Fordham graduation is this Saturday, so in honor of that event, I thought this would be a fitting time to put up what might actually be my favorite movie--definitely one in my top five.  Ben Braddock has just graduated and the only thing he's got planned for himself is a little "drifting here in the pool."  Ideas?  Well, everyone's got ideas for him...  from "Plastics" to meeting with older women in hotels to taking out their daughters when they come down from Berkeley.  Everyone thinks they've got him pegged, too.  "Track star."  "Agitator."  (Gotta love the Normal Fell bit there as the landlord in Berkeley.  Obviously, that got him the Mr. Roper gig.) 

Its tough though.  The one thing college doesn't really prepare you for is figuring out what to do with yourself after you're done, and so any graduating senior can relate to what Dustin Hoffman goes through in this movie.  For one thing, its just a bizarre situation to be back home from college after you've lived four years on your own and now, all of the sudden, you're thrust back into their world.  Your whole college life comes to a screeching halt, and now you're hanging out with people in their 50's.  (At least my parents didn't buy me scuba gear and make me test it in our pool on my birthday in front of all their friends.)

The music (this seems to be a theme with me...) from Simon and Garfunkel is classic, as is the whole movie...   Its tough to get more memorable than Hoffman's ride in his Alfa Romeo down to Santa Barbara to search for Katherine Ross's wedding, touched off by the "Mrs. Robinson" track. 

So watch this, or go back and watch it again.  Listen to every line.  There are too many good ones that Hoffman's deadpan style might lull you past, but so many of the short ones are funny.  He tells his parents that he's getting married, and then they realize that he hasn't even asked the girl yet.

"Benjamin, this whole idea seems rather half-baked."

"No, I assure you, its fully baked."

Anne Bancroft, who is like a million years old now (and married to Mel Brooks) rasps and smokes her way into Dustin Hoffman's world for the summer, culminating in a train wreck of a standoff towards the end.  She "controls" much Ben's life, and the movie, until he finds what he actually wants and goes after it.  So take some time off if you need, but not too much, to find your Elaine, and go after it like a track star.  You'll learn why wood is better than wire, and how to keep a crowd at bay with a crucifix. 

"Doesn't he seem like the kind of guy that needs to fight them off with a stick?"

Benjamin Braddock.   Class of 1967.

In case you didn't see Christian Bale and Wolverine... um...   Hugh Jackman in The Prestige yet, stop reading.    I am going to give away a major plotline here.   Don't blame me if you keep reading... you've been warned.

As far as I can tell there are only two scenarios that make sense with this movie.... two explanations that neither of which are entirely satisfying.

1)  Christian Bale has a natural twin that he has grown up with all his life.  He makes "Telsa" the key to his book because Telsa is attempting a cloning machine that doesn't work, sending Hugh Jackman on a wild goose chace.  (Because, if he was aware of it working, he would have essentially given his one advantage, being a twin, over to his arch rival.)   By sheer dumb luck, the machine actually turns out to work.  Now, actually, I believe Tesla was more likely trying to invent a transporting machine... and that happens to be the wackiest glitch in the world... that it doubles you.  But, either way, Bale could have never thought it to work.

2)  Telsa actually did make the machine work for Bale and he used it once, to clone himself a twin.  The second Bale doesn't seem to exist very early on in the movie, like when he's a stagehand.  Where was he all those years if they weren't doing the magic act routine?  Plus, it's just too random that the key to the diary is Tesla, a man that, in reality, has nothing to do with his trick, b/c Bale already has a twin and doesn't need a transporting or cloning machine...   of which Telsa actually winds up, ironically and accidently, creating a cloning machine that works.  Of course, this doesn't make sense either, b/c Telsa doesn't even know his machine works until Hugh Jackman comes to visit him.  If that was the case, though...  why would Bale have anything to do with Tesla?   

Sony has yanked all of the Casino Royale  trailers from YouTube.

Huh?

We're not talking the whole movie here...  we're talking the advertsing trailer.

Aren't they incentivized to get this thing playing in as many places as possible??

I had this playing on my blog and my MySpace profile for months leading up to the opening. 

If you're in charge of movie trailers, no matter how big or small your movie is, and you don't have them uploaded to YouTube, you're an idiot.  That's it.  You're just an idiot. 

I changed my avatar's look to something a little more...suave and sophisticated.  Click the play button to hear him introduce himself.  :)

Saw a sneak preview of the new Bond movie, Casino Royale, last night.  I'm a huge 007 fan, so I've been looking forward to this movie for just about after the credits of the last one started rolling.

