is better, just a little less surprising). What makes it work is that Singer presents a complete vision of what Superman means, which was both completely necessary and the exact opposite of what escapist audiences ended up wanting.
#94. Revolution Revisited (1985)
The film Revolution Revisited is an edit of the originally released Revolution, so it’s one of those experiences that was literally only possible outside of the theater, so whatever I have to say about it might not have much to say about what audiences would actually remember. That’s one of the things I love about movies, though, that unlike paintings or books, they can easily slip on new forms, and it doesn’t really matter how little some people want to accept that, other viewers have the opportunity to rediscover them, just as filmmakers can more easily tinker with their films (I appreciate artists who can remain passionate about their projects, especially when there’re so many opportunities to thwart their original visions). Anyway, all this is to say: watch this film. Al Pacino reaches Shakespearean heights in his hushed voiceover as he experiences the downside of excited patriots in the American Revolution. Another one waiting to be rediscovered.
#95. The End of the Affair (1999)
Ralph Fiennes is better known for Schindler’s List and The English Patient, but I think his best film is this lushly imagined romantic tragedy, another study of the vagaries of fate. Yeah, that’s another of my obsessions.
#96. Hollywoodland (2006)
Speaking of those vagaries, here’s Ben Affleck as another Superman, George Reeves, battling his demons, which possibly get the better of him, though other things may have happened. It’s the film that helped me remember that I actually like him, after a few too many performances where he was allowed to feel a little too pleased with himself. Actually, it wasn’t even his films. Sometimes I can get carried away with the way obsessive media spoils thing, too.
#97. Chicago (2002)
My favorite strictly musical musical, with a bang-up cast that nails a batch of really strong songs, and filmmakers who know how to stage them.
#98. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
When I was growing up, there were three kinds of film we watched obsessively: obviously Star Wars was one of them, but the others were Disney and John Wayne. Later, I stopped relying so much on Disney and Wayne for my entertainment, and while Pixar helped worm me back into one, there were precious few new John Wayne films being made, mostly because John Wayne died several years before I was born. Eventually, I started watching some of the classics that I hadn’t seen yet, and this was the best of them, probably among his most iconic, and ironically, most minimalist. Also, Jimmy Stewart’s in it!
#99. Unbreakable (2000)
So here’s another Shyamalan, the only other collaboration to date with Bruce Willis, riding the emerging wave of the modern obsession with cinematic superheroes by telling one of the most original stories about them, a real world fable that captures the inherent pathos of the genre better than anyone before or since.
#100. Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
Here’s another clearly much older film, one that stands out by standing out from the pack, on the surface obscenely dated (who would even remember George M. Cohan these days, basically, if not for this movie?) but, on the shoulders of James Cagney, playing against type, playing entirely timeless.
A Star Trek that definitely suffers from being a Star Trek (but then, a lot of it does), especially coming in between a film that really pleased the fans (The Wrath of Khan) and another that really pleased audiences (The Voyage Home). The trick is, this one’s probably better; even though it comes between them and doesn’t therefore have, technically speaking, a complete story, it makes for a more complete film experience, clocking in with an endless series of fearless events, from Spock’s dad telling Kirk, of all people, to man up, to McCoy having some of his best scenes ever, channeling, of course, Spock. In fact, Spock’s everywhere, more than ever, including behind the camera, but most of all at the emotional ending, when he finally, technically speaking, returns.
#77. A Few Good Men (1992)
Coming in at the start of the modern obsession of procedural dramas, at least on television (speaking of which, JAG still owes this film a thank-you), with an appropriate cinema-size cast, headlined by Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, and Demi Moore (right before her career flared up and then basically died). But it’s Nicholson who really steals the show, with a single scene. You know which one.
#78. Taxi Driver (1976)
Scorsese and De Niro in their first immortal pairing, which I would term their On the Waterfront, not so much a portrait of a deranged individual, but a tapestry of modern angst, as vocalized by Peter Boyle in an unfairly unsung performance.
#79. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
This has been my favorite of the Indy films for a long time, since it’s the most strictly adventurous (and probably the one that inspired the young Dan Brown), and happens to co-star Sean Connery in one of his most fun performances.
#80. Return to Oz (1985)
Like a lot of kids, I grew up with The Wizard of Oz, but I also discovered the original L. Frank Baum book, which had a completely different feel, a lot less reverent but more real in its total immersive experience. I knew about this film for a long time, but only recently had a chance to see it. Sure enough, it’s a lot more accurate to the spirit of Baum’s fiction than Judy Garland singing about rainbows. I’m not knocking a treasured cultural classic, so much as suggesting…this one’s probably better.
