Media itt: movie/film discussion - Beware Spoilers

[ButteredToast]

Just another public service announcement from that guy who watches too many movie: Go see Moana

Why? I was tricked into watching Walrein's silly Kubo. What seperates this movie from all the other family animations that will provide it entertainment? Besides just being beautiful art.

I just bought a PS4 yesterday, work 2 jobs, and spend all of 2 hours with my girlfriend that I live with a night. Time is precious. Make a case.

 

[vonFiedler]

Why? I was tricked into watching Walrein's silly Kubo. What seperates this movie from all the other family animations that will provide it entertainment? Besides just being beautiful art.

I just bought a PS4 yesterday, work 2 jobs, and spend all of 2 hours with my girlfriend that I live with a night. Time is precious. Make a case.

Moana is the latest movie by Ron Clements and Jon Musker. It's not typical of your recent flawed but improving Disney movies. The directing duo from the Disney renaissance bring it back and perfect it. All of the old formulas are here, but with all of their old problems fixed. Moana seems like your typical "I want to leave home" girl at first, but we (and she) find out in time that the whole movie is actually about her becoming original gangster. The hero's journey has perhaps never been presented sharper. The journey itself pits the hero against creative enemies and breathtaking locations.

I don't hesitate to say that the music in a Disney movie has never been better. Featuring possibly the best Disney song ever, and with plenty of reprisals and mixing of songs together. Even the big lipped alligator moment is pretty damn good. The songs were written by the guy behind Hamilton, and I know that the reader has mixed feelings about a show they've never seen, but if Hamilton is 1/4 as good as Moana then I'd pay to see it if I had the money. This guy is a musical geniuses. The songs are the most complex seen in a Disney movie, but they don't suffer from being hard to understand for a first time viewer. When I think of 2016 as an amazing year for movies, "How Far I'll Go" plays in my head.

Every actor is perfect. Only two roles are particularly big, and they are absolutely nailed by a complete newcomer and by The Rock. If The Rock isn't as good as Robin Williams, it's only by a shaving of a fraction. Oh yeah, and he gets a song, and he KILLS IT.

The visuals are as beautiful as any 3D movie made yet, and it's hard for me to say this, but they hold their own against any 2D movie.

The Disneyfication of varied and ancient cultures are dialed back substantially. With a great deal of oversight from actual Polynesian people, the film actually feels like a really faithful jumping in point to learn about a fascinating people that are often overlooked.

Moana isn't the best movie I've seen this year, but I desperately want to see it again, and my opinion may change.


You're going to fucking hate it.

 

[Matthew]

Just a side note but one of our smogon member's (whose username escapes me so I'll just call him Brodie because I can't tag him) sister is actually in this film as well so that's neat

Edit:
Mountain Dewgong is it you, do I have your name wrong, or did facebook lie to me

Edit 2:
Even if I'm right he hasn't logged on in a year FeelsBadMan

 

[vonFiedler]

Well, I said I'd see every movie on the Top 250. Can't let something like... 12... 12?!? Indian and Turkish movies cheating their way onto the list stop me. Maybe I'll just take it slow. Can't be that bad.

#81: Like Stars on Earth
Oh god

Everything bad about 3 Idiots, but twice as bad. Seriously, it might just be this Aamir Khan guy who is ruining Indian cinema. When he shows up halfway through the movie, I had to turn the film off and leave it for a few days.

The funny thing is I like the message behind both 3 Idiots and Like Stars on Earth. I should be all about movies about the shortcomings of the education system. But it's the execution that sucks. I've only seen Battle Royale do it well. And furthermore, why is it only a tragedy when schools fail kids who are secretly geniuses? Just once I'd like to see this plot, except about an actual delinquent, retard, or maybe even normal average dumbass. Sure, I was the secret genius, but secret geniuses usually turn out okay. We should be angrier about the people the school system actually fails by not giving a shit about.

You know, because people cheated these movies onto the Top 250, Gangs of Wasseypur, Lagaan, and Kahaani all fell off the list. And those three movies are all way better than this fucking dreck. I guess that's just what happens when someone arbitrarily chooses what movie should get onto the list.

 

[vonFiedler]

So one day, as I was rating over a thousand movies on IMDB, I wondered what my top 250 would look like in theory. And it wasn't that bad. It wasn't that good either, but it's gotten better since. I'm collecting Blu-Rays, and my goal is to have a shelf of movies that I can stand by, that any friend can look at and borrow or watch.

So this is my 2016 Top 250 Advent Calendar. 10 Movies a day until Christmas.

#250: Gandhi
Gandhi is a rare person truly fascinating enough to be the subject of a movie, and Ben Kingsley gives the kind of top performance that allows a man to successfully underachieve for the rest of their career.

#249: Toy Story 3
Sequels should have to try hard to compete with the original, and Toy Story 3 goes to absurd lengths to top the underlying angst of the original. It is a brutal and cathartic movie.

#248: Rope
Rope is famed for being seemingly a one shot movie, and though that isn't true, it gives the effect that the whole thing is a stage play, and a very good one at that.

#247: Grave of the Fireflies
A movie many won't watch twice. I don't think it's all that devastating, but it's still highly impactful as a work of art, and is worth seeing as a Ghibli movie not helmed by Miyazaki.

#246: Wild Tales
An anthology movie that lives up to its name. Unfettered madness that explores the breadth of human violence.

