Category: Movies

The Top Rated Movies of the Last 25 Years on the IMD

Posted on by


In a tribute to the 25 years of the Internet Movie Database’s existence /Film posted The Top Rated Movies of the Last 25 Years on the IMD.

Of the 25 films they selected, I’ve seen twenty.  Here they are with my thoughts on each…

  • 2012: Django Unchained: Good film but over-rated.

  • 2010: Inception: See Django Unchained.

  • 2009: Inglourious Basterds: Very violent and a bit long but wow, what a cool film.

  • 2008: The Dark Knight: The best Batman film ever and one of the best superhero films as well.

  • 2006: The Departed: Excellent crime movie and works for multiple viewings.

  • 2005: Batman Begins: Average film that doesn’t hold up on closer look.

  • 2003: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King: Well done.  Truth be told though all of the LotRs movies run together to me.

  • 2002: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers: See above.

  • 2001: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring: See above.

  • 2000: Memento: Inventive story-telling.  I want to watch this again soon.

  • 1999: Fight Club: I enjoyed this and look forward to watching it again someday.

  • 1998: Saving Private Ryan: Another classic.  Endlessly rewatchable.

  • 1996: Fargo: The Cohen Brothers hit another homer.

  • 1995: Se7en: Love this film and what an ending!

  • 1994: The Shawshank Redemption: Always felt this was over-rated.

  • 1993: Schindler’s List: Spielberg’s masterpiece.

  • 1992: Reservoir Dogs: Tarantino’s best work.

  • 1991: The Silence of the Lambs: A classic.  Anthony Hopkins was only on screen for a small amount of time, but he’s what comes to mind when you think of Silence of the Lambs which is even more impressive when you think about how good Jodie Foster and the rest of the cast were.

  • 1990: Goodfellas: I’ve grown to love this movie more with each reviewing.

‘THE GODFATHER’: A HISTORICAL CURIOSITY THAT PROVED INSTRUMENTAL FOR OUR FILMMAKING EDUCATION AND APPRECIATION

Posted on by

Those are Francis Ford Coppola’s notes from a page of Mario Puzo’s novel The Godfather.  If you’re a fan of The Godfather movies and love behind-the-scenes materials, then you’ll absolutely love Cinephilia and Beyond’s ‘THE GODFATHER’: A HISTORICAL CURIOSITY THAT PROVED INSTRUMENTAL FOR OUR FILMMAKING EDUCATION AND APPRECIATION.

If you click over, plan to stay a while because there are a treasure trove of Godfather items waiting.

EW’s The Top 25 Movies of the Last 25 Years

Posted on by


In a tribute to their 25 years of publishing, Entertainment Weekly selected their choices for The Top 25 Movies of the Last 25 Years.

Of the 25 films they selected, I’ve seen eleven.  Here they are with my thoughts on each…

  • Silence of the Lambs: A classic.  Anthony Hopkins was only on screen for a small amount of time, but he’s what comes to mind when you think of Silence of the Lambs which is even more impressive when you think about how good Jodie Foster and the rest of the cast were.

  • The Player: An under-rated film that doesn’t get a lot of talk.  All the cameos were a hoot.

  • The Piano:  I watched it years ago and remember not thinking much of it.

  • Pulp Fiction: Inspired a new generation of film-makers and re-energized Travolta’s career.

  • Boogie Nights: I always thought it was over-rated.

  • Saving Private Ryan: Another classic.  Endlessly rewatchable.

  • Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring: Well done.  Truth be told though all of the LotRs movies run together to me.

  • Memento(2001): Inventive story-telling.  I want to watch this again soon.

  • Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King: See my comments for LotR: The Fellowship of the Ring.

  • Letters From Iwo Jima: Not one of Clint’s best but still good.

  • Zero Dark Thirty (2012): A good movie that I felt was over-hyped.

The 25 Most Rewatchable Movies of All Time

Posted on by

Walt Hickey at FiveThirtyEight recently ran a survey to determine The 25 Most Rewatchable Movies of All Time.  From the submissions Hickey was able to determine the top 25 overall, the top 25 for men and the top 25 for women.

You might be surprised that the lists weren’t all that different…

  • All top 5 women’s choices made the men’s favorites list.
  • Four of the top 5 men’s choices made the women’s favorites list.  Only Pulp Fiction for the men couldn’t make the cut for the women.