#81. Gangs of New York (2002)
Scorsese and his other muse, Leo DiCaprio, in an early collaboration. If they aren’t quite in sync yet, Marty does have the benefit of Daniel Day-Lewis doing that There Will Be Blood bluster the first time around, and that much is absolute magic, with the actor legitimately tearing up the screen with pizzazz and dangerous charisma. There’s also Cameron Diaz in one of her periodic dramatic roles. Like Raging Bull, there’s also some pretty awesome imagery to be savored, even though no one seems to talk about it.
#82. The Phantom Menace (1999)
The first of the prequels is the last of the Star Wars on the list, with Liam Neeson kicking off the rest of his career as probably the definitive Jedi, even if that snotty council never wanted to admit it. George Lucas packs this one with so many details, it’s difficult to catch your bearing, and I think that’s what people notice, more than all that sniping that’s still so popular. Any film that’s awesome enough to dream up Darth Maul can’t possibly be that bad. The dude carries the best ever lightsaber battle. If Errol Flynn had done it, everyone would still be fondly remembering it. And I’m pretty sure Errol Flynn never actually did anything that awesome.
#83. Born on the Fourth of July (1989)
Oliver Stone has done a lot of Vietnam films (he’s been rumored to be developing even more), but probably none that explored more territory than this one. Clearly, Tom Cruise takes a big gulp of disillusionment, mostly because of personal tragedy and not because of any particular political beliefs (remember all that “Love it or leave it!” talk in the early scenes?), but that’s not really what the movie is about. And that’s what I love about Stone and what I wish more people would realize, that the dude likes to really study his stories before making them.
#84. The Godfather (1972)
This was like a men’s club, the perfect one, but I like to think of it as a study of two, Marlon Brando and Al Pacino, around whom the story clearly circles, two generations of Italian Americans struggling to handle the vagaries of fate. It’s probably the only time in cinema history where an epic was possible with little more necessary than a lot of bloody deaths.
#85. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)
The last Star Trek in the top hundred is as much about ecological message-making as trying to recapture something that’s been lost, without having the slightest clue how to do it. Seriously, that’s what this one basically boils down to, Kirk stumbling into victory, the most clearly comedic Star Trek film, because it’s really a comedy of errors.
#86. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)
What I eventually realized I loved so much about this one is that it perfectly encapsulates the spirit of Russell Crowe, a movie that broods big, on the perfect stage, the wide open seas, the only one big enough to capture it.
#87. Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
No other film has been able to figure out how this particular era represented such a perfect romantic vision of the American outlaw, figuring out that it literally takes a romantic pairing to pull it off, with Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty doing their iconic star turns to make it work. Gene Hackman has a supporting role, the one that probably made his career.
#88. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
Ah, so what I said a little early was technically a lie. I’ve had a rather contentious relationship with this one, but it’s still a pretty memorable experience, especially as concerns the death of Spock, which ironically ties into that whole Kirk-never-really-faced-the-no-win-scenario thing from earlier in the film. First he meets the son who hates him, then he loses his best friend. Khan wasn’t much fun either.
#89. The Sixth Sense (1999)
Since this film, M. Night Shyamalan has been a consistent favorite filmmaker of mine. This list is littered with his movies, which has just consistently failed to wow audiences since. It’s the specific and unexpected pairing of Bruce Willis and Haley Joel Osment that really makes this one work, rather than the trick ending, which is what everyone else fixates on.
#90. The Fall (2008)
This is a mythic-sized glimpse at one man’s depression, and the unintended efforts of a little girl to make it better. I’ve been talking this one up since originally seeing it, trying to get it more awareness. Still working on it.
#91. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (2006)
You’ll begin to see a pattern or two in this list, and here’s at least one of them: this is the most clearly action-oriented entry in the Pirates films, everything that was awesome about the first one legitimately supersized, without becoming a gross parody, because secretly, the story is actually advancing. Jack Sparrow, for instance, is finally forced to confront basic causality, which until now he’s been able to effectively avoid, even when his former shipmates turned into the freakish undead. Bill Nighy represents the next generation of that one, by the way.
#92. Office Space (1999)
A former member of the top ten is one of the most consistently inventive comedies ever filmed, catching the wave when it was popular to point out that the work place really, really hates employees. Hey, whatever happened to that? (Well, see: Burn After Reading and Jim Carrey's Fun with Dick and Jane. They may be on the list later on.)
