reviewId int64 363k 588k | userId int64 33.9k 15.9M | itemId int64 1 1.42M | rating float64 1 10 | title stringlengths 1 10.9k ⌀ | content stringlengths 81 11.6k ⌀ |
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574,245 | 4,532,636 | 52,357 | 9 | Accomplished If Not " Fun " Hitchcock Drama | Considered by many to be Hitchcock's masterpiece , " Vertigo " may be tough to warm up to on a first viewing . It's an enigmatic and extremely slow-moving film , and it feels personal in ways that many of Hitchcock's other , more playful movies don't . You get the sense that Hitch is working through his personal demons... |
573,773 | 4,532,636 | 65,492 | 9 | I Love This Movie | If ever there was a love it or hate it film , this is it . " Brewster McCloud " is a glorious mess , an imperfect film in that fascinatingly imperfect way that only Robert Altman could pull off . I admit that much of my affection for this film lies in the fact that I studied it in a Robert Altman seminar ; each of us p... |
573,894 | 4,532,636 | 87,553 | 9 | A Rousing Film About a Bloody Subject | A visceral , kinetic and exciting film from Roland Joffe ( whatever happened to him ? ) . Set against the bloody backdrop of Cambodia during the civil war that saw the surge of the Khmer Rouge , " The Killing Fields " tells the story of an interpreter ( the non-actor Haing S . Ngor ) who befriends an American journalis... |
573,331 | 4,532,636 | 1,139,797 | 9 | An Eerily Beautiful Film About a Little Boy and His Vampire Girlfriend | An utterly unique and oddly beautiful Swedish film about the budding friendship between a 12-year-old boy and a female vampire that manages to be both morbid and sweet at the same time . Oskar is the sad little boy who lives a life of detached loneliness with his single mom . He's horribly bullied at school and sees hi... |
574,208 | 4,532,636 | 50,212 | 9 | A Beautiful Film About the Delicacy of Humanity | With " The Bridge on the River Kwai , " David Lean launched the string of " epics-with-a-soul " that would dominate the remainder of his career . In " Kwai , " Lean deftly juggles what seem like two entirely different movies to create one strong indictment of war's ability to strip men of their humanity . In one plot l... |
573,727 | 4,532,636 | 58,946 | 9 | An Astonishing and Authentic Examination of Terrorism | Wow , " The Battle of Algiers " really could have been made today , couldn't it ? I don't know if I should be comforted or disturbed that the events depicted in Gillo Pontecorvo's film so closely mirror those going on in the Middle East right now . On the one hand , it's comforting to realize that events and tensions t... |
574,377 | 4,532,636 | 32,484 | 9 | A Superb Hitchcock Thriller with a Healthy Dose of His Typical Playful Humour | Hitchcock was working at the top of his game in this dazzling thriller . Only he could create movies like this , that blend elements of romantic comedy and dark , grim realism to make something completely unique . Joel McCrea , an actor I've begun to like more and more , plays a writer who travels to Europe with the pu... |
574,373 | 4,532,636 | 460,791 | 9 | You May Find Yourself Falling for " The Fall " | A strange and wonderful film that's as much about the love of movie storytelling as it is anything else . Lee Pace plays a stuntman , Roy , who suffers an accident and winds up in a Los Angeles hospital , crippled and suicidally depressed . He befriends a little girl , Alexandria , who's in the hospital with a broken a... |
573,399 | 4,532,636 | 70,379 | 9 | The One That Started It All | Mean Streets is the film that put Martin Scorsese on the map and established him as a serious talent to watch . In many ways , Scorsese has simply been remaking the same story ever since this one , but I think that " Mean Streets " ( along with much of his 1970s work ) has a much grittier and authentic quality to it ... |
574,435 | 4,532,636 | 446,755 | 9 | A " Brief Encounter " for a New Generation | This simply gorgeous and scandalously overlooked 2006 release manages to be a sweeping old-fashioned Hollywood romance while completely avoiding the righteous bombast that usually makes movies like this so intolerable . Based on a novel by W . Somerset Maugham ( and apparently filmed at least once before with Greta Gar... |
574,113 | 4,532,636 | 27,652 | 9 | Vengeance Breeds Vengeance | Fury is a ferocious movie from Fritz Lang about the impulses that drive mob violence . It belongs in the same category as films like " The Ox-Bow Incident " and " 12 Angry Men " and other movies that show how a group of normally decent people can turn quickly to animals when they smell blood . Spencer Tracy plays Joe... |
574,070 | 4,532,636 | 47,296 | 9 | A Terrific Ensemble and Sizzling Direction Keep This Flawed Classic Watchable | On rewatching " On the Waterfront " recently , I found it to be preachy and schematic , more like a dose of medicine than a form of entertainment . However , I think that's what sometimes happens to socially relevant films when the context in which they first appeared is long past , and this fact should not be held aga... |
