The last ten really good movies. Jul 24 '01 (Updated Aug 04 '01)    Write an essay on this topic. Tweet Popular Products in Movies 1776 From $8 Alias - The Complete Fifth Season From $20 The Bottom Line There have only been a handful of great movies in the past couple decades, and many people will not like them! Rather than list the greatest movies of all time, I made this list to show that really good movies are few and far between. Here are the last ten really good movies I've seen, listed with the year of their release, starting with the most recent. 2000 Dr. T & The Women My guess is that most people will find this choice way out of left field. But believe me, in 20 years everyone else will have come round to seeing things my way. This is as good as movies get. I'm not saying it's perfect, but it has so much to offer that its weaknesses don't matter. This was a caustic satire originally mismarketed as a romantic comedy, and it's easier to describe what this picture isn't than what it is. It is NOT Pretty Woman. It is NOT As Good As It Gets. See it without any preconceived ideas and just enjoy it. It's full of details -- details of clothing, mannerism, dialoge, culture, etc. But beware, I'm the only person I've ever met who doesn't hate this movie. If you suspect you won't like this movie, you're probably right, but if you like other movies directed by Robert Altman, you may like it. 1999 Eyes Wide Shut This is a controversial choice for best picture of 1999, but I'm sticking to it. This movie was a disappointment to most when it was released. I think that its reputation will improve with time, but it's definitely not a movie to watch if you just want to "kill some time." You have to be in the mood for a picture like this one. This picture ain't to everybody's taste, but worth seeing with an open mind. 1993 Short Cuts I think this movie has a broader appeal than the previous two, but it's almost impossible to explain to people what the movie's about. One might say that it follows the intertwined lives of various citizens of Los Angeles, but it's so much more than that. 1987 Full Metal Jacket This is truly the best movie set during America's Vietnam War. Forget movies like Platoon, and see this one instead. 1985 Ran It's a Japanese picture directed by Kurosawa, loosely based on King Lear. 1980 Kagemusha It's another Kurosawa picture, and is very similar in style to Ran. If you like one of these two movies, see the other and you won't be disappointed. 1976 L'Argent de Poche (Pocket Money) Known as Small Change in America, this movie was directed by François Truffaut. If you're familiar with the director's much earlier picture, Les Quatre cents coups (The 400 Blows, 1959), then you have some idea of what to expect from this movie about the lives of pre-adolescent schoolboys. However, in my opinion, this movie is far superior to the 400 Blows. Here are some reasons why -- subtle color photography, unpredictable story of the intertwined lives of a host of characters, nuanced and realistic performances from the juvenile cast that are a far cry from the stiff, learned-by-rote droning of many so-called "child actors", and Truffaut's reliably indefatigable editing. 1976 Taxi Driver Despite being praised by many people I find obnoxious (people who use too many superlatives and give too few specifics), I still have to admit this movie about the days and nights of an alienated cab driver has something to it. I'll even admit it's a movie I can relate to (except I'm not a homicidal sociopath). The movie also benefits from being a who's who of young talent from the seventies -- Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Albert Brooks, Harvey Keitel, and Cybil Shepard. 1975 Dersu Uzala Set in the early 1900s, this is the true story of a Russian army captain, Vladimir Arseniev (as portrayed by Yuri Solomin), who is stranded in Siberia and befriended by a wild, rugged hermit, Dersu Uzala (as portrayed by Maksim Munzuk). This Russian-Japanese co-production, shot almost entirely in a harsh, beautiful wilderness, was the first picture Akira Kurosawa directed after a failed suicide attempt. I have seen no other movie that can be compared to this one. 1975 Barry Lyndon Popular opinion is split on this movie. Some people, perhaps most people, think this movie is a three-hour bore. Some people even hate it. Then there's what I believe to be a small minority, which includes myself, that thinks this movie's one of the best ever. Let me put it this way, I've recommend this movie to many people and not one of them has thanked me. It's the story of the rise and fall of a duplicitous Irish social climber played adequately by Ryan O'Neal. It's set in the 18th century around the time of the American Revolution, and was adapted by Stanley Kubrick from an 19th century novel by William Makepeace Thackeray.

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