My Top 100 films..... for Right now!

As I was putting together my top 25 list for "MoFo Top 100 Movies, Part III". I realized and had a massive amount of films left over and instead of just scrapping the rest. I've decided to make a top 100. Seemed to make sense, at least at the time. I think such a list as this should be based purely on taste. Not what everybody else considers to be the best. An recommendations as I list my best films is always appreciated and of course debate, discussion, reflect, laugh at me, tell me I’m crazy, wrong, right, whatever is always welcome.

So Far
45. Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip (1982) Joe Layton
46. Fight Club (1999) David Fincher
47. City of God (2002) Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund
48. Master and Commander (2003) Peter Weir
49. Eyes Wide Shut (1999) Stanley Kubrick
50. Lethal Weapon (1987) Richard Donner
51. Laura (1944) Otto Preminger
52. The Searchers (1956) John Ford
53. Das Boot (1981) Wolfgang Petersen
54. Superman (1979) Richard Donner
55. The Big Sleep (1946) Howard Hawks
56. Platoon (1986) Oliver Stone
57. Wild Strawberries (1957) Ingmar Bergman
58. Dr. Strangelove (1964) Stanley Kubrick
59. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (1966) Sergio Leone
60. Blow-Up (1966) Michelangelo Antonioni
61. Star Wars (1977) George Lucas
62. Heat (1995) Michael Mann
63. The Manchurian Candidate (1962) John Frankenheimer
64. GoodFellas (1990) Martin Scorsese
65. Apocalypse Now (1979) Francis Ford Coppola
66. The Thin Blue Line (1988) Errol Morris
67. Point Blank (1967) John Boorman
68. Miller's Crossing (1990) Joel Coen
69. Peter Jackson: Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
Peter Jackson: Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
Peter Jackson: Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
70. Rio Bravo (1959) Howard Hawks
71. Mulholland Drive (2001) David Lynch
72. The Silence of the Lambs (1991) Jonathan Demme
73. The Fisher King (1991) Terry Gilliam
74. Breaking In (1989) Bill Forsyth
75. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) David Lean
76. The Flight of the Phoenix (1965) Robert Aldrich
77. White Dog 1982 (Samuel Fuller)
78. Zodiac (2007) David Fincher
79. Bullitt (1968) Peter Yates
80. The Ghost and Mrs Muir (1947) Joseph L. Mankiewicz
81. The Ninth Configuration (1980) William Peter Blatty
82. Jackie Brown (1998) Quentin Tarantino
83. Rolling Thunder (1977) John Flynn
84. Bad Day at Black Rock [John Sturges] 1955
85. Taking of the Pelham One, Two, Three (1974) Joesph Sergent
86. Get Carter (1971) Mike Hodges
87. 101 Dalmatians (1961) Clyde Geronimi Hamilton Luske Wolfgang Reitherman
88. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) Steven Spielberg
89. The Big Easy (1986) Jim Mcbride
90. Profondo rosso aka Deep Red (1975) Dario Argento
91. King of New York (1990) Abel Ferrara
92. The Stunt Man (1980) Richard Rush
93. Nobody’s Fool (1995) Robert Benton
94. The Hill (1965) Sidney Lumet
95. Koyaanisqatsi (1983) Godfrey Reggio
96. Secrets and Lies (1996) Mike Leigh
97. Unbreakable (2000) M. Night Shyamalan
98. The Game (1997) David Fincher
99. Last Action Hero (1993) John McTiernan
100. Alive (1993) Frank Marshall



100. Alive (1993) Frank Marshall

I've always been intrigue by "Man against Nature". Based on a true story Frank Marshall in his second film as a director waste little to no time thrusting you into the major meat of the story. A Plane full of rugby player and family members crashes on a mountain in the middle of the Andes with minimal rations and hope as their only chance of survival. What they think first is, will get pick up within the week. It becomes glaringly obvious that this won't be happening. To be saved they will have to save themselves. What transpires next is pure survival over nature and humanity. The Acting is riveting. The effects are impartial yet strong.

