# 168 The Gold Rush (1925)

The Gold Rush is Charlie Chaplin's forth film on the list. It tells us about "The Tramp" who takes part in the Alaska Gold Rush. We follow him through different adventures as he's trying to find gold and win the heart of a saloon girl.

I got to see a re-release of this movie, which I believe was made in 1942, with a new musical score. Much of the new music was written by Charles Chaplin himself, in collaboration with musical director Max Terr. Chaplin also added sound effects to the film, and replaced the silent movie title cards with descriptive voice-over narration.

If you get past the fact that I watched the re-release, this is the oldest movie I've seen to this day. Nevertheless, the plot is pretty interesting (for such an old movie). Chaplin himself mentioned many times that this is the movie he wanted to be remembered for. There's not much I can say about it, I mean everybody knows it's a classic, but motion pictures have advanced so much that it's sort of hard for me to take this film seriously.

There were two really memorable scenes though. The first one is, of course, the dance with bread rolls, so if you haven't seen the movie, at least check out the dance on youtube, it's absolutely worth it. My second favorite scene is when Charlie Chaplin was dancing with his girl, and he didn't know he had a dog tied to his belt. He was a genius, a good actor, and an outstanding comedian.

Interesting fact: The "dancing rolls" sequence was so popular with audiences that, in some cases (such as the film's Berlin premiere), projectionists stopped the film and replayed the scene.

# 167 V for Vendetta (2006)

The plot of V for Vendetta is set in the near future, in Britain, ruled my a totalitarian government. A masked freedom fighter, known as "V" is planning a rebellion. He also avenges the ones who disfigured him and does all sorts of fun things in the process. A young woman, whom he saves from being raped, complicates his plans even more. As a result we have an incredible mix of a dystopia, a thriller, an action movie and a love story.

As a college student I loved the genre of dystopia, and I think I've read too many of these novels. Don't get me wrong, I think this movie offers a very good graphic representation of the idea, and is way better than Equilibrium (2002) which has a lot in common with it, except for it's too primitive. But at the same time I feel that everything that could have been said about it, was said back in 1920s - 1940s by Zamyatin, Huxley and Orwell, when the subject was the most relevant. So if the movie was all about the idea, it would have ruined it for me.

Fortunately, there is also a very complex plot in V for Vendetta, and this is that made this film so enjoyable for me. The most interesting part was the story of V's origin, his incarceration in the detention center, and his vengeance. What I liked the least were the action scenes, with all the slow motion and flying daggers. Talking about the love line, I don't think it was so important, but I didn't seem out of place either. After all, I believe that most women who became part of revolutionary movements, did it because they fell in love with revolutionary activists.

It was good to see Stephen Rea in this movie, he is a very talented actor, who became internationally known after playing the lead role in The Crying Game (the movie I highly recommend to everyone). Another thing I would like to mention is the dialogues. They are very witty and poetic, a little bit too intense at the beginning, but you get used to it after a while. The pacing is good, especially for an adapted screenplay. It' amazing how the Wachowski brothers managed to fit so much plot into one movie.

Interesting fact: The cast and crew were only allowed to shoot near the British Parliament and the Clock Tower from midnight to 4:30 am, and they could only stop traffic for four minutes at a time.

Favorite quote: "I killed you ten minutes ago. While you slept".

# 166 Gandhi (1982)

Gandhi is a biopic based on the life of Mohandas Gandhi. I'll have to be careful here and refrain from expressing my opinion about this historical character. The last thing I wanna do is start a political debate, so I'll focus on the movie as a piece of art. The film covers a significant period of his life from 1893 (when he was 24) to his death in 1948, with an opening statement that "there is no way to give each year its allotted weight".

We see Gandhi's evolution from a young lawyer in a classy business suit to one of the most popular ideological leaders, who wore self-woven clothes and looked like the poorest person in India. This evolution took roughly three hours of running time, and I wish the movie was a little more fast-paced, but I guess it had to meet the demands of the genre, and I can understand that it's hard to depict 55 years of somebody's life, especially when it's full of events that influenced the whole nation.

