101 movies

The other day Chris challenged me to list my 100 favorite movies. Not to be outdone, I did my 101 favorite movies. Please bear in mind that these are just personal favorites, not what I consider to be the best 101 movies ever made. This was tough because I'm almost positive I left out about ten movies that I just didn't remember, and of course the list could change as soon as I go see another movie. But for now, enjoy.



rank. movie / year / director
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1. The Royal Tenenbaums / 2001 / Wes Anderson

2. 12 Angry Men / 1957 / Sidney Lumet

3. The Shawshank Redemption / 1994 / Frank Darabont

4. L.A. Confidential / 1997 / Curtis Hanson

5. House Of Flying Daggers / 2004 / Yimou Zhang

6. Dumb and Dumber / 1994 / Peter Farrelly

7. The Sting / 1973 / George Roy Hill

8. Be Kind, Rewind / 2008 / Michel Gondry

9. Rushmore / 1998 / Wes Anderson

10. No Country for Old Men / 2007 / Ethan Coen Joel Coen

11. Hoop Dreams / 1994 / Steve James

12. Lion King / 1994 / Roger Allers Rob Minkoff

13. Cool Hand Luke / 1967 / Stuart Rosenberg

14. Unforgiven / 1994 / Clint Eastwood

15. Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid / 1969 / George Roy Hill

16. Rocky / 1976 / John G. Avildsen

17. Cool Runnings / 1993 / Jon Turteltaub

18. White Men Can't Jump / 1992 / Ron Shelton

19. Rear Window / 1954 / Alfred Hitchcock

20. The Usual Suspects / 1994 / Bryan Singer

21. The Fellowship of the Ring / 2001 / Peter Jackson

22. Die Hard / 1988 / John McTiernan

23. Field Of Dreams / 1989 / Phil Alden Robinson

24. Big / 1988 / Penny Marshall

25. To Kill a Mockingbird / 1962 / Robert Mulligan

26. A Few Good Men / 1992 / Rob Reiner

27. The Virgin Suicides / 1999 / Sofia Coppola

28. Pulp Fiction / 1994 / Quentin Tarantino

29. When Harry Met Sally... / 1989 / Rob Reiner

30. Casablanca / 1942 / Michael Curtiz

31. The Wrestler / 2008 / Darren Aronofsky

32. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest / 1975 / Milos Forman

33. The Dark Knight / 2008 / Christopher Nolan

34. Slumdog Millionaire / 2008 / Danny Boyle Loveleen Tandan

35. High Fidelity / 2000 / Stephen Frears

36. Street Fighter II The Animated Movie / 1994 / Gisaburo Sugii

37. Fight Club / 1999 / David Fincher

38. Memento / 2000 / Christopher Nolan

39. Sneakers / 1992 / Phil Alden Robinson

40. The Hustler / 1961 / Robert Rossen

41. The Matrix / 1999 / Andy Wachowski Larry Wachowski

42. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button / 2008 / David Fincher

43. Gladiator / 2000 / Ridley Scott

44. American History X / 1998 / Tony Kaye

45. The Lives Of Others / 2006 / Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck

46. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind / 2004 / Michel Gondry

