Tag: Movies

So it’s time to continue my countdown of my 100 favorite movies, or the 100 movies that would be considered the greatest movies ever if I were the Grand Exalted Ruler of the Entire Freaking Universe, or whatever. This time, we count down from #90 to #81.

90. Henry V

The Kenneth Branagh version, actually; I’ve only seen a small part of the Lawrence Olivier version, so I can’t do a direct comparison. Branagh’s is wonderfully done; Derek Jacobi does terrific work as the Chorus, introducing the film from an empty soundstage, and when Branagh delivers the Bard’s signature St. Crispin’s Day speech, I’m ready to storm a field too. Patrick Doyle’s score is a virtual classic of Shakespearean film music.

Signature moment: The afore-mentioned Crispin’s Day speech. (Text and audio link here.)

89. In the Line of Fire

This taut thriller got overshadowed in 1993 when it came out — that year’s juggernaut hit was Jurassic Park, and the brilliant The Fugitive also stole some of Line of Fire‘s thunder. This one stars Clint Eastwood as an aging, near-to-retirement Secret Service agent who gets drawn into a game of cat-and-mouse with an assassin (John Malkovich) who is openly plotting the assassination of the President. It’s an extremely well-made and entertaining film, with first-rate performances all around. (Fred Thompson plays the White House Chief of Staff.)

Signature moment: When Eastwood figures it all out.

88. Tron

I’m not sure how well this movie plays to people who didn’t grow up at that exact moment of history, the early 80s when computers were first starting to become personal objects and when video games were all the rage. I watched it again a few years ago, and it still holds up for me. It’s not a source of great acting or anything — the “real world” sequences are fairly dull — but the stuff “inside the computer” is just wondrous, as good an example of a movie creating a visual world as I’ve ever seen. Interesting electronic music by Wendy Carlos (with a strangely out-of-place song by Journey over the end credits).

Signature moment: Is there any other choice possible? The light-cycles, obviously!

87. American Graffiti

I was completely baffled by this movie when I first saw it. I was seven or eight years old, and the film was in re-release. My parents took me to see it — they wanted to go, and I ended up along for the ride. My problem was that the film’s opening titles are done in the same font as those for the TV series “Happy Days”, and Ron Howard was in it too, so on some level I thought I was watching some kind of big-screen episode of the TV show, rather than a movie that preceded that show by several years. Anyway, I watched it again when I was in college and found it funny, bittersweet, and full of charm and wit as well as love for that era of automotive and rock-and-roll history. I recently read somewhere — I think it was a blog, but I’m not sure — that American Graffiti came out in 1973 and made people feel nostalgic for a time just eleven years in the past; can you imagine a movie coming out right now that would make you nostalgic for 1996?

Signature moment: Paul Le Mat’s soliloquy in the junk yard.

86. The Hunchback of Notre Dame

This always feels to me like three-quarters of a great movie. Disney had a real chance to do a tragic and dark ending here, but the farthest they could stretch themselves in that direction was to not give the hero the girl. Still, it’s a nicely ambitious film, with lots of large-scale numbers.

Signature moment: The introductory number, “The Bells of Notre Dame”.

85. Beauty and the Beast

This is definitely the finest of the “Silver Age” of Disney animation (i.e., the era that started with The Little Mermaid). Its story is perfectly paced, the animation is beautiful, and the musical numbers are the finest to come from the legendary team of Menken&Ashman. It’s just an outstanding film, one on which I’m hard-pressed to identify any blatant flaws.

Signature moment: “Be Our Guest” is the more famous number, but the introductory “Belle” is my favorite as it weaves together a whole bunch of separate goings-on from the town into a wonderful bit of scene-setting.

84. An Affair to Remember

Sure, it’s totally sentimental, but this film sports a nearly perfect first hour, followed by a bit of losing the way, and then ends with a scene that always makes me blubber like a little girl. Seriously, when Cary Grant suddenly puts two and two together and realizes just why Deborah Kerr wasn’t there for their Empire State Building rendezvous, I always start to lose it — and then he opens the bedroom door and finds the painting. Sigh. The film sags a bit in the second half, what with a horrible musical number involving some kids and some very unconvincing stuff with Cary Grant as a starving artist.

