50.)
Little Children (2006)Director: Todd Field
IMDB: 7.5
Cheating spouses, a registered sex offender, and a disgraced former police officer all have their lives intertwined in this drama. Kate Winslet (Best Actress Nomination) and Patrick Wilson play the steamy lovers who escape their marriages with each other, while Jackie Earle Haley gives a strong performance as a registered sex offender and garnered a Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. For those who do not like movies that have a lot of sex or sexual instances, then steer clear of this one.
49.)
Snatch (2000)Director: Guy Ritchie
IMDB: 8.3
A cast of characters try to get their hands on a priceless stolen diamond. Brad Pitt is hilarious in this movie as an Irish traveling boxer to go along with familiar players from Guy Ritchie's other films, like Vinnie Jones and Jason Statham. Not a lot goes right for many of the criminals involved and its important to know who you are double crossing before you do it.
48.)
The Dark Knight Rises (2012)Director: Christopher Nolan
IMDB: 8.4
A great finish to the Dark Knight Trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises picks up after the events of The Dark Knight. When I first heard Bane was going to be one of the main villains, I was nervous because of how he portrayed in the awful Batman & Robin. Tom Hardy committed so hard to the role that he damaged his voice and said he had difficulties after the vigorous training to get into physical shape. Anne Hathaway does a nice job and Christian Bale does his thing in his final turn at the caped crusader. The football scene in this movie is so cool and I could just watch it over and over again. Also, in that scene look for many familiar Pittsburgh Steelers as members of the Gotham team.
47.)
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)Director: Irvin Kershner
IMDB: 8.7
Growing up this was actually my least favorite of the original trilogy and it was Return of the Jedi that was my favorite. Empire has grown considerably on me and has taken over that top spot. Now some might be reacting like Anakin Skywalker at the end of Revenge of the Sith and are stunned to find Star Wars this low on the list, but it's number 47 out of over 4,300, so I'd say I like it alright. This movie arguably features some of the more quotable moments about fathers and knowing how much someone loves you.
46.)
Pan's Labyrinth (2006)Director: Guillermo del Toro
IMDB: 8.2
In Falangist Spain a young girl escapes her brutal stepfather through fantasy. At night she is greeted by a fairy who brings her to a faun that tells her she is a princess, but must complete three tasks to prove she is royalty. She meets a series of horrifying characters to accomplish these tasks before reaching a shocking end. Guillermo del Toro's imagination is so strong and the amazing creatures he and his team bring to life are breathtakingly disturbing.
45.)
12 Angry Men (1957)Director: Sidney Lumet
IMDB: 8.9
It's difficult for a film to hold audience when the location never changes, but this film does so brilliantly. Deliberating in the jury room after a trial, 12 jurors appear to have an open-and-shut case, but one juror (Henry Fonda) has his doubts. As the debate goes on, more and more come over to his side, but can they all get on the same page. Some are driven by ulterior motives and prejudices that cloud their judgment.
44.)
A Separation (2011)Director: Asghar Farahadi
IMDB: 8.3
I could not look away from this movie. Admittedly I tried to do something else, like fold laundry, but over the course of this movie I barely finished folding the one basket. A couple is trying to decide whether to stay in Iran or move to another country for the benefit for their family, but the husband is reluctant because of his ailing father who has Alzheimer's. This leads the wife to consider divorce and take her daughter with her for a better life.
43.)
Dead Poets Society (1989)Director: Peter Weir
IMDB: 8.1
"O Captain! My Captain!" Robin Williams brings an Oscar nominated performance to his role as John Keating, an English teacher who inspires his students to enjoy poetry through different perspectives. When I originally watched this the DVD I had skipped during a very important scene and suddenly someone was no longer in the movie. This aside, as an aspiring English teacher, I can only dream of having the same impact on my students.
42.)
Silver Linings Playbook (2012)Director: David O. Russell
IMDB: 7.7
Pat (Bradley Cooper) tries to put his life back together after an eight months stay in a mental hospital. He attempts to reconcile with his wife who left him and uses a woman he met at a party to try and give her a letter despite a restraining order. That woman is Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence) who is also mentally unstable after the loss of her husband. She agrees to deliver the letter on the condition that Pat will be her dance partner in an upcoming dance competition. That dance scene is gold and I was laughing so hard in theaters. Also, the Philadelphia Eagles play a big part in this movie, so it's a definite plus.