#93. Superman Returns (2006)
Bryan Singer had the balls to try and directly revive a franchise that had been down and out for twenty years, and to actually make it better than it ever was (funny thing to say, considering that I ranked two of that series ahead of this one, but I swear that, on the whole, this one really is better, just a little less surprising). What makes it work is that Singer presents a complete vision of what Superman means, which was both completely necessary and the exact opposite of what escapist audiences ended up wanting.
#94. Revolution Revisited (1985)
The film Revolution Revisited is an edit of the originally released Revolution, so it’s one of those experiences that was literally only possible outside of the theater, so whatever I have to say about it might not have much to say about what audiences would actually remember. That’s one of the things I love about movies, though, that unlike paintings or books, they can easily slip on new forms, and it doesn’t really matter how little some people want to accept that, other viewers have the opportunity to rediscover them, just as filmmakers can more easily tinker with their films (I appreciate artists who can remain passionate about their projects, especially when there’re so many opportunities to thwart their original visions). Anyway, all this is to say: watch this film. Al Pacino reaches Shakespearean heights in his hushed voiceover as he experiences the downside of excited patriots in the American Revolution. Another one waiting to be rediscovered.
#95. The End of the Affair (1999)
Ralph Fiennes is better known for Schindler’s List and The English Patient, but I think his best film is this lushly imagined romantic tragedy, another study of the vagaries of fate. Yeah, that’s another of my obsessions.
#96. Hollywoodland (2006)
Speaking of those vagaries, here’s Ben Affleck as another Superman, George Reeves, battling his demons, which possibly get the better of him, though other things may have happened. It’s the film that helped me remember that I actually like him, after a few too many performances where he was allowed to feel a little too pleased with himself. Actually, it wasn’t even his films. Sometimes I can get carried away with the way obsessive media spoils thing, too.
#97. Chicago (2002)
My favorite strictly musical musical, with a bang-up cast that nails a batch of really strong songs, and filmmakers who know how to stage them.
#98. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
When I was growing up, there were three kinds of film we watched obsessively: obviously Star Wars was one of them, but the others were Disney and John Wayne. Later, I stopped relying so much on Disney and Wayne for my entertainment, and while Pixar helped worm me back into one, there were precious few new John Wayne films being made, mostly because John Wayne died several years before I was born. Eventually, I started watching some of the classics that I hadn’t seen yet, and this was the best of them, probably among his most iconic, and ironically, most minimalist. Also, Jimmy Stewart’s in it!
#99. Unbreakable (2000)
So here’s another Shyamalan, the only other collaboration to date with Bruce Willis, riding the emerging wave of the modern obsession with cinematic superheroes by telling one of the most original stories about them, a real world fable that captures the inherent pathos of the genre better than anyone before or since.
#100. Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
Here’s another clearly much older film, one that stands out by standing out from the pack, on the surface obscenely dated (who would even remember George M. Cohan these days, basically, if not for this movie?) but, on the shoulders of James Cagney, playing against type, playing entirely timeless.
Friday, November 5, 2010
Film Fan #51-75
#51. The Passion of the Christ (2004)
It seems weird, at first crack, to have a list that includes both The da Vinci Code and The Passion of the Christ, because at first blush, one represents anti-faith, and the other extreme faith. I don’t believe either film needs to be viewed in the context of faith at all (although with both it certainly helps), and in fact, they have a lot in common, movies that rely on a particularly modern perspective to get their messages across to wide audiences in the particular ways they choose to tell them. The da Vince Code was a thriller that happened to feature elements of a particular religion rather heavily. Passion of the Christ is a historical drama that happens to be known for two things: extreme drama and extreme knowledge of its particular perspective. Anyone who doesn’t know the biblical story of Jesus isn’t really going to get the same thing from it as someone who does. That’s also beside the point. Mel Gibson crafts a film that’s every bit the artistic achievement of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, and I would argue infinitely more focused (for any number of reasons, but more importantly, a more complete experience), fully immersing itself in the particular reality of its subject matter. There are no real star turns (the closest being the actor who portrays Pontius Pilate), and that isn’t really the point anyway. This is a singular accomplishment, a prolonged moment interspersed with some real humanity and, if you will, fantastic elements. Still, it’s necessarily not easy to watch, which limits its appeal one way or another. Great films are repeat as well as lasting images in your memory. This is that kind of experience, but in its own way, which makes it hard to rank completely, even in a completely faith-objective way. I’m not a horror fan, who revels in gore, just as I’m not a religious fanatic, who’ll accept anything that’s “meant” for me. Still, this one vexes most critics because it seems to blend both audiences. What it actually is, in the end, is great moviemaking.
