Media itt: movie/film discussion - Beware Spoilers

[vonFiedler]

#120: Ed Wood
The true story of the world's favorite worst director. While it's fascinating enough on it's own and there's a remarkably straightforward directing job from Tim Burton, I think what really put this over the top for the me was the sub plot about Bela Lugosi. So much feels.

#119: Unforgiven
For many people, Clint Eastwood's acting was where the western began. He made sure that his directing is where it ended. As a deconstructive work it's absolutely brutal. It strings you along, gets you invested, and then you never expect such a perfect ending.

#118: Krampus
Christmas horror is a surprisingly sensible genre in its own right. There have been actually a great deal of Krampus films and this send up, done masterfully by Michael Dougherty, the mind behind the definitive Halloween movie, Trick 'r Treat. The Krampus design is just so insanely good. It's no surprise that Krampus the character has since come into massive popularity.

#117: Hot Rod
The Lonely Island movie. Maybe not technically, but it's better the actual Lonely Island movie we got this year. It's such a stupid and small movie that seems destined to be forgotten but never manages to be. It's just that funny.

#116: Crank: High Voltage
The first movie was certainly an admirable attempt, but this is the kind of sequel that just does everything bigger and better. The sex scene, the fights, the godzilla scene. That ending! How would you top it?

#115: In the Name of the Father
Chilling true story. Bothered me from start to finish.

#114: The Nightmare Before Christmas
Speaking of Halloween and Christmas... almost everyone's favorite Tim Burton movie. Funny how he didn't make it. Great music, still great animation, and a unique and fun enough concept to merit watching twice a year.

#113: First Blood
Aka Rambo. Just like the Rocky series, the first movie is actually very subdued. It's more about a soldier's inability to ease back into civilian life. It certainly happens to have a lot of conflict, but not a lot of violence. It's more dramatic than that. And Sylvester Stallone puts in an amazing performance. He always could act amazingly, but rarely was put in situations to once he got big.

#112: Air Force One
GET OFF MY PLANE! The truth is that this movie was in top 20 for over a decade. It's a massive childhood favorite. Only recently, when the amount of movies that I had seen expanded so much, did I have to admit that maybe it's not that overwhelmingly special. But it's Harrison Ford as the president of the god damn united states!

#111: Big Fish
Essentially three Tim Burton movies in one post. I must really like him, right? Well, the truth is this just what his worth his. He's not quite a top 100 director, and spoiler alert, this is the last movie of his on my last. But, though often overlooked, it is a really good one with scenes and quotes that I find to be very memorable and valuable.

 

[vonFiedler]

#110: X2
The first movie that took the superhero genre from a "kinda maybe" to something that really had legs to stand. X-men is okay with it's subdued story, but of course the point where any X-men story gets awesome is when the humans start gunning for them. When Wolverine has to start secreting around a bunch of students who are getting hunted down, shit gets real. The added character dynamics are amazing from start to finish. Bad guys actually have arcs. As an X-men fan, it's just a great film.

#109: Hachi: A Dog's Tale
I wanted so badly for the original Japanese movie to be better, and it wasn't where it counted. Cause this is a shitty movie. It's poorly made sentimental drivel. But the second half fucking slays me. It's so damn depressing. So many bad dog movies are all about how the dog dies. But this one is the other way around, and the canine performance alone is so compelling. Sure, the classic tale is still represented in Futurama, but it seems like a movie with this narrative can't even be intentionally bad.

#108: The Seventh Seal
If you don't know about this movie, then you do know about the man who has a game of chess with death. Ingmar Bergman is a master of surreal, other-worldly examinations of real world psychological drama. For many, this is his best film. It's also metal as fuck.

#107: The Boondock Saints
There are those who hate this movie just because Troy Duffy got a one in a million opportunity to be a filmmaker and burned every bridge. Also that it's basically just trying to be a Quentin Tarantino movie. But Tarantino's whole career is about making other people's movies well, and Troy Duffy did the same. I mean god damn, THERE WAS A FIREFIGHT! Everyone and everything in this film just gives 110%. It's a blast.

#106: Ben-Hur (2016)
By far the biggest surprise of 2016, if not one of the biggest surprises for me ever. This movie is VERY good. It has all the epicness of the original with none of the bloat, and somehow manages to have much more developed, believable, and likable characters. It actually tells a much more cohesive story. And the story is pretty good.

#105: Memories of Murder
Korean crime film about two corrupt idiot cops trying to pin a series of murders on anyone they can force a confession out of and the educated city policeman trying to show them morality and science. Well, it seems a bit black and white, doesn't it? But if you've seen The Wire, you already know that cops is hard. As a drama it goes farther than most cops would ever have to deal with, yet displays fundamental problems in a professional that we're required to have around.

#104: Paths of Glory
Stanley Kubrick's best film imo. Yes, he hasn't been on this list much, though several of his films were considered. I'm still looking for that 10/10 Kubrick film that I feel must exist. For now, this one is just brilliant war satire. Hell, it's not a lot unlike Catch-22 or All Quiet on the Western Front. A simple black and white movie, but somehow it's exceptional story propels it above Kubrick's big tentpoles.

#103: Requiem for a Dream
To many this a nightmarish horror story. To me it's a beautiful opera. No, I'm serious, the way this movie is filmed is very unique. I love the constant drowning music, the melodrama, the seasonal motifs. Either way, it's a great film to show the horrors of drug use.

#102: The Dark Knight
OMG, Dark Knight isn't even top 100?!? Well, no. It has some massive plot holes and just dumped a lot of good plot points from the end of the first movie. The soap boxing is frankly annoying, and this may seem nitpicky, but so is just how often this film is shot during the day. But that doesn't mean I don't love what everyone else loves about it: those fucking amazing performances of the Joker and Two-Face. I just won't look past the bad bits for it.

#101: The Secret of NIMH
Don Bluth at his best. Brutal and horrifying children's movie. The concept is pretty good, the character whose point of view we see it from is great. But the kicker is all those scenes that really fucked me up as a child. You know the ones. All fifty of them.

 

[vonFiedler]

#100: Iron Man 3
This really shouldn't even be a controversial pick. Everything about the Shane Black, amazing filmmaker, MCU movie is fantastic. Taking Tony out of the suit for most of the movie was brilliant. It was the first time we saw real character development in a movie. And, purists be fucking damned, the first time we saw a good villain. The Mandarin is surprising, multifaceted, and just beautiful as a concept. Would people have suddenly liked the movie if he was played by an Asian actor? This would have been a much better decision, but the shell is still there. Face the facts, MCU has a major weakness in making villains. And you have a good one and you dismiss it because it's unique to the films? Bullshit fan logic.

