Airplane - “Surely”, this has to be on
here. Started a new comedy spoof
genre modernizing the Mel Brooks style lampoon. And Airplane is the
best of all the rest to come. Unprecedented nonsense - “looks like I picked the
wrong week to stop sniffing glue” Director: Jerry Zucker, Cast:
Robert Hayes, Julie Hagerty, Kareem Abdul Jabar, Loyd Bridges. 1980
Alien - One of the best in the
science-fiction/horror genre. The
crew of the cargo ship Nostromo lands on a barren planet in response to an SOS
signal only to encounter an acid-dripping alien killing machine. Unlike its revved-up sequel Aliens,
Alien is slow paced tenseness as the crew attempts to search and destroy
but finds themselves the hunted instead of the hunters. Director: Ridley
Scott Cast: Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt. 1979
Aliens - Rarely is the sequel better than the first but Aliens is the exception. From where Director Ridley Scott left
off with the horror of a single, inexplicable monster in Alien,
director James Cameron speeds up the action using legions of monster bugs with
Ripley (the lone survivor from the previous encounter) embedded with high-tech
Marines to battle them. This is a
modern sci-fi classic and one of my favorite movies of all time. Intense suspense with muscular story
telling - Vasques (Janette Goldstein) and Hicks (Biehn) are my personal
heroes. Enjoy, and “stay frosty”.
Director: James Cameron Cast: Sigorney Weaver, Carrie Henn,
Michael Biehn, 1986
All of Me - Ridiculous, outlandish... All
of Me gives Steve Martin the vehicle to display his outrageous physical
comedy skills as a lawyer with a dead women’s spirit inhabiting the right side
of his body (I told you it was ridiculous). LIly Tomlin is Martin’s right half and Richard Libertini is
hilarious as the screwy guru who goofed up the spiritual transfer that caused
the mess. Super funny with heart and a great theme song. Director : Carl Reiner, Cast:
Steve Martin, Lily Tomlin, Madolyn Smith, 1984
Amadeus - I’ll choose magnificent
to describe Amadeus. It’s more
than just beautiful to the eye and ear - its first-rate story telling (the
script is a mix of fiction and fact as with most historically-themed films)
with a first-rate cast to carry it along.
The film captures the essence of genius creativity and places it
interestingly in a story of greater and lesser talents, and the cupidity of
those on the short end of the genius stick. Director : Milos Forman, Cast:
Tom Hulce, F. Murray Abraham. 1984
American Graffiti - Sorry George, Star
Trek doesn’t make the list (I can hear the readers’ gasps now) - but
American Graffiti does. Graffiti depicts one night in the
lives of several recent 1962 high-school graduates - following their stories
simultaneously. I lived just
enough in the 60‘s to catch the nostalgia. But beyond that, Graffiti is just a
great film - funny and serious at the same time - bittersweet. Great cast including a young Harrison
Ford. Good, good, good film. Director: George Lucas, Cast: Ron Howard, Richard Dreyfuss. 1973
The Aviator - Aviator has an
old-style Hollywood production feel but with the Scorsese flair. It’s big and ambitious with edge -
that’s a perfect combo. I’m not a
huge DeCaprio fan, but he delivers an engrossing performance as Howard
Hughes. The script is great and
the supporting cast superb - particularly Alec Baldwin, as Juan Trippe, founder
of Pan American World Airways. You
ride Hughes’ roller coaster of super highs and seemingly bottomless lows. Great film. Director: Martin
Scorsese, Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett. 2004
Beauty and the Beast - The best of
Disney’s animated features in my opinion.
The combination of superb artistry with computer-generated images just
made this a beautiful thing to watch.
It is the complete package - elegant animation, charm, wit and great
songs. The music really forces
this one into the top 100 with Robbie Benson, of all people singing... go figure. Director:
Gary Trousdale, Cast: Robbie Benson, Paige O’Hara, Angela Lansbury. 1991
Batman Begins - My favorite of all
the super hero movies. No cartoony stuff here - no Arnold as Mr. Freeze or
DeVito’s sad attempt at a penguin.
The show is elevated in my book by its seriousness and superb
balance. It is a dark drama that
tells a solid story of Batman’s origin and motives. The action is surrounded by plot and character. It’s careful and precise. Bale is outstanding as the Dark
Knight. They finally got it right... an intelligent super hero flick.
Director: Christopher Nolan Cast: Christian Bale, Katie
Holmes. 2005
Being There - Unique for its
subtle and persistent satirical tone - no slapstick needed, it just moves
forward, becoming more ludicrous as it goes until the last cryptic scene. I’ve
never seen any movie quite like Being There. Peter Sellers is fascinating as Chance, a simple-minded
gardener, raised in isolation and educated only by the TV. Part of the films
intrigue is the ambiguousness of its motive and meaning - What is Chance doing
on the lake in the end? I have my opinion - what’s yours? Director: Hal Ashby, Cast:
Peter Sellers, Shirley MacLaine, Melvyn Douglas. 1979
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Blood Simple - The Coen Brothers
first film and the start of their trademark approach - original and ultra-dark
humor presented in super-interesting and odd contexts. Simple is sometimes so slow its
painful, but the suspense and tension that is built up in its strange pace is
powerful. Its all a complex set of
knots of deceit and double cross - every thing seems to make sense in this
movie and yet nobody knows what’s going on. Note how many shots they take
through fan blades. Director:
Joel Coen Cast: John Getz, Frances McDormand, 1984
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - My favorite buddy movie. The western that changed westerns. Some point to the anachronistic sound
track and the comic components of the film as flaws. But this was new-style
western - classic adventure mixed with coolness and an off-beat rhythm. The chemistry of the two stars is
unmatched and Butch and Sundance freeze-framed in time at the end is classic
unforgettable. Director:
George Roy Hill, Cast: Paul Newman, Robert Redford. 1969
Cinderella Man - My favorite boxing
movie. Ok, I admit it - I’m a fan of the sport, but this movie is still
great. Based on the true Cinderella
story of Jim Braddock, a depression-era boxer who carried, for a brief time,
the hopes of the nation’s underdog masses. I knew how the story ended, but it didn’t matter - I was in
front of the screen hoping, fists pumping with left hooks and upper cuts, that
Braddock could some how pull it off.