99. Last Action Hero (1993) John McTiernan

Okay.... I'm expecting to hear it from a lot of people on this one. I'm not going to get into the whole fact that it was universally panned by critics or the fact that it was a bomb at the box office (I saw it at the theatres). I'm an ACTION JUNKY plain and simple, there's no other way to put it. From that simple perspective as an action movie it has it all and then some. The humour is so perfect. The timing, just right. The constant flux and interactive jousting of having fun with you and itself makes it feel timeless. Mctiernan takes it even further by making fun his own films and other such popular action movies. It’s absurdly clever descriptively honest about itself. It wears its heart on it’s sleeve. Sometimes I wish that more people love it but, really does it matter or make a difference. naw.... it doesn’t nor should it.

98. The Game (1997) David Fincher

This was for the longest time my favourite film. I’ll be forthright in that everything doesn’t quite and isn’t quite neatly wrapped up in it’s storyline continuity. This was my first David Fincher film¸ where I knew who he was. I was in the hands of a young interesting filmmaker that was going to take me to new places, new aspects, new techniques of celluloid dreams.


97. Unbreakable (2000) M. Night Shyamalan

Call it wishful thinking that there are heroes, heroes that possess the ability to have power that aren’t so unimaginable to be real and for those people not to have knowledge of who they are. What seems like an everyday man with similar problems as you and me. no magical kryptonite just water as a weakness. A man with family troubles we all have them. Now that everybody is off of M. Night Shyamalan jock it seems like people have done a 180 and now have decided that his films are garbage. I think now his films can be true consider good or bad this one happens to be good.


96. Secrets and Lies (1996) Mike Leigh

Mike Leigh Secrets and Lies reminded me a lot of Ozu`s films which is high praise the only considerable difference was the sheer amount of improvisation. The Camera was always firmly planted non intrusive keeping the actor secure and safe. An emotional high pitch is keep throughout even in the more subtle scenes the acting is amazing. profound reality.

95. Koyaanisqatsi (1983) Godfrey Reggio

Visually poetic. The value of this films massage keeps on getting stronger and stronger everyday.

Rep for having the balls to put Last Action Hero on your top 100. I like it too, mainly because of it's tongue in cheek vibe to it.

My one problem is why the villain, who can go into any movie and bring out anyone, decides to bring out the one guy that the hero has already beaten. Just because he took away his son too? I don't buy it.

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"A laugh can be a very powerful thing. Why, sometimes in life, it's the only weapon we have."

Suspect's Reviews

The Villian played charismatically by Charles Dance doesn't know anything yet about the real world therefore nothing about real movie bad guys (Alternate Universe). So, I think he goes for what he know best the movie Universe of Jack Slater which he knows to exist because he came from it. He simply went with what he knows and simultaneously have fun doing it. What better way to piss Jack Slater off by choosing the man who killed his son. By bringing Tom Noonan's Ripper character back the film comes full circle. The movie scenario that once occupied the first reel which was "just a movie" now is a "real life scenario" no extra takes it's do or die.

I'm just thinking about the car chase scene were AC/DC kicks in

check it out

Hey LB, looking forward to seeing the rest of your 100 . You have some good ones so far, particularly like you having Secrets and Lies

Great start. I love reading these.

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

Last Action Hero is on my list, too. Mind if i use your picture?
BTW - Nice start with these dark modern movies.

Thanks. Of course you can use the pick, no problem. I'm just glad i'm not the only one out there that loves this film.

Not my favorite Arnie flick, but definitely up there. I love that this looks like it will be a very personal list. That's how these lists should be. Can't wait to read the rest of it.

94. The Hill [Sidney Lumet] 1965

The cast is bloody fantastic just look at what you’ve got (Sean Connery, Ian Bannen, Alfred Lynch, Ossie Davis, Roy Kinnear, Jack Watson, Ian Hendry and Michael Redgrave). Tight, taunt, precision directing by Sidney Lumet with one of cinema’s best photographers Oswald Morris. The first shot is a long extending crane dolly shot that runs over the title sequence. Auspicious in it’s nature, the shot gives you a private look into the films central character the army prison and more importantly “The Hill”. Lumet having now had the experience of directing 12 Angry Men, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, The Pawnbroker and Fail Safe. All being very stage-like in there representation of filmmaking. All the films were populated with a small number of cast members and minimal set design. The Hill came next. I think it just might be his best of his earlier work. By staying with his roots, He was able to achieve such high control over the environment and staged scenes. With His background being television he choose a similar comfortable environment to make his earlier work which breed creativity and detailed texture.

