Comedy, Drama, Action, Adventure, Suspense, Thriller - These Are The Best Movies Of All TimeMay 28 '01 (Updated Aug 14 '01) Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line This List Chronicles The Best Movies Of All Time. You Should See Them, Buy Them, And Treasure Them Forever.
Many people I know often refer to me for movie advice. I always see the latest movies first and always have something to say about them. It's pretty rare that I'll come across a movie that I've not seen. God knows, if I'm not playing a video game, odds are I'm watching movies. I have many favorites, but to choose only ten? What a task! I like the idea of narrowing this down. In my movie collection, all of which are favorites, I have around 30 DVDs and 40 VHSs. But to pick only 10? Man, Epinions is really nerve racking. I know everyone may not agree with my choices but these are my choices, not yours. If you have any complaints, just leave a comment! So I guess I'll start. The Would Be 11 Spot - Chasing Amy Chasing Amy remains to be one of my favorite movies today. it shows the story of a boy who falls in love with a lesbian and tries to cope with it. Written by Kevin Smith, or Dogma and Clerks fame, this film has tons of punch lines and the dialogue is witty as ever. Jason Lee steals the film as the comic relief and Ben Affleck shows he has some talent as the boy. Joey Lauren Adams provides her breakthrough performance as the lesbian. I like this movie cause it just totally bashes love when the characters get down but when they get happy again, it totally praises it. It also gives us sort of an inside look to Lesbians and how they cope with stuff like this. This better establishes the character. Kevin Smith writes in a smart way so that we feel for each character, whether they may be normal or different. 10. Croutching Tiger, Hidden Dragon The second I knew this was coming to DVD, I pre-ordered. And for good reason. Directed by Ang Lee, CTHD tells the story of an old swordsmen whose sword is stolen by a young female and attempts to get it back. While on the journey we discover the truth behind the girl and why she stole the sword. Amazing spectacle all about grace and wisdom. The stunts: Fantastic, The Acting: Sweet, The Movie: Simply Amazing 9. TIE! Princess Mononoke and End Of Evangelion I wanted to put both of these movies at number 9. I had that planned but as I was writing for CTHD I gave up and made them tie. Both are anime movies too, cool eh? Mononoke is about a young warrior, Ashi-taka, who tries to save a forest from being destroyed by an army led by Lady Eboshi. Living in the forest, is the fair Princess Mononoke, born to the wolves and raised by them also. Ashi-taka tries to come between Eboshi, who wants to kill the forest and Mononoke, who is trying to get rid of Eboshi. Meanwhile, the Gods of the forests are fighting and producing evil demons, Ashi-taka gets poisoned and only the Gods may heal him and he needs Mononoke to help him with that. What I like about PM is that there's no real bad guy or villian. Humans are the enemies. It's like one big grey area. The animation is crisp and the voice acting is actually pretty good for an anime. A sure fire movie for a Friday Night. The End of Evangelion is also an anime. It tells the ending chapter of young Shinji Ikari and his fight against the angels which eventually leads up to Third Impact and SPOILERS AHEAD the creation of a new world, with only Asuka and he on it. The movie has got to have the most beautiful animation ever, for a movie, OAV, or show in anime. The transition between the show and the movie is quite amazing. It becomes crisper and the colors jump out more, even more than it already did. The plot may take you multiple viewings to get but it's worth it. It's a gut-wrenching story that will leave you on the edge of your seat, one of the most suspenseful I've ever seen. All of the characters pasts are tied up and we see everything unfold. A must have for any anime fan and even if you don't like anime it's still a great choice to watch. 8. Interview With The Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles Small note, I HATE it when people say that Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise are just pretty faces and can't act. Whenever people tell me that, I tell them to watch this movie. It unfolds the story of a young man (Pitt) who becomes a vampire and has to experience the torment of living forever without anyone else. It's a charming little movie because we see the down side of being a vampire. No light, have to suck blood, the guilt of taking people and killing them. For Pitt and Cruise to establish themselves in these roles is simply put, tremendous. To be able to make us believe your a vampire, a depressed guilt driven one at that is amazing. I totally believed that they were vampires and I went through their torment. It's not really a horror movie, but a drama, it's a great movie about finding life and experiencing death and depression too. 7. Can't Hardly Wait O.k., I know I'm going to get comments about how this shouldn't be on the list but I love this movie o.k.? Back when Teen comedies were coming back into style this movie was one of the first out. I missed it in theatres but I rented it one night and was delightfully surprised. It's the common High School comedy where geeks become studs, jocks become losers, and the guy gets the girl in the end. I totally related to the story and became connected to it. Ethan Embry was fantastic and Jennifer Love Hewitt is very easy on the eyes. Seth Green also makes an extremely humorous role too. The plot is not oscar winning but it's good, the soundtrack however is awesome. It blares throughout the movie. I find something new and funny about this movie every viewing so why don't you give it a try? 6. The Goonies Who hasn't seen this movie? It's a great movie! I've seen it dozens of times as a kid and I still enjoy it now. Directed by Richard Donner, it shows the story of a group of kids who try to save their town from being bought by land investors. How do they do this? They trek through caverns underneath a criminals restaurant and find that a pirate by the name of "One Eyed Willy" kept his treasure there. So if they find the treasure they can save the town! It's the kind of movie you can walk out of smiling and saying to yourself "Man, that was really good!". The acting is all done by children so