Well worth the wait.

I saw in the paper that Daniel Craig brings the franchise back, but I don't want to say that because I think Pierce Brosnan was the one who actually did that... bringing it back from License to Kill, which was, in my opinion, the worst Bond ever.  (A View to a Kill can't be the worst, because it has Christopher Walken.)

Casino Royale starts out with Bond even before he was a "00" agent...  resetting the story just like they did with Batman Begins.

Daniel Craig reminds me of Connery's Goldfinger performance.  Rough around the edges, but every now and then he flashes a smile without being cheesy.  

The story, and their actually is one, is well thought out and not predictable at all.  Just go see it... even if you're not a Bond fan... it's a great action movie for anyone.

Sure... why not. We can play along. I can't wait until Rocky 7 where he starts selling the Rocky Balboa Grill.

Scarlett Johansson will be the best actress of this generation.  There, I said it. Black Dahlia is a cool movie with great style that perhaps gets a little bizzare at times, but she does another fantastic job.  I think I need to find a way to get her an avatar for some kind of promotion.

The story is based on a real life unsolved murder, and the writers come up with a highly implausible scenario for the truth that, in the movie, kinda comes out of nowhere and got a few unintended laughs.  Still, the acting is really good and I was also pleasently surprised by Josh Hartnett, who I still sort of think of as the guy from The Faculty.  This was also the first time I thought that Hilary Swank came anywhere close to being attractive.  Its that mouth... I dunno... 

Anyway...  cool, but only a must see because of Miss Scarlett.

One thing I talked about with Kristin from Fordham the other day is the idea of scheduled blogging...having different types of posts appear of specific days to get a blogging routine going.  I got the idea from Fred, who has a VC Cliche of the Week post and a running Top 50 Albums thing going.

Well, I like music, but I'm not much of an album guy.  Most of the music I have is sliced up into individual songs.  For me, its movies.  I love going to the movies.  I especially love the previews.  In fact, if someone came out with just an hour and a half of previews of all made up  movies with real celebrities, I think I'd go see that.  When I see a movie, I usually have a pretty good idea that I'll like it, and I haven't seen a lot of movies that "everyone" goes to see.  I never saw Titanic or My Big Fat Greek Wedding.  I like movies with style--ones that have a little hint of surrealism to them.  I like certain actors--Kevin Klein, John Cusack, Sean Connery, Bill Murray...  and I don't mind a good car chase or explosion.  I don't mind stupidity either.  That being said, for the next 50 weeks, I am going to post, every Monday, a new addition to My Top 50 Movies List. 

Its not the best 50, so I'm not soliciting feedback as to what should be on the list.  Its my list.  There are a lot of movies that you would figure a guy my age would be putting on here, like maybe Goonies or the Princess Bride, that won't show up.  They're fine, but they're not my favorite.  There are lots of people out there who can recite those movies by heart, just not me.

That being said, here's the first one.  Its kind of a bridge between the inspiration for this list, which is Fred's album list, and my movie list, because it has a fantastic soundtrack and that really adds to the movie.  My first movie is Grosse Pointe Blank, with John Cusack and Minnie Driver. 

In short, its about a professional killer who goes back to a Detroit suburb to attend his 10 year high school reunion.  That right there makes for a unique situation, but throw on top of it that he left is high school sweetheart at her front door on prom night...  never picked her up and dropped off the face of the earth for ten years. 

For me, the movie is about being nostalgic and  never forgetting the connections you had when you were coming of age.  There are a few people in my life that I wish I could go back and talk to--people who probably think I'm broken but could be convinced I'm just "mildly sprained".

The soundtrack is one of the best things about the movie.  Not a lot of people at the time realized that it came out in two volumes, and you didn't get all the music you wanted on the first.  The soundtrack features the Violent Femmes, David Bowie,  The Clash, A-Ha and The Specials.  Great songs...  great supporting performances from Dan Aykroyd, Alan Arkin  and Joan Cusack, and a little high school romance revisited.  Feel free to pick up a copy at Amazon (they're selling the movie cheaper than a single volume of the two volume soundtrack), because "You can never go home again, but at least you can shop there."

So I forgot to post yesterday, mostly because of the holiday, and a lot because I am totally out of sorts because of this move to Brooklyn.  Therefore, I see no more fitting movie about forgetting on my list to post today than Momento--a movie about a guy who has no short term memory.