Ben Kingsley looks so much like Gandhi, and I think he was worthy of receiving the Award as the Best Actor in a Leading Role. However, even more outstanding (and not awarded by the Academy) was the make-up. They had the same actors playing throughout the whole film, so they didn't have one actor playing "young Gandhi", another actor playing "Gandhi", and another one for "old Gandhi". The make-up made the actors look the age of their characters, which raises the question why The Curious Case of Benjamin Button received the Best Achievement Makeup award, and Gandhi didn't.

My favorite part of the movie is when Gandhi is talking to a man who killed a child because the Muslims killed his son. The road to salvation that he suggested really impressed me, I know it's pretty simple, but still, I choose it as my favorite quote for this movie. Overall, I can't say that I really enjoyed watching this film, or that it's the best biopic I've ever seen, nonetheless, it's a good one, and helped me learn stuff I had missed in history class.

Interesting fact: Ben Kingsley (born Krishna Bhanji) looked so much like Mahatma Gandhi, many natives thought him to be Gandhi's ghost. The actor's paternal family was from the Indian state of Gujarat, the same state Mahatma Gandhi was from.

Favorite quote: "I know a way out of Hell. Find a child, a child whose mother and father have been killed and raise him as your own. Only be sure that he is a Muslim and that you raise him as one".

# 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.

# 164 Ratatouille (2007)

Ratatouille is a movie about Remy, a rat who has an exceptionally good sense of smell and taste. After seeing a culinary TV show, he realizes that with his abilities he can become a very good cook. The problem is that he is a rat, and people usually associate rodents with disease and dirtiness. Remy meets a garbage boy, and tries to fulfill his dreams of becoming a chef with his help.

This time I'm going to start with the thing I did not like about the film. The only flaw of Ratatouille, in my opinion, is that it's naive. And I'm not speaking about talking animals here, which is common for most animated films. I'm talking about the scenes like the one where the head chef finds out that the reason the garbage boy can cook so well is because a rat manipulates him like a marionette and believes it so easily. Well perhaps a more precise word for this would be simple-hearted. But at the same time those moments made me laugh as if I was an eight-year-old, so I guess it's not a big flaw.

The tech side in Ratatouille, as well as in all of Pixar movies, is perfect. I've heard that it's very hard for animators to create textures like fur or skin to look natural, and not like plastic. The creators of this film went even further, they managed to make animated food look delicious. Seriously, this cartoon made me find a recipe of ratatouille, and, with the help of my little chef (which is my dog), spend the whole Saturday night cooking it. By the way, it turned out good.

Talking about the main idea of the movie, I think a lot of people like it because it's about what it means to be an artist and stuff like that. I understand it, but I can't say I really relate to it. What I really like about this film though, is the idea of of breaking stereotypes and going against what everybody is expecting you to do. Besides, the ending is probably not what most people expected it to be, and it teaches us that things don't always go the way you planned them, but whatever happens, happens for the best.

Interesting fact: Remy has 1.15 million hairs rendered, whereas Colette has 115,000 hairs rendered. An average person has about 110,000 hairs.

Favorite quote: "Food is fuel. You get picky about what you put in the tank, your engine is gonna die. Now shut up and eat your garbage".

# 163 The Thing (1982)

The Thing is a movie about American scientists working in Antarctica. They come across a parasitic alien organism capable of imitating its victims whether it's dogs or human beings. It's a story of paranoia and not being able to trust your teammates because you don't know which one of them may be infected. But in the end, none of it matters because they have nowhere to go to escape from this thing.

This is the first time I'm reviewing a horror movie (The Sixth Sense doesn't count as IMDb doesn't label it as "horror"), and I can say that it really impressed me because along with Alien and Aliens, the special effects don't look tacky, even though all of these sci-fi movies were made in the eighties. I watched the director's commentary where John Carpenter said that their goal was to shoot a black-and-white movie in color. They did an excellent job, and it really helped create the atmosphere and make all rubber alien things look natural. The scene where one of the characters had his arms bitten off is probably one of the scariest movie moments I've seen in my life. It's also amazing what they did with the reverse motion photography and how many special effects they created using this technology.

The pacing in this movie is good, you have enough time to understand what's happening, but at the same time there is something going on in every scene, you receive little pieces of information every minute, and you also get to see how different characters react to this situation. Psychology is very important in this movie because it really makes you feel like you can't trust anybody, and slowly you start to realize that there is no way out. This feeling intensifies and reaches its peak towards the end. The whole part with the blood test was awesome, it explains a lot about the nature of the thing, and it's also very thrilling, probably the best part of the film.