573,982 | 4,532,636 | 468,489 | 9 | A Remarkable Variation on the Teacher Saves Student Theme | Ryan Fleck's writing and directorial debut is sober and even somewhat glum , but it boasts a tremendous and committed performance from Ryan Gosling in the lead role ; an understated and sweet performance from the young actress Shareeka Epps in a supporting role ; and an intelligent , thoughtful , spare screenplay that ... |
574,045 | 4,532,636 | 1,155,592 | 9 | Beautiful Dreamer | In 1974 , Phillipe Petit walked a high wire between the two towers of NYC's World Trade Center and for a brief moment became a media sensation . " Man on Wire " is a documentary account of Petit's stunt , focusing primarily on the preparations for it and detailing how he and his team of four snuck on to the roof of the... |
574,148 | 4,532,636 | 475,276 | 9 | A Tough Watch , But Tremendously Well Done | In " United 93 , " the fictionalized account of what may have taken place on board the sole hijacked commercial airliner that did not reach its target on September 11 , 2001 , director Paul Greengrass has given us a clenched muscle of a movie . The film runs on pure adrenaline ; it's terse , lean and frank . It also ha... |
573,850 | 4,532,636 | 56,869 | 9 | Apocalypse Now | Psycho may have been the scariest Hitchcock film , but there is no film by the master of suspense more unsettling than " The Birds . " This enigmatic revenge-of-nature fable makes no effort to explain away its mysteries , and that's the most unsettling thing about it . What is nature seeking revenge for ? Why is the ... |
573,999 | 4,532,636 | 93,779 | 9 | A Uniquely Charming Fairy Tale | This utterly charming fairy tale for grownups proves that Rob Reiner and Ron Howard must have gone to the same school of film-making - - both are at their best when they're being light-heartedly whimsical , but make absolutely dreadful films when they try to get serious . This film wouldn't have been anywhere nearly as... |
574,315 | 4,532,636 | 10,323 | 9 | I Can Thank This Film for Inspiring My Favorite Film Genre | This German silent is frequently shown in film study classes ( which is indeed where I first saw it ) , so for many it may carry the taint of " homework , " but please don't let that keep you away from it . " The Cabinet of Dr . Caligari " is breathtaking , and you will not miss the presence of sound when you see what ... |
573,824 | 4,532,636 | 78,788 | 9 | This Movie Isn't About Vietnam ; It IS Vietnam | Francis Ford Coppola's extraordinary Vietnam film is deeply flawed , but in this case the flaws feel so right for the subject matter that they almost make the movie better . This movie is a perfect marrying of source material and directorial vision . Setting Joseph Conrad's " Heart of Darkness " against the backdrop of... |
574,051 | 4,532,636 | 107,507 | 9 | Allen and Keaton as Nick and Nora | If " Double Indemnity " had been adapted as a vehicle for the Marx Brothers , you might get " Manhattan Murder Mystery . " This underrated Woody Allen comedy is one of my favorite Allen films . Allen and Diane Keaton , still the best of his many leading ladies , play an upper class , snooty New York couple who go sleut... |
573,939 | 4,532,636 | 32,143 | 9 | Claws Out , Ladies | Lovers of glamorous bitch fests will have the time of their lives with this gem from 1939 . MGM's best female talent were assembled for this catty story about females good and bad , and all of the conniving , backstabbing , hissing and scratching that ensues whenever you have a group of ladies together at one time . Of... |
573,811 | 4,532,636 | 41,452 | 9 | All Is Not Well in Washington Square | A handsome , icy film adaptation of Henry James's novel " Washington Square . " Olivia de Havilland is a far cry from Melanie Wilkes as Catherine Sloper , a socially awkward ugly duckling who becomes the target of a gold digger , the dashing Morris Townsend ( Montgomery Clift ) , who loves the idea of Catherine's inher... |
574,180 | 4,532,636 | 420,087 | 9 | An Elegy for a Stunning Career | By now , Robert Altman films are a genre unto themselves . They have a language of their own , and there are people who either speak that language or don't . At this point in his career , I doubt that Altman is trying to win over any converts ( if he ever was ) . So let me say this about " A Prairie Home Companion " : ... |
573,512 | 4,532,636 | 477,348 | 9 | A Minor American Classic , Friendo | No Country for Old Men , the Coen brothers ' screen adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's nailbiter of a novel , is doggedly faithful to its source , which will please fans of the book , but which is also what limits it from achieving greatness . As it is , the movie will probably and deservedly be remembered as a minor cl... |
