10 Movies Your Really Ought to See
Okay so I was trying to think up a list of movies that people would really be better off if they saw. I'm not going to include things like Star Wars or Lord of the Rings or Godfather or whatever because I'm sure everybody as either seen it, or knows that they ought to see it already. I'm also going to leave out the ones on the opposite spectrem that almost nobody has heard of, and that you couldn't even find if I did reccomend them. So I'm going for 10 movies that you might but might not know about that you really should see. Besides movies most people haven't heard of, I'm also going to include movies that people have heard of, but nobody ever actually bothered to see for some reason. So anyway here we go, in order of how much I like each movie:
1. Memento (2000)
18th best movie of all time
An amazing movie starring Guy Pearce of all people. This is one of Christopher Nolan's (The Dark Knight) first movies, and it might actually be his best. It tells the story in reverse of man with no short term memory trying to get revenge against the men who killed his wife. It's a really cool idea for a movie and its execution is even better than its set up. How good is it? Good enough that the nerds on the internet movie database have named it the 27th best movie of all time, there only off by 9.
2. The Wrong Guy (1997)
28th best movie of all time
This movie is actually one of the funniest movies I've ever seen in my life. It stars Dave Foley as a man who threatened to kill his boss, then walked into his office to find him murdered. He runs out of the building screaming and assumes everyone thinks he killed his boss. But in fact the murder was caught on tape, so nobody thinks he killed his boss, and nobody is looing for him. The genius in this movie is how it reverses every sing cliche of the genre, from the local police officer trying despreately to get the FEDS to take over the investigation to the poor struglling banker in danger of losing his savings and loan to a greedy farm. Really a great movie, you should check it out.
3. Dirty Work (1998)
49th best movie of all time
This movie stars Norm McDonald as a man who starts a revenge-for-hire business with his half brother so that they can earn enough money to save their dying father. I'm begining to realize that this list is likely to be dominated by halarious movies from the 90's with rediculous plotlines. Anyway, this movie was directed by Tom Saget right after he left Full House and it was kind of his mdium for saying all of the inappropriate things he couldn't say well on that show. It also features Chris Farley in a small but halarious role in one of his last ever films. Be prepared for a lot of laughs and all the gay sex jokes you can handle.
4. Things to Do in Denver When Your Dead (1995)
52nd best movie of all time
This is a really great movie, it has kind of an early Tarintino type feel to it, although to my knowledge he had nothing to do with it. It stars Andy Garcia as a gangster type who has gone semi-ligit who gets hired by an aging milionaire crime-boss (Christopher Walken) to kidnap and scare away the boyfriend of the girl his semi-retarded son is in love with. The plan goes poorly and Walken puts out hits on Garcia and all his friends that he got to do the job with him. Besides Garcia and Walken it also features great performances by Steve Buschemi and Christopher Loyd, its really a shame this movie never really got the attention it deserved.
5. City of God (2002)
62nd best movie of all time
This movie did get quite a bit of attention for a foreign film (I think it might have won for best foreign film) but I still doubt more then 2% of Americans have seen it. It tells the story of a kid growing up in the slums of Rio De Jinareo, Brazil. He's trying to weave his way around a life of drugs and crime in an effort to hopefully one day become a reporter. If they were able to make an American version with actors people have heard of that was exactly 1/2 as good it would probobly make 100 million dollars and sweep the oscars.
6. The 13th Warrior (1999)
74th best movie of all time
Okay, here's one you probobly have heard of (and more then likely didn't hear that great of things). This is a movie that generally got poor reviews and tanked at the box office and I honestly have no idea why. It stars Antonio Bandares in a retelling of Beowolf from the point of view of an Arabian scholor who got roped into the battle. Perhaps not the most universally appealing plot, but at least its interesting. This movie has a lot of great action scenes, and more importantly then anything else, is never boring. It also comes out of left field to have one of my all-time favorite non-comedic quotes from a movie: "From the moment we are born our days are measured out in advance and no amount of cowerdice can save you, fear profits man nothing."