#52. Man on the Moon (1999)
Jim Carrey, after films like Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Mask, and The Truman Show, had already made me a lifelong fan, but this is probably the movie that sealed the commitment permanently, building a new mystique around his portrayal of a comedian who was everything he pretends to be, a completely conjured personality, immersed in a world of his own making and getting the bigger laugh in his own mind because of it. No, Carrey is not Andy Kaufman. He’s far more in on the joke than that.
#53. Blues Brothers (1980)
When most people think about musicals, the images that come to mind come from conventional examples, West Side Story, The Sound of Music, Mamma Mia, that sort of movie. My favorite kind has the song come about as a direct extension, a representation of the character, and that’s never more apparent than Dan Ackroyd and John Belushi’s madcap quest for redemption, which backfires so spectacularly it actually succeeds. Songs in musicals shouldn’t sound like gimmicks, and nothing here sounds anything like that. Plus the rest of the movie still works, because hardly anyone is trying to have anything but a good time. Y’know, without showing it too much.
#54. Instinct (1999)
At one point a member of the top ten club, this has been a private little favorite of mine since I first saw it at a college screening, featuring Anthony Hopkins fully unleashing the potential of his Hannibal Lector persona, a man so completely detached from humanity he seems anything but. This time, however, the character is completely humanized, frighteningly identifiable, as Cuba Gooding, Jr. discovers, in a role he was born to play (much like his character in Jerry Maguire; the dude’s seriously underrated, and now has no career thanks to it). It’s the central message, about the illusion of control, that continues to be relevant, particularly in recession times. Who still believes they have all the power in their own lives when their financial situations are cast into constant peril? It’s better articulated in this film.
#55. Pulp Fiction (1994)
There’s a lot going on in this acclaimed Quentin Tarantino drama, which following a number of loosely related episodes, highlighted by John Travolta working with Uma Thurman and Samuel L. Jackson, in the role that basically made his career. One of the reasons I still find myself working on my appreciation of it is because I know there’s a lot more to it, including Bruce Willis, but only a few moments stick with me, mostly the really famous ones. But those, for now, are plenty. And I’ll keep revisiting Pulp Fiction, to absorb the rest of it.
#56. Attack of the Clones (2002)
The most purely adventurous Star Wars film also has a lot of emotion packed into it, as Anakin Skywalker struggles to avoid his destiny, even as forces conspire around him. George Lucas also unfolds this one a lot more deliberately than any other entry, with a far more conventional plot (basically a whodunit) than usual. Natalie Portman has her best showing of the prequel films, allowed to be a lot more ethereal and alluring, freed from mechanical needs of the plot that constrain her elsewhere. Jango Fett also leaves a lasting impression, a true space cowboy, who would have been home in a Man With No Name shootout.
#57. Looking for Richard (1996)
The thing most critics don’t appreciate about Al Pacino is that he clearly relishes being an actor, being involved in the craft, and this is the project where he best is able to express his passion, channeling it through Shakespeare and one of his least appealing lead subjects. Lots of famous actors also appear, including, for me, most notably Kevin Spacey, perhaps the only other actor I can think of who shares a similar passion, and whose career has been comparatively stymied by critics.
#58. Raging Bull 1980)
The thing I take away from this one is the theatrics, perhaps the most Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro do in their careers, to portray the kind of man who becomes not just a living legend, but one in his own mind as well. I don’t for a moment believe either one of them is like that in real life, and that’s the real appeal for me. I think, however, that some critics might have started believing that about De Niro, and so he was never, in their minds, able to leave this role behind. It’s not a bad way to go out, but it’s also a terrible disservice to a remarkably talented actor.
#59. The Green Mile (1999)
Don’t play for emotions, and don’t go for evocative drama. That’s the lesson to take away from the general opinion of movies like this. Based on a Stephen King book, it follows a metaphorical prison story revolving around an innocent, unforgettable Michael Clarke Duncan and Tom Hanks, in one of his muted roles that plays against type, banking on his everyman status but also throwing in moral ambiguity. There’s a lot to love here, some timeless imagery, a series of moments that string one after the other, and a story that doesn’t play out predictably. Plus an all-around terrific cast.
#60. Kill Bill, Volume 2 (2004)
A director with an unparalleled eye for underappreciated talent, Quentin Tarantino builds the conclusion of his revenge flick around David Carradine, with one of the great climaxes in film history (and basically the reverse of his later Inglourious Basterds), plus a lot of Uma Thurman struggling against the odds, including the all-important flashback to the day of the interrupted wedding. It’s because of work like this that an exceptional filmmaker can become a great one.
#61. Independence Day (1996)
Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum, and Bill Pullman lead the definitive defense against alien invasion in this endlessly rousing blockbuster, still the modern standard, and basically the foundation for the massive success of the Transformers flicks, with actual purpose and drive and heart behind it. Also a fantastic score to keep things rolling.
