And we enter the 4th quarter.
MOVIE #25
Shrykespeare
Die Hard (1989) – Director: John McTiernan; starring Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Bonnie Bedelia, William Atherton and Reginald Veljohnson. The list of what this film accomplished is a mile long. It became the template for one-man-army action films. It made Bruce Willis a bankable action star, a role that he has still not relinquished twenty years later. It had a terrific villain in Rickman’s Hans Gruber. It had some great personal moments, particularly the bonding between John McClane and L.A. cop Al Powell (Veljohnson). It had more memorable quotes than practically any movie since. Often imitated, never duplicated (though
With a Vengeance came damn close),
Die Hard remains the go-to movie for anyone with an action-itch that needs to be scratched.
(7th appearance)
(Instead of posting the trailer AGAIN, here is a hilarious spoof of
Die Hard from the short-lived
Ben Stiller Show. Still gives me a chuckle.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGfmfPYiO1w
silversurfer
Ghost Busters (1984) – Director: Ivan Reitman; starring Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver and Harold Ramis. Growing up during the 80s I was lucky enough to have lavish offerings of youth orientated entertainment in the form of hilarious, action packed movies with a slant of horror, and
Ghost Busters was one of the very best. While many movies attempted to garner the same cult status
Ghost Busters eventually claimed, it was Reitman's movie which captured all of the imagination of a young child, with it's flashy special effects, slime galore and not to mention a brilliant mix of scares and witty comedy. I for one was totally won over by it's style, and fell for everything linked to it which followed (cartoons, lunch boxes, computer games), and with Bill Murray in the role of his career the movie had a character with whom I have continued to love ever since. His brash, wisecracking, cocky demeanor, complemented by a script which captures the imagination of its audience with some truly ghoulish scares is a delight to watch. But while Murray is undoubtedly the star of the show, he is ably backed up by a terrific supporting cast, and Weaver is brilliant as the smart, seductive Dana Barrett who unwillingly becomes the key to unleashing the world of demons on NY. I'm still not sure if I'm all for the team of
Ghost Busters being launched once more, and if Murray is not involved in any real capacity it will be to the movie's detriment, but if it can somehow capture the magic, fun and scares of the original movie, then we may be in for a treat for a whole new generation of paranormal investigators.
(2nd appearance)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9u4FHmId-Y0
thegreenarrow
Amelie (2001) – Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet; starring Audrey Tautou, Mathieu Kassovitz, Rufus and Dominique Pinon.
Amelie is such a delightfully beautiful movie, both visually and emotionally. Jeunet's romantic comedy with dark edges just oozes with quaint charm and magic, it's impossible not to enjoy every minute of the movie. It's so inspirational in fact, for my fashion course a couple of years ago I actually created a collection based on the visual delights of the movie. Filled with greens and reds, Jeunet was able to create such a sumptuous atmosphere within which to develop such an imaginative and creative narrative, and Audrey Tautou perfectly evokes all these qualities with a delightfully honest, childlike performance.
(5th appearance)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEFrLnS5sQY
transformers
Space Jam (1996) - Director: Joe Pytka; starring Michael Jordan, Wayne Knight, Danny DeVito and Bill Murray. This is a complete nostalgia movie for me, it was my favorite movie as a kid. I saw it so many times and I loved every minute of it. I haven't seen in many years, but I have a feeling I would love it just as much.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFwXDN3sI8g
englishozzy
Snatch (2000) - Director: Guy Ritchie; starring Benicio Del Toro, Brad Pitt, Jason Statham and Vinnie Jones. A film that treads much of the same territory has Ritchie's debut feature,
Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, but has upped the ante with bigger stars, more money, and clever scenes. Ritchie's over stylized direction works well for this British gangster follow-up and shows why his potential is far greater than his end product at the moment. Some good turns from Pitt, who nails down the Pikey accent with alarming ease, and Statham, at ease in a role that he was born to play. Obviously for those who weren't a fan of Lock Stock would find this very much the same, but for a fan like me this feel really appealed to me.
