JCC Amph The JCC's Top 100 Films of All Time Part II: Street Fighter Boogaloo (Now Complete)

More rankings

Spoiler: Spoiler tagged because eventually this will stretch the page

1. Lawrence of Arabia (65)
2. Gattaca (61)
3. Kingdom of Heaven: Director's Cut (95)
4. The Dark Knight (64)
5. Airplane! (97)
6. Parasite (87)
7. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (68)
8. Do The Right Thing (83)
9. No Country for Old Men (66)
10. Network (76)
11. Toy Story (67)
12. Oldboy (73)
13. Malcolm X (72)
14. Schindler's List (58)
15. Bicycle Thieves (98)
16. Django Unchained (100)
17. Black Dynamite (78)
18. Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse (59)
19. Howl's Moving Castle (71)
20. Titanic (60)
21. The Great Escape (62)
22. Full Metal Jacket (92)
23. National Lampoon's Vacation (86)
24. Godzilla (70)
25. Superman: The Movie (82)
26. Casino (63)
27. Muppet Treasure Island (57)
28. The Blues Brothers (77)
29. Dune (79)
30. Transformers: The Movie (69)
31. Lost in Translation (85)
32. Little Women (81)
33. The Matrix (96)
34. Mary Poppins (93)
35. Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (89)

 

A fiver for me this batch. Besides my brief sumamrizes, I figure I'll repost (in collapsible tags) my full reviews for any films I have ones for.

Titanic (1997): Saw this 4 times during its original theatrical run, and have seen both 3D rereleases in the decades since. Part sweeping, historical epic, part romance across class lines, part disaster action film. Cameron combined all of these elements into an undeniable phenomenon that leveraged his interests and talents in effective ways. The film still succeeds to this day due to all of these facets. It may have cost us a true Terminator 3, but the film is still an achievement worth revisiting.

Into the Spider-verse (2018): Saw this twice in theaters (once in 3D). What more can be said? It's quickly become the likely contender for the best Spider-man film, and introduced a truly unique animation style that has pushed other animated projects to be more creative.

Schindler's List (1993): I was too young to see or be interested in this during its original threatrical release, but was fortunate to catch the rerelease in theaters 5 years ago. An emotionally devastating film. It's very hard to watch this more than a couple times (and you probably want to throw a decade or two in-between viewings), but it balances the documentarian, narrative, emotional & film craft qualities masterfully and should not be missed. Just make sure you are in the right mindset going in and maybe have a puppy on stand-by coming out.

Oh, and it's also insane that Spielberg made this and Jurassic Park at basically the same time.

Original Review:

Spoiler

Schindler's List (1993): 25th Anniversary Rerelease
Experience Format: Theatrical (Dolby Cinema)

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I couldn't pass up the opportunity to cross another film off my list of remaining Spielberg films to see theatrically (it's now down to 9, counting Duel but not counting Amblin), especially one of such importance, impact, relevance and carrying that overwhelming John Williams theme. And getting to see it in Dolby Cinema ensured it would pretty much be the sharpest possible picture quality I'll ever get to see this film in, in any environment.

And, man, did that extra clarity at that size enhance things at times. There's some kind of supernatural sharpness to the eyes of both Ralph and Liam at times that you swear there had to either be some kind of digital enhancement or contact lens at work. The still images I embedded above don't do it anything near approaching justice.

The performances are great all around- Liam conveys the change of the character well and Ralph is terrifying. Though, I had forgotten that Ben Kingsley was in this- which makes for an interesting viewing contrast this year, given that he played Adolf Eichmann in Operation Finale only a few months ago. And, despite the 3 hours and 15 min runtime, the film actually moves pretty fast. I mean, it's slow at first by design but, as things escalate, the film holds your attention from one act to the next that you really don't feel the weight of the runtime at all.

The film during this screening also opens with an introduction by Spielberg, talking about the film, how it led him to create the Shoah Fondation and the relevance of the film's themes to today's xenophobia. Interestingly, he ended it by specifically mentioning the experience would be in Dolby Cinema, so I'm curious if these screenings are exclusive to the Dolby Cinema format, the intro is exclusive to Dolby Cinema screenings or if he recorded multiple intros with different ending lines for the different screening formats (or, simply a a Dolby Cinema one and a generic-everything-else one).

The story itself is obviously powerful and will have you in tears by the end- there's not really much else you can say about it that hasn't been said (or felt) already. Probably the most impactful context I observed was one of dates and timeline calculations (surprise surprise):

The liquidation of the ghetto occurred in mid-March of 1943. My birthday is in late March. So, that event took place about 38 years before I was born. And I'll be turning 38 this coming March. So, that specific event is, effectively, only one of my (current) lifespans removed from when I was born.

Even with aspects of history repeating itself today, you always kinda think of WWII events as being much further in the past than they actually were and that the wheel of time must have longer spokes than it tends to actually have. So it’s useful to have these occasional mathematical reminders for continuing perspective.

