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

I am hyperventilating, this is like saying “I don’t like Star Wars because it’s set in space”

I can obvs understand not finding Vertigo compelling as a movie, but to focus on its plot as a basis of critique when the plot is literally an afterthought, an excuse to indulge in concepts around mood, themes, emotions, and ideas is just, I can’t, the plotline literally does not make sense and is incoherent and the movie does not care

low blow, lowbacca

 

Children of Men: I remember an interesting premise and the long takes but not much more than that.

Beauty and the Beast: Cute film from the height of Disney's re-emergence. Gaston looks an awful lot like the bad guy from their Ichabod Crane short.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: I saw Metallica some 30 yrs ago and was thrilled that they opened the show with "The Ecstacy of Gold".

Jaws: Spielberg re-invented the blockbuster and now summers are for smash hit films. I remember a long time ago thinking how ridiculous the mayor's actions were but had to be done to keep the film going. The past 3 years have shown how wrong I was.

Vertigo: Not my favorite Hitchcock nor the most fun. It's always listed in top ten lists but I prefer a handful of his other films.

Seen: 67/75
Thumbs Up: 57
Thumbs Down: 5
Meh: 5

 

You can read that as "the plot is not compelling and I don't think it does anything else sufficiently well to offset that" if you'd rather, but I thought it was implied.

 

The terror of sharks is, as Rogue said, the mystery of the ocean, the idea of this menace lurking unseen in the dark water, able to get you at any time. It’s like the monster under the bed, but real. There’s also the component of being totally out of your element. Sharks are the ultimate aquatic predator; we’re not even aquatic creatures. We’re more or less helpless in the water, unable to escape or to resist the predator effectively. It’s unlikely, but you can at least fantasize about fighting off or escaping a lion attack or a bear attack. But what are you going to do if a shark attacks you in the middle of the ocean? Put those together and they just press all the fear buttons so effectively.

I guess this leads into my point that Jaws is a super-effective, striking film. It’s so well crafted and just taps directly into the imagination. Great movie.

Children of Men is a very good film. It didn’t make as big an impression on me as on PG, obviously, but it’s very good!

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is another all-time film, a wildly entertaining, expansive revenge Western full of classic scenes. Regardless of which Leone film you like best, they’re all credible contenders for this list, but there’s a reason this is usually the consensus best.

Vertigo is a movie I’m just not as high on as others; it’s very good, but its moody atmosphere just doesn’t connect with me as well as some of Hitchcock’s other films.

Beauty and the Beast is another one of those childhood movies that is perfectly fine but I don’t care about it at all as an adult. I’m not consumed with Disney nostalgia and the film doesn’t contain anything that holds my interest or makes me think I should revisit it.

Spoiler

1. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
2. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
3. In the Mood for Love
4. Die Hard
5. The Thin Man
6. The Dark Knight
7. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
8. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
9. The Godfather Part II
10. The Third Man
11. Yojimbo
12. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
13. Jaws
14. The Apartment
15. Parasite
16. Bicycle Thieves
17. The Blues Brothers
18. Black Dynamite
19. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
20. No Country for Old Men
21. The Adventures of Robin Hood
22. Schindler’s List
23. A League of Their Own
24. Lawrence of Arabia
25. Casino
26. Witness
27. Rear Window
28. Airplane!
29. The Great Escape
30. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
31. Cinema Paradiso
32. Gattaca
33. Children of Men
34. Network
35. Do the Right Thing
36. Lost in Translation
37. Vertigo
38. Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace
39. Kingdom of Heaven: Director's Cut
40. Terminator 2: Judgment Day
41. The Silence of the Lambs
42. Muppet Treasure Island
43. Toy Story
44. Clue
45. Django Unchained
46. Malcolm X
47. Godzilla
48. E.T. the Extraterrestrial
49. Titanic
50. Full Metal Jacket
51. Beauty and the Beast
52. The Matrix
53. Duck Soup
54. Mary Poppins
55. Conan the Barbarian
56. Avengers: Endgame
57. The Wizard of Oz
58. Excalibur

1. Oldboy
2. Amadeus
3. Little Women
4. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
5. Superman: The Movie
6. Dark City
7. The Shining
8. Three Colors: Blue
   
9. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
10. National Lampoon's Vacation
11. Howl's Moving Castle
12. My Neighbor Totoro
13. Mulholland Drive
14. Dune
15. The Serpent and the Rainbow
16. Labyrinth
17. Transformers: The Movie

 

Haven't seen Vertigo or The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.



