My Top 100... Part II (50-74)

50. Robocop

Only in the 80's movies like Robocop and Rambo could spin off saturday morning cartoons for children. Sure, I see the appeal of a half-man, half-robot police man that fights crime, but this movie was certainly never intended for children. That said, it is a satire, on violence, big corporations, and poeple's general stupidity. I find it funny that this movie was made by men that declare themselves to be leftists and here the individual (Alex Murphy) is able to overcome the programming that was forced on him. As far as I understand it, socialists look down on the concept of individualism.

51. Casablanca

Yet another movie I just discovered recently. Six decades and a half later and this film doesn't really feel dated at all. In my opinion this film holds up thanks to Bogart, Rick Blane makes for an entertaining screen presence with all those great one-liners. In fact, it is Blane, the apperently heartless and ambiguous anti-hero, that makes the other characters better when they are interacting with him.

52. High Noon

This is pretty much the only Western in the list. What a great story, a man who has to face a band of criminals all by himself because the rest of the townsfolk are cowards or just don't care. For some reason this story is so relatable.

53. The Monster Squad

What a great idea, have the Little Rascals fight the classic Universal monsters. This movie was probably made after the success of the Goonies, which was also about an adventurous gang of kids. The added value of having Dracula, The Mummy, Gill-man, Wolf-Man and Frankenstein makes me like this one a bit more, even if The Goonies is the bigger, more expensive production.

54. 101 Dalmatians

This will sound like a broken record, but there really is nothing like old school Disney animation. This movie was so big in it's time that it prompted a lot of people into getting dalmatian puppies, but unfortunately many of the dogs were abandoned later on, because they grow up to be large dogs. Just thinking what the animators had to go through with all the spots on the dogs makes me want to cry.

55. Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

A film noir about a murder where the prime suspect is a cartoon character. Sure, with the advent of CGI this movie has aged a bit, but considering they are supposed to be cartoon characters, the fact that they dont blend seamlessly with the live-action characters and sets, is forgivable. Can you imagine Warner and Disney character together on-screen ever again? No. It'll never happen again. I wonder what happened with Roger Rabbit, Disney pushed hard in the early 90's to make him stand side-by-side with Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy. It couldn't possibly work. Jessica Rabbit adult fanart seems to still be popular in the internet.

56. Alice in Wonderland

The animation and character designs in this one are way better than the actual story. I read both Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass books once in school, and the truth is I've never been a fan of the Alice character. There was a twisted little videogame some years ago about Alice that I really liked tho.

57. One Flew Over a Cuckoo's Nest

What a cast: Nicholson, De Vito, Lloyd, Dourif, etc. Sure it is a drama, but there are quite a few laughs to have with this. Here Jack Nicholson gives a multi-faceted performance, whereas nowadays he plays the loony old man in every movie. The ending is iconic by now, and I laugh every time, but onyl because it reminds me of the homage The Simpsons made of it.

58. The Big Lebowski

This is another movie I just discovered recently, and when I say recently I mean a couple of months ago. I had heard good things about it, but I wasn't interested in a movie about a stoner that likes to bowl. Well, it turns out the movie is not about that, but at the same time it's all about that. It's just great how you never know where the movie is going the first time you see it.

59. The Shinning

Not a Kubrick fan here, I that is almost a blasphemy for some, but what can I say? In fact, I'd say this is movie is far from perfect, but the movie's atmosphere and Jack Nicholson's performance more than make up for whatever short-comings The Shinning has. I find the kid in this one perticularly annoying.

60. The French Connection

61. Child's Play

Slasher films are unwatchable, at least as far as I am concerned. Those movies are just filled with stupid characters, making stupid choices, so that the killer (call it Freddy, Jason or your choice) pops up from behind and a gory scene can take place. Some people put Chucky in the same category with Freddy, Mike Myers, Jason and Leatherface, even if not as revered as the aforementioned... I disagree the first Chucky movie is kinda like a cop movie where the murdered is a doll. Gore scenes, a must for slasher movie, are pretty much absent. Unfortunately the following 2 Child's Play movies truly were slasher films, and later they made 2 Chucky movies that were comedies... I haven't even bothered to watch those.

62. Planet of the Apes

If you really look at it closely, this is a big budgeted Twilight Zone movie. It has all the elements that made the great Twilight Zone episodes from the old movies. The protagonists thrown into an environment that at first glance looks familiar, but under further inspection is not recognizable anymore. The science fiction elements. The lead character ending up considered as an outcast, a menace or just out of place to everyone else that surronds him. And of course the memorable twist ending. The remake is an atrocity.

63. The Maltese Falcon

The stuff dreams are made of. An ultra-clever movie where everyone is ready to back-stab each other over a small bird statue that is supposed to be worth millions. A classic film noir with lots of twists and turns.

