Whenever I hear of a new movie coming out based on a popular book or comic book or a sequel, I instantly hear naysayers complaining about a “lack of creativity in hollywood”. “Why not write something original” some will say. But I say thank goodness gifted screenwriters adapt novels into movies! As you can see from my list, some of the greatest movies in the history of film were adapted from books… films that I can’t even imagine what the world of film would look like today if they never came to be.

So I spent a couple of weeks putting together this list with three purposes in mind:

1) To highlight the important role books have played in the movie world

2) To draw attention to some fantastic movies that some of you may have never taken the time to watch before

3) To draw attention to the fact that these movies are indeed based on books, which may encourage you to try reading them (which I confess is a little hypocritical of me since I’ve only read a fraction of the books here.)

Now let me emphasize this next point very explicitly. THIS LIST IS NOT A LIST OF THE BEST BOOKS OR WHICH MOVIES DID THE BEST JOB ADAPTING FROM THE BOOK. It is a list of the best movies which happen to be BASED on books. Also, while I did not include Graphic Novels or Comic Books in this list, I do include short stories or novellas since they are usually a part of a single issue collection.

Like all movie lists, this one is subjective and in no way authoritative. The main purpose of which is to spark discussion and maybe interest in seeing some of these fantastic films again, or for the first time. So now I present to you The Movie Blog’s Top 100 Movies Based On Books:

#100 – THE JOY LUCK CLUB Rottem Tomatoes Rating – 90% Synopsis: Through a series of flashbacks, four young chinese women born in America and their respective mothers born in feudal China, explore their past. This search will help them understand their difficult mother/daughter relationship. John’s Thought: Yes, I am a heterosexual male… and I loved this movie.

#99 – THE MAMBO KINGS Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 78% Synopsis: Musician brothers Cesar and Nestor leave Cuba for America in the 1950s, hoping to hit the top of the Latin music scene. Cesar is the older brother, the business manager, and the ladies’ man. Nestor is the brooding songwriter, who cannot forget the woman in Cuba who broke his heart. John’s Thought: No Antonio! Too sexy! Too Sexy!

#98 – STARDUST Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 76% Synopsis: “Stardust,” based on the best-selling graphic novel by Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess, takes audiences on an adventure that begins in a village in England and ends up in places that exist in an imaginary world. A young man named Tristan (Charlie Cox) tries to win the heart of Victoria (Sienna Miller), the beautiful but cold object of his desire, by going on a quest to retrieve a fallen star. His journey takes him to a mysterious and forbidden land beyond the walls of his village. On his odyssey, Tristan finds the star, which has transformed into a striking girl named Yvaine (Claire Danes). John’s Thought: Easily the single most underrated and under appreciated film of 2007

#97 – FRIED GREEN TOMATOES Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 82% Synopsis: A heartwarming tale of family, friendship and murder in rural Georgia. In a Southern nursing home, a feisty resident and old local fixture named Ninny Threadgoode (Tandy) befriends Evelyn Couch (Kathy Bates) a depressed housewife and stirs her to action with an inspirational tale. She tells the story of a transcendent friendship between two young women living in Georgia in the 1930s, Idgie Threadgoode (Mary Stuart Masterson) and Ruth (Mary Louise Parker), who forge a powerful bond after witnessing a terrible tragedy together. The two women open a cafe (where fried green tomatoes are a house specialty) together in their small Southern town of Whistle Stop and manage to survive the hardships of life, despite racism, prejudice and the pressures of trying to live their lives as individuals in a strict and close-minded Southern society. John’s Thought: Powerful cast, powerful story. An honestly moving film.

#96 – THE SHINING Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 86% Synopsis: A family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where an evil and spiritual presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from the past and of the future John’s Thought: Iconic film with some of the most quoted one liners from a horror film in history.

#95 – PATRIOT GAMES Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 80% Synopsis: Jack Ryan, the hero of Tom Clancy’s techno-thriller series, returns in the sequel to _The Hunt for Red October_. Ryan is on vacation in England when he spoils an assassination attempt on an important member of the Royal Family. Ryan gets drawn back into the CIA when the same splinter faction of the IRA targets him and his family. John’s Thought: Once again proving you CAN change actors and still make the franchise work. Ford in his prime and my introduction to the brilliance of Sean Bean.

#94 – WAG THE DOG Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 84% Synopsis: When a Firefly Girl accuses the president of sexual misconduct in the Oval Office less than two weeks before the upcoming election, White House official Winifred Ames (Anne Heche) is told to bring in Conrad Bream (Robert De Niro) to fix the situation and save the president’s chances for reelection. This mysterious “fixer” fabricates a conflict with Albania in an effort to detract attention from the sex scandal, bringing in legendary Hollywood producer Stanley Motss (Dustin Hoffman) to “produce” the war. When the CIA foils the initial plot, the creative team turns to a new story line, creating the saga of a U.S. soldier left behind enemy lines whom the president vows to find and return to American soil. John’s Thought: Especially funny watching this movie now after the events of the last 8 years. Hard to go wrong with Hoffman and DiNero before he started sucking.

#93 – CHARLOTTE’S WEB Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 74% Synopsis: Wilbur the pig is scared of the end of the season, because he knows that come that time, he will end up on the dinner table. He hatches a plan with Charlotte, a spider that lives in his pen, to ensure that this will never happen. John’s Thought: Loved this as a kid, still love it today and will leave it on whenever I stumble across it channel surfing. Much better than the Julia Roberts voiced one from a couple of years ago.

#92 – PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (1940) Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 88% Synopsis: From the classic novel by Jane Austen about the morals and mores of the class system in early Georgian England. The intelligent and spirited Elizabeth Bennet is one of 5 daughters — which, during that era, meant trouble: because women cannot inherit, upon her father’s death her family’s home will become the property of their nearest male relative. Only marriage, preferably to someone wealthy, can ensure her security. But the proud young lady instantly takes offense when Mr. Darcy, a promising newcomer in town, doesn’t seem quite admiring enough, and she spurns his advances. Slowly and painfully, Elizabeth realizes her error, but not before it seems she has lost him forever. John’s Thought: Easily the best adaptation of this book ever done. Not taking away from any of the other ones… but Olivier rules.

#91 – THE NOTEBOOK Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 51% Synopsis: The movie focuses on an old man reading a story to an old woman in a nursing home. The story he reads follows two young lovers named Allie Hamilton and Noah Calhoun, who meet one evening at a carnival. But they are separated by Allie’s parents who dissaprove of Noah’s unwealthy family, and move Allie away. After waiting for Noah to write her for several years, Allie meets and gets engaged to a handsome young soldier named Lon. Allie, then, with her love for Noah still alive, stops by Noah’s 200-year-old home that he restored for her, “to see if he’s okay”. It is evident that they still have feelings for each other, and Allie has to choose between her fiancé and her first love. John’s Thought: I avoided seeing this for a couple of years because it had “chick flick” written all over it. My loss… turned out it’s an exceptional film.

#90 – FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 82% Synopsis: A straight arrow coach leads his team to the 1988 Texas state semifinals in the west Texas city of Odessa, where high school football is king. Expectations of classmates, coaches, family, and community members exact a toll on the athletes central to the story. Economic and racial undertones pervade this adaptation of H.G. Bissinger’s book by the same name. John’s Thought: My first thought is that we’ve seen this movie 100 times already. Wrong. This is a special film, and a reminder that despite taking a lot of junk roles, Billy Bob Thornton can act his ass off sometimes.

#89 – BRIDGET JONES’ DIARY Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 80% Synopsis: Bridget Jones is an average woman struggling against her age, her weight, her job, her lack of a man, and her many imperfections. As a New Year’s Resolution, Bridget decides to take control of her life, starting by keeping a diary in which she will always tell the complete truth. The fireworks begin when her charming though disreputable boss takes an interest in the quirky Miss Jones. Thrown into the mix are Bridget’s band of slightly eccentric friends and a rather disagreeable acquaintance who Bridget cannot seem to stop running into or help finding quietly attractive. John’s Thought: I’ve yet to meet a woman who hasn’t seen this flick… and there’s a reason for that.

#88 – THE COLOR OF MONEY Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 91% Synopsis: Eddie “Fast Eddy” Felson, a former pool player forced into retirement by gangsters (as seen in “The Hustler”,) finds himself, self-respect, and finally, redemption when he enters a relationship with young pool player Tom Cruise very similar to his own early career. As they travel together, Fast Eddy realizes how much he had lost, and can see the inevitable finale of their relationship as history begins to repeat itself. In an effort to avert tragedy, Eddy severs their relationship, and returns to his first love, pool. Finally, in a big Atlantic City tournament, Cruise returns the favor, and teaches Eddy the final lesson that allows him to finish his quest of re-discovery. John’s Thought: Hey, remember back when Tom Cruise wasn’t a raving lunatic? Yeah, those were good days.

#87 – MINORITY REPORT Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 92% Synopsis: Based on a Philip K. Dick short story, Minority Report is about a cop in the future working in a division of the police department that arrests killers before they commit the crimes courtesy of some future viewing technology. John Anderton has the tables turned on him when he is accused of a future crime and must find out what brought it about and stop it before it can happen. John’s Thought: Spielberg and Curise are an unlikely couple, but man it worked well for this flick.

#86 – APOLLO 13 Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 95% Synopsis: A movie based on what was to be the third lunar-landing mission. This film shows the trials and tribulations of the Apollo 13 crew, mission control, and families after a near-fatal accident cripples the space vehicle. A mission that couldn’t get TV airtime because space flights had become routine to the American public suddenly grabbed the national spotlight. This is a tale of averted tragedy, heroism and shows a testament to the creativity of the scientists who ran the early space missions. John’s Thought: A solid cast highlighting yet another brilliant performance by Tom Hanks.

#85 – CAPOTE Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 91% Synopsis: In 1959, Truman Capote, a popular writer for The New Yorker, learns about the horrific and senseless murder of a family of four in Holcomb, Kansas. Inspired by the story material, Capote and his partner, Harper Lee, travel to the town to research for an article. However, as Capote digs deeper into the story, he is inspired to expand the project into what would be his greatest work, In Cold Blood. To that end, he arranges extensive interviews with the prisoners, especially with Perry Smith, a quiet and articulate man with a troubled history. As he works on his book, Capote feels some compassion for Perry which in part prompts him to help the prisoners to some degree. However, that feeling deeply conflicts with his need for closure for his book which only an execution can provide. That conflict and the mixed motives for both interviewer and subject make for a troubling experience that would produce an literary account that would redefine modern non-fiction. John’s Thought: Most avid film fans already knew Philip Seymour Hoffman was stupidly gifted… this film just sort of introduced him as an “A” lister to the rest of the world.

#84 – ACCIDENTAL TOURIST Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 84% Synopsis: After the death of his son, Macon Leary, a travel writer, seems to be sleep walking through life. Macon’s wife, seems to be having trouble too, and thinks it would be best if the two would just split up. After the break up, Macon meets a strange outgoing woman, who seems to bring him back down to earth. After starting a relationship with the outgoing woman, Macon’s wife seems to think that their marriage is still worth a try. Macon is then forced to deal many decisions. John’s Thought: Nominated for best picture and best screenplay. Geena Davis actually won best supporting actress for this one.

#83 – TRAINSPOTTING Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 88% Synopsis: A wild, freeform, Rabelaisian trip through the darkest recesses of Edinburgh low-life, focusing on Mark Renton and his attempt to give up his heroin habit, and how the latter affects his relationship with family and friends: Sean Connery wannabe Sick Boy, dimbulb Spud, psycho Begbie, 14-year-old girlfriend Diane, and clean-cut athlete Tommy, who’s never touched drugs but can’t help being curious about them. John’s Thought: I still think this is Danny Boyle’s best film

#82 – THE VERDICT Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 96% Synopsis: Frank Galvin is a down-on-his luck lawyer, reduced to drinking and ambulance chasing. Former associate Mickey Morrissey reminds him of his obligations in a medical malpractice suit that he himself served to Galvin on a silver platter: all parties willing to settle out of court. Blundering his way through the preliminaries, he suddenly realizes that perhaps after all the case should go to court: to punish the guilty, to get a decent settlement for his clients, and to restore his standing as a lawyer. John’s Thought: One of the best courtroom dramas I’ve ever seen.

#81 – REMO WILLIAMS THE ADVENTURE BEGINS Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 55% Synopsis: An NYPD cop is ‘killed’ in an accident. The death is faked, and he is inducted into the organization CURE, dedicated to preserving the constitution by working outside of it. Remo is to become the enforcement wing (assassin) of CURE, and learns an ancient Korean martial art from Chiun, the Master of Sinanju. Based on the popular pulp series “The Destroyer,” by Richard Sapir and Warren Murphy. John’s Thought: Chiun is still one of my all time favorite supporting characters in any movie I’ve ever seen. His lines are some of the most quotable and hilarious I’ve ever heard. Probably only second to Bruce Campbell’s as Ash.

#80 – DRUGSTORE COWBOY Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 100% Synopsis: Matt Dillon and Kelly Lynch play a heroin-driven Bonnie and Clyde, knocking over drugstores in the Pacific Northwest. Ultimately, they must dispose of the body of one of their crew, sneaking it out from a motel where a sheriffs’ convention is being held. John’s Thought: Remember back when Matt Dillon was relevant? I still don’t think he gets enough credit for how good he can be.

#79 – FULL METAL JACKET Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 96% Synopsis: Full Metal Jacket begins by following the trials and tribulations of a platoon of fresh Marine Corps recruits focusing on the relationship between Gunnery Sergeant Hartman and Privates Pyle and Joker. We see Pyle grow into an instrument of death as Hartman has forseen of all of his recruits. Through Pyle’s torment and Joker’s unwillingness to stand up against it the climax of part one is achieved with all three main characters deciding their fates by their action or inaction. The second chapter of Full Metal Jacket delves into Joker’s psyche and the repeated referal to the fact that he joined the Corps to become a killer. When his mostly behind the scenes job as a combat correspondant is interfered with by the Tet offensive he is thrust into real combat and ultimately must choose if he really is a killer. John’s Thought: Not many people agree with me, but I think this was easily Stanley Kubrick’s best movie.

#78 – 9 1/2 WEEKS Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 62% Synopsis: An erotic story about a woman, the assistant of an art gallery, who gets into an impersonal affaire with a man. She barely knows about his life, only about the sex games they play, so the relationship begins to complicate. John’s Thought: As hard as it is to believe now, there was a time when Mikey Rourke was once considered a very handsome man.

#77 – RAGTIME Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 90% Synopsis: The story runs in the 1910’s New York. Coalhouse Walker Jr. is a black piano player. He has won fame and fortune playing with a jazz band. Some white men do not like this situation, and one day they assault him and spoil his brand new car. Walker tries by all means to get justice, without an answer. John’s Thought: The strength of the film is in its characters that feel so authentic you can’t help but feel a part of this period piece that was a forerunner for the slew of social change movies that followed in.

#76 – BABE Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 98% Synopsis: Babe is a little pig who doesn’t quite know his place in the world. With a bunch of odd friends, like Ferdinand the duck who thinks he is a rooster and Fly the dog he calls mom, Babe realizes that he has the makings to become the greatest sheep pig of all time, and Farmer Hogget Knows it. With the help of the sheep dogs Babe learns that a pig can be anything that he wants to be. John’s Thought: Whoopie, a movie about a talking pig. We’ve seen it before. I don’t care… this movie is frigging beautiful.

#75 – FORREST GUMP Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 72% Synopsis: Forrest, Forrest Gump is a simple man with little brain activity but good intentions. He struggles through childhood with his best and only friend Jenny. His ‘mama’ teaches him the ways of life and leaves him to choose his destiny. Forrest joins the army for service in Vietnam, finding new friends called Dan and Bubba, he wins medals, starts a table tennis craze, creates a famous shrimp fishing fleet, inspires people to jog, create the smiley, write bumper stickers and songs, donating to people and meeting the president several times. However this is all irrelevant to Forrest who can only think of his childhood sweetheart Jenny. Who has messed up her life. Although in the end all he wants to prove is that anyone can love anyone John’s Thought: A movie of a less than ordinary person who lives an extraordinary life. Great film, but no way in hell it should have beat out Shawshank Redemption for best picture that year.

