Top 5 Movie Lists, Part 1
Amelia and I purchased a 5-disc DVD changer over the weekend, to celebrate our generous tax return. In honor of this, I wanted to list my five favorite movies, as though deciding which movies I would choose if I could only put 5 movies in the DVD player. However, after pouring over all of my favorite flicks, I realized that it would be completely impossible to pick just five. Therefore, I narrowed it down to my top five movies in each of twelve genres (some of which I made up myself). A lot of time and effort was made in compiling this list, and I’d like to thank Netflix, IMDB, and Wikipedia for their tireless help in my review. Also, due to the size of this list and the time it is taking me to compile it, I have decided to split it into four installments to be posted here over the next few days. Check back all week, and be sure to add comments detailing all the different ways in which you disagree with my assessments.
Action/Adventure
Lethal Weapon
Lethal Weapon is the epitome of the 1980’s buddy cop flick. It has slick action, lots of explosions, a twisty plot involving ever-increasingly ridiculous levels of corruption, silly one-liners, and a final shirtless and bloody brawl between Mel Gibson and Gary Busey. If I were a gay man, this movie might have made it to number one on the list!
The 13th Warrior
Okay, so Antonio Bandaras is pretty far from being a convincing Arab, but if you can get passed that singular flaw, The 13th Warrior is a pretty bad-ass flick. This adaptation of one of Michael Crichton’s most underrated novels, Eaters of the Dead, has crazy action sequences, intelligently crafted Vikings, a bizarre plot involving cannibals, and none-too-subtle parallels to the epic classic Beowulf. It’s also a very well-made film.
The Bourne Identity (2002)
Doug Liman is a director you should be paying attention to. Though he did not direct the two admirable sequels to his reimagined The Bourne Identity, which was very loosely based on the Robert Ludlum novel, his hard work and dedication to the project paid off. He made a film that was almost realistic, crafty without being corny, and heavy on the action. Some take issue with Matt Damon as the lead, but not me; I think he is perfectly well-cast.
Batman Begins
I’ll be honest with you. Before Batman Begins was released, I was extremely tired of comic book movies. In fact, for the most part, I still am. However, Christopher Nolan and his team took a venerable franchise that had been driven so far into the ground that it was ruining careers and made it better than it had ever been. Tim Burton’s Batman was a good movie, but Batman Begins is a work of art.
Die Hard
Immitated more times than any of its kind, Die Hard is the ultimate action movie. It’s like Dirty Harry, James Bond, and John Wayne in a popcorn flick that is claustrophobic, epic, and involves Severus Snape as a German terrorist. Even though the movie could hardly be considered realistic and can be watched with a checklist of action movie clichés, Bruce Willis added a level of grittiness to the role of New York cop John McClaine that rolls across the screen the way a bullet casing rolls across a full ashtray next to a naked supermodel. If that’s not what action movies are all about, then I don’t know what is.
Honorable Mentions: Casino Royale, Die Hard with a Vengeance, GoldenEye, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The Legend of Drunken Master, Lethal Weapon 2, License to Kill, Live Free or Die Hard, The Negotiator, Outbreak, The Professional, True Romance
Animation
The Spongebob Squarepants Movie
Yes, I like Spongebob. It does one thing really well: it makes me laugh until I snort. I feel no need to justify including it in this list.
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
Video game movies suck. It’s a rule set in stone and then fossilized by the likes of Uwe Boll. Super Mario Bros., Wing Commander, Resident Evil, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, Doom, Bloodrayne, and Alone in the Dark are universally awful, even though they may serve to be a guilty pleasure from time to time in much the same way as porn. However, like all rules, there is an exception that all video games should remain video games, and that exception is Final Fantasy. Two movies have actually used the brand, but the second, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, is a movie only a fanboy could love (which I do, but not enough to put it on this list). The first, however, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within is probably one of the most underappreciated flicks out there. It’s got eye-popping CG, especially for its time, it’s got a cohesive and interesting story, and it’s got terrific voice acting from the likes of Donald Sutherland, Keith David, and James Woods. It’s a shame it bombed as badly as it did, because I think it’s awesome.
Ghost in the Shell
It’s strange putting anime on the same list as Disney movies, but I couldn’t justify having two animated genres. Besides, they don’t have as many disparities as you might think, although I don’t recommend trying to compare Akira to Sleeping Beauty (actually…. nevermind). But of all the animated movies I’ve ever seen, I think Ghost in the Shell is probably the one that has given me the most giddy chills. The heavy cyberpunk, philosophical meanderings mixed with ridiculously over-the-top sci-fi action and a strong female lead who happens to have the most objectifiable female body in the universe makes for my favorite mind-bending celluloid experience out there. Of course, all of the Ghost in the Shell I’ve seen, including the three movies and two full-length Japanese series, kind of run together in my brain as the tastiest full-course anime meal of all time, so I put the one that started it all on this list just because it was the one that popped my metaphorical cherry.
