The Swedish 100

Hello there. Don't mind me, just jumping on the top 100 bandwagon here. It's taken me a good long while to finish and I don't know if I'm all that copacetic with the order, but it's as close as I'm gonna get. Here we go...

I feel cheated....

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You have no top 100

I think Gladiator has to be in their somewhere.

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100 Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
(George Clooney, 2002)

Just a ton of fun. Clooney can get a little heavy handed with his direction at times, but this is his first film so it's all good. Terrfic performances all around. Shoulda been a star making turn for Rockwell, but unfortunately the flick never really caught on with the great unwashed. Oh well.



99 The Last Seduction
(John Dahl, 1994)

Linda Fiorentino was robbed of an Oscar nom this year because of some stupid HBO technicality and that's a real shame. I'm having a tough time coming up with a more mesmerizingly sexy performance that I've ever seen. She's that good here.



98 Charley Varrick
(Don Siegel, 1973)

A low-key, gritty thriller that was never one of my real favorites until a couple months ago or so. You could always count on Matthau to deliver one of these nuanced, idiosyncratic performances and Joe Don Baker has a magnetic turn as an unforgiving hitman.



97 Picnic at Hanging Rock
(Peter Weir, 1975)

Haunting, beautiful and frustratingly inpenetrable. It's got a hallucinatory rhythm to it and everything just works perfectly. Very mysterious and without any clear-cut resolution, Picnic's defintiely not for everyone. But it's a wonderful, different kind of film that I've always really liked.



96 Three Colors: Blue
(Krzyszstof Kieślowski, 1993)

Easily my favorite of Kieślowski's Colors trilogy. It's got all the style of the other two films while packing much more of an emotional punch. Carried all the way by Binoche's radiant performance, the absolute highlight of her career.



95 Throw Momma from the Train
(Danny DeVito, 1987)

I've seen this movie dozens and dozens of times and I'm still laughing. It doesn't do anything especially earth-shattering but holding up over as many viewings as I've put it through has to count for something. Plus, Crystal's really good here, probably my favorite performance of his.

I had written up #'s 100 through 85, then my computer crapped out on me and I lost it all.

Drat.

I never heard the word copacetic before. V. interesting!

good work on the top 100. look forward to the rest

I hate that when that happens. Yet another reason why this site kicks ass. Did you know that if you are working on a really long post that this site saves it for you? I love that. When I was doing mine I had to stop several times and even completely shut the browser down and when I came back it was all still there. That Yoda dude... he's a cool dude man...

Anyway good start I can't wait to read the rest.

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We are both the source of the problem and the solution, yet we do not see ourselves in this light...

Ah I am sorry for moaning Swedish Chef hate it when that happens. Good luck with your top 100.

Yeah I love that about the site, too. Unfortunately, it flat-out didn't work for me there.

Shucks.

94 Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
(Frank Oz, 1988)

A very clever, zany movie. It's consistently funny from beginning to end, never once losing its momentum or edge. Everyone looks like they're having a great time; Martin, Caine and Headly play off each other so well.



93 Arachnophobia
(Frank Marshall, 1990)

Kind of a guilty pleasure for me. John Goodman nearly steals the whole picture as the gung-ho exterminator. And, much like Homer Simpson's insistence on checking under his toilet for bombs after he saw Lethal Weapon 2, I still can't take a shower without giving my bathtub a quick once-over for deadly spiders.



92 Little Shop of Horrors
(Frank Oz, 1986)

This should probably be a bit higher on my list, but whatever, it's close enough. Certainly my favorite musical film, it's got at least four show-stopping numbers and the entire cast is pitch-perfect. Crazed dentist Steve Martin performing root canal on masochist patient Bill Murray is every comedy nerd's wet dream.



91 Grosse Pointe Blank
(George Armitage, 1997)

Is there an actor who's any more easy to like or root for than John Cusack? No, there isn't. Dynamite premise, fun performances and a cool 80's soundtrack. "That punk is either in love with this guy's daughter or he has a newfound respect for life!"



90 Evil Dead II
(Sam Raimi, 1987)

This sort of represents every over-the-top horror flick that I love but couldn't find a place for on my list. Raimi serves up a perfect blend of comedy and horror. And you can never say enough about Bruce "The Chin" Campbell, who turned Ash into a truly iconic character.



89 Mona Lisa
(Neil Jordan, 1986)

Surprisingly well-drawn characters and a gem of a performance out of Hoskins make this one a flick I could watch over and over again. Bob Hoskins circa late 70's - mid 80's could very well be the coolest person ever.