#62. Touch of Evil (1958)
Orson Welles struggled a lot in his post-Citizen Kane days to retain his creative autonomy, basically laying the foundation of today’s thriving independent scene, but at great cost. Massive talent, huge ego, all of that is still waiting to be properly rediscovered, but a few well-known gems are visible today, including this one, co-starring Charlton Heston as a lawman in Mexico who gets swept up in a wave of corruption.
#63. Shutter Island (2010)
The first movie from this year to appear on the list is from Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio in their fourth collaboration, based on the Dennis Lehane book, which it follows closely, just in case you were hoping one might make the other easier to explain. That’s the beauty of this psychological riddle. Ben Kingsley and Mark Ruffalo lend ample support, though Leo’s character probably isn’t all that appreciative. Here’s also my big excuse to mention Inception, which will surely warrant top ten consideration in some later edition of this list. It’s a wonder that one star made both of these movies. Here’s betting he lost a lot more sleep than anyone in the audience.
#64. The Matrix Revolutions (2003)
It gets a little self-involved, especially in the death of Trinity, but what’s remarkable about this conclusion to the Matrix trilogy is that there are plenty of big questions left to explore as Neo heads to a climactic encounter with the machines he’s been fighting for three films now. Basically the thinking man’s Terminator franchise, eschewing traditional narratives for a straight chronicle with plenty of distractions built in, this is where you finally get the real conclusion, not the fuzzy-happy one from the first film, where it seems simple answers really are possible, but one that acknowledges that life is far more complicated than we sometimes like to believe, even when we do our best to simplify it.
#65. Men in Black (1997)
If Independence Day made Will Smith a viable film commodity, then this one made him a star, and the only person capable of keeping pace with him is Tommy Lee Jones, who represents a person who actively suppresses the same personality that explodes all over this movie. Somehow, even though I enjoy it too, the second film doesn’t make the list, so don’t assume otherwise when you don’t see it here later.
#66. The Mask (1994)
This one is so natural for me to love, I can sometimes forget how much I actually do. Besides Jim Carrey and a love letter to cartoons, there’s Cameron Diaz in her knockout debut, which she was clever enough to finally live down, and basically duplicate, with There’s Something About Mary.
#67. Troy (2004)
Brad Pitt, Eric Bana, Peter O’Toole, I would say they dominate this interpretation of Homer’s Iliad, but I love basically everything about it, another massive underrated epic experience that was easy to take for granted at the time, simply because no one believed it was really possible to sustain the new era of historical dramas of this type.
#68. Groundhog Day (1993)
Chris Elliot and Andie MacDowell are just enough to compete with Bill Murray for attention in this clever comedy that keeps repeating the same day, in the hopes Murray will actually learn something. He does, but it’s the kind of experience that viewers will want to keep repeating themselves…
#69. Forrest Gump (1994)
Tom Hanks, of course, but also Gary Sinese, Sally Field, Robin Wright, Mykelti Williamson, and even Haley Joel Osment leave just as permanent mark as Forrest Gump himself. You can think of this as a giant gimmick, but it’s heartfelt and charming, and a nice primer on history for any student reluctant to crack open their books.
#70. Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
Used to be that I preferred the second one, but I began to figure, the first one does a heck of a job introducing the characters, who completely dominate the experience, and help make other films not only possible but darn near necessary, even though that probably wasn’t the original idea. Here is Johnny Depp’s true legacy on film, the creation of Jack Sparrow, and probably the challenge that eventually inspired Heath Ledger to conjure his Joker. This is an actor completely losing himself in a character, not just a performance, an image, or a conceit. This is Johnny having fun. Probably saved his career.
#71. The Wild One (1954)
Who to thank for that sort of behavior? Why, Marlon Brando! Here’s what James Dean was trying to do, by the way. And the foil as portrayed by Lee Marvin? Equally impeccable.
#72. Star Trek Generations (1994)
Some critics scoffed at this historic meeting of Captains Kirk and Picard as too derivative of movie serials in its structuring. It’s funny when they can say that as a bad thing, for something that only superficially resembles the remark, when they love it to see Indiana Jones doing the same thing far more blatantly. Ah, well, the fans weren’t that much happier to see Kirk die, regardless of the circumstances, but it’s an entirely appropriate end for the character, just as Patrick Stewart’s first real crack as a movie star really shines through, an emotionally-charged arc supporting a new vision for heroism. In many ways, more naturally transcendental in moments than Star Trek: The Motion Picture, especially as Picard first experiences the Nexus.