573,605 | 4,532,636 | 78,748 | 9 | In Space , No One Can See You Wet Your Pants | The film that can reduce grown men to tears , this movie scared the crap out of me the first time I saw it and still does . While its immediate sequel , James Cameron's " Aliens " ( 1986 ) is very good too , it's really more harrowing than frightening . Ridley Scott's original is just plain creepy as hell . It's rare t... |
574,088 | 4,532,636 | 109,348 | 9 | Guys and Dolls | Woody Allen sends up the world of Broadway and the gangsters who love it in this Runyonesque comedy , one of his very best . John Cusack is the Allen surrogate , a nebbish playwright who's struggling to remain true to his artistic vision amongst countless obstacles . Those obstacles include : a gangster's girlfriend ( ... |
574,047 | 4,532,636 | 20,122 | 9 | A Beautiful , Bittersweet Silent | This was my first exposure to Janet Gaynor , and I fell in love with her . She plays a poor , ragamuffin country girl who begins a timid romance with a wheelchair-bound WWI veteran ( Charles Farrell ) , against the stern wishes of her mother , who wants her to marry instead a swaggering bully . Director Frank Borzage k... |
573,962 | 4,532,636 | 78,754 | 9 | Razzle Dazzle ' Em | A never less than fascinating , barely fictionalized biopic about legendary choreographer and director Bob Fosse . The character in the movie is named Joe Gideon , but come on : he's in the middle of choreographing and directing a stage musical that looks an awful lot like " Chicago , " and he's in post-production on a... |
573,749 | 4,532,636 | 57,012 | 9 | Mein Fuhrer . . . . . I Can Walk ! | Dr . Strangelove had to have seemed strange indeed to 1964 audiences . This came out in the same year as colorful , old-fashioned Hollywood fare like " My Fair Lady " and " Mary Poppins . " Yet " Strangelove " is far from old-fashioned or even colorful . Kubrick's film is stark and cold with a documentary-like air to... |
573,690 | 4,532,636 | 14,611 | 9 | No Need to Worry About This Harold Lloyd Comedy | In " Why Worry ? " Harold Lloyd plays Harold von Pelham , a pampered and spoiled millionaire who has all the time in the world to worry about medical conditions that don't exist , and treat his smitten nurse and trusted valet as mere lackeys . He goes to a South American retreat for some much-needed rest and relaxation... |
574,122 | 4,532,636 | 76,786 | 9 | A Superb and Frightening Film | Visuals rule in Dario Argento's splendid fever dream of a movie , " Suspiria . " The plot , which concerns a young American ballerina studying at a European school for dance and slowly discovering that it's run by a coven of witches , crumbles at even the slightest examination . And the film comes to a major anticlimax... |
574,260 | 4,532,636 | 416,320 | 9 | Woody , Meet Mr . Hitchcock | Anyone who laments the fact that Alfred Hitchcock is no longer alive to make thrillers can rest easy - - - the Woodman is on the case . " Match Point " is a ghoulishly entertaining movie that threatens to become a rip-off of " An American Tragedy " mixed with " Crime and Punishment , " until Woody jerks the film in a t... |
573,757 | 4,532,636 | 26,029 | 9 | Early Hitchcock Is One of His Best | The 39 Steps is the best book Graham Greene never wrote . This classic thriller from Alfred Hitchcock has Greene's stamp all over it , though the famed author had nothing to do with it . It's got spy rings , a man implicated in a murder he didn't commit , a feisty and reluctant girl Friday and wonderfully atmospheric... |
573,626 | 4,532,636 | 286,244 | 9 | A Quirky Delight | It's kind of hard to describe " The Triplets of Belleville " other than to say that it's truly original . It made me long for the days of old-fashioned hand-drawn animation , the kind that Disney revolutionized before turning to CGI . Interestingly enough , there's a car chase scene toward the end of the film that remi... |
573,902 | 4,532,636 | 65,853 | 9 | Could Just Have Easily Been a Horror Movie | Acclaimed documentarian Fredrick Wiseman trains his notorious camera on the goings on of a hospital used primarily by people from a lower income bracket , and the results will likely sadden and horrify you . Wiseman is always skilled at making you think he's being totally objective ; it appears that he just turns his c... |
573,851 | 4,532,636 | 57,115 | 9 | A Simply Terrific Movie | Sorry ladies , but " The Great Escape " is the ultimate GUY movie . I'll never forget watching this movie when I was about ten or eleven , with my then super-cool brother-in-law , who I realize now was a bit of a slimeball but who at the time I looked up to for the very things that made him a slimeball . But lest you t... |
574,485 | 4,532,636 | 414,387 | 9 | Leave Your Expectations at the Door and Just Have Fun | Let's get this out of the way : this is not the A & E 5-hour version of Jane Austen's novel . This movie does not star Colin Firth . This version takes greater liberty with the Austen book than does the A & E version . Good , I'm glad that's behind us . Now just sit back and enjoy what happens to be a stellar film . Of... |