41.)
Whiplash (2014)Director: Damien Chazelle
IMDB: 8.5
Miles Teller plays a drummer who enrolls in a cut-throat music conservatory. One side note is that Teller actually does all his own drumming for the film which is very impressive. He is mentored an intense director who will stop at nothing to get everything from his students at risk of breaking them mentally. That director is played brilliantly by J.K. Simmons who earned an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. The two play perfectly off each other and when it comes to its peak, it's amazing.
40.)
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)Director: Sergio Leone
IMDB: 8.5
A mysterious stranger (Charles Bronson) joins a desperado (Jason Robards) to protect a woman (Claudia Cardinale) who's soon to be husband and children were killed by a ruthless gang on behalf of the railroad led by a man named Frank (Henry Fonda). Bronson brings one of the greatest characters to not only Westerns, but to any film, with Harmonica, the mysterious stranger. He opens the movie met with three men waiting for him to get off the train. The men are clearly there to kill him with one of the men saying "Looks like we're shy one horse". to which Harmonica replies, "You brought two too many." And that's how this movie starts.
39.)
Interstellar (2014)Director: Christopher Nolan
IMDB: 8.6
A team of explorers travel through a wormhole to save humanity. This is a mind-bending, time-bending, thrill ride that blends different aspects of the story beautifully. As usual for Christopher Nolan, it's visually striking and the end will bring you great satisfaction.
38.)
Remember the Titans (2000)Director: Boaz Yakin
IMDB: 7.8
My favorite football movie does lose a few points for its glaring inaccuracies. Had I not looked up the actual events this movie is based off of, then this easily would be much higher. A digestible film about racism, it's the football part and of course one of my favorites, Denzel Washington that make this movie for me. I watch this movie and I want to go out and point on some pads and hit somebody, but then I remember I'm not medically cleared to play contact sports. Seriously though, if you want some interesting tidbits, look up the actual events, this team steamrolled everyone and the final game wasn't even close.
37.)
The Godfather Part II (1974)Director: Francis Ford Coppola
IMDB: 9.0
36.)
The Godfather (1972)Director: Francis Ford Coppola
IMDB: 9.2
These two movies are classics and they are in the Top 5 in many filmmaking lists. The first Godfather runs through Marlon Brando with Al Pacino playing Michael Corleone, his son who has come back from World War II. After a tragedy strikes the family, Michael finds himself taking over the family business and seeking revenge against the men and entities that brought harm to his father.
The second movie picks up where the first left off, but also splices flashbacks of Don Vito Corleone, played by Brando originally, but the younger version getting an equally fantastic actor in Robert De Niro. It's the perfect cap for the two movies, whose one blemish is that they both run around three hours and at times it can feel like it.
However, both movies and even the disappointing third film, all have some of the greatest final minutes in movie history. Bodies pile up and loose ends are tied. I've also learned that if I'm in the mob, I should never go fishing and never use a toll booth.
35.)
Parasite (2019)Director: Bong Joon Ho
IMDB: 8.6
The first foreign language film to win Best Picture, this could suffer from recency bias, but there's just so many amazing things about this movie. Bong Joon Ho brings two different families together that juxtapose each other perfectly, one rich (the Parks) and one poor (the Kims). The son of the Kims gets a job with the Park family and slowly finds jobs for the rest of his family within the house and they begin to live off the rich family. However, there is a wild card within the house as well and at about the midway point, things begin to change for the Kim family. The ending of this movie had my jaw drop to the floor as I yelled in disbelief at the screen.
34.)
The Avengers (2012)Director: Joss Whedon
IMDB: 8.0
Groundbreaking for what a collective superhero movie should be, every character gets their fair share and it doesn't seemed forced. The Marvel Cinematic Universe was a gamble that paid off big time with this culmination of the previous films. The follow-ups in this series are great with Infinity War and Endgame just missing this list, but for me, none of those films are possible without the success of this one. It would be the best superhero movie had their not been an epic comic book film from Gotham about four years earlier.
33.)