#74 – DIGGSTOWN Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 50% Synopsis: Gabriel Caine has just been released from prison when he sets up a bet with a business man. The business man owns most of a boxing-mad town called Diggstown. The bet is that Gabe can find a boxer that will knock out 10 Diggstown men, in a boxing ring, within 24 hours. “Honey” Roy Palmer is that man – although at 48, many say he is too old. A sub plot is thrown in about Charles Macum Diggs – the heavyweight champion that gave the town its name – and who is now confined to a wheel-chair. John’s Thought: One of the best “I never saw that coming” endings to a movie of all time.

#73 – FIELD OF DREAMS Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 91% Synopsis: Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella hears a voice in his corn field tell him, “If you build it, he will come.” He interprets this message as an instruction to build a baseball field on his farm, upon which appear the ghosts of Shoeless Joe Jackson and the other seven Chicago White Sox players banned from the game for throwing the 1919 World Series. When the voices continue, Ray seeks out a reclusive author to help him understand the meaning of the messages and the purpose for his field. John’s Thought: Listening to James Earl Jones talk about baseball in this film reminds me of why sports are so magical better than any other sports themed monologue in a movie I’ve ever heard.

#72 – PSYCHO Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 97% Synopsis: Phoenix officeworker Marion Crane is fed up with the way life has treated her. She has to meet her lover Sam in lunch breaks and they cannot get married because Sam has to give most of his money away in alimony. One Friday Marion is trusted to bank $40,000 by her employer. Seeing the opportunity to take the money and start a new life, Marion leaves town and heads towards Sam’s California store. Tired after the long drive and caught in a storm, she gets off the main highway and pulls into The Bates Motel. The motel is managed by a quiet young man called Norman who seems to be dominated by his mother. John’s Thought: I’ve never felt totally comfortable taking showers in hotels ever since.

#71 – THE FIRM Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 76% Synopsis: Mitch McDeere is a young man with a promising future in Law. About to sit his Bar exam, he is approached by ‘The Firm’ and made an offer he doesn’t refuse. Seduced by the money and gifts showered on him, he is totally oblivious to the more sinister side of his company. Then, two Associates are murdered. The FBI contact him, asking him for information and suddenly his life is ruined. He has a choice – work with the FBI, or stay with the Firm. Either way he will lose his life as he knows it. Mitch figures the only way out is to follow his own plan. John’s Thought: Wow, there’s a lot of Tom Cruise on this list

#70 – CASINO Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 83% Synopsis: Sam ‘Ace’ Rothstein, a mob-connected casino operator in Las Vegas, attempts a civilized lifestyle with his money-conditional wife, Ginger. Nicky Santoro, a boyhood friend of Ace and now a Made-Man of the Mafia, arrives in town with an ambitious agenda of his own that soon disrupts Ace’s life. Before long, Ginger and her long-time leeching lover Lester, along with Nicky’s mistakes, causing problems. John’s Thought: Sexy, violent and just plain cool

#69 – BLADE RUNNER Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 91% Synopsis: Los Angeles, 2019: Rick Deckard of the LAPD’s Blade Runner unit prowls the steel & micro-chip jungle of the 21st century for assumed humanoids known as ‘replicants’. Replicants were declared illegal after a bloody mutiny on an Off-World Colony, and are to be terminated upon detection. Man’s obsession with creating a being equal to himself has back-fired. John’s Thought: I don’t like this nearly as much as most people, but there is no denying its place in Sci-Fi history

#68 – THE ENGLISH PATIENT Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 84% Synopsis: A burn victim, a nurse, a thief, and a sapper find themselves in each others company in an old Italian villa close to the end of World War II. Through flashbacks, we see the life of the burn victim, whose passionate love of a woman and choices he made for her ultimately change the lives of one other person in the villa. Not only is this film a search for the identity of the English patient, but a search for the identities of all the people in the quiet old villa. John’s Thought: A lot of people found this dry and slow, but I thought it hit every note perfectly.

#67 – A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 78% Synopsis: A true story about two boys, Norman and Paul, growing up in Montana. One is rebellious of his father, Rev. Maclean, while the other has his feet on the ground. The one love they both have is fly fishing. John’s Thought: Who knew a movie about a love of Fly Fishing would be so good. To me, my favorite performance by Tom Skerritt of his career.

#66 – ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 93% Synopsis: Epic, episodic, tale of the lives of a small group of New York City Jewish gangsters spanning over 40 years. Told mostly in flashbacks and flash-forwards, the movie centers on small-time hood David ‘Noodles’ Aaronson and his lifelong partners in crime; Max, Cockeye and Patsy and their friends from growing up in the rough Jewish neighborhood of New York’s Lower East Side in the 1920s, to the last years of Prohibition in the early 1930s, and then to the late 1960s where an elderly Noodles returns to New York after many years in hiding to look into the past. John’s Thought: If I ask you to name a gangster movie with Robert DiNero, would this one even be in the first 3 you’d name?

#65 – THE FLY Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 91% Synopsis: Seth Brundle is a scientist working on teleportation. Just when he thinks he’s ironed out the last bug in his system, the intervention of a common house fly turns Seth into a 6 foot insect. The transformation from man to fly is gradual but horrific, and is witnessed by Veronica; a reporter documenting Seth’s story. Seth has some time to try to find a cure, but is there enough time…? John’s Thought: Just watched this movie again recently. So honestly freaky and yet really funny at some points too.

#64 – MUNICH Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 77% Synopsis: During the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, eleven Israeli athletes are taken hostage and murdered by a Palestinian terrorist group known as Black September. In retaliation, the Israeli government recruits a group of Mossad agents to track down and execute those responsible for the attack. John’s Thought: If there was ever any question that Eric Bana possessed the tools to be a top notch A List movie start, this project settled those questions in my opinion.

#63 – THE NATURAL Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 83% Synopsis: An unknown middle-aged batter named Roy Hobbs with a mysterious past appears out of nowhere to take a losing 1930s baseball team to the top of the league in this magical sports fantasy. With the aid of a bat cut from a lightning struck tree, Hobbs lives the fame he should have had earlier when, as a rising pitcher, he is inexplicably shot by a young woman. John’s Thought: The scene near the end of the home run set to that incredible music with the sparks flying still gives me goose bumps.

#62 – TERMS OF ENDEARMENT Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 89% Synopsis: Aurora and Emma are mother and daughter who march to different drummers. Beginning with Emma’s marriage, Aurora shows how difficult and loving she can be. The movie covers several years of their lives as each finds different reasons to go on living and find joy. Aurora’s interludes with Garrett Breedlove, retired astronaut and next door neighbor are quite striking. In the end, different people show their love in very different ways. John’s Thought: A fantastic balance between funny and sad.

#61 – Dr. STRANGELOVE OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 100% Synopsis: U.S. Air Force General Jack Ripper goes completely and utterly mad, and sends his bomber wing to destroy the U.S.S.R. He suspects that the communists are conspiring to pollute the “precious bodily fluids” of the American people. The U.S. president meets with his advisors, where the Soviet ambassador tells him that if the U.S.S.R. is hit by nuclear weapons, it will trigger a “Doomsday Machine” which will destroy all plant and animal life on Earth. Peter Sellers portrays the three men who might avert this tragedy: British Group Captain Lionel Mandrake, the only person with access to the demented Gen. Ripper; U.S. President Merkin Muffley, whose best attempts to divert disaster depend on placating a drunken Soviet Premier and the former Nazi genius Dr. Strangelove, who concludes that “such a device would not be a practical deterrent for reasons which at this moment must be all too obvious”. Will the bombers be stopped in time, or will General Jack Ripper succeed in destroying the world ? John’s Thought: Hailed as one of the funniest films ever made… and yet the book didn’t really have any comedy elements in it at all.

#60 – THE GREEN MILE Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 78% Synopsis: Paul Edgecomb is a slightly cynical veteran prison guard on Death row in the 1930’s. His faith, and sanity, deteriorated by watching men live and die, Edgecomb is about to have a complete turn around in attitude. Enter John Coffey, He’s eight feet tall. He has hands the size of waffle irons. He’s been accused of the murder of two children… and he’s afraid to sleep in a cell without a night-light. And Edgecomb, as well as the other prison guards – Brutus, a sympathetic guard, and Percy, a stuck up, perverse, and violent person, are in for a strange experience that involves intelligent mice, brutal executions, and the revelation about Coffey’s innocence and his true identity. John’s Thought: My second favorite Darabont movie behind another film on this list higher up and a performance of a lifetime for Michael Clarke Duncan that he’ll probably never equal.

#59 – GIRL INTERRUPTED Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 52% Synopsis: Susanna is depressed and directionless after finishing high school in the late 1960’s. A suicide attempt lands her in Claymore, a mental institution. She befriends the band of troubled women in her ward (Georgina the pathological liar, the sexually abused Daisy, the burn victim Polly) but falls under the hypnotic sway of Lisa, the wildest and most hardened of the bunch. Will Susanna “drop anchor” at Claymore and perpetually act out like Lisa, or will she finally pull her mind together and leave institutional life behind? John’s Thought: I still don’t rationally know why I like this movie so much… but I do.

#58 – QUIZ SHOW Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 96 Synopsis: An idealistic young lawyer (Rob Morrow) working for a Congressional subcommittee in the late 1950s discovers that TV quiz shows are being fixed. His investigation focusses on two contestants on the show “Twenty-One”: Herbert Stempel (John Turturro), a brash working-class Jew from Queens, and Charles Van Doren (Ralph Fiennes), the patrician scion of one of America’s leading literary families. Based on a true story. John’s Thought: Ralph Fiennes and John Turturro just rock the hell out of this movie. Far more intense and exciting than you’d think a movie about a game show would be.

#57 – ROMANCING THE STONE Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 85% Synopsis: The writer of romantic novels Joan Wilder travels to south America to look for and rescue her kidnapped sister. She finds herself stranded in the jungles and finds help in the form of the soldier of fortune Jack Colton. The two go through a number of adventures, deal with the bad villains Ralph and company, and end up falling in love. John’s Thought: One of those great films that was just fine as it was they never should have made a sequel to.

#56 – THE COLOR PURPLE Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 84% Synopsis: This film follows the life of Celie, a young black girl growing up in the early 1900’s. The first time we see Celie, she is 14 – and pregnant – by her father. We stay with her for the next 30 years of her tough life. John’s Thought: One more reason why Steven Spielberg is simply the best director in the business in our lifetime.

#55 – THE DEAD ZONE Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 89% Synopsis: Johnny Smith is a young schoolteacher with his whole life ahead of him. Unfortunately, after leaving his fiancee’s home one night, he is involved in a wreck with an 18-wheel tractor-trailer and is in a coma for 5 years. When he wakes up from it, he discovers he has an ability to see into other people’s lives, past, present and future, by coming into physical contact. But the visions he has are often frightening, and even apocalyptic. John’s Thought: This is the first movie I ever saw Christopher Walken in (hey, I was 11 years old) and to this day I still get a little freaked out when I see him on screen.

#54 – FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 81% Synopsis: Follows a group of high school students growing up in southern California, based on the real-life adventures chronicled by Cameron Crowe. Stacy Hamilton and Mark Ratner are looking for a love interest, and are helped along by their older classmates, Linda Barrett and Mike Damone, respectively. The center of the film is held by Jeff Spicoli, a perpetually stoned surfer dude who faces off with the resolute Mr. Hand, who is convinced that everyone is on dope. John’s Thought: One of those movies I love now for totally different reasons then why I loved it as a kid. Back then it was just because of boobs and sex… today it’s because… oh wait… same reasons.

#53 – THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 75% Synopsis: Based on the 2nd in the series of books by ‘CS Lewis’ , “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” the film tells the story of 4 children who go to live with an old professor during the war. One day, while playing hide and seek, Lucy, the youngest of the children, finds a wardrobe which leads to a magical land called Narnia. However Narnia is being ruled by the evil White Witch who has made it snow for 100 years and according to an old prophecy, Edmund, Lucy, Peter and Susan are the “chosen ones” who will defeat the Witch. They are assisted by the true ruler of Narnia, the lion, Aslan. With the good Narnians on their side all 4 children must now defeat the witch using all their strength and fulfill their destinies to become the new kings and queens of Narnia. John’s Thought: Loved this movie! Perfectly captured the sense of magic and wonder like a master storyteller around a campfire. Too bad the sequel was such a let down.

#52 – OUT OF SIGHT Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 92% Synopsis: A career bank robber busts out of jail (Clooney) with the help of his buddy (Rhames) and kidnaps a US Marshal (Lopez) in the process. When the two cons head for Detroit to pull off their final big scam, the Marshal is put on their case but she finds she is attracted to one of them and has second thoughts about bringing them in. John’s Thought: Maybe it’s just because of the great cast and fantastic story surounding her… but J-Lo actually didn’t completely suck in this movie. Guess you gotta get lucky at least once right?

#51 – FIRST BLOOD Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 85% Synopsis: Ex-Green Beret John Rambo wanders up north in search of a friend. Rambo was awarded with the medal of honor for his service in Vietnam but has not found solace in the States thereafter. And he certainly does escape prejudice when a small town’s tough, idealistic sheriff spots him entering. The sheriff believes Rambo would be something of a light disturbance to the town and tries to keep him out. When Rambo rebels and then escapes into the cold misty forests, the force embarks on a massive manhunt to subdue him flanked by his former superior officer Colonel Trautman who knows the odds and ends of Rambo’s cunning. John’s Thought: This film was more than just the brainless blow-em-up action movie that the rest of the franchise became. It was actually a character film, and a damn good one at that.

#50 – IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 95% Synopsis: Based on the true story of Gerry Conlon, a Belfast youth who – along with family members and friends – was wrongly convicted of bombing two pubs outside of London. A story about the relationship between a father and his son who fought for justice to clear his father’s name. John’s Thought: This movie was basically a memo to mankind letting us know Lewis is one of the greatest actors alive.

#49 – MYSTIC RIVER Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 87% Synopsis: During a summer in 1975, Dave Boyle and two friends, Jimmy and Sean, are playing on a sidewalk in Boston when Dave is abducted by two men and subjected to sexual abuse over a period of several days. Eventually escaping, but haunted into adulthood by his trauma, Dave becomes a primary suspect when Jimmy’s daughter, Katie, is found murdered. Sean, assigned to investigate the crime, finds himself facing both demons from the past and demons in the present as the circumstances surrounding Katie’s death are uncovered. John’s Thought: This movie flat out haunted me for a while after I watched it. Tragic and poetic ending. Intense personal, moral and violent conflict. I basically laugh at people who dis on Eastwood as a director.

#48 – SOPHIE’S CHOICE Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 84% Synopsis: Sophie is the survivor of Nazi concentration camps, who has found a reason to live in Nathan, a sparkling if unsteady American Jew obsessed with the Holocaust. They befriend Stingo, the movie’s narrator, a young American writer new to New York City. But the happiness of Sophie and Nathan is endangered by her ghosts and his obsessions. John’s Thought: First movie I ever saw Meryl Streep in. I still think she’s never been better (and that’s not a bad thing)

#47 – LORD OF THE FLIES (1963) Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 100% Synopsis: A group of boys are marooned on an island after their plane crashes. With no adult survivors, they create their own “micro-society”. Ralph is elected “chief”, and he organises shelter and fire. Jack, the head of the choir takes his boys hunting for food (wild pigs). A bitter rivalry develops between Jack and Ralph as both want to be in charge. The “hunters” become savage and primal, under Jack’s rule, while Ralph tries to keep his group civilised. The growing hostility between them leads to a bloody and frighting climax. John’s Thought: When watching the film “Doomsday” earlier this year I was struck by how much of a rip off it was (in basic theme) of this film. Except this film did it… you know… in a not sucky way.

#46 – KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 88% Synopsis: Luis Molina and Valentin Arregui are cell mates in a South American prison. Luis, a homosexual, is found guilty of immoral behaviour and Valentin is a political prisoner. To escape reality Luis invents romantic movies, while Valentin tries to keep his mind on the situation he’s in. During the time they spend together, the two men come to understand and respect one another. John’s Thought: Have I ever mentioned that William Hurt just absolutely rules?