In Momento, Guy Pierce can remember everything just about until his wife's death, which he thinks he has a clear enough recollection of.  His memories since then, however, are all recorded on Polaroids, tattoos and little notes for himself.  In the meantime, instead of just trying to survive in this less than ideal situation, he's out trying to find his wife's killer.

Oh, did I mention the whole movie is shot backwards, tracing each scene to the scene before it?

And you thought the Polaroids were confusing.

The beauty of it is that you watch each seen as he experiences it--completely without prior context.  He arises in a hotel room.  Is it his room?  Someone elses?  Should he be there?  You don't know until the next scene.   One of the best moments in the movie is when he finds himself running, but he's not sure if he's being chased or doing the chasing, until his pursuer fires a gun at him.  "Is he running after me or am I running after him?  [Boom.]  He's running after me."

The supporting cast has two stars from the Matrix--Carrie Ann Moss and Joe Pantolino.  Both do a great job and you're not sure how much either is manipulating poor Guy and his condition at any point in the movie. 

You probably need to watch this movie twice... with a friend you can have a good argument with, because you'll probably see the movie differently.  Its thought provoking and definitely requires a careful viewing.

Despite the Mets' losing two of three to the Yanks, I've got baseball on the brain thanks to the Subway Series.  In fact, the way the Mutts tossed the ball around the infield over the weekend, there was only one movie I could possibly pick today to add to my list.

Major League.

Major League is, by far, the most quotable baseball movie out there, and as soon as it came out, whether I was playing baseball or wiffle ball, that's all we did growing up--quote the movie.  It seems like every team has one of the characters on this team.  The bad-kneed veteran catcher.  The old junkballer.  The huge guy who can't hit a breaking ball. 
So maybe Major League didn't win or get nominated for an Oscar.  However, its definitely in the same park as my previous movies.  (Yellowstone.)  When you play baseball, there isn't a moment in the game that can't be summed up perfectly by this comedy classic. 

Booted groundball?

"Come on, Dorn.  Get in front of the damn ball.  Don't give me this OLE bullshit!"

Team not hitting?

"Harry Doyle: That's all?  One goddamn hit.  Assistant: You can't say goddamn on the air. Harry Doyle: Ahh, don't worry, nobody is listening anyway."

Pitcher not going after the hitters?

"Forget the curveball, Ricky.  Give 'em the heater!"

And of course, uncorking one six feet to the left of the plate?

"Juuuust a bit outside."

I love seeing depictions of the future on film, and I always think its really cheesy when the future is some kind of peaceful utopia.  Blade Runner's future is a dark, rainy stew of microchips, languages, neon, and flying cars.  (Its 2005... where are our flying cars?!)

Sometime towards the end of next year/beginning of 2007, we'll see Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones 4...  25 years after Blade Runner...  25 years of attempting to top what I think may be his best performance.  Harrison Ford has never been the indestructable tough guy... he's always carried the weight of the situation on him, but still managed to win in the  end.  The streets of the future have worn him down in Blade Runner, but he's got enough for one or two good swings.

Sean Young is perfect in this movie...   too perfect, which creates a lot of conflict for Harrison Ford's replicant eliminating dayjob.  Its too bad she went from Stripes, Blade Runner, and Wall Street to starring opposite Punky Brewster in Motel Blue.  (I've never seen it, its just that IMDb paints a pretty dismal picture of her spiralling career.) 

Darryl Hannah's eyeblacked replicant charactor isn't someone I'd want to mess with in a dark alley in the future either...   especially with that crab walk and all.  So let's see... Darryl's played a robot, a fish, a 50ft. tall woman...   pretty versitile. 

The visuals in this movie are really something...   a lot of time is spent just showing us the landscape, putting every scene in context.  The juxtaposition of all this technology and all the grit and grime set an appropriate tone for the job that Harrison Ford is tasked with doing.

...because we all know, just like Rocky V, the third Godfather didn't exist.  You never heard of it.  It never happened.   You hear me?

Because Sofia Coppola may be able to direct, but she can't act her way out of that nose.

But anyway, these two movies always go together.  You buy the boxed set.  Its like...  pasta and sauce.  Cappuccino and a little sambuca.  (Or, if you're my grandmother, a lot of sambuca...  j/k!  We always pour more in than she wants.) 

