 |
|
| #1 Casablanca | |
| Director: Michael Curtiz | |
| Release Date: 1942 | |
| Principal Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, Peter Lorre | |
| Casablanca has to be (or should be) on everyones's list of favorites. Everything is right about this film, and on top of that it for me it brings a load of memories of days gone by and of cold winter nights watching movies and drinking wine. | |
 |
|
 |
|
| #2 Blade Runner | |
| Director: Ridley Scott | |
| Release Date: 1982 | |
| Principal Cast: Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer | |
| Being a SiFi fan from way back, this film really hits my "You ain't gonna Like the future notion" right on the button; thirty five plus years later it is still hits home. | |
| |
|
 |
|
| #3 The African Queen | |
| Director: John Huston | |
| Release Date: 1951 | |
| Principal Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Katharine Hepburn | |
| Bogart was just the best, and here coupled with Katharine Hepburn you get a dynamic that is unequaled. I must say that it does break my heart when the bottles of gin go over board. | |
| |
|
 |
|
| #4 Delicatessen | |
| Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet | |
| Release Date: 1991 | |
| Principal Cast: Dominique Pinon, Marie-Laure Dougnac | |
| Jean-Pierre Jeunet has so much going on here, and while Delicatessen deals with a future gone wrong (a landlord/butcher that sells the meat of his tenants) the slapstick horror makes you laugh whether or not you want to. | |
| |
|
 |
|
| #5 Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb | |
| Director: Stanley Kubrick | |
| Release Date: 1964 | |
| Principal Cast: Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden, Slim Pickens | |
| One must wonder how many times during the Cold War this scenario was played out in real life to just short of the armageddon ending. As the sequence of events unfolds you find yourself laughing in spite of best efforts not to, and as the events race to the obvious ultimate holocaust you wonder if the leaders of the Super Powers might not be as insane as those in the movie. | |
| |
|
 |
|
| #6 La Battaglia di Algeri | |
| Director: Gillo Pontecorvo | |
| Release Date: 1966 | |
| Principal Cast: Brahim Hadjadj, Jean Martin | |
| This tail of the bloody French repression of the Algerian bid for independence at times looks for all the world like a documentary, but it is not; it is a riveting movie. It shows how the oppressor can win the battle while at the same time loosing the war. One of the best war movies ever. | |
| |
|
 |
|
| #7 Et maintenant on va oł? (Where do we go now?) | |
| Director: Nadine Labaki | |
| Release Date: 2011 | |
| Principal Cast: Claude Baz Moussawbaa, Layla Hakim, Nadine Labaki, Yvonne Maalouf | |
| In a small village in Lebanon inhabited by both Christians and Muslems surrounded by landmines except for a narrow bridge during the Civil War, the women try using various ruses to keep the men from taking up arms against each other. The village slowly spials into conflict even as the women remain united in their effort to keep peace. This is a beautiful tragicomedy. You will want to laugh and cry at the same time. | |
| |
|
 |
|
| #8 War of the Arrows | |
| Director: Kim Han-min | |
| Release Date: 2011 | |
| Principal Cast: Park Hae-il, Ryu Seung-Ryong, Moon Chae-won, Kim Mu-yeol | |
| This non-stop, action packed epic film is set in 17th Century Korea during the second Manchu invasion of the Joseon Dynasty. It is an excellent example of the high quality movies that are being produced in South Korea. | |
| |
|
 |
|
| #9 The English Patient | |
| Director: Anthony Minghella | |
| Release Date: 1996 | |
| Principal Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, Willem Dafoe, Kristin Scott Thomas | |
| Based on the book by Michael Ondaatje, this is a wonderful film of astounding dimensions. It won 9 well deserved Academy Awards. | |
| |
|
 |
|
| #10 The Usual Suspects | |
| Director: Bryan Singer | |
| Release Date: 1995 | |
| Principal Cast: Gabriel Byrne, Kevin Spacey, Stephen Baldwin, Benicio Del Toro, Kevin Pollak, Chazz Palminteri, Pete Postlethwaite | |
| Much has been made of this film for its surprise ending, but it is so much more than that. It moves on so many levels, has such depth of plot and has a tremendous cast. This movie can stand viewing time and again, and each time the viewer will come away with something new. | |
| |
|
Last updated on August 10, 2024
