My Top 20 Movies of All Time

NICK’S TOP 20 MOVIES OF ALL TIME PART 1

Maybe it’s being part of a generation of latchkey kids raised on Nintendo and what is still arguably the best television ever, but I’ll be damned if I don’t love movies.  I mean, I probably border, or perhaps am, a cinephile.  I like talking movies, re-watching my favorites, and incessantly quoting lines from my all time favorites.

But what are my all time favorites?  That’s hard to narrow down to just a few, or to even do a top 10 list on.  So I’m going to take a line from many a corporate seminar and give 110% and breakdown for you my top 20 movies of all time.  Here we go.

20.  HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX – A lot of people are quick to dismiss the Harry Potter films as the material of summer popcorn movies, but these really do a great job of staying true to the books, thanks in large part to the author herself JK Rowling being present during production. While there were eight films total, I chose the fifth in the series, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix as my favorite out of all of them.  Why?  It wasn’t the most significant in the series, after all Voldemort was first resurrected in the fourth film, and there was an epic conclusion to the saga in the last two.

Order of the Phoenix was the most human of the films, I felt.  It really explored the relationships between the main characters, and established Harry as somebody with close bonds to his friends.  It’s also the first time we see a main character, whom we’d grown to know and love, die.  This movie explored the human element of a fantasy world, and is really quite moving at times. This is the one where the wizarding world FINALLY acknowledges that Harry has been telling the truth the whole time that Voldemort has returned.  In the movies leading up to this, Harry has been told he’s crazy by so many people that you can’t help but feel sorry for him.  This film is his catharsis.

Towards the end, the evil wizard Voldemort possesses Harry.  Harry is left to fight him off, and is reminded by Professor Dumbledore that “It’s not how you two are alike, Harry.  It’s how you’re not!”  Harry fights off Voldemort to deliver what I feel is the most moving sequence in all eight movies.  Harry (to Voldemort) “You’re the weak one!  You’ll never know love, or friendship…..and….I feel sorry for you!”

While all the movies in the Harry Potter saga are great, this one takes the cake, and earns a spot at #20.

19. FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS – This movie is ugly.  The characters are ugly, the story, the horrors of traversing Las Vegas on a bender to end all benders, but that’s part of the charm of my number 19 pick.

For the longest time, I wanted to be a journalist, and is probably the reason I find myself today with the hobby of random internet brain droppings.  But I’ll always recall being urged by a professor to read the works of Hunter S. Thompson, the godfather of gonzo journalism, where the person reporting often becomes so involved in what they’re covering, they themselves become a central piece in the story.  I started by reading Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and was blown away.  When I found out there was a film version with Johnny Depp, I was hesitant to watch it, fearing Hollywood had ruined the work of a great, albeit eccentric author.  Luckily, I was wrong.

Fear and Loathing involves a writer and his attorney on a quest to find the American dream, and seeing if the counterculture movement of the 60s had indeed been successful. What better place than Las Vegas to find the American dream?  The promise of going from rags to riches with just one lucky roll of the dice.  Well, what they find is that the American dream is dead, and the bender they go on, and the brilliant special effects really make you feel like you were there for every gritty, dirty moment.  You watch this movie and feel like you were on all the drugs the main characters took.  But oddly enough, watching this makes the unfocused work of Hunter S. Thompson seem so much more coherent.

And lastly, it was REALLY cool that in real life Johnny Depp was friends with Thompson, giving much needed legitimacy to the role.  He’s had many roles, but I still argue this is Depp’s best persona, and worthy of my number 19 spot.

18. ALICE IN WONDERLAND – I remember the first time my mom brought home the VHS of Alice in Wonderland from our local video store.  I was a bit upset.  This sounded like a crappy girl’s movie!  But once my cootie fearing bias was cast aside, I found what’s easily one of my favorite Disney movies of all time.

The movie itself is, at best, a loose interpretation of the original work of Lewis Carroll, but it was made in the 50s, and I doubt Disney was willing to indulge the numerous opium fueled fantasies that Carroll originally penned. What we’re left with is a wonderfully drawn fantasy world with funny characters, and a protagonist that you kind of feel sorry for.  She’s so sensible and patient, yet at the same time, CLEARLY annoyed by the wackiness around here and even lets her annoyance misguide her throughout the movie.  I really like the choice of colors that the animators used.  They often went with a dark background with a colorful, bright object in the foreground, and the result really did create a world of wonder. The music is great, the voices fit the characters perfectly, and what about the Queen of Hearts?  A tyrant who can go from kind to wanting your head in under 2 seconds?  That’s funny and brilliant, and worth adding Alice in Wonderland to the list.