574,264 | 4,532,636 | 28,010 | 9 | The Screwiest of Screwball Comedies | O . k . , so maybe the absolute screwiest screwball comedy would be " Bringing Up Baby " from two years later , but " Godfrey " certainly runs a close second . If someone who didn't know what was meant by the term screwball comedy came to me and asked me to show them an example , I would pick either this film or " Baby... |
574,405 | 4,532,636 | 85,461 | 9 | Finney and Courtenay Work Wonders Together | The Dresser is a small but absolutely wonderful film , brilliantly acted by Albert Finney and Tom Courtenay . How in the world this tiny film attracted enough attention to garner five major Academy Award nominations back in 1983 is a mystery to me , but it's nice to know the Academy can be guilty of a display of good... |
573,899 | 4,532,636 | 31,885 | 9 | Every Film Student Knows This One | The Rules of the Game is one of those movies that would be easy to be disappointed by , because it's constantly lauded as one of the greatest movies ever made , and anyone who's spent any time studying film knows that at some point you have to see this movie if you're going to consider yourself a film connoisseur . W... |
573,942 | 4,532,636 | 69,762 | 9 | Malick's First Film Sets a High Standard | Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek are lovers on the lam in this , Terrence Malick's first feature film . Malick-directed movies seem to come around with less frequency than total solar eclipses , but he has almost always managed to produce a masterpiece when he finally gets around to it , and " Badlands " set the bar high ... |
574,407 | 4,532,636 | 67,927 | 9 | A Film That Never Sits Still | Vanishing Point is the counter culture movie to end all counter culture movies . It's got it all - - the grizzled , moody anti-hero ; the rebellion against authority ; the naked hippies ; the criticism of racial oppression ; the bleak , " what's the point of it all ? " existential angst . But first and foremost , " V... |
573,986 | 4,532,636 | 65,988 | 9 | Sprawling , Uneven , But Quite Remarkable | Little Big Man is highly uneven , but always fascinating . Arthur Penn directed this picaresque tall tale about a man ( played by Dustin Hoffman ) who experiences first-hand much of America's ugly history in the late 19th and early 20th centuries . Narrated by the man years after the principal events of the film have... |
574,013 | 4,532,636 | 212,604 | 9 | You May Never Have Heard of This Movie , But It's Well Worth Your Time | A fine little family drama I had never heard of , but which I'm now completely glad that I've seen . The title character of " Tully " is a young man struggling to come of age on the farm he works with his father and younger brother . Rebellious in spirit and darkly good looking , he's more socially and sexually experie... |
574,177 | 4,532,636 | 18,455 | 9 | A Beautiful Sunrise | You'll have to suspend a whole lot of disbelief in order to fully enjoy F . W . Murnau's classic silent , but that's the point . " Sunrise " takes place in a fairy tale world in which love always triumphs in the end . The film's subtitle , " A Song of Two Humans , " is an apt description , as " Sunrise " feels more lik... |
573,738 | 4,532,636 | 88,846 | 9 | It's Monty Python Meets George Orwell and Aldous Huxley | An audacious film , and one that was just born to be a cult classic . I've only seen " Brazil " once , but once was enough to make me fall in love with it , and I'm sure it's the kind of movie that just gets better and better the more you see it . Jonathan Pryce plays the man trapped in a dystopian future that looks li... |
573,792 | 4,532,636 | 107,822 | 9 | One of the Best Films of 1993 | A lot of audiences didn't quite know what to make of " The Piano " upon its initial release , which I think is a testament to its originality . I really hadn't seen anything quite like this movie and was riveted on my first go around with it . Jane Campion wrote and directed this story about a mute woman arranged to ma... |
574,503 | 4,532,636 | 81,283 | 9 | A Powerful and Dead-On Portrayal of Intense Family Dysfunction | A searing dysfunctional family drama that holds up very well today . Living on Chicago's north shore as I do , I can say with authority that this movie completely nails a certain kind of affluent north shore community that exists in Chicago suburbs like Lake Forest , Winnetka , Highland Park , etc . , places where peop... |
574,325 | 4,532,636 | 69,281 | 9 | A Funhouse of a Movie | This late entry in veteran director Joseph L . Mankiewicz's oeuvre proved that the old guy still had it . By now , it's probably not spoiling anything to reveal that " Sleuth " is a two-man movie , with Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine playing all of the roles with the help of some masterful makeup work . This cat-an... |