I liked the acting in this film. Only when I started writing this review I realized that Childs was played by young Keith David. In my opinion the best actor in this movie was the dog. This half wolf/half husky was an excellent animal actor, never looking at the camera, as if he understand what he's supposed to do, this dog performed perfectly. The Thing is a classic and definitely deserves a spot on the list.

Interesting fact: The Norwegian camp scenes were actually the charred remains of the American site from the end of the film. Rather than go to the expense of building and burning down another camp, John Carpenter re-used the destroyed American camp.

Favorite quote: "Maybe we're at war with Norway?"

# 162 Amores perros (2000)

Besides being really busy at work, I also haven't written in a very long time because I took my time to think about the movie that I'm about to review. Amores perros tells three stories connected by a fatal car accident. It represents the devision between classes in any society, and in a very strange way all three stories have something to do with people's love for dogs. This movie impressed the hell out of me.

As soon as I finished watching it, I thought it was pretty good, but I kept thinking about it more and more, and the more I think about it, the more I like it. It's not really helping me write this review because I feel so emotional about it that it's hard for me to put all my thoughts together into some sort of relevant order. I don't normally enjoy overtly graphic movies, and this one contains quite a few disturbing dog fighting scenes, but in Amores Perros they seemed just right. I've read some reviews that say that the movie is about the cruelty of humans towards animals and towards each other. I can't agree with it because the way I see it, the movie is about love.

We see people's romantic love, weather it's the beginning, or the end of a relationship, and we see people's love for dogs. Octavio loved his dog, even though he made him participate in dog fights, but we all saw that it wasn't "just business" to him. Valeria loved her dog too, although it did seem weird to me that she didn't try to get him up from under the floorboards. And I guess El Chivo's love was the most pure because he was able to forgive Negro, Octavio's fightdog that killed the rest of his dogs. So to me the bottom line is that love is imperfect, it's cruel, and it brings a lot of pain to the ones we love.

Of course, there's a lot more to this movie. Gael García Bernal's performance was amazing. I think Alejandro González Iñárritu had directed only four feature length films, three of them are his so-called "trilogy of death", and the fourth (Biutiful) came out this year. I watched Babel is 2006, and thought it was fantastic, 21 Grams is good too, but Amores perros is a masterpiece.

Interesting fact: Unlike most films, a disclaimer stating that no animals were harmed in the making of the movie comes at the beginning instead of being buried in the credits.

Favorite quote: "If you want to make God laugh... tell Him your plans".

# 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".

# 160 Groundhog Day (1993)

Groundhog Day is a story of a pretty arrogant weatherman who goes to a small town to cover a story about a weather forecasting groundhog, and has to relive the same day over and over again. He goes through highs and lows, realizing that no matter what he does, even if it's a crime or suicide, the next morning he will wake up in the same bed in a hotel room. So basically he can do whatever he want, but the only change that will ever be possible must happen within himself.

First of all I would like to say a couple of words about the actors. Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell were great as lead actors here, but the most charismatic was Chris Elliott who played Larry. Andie MacDowell is a beautiful woman, and it first it was hard for me to believe that Murray could fit into the role of a womanizer, but he played very convincingly. And Larry was funny as hell.

I liked how this movie showed relationships between men and women. I like how it shows us that even the most unapproachable women are attracted to popular men. As I've mentioned many times before, I'm not a fan of romantic comedies, but there was absolutely nothing in this film that I found annoying. Early drafts of the script explained that Phil's disaffected ex-lover called Stephanie cast a spell on him to teach him a lesson. I'm glad it was cut from the film because it could have turned the movie into a disaster.

The film has quite a few good jokes, the type of jokes that never go out of style, but it's not a pure comedy. Every time the main character wakes up in the morning, you hear the same music, see all the same things, and realize that there's no way out of this. It's so depressing. Groundhog Day is the most interesting mixture of funny and sad I've seen in my life.

Interesting fact: The idea comes from 'The Gay Science', a famous book by Friedrich Nietzsche. In his book, Nietzsche gives a description of a man who is living the same day over and over again. After its release, several writers emerged, claiming that the story was stolen from their idea.