it's meager but the story is fun and the jokes are hilarious. The characters in it are very unique too. Ranging from a chinese James Bond to a muscle pumping weight watcher bent on capturing the heart of the girl he loves, they all have something funny and in common. It's a movie with heart. It's the kind of movie that can be taken seriously but is more fun not to. Kids and Adults alike will love this gem! 5. Akira This may just be me, but if you haven't seen this anime movie, you should be dragged into the street and beaten with pointy sticks. The pinnacle of animation worldwide, Akira revolutionized the anime culture with it's immense plot and great character design. It's the story of Kaneda and his friend Tetsuo. During a motorcycle stunt, Tetsuo crashes and is picked up by a police-esque squad. The encounter with the police and the boy that made him crash give him telekinetic powers. Now with a power trip and big ego, Tetsuo wrecks havok on Tokyo-3. Now Kaneda is the only one who can stop him, will the friendship of years make Tetsuo see that power isn't everything? We'll just see... First of all, the plot and dialogue are just great, I loved it. I had to watch it a few times to understand everything but I still love the movie none the less. You'll fall in love with Kaneda and his friends even though they may be animated. With the animation, things are more vivid and can be expressed through better. If you get a dubbed version of it you'll notice that the Voice Acting isn't that bad either. 4 Stars. 4. Almost Famous Definetily deserves to be on this list no questions asked. I immediately fell in love with this movie as soon as it ended. It's one of the few movies that lived up to the hype I had about it. The movie, directed by Cameron Crowe of "Say Anything" and "Jerry Maguire" fame, follows William. A young boy who becomes a writer for Rolling Stone. While writing, he travels with an up-and-coming band, Stillwater, and makes good friends. Now he has to decide whether to write the truth or what really happens as he basically grows up on the road with a rock band. It's a great movie, it just captures the innocence of Williams and shows how he finds out how the world really works and what to expect. He does really grow up on screen in a way. He changes from an average good mother's boy to rock writer heartbreaker (in a way heartbreaker). The acting by Billy Crudup and Phillip Seymour Hoffman is extroadinary while Frances Mcdormand deserved the oscar for best supporting actress. Cameron Crowe consistently makes the best films around and this is no exception. No wonder it won for best picture (Comedy or Musical). The Top Three.... 3. The Thin Red Line People will severly ridicule me for this I know it. It has a running time around 3 hours but I loved it. The Thin Red Line is a war movie, but not the one like you'd expect. It isn't all about combat and strategy, it's about the emotional part of it. Instead of examining the battles and such, we go into the minds of soldiers and see what they're thinking. Sure it's got it's great scenes of violence and battles and they're some of the best I've ever seen but the scenes of emotion are much better. With an ensemble cast that has George Clooney, James Caviziel, John Cusack, John Travolta, Nick Nolte, Sean Penn, and about 10 other well known actors, this movie is a work of acting art. So many good and talented people working on a project like this makes it a spectacle to be seen. The locations are amazingly well defined and selected as most all the scenes are outside. The directing gives us a great view of what the soldiers are feeling as well as what it's like to be at war also. 4 Stars. 2. The Matrix Do I really need to explain? The Matrix is about a guy named Neo who is living in a fake world and through a group of radicals, is brought into the real world. The real world has changed, making it a dump so the radicals and Neo fight the leaders of the real world so they can take it back. The catch it, the leaders of the world are computer programs living in the fake world, so Neo and company must go into the fake world and kill them. That's it in a nut-shell. It's VERY confusing to explain. I know the stunts have been done before but The Matrix pulls them off the best. This movie has everything, action, adventure, suspense, and even a little bit of love. See it now. 1. Fight Club Ah yes, my favorite movie of all time! I'll never forget the first time I heard Brad Pitt's character just say "I want you to hit me, as hard as you can." But I'm getting ahead of myself. The movie revolves around the nameless narrator who is fed up with his job. His narrator has serious problems, like, emotional problems. This is all shown by the witty and smart narration. The narrator is just like me and you, a pawn. We do our jobs, go home, eat, sleep, and repeat. But the Narrator is going to change all of that. The Narrator, along with a friend Tyler Durden (possibly the coolest name ever imagined) make a group called "Fight Club" where people just let loose on each other to get their stress/depression/problems out. However, this craze, this fight fest soon catches on to others. Soon Fight Club becomes a common thing and before you know it, Fight Club members turn to terrorists. Now it's up to The Narrator to stop Fight Club, before it's too late. If I may, I will now ramble.... Edward Norton, who plays the Narrator, gives the best performance of his life. He's such a versatile actor and to put him in the Narrator's shoes in a hard task. Brad Pitt, who assumes the role of Tyler Durden just astounds me. Tyler is a very unique character. He is demanding and at the same time, calm, in his own way. Pitt plays him to a T that I can't really figure out. It's like he IS Tyler. David Fincher, director of Se7en, The Game, and Alien 3, just boggles my mind. I've watched this movie countless times and every time his directing work amazes me. He has these shots that move with the sounds. When a certain spot in the music rose or went down, the camera would dramatically change angles. Fincher is the kind of director we need today. He takes new ideas and crafts them into new and even better ideas. 4 Stars. Honorable Mentions A Knight's Tale =) High Fidelity Alien Bull Durham Shindler's List The Game Please, I encourage you to watch EVERY one of these! ~Kenshin-Guy  |
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