Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

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That's why they give him an antagonist like Belloq who is at once his obvious opposite (the clean white clothes versus Indy's dirty brown outfit) but also very similar to him in so many ways, to say nothing of how a major part of his arc is realising that the Ark has genuine power and is more than just another artifact to recover and sell off. It's why the films mostly stick to the idea that he never really succeeds at collecting the artifacts and profiting off them, whether it's whatever he's chasing during the cold opens or the main one that drives the plot (though it is a problem that Last Crusade walks this back by finally allowing him to retrieve the Cross of Coronado after a lifetime of searching).
That's a good reading. Didn't think of that.
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Welcome to the human race...
#11. The Matrix
(Lana Wachowski and Lilly Wachowski, 1999)



"I know kung fu."

Previous rankings for The Matrix are a little all over the place, but I think it's about time that I admit once and for all that I just straight-up love this movie. Certainly, you can take the long view and argue that it plays hero-with-a-thousand-faces storytelling extremely straight with its tale of hacker "Neo" (Keanu Reeves) who not only learns that he lives in a computer simulation overseen by sentient machines who will kill anyone that threatens to disrupt this false reality but that he is apparently prophesied to be the one to save humanity from its digitised fate. I could even point out how much its cyberpunk pastiche owes to films I've already put on this list - the reality-questioning artifice of Ghost in the Shell, the two-fisted gunplay of Hard Boiled, the martial artistry of The 36th Chamber of Shaolin - and how this effectively makes it the sci-fi equivalent of a Tarantino film, a simple simulacrum of earlier, potentially superior versions. At the same time, this is what ultimately makes it special for me, a seemingly effortless exercise in combining so many disparate influences into an efficiently-told sci-fi mythology that allows for quite a lot of variety to its remarkable action (though vehicular chases would have to wait for the not-that-bad sequels). All of this is centred on the importance of rediscovering one's humanity in the face of a system that would seek to undermine it at every turn (to the point where even Reeves' seemingly hokey romance with Carrie-Anne Moss' androgynous cool-girl warrior really is revealed as the heart of not just this film but the others, compensating reasonably well for how this film effectively codified "Trinity Syndrome"). Still not sure why previous rankings didn't reflect this since this seems like the kind of film you fall much more in love with at younger and more impressionable ages, but as with Neo, there's a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.

2005 ranking: #34
2013 ranking: #82
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I really just want you all angry and confused the whole time.
Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0



Welcome to the human race...
#10. The Blues Brothers
(John Landis, 1980)



"It's a hundred and six miles to Chicago. We got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses."
"Hit it."

It's always interesting to work on compiling these lists, deciding what to keep and where to keep them, potentially revisiting them to see if they hold up enough. Like so many of these favourites, I'll admit that The Blues Brothers is not a perfect movie. Far from it. I'm of the opinion that Landis is generally not a very good director and the very small number of films of his that I like are in spite of omnipresent flaws such as saggy pacing and humour that's never quite that funny. Maybe this only endures because it's a childhood favourite - if I watched this for the first time tomorrow, would I think it was anything special? Probably not. At the same time, it's hard not to think of favourite movies without instantly thinking of the tale of Jake (John Belushi) and Elwood (Dan Aykroyd) going on a chaotic odyssey across Illinois in order to save the orphanage they used to call home. A simple goal rendered difficult by the "mission from God" of reassembling their old blues band and performing a gig, to say nothing of the insane amount of enemies they rack up as the film progresses. This might be an instance where Landis' sloppier tendencies end up as a feature instead of a bug as the film is able to bounce between everything from cartoonishly destructive car chases to robust musical numbers (as much fun as the brothers themselves are, it's telling that a good chunk of the numbers instead involve them doing backup work for genuine legends like Aretha Franklin or Ray Charles), to say nothing of just settling for simple but effective comical setpieces (perhaps none more so than the brothers crashing a high-end restaurant in order to win their old trumpet player back). Though I can think of plenty of reasons that this shouldn't hold up beyond the limits of childhood nostalgia, they really did all melt away as I threw it on and once again got to follow these colourful bros on their divine quest.

2005 ranking: #2
2013 ranking: #1



“Sugar is the most important thing in my life…”
Content like this could change my opinion on lists.



Welcome to the human race...
#9. Escape From New York
(John Carpenter, 1981)



"Call me Snake."