Favorite quote: "I was in the Virgin Islands once. I met a girl. We ate lobster, drank piña coladas. At sunset, we made love like sea otters. *That* was a pretty good day. Why couldn't I get *that* day over, and over, and over?"

# 159 Toy Story (1995)

Toy Story, as well as its sequels, is an animated movie about toys that come alive when people are nowhere around. Technically it's the first fully computer-generated feature film. I saw it after I saw Toy Story 3 in a movie theater, which I did earlier this year, and I still haven't seen Toy Story 2, so my perception of the movie may be a little distorted because of this.

Of course the graphics here are not as good as in Toy Story 3, and it would be surprising if they were. I'm not saying it as a bad thing, but it did make it a little hard for me to appreciate this film as much as most people did back in 1995. I'll try to stay away from comparing these two movies in my review because they came out in unequal conditions, so it makes just as much sense as comparing Billy Wilder with Christopher Nolan works.

The idea of toys coming alive when nobody is around probably has crossed every child's mind at least once. It crossed my mind many times. I wouldn't call it a children's movie because it's just too creepy. And that little boy that tortures toys just for fun, Sid, has turned this film into a thriller. May be I'm just a very impressionable type of person. Rated G? I don't think so... I can still see that spider-baby thing every time I close my eyes.

I believe this movie should be aimed at teens and preteens because it talks about things like envy and jealousy, it shows how cruel life can be, and the plot is pretty complicated too. I would never show a cartoon like this to little kids though. It's a very high quality work that basically started Pixar Animation Studios a production company that still raises the bar every time they release something new.

Interesting fact: Woody and Buzz Lightyear are inspired by director John Lasseter's own childhood toys. He based Woody on his own pull-string Casper doll, and once he grew out of Casper he moved on to a G.I Joe, a flashy toy at the time of his childhood. Sid Phillips is said to be inspired by a former Pixar employee of the same last name who was known to disassemble toys and use the parts to build bizarre creations.

Favorite quote: "What if Andy gets another dinosaur? A mean one? I just don't think I can take that kind of rejection!"

# 158 Gone with the Wind (1939)

Gone with the Wind is a movie about the life of a plantation owner's daughter, who is considered very beautiful, but also selfish and manipulative. She spends most of her life thinking that she's in love with one man, but it the end it turns out that all of her feelings were an illusion. Most of it is set in the days of the Civil War, and it also shows how the war changed people's lives.

I enjoyed the movie a lot, but just about as much as I liked the movie, I hated the main character, Scarlett O'Hara. I mean she is a very annoying person, and I don't think she's nearly as attractive as Melanie Hamilton. I guess spoiled people, especially women, really get on my nerves. She did grow as a person towards the end of the movie, but why did she have to go through all these things to realize something so simple? Does it really take that long? So basically I believe that she got what she deserved.

All the other characters, on the other hand, are a lot more likable, and I wish they life stories weren't so sad. Ashley and Melanie are very sweet, the latter doesn't even have any flaws, so I'm not sure if people like Melanie really exist. Clark Gable is a little too funny-looking for the role, but he after a while I got used to that.

The second part of the movie has more conversation and less action, which made me like it more, whereas my husband liked it less than the first part. The cinematography is good for the time, and so is the acting. I don't mean to sound like I'm trying to put it down because of all the flaws I've mentioned, but what I enjoyed the most about it is the story itself. I never finished reading the book, so may be that's what I should do.

Interesting fact: David O. Selznick begged Margaret Mitchell, author of the novel, to critique every aspect of the production. An intensely private person, Mrs. Mitchell gave one criticism of the facade of the design for Tara, which was ignored. Afterward, she refused to comment on any aspect of the film during production.

Favorite quote: "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn".

# 157 The Terminator (1984)

The Terminator is a low-budget scientce fiction movie from the eighties about a human-looking and unstoppable cyborg assassin that came from the future in order to kill a woman, whose yet-unborn son will lead a resistance movement against cyborgs.

It's very hard to understand what's going on, and what the movie is about when you first start watching it. Who is Kyle Reese? Is he just a good-looking lunatic? And, like in any good movie with a twisted plot, we have a character who is completely unaware of the situation, and through that character we are introduced to the world of The Terminator. So basically we have Kyle Reese explaining everything to Sarah, just like in Inception Cobb explains everything to Ariadne.