#245: A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
Takes the concept of the original and just has fun with it. It's fresh to see people able to, somewhat, stand up to one of the great horror movie villains.

#244: Vampire's Kiss
The king of "dark comedies". I may not know the film's intentions, but I know that it works very well the way I like to view it. It's an essential film for fans of Nicolas Cage.

#243: Army of Darkness
Ash and Sam Raimi could do anything together. Add high fantasy to the horror and comedy of the Evil Dead movies, and you get one of the great adventure films.

#242: In Bruges
It's a sophisticated, stylish, talky English crime movie and it's not made by Guy Ritchie. Worth checking out.

#241: The Elephant Man
David Lynch has never been so down to earth, but maybe that's because the real story is so out there. If you like the idea of David Lynch, you'll love this film.

 

[vonFiedler]

#240: Phenomena
A very surreal horror film with plenty of reasons to check it. It's a great jumping in point to learn about Italian Horror and D'Ario Argento. It's a great Jennifer Connolly movie, her second one. And it's the film they based the game Clock Tower off of. Great stuff.

#239: Wild Strawberries
The first of a few Ingmar Bergman movies on this list. This one is a little mundane compared to his other work, but that doesn't mean it lacks the core of what makes his films great: fantastically rich psychological drama.

#238: 50 First Dates
Every dog has his day. 50 First Dates is a fantastic concept with scenes that are hauntingly memorable. It's as depressing as it sweet, and that's called ambivalence, and that's great. Hell, this could pass for an Ingmar Bergman movie with a few less stupid jokes. It's the sign of a great movie when you never look at a song the same way again.

#237: Children of Heaven
I haven't seen an Iranian film that isn't on this list. Children of Heaven has the benefit of being a very well made movie giving us a glimpse into a different (and not so different) culture, sure, but it's also got one of the best damn chase scenes in all of movies, and that pushes it over the top.

#236: Halloween
Who better than John Carpenter to simultaneously invent and perfect a genre? There isn't much to Halloween except that it's made by a master filmmaker, debuted one of the best horror movie actresses ever, and has that amazing soundtrack, but that all sort of does the trick.

#235: Summer Wars
This is a silly anime movie, and the more absurd it gets, the more enjoyable. The premise basically involves a large traditionalist family. When their daughter's friend get pulled into a hacking incident over an MMORPG, these computer illiterate people are like "FUCK YOU, THIS IS WAR". You just have to get lost in the ridiculousness of it.

#234: A Christmas Story
A classic, plain and simple. You gotta love that one of the go to movies for Christmas viewing is so extremely cynical.

#233: The Land Before Time
Speaking of cynicism, Don Bluth was once an amazing cartoonist who never talked down to kids. The Land Before Time is a bit short, but it's still fantastic.

#232: The Hangover
Perhaps considered one of the more overrated comedies, you'd be hard pressed to deny that you laughed a great deal when the first one came out. And we still have it to thank for introducing us to Bradley Cooper.

#231: Dragon Blade
Jackie Chan is a Hunnic missionary. John Cusack is a Roman legionary. Adrian Brody is the bad guy! That's all you need to know! The idea that some people have sticks so far up their ass that they can't watch a movie like this and profoundly enjoy it is just beyond me.

 

[vonFiedler]

#230: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Simply one of the scariest movies ever made. Brutality is conveyed not through torture porn, but through a consistent sense of unease and horrid environments. Kills are super quick, and that's what makes them so horrifying.

#229: The Departed
The only cross-culture remake that outdoes the original, as well as one Scorsese's best movies due to the combination of a very compelling police intrigue plot and Scorsese's direction of insane scenes that shocked everyone leaving the theater.

#228: Sing Street
Pretty much explains new wave down to a t. It's astounding that in 2016 we can have such a compelling musical about 80s music. For all that the Jem movie squandered, this one picked up the tab.

#227: Platoon
It has been said that there is no anti-war movie. But Platoon is pretty damn close. There's nothing cathartic or fun about it at all. But it's the kind of movie that you love to hate watching.

#226: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Some people come for Carrey's performance, I could care less. Still, the sci-fi worldbuilding around this surreal romance story is very fascinating.

#225: Yojimbo
Akira Kurosawa is a master of storytelling, and yet one of his best movies by far is one of his most basic. One swordsman comes to town and wrecks the shit out of two rival gangs. Most will come for Kurosawa's scenework, but I couldn't think of a better use of it than for a movie so entertaining.

#224: The Mummy Returns
Just a pretty solid sequel that ups the ante without straying too far from the source material.

#223: The Fifth Element
Sci-fi fans often complain that there big budget movies can only really be dumb action. The Fifth Element is certainly an action movie, and a super entertaining one too, but I think it's an example of how old popular sci-fi movies could still be anchored down to really neat worlds and concepts.

#222: Sin City
It seems strange now that people used to like Frank Miller. But some of his old comics make for some seriously stylish movies. Sin City is worth it just to look at. Everything else is a bonus (with special props for Elijah Wood's crazy role).

#221: Good Will Hunting
A really fascinating inversion of typical stories about secret geniuses kept down by society. Nobody holds Will's potential down but himself, and the story that is built around that is one of the smartest we've seen in movies yet. I mean, I think the dialogue is not that good and Ben Affleck is kind of weak, but those don't hold the film down much. Great roles for Robin Williams and Matt Damon.