574,366 | 4,532,636 | 29,583 | 9 | Longing for the Days of Hand-Drawn Animation | Watching this first feature length Disney film is a reminder that today's slick computer-generated Pixar movies come at the expense of hand-drawn artistry . " Snow White " is horribly dated in some ways , especially apparent whenever Snow White herself breaks into that piercing , warbly soprano to sing some very famili... |
573,802 | 4,532,636 | 64,040 | 9 | Could Have Been Called " Army of the Dead " | Jean-Pierre Melville's " Army of Shadows " is a sombre film about the French Resistance during WWII . It's yet one more movie that makes me feel like I have a terrible grasp of history , as I knew virtually nothing about the movement before seeing this . Melville himself was a member of the Resistance , so I can only a... |
573,928 | 4,532,636 | 110,057 | 9 | Utterly Absorbing Documentary | Engrossing documentary about two inner city kids and their struggles to make it into professional basketball . " Hoop Dreams " made a big splash when it was released in 1994 , and there was a big controversy around Academy Award time when it was deemed ineligible in the Best Documentary category . It likely would have ... |
574,200 | 4,532,636 | 60,176 | 9 | Further Proof That Swinging London Was a Myth | Perhaps the most accessible film Michelangelo Antonioni ever made , " Blowup " joins the same year's " Alfie " to create a set of movie bookends that puncture the idea of a free and swinging 1960s London where one's personal actions have no consequences on others . " Blowup , " however , is a much more intellectually c... |
573,985 | 4,532,636 | 443,706 | 9 | Not Your Average Serial Killer Movie ( And That's a Good Thing ) | Zodiac may frustrate viewers who come to David Fincher's latest film expecting a traditional serial killer thriller . The film begins with a couple of hair-raising and rather brutal recreations of murders carried out by the mysterious killer who terrorized the San Francisco Bay area in the late 1960s and early 1970s ... |
573,781 | 4,532,636 | 36,172 | 9 | A Hilarious Housing Shortage | This is a wonderful comedy that uses the housing shortage in war-time Washington , D . C . to comic advantage . Jean Arthur won her sole Academy Award nomination for this performance , and my only quibble with that is that she was only recognized by the Academy once . She's absolutely adorable here as a type-A career w... |
574,324 | 4,532,636 | 69,198 | 9 | Jesus Christ or Jack the Ripper ? Or Just Peter O'Toole ? | No other actor has had a career filled with more idiosyncratic roles than Peter O'Toole , and his role in " The Ruling Class " is perhaps the most idiosyncratic of them all . O'Toole plays the heir to a British House of Lords who dies accidentally ( and bizarrely ) , leaving his family to hash out the estate . The fami... |
573,672 | 4,532,636 | 31,742 | 9 | Hits You Like a Gut Punch | This screen adaptation of the John Steinbeck classic novel is a harsh , fantastic film that took the wind out of me with its frank and brutal depiction of desperation and longing . Movies about the Depression that were actually made at the time of the Depression by people who knew of what they spoke by necessity feel s... |
574,338 | 4,532,636 | 333,766 | 9 | Terrific Debut | Garden State is an excellent first effort for Zach Braff : personal , textured and authentic . There are really only a couple of scenes ( his reconciliation with his father and the soliloquy delivered by Denis O'Hare's character ) that feel clunky and too pat . The rest of the film is notable for how realistic it fee... |
574,307 | 4,532,636 | 74,958 | 9 | Sidney Lumet Sees Into the Future of American Broadcasting | Network is hard to describe . It's not hard to see why Sidney Lumet's acidic tirade about American news networks caused a sensation back when it was released . The famous refrain that becomes the mantra of Peter Finch's character , a news anchor who has lost his stomach for the kind of crap he's asked to spew out nig... |
573,895 | 4,532,636 | 86,879 | 9 | Rock Me , Amadeus | Milos Forman serves up a deliciously macabre film based on the Peter Schaffer play about brilliant composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and lesser composer and Mozart arch rival Antonio Salieri . This is Salieri's story much more than it is Mozart's . More than anything , the film is a study of the devouring envy one artis... |
573,659 | 4,532,636 | 31,679 | 9 | Every Man Against the Bigwigs | The term Capraesque when applied to film has come to mean sentimental , cosy and idealistic . But under many of Capra's superficially simplistic stories lurked a seed of angry bitterness . The desperation of the Great Depression is acutely palpable underneath the screwball romance exterior of " It Happened One Night , ... |
573,933 | 4,532,636 | 109,707 | 9 | One Mad Genius Salutes Another | Vies with " Edward Scissorhands " as my favorite Tim Burton film - - though " Scissorhands " wins in a squeaker . Burton was not above poking fun at infamous good bad movie director Wood , but you can tell he also obviously has some affection for the guy , and even admires his dedication to the craft . That makes all t... |