It's a very dark thriller, both literally and metaphorically. I think one of the reasons it's shot in very dark colors is that they were unable to provide high-quality special effects back then, so that's what they did. I believe the same trick was used when filming Alien (1979). Of course, this technique also creates the right mood.

I liked The Terminator. Even Arnold's terrible accent didn't seem out of place here. The idea itself is very interesting, and back in the eighties I'm sure it gave many people nightmares. So I think this movie definitely deserves being on the list, and I'm glad I watched it again, now that I'm older and able to understand it.

Interesting fact: Near the beginning of the movie, when Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) receives a message on her answering machine breaking her date, the voice on the machine is James Cameron's. Years later, Hamilton and Cameron got married and subsequently divorced.

Favorite quote: Sarah Connor: So Reese is crazy?

Dr. Silberman: In technical terminology: he's a loon.

# 156 The Graduate (1967)

The Graduate is a movie about a troubled young man who has just graduated from college and is home for the summer. A one-night stand with his parents' friend Mrs. Robinson turns into a relationship, but things get even more messed up what he falls in love with her daughter. The whole story is told in a bitter-comic manner (that I like so much).

I can't find the words to describe how awesome this film is. The director masterfully depicts how it feels to be young and experience all the pressures and expectations from you parents when you don't really feel like doing anything with your life. Another thing I can relate to is being in a relationship with someone my parents would never approve of.

As you can see, this movie is very personal to me in many ways, and it's very very realistic. One of the things that contributed to it is the cinematography, and all the camera techniques used in this film. My favorite two scenes are the party at the beginning, and the seduction scene. I think they are shot perfectly, and this helps us understand what exactly Ben feels at the moment, it makes us feel as if we were there. The wonderful music of the sixties also compliments the film.

I probably would have thought that it's a Woody Allen film, if I hadn't known that it was directed by a different person. The movie is composed of two parts: before and after Ben's relationship with Mrs. Robinson is revealed. They are very different, even stylistically, and I liked the first part a little better, but the second part was good too.

Interesting fact: In Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft's first encounter in the hotel room, Bancroft did not know that Hoffman was going to grab her breast. When Hoffman did it onscreen, director Mike Nichols began laughing loudly offscreen. Hoffman began to laugh as well, so rather than stop the scene, he turned away from the camera and walked to the wall. Hoffman banged his head on the wall, trying to stop laughing, and Nichols thought it was so funny, he left it in.

Favorite quote: Mrs. Robinson: Isn't there something you want to tell me?

Benjamin: Tell you?

Mrs. Robinson: Yes.

Benjamin: Well, I want you to know how much I appreciate this. Really.

Mrs. Robinson: The number.

Benjamin: What?

Mrs. Robinson: The room number, Benjamin. I think you ought to tell me that.

Benjamin: Oh, you're absolutely right. It's 568.

# 155 Stand by Me (1986)

Stand by Me is a movie based on Stephen King's short novel about four friends who set out on a journey to the woods to find a dead kid who was apparently hit by a train. It came out the year I was born, but it's surprising how some things, like human relationships and stereotypes, don't change over the years. I think this is why old dramas look better than movies of other genres.

What this movie does is take you back in time. I can't say that when I was twelve I had the same type of relationship with a group of kids my age, or that I had the same kind of adventures, but I certainly do remember having similar feelings, laughing and crying over similar things.

I think that the writers did an amazing job, so it was easy for the actors to play so convincingly. Of course I don't mean to downplay the children's acting, as they all did good. I was amazed that River Phoenix played so well in the break-down scene; later on I found out that the director made the boy think of a time in his own life when an adult had let him down and used it in the scene. It always interests me what happens to child actors when they grow up, and, once again, Phoenix's death proved us that early fame can wreck lives.

Not so many of Stephen King's stories have turned into good movies. Surprisingly only one of them (The Mist) is a horror film, and the rest of them are dramas. I liked everything about this movie. I don't agree with the idea that we'll never find any friends that will be closer to us than the ones we had when we were twelve. Or may be it is true, except for I would replace the word "twelve" with the word "eighteen". Anyway, Stand by Me is a great movie, with a young John Cusack as a bonus.

Favorite quote: "Alright, alright, Mickey's a mouse, Donald's a duck, Pluto's a dog. What's Goofy?"

