Peter Bogdanovich had a nice run of movies in the early seventies with Paper Moon, What’s up, Doc? and this movie, The Last Picture Show. Since then it’s sort of hard to read what happened to him. He directed some bombs, some TV episodes and has acted a bit. I would assume that now people know him best as Dr. Melfi’s shrink on The Soprano’s. None the less, he made a classic with The Last Picture Show. It was nominated for everything, including Best Picture. It won both supporting actor awards and gave Jeff Bridges his breakout role. Read the rest of this entry »
There is something to be said for a movie that is so out there and surreal that you can just zone out and get lost in it. Even if the movie has shortcomings; if it has the ability to completely fill your head and temporarily make you forget where you are those shortcomings can easily be forgiven. This is the case with The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. This is the first of three movies that Terry Gilliam directed that cracked my top 100. Gilliam is one of the few the directors out there that can consistently either take you on some fantastic storybook adventure or weird you out in a good way or do both at the same time with great success. Read the rest of this entry »
Before you start to think that I made a goof and rated two movies #94 in a row, there has been an addition made to the list. So while at one point this was #93, it has been moved to #94 and The Departed (which was #100) has been officially knocked off of the list. Sorry Marty, although I am sure that you aren’t too insulted. Now on to the review…
You probably aren’t going to find too many sappy love stories in my top 100, and this may actually be the only one. For whatever reason, Love with the Proper Stranger is one of my all time favorites. I suppose that much if it has to do with the lead actors, Natalie Wood and Steve McQueen. To this day I say that Natalie Wood is the hottest actress ever. She may not have been the best actress out there but she charms the pants off of you in every role she plays. Twenty eight years after his death, McQueen is still considered the model of what cool is and actors continue to attempt and mostly fail to copy his persona. Read the rest of this entry »
I have been completely slacking on these. If I am going to count all the way down to number one before the apocalypse I better get cracking. Anyway, here is the first Woody Allen movie on my list, Zelig. You will see quite a bit of Woody Allen on my list. I saw the majority of his movies at roughly the same period in my life. I was about a year out of college and my sister and her then boyfriend (now husband) lived just a few blocks from me in San Francisco. I had seen just a few of Woody’s really famous late 70’s/ early 80’s movies and loved them. My brother in law either had just gotten into Woody himself or was sort of rediscovering and re-watching his movies at the same time. He was more familiar with some of the “early funny ones” and we started renting them together. I would usually go over to their place and my sister would occasionally make dinner and then sit unamused on the couch as my b-n-law and I laughed our asses off. During this period we watched almost the entire Woody Allen collection and for better or worse were hooked. Movie #94 was one of the first I remember watching with him. Read the rest of this entry »
The next movie on my list is one that shows up on most, if not all Top 100 lists. Usually it’s a lot higher than it is here, but again it’s my list and I call them how I see them. Without question Raging Bull is an all time classic, directed by an all time great with one of the all time performances. What De Niro did in this movie is amazing; gaining and losing weight like that.
You all know what the movie is about so I’ll make this quick. De Niro plays boxer Jake La Motta. He was a Middle Weight champion in the 40’s. He’s best known for being the first guy to ever beat the legendary Sugar Ray Robinson. Aside from being about his boxing career, the film is about Jake’s relationship with his wife and the rage that consumed him. These sort of end up being one in the same. The film takes us through his boxing career and post boxing career as a hack stand up comedian. I think the most interesting part of this movie is the relationship he has with his wife Vickie played by Cathy Moriarty. He never trusts that she is being faithful and this usually causes him to blow up and beat the hell out of someone. What ever happened to Cathy Moriarty by the way? This was her first movie and if you look her up on IMDB.com she has done nothing but absolute crap since. She was nominated for an Oscar and usually after that you get some sort of big time follow up. Instead she got Neighbors which was the Belushi/ Aykroyd movie that wasn’t funny. She was 21, hot and coming out the best movie of 1980. She was last seen in a 2005 episode Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. She couldn’t even get on the original and more popular version of Law & Order. Oh well, such is life in Hollywood I guess.
This is considered by many to be Martin Scorsese’s masterpiece. It’s not my favorite from him, but it’s hard to argue. He got so much out of his actors. Thematically and style wise it really capped off the 1970’s for him. He started diving in to some new territories after this. In fact his next two films King of Comedy and After Hours are different, but great. You want to see a whacked out movie, definitely check out After Hours. None the less Raging Bull is one of the all time greats and deserves all of the accolades it gets.
A guy who I worked with at my last job utterly hated this this movie. His name escapes me right now, but he sort of looked like Erik Estrada, better known by some as Ponch from the 70’s TV show CHiPs. Anyway, he was nice guy but I couldn’t understand his hatred for the movie. He gave the same excuses that most fans of Nick Cage or Van Damme movies give when they don’t like a movie that the critics mostly like. They’ll say it’s slow or it’s boring of if they’re honest they’ll just say that they don’t get it. Well I happed to like Wonder Boys. I liked it so much that it made my top 100. I’m not saying that I am smarter than this ex co-worker or have better taste (which I obviously do), but I guess I just got it.