Muppet Treasure Island (1996): I've only seen this once or twice on video, but it was basically the last "good" Muppet movie of the original and secondary runs of the franchise (Muppets From Space fell short of the premise's potential). It's by no means the best (Christmas Carol is a better "adaptation" Muppet movie, while Take Manhattan is probably the king of the franchise, even if I personally find Great Muppet Caper to be my favorite or, at the very least, a close second; the original Muppet Movie has never really clicked with me, though, so that tends to be towards the bottom of the list for me), but it is a solid entry with some memorable moments (the cabin fever song, for instance) and Tim Curry. Because, Tim Curry. I might have considered this a neautral rating but, it's still a good Muppet movie and it has Tim Curry, so it gets a thumbs-up.

Dark City (1998): So much I could say about this one, but I try to keep things vague as to the story because this really is the type of film where the less you now about it going in, the better. To the point that most people suggest muting the first 75 seconds of the theatrical cut to avoid the studio-forced opening narration- or by watching the extended Director's Cut that removed the narration.

The Director's Cut may not necessarily be definitively better (outside of the removal of said narration), as it does affect the pace a little. However, it does expand upon a lot of things, including a much larger investigative subplot by William Hurt's character that elaborates the sense of a mystery trying to be unraveled. That said, outside of the narration, the theatrical cut is still a fine film and the version that so many of us fell in love with (it would take a full decade before the long-rumored extended cut screened to distributors that whispered about by theater managers* would finally be released) and holds up just as solidly even in the face of the extra material.

The movie really struck at a perfect time- being on the forefront of bringing anime & graphic novel influences into the visual style of the film more than a year before The Matrix came out, while also combining it in a Metrolpolis-inspired sci-fi, neo-noir wrapper that leverages some of Proyas's music video flairs that he first demonstrated in The Crow. Ok, maybe not the absolute perfect time- it was released in the February dumping ground in the wake of Titanic's massive success, and was underpromoted despite being the first notable film release following Titanic. But that did put it in the right place to be an early DVD title that New Line would often cross-promote (hidden trailers for this, Lost in Space and Austin Powers would be found on many of their early disc releases).

It was a perfect time for me, though- coming out only months after I had first purchased a DVD player, having also been deep into film for over a year or two by that point, discovering certain genres of music and taking comic book illustration courses. Just a whole lot of interests converging at once. I probably recreated the trailer title logo in Photoshop a dozen times for fun in the lead-up to, and in the wake of, the film's release.

Speaking of which, the teaser trailer for the film is pretty awesome- perfectly building up and paying off the intriguing and mysterious visuals without dialogue or context. While I'd still suggest people avoid seeing the trailer before seeing the film so that they can go in as fresh as possible, it's still quite notable for the trailer form. This is also probably the first time I recall them releasing the trailer-only music on the soundtrack for the actual film alongside the score (which itself would go on to be reused for the trailers for X-Men and other films). In a time where hunting down trailer music cues on CD or MP3 was sometimes next to impossible, it was much appreciated.

I'll also note that, since this was the first film I ever saw Rufus Sewell in, it has always bewildered me that he's been typecast in villain roles for much of his career afterwards.

*Who'd have thought there'd be insider info to be had as a result of having bought a Dark City t-shirt and hat off of the official merch site and randomly having it spotted by one such manager?












Also worth noting that Proyas recently made a low-budget short film set in the same universe as Dark City, titled Mask of the Evil Apparition, as an exclusive for his indie film-focused youtube-like service Vidiverse.



Seen: 25 (of 45)/100
Thumbs Up: 17
Neutral: 7
Thumbs Down: 1

Ranking:

Spoiler

Thumbs Up:
-Dark City (1998)
-The Dark Knight (2008)
-Casino (1995)
-Titanic (1997)
-Schindler's List (1993)
-Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse (2018)
-Superman: The Movie (1978)
-Parasite (2019)
-The Matrix (1999)
-Airplane! (1980)
-Transformers: The Movie (1986)
-Mary Poppins (1964)
-Network (1976)
-Muppet Treasure Island (1996)
-Kingdom of Heaven: Director's Cut (2006)
-Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
-The Blues Brothers (1980)

Neutral:
-Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
-Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)
-Toy Story (1995)
-Dune (1984)
-National Lampoon's Vacation (1983)
-Django Unchained (2012)
-Full Metal Jacket (1987)

Thumbs Down:
-Lost in Translation (2003)

 

Not only is it a great movie, it gives you wonderful advice you should use everyday:

 

I'm gonna have to go with Interstella 5555: The Fivetory of the Fiveecret Fivetar Fiveystem

 

Best reason, it has Bill Pullman. @HanSolo29

Clue is amazing, I love Tim in this.

 

I'll have to pop in later with my full comments, but this is a solid group of films. Clue I'm not surprised over its inclusion- it's a classic with an incredible cast. But I'd echo that ALOTO's presence here is unexpected (it's still a great sports comedy with at least one iconic movie line, with a great cast and a premise that spawned a recent TV series remake).

I will also add that, minus the violence, Conan the Barbarian is the blueprint for what a live action Legend of Zelda film should be- minimal dialogue, heavily leaning on the music and visuals to elevate the epic mythology. In fact, throw in Labyrinth's (and a dash of The Dark Crystal's) puppetry and creature design while you're at it at you'd have it in a nutshell.