The MoFo Top 100 Neo-noir Countdown

I think I'm done now. It's always fun to do this things, but it wouldn't be nearly as fun if it weren't for all of you. Thanks to all of you for voting or just sharing your thoughts here. But especially, thanks to @Citizen Rules for coming up with this crazy idea to do two countdowns at once, something that I admit I wasn't entirely on board with, but that ended up working rather well. Second, always thanks to @Yoda for all the technical stuff, all the backstage talk, and his quick response for the two or three times I messed up Third, thanks to @John-Connor for working out the actors stats and @Holden Pike for his constant grumbl... no, seriously thanks for his backstage advise, for sharing stats, and frequent elbowing when something wasn't quite right. Finally, again, thanks to all of you for making it fun! Now let's party...

__________________

Okay, the last 2 are on my list...

2. Blade Runner - I was only a kid, and coming off a Raiders of the Lost Ark Harrison Ford high when Blade Runner came out. I must say I felt a little lost amongst the film noir sci-fi kind of genre twist this was - being more used to Star Wars type of fare when it came to science fiction. It's taken years of continually increased appreciation to turn that all around for me personally. This is sci-fi for adults instead of kids, and a beautiful introduction to a much bigger audience for Dutch actor Rutger Hauer. It wasn't a huge hit when it came out - but man, time has been especially kind to it's status - and it was honored with a rarely brilliant belated sequel which did the impossible and lived up to the original. I had it at #12 on my list.

1. Chinatown - There's not much left to say about Chinatown - I've seen it plenty of times, and it's another film that I love more now than when I first saw it. I never ended up seeing that follow-up, The Two Jakes - mainly because of it's reputation as a disappointment. Perhaps someone here is a fan of it? Anyway, Chinatown ended up with a #9 spot on my ballot - a kind of scattered one according to this particular countdown, with my favourite, The Conversation, ending up lower down and some of the films I had lower down on my ballot ending up near the top. I only have one more reveal as to a film that didn't show.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seen : 75/100
I'd never even heard of : 9/100
Movies that had been on my radar, but I haven't seen yet : 16/100
Films from my list : 21 + 1

#1 - My #9 - Chinatown (1974)
#2 - My #12 - Blade Runner (1982)
#3 - My #20 - L.A. Confidential (1997)
#4 - My #18 - Taxi Driver (1976)
#5 - My #8 - The Long Goodbye (1973)
#6 - My #5 - Se7en (1995)
#8 - My #4 - Memento (2000)
#12 - My #10 - No Country For Old Men (2007)
#13 - My #7 - Blue Velvet (1986)
#14 - My #15 - Drive (2011)
#15 - My #6 - Miller's Crossing (1990)
#16 - My #2 - Reservoir Dogs (1992)
#17 - My #22 - Blow Out (1981)
#21 - My #13 - Nightcrawler (2014)
#27 - My #24 - The Man Who Wasn't There (2001)
#28 - My #1 - The Conversation (1974)
#30 - My #23 - Zodiac (2007)
#42 - My #19 - Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)
#44 - My #21 - Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
#52 - My #11 - Oldboy (2003)
#81 - My #17 - Brick (2005)
#106 - My #16 - Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007)
DNP - My #3 - Gloria (1980)
DNP - My #14 - Training Day (2001)
DNP - My #25 - Animal Kingdom (2010)

__________________

Training Day - My #14

My bad. Training Day isn't really a neo noir film, but as I'm someone who is all about excuses and not at all happy with owning up to my responsibilities, I have to point out that I did search for neo noirs and Training Day showed up amongst the results. I went and made sure it qualified, and it did (almost everything did.) I really love Training Day - so much so that I blocked out the fact that it probably wouldn't belong here. Not that this didn't stop a number of other films from showing up - but as bad luck would have it not Training Day. Great performance from Denzel, and I'm always happy with Ethan Hawke - great pair up villain/hero-wise. I have to own up to it, which is what I'm doing.

@Thief, well done work!

-----
My Ballot
▽


1. Angel Heart (1987) [#31]
2. Wild at Heart (1990) [near misses]
3. Jackie Brown (1997) [#18]
4. The Driver (1978) [#79]
5. Le Samouraï (1967) [#7]


6. Red Rock West (1993) [#88]
7. The Hot Spot (1990) [#85]
8. Shallow Grave (1994) [#95]
9. Le Cercle Rouge (1970) [#23]
10. The Man Who Wasn't There (2001) [#27]


11. Reservoir Dogs (1992) [#16]
12. Caché (2005)
13. Sea of Love (1989)
14. Purple Noon (1960) [#94]
15. The Swimming Pool (1969)


16. Thelma & Louise (1991) [#56]
17. Year of the Dragon (1985)
18. Taxi Driver (1976) [#4]
19. Dog Day Afternoon (1975) [#36]
20. The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981)


21. Mona Lisa (1986) [#78]
22. Blue Velvet (1986) [#13]
23. Hard Eight (1996) [near misses]
24. Pulp Fiction (1994) [#37]
25. Guilty as Sin (1993)
-----

Others on my radar:
▽
The Ninth Gate (1999) [one-pointers]
The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) [#96]
True Romance (1993) [#60]
Thief (1981) [#29]
The Conversation (1974) [#28]
Sin City (2005) [#26]
Fargo (1996) [#11]

__________________
"Population don't imitate art, population imitate bad television." W.A.
"You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus." M.T.

Great job @Thief! Thank you for all your hard work. Rep this man, people.

So uh, what's next. Apologies if already asked.

Great job citizen and Thief. So great I didn't even give either grief this time!

Nice work, Thief.
Here's my ballot. I bolded the ones that didn't make it.

1. Fargo
2. High and Low
3. L.A. Confidential
4. Chinatown
5. Le Samourai
6. Blade Runner
7. The French Connection
8. Memories of Murder
9. Memento
10. La Haine
11. Dog Day Afternoon
12. Sonatine
13. To Live and Die in L.A.
14. Blood Simple
15. Blow Out
16. Le Cercle Rouge
17. The Usual Suspects
18. Get Carter (1971)
19. Mona Lisa
20. House of Games
21. Point Blank
22. A Simple Plan
23. Devil in a Blue Dress
24. The Friends of Eddie Coyle
25. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

Forgot to say yesterday, for anyone interested, a couple of years ago I was a guest on Best Film Ever podcast where we talked about Blade Runner. Check it out here!