#45 – WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 90% Synopsis: The world is astounded when Willy Wonka, for years a recluse in his factory, announces that five lucky people will be given a tour of the factory, shown all the secrets of his amazing candy, and one will win a lifetime supply of Wonka chocolate. Nobody wants the prize more than young Charlie, but as his family is so poor that buying even one bar of chocolate is a treat, buying enough bars to find one of the five golden tickets is unlikely in the extreme. But in movieland, magic can happen. Charlie, along with four somewhat odious other children, get the chance of a lifetime and a tour of the factory. Along the way, mild disasters befall each of the odious children, but can Charlie beat the odds and grab the brass ring? John’s Thought: Unlike most people, I almost liked the Tim Burton version of this story as much as the original. ALMOST.

#44 – KISS KISS, BANG BANG Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 83% Synopsis: A noir send-up. A narrator introduces himself at a Hollywood party: he’s Harry Lockhart, a thief from New York, in L.A. for a screen test. He meets Gay Perry, a glitzy private eye who’s to school him for his role; there’s Harmony Lane, a wannabe actress whose time has passed; the host is an aging actor who starred in detective movies, plus his daughter, with starlet looks and a choppy past. The next day, Gay and Harry stake out a house where Gay is to take surreptitious photographs for a client – what they find is a corpse. From there, twists and connections abound and bodies pile up. Who’s double-crossing whom? And, has Harry found Harmony too late to save himself from misery? John’s Thought: This movie ranks right up there with Bubba Ho-Tep where the fact that it never got a wide release should be considered a crime against humanity. Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer were both just amazing in this flick

#43 – OF MICE AND MEN Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 100% Synopsis: Based on John Steinbeck’s 1937 classic tale of two travelling companions, George and Lennie, who wander the country during the Depression, dreaming of a better life for themselves. Then, just as heaven is within their grasp, it is inevitably yanked away. The film follows Steinbeck’s novel closely, exploring questions of strength, weakness, usefulness, reality and utopia, bringing Steinbeck’s California vividly to life. John’s Thought: So beautifully and tragically crafted. I’m always saddened by how many people have never watched this movie.

#42 – HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIREr Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 90% Synopsis: Harry Potter returns to Hogwarts for his fourth year, where the Trizwizard tournament is becoming ready to begin. Students must be over 17 to enter, with the winner receiving eternal glory. Harry can’t enter it this year…or can he. When his name is read out from the Goblet of Fire, everyone assumes that Harry Potter has cheated. Harry insists that he never placed his name in there, with someone else behind it. But Who? Harry must now survive through dragons, sea creatures and a terrifying maze, all before coming face-to-face with a particular dark wizard. John’s Thought: This one will be hotly debated, but to me it’s head and shoulders the best of the Potter films so far.

#41 – THE YEAR OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 96% Synopsis: Guy Hamilton is a journalist on his first job as a foreign correspondent. His apparently humdrum assignment to Indonesia soon turns hot as President Sukarno electrifies the populace and frightens foreign powers. Guy soon is the hottest reporter on the story with the help of his photographer, half- Chinese dwarf Billy Kwan, who has gone native. Guy’s affair with diplomat Jill Bryant also helps. Eventually Guy must face some major moral choices and the relationship between Billy and him reaches a crisis at the same time the politics of Indonesia does. John’s Thought: You’d think Mel Gibson thought 2007 was the year to live danerously by shooting off his stupid drunk ass mouth about the Jews

#40 – ORDINARY PEOPLE Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 90% Synopsis: Beth, Calvin, and their son Conrad are living in the aftermath of the death of the other son. Conrad is overcome by grief and misplaced guilt to the extent of a suicide attempt. He is in therapy. Beth had always preferred his brother and is having difficulty being supportive to Conrad. Calvin is trapped between the two trying to hold the family together. John’s Thought: One of those films that leaves you speechless after seeing it. For my money the best job Robert Redford ever did as a director.

#39 – THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 93% Synopsis: Bourne is once again brought out of hiding, Jason Bourne is now hunted by the people who made him what he is–legendary assassin. Having lost his memory and the one person he loved, he is undeterred by the barrage of bullets and a new generation of highly-trained killers. Bourne has only one objective: to go back to the beginning and find out who he was. John’s Thought: I was never all that impressed with either of the first two Bourne movies (they were ok), but this one was flat out brilliant.

#38 – THE THING Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 77% Synopsis: An American scientific expedition to the frozen wastes of the Antarctic is interrupted by a group of seemingly mad Norwegians pursuing and shooting a dog. The helicopter pursuing the dog crashes leaving no explanation for the chase. During the night, the dog mutates and attacks other dogs in the cage and members of the team that investigate. The team soon realises that an alien life-form with the ability to take over other bodies is on the loose and they don’t know who may already have been taken over. John’s Thought: One of my favorite openings to a film, especially as the movie goes on and you understand the significance of it more and more.

#37 – L.A. CONFIDENTIAL Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 99% Synopsis: 1950’s Los Angeles is the seedy backdrop for this intricate noir-ish tale of police corruption and Hollywood sleaze. Three very different cops are all after the truth, each in their own style: Ed Exley, the golden boy of the police force, willing to do almost anything to get ahead, except sell out; Bud White, ready to break the rules to seek justice, but barely able to keep his raging violence under control; and Jack Vincennes, always looking for celebrity and a quick buck until his conscience drives him to join Exley and White down the one-way path to find the truth behind the dark world of L.A. crime. John’s Thought: It’s only years after it was made that you realise just how stacked this cast was. Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe and Guy Pearce were hardly the recognizable names that they are today.

#36 – THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 96% Synopsis: Clarice Starling, a young intelligent FBI trainee, has been sent to the Batlimore state hospital for the Criminally insane to interview an inmate Dr. Hannibal-the cannibal- Lecter. A Brilliant renowned psychiatrist turned infamous Psychopathic Serial killer. She must match wits with Lecter -who has the darkest of all minds- and trust him to give her clues in the search for “Buffalo Bill”. a nick name for a loose,unknown, unstoppable Pyschopathic Serial killer. John’s Thought: Who knew that a cannibalistic serial killer could become a pop culture hero?

#35 – PLANET OF THE APES Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 88% Synopsis: In the year 3978A.D. a spaceship with a crew of 4 crashes down on a distant planet. One of the crew members had died in space and the other 3 head out to explore the planet. They soon learn that the planet is much like their own. They then find the planet is inhabited by intelligent apes. One of the men is shot and killed and the others are taken to the apes’ city. There, one undergoes brain surgery and is put into a state of living death. The other befriends some of the apes but is feared by most. After being put through ape trial he escapes with a female human native to the planet. After helping his ape friends escape a religious heresy trial he escapes out into the wilderness with the female. There he learns the planet might not be so distant after all. John’s Thought: I lost count of how many sequels they made of this amazing films. I think they stopped just short of having “The Apes Do Disco”.

#34 – THE SECRET OF NIMH Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 94% Synopsis: A fieldmouse named Mrs. Brisby must move her family to a safe location before the farmer plows the field where they live, but her invalid son Timmy cannot go outside due to his pneumonia. She enlists the aid of some highly intelligent, escaped lab rats that have built a subterranean society inside a rose bush near the farmer’s garden. The rats, led by the wise Nicodemus, decide to help her physically move her house to repay a debt of gratitude to her late husband, who made possible the rats’ escape from the laboratory. But things become complicated when some of the rats decide to use the situation to kill Nicodemus and make it appear to be accidental. John’s Thought: I often forget about this magnificent animated film. Truly one of best films that captures your imagination.

#33 – SIDEWAYS Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 96% Synopsis: A week before the marriage of his great friend, the decadent actor Jack (Thomas Haden Church), the bitter frustrated writer divorced oenologist English teacher Miles Raymond (Paul Giamatti) travels with him to the wine country of California to spend a week together. While Miles intends to drink wine and play golf, Jack indeed intends to score and get laid with as many women as possible. While hosted in the Windmill Inn, they meet the waitress Maya (Virginia Madsen) and the attendant Stephanie (Sandra Oh), and they spend some time together, visiting different wine makers and and Miles and Maya disclosing their inner secrets and falling in love for each other. John’s Thought: I still don’t really understand how Paul Giamatti didn’t get nominated for his performance in this.

#32 – CHILDREN OF MEN Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 92% Synopsis: “Children of Men” envisages a world one generation from now that has fallen into chaos on the heels of an infertility defect in the population. The world’s youngest citizen has just died at 18, and humankind is facing the likelihood of its own extinction. Set against a backdrop of London torn apart by violence and warring nationalistic sects, “Children of Men” follows an unlikely champion of Earth’s survival: Theo, a disillusioned ex-activist turned bureaucrat, who is forced to face his own demons and protect the planet’s last remaining hope. John’s Thought: Some of the scenes in this flick have the most amazing cinematography and continuous shots.

#31 – STAND BY ME Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 91% Synopsis: Based on Stephen King’s Short story “The Body”, “Stand By Me” tells the tale of Gordie Lachance, a writer who looks back on his preteen days when he and three close friends went on their own adventure to find the body of a kid their age who had gone missing and presumed dead. The stakes are upped when the bad kids in town are closely tailing – and it becomes a race to see who’ll be able to recover the body first. John’s Thought: Hey everybody look… it’s Wesley Crusher

#30 – 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 91% Synopsis: This movie is concerned with intelligence as the division between animal and human, then asks a question; what is the next division? Technology is treated as irrelevant to the quest – literally serving as mere vehicles for the human crew, and as a shell for the immature HAL entity. Story told as a montage of impressions, music and impressive and careful attention to subliminal detail. A very influential film and still a class act, even after 25 years. John’s Thought: There are parts of this film that still confuse the hell out of me.

#29 – MASTER AND COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 84% Synopsis: The year is 1805. Europe has fallen to Napoleon, and only the Royal Navy stands in his way to total victory. Off the cost of South America, a new conflict is brewing. Captain Jack “Lucky Jack” Aubrey (Russel Crowe) of the Man-of-War HMS Surprise is under orders to sink or capture the French privateer Acheron, which has been deployed to the region. After seven weeks of uneventful sailing, the Acheron strikes first, all but crippling the Surprise in an engagement in which Aubrey realizes his enemy’s ship is nautically superior to his own. Along with his close friend and confidant Stephan Maturin (Paul Bettany) who also happens to be the ship’s surgeon, Aubrey is now faced with the choice of retreating to England and admitting defeat or remaining at the Acheron’s mercy. Aubrey must now do the impossible if he is to survive, repair his ship, catch up to his enemy and defeat the Acheron–somehow. John’s Thought: Tragically overlooked film. The young kids in the cast actually add to the film

#28 – MEMENTO Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 94% Synopsis: Point blank in the head a man shoots another. In flashbacks, each one earlier in time than what we’ve just seen, the two men’s pasts unfold. Leonard, as a result of a blow to the head during an assault on his wife, has no short-term memory. He’s looking for his wife’s killer, compensating for his disability by taking Polaroids, annotating them and tattooing important facts on his body. We meet the loquacious Teddy and the seductive Natalie (a barmaid who promises to help) and we glimpse Leonard’s wife through memories from before the assault. Leonard also talks about Sammy Jankis, a man he knew with a similar condition. Has Leonard found the killer? Who’s manipulating whom? John’s Thought: Such a unique way to tell a story and the movie that put Christopher Nolan (director of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight) on the map for people.

#27 – DANCES WITH WOLVES Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 77% Synopsis: Lt. John Dunbar is dubbed a hero after he accidentally leads Union troops to a victory during the Civil War. He requests a position on the western frontier, but finds it deserted. He soon finds out he is not alone, but meets a wolf he dubs “Two-socks” and a curious Indian tribe. Dunbar quickly makes friends with the tribe, and discovers a white woman who was raised by the Indians. He gradually earns the respect of these native people, and sheds his white-man’s ways. John’s Thought: Yeah people got sick of Costner, but that doesn’t change the fact that this is one hell of a movie.

#26 – THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 75% Synopsis: The last months of Jesse James’s life, from meeting Robert Ford, a 19-year-old who idolizes Jesse, to the day Ford shoots him. Jesse’s a wanted man, living under a pseudonym, carrying out a train robbery, disappearing to Kentucky, and reappearing to plan a bank holdup with Robert and Robert’s brother as his team. The rest of the gang is dead, arrested, or gone from Missouri. Whenever Jesse’s around, there’s tension: he’s murderous, quixotic, depressed, and cautious. Ford wants to be somebody and wants the reward. On April 3, 1882, things come to a head: Jesse is 34, Robert 20. Ford becomes famous, reenacting the shooting on stage, facing down the label “coward,” shot dead in 1892. John’s Thought: Deliberately paced, beautifully told with a couple of stunning performances to boot.

#25 – DAS BOOT Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 96% Synopsis: A detailed look into the claustrophobic and terrifying world of a German U-boat crew hunting ships from undersea. Gritty, realistic, and peppered with black humour, this is one of the few sympathetic portrayals of the war from the German side to be released in western distribution. John’s Thought: I think this might have been the first foreign film I ever saw… it still might be the best.

#24 – RAGING BULL Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 98% Synopsis: When Jake LaMotta steps into a boxing ring and obliterates his opponent, he’s a prizefighter. But when he treats his family and friends the same way, he’s a ticking time bomb, ready to go off at any moment. Though LaMotta wants his family’s love, something always seems to come between them. Perhaps it’s his violent bouts of paranoia and jealousy. This kind of rage helped make him a champ, but in real life, he winds up in the ring alone. John’s Thought: A different kind of sports movies and one of DiNero’s best performances.

#23 – THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 97% Synopsis: As the English and French soldiers battle for control of the North American colonies in the 18th century, the settlers and native Americans are forced to take sides. Cora and her sister Alice unwittingly walk into trouble but are saved by Hawkeye, an orphaned settler adopted by the last of the Mohicans. John’s Thought: STAY ALIVE! Man, the scene where he kills the guy who was about to get tortured… yikes

#22 – THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE Rotten Tomatoes Rating – Synopsis: This remake of the 1946 movie of the same name accounts an affair between a seedy drifter and a seductive wife of a roadside cafe owner. This begins a chain of events that culminates in murder. Based on a novel by James M. Cain. John’s Thought: A lot of the so called “all time classics” don’t end up living up to the hype. This one does.

#21 – THE UNTOUCHABLES Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 82% Synopsis: Young Treasury Agent Elliot Ness arrives in Chicago and is deternimed to take down Al Capone but he learns that it’s not going to be easy, because Capone has the police in his pocket. But Ness meets Jimmy Malone a veteran patrolman and probably the most honorable one in the force. He asks Malone to help him get Capone but Malone warns him that if he goes after Capone, he is going to war. They recruit academy cadet, George Stone and Treasury agent Oscar Wallace, who is also an accountant, who wants to prosecute Capone for tax evasion. When they make headway, Capone tries to get them but they are untouchable. John’s Thought: Leave it to a wop to bring a knife to a gun fight. Yeah, we tend to do that.

#20 – 3:10 TO YUMA Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 88% Synopsis: The rancher Daniel Evans, who lost part of his leg in the Civil War, is broken and owing a large amount to a powerful man in Bisbee. When the outlaw Ben Wade is captured after the heist of a stagecoach, Dan offers to escort the cold blood killer to the city of Contention to take the 3:10 PM train to Yuma to be sent to trial. In return, he would receive US$ 200,00, enough to save his land and give a better life to his family. During their journey, Ben gets closer to Dan while his gang of criminals follows the group to rescue their boss. John’s Thought: I honestly don’t know why this movie didn’t get better received because I thought it was flat out amazing and my favorite western since Unforgiven.

#19 – DIE HARD Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 96% Synopsis: Tough New York cop John McClane finds himself in a tight situation when an office building in Los Angeles is taken over by terrorists. Apart from himself, everyone else in the building – including his wife – is held at gunpoint while their captors spell out their demands. The F.B.I. are called in to survey the situation, but John McClane has other plans for the terrorists… John’s Thought: Betcha didn’t know this was based on a book. Yeah neither did I at first.

