Top 10 Movies
My daughter asked me what my top 10 movies of all time are, and it got me primed to actually write something after a couple of years of writing almost nothing. I think this may lead to a few other top 10s over the next few months - video games, books, tv series, board games, vacations? The possibilities are endless. Movies are a good starter though so that's where we are at.
These are not in a particular order, nor do I think of these as the best movies I have seen, they're just my favourites for whatever reason. I'll try to give a rundown on why I love them, but for all of them it is actually relatively easy; for some reason or another I simply enjoyed them while watching. I laughed, I cried, I jumped, or I flinched. Sometimes I did all of them!
The Princess Bride
When someone asks me what my favourite movie is, I will almost invariably say that it is this one. What's not to love about it? Fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles... it really has something for everyone. I cheer for Inigo as he enacts his revenge, I applaud the Man in Black when he bests Vizzini at a battle of wits, I am horrified when Humperdink sets the machine to 50, and through each of the scenes I am filled with the same cinematic enjoyment I had when I was 7 and I saw it for the first time.
About Time
This is a movie about time travel, but it's not science fiction at all. It's just a big of magic that the main character can do. It's more a story about what a man might do if he had more than one chance to live through a day. It is beautiful and earnest and sappy and while it is a love story, it is not just a romantic love story - one of the central storylines is the love between a father and a son. Watching Domhnall Gleeson's character make his way through everything until he gets to the point of accepting things as they happen is a wonderful trip that I will take time and time again. And Bill Nighy as the dad is great and sure the movie lacks a bit of internal consistency - you can't go back beyond the birth of a child, but we'll do it this one time and it'll be fine? - but it's all in service to the story and the concept.
The Cabin in the Woods
I love how this is both a roast and a love-letter to horror movies. I love watching for and finding references, I love how they explicitly call out their tropes and make them plot points, I love the internal consistency of being able to map items from the basement to monsters in the monster zoo, I love the casting, the writing, the pacing. It's a great movie. This is actually the movie I was watching with my daughters when one of them asked me about my top 10, and I told her I would put this on it. And here it is.
Jurassic Park
I think that Jurassic Park is one of the best movies ever made. It still looks great 30 years later, and part of that is due to the care taken with the effects, but part of it is because of how the story is structured. It's tight 2 hours; the writing is great, and we are shown so much about the characters and the park, instead of being told so much as many of the follow-up movies do. Spielberg is a brilliant director and his vision is absolutely amazing for this movie, but there are so many more phenomenal talents involved. Dean Cundley is a brilliant cinematographer and is responsible for how we see and experience the park. John Williams' score is one of the best ever written, and I still well up with emotion when Dr. Grant sees the Brachiosauruses for the first time.
Of all the movies on my list, I think this is the best from a technical point of view, not just from a personal one.
The Lord of the Rings
I guess it is a bit of a cheat to claim that this is one 14 hour long movie, but here we are, it's my list and that is exactly what I am doing. A lot of people seem to think that these are very faithful adaptations to the books that have changed almost nothing, but I think that is incorrect. What changed generally made things work well as movies. For example, while I think Tom Bombadil is important (and maybe is evil?) in the books, I think cutting him from the movies was a good call. There are some things that I didn't think were great changes - the death of Saruman, the chumpification of Isildur, making Elrond racists against Men - but overall I think that the movies are fantastic.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
"The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. And I knew we'd get into that rotten stuff pretty soon."
There are two types of people in the world - those who hear the above and wait exuberantly for the ether binge, and those who question the sanity of those eagerly awaiting the deplorable actions of Raoul Duke and Doctor Gonzo. I am of the former group.
Dark City
This was a precursor to The Matrix in many ways, not least of which set design, as some of the sets were sold and used almost as is. Fast cuts, darkness, incomplete information, all give this a feeling of franticly searching for answers while simultaneously plodding through police procedures and also dealing with existential crises. Of the three big films that dealt with "what is existence" at around the same time - this one, The Matrix, Existenz - this was my favourite.
Alien
It's pretty cool that this came out in the 70s, and still has an exceptionally strong female lead and a trans character that just is and doesn't have any negative judgment about the fact. The mood and sets are incredible, the jumps are top notch, and it has one of the finest movie monsters ever created. The attention to detail is staggering, from the bios of the crew to the fact that Ash was obviously there to try to bring home a xenomorph, and tries to hide it, hence his secrecy and apparent villainy.
Eurotrip
This movie never fails to make me laugh, and features Matt Damon in his best role, the lead singer of the band that sings the song that is probably the only thing most people remember about the movie - Scotty Doesn't Know. Gags like, "this isn't where I parked my car" and "nowhere. near. Berlin." and "mi scuzi" are all fun and pretty silly. This is not great cinema, but it still makes me laugh.
Shawn of the Dead
I got to this last, but I think it's a pretty accurate summary of the sorts of things that I usually like in movies, and is kind of all of the things on this list rolled in to one. Comedy? Check. Romance? Check. Horro? Check. Friendship? Check. Bill Nighy? Check. Of the Cornetto Trilogy (this one, Hot Fuzz, The World's End) I think this is clearly the strongest movie, and I recommend it without reservation.