Beauty and The Beast... haven't seen it in ages, so it's not as fresh in my mind as other Disney classics of that era, but alas I remember really enjoying it, and for inspiring one of the best Simpsons song parodies:



.


3 1/2 out of 4.




Jaws... insanely iconic for great reason; might be John Williams best film theme, too. Favorite little thing...



.




The cigarette dangling from his mouth there... he doesn't drop it, despite the encounter! 4 out of 4.






Children of Men... might be the most depressing film I've ever seen in a theater, given on too eerily prescient it ended up being, and for the dehumanizing/sad imagery & themes present throughout the film. The cheeky British humor found in some scenes ("Now that's done with...") is a plus), and it's a wise decision that we never do see V unmasked. What happens with Julianne Moore early on, and the twist involving the characters she was involved with is a great plot device. Also great: the father to Kee's baby being unknown/not needed for the film to work; the focus there is on her. 2027 is less than 4-years away! 4 out of 4.

 

Just realized I mixed up/got a bit of V for Vendetta into my Children of Men review. Bizarre.

 

Vertigo is generally considered one of the greatest movies aver made, and rightfully so.

There aren't many movies using colors as brilliantly, among other things.

 

Beauty and the Beast is the only one of this group I haven’t seen.

Children of Men is okay. TGTBATU is one of my picks and obviously it’s my favourite in this group. Jaws I’ve seen at least once, but it didn’t have a great impact on me; I feel I’m due for another watch if so many people rate it so highly. Vertigo is a film I admire rather than enjoy, though it’s also got an incredibly atmospheric score that I love.

 

Watching Jaws now after we've had many people like the Mayor doing many stupid things during a crisis is definitely different. Makes his insistence on keeping those beaches open for the sake of capitalism quite real feeling now, sadly.

 

I never thought of Jaws as a metaphor for covid but yeah it kind of works. Look the shark can’t eat everybody. It will only get the old and weak probably so the beach stays open dammit.

 

Jaws is basically a perfect movie. I can't think of any flaws whatsoever. And it's vastly vastly vastly superior to its source material.

 

Omg yes. It's the first thing I think of when someone asks if a movie ever improved on its source material. I read the book when I was about 13 and was like wtf is this.

 

25. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
Directed by: Nicholas Meyer
55 Points, 4 Votes
Voter comments: There are no better Treks. I will fight you. I will spit my last breath at you ~Sarge

Good enough that hack writers working on Star Trek are still copying it 40 years later. Again and again. ~Darth Guy

"I feel...young."

Still the best Trek film. And Shatner's best work as an actor.





24. 12 Angry Men (1957)
Directed by: Sidney Lumet
55 Points, 4 Votes
Voter comments: A great demonstration of how a single instance can be used to explore broader themes about people. Thanks to both good directing and great performances, this does a great job of not being constrained, as a movie, by being set in a single room for most of the film yet also can make the characters feel trapped ~Lowbacca_1977

"It's always difficult to keep personal prejudice out of a thing like this. And wherever you run into it, prejudice always obscures the truth. I don't really know what the truth is. I don't suppose anybody will ever really know. Nine of us now seem to feel that the defendant is innocent, but we're just gambling on probabilities - we may be wrong. We may be trying to let a guilty man go free, I don't know. Nobody really can. But we have a reasonable doubt, and that's something that's very valuable in our system. No jury can declare a man guilty unless it's sure."

An excellent chamberpiece drama that still manages to feel relevant today.





23. The Shawshank Redemtion (1994)
Directed by: Frank Daranbont
56 Points, 4 Votes
Voter comments: None submitted

Never seen this one





22. Ghostbusters (1984)
Directed by: Ivan Reitman
56 Points, 6 Votes
Voter comments: A brilliantly structured, well rounded film with just the perfect cast. ~Fatburt

This might be me fave of all time. ~Dagobahsystem

The best of the franchise IMO. ~Lady_Belligerent

"Let's say this Twinkie represents all of the Psychokinetic Energy in the New York area. According to this morning's sample, it'll be a Twinkie...... 35 feet long and weighing approximately 600 lbs."

"That's a big twinkie."

A solid supernatural comedy, but it has never been one of my favorites.





