The 100 favorite movies of Lines Palsy

Here it is...

(some of these posts are currently under construction while I dick around with them. -8/22/11)

EDIT

I want to add more movies to my personal "essentials" list, but as it's been almost four years since I first did this, I now want to take inventory and see just how many of my choices have changed in that time. I'm going to strike through the movies I wouldn't include anymore, and italicize ones that I feel a little iffy about or would need to see again. I'll make any future changes to the list HERE.

Here's the full list, so far:

100. Ikiru (1952)
99. Amar Akbar Anthony (1977)
98. Zu, Warriors of the Magic Mountain (1983)
97. Million Dollar Legs (1932)
96. They Came From Within (1975)
95. Wild Strawberries (1957)
94. Wonderland (1999)
93. Death to Smoochy (2002)
92. The Profound Desire of the Gods (1968)
91. Men With Guns (1997)
90. Drowning by Numbers (1988)
89. Miller's Crossing (1990)
88. eXistenZ (1999)
87. Network (1976)
86. Branded to Kill (1967)
85. No! No! A Thousand times No!! (1935)
84. Singin' in the Rain (1952)
83. Short Cuts (1993)
82. Fallen Angels (1995)
81. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
80. Nostalghia (1983)
79. 8½ (1963)
78. His Girl Friday (1940)
77. The Untouchables (1987)
76. Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
75. Seven Beauties (1975)
74. The Incredibles (2004)
73. My Fair Lady (1964)
72. Tokyo Story (1953)
71. The Play House (1921)
70. Pitfall (1962)
69. Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
68. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)
67. Stranger Than Paradise (1984)
66. Rosemary's Baby (1968)
65. Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)
64. King Kong (1933)
63. 12 Angry Men (1957)
62. Sonatine (1993)
61. Future Boy Conan (1978)
60. Monsters, Inc. (2001)
59. Taxi Driver (1976)
58. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
57. My Dinner With Andre (1981)
56. Floating Weeds (1959)
55. The Ninth Gate (1999)
54. Heaven (2002)
53. Skeleton Dance (1929)
52. Peking Opera Blues (1986)
51. Naked (1993)
50. Stormy Weather (1943)
49. Duck Soup (1933)
48. Amateur (1994)
47. Vengeance is Mine (1979)
46. Repo Man (1984)
45. La Jetée (1962)
44. Woman in the Dunes (1964)
43. The Fly (1986)
42. Shanghai Knights (2003)
41. One Week (1920)
40. Eat Drink Man Woman (1994)
39. 2001 (1968)
38. Time of the Gypsies (1988)
37. The Prestige (2006)
36. The Sun's Burial (1960)
36. The Wrong Trousers (1993)
35. Akira (1988)
34. Sunset Blvd. (1950)
33. Brewster McCloud (1970)
32. High and Low (1963)
31. The Claim (2000)
30. Alien (1979)
29. 2046 (2004)
28. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)
27. The Singing Detective (1986)
26. The Adventures of Horus, Prince of the Sun (1968)
25. The Pledge (2001)
24. Mr. Arkadin (1955)
23. Sunshine (2007)
22. Arizona Dream (1993)
21. Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
20. No Such Thing (2001)
19. Mr. Vampire (1985)
18. The Red Shoes (1948)
17. The Muppet Movie (1979)
16. The Thin Red Line (1998)
15. Aguirre (1972)
14. The Lady From Shanghai (1947)
13. Once Upon a Time in China (1991)
12. Limbo (1999)
11. Dead Ringers (1988)
10. A Zed & Two Noughts (1985)
9. The Seventh Seal (1957)
8. Popeye (1980)
7. Tampopo (1985)
6. The Seven Samurai (1954)
5. The Blade (1995)
4. The Long Goodbye (1973)
3. Sherlock Jr. (1924)
2. Prospero's Books (1991)
1. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

Freaks (1932)
The Decade of Destruction Part 1: In the Ashes of the Forest (1990)
Olympiad (1938)
Die Hard (1988)
Rear Window (1954)
Rashomon (1950)
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
Throw Momma From the Train (1987)
The Tenant (1976)
A Taxing Woman (1987)
Soy Cuba (1964)
Three Crowns of the Sailor (1983)
Minnie the Moocher (1932)
Chungking Express (1994)
King Kong (2005)

Lovin it so far.

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“The gladdest moment in human life, methinks, is a departure into unknown lands.” – Sir Richard Burton

100. Ikiru (1952)
Solid tear-jerker from Kurosawa that beautifully showcases his humanism.


99. Amar Akbar Anthony (1977)
It manages to squeeze more incongruous themes and subplots into a wild 3 hours of melodrama, gags and music than -- well, than any non-Bollywood movie, anyway.