Michael Douglas plays English professor Grady Tripp who seven years before was the talk of the literary world after writing a masterpiece novel. Since then he has not been able to complete his highly anticipated second novel which is now in the thousands in pages. His editor Terry Crabtree played by Robert Downey Jr. (who I would call a scene stealer in this, but everyone is so good, it’s impossible for anyone to steal a scene from anyone) comes to town to try and pressure Tripp in to getting the book done. Crabtree has gotten just as desperate for another hit as Tripp. The movie takes place over a long weekend and there is a lot packed in. Tripp’s third wife files for divorce, his girlfriend (played by an understated Frances McDormand) who also happens to be the school chancellor and wife of the head of the English department, lets him know she’s pregnant with his child and a big literary convention is hitting the campus where he will undoubtedly be asked about the progress of his new book. I haven’t even mentioned what Toby Maguire’s character, James puts him through. Something involving a dead dog and a stolen Marilyn Monroe outfit. James is actually at the center of this story along with Grady Tripp. He is a promising student in one of Tripp’s classes. He’s a pathological liar and an extreme introvert, but Tripp sees something in him. Did I mention that James hooks up with Crabtree? There is a lot going here.
The bottom line is that this is a very funny movie. It’s sort of a goofball comedy for people that don’t mind thinking a little bit when watching a movie. It can also at times be sad and touching. It’s not about the plot, this movie is completely character driven and the performances are all top notch. I don’t think I have ever like Douglas in a movie more than I do here playing against type. I haven’t even yet mentioned Katie Holmes (she is great in this small part) who plays one of Tripp’s students who is crushing on him and happens to rent a room in his house. The film bombed somewhat in the theater, but it shouldn’t be forgotten. Toss it on your Netflix queue, I think you’ll like it.
Whether you love him or hate him (because there really is no in between) you have to admit that Michael Moore is a talented, funny and persuasive filmmaker. In the midst of the 2004 presidential election Moore dropped a bomb on the George W. Bush campaign that would go down as the #1 box office documentary of all time, Fahrenheit 9/11. Unfortunately for us and the entire planet I suppose, Bush still won but this film hurt his campaign about as much as any movie could have this side of a secret sex tape starring Bush, Condoleezza Rice and hell, let’s throw in Cheney for a giggle.
The way Moore put this movie together isn’t new territory for him. There is a lot of himself, funny montages and interviews from people who have been personally affected by the war. It really is an indictment on the entire presidency up to that point. Besides the war in Iraq, Moore dives deep into how Bush stole the election in the first place against Gore. The film really is funny and George W provides a lot of the laughs. In the end though, it serves its purpose. When the closing credits roll, you are really angry at the president and pretty much everyone who works for him. It’s now four years later and we’re still stuck out there fighting with no real light at the end of the tunnel. Moore is a guy you want on your side, that’s why those who are on the other side hate him so dearly. None the less, it’s too bad they didn’t listen to him during the last election.
Just so you aren’t confused, this is not the John Cusack movie Gross Point Blank. Gross Point is actually a movie I am a rather big fan of and you should check it out if you get the chance, but it’s not quite Top 100 material. Point Blank came out 31 years earlier in 1967 and stars one the all time bad asses, Lee Marvin. To give you an idea of the type of movie this is, the tag line was…
“There are two kinds of people in his up-tight world: his victims and his women. And sometimes you can’t tell them apart.” Read the rest of this entry »
Most concert movies are fairly standard. The band gets up on stage, plays some songs, the crowd cheers and it’s over. There is the usual quick shot of someone in the crowd rocking out and pumping their fist, then the wide shot of the band with occasional close ups of the various members doing their thing. Sometimes the music is good, sometimes even really good but the excitement of the live performance sort of gets lost in its transition from concert to movie. This is definitely not the case in Stop Making Sense, the 1984 Talking Heads concert film directed by Jonathan Demme. Some say this is the best concert movie ever made. While I would probably call it the second best, you’d get no argument from me. The energy in the performance booms through your television and don’t be shocked if you find yourself shirtless and jumping up and down on your couch somewhere during the mid point of the film. Maybe that’s just me, but none the less it is hard to stay sitting down at times. Read the rest of this entry »
When I first saw this movie I absolutely loved it; I thought it was going to be one of the all time greats – a classic. Over the last year or so, my opinion of this movie has tempered a bit. Because of this, I ranked the movie 100 which plainly means that the next great movie I see (maybe There Will Be Blood, which I have not yet seen but plan to asap) will probably knock it off the list. With that said, as of now The Departed is on the list and deservedly so. Read the rest of this entry »