21. Return of the Jedi (1983)
Directed by: Richard Marquand
58 Points, 4 Votes
Voter comments: My favorite Star Wars movie. Arguably the apex of optical special effects. And a hugely fun movie to see with an audience. ~Jedi_Sith_Smuggler_Droid

The best Star Wars ~Lowbacca_1977

I know, Ewoks, and Jabba's palace, those are the lowest points of the OT, but the throne room is the highest point of the whole SW saga ~Sarge

I grew up watching this. I know it isn't the best Star Wars but it is the one that gives me found childhood memories. ROTJ Special Edition is also THE movie that made me a Star Wars fan AND it is the movie I saw with a friend and this “hangout” directly lead to our best-friendness. This movie is love. ~JediYevette

"I'll not leave you here, I've got to save you."

"You already have, Luke. You were right. You were right about me. Tell your sister...you were right."

The scenes with Luke, Vader, and Palpatine in the throne room are the franchsie at its absolute best. The film surrounding those moments...isn't.

 

FRITZ LANG IN THE TOP 20! GET IN!

Anyway one of the few, like, legitimately interesting YouTube “essays” on a movie I ever saw argued that Ghostbusters is the only movie about nothing. This was not meant as an insult but more in the sense that… it’s… it’s kind of about nothing (other than making people laugh, obviously), and no character has an arc to speak of. Which I would say completely upended the way I watched it, but it didn’t. There was nothing to upend. I think that’s why none of the sequels have worked as well. Those sequels are all about something. The fools.

 

I suddenly have something to do tonight!

 

I never did quite give all my comments on the last batch. I do want to agree with IATI and solojones in regard to the Jaws novel, which is really not good. Reading the book after watching the movie is a real masterclass in how it's not all in the premise. The book has exactly the same premise, but it's just not executed well. And, yeah, I think that prior to COVID, there was always this small part of me that was just like, "It's really great, but Mayor Vaughan's actions are not really realistic." Unfortunately, we now know that's not true.

Vertigo was also one of my picks (meaning with Jaws & Vertigo, I got two of my picks back to back which is cool). I think one of the Hitchcock really is his ability to make movies across a broad range of tones & styles all while staying more or less within the boundary of the "thriller." Vertigo isn't his most fun film; it isn't his most propulsive or energetic; it isn't even his most suspenseful. I would venture to say it isn't his most "entertaining," whatever we want that to mean. It has really long, really slow passages where we're kind of just watching time pass while Scotty is watching Madeline - we're kind of the voyeur behind the voyeur, but, instead of being pulled into a mosaic of fascinating portraits like in Rear Window, we, and Scotty, are being lulled by the routine and by Bernard Hermann's phenomenal score which, despite having Psycho to compete with, is probably his best work. So, it is about that atmosphere and being pulled into that strange, hazy unreal quality to this movie. All of that is what I mean when I say it's really Hitch's most self-consciously "art" film. But he's still making a thriller, so that twist, which smartly gets put at the end of the second act instead of the movie as a whole, is a knock-out and that long climb up the staircase at the end is still one of Hitch's most nail-biting sequences. It was a moment where, despite having spent an entire movie with Scotty, I had no idea what he might do if/when he got to the top of those stairs. And, of course, what a dark, nasty ending. I also maintain that the nun suddenly rising out of the darkness, just this shape appearing out of nowhere, is maybe the scariest moment in a Hitchcock movie. My initial reaction was just a "WTF IS THAT" because it almost seems ghostly and there shouldn't be another character anywhere near them at that point. So, yeah, it's my pick for Hitchcock. Psycho is almost certainly my number two. They really do start clustering up after that. Just such a magnificent filmmaker.

Beauty and the Beast is one I haven't seen in ages, but I still remember really liking it and I did own the soundtrack for a long time, so I'm really familiar with the songs, more so than the parts of the movie that come between the songs. It is a beautifully animated film and some of the voice acting is phenomenal. I love Angela Lansbury and Jerry Orbach. And I think that, while Disney tried to duplicate this over and over, the title song from this is the high-water mark for the "Big Disney Ballad" genre. It's a genuinely lovely song. And I have to say that I think Gaston ending up being a character kind of ahead of his time in terms of his depiction of toxic masculinity. I mean, he's a tropey character, so characters like him have always existed, but they really perfected the tropes with Gaston and I think he's a better character on rewatches than I realized while first watching it as a kid.

The Good, the Bad & the Ugly is basically a perfect movie. Morricone's score, Leone's crazy directing style and you've got three genuinely iconic actors at the top of their game here. I think my favorite performance in this movie might actually be Eli Wallach who just goes absurdly over the top, but, man, it works. Eastwood is also doing really fine work too and making it look so easy that a lot of people kind of miss how good he is. And I think Lee Van Cleef is a really scary villain. It's great to watch him in For a Few Dollars More, playing a very sympathetic role, and then jump into this. He usually got type-cast as a villain, but he had a great range. That final three way showdown is one of the great climaxes in the history of movies; the cuts in that scene as it just builds and builds and builds. I like the way Leone handled violence in his movies, a long, long, sometimes slow, sometimes more intense build-up and then when the violence finally erupts, it's just an explosion and it's over in two seconds.

