Here are some more movie lists: Mystic River ***1/2
Grim, uncompromising but definitely worthwhile drama about the consequences of violence and guilt. It has one of those perfectly chosen ensemble casts where everybody makes a truly memorable impression.
The School of Rock ***1/2
Jack Black makes the most of his tailor-made role as a guy who lives for classic rock and roll. He passes on his love for the music to a classroom full of 21st-century kids, and to us in the audience. Hilarious from beginning to end.
Kill Bill Vol. 1 ***1/2
Quentin Tarantino reinvents more of his favorite genre movies, which should result in an overly familiar, copycat kind of movie. What we get is just the opposite - a wild, entertaining film where we're never quite sure what outrageous thing we're going to see from one shot to the next.
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World ****
A truly thrilling sea epic. It's got everything we go to the movies for. Director Peter Weir proves that a stylish art film doesn't have to be incompatible with a huge special effects epic, and the outcome is a film everyone can enjoy. Easily Russell Crowe's finest performance to date.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King ****
As fine as the first two films in the trilogy were, this final installment somehow manages to surpass them in size, spectacle, emotional power - in every possible way. The love and level of commitment the actors and filmmakers had for this story shines out from the screen for all of us to marvel at.
The BIGGEST Movies Ever Made (and Where You Can See Them)
In October 1996 I made what could only be called a pilgrimage, to Dayton, Ohio. There, on the corner of 5th and Patterson, I entered a deceptively small theater called The Neon Movies, at the time one of the only two theaters in the world equipped to show Cinerama, the biggest, most exciting wide-screen process of them all. Invented by Fred Waller and introduced in 1952, Cinerama advertised itself as being able to "put YOU in the picture", and they weren't kidding. Its 3-projector, 3-panel giant curved screen and 7-channel sound system create a feeling of reality that no other kind of movie has ever achieved before or since. Dayton resident John Harvey, who must know more about Cinerama than anyone who's ever lived except Fred Waller, was presenting his own personal prints of This is Cinerama (1952) and How the West Was Won (1962), and they were amazing. Theater manager Larry Smith also provided a fascinating Cinerama lecture and slide show before each performance. For a big-screen movie lover like me, who hadn't seen Cinerama since a school trip to How the West Was Won in 1963, it was the experience of a lifetime.Cinerama was presented for the last time at the Neon Movies in April 2000. What was supposed to be a one month engagement wound up running for 3 1/2 years. And Cinerama's story isn't over by any means. Seattle has a brand new Cinerama theater, and the Cinerama Dome in Los Angeles has been remodeled to show the 3-projector process, which it had never done since it first opened in 1963. If Cinerama is successful in these two cities, you can be sure the word will spread. Wherever you live, Cinerama may very soon be playing once again at a theater near you.
The Double Digit Club
The Guinness Book of World Records tells of a woman who's seen The Sound of Music over 900 times. Howard Hughes was said to be obsessed with Ice Station Zebra and watched it every day for a number of months. I'll never reach either of those extremes, but real movie lovers know there's nothing like seeing an all-time favorite in a big theater on a big screen. And if the movie is really special, once is not enough. Once a week maybe, but not just once. Having said that, here are the movies I've gone to see in a theater 10 times or more. Yeah I know - I keep track of stuff like that. An obsession is an obsession ...
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) (47 times)
Star Wars (1977) (31 times)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) (18 times)
Fantasia (1940) (14 times)
Lawrence of Arabia (1962) (14 times)
Jaws (1975) (13 times)
The Exorcist (1973) (12 times)
Return of the Jedi (1983) (11 times)
Vertigo (1958) (11 times)
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) (11 times)
The Empire Strikes Back (1980) (10 times)
Jurassic Park (1993) (10 times)
I hope it's not too long before another movie comes along that I'll want to see at least 10 times!
Unintentional Humor - The Best Kind?
I like a good comedy as much as anybody, but if I want to laugh so uncontrollably that tears run down my face and I have to gasp for air, any of the following films will do a much better job. And none of them are comedies.
Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959) If you'd told Ed Wood when he was alive that his name would someday be a household word, as much as he would've wanted that he'd probably never believe it. Then again, maybe he would ...
Glen or Glenda? (1954) One more from Ed Wood, the Orson Welles of this particular kind of movie.
Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977) Never before have so many award-winning, well-respected talents (Richard Burton, Louise Fletcher, James Earl Jones, director John Boorman) come together to create something so incredibly goofy.
The Silver Chalice (1954) Paul Newman's first film, and the career prognosis did not look good. Everyone connected with the movie, on both sides of the camera, seems like they were all drunk. I can't think of any other explanation.