#99: Hot Fuzz
As a comedy writer, Edgar Wright brings a quality not usually seen outside of literature. He doesn't rely on action or sight gags, instead his scripts have a sort of poetry to them, a rhyming scheme of quotations and sentiments that recur in new and humorous lights. What visual jokes he has usually play into this as well. Hot Fuzz is very rich in this type of writing. Pay attention and you'll be rewarded.

#98: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Another film with direct references to literature. And it's worthy of those references. It actually feels smart enough to stand up next to them. There's great character scenes about age, revenge, heroic sacrifice. This film shouldn't be as great as it is, but it manages.

#97: Stand by Me
The signature children's movie that is, if it's rating any indication, too mature for children. If you saw the bastardized tv version in class as a kid, you were robbed.

#96: Your Name
A new enough anime film to not even really have a watchable version with English subtitles. And it lives up the hype. It's beautiful and enthralling, sure, but I love movies that capture really subconscious feelings. Like the feeling that you've forgotten someone really important. We've all forgotten whole people. It's almost horrifying to think about, and this film forces us to deal with that unusual feeling.

#95: Zootopia
I never in a million years expected the first new Disney movie that I'd care about would a perfect dialogue on race relations. But that's what the movie is in that regard, absolutely perfect. The film isn't, some jokes aren't great and Disney's new directors still have some growing pains. But the meat of the film is amazing.

#94: Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope
Woah! you say, isn't that awful low for one of the original Star Wars movies? Well, I tell you I love this movie, but I watched it not that long ago and it is a bit rough around the edges. Some directing choices, some dialogue, the budget they could work with for sets, sometimes you watch it an in rare moments you just gotta go "mm". But the great moments more than make up for that.

#93 & #92: Home Alone & Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
I have NO idea which of these movies is better. Home Alone is an absolutely fantastic Christmas film. Everything about the concept and plot structure are just immaculate. Why did no one ever rip this off? Maybe they made those bad sequels so that no one would have to. Home Alone 2 commits the crime of being very much like the original, but it's bigger, some scenes work better, and that soundtrack!

#91: Detroit Rock City
A former top 10 film for me, and with good personal reason. Sure, I've heard the criticism that it looks like it was directed by amateur experimental television directors. But that's because it was! And what's wrong with that? It's a film with a really unique look and flow. This is a comedy that's just as much an adventure. You get really invested in the character's journey, and what great characters they are, each getting a large amount of time to shine on their own. It features two of the most sadly underused actors ever. One was the kid from Terminator 2. The other only ever got to be Jimmy Olsen in a bad superman movie. It has one of the most epic movie speeches ever. And it's god damn funny! I quote this movie often, almost always to people who have no idea what I'm talking about. But really, the kicker is this: I wasn't fond of music before I saw this film. In my generation I was supposed to be listening to Eminem and Linkin Park, and I was like, fuck all of that. Then I saw this movie and was introduced to what is still one my favorite bands: KISS. This is a movie about four characters fulfilling their dream of seeing a KISS concert. When they made it happen in the finale, I knew that this had to be one of my life goals too. And it's a life goal that took me until only about 2 years ago to accomplish. This is a movie that made go do something. It means something to me. I know it's not as good as I exaggerate it to be, but I'll be damned if it's not worthy of being in my top 100.

 

[vonFiedler]

#90: Spirited Away
The first Miyazaki movie on my list. Spirited Away tops of the charts of many "best animated movies" lists, but I think the ending cops out pretty hard after tapering off in general for a bit. But the movie makes up for with the extreme and subtle emotions that it invokes in almost every scene. Being in a strange place, having to man up, young love, terror. There's so much whimsy and so many tear-jerking moments. Beautiful to look at and to listen to. I think actually my favorite moment from the movie isn't a moment at all, but how the main song makes me feel.

#89: Schindler's List
Not a perfect movie either! I think that Spielberg wanted to make his holocaust film, but he also made it sort of as a pretentious old hollywood masturbation film. It's shot and paced VERY much like a 40 or 50s film. So I think in that regard it falls flat. But how does the movie achieve greatness? With one of the greatest antihero stories ever told. What do I mean by that? The truth is that for almost all of his Oskar Schindler was a complete loser. He was a bad business man before and after the holocaust. His marriage failed. He lived on charity until he died lonely. And when he had his one chance to make something of himself by expoiting slave labor, he fucking took it. But somewhere along the line he had a crisis of conscience and did what he did at massive risk to himself. And because of him, literally a million people are alive today that wouldn't be otherwise. So does on need to be a great man to be a hero? Schindler was the exact opposite. And Liam Neeson takes that and puts in a performance that was so good that we still give him a pass for constant bad acting.

#88: Inception
I ain't gonna say I'm smart enough to have understood this movie. I'm just saying I don't understand why so many smart people were too dumb to. It's like, really obviously an allegory for con artistry. I got that in the first scene. I mean, unless it's an allegory for film making. That works pretty well too. Either way it's really cool.

#87: Slumdog Millionaire
This isn't a bollywood film. Which is why it isn't crap. Well acted, with an amazingly clever plot, great musical style, and wonderful cinematography. A movie this fun usually doesn't win the oscar. Speaking of which, isn't is something that we had a tentpole movie starring brown people, set in a non-English country, and it was so successful? That was only 8 years ago! When will hollywood gets a clue and realizes that what we want is good movies regardless of color the actors are?

#86: 21 Jump Street
Phil Lord and Chris Miller are two of the hottest directors in hollywood at the moment. They are the shining ray of hope for the Han Solo movie. 21 Jump Street is another deconstructive comedy, but it's very different from a Shane Black movie. It's more like they have a phenomenal ability to just not give a fuck about anything. Which is even crazier given their overbearing Sony overlords. Hell, they must have a lot of back pain from carrying Sony for several years.

#85: Howl's Moving Castle
A tighter plot than Spirited Away with a more fulfilling ending. Somewhat more aimed at adults, and I am one, so. Few people's favorite Miyazaki movie, but one I think worth a lot of recognition.

#84: Gran Torino
Before Ben Affleck was a bad actor turned good director, Clint Eastwood was a good actor turned great director. This is kind of a simple movie. Like many others, it showcases Eastwood's odd for hollywood conservative leanings, but it's also an honest and open dialogue on interacting with other cultures. Again, starring several brown people. It won't win points for grandeur, but it's Clint Eastwood's directing that makes it a worthy film.

#83: A Beautiful Mind
There's a film like this every oscar season. This is what they all aspire to be. Even though it's a true story, it managed to surprise the hell out of me.

#82: Network
Network is a legendary movie. Almost everyone is familiar with the "I'm mad as hell" speech. Most people know of this movie in how it entirely the predicted the rise of pundit news channels. And frankly... it's very boring. But great media isn't something that passes a scant 2 hours with entertainment and then goes away. You really get your bang for your buck when something gives you something to dwell on for hours, days, weeks, years on end. I loved this movie for years before I saw it, and I still think it's great. And if I want smart movies like this, than I have to be able to acknowledge them with a position at least this high on my list.