98. Zu, Warriors of the Magic Mountain (1983)
A martial arts fantasy with a plenty of horror, satire and romance thrown in. Director Tsui Hark recruited special effects people who worked on Star Wars and the result is a flashy, gratuitous epic of only 90 minutes, with cleverly designed effects and set-pieces in almost every scene.

Psych!

97. Million Dollar Legs (1932)
This is a movie that has made a lasting impression on me both because it was a childhood favorite and because it's weird. It seems like the crass attempt to quickly cash in on the 1932 Summer Olympics allowed screenwriter Joseph L. Mankiewicz enough latitude to concoct a bizarre Kitchen-sink type comedy with W.C. Fields and some pre-Hayes Code sexiness.



96. They Came From Within (1975)
Artificially created parasites are unleashed on the inhabitants of a futuristic apartment complex, turning them into violent sex maniacs. Cronenberg when he was a brash sci-fi weirdo, still interested in pushing the envelope.



95. Wild Strawberries (1957)
My best example of Bergman's ability to create a sympathetic and cinematically-engrossing mood of introspection.



94. Wonderland (1999)
Has the best use of fireworks of any movie that I can remember and an Altman-esque style of multiple story-telling.



93. Death to Smoochy (2002)
Hugely underrated, this movie is full of great one-liners and technically accomplished visual-storytelling.

Time to upload some more awesome pictures of Brigitte Lin's hair in Zu that I just found

Attachments

     

very nice start! looking forward to seeing the rest

I bet that's a very accurate explanation why this movie isn't more popular, this film is great example of a comedy that I truly laugh out loud at. Know why? Because I think its pretty damn accurate, I live here in this capitalist mecca known as the U.S. and if you pay attention you can see stuff like this going on. And the bottom line is children's entertainment is a very big business with plenty of corporate sponsorship and they have lots of cash. Sure, I'm maybe a conspiracy theorist but hey, try watching a little more news and then tell me this kind of stuff isn't going on. Sorry, I'll shut up now...

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

92. The Profound Desire of the Gods (1968)
Beautiful color photography of a harsh and remote island, as its intruigingly perverse society comes face to face with modernity in the form of jaded technocrats. Like all of Imamura's films, there's a strange "magical" mood infused in the colors and deliberately bad special effects.



91. Men With Guns (1997)
Clever ending. Director John Sayles learned Spanish to join the ranks of the Latin American magical realists.



90. Drowning by Numbers (1988)
One of Peter Greenaway's many wonderful collaborations with D.P. Sacha Vierny and composer Michael Nyman.



89. Miller's Crossing (1990)
The Coens' great neo-noir mobster movie. Some of their best dialog as well as lush cinematography by Barry Sonnenfeld.



88. eXistenZ (1999)
Cronenberg's hilarious and thoughtful virtual reality comedy/thriller. There are some fantastically gross and humorous moments in this. The scene in the "Chinese Restaurant" is one of my favorites.

I like to see the love for eXistenZ. It made it to my top 100 as well, but it is an underrated movie that a lot of people I know haven't even heard of.

__________________
"As I was walking up the stair,
I met a man who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today,
I wish, I wish he'd go away."
-From Identity

87. Network (1976)
My first exposure to this movie was a sample from Ned Beatty's speach that was used in a catchy techno song. Which ironically enough is one of the targets of this movie, the ability of society to turn its own debasement into a flashy spectacle.



86. Branded to Kill (1967)
Suzuki's epic F.U. to sensible film-making features absurd numbered assassins vying for the top rank.



85. No! No! A Thousand times No!! (1935)
Of the Betty Boop cartoons that don't feature Cab Calloway I can't say this is the best. It features a somewhat tamer post-code Betty without the surreal references to drugs and sex. This one holds a special charm for me though, with its odd pantomime of coyness and amorous aggression between Betty and Philip the Fiend. I also like that it's framed as an overtly implausible stage play. I think it's actually a reworking of Betty Boop's Prize Show, an earlier cartoon that is also interesting but isn't quite as memorable. I like the song in this one better. You can watch this and many other Boop cartoons in low resolution on Youtube, which I strongly recommend doing (try and avoid the colorized versions if you can, they change Betty's supposed hair color from red to black).



84. Singin' in the Rain (1952)
I love the Broadway melody number built around Cyd Charisse, which leads up to one of my favorite punchlines. Not to mention the rest of the movie. "Dignity. Always Dignity."



83. Short Cuts (1993)
One of Altman's most ambitious meandering multi-character studies.



82. Fallen Angels (1995)
I actually didn't like this movie at all the first time I saw it, but I found myself liking some of the characters more and more on repeat viewings and now I just love the whole thing and enjoy most of its quirks.

81. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
Should have been called The Bad, the Worse and the Ugly but it's still a really wild new wave western.



80. Nostalghia (1983)
Extremely slow-paced but also one of the most beautiful films ever made.



79. 8½ (1963)
Deceptively messy-seeming, this movie is actually masterfully staged and filmed.



78. His Girl Friday (1940)
This proto-typical rom com has great dialog and performances.



77. The Untouchables (1987)
De Palma is very ostentatious in quoting other movies. He does it with such unique visual flair though, that I can't get enough of this film.



76. Witness for the Prosecution (1957)

Charles Laughton and Elsa Lanchester have great chemistry in this and the mystery plot is engrossing. One of Billy Wilder's best films.



75. Seven Beauties (1975)
A Black, misanthropic satire about macho posturing and surivival at any cost.



74. The Incredibles (2004)
Is this the best computer animated film? The Incredibles quotes other movies only to outdo them. It does spy intrigue better than any Bond, speeder chases better than Lucas, and balances action and family melodrama more adroitly than any Spielberg movie.



73. My Fair Lady (1964)
The main character is a cockney guttersnipe. This musical has some of my favorite dialog and songs. More movies should be about cockney guttersnipes!



72. Tokyo Story (1953)
A low key domestic story that is beautifully shot and affecting.

I tried watching Tokyo twilight but started falling asleep after about an hour... I think I'll wait a few years before giving Ozu another shot...

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http://www.last.fm/user/diezelpower/

If you ever do give Ozu another shot, I recomend you don't start with Tokyo Story (even though it's excellent and the one I started with), but Floating Weeds instead (the 1959 version). That's the one that prompted me to give him a second chance. All his movies seem to be reticent and emotionally understated almost to the point of frustration, but of the ones I've seen that one brings out his visual style the best. It's also a bit funnier than the other ones I mentioned.

71. The Play House (1921)

One of the best short films by one of the most inventive and daring film-makers, full of clever trick photography and a nonsensical plot.



70. Pitfall (1962)
Kobo Abe is one of the strangest authors around. Hiroshi Teshigahara has an almost as strange aesthetic sense that I find very appealing and exotic.



69. Once Upon a Time in the West
Awesome use of the anamorphic wide-screen aspect ratio. I'd like to see this operatic western in a theater someday.



68. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)
I'm a fan of how this movie successfully builds a rich and whole cinematic environment from the ground up, and then bases its story in the everyday lives of the people who pass through. It also has beautiful impressionistic cinematography and lighting by Vilmos Zsigmond.



67. Stranger Than Paradise (1984)
A deliberately low-key, ironic film that doesn't really express any philosophy, lacks much of a dramatic arc and invests nothing in character motivation, and turns the deadpan emptiness into something funny and entertaining.


66. Rosemary's Baby
Creepy, groundbreaking thriller from Polanski.



65. Picnic at Hanging Rock
Full of clever misdirection and haunting imagery.



64. King Kong (1933)
some of the best monster special effects ever, and a great story.



63. 12 Angry Men (1957)
Lumet and co. took a story that was engineered entirely to the strengths of the stage and successfully turned into a cinematically engaging masterpiece.



62. Sonatine (1993)
Another one I didn't care for at all at first. The beautiful setting and humor eventually drew me in and allowed me the time to understand and sympathize with the characters.



61. Future Boy Conan (1978)
An epic animated tv series by Hayao Miyazaki and co. with some silly cartoon slapstick and a post-apocalyptic adventure story.

So far i love this list. I haven't seen most of these, but they all sound intriguing enough to look for. Of the ones I have seen, I liked King Kong and Stranger Than Paradise the most.

I must post my list if I ever finish it.

Cool, I hope you do eventually see all of them, including the more obscure ones.

Finish that list!

Yup. Just what I expected. Reading Linespalsy's list makes me feel like I watch far too much crap.

Just loaded Wonderland (the correct Winterbottom version, of course) into my queue on Netflix. Thanks for the list! The shot you posted sucked me right in...

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Love the list, man.

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The novelist does not long to see the lion eat grass. He realizes that one and the same God created the wolf and the lamb, then smiled, "seeing that his work was good".

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They had temporarily escaped the factories, the warehouses, the slaughterhouses, the car washes - they'd be back in captivity the next day but now they were out - they were wild with freedom. They weren't thinking about the slavery of poverty. Or the slavery of welfare and food stamps. The rest of us would be all right until the poor learned how to make atom bombs in their basements.

Glad you're enjoying it, folks.

Let us know what you think of Wonderland, Sedai (there's still some more Winterbottom to come).