# 194 Dial M for Murder (1954)

Dial M for Murder is an adaptation of a stage thriller by an English playwright Frederick Knott. It's a story of a perfect murder. Ex-tennis star wants to inherit his wife's fortune, so he develops a carefully constructed plan and blackmails his old acquaintance from Cambridge into committing the murder. His intentions are justified by the fact that she is cheating on him.

For some weird reason, the people who make Russian translations of movies decided to change the title a little, so over here it is known as "In Case of a Murder Dial M", which makes absolutely no sense to me. But whatever, it doesn't have to do much with the movie itself.

I think the movie is one of Hitchcock's best, but I feel like I should be careful when talking about adapted screenplays, because unless you've seen/read the original work of art it's based on, you don't know if the credit should go to the director of the film or to the writer. I mean, of course, choosing the right book or play to adapt, and turning it into a great movie (or at least not messing it up too much) requires some talent, but I admire those who can turn an average work into a brilliant movie. I'm talking about films like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (no offense, Fitzgerald's fans). So, the bottom line is that I've never seen Knott's play, and since the plot is what I loved most about Dial M for Murder, I'm not sure which one of the two creators I want to praise.

By the way, I was also surprised to find out that the movie was shot in 3D, which, as IMDb states, "explains the prevalence of low-angle shots with lamps and other objects between us and the cast members". See, I'm one of those ignorant young people who think that there was no 3D before Dinosaur Adventure for MS-DOS. I wonder if people watched it in one of those red and blue glasses.

Interesting fact: During the attack scene according to the script, Grace Kelly was to get out of bed, put her robe on, and answer the phone when it rang. Grace Kelly contended that no woman, being at home, would put a robe on to answer the phone. Alfred Hitchcock agreed, and so the scene was shot with her in her nightgown.

Favorite quote: C.A. Swan: What makes you think I'll agree?

Tony Wendice: For the same reason that a donkey with a stick behind him and a carrot in front always goes forwards and not backwards.

# 185 In Bruges (2008)

In Bruges is a dark comedy about two hitmen who have to lay low in the city of Bruges, Belgium, after one of them accidentally kills a young boy. Whereas Ken is enjoying the beautiful sights of a medieval city, Ray is devastated and haunted by guilt. Then he starts a romantic relationship with a local girl, and from then on things go as though the creators of the film drew their inspiration from a popular teen comedy EuroTrip.

Alright, maybe they didn't, but still I think the movie is absurd. First of all, since when romanticizing hitmen, and showing how vulnerable they can be is considered funny? The movie is trying to show us that they can be really nice people, with their own feelings, that they can be very sensitive, and as for their job, it's not even a flaw, it's just something they have to do for a living. And of course, when they kill people who didn't really "deserve it", they feel awful. May be I'm taking it too seriously, but as someone who studied criminology and criminal behavior, I can reassure you that professional killers never act the way it was portrayed in the movie. So what part of it was supposed to be funny?

Secondly, Collin Farrell's acting was also pretty annoying. I think that the role of a melancholic guy with this naive look and updrawn eyebrows doesn't fit him at all. And the ending was disastrous. What happened there reminded me of the Wayan's brothers' film Little Man where nobody was able to distinguish between a midget and a child (that movie's rating is 3.6).

As for the good side, Ralph Fiennes acting was alright, and some of his lines were indeed really funny. The film is pretty slow, and that helps create the atmosphere of living in a small town. Finally, the views of Bruges are very pretty. But other than that, I felt like In Bruges wasn't worth the time I wasted on it. But even if you don't agree with me, feel free to express your feelings in the comment form below.

Interesting fact: The film has a total of 4 actors who also appeared together in the Harry Potter series: Ralph Fiennes (Harry), who plays Lord Voldemort; Brendan Gleeson (Ken), who plays Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody; Clémence Poésy (Chloe), who plays Fleur Delacour; Ciarán Hinds (The Priest), who plays Aberforth Dumbledore.

Favorite quote: "An Uzi? I'm not from South Central Los Angeles. I didn't come here to shoot twenty black ten year olds in a drive-by. I want a normal gun for a normal person".