#81: Legend
A legendary flop from Ridley Scott. I'm not here to be controversial and say the theatrical run was good. That was edited poorly when Scott's feelings were hurt by two stoners who made fun of his vision. The director's cut is however a masterpiece of visual fantasy. There's a concept in video games called environmental exposition. It's why a game like Metroid can have no story and also have a great story. Because the story of Metroid is how Samus navigates through the lonelyness of the environments she's in. A lot of great video games are like that. This is a rare movie that also fits the bill. I highly recommend the director's cut.

 

[vonFiedler]

#144: Andaz Apna Apna
Maybe no one noticed, but it's taken me two weeks to stomach this film. If it weren't for one funny bit, it'd be the worst movie I've ever seen.

It's basically Dumb and Dumber, if dumb and dumber were the writer and director of Dumb and Dumber.

In spite of ostensibly being a love triangle movie, as soon as the two male leads meet the female lead, one of the guys starts this eye fucking insect mating dance with another female character (and if you visualize that and it looks impossibly stupid, you're visualizing it correctly). This happens in every scene they're in and it's totally obvious who is going to end up with who. Not that they could have done that by way of character or relationship development, as there is no development and all of the characters are awful.

The sound design is beyond bad. It's like a combination of 30s quality and those awful riffs from The Batman tv show (the one starring tuxedo mask, not the good one). 99% of the movie is chittering nonsense. Several jokes are made at the expense of muslims, who were violently dying by the hundreds in India while this movie was being made. The film culminates in the most incompetent action scene I have ever witnessed. And let's be real here, the music numbers in ALL of these movies just fucking suck. None of them have been catchy at all and they drag on three times too long. I don't say this because they are culturally different, but because they are so incredibly antiquated even in the context of their own culture. They are at a folk level of 10 Bob Dylans + 2. They are nothing but screeching. And the worst musical sin of all: they never do ANYTHING for the plot.

I would expect a film this bad to be on Best of the Worst, not Best of the Nation. But for India, maybe those are the same thing. Seriously, I'm not racist against your country. To me, that would imply that I'm dismissive of your artistic efforts. No, I feel something for them. I HATE them. And I hate that you've rigged the system to make me watch more.

If I were in a locked room with Donald Trump, Aamir Khan, and a gun with two bullets, I would shoot Aamir Khan twice.

 

[vonFiedler]

#80: The Legend of 1900
Such a bizarre movie. The only thing sensible about it is it's director, Giuseppe Tornatorre, the same director as Cinema Paradiso. Not only is it a movie with great musical style, but it's another film that is very feeling oriented. Very subconscious. The fear of uncontrollable change. Worth checking out for how strange it is, anyway.

#79: The Avengers
A landmark and ambitious movie. It's everything we wanted when we were slogging through phase one, a group of great characters that we already know and love being put through an awesome action movie. Even then, we could do better, but it's such an incredibly fun movie regardless.

#78: Casino Royale
I've seen every Bond movie. I like them as much as anyone, but they are schlock films. I couldn't have given a single one an 8. Until Casino Royale. Casino Royale is the first Bond book, but it was actually scrapped as a movie because everyone thought a movie about playing poker would be boring. Not that it lacks its great action scenes, but the film is so incredibly nuanced compared to its predecessor. It is just people playing poker in one location. That's a good fucking spy movie. I expected so much from the series after this. Oh well!

#77: Captain America: Winter Soldier
The First Avenger stood out, but it's Winter Soldier that showed us that Captain America would be the best series within the MCU. And the Russo Brothers, veterans of Arrested Development and Community, would be the best assets that the MCU would gain (they're making the next two Avengers films, which is great). Just an awesome film that really shook up the status quo without being stupid like some other status quo shaking movies.

#76: This is Not a Film
I wouldn't include documentaries on this list. If I did, I might include The Best Worst Movie. Jafar Panahi is an Iranian filmmaker who was banned from making films. So he recorded himself during an evening and called it "This is Not a Film". It had 100% on Rotten Tomatoes because what kind of colossal prick could possibly be critical of this endeavor? But while you might respect it even if you expect it to be boring. But it's actually really good. It's terribly uncoordinated. You can at all times see the seething discomfort the man has with what he's doing, trying to portray reality as a story. He scraps several attempts to fill time out of frustration that he's being fake. He tries to read a script that he can never make a movie, but breaks down when he realizes how stupid and boring it is without his direction, without being seen the way it's supposed to. An artist not being able to make art is an incredibly depressing thing.

#75: Hell or High Water
Siccario was a movie that barely got an oscar nom last year, but I honestly thought it was boring. Hell or High Water, by the same writer, however, was brilliant. It's the southern crime thriller we've always pinned for without ever knowing. It's actually quite a commentary on poverty and is even somewhat anti-authority.

#74: Persona
Nobody knows they saw it, but they did. Persona is my favorite Ingmar Bergman movie. A simple psychological horror with only two characters. It doesn't contain any physical violence, but there's a palpable sense of violence as one person absorbs another. And there's no sex, but there's one of the most erotic scenes I've ever seen in a film. And it's just subtly fucked up all the time.

#73: Heat
Good heist movies. Heist movies are better than regular gangster movies. This film actually owns its high length by having such detailed and rich characters. We see both the cops and robbers as really complete people before things propel to an inevitable showdown. The fact that those people are Robert De Niro and Al Pacino certainly don't hurt, either.

#72: Planet Terror
2007 saw the release of Grindhouse, a double-feature homage to schlock films, complete with fake ads. It's was an amazing experience and I'm glad that I got the chance to go. Unfortunately, Quentin Tarantino's half was Death Proof, a movie not without merit, but possibly his worst film. The fact that it was shown after Robert Rodriguez's Planet Terror did it no favors either, as Planet Terror is one of the most amazingly funny and badass soft parodies of violent action movies I've ever seen. It was a thrill from start to finish.

#71: Watchmen
Fantastic comic book adapted mostly word for word. Visually well done, great soundtrack, and perfect actors for Night Owl, Rorschach, and Doctor Manhattan. The film changed the ending in a somewhat superficial way. I think they could have done without the change and would have preferred that, but it was fine. How much you like Watchmen and can stomach this change is going to be how much you like the movie. This is how much I like it.

 

[Karxrida]

We interrupt Fielder's multiposting to give you this (spoiler free) assessment on Rogue One.

It's an above-average movie. Not bad by any stretch, but it's also not the best and has some issues (the beginning is a bit messy, for one). It's definitely good enough to watch in theaters.