17. DAY OF THE JACKAL – I read this book on a flight home for the holidays, and I’ll never forget wishing that there was a bit of a headwind to slow the flight down a bit to give me ample time to finish the book. 

A failed attempt on Charles de Gaulle's life by moped-riding assassins opens Fred Zinnemann's intriguing 1973 adaptation of the Frederick Forsyth (easily one of my favorite authors) thriller. Though not without its car crashes and incidental killings, "The Day of the Jackal" is shot with the same neutrality displayed by its titular assassin, whether he's lifting passports from hapless Danish teachers or funneling hair dye into Old Spice bottles. For all its cold-blooded murder, the most violent image in the film is a bursting watermelon, a taste of the Jackal's plans for the French President's head.

The assassin is just great. Edward Fox is so cool, calm, and collected for a professional murderer, and this of course makes him such an intriguing character.  Most of the movie, I wanted to see him succeed in his mission.  You want to cheer for the bad guy!

This is a classic cat and mouse type chase, between the Jackal and the authorities tracking him, but the Jackal evades several arrests so brilliantly, and the stakes in this particular game are so high, I found myself eagerly wanting to find out what happens next, be it the book, or the excellent adaptation, and my number 17 favorite film, to the big screen.

16. THE BIG LEBOWSKI – This is as big a cult film as you can get.  It’s right up there with Rocky Horror Picture Show in terms of producing legions of loyal fans.  There is even an annual Cinco de Lebowski held here in Portland each year where people show up in bath robes, and spend the evening drinking the Dude’s favorite, White Russians.

The story is actually pretty trivial.  Jeff Bridges plays a 60s reject named simply The Dude, spending his days “takin’ it easy for the rest of us.”  He doesn’t work, drinks White Russians, goes bowling, listens to classic rock casettes, and of course, smokes healthy amounts of weed.  One day his apartment is burglarized and his prized rug is stolen, the one that really ties the room together, and he believes it was all a case of mistaken identity, for his bowling buddy Walter, played hilariously by John Goodman, tells him he was probably mistaken for the richest man in town with the same name.  The Dude goes on a quest to retrieve it, or at least be compensated, and what happens after his initial encounter with the rich Lebowski is pure bedlam.

The star of this movie is the dialogue, and the memorable lines spouted off by a colorful cast of characters that we’d expect in any Cohen Brothers movie.  Couple it with some surreal dream sequences set to a classic rock soundtrack, and it’s easy to see why such a ridiculous story has such a following.

15. FALLING DOWN – This is another movie where you find yourself wanting to cheer for the bad guy??! Or is he really a bad guy?  I guess this is the million dollar question that the movie poses to the viewer.

Michael Douglas plays William Foster, a divorced and unemployed former defense contractor.  While sitting in his car on a jammed LA freeway one summer day, he decides that he’s simply had enough.   Abandoning his car, he sets out on a mission to head home.  He wants to celebrate his daughter’s birthday.

Along the way, he’s accosted by gang members, street hustlers, and yes, even a skinhead.  The way he deals with them, while violent, feels totally justified.  When asked by the gang members if they could read the graffiti tag that they sprayed, he simply responds “Well, maybe if you wrote it in fucking English, I could fucking understand it.”  He’s later told at a fast food restaurant that he can’t have breakfast since they stop serving at 10:30, and it’s currently 10:32.  Again, he loses it, and while not hurting anybody, his reactions are certainly worthy of the police blotter.  But he’s just a guy who is cracking from all the shit the modern world throws at us, that you actually find yourself sympathizing with him a bit. 

While parts of it are a bit slow moving at times, I really can’t stand all the scenes of Robert Duvall’s nagging wife calling him and begging for him to come home, the movie itself is pretty solid, and that’s why Falling Down is one trip home I won’t soon forget.

14. STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN – Say what you will about Star Trek movies.   Apparently, there is a lot to say.  They’re full of clichés, preachy plot points, literary ripoffs, and overall schmaltz.  While all valid points with some of the Trek films, there is one gem of an exception in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

This movie has it all.  Action, a great story, a symphonic soundtrack that is almost meditative at times,  and wonderful acting, even with William Shatner billed as a lead.  From start to finish, Wrath of Khan is near perfection in the world of Sci Fi. 

In Star Trek: The Original Series, there was an episode called Space Seed.  This involved the discovery of a genetically engineered human from the 21^st century who attempted to hijack the Enterprise, only to be marooned on an isolated planet by Kirk and company.  As you can guess from the title, Khan escapes from this prison and seeks revenge on Kirk.

The result?  A space opera without the cornball feel of the Star Wars movies.  Every part of this movie feels damn near perfect.  And while parts of it haven’t aged that well, like the fact that the computers on the Enterprise now look ridiculously dated,  and Shatner was sporting a terrible early 80s man perm, I find I cast those criticisms aside because everything simply works.  Khan’s lust for vengeance.  Spock’s desire to understand the needs of the many outweighing the needs of the few, and even the awesome weapon introduced in the form of the Genesis Device. 