7. Oldboy (2003)
100th best movie of all time
This is one of those movies that you see and then can't think about anything else for the next 3 hours. Its a Korean movie about a guy who is kidnapped and then imprisoned for over a decade and never told why. Then one day he is randomly realeased and then goes about trying to find out why he was imprisoned. This is of the South Korean revenge genre and here's a little clue to the amazing plot twist: the revenge being taken against the main character isn't that he was imprisoned, the man seeking revenge has a much more sinister plan. Really one of the creepiest twists at the end of any movie I've ever seen.
8. The Edge (1997)
105th best movie of all time
This movie stars Alec Baldwin and Anthony Hopkins as two men stranded in the Alaskan wilderness. Hopkins is a millionaire with beautiful wife and Baldwin wants to kill him and take his money and his wife. Hopkins knows Baldwin wants to kill him, and Baldwin knows that he knows. It makes for a very interesting dynamic. But, the whole thing gets put on hold when a giant killer grizzly bear starts stalking them. This is really an amzing suspenseful film with great acting, its a shame nobody bothered to watch it.
9. Identity (2003)
132nd best movie of all time
Great suspense movie starring John Cusak and Ray Liotta. It's about a group of strangers who converge in a random small town in the middle of a rain storm and then start to die one by one. It's one of those movies that has a great big twist in the middle, and then some more twists latter on. And yeah, you could make the argument that the movie goes one twist to far, but the movie's so good along the way that that's forgiveable.
10. Evil Alien Conquorers (2002)
145th best movie of all time
Okay, Ill be honest, I skipped over a couple of great movies that I could have put on this list so that I could get to this one. It stars Diedrich Bater (Ozwald from Drew Carey show) and Chris Parnell (Dr. Spaceman on 30 Rock) as evil alien conquorers from the planet Kabeesh. They have no special skills, or abilaties, they have no advanced technology, and they have 3 days to kill every human on earth or they will be killed themselves. But as Miak (Diedrich Bater) says, "this is not a problem". If your into this kind of humor than this movie is absolutely halarious, and if your paying attention its actually a thinly vailed mockery of Islamic terrorists, you really ought to watch this movie.
1. Memento (2000)
18th best movie of all time
An amazing movie starring Guy Pearce of all people. This is one of Christopher Nolan's (The Dark Knight) first movies, and it might actually be his best. It tells the story in reverse of man with no short term memory trying to get revenge against the men who killed his wife. It's a really cool idea for a movie and its execution is even better than its set up. How good is it? Good enough that the nerds on the internet movie database have named it the 27th best movie of all time, there only off by 9.
2. The Wrong Guy (1997)
28th best movie of all time
This movie is actually one of the funniest movies I've ever seen in my life. It stars Dave Foley as a man who threatened to kill his boss, then walked into his office to find him murdered. He runs out of the building screaming and assumes everyone thinks he killed his boss. But in fact the murder was caught on tape, so nobody thinks he killed his boss, and nobody is looing for him. The genius in this movie is how it reverses every sing cliche of the genre, from the local police officer trying despreately to get the FEDS to take over the investigation to the poor struglling banker in danger of losing his savings and loan to a greedy farm. Really a great movie, you should check it out.
3. Dirty Work (1998)
49th best movie of all time
This movie stars Norm McDonald as a man who starts a revenge-for-hire business with his half brother so that they can earn enough money to save their dying father. I'm begining to realize that this list is likely to be dominated by halarious movies from the 90's with rediculous plotlines. Anyway, this movie was directed by Tom Saget right after he left Full House and it was kind of his mdium for saying all of the inappropriate things he couldn't say well on that show. It also features Chris Farley in a small but halarious role in one of his last ever films. Be prepared for a lot of laughs and all the gay sex jokes you can handle.