#73. American Gangster (2007)
Two acclaimed actors, Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe, spar in this new version of a Hollywood staple from Ridley Scott, but spend the majority of the movie pursuing separate story arcs. It’s only when they unexpectedly come together that critics become baffled and the movie reaches a whole new level. The more complex the better, folks.
#74. Kill Bill, Volume 1 (2003)
The first act of Quentin Tarantino’s epic revenge flick is a series of vignettes so over the top, one of them is animated, but it’s all so thoroughly grounded by Uma Thurman, it works effortlessly. What’s more remarkable is that we care about the idea of revenge without really knowing, at least in this volume, what actually happened, and without even meeting Bill.
#75. Robin Hood (2010)
Russell Crowe and Ridley Scott, the unofficial Gladiator reunion, as basically everyone dismissed this one. The story of the merry little benevolent terrorist has always fascinated me, and I’ve enjoyed one incarnation or another most of my life (there will be others on this list). This one’s so fresh, without being a deliberate or predictable Year One experience, as has become popular in Hollywood recently, so thoroughly invested in the themes the legend has always represented, it’s a little startling to see so many familiar elements played so differently. This isn’t King Arthur, doing much the same thing, but without the singular clarity, but rather a film with much the same effect as Gladiator or Kingdom of Heaven, making it less about Robin Hood and more about Scott continuing a line of thinking that has interested him for at least a decade now. This is a filmmaker approaching full maturity, and the best is apparently still yet to come.
It seems weird, at first crack, to have a list that includes both The da Vinci Code and The Passion of the Christ, because at first blush, one represents anti-faith, and the other extreme faith. I don’t believe either film needs to be viewed in the context of faith at all (although with both it certainly helps), and in fact, they have a lot in common, movies that rely on a particularly modern perspective to get their messages across to wide audiences in the particular ways they choose to tell them. The da Vince Code was a thriller that happened to feature elements of a particular religion rather heavily. Passion of the Christ is a historical drama that happens to be known for two things: extreme drama and extreme knowledge of its particular perspective. Anyone who doesn’t know the biblical story of Jesus isn’t really going to get the same thing from it as someone who does. That’s also beside the point. Mel Gibson crafts a film that’s every bit the artistic achievement of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, and I would argue infinitely more focused (for any number of reasons, but more importantly, a more complete experience), fully immersing itself in the particular reality of its subject matter. There are no real star turns (the closest being the actor who portrays Pontius Pilate), and that isn’t really the point anyway. This is a singular accomplishment, a prolonged moment interspersed with some real humanity and, if you will, fantastic elements. Still, it’s necessarily not easy to watch, which limits its appeal one way or another. Great films are repeat as well as lasting images in your memory. This is that kind of experience, but in its own way, which makes it hard to rank completely, even in a completely faith-objective way. I’m not a horror fan, who revels in gore, just as I’m not a religious fanatic, who’ll accept anything that’s “meant” for me. Still, this one vexes most critics because it seems to blend both audiences. What it actually is, in the end, is great moviemaking.
#52. Man on the Moon (1999)
Jim Carrey, after films like Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Mask, and The Truman Show, had already made me a lifelong fan, but this is probably the movie that sealed the commitment permanently, building a new mystique around his portrayal of a comedian who was everything he pretends to be, a completely conjured personality, immersed in a world of his own making and getting the bigger laugh in his own mind because of it. No, Carrey is not Andy Kaufman. He’s far more in on the joke than that.
#53. Blues Brothers (1980)
When most people think about musicals, the images that come to mind come from conventional examples, West Side Story, The Sound of Music, Mamma Mia, that sort of movie. My favorite kind has the song come about as a direct extension, a representation of the character, and that’s never more apparent than Dan Ackroyd and John Belushi’s madcap quest for redemption, which backfires so spectacularly it actually succeeds. Songs in musicals shouldn’t sound like gimmicks, and nothing here sounds anything like that. Plus the rest of the movie still works, because hardly anyone is trying to have anything but a good time. Y’know, without showing it too much.
#54. Instinct (1999)
At one point a member of the top ten club, this has been a private little favorite of mine since I first saw it at a college screening, featuring Anthony Hopkins fully unleashing the potential of his Hannibal Lector persona, a man so completely detached from humanity he seems anything but. This time, however, the character is completely humanized, frighteningly identifiable, as Cuba Gooding, Jr. discovers, in a role he was born to play (much like his character in Jerry Maguire; the dude’s seriously underrated, and now has no career thanks to it). It’s the central message, about the illusion of control, that continues to be relevant, particularly in recession times. Who still believes they have all the power in their own lives when their financial situations are cast into constant peril? It’s better articulated in this film.