 

[Soul Fly]

https://uk.movies.yahoo.com/bertolu...-rape-scene-was-non-consensual-162300811.html

how do y'all feel about Bertolucci's statement? Curious.

 

[vonFiedler]

#220: The Goonies
Classic childhood adventure film. The Goonies are good enough for this list.

#219: All Dogs Go to Heaven
Don Bluth gets much darker. Basically about a dog that says "fuck you" to heaven. It's full of vice and peril. It's also got some just plain weirdness and a big lipped alligator, but it's a must have movie to fuck with your kids.

#218: A Separation
The abortion murder mystery. Another great Iranian film, this one really pries into their culture and fascinatingly peculiar watch.

#217: Taxi Driver
Scorsese's Taxi Driver might just be full of memorable moments and a really well-tuned character, acted admirably by Robert DeNiro, but it's the ending that will make or break it for you. It takes a sharp left turn and might be genius.

#216: The Prophet
Khalil Gibran was a Lebanese immigrant. He wrote best selling Christian poetry, but there is no doubt that his work was also influenced by the cultures and religions around him as he grew up. The Prophet tells individual poems, each with a different animation director behind them. It's maybe the most high art inclusion on my list, but I love me some animation. The framing story has its ups and downs, but that's not the draw.

#215: The Fugitive
Harrison Ford is one of my absolute favorite actors and The Fugitive is a pretty solid vehicle for him.

#214: Team America: World Police
Well, I've always expected a bit more out of Matt Stone and Trey Parker than I got from this movie. But that doesn't change the fact that I've used the assholes/dicks/pussies analogy countless times, or how extremely god damn funny that puppet sex scene was (the unrated version is a must).

#213: Role Models
This is a semi-competent comedy about KISS and Dungeons & Dragons. That's enough to make my Top 250. If it's not enough to make yours then fuck you.

#212: The Prince of Egypt
We just don't see enough religious movies as classy as this one (or Dreamworks movies for that matter, what the hell happened after this?). An incredibly slick musical with great animation.

#211: Pitch Black
Sci-fi horror that launched a character and an actor. It had a clever concept long before every horror movie was a gimmick. But those who go back will also find that it's just really nuanced with its characters and its worldbuilding. Pitch Black released in 2000, and it's hard to imagine the same movie existing now with a bunch of Muslims portrayed as decent people.

 

[vonFiedler]

#210: Jurassic Park
To quote a movie that didn't make this list, "if you don't know Jurassic Park, you don't know shit." Dinosaurs, man.

#209: The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
A series a little overrated if you expected it to be near the top, but not enough to not make this list. Honestly, I even think they're better than the books. But they are still a bit long.

#208: A Goofy Movie
I actually have the Prince knockoff's music on my playlist. A Goofy Movie is a surprisingly touchy and down-to-earth movie given its source material.

#207: The Mummy
I didn't have much to say about the sequel because the original is even better. Seriously, I've always planned to name my first son Rick. Rachel Weisz is still one of my favorite actresses and Brendan Fraser should have done better with his career. Hell, Brendan Fraser is practically the prototype for the biggest male stars today: Bradley Cooper, Chris Pratt, Chris Pine, etc. And I realize that critically amalgamations get noses turned up at them. That is to say, a piece of media that is adventurous, and funny, and horror. But I like amalgamations. The Mummy and its sequels are still such rad movies.

#206: Snatch
It's a sophisticated, stylish, talky English crime movie and it's made by Guy Ritchie. I hear that's positive or negative depending on who you talk to. But what are positive are god damn Brad Pitt and that ending. What a ride.

#205: Into the Wild
Frustrating hippy crap, maybe. But y'know, fuck materialism and fuck the world. There's something bizarrely inspiring about this movie.

#204: Aladdin
The funniest of the Disney renaissance movies. And no matter how old you get, you cannot forget how great that reprisal of "One Jump" is. Even though you try to forget what a douchebag Aladdin is.

#203: Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
Hailed as a children's classic but sort of unsung as a musical. Kids being fucked up and that boat scene are great and all, but "Cheer Up Charlie" is really the type of scene that make me value this film so highly. But that boat scene though.

#202: Rumble in the Bronx
The perfect first 2/3 of a Jackie Chan movie. So subtle. So nuanced. So much desperation. And then in the end Jackie jousts a hovercraft with a giant sword.

#201: The Revenant
Feels as uncomfortable as it probably was to make. You seriously gotta applaud everyone behind this, it's a bit of marvel to watch, even though I don't usually go in for this kind of movie.

 

[vonFiedler]

Ain't no rest for the wicked

#81: My Father and my Son
When the Indian films were being cheated onto the top 250, a handful of Turkish films were cheated in with them. The timing can't be a coincidence, but I don't understand the significance. Why or how are these movies on here? Turkey doesn't have the same number of English speakers to be able to manage this kind of fixing, nor do they hate all movies but their own like India does. Does India just like Turkish films too?

The best I could find was posts from way back by Turkish people who applauded this film as a bold new direction for their film industry (which used to AWFUL) that would surely put them on the international map. It didn't really. It's frankly a bit too melodramatic. But it IS good. Its sentimentality does get to you.

There's a running thing where the grandson imagines elaborate scenarios as he daydreams. These are neat sequences. They don't seem to mean much, but eventually they fall into place.