93. Nobody’s Fool [Robert Benton] 1995

Just when you thought Hollywood stop making films like these. Benton wrote and directed one of my favourite capraesque films. A huge ensemble cast with multi players involved. It’s a story about the coming of age. It just so happens the person coming of age is in his late 60’s. Set in a small town with eccentric characters and were of course everyone knows everybodies business.

92. The Stunt Man [Richard Rush] 1980

Movie within a movie within a movie premise. I know, it sounds confusing and it could have been heavy handed but, it’s all very well handled by Rush who now looks to be a two hit wonder the other great film being Freebie and the Bean. The story is about the making of a film, the actors lives involved in filming the film, the actual footage of the film that’s being shot while simultaneously watch the actual finished film you are watching. Really it’s not as complicated as that sounds. It's complex but easy to follow. Truffaut made Day for Night Rush made The Stunt Man the material is more involving and the film is more larger in scope. I choose The Stunt Man.

+ rep for The Hill.

91. King of New York [Abel Ferrara] 1990
This movie has so many memorable moments so many memorable characters. You wanna be the bad guys. There cool. Dressed in black. Getting all the beautiful women, drugs, cash and guns. I can’t believe how young everybody is in this film Fishburne might have been the most seasoned vet next to Walken. For the most part Ferrara doesn’t tickle my fancy but he hit a home run with this one. The violence is so sudden and shocking this movie is ruthless. Brilliant stuff.

Rather than putting some picture up check this freakin amazing dialogue out.

Frank White: From now on, nothing goes down unless I'm involved. No blackjack no dope deals, no nothing. A nickel bag gets sold in the park, I want in. You guys got fat while everybody starved on the street. Now it's my turn.

Frank White: I've got a $250,000 contract on any cop involved with this case.
Roy Bishop: Do you really expect to get away with killing all these people?
Frank White: I never killed anybody who didn't deserve it.

Frank White: You think ambushing me in some nightclub's gonna stop what makes people take drugs? This country spends $100 billion a year on getting high, and it's not because of me. All that time I was wasting in jail, it just got worse. I'm not your problem. I'm just a businessman.

brilliant.......

90. Profondo rosso aka Deep Red [Dario Argento] 1975

There’s such a fusion of bright colours and deep dark blacks. This film is manic. I still vividly remember my first viewing of this film and being blow away by its sheer jarring effect it had on my mind. The score in most likely any other film would have been off putting but here it elevates panic like as if something is crawling under your skin. It’s also many things such as the cat and mouse game played between the antagonist and protagonist, part horror for obvious reasons, whodunit film, neo noir, slasher film, and a sleuth of genres. I think what really pushes it over the edge for me in the end is the dreamlike quality that surrounds the film. It reminded me of that eerie feeling you get from being in fog.

I don't know, he seemed to be able to grasp the difference pretty early on. Even so, why only one? Why not bring a whole army. Just a small gripe of mine, but I can see your logic.

What I would have liked to have happened is have Slater meet the kid actor who played his son. Or would that have been too dramatic for this fun popcorn flick?

Well, I think he had to adjust just like Slater had to adjust. For example when Slater replays the "car chicken scene" this time around he now pays for it for the first time by feeling real pain. Charles Dance doesn't know exactly what he can and can't get away with. Which is why he shoots an innocent man times it with his watch and yells out loud to the new york streets that he has just commited a murder. Nothing happens but people telling him to shut up from the apartments above.


Remember the card has a mind of it's own. It works when it wants to work. Slater's is on his tale. He needs a very good distraction again another good reason to bring back Tom Noonan's character also he probably was the first experiment Dance's character choose to bring out of a film. Knowing that it had work in a previous Slater movie trying another only seemed logical. I see were your coming from though. I just think he wanted someone else to do is dirty work for once instead of himself which he was always "that guy" in Slater movies. Never the guy calling the shots. You also need someone crazy enough to listen to Dance you can't bring just anyone out of a movie what makes you think that there going to do what he asks of them to do. They've got no reason to want to hurt Slater only Slater villians have a reason.

I never really thought of that storyline maybe it could have worked but at the same time I beileve that over the period of the film he gained a real son. yeah, plus it would have been too weird because he now knew and excepted that that wasn't his real kid even though it left him emotional scared. I mean as the movie progresses he excepts certain realities and he realizes his movie son never really died it was an actor make belief so to speak.