4. Things to Do in Denver When Your Dead (1995)
52nd best movie of all time
This is a really great movie, it has kind of an early Tarintino type feel to it, although to my knowledge he had nothing to do with it. It stars Andy Garcia as a gangster type who has gone semi-ligit who gets hired by an aging milionaire crime-boss (Christopher Walken) to kidnap and scare away the boyfriend of the girl his semi-retarded son is in love with. The plan goes poorly and Walken puts out hits on Garcia and all his friends that he got to do the job with him. Besides Garcia and Walken it also features great performances by Steve Buschemi and Christopher Loyd, its really a shame this movie never really got the attention it deserved.
5. City of God (2002)
62nd best movie of all time
This movie did get quite a bit of attention for a foreign film (I think it might have won for best foreign film) but I still doubt more then 2% of Americans have seen it. It tells the story of a kid growing up in the slums of Rio De Jinareo, Brazil. He's trying to weave his way around a life of drugs and crime in an effort to hopefully one day become a reporter. If they were able to make an American version with actors people have heard of that was exactly 1/2 as good it would probobly make 100 million dollars and sweep the oscars.
6. The 13th Warrior (1999)
74th best movie of all time
Okay, here's one you probobly have heard of (and more then likely didn't hear that great of things). This is a movie that generally got poor reviews and tanked at the box office and I honestly have no idea why. It stars Antonio Bandares in a retelling of Beowolf from the point of view of an Arabian scholor who got roped into the battle. Perhaps not the most universally appealing plot, but at least its interesting. This movie has a lot of great action scenes, and more importantly then anything else, is never boring. It also comes out of left field to have one of my all-time favorite non-comedic quotes from a movie: "From the moment we are born our days are measured out in advance and no amount of cowerdice can save you, fear profits man nothing."
7. Oldboy (2003)
100th best movie of all time
This is one of those movies that you see and then can't think about anything else for the next 3 hours. Its a Korean movie about a guy who is kidnapped and then imprisoned for over a decade and never told why. Then one day he is randomly realeased and then goes about trying to find out why he was imprisoned. This is of the South Korean revenge genre and here's a little clue to the amazing plot twist: the revenge being taken against the main character isn't that he was imprisoned, the man seeking revenge has a much more sinister plan. Really one of the creepiest twists at the end of any movie I've ever seen.
8. The Edge (1997)
105th best movie of all time
This movie stars Alec Baldwin and Anthony Hopkins as two men stranded in the Alaskan wilderness. Hopkins is a millionaire with beautiful wife and Baldwin wants to kill him and take his money and his wife. Hopkins knows Baldwin wants to kill him, and Baldwin knows that he knows. It makes for a very interesting dynamic. But, the whole thing gets put on hold when a giant killer grizzly bear starts stalking them. This is really an amzing suspenseful film with great acting, its a shame nobody bothered to watch it.
9. Identity (2003)
132nd best movie of all time
Great suspense movie starring John Cusak and Ray Liotta. It's about a group of strangers who converge in a random small town in the middle of a rain storm and then start to die one by one. It's one of those movies that has a great big twist in the middle, and then some more twists latter on. And yeah, you could make the argument that the movie goes one twist to far, but the movie's so good along the way that that's forgiveable.
10. Evil Alien Conquorers (2002)
145th best movie of all time
Okay, Ill be honest, I skipped over a couple of great movies that I could have put on this list so that I could get to this one. It stars Diedrich Bater (Ozwald from Drew Carey show) and Chris Parnell (Dr. Spaceman on 30 Rock) as evil alien conquorers from the planet Kabeesh. They have no special skills, or abilaties, they have no advanced technology, and they have 3 days to kill every human on earth or they will be killed themselves. But as Miak (Diedrich Bater) says, "this is not a problem". If your into this kind of humor than this movie is absolutely halarious, and if your paying attention its actually a thinly vailed mockery of Islamic terrorists, you really ought to watch this movie.
posted by Blake Stockdale at 11:14 AM
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