Top 5 Movies I Want to See But Are Not Easily Available (DVD or Bluray)

   specifically in the United States

1. Voyage to Italy  (Rossellini, 1954)
2. A Brighter Summer Day  (Yang, 1991)
3. Love Exposure  (Sono, 2008)
4. Two Weeks in Another Town  (Minnelli, 1962) – Warner Archive collection*
5. Arizona Dream  (Kusturica, 1993) – Warner Archive collection*

Honorable Mention: Norwegian Wood  (Hung, 2010) – available in the UK

*made to order dvds from Warner (but the quality is questionable)

I am excited for the Citizen Kane bluray Amazon Exclusive with The Magnificent Ambersons DVD (which is ludicrous that Ambersons is not on bluray, but at least it will be on DVD for the first time).

I will have to revise my Top Ten Movies That Need a Bluray Release since Kane is on the honorable mentions and The Three Colors Trilogy will be out on Criterion bluray in November.

The Third Place Club

Top Ten Third-Favorite Film 

from American Directors*

1. Manhattan  (Woody Allen, 1979)
2. The Long Goodbye  (Robert Altman, 1973)
3. North by Northwest  (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959)**
4. The Thin Red Line  (Terrence Malick, 1998)***
5. His Girl Friday  (Howard Hawks, 1940)
6. Sabrina  (Billy Wilder, 1954)****
7. Hard Eight  (Paul Thomas Anderson, 1996)
8. The Royal Tenenbaums  (Wes Anderson, 2001)
9. Taxi Driver  (Martin Scorsese, 1976)
10. Apocalypse Now  (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)

Honorable Mentions 

O Brother, Where Art Thou? (Coen), Memento (Nolan), Dazed and Confused (Linklater)

*  I'm mostly sure this is according to how much I like the director, not by movie.  To qualify for this list, I needed to have seen at least half of the director's body of work. Orson Welles should be on this list, but I need to see/rewatch more of his films past The Magnificent Ambersons. Sadly, I didn't consider Nicholas Ray, John Ford, and John Cassavetes for similar reasons.

** I am claiming Hitchcock for the US.

*** I have not seen his latest, The Tree of Life.

**** Yes, I snubbed Sunset Boulevard and Some Like It Hot for this.

Top Ten Alternative Musicals*

Not truly a musical or "music plays a major part in the narrative."

* Thanks to Smiley who started the thread in the Filmspotting Forums.

1. Nashville  (Altman, 1975)
2. Almost Famous  (Crowe, 2000)
3. The Commitments  (Parker, 1991)
4. A Mighty Wind  (Guest, 2003)
5. 24 Hour Party People  (Winterbottom, 2002)
6. Scott Pilgrim vs the World  (Wright, 2010)
7. Blue  (Kieslowski, 1994)
8. This Is Spinal Tap  (Reiner, 1984) - Netflix streaming
9. The Wedding Singer  (Coraci, 1988)
10.  High Fidelity  (Frears, 2000)

Honorable Mentions: The Thing Called Love; Topsy-Turvy Netflix streaming; Muriel’s Wedding Netflix streaming; Georgia; Sweet and Lowdown; O Brother Where Art Thou?; A Woman Is a Woman Netflix streaming, Pierrot le Fou (Godard plays with music and diegetic sound so well); Love Me or Leave Me, Once, Dancer in the Dark (really musicals); Shoot the Piano Player; Pulp Fiction Netflix streaming

Overlooked Picks (both are really musicals) 
Romance and Cigarettes and A Prairie Home Companion - hit each title for a trailer

Last revision: 8-21-11.

Top Five Films of 2010

2010: a good year for movies

 

Except for Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours*, I finally saw all of the 83^rd Academy Award’s Best Picture (2011 Oscar) nominees** during the past month. I still prefer Nicole Holofcener’s Please Give, while my Oscar list favorites are The Kids Are All Right, The Social Network, and Inception. I thought of adding Derek Cianfrance’s Blue Valentine to round out a Top Five list, but then remembered Scott Pilgrim vs. the World was also released this year***. The list is as follows:

1. Please Give  (Nicole Holofcener)
2. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World  (Edgar Wright)
3. The Kids Are All Right  (Lisa Cholodenko)
4. The Social Network  (David Fincher)
5. Inception  (Christopher Nolan)

Honorable Mentions: Blue Valentine, I Am Love, The Man From Nowhere, The Town, and Harry Potter: Deathly Hallows, Part 1 (maybe I'm nuts or just getting younger with old age?)

Guilty Pleasure: She's Out of My League

* My apologies to Mr. Boyle, who I think is a wonderful filmmaker (see Trainspotting, 28 Days Later, and Sunshine).

** Other Best Picture Oscar Nominees included True Grit, The Fighter, Winter’s Bone, The King’s Speech, Black Swan, Toy Story 3, and 127 Hours.

*** I have yet to see Animal Kingdom, Another Year, Everyone Else, The Illusionist, and Rabbit Hole--all 2010 releases.

The Best Comic Book Superhero Movies (revised Aug. 10)

I just saw X-Men: First Class and it’s awesome.

Why do the X-Men movies have the worse posters? 

This international poster for First Class is the best of the bad bunch.

Top Ten Superhero Comic Book Movies (*)

1. The Dark Knight (2008)
   
2. Spider-Man 2 (2004)
   
3. Iron Man (2008)
   
4. Watchmen (2009) **
   
5. Spider-Man (2002)
6. X2: X-Men United (2003)
   
7. X-Men (2000)
   
8. Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
9. X-Men: First Class (2011)
   
10. Hellboy (2004) 

Honorable Mentions
Batman Begins (2005), Iron Man 2 (2010), Thor (2011), and Fantastic Four (2005)

Let me know of your top ten or top five in the comments section.

* I tried to keep the list to contemporary/modern era films. I’m not counting Superman (Christopher Reeve, both one and two would be on this list).   Superman Returns should probably be an honorable mention too.  Christopher Nolan's Batmans are so real that they don't feel like superhero movies (i almost don't want to put them on the list--almost).

** I know Watchmen is an anti-superhero movie but it has superheroes nevertheless. I dis-included action movies based on comic books such as The Losers, Red, 300, Sin City, etc. (perhaps Kick-Ass? and Scott Pilgrim is not a superhero). 

Revision (6-25-11): moved X-Men First Class from 7 to 6, X2 from 9 to 7, and Batman Begins from 6 to 8. 
Revision (6-29-11): added X-Men at 8, bumped everything down, and moved Thor to honorable mention.  
The X-Men movies hold up a lot better than I had previously thought (re-watched them all on bluray).
Revision (8-10-11): revised the list to include Captain America and Hellboy; repositioned X-Men: First Class.

My Top Ten Films of All Time

A Criterion.

1. The General (Keaton)

2. The Purple Rose of Cairo (Allen)

3. Shoot the Piano Player (Truffaut)

4. Big Night (Tucci/Scott)

5. My Night at Maud’s (Rohmer)

6. The Shop Around the Corner (Lubitsch)

7. Red (Kieslowski)

8. Chungking Express (Wong)

9. In A Lonely Place (Ray) - only watch the first 40 seconds, spoiler after

10. Children of Paradise (Carne/Prevert) - a mashup, couldn't find a decent quality clip with subtitles

 
Sight & Sound conducts a poll every ten years…you know, the one with Citizen Kane on top (both by critics and directors). The (so-called) Greatest Films of All-Time List. It’s a good list.