Children of Men I have never seen. So, I'm once again 4 thumbs up and 1 not seen, which seems to be the most common outcome on these batches of five for me for whatever reason.

Seen: 55/75; Thumbs Up: 52; Thumbs Down: 3.

EDIT: I should also say about Beauty & the Beast that one of the movie quotes I probably still use on a weekly basis is "Whoa slow down Maurice."

 

Sorry to hear you didn't have TNT growing up.

 

Khan
Good Trek

12 Angry Men
Great classic. Engaging from the get-go.

Shawshank Redemption
Very good. I have to watch it again one of these days

Ghostbusters
‘sOK

ROTJ
As everyone else says, the throne room scenes are the best of the best that the franchise has to offer.

 

I’ve never been a Star Trek guy. Haven’t seen Khan.

I am, however, a Star Wars guy. Shocking, I know. Return of the Jedi is an unfairly maligned film. Yes, the Ewoks are too cutesy. But the film opens with the fun, energetic rescue adventure at Jabba’s palace, moves on to the merely okay Endor mission, and wraps up with an okay land battle, fantastic space battle, and the throne room scenes that are absolute highlights of the series. Its low points aren’t all that low, and its high points are spectacular. Give it some respect.

As for 12 Angry Men, it’s a classic distillation of American ideals into the form of one-room-drama tension. A great film. And Ghostbusters is one of the funniest movies ever, putting a bunch of great performers together and letting them riff.

Shawshank is such a popular movie not because it’s really that great, but because it’s completely unobjectionable. It’s the vanilla ice cream of movies — it’s not really everybody’s first choice, but everyone can agree on it, the absence of hate propelling it to always score well. Its IMDB run as the highest-scoring movie, so overinterpreted and hyped into supposedly legendary status, simply reflects its totally uncontroversial quality. General audiences and sophisticated critics can both appreciate a humane, funny, cleverly twisty, feel-good movie well-executed. Its TNT saturation and the ludicrous “GREATEST MOVIE EVER” crowd have generated a backlash that has obscured the fact that, yes, its ubiquity and pop-culture status are somewhat annoying, but the film itself is a great, clever, well-crafted piece of entertainment, a very fine film. It doesn’t deserve to be scorned just because it’s overhyped.

Spoiler

1. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
2. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
3. In the Mood for Love
4. Die Hard
5. The Thin Man
6. The Dark Knight
7. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
8. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
9. The Godfather Part II
10. The Third Man
11. Yojimbo
12. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
13. Ghostbusters
14. Jaws
15. The Apartment
16. Parasite
17. Bicycle Thieves
18. The Blues Brothers
19. Black Dynamite
20. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
21. No Country for Old Men
22. The Adventures of Robin Hood
23. Schindler’s List
24. A League of Their Own
25. 12 Angry Men
26. Lawrence of Arabia
27. The Shawshank Redemption
28. Casino
29. Witness
30. Rear Window
31. Star Wars: Return of the Jedi
32. Airplane!
33. The Great Escape
34. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
35. Cinema Paradiso
36. Gattaca
37. Children of Men
38. Network
39. Do the Right Thing
40. Lost in Translation
41. Vertigo
42. Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace
43. Kingdom of Heaven: Director's Cut
44. Terminator 2: Judgment Day
45. The Silence of the Lambs
46. Muppet Treasure Island
47. Toy Story
48. Clue
49. Django Unchained
50. Malcolm X
51. Godzilla
52. E.T. the Extraterrestrial
53. Titanic
54. Full Metal Jacket
55. Beauty and the Beast
56. The Matrix
57. Duck Soup
58. Mary Poppins
59. Conan the Barbarian
60. Avengers: Endgame
61. The Wizard of Oz
62. Excalibur

1. Oldboy
2. Amadeus
3. Little Women
4. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
5. Superman: The Movie
6. Dark City
7. The Shining
8. Three Colors: Blue
   
9. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
10. National Lampoon's Vacation
11. Howl's Moving Castle
12. My Neighbor Totoro
13. Mulholland Drive
14. Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan
15. Dune
16. The Serpent and the Rainbow
17. Labyrinth
18. Transformers: The Movie

 

I... must resist ... cheap joke..


whatever you're doing - enjoy! (shut up, Punk!)