Look, sometimes you just have to maintain a brand. John Carpenter had already made a foray into the action genre with his cops-and-robbers siege flick Assault on Precinct 13 that laid so much of the groundwork for his later exercises in the genre, though his exercises in action still have one foot very much planted in his beloved horror genre. Escape From New York is no different in how it pits convicted veteran Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell) against the populace of New York City, here a walled-off prison in a dystopian future. A most elemental premise - rescue the curiously British-sounding president (Donald Pleasence) in 24 hours or die - speaks to Carpenter's capacity for genre filmmaking well before Snake enters the city and has to deal with everything from cannibals to gangs to untrustworthy allies as he tries to make it out alive. Certainly something to be said for how Carpenter conjures the image of a bombed-out Manhattan on a shoestring budget, using the slightest of on-location shooting and well-crafted miniatures to grant authenticity to a ruined world of torch-lit theatres and trainyards. Character bleeds as characters bleed with Carpenter continuing to hone his own anti-authoritarian streak as Snake is caught between a vindictive handler (Lee Van Cleef) and an opportunistic warlord (Isaac Hayes), lending texture to a world in which, to quote Carpenter's earlier film, there are no heroes anymore.

2005 ranking: #25
2013 ranking: #12



“Sugar is the most important thing in my life…”
Getting close to #1. Will Escape from L.A. make the cut? Stay tuned!




“Sugar is the most important thing in my life…”
Numero uno is gonna be like the Sopranos ending.



“Sugar is the most important thing in my life…”
Is this the part where we have to sign up to the Patreon for the rest? Cuz I'll do it!



As long it's the $1 tier and I get a Snake Funko Plushie



Welcome to the human race...
#8. Alien
(Ridley Scott, 1979)



"You still don't understand what you're dealing with, do you? The perfect organism. Its structural perfection is matched only by its hostility."
"You admire it."
"I admire its purity. A survivor...unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality."

This exchange follows a genuinely out-of-nowhere reveal leading into the film's extremely tense third act and quite readily breaks down Scott's horror masterpiece - hell, practically the entire genre - to its core components almost as effectively as its iconically blunt title does. At heart a simple monster movie about the acid-bleeding parasite that comes head-to-head with a crew of space truckers, it is at once a powerful calling card for an artistic perfectionist like Scott (crafting a used-future aesthetic that is at once so very much of its time and yet inherently timeless) and yet so enjoyable as as uncomplicated thrill ride as well. Peppering in themes regarding corporate malfeasance and conflicting notions of personhood underscores the more tangible terrors represented by the Xenomorph and its utterly ruthless design - a deadly combination of the ugliest aspects of humans with an absolute absence of humanity. Of course, it wouldn't be the same without being pitted against a small but memorable collection of characters - Sigourney Weaver's Ripley deservedly became an icon, but there's a lot to be said for even the slightest of roles such as Yaphet Kotto and Harry Dean Stanton as bickering engineers Parker and Brett (and Ian Holm's Ash has never quite been topped as far as the series' more antagonistic humanoids are concerned). Few films have caused as much of a seismic shift in their respective genres as this one has, but such is the power of such a perfect organism.

2005 ranking: #92
2013 ranking: #39



Sorry if I'm rude but I'm right
Not unlike Citizen Kane, I've seen Alien twice and I don't like the movie. Should I give it a third chance or just accept it's not for me?
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Look, I'm not judging you - after all, I'm posting here myself, but maybe, just maybe, if you spent less time here and more time watching films, maybe, and I stress, maybe your taste would be of some value. Just a thought, ya know.



Watch it again. Watch it again until you love it. It’s the only option.



Watch it again. Watch it again until you love it. It’s the only option.
On second thought, this post needed more exclamation marks.



Welcome to the human race...
Not unlike Citizen Kane, I've seen Alien twice and I don't like the movie. Should I give it a third chance or just accept it's not for me?
I'd say it depends on how long it's been since you last saw it. The longer it's been, the more you should. After a third, that should definitely be enough chances.



Sorry if I'm rude but I'm right
Watch it again. Watch it again until you love it. It’s the only option.
Wait, but Alien is not weird porn from your review thread.
I'd say it depends on how long it's been since you last saw it. The longer it's been, the more you should. After a third, that should definitely be enough chances.
First time in 2010, the second time in 2016. I guess I should rewatch it this year if we're going for 6-year intervals. But I'm afraid I'll dislike it again. I've seen Blade Runner twice, too, and I loved it both times.
You could also check out a few of the sequels and then rewatch it.
Yeah, I've seen Aliens only once at the age of 13 or something so I can't remember anything. I planned to watch all the films in the series back in 2016 but copped out after being disappointed with Alien for the second time.

I actually rewatched Terminator 2 this year. I quite liked it, but I still prefer movies from Hong Kong.