Jaquandor, at Byzantium's Shores, inspired by Tosy and Cosh, whom I have never read, has taken on a bit of a 'meme project.' He intends, as do I, else I would not be writing these words, to list one hundred movies that he likes (well, I'll probably stick to movies that I like). Note that these are not necessarily my opinion of what are the best 100 films ever. I could probably make a list of 100 movies that are generally considered to be great films, that I haven't ever seen. They may not necessarily even be the best 100 films I have ever seen. They are just 100 movies that I have seen and really liked. At least two or three of them are, I will readily admit, bad movies...
I know you are, but what am I?
When I first decided to do this (about halfway through reading Jaq's first ten), I thought it might be hard to come up with 100 movies that qualify. Having spent twenty minutes on Google I am now faced with the unenviable task of paring about twenty titles off my preliminary list.
Jaq, and Tosy before him, numbered their lists, in reverse order; starting at 100 and working their way down to 1. Because I am not going to even try to rank these movies in any way, I'm not going to do that. I'm just going to present them, in blocks of ten, with a little bit of commentary. In fact, I am going to number my rough list, from one to one hundred, and then use a random number generator to select what order they are presented in. Just because.
OK, here we go...
THE AWV LIST OF 100 MOVIES I REALLY, REALLY LIKED
The first 10...
The Rock - Sean Connery, Nick Cage, a bunch of really big guns, and a yellow Ferrari. What's not to like?
The Last Temptation of Christ - It's a shame so many Christians condemned this film without ever actually having seen it. It's nothing like they said it was. If any of you Christians out there had a problem with this movie, I'd be interested in hearing what it was.
Stargate - Kurt Russell rocks! Always has, always will. How many men do you know who are banging Goldie Hawn? Huh? Yeah, I thought so. Suck it, Chuck Norris!
Several years ago at a home theater seminar, the presenter used a scene from the movie Just The Ticket, in which Andy Garcia uses a Stargate LaserDisc as demo material to sell a big screen TV and surround sound stereo set. Comedy gold! The rest of it pretty much sucked, I understand. Still, I enjoyed the metaness of the demo within a demo.
The Transporter - Jason Statham kicks everybody's ass. Over and over again. About now you'll be beginning to detect something of a pattern in my selections, I think.
The Road Warrior - Pattern confirmed! Besides, there had to be at least one Mel movie on this list, and it sure as hell wasn't going to be Forever Young.
The Hunt For Red October - You might suspect you sense another pattern forming here... I will neither confirm nor deny the allegations. Have you seen this movie? They make a submarine jump out of the water fer chrissakes!
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - Here lies proof of the random nature of this list. Had I been ranking these in any way, this would most likely have been number one, and the last movie I listed. The random number generator says I put it here. Not much to say here but the fact that Peter Jackson did a remarkable job with these films. The entire trilogy really belongs together as one movie, but being forced to break them up, this one is my favourite of the three.
This is Spinal Tap - Any old, dyed-in-the-wool rock 'n' roll fan has to love this movie. I'm a fan of all of Christopher Guest's oeuvre, but this one is the funniest to me, because I recognise myself in the absurdity of the rock 'n' roll posturing they lampoon. As mock documentaries go, this one goes to eleven.
Ghostbusters - Who you gonna call? Um...this'll come up again, as well. The only thing funnier than Murray, Ackroyd, and Ramis fighting the 'Stay Puft Marshmallow Man' is the fact the Ackroyd actually believes ghosts are real. "Nice thinking, Ray."
Beverly Hills Cop - Eddie at the top of his game...before his game got old. Nowadays, the best he can do is talk like an ass - I meandonkey.
There you have it, the first ten films on the list of movies I really like. What are your thoughts?
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10 comments:
I can see that there isn't going to be a huge overlap between your faves and mine, assuming I take this on, which I may or may not do. But Ghostbusters would definitely be on mine as well. My favorite bit is probably Egon saying that fear has rendered him incapable or rational thought, or possibly the "Yes, have some" scene.
I suppose I can agree with these ten. I don't know about the Last Temptation. It's been a while, and I think I'd need to watch it once more just to see if I like it or not. I really, honestly, don't remember it all that well.
Other than that, I can't see the name Kurt Russell without immediately thinking of Big Trouble in Little China.
Good luck with the list, and I can't wait to see more, cowboy!
Rock on,
Dan
http://thewisdomofadistractedmind.blogspot.com/
I am with you on each and every one, in fact, quite a few of these are faves.
In fact, I think I had a dream with Jason, Nick and Sean Connery on a desert island once... never mind... I digress...lol
ps... I thought the Last Temptation was great. Many Christians like to just focus on Jesus divinity, however, he was a human. A flawed one, even according to his chroniclers, and I am sure much more so than that.
be well,
Dawn
Haven't seen Transporter or Last Temptation. With you on the rest! --Cin
I'm not really into action movies, but I really enjoyed "The Rock". Some really clever action sequences in that flick.
Russ
Rock - Oh yeah, Nick Cage waving those flares to ward off the jet fighers as they were about to blow his nuts off? I totally bought every second of that.
Christ - This is the only one on this inaugural list of yours that I haven't seen, and so I have no opinion on it.
Stargate - Do you know why Kurt Russell rocks so hard?? Big Trouble in Little China. That's why. One of the BEST MOVIES EVER!!
Transporter - Statham's comment right at the beginning about the shocks in his car is what won me over to this movie. That, and the fight scene where he put bicycle clips on his feet while he fought a hundred-thousand bad guys in a pool of grease. W00t!
Road Warrior - Oh Yeah...
October - "Most things in here don't respond well to bullets." I was working at the theatre at West Edmonton Mall when this came out, and I still have the promo button that reads, "The Hunt is On, 3-2-90". Saw this for free several times and loved it every time.
Fellowship - Very little to add here. I'm still torn as to my favourite. But the scene that probably moved me the most was the charge of the Rohirrim onto the Pellenor Fields at Minas Tirith. That, or the bit where Sam says something like, "I can't carry it... but I can carry you!" Gawd, I loved that whole trilogy.
Spinal - Loved. It.
Ghost - "OK... so? My girlfriend's a dog." What's not to love?!?!
Beverly - Yeah. The ass thing.
Simon
http://simianfarmer.com
Sir, you pick a good flick.
-Alec
A comment on The Last Temptation of Christ: I agree with you, Paul. I would think that anyone who believes in the humanity of Christ, would see this as one of the more earthly and realistic portrayals of a man who is subject to the same temptations as the rest of us. Yes, it might have been shocking to some, who have never pictured Christ in a less than Godly pose, but this film showed an honest depiction of the real life desires of a man who is truly human, not some sanitized version of events that would suit those who can't accept a real flesh-and-blood redeemer. Tina
.... and, by the way, Spinal Tap is one of my favorites, too, as are the rest of Christopher Guest's films. I've seen 'Waiting for Guffman' at least a dozen times, and I still laugh as hard as the first time I watched it. Looking forward to the rest of the list ... and betting that lots of my favorites will be on it. Tina
I have seen all these except Passion and Spinal Tap. Other than that, I loved all of them!
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