Queen of Outer Space (1958) If you can get past the 20-minute pre-credit sequence, take heart: you've already seen one-quarter of the whole movie. Zsa Zsa Gabor's finest hour and 20 minutes can be summed up in one word: Botchino!
Teenagers From Outer Space (1959) It looks like I'm unjustly picking on movies with "outer space" in the title, but this one literally has to be seen to be believed.
Contrary to all expectations and all conventional logic, these movies are truly lovable and will live forever. I'd be interested in hearing some other recommendations from all of you out there - I could always use some good laughs.Great Sequels and Remakes
Not too many: imagine how long a list of lousy sequels and remakes would be.Sequels:
The Godfather Part II (1974)
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
Aliens (1986)
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
Superman II (1981)Remakes:
Ben-Hur (1959)
The Ten Commandments (1956)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
The Fly (1986)
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)The Ultimate Oscar Nominations
Every year I put together an Academy Awards pool where I work. And every year some of my co-workers come up to me saying, "What's art direction? What's film editing?" etc. I figured if I put together my 5 favorites in each category, 5 brilliant examples of each particular motion picture art or science, it would answer any of those questions. "Did you ever see Shane or Raging Bull? That's film editing." Actually the idea came to me the other night while I was watching Vertigo. I thought to myself, "This is some of the best art direction I've ever seen in a movie. How could it NOT win the Academy Award?" And it didn't. Uh oh, time for another list. My Do-It-Yourself Academy Awards (most of the categories, anyway.)
* = What I would vote for.
Best Picture
Citizen Kane (1941)
Vertigo (1958)
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) *
Star Wars (1977)
Best Actress
Olivia deHavilland in The Heiress (1949)
Bette Davis in All About Eve (1950) *
Katharine Hepburn in Summertime (1955)
Susan Hayward in I Want to Live! (1958)
Anne Bancroft in The Miracle Worker (1962)
Best Actor
James Stewart in It's A Wonderful Life (1946) *
Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront (1954)
Paul Scofield in A Man for All Seasons (1966)
George C. Scott in Patton (1970)
Robert DeNiro in Raging Bull (1980)
Best Supporting Actress
Agnes Moorehead in The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) *
Thelma Ritter in All About Eve (1950)
Betsy Blair in Marty (1955)
Patty Duke in The Miracle Worker (1962)
Ruth Gordon in Rosemary's Baby (1968)
Best Supporting Actor
James Dunn in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945) *
George Sanders in All About Eve (1950)
Peter Ustinov in Spartacus (1960)
Lee Strasberg in The Godfather Part II (1974)
Martin Landau in Ed Wood (1994)
Best Director
Orson Welles for Citizen Kane (1941)
Alfred Hitchcock for Vertigo (1958)
David Lean for Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Stanley Kubrick for 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) *
George Lucas for Star Wars (1977)
Best Original Screenplay
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
Citizen Kane (1941) *
The Apartment (1960)
8 1/2 (1963)
Chinatown (1974)
Best Screenplay Adapted From Other Material
Gone With the Wind (1939)
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
All About Eve (1950) *
Marty (1955)
The Godfather Part II (1974)
Best Cinematography - Black and White
Citizen Kane (1941) *
Great Expectations (1946)
The Diary of Anne Frank (1959)
In Cold Blood (1967)
Schindler's List (1993)
Best Cinematography - Color
Shane (1953)
Vertigo (1958)
Lawrence of Arabia (1962) *
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Days of Heaven (1978)
Best Art Direction - Black and White
Citizen Kane (1941) *
Great Expectations (1946)
The Diary of Anne Frank (1959)
Psycho (1960)
The Elephant Man (1980)
Best Art Direction - Color
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
The Ten Commandments (1956)
Vertigo (1958)
Doctor Zhivago (1965)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) *
Best Film Editing
Citizen Kane (1941)
Shane (1953) *
Jaws (1975)
Star Wars (1977)
Raging Bull (1980)
Best Sound
Citizen Kane (1941)
West Side Story (1961)
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Star Wars (1977) *
Jurassic Park (1993)
Best Special Visual Effects
King Kong (1933)
The Ten Commandments (1956)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) *
Star Wars (1977)
Jurassic Park (1993)
Best Makeup
The Wizard of Oz (1939) *
Planet of the Apes (1968)
Star Wars (1977)
The Elephant Man (1980)
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
Best Costume Design
Gone With the Wind (1939)
The Ten Commandments (1956) *
Ben-Hur (1959)
My Fair Lady (1964)
Barry Lyndon (1975)
Best Original Music Score
The Thief of Bagdad (1940)
Vertigo (1958) *
The Great Escape (1963)
Planet of the Apes (1968)
Star Wars (1977)
Best Scoring of a Musical
Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
The King and I (1956)
West Side Story (1961) *
The Music Man (1962)
Fiddler on the Roof (1971)
Best Original Song
"Over the Rainbow" from The Wizard of Oz (1939) *
"When You Wish Upon a Star" from Pinocchio (1940)
"Unchained Melody" from Unchained (1955)
"Moon River" from Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)
"Goldfinger" from Goldfinger (1964)
Best Foreign-Language Film
La Strada (Italy - 1954)
Black Orpheus (France/Brazil - 1959)
8 1/2 (Italy - 1963) *
Fanny and Alexander (Sweden - 1983)
Babette's Feast (Denmark - 1987)
Academy Oversights
Every year, only 5 actors and 5
actresses can be in that big Oscar race. This means a lot of people inevitably get left out. Here are some of the saddest examples of Oscar turning his back on a most deserving performance.Boris Karloff in Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
Ronald Colman in A Tale of Two Cities (1936)
Joseph Cotten in Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
Alastair Sim in A Christmas Carol (1951)
Giulietta Masina in La Strada (1956) and Nights of Cabiria (1957)
Marilyn Monroe in Bus Stop (1956), Some Like it Hot (1959) and The Misfits (1961). She would have liked getting some respect.