47. Se7en / 1995 / David Fincher

48. There Will Be Blood / 2007 / Paul Thomas Anderson

49. Full Metal Jacket / 1987 / Stanley Kubrick

50. Sin City / 2005 / Frank Miller Robert Rodriguez

51. Inherit The Wind / 1960 / Stanley Kramer

52. Braveheart / 1995 / Mel Gibson

53. Annie Hall / 1977 / Woody Allen

54. Into The Wild / 2007 / Sean Penn

55. City Of God / 2002 / Fernando Meirelles Kátia Lund

56. The Bourne Ultimatum / 2007 / Paul Greengrass

57. Sleepy Hollow / 1999 / Tim Burton

58. Back to the Future / 1985 / Robert Zemeckis

59. Snatch. / 2000 / Guy Ritchie

60. Remember The Titans / 2000 / Boaz Yakin

61. Dog Day Afternoon / 1975 / Sidney Lumet

62. V for Vendetta / 2005 / James McTeigue

63. Twelve Monkeys / 1995 / Terry Gilliam

64. Little Miss Sunshine / 2006 / Jonathan Dayton Valerie Faris

65. Good Will Hunting / 1997 / Gus Van Sant

66. The Darjeeling Limited / 2007 / Wes Anderson

67. My Cousin Vinny / 1992 / Jonathan Lynn

68. It's a Wonderful Life / 1946 / Frank Capra

69. The Sandlot / 1993 / David M. Evans

70. Oceans Eleven / 2001 / Steven Soderbergh

71. The Princess Bride / 1987 / Rob Reiner

72. Rambo: First Blood / 1982 / Ted Kotcheff

73. Rocky IV / 1985 / Sylvester Stalone

74. Hoosiers / 1986 / David Anspaugh

75. Mission Impossible / 1996 / Brian De Palma

76. Mighty Ducks / 1992 / Stephen Herek

77. El Mariachi / 1992 / Robert Rodriguez

78. Sleepers / 1996 / Barry Levinson

79. Training Day / 2001 / Antoine Fuqua

80. The Hurricane / 1999 / Norman Jewison

81. Il Postino / 1994 / Michael Radford

82. Casino Royale / 2006 / Martin Campbell

83. 8 Mile / 2002 / Curtis Hanson

84. Who Framed Roger Rabbit? / 1988 / Robert Zemeckis

85. Desperado / 1995 / Robert Rodriguez

86. Finding Neverland / 2004 / Marc Forster

87. Rounders / 1998 / John Dahl

88. The Rainmaker / 1997 / Francis Ford Cappola

89. A Streetcar Named Desire / 1951 / Elia Kazan

90. The Karate Kid / 1984 / John G. Avildsen

91. Dances With Wolves / 1990 / Kevin Costner

92. The Visitor / 2007 / Thomas McCarthy

93. Moulin Rouge! / 2001 / Baz Luhrmann

94. Ace Ventura: Pet Detective / 1994 / Tom Shadyac

95. Better Off Dead / 1985 / Savage Steve Holland

96. A Beautiful Mind / 2001 / Ron Howard

97. Helvetica / 2007 / Gary Hustwit

98. Ray / 2004 / Taylor Hackford

99. Blazing Saddles / 1974 / Mel Brooks

100. Waiting For Guffman / 1996 / Christopher Guest

101. Rocky Balboa / 2006 / Sylvester Stallone

-You a Yankee fan?

-No, Baltimore.
-Baltimore? That's like being hit in the head with a crow bar once a day.

How true, how true. I'm really not a Yankee or Baltimore fan though.One thing you may not know about me yet is that I am a big fan of old classic movies. So for your reading pleasure I thought I would highlight some of my favorites.

7. Broken Arrow (1950)

"Tom Jeffords tries to make peace between settlers and Apaches."
This may not be the greatest piece of filmmaking, acting, or script, but it was still entertaining, had great cinematography, and the social implications were fairly groundbreaking. Jimmy Stewart plays a scout who seeks to heal the divisions between the Apaches and white men and this movie was the first movie to portray the Native American Indian as a person of quality, esteem, and as fully human. The most interesting part of the movie isn't really the interracial (forbidden) relationship between Stewart and a Indian woman, but between him and Cochise, the chief, and the complexity of the characters as they struggle to understand and trust the different cultures.

6.Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)

"Longfellow Deeds, a simple-hearted Vermont tuba player, inherits a fortune and has to contend with opportunist city slickers." Gary Cooper is great, the story is fun, it's better than the Adam Sandler version, but the main reason I'm listing it is because this movie literally invents the word "Doodle." And I love to doodle.

5. Citizen Kane (1941)

"Following the death of a publishing tycoon, news reporters scramble to discover the meaning of his final utterance."
Okay this one is kind of obvious I guess because in 1997 and again in 2007 it was ranked the greatest movie of all time. I think that rating hurt the movie because people watched it with such high expectations and all they got was a seemingly basic, somewhat boring movie. I started off in the same boat; it wasn't until I watched a documentary on the movie that I really grew to appreciate the movie and it's innovation. Some of the more notable things are its use of "deep focus," it's one of the first films to use that where both the foreground and background are both in sharp focus. Another thing was the low angle shots (Welles actually dug holes in the ground to get the camera at ground level), special effects make-up, story-telling techniques, et cetera, et cetera... all things that movies use all the time today that had never been done before (like it was the first movie to start with the end and tell the story through flashbacks). So even if you don't love the movie, there's a lot to appreciate about it.