# 181 Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)

Kind Hearts and Coronets is a British black comedy about a distant relative of a duke who is rejected by his family because his mother had run away with a lower-class opera singer. However he wants to inherit the title, and once he grows up he realizes that the only way he can achieve it is by murdering all the other heirs who are ahead of him in the line of succession. The Kind Hearts and Coronets title derives from Tennyson's poem Lady Clara Vere de Vere (1842): "Kind hearts are more than coronets, And simple faith than Norman blood."

Lately I've realized that I've fallen in love with British films, especially comedies. This is one of the finest, most brilliant comedies I've seen in my life, and I never thought I'd say something like that about a movie made over sixty years ago. It also has the darkest humor, as we see a very likable and charming English gentleman having no problem with killing his whole family in order to regain what he believes is due to him. What makes this film special is that there's absolutely no slapstick humor, all the jokes are conveyed verbally, through dialogue or the main character's narration. Of course you could say the same thing about a few other films on IMDb's Top 250 list, but this was probably the only one that had me laughing out loud through most of it.

Alec Guinness played eight characters, and I didn't notice it, though one of the reasons is probably that I was paying attention to other things. Still that shows that he did a darn good job. To me the ending was sort of predictable, I don't mean it in a bad way, but I'm just saying I knew what was going to happen. But hey, this is not a thriller (at least that's not the main point), and for a comedy this movie has an incredibly twisted plot. So yes, this movie deserves to be on the list, as well as on the list of my personal favorites.

Interesting fact: An alternate ending was required for the US, where distributors balked at the film's ambiguous ending (The US Production Code at the time stipulated that crime could not be seen to pay). These extra ten seconds were not kept by Ealing but were unearthed at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, where they had been quietly filed away in a film storage facility.

Favorite quote: "It is so difficult to make a neat job of killing people with whom one is not on friendly terms".

# 180 The Killing (1956)

The Killing is a film noir, directed by Stanley Kubrick. It's a story about a race track heist, committed by a man who, after spending five years in prison, decides not to aim low anymore and steal $2,000,000. He seems to have a good plan, the people he can rely on, and everything else he needs in order to achieve the goal, however, the more people involved in the scheme, the higher the chances of things going wrong.

What I like most of all about this film is how Kubrick takes each character and shows us his involvement in the scheme, then goes back and shows us what somebody else was doing at the same period of time. The narration, with the time of every step being announced helps build the tension, and to me sounds like somebody reading out a police report. By the way, the narration was added at the studio's insistence. Stanley Kubrick hated the idea and thus makes much of the information that the narrator provides false or mistaken.

I don't agree with the people who say that they liked the movie, but hated the ending. They say that with two million bucks he could have bought a better suitcase, but who knows, may be back then they didn't have too much of an assortment of suitcases, and it wasn't easy to find a good one, especially when you're running out of time. Besides, it was fun to watch all that money flying around.

Now I won't say that The Killing is brilliant because Stanley Kubrick is not my favorite director, but he was definitely very talented, whether I like what he was doing or not. He made this movie at a very young age, and it's not as weird as some of his later works, but still shows that he was already very skillful when he was working on it.

Interesting fact: "Day of Violence" and "Bed of Fear" were both working titles for the film. Oh, and if anyone can explain the title to me, please comment.

Favorite quote: Johnny Clay: A friend of mine will be stopping by tomorrow to drop something off for me. He's a cop.

Joe: A cop? That's a funny kind of a friend.

Johnny Clay: Well, he's a funny kind of a cop.

# 175 Casino (1995)

Casino is a story of two mobsters, Sam "Ace" Rothstein (De Niro) and Nicholas "Nicky" Santoro (Pesci). It tells us about the mob involvement in the gambling industry in 1970s - 1980s. While Ace attempts a civilized lifestyle, Nicky, his childhood friend, doesn't want to give up his criminal life, getting even more violent, and ends up being banned from every casino.

It isn't original as it takes the formulas of  Goodfellas (# 14 on IMDb Top 250 list) and applies them to a very similar plot with the same actors. But you know, these formulas really work, because we see them over and over again, and they never fail to be interesting. In all of his criminal dramas Martin Scorsese shows us the details of different levels of organized crime. In this film the photography speaks for itself: most of it was shot in a shiny casino or an expensive hotel, so, of course, the main characters are the top-level criminals who run the whole city.

