Top 120 Movies Continued

This next set of movies are all great flicks, but are flawed in one way or the next. Ultimately, there are key criteria making a movie truly great. For a comedy, for instance, it has to be re-watchable over and over...like Caddyshack. Where the lines are truly epic, the performances timeless, and the story doesn't get in the way too much (e.g., no love story to water the jokes down!). Dramas are similar, but they require universal themes that touch the soul and the mind over and over. It is really hard to think Titanic does anything other than play to the most worn out Hollywood themes...alas...More important for Dramas, though, is their realism. I want to identify with the characters to the bitter end. I don't want victory where it is inappropriate or unlikely; I don't want defeat simply to tug at my heart strings; I don't want happily ever after when real circumstances would prevent it. I want pure, realistic outcomes. The ending destroys more dramas than anything else.

109. Major League. Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger, Corbin Bernsen, Rene Russo, and the immortal Bob Uecker calling play-by-play. And who can forget pre-steroid era Wesley Snipes as Willy "Mays" Hayes? A great comedy by any standards with all of the classic sports cliches. Underdog, left for dead, finds a common focus and emotional center to rally to become winners. The best parts of this movie, though, are the fact we never learn whether they win the championship because we only see them win the one game playoff against the dreaded Yankees to go to the playoffs. How many memorable events though were in this movie? Willie Mays Hayes waking up during spring training and finding his bed having been moved to the parking lot because he wasn't invited; jumping the fence and winning a speed race he got into late. Or, any scene with the big slugger Cerrano from some unknown Carribean nation where voodoo was practiced juxtaposed against the aging, crafty left hander who was a hardcore Christian. What puts this flick, unfortunately, at the upper range of movies, is its overall weakness in dialogue, lack of large amounts of memorable lines, and a misuse of a really good cast. Don't get me wrong, good comedy, but no where near the best.

108. Austin Powers. Oh no, not this movie this high! Yes, this movie this high. Watch it again. It does not stand up against the passage of time. Why? Well, he had to go and make two more which were funny, but essentially redid some of the best jokes to the point where the first one lost its greatness. Of course, Dr. Evil steals the show, but the uneveness across the sequels effects the other characters. For instance, the Rob Lowe version of Number 2 is way better than the older version; Mini Me is great in the second one, but terrible in the third; Austin's love interest is better as Elizabeth Hurley who is more like a Bond girl than Heather Graham or...Beyonce (what the hell were they thinking!?!). But, it was a good movie and a good comedy and really is the pinnacle of Mike Myer's humor.

107. Born on the 4th of July. When I started compiling this list, a few actors were not going to make the cut no matter what. Nicholas Cage...like Zoolander, he has only one look; Russell Crowe (overrated and terrible); Leo DiCraprio (super overrated and boring); any of the numerous blond actresses always doing period pieces and really just the same girl with different eye color and hip width (see Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Blanchett, Kate Hudson); any singer, rapper, or "artist" turned actor (sorry Ice Cube and J-Lo); Robert Redford and that class of boring old actors who do stupid romance movies; Matt Damon (I can only think of Team America when I think of him); and Denzel (not because I dislike him, but because I couldn't think of a great movie he was in aside from Training Day, and that was way more hyped than it should be.

The other name I thought of...Tom Cruise. I hate Tom Cruise. But, surprisingly he is on this list two or three times, because just when he does a string of shit movies meant to sell him, he ends up in a great role. This movie, Born of the 4th of July is that type of movie. Unwatchable a second time because of its length, intensity, and pace, this flick is worth a look. Classic Oliver Stone without the conspiracy. Rather, he handles a serious subject relevant today: what do we do with vets and why don't we treat them better? Check it out.

106. The Exorcist. Who doesn't like this movie? Scared me when I was a kid. Scared me when I watched it this last Halloween. Well written; well acted; lacking the absurdity that accompanies movies like this. I don't even know if there is subtext because it is so entertaining.

105. Gangs of New York. Wait, didn't I say Leo DiCraprio was not on the list? Well, this movie was great despite him because of Daniel Day-Lewis. The best actor of our time with the least amount of play (retiring for so long didn't help). Great period piece that should have won the Oscar because it was well directed, well acted, and beautifully shot. Better yet, it captured the real conflict between classes that was so explicit in old New York City both in visual terms and in the way the north was drafting for the Civil War. Scorsese is overrated, in my opinion, but movies like this are so good and so powerful, and so sweet, that I deny the statement I just made. Unwatchable over and over because it is long, and it does drag, and really, Leo DiCraprio paired with Cameron Diaz (another terrible actress) kinda makes me sick.