The central cast is a mixed bag since they're either highly memorable or just there.

The small amount of humor the movie has is pretty good and only shows up at the appropriate times.

The action is overall okay to above-average. The very last action sequence, however, is fucking awesome.

The cameos and nods to other movies felt natural for the most part... bar having two guys from Episode IV's cantina scene show up randomly. That was forced as hell and brought me out of the movie for a second.

The special effects were pretty good when they were for small scale stuff, such as the robot. Anything large scale (e.g. space fights) were pretty obviously CGI, but it's a necessary evil at this point.

Story isn't amazing, but it doesn't need to be. It does its job without being incompetent or confusing (bar a couple things in the beginning).

Like I said, above-average.

 

[TheValkyries]

I like fiedlers multi posting

 

[vonFiedler]

The cameos and nods to other movies felt natural for the most part... bar having two guys from Episode IV's cantina scene show up randomly. That was forced as hell and brought me out of the movie for a second.

Yeah... aren't they dead now?

Really good movie I thought, it really made me care about a bunch of characters that it was always going to kill off anyway (this shouldn't be a spoiler). Possibly better than Force Awakens.


Meanwhile I just walked out of Collateral Beauty. It was one of the best movie I've seen in an already amazing year. I forgot my phone, so I remember that on the car ride home I dwelled on how much of a shame it was that it would inevitably have a rotten tomatoes score of 65%.

14%

EDIT: Apparently Donnie Yen was the one who decided his character was going to be blind. That's pretty awesome.

 

[Jebus McAzn]

la la land was really enjoyable

as a big theater nerd the whole thing was basically one extended wet dream for me. lighting, color, cinematography, and music were all extremely on point. the plot was solid, it said what it wanted to say and it did so in a very "Broadway" way. emma stone and ryan gosling were easily the weakest parts of the film overall, but they were still decent.

 

[vonFiedler]

#70: Hot Tub Time Machine
I don't like a lot of comedy movies. You've seen few conventional comedies on this list, and now we're at the highest ranking one. I really like TV comedy a lot more, like Futurama or Arrested Development. But I think post AD we've seen a handful of comedic movies (ones not made by Seth Rogan & company) that really get that same kind of good humor. Hot Tub Time Machine just happens to be extremely funny but also very touching and with good character development. You really want things to turn out the best for out heroes. And of course a time machine to 80s never hurt anything. Very obvious inspiration from Back to the Future, and while not as iconic, it still holds the distinction of being the greatest straight comedy movie, imo.

#69: Mary and Max
And onto one of the least conventional animated movies. The story of an old autistic man and an ugly young girl who start a beautiful friendship through being pen pals. It's relentlessly dark and ugly. It never shies away from being outright offensive. And at the end of the day, it's one of the most sincerely heartwarming films out there. And even though portrays Max as a brutally maladjusted person, the film gets something about autistic people: that we don't want you fuckers to try and cure us.

#68: Alien
Every time you need to escape from an exploding facility in a video game. Every time there's a good female protagonist, hell, character in an action movie. The mountain of H.R Giger inspirations out there. There are so many good things that owe something to this film. I saw it after Aliens, and couldn't have expected it to be so much better than an already great movie. But it's just one of those... I have to keep saying that every frame is perfect, every choice is deliberate, but that's the kind of movie that gets a 10/10 and that's where we are right now. A 10/10 isn't a perfect movie, because none are, but they do as best as reasonably possible to live up the potential of the story and the artistic vision of the director. This does that.

#67: Raiders of the Lost Ark
I always thought the ending copped out a bit, especially when you consider that Indiana Jones does nothing at any point in this film that actually affects the outcome of anything. Big criticisms for a film to end up so high, but it's Indiana Jones! I don't think that the infamous fridge seen was enough to ruin an Indiana Jones film. Temple of Doom has its moments. And this is a good Indiana Jones film, so yeah. Indiana Jones as a series and as a character are treasures more priceless than most of the artifacts he himself would go after. Great adventure, great Harrison Ford.

#66: L.A. Confidential
Sickeningly stylish 50s cop drama. It also gets to wank one of for classic hollywood, which always increases your chances of being getting good reviews. But what actually makes it good is the trifecta of amazing characters that propels the plot forward. Guy Pearce, the cop too honest for his own good. Russel Crowe, the angry overzealous cop. And Kevin Spacey, the sleazy big-picture negotiator. Don't those castings just sound perfect to you? All are cops trying to do good in their own flawed way, and each eventually team up to fight corruption that runs way too big for them.

#65: Doctor Strange
The origin story is sort of fundamentally flawed as the basis for a movie at this point. I don't even want to agree with that, but I'm sort of forced to. Deadpool and Doctor Strange both suffered because of their origin story formulas. So why is Doctor Strange actually such a good movie? Because plot aside, it's consistently, mind-bendingly bold new cinematic techniques make the action a beauty to behold. It annoys me how Scarlet Witch is basically just a telekinetic who makes things spark red. THIS is magic. This is fantasy. It crams a ton of great out of this world concepts into one film and does it well. I'm excited to see how Doctor Strange interacts with the rest of the MCU given how bombastic his entrance established him to be. Also, he's easily the best character in Marvel comics. So the movie has that going for it.

#64: Room
I went into this film knowing nothing, and I felt like that was a pretty good way to experience. Granted, you've probably heard a thing or two about it by now. The movie is about a young woman who gets kidnapped for years and forced to raise a child with her kidnapper. It's told mostly through the view of an amazing child actor. So there's a fuzzy glaze over the darkness of the film, which eventually gives way to extraordinary feelings of triumph. It's hard to describe the best parts without possibly ruining their impact for a potential viewer.

#63: The Intouchables
True story about a rich quadriplegic and the unskilled welfare leech that he takes on as his personal caretaker. Both men are trapped in some way. Phillipe is physically trapped in his own body. Driss is trapped by poverty. Phillipe doesn't hire Driss out of pity, in fact, he even forces him to be hired (lest Driss lose his welfare) just to fuck with him out of his own boredom. But Driss fucks with him in return. And Philippe finds that, while he's surrounded by sycophants and pitiers, it's freeing to have this friendship with Driss who just doesn't give a fuck. I guess it's sort of similar to Mary and Max, but understandably a little more grounded in reality (being true and all).

#62: Guardians of the Galaxy
DC is better than Marvel. The people who say otherwise are generally movie fans or those who cling to the 70s standards of comic books, back when Marvel actually was telling more human stories with better characters. DC's quality exploded in the 80s, and consistently their biggest asset has been their ability to take minor characters and revamp them into awesome stories. DC respects its C-list. Marvel never has. But that might be changing because of the MCU. What I'm saying is that Guardians of the Galaxy is an MCU movie employing a very DC tactic. Whereas Avengers spent 5 movies building up to its heroes meeting, GotG took these absolute nobodies in the public's eye, threw them in one movie, was like, do you like these guys? And we did. And it's one of the best things the MCU has ever done. It's not even that it's a standalone movie, after all, they'll interact with the Avengers and co. eventually. And won't that be fun?