And like, uh, why does this movie have the exact same ending scene as Fate/Zero? (movie came out a year after FSN which FZ borrows the scene from)

 

[vonFiedler]

#200: Ikiru
Breaking Good. This Akira Kurosawa films seems really slow at first watch, but it's the sort of thing that really gets to you after you've seen it. Thinking about that iconic image of the main character on the swing set, it's pretty great.

#199: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
A bit of an overrated series, if still better than the books. I mean, there are other trilogies much higher on this list. But this one still earns a spot. Even though it's too long, it's still a pretty good end to a solid series. edit: I literally forgot that I had just listed Return of the King, which is why these descriptions are almost exactly the same. So uh, Helm's Deep was pretty rad, right?

#198: Mystery Men
Pretty underrated and overlooked superhero parody, back when superhero movies weren't even a big thing. It's sort of a proto-Tropic Thunder, except Ben Stiller is better cast.

#197: Dogma
The extent of Kevin Smith movies on my list. I sort of like him as a director, but it's hard to think of another movie he's made that's worthy of this much recognition. Maybe because Dogma is just fantastic religious satire that you can't get outside of South Park. In order to talk about religion in hollywood, you need either some snide atheist film or a really shitty self-funded christian one. Those don't end up being dialogues. We don't have enough films like this.

#196: Whiplash
A movie entirely here based on the strength of its ending. Man goes super saiyan on the drums. That's the only way to describe it. When I rewatched it with a friend of mine, I was literally quoting Namek arc the whole time.

#195: Galaxy Quest
Fantastically fun and adventurous Star Trek parody with the perfect cast. This one should really get a lot more love.

#194: Highlander
The quickening! A very neat concept that's actually very downplayed in its original movie. I think in some small way there wouldn't be a Fate/Stay Night without Highlander, so kudos to it.

#193: The Incredibles
Superhero parody when superhero movies had started to matter. Of course Pixar and Brad Bird are both great. Others would have a lot more great things to say about this one, but I just kinda like it.

#192: Dawn of the Dead
One shopping mall. Survivors of a zombie apocalypse with it all to themselves, well, for a while. Just great fun and also George Romero's best.

#191: Cinema Paradiso
Bizarre, disjointed, non-sequitur, and the perfect vehicle for a movie all about the pain of nostalgia. Highly recommend it if you haven't seen it.

 

[vonFiedler]

#190: Ghostbusters
Ghostbusters isn't as solid on concept as most people take for granted. What is does have however is amazing chemistry between the three leads, possibly the greatest team of nerds ever. And you know they're invested in the story, because all three wrote it. Ramis and Aykroyd by writing it, and Murray by ad-libbing everything. Maybe that's why the new one sucks so much!

#189: Titan A.E.
Don Bluth's last film exists well into his mediocre years and itself is divisive, but it's genuine sci-fi animation and you know it's gonna be pretty to look at. Call the story simplistic, but it's much easier for me to get immersed in something like this when it's animated, and we don't have a lot of other options.

#188: Once Upon a Time in America
A literal trip through the past, present, and future (?) of a Jewish mobster. It's one of those movies that's only really amazing if you accept a certain theory about the story, and it's a good thing there is one to make up for how rapey it is. Whatever it is, it's definitely both one of the best gangster films and one of the best films over three hours.

#187: District 9
Neill Blomkamp made a splash in 2009 with his kooky South African story about aliens as a metaphor for apartheid. There's nothing I don't like about what I just said. It's an eccentric story to be sure, but it made you wanting more from the director.

#186: Ricochet
I wouldn't be surprised if many hadn't even heard of this movie. It's an early Denzel Washington film, but the star is the villain, neo-nazi John Lithgow, almost 20 years before his role in Dexter and even before 3rd Rock. It's a wonderful tale of revenge and revenge against revenge. And I don't mean a "revenge is bad story!", I mean, people fuck each other up and it's great.

#185: Donnie Darko
I didn't fully understand it. You didn't. But it was pretty interesting. When a story tells itself this well, you don't mind if you have to watch it two or three times to get all the details.

#184: Big Hero 6
The first really good new Disney movie. A shame it's not part of the MCU, this is actually a great superhero team. The concept of a group of a super scientists putting their fields to use under the supervision of a robot battler is great, why hadn't it been done sooner? Reminds me of a great scene from the comic 52. I've never wanted a sequel to an animated movie as much, and I'll have to check out the upcoming tv show.

#183: Twelve Monkeys
Another weird movie. This one's all pretty intelligible though, it's just that madness is a core concept. Is the absurd time travel plot really going on? Or are the character crazy? The film really draws out the tension in this for a while, and I think it makes it a smarter movie for it.

#182: The Karate Kid (2010)
Disclaimer: I've seen the original of every remake on this list. The original Karate Kid is a good, simple movie. But the remake is just a much more multifaceted film with better actors. You'd expect that from Jackie Chan, who puts in maybe his best dramatic performance ever, but you probably wouldn't expect it from Jayden Smith, who I honestly think has killed it in the movies I've seen. And the setting, China, adds a lot to the movie without dragging things out at all. The only problem is the title, no karate is used at all.

