Monday 28 May 2012

Jdanddiet's Top 100 Movies: 80-71



80.Starship Troopers (1997)
Laughably different from the novel source material, Starship Troopers was (and indeed still is) such gory, sadistic, violent fun, that it's impossible not to like. Well, unless you don't like that sort of thing of course...

79.Fight Club
...

78.Southern Comfort
Is it a metaphor for Vietnam? Most probably, but the gloomy, oppressive atmosphere and tight script concerning a National Guard maneouvre in the deep south that goes violently wrong makes Southern Comfort compulsive viewing.

77.Saw
Looooong before the franchise formed and became the ridiculous behemoth it is today, the original Saw was released on an unsuspecting audience and is actually a taut and well-written thriller. I've successfully ignored most of the sequels for fear of tarnishing its memory.

76.Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Robert Downey Jr is one of my favourite actors and he lights the screen here as Harry Lockhart, a man framed for an attempted assassination of the President. A great little thriller directed by famous 80's scribe Shane Black.

75.Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
It may have been hugely unpopular with Gene Roddenberry (who greatly objected to the militaristic tone of the movie), but Wrath of Khan was a massive hit and remains my favourite Star Trek movie to this day, so don't bother waiting for the one with the whales in this list.

74.Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
Kids movies, eh? Forced to endure 90 minutes of mindless sludge, with a colour pallet to make your eyes bleed and enough screaming characters and action to have you reaching for the paracetamol. Not this film. Cloudy is one of the best kids films out there, an intelligent mix of humour, fun, pathos and adventure.

73.Scream
Wes Craven may not have created a whole new genre, but you'd have thought he had, the way everyone banged on about Scream back in 1996. If you were going to pigeon-hole it, I'd say it's more thriller than horror movie, but from that famous opening scene onwards, it had me hooked...

72.Glengarry Glen Ross
Adopted from a stage play, Glengarry Glen Ross certainly has that stagey feel to it, yet the sharp script and sheer weight of talent in front of the camera clearly makes up for this, if it's a drawback at all.

71.The Prestige (2006)
Some films are just soaked in quality and 2006's The Prestige starring Christian Bale and Huge Action and directed by Christopher Nolan is certainly one such example. It's set in the late 19th Century as too rival magicians seek to out-do and compromise each other, and despite a twist towards the end that threatens to compromise the movie (some claim it ruined the plot), I would still watch it over and over again.

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