My Favorite Movies

What can i say? This is my favorite action movie of all. The only 'alien' movie anyone need ever watch (the rest of the sequels were pap - you're better off reading the original comics). I like this movie for a similar reason that i like Predator, watching a bunch of well-equipped, highly trained, super-gung ho yahoos get torn a new one by a supremely basic organism. And the end sequence with the exo-suit and the gaffa-taped pulse rifle has not been topped since. Hundreds have tried to emulate it, but have never gone anywhere near this film. Who said sequels are never as good as originals?

This movie not only introduced me to the comedy of Mike Meyers, it also actually showed me how to enjoy heavy metal. Moreover, this must be one of the biggest single sources of teenage slang offered up in the 90s. Anyone who used (or, like myself, continues to use) the following phrases owes this movie... "psycho hose beast", "the cream of some young guy", "she'd give a dog a bone", "sheah" (for indicating "obviously, yeah") or "shwing" (leave that definition up to you). Brilliant.

There's few criticisms i can think of this - sure, there were a lot of themes and topics that basically led nowhere and weren't about anything in particular, but there's just something about this movie, and the main character, that was something else. The soundtrack is also beautiful.

"It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead."
The stuff of teenage nightmares. A supreme sci fi film. Dark, foreboding, which, unlike the sequels, thankfully dispensed with the inevitable attempts at romanticizing robot / human relations, and trying to have a sense of humor. Even the time travel based plot is believable and logical. A complete classic.

Okay, so this isn't exactly heady intellectual territory, but for my money, this is the best Arnie film bar The Terminator. Muscular heroes (a'la Aliens) once again succumb to a single extraterrestrial, as it hunts them down one by one. The first time I saw this I was a frightened 13 year old literally poised on the edge of my seat for the whole film. Still stands up well too.

I'm tempted again to justify this film's lack of intellectual depth with some trivial explanation of it's plot, or the finer points of production. But other than that, i'm not going to. This is almost a direct adaptation of the comic, and that alone is enough for me to give it four stars. Do we regret that Spartan society is depicted without reference to the slaves (Helots) that kept it running while the men played warrior? Not really. There are also some holes on the historical side (at one stage the Leonidas mocks Athenian 'Philosophers and boy lovers'), but the Spartan Agoge (training) involved pairs between veterans and young boys - so they weren't averse to a bit of 'boy love' themselves. Historical innacuracies aside, an awesome movie, with superb impact generated by the combat scenes. Excellent.

One of my faves. Hard to translate the comic (even harder now that Mickey Rourke is apparently out of the sequel). Uncompromising, gritty, super-violent and thoroughly politically incorrect. Awesome.

Well then, this is the business. So far, it's a toss-up between this and '30 Days of Night' for my fave horror / thriller flick of the last year (my last year of viewing that is). I think this has the edge because the movie involves caving, which is scary enough, even without the flesh-eating homo-sapiens offshoots that menace the young ladies who end up having an extremely unlucky day. It's gruesome-tastic!