#181: House on Haunted Hill (1999)
This one really doesn't get enough love, perhaps because when it came out we were still wrapping our heads around the concept of remakes. But this movie takes the theatricality of the original and ramps it up to 11. It's one of those films where everything you need to know about it is perfectly encapsulated in the opening scene. And Geoffrey Rush, magnificent.

 

[vonFiedler]

#180: To Kill a Mockingbird
If you could perfectly translate this book into a movie, it'd be in my top 50 easily. But of course no book is perfectly translated. This one is no slouch though. Hits most of the best scenes right on the head.

#179: 22 Jump Street
The jokes about sequels could have been a lot better and more consistent, but Phil and Chris Miller are great enough filmmakers that even their lousy sequel joking about lousy sequels can make this list.

#178: From Beyond
Stuart Gordon is a B-movie director and it goes without saying that he's a bit underrated. He's quite fond of making movies based off of Lovecraft stories. You may have heard of Re-Animator. But even more likely, you've seen the horror video games that owe a lot to the visual effects of this movie. Shit just goes nuts.

#177: Little Shop of Horrors
As my friend said, pretty good for a movie directed by Yoda. Actually, it's just an incredibly fun horror musical all around, and the more of those the better. You gotta see the director's cut version though. The original ending is absolutely vital. Shame on them for having changed it for so long.

#176: Creed
Surprisingly one of the best Rocky movies. I mean yeah, it's kind of just Rocky with a different main character. But most Rocky movies weren't even that much. And Stallone actually got a really good supporting part. But the star is the music. Making a movie on par with Rocky is one thing, filling it with music on par with Rocky's music is another.

#175: Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Yes, I know, in most ways it's just a rehash of A New Hope! And that's why it can't be very high on any list. But man, everything in the last act is so fucking dope! Especially the three-way lightsaber fight. It fills me with a new hope for the series. I can't wait to see where they go when they aren't relying too much on nostalgia.

#174: The Nights of Cabiria
Here's a good rule of thumb for old black and white dramas. They should probably get under your skin by the halfway mark. This film is a great example of that. By the time the first story arc ends, I felt shattered. And it only gets more depressing.

#173: The Forbidden Kingdom
Jackie Chan is the drunken master! Jet Li is the monkey king! What could go wrong? Well, a fair number of people thought a lot went wrong. But I didn't really mind the white lead, and I love me some Neverending Story adventure type movies, so of course I thought this one was pretty great.

#172: Dial M for Murder
Here's my beef with film noir. When I think of all the film noir movies I've seen and compare them to random episodes of cop tv shows I've seen, the cop shows stack up much better. And cop shows are kind of trash! But if Dial M for Murder were an episode from a cop show, I'd think it was one of the best, most clever I'd ever seen.

#171: The Nice Guys
I felt like Shane Black held back a little with this movie. But for a director with only three movies, I feel like there's nothing he could make that I wouldn't love. The Nice Guys was a very funny and enjoyable movie. Even months after seeing it, it still feels memorable.

 

[vonFiedler]

#170: The Punisher
Most people's problem with this movie is just that it's a Punisher movie. Thomas Jane's Punisher is nothing like the real character, but that's good, because the real character is sort of boring. In the same way that The Punisher is unlike the original character, the movie is unlike a lot of revenge flicks. Instead of relying on brutality, Thomas Jane mostly invokes a sadistic cleverness to get the bad guys to mostly kill each other. And that's not to say that it's a censored movie. There are scenes of more graphic violence than all the MCU combined. Yet these are still few and far between, and have much greater impact. And that opening scene where his family gets killed, god damn.

#169: Evil Dead II
I saw this years after Army of Darkness and never would have expected it to be better. After all, Army of Darkness adds fantasy adventure to the horror comedy formula. But Evil Dead II is a tighter movie for it, and it invokes a compelling level of insanity on the part of Ashley Williams.

#168: Rocky
If you read the last post, you could have figured that this wouldn't be far away. Rocky is a profoundly smart and subtle sports movie. It's not about winning, nor does the main character win. He just wants to go 12 rounds. It's almost a little boring the first time you watch it, but the struggle sticks with you. Possibly because of that soundtrack. I gush about Ennio Moricone every chance I get, but let's not forget what a masterful job Bill Conti does here.

#167: Pulp Fiction
Still often considered one of Quentin Tarantino's best movies. It's certainly not his worst, but I'm not as big into anthologies as some people. If I have nothing much good to say about a movie and it still makes it this high on the list, that probably says a lot about the director. It's well made, entertaining, and incredibly memorable. And that's just par for the course.

#166: Scarface
One of my favorite gangster movies. Is that crazy? It's an unrealistic and goofy movie, but most still consider a classic. And I'll take a really fun piece of fiction over an uneventful true story any day.

#165: Into the Woods
This was never really given a chance by people who thought Disney would take out all of the dark elements. They didn't, not even close. Sure, some things were changed, but no more than in the film version of West Side Story. I'm a huge fan of Stephen Sondheim, and this was a pretty great adaptation of one of his best musicals. The cast is mostly perfect (barring Johnny Depp, really) and it's great to see such a messed up, yet also inspiring, and definitely epic fairy tale.

#164: Stranger than Fiction
A concept that you really couldn't mess up. Not to discount Will Ferrell, who performs admirably in the role. The constant whimsy and nods to literature really tickle my fancy, but mostly I just really love any stories that break down the wall between fiction and reality. And if you're a writer or some type of creator, the movie actually poses some very fascinating questions.