573,901 | 4,532,636 | 183,416 | 9 | Funny But Sad | If you're wondering why Paul Anka refuses to throw in the towel and admit that his time in the spotlight is over ( have you heard his recent rendition of " Eye of the Tiger " sung as if he's performing in a piano lounge ? ) just watch " Lonely Boy " for your answer . How could anyone keep their head firmly below the cl... |
573,641 | 4,532,636 | 55,614 | 9 | Romeo and Juliet : The Musical | This film version of the classic Broadway musical is hopelessly dated , but that's more a testament to how timely the material was than it is a criticism . Of course the image of gang violence portrayed here comes across as unbelievably quaint now , but compare this film musical to any other film musical of the time to... |
574,370 | 4,532,636 | 42,546 | 9 | James Stewart and His Giant Bunny Are Absolutely Charming | James Stewart plays gentle soul Elwood P . Dowd in this charming , benevolent comedy spiced with hints of fantasy . Elwood is an eccentric man who consorts with an invisible 6 foot tall ( or 6 ' 3 " tall , to be exact ) rabbit named Harvey , much to the dismay of his sister and niece . They spend much of the film tryin... |
573,709 | 4,532,636 | 923,752 | 9 | The Battle to Be Mr . Kong | A film that will make you ask the question : " Are there really people like this living out there in the world ? " " The King of Kong " chronicles the ongoing rivalry between two celebrities of the video gaming world : nice guy Steve Wiebe ( pronounced WEE-bee ) and jackass Billy Mitchell , world record holder for his ... |
573,981 | 4,532,636 | 67,411 | 9 | Altman Takes on the Wild West | Robert Altman puts his unique spin on the Western , and gives us a haunting and mournful film , and one of the best in his canon . Warren Beatty buries himself underneath a bushy beard and an enormous fur coat to play McCabe , an opportunist who considers himself to have much more business savvy than he actually does .... |
573,987 | 4,532,636 | 44,789 | 9 | One of My Favorites | This vaulted to the top of my list of favorite films noir the second it was over . This truly stylish and excellent little crime thriller stars John Payne as an ex-con who's framed for being involved with a bank robbery he had nothing to do with . Fueled by a sense of wronged justice , he tracks down the real culprits ... |
574,187 | 4,532,636 | 64,276 | 9 | The Myth of the American Dream | Easy Rider likely made a generation of young men want to take to the road on motorbikes , sticking it to the man and living the American dream . And today , it's viewed nostalgically as a relic from a simpler , more innocent time . But I think it's wrong to read the film this way , and robs it of much of its impact .... |
574,311 | 4,532,636 | 369,702 | 9 | A Powerful , Achingly Beautiful Movie | The Sea Inside is a refreshingly subtle polemic , if there can be such a thing . It has a clear agenda - - arguing in favor of humans ' right to die with dignity - - and it makes only the most minor attempt to address all sides of the right to die controversy , but it never preaches or gets bogged down in treacly sen... |
573,882 | 4,532,636 | 49,406 | 9 | Early Kubrick Robs the Bank | Stanley Kubrick directed this slick heist film early in his career , and it stands as one of the most exciting of the many crime thrillers released during the 1950s . Our friend Quentin Tarantino owes much to this film . Anyone who thinks Tarantino invented the gimmick of telling a story through topsy-turvy chronology ... |
573,598 | 4,532,636 | 107,688 | 9 | Nearly Perfect | The Nightmare Before Christmas gets better every time you see it . It's a little masterpiece of an animated film from the imagination of Tim Burton , and it's for people who want to gag whenever they see previews for the T . V . show " Seventh Heaven . " This ain't your standard Disney fare , but is rather a morbid a... |
574,423 | 4,532,636 | 121,766 | 9 | Lucas Finally Gets It Right | Third time is apparently the charm for Mr . Lucas , because " Revenge of the Sith " finally , FINALLY , feels like a " Star Wars " movie . " Attack of the Clones " was tons better than " The Phantom Menace , " and even " Menace " improves as part of the entire series when it doesn't have to stand alone , but " Sith " i... |
573,753 | 4,532,636 | 31,381 | 9 | Frankly . . . . This Is One Fine Movie | I know " Gone with the Wind " has been teased to death , and there seems to be a sort of snob appeal among the film critical community in denegrating this film as overblown Hollywood melodrama . But the thing that impresses me about " Gone with the Wind " after seeing it recently on the big screen is that it's one hell... |
573,384 | 4,532,636 | 104,348 | 9 | Enter the World of David Mamet | If there were any such thing as an Academy Award for best ensemble cast , this film would have won hands down in 1992 . What a crackerjack adaptation of the David Mamet play ! The dog eat dog ( or should that be shark eat shark ) world of uber-macho salesmen is brought to vivid life by a cast that includes Jack Lemmon ... |