Despite of all the similarities, the movie still stands on its own. It was a little hard to follow, but I guess I can say this about most of Scorsese's movies. I've never been a fan of Robert De Niro, but in Casino he did an great job. Talking about his acting, I was really impressed by the scene where Ace is arguing with the senator after his license hearing was adjourned.

I really like how the director portrayed the character development, as well as the change in the relationship between Ace and Nicky. They've always been good friends, but now one of them is willing to change, and the other one is pulling him back. We see the tension between them grown, and, later on, it bursts into a conflict. Another tragic flaw was Ace falling in love with a "hustler" (Stone). At first I though this relationship would turn into some sort of "Scarface" drama, and he would lose interest in her as soon as they got married. But contrary to what I had expected, Ace turned out to be a very patient husband. His character is indeed very likable in this film.

Interesting fact: When released, Casino had the most uses of the word "fuck" (422) in a feature length film (2.4 times per minute on average).

Favorite quote: [a plane just landed on the golf course] The Feds were watching Nicky play golf for so long that they ran out of gas. Just what I needed, right in front of the control board.

# 174 Les diaboliques (1955)

Les diaboliques is a French suspense film directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot (the same person that directed the film I reviewed in my previous post). The plot revolves around a boarding school headmaster, his wife, and his mistress. Both of the women are treated very badly by him, and when they realize that they can't take it anymore, they plot to kill him. They have planned what they believe to be a perfect murder, but everything goes the way they had planned.

The first two thirds of the movie feel like they have been heavily influenced by Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment. The body disappears, which leaves the women confused, and causes them to think that someone else knows about their secret. The wife of the killed man keeps thinking that they are going to get caught, and wants to turn herself in to the police. And even though the director managed to make this part very intense, the idea itself is not new.

Towards the end of the film, the direction, in which the plot unfolds, changes dramatically. The suspense deepens. Some unexplainable things start to happen, and for a second I started to think that may be it was going to turn into some sort of a mystic horror movie, I really didn't know what to expect. I don't want to give it all away, but I just want to say that the ending exceeded all of my expectations. And I'm not only talking about the substantial part, but also the camera work, the lighting, the pacing, everything.

This movie contrasts Clouzot's previous film (The Wages of Fear) so much, that it's hard to believe both movies were directed by the same person. He was able to create so much suspense, without even using any background music, and, I hope that Hitchcock's fans will forgive me for this, but I found this movie even more thrilling than Psycho. Highly Recommended.

Interesting fact: The film is based on Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac's novel "Celle qui n'était plus" (She Who Was No More). Alfred Hitchcock also attempted to buy the rights to this novel; Boileau and Narcejac subsequently wrote "D'Entre les Morts" (From Among the Dead) especially for Hitchcock, who filmed it as Vertigo (1958).

Favorite quote: "I may be reactionary, but this is absolutely astounding - the legal wife consoling the mistress! No, no, and no!"

# 171 Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is Guy Ritchie's feature film debut. It's about a guy who loses £500,000 to a powerful crime lord in a card game. He overhears his neighbors, who plan a heist on marijuana growers, and, in order to pay off his debt, he and his friends decide to rob them after they come back from their heist. "Lock, stock, and a barrel" is an English expression, which means basically the same as "the whole nine yards", which is a title of another well known movie.

If you watch the movie after seeing Snatch, like I did, you probably won't find anything new here. These two movies share the same ideas, themes, motifs, visual style, and some of the same actors. I've heard that some critics accused Ritchie for delivering two very similar movies, but of course, if there is anything to criticize for that reason, it's Snatch, since Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels came out first.

I had difficulty understanding what was going on at first, because of all the characters we see on the screen, and it's hard to understand in which way they are connected before their plot lines intertwine. The movie is very well balanced between being humorous and serious at the same time. I got to laugh a lot because the characters were acting like complete idiots. There was also a good psychological scene in this film, I'm talking about the three card brag game scene.

Sting's appearance as the father of the main character was a nice surprise. Sting's wife Trudie Styler was an executive producer on the film, and the two later introduced director Ritchie to Madonna, whom he later married. So I think the film is good. It didn't blow my mind like Snatch did, but if I watched this one first, it probably would have had the same effect on me. And it's definitely a great movie for a director's debut.