(3rd appearance)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8jbt0wBkMI
Ron Burgundy
The Usual Suspects (1995) - Director: Bryan Singer; starring Gabriel Byrne, Kevin Spacey, Chazz Palminteri, Steven Baldwin, Benicio Del Toro, Pete Postlewaithe and Kevin Pollak. When you see the Cop, Palminteri drop his coffee, well that’s how I felt at the end of this movie the first time I watched it, well almost anyway. This probably used to be my favourite movie, but it still makes my top 25. A terrific cast and a thrilling crime/mystery story about the infamous Keyser Soze.
(6th appearance)
The infamous “lineup” scene:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfKr0om68Ko
Buscemi
Casino (1995) - Director: Martin Scorsese; starring Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci, Sharon Stone, James Woods and Don Rickles. Sure that it may be a bit similar to Scorsese's
Goodfellas, but that doesn't mean that the film can't be just as good. The storytelling (a rise and fall of a Jewish mobster in the crime-run days of Las Vegas) is excellent and Scorsese's direction is great as always. I also really like the use of multiple narrators throughout the film since it done in a style that makes it conversational as well as a device to move the narrative along. I wish more films did narration in that style. The acting is also great, with DeNiro and Pesci once again showing their ability in working as a team. Some of their best acting has come when working together. Sharon Stone also gives possibly her best performance as DeNiro's wife. Films about the Jewish mafia or the glory days of Las Vegas are usually interesting. This is possibly the best film based on those two histories.
(3rd appearance)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiZvG_jcX0g
Chienfantome
Oldboy (2003) – Director : Park Chan-Wook, starring Choi Min-Sik, Yoo Ji-Tae and Kang Hye-Jeong. If I had to make a list of the Top 10 films that knocked me out when I first saw them,
Oldboy would be among them. It was 2004, the year I fell in love with Korean cinema.
Oldboy had just won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival, it was the most talked about film of the moment, and there was an advance screening in Paris a few weeks before its release. I went with a friend, and when the film was over, and we got out of the theater, I was walking unconscious. I didn’t know where I was. I had just been hit with a film that would resonate inside of me for a loooong time, I knew it instantly. I had already seen
JSA (I think) and
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (I’m sure), two amazing films already, but this felt like a cinematographic explosion to me. It is a film so mind-blowing, so thought-provoking, so daring. There is so much to say about this film, about its riveting direction, its unpredictable screenplay, I can’t start or I’ll never stop. A couple of years ago, I met Choi Min-Sik in Paris’ Korean Cultural Center. He was there to talk about his career with a few French lucky bastards, and I was one of them. A friend of mine took a picture of me and him, he had his arm upon my shoulder, smiling, and all I was thinking was “Oh my God, I’m with Oh Dae-Soo from
Oldboy”. I felt like a 15 year-old fanboy.
(6th appearance)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Paw9Myjf2gA&NR=1
numbersix
Sunset Boulevard (1950) - Director: Billy Wilder; starring William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich Von Stroheim and Nancy Olson. I think Chien said it earlier, and I tend to agree: while there’s much to appreciate about classic film-noir, it’s the films that play with this genre’s conventions that are the more memorable. Wilder showed us all how to make noir with Double Indemnity, but for me this is far superior (Ace in the Hole almost made my Top 100 also, a noir that satirizes media hype). There’s also satire in this film, a story about an unsuccessful writer who can’t afford his bills and ends up living with a faded silent movie star, Norma Desmond (it helps that the film utilizes a lot of celebrities from the time, including Cecil B DeMille and Buster Keaton). Wilder’s magnificent cinematographic eye is complimented by a dark story of obsession and our craving for fame. Both Desmond and Gillis want the same thing, just in different, clashing ways. But for one of them the desire turns to delusion, and the film culminates by showing us the tragedy of our unrealized ambitions.
Here’s the opening:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nlEaKHqX-o
Banks
The Prestige (2006) - Director: Christopher Nolan; starring Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale and Scarlett Johannson. If there ever was a magic trick of a movie,
The Prestige is it. It’s got amazing sleight-of-hand that’ll have you looking in a completely opposite direction at all times, and most of that is due to the awesome, as always, direction of Mr. Nolan. Bale and Jackman are good as rival magicians who stop at nothing to figure out the other’s signature tricks, but this is really a director’s showcase. Only Nolan could make something this good as an exercise in-between big-budget
Batman films.