#61: 10 Cloverfield Lane
Really surprising quality from a movie that had the Cloverfield label slapped on it for no reason. Speaking of superhero origin stories, this is actually the best one ever. On the surface it's a simple horror movie about a woman trying to escape from a man holding her hostage. But as we see her work on escaping, we see an increasingly resourcefulness that makes us only want more when the film is over. I want to see the next movie starring this character right away. Looking up, I guess it's kind of the best qualities of Alien and Room combined.

 

[begin again]

la la land was really enjoyable

as a big theater nerd the whole thing was basically one extended wet dream for me. lighting, color, cinematography, and music were all extremely on point. the plot was solid, it said what it wanted to say and it did so in a very "Broadway" way. emma stone and ryan gosling were easily the weakest parts of the film overall, but they were still decent.

Loved the "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg" vibes the film gave off, especially with its usage of bright, vibrant colors. i thought emma stone was good tho. i honestly would like to see her win the Oscar over Natalie Portman this year even if i liked natalie's performance better just for the sake of sharing the wealth

 

[Aladyyn]

Rogue One is the best SW movie since ESB. I'm very pleasantly surprised.

 

[vonFiedler]

#60: Shaun of the Dead
I talked a big game about the poetry of Hot Fuzz's writing. That's true here, but to a lesser extent. What I think makes Shaun of the Dead a better movie is the more relatable characters. In each of the Cornetto trilogy, Simon Pegg is playing a more out there and unlikable character. Probably because it started maybe not too far from Simon Pegg's own personality. It's also just a really good zombie movie parody, and even a good zombie movie.

#59: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
From parody to deconstruction. What is that anyway? It's a word that gets thrown out a lot and maybe not everyone knows what it means. Well, if you've been trapped into reading TV Tropes for hours on end, that's constructionism. The idea that all stories are built out of the same parts, or tropes, and that good story telling is knowing how to use them best. Deconstructionism aims to take all of those tropes and corrupt them. It wants to subvert, invert, and lampshade them. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang takes everything you know about the mystery noir and fucks with it piecemeal. And it does such a thorough job that honestly The Nice Guys had few places to go when doing the same thing.

#58: Beauty and the Beast
Great example of deconstruction: Gaston. He is every trope of the masculine hero. But he's a villain. And Gaston is one of the greatest Disney villains, something I'm sure most wouldn't disagree with. But Gaston isn't even the primary antagonist, he's more of a subplot. Beauty and the Beast stands alone as a Disney film in that's not about a villain, a journey, or even a goal. It's just about two people stuck in one place. Sure, now we applaud movies where the girl doesn't have a romance at all, but I think it's just as important to recognize that romance is good when it's not just slapped onto a story, either. As a story that's both primarily and successfully a romance, this film is actually very unique in general and even more so for an animated children's film. I think most kids liked, but never loved Beauty and the Beast when they were children. But as we grow older, we see just what a high quality film it is. One of the only animated films to be oscar nominated.

#57: City Lights
Silent films are certainly something. They're pretty hard to get into, but it's fairly to appreciate the different kind of acting that these guys do. And the best silent film actor of all, hell, one of the best actors ever was Charlie Chaplin. He was a force. Actor, director, writer, musician! While I don't like many of his films enough for them to make this list, all it takes a pretty good one to go way over the top. For me that's City Lights, a beautiful love story about a poor man trying to provide for the blind girl who thinks he's rich. It's touching. It's got compelling commentary. And it's damn funny too.

#56: The Lego Movie
Animated movies sucked for several, honestly what felt like many years, before The Lego Movie came out. I like to describe it as a harsh black cup of coffee for the industry to wake the hell up. On the surface it seems like as bad an animated film as any. But it spits not only in the face of its own corporatism, it serves as the anti-movie to the recently successful Wreck-It-Ralph. I feel certain that Phil Lord and Christ Miller hated that piece of shit as much as I did. This is a vicious film.

#55: The Iron Giant
And the animated movie that Wreck-It-Ralph ripped its ending off of while simultaneously perverting it. You are not a gun, you are what you choose to be. It's also the best superman movie!

#54: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Not just a prison film, a mental institution film. There's something mental institutions that makes me very angry. I think the prison thing is I hate the concept of someone's freedom being taken away, but mental institutions really take the cake for being degrading, often unnecessary, and as the ending tragically shows, used to come with the chance of taking away your sense of self forever. Of course gotta give a shout out to Nurse Ratched, often considered one of the best movie villains ever.

#53: Super 8
If it's not abundantly obvious, I like a story from the point of view of children, assuming it's done right and well acted. And the higher that rating, the better. Super 8 is both super creepy and super nostalgic. It's all one big allegory for the kid's relationship with his father, but the alien stuff is pretty fun too.

#52: Read or Die
Technically an anime OVA, but it was presented to me as a movie and it works flawlessly as one. Does it have deep storytelling? Can I even say it's really pretty to look at? Maybe not, but it's got one of my favorite antiheroes ever, the woman who just wants to read books, and the best superpower ever, paper manipulation. Even that's scratching the surface, as the villains are a selection of historical figures brought back to life and given superpowers. And there's just something I will always like about that concept. Hmm...

#51: Kingsman: The Secret Service
I must be a real contrarian who thinks nothing is sacred. Because the higher we get on this list, the more we don't have conventional films and the more it's just shit goofing on other shit. I said that Bond films are kind of crap. Hell, spy films are kind of crap. Which meant that this had not only the vacuum to be funny goofing on its targets, but also to all around better than them. I mean, did you see that church scene?! Another thing to note, Matthew Vaughn is kind of my favorite director right now.

 

[Matthew]

Rogue One is the best SW movie since ESB. I'm very pleasantly surprised.

Really? I completely hated it.

Edit:
I should explain myself. I found a lot of the character development to be really forced and campy to put that out there. While the acting was good I think how they were shot and framed made a lot of tacky scenes out of nothing. Donnie Yen's character was fine, but I think his mantra was not good enough for the amount of repetition it got. If The Force is a religion there should be something more to it than two lines.