There were quite a few movies that would have made my list of most rewatchable movies that didn’t make the cut for men or women: Enter the Dragon; The Big Heat; Get Carter [Stallone version]; Cabin in the Sky and The Outlaw Josey Wales just to name five.

13 Fascinating Facts About “Miller’s Crossing”

Posted on by

Matthew Jackson and Mental_Floss present 13 Fascinating Facts About Miller’s Crossing.  Here are three of my favorites…

2. THE COEN BROTHERS TURNED DOWN BATMAN TO MAKE MILLER’S CROSSING.
After Raising Arizona’s success established them as more than one-hit indie film wonders, the Coens had some options with regard to what project they could tackle next. Reportedly, their success meant that they were among the filmmakers being considered to make Batman for Warner Bros. Of course, the Coens ultimately decided to go the less commercial route, and Tim Burton ended up telling the story of The Dark Knight on the big screen.

8. GABRIEL BYRNE HAD TO CONVINCE THE COENS TO LET HIM KEEP HIS IRISH ACCENT.
Though he was an Irish native playing a lieutenant to an Irish mobster, the Coens did not originally want Gabriel Byrne to use his own accent in the film. Byrne argued that his dialoguewas structured in such a way that it was a good fit for his accent, and after he tried it, the Coens agreed. Ultimately, both Byrne and Finney used Irish accents in the film.

11. JON POLITO HAD TO CONVINCE THE COENS TO CAST HIM IN A DIFFERENT ROLE.
When Polito read the Miller’s Crossing script, he loved it and immediately wanted to audition for the role of Johnny Caspar. The Coens had different ideas, and were considering the 39-year-old actor for the role of Caspar’s enforcer, Eddie Dane, instead. The role of Caspar was originally supposed to go to an actor in his mid-50s, but Polito was adamant.

“Anyway, I said I won’t read for anything but Johnny Caspar,” Polito told The A.V. Club. “’And tell them that they’re gonna have to come back to me cause I’m gonna play Johnny.’”

The Coens ultimately gave in, and Polito was cast. They must have liked what they saw, too, because they ended up casting him in four more films after that.

13 Spooky Facts About “The Monster Squad”

Posted on by

Mark Mancini and Mental_Floss present 13 Spooky Facts About The Monster Squad.  Here are three of my favorites…

3. THE CREATURE DESIGNERS WORKED HARD TO AVOID LEGAL PROBLEMS WITH UNIVERSAL.
First and foremost, The Monster Squad is an affectionate tribute to Universal’s iconic horror movies of the 1930s, ‘40s, and ‘50s. Nevertheless, the studio passed on producing the film, which was ultimately picked up by TriStar. This forced The Monster Squad’s visual effects team to get creative.

“Although we were doing a movie that was a takeoff on the Universal classics,” said legendary monster creator Stan Winston, “… none of our designs infringed on the original designs of the Universal characters. There were subtle changes; we had to be sure that nothing about them could be considered a copyright infringement of a design.” Which is why Dracula has no Lugosi-esque widow’s peak, Frankenstein monster’s neck bolts have migrated to his temples, and Wolfman has pointy ears and a face that Dekker describes as “more lupine” than what Universal had come up with.

8. DUNCAN REGEHR BEAT OUT LIAM NEESON FOR THE ROLE OF DRACULA.
In 1986, Liam Neeson was still a relative unknown and, like many struggling actors, decided to try out for a horror movie. Apparently, he nailed his audition with a superb take on the Count. “We thought for sure we [were] going to hire this guy,” producer Jonathan Zimbert revealed inMonster Squad Forever. “Then Duncan came in and was not only as brilliant, but he was terrifying also.” Twenty years later, Wizard magazine named Regehr the “greatest Dracula of all time” for his chilling performance in The Monster Squad.

12. THE MOVIE SPENT JUST TWO WEEKS IN THEATERS.
Released on August 14, 1987, The Monster Squad was both a commercial and critical flop.Vincent Camby of The New York Times called it “a silly attempt to cross breed an Our Gangcomedy with a classic horror film, which usually means that both genres have reached the end of the line.” After a two-week theatrical run, the movie was pulled. However, it slowly built a following via video rentals and cable broadcasts.

Today, The Monster Squad commands a dedicated fan base. When the cast and crewreunited for a special two-night showing at Austin’s Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in 2006, both screenings sold out. As Dekker once put it, “It took 20 years for the movie to find its audience.”