Ratatoiulle
Pixar could probably have its own genre, and I’d still be hard pressed to narrow its eight full-length features to just five of my favorites. All of them are fantastic movies that seem to transcend the entire genre of animated film, and I mean that in all seriousness. They have the appearance, humor, and appeal of the best children’s movies, but they are also technical feats of CG movie magic, deep and meaningful stories that are poignant without being preachy or cliché, and all-in-all an embodiment of wondrous imagination. Ratatoiulle is my current favorite, maybe because it’s the most recent, maybe because I like to cook, maybe because I think it speaks to me more than the others, or maybe just because it’s so great.
Lilo and Stitch
The advent of Pixar seemed to mark the end of traditional Disney animation, which would be a big loss. While nothing from Disney’s classic collection actually made this list, I still love pretty much every movie in it, including The Jungle Book, The Rescuers, 101 Dalmations, Alice in Wonderland, Oliver and Co., Lady and the Tramp, The Fox and the Hound, Robin Hood, Tarzan, The Lion King and Aladdin. After all, I grew up with them, so I was sad to see them go. Enter Lilo and Stitch, in my opinion the best Disney animated film ever made. Why do I feel that way? Because it’s awesome, funny, tear-jerking, inspirational, silly, and involves science fiction. What’s not to love?
Honorable Mentions: Akira, An American Tale, Fantasia, Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, The Great Mouse Detective, I Married a Strange Person!, Monsters, Inc., The Nightmare Before Christmas, Over the Hedge, Perfect Blue, The Secret of NIMH, Shrek, The Sword in the Stone, The Triplets of Belleville, Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
Classics
Rope
Hitchcock is one of the top five greatest twentieth-century film auteurs. Anybody who tries to tell you anything else is just plain wrong, and I don’t think that’s an opinion. The other four are for you to decide, but picking the best Hitchcock movie is a much more difficult task. There’s such greats as Psycho, Rear Window, Vertigo, and Dial M for Murder to choose from. So instead of trying to figure out which one represents the true mastery of his craft, I’ll just pick the one I like to watch the most, which is the slightly more obscure 1948 picture, Rope. Filmed to give the illusion of one continuous take from beginning to end (a trick that could actually be accomplished today with digital video, should someone out there have the balls to try), it has the perfect Hitchcock set up. As nothing more than an intellectual experiment, two charming but deeply disturbed college students murder one of their fellows and then throw a fancy dinner party with the dead body hiding within the buffet table. Twisted, suspenseful, and fascinating, the movie grabs your attention and refuses to let you get distracted.
Ikiru
Of course, Hitchcock isn’t the only great when you’re talking about classic film auteurs. It is impossible to talk about modern film’s greatest influences without talking about Akira Kurosawa, the man who inspired the likes of Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg, and George Lucas. Every movie Kurosawa made was a masterpiece of cinema, from The Seven Samurai to Ran, with no stinkers in between. Behind his love of Western influences and his heavily veiled criticism of those same influences on Japanese culture lay a treasure trove of cinematic goodness. My personal favorite is probably Ikiru, which is the touching story of a dying bureaucrat followed by the profoundly impactful ruminations of the coworkers he left behind. It doesn’t sound all that exciting, but it’s the kind of movie that can change your life.
Citizen Kane
Then there’s Orson Welles, and his movie that deals with pretty much the same subject matter, Citizen Kane. Dubbed the greatest film of all time by both the AFI and the BFI, Citizen Kane needs no justification from the likes of me. This indictment of William Randolph Hearst becomes a powerful film about life and death and the true meat of a man’s soul, throwing away all of its trappings to truly become one of the most important experiences to ever flash its way across the silver screen. I may not consider it the best movie ever, but I take no issue with anyone who does; it’s almost impossible to argue the point.
Casablanca
It’s a war movie. It’s a romance. It’s a spy movie. It’s film noir. It’s a message movie. It’s a psychological drama. It’s depressing. It’s uplifting. It’s one of the best films ever made. Period.
12 Angry Men (1957)
12 Angry Men is rarely listed as one of the greatest films of all time, probably because it makes for a better stage play than movie. Still, I find the original 1957 film based on that play, starring Lee Cobb, Jack Klugman, Peter Fonda, Ed Begley, and several other classic movie greats (8 more, to be precise) to be the best version of the story. And it’s a simple story, one you can imagine happening behind the scenes every single day in every city in this country. Still, it’s not trite or boring. You watch as one man in a seemingly convinced and blood-thirsty jury decides to stick up for a principle, and in the process he strips away the illusions of each man in the room until everyone can see the cold, hard truth of the matter, which is that the man whose fate they have been charged with is innocent until proven guilty. It’s a deep and mesmerizing character study, and for that, it should be watched by anyone who is a human being. (The 1997 remake ain’t bad either.)
Honorable Mentions: The Graduate, Harvey, In a Lonely Place, Inherit the Wind, The Maltese Falcon, Psycho (1960), Sunset Boulevard, Touch of Evil, Wait Until Dark
-e. magill 02/04/2008
Check out the other installments:
| PART 3: | Drug Movies
Fantasy
Historical Drama/Epic |
| PART 4: | Horror
Science-Fiction
War/Politics |
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