88 A City of Sadness
(Hou Hsiao-hsien, 1988)

A complex and structured film that masterfully captures a truly horrible time in human history. It's rhythmic and poignant and utterly depressing. A masterpiece of the highest form from a very talented man.



87 Trainspotting
(Danny Boyle, 1996)

Ah, Rents. Frantically-paced and jarringly blunt, Trainspotting is a whole heckuva lot of fun. Iggy Pop, statutory rape, heroin, home-made sex tapes and Begbie. Fan-freakin-tastic. And yeah, The Name of the Rose was merely a blip on an otherwise downward trajectory.



86 Wild at Heart
(David Lynch, 1990)

What can you say about David Lynch? He's the weirdest, most far-out movie making mother out there. Wild at Heart is just vintage Lynch. Everyone in the cast knows who's film they're in and they all act accordingly. Deliciously bizarre, Lynchian stuff. "Bobby Peru don't come up for air."



85 Shadow of a Doubt
(Alfred Hitchcock, 1943)

I had to have a Hitch flick in here somewhere, so here it is. It came down to this one and North By Northwest, but if I'm being totally honest with myself, I enjoy Shadow much more. Teresa Wright was a total babe.



84 Lost in America
(Albert Brooks, 1987)

I am ga-ga for Albert Brooks. Totally cuckoo for Albert Brooks. I have a pretty particular sense of humor and Brooks fits my sensibilities perfectly. Lost in America is the man at the very top of his game. Endlessly quotable and frighteningly relatable, I flippin love this movie.



83 A Better Tomorrow
(John Woo, 1986)

Okay, there are several more pics of Chow Yun-Fat looking cool to come on this list. So I really don't want to shoot my load waxing poetic about Yun-Fat and Woo here. But this is one hip movie and I never get tired of seeing old Chow kill a bunch of people.

Great list so far and am looking forward to seeing the rest...

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Sweet. Share the love for Picnic at Hanging Rock and Throw Momma From the Train. You have good taste. I like all the flics that I have seen on this list, and haven't heard of many of the others... well except for the fact that now I have, so I can try and find some of them. ): oh no, it's a mutant smiley with eyes on his chin!

Glad you guys like what you see.


82 A Matter of Life and Death
(Powell & Pressburger, 1946)

Super surreal fantasy that was way ahead of its time. The effects hold up reasonably well and the performances are charming all around. Ambitious, enjoyable film that's uncompromising in its vision to let the viewer believe whatever they want to believe. A Matter of Life and Death should be much higher on my list, I really didn't think this through as well as I thought I did. But I'm not going back now...



81 To Die For
(Gus Van Sant, 1995)

A little too restrained for its own good, this is still a wonderfully dark motion picture. Deliciously sharp dialogue is brought to life in what amounts to be Nicole Kidman's very best performance. "You're not anybody in America unless you're on TV."



80 Blow Out
(Brian De Palma, 1981)

De Palma's most intelligent film and probably his best, too. Blow Out kind of transcends genres and easy classificaton. It's a mish-mash that meshes together fabulously. And man-oh-man, John Lithgow can be a pretty creepy guy sometimes.



79 Being John Malkovich
(Spike Jonze, 1999)

There's nothing I admire more than a film that takes chances and tries to do something different. Charlie Kauffman flicks don't always work for me, but that doesn't mean I don't respect what the guy does. Well, Being John Malkovich is one of the ones that worked for me and it might just be the most interesting and creatively conceived movie I've ever seen.



78 Outland
(Peter Hyams, 1981)

A space western in the same sort of vein as Firefly, it's basically just Sean Connery chillin in outer space. Fantastic climactic chase sequence and, again, it's flippin Sean Connery kicking ass where no one can hear you scream.



77 Children of Men
(Alfonso Cuarón, 2006)

I love everything about this film. Theo's escape from the farm, Sid, Clive Owen, King Crimson, the floating pig at Battersea, Michael Caine, "Ruby Tuesday", Ma Larkin, Danny Huston and everything else. Those two showcase four-minute-long shots are going to be remembered for an awfully long time.

As soon as I saw The Last Seduction in at #99 I knew this was gonna be a list to follow.

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"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how the Tatty 100 is done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan

Good start. I'm liking it so far too

76 Stranger Than Paradise
(Jim Jarmusch, 1984)

Ultra minimilist filmmaking here, which is really what Jarmusch is all about. I like all of his flicks, but this one's my absolute favorite. "You know, it's funny: You go to some place new and everything just looks the same."