Interesting fact: While practicing his lines, Jerry O'Connell was incredibly impressed that, as an 11-year old, he was being allowed to swear.

# 154 Sar Trek (2009)

Star Trek is the eleventh film based on the Star Trek TV series that came out not so long ago, so I got to see it at the movies and enjoy all the special effects. It tells us about the early days of James T. Kirk, the death of his father, and how he became the captain of the Enterprise.

My first question is about the title. How come the preceding ten films had "a little something in the end". So we have Star Trek: First Contact, Star Trek: Insurrection, Star Trek Nemesis, and all of a sudden they shoot a movie and call it simply "Star Trek". Why? Does this movie stand out of the rest of feature films based on the same TV series? Well since it's the only one that made it to IMDb Top 250, may be it is the best one of them, but still I thought it was pretty stupid to call it this way, as if all these other movies had never existed.

The special effects were good. I liked the cast too, especially Eric Bana as the villain (Nero), and Zachary Quinto from Heroes as Spock. There is also a Russian actor, Anton Yelchin, playing a Russian Starfleet officer. Most of all I was impressed by the make-up. At first I didn't even recognize Eric Bana with such a huge nose.

So, basically, the movie is not bad at all. I liked all the twists with the time-travel, although it was nothing new. I just really don't see what was so special about it. I've seen a lot better science-fiction movies, like Moon that came out the same year, but it didn't make it on the Top. So is Star Trek really that good, or was it just a bunch of Star Trek nerds (did I say it out loud? I meant to say "fans") who made an impact.

Favorite quote: "Who was that pointy-eared bastard?"

Interesting fact: J.J. Abrams' only two choices for Nero were Russell Crowe and Eric Bana.

# 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.

# 152 Finding Nemo (2003)

I was lucky to see Finding Nemo when it premiered in the United States. I remember it being so overhyped, they wouldn't stop talking about it on Disney Channel, and everybody I knew couldn't wait for it to come out. So I was somewhat sceptical about it, but the movie turned out to be great. Back then it represented a revolution in feature film animation.

The cartoon is about a clownfish that became tired of being controlled by his father, and decided to prove that he's grown up by swimming near the fishing boat only to be caught by a scuba-diver. He becomes an aquarium fish, and tries to find a way to escape while his father travels across the Pacific to find him. The plot is simple but far from being trivial.

The world of Finding Nemo is full of interesting creatures (I think that the baby turtles were the most adorable), it's so diverse, and the creators of this movie provide so much detail that you start forgetting you're watching a cartoon. Both animation and storytelling are on a very high level here, and I still enjoyed it a lot when I was watching it again, despite the fact that I am seven years older now, and the technology has moved on so much.

The humor in this film was brilliant. What we actually see is a parody of human society, with a lot of hilarious jokes, like a group of sharks starting a mutual aid club that's so much like Alcoholics Anonimous. Another good thing about it is that there are no villains in this movie. "Fish gotta swim, birds gotta eat" - everybody's doing what they are supposed to do. There's no good and no evil. Everynody should see this one, no matter how old you are.

Favorite quote: "What is it with men and asking for directions?"

Interesting fact: Animators studied dogs' facial expressions, paying particular attention to the eyes, to animate the expression of the fish.

# 151 Smultronstället (1957)

Smultronstället is a movie by Ingmar Bergman about an elderly physician who travels to another city to receive an honorary degree fifty years after becoming a doctor. Throughout the whole film we see his dreams (most of them are nightmares) that touch on though-provoking subjects, such as human existance, death, and loneliness.

I apologize for saying that, but I think that Bergman was a very weird man. I've only seen a couple of his films, but Cries And Whispers (aka Viskningar och rop), a movie that I had to watch and review for my Ethics class in college, totally creeped me out. So I wasn't expecting to like any of this film, but, to my own surprize, I found parts of it quite enjoyable.

My favorite part was the dream in which the main character is in classroom, taking an exam. He looks into a microscope and sees nothing. He reads the text from the blackboard, but cannot comprehend it. I've seen this in my nightmares so many times! I know there's a deeper meaning to this scene, but it struck me how accurately Bergman showed people's fears in the movie.

