Wednesday, September 7, 2016

My Top Ten Favorite Movies

Just what it says on the tin. Today I'll be counting down my personal top ten favorite movies of all time. This list is entirely subjective and by no means am I saying that these are the ten best movies I've ever seen from a design standpoint; The Godfather and Citizen Kane unfortunately won't be making the list. These are simply the ten that I've liked the most over the years and find myself revisiting the most often. I will say that everything on this list is quite good and well worth seeing.

Honorable Mentions: The Professional (1994), Fight Club (1999), Gladiator (2000), Fury (2014), Alien (1979), American Beauty (2000), Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), The Notebook (2004), The Town (2010), Se7en (1995), Forrest Gump (1994), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Predator (1987) 

10. The Dark Knight (2008) - It's hard to describe what the mood was like when this movie released. It was probably the biggest "event movie" that I've ever seen at release, with a tidal wave of hype and an unparalleled layer of mystique surrounding it. Heath Ledger's Joker is one of the greatest villains in movie history, with a prowling menace that transcends his screentime and makes him larger than life. The overarching story of good being corrupted by evil is told in a perfect way, and this is a movie that I've appreciated more as time has gone on.

9. True Romance (1993) - My favorite Quentin Tarantino movie is also among his first (for the record, my second-favorite Tarantino movie is Django Unchained). The dialogue is pitch-perfect and the characters are wildly likeable, from Val Kilmer's Elvis ghost to the listless stoner played by Brad Pitt. This is a love story where the two main characters express their love through their dedication to each other despite adversity; a lot of love stories would settle for merely telling the audience that these people love each other. Here, it's plain as day, giving a powerful core to a remarkably entertaining movie. For many years, this would have been #1 for me. Also, honorable mention to Gary Oldman's turn as the vile pimp Drexel:

One of the most memorable villains in cinema, and it's unfortunate that he didn't get more screentime. At least he got to play a vaguely similar heel role on a greater scale in The Professional.

 8. Casablanca (1943) - An extremely well-told, well-shot, compelling and magnificent movie that might well have the most quotable dialogue I've ever heard...or at least it's right up there with the best of James Cameron's works. If this list were ranked based purely on quality, this one would be a contender for first place. Set during World War 2 while the war was still in full swing, this movie tells an interesting and relatable story about a guy with some difficult choices to make. Timeless is the best word for it.

7. Aliens (1986) - The first movie in this series is an outstanding horror film that made my Honorable Mentions with ease. I'd go so far as to say it's a contender for #11 if I were to expand the list. Despite all of that, the sequel tops it on every level and is a top-tier candidate for best action movie of all time. I mentioned Casablanca's quotability; this movie is equally quotable with some extremely memorable characters and situations. Sigorney Weaver as Ripley is totally iconic here and it's safe to say that this movie inspired my favorite game series, Metroid.

6. Star Wars (1977) - I had to choose one Star Wars episode to include here, even though really I wanted to include the entire original trilogy (I also like Episode III...). While Empire Strikes Back is a better movie and Return of the Jedi had more of an effect on me, I'll go with the first because of the purity of the storytelling. It's a classic tale of what is essentially a farm boy leaving home and having great responsibility land on his shoulders. If I had to pick one movie from this series with a blaster to my head, I'd go with the original Star Wars. Also, this movie was originally intended to stand on its own before a series existed, and if I'm going to pick one movie from a series that I'd like to fully include, it should be the one that can stand alone.

5. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) - Keeping with the star theme, I feel like Star Trek II isn't just the best Star Trek's one of the best movies of the 1980s, full stop. Not only does it feature the best battle/struggle in the entire series as Kirk faces Khan in ship-to-ship combat, it also allows us to really get to know these characters and what they've been up to in the years since we last saw them. It deals with such heavy subjects as coping with loss and realizing that you're getting older, making it more and more relatable as time goes on.

4. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) - Leonard Nimoy strikes again. This is a movie that I can best describe as "surreal". While it features some very recognizable movie stars, the story is gripping enough that it didn't take long for me to forget who they are as the story absorbed me. It's Hitchcock-esque in suspense and no matter how many times I see it, it never ceases to be interesting. Even though it pre-dates John Carpenter's The Thing, this almost strikes me as a sequel to it in a weird way; like this is what'd happen if The Thing actually reached civilization. A slow, creepy takeover where the people you know gradually become... something else.

3. The Terminator (1984) - Another iconic movie. Much like Alien and Aliens, this series underwent a massive tonal shift from horror to action; on some days I prefer the horror variant and on other days I prefer the action variant. This is essentially in a tie with the #2 movie on this list as a result. As a kid I liked T2 a lot more, but as an adult I found myself appreciating the original a great deal. It tells a tragic and moving story while being legitimately frightening at times; the only real strike against it is that some of the special effects don't hold up today. Fun Fact: The color scheme in this movie directly matches the mood of the story at any given time. It'll go from brightly-lit (during the peaceful scenes) to dark (during the menacing scenes / times when Sarah is in danger). The brightest scene in the entire movie is the huge fire near the end; it's also the most hopeful scene, as the day seems won. The darkest scene, visually, in the entire movie immediately follows that one, as they find themselves cornered in the factory and hope turns to despair.

2. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) - Basically tied with #3. This is a movie that at once manages to be extremely fun AND thought-provoking. It tells an incredible story full of ups and downs, and considering it came out in 1991, the special effects are legitimately better than most modern movies. Even watching it now, it's so perfectly executed that one really needs to reach to find any flaw with it. That one flaw is that it can be a bit slow during some of the middle portions of the movie, especially in the extended director's cut. I could do without a lot of the mental hospital scenes. That aside, this movie is incredible and more than deserves to be #2 on the list.

Also, special mention goes to the future war scene, which easily manages to be more exciting and look better than any future war scenes in the later Terminator movies:

And finally, #1 goes to...

1. John Carpenter's The Thing (1982) - Gripping, captivating, and surreal, The Thing is my favorite movie of all time. It's thought-provoking and captured my imagination more than any other movie that I can think of. The Ennio Morricone soundtrack is haunting and absolutely perfect, the cinematography is master-level, and the characters are far more memorable than your usual horror movie fare. This is technically a remake of The Thing From Another World, a movie I reviewed a while back. That movie is pretty good, but it's a completely different beast (literally) from this one. This movie gets much closer to the source material, a 1930's short story called Who Goes There. In 2011 we got a direct prequel to this movie (that most people thought was a remake since it hit so many of the same beats) and while it's nowhere near the 1982 movie and exposes the alien a bit more than it should have, it's a decent lead-in to this movie when watched back-to-back.

When this movie first came out, it got panned heavily by critics, with the New York Times calling it "junk". My mom saw it and walked out of the theater midway through (later she re-watched it at home and realized how outstanding it actually is). It certainly isn't for everyone. It grossed a mere $20 million at the box office, and while not being a flop for the time it could hardly be called a success. Being up against the similarly-themed (alien visitor) but vastly more hopeful E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial didn't help matters.

One of the many semi-subliminal creepy messages in this movie: They aren't labeled

The funny thing is that I myself never fully appreciated this movie until around 2008 when I finally gave it more attention. For a long time I thought of it as a decent but grotesque horror movie and sold it short a bit; in actuality, it's a movie that creates all kinds of fascinating questions while presenting terrifying possibilities. Where did the alien come from? Did it pilot its own ship, or did it steal the ship from the original pilots? Was it part of some sort of interstellar zoo, collected by astronauts who were visiting various worlds and happened upon a world conquered by The Thing, unaware of just what they were picking up? Was it a biological weapon - destined for, say, Earth - that got out of control and crashed the ship? All we know for sure is that if the protagonists of the movie fail to defend themselves against the creature, so too will the rest of civilization fall with them. The ending is among the bleakest in cinema, but at the same time it maintains some hope; as the ruins freeze, there's a good chance that the threat of The Thing has been stopped once and for all. least until the ice starts melting someday.

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