The Attachment he once felt to his movie son has now been replaced with an even strong bond that's been created with the kid. It's more important to Slater more real to Slater.

89. The Big Easy [Jim Mcbride] 1986
One of my favorite movie posters

Of all the talented american directors to come from the late 60’s. I wish McBride's film career had been more successful and therefore able to make more films. What where left with is one of the most intriguing remakes ever put on film of Godard’s Breathless, An assertive autobiography of Jerry Lee Lewis in Great Balls of Fire and what might be the best neo noir ever made and defiantly one of the most creatively shot films to capture New Orleans. Ellen Barkin is red hot and Dennis Quaid plays around with Barkin beautifully. The love affair between the two stars has some of the most intensely hot creatively steamy scenes in film. The film has an incredible heartbeat.

88. Raiders of the Lost Ark [Steven Spielberg] 1981
To think this scene could have been different.
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Adventure doesn’t get much better, does it. I could cheat and throw them all in as a whole series. On the strength of just part one and part three alone. I’m also a believer of the others not being too far behind. I like the free wheedling nature of it all. The beauty of surprise. The interaction between characters. The humor being so absurd. How can you honestly not like this film? say what you want about other Spielberg films but, not this one. "You dare not do that" Mola Ram.


87. 101 Dalmatians [Clyde Geronimi Hamilton Luske Wolfgang Reitherman] 1961

From all the Disney classics this one has stayed closest to my heart. I’m amazed as to how well this movie plays as a kids movie and as an adult movie simultaneously. Eccentric in its design, Distrubing in its underlying story and joyfully assembled.

86. Get Carter [Mike Hodges]

I can’t think of a better film that on first viewing I really didn’t enjoy and on second viewing I had completely fallen in love with. Revenge, drama, family bonds and Running naked in the streets with only a shotgun in hand. All types of good stuff. Michael Caine in one his most memorable British roles turns the screws on the people he believes to be involved with his brothers death.

85. Taking of the Pelham One, Two, Three [Joesph Sergent]

A taunt thriller.With a sense of pace and accuracy. Tight filmmaking from Sergent. Matthau in his best lead role plays Lt. Zachary Garber of the New York City Transit Police. A subway train is hijacked by 4 bad guy who call themselves Mr. Blue, Green, Grey and Brown. Ultra-cool film that has supreme repeatability.

Two excellent choices there, LBJ, and two of my favourite films, too.

Thanks. Have you seen the remake of Get Carter ? what a sorry state of affairs that film was. It's funny but I just now realized that both films are remakes of 70's films coming back to back. The new Pelham is much more better then what I accept was going to be nearly impossible to improve upon which it really didn't. Mr. Scott has creative style and the film exudes style. I also thought Washington was great.

No, I've not seen either remake, LBJ. The first I avoided for the, IMO, excellent reason that Sly Stallone seemed to be very involved with its production, as well as starring in it. Those circumstances in combination with a remake of Get Carter just meant I had zero interest in seeing it.

Pelham was a remake that I was very interested in and quite looking forward to, until I saw that Travolta was cast as 'the villian'. I was still interested after that, but I wasn't looking forward to it nearly as much. I'll see it on dvd and, hopefully, really enjoy it. Unforunately, I don't think I'll be unable to not compare it to the original.

I don't blame you for your hesitation esp Get Carter, stay away!. I was going to mention Travolta being not as bad as he's been in recent years but he's barely passible. Still though I'd recommend it on the strength of Scott's direction and Washington's lead performance. There are a few attempts to add backstory that you'll either hate or find interesting.

84. Bad Day at Black Rock [John Sturges] 1955

I love the way this film can not be contained to one genre. How you feel everything. That sense of being trapped as Spencer Tracy does. How the sun and heat make you feel hot and sweaty. it’s a detective story yet there are no detectives. It’s a murder mystery yet you don’t see or even know if there was a murder. How every character has a propose and how a character you never see only know by name carries the weight of the story.

83. Rolling Thunder [John Flynn] 1977

Certainly Vengeance as a main theme has been captured in cinema since this film was made. I’m just not sure if it’s bin done any better then Flynn and Schrader. Violent, explosive and unforgiving. Sometimes an actor give’s a performance that’s head or heals his best and for some unknown reason is never able to top it or even come close to it. William Devane does it in Rolling Thunder.