But it's not all pessimism. During the trip the main character meets a variety of people, including a girl and two young men accompanying her, all of them being optimistic, fun-loving, and, in my opinion, they make a big impact on him. There are a lot of interesting ideas represented in this movie, so it's worth seeing at least once in a lifetime.

Favorite quote: "Me and my wife are dependent on each other. It is out of selfish reasons we haven't beaten each other to death a long time ago".

Interesting fact: Cinematographer Gunnar Fischer says that several scenes had to be shot indoors due to Victor Sjöström's poor health. "We had to make some very bad back-projection in the car because we never knew if Victor would come back alive the next day." Nevertheless, as long as Victor was home by 5:15 P.M. each day, "and had his whiskey punctually, all went well."

# 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.

# 149 The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)

The Bourne Ultimatum concludes the trilogy of movies about a man who volunteered for a top-secret CIA project that transformed him into a highly-trained assassin. After getting shot he loses his memory, but his past continues to influence him. In this movie the main character finds out about how he became Jason Bourne.

I was reluctant to see another guy movie, but having watched all of the Bourne films in one week, I have to say that the trilogy has come together very nicely. Matt Damon did an excellent job portraying Jason Bourne. He is not particularly my favorite actor, but the trilogy made me change my mind about him. It is very rare that an action film delivers good performances.

The pacing is perfect for an action film. There aren't any slow parts, but it's not too fast either, so you don't have to keep pausing and rewinding to figure out what's going on (yes, sometimes I have to do it to understand the plotline). Those of you who have been reading my blog know, that I hate hand-held camera, but this time the shakiness didn't irritate me. In fact, it even made me feel like I was part of the scene, which is what the effect is intended to do.

My only question concernes the fact that out of all Bourne movies, only Ultimatum made it on the list. If I were to rate these three movies, it would be #1 - The Bourne Supremacy, #2 - The Bourne Ultimatum, and #3 - The Bourne Identity. But whatever, the movie is still good.

Favorite quote: "If you were sitting in your office, we'd be having this conversation face-to-face".

Interesting fact: Since the opening scene of the film takes place directly after the ending of The Bourne Supremacy (2004), yet the production time difference was several months, it was January in Moscow. This would have been too cold and Berlin was chosen as the location of the shoot. The fake snow was made using paper and foam, and took an excess of 5 hours to cover the entire set.

# 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."

# 147 Life of Brian (1979)

Life of Brian is Monty Python's feature length movie about a man who was born on Christmas night in a stable and kept being mistaken for Messiah. For those of you who don't know, Monty Python was a British comedy group from back in the day that had a great impact on modern day comedy.

I haven't heard so many good jokes in a very long time. It's hard to pick out just a few that I liked the most, but I'll try. The first one is when the members of "The People's Front of Judea" are sitting in the amphitheater, and one of them announces that he wants to be a woman and to have babies. Then one of the men says that it is symbolic of their struggle against oppression and another man says that it is symbolic of his struggle against reality. Well, the whole conversation was very funny.

Another one of my favorite scenes is when a Roman centurion is trying to correct Brian's Latin grammar, and help him write "Romans, go home" instead of "the people called 'Romanes' they go the house", and forces him to write it a hundred times. The third one is when one of the members of "The People's Front of Judea" says that apart from the sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system and public health, the Romans have never done anything for them.

Monty Python is a group of very talented people. Their dialogues are full of satire. Besides, they deliver a very solid performance, especially I would like to note Michael Palin who portrayed Pontius Pilate and eleven (!) other characters. One good thing about comedies is that they don't age as much as films of other genres. Unfortunately there isn't many comedies on IMDb Top 250 list, and in my opinion, there is too few good comedies out there, but this one was awesome.

Favorite quote: "Life's a laugh and death's a joke".

Interesting fact: In the interview section of Monty Python's Flying Circus: Live at Aspen (1998) (TV), John Cleese confides that, since there were massive protests against the movie from all denominations of Christianity, he would joke with Michael Palin: "We've brought them all together for the first time in 2000 years!"

# 146 The Lion King (1994)

Who hasn't heard of The Lion King? It's an all-time Disney classic about a lion cub who is tricked into thinking he killed his father. The plot was inspired by Shakespear's Hamlet, and indeed is very simple. As Richard Bach once said, "the simplest things are often the truest". I think this quote describes the movie perfectly.