#163: Idiocracy
I really don't want this movie to be a 21st century Network. But it sure seems possible.

#162: The Wolf of Wall Street
The most insane true story I've ever seen. You'd be in the right mind to disbelief all of it as the egotistical lies of a morally bankrupt man, but I did some digging, and the most outlandish stuff is 100% true. Is there a message? Is there a moral? God, I don't know. But I know that I've watched few movies that long and been amazed the whole time.

#161: Rush
Another true story that has the rare distinction of actually being great. What sets this one apart is the characters. The different types of people that these rivals were and the ups and downs they go through make for a story that actually really deserved the big screen treatment.

 

[vonFiedler]

#160: Fargo
The movie is actually about the triumph of good over evil and why do bad things happen to good people, but it's heavily masked under quirky Coen directing and silly North Dakota accents.

#159: Rear Window
This isn't even close to a good mystery story as there's a rather large plot hole. But that set design is fantastic. The small apartment back alley of Rear Window feels like a vibrant world. And the story never leaves it. Smaller is often better.

#158: Being John Malkovich
As soon as it open up with its puppetry shenanigans, I knew that I was going to like every minute of it. What a fucking insane film. Great Malkovich.

#157: Back to the Future II
Not nearly as good as the original due to the borrowed plot, but also kind of genius with how it uses its borrowed plot. Almost as many things people think about when they think of Back to the Future come from this movie, due to the future scenes. Hell, there was quite a ruckus when we passed the real world point that this movie's future was supposed to take place in. Speaking of real world ruckus, isn't it absolutely fucking pathetic that we made 30 year old movie's villain our president?

#156: Holes
Roger Ebert says it best, "I walked in expecting a movie for thirteensomethings, and walked out feeling challenged and satisfied." Granted, I love prison movies. That will become obvious. But it's the outrageous strength of the plot that breaks this from its early 2000s live action Disney shackles. Children's literature, and their movies, should be held to this standard.

#155: American Psycho
2/3 of way through the movie the main character is banging two prostitutes and the whole time he's giving a critical review of Whitney Houston. This shouldn't be the most outrageous thing he does in the movie that I could mention, but this is where I totally lose my shit.

#154: Toy Story
A lot of people would probably put this movie a lot higher. It took me a while to get on the Pixar masturbation wagon. But still, some parts of it are so damn good. Great scene:

#153: Deadpool
This was really just yet another origin story superhero movie on a shoe string budget. We've seen nothing we really haven't seen before. And yet, it was so damned funny. I don't even like Deadpool, but this movie was hilarious.

#152: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Like most people, I have no clue what Tim Burton is doing with his career. But if there's one adaptation that made sense, both for his style and its worthiness of hitting the big screen, it's Sweeney Todd. Again, Stephen Sondheim, look into this guy.

#151: Moonrise Kingdom
If I have only one Wes Anderson movie on this list, it's probably because I only seen two. And the other one was considered. I could go into a lot of detail about the basics of what makes Anderson such a good director, but I'll simply leave you with Bill Murray's line when his wife asks him if it concerns him that his daughter has run away from home: "That's a loaded question." Greatest line.

 

[begin again]

Honestly pretty excited for awards season <3
The race between La La Land, Moonlight, and Manchester by the Sea is going to be fun to watch, and honestly all three movies are amazing

 

[vonFiedler]

Honestly pretty excited for awards season <3
The race between La La Land, Moonlight, and Manchester by the Sea is going to be fun to watch, and honestly all three movies are amazing

Wish 2/3 of those were in my area! Moonlight felt like it took ages just to come to a theater 45 minutes away.

 

[begin again]

Wish 2/3 of those were in my area! Moonlight felt like it took ages just to come to a theater 45 minutes away.

Ooh, luckily, I have a theater nearby that shows a lot of indie movies. I did have to drive all the way to Los Angeles to watch La La Land (along with Jackie, which was also great). Hopefully they get a wider release soon!

 

[vonFiedler]

#150: The Last Castle
I like prison movies. This one sort of reverses the typical situation, where instead of being about one person escaping, it's about a big, awesome riot. I think the military prison angle adds a lot to the characters. It's just a different kind of cast for a movie like this.

#149: The Crow
The movie that launched a thousand Hot Topics. A chillingly directed superhero movie filled with tragedy; the events in the story, the untimely death of the lead actor, and the confusion at where the hell Proyas's career went.

#148: Die Hard
Great movie for the family to watch around Christmas. Honestly, as an action movie it's just really smartly made. It takes its time and doesn't need constant set pieces to build and release tension.

#147: Hunt for the Wilderpeople
You probably don't know who New Zealand director Taika Waititi is, but you will soon. He's directing Thor: Ragnarok and he wrote some of the first story beats for Moana. He's also pretty tight with Flight of the Conchords, who star in multiple of his movies. And having only seen Hunt for the Wilderpeople, I can confidently say that he's a director whose movies I will eventually watch. This movie is pretty great. It's like a less white Wes Anderson film. Definitely one of the standouts of the year.

#146: Predestination
When my friend showed us this film, he didn't want us to know anything about it beforehand. And that was smart. It's some shit all right. There's more than a few twists, and while I saw them coming, the fascinating part of about watching the movie was knowing that the twists are so absurd and wondering just how they are going to make sense in the end. Just take my word for it and watch it.