Jean Simmons in Elmer Gantry (1960)
James Mason in Lolita (1962)
Robert Preston in The Music Man (1962). That must have been a really tough year.
Robert Blake and Scott Wilson in In Cold Blood (1967)
Mia Farrow in Rosemary's Baby (1968)
Edward G. Robinson in Soylent Green (1973)
Cher in Mask (1985). They made it up to her two years later.
Jeff Daniels in Gettysburg (1993). Submitted by my good friend Mike Ramsaier, and I'm ashamed I didn't think of this one myself.
Jodie Foster in Contact (1997) This one's a real heartbreaker. The Academy never did show much respect to science fiction.Ten Great Non-English Language Films
I recently received an E-mail from a very perceptive movie fan in France who pointed out that almost every film on these lists was made in the USA. I suddenly felt like the Ugly American (wasn't that a Brando film?). I guess I failed to realize that the World Wide Web really does go all around the world, and maybe my lists should reflect that. And so, with apologies to a few billion people:The Bicycle Thief (Italy -1949)
Black Orpheus (Brazil/France - 1959)
The 400 Blows (France - 1959)
8 1/2 (Italy - 1963)
The Tin Drum (Germany - 1979)
Fanny and Alexander (Sweden - 1983)
Ran (Japan - 1985)
Babette's Feast (Denmark - 1987)
Close to Eden (Russia - 1992)
To Live (China - 1994)Great Filmmakers of the Future?
Another movie fan contacted me and made a good point. She asked why there weren't too many current films on any of the lists. That got me to thinking about some of the young directors currently working. Here are the ones whose new films I most eagerly look forward to:Tim Burton (especially since Ed Wood)
Jane Campion
Ang Lee
Spike Lee
Quentin Tarantino And two more, on the basis of their phenomenal debut films in 1995:
Bryan Singer (The Usual Suspects)
Chris Noonan (Babe)
If these lists are still on the Internet in the 21st century, maybe I'll get to move some of these people to the Great Directors list.
Sometimes I think the rest of the world just doesn't get it when it comes to the following titles. Even Leonard Maltin and his crew gave most of them crummy reviews in their movie guide. This will probably be my only chance to see them praised in print, as they deserve to be.Ryan's Daughter (1970)
I get into fights with various members of my family when the subject of this movie comes up. I admit its simple love-triangle story didn't have to take 3 hours and 20 minutes to tell, but director David Lean wasn't just telling a story. He was re-creating an entire time and place long gone (Ireland during World War I) and if you get into it, the way you can get into a very long novel, then every minute becomes necessary, and fascinating. It also contains the best storm scene ever filmed, with no special effects. They photographed real storms on the Irish coast without even getting any water on the camera lens. The actors don't look like they were having a good time, though.The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965)
Whaddaya know: another 3 hour and 20 minute flop. If this had come out 10 years earlier, it would have been hailed as a classic and probably made a lot of money. By 1965 Biblical epics like this were definitely on the way out and everybody hated it. 30 years later, what was once hopelessly old-fashioned now looks absolutely beautiful. George Stevens' version of the life of Jesus contains the kind of wide-screen images nobody seems to know how to make anymore. Nobody even bothers to try. It's even fun to see all the big stars in the cast (who distracted critics in 1965) trying their best to get noticed in tiny cameo roles. And to think this whole huge production cost the same as Jim Carrey's salary for The Cable Guy. The Bible (1965)
Oh no, not another one. Not really: this one's only 3 hours long. Leonard Maltin's Guide said this is one time you should definitely read the book instead. That's a good line, but then you'd never see the truly spectacular things this movie has: the Creation scenes, the entire Noah's Ark sequence featuring director John Huston, George C. Scott as Abraham. Maybe not a complete success, but a very noble attempt. At least it aimed high, like the guys who built that Tower of Babel ...The Andromeda Strain (1971)