The animation is simple, yet very beautiful. I love traditional Disney animation, especially the use of highly saturated colors. You don't see all the little details, like textures and hairs, that you can see in modern animated movies, but it still looks great, and may be it's that fact that this type of animation reminds me of my childhood makes it so special to me.

The soundtrack is good, it's proably my second favorite soundtrack after Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (by the way, does anyone know why so many people dislike Spirit?!). And I'm not only talking about Elton John's hit "Can You Feel the Love Tonight". I think that "Circle of Life" and " The Lion Sleeps Tonight" were just as good as the Oscar-winning song.

I think that this cartoon is mostly for children, even though it is a little cruel from my point of view. To be honest, I can't see what lesson it's trying to teach us. If you have any idea, let me know. But still, the characters are too likable to criticize their actions. I find this movie very enjoyable, and I'm definitely going to show this one to my future kids.

Favorite quote: "Before sunrise he's YOUR son".

Interesting fact: Originally, Scar was going to send adult Nala away from Pride Rock because she ignored his romantic approaches, after which she finds Simba alive and well with Timon and Pumbaa. This idea was ultimately abandoned, as sexual harassment was considered improper in a family movie.

# 145 It Happened One Night (1934)

It Happened One Night is the first film in movie history to win the Oscar "grand slam" (Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director and Best Screenplay). The story is about a spoiled young woman from a rich family who runs away from her father to be with the man she had secretly married. It gets interesting when she meets a reporter who helps her to get to New York because he wants to write an article about it.

I don't like romantic comedies, especially when they get too melodramatic at the end. There were some brilliant scenes in this movie though. The first one I would like to mention is when the reporter (played by Clark Gable) is arguing with the bus driver over the newspapers. Another one is when the annoying bus passanger finds out about the reward the woman's father offers to anyone who can tell him where she is. I think it was amazing how the reporter fooled him when he started acting like a gangster.

So many times we hear stories about evil parents who don't let their children be happy by not letting them be with the ones they truly love. This type of scenario reminds me of cheap soap operas I got to see when I was little. I think it's great that this film shows us that most of the time the parents are right.

I won't lie, there are a lot of corny moments in this movie. Also I wonder why in old Hollywood movies almost all smartass lines are delivered by male characters, and female characters usually keep saying some mushy romantic stuff. But after all, I think that It Happened One Night is a reasonably good representative of the genre.

Favorite quote: "I never did like the idea of sitting on newspaper. I did it once, and all the headlines came off on my white pants. On the level! It actually happened. Nobody bought a paper that day. They just followed me around over town and read the news on the seat of my pants".

Interesting fact: I never did like the idea of sitting on newspaper. I did it once, and all the headlines came off on my white pants. On the level! It actually happened. Nobody bought a paper that day. They just followed me around over town and read the news on the seat of my pants.

# 144 Ran (1985)

Being a movie critic is a tough job. Sometimes you don't like some of the highly appraised movies, and you have to give an honest review without looking like a complete idiot.

Ran is Kurosawa's fourth movie that made it on IMDb Top 250 list, and the only one of these four that is made in color. It's about a warlord who decides to devide his kingdom between his three sons, which eventually leads to war between the brothers and drives their father insane. Ran can be translated as "chaos", and this is exactly what this movie is.

The pacing is very slow, the scenes with the insane warlord and his jester are so long, and there's so many of them that it starts to get irritating. The dialogues aren't nearly as good as in Yojimbo, and sound really unnatural to me. And I guess I was expecting some kind of an intellectual twist in the story, but the plot is very simple. The acting, in my opinion, was too theatrical. The actor credited as "Peter", who played the jester, was good, but still I didn't feel any sympathy for him, or any other of the characters.

It was a great action film for 1985, with all the battle scenes, which by guess take about eighty percent of the movie's running time, but it has aged so much over the years, that I found myself unable to become engaged in it. The most spectracular scene of this film was probably the one in which the old man calmly sits in the castle tower while it goes up in flames. Unfortunately there weren't many close-ups in this film, for some reason Kurosawa keeps shooting his characters from a distance. The ending was a bit surprising, but not enough to change my perception on the movie.

Favotire quote: "Man is born crying. When he has cried enough, he dies".
Interesting fact: The story was inspired by samurai legends, but also draws on William Shakespeare's "King Lear" as well.