#145: This is the End
None of my friends like Seth Rogan. But we always have to asterisk that statement, I mean, he did make This is the End. And of course This is the End is actually an amazingly hilarious movie. It stars a bunch of douchebags playing as themselves during the rapture. Hell, it's another better Left Behind movie than Left Behind. This couldn't go wrong, even with Seth Rogan behind it, and hell, maybe he was the perfect person to do this.

#144: Spider-Man 2
Not necessarily the best superhero movie ever made, but early proof that the genre had legs to stand on. Sure, I watch it now and it hasn't aged perfectly, but then there are scenes like the one on the train. The scene where Spider-man gets unmasked is so choice, it's better than most scenes in the MCU.

#143: Rise of the Planet of the Apes
For the most part, a surprisingly smart science fiction movie. Like Secret of NIMH but with animals that can beat the shit out of us. What would it be like it a chimp became steadily more intelligent, ala Flowers for Algernon? Much of the film is just an examination of this. It's not until near the end that we contrive a way to have apes rebel and start smashing shit, and it is contrived, but even that part is pretty cool.

#142: Catch Me if You Can
Just a really cool true story directed by a more than competent director. Plus, it's one of the early roles that made us reexamine how we looked at Leonardo DiCaprio.

#141: Arrival
Very smart science fiction. One of the perils of the genre is that we often need big action to make the expenses see a return, but Arrival doesn't fall into that trap and has been rewarded for it so far, even before factoring in the possibility of an Oscar nomination. It's a first contact that movies that's all about linguistics and trying to understand the aliens, but there's a bit more to it, and fans of 999 will get a familiar feeling as the movie comes to a close.

 

[vonFiedler]

#140: Chronicle
The American Akira, and frankly, the better Akira. Not only does it work in every way that story worked, but it's a fascinatingly detailed look at telekinesis, even making sense of some bad tropes.

#139: Se7en
Movie about a serial killer whose crimes are modeled after the seven sins, and really fucked up ones too. It's a David Fincher movie, so of course it actually has a message behind it, even if it is delivered in a soapboxy manner.

#138: Come and See
Forget Platoon, whoever said there aren't any anti-war movies really hasn't seen this one. It's the story of one boy whose home is invaded by the nazis, but instead of ever really getting a chance to fight back, he's tortured through one surreal, fucked-up sequence after the next. It is a demanding movie to watch.

#137: John Wick
A movie good enough to put Keannu Reeves back on the map. I don't know what it is that take this from being a simple action movie and puts it over the top, but there's something it does very right. It's really THE action movie of our decade, and I can't wait for the sequel.

#136: Pacific Rim
This film is actually very hurt by how much of a generic Hollywood film it is, especially the ending that rips off Independence Day. But it gets the giant robots and their fights with kaiju absolutely right, and that's worth a lot to me.

#135: Incendies
A Canadian movie taking place primarily in Lebanon as two children solve the mystery of what kind of badass their dead mother was. It's still an interesting look at a middle eastern country, an especially unique one at that, but it's also got crazy story beats.

#134: Godzilla (2014)
I see a lot of complaints about this film about the focus on the people, but that's Godzilla movies! I didn't mind the human struggles, as even they involved some beautiful effects shots. That's the draw of this movie, a lot of the filmography is surprisingly stunning. Sure, Godzilla is cool when he's wrecking shit, but that Deathtrain though...

#133: Aliens
The story goes that James Cameron walked into a meeting or producers. He wrote the word Alien on a whiteboard. And the wrote $ on the end. They instantly approved it. As a sequel it shifts the focus of the original a great deal, and yet at the same time feels like a natural evolution.

#132: Captain America: The First Avenger
The first MCU movie on this list. Captain America quickly differentiated itself from other origin stories pre-Avengers. You'd have expected Cap to immediately start kicking ass, but the USO segment was actually profoundly clever. And it ends with quite a bit of pathos that the character would take with him throughout the series. Great stuff.

#131: Forrest Gump
An incredibly cynical film masked in being a feel good murrican film. When I hear people criticize it, which is fashionable, I'm like, yeah, that's what's good about it.

 

[TheValkyries]

On what makes John Wick good:

The Secret to all great action movies. Building a mythic folk legend out of a seemingly normal ass dude.

Movie starts: Hey look he has a dog from his dead wife. Dog is cute.

30 minutes in:
Crime Lord's son who has messed with seemingly mild mannered guy: "I get it he's the boogeyman"
Literal Russian Crime Boss pissing his pants in fear: "No you idiot he's the guy you get if you want to kill the fucking boogeyman."

Also the stable cam in action sequences and clear visuals while still being a kinetic pleasure to watch does so much leg work in action movies. Too many action movies ascribe to the Bourne precedent with the frantic shaky cam action scenes, which is nice but you have to be able to keep the action clear otherwise you're just watching aimless eye candy (YO SUP MICHAEL BAYYYY). It's hard to have Shaky cams be clear and the oversaturation of this style has made action movies forget to actually be about the action. The shortcut is normally to overwhelm the eye with movement in close ups as a clearer version of the shaky cam effect (Creed and Pacific Rim do this perfectly [I can't mention No Tears for the Dead, and Man from Nowhere enough as well]). John Wick is brilliant in painting the action in lines across the frame and the camera follows the lines sublimely and moves from point to point so damn well. It just has a great awareness of space and visuals in every frame of the action scenes. It was really really great stuff.