That’s what a top-100 movie can do. Great realism in the ring scenes - maybe the best I’ve seen
- beautifully shot. Director:
Ron Howard, Cast: Russell Crowe, Renee Zellwegger. 2005
A Clockwork Orange - I’ve given some
thought about whether to include this film in my list or not. I’m sort of embarrassed to do it. I was, at once, revolted and mesmerized
by this film. Orange is a
discomforting satire of crime and punishment, based on a novel by Anthony
Burgess. Its controversial,
unsettling and shocking - and disturbs more than entertains - so what is this
film doing on my list? I guess its
here because I found the film to be strangely and undeniably overwhelming - contemptible yet fascinating. I
cannot recommend it but I cannot forget it. Director: Stanley
Kubrick Cast: Malcolm
McDowell, Patrick Magee, 1971
The Color or Money - Are you one of
those who thinks Tom Cruise can’t act? - watch this film. And Paul Newman is
even better. Money starts
some time after Robert Rossen's 1961 film The Hustler ends.
The middle-aged Fast Eddie Felson tries to relive his past through a young pool
hustler (Tom Cruise) becoming the punk’s mentor and manger. Solid picture -
tense and complex revival of a great character. Pulled off without sentimentality. Director: Martin
Scorsese, Cast: Paul
Newman, Tom Cruise. Helen Shaver. 1986
Contact - This is a special movie to
me. The interplay of science
(understanding based on observation) and spirituality has permeated my mind for
most of my life. Contact is about
the search for life outside of our little planet. But the movie is more about ideas of fact, faith, and human
nature, rather than the potential scariness or oddities of life beyond ours.
The movie has the depth that you would expect from a product based on Carl
Sagan’s work. A science-fiction
core wrapped in a discussion of what we believe and why. Director: Robert Zemickis Cast:
Jodie Foster, Matthew McConaughey. 1997
Dave - My best political comedy award
goes to “Dave”. Ok, its a bit gushy as it raises the flag for common decency -
but Kline and Sigourney Weaver are great in this comedy centered around an
ordinary man becoming extraordinary due to circumstance and substance. Kevin Kline is Dave, a temp-service
business owner who happens to look exactly like the President of the United States. When the President has a stroke, his
handlers, worried about the impacts the event would have on the Nation and
party, clandestinely enlist Dave to take his place while they figure out what
to do... you imagine the rest.
Better yet, go rent the movie; it’s a delightful feel good fable. Director: Ivan Reitman, Cast:
John Kline, Sigorney Weaver. 1993
Dangerous Liaisons - Liaisons is a story of cold blood and it’s so good that you feel the blood cooling as you watch. Two 18th century French Aristocrats scheme to take revenge for a love gone bad by manipulating another through love and lust. The France-landscape backdrop is stunning and everything from the staging to the lighting fits tight and right in this film. Of course, when bad people do bad things to good people there is usually a price to pay. Liaison displays a great tragic tale with big emotional body blows at the end. Director: Stephen Frears, Cast: John Malkovich, Michelle Pfeiffer, Glenn Close, 1988
The Dead Zone - Best film
adaptation of Stephen King’s work (in my humble opinion) and also a classic
Christopher Walken role. Walken plays a man who awakens from a five-year,
accident-induced coma to find that he now has an extra-sensory gift - he can
tell a person's fate just by touching them. But he also discovers that fate can be changed. Dead Zone is deadly chilling as
its main character tries to retreat from his curse - only to have his own fate
defined when he shakes a presidential candidate’s (Martin Sheen) hand. Director David Cronenberg: Cast:
Christopher Walken, Brooke Adams, Martin Sheen 1983
Eight Men Out - This is my
selection for best baseball movie ever. Forget Bull Durham and Field
of Dreams, Kevin Costner can’t hold director John Sayles jock in this
category. Eight Men Out
chronicles one of the darkest moments in the history of baseball and sport
-1919's infamous Black Sox scandal where eight players of the Chicago White Sox
agreed to throw the World Series. The
movie is more a story of human tragedy than baseball - but both components are superb... “Say it ain’t so Joe” . Director John Sayles: Cast: John Cusack, Charlie
Sheen, 1988
The Emperor’s New Groove - Groove
is one of the smartest and funniest animated features I’ve seen - laugh out
loud, slap your thigh funny. Great
mix of characters placed in a very fast paced adventure. Groove has the smart, grown up
comedy of a Warner Brothers Looney Tunes cartoon combined with the charm and
visual flare of its Disney source. It’s not grandiose, its just good. Director: Cast:
Marc Dindal, Cast: David Spade, John Goodman. 2000
Enemy at the Gates - I've never been quite sure why the critics disliked this film... as I found Enemy’s harsh feel and tragic drama difficult to
forget. The story is one of a
sniper duel running within the WWII battle of Stalingrad, pitting a young
Russian sniper against the best the Germans have. The two play a deadly game of
cat-and-mouse in the ruins of the city which makes you feel as if the entire
war has been reduced to this single personal battle. Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud. Cast: Jude Law, Joseph
Fiennes, 2001
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