Signature moment: I think I just described it….

83. Die Hard

What a blast of a movie. What a total, absolute blast. And I’ve just realized that I haven’t watched it in several years. Why not? Because I’m lazy. What makes it so great isn’t just the production values and the editing — although all that is sublime — but the fact that it makes the hero and villain pretty much of equal intelligence. John McClane doesn’t just bowl his way through all the bad guys; he actually has to figure stuff out and take huge risks, and in reacting to McClane’s activities, Hans Gruber also has to figure stuff out and take huge risks of his own.

Signature moment: Hell, there are so many from this film, aren’t there? For me, the most blood-pumping sequence is when the two helicopters are arriving on the roof.

82. The Music Man

And no, not just because I went to college in Iowa! I loved this movie well before I ever even thought of going to Iowa. So there. The Music Man never seems to get enough love when the subject of the great musicals comes up, and I can never figure out why. It’s really extremely good, full of wit and hilarity and some absolutely beautiful songs.

Signature moment: My favorite musical number here is “Ya Got Trouble”, when Prof. Harold Hill launches his own personal brand of flim-flam in River City.

81. Brigadoon

It’s not long enough, jettisoning too many numbers from the Broadway show (two of them because of risque lyrics). Its focus is more on operatics than on typical Hollywood musical production numbers, befitting Gene Kelly’s more ballet-influenced style of dancing than Fred Astaire soft-shoe. But I adore its tale of the cursed town that only awakes for one day each century, and the love story that unfolds there.

Signature moment: “The Heather on the Hill”.

And there we go for now. Look for another installment whenever I get around to writing one!

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Tosy and Cosh did this a while back (most recently here, so he has three posts still to go in his series), and ever one to follow the lemmings off the cliff*, I figure I’ll do it as well. This series of posts will enumerate one hundred movies that I really really really like a whole whole lot, in no real order at first (although as this series grinds on toward my personal Top Ten, I’ll start thinking more about rank), plus a signature moment, line, or bit of dialogue from each that stands out in my head.

So anyhow, without further ado, here are numbers 100 through 91 on my list of Movies You’d Better Love Or You’re A Giant Pinhead:

100. A Room with a View

It’s been years since I watched this, but it always stands out strong in my memory. It was actually recommended to me during the summer of 1987, when I was attending a music camp; this hippie-type guy (I wasn’t a hippie-type myself at the time, just a misfit dork) was talking about movies, and he described A Room with a View as “a movie that made him want to fall in love”. Even then I was a Romantic-in-waiting (remember, even then I’d discovered my deep affinity with Hector Berlioz), so I rented this as soon as I got back from the camp. And yes, it made me want to fall in love. Did I? Eventually.

Signature line: “He’s sounding the eternal yes.” It’s such a weird line — never once have I understood even a little just what the heck the “eternal yes” may be — but Denholm Elliot says this like it’s the most natural thing in the world. I love it when a movie can say something like this and not have me think, “What?!”

99. When Harry Met Sally…

There’s just something so right about this movie’s belief in friendship as a precursor to love. There’s also something so right about this movie’s belief in two completely neurotic people, who are neurotic in completely different ways, being so perfect for one another. I can’t think of a single mis-step this movie takes, really. (And it could have — if you get the DVD, check out the deleted scenes, at least a couple of which are awful.)

Signature line: “You made a woman meow?” For some reason, I actually find that line (by Bruno Kirby) funnier than Estelle Reiner’s famous punchline for the orgasm-in-the-deli scene.

98. The Guns of Navarone

Another terrific movie I haven’t seen in far too long. I rented it in high school, the first time I saw it, mainly out of curiosity. I’d heard of this WWII action movie, but I knew nothing at all about it. I sat down to watch it and was hooked in the first ten minutes. I loved how it took its time with its story, introducing its characters and letting their various personalities interact and clash, all the while honing in on their ultimate mission. It’s just a classy, classy film of the type you don’t much see anymore.

Signature sequence: I can’t remember any specific dialogue from the movie, but the entire last half hour of the movie is riveting.