Ending with the explosion might be one of the most cliche scenes I've seen in a long time, though it was nicely animated. If you think this is better than VII then I'm really sorry

 

[vonFiedler]

#50: South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut
The famously critical Stephen Sondheim, upon seeing this film, sent Matt Stone and Trey Parker a letter saying it was one of the best musicals in decades. I could stop there. But the best thing about the South Park film was its impact on the series. Many might take South Park for granted, but it was originally rather immature and aimless, a critical held by its creators. When they got the opportunity to make a film, they decided that they should be something much better with that opportunity. So the film was written to brilliantly and prophetically satirize the very people who inevitably call scandal on its release, the great parents so concerned over whether a wooden box was being a good babysitter or not. And from there on out, South Park was cutting edge, updated to minute satire.

#49: M
A silentish film, at least one with poor sound design. But it more than made up for it with its amazing cinematography decades ahead of American filmmaking at the time. M is a crime story about a child serial killer, but it's told through the eyes of the city. Only the killer is an important character, and he doesn't show up much. After almost 90 years this film shouldn't still be so stunning and peculiar, but it manages.

#48: X-Men: First Class
Matthew Vaughn. The best X-Men movie, one of the best superhero movies. Combines the seriousness of the Nolan Batman films with the fun of MCU. The First Class isn't really the important part at all. Rather, this film brilliantly establishes the X-Men by establishing its most prominent legacy figures. Xavier, Magneto, and Mystique. Their relationships, their woes, how they become who they are in the stories we usually see them in. It weaves their storylines until culminating in a beautiful and tragic ending. An evolution for superhero films.

#47: Kubo and the Two Strings
Studio Laika's first smash hit in my opinion. It's simultaneously hard to believe that it's stop motion while also definitely benefiting from the physicality of the process. Kubo is certainly beautiful to look at and employs an amazingly heroic young protagonist, but it's the thematic story of Kubo that makes it an instant classic. How stories define us and allow us to live after death. Memes. It'd be unique and compelling for an adult movie.

#46: Psycho
Simply one of the scariest films I've ever seen. The kills are simple but effective in a way that most horror movies forgot over the years. And of course Hitchcock is a great director, but there's a reason this film is his best: it actually nails the ending for once.

#45: Batman Begins
The perfect Batman film. Christopher Nolan was at his prime here. He challenged the audience through a non-linear narrative and gave us a perpetually dark Gotham. It's just the best origin story. Not a moment is wasted. It's hard to praise this film enough. It just feels right, it's fun to watch, and it's Batman.

#44: Leon: The Professional
Anyone remember when Luc Besson was a really good filmmaker? We're just getting into some of the best of the best films, I don't even think there's much subjectivity over the next 10-15 choices. Leon is a movie about an awkward assassin and his relationship with preteen orphan who wants revenge on those who killed her parents. It's supposed to make the viewer uncomfortable, but you really appreciate that it's a movie with layers and complex characters.

#43: Oldboy
Makes Leon look tame. Oldboy is a force of nature. The action is perfect not just for the sake of giving the viewer something to watch, but it's thematically perfect. It tells a story in and of itself. About the character and about pain. This is one fucked up movie. Everyone should see it.

#42: Apocalypse Now
Move over Godfather. This is Francis Ford Coppola's definitive classic. Based on an actually good book, Apocalypse now does a rare thing and actually improves on Heart of Darkness with its Vietnam War setting. It's not a war movie though. It's a movie about the nature of man. And it's a hell of a journey throughout.

#41: Jacob's Ladder
Known for it's influence on the Silent Hill games, I actually think its importance runs much deeper than that. This is as good as psychological horror gets. Sheer what the fuck is going on at all times. Even the viewers sense of times get fucked as you get sucked into its world. I still don't really know what to make of it. I'm not certain I'm supposed to be able to.

 

[Texas Cloverleaf]

Rogue One was awesome

Incredible final battle

 

[Aladyyn]

Really? I completely hated it.

Edit:
I should explain myself. I found a lot of the character development to be really forced and campy to put that out there. While the acting was good I think how they were shot and framed made a lot of tacky scenes out of nothing. Donnie Yen's character was fine, but I think his mantra was not good enough for the amount of repetition it got. If The Force is a religion there should be something more to it than two lines.

Ending with the explosion might be one of the most cliche scenes I've seen in a long time, though it was nicely animated. If you think this is better than VII then I'm really sorry

What were the redeeming qualities of VII?

 

[vonFiedler]

#40: Captain America: Civil War
The highest superhero film on my list. It's everything I've ever wanted from the MCU. A massively ambitious and epic movie built heavily on continuity. I like continuity. It's one of my favorite basic storytelling mechanics. If done well, I'd see like to see way more movie studios making expanded universes rather than just seeing them jump on the bandwagon and not really know what they're doing. Even Star Wars isn't at the stage yet where we know if they're doing it well or not. This was the movie that Avengers 2 should have been. A ton of heroes that all get their own story beats without feeling crowded. Conflict that feels like the natural extension of the character's stories up to this point. The best villain the MCU has ever seen by far, who never wears a suit or even attacks a hero. I would go so far as to say it's even the best MCU movie in theory. A competent DCU might do better, but we're about 20 years away from that.

#39: City of God
The best gangster film ever made. Taking place in the suburbs of Rio de Janeiro. When this little shit who controls the crime in the City of God goes too far, raping a man's girlfriend and killing his family, the unassuming man rises up and gets righteous revenge through gang warfare. All documented by a kid from the slums trying to become a journalist. There's way more to it than that, but it's just a fascinating watch from start to finish.

#38: Dog Day Afternoon
A bank robbery goes wrong immediately. Everything about this film is too brilliant to be a true story. A man robs a bank to finance a sex change operation. His partner in crime is an uneasy homophobic man who doesn't know this. The bank workers are super chill the whole time. The main character is able to turn the public on the police. It's a circus. And Al Pacino puts in his best acting job ever. Attacca! Attacca! Attacca!

#37: Mad Max: Fury Road
The most ambitious production for an action movie in a long time. Hell, one of the most ambitious productions in a long time. Just the fact that this movie about driving in one direction and then driving back while Tom Hardy grunts was nominated for best picture should be a testament to how good it actually is. You could watch this movie any number of times and still notice new details in how cartoonishly dumb George Miller made his world. It's great.

#36: The Silence of the Lambs
A film so good that Hannibal has been able to coast ever since. Of course I love things character development over plot, and I especially love it when two characters have the chance to grow together in separate plotlines. But you kick that into turbo when the two characters are an FBI profiler and a psychiatric psychoanalyzing each other in a game of wits and willpower. And that's not even the plot. That's just the foundation that the strength of the movie is built upon.

#35: American History X
Almost like Requiem for a Dream, but with racism instead of drugs. While I praised Requiem's creative direction, maybe American History X is better off without it. It doesn't distract from a brutally told morality tale. Either way, Edward Norton slams this role.