Michael Crichton is all over the place right now, but this Robert Wise film version of his first novel went pretty much unnoticed. It's still one of the few science fiction films to include lots of real science, and to successfully make it understandable and interesting. Its almost obsessive attention to detail is the main reason the film is so scary and convincing.Waterworld (1995)
Never before has a film been so widely ridiculed as a bomb before anyone had a chance to see it. Well, not since Cleopatra, anyway. And those who did see it probably felt the same way I did: very entertaining, a lot of fun. I remember, on the way out of the theater, how surprised I was that it wasn't even close to being the stinker I'd been expecting. I couldn't wait to tell people I knew how good it was, but most of them wouldn't believe me. The power of the press in action, I guess. Come to think of it, Cleopatra was pretty good, too.Miscellaneous 5-Best Lists
Science Fiction Films
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
Forbidden Planet (1956)
Star Wars (1977)
E.T. the Extraterrestrial (1982)
Horror Films
The Exorcist (1973)
Rosemary's Baby (1968)
Psycho (1960)
Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
The Birds (1963)Westerns
Shane (1953)
Stagecoach (1939)
How the West Was Won (1963)
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966)
Dances With Wolves (1990)War Movies
The Longest Day (1962)
Patton (1970)
Full Metal Jacket (1987)
Apocalypse Now (1979)
The Great Escape (1963)
Musicals
West Side Story (1961)
Singin' in the Rain (1952)
Fiddler on the Roof (1971)
A Hard Day's Night (1964)
The Music Man (1962)
Comedies
Some Like It Hot (1959)
The Producers (1968)
Annie Hall (1977)
It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963)
This is Spinal Tap (1984)Disney Animated Features
Fantasia (1940)
Pinocchio
(1940)
Dumbo (1941)
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
Beauty and the Beast (1991)Title Sequences
Seems like audiences don't read movie credits anymore. But back when people like Saul Bass and Maurice Binder were designing them, they were sometimes more interesting than the movies themselves! Here are 5 instances where the rest of the movie was just as great.Around the World in 80 Days (Bass) (1956)
Spartacus (Bass) (1960)
Psycho (Bass) (1960)
West Side Story (Bass) (1961)
You Only Live Twice (Binder) (1967)5 Greats for Each Decade
The 1930's
King Kong
The Wizard of Oz
Gone With the Wind
Bride of Frankenstein
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
The 1940's
Citizen Kane
The Thief of Bagdad
The Best Years of Our Lives
It's a Wonderful Life
Shadow of a Doubt
The 1950's
Vertigo
Marty
On the Waterfront
All About Eve
The Nun's StoryThe 1960's
2001: A Space Odyssey
West Side Story
Lawrence of Arabia
Rosemary's Baby
PsychoThe 1970's
Star Wars
The Godfather Part II
The Exorcist
Nashville
Days of HeavenThe 1980's
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
The Elephant Man
Atlantic City
Gandhi
Aliens
The 1990's
Schindler's List
Dances With Wolves
Pulp Fiction
Secrets and Lies
ContactLinks to Great Movie Web Pages
Bill's Desert Island Page
This guy has really good taste! Not only in movies, but books, music and TV. And he makes it easy to contribute your own 10 favorites. You'll have a lot of fun here.
Vertigo
The author of this page thinks Vertigo is the finest film ever made, and he has created a fitting tribute to it here. There's a great photo on the Feedback page.
2001 and Beyond the Infinite
A fascinating essay on the content and meaning of 2001. The author points out things I'd never noticed, and I've seen the movie about 100 times!
Pete's Movie Page
This page will keep sci-fi movie fans very interested. And if they're Star Wars fans - I never met a sci-fi fan who wasn't - they'll be very, VERY interested.
Dan's Trash Heap
That's a good name for a Web site, but there's nothing else trashy about this page or the movies you'll read about here. Includes a great game called Dan's Screen Shot Movie Quiz, where you try to identify actual shots from classic films. It's updated every Sunday so you can play every week (and you will want to!)
The Movie Quote Contest Page
Thanks to the efforts of Matt Cowan, here are 90 movie quotes for you to identify, in 9 different categories. If you get a quote right, you get to replace it with one of your own. Just reading the incorrect guesses (and the editorial comments) can be fun all by itself.
The Z Review
An all-purpose movie site from the UK, full of features and information and all kinds of movie stuff.
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