(4th appearance)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4gHCmTQDVI
BarcaRulz
The Prestige (2006) - Director: Christopher Nolan; starring Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman, Scarlett Johansen, Michael Caine, Piper Perabo, Andy Serkis and David Bowie. Another amazing film by an amazing filmmaker. Nolan does it again with this well-paced and highly suspenseful driller (drama/thriller). The acting is fantastic, the script is superb, and the mood set by the film ensures you are 100% entrenched in the goings-on for the entire duration.
(5th appearance)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4gHCmTQDVI
Geezer
American History X (1998) - Director: Tony Kaye; starring Edward Norton, Edward Furlong and Beverly D'Angelo. Edward Norton is one of my top 3 favorite actors, and this movie is no small part of the reason why. He is so damn good in this film that it’s as if you don't need anyone else in the cast, because they don't really matter. Norton's performance is mesmerizing in an extremely emotional film. It’s hard not to feel strongly, one way or another, about
American History X, and I am decidedly on the side of the positive. It’s a film that stays with you long after you've finished watching.
(4th appearance)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXaZENPQrsw
leestu
A Clockwork Orange (1971) - Director: Stanley Kubrick; starring Malcolm McDowell, Patrick Magee and Michael Bates. One of the few movies I have seen in a cinema more than once. Actually I have only ever seen it on the big screen and I probably wouldn’t want to watch it any other way. Luckily it seems to get a screening every few years.
(6th appearance)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-zRtT5jPLA
W
The Scout (1994) - Director: Michael Ritchie; starring Albert Brooks, Brendan Fraser and Dianne Wiest. Albert Brooks is a Yankees scout that keeps bringing players that don't pan out, to put it nicely. He is sent to scout in Mexico as punishment and finds Steve Nebraska (Brendan Fraser), the best fastball pitcher and pure hitter to play the game. He gets Steve to come with him and is abruptly fired over the phone which moves him from Yankee scout to Steve's manager. He then finds out that Steve has mental problems stemming from an abusive father and has internalized all of those feelings and focuses only on the game. The movie is more about that than the game of baseball itself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oW6eo4Pe7k
NSpan
Wake Up, Ron Burgundy / Anchorman (1994) – Director: Adam McKay; starring Will Ferrell, Paul Rudd, David Koechner and Steve Carell. In my opinion, these two edits (of the same film) should have been kept together. It'd a magnum opus of comedy. Perhaps too lengthy for mainstream-consumption... but fuck it. (BTW: No idea why
Step Brothers isn't listed in my Top 100... When I recompile it, it'll be there.) Adam McKay has some serious talent--despite his hit-and-miss directorial filmography. For any fans of
Anchorman who hasn't seen
Wake Up Ron Burgundy, get your hands on it ASAP. Obviously, it isn't nearly as polished as the theatrical version--but the jokes are just as strong.
(3rd appearance)
Wake Up, Ron Burgundy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bY03Qcc0LU (part 1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmvbcMLxdrU (part 2)
undeadmonkey
Gladiator (2000) - Director: Ridley Scott; starring Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix and Connie Nielsen. This movie is just perfectly made. Perfect acting, perfect story, perfect atmosphere that is made by awesome cinematography and score. There really just isn’t much else to say about it. While so many films nowadays try to be huge and epic, it flows with ease in this film.
(3rd appearance)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1rNFuKFTnc
JohnErle
L.A. Confidential (1997) – Director: Curtis Hanson; starring Russell Crowe, Kevin Spacey, Guy Pearce, Kim Basinger, James Cromwell and Danny DeVito. Remarkable screenplay that introduced me to one of my favourite actors, Russell Crowe, and contains two of the greatest sequences in any cop movie - Ed Exley's interrogation scene and the ultimate good cop/bad cop scene.
(4th appearance)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4XbnrmbEME
Die Hard is now #4.
Usual Suspects and
Clockwork Orange are #8 and #9, respectively.
Prestige, Oldboy and
Amelie also crack the Top 25. And #100 is now a tie between
Casablanca and
Hot Rod (probably the first time in history those two films have been mentioned in the same sentence, huh?).