Office Space (1999)Director: Mike Judge
IMDB: 7.7
The ultimate workplace comedy about a Peter (Ron Livingston) who is stuck in a dead end job and has a life changing experience after a hypnosis gone wrong. After that moment, he decides he's done with doing things the way people want him to, but instead, how he wants to. With the help of a couple of his co-workers, he looks to stick it to the man by skimming fractions of a penny from the corporate account. Of course the star of this whole movie is Milton portrayed wonderfully by Stephen Root, who is pushed aside and mistreated as he mutters under his breath about his injustices and what he'll do to make them right.
32.)
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966)Director: Sergio Leone
IMDB: 8.8
The Man with No Name Trilogy comes to an end as our hero (Clint Eastwood) squares off with two men, Angel Eyes (Lee Van Cliff), and Tuco (Eli Wallach) as they race to find buried treasure in a remote cemetery. The mood and tone of the film are easily set by a great score and Sergio Leone is at his best with this being his second Western on this list. The finale where the trio meet for one final gunfight is a fantastic scene and if you enjoy the expansive settings that Westerns provide, then this is the best of the best.
31.)
American History X (1998)Director: Tony Kaye
IMDB: 8.5
While there were some issues behind the scenes making this movie, it all came together for me in the end. Director Tony Kaye hated the released version of the film and was even banned from the editing room with Edward Norton given much of the say in the post production. While Norton himself has a reputation of being hard to work with, Kaye would be ostracized from Hollywood and mad music videos for the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Johnny Cash instead, though eventually finding audience acclaim for his 2011 film Detachment.
As for this movie, Norton plays a reformed Neo-Nazi that wants to prevent his brother from going down the same path as him before things go wrong. His brother (Edward Furlong) narrates through flashbacks (shot in black and white) about his brother's life before being placed in prison for the murder of two black men who attempted to steal his truck. We see the atrocities that he committed, including the very notorious curb stomping scene. In prison he meets an African-American man who helps him realize that he no longer feels the way he once did.
30.)
The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)Director: Wes Anderson
IMDB: 7.6
The first time I saw this movie was on Pay-Per View with my mom and we both hated it. Then I watched The Life Aquatic, and went back and watched it again about five years later with a better understanding of Wes Anderson's film style. As it stands now, Anderson is one of my favorite directors and this ensemble cast brings together a story about a family that come back together under the same roof for various reasons. It's goofy and eccentric and I love it.
29.)
L.A. Confidential (1997)Director: Curtis Hanson
IMDB: 8.2
I love film noir and this is top notch. If Titanic hadn't come out in the same year, I'm pretty sure this would have won Best Picture. Three 1950's Los Angeles police officers (Guy Pearce, Kevin Spacey, and Russell Crowe) all have their own unique ways of solving a murder spree. There's also the damsel in distress played so well by Kim Bassinger that she took home the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. Can any of the three men find out who's responsible or will they be crushed by the town's corruption and greed?
28.)
The Thing (1982)Director: John Carpenter
IMDB: 8.1
A movie that still makes me a little uneasy after several views, it's a must see for any fan of the Horror genre. Men at an Antarctica research base take in a dog from the cold that is not what it appears to be. Instead it's a shapeshifting creature that adapts to its host, but will do anything to protect itself once found. The effects and make-up are help bring the creature to life in amazing ways and the suspense brought on by the mystery of who is who comes to a head during a scene where the men are tied up to chairs and have their blood tested to expose the thing.
27.)
Life is Beautiful (1997)Director: Roberto Benigni
IMDB: 8.6
Finding laughter in unexpected places is one of my favorite things in movies, so this beautifully told, albeit sad, film about a Jewish Italian family in World War II brings out many emotions. Eventually the father and son are taken to a concentration camp where the father (Roberto Benigni) attempts to calm his sons fears by using humors to distract him for the horrors around them. The film took home three Oscars including Best Foreign Film and a Best Actor for Benigni. He also earned nominations for Best Director as well as Best Picture. It was only the third film at that point in time to be nominated for Best Picture and Best Foreign Film, joining Z (1969) and The Emigrants (1971).
26.)
Sin City (2005)Director(s)- Frank Miller, Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino
IMDB: 8.0
The pages of Frank Miller's Sin City comes to life on the big screen with spectacular results. Unlike anything that had come out at the time, several stories and characters intertwine and at times it brings sort of a noir feel to the film with it's black and white style splashed with color. An star studded lineup helps bring out the characters in this movie.
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