Interesting fact: The movie is dedicated to Lenny McLean. He was a famous bare knuckle boxer before he became an actor. He was ill during filming with what he believed was the flu. After filming had ended he was hospitalized and initially told that he had pleurisy. However, tests revealed that he had lung cancer which had metastasized to his brain. McLean died of cancer exactly one month before the movie's debut in England.

Favorite quote: "Hatchet" Harry: You must be Eddie, J.D.'s son.

Eddie: Yeah. You must be Harry. Sorry, didn't know your father.

"Hatchet" Harry: Never mind son, you just might meet him if you carry on like that.

# 165 Dog Day Afternoon (1975)

Dog Day Afternoon tells us a story of the bank robbery that happened in New York in 1972. The title refers to the "dog days" which are the hottest, most sultry days of summer. After the robbers realize that they are surrounded by the police, and there will be no simple escape for them, they take bank employees hostage. Later on, we discover that one of the criminals, played by Al Pacino, is gay, and his main goal was to steal his share of the money to pay for his "wife's" sex reassignment surgery.

I knew that Al Pacino's plays a homosexual in this movie before I started watching it, and I was wondering how he was going to pull this off. You know how he always plays though guys, with this yelling voice that has become his signature. But I'm glad that he gave it a try because no matter how good he was in his other movies, I couldn't help thinking that he always plays the same character over and over again, and Dog Day Afternoon proved me wrong. Of course the stylists did their thing, but Pacino's acting was very persuasive as well.

John Cazale deserves a couple of words in this review also. In my personal opinion, in this movie he did a lot better than in The Godfather or The Deer Hunter. The role of a quiet psycho who points his gun at the hostages every time he loses his nerve fits him perfectly. I never actually figured out what was wrong with his character, but I'm pretty sure he had some kind of mental disorder. And the part where he gets upset because on TV the robbers were described as "two homosexuals" is probably one of the funniest parts of the movie.

Talking about funny, IMDb defines the film as a criminal drama, and I'm surprised that it doesn't mention "comedy" as one of its genres because some of the scenes, especially at the beginning of the movie, are indeed very humorous. The fact that one of the robbers used to work in a bank and knows all of the tricks doesn't stop him from making every possible mistake and turning the robbery into a nightmare. But I going to stop here, so I don't ruin it for those of you who haven't seen it yet. All I'm going to say is that I've never seen a bank heist like this before!

Interesting fact: In the 1972 "Life" magazine article that inspired the film, P.F. Kluge and Thomas Moore describe robber John Wojtowicz as "a dark, thin fellow with the broken-faced good looks of an Al Pacino or a Dustin Hoffman". Al Pacino, of course, played the role based on Wojtowicz, and when he nearly quit the film early on, the role was offered to Dustin Hoffman. Pacino changed his mind when he heard that his rival was in the fray.

Favorite quote: Sonny: So what country do you want to go to?

Sal: Wyoming.

Sonny: Sal, Wyoming's not a country.

# 161 Scarface (1983)

Scarface is an update of a 1932 film about a Cuban gangster Tony Montana who immigrates to the United States, builds his criminal empire in Miami, but as his power and wealth grow, so does his paranoia. It shows the downside of the American dream in a very raw way.

As I've mentioned in one of my earlier reviews, I like movies that I can learn from. Before watching this movie I didn't know anything about the Mariel boatlift. I found it so interesting that later on I looked it up in Wikipedia. In reality, only 2% of the refugees were classified as serious or violent criminals under U.S. law and denied citizenship on that basis. But anyway, I thank the creators of this film by giving me a history lesson.

It was also interesting to find out that the movie has received mixed reaction. It's hard for me to judge because this whole watching IMDb Top 250 thing has changed me so much that I've become a crime-drama lover. But I agree that this movie is a little bit over the top. I don't know if I would call it a flaw, but I can understand why some people didn't like it for that reason. The only thing I didn't like that much is the ending. Did you see how many times Tony Montana got shot? Still he kept walking around like a Terminator. And I think if he had stayed alive after everything that had happened, it would have made the movie a lot more tragic.