4. Inherit The Wind (1960)

"Based on a real-life case in 1925, two great lawyers argue the case for and against a science teacher accused of the crime of teaching evolution."
I just watched this last night and I have to say I was supremely entertained. This is a fictional movie based on the famous Scopes monkey trial. True, it portrays fundamentalist Christians in a pretty ridiculous light, but I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't too far off. The main story of the movie was the importance or our freedom to think, which I definitely agree with. Spencer Tracy gives a superb performance as the defending attorney which is in itself worthy of putting the movie on the list. It criticizes willful ignorance and bigotry, and puts backwards country anachronisms back in the past where they belong.

3. Rear Window (1954)

"A wheelchair bound photographer spies on his neighbors from his apartment window and becomes convinced one of them has committed murder."
Of the Alfred Hitchcock/Jimmy Stewart combos, this one is my fave! Plus Grace Kelly is a babe. It gets my famous three I's rating: Interesting, Intense, and Intriguing. Hitchcock draws the viewer in with this voyeuristic film: you spend the majority of the movie feeling like you're spying on the neighbors, seeing things you aren't supposed to see. Which is somewhat an examination of us as people. Why are we so obsessed with what we're not supposed to see (Myspace anyone?)? But of course it's also a thrilling mystery/crime flick. A great classic!

2. Casablanca (1942)

"Classic film set in unoccupied Africa during the early days of World War II: An American expatriate meets a former lover, with unforeseen complications."
I hope that most of you have seen this movie already but if you haven't do yourself a favor and watch it. This movie is hard to categorize, which is part of its brilliance. It successfully combines romance, drama, terror, murder, character study, comedy and tragedy. The dialogue is unbeatable and perfectly delivered making it perhaps the most quotable movie ever. The performances by and chemistry between the main characters (Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman) are fantastic and the supporting cast is just as good, if not show-stealing. But more than all of that, the true beauty of this film is the inspiration or redemption that it offers to each viewer. "On some level, every character in the story receives the same kind of catharsis and their lives are irrevocably changed. Rick's is the most obvious in that he learns to live again, instead of hiding from a lost love." It might sound kind of corny but it really is good and the movie is definitely very re-watchable as there tons of subtle nuances to pick up each time you see it.

1. 12 Angry Men (1957)

"A dissenting juror in a murder trial slowly manages to convince the others that the case is not as obviously clear as it seemed in court."
This is one of my all-time favorite movies. It's simple but great. This is a courtroom drama with a twist, instead of following the actual trial you get to watch behind closed doors and follow the jury as they decide on the fate of the accused. In fact 99% of this movie takes place in one room, but a superb cast and excellent acting (led by Henry Fonda and Lee J. Cobb) make this film both exceedingly entertaining and rewarding. One of my favorite directors, Sidney Lumet, takes this film with just 12 people sitting in a room and turns it into an edge-of-your-seat masterpiece. Also the character development in the movie is ridiculous, considering it develops 12 believable, memorable and distinct characters. This sums up everything I love about film. Everything from a technical point of view to superb acting and a simple yet complex character driven story. It draws you in from the start and doesn't let you go until the end. A++++

Movie Meme

So apparently if you get tagged you are supposed to fill out this movie questionnaire. Kylee was kind enough to involve me (probably so she could make fun of the movies I see). Here goes nothing.

Move Meme?

1. One movie that made you laugh
UHF...classic

2. One movie that made you cry
Armageddon?

3. One movie you loved when you were a child
Robin Hood the disney version

4. One movie you’ve seen more than once
White Men Can't Jump (about once a year)

5. One movie you loved, but were embarrassed to admit it
8 Mile

6. One movie you hated
Cabin Fever

7. One movie that scared you
Requiem for a Dream

8. One movie that bored you
PS I Love You

9. One movie that made you happy
High Fidelity

10. One movie that made you miserable
21 Grams (I don't like getting that depressed in a movie)

11. One movie you weren’t brave enough to see
It

12. One movie character you’ve fallen in love with
Ziyi Zhang in House of Flying Daggers... shes so b.a. and yet still fragile. there might be a slight language barrier. ha.

13. The last movie you saw
Belly... ha ha look it up!

14. The next movie you hope to see
The Dark Knight

15. Your favorite movie
The Royal Tenenbaums

And if anyone reads this and wants to join the fun let me know and I'll pretend like I tagged you.

By the way, this reminds me of the old email forwarding days mixed with myspace bulletins. A little scary.