75 Jurassic Park
(Steven Spielberg, 1993)

Spielberg and Jurassic Park get a lot of flak but, for what it is, this thing is awesome. Fun in all the right places, I think Jurassic Park was the first movie I ever truly loved. I don't love it any less now, I've just seen a lot more movies.



74 Cape Fear
(Martin Scorsese, 1991)

Here is a master at play. Scorsese toys with so many genre conventions and whatnot in this picture, so much fun for a movie geek like me to watch. A great performance by DeNiro, in a role that could have been played like a cartoon character in the hands of a lesser actor. My second favorite Scorsese flick.



73 The King of Comedy
(Martin Scorsese, 1983)

For me, this is Scorsese's most complete film. Really great stuff. And an absolute tour de force for DeNiro. "But, look, I figure it this way; Better to be king for a night than schmuck for a lifetime. Thank you. Thank you."



72 The Killer
(John Woo, 1989)

Another classic Woo/Yun-Fat pairing from the rock 'em sock 'em 1980's Hong Kong action movie scene. If the Hindus are to be believed and reincarnation is what awaits us all in the afterlife, I want to be reincarnated into a Chinese action movie extra, just so I could get killed by Chow Yun-Fat in one of these films.



71 A Man For All Seasons
(Fred Zinnemann, 1966)

Delicate, engrossing depiction of a man who stood up for what he believed in until the bitter end. Paul Scofield's very, very good and he doesn't rely on shouting or wild histrionics to get the job done. A great measured, understated performance in a great measured, understated film.



70 First Name: Carmen
(Jean Luc Godard, 1983)

I'm not all that much of a Godard fan, but this one never really felt like any of his other movies to me. A very cool disjointed masterpiece that does a lot of neat things with the juxtaposition of sound and image.



69 The Parallax View
(Alan J. Pakula, 1974)

One of the best of those classic 70's political conspiracy thrillers. A buttload of well-executed suspense sequences and a great movie star performance from Beatty elevate Parallax above the rest.



68 Arizona Dream
(Emir Kusturica, 1993)

Super trippy flick with a dynamite soundtrack. What a fantastically warped vision of the world. Eskimos, homemade flying machines and a bunch of other crazy ****. I have to go watch this movie now. I wish I had a bag of mushrooms or something.

MIKE WAZOSKI

still have to say it

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67 Dazed and Confused
(Richard Linklater, 1993)

Very cool glimpse into the lives of a vast number of stereotypical high schoolers in the late 70's. Whenever I watch this, it always makes me wish I was born 25 years earlier than I really was. "That's what I love about high school girls, man. I get older, they stay the same age. Yes they do."


66 Joe's Apartment
(John Payson, 1996)

Okay, there isn't a whole lot here, substance-wise, but I think if I was being as honest with myself as I should be, Joe's Apartment would crack my top 20. I know it's stupid. And I'm fully aware how completely lame it is. But I love every minute of this thing. All 70 or so of the them.



65 The Thing
(John Carpenter, 1982)

Not only is this a first-class horror flick, it's a more than respectable achievement in good ol' fashioned, hand crafted, gory special effects. Plus, it's got one of my favorite endings ever. Is Kurt Russell an alien? Is Keith David an alien?! Are they both aliens? They are, right? Right?!!



64 Men in Black
(Barry Sonnenfeld, 1997)

Speaking of aliens, this is one awesome movie. Irreverent, offbeat and oodles of fun from start to finish, I think Men in Black was the single most satisfying, enjoyable theater going experience I've ever had. Oh, and Tommy Lee Jones jumping up and down shouting "Eat me! Eeeaaat me!!!" at a ten foot tall cockroach is the greatest moment in the history of cinema.



63 The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
(Terry Gilliam, 1988)

Huge, slobbering Terry Gilliam fan here. I actually go back and forth on this one a lot, but it's still vintage Gilliam and it's got all the visual flair and style of his other stuff. A modicum of snuff can be most efficacious, everyone.



62 Bad Timing
(Nic Roeg, 1980)

Felt a little obligated to stick a Roeg movie in here somerwhere and here it is. So yeah, consider this The Roeg Slot. I chose Bad Timing because A) It's the only film of his I own, (on VHS, but still) so I've seen it a lot more and B) Young Theresa Russell and Garfunkel!! Pretty cool movie.

It's always great to see John Carpenter's Thing in lists like this. I'd imagine that no one has seen it more often than Mrs Carpenter, however...