Talking about the acting, I think F. Murray Abraham did a really good job as Omar Suárez. Al Pacino... well you either hate him or love him, but I couldn't think of a better actor for the role. Most of all I liked how the movie showed the change of Montana's attitude towards his woman and his best friend. After all, if money hasn't changed you, you haven't made enough.

Interesting fact: The word "yeyo" is used by Tony Montana (Al Pacino) as a slang word for cocaine. This word was not in the script, and was ad-libbed by Pacino during the first drug deal scene (chainsaw scene), and Brian De Palma liked it enough to keep using it throughout the film. Pacino learned the word while learning the Cuban accent.

Favorite quote: "Every day above ground is a good day".

# 153 Trainspotting (1996)

Trainspotting follows a group of heroin addicts from Scotland that go through the same things a drug addict would normally go through in his life: trying to quit, adjusting to sober lifestyle, going back on drugs, and doing everything possible trying to find money for drugs. At first I didn't like the movie because it was so gross. I mean, of course there is nothing pretty about drug abuse, but some scenes in this film were unnecessarily disgusting (like the one where Spud defecated all over his girl's bed).

I started realizing that the movie is in fact not that bad when they all decided to go back to using heroin. From that point I liked everything about the movie. It's not all depressing, unlike most drug-related movies, parts of it are very optimisitc, especially the ending that shows us that there's hope for everybody, but if you don't start a new life, you might end up like Tommy who died of toxoplasmosis after being tested HIV positive.

Towards the end Trainspotting turns into a crime story. Actually I think the whole movie is not as much about the harm of drugs, as it is about bad influence. No matter how much you're trying to change you life, if you're still surronded by the same people, you'll go back to doing whatever everybody else is doing. The main character even goes to London and starts a job as a real estate agent, but his mates come and stay at his place, steal from him and wreck his apartment. After that he goes back to the life of crime. All he needed to do was tell his friends to leave him alone! But he didn't do it. Why? Those people were his "mates".

The cast was amazing. I seriously think that it was Ewan McGregor's best role, I never really liked him, but this time he did an awesome job. The support cast is excellent too. We have a funny guy, a violent guy, a smart guy, and a tragic guy here. Pretty stereotypical, but it all looks very natural on the screen. Trainspotting is not for everyone, and I'm even surprised that I enjoyed it so much, but, unless you have a weak stomach, it's worth checking out.

Favorite quote: "I chose not to choose life. I chose something else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you've got heroin?"

Interesting fact: Various options were considered to make the film more intelligible for American audiences. Subtitles were ruled out as they would spoil the effect of using them in the disco scene. Instead, the actors re-recorded the first 20 minutes of dialog, softening their accents to atune American ears to the Scottish dialect.

# 150 Witness for the Prosecution (1957)

Witness for the Prosecution is a courtroom drama with a trial of a man accused of a murder based on a book by Agatha Christie that I've never read. The subject matter is very interesting to me because, besides being a movie critic, I'm also a lawyer.

I can't say that the movie is flawless, as most of the actors were overacting quite a bit. Which is, by the way, very common for an old film. But one actor that really stands out in this movie is Charles Laughton who playes a master barrister. The way he talked, his gestures and facial expression reminded me of one of my college professors (an aging attorney) so much that it made me like I was in classroom again. Laughton looked very realistic, as well as the whole hearing.

Dietrich was pretty good too, I haven't seen any of her movies before, and she made a very good impression. I'm starting to think that Billy Wilder is a genius. He's made so many good movies, including Double Indemnity and Some Like It Hot, and having seen Witness for the Prosecution, I'm really looking forward to seeing more of his films.

I adore movies with a twist at the end, and I guess I have to thank Agatha Christie for this one. There are surprises throughout the whole movie though, and I'm not sure that all of them came from Agatha Christie's plot, so even if you read the original short story, it's still worth seeing.

Favorite quote: "I am constantly surprised that women's hats do not provoke more murders".

Interesting fact: Unsure if he could play a man with a heart condition, Charles Laughton (Sir Wilfrid) staged a heart attack in the pool one day at home. His wife, Elsa Lanchester (Miss Plimsoll), and a houseguest panicked and pulled him from the water, at which point he explained his trick. Elsa's reaction has not been recorded.

