My Cinema Heroes

Nominated for an Oscar for Film Editing, this one has always been a guilty pleasure of mine. Burt Reynolds is brilliant as Bo "Bandit" Darville, the role originally intended for Jerry Reed. Jackie Gleason improvises his way through into some fairly hairy moments. For the accolades about the editing and the talents on display from the actors, the real stand out for this movie for me is the soundtrack. Jerry Reed was an amazing guitarist and a great singer, but his songwriting is pitch perfect for this movie. East Bound And Down fits in the chase scenes incredibly well with a right balance of country sensibility and bluegrass beat for a high speed chase across multiple state lines. A classic of no-brain good-time movies.

Brilliant parody of sports movies and sport itself. Stone and Parker exemplify best friend spirit in this movie about an actual sport made by Zucker and some friends of his. Ernest Borgnine falls down in his role but the rest of the cast support exceedingly well.

Where do I start? I love this movie so much. Having a cast where you can look at most of the main players and say "Hey, that's soandso from whatsisface" can sometimes be a killer for a movie, but this one was full of unknowns that struck it big later (Matthew McConaughey, Ben Affleck, Renée Zellwegger, Milla Jovovich, etc). The casting is top notch with every single person pitching in to make this movie a ripper. Wiley Wiggins as Mitch Kramer is a let down, however , constantly playing with his hair or looking sheepish until it gets to the point where I want to give him a buzz cut and a sit down.

Cinematographically this movie is nothing special or inspiring. It lets the script, cast and soundtrack do all the work. They more than make up for it. This will always be one of my favourite films because it is just plain fun to watch and live in for an hour or so. Watch it.

Amazing film. Timeless. Well deserving of all of its accolades and more. Benigni's masterpiece juggles the comedy, tragedy and romance equally well as director, actor and script writer. Everything about this movie is perfect to me. Moments of sheer happiness, dejection, empathy, love and loss all blend into a seamless landscape of wartime Italy. This movie will stick in your head and change your life.

EDIT: I take it back, not quite perfect. It's not enough to detract a star from this film but there's a bit at the end where it's just painfully obvious that someone's forgotten a line. It's nitpicky, but it's too obvious to ignore. Otherwise brilliant.