104. Boogie Nights. Awesome movie for about 1:45, then it becomes unfocused, unwatchable, and a mishmosh of fact, fiction, and nonsense. How awesome is the scene at Jack Horner's (Burt Reynold) house when Dirk Diggler (Marky Mark) meets Reed Rothchild (John C. Reilly)? Two things stand out. First, every great comedy or movie bordering on comedy requires great character names. A movie with bad character names is going to not be funny. Case in point: would you rather see a movie that had characters named John Beckwith, Jeremy Grey, Claire Cleary, and Zachary 'Sack' Lodge, or one with Horner, Diggler, Rothchild, Amber Waves, Buck Swope, Little Bill, The Colonel James, and Scotty J? The obvious choice is the latter, right? And, if you think it was easy for the writers of Boogie Nights to come up with good names because it was a faux porno, think again. The running theme in comedies will be names; I guarantee 99% of the time, good names = good comedy.

Ok, on to the movie. Here is the deal. It is too long, like most of these movies. Great beginning, great arc, and then it falls flat once Dirk and porn face the VHS revolution of the '80s. The characters are all really good, especially a surprising role by Julianne Moore (one of the best and most underrated actress of our generation). Don Cheadle cuts his teeth here as does Luiz Guzman (a really funny guy) as the token minority porn actors. The whole premise is great and cheesy in a classy way.

103. Scream. John Carpenter may be the best horror genius, but I would argue Wes Craven is 1A. The People Under the Stairs and the Nightmare on Elm Street series (save for #2) were classic horror movies, with the former being truly frightening in a real way. Scream, though, is his masterpiece. A scary movie that is aware of itself and the whole genre. An insiders look at a genre that is often considered silly and often left for dead, but which keeps coming back every 5 to 10 years with a vengeance. The actors are ok...classic teens in a movie waiting to die. The plot twists are great. And, the self-reflexive script is phenomenal. A must see even for those who do not like horror. 

102. The Wrestler. Welcome back Mickey Rourke. What a good movie, huh? I loved this the minute I saw it. The opening scene with him finding his trailer locked and having to sleep like a dirt bag in his van. As a kid growing up watching wrestling, I was always aware of those lower circuit "off-broadway" wrestling leagues, but here was the rock bottom. But, you had to feel for his character. Wrestling was his trade, but like any other person who loses what they once had that made them successful, yet knows nothing else (or cannot even imagine anything else), his story was tragic in a human way. The scenes as a deli clerk are so perfect, as he walks down the hall to meet the customers as if he is walking out of the locker room to throngs of waiting fans...yet, the disparity between wrestling and cutting deli meat is so distinct. Again, not a re-watchable movie because it doesn't have that extra special something, but so very good.

101. About Schmidt. Enter the man...Jack Nicholson. Where do we even begin? In some ways it is sad to see him aging and playing roles that seem to fit his real life problems (e.g., The Pledge and Bucket List). But, he is so good in this movie I can ignore it. Essentially, he plays a guy who has worked his whole life as an insurance salesman in Kansas (I think), and we enter into his life just as he is retiring after 40 years. He has to adjust to being home with his wife all the time, which is unnerving. And, to make things worse, his only child -- a girl -- is getting married to some strange dude who he hates because he is hippie-ish dorky. His wife dies nearly immediately after he retires...and, he is suddenly thrust into a state of anomie -- or directionless, normless, lawlessness. No one to talk to, his daughter living in Portland and having had little of a relationship with him, Jack looks to make peace with his existence and perhaps live more than he had been. Kathy Bates plays the mother-in-law to be (and does so awesomely), and that guy from WKRP in Cincinnati who was also the teacher in Head of the Class plays the father-in-law to be who is divorced from Bates. Very funny interactions with these people, and the contrasts between the middle of America and the Northwest are brilliantly exaggerated. Why can you not re-watch it? Well, you can. But, it is a very sad and empty movie in the sense that you feel only Jack's pain as he seems so lost. The movie never reconciles this, which is one of its strong features, so don't expect to walk out of it feeling great. It is on this list because Jack has done way better, and this type of sadness while a good emotion at times, is too painful to warrant higher mention.

100. Say Anything. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. John Cusak! I love that guy too. This movie sums up the '80s in so many ways. He is a borderline loser/nerd (standard 80's Cusak); his dreams and hopes are realistic, but his means to reaching them seem impossible. He is the classic nice guy who finishes last, but unlike some cliched movies, he seems genuine in his portrayal. As if Cusak really is that guy in real life...And, if you can name a more awesome scene than the one where Lloyd Dobler (Cusak...and also a great character name) blasts Peter Gabriel's In Your Eyes out of a boombox in his overcoat as he tries to win back his ex-girlfriend. Iconic? Indeed. A great movie all around. re-watchable, but not quite a classic in the top 100 sense of the word.