And of course, we have the classic scene of Shatner sounding like he was passing a kidney stone yelling Khan’s name so loud that it echoes INTO SPACE!! That’s impressive, and a reason I’ll never tire of watching The Wrath of KHHHHAAAAANNNNNN!!!!!

13.  REQUIEM FOR A DREAM – Easily one of the best anti-drug PSAs I could ever imagine, this movie can only be described in one word.  DARK.  From start to finish, this movie is dark, and can easily leave me feeling depressed afterwards.  Still, it’s so well done that I enjoy it time and again.

The film showcases the horrors of not just addiction to heroin, and how deadly and horrifying it can be, but just addiction in general.  Jared Leto plays Harry Goldfarb, a Brooklyn kid who has a bad heroin habit and does anything for a fix.  On several occasions he’s pawned his mother’s television for a $20 and a few minutes of gratification from shooting up.   However, his mother, played incredibly by Ellen Burstyn, has addictions of her own as she receives a call to appear on television, and becomes obsessed to fit into the dress she wore to her son’s graduation.  To accomplish this, she becomes addicted to fad diets, and begins ingesting a plethora of diet pills, the end result being absolutely tragic, and I find I tear up seeing what becomes of her.

There is a great supporting cast as well, including Jennifer Conolly as Harry’s girlfriend.  The things she puts herself through in this movie are downright horrifying, and I find myself questioning “Is she wrong to stoop this low, or heroic?”  the movie is that good, you find yourself asking moral questions like this.  

The other star of this film is the soundtrack, provided by the Kronos String Quartet.  Director Darren Aronofsky said in an interview that violin and string music is generally warm and associated with high society.  In this film, he strove to make it sharp, intrusive, and downright unpleasant, and he accomplished this beautifully.

Want your kids to steer clear of drugs?  Then watch Requiem for a Dream, still the best anti-drug movie I’ve ever seen.

12. FIGHT CLUB – I love just how gritty this movie is. It’s unapologetic, and drips testosterone the entire time.  The cover of the DVD case features a bar of soap sitting on a tray in what looks to be a grimy shower, and that fits the movie to a T.  This movie leaves you feeling dirty, gritty, but strangely wanting to know more about what the hell just happened.  It really made me question consumerism, modern society, sociology, and free will.

Edward Norton plays an unnamed protagonist who is a ticking time bomb of an insomniac.  He strives to find some balance in his life, only to get caught up in the consumerist culture.  His clothes, shoes, and his Ikea inspired apartment all eventually begin to own him.

Enter Tyler Durden, played by Brad Pitt in what is easily my favorite role of his.  Tyler teaches our protagonist to just let go, and give in to primal urges and not be such a consumer.   The result is the establishment of underground fight clubs in cities across the world.  These eventually evolve into a secret society known as Project Mayhem, performing every act to disrupt the societal norms from, as Tyler puts it “destroying pieces of corporate art” to kidnapping and extortion. 

There are a few parts of it that I don’t care for.  Helena Bonham Carter, while a good casting choice for a cynical, nihilistic antagonist, I feel her scenes are a bit too drawn out.  But regardless, Fight Club is a movie I won’t soon forget.

11. AMERICAN BEAUTY -  I’ve long been a fan of Kevin Spacey, and this is easily my favorite role of his.  The movie is a prime example of that which we see on the surface, often has a dark and sinister underbelly.  The movie posters and trailers featured the tagline “Look Closer” and this is true throughout the entire movie.  In fact, each time I watch, I notice some symbolism or minor detail I previously missed.

On the surface, this appears to be the story of a man having a midlife crisis.  Him and his wife are near estranged, and intimacy is a foreign concept.  He feels alienated from his daughter.  He hates his job.  The man is basically a walking corpse.  That is until, he spots his daughter’s friend and becomes smitten.  He suddenly begins working out, doing recreational drugs, and even being insubordinate at his job, which leads us to the BEST quit your job scene in cinematic history.

While some may consider him creepy, the film does such a good job of pleading his case, you actually feel a bit sorry for Spacey, and start to question yourself the ideals of a perfect homogenized suburban life.  Is it all superficial? 

There are a number of subplots as well.  His wife begins cheating on him, his daughter wants to run off with her new boyfriend, and Spacey’s homophobic neighbor leads to a tragic ending which I won’t spoil for you.

This movie is good in that it portrays a life so many of us have lived, grow up with, accepted as the norm, and casts it in a light that’s downright unpleasant.  It’s this reason alone that American Beauty is a movie that I’ll continue to look closer at.