 

[Eagle4]

A 2016 film update n prob the last one before I release my top 20 films in January or something

Sing Street - 3/5 - a well-made, if familiar tale, featuring some good music that (almost) always succeeds, and a lovely Jack Reynor performance to counteract the film's rather easy plot.
Bad Santa 2 - 1/5 - the worst film I've seen this year, and I've seen Suicide Squad. Not funny, not interesting. Maintains all the vulgarity of the original while keeping none of the wit, charm or heart.
Office Christmas Party - 3/5 - Surprisingly decent. Not exactly hilarious but has some sweet family moments and I was a big fan of its plot and the nonsense of it all.
The Witch - 4/5 - This was great. Tense, unsettling, beautifully framed, very unpredictable and very disturbing. Loved it.
Kubo and the Two Strings - 4/5 - Had a few problems with the plot and its tendency to run into cliches but the ending was very charming, the beginning few scenes were incredible and it was one of the most beautiful films I've seen this year. How they managed to animate this all in stop-motion I have no idea. Incredible.
The Neon Demon - 4/5 - A slight disappointment coming off of Drive and Only God Forgives but Neon Demon is still as stylish as ever, and does contain some truly superb scenes, such as the runway scene. Not everything worked, where the whole Keanu Reeves plot kinda felt superfluous, but I still found this an enjoyable watch.
Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping - 4/5 - Actually really funny and really heartfelt, even if all the songs sounded the same. As a satire it's not perfect but as a silly comedy it's very good value.
Neighbours 2 - 3/5 - Harmless fun. Contains some funny moments, some sweet moments, some irritating moments. Not as good as the original but I loved the original so there's that.
Green Room - 3/5 - Don't really get the hype about this one. It's a pretty standard story, has some clever bait-and-switch moments, but Patrick Stewart wasn't the overbearing presence I wanted him to be and the plot was standard fare. Not as tense as I would have liked either.
Hunt for the Wilderpeople - 3/5 - Yeah, don't really get the hype about this one either. It's oddball and cutesy but not actually that funny. I enjoyed the more melancholic moments, but overall What We Do In The Shadows is better.
Everybody Wants Some - 3/5 - The film's a breeze, passes you by really easily. It's enjoyable without making much of an impact so hey it's a good movie you'd watch on TV if you were bored.
The Greasy Strangler - 2/5 - Aside from one hilarious scene about crisps, this is a movie that really tries too hard. Also it's just not funny enough or shocking enough. So you're stuck in a middle ground that isn't affecting in any manner.

 

[vonFiedler]

#130: All About Eve
This one is a fascinating character piece from start to finish. There aren't twists so much as you're never really certain what is going on, but I don't want to spoil it for anyone. A great black and white movie to jump into.

#129: Reservoir Dogs
Often considered less stylish than Pulp Fiction, but I like that the non-linear narrative is fixed around one story. It's also just more memorable to me in its moments and performances. What an amazing movie to start a career with.

#128: The Sting
Not a lot of con artist movies on this list. I guess I haven't seen many, but there could stand to be more. I mean, I love lying to people, so the fantasy of doing it and making mad revenge money sounds fucking great. This movie does its job in spades.

#127: Chappie
You really just gotta know who Die Antwoord are be able to appreciate them. Then this movie is golden. Example:

These chucklefucks teach a robot how to be a live. How did this not win all the oscars?

#126: The Lion King
We're steadily moving up the Disney ladder. Sure, it might just be hamlet, but is that such a bad thing? I remember that when I was really young, I was absolutely obsessed with Africa because of this movie. I had a Simba plush for years. It's an incredibly good movie in terms of production, but there are even better coming up.

#125: Find Me Guilty
Sidney Lumet doesn't get as much appreciation as he deserves. Sure, he's a typical old lip-service director, but not one of the biggest, and he was overlooked later in his career. Which is just crazy, cause you've got a movie like Find Me Guilty which is just about one of the best courtroom dramas ever. Starring Vin Diesel, who does an amazing job in a funny and serious role.

#124: In the Mouth of Madness
John Carpenter was never a director to be appreciated in his own time, but while many of movies are now esteemed classic, this one isn't so popular. It's his attempt at Lovecraft fiction and it delivers all the madness that you'd expect to come out of its mouth.

#123: Straight Outta Compton
Another true story that thrives on the strength of its characters. The conniving lead man, the young lyricist, the silent producer. The main characters all have their own journeys and struggles, and you can't help but leave this movie with immense respect for the real artists it portrays, even if it smooths over some blotches.

#122: The Martian
The height of modern science fiction. It uses real science to tell a story about man using science to persevere. It's such an incredibly important story in a time where NASA, and real science in general, is losing public support. Hopefully lots of kids will watch this movie and it will inspire them to become scientists themselves.

#121: 300
Another movie that's fashionable to not like, but we all enjoyed it when it came out. Sure, Frank Miller has since become a pariah, but that doesn't change just how incredibly badass a movie a based on a comic from when Miller was a good artist is. It's damn well directed too by Zak Snyder, who certainly knows visually how to put together someone else's story, if the source is good.

 

[brightobject]

just saw battle royale, and godDAMN, the hunger games films are a fucking shadow on the wall in comparison to this glorious gorefest of a film