I don't really have to say much about the Godfather set.  You know it.  You've all seen it.  It has an amazing cast of actors and the time is taken to tell the story of an excellent book, which I read as well.  If you haven't seen it in a little while, spend an afternoon with it on a rainy Saturday.  While you're watching, don't hesitate to stick two pieces of bread in your cheeks and do your own Brando.

I bring this set up, which should be on everyone's list, because I was reminded of Sonny Corleone the other night.  James Caan does a terrific job as the headstrong, short tempered eldest son of the Don.  Remember what he does to Connie's husband for hitting her?  Well, I'm walking along 3rd Avenue in Brooklyn the other night and this couple is crossing the street.  The car waiting at the corner beeps them along as the light changes to green.

The guy whips around and says, "What's your f*cking problem?"

The driver responds, "Get the f*ck out of the street."

Obviously, he didn't know he was dealing with Sonny...   this guy basically takes off, without hesitation, down the street running after the car on foot.  The next line is classic:

"Get out of that car so I can bitch slap you!"

That's vintage Sonny as far as I'm concerned.  It was at that moment that I fully realized I was back in Brooklyn.

But look where it got him.  Sonny never made it and the quiet youngest brother that was destined to be "a senator" winds up taking over the family business.   But that's ok, because they're moving to Vegas and going legit.

Right?

This movie is nothing short of an epic.  Its the Italian immigrant's version of King Arthur and The Knights of the Round Table.  Because its not just about the movie.  Its about everyone's version of the movie in their own lives.  Now its an overplayed stereotype, but these people were like royalty at one time and there was a story to be told long before the movie came out.  Where they criminals?  Sure.  Did they have the respect and devotion of their communities more so than elected politicians?  You bet.

You know, I think its interesting how every ethnic backround has its own underworld element, with its own style and relationship to the rest of the community.  We always see this mafia thing as "protective" as oppossed to parasitic, but you never know whether or not that's the media spin.  I think that would be an interesting study.

As for the movie?  That's an interesting study in itself.  But remember, leave the gun.  Take the canoli.

Its time for the All Star game--to figure out who's really the best of the best.  But, be careful, because if you're the best, a mysterious woman in black might come and shoot you with a silver bullet.  Vlad, do you hear that?  Derrick Lee are you paying attention? 

The Natural is not only one of, if not the best baseball movie of all time, but it definitely has the single greatest baseball moment of all time--Robert Redford's home run into the lights that sends glass and sparks shining down onto the field. 

The Natural is a fantasy... a dream.  Its the story of reclaiming lost youth and taking one last shot at winning something.  Its about wanting so hard to be the best at something, even if its only for a moment. 

Sometimes, I walk down the street and I feel like if I picked up a baseball, I could through it 100 miles an hour.  Seriously.  Unfortunately, I've never felt like that with a baseball in my hand.  I did have one great casual sports moment, though...  and it was a walkoff shot, too.  Playing intramural softball at Fordham in my Senior year.  We were down by two runs going into the bottom of the last inning.  Our team was half my roommates and half of the varsity basketball team.  Two guys got on and I parked an opposite field 3 run home run over the fence...   I knew it was gone as soon as I hit it, and I'm the last guy in the world that you'd expect to hit a home run, because I'm really just a contact hitter.  It was so cool to trot around the bases, and have all the guys from the basketball team like Jason Harris and TJ lineup between third and home waiting to give you a high five.  There was no broken glass, no sparks, but that was my casual sports moment.

I don't need to talk about the movie anymore.  Its a great baseball movie... what more is there to say?  No, instead, why don't you comment on this post and tell us your greatest casual sports moment.  No college or SEMI pro sports... its got to be beer league softball, little league, street football, or something equally unprofessional. 

Admittedly, I'm getting a little bored of my "50 Favorite Movies" posts. 

I might still contribute once in a while, but I've got 28 of them up now and I'm kind of running out of gas.  (Not running out of movies, though... )

And maybe this says something about intential content production vs. production as a byproduct of consumption.

If I could publish my viewing habits via a link to my DVD player, I would.  That would be a lot easier... and then perhaps a preconfigured post could be waiting for me to just give a review when I watch a movie.

What I'm not getting as much is a conversation about movies, which would be much more valuable.  So, I'm going to try something different. 

Instead of posting what I like, I'm going to post question to the audience about movies to get a little conversation going.

So, this week's movie question is:

"What movie are you most embarrassed to admit that you shed a tear to?"   Guy answers particularly interesting...

My answer?

Blow.