#18 – A BEAUTIFUL MIND Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 78% Synopsis: From the heights of notoriety to the depths of depravity, John Forbes Nash, Jr. experienced it all. A mathematical genius, he made an astonishing discovery early in his career and stood on the brink of international acclaim. But the handsome and arrogant Nash soon found himself on a painful and harrowing journey of self-discovery. After many years of struggle, he eventually triumphed over his tragedy, and finally – late in life – received the Nobel Prize. John’s Thought: Russell Crowe is hands down the best all around actor alive today. This film is just exhibit 4 on the list that proves that point.

#17 – CASINO ROYALE Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 94% Synopsis: Recently promoted to 00 status, James Bond takes over his first mission, in which he faces a mysterious private banker to world terrorism and poker player, Le Chiffre. Along with a beautiful Treasury agent and the MI6 man in Montenegro, Bond takes part in a high stakes poker game set up by Le Chiffre in order to recover a huge sum of his clients’ money he lost in a failed plot that the British spy took down. 007 will not only discover the threatening organization behind his enemy, but the worst of all truths: to not trust on anyone. John’s Thought: Daniel Craig because my all time favorite James Bond, and Casino Royale became my favorite Bond film. Too bad Quantum of Solace didn’t live up to Royale’s level.

#16 – MILLION DOLLAR BABY Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 91% Synopsis: Maggie Fitzgerald, a poor thirty-one year old waitress from the very lower classes and with a dysfunctional loser family, decides to make a difference through boxing. She convinces the experienced hardened boxing trainer Frankie Dunn to coach her and be her manager, with the support of his old partner Eddie Scrap-Iron Dupris, who sees her potential as a boxer. Frankie has a problematical relationship with his daughter, and practically adopts Maggie along her career. John’s Thought: Holy crap this movie twisted my emotions into a thousand knots and inside out. Love this movie. Eastwood is indeed one of the premiere directors in the business.

#15 – MISERY Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 90% Synopsis: Novelist Paul Sheldon crashes his car on a snowy Colorado road. He is found by Annie Wilkes, the “number one fan” of Paul’s heroine Misery Chastaine. Annie is also somewhat unstable, and Paul finds himself crippled, drugged and at her mercy. John’s Thought: All of today’s torture porn movies can kiss my ass. The stuff poor James Caan goes through in this flick still makes me squirm.

#14 – SHADOWLANDS Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 96% Synopsis: CS Lewis is the author of the Narnia books – The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. Known as Jack, he teaches at an Oxford College, during the 1930’s. An American fan, Joy Gresham, arrives to meet him for tea in Oxford. It is the beginning of a love affair. Tragically Joy becomes terminally unwell and their lives become complicated. John’s Thought: Touching and deep at the same time. Dealing with the issues of faith and suffering isn’t not an easy theme to navigate, but Shadowlands does beautifully.

#13 – NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 94% Synopsis: After stumbling across a case of money among dead bodies, Llewelyn Moss thinks he can keep it quiet, but when silent killer Anton Chigurh locates Moss and his money, Vietnam veteran Moss makes a run for it. With bodies falling everywhere Anton goes, it’s only a matter of time before he catches up with Llewelyn. Whilst all this is going on, Sheriff Ed Tom Bell is overseeing the investigation and begins to see the country in a different light than it once was. John’s Thought: What can be said about this flick that hasn’t been said this year already?

#12 – GOODFELLAS Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 94% Synopsis: Henry Hill is a small time gangster, who takes part in a robbery with Jimmy Conway and Tommy De Vito, two other gangsters who have set their sights a bit higher. His two partners kill off everyone else involved in the robbery, and slowly start to climb up through the hierarchy of the Mob. Henry, however, is badly affected by his partners success, but will he stoop low enough to bring about the downfall of Jimmy and Tommy? John’s Thought: An absolutely stacked cast with some of the most memorable and quoted lines in mobster movie history.

#11 – SCARFACE Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 87% Synopsis: A remake of the 1932 classic, the 1983 version follows cuban refugee, Tony Montana and his close friend Manny Ray, and together they build a strong drug empire in Miami. Of course Montana must deal with the hardships of this type of buisness. And as Montana’s power begins to grow so does his ego and his paranoia. John’s Thought: Which line was better? “Say hello to my little friend” or “first, you get the money…”?

#10 – WUTHERING HEIGHTS (1939) Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 100% Synopsis: The Earnshaws are Yorkshire farmers during the early 19th Century. One day, Mr. Earnshaw returns from a trip to the city, bringing with him a ragged little boy called Heathcliff. Earnshaw’s son, Hindley, resents the child, but Heathcliff becomes companion and soulmate to Hindley’s sister, Catherine. After her parents die, Cathy and Heathcliff grow up wild and free on the Moors and despite the continued enmity between Hindley and Heathcliff they’re happy– until Cathy meets Edgar Linton, the son of a wealthy neighbor. John’s Thought: so many versions of this story, but this one will always be the measure.

#9 – THE PRINCESS BRIDE Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 95% Synopsis: When the lovely Buttercup is kidnapped by a ghastly gang intent on fermenting an international incident they find they are pursued by the Dread Pirate Roberts who just might be Westley, her one true love. Also after everyone is nasty Prince Humperdinck to whom Buttercup is now betrothed but who seems to care little for her continued survival. The stage is set for swordfights, monsters, and tortures – but will Grandpa be allowed to finish telling the story with all these kissy bits? John’s Thought: One of the most special movies ever made that is nothing short of pure magic. Holds a special place in the hearts of a lot of people.

#8 – THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 95% Synopsis: The film deals with the situation of British prisoners of war during World War II who are ordered to build a bridge to accommodate the Burma-Siam railway. Their instinct is to sabotage the bridge but, under the leadership of Colonel Nicholson, they are persuaded that the bridge should be constructed as a symbol of British morale, spirit and dignity in adverse circumstances. At first, the prisoners admire Nicholson when he bravely endures torture rather than compromise his principles for the benefit of the Japanese commandant Saito. He is an honorable but arrogant man, who is slowly revealed to be a deluded obsessive. He convinces himself that the bridge is a monument to British character, but actually is a monument to himself, and his insistence on its construction becomes a subtle form of collaboration with the enemy. Unknown to him, the Allies have sent a mission into the jungle, led by Warden and an American, Shears, to blow up the bridge. John’s Thought: I was pretty young the first time I saw this movie, and it confused me how Obi Wan Kenobi was suddenly a british soldier.

#7 – THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 95% Synopsis: This film tells the story of Captain Marko Ramius, the skipper of the Soviet Union’s newest nuclear sub. Jack Ryan of the CIA gets involved in a tense, tangled hunt for this sub, when Ramius defects, taking the “Red October” with him. The story is an action packed techno-thriller. John’s Thought: This is probably the one in my top 10 that will make most people scratch their heads. So freaking brilliant. I really liked the way they transitioned between russian to english.

#6 – SCHINDLER’S LIST Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 96% Synopsis: The true story of Oscar Schindler, a German businessman who owns a factory. He witnesses the horrifying visions of the Holocaust and the toll it takes on the Jewish people. Eventually, he creates a list of over 1100 Jews whom he saves from death. John’s Thought: Funniest movie since Slapshot! Just kidding… sort of a Seinfeld reference.

#5 – THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 96% Synopsis: Sauron’s forces increase. His allies grow. The Ringwraiths return in an even more frightening form. Saruman’s army of Uruk Hai is ready to launch an assault against Aragorn and the people of Rohan. Yet, the Fellowship is broken and Boromir is dead. For the little hope that is left, Frodo and Sam march on into Mordor, unprotected. A number of new allies join with Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas, Pippin and Merry. And they must defend Rohan and attack Isengard. Yet, while all this is going on, Sauron’s troops mass toward the City of Gondor, for the War of the Ring is about to begin. John’s Thought: The big question in a lot of people’s mind’s was “Was the first LOTR movie just a fluke?” Nope.

#4 – THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 92% Synopsis: An ancient Ring thought lost for centuries has been found, and through a strange twist in fate has been given to a small Hobbit named Frodo. When Gandalf discovers the Ring is in fact the One Ring of the Dark Lord Sauron, Frodo must make an epic quest to the Cracks of Doom in order to destroy it! However he does not go alone. He is joined by Gandalf, Legolas the elf, Gimli the Dwarf, Aragorn, Boromir and his three Hobbit friends Merry, Pippin and Samwise. Through mountains, snow, darkness, forests, rivers and plains, facing evil and danger at every corner the Fellowship of the Ring must go. Their quest to destroy the One Ring is the only hope for the end of the Dark Lords reign! John’s Thought: The masterpiece that started the trilogy. A lot of people (me included) didn’t think they’d be able to properly capture the novel. They went far beyond anyone’s expectations.

#3 – THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 89% Synopsis: After the murder of his wife, hotshot banker Andrew Dufresne is sent to Shawshank Prison, where the usual unpleasantness occurs. Over the years, he retains hope and eventually gains the respect of his fellow inmates, especially longtime convict “Red” Redding, a black marketeer, and becomes influential within the prison. Eventually, Andrew achieves his ends on his own terms. John’s Thought: As we get into the top 3, I also have all these films on my all time top 3 (not just for movies based on books). Shawshank never won best picture… one of the greatest crimes at the Oscars in History.

#2 – THE GODFATHER Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 100% Synopsis: Vito Corleone is the aging don (head) of the Corleone Mafia Family. His youngest son Michael has returned from WWII just in time to see the wedding of Connie Corleone (Michael’s sister) to Carlo Rizzi. All of Michael’s family is involved with the Mafia, but Michael just wants to live a normal life. Drug dealer Virgil Sollozzo is looking for Mafia Families to offer him protection in exchange for a profit of the drug money. He approaches Don Corleone about it, but, much against the advice of the Don’s lawyer Tom Hagen, the Don is morally against the use of drugs, and turns down the offer. This does not please Sollozzo, who has the Don shot down by some of his hit men. The Don barely survives, which leads his son Michael to begin a violent mob war against Sollozzo and tears the Corleone family apart. John’s Thought: Probably the single most important and influential film ever made. I still can’t believe how many people have never seen this movie. GO SEE IT.

#1 – THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 94% Synopsis: Gondor is overrun by the orcs of Mordor, and Gandalf rides to Minas Tirith to aid the humans in the war that is ahead. Aragorn must realize his true identity and purpose as the King of Men, and journey with Gimli and Legolas to summon the Army of the Dead so that the battle against evil can be won. Meanwhile, paranoia and suspicion rises between Frodo, Sam and Gollum as they continue their increasingly dark and dangerous travel to Mount Doom, the one place where The Ring can be destroyed once and for all. John’s Thought: It only makes sense for this film to be on the top of the list considering I call it the greatest all around achievement in film history (when you take all the elements of effects, cinematography, direction, acting, writing, etc, etc, etc.

So there you have it folks… the top 100. Now, I’m sure in all the time I spent putting this list together that there are probably 2 or 3 that I left out or forgot about that I’ll slap my head about later. That’s to be expected. But for now, what are some of your favorites? Which ones did I leave off this list that you think should have been included and why? What would you bump off the list?

What other little gems should be all know about?

*UPDATE* – LIke I said in the paragraph above, after spending weeks going through literally thousands of movies, a few obvious ones slipped through the cracks. So here is an update on films I SHOULD have included on the list:

– To Kill A Mocking Bird
– Jaws

Many people are asking why Gone with the Wind isn’t on the list. It’s a great movie, but I sometimes use the “Buddy with DVDs” test. If a buddy showed up with 2 DVDs, Gone with the Wind and any movie on this list… which movie would I chose to watch? Answer: Any movie on this list, thus Gone with the Wind doesn’t make the list.

Last week a viewer sent in a question for us on “The Movie Blog: Uncut” show asking about sequels that were better than the originals (a very rare thing). That got me to thinking about what I consider to be the greatest sequels ever. After seeing my friend Brad over at RopeOfSilicon do his 10 best sequels list today, I thought I should throw mine up too.

If nothing else, the films on this list are a testament that sequels can be a great thing. Often people (me included sometimes) will moan and complain when they hear about a sequel coming out… saying there’s no creativity left in Hollywood and that they’re all terrible and just cash grabs. Well, I’m glad studios don’t listen to that sort of talk, because if they did, none of the magnificent films on this list would exist.

Remember, all lists are totally subjective and no 2 lists will look exactly alike. Having said that, I now present for your consideration and debate, The Movie Blog’s Top 20 Sequels:

#1 – LORD OF THE RINGS: RETURN OF THE KING The movie holding the record for the most Oscars (11) is still what I consider to be the greatest overall achievement in cinematic history. When you consider all the film making elements of cinematography, acting, art direction, visual effects, music, direction, story, no film in history has brought them all together in a package as nearly perfect as The Return of the King. An incredible ending to only the second trilogy in history to have all three of its films nominated for Best Picture.

#2 – THE GODFATHER PART 2 More than just an amazing story, The Godfather Part 2’s real genius was in how director Francis Ford Coppola told the story. Disconnecting the linear timeline and in essence telling two separate stories book ending the time frame of the first Godfather movie. Many will argue (understandably so) that this should be #1, and I can respect that because the film is just so flat out amazing. Still, for me part 1 is still the best of the franchise. One of the best, most tragic and haunting endings to any film in history. (The other trilogy to have all 3 films nominated for best picture)

#3 – RETURN OF THE JEDI Like many many many other people out there, I’m a certified Star Wars freak (only of the original trilogy, otherwise Star Wars is dead to me now), but unlike most others, I actually think Return of the Jedi was just a little bit better than Empire. As you can see below, I think both were magnificent, but to me Jedi had something extra that’s hard to define. The Vader/Skywalker battle in the Emperor’s throne room and the music that accompanied it is one of my favorite single scenes in film history. Not to mention the greatest space battle scene in movie history that STILL hasn’t been beat.

#4 – THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK Sweet hotness! I still remember as a little kid seeing Empire for the first time. I thought I was going to wet myself when we saw the Star Destroyer for the first time shooting out the probe droids. I definite darker tone than the others in the franchise made for maybe the best dramatic storytelling in the franchise. And today, with all the M. Night Shamhammers running around it’s hard to appreciate a good “twist” anymore… but man, back in the day Darth Vader telling Luke he was his father was MIND BLOWING! I still remember as a kid wondering how Grover because a Jedi on some swamp world.

#5 – INFERNAL AFFAIRS 2 To this day my favorite cop movie of all time is the original Infernal Affairs (which as some people still don’t know is what the 2007 Best Picture winning film “The Departed” is a remake of), and yet Infernal Affairs 2 just might be even better. Filled with twists and revelations, the movie is a prequel to the original with many of the key cast returning and younger versions of some of the original cast filling in the gaps. A completely killer film.

#6 – INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE This is actually my favorite film of the entire franchise. One would think it impossible to meet or top the achievements of the Indiana Jones films at that time, and yet somehow Lucas and Spielberg found a way. Brining on Sean Connery to play Indy’s father is probably one of the best celebrity additions to a franchise ever. The chemistry between Ford and Connery was fantastic and carried much of the charm of the film. Funny, exciting and everything else you’ve come to expect an Indiana Jones movie to be (minus the nuclear fridge).

#7 – TOY STORY 2 The funniest thing about Toy Story 2 was that it was originally supposed to be a straight to video sequel, and that at some point the execs looked at it again and said “holy crap… this is actually turning out really well. Let’s release it in theaters!”. It’s a damn good thing they did. Not only did the film make nearly $500 million world wide, it is the only wide release film to hold a perfect 100% on Rotten Tomatoes as well.

#8 – THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS Following the amazing achievement of Fellowship of the Ring (a LOT of people expected that movie to suck) people were bracing themselves for a let down. “The first one was a fluke” I heard more than one person say. Even I thought the franchise had nowhere to go but down. Wow was I wrong! The Battle at Helm’s Deep stands as one of my favorite battle scenes in history as the story of the ring got deeper and better. Many felt this film was robbed of the best picture Oscar… I’m one of them.