97. The Love Bug

Cheesy Disney goodness! Many a fine afternoon as a kid was spent seeing the live-action Disney flicks of the late 60s or early 70s (when they were re-released or showed up on teevee, mostly). There’s just something nifty about this tale of the sentient VW Beetle that always makes me smile. If there’s a more pathetic scene in movie history than Herbie’s attempt at suicide by jumping off a bridge, I haven’t seen it!

Signature line: “Think about what you’re saying,” the Buddy Hackett character says to Dean Jones the first time Jones is directly addressing Herbie as if he’s alive.

96. The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers

Every fantasy or adventure movie with a comedic touch to it nowadays is always said to be channeling the spirit of The Princess Bride, but really, The Princess Bride looks back to these two movies (shot as one, which is why I count them together). Just grand, great fun.

Signature moment: When D’Artagnan leaps out the window of the upper-floor room to chase after the man who’d previously assaulted him…only to land on the repair scaffolding directly outside said window.

95. The Sound of Music

So, so cheesy…and how I love it so! From that first opening sweep over the Alps, finally settling in on that one hilltop meadow where Julie Andrews regales us with the film’s title number (before the opening credits even roll). About the only thing I don’t like about the film is Liesl’s singing voice — and Captain Von Trapp’s attempt to appeal to Rolf’s better nature always rings false when I watch it, seeing as how the only times they interact before that, the Captain doesn’t seem to give two shits about Rolf. But I digress….

Signature exchange: “It’s so easy to like Maria…except for when it’s difficult!”

94. Mary Poppins

I really think that two things keep this movie from being considered one of the great musicals of all time: the Disney logo, which pretty much automatically files it under the “Family/Children’s Movie” label for all time, and Dick Van Dyke. I’ve never been a big fan of Van Dyke’s (although later on in this list there will be a movie of his that I really do like him in), and his Cockney antics here get a bit distracting at various points in the proceedings. But other than that, the movie’s loaded with terrific numbers, and the fantasy content is just superb with the fully-realized worlds within London existing, unsuspected, just a short distance from the childrens’ bedrooms.

Signature sequence: Any time Julie Andrews opens her mouth.

93. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

And here’s the movie where I actually like Dick Van Dyke. This movie’s overlong, with an introduction that goes on for something like an hour, but once the car shows up, it gets a lot more fun, even if it is basically a tale being told by Van Dyke as opposed to actually happening. The film is beautiful to behold, and frankly, I could look at Sally Ann Howes as Truly Scrumptious (Ian Fleming and his suggestive names for female characters, yeesh….) all day long!

Signature sequence: The unveiling of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

92. Whale Rider

I can barely describe this movie. I found its tale of a young Maori girl’s attempt to overcome the rigid traditions of her people captivating and magical.

Signature moment: I don’t want to describe it…but if you watch the movie, you’ll know it when it happens.

91. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

I haven’t yet seen Order of the Phoenix, so I may be wrong, but so far this is the best of the Potter films. It helps that it was the best of the books, too — but the film is just rock solid from start to finish. After the first two were helmed by Chris Columbus, new director Alfonso Cuaron toned down the schmaltz and highlighted the tale’s darker elements. The first two films, while quite well done, often seemed to be trying so hard to please all the Potter fans in the world; Prisoner of Azkaban, on the other hand, has confidence in its own story and tells it with flair and drama. It’s also no accident that Prisoner boasts John Williams’s finest score of his three Potter efforts, since Williams always responds best to darker story material and since Chris Columbus always brings out the saccharine in Williams. (Really: my least favorite Williams scores are all for Columbus’s movies.)

Signature scene: When Prof. Lupin teaches the kids to defend against the Boggart. Watch this movie and try to figure out when you’re looking at a reflection in the mirror!

And there’s our first installment. Next time, movies 81-90.

* I know, the lemmings don’t really commit intentional mass suicide. No corrections, please!

UPDATE: Well, I wrote this a couple of days ago, so wouldn’t you know that just when I finally publish it, the Cosh Bros. go and update their list. Tsk, tsk.

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