That movie is pretty intense and, at the end, when he just wants to do one last deal so he can make enough money to have a life for his daughter... and then he gets busted... they show him in the prison yard and they just pull the rug out from under you in that scene...   I wasn't really prepared for that.  Admittedly, there was some leakage there.  I think I brushed it off as having something in my eye, but, I admit it, Blow made me cry.

So I was just clicking around my blog looking for something, and I noticed something weird about my last 50 Favorite Movies post.  It had an Amazon ad on it...  not the link to the DVD that I usually have, but an actual ad--an annoying flashing/blinking one at that, too.   I figured I pasted the wrong link or something, but then I went back and realized that about half of my movie links had turned into ads. 

So, I pasted a link to a DVD that I'd like to sell as an Amazon Associate, and Amazon's been switching my links out for house ads.

That's pure bullshit.

I don't care if it says that they can in small type somewhere, that's just wrong.  I set up those links so people could find the movies I'm pitching...   not so that Amazon can have ad inventory just to promote its big sale.

That's totally obnoxious and as soon as I get a chance, I'm going to go back and rip down my Amazon links.

Amazon Associate?  No thanks.  I'd rather not "associate" with them on my blog if they're going to pull that.

I'd rather give IMDB the traffic.

Here's the picture of what they put up on my site:

So, I'll admit that I never read the book.  I'm not a big fiction book reader, and it always kind of turns me off when everyone is reading something.

But I feel like seeing the movie gave me a good synopsys of what the story was and I have to say...  it wasn't nearly as interesting or controversal as people said.

Perhaps its the fact that I've actually taken three or four real Theology courses.  I knew that there were other books of the Bible floating around that a council of scholars voted out.  Stories of Jesus' life between the age of like 8 and 30, are also not new to me.   So, while more fundamentalist Catholics who believe that the Bible was a book handed down from the clouds are up in arms from this movie, nothing that was proposed really shocked me.

There's also a huge gaping hole in the story.  [SPOILER ALERT]  Why does finding a direct bloodline to Mary Magdaline necessarily prove that Jesus had children??  Now, I actually believe that he probably did... not sure why he wouldn't...   but nothing about the story proves that she didn't have children with someone else, even after the crucifiction.  These other Bible stories say they were married, but its not like people only had kids with the people they were married to, especially when their spouses die early.  Just doesn't prove much of anything as far as I can tell.

Also, everyone in the movie is pretty good, except for, and I hate to say it, Tom Hanks.  He's horribly miscast in the movie.  We just don't believe him as the smart guy.  Tom Hanks is everyman.  He's the modern day Jimmy Stewart.  He's Forrest Gump...  the Fedex guy from Castaway...   the foreign diplomat from the Terminal.   He's no religious scholar with a PhD. 

Other people could have played the smart guy.  Harrison Ford... well, I guess he's already search for the grail once, so that's out.  How about Russell Crowe.  No, not the bruiser from Gladiator, but the dork from a Beautiful Mind.  Hell, even Bill Pullman could have been more believable in this role.  Any other ideas?

Liam Neeson has a great line in Batman Begins that didn't quite resonate with me until yesterday:

"You haven't beaten me.  You've sacrificed sure footing for a killing stroke."

I think this is a great lesson for anyone tempted to monetize a service too quickly and sacrifice adoption and uptake of a product... or to change the direction of your product to take advatage of short term revenue opportunities.  Its very easy to pick low hanging fruit, but you also need to "mind your surroundings" and think about whether or not quick payback sets you up to still take advantage of the larger market opportunity.

BTW...  I've heard about the possibilities of a sequal to this movie...   I'll cast my vote right now for Scarlett Johansson as Harley Quinn should they follow a Joker storyline.

Douglas Warshaw sent me this list some time ago...  I was just cleaning my inbox and couldn't figure out what to do with it, and I think its really best suited out in the open, b/c its such a well thought out list.

From Doug:

Charlie ... was reading your blog ... and thought I'd send you the below.  It's a list I made up last year for a friend's son who was going off to college (hence, some of the notes specific regarding on what date a film should be ideally be seen :)

WINTER KILLS.
By the author of The Manchurian Candidate and Prizzi's Honor, a dark satire
on the Kennedy assassination ...probably the best movie you've never heard of.



   PRIMAL FEAR
Ed Norton's breakout role -- and he's surrounded by a great cast, including
the incomparable Laura Linney, Frances McDormand, John Mahoney, Adre
Braugher, Alfre Woodard and Richard Gere -- a terrific, underrated movie
(probably because its dumb-ass title has zero to do with the plot!).



   THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING
Sean Connery and Michael Caine...about as good as a Kipling tale -- or a movie
for that matter -- can get.



 *THE LAST DETAIL
One of a line of truly great, cynical American movies of the late 60s and 70s. The kind of flick that makes you realize how far from great today's

films are.  Jack Nicholson in one of his greatest roles.



  BONNIE & CLYDE
Changed American filmmaking, our sense of violence, our sense of celebrity -- and even effected American fashion. Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway and young Gene Hackman (in his breakout role).



   NETWORK
Paddy Chayefsky's amazing black satire of the TV business -- that today seems less a satire than an on-the-mark prediction. Another of the great, cynical American movies of the late 60s and 70s.



  THE HOSPITAL
The single blackest film I've ever seen. Another gem by Chayefsky.



  *CHINATOWN
Regarded by many as one of the very best scripts in the history of film. Roman Polanski at is best, and Jack Nicholson, again,  at the top of his game.



 *THE MALTESE FALCON
"A man can have many sons, but there's only one Maltese Falcon."
 The most perfectly cast film ever. (From a great Hammett novel.) Another John Huston gem.



 THE BIG SLEEP
What the Falcon is to Hammett, the Big Sleep is to Chandler. Bogart and Bacall, 'nuff said.



 LA CONFIDENTIAL
Another great script. And, of course, Rolo Tomasi.



  WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION
Billy Wilder meets Agatha Christie. This one gets lost in the shuffle of great old films, but a true gem.



 *THE USUAL SUSPECTS
Best script of the past 10 years.



 *THE GODFATHER (I & II)



 *GOODFELLAS
"Funny how?"
Forget Paul Hamm... The IOC should make Kevin Costner walk over to Scorsese's house and hand him the two Oscars Costner stole in 1990 (for Best Director & Best Picture, for that abomination, "Dances with Wolves").



 *RAGING BULL
Regarded by many as the best film of the 80s.



 *TAXI DRIVER



 *CUCKOOS NEST
Jack at his best, yet again. (The World Series scene is one of the greatest ever -- hell, the whole movie is one of the greatest ever.) And to think it only took a decade for Kirk Douglas to find a producer (his son) willing to make it.



  SERPICO
Based on a true story of the one honest cop in all of New York in the 1970s.
   Another of the truly great, cynical American movies of the late 60s and 70s.



 TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD
I cry just thinking about it. (See it with a date, and show her your sensitive side.)



 *DINER
Tough to find a smarter, funnier, more enjoyable film. The sort of film you quote from once a week. The sort of film that has about a dozen GREAT scenes (including the greatest quiz ever.)

  The first of Levinson's Baltimore films.



  TIN MEN
The second of Levinson's Baltimore films.
  Not Diner, but pretty terrific.



  BREAKING AWAY
Another great script. And another great ensemble acting job (featuring Paul Dooley, one of my very favorite character actors: "Refund! Refund!") Another gem.



 *ANIMAL HOUSE
Simply the finest American film ever made. To be quoted from at least once a day.
  I dare you to find a funnier picture.



 *SPINAL TAP
Another film you'll quote from for the rest of your life.



  LOST IN AMERICA
Albert Brooks' best film. Funny and mean.



   FLIRTING WITH DISASTER
Ben Stiller, Tea Leone, George Segal and Mary Tyler Moore in a another cruely funny (David O'Russell) film.



  MY COUSIN VINNY
Another comic gem.



 *PULP FICTION
Right up there with The Usual Suspects, in terms of script, and great direction to boot.



 *TRAINSPOTTING
I LOVE this film -- its energy, its wit, its grit, its script, its
filmmaking, its humor.



  DRUGSTORE COWBOY
Another great drug film. Starring Matt Dillon and Kelly Lynch (with one of the all-time laments: "You won't fuck me and I always have to drive.")



  *48-HOURS
Eddie Murphy's breakout film. And still his best.



  *3 KINGS
David O. Russell's brutally funny, smart, quirky film about US Soldiers in post-war Iraq on a quest to find a chunk of Sadam's hidden treasure.

  George Clooney & Ice Cube have never been better together!



  *PATTON
Huge.



  APOCOLYPSE NOW
My guess is you've seen it. And best not seen on a small screen. But I couldn't stop myself from typing it on this list. (Falls apart at the end,

but well worth the trip up the river.)



  BREAKER MORANT
Brilliant courtroom drama that takes place during the Boar War. Small picture, big issues.



