Thursday 2 April 2009

100 Films What Is Rather Good - Part The Fourth

61. Trainspotting
It's lively and energetic and grim and scummy and funny and disgusting. It's also one of those films that I forget that I really like until I see it again and am reminded. Shame Danny Boyle's become quite uneven as a director - 28 Days Later and Sunshine are each two separate films bolted together in the middle.

62. Bill And Ted's Excellent Adventure
The only role that Keanu Reeves has been perfectly suited to. Plus it has Beethoven, Abraham Lincoln, Genghis Khan and George Carlin as Rufus. What's not to love?

63. Jurassic Park
It's a dinosaur, it's a dinosaur (you'll be singing that the next time you hear the Jurassic Park theme). I love dinosaurs. therefore I love films with dinosaurs in them. This film has dinosaurs. Cool.

64. OldBoy
Brilliant yet utterly nasty. One of those films that you can't really say too much about because it would spoil it. If you haven't seen it, seriously go watch it.

65. The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou
Wes Anderson can be hit and miss for me. I wasn't overly bowled away by Rushmore because I hated the main character (same problem with Juno - sorry but obnoxious isn't funny) and The Darjeeling Limited was disappointing but I loved this (and The Royal Tennenbaums). Just the right level of stylised quirkiness for me.

66. Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels
OK, so he's done nothing but make this same fucking film over and over again but I like this first effort. It's great fun and it's very stylish. Shame this is his only trick, really.

67. The Man With Two Brains
Steve Martin's finest from back in the day when he was funny (yep, OK, I'm not going into that one again). It features my favourite poem:-

The pointy birds
Oh, pointy, pointy
Anoint my head
Anointy, nointy

68. Memento
The benefit of this film was that I knew absolutely nothing about it when I went to see it so had no expectations and was pleasantly surprised to have to really pay attention to work out what was going on. I wish that happened with more films.

69. The Straight Story
I like David Lynch when he's being all weird and stuff (big fan of Twin Peaks) but I think this is my favourite film of his - a family friendly film in which an old man rides across the country on his lawn mower to visit his ill brother. I was captivated.

70. Leon
Luc Besson's blockbuster sensibility with a distinctly French slant has always appealed and this is a favourite. Although I got caught in a downpour on the way to cinema to see this and spent the whole film drying out. Nice.

71. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
My favourite film with Jack Nicholson in it and some fine supporting performances too - Danny deVito, Christopher Lloyd and Brad Dourif all put in fine work. It's Louise Fletcher who steals the show, though, as the ice-cold Nurse Ratched.

72. Pirates Of The Caribbean
Yes, so, much like The Matrix, this was slightly let-down by inferior sequels (nowhere near as bad as The Matrix ones, mind) but you still can't deny the appeal and watchability of this first one. It's very much the nearest modern equivalent to Raiders Of The Lost Ark (and to think that I didn't really have much hope for a film based on a theme park ride).

73. Kind Hearts And Coronets
Dennis Price puts in a solid performance but it's Alec Guinness as the entire D'Ascoyne family that this film belongs to. Good work, Sir Alec, well played.

74. Predator
Arnie doing what he does best - kill things. A classic sci-fi actioner and much watched film of my youth.

75. Flash Gordon
Gordon's alive?!?!? 'Nuff said.

76. The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Well, with a fondness for sci-fi, B movies and musicals, it's no real surprise that this was on here. Plus Richard O'Brien and I share a hairstyle (not literally, we don;t have one bald cap that we pass back and forth - you get the idea). Us slapheads have to stick together.

77. Robocop
"Dead or alive, you're coming with me". Ultra-violent but a dead on satire of 80s media culture. I remember pushing really hard to watch this one when i was about 12 ("But, Mum, I've already watched Alien!")

78. Team America: World Police
Fuck, yeah. Trey Parker and Matt Stone doing what they do best - being as offensive as possible to as many people as possible in one go. With songs. Oh, and the unrated version with the extended puppet sex scene really is rather unnecessary.

79. The Thing
John Carpenter used to make great films. This is his finest. Another of those 80s films which has some excellent practical effects work which still stands up today and is a genuinely tense sci-fi thriller.

80. Diner
I like films which have good back and forth banter between the characters and this is one of them. It also has the distinction of being the only film I know that Steve Guttenberg isn't worthless in (OK, Short Circuit's still great but he is out-acted by the robot...)

Only 20 left. What can they be? Join me next time for the final countdown (do do do dooo, do do do do dooo)


6 comments:

Walter said...

Bill and Ted really was the perfect movie for Keanu Reeves. He's essentially playing himself.

Anna Russell said...

Although I didn't get Psycho, Cool Hand Luke or The Night of the Hunter, I have to let you off because you've got Trainspotting, Leon, Oldboy and Memento.
This has been a fun top 100 - you definitely have a good taste in films (and by good, I mean they're mostly ones I like).

That Baldy Fella said...

Walter - Yep, everything since then has stretched his abilities past breaking point. The less said about his Shakespeare, the better.

Anna - Wait up, The Russell, it's not over yet! You've got 20 more to come...
You obviously have good taste yourself by which I mean that you like the films that I like. And so on and so forth...

Vic said...

Trainspotting is one of those films I keep meaning to see, I really WANT to see, and I never have. This was a good reminder.

Also, I'm so glad someone else liked "The Straight Story". I loved that, and people don't really get why when you tell them about it.

Good list!

Zina said...

What about babes in toyland?

:) I love Bill and Ted.

That Baldy Fella said...

Vic - Glad to be of service!
Yeah, I like the fact that it's so sedate that you start to get genuinely tense about the lawn mowwer rolling down hill just slightly too fast...

Rachel - Babes in Toyland - the Laurel and Hardy one? There's quite a few of theirs I haven't seen but I've got a complete boxset and am slowly working my way through!

It's great, isn't it? "69, dude!"