| Best movies ever made (in random order with sporadic updates) Metropolis - Fritz Lang's science fiction masterpiece from 1925 remains a benchmark for special effects even today. Actually many of the effects are better than most of the CGI crap i've seen spewed forth lately, and when you combine that with a great story about technocracy gone berserk and humans being slaves to the machine you have a movie that trounces embarrassing crap like "The Island" or "I Robot" any day of the week. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari - Another silent era film by ________________, this early surrealist vision about a somnambulist (this could be considered the first zombie film) features highly stylized REAL sets which makes you wonder why they don't do this now. Oh wait, they do! It's called "Dr. Caligari," the great sequel made circa 1990 which you will find further down this list. Island of Lost Souls - Creepy and haunting adaptation of the horror-science fiction classic by H.G. Wells. A mad doctor performs cruel (what else is there?) vivisection experiments on animals turning them into half-humans. Charles Laughton really cranks it up as the demented doc and Bela Lugosi turns in a great "manimal" performance. The Philadelphia Story - Wildly entertaining farce about a newspaper bloke (Cary Grant) and his "girl Friday" (Katherine Hepburn). About the fastest, snappiest dialog i've ever heard. (See the "Hudsucker Proxy" for a great homage to that kind of writing and performance.) They Live - If you haven't seen it, go see it now. Stop what you're doing, leave work, break out of prison, whatever. John Carpenter's science fiction-horror masterpiece is prophetic. Pro wrestler Rowdy Roddy Piper and Keith David square off (in a ridiculous fight scene re-created on a South Park episode no less) then team up to fight evil alien republicans who have projected a massive Wal-Mart friendly hallucination over the whole world and only special glasses created by the revolutionary underground can see through the shiny happy facade. On a lighter but similar note, if you like this one see "Idiocracy," which you can read about in the new movie review section. Donnie Darko - Concerning time travel, true love, a large talking rabbit and the inevitable consequences of plane engines falling into houses. This brilliant film got plain screwed at the box office in the post 9-11 world, but it's on video/dvd so check it out! Meet The Feebles - If you want to see a good movie with muppets (albeit adult muppets) see this movie, one of Peter Jackson's (yes the same guy who made the Tolkien tripe) first films which is part porn, part musical and part gore-fest. Brilliant and disgusting! Being John Malkovich - Sublime. One of the greatest films of the last 20 years featuring John Cusack as a burned out puppeteer who discovers a porthole into the head of John Malkovich and, together with the very hot Catherine Keener proceed to charge people an entrance fee. Its a film that just makes you want to live dammit! Spike Jonze rooolzzzzz... Blade Runner - Its obvious I know, but who the hell could possibly leave this one out. Perhaps the greatest science fiction film ever made, Ridley Scott's ultimate film based upon Philip K. Dick's famous novel is a superb indictment of slavery and oppression. "All of these memories will be lost, like tears in rain." |