  LAWRENCE OF ARABIA
One of the all-time great films. But best seen on a BIG screen.



  THE RIGHT STUFF
Perhaps APOLLO 13 is better ... but this is bigger ... and translates the remarkable reportage of Tom Wolfe to the big screen perfectly.



  ALL THE PRESIDENTS MEN
Just a great movie. And every frame of it is true.



  NORTH DALLAS FORTY
One of the all-time sports films. Dark as hell. But funny as hell. And on the mark: This really is what pro sports was like in the 70s/80s. (From a

terrific novel by former Dallas Cowboy, Pete Gent.)



  *SLAP SHOT
THE FUNNIEST sports film ever made.



  *BULL DURHAM
Probably the most entertaining sports film ever made. And probably the best baseball film ever made. (And Costas agrees :)



  *CHARIOTS OF FIRE
The Olympics before NBC, Bob Costas, or even Roone Arlidge.
        "True story* of two Brits competing in the 1924 Summer Olympics: One a devout Scottish missionary who runs for God, the other a Jewish student at Cambridge who runs for fame and to escape prejudice."

 *(Actually, some of the facts are conveniently moved around :)
  Won the Gold medal for Best Picture in 1981 ...and unlike Paul Hamm's, no one argued about it.



  *COOL HAND LUKE
How many hard-boiled eggs can you eat? George Kennedy (later of Naked Gun side-kick "fame") gets the Oscar, but Paul Newman owns the film.



  THE HUSTLER
Man, Jackie Gleason was just a great film actor. And Paul Newman is just... Paul Newman.



  *THE COLOR OF MONEY
How many Scorsese films (and Paul Newman film) can I put on this list--and the guy's never one the Oscar!!!--dunno', but no way this sequel to "The Hustler" gets left off.



  GOING PLACES ("Les Valseuses")
A great date film -- but has to be the right girl -- and its subtitled, so see it on a big screen if you can. But you probably can't, which is why I'm putting it on this list (whereas I've left off a lot of other great films like "The 400 Blows," which you'll be able to catch on campus).

  Aimless criminals, and aimless sex. But blisteringly funny. Starring a very young Gerard Depardieu -- and featuring the legendary Jeanne Moreau, of "Jules and Jim" fame -- and a very young Isabelle Huppert.



  AMERICAN GRAFFITI
George Lucas's breakout film about his home town. No special effects -- just a great young cast: Harrison Ford, Richard Dryfuss, Ron Howard! ...and a brief but memorable appearance by the then unknown Suzanne Summers.



  SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER
Lost all the hoopla over John Travolta, and disco fever, and the Bee Gees, is the fact that this is a great (small) authentic film.



  * THE GRADUATE
My guess is they'll show it Freshman week. If they don't, save it for a date. (Just don't make it a date with one of your friend's mothers.)



  MORGAN: A Suitable Case for Treatment
One to watch on a date...or with a group in the mood to see a very offbeat film...that's one of the best of the British comedies of the mid-60s.

  I love this film.
  And Vanessa Redgrave, despite her politics, just may be the most beautiful woman ever to walk the earth. And in this film, she certainly makes you understand why, "Morgan is sad today."




  * CASABLANCA
You must remember this... Maybe the ultimate date film. (Ideally the third date.)  Hell, maybe the ultimate film.



  *THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES
  For a long time this remarkable film of war veterans coming home after WWII held the record for most Oscars, and deservedly so.

  I cry just thinking about it. (Another one to see with a date, to show her your sensitive side.)



  * IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE
One of Capra's classics. And another great date film.
   (Don't get fooled into thinking this is some “Miracle on 34th Street” Christmas Holiday see-it-on-TV film. This is one remarkable movie. And Jimmy Stewart gives one of the great performances ever caught on celluloid. It's why Tom Hanks--only at his

best---gets compared to Jimmy Stewart.)



  THE PHILADELPHIA STORY
Maybe the greatest (and. smartest) "screw-ball" comedy ever made:  Katherine
Hepburn, jimmy Stewart and cary grant. And, yes, she is "yar."
  Another date flick.



 * DESIGN FOR LIVING
Gary Cooper and  Fredric March both living -- and sleeping with! -- Miriam
Hopkins.  (With the magical Edward Everett Horton--the voice of Bullwinkle's
"Fractured Fairy Tales"--as the cuckolded husband.)
  This film almost single-handedly brought about the Hayes/Hollywood
Production Code, which took the sex out of American movies for about three
decades!
  (My favorite shot is when Hopkins falls back on the couch, and the sex--in
the form of dust--just rises all around her.)
  You won't believe someone made this film 70 years ago. It's brilliant, and maybe Lubitch's best -- and that's saying something.

