Not in any particular order:
1) The Searchers -- One of the best Westerns of all time, truly memorable for John Wayne's somewhat disturbing turn as an Indian-hating cowboy out to slaughter those that killed his family.
2) Dark City -- Certainly a glorious accomplishment in production design, but the story was also extremely complex, and since director Alex Proyas didn't employ any big name actors (Kiefer Sutherland and William Hurt were the most recognizable at the time), star power didn't detract from how great the film is.
3) Babe: Pig in the City -- The sequel to Babe is a well-written fable that is much more dark than the original--this isn't a children's movie, although it is still populated with talking animals. Some very disturbing images populate the movie, and it is a terrific fantasy--like Dark City, production design is great.
4) Open Range -- Highly regarded amongst old-style Western fans, this great movie is overshadowed a bit by Kevin Costner's reputation. That said, he plays his role deliberately low-key, with Robert Duvall really given most of the meat of the movie. Very well-done Western in a time where Westerns just aren't that popular.
5) It Happened One Night -- Switching gears, this is possibly the best screwball comedies of the first half of the 20th century. Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert are perfect in their roles, as a newspaper man and a socialite, respectively.
6) To Have and Have Not -- Notable for the first time Humphrey Bogart starred in a movie with Lauren Bacall, who was half his age. As everyone knows, they would go on to marry. But that doesn't take away from the greatness of this adaptation of an Ernest Hemingway story, a sort of mariner Casablanca, with Bogart essentially playing Rick as if he was a sea captain.
7) Dead Alive -- Not for the faint of heart, this is one of Peter Jackson's first projects. Think Evil Dead, but with A LOT more blood and gore. I mean, A LOT. You'll never forget how to use a lawnmower as a weapon after watching this movie. (Trivia: In Jackson's King Kong, there is a direct reference to this film)
8) Sliding Doors -- I know this has been done as a Movie-A-Day, but I wanted to reiterate what a great movie this is. I'm not head-over-heels for Gwyneth, but she occasionally produces some great performances, and this one has a pretty good one. Interesting premise and very well-written.
9) The Third Man -- One of my favorite films. Joseph Cotten comes to Vienna, Austria, a mediocre pulp Western writer hoping to find some work with old friend Harry Lime, played with relish by Orson Welles, only to find that Lime has died the day before he arrived. Or is Lime really dead? Just an amazing piece of work and just as good today as it must have been 50 years ago.
10) City Lights -- It's a shame that silent films aren't that popular anymore, because this is the best of them. A masterpiece and really, proof of what movies are supposed to do -- tell a story onscreen and not on the page. An audience can really get how Charlie Chaplin's stigma has endured for so long. One of the best endings in the history of movies.
11) Much Ado About Nothing -- Back when Kenneth Branagh was making great Shakespeare movies (where is he now?), he made Henry V, this film, and Hamlet. All three are terrific, but none make Shakespeare as accessible to a layman than this film, which has a star-studded cast, and tons of airy and light laughs, more surprising since they come from Shakespeare's original text.
12) Halloween -- Some of the best horror movies ever made are pretty light on the gore (Exorcist and Rosemary's Baby chief amongst them), but Halloween was a slasher movie without any gore--and possible the scariest slasher movie of all time. A good horror movie should give you problems fallling asleep at night. The image of Michael Myers's mask is enough to keep someone up for days.
13) Captain Blood -- Errol Flynn's first big movie, and his first of many starring with Olivia de Havilland, this, along with The Sea Hawk, are generally considered the penultimate in pirate movies. And Flynn doesn't disappoint as an English doctor sold into slavery who escapes and becomes a notorious pirate. Great battles. (Trivia: In the basement of the Fratelli's hideout in The Goonies, Sloth is watching Captain Blood. However, the music cue that is heard is NOT from Captain Blood, but is actually reorchestrated music from another Flynn movie called The Adventures of Don Juan)
14) The Girl Next Door -- This is more of a recent guilty pleasure, but this movie really resonates with me probably because it's a teen adult movie. A movie for adults that keeps getting better with every viewing. From my point of view, it's not a teen movie, it's a movie that let's those of us no longer in high school relive those years--the characters are so well drawn that we have no problem doing it.
15) Peter Pan -- No, not the Disney version--this is the PJ Hogan version of a few years ago, and is the perfect movie for just getting away from it all. If movies are made to be fantasy, this is at the apex of that. Great soundtrack as well.
16) Three Kings -- A heist movie set during the Iraq war becomes much more than that halfway through. The acting is great throughout (with many recognizable actors) and by the time you reach the middle of the movie, you are enthralled.
17) The Silence of the Lambs -- Amazing acting, a great story and a frightening atmosphere punctuate this Best Picture winner, a triumph in pretty much every way possible.
18) The Green Mile -- Like Seven Samurai, this is a long film, but you don't really realize it until the credits come up. Tom Hanks again gives a nuanced performance, helped in part by great supporting roles by David Morse and the incredible Michael Clarke Duncan.
19) The Crimson Rivers -- A recent French film starring Jean Reno and Vincent Cassell as detectives investigating some grisly murders at a religious school in the Alps. Very atmospheric and a very "western" style make this one understandable almost without the subtitles.
20) Manhattan Murder Mystery -- This was the film that actually turned me on to Woody Allen movies, since before this I wasn't a fan. This movie is what an Annie Hall movie might have been. In fact, it is believed that in 1977, when Annie Hall was made, aspects of Manhattan Murder Mystery were included--he shelved that aspect and brought it back in the early 90s and created this one. Just a very funny and smart mystery story, with great performances, especially by Diane Keaton and Anjelica Huston.
What a conversation piece...