# 148 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

Here I go criticizing another classic. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is based on a true story about two bank robbers who are being hunted down for one of their train robberies. They escape to Bolivia, but it doesn't stop the posse that is following them, and they end up getting killed.

The main problem of this film is that it's very boring. I couldn't help thinking how overrated it was every single minute while I was watching it. I don't like westerns that much, but this one was one of the least entertaining of all the westerns I've seen in my life, I just couldn't wait for it to end. I don't even want to mention all the countless clichés that are in this movie.

Still I have to admit that the style itself was pretty good. I liked the way the editing was done, specifically when the main characters were on their way to Bolivia, and also at the end of the movie, before they got shot. I thought that the photo sequence was great. Still it wasn't enough to make me enjoy this film.

Some of the dialogues were really good, but most of them were lost in translation, so I had to re-read them on IMDb to catch up. May be if I had watched the movie in English, I would have liked it more, but the problem is, I never want to see it again.

Favorite quote: "If he'd just pay me what he's spending to make me stop robbing him, I'd stop robbing him".

Interesting fact: Katharine Ross enjoyed shooting the silent, bicycle riding sequence best, because it was handled by the film crew's second unit rather than the director. She said, "Any day away from George Roy Hill was a good one."

# 142 Yojimbo (1961)

Yojimbo is a story about a samurai without a master who comes two a village devided by two feuding gangs, and, of course, he wants to free the town. But he's not trying to simply cut the bad guys' heads off, he is two smart for that. Instead, he decides to play them against each other.

Actually I was stuck with this one for a while, as I watched it a week ago, but couldn't force myself to write  review until now. There's been to many samurai movies lately, and there's more to come. As good as they are, it's hard for me to watch old japanese movies, it makes me feel like I'm watching the same movie over and over again. Kurosawa is a great director, but I don't like the camera work that much,  especially when they're shooting outside, it's sometimes hard to tell what's going on.

What makes this movie more special to me then other Kurosawa's movies, is the fact that this is the movie Rachel and Frank watched in The Bodyguard (1992) when they went on their first date. LOL, I know, I know, some people hate it, but when I was growing up it was my most favorite movie of all times, so I thought that since it's not on the list, I'll write a little bit about it in this post.

Anyway, back to Yojimbo. The plot was good. I loved how the main character fooled one of the villains when he reunited an abducted woman with her family. Some dialogues were very witty, which I really enjoyed. I cant say that I liked all of the actors' performance. Some of them, for example the gunfighter, didn't look realistic to me, but Oriental acting is a bit different from Hollywood acting, and I'm starting to get used to it, so it wasn't a big problem.

Favorite quote: "Kill one or a hundred. You only hang once".

Interesting fact: Later remade as Per un pugno di dollari (1964) (American title A Fist Full of Dollars with Clint Eastwood and remade as Last Man Standing (1996/I) with Bruce Willis.

# 141 The Big Sleep (1946)

The Big Sleep is a movie about a private detective hired by a rich man to get the blackmailer off his daughter's back. It is based on a novel, and the title is probably explained in the book, however, I've never read it, so I have no idea why the movie is called "The Big Sleep".

I think the main problem of this film is that they tried to put too much plot into it. I've seen it happen with so many films that are based of book (The Da Vinci Code being the brightest example). Seriously, the plot is very hard ot follow. When I first started watching this movie I had to stop it and start all over because I could not understand a thing. Some of the main characters never appear in the movie, and are being talked about so much that it gets confusing.

There is a lot of sexual innuendo in the movie. Note that is was filmed in the age of Hays office censorship, so many things from the novel were presented discreetly, and I didn't understand what they were about until I read about it in Wikipedia.

What I loved the most was, of course, Humphrey Bogart's acting. I'm amazed how such a short skinny man with a lisp managed to become a sex symbol. The greatest witty lines in the movie come out of his character's mouth too. Here is one of them.

Favorite quote: "She tried to sit in my lap while I was standing up".

Interesting fact: Due to Humphrey Bogart's affair with co-star Lauren Bacall, his marital problems escalated during filming, and his drinking often resulted in his being unable to work. Three months after the film was finished, Bacall and Bogart were married.

