In 1970 Mike Nichols and Buck Henry followed The Graduate with an adaptation of the classic Joseph Heller novel, Catch-22. At the time, it 
wasn’t all that well received. In fact, the reviews were mostly mediocre or negative. I think the expectations were so great and the book has such an enormous following that the film was almost destined to fail. I tend to think time has been kind to it and Nichols deserves credit for biting off maybe more than he could chew but stuffing his face with it anyway and breaking it down just enough to swallow. I don’t know if that makes sense to anyone else, but it’s the only I can really think to describe it.
I actually never read the book. Maybe this is a better movie for those who haven’t, I don’t know. Catch-22 takes place mostly on a base during World War 2. It starts off as more of a satire or dark comedy about the 
ridiculousness and insanity of war but eventually shifts in to the dark realities of it. Alan Arkin plays Captain John Yossarian who desperately wants out of the war because as he says, “Those bastards are trying to kill me.” Those bastards that he is referring to of course are the Germans. Arkin is great in the daunting task of recreating a legendary literary character in to a great movie one. The all star supporting cast does well here too. I’m not going to bother listing them all, but if you click on the title you can see a list.
Everything about this movie is big; the budget, the cast and the cinematography. It is a great movie to look at. Catch-22 came out at right about the same time as MASH. Both movies are basically trying to say the same thing. While I think MASH is a better movie and probably a little more coherent, 22 is damn good and probably deserves another look from people who didn’t give it a fair shake the first time or a first look from people who skipped it.
There probably should be more foreign language movies on my list. I have seen a ton that I really like, but I think that I am such a slow reader that it hinders my experience a little bit. Also, I am about to go back and watch and re-watch some of the classics. I’ve seen most of the major Bergman and Kurosawa movies, but I haven’t seen enough of Fellini and Truffaut. Anyway, there are a few that did make my list and the funny thing is two of them are from South America. I don’t know why that’s funny; maybe it’s because I was just name dropping directors that movie snobs name drop from the other side of one of the ponds.
The Motorcycle Diaries is the story of a road trip Ernesto Guevara (before he became Che) goes on with his friend Alberto from Argentina to Peru in the early 1950’s. What was initially supposed to be a wild trip for the two young med school students to sew their oats became a time of realization and self exploration, most notably for Guevara. Along the journey they see poverty and oppressive governments along South America and this according to the actual diaries in which the film was based; is what would turn Ernesto Guevara in to Ernesto Che Guevara. Read the rest of this entry »
After a brutal performance that was so bad it actually ruined the otherwise 
great Godfather Part 3 for some people; Sophia Coppola solidified that she is a very talented writer and director with Lost in Translation. This was her follow up to the surprisingly good Virgin Suicides and she showed growth and development in every way. I usually don’t expect much from the offspring of great artists, but Sophia did Daddy proud. Not to be lost in my gushing over Sophia here are the spectacular performances by Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson. Murray resurrected his career with an outstanding performance in Rushmore and showed that it was no fluke in this movie. He’s always been hilarious, but as he’s gotten older he’s been able to add layers to the roles he plays that weren’t there before. Johansson toiled around as a child actress for years in movies like North and Home Alone 3 before scoring a nice part in the underrated Ghost World which is probably eventually landed her this role. Read the rest of this entry »
When We Were Kings is not a great documentary because the director did anything different or special. There are no gimmicks; it’s a straight forward documentary. What makes it so great is the subject matter, the footage and the personalities involved. This is of course the story of the Rumble in the Jungle, Muhammad Ali vs. George Forman in 1974. Ali had recently taken a beating from Joe Frazier. In turn, Forman put a huge beating on Frazier. Ali wasn’t given much of a chance. Forman was younger and much stronger. That didn’t seem to matter to the fans in Zaire where the fight took place. Forman was the overwhelming favorite, but Ali was the overwhelming fan favorite and it may have taken a toll on Forman. Read the rest of this entry »
This is the first of two movies that George Clooney directed to make my list. 
Considering that he’s only directed three all together, I think his track record is pretty good so far. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind was based off of the book written by the main character Chuck Barris. Considering that and the fact that it was adapted for the screen by Charlie Kaufman there is no doubt that it’s going to be filled with plenty of weirdness.