#34: Terminator 2: Judgement Day
The definitive movie sequel. It's a lot like Aliens is to Alien. A horror movie morphs into an action movie. There's a bond with a child established. But said bond is just so much more memorable. Things like teaching the terminator how to do a thumbs up are core to this movie. If it were made now, it'd be like, an off-cuff moment of levity. But in this, it's actually the focus.

I froze the list to keep it consistent, but incidentally, this is where Collateral Beauty would fit in. That may be pretty high for a movie with 13% on Rotten Tomatoes, but It's a Wonderful Life was a failure until it literally ran out its copyright.

#33: Fight Club
The anti-authority, anti-materialism movie. It perhaps has no respect for any traditional modes of though. Even the hyper-masculinity of the cultish main characters comes off as ridiculous. But that doesn't undercut the major lessons of the movie. You are not your things. And that it sucks to live a life where you're just supposed to be content at best.

#32: Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back
Most people's favorite Star Wars film. I don't buy that it's the best just because it's "the second part of a trilogy, therefore the darkest and best point". There are tons of middle parts to trilogies that are by far the worst. Or that Irvin Kirshner is a better director than George Lucas. Can you people even name a single other Irvan Kirshner movie? He didn't set the world on fire with Never Say Never Again or RoboCop 2. Well, let's not distract from the fact that Empire is in fact a fantastic film, the plot of which has been ripped off numerous times due to just how well it works.

#31: The Shawshank Redemption
The current and long-time running highest rated movie on IMDB. Of course no one had to tell me to like a prison movie, let alone the best one. I've heard that frat boys made Shawshank a classic because "it's actually very masculine but sensitive enough to make them seem smart". So like, what's your fucking point, bruh? I could say the same about The Godfather, Citizen Kane, or about a lot of popular films. Shawshank is multifaceted, but it is in such a high quality way. No character ever walked through poop so inspiringly.

 

[vonFiedler]

Can't be too wordy, I'm on vacation and don't have a computer.

#30: Memento
Christopher Nolan was one of the best directors of the 2000s. What sets me apart from fanboys is knowing that as fame got him, he continually dumbed down his movies for the masses making them worse and worse. Memento is his second film and his best. It's legendary as a film that people are hard pressed to follow, being literally backwards. And I like that well enough, but it's the themes about the unreliability of memory and man's desire to fool himself that sells it for me.

#29: Labyrinth
Rip David Bowie. This film doesn't just have a great soundtrack, it has one of his best albums. It also features of my favorite actresses, Jennifer Connolly. Great metaphor for puberty, fantastically creative.

#28: Up
If this film were only its first segment, it would still make the top 50. Fortunately, it's amazing throughout. I've never been a Pixar fanboy, but I've got my eyes on Pete Doctor.

#27: Mulan
A film that's themes on identity helped me out a lot at a time when I should have been growing out Disney films. Maybe it's not the best Disney film, but I dunno. Reflection and I'll Make a Man Out of You are both fantastic segments, but the scene in which Mulan steals away in the night is itself so fucking awesome.

#26: Pan's Labyrinth
From one labyrinth to another. But this children's movie is rated R. And that's probably half the appeal. A beautiful fairy tail that holds no punches.

#25: The Wind Rises
Miyazaki's final film. Considering that, it was quite disgracefully snubbed. Ostensibly about the invention of the zero plane, it's actually about history's greatest force of evil: tuberculosis. Quite a downer, but I think it sums up everything Miyazaki stood for as a storyteller. And that's worth much more than being forgotten.

#24: It's a Wonderful Life
Kind of a rocky film. You have to give it a lot of faith, with how it's story structure starts out. But the rewards are great. It's one of the all time greatest plots, very deserving of being ripped off countless times on tv.

#23: The Rocky Horror Picture Show
One of my favorite musicals. It's nowhere near as good as any stage rendition, due to the audience participation. But the cast and direction is absolutely perfect. I had such a crush on Susan Sarandon for years.

#22: The Thing
Really highlights what makes a horror movie work and what so many are lacking. Characters intelligently responding to a threat that overpowers them.

#21: Battle Royale
The director of this film lived through world war 2 as a child slaving away in a war factory. As Americans were bombing it, he swore that day that he would always hate adults. I think that's an anecdote integral to the success of this film. Yes, it's a spectacle of kids killing each other. But it's a master piece about how society raises people to kill themselves.

 

[vonFiedler]

#20: Groundhog Day
Another movie with another fantastic plot. I remember even a made for TV movie that ripped it off and was pretty okay as a result. But this is the only version with Bill Murray.

#19: Silver Linings Playbook
The film that launched another favorite actress, Jennifer Lawrence. Not simply a romance film, but a commentary on the new normal. On mental illness. And you'll never hear My Cherie Amour the same way again. That's the mark of an impactful movie.

#18: Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair
The Whole Bloody Affair is a version of Kill Bill screened for film festivals that combines both with a few director's cut tweaks. Of course, I haven't seen it, but I recently saw both Kill Bills back to back with some friends and they work remarkably well that way. It definitely changes how I looked at the second film. That makes Kill Bill by far the longest movie on my list, rather uncharacteristic for me, but it's just amazing from start to finish. Tarantino makes violent movies, but they usually aren't action movies. But when he wanted to, he made one of the sickest action films ever.

#17: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
The definitive western masterpiece. And it's made by an Italian. Three Titans of western movie characters in a film that would inevitably end in a Mexican standoff. It's a long film, but one stuffed with memorable moments and great lines. "you're the son of a thousand fathers, all bastards".

#16: Ferris Bueller's Day Off
The suicide prevention movie. It may have a certifiable sociopath for a protagonist, but it's such an infectiously good natured movie.

#15: The Sixth Sense
Not really a scary film, though it is creepy and disgusting at times. Of course, you probably know why this movie makes the list. You certainly know the twist. And twists may not be the be all end all of of storytelling, God knows I think originality is overrated. But when it's done so amazingly well as in this film, it's the kind of smash movie that was bound to set a new director up for career failure.

#14: Starship Troopers
Paul Verhoeven satire at its finest. People resented that the film was basically making fun of the book, but maybe it was worth being made fun of if the satire is so good. It's also a great vision of the future, and maybe it shouldn't be, but the war scenes against the bugs are pretty cool.

#13: Inglorious Basterds
And onto Tarantino's best film. It's sort of an anthology, but the stories weave together much more than Pulp Fiction. The character of Hans Landa also goes a long way for the film. The opening scene with him sells the movie itself. But then you've got the Putting Out the Fire scene. Great stuff.

#12: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
The holy grail. The trials. The nazis. Indiana Jones and his father, Sean Connery. That opening sequence. It's just perfect. Everything about this movie screams adventure.

#11: Back to the Future
A movie so influential it still clouds our discussions on time travel... in spite of it not making perfect sense. But Doc and Marty are such great characters and it's such a fun little plot.