# 138 The Big Lebowski (1998)

The Big Lebowski follows "The Dude" played by Jeff Bridges who is mistaken for a rich-namesake. Two thugs ruin his rug, and he seeks revenge with the help of his bowling teammates. Of course, the plot is a lot more complicated than what I've described. Twisted plotlines is something the Coen brothers have always been good at.

Needless to say, the movie is very quirky. It is the sixth movie by the Coen brothers that I've seen so far, and this one definitely has the quality. The best part of the movie was probably the cast. Most of all I enjoyed the acting of Jeff Bridges, Steve Buscemi, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Peter Stormare. It kind of made me wonder if Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare are friends since they have starred in so many movies together.

I think that the film would have been better without all of the weird dreams the Dude had every time he was knocked out. And even though the movie was fun to watch, I wouldn't call it a masterpiece. To me it was more like an average comedy that depicted American people. The dialogues were funny, and the most hilarious moment was at the end of the film, when one of "The Dude's" friends scatters their other friend's ashes at the ocean, and they blow all over Lebowski. But I think that the Coen brothers focused too much on being funny. Still, the movie was mostly positively received by the critics, and made it on the list, so I guess may be there was something brilliant about it, something I did not notice.

Favorite quote: "That rug really tied the room together".

Interesting fact: The Dude is in every scene of the movie, with the exception of the scene where the Nihilists are ordering pancakes. This is in keeping with the traditional film-noir, in which the protagonist is the narrator and acts as the audience's guide throughout the film. 

# 135 Snatch. (2000)

The first time I tried watching Snatch., I thought it was boring. I don't know if my movie perception has changed so much because I've seen so many good movies or for any other reason, but this time the film was like a breath of fresh air. I have not seen Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels yet, so I can't compare these two movies, but I really enjoyed every single minute of watching Snatch.

The first thing that I noticed about it is that the film is very well paced. I wanted to say "perfectly paced", but at the beginning thing happen too fast, which confused me a little, and I had to keep asking my husband (who has seen it before) who this or that character was. Still I wouldn't call it a flaw because it only makes you wanna watch the movie once again.

The actors put in an excellent performance. Benicio Del Toro is about to become my new favorite actor. I always thought that Brad Pitt was a little too glamorous, but in this film he does a very good job, just like he did six years later in Babel, and three more years later in Ingrourious Basterds. I've never seen the actors that played Sol and Vinny before, but those guys made me laugh big time. And this was a rare occasion when Jason Statham's acting didn't irritate me.

I can't even think of which part of this film I liked best, each word of the script is a masterpiece, with the right touches of dark humour. I loved how the plotlines intertwined, and the editing was good too. Guy Ritchie has earned my respect through films like Sherlock Holmes and Snatch. I'm looking forward to seeing more of his movies.

Favorite quote: "You should never underestimate the predictability of stupidity".
Interesting fact: Brad Pitt, who was a big fan of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998), approached director Guy Ritchie and asked for a role in this film. When Ritchie found Pitt couldn't master a London accent, he gave him the role of Mickey the Gypsy. 

# 134 Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)

I think that Tarantino has made some quality movies, including Inglourious Basterds and Pulp Fiction, but Kill Bill: Vol. 1 did not live up to my expectations. It is a very basic revenge story. It's unrealistic and too extreme. However my major problem with this film is not the lack of realism.

The movie is all about style and has no plot. I loved the dialogues in Pulp Fiction, and I loved almost everything about Inglourious Basterds. In Kill Bill the music was good (it was borrowed from Tarantino's soundtrack collection), but that's about it.

This film is badly written and directed. It lacks pace. It contains Tarantino's weird trademarks, but they make absolutely no sense. Like what's the point of bleeping out the bride's name? At the same time when I was watching Kill Bill, all the countless clichés made me think of hundreds of other movies it reminded me of. And I've never been a fan of martial arts films, but I'd rather watch those because this one looks like a parody. Yeah, this film is ingenious, but I don't get what so many people see in it.

Favorite quote: "It was not my intention to do this in front of you. For that I'm sorry. But you can take my word for it, your mother had it comin'. When you grow up, if you still feel raw about it, I'll be waiting".

Intersting fact: Uma Thurman's yellow track-suit is a direct homage to the one worn by Bruce Lee in Game of Death (1978).