64. Iron Man

It might not be the best live-action Superhero movie ever made, but for some reason I find it the most enjoyable. Finally they didn't fall in the trap of making a Superhero in dark colors (and they could've used the War Machine's armor looks better on film, but they didn't). Also, and almost ironically they didn't make Tony Stark a brooding, sulking character, when in the comics he is a struggling alcoholic. They somewhat reflected that with showing him as a party animal, but most of the time it was played for laughs. While the climatic fight scene was a bit of a letdown, the other action scenes were pretty good.

65. Mulholland Dr.

I am not going to pretend like I understood this movie, or that I know what it is about. Reading in the internet critics and fan interpretations of this movie helps a bit, but it doesn't really answer any of the head-scratching questions you are left with after the credits roll. It feels like the movie is missing some key scenes, and there really isn't such thing as a narrative, there appears to be a plot there, but there are to many blanks to be filled. So why is this movie here? Almost all the scenes are unsettling, this movie is all atmosphere, and sometimes that is all it takes to sell me a movie. Oh, and Naomi Watts does an impressive job here.

66. The Godfather

If you think it is crazy to have The Godfather so low on this list, a movie a lot consider to be the best film ever made, then you are up for big surprises as the list proceeds. This film is indeed part of cinematic history, but that is not what this list is about. Just the fact that it is in my Top 100 means I like it. Seeing this you can't but compare the Al Pacino here, to the Al Pacino of the last decade or so, most of the time all he does is yell with his eyes popping out of his head. Maybe the directors he works with now ask him to reprise Scarface all the time, I don't know.

67. Blade Runner

I never was a fan of this movie, until I re-watched it on DVD recently. I still believe it is a deeply flawed story, and that the movie itself, is mostly eye-candy. Yeah, I know it is hailed to be deeply philosophical, I just don't see it that way. Set designs and artitic direction is great tho, and has been copied by way too many movies. I think that what made me appreciate this movie more was the recent "final" cut on DVD... it makes the original look so much better. Hehehe. I'm sorry, but Ridley Scott is wrong with this one, Deckard can't be a replicant, it just doesn't make any sense within the context of the movie... making him a replicant stinks of Shyamalan-like twist ending.

68. Nuovo Cinema Paradiso

A beautiful dramedy about the love for movies. It's also the touching story of a kid in the post-war southern Italy that finds a father figure and best friend in the poorly educated, but big-hearted, movie projectionist that works in the town's cinema.

69. Big Trouble in Little China
What happens when a truck driver tries to help his best friend's girl, from the clutches of a chinese gang, only to find himself caught in the middle of a gang war? Nothing very out of the ordinary, you say? What it this gang is led by a powerful and immortal sorcerer that commands an army of mystical fighters. What a great silly movie. Kurt Russell is just so fun to watch as the almost-obnoxious antihero Jack Burton.

70. Superman: The Movie

As a huge fan of Superman (hands down my favorite fictional character), it pains me that I can't rank this movie on a higher spot. This film was great for it's time. Some still consider it the best superhero movie ever made, even after the wave of superhero movies of this decade. To me, the real highlights here are Christopher Reeve's Superman, and yes, the score by John Williams (if not for the ridiculous Lois Lane voice-over-song Can You Read My Mind). I wish one day I will see a more contemporary interpretation of Superman put on film. A movie where Clark Kent is not a clumsy dork. A movie where Clark is the real persona and Superman is the disguise he uses to save the world. A movie where Lex Luthor is not a petty criminal surrounded by morons. A movie with the most incredible action sequences ever seen on the big screen. A movie where Lois doesn't smoke and is likable. A movie where some heavy-weight villain is able to duke it out with Superman, someone like Parasite, Metallo, Mongul, Bizzarro. A movie that does everything that Superman Returns failed to deliver.

71. Donnie Darko

A very quirky thriller about the end of the world, time travel, fate, alienation, and a man in a spooky bunny costume. The movie is more atmosphere than anything else, and leaves a lot open to personal interpretation (at least in the original cut of the movie).

72. Reservoir Dogs

The only Tatantino movie on this list.The more movies Tanrantino makes, the weirder they get and the less I like them. Grindhouse was just ridiculous, only saved by the fake-trailers that were amusing. Reservoir Dogs is violent, funny, and has that full-of-pop-culture-references dialogue, without ever being too over the top. Everyone says Pulp Fiction is better, but I swim againt the tide.

73. Close Encounters of the Third Kind

An alien invasion movie like this would be impossible to make nowadays. I'm sure a Close Encounters remake would end with big explosions and destruction on top of the Devil's Tower. This movie is a serious take on what happens with the alleged alien abductees, and it tries to make a reasonable scenario of what would happen if governments and scientists of our planet made contact with aliens. The early seasons of The X-Files borrowed a lot from this one.

74. The House of Mirth

Ok, I will admit it... the only reason I dared to watch this period drama was because Gillian Anderson was in it. The thing is that even if the movie is a little (lot) slower than what I'm used to, the story is great. It's almost impossible to look away from the tragedy this socialite goes through for making one bad choice after the other, but always hoping things will correct themselves in the end. It's sad how it all ends for her, but at the same time it was an end of her own making.