 

[Eagle4]

Since it's Christmas, it's only fitting to talk about the turkeys of the year.. this is my top 10 worst films of 2016.

Firstly, (dis)honourable mentions. Batman v Superman was a brash, abrasive failure, a film with lofty expectations that it wasn't even close to fulfilling. The plot is a mess, the tone is less gritty and more dull, and it tries to cram in way too much. What it does have over Marvel flicks, however, is how daring it was, how you could clearly see that Snyder wasn't going for a cookie-cutter film that's pleasant to watch and forgettable afterwards. Sadly, he didn't succeed: BvS was unpleasant to watch, and very forgettable. Mustang also surprisingly makes the dishonourable mentions list. It deals with weighty themes in a very slight and straightforward manner, and doesn't craft the emotion you'd expect from its subject matter. Lastly, The Greasy Strangler is stupid, and not necessarily in a good way. It's largely unfunny (save for a vending machine scene), and tries too hard to become a cult classic. Cult classics are meant to be organic, godammit! Not manufactured and false like this film. Now, on to the top 10...

10. Wiener-Dog
This is a lazily profound anthology involving a dog. None of the segments are thought-provoking or carry any meaning, where any intellectual moral that can be discerned is either hamfisted or emphasised half-heartedly.

9. Louis Theroux: My Scientology Movie
Everyone loves Louis Theroux, and if there's one thing the film makes clear, so does he. There's very little insight given towards scientology, so instead we're left with Theroux's bumbling charm that's not interesting enough to carry the whole movie.

8. Tale of Tales
Visually sumptuous, I really wanted to like this film. I'm all for slow-burners but none of the stories captured me, and that is partly due to the deathly slow pacing that creates a stuttering and stammering film.

7. X-Men: Apocalypse
What a shame to go from First Class, a superb superhero film, to Days of Future Past, also highly entertaining, to Apocalypse's bubblegum, world-destruction cacophony of loud noise and cookie-cutter villainy.

6. The Accountant
A stupid, pseudo-intellectual, ridiculous fare where half the plot is irrelevant to the story and the other half just isn't inventive enough.

5. Sausage Party
'Hey, we're talking food, and we just swore! Isn't that funny? You laughed, right? Good, we can milk that concept 1000 times over!' The problem with Sausage Party isn't that the many, many recurring jokes get stale, but it just isn't that funny, and it's loftier themes play fourth-or-fifth fiddle to the humour that's trying way too hard to shock.

4. How to Be Single
Why did I watch this? I thought the film would at least breeze by but nope, it's an insufferable, unfunny, generic film with no redeeming qualities.

3. The BFG
Spielberg has lost it. This isn't an overreaction: Bridge of Spies was severely average and mundane, but I was willing to give Spielberg a chance to prove himself again with the BFG. This is an overscored, plodding affair with superfluous 20 minute scenes, a distinct lack of wonder or imagination, and a terrible child performance.

2. Suicide Squad
What do you mean a film needs a plot? Surely ham-fisting in some ill-fitted pop songs will make our product film trendy and fun for the kids? I hated this from start to finish, which funnily enough were the only two signs of a structure to this film.

1. Bad Santa 2
Not funny, not interesting. Maintains all the vulgarity of the original while keeping none of the wit, charm or heart.

Also my Top 20 list of 2016 is looking much better than it did a month ago - I was too harsh on 2016. None of the films I've seen this year are as good as 2015's top 4 of Inherent Vice, Mommy, Duke of Burgundy and Mad Max Fury Road, but there are still some fantastic flicks on the list. Though sorry vonFiedler , Sing Street doesn't make the cut (It's #25 right now)

 

[vonFiedler]

I skimmed upward and thought someone was taking the piss

 

[vonFiedler]

Merry Wachowski Christmas! I know that at least TheValkyries was chomping at the bit as 240 movies flew by and none of their films shows up. But first...

#10: Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi
I never minded the ewoks. But I loved the whole first act where Luke ascends to Jedi master rescuing Han. It's one of those scenes where you wish your whole life that you could see it again for the first time. It's an absolutely perfect sequence. Of course, the whole film is great. I really love the scenes with Han and Leia.

#9: Moana
I've already covered this movie in detail. It's the perfect use of the Disney formula with the best hero.

#8: The Matrix
Amazing action movie with great style, a good grasp on philosophy (can't say that about the sequels), but what really makes a Wachowski movie is the directing. The climactic pacing racing toward the finale is perfect for the creation of a prophecized hero.

#7: Bill & Ted's Exellent Adventure
Two idiots are destined to to usher in a utopian society through rock and roll, but never will if they fail their history presentation. So Geroge Carlin travels back from the future to give them a time machine to meet historical figures to help. The greatest comedic adventure ever and with some great music. And don't forget, be excellent to each other.

#6: Cloud Atlas
Stunningly ambitious film. Six stories in six different time periods that form a tableau about human progress. Only the Wachowskis could have told an interweaving narrative like this, with maybe 3 plot lines running a time, and be able to juggle it.

#5: West Side Story
Stephen Sondheim's masterpiece. Of course it had to end with him. Some of the best music and dancing ever and a story that's a better version of Romeo and Juliet. The film actually rearranges the music quite a bit, but I think it's the far superior version.

#4: Speed Racer
This movie is so fucking awesome from start to finish. I'm really glad to see it being critically reevaluated over time. If you watched the first or last race alone they would qualify as top class films. But I don't think the film slouches in the middle either. It's important to set up all the emotion going into the amazing monte cristo race and the grande prix. When I first watched the film, I honestly though it was over after the monte cristo and that we'd need to wait for a sequel. There's one of the best fight scenes ever too, in the snow. And my butt has never been clenched as hard as during the grande prix.

#3: Princess Mononoke
My #1 movie for half my life. It came right before Miyazaki's western fame hit its peak. It's also a more adult Miyazaki film. Miyazaki can make great children's films, but he makes even better films for adults with his nuanced world views. This film combines that with his amazing knack for fantasy.

#2: The Lives of Others
Speaking of nuances world views. I guess this is technically a spy movie, which makes it easily the best one. It's just hard to imagine as one since it has none of the spy tropes. It's just a film about wire tapping, tailing, and interrogation. But thematically it's even far from a normal spy movie. It's more about how art expands us and makes us more empathetic.

#1: Inside Out
It's unfair how good this movie is. The literal stream of consciousness film. You couldn't just put the story inside of character's heads in every movie from here on. But then no film might ever be better than this. And this motherfucker just slays me too. The more I watch it, the more each times takes out of me.

 

[newtonja]

so vonFiedler. You mentioned before about how you think originality is overrated. can you expand on that? I have an argument with a good friend of mine which basically boils down to experimentation vs execution. I would love to hear what you have to say about originality.