#9 – ALIENS Where the first Alien film leaned more towards being a Sci-Fi suspense film in many ways, the second burst into a different direction as a balls to the wall action film. The film is just loaded with memorable scenes and fantastic one liners (”Game over man”). It was the first action film I’d ever seen that I could literally say had me on the edge of my seat the entire time. The film will hold up forever.

#10 – X-MEN 2 The first X-Men movie single handedly resurrected the superhero genre movie after Batman Nipple Lord vs Austrian Ice Ham” nearly single handedly killed it several years earlier. X-Men 2 took it up a notch. Right from the incredible opening scene with Nightcrawler breaking into the White House to the end where we catch our first glimpse of he Phoenix (that only fans of the comic book recognized and freaked out over when the fiery shape came on the screen), X-Men 2 redefined just how good Comic Book movies could be. To this day it’s still my favorite Comic Book movie.

#11 – TERMINATOR: JUDGEMENT DAY Who among us didn’t thing the new liquid Terminator was the damn coolest thing we’d ever seen when this movie first came out. But the T-1000 wasn’t just cool visual effects. The cold passionless killer that Robert Patrick gave us was also one of the scariest things my teenage eyes had ever seen. Damn that guy gave me nightmares. The story was excellent, Linda Hamilton just ruled (I still think Cameron is a bloody idiot for cheating on that woman) and seeing the Arnold Terminator as a GOOD guy was fun too.

#12 – THE DARK KNIGHT Director Christopher Nolan did what many people thought couldn’t be done… he topped his own Batman Begins with a film broader in scope, deeper in story, more exciting in action all topped off with a classic villain given new incredible life by the single greatest performance ever in the history of comic book movies. The Dark Knight, while not perfect, delivered everything a Batman fan could have hoped for to send them home happy. The movie struck an obivous chord with comic and non comic book fans alike, quickly becoming the second highest grossing film (not counting inflation) in history.

#13 – CLERKS 2 To many people Kevin Smith and his films are an acquired taste. To be honest, as much of a fan that I am of Smith, I’m not actually that thrilled with many of his films. Having said that, I honestly think Clerks 2 is one of the sharpest, funniest and yes smartest comedies I’ve seen in a long long time. Smith shows he’s more than just fart and fuck jokes. Clerks 2 has so much heart to it that many people miss. Real issues struggled with by a lot of people entering their mid 30’s, issues of friendship, home, belonging, dreams, all dealt with within the context of Smith’s edgy humor. I unapologetically love this movie

#14 – STAR TREK 2: THE WRATH OF KHAN The first Star Trek film just blew chunks of refuse, so to many at the time a follow up film was a bit of a surprise. However, the idea behind the film was nothing short of pure genius. Going back and directly making the movie a sequel to AN INDIVIDUAL EPISODE of the TV show was a move that save the franchise. Ricardo Montalban instantly became one of the greatest villains in movie history reprising the role of Khan. If you didn’t feel the blood rushing through your veins when Khan quotes “To the last, I will grapple with thee. From hell’s heart, I stab at thee. For hate’s sake, I spit my last breath at thee” then you are totally dead inside.

#15 – SPIDER-MAN 2 I nearly lost my mind the first time I saw this flick. Just about everything a Comic Book movie should be. Great visual effects, terrific action, loads of wild cheer moments, fun, funny and character who stick surprisingly well with the spirit of their comic book counterparts. Tragically overlooked in this film whenever it’s discussed is the performance of Alfred Molina as Doc Ock who brought that extra dimension to the film that Spider-Man 1 (as good as it was) missed. Such a shame Spider-Man 3 went completely to shit.

#16 – ROCKY 2 The original Rocky (which I know most people these days haven’t seen) was a different kind of sports movie. It was more about the character and his story than the sport. Rocky 2 began to float more towards the “action” elements that the franchise would become known for, but at the heart of it was still this terrific character… Rocky Balboa. How this simple guy went from nothing to celebrity status, how it effected himself, the relationships in his life and his dreams. One of the most electrifying ends to a movie ever.

#17 – ARMY OF DARKNESS I understand that most people feel that if you’re going to put an “Evil Dead” movie on this list, then Evil Dead 2 should be the one to get the nod. Sorry, but to me Army Of Darkness is the king of the franchise and always will be. Perhaps no film in history has ever been as purely quotable as this cult classic. As a matter of fact, a lot of the most famous quotes in various movies and video games were all direct rips rips from Army Of Darkness. It’s the movie that elevated Bruce Campbell to god status who now dwells in the halls of the immortals.

#18 – STAR TREK 4: THE VOYAGE HOME Ok, if I were a movie studio executive back in 1984 and some guy came into my office with an idea for a new Star Trek movie that focused on the crew of the Enterprise going back in time on earth to the 1980’s, looking like hippies and on a mission to save the whales, I would have thrown that dude out of my office and fired him on the spot. I guess sometimes the dumbest sounding ideas can be executed in such a way to make a classic. This movie is just so damn charming and fun. Scotty trying to talk to the 1980’s computer is a classic scene! “Oh, a keybord. How quaint”.

#19 – SHREK 2 The first Shrek film was pretty good, but there was something about the sequel that will always give it a special place in my heart. Blatant pop culture reference jokes rarely hit with me, but for some reason they way the material was handled in Shrek 2 had me grinning, giggling and laughing pretty much the whole way through the movie. Puss In Boots was a great addition to the cast of characters and that musical number of “I need a hero” near the end still gets my heart thumping. Like Spider-Man 2 however, it’s a shame the next film was total garbage.

#20 – DIE HARD 3 Kind of like the Army of Darkness pick, there will be many out there who will feel that Die Hard 2 deserves the place on this list. However, to performance of Jeremy Irons, the heist plot and the chemistry between Bruce Willis and Samuel L Jackson pushed this one over the top. Come to think of it, in terms of just the “heist” portion of the film… it may be one of my favorite heist movies ever. The plan was so freaking great!

So there you have it folks. Like I mentioned at the beginning, all film is subjective and no 2 lists will look exactly alike, so I’m sure that even if you love or hate my list, there are things you agree or disagree with. What would your list look like? Which films would you put on there that I left off? Which ones would you boot off? (just so you know, I amended this list to include Clerks 2 which I originally forgot to add).

The popularity of Blogging in general continues to grow exponentially, and movie blogging in particular is something more and more people seem keen on getting involved in. And why not? What’s more fun to talk, debate, speculate and comment on than movies?

Without the slightest bit of exaggeration I can tell you that I get AT LEAST 15-20 emails a week from people telling me about their new movie blog! Some telling me I’ve inspired them to launch one (which is always flattering to hear), most asking me to link to them or at least mention them… and that doesn’t even touch the hundreds of others that start up each week that don’t bother to write me.

Many times they write to me to ask for some advice on how to get started, how to run things, how to keep things going and how to grow. Over the years I’ve seen a lot (hundreds) of new movie bloggers start up, only to disappear a few days, weeks or months later, so seeking advice from anyone at all is a pretty good idea.

So I thought I’d put together this little post on 20 tips for starting, maintaining and growing your own movie blog. Many of these tips are transferable to generic blogging, or blogging about other topics, but they are meant specifically for blogging about film. I’m certainly not the world’s biggest expert on blogging, but I have been doing this for a while, so here are some lessons I’ve learned:

1) DO IT BECAUSE YOU LOVE MOVIES
I can’t even begin to tell you how many emails I get from people asking me how they too can blog for a living, or how to get invited to Hollywood studio events and stuff like that. “Hey John, I just launched my new movie blog over at www.GenericMovieBlogThatWontLastMoreThanAMonth.com. Can you tell me how to get on the Studio press invitation list?” Good blogging comes from passion, and passion looks for expression for its own sake. When I started The Movie Blog I had no intention of ever doing it for a living. I just started it because I LOVED to talk about movies. Plain and simple. If you’re motivated by anything other than a passion for what you’re writing about, it’ll show and show quickly.

The other thing is this… the harsh reality is that you will probably never get 500 readers a day. That’s not me trying to be negative, that’s just the reality of the numbers. If you start movie blogging because you want to be famous or rich, you’re going to find yourself very disillusioned pretty fast. BUT, if you blog because you love talking movies, you’ll have found a hobby you’ll love for life!

2) START WITH A FREE BLOGGING PLATFORM
Don’t bother with buying a domain name, buying a hosting service, installing wordpress or some other platform you have to license and install before you get your feet under you. Most people who start a movie blog haven’t ever blogged, or blogged on a specific topic before. You may find it’s a lot more than you can handle… or you may find after doing it for a while that you change your direction and better understand where you actually want to go with it. For those reasons and more, I STRONGLY suggest setting up a free blogging account at either

www.blogger.com
or
www.wordpress.com

Just start your blogging there for a month or two and get an idea of what direction you’re going to go in… find your voice… figure out if you’re going to stick with it more than 2 weeks or not.

I know I know… you already KNOW beyond all shadow of a doubt that YOU’RE going to stick with it and do it for years to come! Yeah well… I’ve heard that before and 99.99% of the time they were wrong and ended up wasting money in getting set up for something they didn’t actually end up doing. Explore the water a little before diving in. It’s a good exercise, it’s free and if you do decide to move to a full domain name and server with a more robust blogging platform, all your posts are movable without much problem so none of your early writing will go to waste.

3) START SMALL. 1-3 POSTS PER DAY
Walk into a gym for the first time and try to bench 200 pounds. You won’t be back in the gym tomorrow. I’ve seen a lot of new movie bloggers burn themselves out quickly because they let their own unrealistic expectations, or their enthusiasm get the better of them and try to post 10 posts a day right out of the gate. Find your voice first. Write just one or two a day to start. As you get comfortable with how you express your thoughts increase it a little… but start slow. I know there is a lot of movie news out there, but pace yourself.

4) DON’T FEEL THE NEED TO ACT LIKE A FULL TIME BLOGGER. DON’T THINK YOU HAVE TO POST 15 TIMES A DAY
99% of bloggers are hobby bloggers. So are you. Even after you start small, don’t get yourself to the point that you’re spending 6 hours a day posting to your site. Quantity doesn’t develop your writing. Quantity also doesn’t build your audience… quality and consistency do.

5) BE CONSISTENT
I have more blogs on my RSS reader that post 2-4 posts a day consistently than I do that have 10 posts or more one day, none the next, 2 the next, none the next… etc. etc. Being consistent with your posting isn’t just good for readers, it’s also good for you as you develop good habits. Yes it’s ok to take a day off from blogging and yes it’s ok to have a day or two where you post a little more or a little less… just make sure as you look over your month that you’ve been consistent in general. Readers like to know what they’re in for if they go back and visit your site today… give them that.

6) READ OTHER ESTABLISHED MOIVE BLOGS
If you want to be a better hockey player, you look at NHL players. If you want to be a better scientist, you read the works of scientists. If you want to develop as a movie blogger, then read movie bloggers who have been doing it a while… and NOT just The Movie Blog. I have no less than 15 movie BLOGS (not news site… I have lots of those too though) on my RSS reader and bookmarks that I read almost every day. I don’t read them to get the news (I like to get my news from NEWS sites) but rather because I like their blogging and have lots I can learn from them. Some good movie blog sites you should be reading:

www.screenrant.com
www.twitchfilm.com
www.slashfilm.com
www.firstshowing.net
www.cinematical.com (they’re also a news site, but more a blog)
www.incontention.com
www.filmjunk.com
www.thedocumentaryblog.com
www.filmschoolrejects.com
www.rowthree.com
www.obsessedwithfilm.com

There are many others, these are just a sample. Don’t bother trying to write a movie blog if you’re not actively reading other good movie blogs

7) STAY UP TO DATE ON WHAT’S HAPPENING IN THE MOVIE WORLD – READ MULTIPLE MOVIE NEWS SITES
Blogging and news reporting are different things (I’ll get to that in a minute). Keep up to date with what is going on in the movie world by reading multiple movie news sites. Different outlets have different sources and focus on different things. I’ve seen too many movie blogs that always seem to talk about stories from the same site over and over and over. Diversify your sources a little. You don’t need to read 40 sites… but try to have at least 4 or 5 solid ones that you get most of your news from. Some really good movie news sites that I personally like to read are:

www.comingsoon.net
www.iesb.net
www.variety.com
movies.yahoo.com
www.thehollywoodreporter.com

There are many others and you should find ones that suit you best.

8) TALK ABOUT THE THINGS THAT INTEREST YOU
Remember what I said earlier? If you write without passion, it shows. If you really don’t care all that much about the fact that Pauley Shore just signed a deal to co-write 3 indie comedies in Japan over the next 3 years… then why write about it? Your lack of interest will come off to your readers in about 5 seconds. Don’t write just for the sake of writing. There are 50 new movie news items everyday… you’re a blogger, not a reporter. Find the things that you are interested in… for good or bad reasons. The things you have an opinion on. Focus your writing and your valuable (and limited) time to writing on these things. Writing on stuff you couldn’t care less about (unless you’re passionate about not caring less) won’t help your writing, won’t entertain your readers, won’t start any discussion and won’t help your site. Remember, quality and consistency over quantity.

9) UNDERSTAND THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A MOVIE BLOGGER AND A NEWS REPORTER
Repeat after me: “Just because I write a movie blog dose not mean I’m a journalist”
Even some of the best movie bloggers forget that sometimes. As a blogger, you are a guy standing at the digital water cooler with other like minded people just talking movies. The pure, simple joy of yacking about the things you love and hate in the world of movies. You are NOT a movie expert. You are NOT a journalist… so don’t pretend to be or even try to be one. You don’t research stories, you don’t track down leads. Sure, some bloggers do a LITTLE of this, but it’s not the work of real journalists who will spend days, or even weeks doing nothing but researching, reading and chasing down one single story. They’re trained for that… don’t belittle what they do by being presumptuous enough to act like you do the same thing. You’re a blogger.

10) FOCUS ON ONE KIND OF FILM RATHER THAN TRY TO EQUALLY TALK ABOUT ALL OF THEM
By “kind” of film I don’t mean “genre”. I’m not talking about comedies or dramas or thrillers. I mean “kind” in a more generic sense. Do you want to focus on Hollywood films? Indie films? Asian and foreign films? Retro films? Documentaries? Don’t try to be all things to all people. Here at The Movie Blog, I still write about indie films, Asian, Documentaries and the like… but the clear focus of the stuff I write about is Hollywood films. Twitchfilm will still comment on some bigger Hollywood films, but their clear focus is Asian and Foreign films. Know your focus. Talk about other things that interest you here and there… but keep your direction clear.

11) ENCOURAGE DISCUSSION
Ask your readers for input. End some of your posts with open questions. Encourage people to jump in the comments area or your forums and give input. Blogs work best when they are truly interactive that way. Blogs are meant to be conversational in nature… take advantage of that. Respond to comments as often as you can (granted, that part gets more difficult the more popular your site becomes) not just because it’s good etiquette but also because it’s a lot of fun. Without conversation, blogging gets stale pretty damn fast.

12) DON’T BE AFRID TO BAN PROBLEM USERS
This is an important lesson I learnd from Leo Laporte. There are a lot of trolls and flamers out there who just love to ruin good conversation, so don’t be afraid to ban certain users who make your comments section a hostile environment to participate in. Commentors set the atmosphere of your site almost as much as you do. Don’t be worried about traffic… there are 99 good conversation people for every 1 troll… ultimately your comments section will be a better and more inviting place for new readers if you moderate. It’s YOUR site, you decide what the rules of your comments area should be… but keep in mind the enjoyment of other readers who will come to your site. Rightly or wrongly, new readers will associate the environment of your comments area with your site as a whole. It may suck to lose 1 or 2 readers, especially when you’re just starting… but TRUST ME, the long term pay off is well worth it. Your rules will be different than everyone else’s, because your site is unique.

I suggest you create a clearly laid out “Rules for Commenting” page that sets out your guidelines for participation in your forums. You can see mine here.