If you don’t know anything about or never heard of Chuck Barris, he’s the guy who created The Dating Game, The Newlywed Game and The Gong Show. Yeah, he’s partly to thank for all of the lame reality crap that turds all over your television screen night in and night out. He’s well aware that what he made was mindless garbage; he even says so in his book. Maybe that’s why he also says in his book that aside from being a game show host/ creator, he was also an assassin for the CIA. Yeah, he seriously made that claim. He says that while he chaperoned couples that won on the dating game on trips to such random places as Helsinki and West Berlin he let the couples do their thing while he was actually on an assignment. According to him, he assassinated 33 people. Is this all actually true? Probably not. Does it matter? Definitely not. Half of the fun of this story is the whole what the fuck aspect of it. Barris obviously didn’t think much of himself or his accomplishments in real life so he felt it was necessary to include his imaginary life in to autobiography.
You would never guess that this film was made by a first time director, and George Clooney of all people. The story is sort of half autobiographical and half fantasy and Clooney does a great job of adding that surreal element to it. Some people may be turned off by the way Clooney plays with color, focus and angles; but I think it adds to this mind goof of a story. Not to get lost in all of this talk about Barris and Clooney is the performance of Sam Rockwell as Barris. If you have seen Barris on TV, you’ll notice the great job he has done in capturing him. If you haven’t, you can just take this as a job well done on an interesting character. Rockwell has gotten some good roles since this movie, but I often wonder why he doesn’t get more. Maybe he’s just better as a character actor than a leading man, but none the less he is always good. Drew Barrymore does fine as his hippie girlfriend that he doesn’t deserve. Julia Roberts takes on a small role here as a spy and mistress of Barris. She’s ok, but to be honest I can’t really stand her in almost anything she does. She has this sort of, I’m a sassy bad ass actress attitude in so many of her more recent roles and it really gets under my skin. She’s not in enough of the movie to do any damage so I guess it’s not even worth mentioning. This is a fun and funny movie and gets a lot darker than you might expect it to. Well worth the rent.
So I am obviously trying to get through the top 100 movie list at a little bit of a faster pace. Anyway, just wanted to make sure that you know this site hasn’t turned in to a movie only site, I just want to get some of these out of the way so it’s not five years before I get the countdown finished. On with the movie…
So this entry is for the original 1962, Frank Sinatra version of The Manchurian Candidate and not the 2004 version with Denzel. I haven’t seen the new version and probably never will. In fact, I plan to watch the original again sometime soon and am choosing to ignore the new one. I have noticed that remakes are seldom as good as the original; and with a movie as good as this why did they even bother? Read the rest of this entry »
I absolutely love old private detective movies and this is the first one of 
many on my list. The plot of this movie is so convoluted and confusing that I’m not going to go too deep in to it, but it really doesn’t matter. The Big Sleep has it all; the world weary private eye, the two faced femme fetale, the thuggish brutes, the out of nowhere plot twists and lots of people getting randomly offed. This is classic film noir. Everything happens in dark shadows, no one can be trusted and the world weary detective is none other than Phillip Marlowe who is played by none other than Humphrey Bogart. Marlowe’s main love interest in the movie was played by his real life wife Lauren Bacall and the chemistry between the two has become legendary. The movie was directed by the great Howard Hawks. Read the rest of this entry »
Regardless of the character he played, Paul Newman made it very hard for anyone not to like him. If there is one exception it’s probably Hud. Especially during this period of time, Newman played flawed and rebellious characters that were usually deep down good people. That’s not really the case here. Hud Bannon is the meanest and most selfish man Newman ever brought to the big screen. Read the rest of this entry »
The Last Detail is the first of three Jack Nicholson movies from the 70’s to make this list. There were a 
couple more that probably just missed. He was on a role that decade and I guess has been ever since. The movie was directed by Hal Ashby who while not having a particularly long resume as a director; has a very distinguished one. He directed such classics as Harold and Maude, Shampoo, Being There and this movie The Last Detail. Read the rest of this entry »
With a lesser actor than Paul Newman, The Verdict would be a solid court room drama rather than a great one. What makes it great is that the movie is more a character study of Newman’s character Frank Galvin than a thriller. This movie was made by some of the best on the business. Aside from Newman, it was directed by Sidney Lumet and written by David Mamet. Not a bad list of A-teamers. Read the rest of this entry »