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The top 10 Best Films Ever - and they are not all in English!Jun 18 '01 (Updated Jan 09 '03) Write an essay on this topic.The Bottom Line The top 10 best movies ever? Difficult question. Whatever they are, it is an almost certainty that they cannot all be English language films... This is what I think. I think that just about everybody is going to disagree with the films I put in my list here, as people's tastes and opinions vary, BUT these are the 10 or so films which, to me, are the best films ever. Not necessarily because they are the best films to watch, but because they are the films which had the biggest effect on me when I was watching them, and once I had seen them. I will say first that I am a big science fiction, and Hong Kong cinema fan, which will probably be reflected in my choice of films. They are in no particular order, but here we go... Star Wars Trilogy... I've decided to include the original 3 films as one entry here, so I've got more space for other cool films. But what can you say about these films? They changed my life. It is pure science fiction fantasy fairytale. Granted, there may be discontinuities in the story, some acting may not be that great and you can pick any other criticism that has come their way over the years, but the Star Wars trilogy is still the sort of film which I can go back to in a second. I've been watching them since I was 3 years old, and have never grown tired of them. Lightsabres, TIE fighters, X-Wings, the Force, I wanted it all, and still do! Given the films ages as well, they have stood the test of time. Aliens The second installment from the Alien Saga in my opinion surpasses the first. The first film was a suspense chiller of extremely high quality, but alas I saw Aliens first, so I knew what the alien was, and thus a lot of the power of the film was lost on me. Aliens, though, had buckets full of suspense and bigger buckets full of action. Can anyone who has seen this film honestly say that when they are barricaded in the compound, and the motion tracker makes its first distinctive "blip", followed by more successive "blip"s, that the hairs on the back of your neck didn't stand up?! Mine sure as hell did! Having more than one alien was a genius move, as H. R. Geiger's creation, I think, has to go down as one of the most terrifying and brilliant creature designs in any film, ever. Indiana Jones Trilogy Again all the 3 films are in the one listing here. I have included them as, like Star Wars, these films have everything you could ask for; humour, adventure, action, love, romance, terror, phobias, you name it - it is here. And again like Star Wars, everyone knows of Indiana Jones, and films do not get worldwide notority (is that how you spell the word) from being bad! The plots are great, the acting is great (except the female lead screaming all the time in the films!), and I would love nothing much more than putting my feet up and having an Indy-athon at some point and watch them all in succession. Bliss. Clue I don't know if this film has escaped a lot of people's attention, but if it has, I feel sorry for you, as you have missed out on the greatest comedy of all time. Tim Curry excells in his role as the Butler, and the rest of the cast, including Christopher Lloyd all play the part to make this literally a laugh a minute film. With 3 hilarious endings, and watching Tim Curry act out the evenings proceeding, the film is priceless. If you have got a sense of humour then this film should bring tears to your eyes as it is so funny. Contact Overlong, dull and boring are words that I have heard describe this film, but I have disagree strongly. This thinking person's sci-fi flick is outstanding. It basically is about a scientist and her life long devotion to SETI (the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence). Throughout herlife she comes up against strong opposition to her work, but when she finally detects a signal, those who were up against her, jump in and try to take all the credit. Jodie Foster was made for this role as Eleanor Arroway, and the supporting cast of Matthew McConaughey and Tom Skerritt and James Woods all give brilliant performances. Why does this film deserve to be in my top films of all time? Well, despite the film being brilliant as it is, and it being incredibly thought provoking and compelling, it struck more of a note with me as I'm a university graduate in astronomy and physics, and, you guessed it, SETI is one of my keenest areas of interest. Every time I watch this film my emotions are stirred in me and dreams go through my head. In short I find Contact very inspiring. There are few films that have such a strong effect on me, and to me that is what makes a great film. The Matrix I include this film in my list as I feel it is a landmark in Hollywood films. The special effects were amazing, and the plot idea was pretty cool, but obviously that does not necessarily make a great film. What I feel was so special about this film is that Hollywood started to get it right as far as martial art films go. Take a look at the Hong Kong cinema martial art scenes and then compare them with the likes of Jean Claude Van Damme films - the Hollywood efforts pale into insignificance by comparison. Basically Hollywood's attempts at filming martial art fight scenes were crap. Hong Kong cinema's technique is superb, and in The Matrix, we have the first big budget Hollywood film to start down this path. Since then martial arts films have become more popular in the cinema, with Jackie Chan, Michelle Yeoh and Jet Li now all getting major worldwide cinema releases, and it seems as though Hollywood has realised that for martial arts films people like these are far better than Dolph Lundgren et al. I just can't wait to see what we have in store for The Matrix II & III! Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon Being a fan of Hong Kong cinema and loving martial art films, I couldn't exactly miss out this one from my list. The world over has heard of this one, so there is no need for a plot description, so I'll just jump to why I think it is deserving in this list. Firstly, how many other subtitled, Mandarin, or even just foreign, language films have you been absolutely desperate to see in the cinema in the past years? There will be people who can mention others, but for the majority this is the only one. A great story, stunning scenery, outstanding fight scenes, even if there was a lot of wire-fu going on, and best of all two stunning babes in Michelle Yeoh and Zhang ZiYi. I must admit it was strange seeing Chow Yun Fat holding a sword rather than a gun in each hand! With this film, hopefully the rest of the world will start to take a hell of a lot more notice of world cinema, and it will start to get the coverage it deserves. Fist Of Legend Being a remake of Bruce Lee's Fist of Fury, Jet Li had a difficult job in this remake to do the original justice. There was no need to worry. This film is definitly Jet Li's best film to date, and possibly one of the best martial art films ever as well. What makes it so good? Well basically because it shows off Jet Li's ability to the full. Unlike a lot of his other films, there is no reliance on wire-fu here. He isn't able to fly or jump 30 feet in the air or anything like that. He is human and one hell of a fighter. The choreography is flawless, and as an added bonus there is a not bad story here as well. Police Story 3: Supercop Where would my best films ever list be without a film from the man who got me so heavily into martial art films, and made me realise how awful the Hollywood efforts are? This is my favourite Jackie Chan film, as it is the one that, in my opinion, has some of his best fight scenes, AND it co-stars Michelle Yeoh :-). The stunts are incredible, and as the outakes at the end of the film show, there were also very real and dangerous. Hard Boiled For gun play action, you just cannot do better than John Woo. This film surpasses his brilliant Bullet In The Head and The Killer, and becomes the number 1 violent action film of all time. Chow Yun Fat has probably never shot more bullets than in this role as Tequila, and the number of extras that were required to get shot is well into the hundreds. Guns galore, violence galore and bullets galore, amazingly choreographed gun play, and an outstanding long single take scene in the hospital hallway... what more can you ask for? La Reine Margot Hong Kong and the US & UK are not the only countries that can make superb films. If you have never caught this French film centred around the 1572 St Bartholomew's Day massacre then you are really missing out on a gem of a film. Isabelle Adjani (who was about 38 when she made this film, but could easily pass for 21) stars as Margot he Catholic sister of King Charles IX, who is forced to marry the Protestant Henri de Navarre in an effort to reconcile her native France. A VERY compelling story, exquisite production and design and excellent performances all round, make this a gritty and realistic, yet unmissable look at this period in French history. Other films which came close are: The Abyss - a brilliant underwater science fiction epic. The Crow - Brandon Lee's last film and also his best. Dark, very atmospheric and very very good. Shame about the sequels. Tsui Hark's The Blade - NOT the Wesley Snipes piece of trash, but the Hong Kong cinema film featuring some of the best weapons choreography put on film to date. Good story too. Stephen King's The Stand - This didn't get an elongated mention in the main list as it was originally a TV mini-series (something I only just found out recently). Regardless though this is an outstanding, and VERY long, piece of film, which you really have to see. I got it on double video and it clocks in at 5 hours 45 mins! Drunken Master II - A lot of people regard this as Jackie Chan's best film to date. I disagree, it is his 2nd best! Another decent story, but best of all are some incredible (and very dangerous) fight scenes. If you can get the uncut Thakral dvd of this film, as it is the best version. Easily beating the cut and dubbed US release. Well there you go. My selections. Abuse me criticise me, or be nice and give me your opinions. Remember that is all these are - my opinions. See ya!  |
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by Stephen_Murray
by cdm72
by carstairs38