13) WRITE ORIGINAL CONTENT
Most of your posts will probably be about recent movie news items, and that fine, but every other movie website out there will have the exact same posts as you do. One of the things that will make your site more engaging and increase your chances of a first time visitor becoming a regular visitor is writing original articles that aren’t just based on current news items. These take more time and more energy to write, but I find they’re more satisfying to write too and well worth the effort. Some examples of original articles that I’ve done in the past are:

The Cause of George Lucas’ Fall – And How He Can Rise Again

How Do You Handle Rude People In A Movie Theater?

How To (And Not To) Pick A DVD With Your Girlfriend

Actors With One Movie That Fooled You Into Thinking They Could Act

An Open Letter To Michael Bay Re: Transformers 2

12 Movies To Get You Started Into Asian Film

8 Life Lessons From Star Wars All Kids Should Learn

Economics Of The Movie Theater – Where The Money Goes and Why It Costs Us So Much

10 Common Sense Money Saving Tips For Movie Fans

Why Commercials Before Movies Is Worse Than Piracy

4 Rules Before Making A Remake

Original content is great for several reasons. First of all is starts great discussion. Secondly it gets the attention of other webmasters. Thirdly it usually gets you really writing about something you have a strong opinion on. There are even more reasons, but you get the idea.

14) IT’S A BLOG, SO MAKE IT PERSONAL
I really believe that as a blog, your site should be as much about YOU as it is about the movies you’re talking about. YOUR thoughts, YOUR experiences, YOUR opinions. You’re not meant to be an impersonal movie news site. Blogs by nature are personal things. Don’t be afraid to share bits of yourself with your readers and engage them every chance you have. The news is the same on every single site out there… YOU are the most unique thing about your site. Leverage that. Some will say to me sometimes that Blogs shouldn’t be personal at all… to them I say “Then you have no idea what a blog is”

15) START A PODCAST EARLY
When we started The Movie Blog Podcast almost 4 years ago, most people hadn’t even heard of the term before. Now, podcasting is insanely popular and very EASY to do. Remember how I just said to make your movie blog as personal as possible? Well podcasts are a great way to do that. It’s YOUR voice. It’s a wonderful way for your personality to come through and for your readers/listeners to get to know you. Podcasting has never been easier. With free podcasting services like:

Studio Odeo
GCast

You can be up and running in no time at all. It’s VERY fun, VERY easy and very effective too. There’s no reason not to start podcasting as soon as possible once you launch your site.

16) DON’T WORRY ABOUT THE LOOK OF YOUR SITE RIGHT AWAY
You can spend 3x as much time, energy and effort trying to nail the “look” of your site than you do on the content of it. The old saying is true… “CONTENT IS KING”. Find a decent template or theme to start with and just go with that for now. You have LOTS of time to think about the look and design of your sight. You can slowly evolve it as you go. Invest the majority of your creative efforts towards your writing and your content. The look will come… and then you’ll change it 100 times. Don’t sweat it right now. Get started, get writing and let the rest evolve over time. Hell… just look at how successful Ain’t It Cool News is, and that’s the most ass ugly site on the net! Content first… then look.

17) LEARN THAT IMDB IS YOUR FRIEND
The Internet Movie Data Base is the single best movie information resource site on the web and has several applications for those of us who run movie blogs:

a) Links to the appropriate IMDB pages give readers quick access to more information regarding an actor or movie. When you mention a movie or actor, try to link to their respective IMDB pages when applicable.

b) Doing simple checks on IMDB rounds out your articles more and gives you tons of info in just one page

c) Whenever you’re about to write a post on a particular actor, or reference them in some meaningful way, ALWAYS check their individual IMDB page. It’ll help you avoid little embarrassing mistakes like saying “Matthew McConaughey has never acted in a thriller before” when a quick IMDB check would have reminded you about “Frailty”.

There are a thousand other applications for IMDB information usage. Get acquainted with it if you’re not already and make it your most valuable online resource, not just as a blog writer, but also as a film fan.

18) LEARN THAT ROTTEN TOMATOES AND META CRITIC ARE YOUR FRIENDS
When writing a movie blog, it’s not only valuable to clearly communicate your thoughts and opinions, but also understand the context into which you’re communicating them. Sites like Rotten Tomatoes and Meta Critic are NOT the be all and end all of declaring a movie good or bad, but they do give you insight as to what the general consensus is about a particular movie. This information should NEVER change your opinion, but rather help you better express your opinion in the light of the prevailing thoughts other people have regarding your subject.

19) IF YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND FILM IS SUBJECTIVE, DON’T WRITE A SINGLE WORD UNTIL YOU DO
There is nothing more annoying then some guy who thinks he is the defacto knowledge depository for film. You know the type… they’re basically the guys from High Fidelity, except about movies. If you disagree with their assessment of a film, you just don’t know what you’re talking about. I HATE those guys. Don’t get me wrong, you should have an opinion (see next point) and stand by it if you believe in it… but…

You have to understand that film is art, and as art, different people will look at it, experiences it, engage it and ultimately have different reactions to it. 15 people can stand in front of a piece of art and see 15 different things even though they’re looking at the exact same piece. Have an opinion, debate other opinions, but understand that in the end, it’s all subjective and just because you think one thing about a movie doesn’t mean another person is an idiot for not sharing the same opinion or having the same experience as you did. Until you have a grasp of that one key truth, do us all a favor and don’t start your blog until you do.

20) DON’T BE SPINELESS! HAVE AN OPINION AND EXPRESS IT REGARDLESS IF IT’S POPULAR OR NOT
As I mentioned earlier, every bit of movie news you talk about on your site is also being talked about on about 17 million other movie sites and blogs around the web. The single most important thing that makes your site unique from theirs is not your design or your pretty graphics or your oh so cleaver slogan… no… the most unique thing about your site is…

YOUR OPINION.

Your opinion is the one thing your site has that no other movie blog in all of the interweb has. It is not the “news”. If your site is to be personal, and encourage discussion and be unique, you must express your opinion. Express it loudly. Express it without apology. Express it regardless if your opinion is the popular one or not. Damn it, if you didn’t like “Blade Runner” then say so and make no apologies for it. If you didn’t agree with the WGA during the writer’s strike, then to hell with what’s popular… SAY SO! Let your reasons become a part of the discussion. If you loved a movie every one else hates, shout it from the roof tops: “MY NAME IS JOHN, AND I LOVED ARMAGEDDON!!!”

Don’t become a “blog” that just repeats the news that has been repeated a million times already today on every other site out there.

Don’t be one of these spineless jellyfish that is afraid to say “I don’t like Star Wars” out of fear that others won’t take you seriously if you do. The truth is we ALL have a huge list of films we personally love that almost every one else hates and vice versa. The difference is that you’re someone who isn’t afraid to say the unpopular, as long as it’s truly what you think.

Blogging is about personal expression… so what use is expression if you’re not expressing YOURSELF?

So there you have it, my 20 tips for starting and running a movie related blog. I’m certainly guilty of not following all of these tips myself from time to time, but they are lessons I have learned over almost 5 years of doing this. So off you go. Start slow, find your voice and express yourself. Go and add to the online movie community and make it a better place.

Just last night I went to a video store to grab a copy of Ben Hur (just after hearing about the passing of Charlton Heston). When I walked in, I saw a couple looking on the new releases wall and making their way down (I noticed them because she was HOT). Anyway, I picked up my movie, then just looked a round a little bit and left. I was there for about 15 minutes. When I left, the couple was still there. When I left, I hit a KFC across the street on Sunset Blvd because I was a little hungry and have been wanting to try those new toasted snackers they have. I was in there for about 20 minutes. When I was ready to leave I remembered another DVD I wanted to check out, so I walked back across the street to Blockbuster again… and guess what…. the couple was STILL in there, now walking in front of the same wall again (probably for about the 3rd time). It took me about 10 minutes to find the DVD I was looking for, stood in line for about another 5, and by the time I got out of there, the couple was STILL LOOKING. By the time I left I figure that couple must have already been in there for about an hour.

We’ve all been there. Men and women have different tastes in movies, and so picking one up can been a bit of an exercise when you go together. There are a few bad methods couples try to use thinking it will make things easier. Some of these bad methods are:

BAD METHODS OF PICKING A DVD WITH YOUR GIRLFRIEND

1) Take Turns Picking
This is a HORRIBLE idea. The reason it’s a horrible idea is you almost guarantee you’ll never get a movie you’ll both enjoy watching. If it’s his turn, he’ll pick Transformers (if he’s any sort of a real man that is), and chances are, she won’t be that into it (unless you’re one of The Movie Blog Uncut girls that is). When it’s her turn, she picks up Sense and Sensibility which you probably won’t get much out of (unless you imagine Kate Winslet transforming into giant robotic Tyrannosaurus Rex and kicking the crap out of Hugh Grant). Yes it can work sometimes, but chances are she’ll hate the one you pick on your own, you’ll hate the one she picks on her own, and eventually a good DVD night doesn’t sound like much fun for either of you.

2) Pick One Together
Another horrible idea unless you think spending your whole evening at the DVD store doing repeated laps around the place trying to pick one out sounds like a great night to you. Then again, if you’re in one of those relationships where you’ve never had a fight yet and you wonder how the two of you will handle it once it comes along…. then this method just might be for you!

Yes friends, these methods have lead to a lot of wasted hours and unhappy couples. HOWEVER, a few years ago I started using a method that has almost always worked and left both people happy. I’m sure I’m not the first person to come up with it, but I thought I’d share it with you here. I call it the 5-1 Method

HOW AND WHY THE 5-1 METHOD WORKS

Ok, here’s how the 5-1 method works, it’s really quite simple. Once you get to the DVD store, 1 person (on their own) picks out 5 DVDs they’d like to see. When picking out the DVDs it’s important to pick movies that you’d like to see, but that you don’t think the other person would HATE (notice I didn’t say pick movies you think the other person will LIKE, but ones you don’t instantly think they’ll HATE). This process goes pretty fast since picking out 5 you’d like to see is ironically FASTER than trying to pick out just one. Once the 5 are picked out, the second person picks 1 movie from the five picked by the other person. It’s just that simple.

You see, this way the first person is guaranteed to end up with a movie they’re interested in seeing that night, and with 5 choices of movies that the first person doesn’t think they’ll hate, the second person has a pretty decent chance of getting a movie they’re at least modestly interested in seeing. The final decision on which movie they’ll see is up to them (the second person).

It’s important that the first person picks at LEAST 5 dvds. The more movies the first person picks, the higher the chances are that at least a couple of them will be ones the second person will have some interest in.

Here are some tips for making the 5-1 Method work even better:

a) Scan the DVD store’s website to see what’s new in advance. This will make the trip to the store itself even faster so more time can be spent at home watching the movie (and hopefully time for breast access following the movie)

b) Take turns between who picks the 5 and who makes the final choice. In the 5-1 Method, the person who picks the initial 5 has the advantage because they are guaranteed to get a movie they’re interested in. Switch it up UNLESS you try it once one way and both parties like it like that.

c) If possible, try to decide on a basic genre before hitting the store. Comedy, Horror, Drama, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Erotic, Period Piece… whatever. This isn’t necessary, but it might make things go a bit faster and easier if you both happen to be in the mood for the same KIND of movie.

So there you have it. Follow the 5-1 Method and the steps I laid out, and I guarantee you you’ll be in and out of the DVD store much faster, almost ensure that you’ll end up with a movie that you’re both interested in seeing and greatly increase your chances for breast access (which is what it’s really all about anyway). :P

Now, the reality is that I am FAR from being an expert on Asian film. I’m just a film fan who has started to develop an appreciation for some Asian cinema. So I thought it would be a good idea, as a casual Asian film fan who is also just in the process of developing my understanding for the genre, to introduce some of you who are interested in expanding your horizons, to 15 movies to get your feet wet in Asian film. Some of you have seen lots of these films already, but I know a bunch of you haven’t.

So without any more delay, here are 15 benchmark Asian films to get you started. In no particular order:

1) Ju-On (The Grudge)

Yes, the original version that the inferior North American Grudge (with Michelle Gellar) was based on. To this day maybe the scariest film I’ve ever seen apart from American Werewolf in London. The main difference between most North American horror and Asian horror, is that American horror tries to scare you with gross visuals and “startle scare” (when something jumps out at you), whereas a lot of Asian horror freaks the hell out of you with your own imagination… with concepts and atmosphere… with tension and mood. Ju-On makes you want to check yourself into a mental ward your nerves take such a beating. FROM THE IMDB: “An evil curse and vengeful spirits seem to linger upon a house where the horrific murder of a woman and child took place and anyone who sets foot inside the house is marked for a terrifying haunting which will not rest. One by one, those who have been tainted by the house begin to die, and nowhere is safe”

2) Fist of Legend

Not the deepest, or the most artful, or the best… but hands down my favorite Jet Li film of all time. Set during the Japanese occupation in China, the political and cultural tensions are really just a backdrop to total non-stop ass kicking deliciousness. Everything you expect to find in a great old style kung-fu film and more. Revenging a slain master, settling even the most trivial dispute with to-the-death combat to be followed by more ass kicking. The action is amazing, funny at times, always pretty lighhearted. FROM THE ROTTENTOMATOES: “A martial arts protege (Li) leads his classmates in revolt after their teacher is poisoned by the invading Japanese. The final fight scene is arguably one of the best of all time. Fights choreographed by Yuen Wo Ping, action director of THE MATRIX”

3) Sympathy for Mr Vengeance

Have you ever had a day where nothing seems to be going right… so you try something to improve the situation by doing something a little drastic, but that only leads to the situation getting even worse, then you try to fix what you did wrong and it gets even worse still… and then a giant elephant shits on your face? Yeah well… that’s Sympathy for Mr Vengence. A heart breaking, brutal and viciously violent story that leaves you wondering if you should be cheering for the “hero” or not all the way through. FROM MSN MOVIES: “Korean director Park Chan-wook followed up his highly acclaimed Joint Security Area with this tale of a deaf mute named Ryu (Shin Ha-kyun) trying to help his sister (Lim Ji-Eun) get a kidney transplant. Because his blood type is incompatible and no donors are available, he turns to a group of black-market organ dealers who offer to find one in return for one of his and ten million won. The dealers rip him off, so Ryu conspires with his girlfriend, a political activist, to kidnap his former boss’ young daughter and ransom her for the ten million won. But a horrible complication ruins their plans and things begin to spiral out of control as the girl’s father (Song Kang-ho) decides to take matters into his own hands with the help of a sympathetic cop.”

4) Hero

One of the rare films that actually got a North American wide release so I probably shouldn’t even put it on this list… but I know ludicrous numbers of people who haven’t seen it, so here it is. Forget just Asian film… Hero is one of the most beautifully shot films in the history of cinema. Every single solitary frame of this movie is a pure work of art. The use of color is like nothing I have ever seen before. You could watch this film on mute and you’d still have a rich experience watching it. FROM TRIBUTE: “At the height of China’s Warring States period, the country was divided into seven kingdoms: Qin, Zhao, Han Wei, Yan, Chu and Qi. For years, the separate kingdoms fought ruthlessly for supremacy. The Qin King was obsessed with conquering all of China and becoming her first Emperor. He had long been the target of three legendary assassins. To anyone who defeated the assassins, the King promised great power, gold and a private audience with the King himself. For ten years no one came to claim the prize. So when the enigmatic county sheriff, Nameless (Jet Li), came to the palace bearing the legendary weapons of the slain assassins, the King was impatient to hear his story. Sitting in the palace, only ten paces from the King, Nameless told his extraordinary tale. But then something unexpected happened – the King had a different story to tell of how Nameless really came to sit there. In the center of the intrigue sits Nameless and the ruler of the Kingdom, with only ten steps between them. Within those ten steps holds an earth-shattering tale of love, honor and duty, a story that moves beyond the reaches of history.”