#55. Pulp Fiction (1994)
There’s a lot going on in this acclaimed Quentin Tarantino drama, which following a number of loosely related episodes, highlighted by John Travolta working with Uma Thurman and Samuel L. Jackson, in the role that basically made his career. One of the reasons I still find myself working on my appreciation of it is because I know there’s a lot more to it, including Bruce Willis, but only a few moments stick with me, mostly the really famous ones. But those, for now, are plenty. And I’ll keep revisiting Pulp Fiction, to absorb the rest of it.
#56. Attack of the Clones (2002)
The most purely adventurous Star Wars film also has a lot of emotion packed into it, as Anakin Skywalker struggles to avoid his destiny, even as forces conspire around him. George Lucas also unfolds this one a lot more deliberately than any other entry, with a far more conventional plot (basically a whodunit) than usual. Natalie Portman has her best showing of the prequel films, allowed to be a lot more ethereal and alluring, freed from mechanical needs of the plot that constrain her elsewhere. Jango Fett also leaves a lasting impression, a true space cowboy, who would have been home in a Man With No Name shootout.
#57. Looking for Richard (1996)
The thing most critics don’t appreciate about Al Pacino is that he clearly relishes being an actor, being involved in the craft, and this is the project where he best is able to express his passion, channeling it through Shakespeare and one of his least appealing lead subjects. Lots of famous actors also appear, including, for me, most notably Kevin Spacey, perhaps the only other actor I can think of who shares a similar passion, and whose career has been comparatively stymied by critics.
#58. Raging Bull 1980)
The thing I take away from this one is the theatrics, perhaps the most Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro do in their careers, to portray the kind of man who becomes not just a living legend, but one in his own mind as well. I don’t for a moment believe either one of them is like that in real life, and that’s the real appeal for me. I think, however, that some critics might have started believing that about De Niro, and so he was never, in their minds, able to leave this role behind. It’s not a bad way to go out, but it’s also a terrible disservice to a remarkably talented actor.
#59. The Green Mile (1999)
Don’t play for emotions, and don’t go for evocative drama. That’s the lesson to take away from the general opinion of movies like this. Based on a Stephen King book, it follows a metaphorical prison story revolving around an innocent, unforgettable Michael Clarke Duncan and Tom Hanks, in one of his muted roles that plays against type, banking on his everyman status but also throwing in moral ambiguity. There’s a lot to love here, some timeless imagery, a series of moments that string one after the other, and a story that doesn’t play out predictably. Plus an all-around terrific cast.
#60. Kill Bill, Volume 2 (2004)
A director with an unparalleled eye for underappreciated talent, Quentin Tarantino builds the conclusion of his revenge flick around David Carradine, with one of the great climaxes in film history (and basically the reverse of his later Inglourious Basterds), plus a lot of Uma Thurman struggling against the odds, including the all-important flashback to the day of the interrupted wedding. It’s because of work like this that an exceptional filmmaker can become a great one.
#61. Independence Day (1996)
Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum, and Bill Pullman lead the definitive defense against alien invasion in this endlessly rousing blockbuster, still the modern standard, and basically the foundation for the massive success of the Transformers flicks, with actual purpose and drive and heart behind it. Also a fantastic score to keep things rolling.
#62. Touch of Evil (1958)
Orson Welles struggled a lot in his post-Citizen Kane days to retain his creative autonomy, basically laying the foundation of today’s thriving independent scene, but at great cost. Massive talent, huge ego, all of that is still waiting to be properly rediscovered, but a few well-known gems are visible today, including this one, co-starring Charlton Heston as a lawman in Mexico who gets swept up in a wave of corruption.
#63. Shutter Island (2010)
The first movie from this year to appear on the list is from Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio in their fourth collaboration, based on the Dennis Lehane book, which it follows closely, just in case you were hoping one might make the other easier to explain. That’s the beauty of this psychological riddle. Ben Kingsley and Mark Ruffalo lend ample support, though Leo’s character probably isn’t all that appreciative. Here’s also my big excuse to mention Inception, which will surely warrant top ten consideration in some later edition of this list. It’s a wonder that one star made both of these movies. Here’s betting he lost a lot more sleep than anyone in the audience.
#64. The Matrix Revolutions (2003)
It gets a little self-involved, especially in the death of Trinity, but what’s remarkable about this conclusion to the Matrix trilogy is that there are plenty of big questions left to explore as Neo heads to a climactic encounter with the machines he’s been fighting for three films now. Basically the thinking man’s Terminator franchise, eschewing traditional narratives for a straight chronicle with plenty of distractions built in, this is where you finally get the real conclusion, not the fuzzy-happy one from the first film, where it seems simple answers really are possible, but one that acknowledges that life is far more complicated than we sometimes like to believe, even when we do our best to simplify it.