13 Facts About L. Frank Baum’s Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Posted on by

Joy Lanzendorfer and Mental_Floss present 13 Facts About L. Frank Baum’s Wonderful Wizard of Oz.  Here are three of my favorites…

1. BAUM FRAMED THE PENCIL HE USED TO WRITE THE NOVEL.
L. Frank Baum—former chicken rancher, traveling salesman, and theater manager—had already published two successful children’s books when he started The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in 1898. He finished the book in October 1899. He must have been proud of his work, for he framed the pencil stub and hung it on the wall of his study. On the attached paper he scrawled, “With this pencil I wrote the manuscript of The Emerald City.”

2. HE GOT THE NAME “OZ” FROM HIS FILING CABINET.
At first, Baum had trouble coming up with a name for the magical land Dorothy visits. Then one day he found himself looking at the filing cabinet in his study. There were three drawers marked “A to G,” “H to N,” and “O to Z.” And so Oz was born.

9. THE BOOK SOLD OUT IN TWO WEEKS.
Full distribution began in August. According to the publisher, the first printing of 10,000 copies sold out in two weeks, followed by a second printing of 15,000 and a third printing of 10,000. In November, there was a fourth printing of 30,000 and in January, a fifth printing of 25,000. That’s 90,000 books in the first six months. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz remained a bestseller for two years.

The Other Frankenstein Monster: The Strange Fate of Glenn Strange

Posted on by

Quick, name the famous actor in the photo above who played Frankenstein.

Nope, it’s not Boris Karloff.  Try again.  No, he’s not Lon Chaney, Jr..  Try again.  No, it’s not Bela Lugosi either.  The actor playing Frankenstein in the photo above is Glenn Strange.

Although Glenn Strange played the Frankenstein monster three times (tying Karloff’s record), most folks seldom think of Glenn Strange when they think of Frankenstein.  In a career that spanned over 300 roles in 43 years, Strange was best known as Sam the Bartender on Gunsmoke.

If you’ve read this far, you’ll enjoy the short piece by Jim Knipfel titled The Other Frankenstein Monster: The Strange Fate of Glenn Strange at Den of Geek.

11 Expert Facts About “Leon: The Professional”

Posted on by

Tara Aquino and Mental_Floss present 11 Expert Facts About Leon: The Professional.  Here are three of my favorites…

1. NATALIE PORTMAN’S PARENTS WERE COMPLETELY AGAINST HER PLAYING MATHILDA.
It was an extremely complicated role for an 11-year-old: Not only would she have to deal with a broken home and violence, but she’d also have to deal with the unwanted sexualization of a young girl. In Starting Young, a documentary about Portman that’s included on the 10th anniversary DVD edition of Léon, the actress admits that after she read the script, she was so moved to tears by the film that she knew she had to have the role. Her parents weren’t as convinced. “My parents were like, ‘There is no way you’re doing this movie. This is absolutely inappropriate for a child your age … and I was like, ‘This is the greatest thing I’ve ever read! You’re gonna ruin my life!’” she shares in the doc. “[I] was basically just fighting with them so much.”

4. PORTMAN’S PARENTS ARE THE REASON WHY MATHILDA QUITS SMOKING IN THE FILM.
As per the agreement Portman’s parents outlined with Besson, the actress was allowed five fake cigarettes in her hand during the entire film shoot, and she was never allowed to inhale a single one of them. If you pay close attention to her character, you’ll see that she only puts the cigarette to her lips, but never blows smoke out. Additionally, her parents demanded that her character quit smoking at some point in the movie. In the film, Léon scolds Mathilda for smoking, and later you see her throwing her unfinished cigarette away when she’s alone.

10. BESSON HAS SHUT DOWN RUMORS THAT A SEQUEL IS IN THE WORKS.
So stop asking. During his press tour for Lucy, Besson told The Guardian, “You can’t imagine how many people ask me for a Léon sequel. Everywhere I go they ask me. If I was motivated by money, I would have done it a long time ago. But I don’t feel it.”

In an earlier interview with Cinema Blend, Besson elaborated on the topic, saying, “Natalie is old now, she’s a mother … It’s too late. If I got an idea tomorrow about a sequel, of course I would do it. But I never came up with something strong enough. I don’t want to do sequels for money; I want to do a sequel because it’s worth it. I want it to be as good or better than the original.”