5) Battle Royale

This list is in no particular order… but if it was in order, and someone asked me “what is the one Asian film I should go out and grab” the words “Battle Royale” would come out of my lips before they even finished the question. An interesting mixture of social commentary, violence and dilemma tension (where you as an audience member think “what the hell would I do?”). We all always knew those asshole teachers wanted to see us dead! This movie just fucking RULES! There have long been rumors of a North American remake of this gem… I’m open to that… but it stands very little chance at being as good as the original. FROM SPOUT: “In a future where society is on the verge of collapse, the government takes drastic action against the problem of rebellious teenagers in this violent sci-fi opus from Japan. In the year 2002, Japan’s economy has taken a dramatic turn for the worse, and massive unemployment and inflation have thrown most adults into a state of chaos; the nation’s youth culture responds with unprecedented violence, delinquency, and truancy. Desperate to restore order, the Japanese parliament responds by creating the Millennial Reform School Act, in which groups of junior high students are selected at random, sent to an isolated island, and forced to play a rigorous war game, in which all but one of their number are killed. Kitano (Beat Takeshi) is an embittered school instructor who guides the 44 students of the Zentsuji Middle School’s Class B through the deadly game known as “Battle Royale,” as they struggle to survive against the elements and each other.”

6) The Eye

No, not the Jessica Alba remake coming out soon (which actually inspired this list to be made) but rather the Pang bros horror masterpiece (the fact that Hollywood is so keen on remaking these Asian horror flicks should tell you something about just how good the originals are). Imagine being blind… then getting new eyes… but you start seeing thing you should not see. CREEPY… AS… HELL! Just a terrific concept for a horror film and it’s pulled off beautifully. FROM THE IMDB: “A blind girl gets a cornea transplant so that she would be able to see again. However, she got more than what she bargained for when she realised she could even see ghosts. And some of these ghosts are down right unfriendly. So she embarks on a journey to find the origins of her cornea and to reveal the history of the previous dead owner”

7) A Tale Of Two Sisters

A combination of erie mystery thriller and outright horror, the film is a little hard to follow at times, but if you can hang on for the ride you’ll love it immensely. The movie also does a terrific job of playing out the paralyzing family issues well beyond just the creepies and scares of many other films of this type. I think I liked this movie even before I saw it, since I think it’s one of my all time favorite movie posters. FROM KFC CINEMA: “Su-mi and Su-yeon have always been very close as sisters. Su-mi, being the elder of the two, is very protective over her young sister Su-yeon. Since the death of their mother, the stepmother has ruled the house with an iron fist. Su-mi has always managed to confront her stepmother, but Su-yeon, being a very calm and fragile girl, could not defend herself against the psychological and physical abuse of her evil stepmother. Su-mi has tried many times to explain the situation to her father, but his relationship with the stepmother and his disbelief has insured no result. Su-mi and Su-yeon are now back from a mysterious absence and being back home doesn’t seem to please the two sisters very much. Having to live under the same roof as the stepmother is a nightmare for them. However, during the following days, strange incidents will occur. Another presence can be feel within the house, is it the step mother trying to scare the girls, or a spirit trying to take revenge?”

8) Infernal Affairs

Hands down my favorite cop film of all time, and it was the basis for the remake that won the Oscar for best picture “The Departed” (obviously they changed the name). One of the best concepts for a crime drama of all time. The cops and the mob each plant an agent in the other side and each side is on a race against time to try to figure out whole the mole in their ranks is. Brilliantly written, fantastic performances, superbly orchestrated conflict… man, there just aren’t enough great things I can say about this movie. I loved The Departed… but even that doesn’t stand up again Infernal Affairs. Loyalty, betrayal, intrigue, suspence… this movie has it all. FROM STARPLUS: “As Infernal Affairs opens, Ming (Andy Lau of Full-time Killer) is being initiated into the criminal underworld by triad boss Sam (Eric Tsang of The Accidental Spy), who ends his speech to his young charges by wishing them success in the police department. Ming enters the police academy, where he excels, but sees his classmate, Yan (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai of In the Mood for Love), expelled for “breaking the rules.” It turns out that Yan wasn’t actually drummed out of the force, but recruited by Superintendent Wong (Anthony Wong of Hard-Boiled) as an undercover operative. Just as Ming is achieving success in the police department while secretly working for Sam, Ming is gaining Sam’s trust as a triad member, while reporting to Wong. Ten years later, both men, still undercover, have grown confused about their true identities, while their bosses, Sam and Wong, wage a battle of wits against each other.”

9) Ong Bak

The only thing I can say about Ong Bak is that you’ve probably never seen anything like it before. World, meet Tony Jaa… he is not human. This film gained a lot of notoriety not only because of the CRAZY martial arts action… but also because 100% of everything you see in the film is real. There is no CGI, no special effects, no wires… it’s all Tony Jaa doing his thing. What you see him doing, is really what you see him doing, and your jaw will hit the floor multiple times during your viewing. Narrative wise, it’s one of the worst films ever made, but you won’t care, because Jaa oozes awesomeness. ROTTEN TOMATOES SAYS: “Jaa stars as Ting, a quiet young man who lives in the peaceful village of Nong Pradu. As the village’s special celebration approaches, a Bangkok villain named Don (Wannakit Siriput) steals the head of the Buddha statue Ong-Bak, which is said to protect the village from bad luck. Ting volunteers to go to the big city to bring back the head of Ong-Bak, but remembers what he was taught by sage monk Pra Cru (Woranard Tantipidok): he must not use his Muay Thai skills to harm people. However soon after arriving in Bangkok, Ting, a peaceful fish out of water, finds that the only way to recapture the village’s sacred treasure is by using his arms, his legs–and his head.”

10) Ikiru

Yes Dorothy, there is Asian film beyond action or horror, and probably the finest of them ever made is this masterpiece (an overused word that truly applies here) by director Akira Kurosawa, before he ever made The Seven Samurai. A touching yet powerful film about life, meaning, purpose… all with an unmistakable “It’s a Wonderful Life” feel to it (although in a very different sort of way). FROM AMAZON: “Shimura, who nobly led the Seven Samurai two years later, is sublimely perfect as a melancholy civil servant who, upon learning that he has terminal cancer, realizes he has nothing to show for his dreary, unsatisfying life. He seeks solace in nightlife and family, to no avail, until a simple inspiration leads him to a final, enduring act of public generosity. Expressing his own thoughts about death and the universal desire for a meaningful existence, Kurosawa infuses this drama with social conscience and deep, personal conviction, arriving at a conclusion that is emotionally overwhelming and simply unforgettable.”

11) Shaolin Vs. Lama

By all rights this film shouldn’t be on this list… but I figured I should put at least one really silly, yet immensely enjoyable popcorn Kung-Fu flick on here… and that’s GOTTA BE Shaolin Vs. Lama. The movie is almost 25 years old and I’ve still never seen another Kung-Fu film with as much pure personality and serious laughs. Where else are you going to find a druken Shaolin monk who kicks ass for chicken? Or a bad guy who kills himself at the end by slapping himself in the head while yelling “I must die to prove Buddha exists”! But the two best lines (that you have to see in context) were easily “If you beat me, you will be my master and you can beat me with this staff for my insolence”… or… “Master, let me be your student, and I’ll give you a chicken.” Fan-Freaking-Tastic. FROM WIKIPEDIA: “Alexander Lo Rei plays Yu Ting, a kung fu fanatic in search of a teacher. After five years of challenging masters but never being beaten he runs into Hsu Shi (William Yen), a young Shaolin monk who stole money from a gambling match in order to acquire meat and wine for his master, who later discovers Yu Ting inside the Buddhist temple. Although Hsu’s master defeats Yu with ease he refuses to take him on as a student. Yu then resorts to trickery to try and learn techniques from the aged monk. Eventually these antics come to the attention of the senior abbot who expels Yu Ting from the temple altogether. Yu is only allowed back into the temple after he rescues a girl escaping from the dreaded skyhawk clan. The head of the gang is a chief Lama and sworn enemy of Shaolin who, twelve years ago, stole one of temple’s most treasured martial arts manuals the e-ching manual. Hsu Shi’s master eventually agrees to take Yu Ting on as a student but lessons are cut short when the Lama turns up and kills the master (who was his ex-master). Yu now swears revenge but before he can leave Shaolin he has to learn the Buddhist Finger technique, the only style that can defeat the Lama Chief.”

12) Ringu (The Ring)

Yet another film that sadly most people here in North America associate with the vastly inferior english version. In this original version, you crap your pants not because of jumping out at you and yelling “BOO!”, but rather because of sickeningly tense atmosphere. Far superior to the American version. FROM YAHOO MOVIES: “A strange video begins to circulate among high school teenagers. When you watch the tape, a ghostly figure appears, points her finger at you, and then the phone will ring, signalling your death in one week. When her niece is killed in a car accident, reporter Reiko Asakawa begins an investigation that leads to her own viewing of the tape. Knowing she has only a week left to live, Reiko enlists the aid of her ex-husband in tracking down the origin of the fatal videotape.”

SOME OTHER NOTABLES TO GET YOU GOING:

- Infernal Affairs 2 (Some think it’s even better than the first one)
- Audition
- Old Boy
- Lady Vengeance
- Police Story
- Hard Boiled
- Expect the Unexpected

So there you go. If you’ve got a regular movie night, I suggest using your next one to grab a couple of these flicks, but be warned, you might get a bit addicted to them. And remember, I’m not some Asian Film guru or elitist, I’m a Hollywood film fan, and I love all the films listed above. Check them out.

WHEN COMMENTING, PLEASE REMEMBER I’M NOT LISTING THE GREATEST ASIAN FILMS OF ALL TIME HERE. I’M LISTING WHAT I THINK CURRENT NON-FANS OF ASIAN FILM MAY ENJOY AS A STARTING POINT TO GET INTO ASIAN FILM.

1) Who Gets What From Your $10 Ticket?
Ok, so you walk up to the box office and drop down your $10 to buy your ticket. Who gets that money? A lot of people assume (as did I at one point) that the movie theater keeps 50% of it, and the rest goes off to the studios. That’s not really true.

Most of the money that a theatre takes in from ticket sales goes back to the movie studio. The studio leases a movie to your local theater for a set period of time. In the first couple of weeks the film shows in the theatre, the theatre itself only gets to keep about 20% – 25% of the green. That means, if you showed up to watch Bridget Jones’ Diary on opening night, then of the $12 you put out for a ticket, the movie theatre only got to keep between $2.40 and $3.00 of it.

That’s not a lot of money, especially when you think about how much bigger and elaborate theatres are these days. It’s not cheap running one of these places. It can get even worse. This percentage will vary from movie to movie depending on the specifics of the individual leasing deal. For instance, 2 movie theatre managers told me that for Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, the studio took 100% of the box office take for the first week of release. Can you imagine that? They had to over staff and have above normal capacity flood into their theatres… and they got to keep $0.00 from the ticket sales. That almost seems criminal.

Now, as you move into the second and third weeks of release, the percentage starts to swing to anywhere from 45% – 55% that the theatre gets to keep. It gets better after the fourth week when theatres generally can keep up to 80% or better of the ticket sales. There is an obvious inherent problem with this arrangement. I don’t know about you, but when I finally get around to seeing a film that’s already been in the theatres for 4 or 5 weeks, I’m usually one of the only people in the place. It doesn’t do the establishment a lot of good to keep 80% of the ticket sales when only 14 tickets are sold per show. And with more and more and more movies getting released every week, the length of time that a movie stays in theaters is shrinking. Bad news for the movie theaters.

Movie theaters are then forced to really make their money off concessions. One theater manager said “We’re not in the movie business… we’re in the candy business”. Very true. So if you ever wondered why a $0.15 bag of popcorn is costing you $5, and a $0.08 cup of Coke is running you another $4… it’s because the economics of the industry system is so screwed up that the concession stand is where theaters have to make most of their money.

2) The Cost Of Making The Movies
With the cost of today’s movies getting higher and higher, the studios leverage their position with the theaters to squeeze more and more out of the arrangement mentioned in point #1. 10 years ago they weren’t paying Chris Tucker $25 million dollars for one movie… for 3 months work… a hack… CHRIS TUCKER… $25 million. Superman Returns did NOT need to cost $200 million to make. Spider-Man 3 did NOT need to cost $250 million to make. These numbers are astounding when you consider that just 7 years ago they would have called you mad. The pace of costs is far outpacing the requisite inflation… and there is really no excuse for it.

This is directly tied to how much you and I pay at the box office, and thus tied to why popcorn has to cost so much, and thus tied to why we see commercials. The higher the costs go for for making films, the higher my costs will be to enjoy a night at the theater. Sure, Transformers made tons of money… but the studios have to squeeze us for everything they can get to make up for their flops… their films that DON’T make money.

And people always wonder why I get so pissed off whenever I think about Chris Tucker getting $25 million. Because ultimately that money (at least in part) is coming out of my wallet.

3) The Organism of the Studio/Theater Relationship
To really make sense of all this, you have to step back and look at the Studios and the Theaters as one industry entity and view it from the perspective of how the parts work together to truly get a grasp on how big and out of control the problem is. You can’t just try to blame the Studios… nor can you just blame the Theaters. You have to look at them both (in this situation anyway) as one industry… how it functions… and ultimately how it affords its mistakes and inefficiencies at our expense.

The studios spend too much money making movies (and make too many movies), they squeeze as much box office revenue as they can from the Theaters thus forcing the theaters to charge us high ticket prices to make what little they can from each ticket, gouge us at the concession stand to make ends meet and show commercial after commercial after bloody commercial to pad some profit.

Do you see what happens? Look over #3 again. Ultimately, the studios don’t have to learn from their mistakes, theaters don’t have to manage themselves smarter… because as costs and losses and expenditure add up… they just keep passing off the bill to us. We pay for their mismanagement and spiraling costs. Why should they change anything or fix anything when they know that we’ll just pay more to make up for their mistakes.

We pay for their mismanagement with our high ticket prices.

We pay for their mad decisions with $6 bags of popcorn

We pay for Chris Tucker’s $25 million paycheck with our time watching in-theater commercials.

All the while the industry continues happily along its downward spiral feeling no ill effects of their stupidity… because they’ve taken those ill effects and shoved them up our rectums for US to deal with.

4) The Solution Has To Start With The Theaters
If this insanity is ever going to stop… if change in the economics of going to the movies is going to ever happen, I’m convinced it will have to first start with the theaters. Movie theaters have to better organizes themselves and collectively stand up the the Studio system and REFUSE to let 80% of the box office dollar for a films first week of release go flying out the door to Hollywood. By not standing up collectively, the movie theaters act as complicit enablers to the studios behavior.

WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF THEATER OWNER ASSOCIATIONS REFUSED TO GIVE ANY MORE THAN 50% OF OPENING WEEK BOX OFFICE MONEY TO THE STUDIOS? I’ll tell you what would happen:

a – Studios would be forced to SERIOUSLY look at their own economics and financial responsibility. There would be no more $25 million dollar pay days for B string actors

b – Theaters would actually start making some money on… you know… MOVIES

c – With added revenue from the actual box office, the pressure on theaters to add more ads, to raise ticket prices, to jack up popcorn costs… would be at least a little bit alleviated.

It has to be a collective effort by the theater owners or else the studios will just refuse to give their movies to the stubborn theaters and give all the business to others. If the Theater Owner associations collectively said “no”, the studios would have no choice but to start to fix their leaky boat

5) Why Not Going To The Theaters Won’t Fix The Problem
Some people will say “Well then let’s not go to the movie theaters until we force them to change”. That will NEVER work, because as I’ve demonstrated above, when there are financial losses, the current industry system just takes back those loses from those who are buying the tickets. They’ll blame piracy for the dip in thater attendance and raise prices even more. It’s a systemic problem.

And if you think you’re safe from these rises and gouges because you just watch movies at home on DVD…. guess where the systemic problem will strike next once they’ve bleed the theater goers as much as they possibly can? DVDs and HD discs will suddenly start costing $60 a shot and Hollywood will pressure Washington to pass tax laws on Big TVs to pay a fee to the studios for each unit sold, thus raising prices there too.

You see… the answer to all the current systems problems is to take more from us. Thus, the system itself has to change, the the theaters are the ones who have to start it.

Just some late night ramblings. Take it as you will.

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There is nothing revolutionary on this list… but it’s funny how sometimes the most obvious ideas are the ones we overlook. And sometimes we dismiss the smallest little savings and fail to really think about how they add up.