#65. Men in Black (1997)
If Independence Day made Will Smith a viable film commodity, then this one made him a star, and the only person capable of keeping pace with him is Tommy Lee Jones, who represents a person who actively suppresses the same personality that explodes all over this movie. Somehow, even though I enjoy it too, the second film doesn’t make the list, so don’t assume otherwise when you don’t see it here later.
#66. The Mask (1994)
This one is so natural for me to love, I can sometimes forget how much I actually do. Besides Jim Carrey and a love letter to cartoons, there’s Cameron Diaz in her knockout debut, which she was clever enough to finally live down, and basically duplicate, with There’s Something About Mary.
#67. Troy (2004)
Brad Pitt, Eric Bana, Peter O’Toole, I would say they dominate this interpretation of Homer’s Iliad, but I love basically everything about it, another massive underrated epic experience that was easy to take for granted at the time, simply because no one believed it was really possible to sustain the new era of historical dramas of this type.
#68. Groundhog Day (1993)
Chris Elliot and Andie MacDowell are just enough to compete with Bill Murray for attention in this clever comedy that keeps repeating the same day, in the hopes Murray will actually learn something. He does, but it’s the kind of experience that viewers will want to keep repeating themselves…
#69. Forrest Gump (1994)
Tom Hanks, of course, but also Gary Sinese, Sally Field, Robin Wright, Mykelti Williamson, and even Haley Joel Osment leave just as permanent mark as Forrest Gump himself. You can think of this as a giant gimmick, but it’s heartfelt and charming, and a nice primer on history for any student reluctant to crack open their books.
#70. Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
Used to be that I preferred the second one, but I began to figure, the first one does a heck of a job introducing the characters, who completely dominate the experience, and help make other films not only possible but darn near necessary, even though that probably wasn’t the original idea. Here is Johnny Depp’s true legacy on film, the creation of Jack Sparrow, and probably the challenge that eventually inspired Heath Ledger to conjure his Joker. This is an actor completely losing himself in a character, not just a performance, an image, or a conceit. This is Johnny having fun. Probably saved his career.
#71. The Wild One (1954)
Who to thank for that sort of behavior? Why, Marlon Brando! Here’s what James Dean was trying to do, by the way. And the foil as portrayed by Lee Marvin? Equally impeccable.
#72. Star Trek Generations (1994)
Some critics scoffed at this historic meeting of Captains Kirk and Picard as too derivative of movie serials in its structuring. It’s funny when they can say that as a bad thing, for something that only superficially resembles the remark, when they love it to see Indiana Jones doing the same thing far more blatantly. Ah, well, the fans weren’t that much happier to see Kirk die, regardless of the circumstances, but it’s an entirely appropriate end for the character, just as Patrick Stewart’s first real crack as a movie star really shines through, an emotionally-charged arc supporting a new vision for heroism. In many ways, more naturally transcendental in moments than Star Trek: The Motion Picture, especially as Picard first experiences the Nexus.
#73. American Gangster (2007)
Two acclaimed actors, Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe, spar in this new version of a Hollywood staple from Ridley Scott, but spend the majority of the movie pursuing separate story arcs. It’s only when they unexpectedly come together that critics become baffled and the movie reaches a whole new level. The more complex the better, folks.
#74. Kill Bill, Volume 1 (2003)
The first act of Quentin Tarantino’s epic revenge flick is a series of vignettes so over the top, one of them is animated, but it’s all so thoroughly grounded by Uma Thurman, it works effortlessly. What’s more remarkable is that we care about the idea of revenge without really knowing, at least in this volume, what actually happened, and without even meeting Bill.
#75. Robin Hood (2010)
Russell Crowe and Ridley Scott, the unofficial Gladiator reunion, as basically everyone dismissed this one. The story of the merry little benevolent terrorist has always fascinated me, and I’ve enjoyed one incarnation or another most of my life (there will be others on this list). This one’s so fresh, without being a deliberate or predictable Year One experience, as has become popular in Hollywood recently, so thoroughly invested in the themes the legend has always represented, it’s a little startling to see so many familiar elements played so differently. This isn’t King Arthur, doing much the same thing, but without the singular clarity, but rather a film with much the same effect as Gladiator or Kingdom of Heaven, making it less about Robin Hood and more about Scott continuing a line of thinking that has interested him for at least a decade now. This is a filmmaker approaching full maturity, and the best is apparently still yet to come.
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