574,420 | 4,532,636 | 53,604 | 9 | A Dark Romantic Comedy | Jack Lemmon plays a nice guy sad sack and Shirley MacLaine the wayward waif with whom he's smitten in Billy Wilder's bittersweet romantic comedy that's long on the bitter and short on the sweet . Wilder nails the sterile world of corporate American anonymity in this film . Lemmon's character is a worker bee , whose wor... |
573,557 | 4,532,636 | 467,406 | 9 | I Fell Hard for " Juno " | Juno is this year's " Little Miss Sunshine , " a tiny film with a gigantic heart . Ellen Page plays Juno ( NOT like the city in Alaska , as she makes very clear at one point ) , a sixteen year old who acts tougher and older than she really feels and who finds herself pregnant after one experimental romp in an easy ch... |
574,480 | 4,532,636 | 27,532 | 9 | A Minor Classic | Dodsworth is a disarmingly honest and frank depiction of a failed marriage , based on the Sinclair Lewis novel . Its naturalistic acting and its refusal to make its characters anything less than full-bodied human beings make it feel way ahead of its time . It's never mentioned along with other classic films of the pe... |
573,953 | 4,532,636 | 49,261 | 9 | A Huge and Hugely Satisfying Movie | Giant lives up to its name . This fascinating movie - - part Douglas Sirk melodrama , part historical epic , part art-house film - - follows the fortunes of a well-to-do rancher in the wide-open spaces of Texas ( Rock Hudson ) and his wife ( Elizabeth Taylor ) , city bred and unused to the rigors of ranching . It spa... |
574,163 | 4,532,636 | 40,662 | 9 | The Best Version of the Dickens Classic | It might surprise many who equate director David Lean with enormous sweeping epics like " Lawrence of Arabia " and " Doctor Zhivago " that he first came to American audiences ' attention in the mid-40s as director of quiet , small and very literary black and white films . He made what in my mind is the greatest romance... |
573,312 | 4,532,636 | 73,195 | 9 | You Know the Thing About a Shark , Chief ? . . . . . . | I can barely relax in a swimming pool to this day because of Steven Spielberg's ultimate shark movie . I've become a detractor of Spielberg in his more recent years as a director , but " Jaws " represents him doing what he does best : putting fun popcorn movies on screen and using his shameless powers of manipulation t... |
574,065 | 4,532,636 | 99,685 | 9 | One of the Ultimate Mobster Movies | When Martin Scorsese is at his best , no one can do a gangster movie like him , and " Goodfellas " is him at his best . Mind you , I don't think it's his best film ( for me , that title belongs to " Taxi Driver " ) , but it's a hugely entertaining and rollicking film that spends its first half making the world of mobst... |
574,272 | 4,532,636 | 436,613 | 9 | Play Ball | Murderball is an inspirational yet completely unsentimental documentary about quadriplegic rugby . Yes , you read that correctly . But if you're coming to this movie in the hopes of learning a lot about the sport , be warned - - - it's not really all that much about rugby , but rather about the lives of the men playi... |
573,421 | 4,532,636 | 82,096 | 9 | We All Live on a Nazi Submarine | Das Boot is one of those movies you think there's no way you could actually enjoy , and then find yourself totally engrossed in . A three-and-a-half hour film in German set almost completely on a submarine would not seem to have the makings of a gripping film , but gripping this film certainly is . Wolfgang Petersen ... |
574,284 | 4,532,636 | 97,123 | 9 | The Guilty Aren't Always Punished | Crimes and Misdemeanors is probably Woody Allen's darkest film , or at least it was until his British crime thriller duo of " Match Point " and " Cassandra's Dream " from the last couple of years . In fact , " Match Point " borrows heavily from " Crimes " and both borrow from Dreiser's " An American Tragedy . " Marti... |
574,280 | 4,532,636 | 55,852 | 9 | Spending Time with Cleo | The Cleo in " Cleo from 5 to 7 " is a frivolous , spoiled singer living in Paris . The 5 to 7 refers to the two hours ( roughly ) of the day we spend with her as she awaits the results of a medical test that will tell her whether or not she has cancer . During that time , we watch her pout , sulk , buy a hat , and goof... |
573,807 | 4,532,636 | 48,380 | 9 | A Movie About the Thanklessness of Leadership | What a wonderful movie ! I can't believe it's taken me this long to get around to seeing it . In a bit of convenient coincidence , I happened to be reading " The Caine Mutiny " at the same time that I saw " Mister Roberts , " and the two stories are kissing cousins . Both concern the tyrannical captain of a largely obs... |
573,306 | 4,532,636 | 805,564 | 9 | Lars Has an Anatomically Correct Girlfriend | Lo and behold , a film that still believes in simple human kindness . There's been a severe lack of that on our movie and television screens lately , which is why I found " Lars and the Real Girl " utterly irresistible . I imagine this is the kind of movie that's either going to work for you or it's not . I can guarant... |