Anyway, I did my list for myself and thought I’d add a couple of more and make a post out of it. We’re going to assume for the sake of this list that you go to a movie once a week and rent 1 dvd a week (obviously that number will be either higher or lower for you, but this will be our measure point). So here are my 10 common sense money saving tips for movie fans:

1) Eat before going to the theater (Savings – $20/ month if skipped twice)
This is one of the biggest money savers on the list. As much as I complain about the price of a ticket at the theaters, I usually walk in and spend MORE at the concession stand. I LOVE having popcorn and pop when I’m at the movies, and usually the only way I can stop myself from buying that $13 “special” is if I just recently ate. Even if you just skip the popcorn twice a month, you end up saving a TON.

2) Choose your theater wisely (Savings – $9/month if you choose smaller twice)
If you’re like me, you want to see Transformers, or Indiana Jones or other films of that nature on the biggest and best screen with the best sound possible. That generally means going to the best theater in your area and spending a little bit more on your tickets. Fair enough. But then there are those other movies, like Gone Baby Gone or The Departed that… and let’s be honest… don’t require the biggest and best screen and sound to enjoy. In my case, there is a slightly smaller theater up the street from me that charges $6.50 for a ticket. The better theater charges $11. By going to the smaller and older theater for those films that don’t really require the biggest and best screen and sound I save roughly $4.50 per movie.

3) Join Netflix or Zip (Savings – Roughly $15/month)
i don’t rent TONS of movies since I basically see most of them in theater, but I’d say once a week would just about be right. At my local Blockbuster, after taxes, for a new release… I’m paying just about $6/movie. But with a service like Netflix (Or Zip.Ca for those of us in Canada) you can get a simple cheap plan (like $9/month) that gives you 1 disk at a time. You can EASILY go through 4 or more movies a month and you never have late fees.

4) Celebrate Matinees (Savings – $6/month for going twice)
Running to the movies is generally a social evening thing to do, but really, why not try to hit a matinee a couple of times? You’ll generally find most theaters charge less for the tickets, and hell… then you still have your whole day in front of you. You’ll get smaller crowds, fewer noisy teenagers… and it’s cheaper (I know I already said that… but that’s the point). My local Cineplex charges $11 regular, and about $8 for a matinee.

5) Hold Off On HD (Savings – A lot)
New technology is always far more expensive then it will be next year. HD players and systems have already come down a lot in price, but in another year they’ll be exponentially cheaper than now. There is no need to go to HD right now, all movies still come out on beautiful DVD, and let’s face it, the difference between good quality DVD and HD isn’t anywhere near the difference of the old VHS to DVD comparisons. If you MUST have it now and want to bust the bank… go for it. Me, I’m waiting at LEAST another year (or until they come up with 1 standard HD format… whichever comes later)

6) Consult The Movie Blog or RottenTomatoes (Savings – up to $25/month)
Everybody likes to say “I never listen to critics” but to one degree or another we all do. Just because the critics hate a movie doesn’t mean you will. Only YOU know YOUR tastes and choices. HOWEVER…. it’s a pretty good bet (although not 100%) if 90% of the critics or members of the online community (like The Movie Blog commenters) are all trashing a movie and talking about how much they hated it… then maybe… just maybe… you might want to reconsider spending your money on that particular movie right now. You avoid one bad movie a month, that saves you your ticket price and popcorn. not bad.

7) Watch A Favorite Again (Savings – $6/month)
I can’t believe how many DVDs some of my friends have, and yet they hardly ever watch any of them. It’s crazy! So listen, some night when you and your girl/guy are hanging at home and you want to rent a movie… try just pulling out of of the faithful favorites you’ve got in your collection (no matter how big or small). You’ll rediscover your love for that movie, you know you’ll enjoy it, and you just saved a rental.

8) Buy Previously Viewed (Savings – $20)
DVD aren’t fruit that suddenly go bad or used underwear that someone else’s “boys” have been hanging around in. A new DVD can run you up to $30, but when I want to buy a movie, I just head to Blockbuster and go to the previously viewed section. On average I spend about $8 per movie. Buying it then also leads to more savings via point #7. I promise the movie will look just as good and sound just as clear as it would if you had bought the $25 still in its shrink wrap copy.

9) Wait For It On DVD
There are some movies that you just MUST see on the big screen, or great films you want to see when it’s in theaters. But sometimes there are movies that you think you want to see… but you’re not really all that excited about it. For those movies, I would suggest just waiting for it to come out on DVD. You’ll save your ticket costs, popcorn costs, gas, yadda yadda yadda. And if you have Zip.ca or Netflix, you save even more. In a movie theater is still the best way to see a movie… but if you’re a little ify on a film, just wait for it. Movies are coming out on DVD now faster and faster and faster. You probably only have to wait 3 or 4 months to get your hands on it.

And finally the biggest cost saver of them all

10) LET HER PAY HER OWN WAY!

So there you have it folks. 10 simple common sense ways to save money as a film fan without giving up the movies. Man it sure does add up. And dear lord I hope you’re smart enough to know I’m just kidding about point #10… the 10th point if for you guys to share.

So jump into the comments section and let us know one or two of your insightful ways to save money for movie fans without giving up on the movies. I’ll take the best 10 suggestions in the comments section and make another post out of it this weekend. Go to it!

However, advertising in movie theaters is a topic that has been brought up here on The Movie Blog more than a few times, and a recent report by the Cinema Advertising Council in the New York Post begs us to once again revisit the issue. We’ve all figured that commercials playing in movie theaters was worth a lot of money… but did you realize its worth almost HALF A BILLION DOLLARS? The IMDB gives us this:

Revenue from in-theater advertising rose more than 15 percent to $456 million from $395 million a year ago… The Post quoted CAC Chairman Cliff Marks as expressing the belief that moviegoers are becoming “more accepting” of screen advertising. A recent Arbitron poll indicated that two-thirds of moviegoers “don’t mind” the ads.

Don’t mind the ads? DON’T MIND THE ADS???

First, I should mention here that I don’t mind the idea of movie theaters making money. It’s a business. They exist to make money, and if they can find new creative ways to generate money then I say more power to them. If they can come up with new ways to get my money while providing me with some new service or product that I’m willing to pay for… then good for them.

Second, there are types of advertising in movie theaters I “don’t mind”. For example, if the movie is supposed to start at 7pm and I get into my seat at 6:45pm, I really don’t mind commercials and ads being shown on the screen until showtime. I’m just sitting there anyway, it’s not taking away from my time since the show isn’t advertised to start for another 15 minutes… so really… showing ads in that vacuum is no skin off my nose, it gives me something to look at while I wait, and it generates some income for the theaters. GREAT! It’s a win/win for everyone.

But you don’t have to have a degree in advertising to know that the bulk of that $456 million in ad money doesn’t come from those “pre-show” commercials. Oh no no no no… most of that money comes from the ads I LOATHE. The commercials (not trailers… I like those) that they start playing at the time they advertised the MOVIE was supposed to start.

I’ve said this before, but it’s worth repeating.

- When you take my money for popcorn, at least I’m getting a tasty treat

- When you take my cash at the box office, I’m getting to come in to watch the movie

- When you take my time for commercials on TV, I’m getting a “free” TV show out of it

But what are we getting for our time with commercials in movie theaters? When the ad says “Movie starts at 7pm” and I’m in my seat (that I paid admission for) at 7pm, it’s time for you to start giving me what I paid you for… the movie. If you want to show me commercials, fine… give me the movie for free then.

The theater industry is pulling in RECORD amounts of income from those commercials, and unlike TV (where we get a free show), WE GET NOTHING IN RETURN FOR OUR TIME SITTING THERE WHEN THE MOVIE IS SUPPOSED TO START.

Movie theaters have in essence found the PERFECT advertising. Ads that take to audiences time, without giving them anything in return.

I don’t mind theaters making money off me when I get a product, service or entertainment in return… but commercials playing at 7pm when you told me the movie would be starting is doing nothing but STEALING my time. You are taking from me without giving anything in return. HOW IS THIS DIFFERENT FROM ONLINE MOVIE PIRACY!?!?

When we download a movie without giving the movie industry anything in return, they call that a crime (and it is). But when the industry takes our time (sometimes up to 15 or 20 minutes) without giving us anything for that time in return they call it “smart marketing”.

How about I start calling pirating movies “Smart Shopping”. Will piracy be considered ok then?

Remember, YOU ARE GOING TO DIE SOME DAY. That means time has value, and when anything else in life takes your time, you get compensated in one form or another. Let’s think of it this way.

TIME

I see approximately 8 films in theater each month. At about 15 minutes of commercials per film (remember, these are ads that begin to play at the movie advertised start time), I end up spending about 2 hours per month watching ads in theaters uncompensated. That’s 24 hours, or a full day of uncompensated ad watching in a year.

MONEY

I’m not a doctor or lawyer, so let’s say my time is worth a measly $20/hour. Since I spent about 24 hours watching uncompensated ads in theaters last year, I figure the movie industry owes me about $480 out of that Half Billion they made last year off my time. Seems fair.

The principle for piracy and time theft is the same. Taking an asset (a movie, or your time) without providing the due compensation for taking that asset. So where do we start the class action lawsuit?

If you tell me the movie starts at 7pm, then when I PAY YOU to get into the movies, there is an implied contract that you give me what I paid for… a movie at 7pm. When you instead put up 15-20 minutes of commercials at 7pm you are stealing my time, and also stealing MY SHARE OF THAT $456 MILLION you made off my time.

So the next time you’re pirating a movie (which is neither something I do nor endorse), let that ease your conscience, because although you’re stealing the $10 you would have paid in admission… they probably owe you about $150 for stolen ad time anyway.

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1. WE EXPECT OUR PRINCE CHARMING TO LOOK LIKE BRAD PITT

Okay, let’s start with the easy one first. In movies, women always usually fall for the handsome lead. Thus, causing women in real life to use that celebrity or character as a basis of comparision regarding their own relationships. As much as I would love to be taken by Boris Kodjoe, it’s most likely not going to happen.

2. MEN DO NOT SPEAK IN MONOLOGUES PROFESSING THEIR LOVE TO YOU

In almost every romantic comedy or drama I’ve seen, the male lead will usually profess his undying love to the female lead (usually after a huge fight or temporary breakup) in these long and lengthy speeches that make Hamlet’s soliloquies look short, and that also usually make most womens’ hearts melt. Movies like ‘Disturbia,‘ ‘Jerry Maguire,’ and ‘Chasing Amy’ are all notorious for this. This causes many women to get depressed, because usually the closest thing a woman gets to getting a man to profess their love to her is when he gives her(voluntarily) the last chicken wing off his plate.

3. BEING A CONSTANT BITCH WILL NOT MAKE THE GUY WANT YOU MORE

Tell me if this sounds familiar. Boy meets girl. Girl is repulsed by boy. Boy keeps hounding girl. Girl eventually caves in and falls for once repulsive boy. Movies like ‘One Fine Day,’ ‘Something New,’ ‘Six Days and Seven Nights‘ and many others have all had female leads that literally treat the men like sh*t, and yet the men STILL pursue the women after being constantly rejected by them. Girls, let me tell that although playing hard to get and having a little attitude may help you catch a guy, treating the object of your affection like sh*t will get you nothing more than a “angry booty call” out of him.

4. FIRST TIME SEX IS NEVER AS GOOD AS IT LOOKS ON FILM

In the obligatory sex scenes in romantic movies, we usually see two bodies mesh in a perfectly choreographed way and the woman always has the most intense orgasm. We usually forget the first time with someone usually involves awkward positions and “shortcomings.” (If you catch my drift)

5. DO NOT EXPECT GRAND GESTURES

A few years ago, I got mad at my long term boyfriend at the time because he hadn’t done anything romantic for me. (i.e. Grand f*cking Gestures) How I longed for him to serenade me off key like Jerry O’ Connell and Adam Sandler did for their ladies in ‘Scream 2′ ( yup..even horror films are guilty of this) and ‘The Wedding Singer.’ Or for him to even carry me out of my workplace like Richard Gere carried Debra Winger out of the factory in ‘An Officer and a Gentleman.’ I remember him being angry at me after that…because I hadn’t appreciated all the little things he had done that were so much more important. :(

6. HE WILL NOT CHASE YOU IN THE RAIN

In fact he probably won’t chase you period. How many movies have you seen where the couple onscreen get into a fight, and the woman runs away, and the man catches up with her and turns her around to give her a passionate kiss? (I’ve lost count after ‘The Notebook.’) Let me tell you, that hardly happens. The only passionate thing I’ve gotten when I storm off after a fight is the finger.

7. HE WILL NOT RUIN YOUR WEDDING

I remember years ago I went to a psychic and they had told me that the man I loved was going to stop my wedding in the future. It was then, I realized I was getting jipped. Every woman has probably daydreamed in their lifetime about the one true love of their life stopping their wedding (like they do in the movies) and driving off on their motorcycle, (never understood that) and living happily ever after. Honestly, if that fantasy were to happen, it wouldn’t go down like that. You would probably be surrounded by debt (due to the costs of the wedding you skipped out on) and probably living in some remote place due to the fact that your jilted groom has probably put a hit on you and your “one true love.” Isn’t it just romantic? (Now I really hope the psychic is going to be wrong!)

Although our relationships may not seem as glamourous as they do in the movies, women (or the women around me at least) need to realize a man does not need to wear a cape or ride a valiant steed to be our hero or knight in shining armor. Honestly, forget movies’ perception of men, and deal with men for how they are and not how you would like them to be. If men did the same thing women did when watching their action movies, they would expect us to have perfect hair and make-up 24/7, an incurable sexual desire, and no PMS.

That’s just my take on the subject. Are there any other movie myths I’m leaving out?

I’m one of those people who doesn’t mind the idea of remaking an older film. Yes, it has the potential of sucking… but so does every movie. However, when approaching remakes, I believe there are 4 “rules” or prerequisites that a film should meet in order for a studio to consider producing a remake of it. Here they are:

1) The original has to have a good story
I know that sounds too simple to even mention here, but you’d be surprised. What would be the point of remaking “Freddy Got Fingered”? Story is the base foundation of everything, if the original didn’t have it… then don’t bother.

2) Majority of current audience hasn’t seen the original
This is a big one to me. The strongest argument for doing a remake (to me anyway) is to bring a great story to a modern audience that otherwise wouldn’t have seen it. Yes, they could always go to the Blockbuster and rent it… but there is no debate that most people don’t do that… so why not bring it to them? That being the case, it makes no sense to do a remake if most of the current movie going audience has seen the original. Films like Godfather, Star Wars ect. have been seen by most people (although the number is dwindling now finally) so you wouldn’t be bringing them anything they haven’t already seen for the most part.

3) Original has to be at least 20 years old
I think before a film should be considered for a remake, a legitimate buffer of time between when the original came out, and when you propose to do the remake. This rule is related to rule #2, but if no one saw a great movie that was just out 13 years ago… then chances are you should just leave it alone for a few more years before remaking it.

4) The story would benefit from a modern telling
You have to adapt material moving it from one era to another. The question is can that adaption be made into a modern context, or in the same context but benefit from modern filmmaking techniques and technologies? For example, could the story of Ocean’s Eleven benefit be transporting it into a modern casino context? YES. Or Lord of the Rings. Could it benefit changing mediums from animated to live action utilizing today’s technology to enhance the storytelling? Obviously YES. On the other hand, a film like “The Three Amigos” shouldn’t be remade (yet) because the story as it is and the context in which it was told wouldn’t benefit from an update at all. Undoubtedly at some point it WILL… but not right now, even though it’s more than 20 years old, is a hilarious story and SADLY most people today haven’t seen it.

I think if a film meets these 4 criteria then it’s a prime candidate to be remade… hopefully for the better. Earlier today I wrote that the Hellraiser remake seems to be back on. To me, it meets all the above “rules” and therefore a good one to do. Does that mean it will WORK? Obviously not… but it does mean it’s worth the try.

So what do you think? Would you add any more “rules” or criteria to my list?