My Favorite Movies

A perfect movie (the original Japanese version, not the crappy remake)

farewell and adieu you fair spanish ladies...

Funny with brutal action and the coolest cast of villains of any movie I've seen.

First movie to ever make me cry (tear up anyway). I'll never forget it.

Cos. Poitier. Bellafonte. Pryor. It doesn't get better than that.

If I had (or ever have) daughters I'd want them to watch this, see Lillian Gish's performance, and know what true strength is.

My hair stands on end thinking of the neighbor coming into Jimmy Stewart's apartment, flashbulbs as Stewart's only weapons.

Magically real. Gritty, grimy, and weird. My favorite of the Clint Eastwood westerns. Gives new meaning to "painting the town red." A wild west ghost story that Pale Rider approaches but doesn't quite match.

Perhaps the most poignantly beautiful documentary I've ever watched. It gives me hope seeing what a few willing individuals can accomplish to change people's lives.

I get something new from this each time I watch it. Also one of the best soundtracks in Anime, and my favorite movie theme song of all time.

This movie was solely responsible for my seeking out Asian cinema (beyond string-fu) nearly 20 years ago. I saw it late night on Canadian television. It was probably the first time I'd seen a movie with a non-white American (or Western) cast that wasn't self-consciously "ethnic." And I came away feeling like I'd seen a lot of people whom I knew. A transforming experience from a light-comedy-mystery. Go figure?

Still, my favorite Bond...and the best Bond villain of all time.

The goofy dude from Scrubs directed THIS??? One of the most beautiful movies I've seen in recent years. Soundtrack is outta sight.

This ain't pee-your-pants funny, it's shit-your-pants funny!

Best Picture 2006, hands down. Fuck "The Departed"! Spike was robbed.

Richard Gere is the embodiment of evil. A better devil than Al Pacino played in The Devil's Advocate. Why is it that Andy Garcia seems at his best when his character is getting played like a fiddle (see also: The Untouchables, Ocean's Eleven, Darkness Falls on Manhattan)?

Required viewing

Haven't seen this in years, but remember it being so very poignant and beautiful.

Jet Li's finest in action, in spirit, philosophy, and hope. I wish he weren't retiring from action movies, but he went out on the highest of high's here.

I'm still speechless. I hadn't experienced a movie like this that made such a powerful impact on me since I first saw A Taxing Woman (see my review). Brutal, sad, poignant, but at times, so hilarious, so charming, and so hopeful. Again to be fully immersed and emotionally engaged outside the confines of the U.S. borders and it's color-scheme (pun intended) made it all the more powerful for me.

Probably my favorite Jimmy Stewart performance. And wonderful to see the legendary Duke Ellington on celluloid, despite the temerity of the filmmakers to 1) pretend that Jimmy Stewart could just hop in on trombone with him for a set, 2) relegate him to a "Casablanca Sam" type role, and 3) call him fucking "Pie-Eye". Perhaps that was the name of the juke joint bandleader's name in the novel, but still!?!? Ah well...can't have everything I suppose...but one can hope.

Thank you Bill Murray, for not turning into Chevy Chase. He portrays hangdog-faced suffering like no other.

I wish they'd done justice to A Prayer for Owen Meany the way they did so for The Cider House Rules film adaptation. Beautiful movie. Michael Kane's love for his orphaned charges chokes me up every time.

Mifune and Kurosawa at their FINEST!

One of my favorite movies based on one of my favorite comic books based on one of my favorite legends. You think ninja are cooler than samurai? Watch this then talk to me!

The story of San Te, the maker of the 36th Chamber of Shaolin! Bar none the best kung-fu flick ever. Gordon Liu is a beast with the 3-section staff!!!

I'd watch this movie every day if I could. My favorite performance by Don Cheadle, bar none. Not quite up to the book in terms of Easy Rawlin's wit and grit, but it remains one of my favorites.

one of the coolest movies I've ever seen. made me fall in love with franka potente. think of it as a controlled experiment of the butterfly effect. how the changing angle of the butterfly's wing modifies the tsunami it ultimately creates, and how love weathers its storms. if you haven't seen it, run out and rent it. it'll change your "not interested" to "5-stars" in the first 10 minutes.