573,990 | 4,532,636 | 44,509 | 9 | Classic Portrait of an Enabler | Daniel Mann directed this emotionally bruising screen adaptation of the William Inge play . Shirley Booth recreated her stage performance opposite Burt Lancaster , as a dowdy housewife stuck in the past , who's so devoted to taking care of every single need of her alcoholic husband that she's forgotten she has a life o... |
574,038 | 4,532,636 | 48,356 | 9 | Grow Old with Marty | One of those movies I didn't have a great deal of interest in , but after seeing it left me wondering why I didn't discover it sooner . Don't let the fact that this little film from 1955 won the Best Picture Academy Award keep you from discovering it yourself . God knows you'd be justified , given the Academy's track r... |
573,473 | 4,532,636 | 15,864 | 9 | One of Chaplin's Best | The Gold Rush , perhaps more than any other Chaplin film , best captures that elusive , sad quality about the little tramp that permeates so many of his films . What is it exactly that's so sad about Chaplin , given the fact that he's always doing something zany and laugh out loud funny ? It's that he always seems to... |
573,783 | 4,532,636 | 40,636 | 9 | Fast and Gritty | Nobody could use a city's atmosphere to his film's advantage better than Jules Dassin , and " The Naked City " joins " Night and the City " and " Rififi " in the long line of Dassin films that are worth watching for their location shooting alone . I don't know the T . V . series that this movie inspired , but the film ... |
573,405 | 4,532,636 | 34,587 | 9 | A Terrifically Spooky Drama | Val Lewton takes the Universal Pictures horror film idea and brings it to RKO , with tremendously improved results . " Cat People " is far superior to any of the horror offerings Universal dished up during the same time period . This superb chiller was helmed by Jacques Tourneur , director of what may have been the bes... |
573,404 | 4,532,636 | 436,697 | 9 | A Tour de Force for Helen Mirren in a Film That Deserves Her | I was in college when Princess Diana died in a sensational car accident , brought about by a flock of determined paparazzi . To be honest , I didn't pay that much attention to the events going on across the pond . I was really no more than a child for much of the time that Diana was capturing the imagination of the Ame... |
574,101 | 4,532,636 | 90,756 | 9 | David Lynch's Nightmare Version of Suburban America | This David Lynch chiller just may make your skin crawl . Ever wonder what rotting secrets lie buried underneath the picket fence perfection of suburban America ? Well , David Lynch is here to show you . " Blue Velvet " is actually one of Lynch's more accessible films in terms of linearity and conventional storytelling ... |
573,688 | 4,532,636 | 71,141 | 9 | A German Update of " All That Heaven Allows " | Rainer Werner Fassbinder's quietly powerful film is a sort-of remake of Douglas Sirk's " All That Heaven Allows , " a film and director greatly admired by Fassbinder , but it has a sharper edge than Sirk's film . In " Ali : Fear Eats the Soul , " the couple fighting a society's prejudice and resentment of their unconve... |
574,402 | 4,532,636 | 86,312 | 9 | Something Ain't Right in This Particular Nuclear Plant | Released at the height of America's nuclear disaster paranoia , " Silkwood " is one of those blue-collar one-against-the-many films that revolve around simple folk fighting corporate power and abuse as best they know how . Meryl Streep plays Karen Silkwood , who unlikely and reluctantly becomes a spokeswoman against la... |
573,780 | 4,532,636 | 427,312 | 10 | A Devastating and Profoundly Affecting Documentary | Grizzly Man is a mesmerizing but deeply unsettling account of the life and death of Timothy Treadwell , who lived for years with bears in the Alaskan peninsula until he was mauled and killed by one of them . Much of the footage director Werner Herzog has assembled was shot by Treadwell himself ; the rest comes from i... |
574,451 | 4,532,636 | 33,045 | 10 | A Nearly Perfect Little Romance | A warm , sweet and remarkably charming film about two antagonistic workers in the same shop ( James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan ) who are carrying on a romance via mailbox without either of them knowing it . The key to this film's success is that Ernst Lubitsch keeps any syrupy sentimentality absent and calls on his ... |
574,444 | 4,532,636 | 47,811 | 10 | Douglas Sirk at the Peak of His Artistry | Jane Wyman gives a winsome and luminous performance in this achingly beautiful Douglas Sirk weepie . Wyman plays a dutiful 1950s widow , going through the motions in a straight-laced , stifling suburb . Her children are college age and live away from home ; her life has settled into a boring routine . She falls for gar... |
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