Amelie

Zazie dans le Métro (1960)

After Hours

Bananas/Play it Again Sam/What’s Up Tiger Lily? – Three HIGHLY underrated Woody Allen films.

2. almost famous – sometimes, movies feel like they are engineered specifically to your heart, as if someone could scan your tastebuds and make the cookie perfectly suited to your taste. that’s an awful metaphor. anyways, there’s a similar dynamic between this one and the apartment, although this is a movie with absolutely no bad guys. the movie is so dewey and romantic, but it hits every emotional button it can. i watch the whole thing through teary eyes pretty much every time. too bad cameron crowe hasn’t done anything nearly as good since. did you see elizabethtown? yikes.

3. singin in the rain – gene kelly is so fucking amazing in this movie. he’s hilarious and his dancing is just the best. i love how silly and smart it is all at the same time. sure, the end kind of goes on and on, but those production values! man, i wish people would make movies like this again…

4. close encounters of the third kind – of all the movies i saw when i was a kid, this one comes to closest to inspiring the same kind of awe as when i first saw it.

5. jaws – still scares the living shit out of me.

6. 2001: a space oddessy – i love how abstract it is, and how just plain weird it gets. i love that all the dialog is completely banal, and that there is so much ambiguity.

7. rushmore – no movie has better demonstrated that teen angst and middle-aged angst is pretty much the same thing. favorite scene: dirk calloway’s letter to max.

8. the big lebowski – i hated this the first time i saw it. now i laugh out loud at almost every line of dialog.

9. the philadelphia story – wait a sec…jimmy stewart, katherine hepburn and cary grant ALL IN THE SAME MOVIE? most insanely great cast ever. the script almost doesn’t even matter, but it’s so witty and wise, with all of the 3 main players giving definitive performances. sure, the little sister is maybe the most annoying character in history, and the movie is nothing special to look at, it’s still full of so many moments in life that you wish you could emulate. who wouldn’t want to be a playboy and sail around the world, like cary grant? or be the noble romantic that jimmy stewart is? or be a petulant twit, but still look like katherine hepburn?

10. his girl friday – rosalind russell is the sexiest lady in the history of the movies. how long is that script, anyways? 1000 pages? i can’t even THINK that fast, much less TALK that fast.

honorable mentions: hudsucker proxy, the empire strikes back, shaun of the dead, that thing you do, the incredible. also, i really really loved both no country for old men and there will be blood, but they are too new to include…

Better Off Dead: Best 80’s teen comedy hands down. “Where’s my two dollars?!?”

Harold & Maude: Suicide attempts + intergenerational love = comedy genius.

Being There: Peter Sellers is simply brilliant.

1. Aliens- First Sci-Fi movie that really kicked my ass. Since seeing star wars at age 7 anyway.

2. Goodfellas- Still the best mob movie of all time. And I pretty much love them all.

3. A Bronx Tale- Speaking of which, this is the only mob movie I have seen more often than Goodfellas. And the only mob movie I know of containing Robert DeNiro where he doesn’t play a mobster.

4. For the Love of the Game- I don’t know, The Natural just didn’t speak to me the way this movie did. Yes it’s part chick flick but there is plenty of baseball to make this man friendly.

5. Fight Club- Just watched this movie again last week and during the first half I just kept saying to my self “Oh My God I forgot what a great movie this is”. I was drunk at the time, but it is a great movie.

6. Breakfast Club- I was fifteen when I saw this movie and I could not have identified with the characters more.

7. Crash- The first time I watched it I went right back the main menu on the DVD and played it again.

8. The Commitments- I’ll admit it didn’t move as much the second time I watched it but still a great movie.

9. Full Metal Jacket- Maybe Platoon is better but definitely not more quotable.

10. Hook- Because I am a guy, and all guys want to be Peter Pan

Now if my friend’s saw this list they would all yell “Where the fuck is Ocean’s Eleven!” and not because it is their favorite movie but because it technically is mine. I don’t think I have quoted any movie more in the last seven years. But like I said I just picked the first ten I wrote down.

The other five are Run Lola Run, Remember The Titans, Shawsank Redemption, Stand by Me, The Patriot.

In no particular order:

Evil Dead 2: Perfect blend of comedy and horror, incredibly inventive. I wonder if that guy ever made any other movies…(kidding y’all)

Blade Runner: Deckard is NOT a replicant no matter what Ridley Scott says/thinks. Much like Lucas, he made a great film and has been pretty much trying to fuck it up ever since.

Amelie: What can I say I’m a sucker for Paris, anything that Jeunet is involved in (OK except maybe Alien: Resurrection), and magical realism.

Children of Men: I’m also a sucker for political commentary masquerading as well made sci-fi.

Koyaanisqatsi: I love the music of Philip Glass and I’m not afraid to admit it. An amazing take on documentary film, that is still very powerful.

Alice (Jan Svankmajer): The best interpretation of Alice in Wonderland I’ve ever seen. It’s got a creepy victorian vibe and hey, animated animal skulls!

Brazil: Simply brilliant

Susperia: Argento’s masterpiece of fairy tale horror. Amazing visuals and of course the unbeatable soundtrack.

The Fifth Element: My guilty pleasure. Milla as a kick-ass alien with red dreads? Be still my heart.

The Thing (John Carpenter): Paranoia, disturbing effects, and Wilford Brimley!

2) Liquid Sky — Little tiny aliens land on a weird Blade-Runner-ass future shock models’ apartment roof in the Village in 1982. They eat peoples’ brains and give off the best psychedelic light show a Commodore 64 could simulate at the time whenever they experience heroin or an orgasm, both of which happen a lot in this particular apartment. It’s really a timeless satire of cool — as applicable to 21st century Williamsburg now as whatever fucked-up proto-electro scene was going on then. First synthesied soundtrack ever, and features the line “I’m a killer. I kill with my c*nt.” What’s not to love? : http://tinyurl.com/2o7brw

3) Microcosmos — bugs are beautiful and snails are kinda hot. Dung beetles are hilarious metaphor for the struggle of the common man. Who knew?

4) Hellboy — Fuck a damn art house film, Guillermo Del Toro does the red guy RIGHT

5) Witness — my dad and I used to watch that part where Harrison Ford jumps out the buggy in full Amish gear and hands out a *serious* asswhipping over and over again.

6) Blue Velvet — prove me wrong, people

7) Robocop

The Fly

9) Spider Baby

10) American Splendor

Now that that is out of the way… OMG! I just found you via College Humor. You are amazing! Instantly likable and instantly blog-rolled. Big fan after five minutes on your blog.