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

I watched Heat and Star Wars over the weekend. I think I've seen Heat 7 times now and I have the same problems with it now as I did when I first saw it, that being it's all style over substance and I hate Pacino's performance. I adore the way it's shot, the set pieces are great and that shootout scene is one of the greatest shootout scenes ever, IMO. The script's ok, though there's some laughable dialogue and the end doesn't work for me at all.

Still like it, but it wouldn't make my own 100.

There's an old "Taking of Pelham 123"? I didn't know about that..

Nice list!
HEAT rocks!

Really loving the list, Jeffries. Sorry I missed it before, I really do apologise for that. But yeah, I like your reasonings for liking certain films. Most I like, others I don't. Think that Apocalypse Now and Platoon are well overrated, the former more so than the latter. But loving your inclusion of Heat The Big Sleep and Star Wars, though I think the 2nd one is by far the better film. Its interesting list and definitely heartfelt, I can see that bro.

52. The Searchers (1956) John Ford

I find it strange that certain films fall out of love with people or had a massive revival and then the next generation find themselves calling it overrated, flawed or plain terrible. John Ford The Searchers seems to have suffered such a fate. I guess I’m in the lower portion of my generation that found this film to be completely enthralling. Were the genre aspect is only a mere setting for a characters play. It’s darker then most anything Ford did and not as restrained.

51. Laura (1944) Otto Preminger

There’s just so much to love about this noir. The sets, the mood, the actors, the central plot that evolves a man falling in love with a dead women. A small yet charming film that works on every level it chooses to encompasses.

50. Lethal Weapon (1987) Richard Donner

To be honest this was a later choice in the completion of my list. It’s more of an important film to me rather than being the best in one particular way. Certainly just from a cop movie criteria there’s been better. In terms of Drama Narc is more profound and human, Comedy you could easily make an argument for 48 hours, Serious subject matter go with Colors possible. Lethal Weapon is able to enable a kaleidoscope of formulas that creates one giant thunderous Cop flick with touches of every spectrum from every cop film that has ever been made. Super Action.

49. Eyes Wide Shut (1999) Stanley Kubrick

I remember the anticipation of this film I had recently become entranced by everything Kubrick and when I found out he was in the process of making a new film sometimes it was all I would think about. My expectation were in another universe and you know it lived up to everyone of them and then some.

48. Master and Commander (2003) Peter Weir

Man against Man against Nature. This is a film for men. The production design is phenomenal, the look is striking, the adventure is uproarious, the tempo is heart pounding, the entertainment level is the equivalent of sailing on a high sea. Dangerous yet enthralling and all to enticing.

Keep them coming

Not a big Fan of Eyes Wide Shut but maybe I should give it another go

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47. City of God (2002) Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund

Such a hard film to watch. It was organic as if these lives were truly in a life and death struggle/balance . It’s not far from the truth, I think. Places like this do exist all over the world and to turn a blind eye to them is wrong. I thank the filmmakers for an honest gut wrenching reality check. Life is unflinching relentless in one world an endurence.

46. Fight Club (1999) David Fincher

I’m not sure what this film cost. I’m guessing it was in the region of 150 million it’s astonishing that Hollywood would ever finance what is basically an art film for this kind of molla. This could have been a complete box office failure. Timing is one thing to be sure but this film touch a nerve. I’m not sure if there will ever be anything quite like this again.

45. Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip (1982) Joe Layton

One of the truest forms of entertainment that we as people can witness is one person, a mic, an absolute astonishing amount of feelings and emotions from laughter, joy, heart ache, sadness, and life itself. I now consider it to also be one of the most basic pure forms of cinema and for that it’s one the toughest and incredibly hardest to pull off. Richard Pryor bared his soul when he stood there. Humility and Humanity at it’s most open and un conceited. His ego was the size of a pea his heart was the size of the world.

Although I do like that last movie, I hope that Richard Pryor Live in Concert is coming eventually because it's just oh so much better...

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City of God, Lethal Weapon, Fight Club, Master and Commander... Superb!

What really strikes me with all of Mann's feature film work with the exception of The Keep which is a wonderful mess of a film. Is his single minded single vision. The way everything feels just as he wanted it to be. There's no wasted space, each frame is filled with perfect composition. each moment is expressively structured to give you a full expression of moods. The best way I can express my feelings for his films are that they look like a new shoe but have that great feeling of an old worn shoe. What about the ending didn't work for you, might I ask ?

Are you kidding? I know it was '99, but if Fight Club cost more than $70m-$80m I'd be stunned. Truly stunned.

It's funny cause as I was writting that I was going to say 100 million. Like I said I was guessing but, if you say so. either way 80 million was still a crazy amount of cash for it's time.

Fight Club did tank at the domestic box office; it only grossed $37 mil. IMDb claims it was budgeted at $63 mil but $17.5 mil of that was for Brad Pitt.

**** this keeps on getting worse. Maybe my Recollections are playing games on me. Maybe as well I'm getting mixed up with it's poularity from theatre to DVD. At least I can say it looks better than most 150 million dollor movies made today.

Fight Club is, most definately, a dvd classic. A dvd version of Scarface, if you will. As mark said, it did little on its theatrical release in the States though, unsurprisingly IMO, it did a lot better worldwide. That said, it still wasn't universally liked. Most reviews I remember reading reviews only gave it one or two stars.

Over here, if you liked the film, the thing to do was to get the US dvd release because of the extras that were included. The R2 version, at the time, had next to nothing. Actually, thinking about it, Fight Club (probably along with Starship Troopers, Se7en and, I seem to remember, Robocop) was one of the films that made ordering dvd's from abroad popular/normal.

I'm a huge fan of your list so far with the exception of Fight Club (but everyone loves that movie except me). Heat, Silence of the Lambs, and The Bridge on the River Kwai are probably my favorite of the bunch so far.

Not sure I'm in the right mind to put over what I think succinctly, but I'll give it a whirl.

Firstly, I don't buy that Neil goes after Waingrove. Find another way to keep Neil from leaving so the cop can kill him or don't take the story to that point. The disciplined career criminal, who lives his life by the "don't have anything in your life you can't walk away from in 30 seconds..." mantra goes back, after changing his plan in case it's been discovered, to kill Waingrove? Even if you get to the point that his crew were the one thing he couldn't walk away from in 30 seconds (which I don't, btw) why not just leave and then have him bumped off later? He has the money and the connections to do this without any problem. It's just weak and, in my case, annoying.

Secondly, I don't like the final 'who's round the next corner' scene beside the runway. It doesn't work for me at all. It fails to build any tension (for me, anyway) partly because I have no idea where anyone is and partly because you know exactly how it's going to end the moment it starts.

Actually, thinking about how many things annoy me or I just don't like in this film, it's a wonder I like it as much as I do. Or even, at all.

Sometimes it's a style over substance thing, it seems like it is at least for you on this one. Though, I maybe wrong and I defiantly don't want to put worked into your mouth. I bought the Speacial Edition not too long ago and your write up of the ending gives me just one more good reason to go back and check out one of my favourite films.

I think you're probably right, LBJ. I really do love the look and vibe of the film.

I liked LA Takedown, as well. In fact, considering all the things I don't like about Heat, were I to see that again, I may like it more. I don't remember the relationships being so 'fake' (for lack of a better word) in LA Takedown. That, and it doesn't have Pacino shouting at the top of his voice and chewing for all he's worth.

I'm going to see if I can get my hands on a copy of L.A. Takedown. I've only seen a few pictures and the diner scene plus shootout.

I did have a copy on VHS, but I don't know if I've stil got it or not. For the record, I think that Mann disowned it.