  Another great date film.




OKAY... i can't help myself... here are the films that you MUST see when they play on campus... all but the last four are great date films :)

* GRANDE ILLUSION (anybody who really knows film has this in their top 10 -- Renoir's greatest)

RULES OF THE GAME (another gem by Renoir)

400 BLOWS  (possibly Truffaut's greatest)

CITY LIGHTS (Chaplin's greatest)

* MY LIFE AS A DOG

NINOTCHKA (another Lubitch masterpiece -- it'll make you realize what all the fuss about Garbo was about)

* CITIZEN KANE (basically the mount Olympus of films)

KIND HEARTS & CORONETS

ANNIE HALL

BUTCH CASSIDY & THE SUNDANCE KID

HEAVEN CAN WAIT

A HARD DAY'S NIGHT (one of the 20 most influential films of all times)

HAROLD & MAUDE ("offbeat" doesn't do it justice)

FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH

RISKY BUSINESS

* Clockwork Orange

* Dr. Strangelove

M*A*S*H

Henry V (both Olivier's and Branagh's versions)

----also
   The Blue Angel
   Destry Rides Again
   Goodbye Mr. Chips
   The Hunchback of Notre Dame
   Brassed Off
   The Commitments
   Notorious
           (Gary Grant, Ingred Bergman and Claude Raines in my favorite Hitchcock film)
   From Russia with Love
   Five Easy Pieces
   Easy Rider

Ok, quick, name a movie with Kevin Kline, Joan Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Tobey MacGuire, Christina Ricci,  and Elijah Wood.  I hadn't heard of this movie before I saw it on TV, and I was like, "Wait... wow, look at all these people in this movie.  How have I not heard of this before?"

To be honest, I don't know how good of a movie this is... but it just has so many people in it that I really like to watch.  I like Kevin Kline a lot because I tend to like his characters.  He's great at playing a guy with good intentions that gets himself into some not so ethical situations, but yet, it always seems to rise above it.   While  Keven Spacey did an enormous performance in American Beauty, I think Keven Kline could have also played that role as well.

And Sigourney Weaver...  well, Sigourney and I have a connection, because we literally bumped into each other one time...  like actual bumping.  I was going to pick up my high school girlfriend at Sacred Heart on 91st and 5th, and when I was turning the corner on 91st and Madison, we walked right into each other.  I didn't realize who it was at first, but when I was like "Oh... um.. wow."  She smiled and we both walked off to return to our normal lives, forever altered by that single moment.  I'm sure she feels different for having met me even to this day. 

The movie takes place in the early 70's in suburban Connecticut, with charactors basically stumbling through the search for themselves by doing all the things they shouldn't, with sometimes tragic results.   Its sad, sometimes interesting and often somewhat uncomfortable, but it is in these moments of uncomfortable sexuality where the A cast really shines.  (Although, since I already said that Christina Ricci was in it, did I even have to mention that there would be some uncomfortable moments like that in it?   She was going 17 going on 36 at the time.)  No car chases, explosions, special effects... just a really great movie with great actors and some interesting situations.

Not everyone I've recommended this movie to or watched it with likes it.  Its a bit slow and a bit long.  However, its just like Ice Storm in that its got a great cast and yet few people have ever heard of it.  It stars Kevin Kline, Danny Glover, Steve Martin, Mary McDonnell, Mary-Louise Parker and Alfre Woodard.  So you're going to see a lot of Kevin Kline on this list--he just plays these great introspective characters trying to be stand up guys.  I like that.  I feel like all his characters could be Jesuit educated--men for others but also tortured by questions over what exactly that means. 

There's also this great scene where Kline explains why he's trying to get to know Danny Glover--because Glover saves his life and he can't help but wonder why people get placed in each other's path at certain key moments.  I do the same thing.  I don't let chance encounters pass me by and I wonder about the reasons behind them.  Maybe I try to make something out of nothing, which Glover seems to think Kline is doing, but I just think its wildly interesting why random people seem to have these disproportionately large impacts on your life sometimes. 

So, if you want good dialog and a nice story acted solidly by really good actors, this is worth checking out.  If you need action to keep you awake, you'll just have to wait to see Batman Begins this June 15th.