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#79 Once Upon A Time In America

1984

Staring

Jennifer Connelly, Robert De Niro, James Woods, Paul Bettany, Grace Hightower

I think to myself, "Ive got a couple of hours spare today, Ill watch another movie on the list, oh its a gangster movie, brilliant, I like them" (starts movie) "WTF!!!! its 3 HOURS AND 49 MINUTES long" Now, to quote Youtube "Aint nobody got time for that"

So I had to do this one in two sittings, I did consider it in 1, but after the first hour there was no chance of that happening. When this came out on the big screen, the whole world got their monies worth with this one, other than one country who were too uncultured to be able to sit and digest the complex intertwining's, flash backs and epicly long cut scenes, Never mins and endless ringing of a telephone for about the first 15 minutes. Of course America decided to cut the film by a whole 90 minutes, rendering it utter 'jibberish' just a car crash of random scenes forced together to create zero continuity and a story that makes little seance.

So I did endure the full version as the director had wanted, and my initial thought was "this is going to be slow" and it didnt disappoint, almost 4 grueling hours of my life spent watching this. It was long for a very good reason, to be able to fully tell the story that spans over 3 decades of the lives of a group of friends turn gangsters who form a bond like no other set of criminals, that takes the all the way from childhood to death.   

The scores

Visual
7/10 pretty standard

Sound
5/10 Nothing too sparkling here 

Acting
8/10 real good acting

Plot
5/10 So I love a good gangster film and this one didn't disappoint, apart from the length.

Ending
5/10 wasn't the best part of the movie, so a middle of the road score.

Final Score
30/50



Total Movie Minutes So Far ~ 2840

Next up - Lion King

  

#80 Star Wars : Return Of The Jedi

1983

Staring Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill and Carrie fisher 


Star Wars, do I need to explain this one? I think almost all of the population has seen a Star Wars movie, if you haven't, where have you been? In this installment to the Star Wars franchise we see a huge slimy slug type creature and some tiny bears, there are also some flying machines and a camp gold robot.

Return of the Jedi is the 6th movie in the series but turns out to be the 3rd I think?? Any way...
I feel obliged to really like Star Wars, but in reality, Im not that fond of it. I can sit and watch it, but im certainly no Star Wars convention goer...

The long and short of it is, Hans Solo (Hamill) gets captured by the giant slug Jabba the Hut. He gets cast in some life preserving metal type substance, and hung on the wall like a piece of art. It takes Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia to rescue him. Now spoiler alert) this "dark lord" Dartf Vader, happens to be Luke's father, Luke is trying to get him to see the light and leave the dark side.

Thats it really. Short and sweet.Moving Swiftly on.... 

The scores

Visual
8/10 Good set and costume designs

Sound
5/10 Standard 

Acting
6/10 middle of the park, not bad.

Plot
5/10 Im not a big space film fan.

Ending
5/10 yep, it had one.

Final Score
29/50



Total Movie Minutes So Far ~ 2611

Next up - Once Upon A Time In America

#81 Full Metal Jacket

1987

Here we go! This is what the top 100 should be like. I'm sure most people have seem full metal jacket before, I've seen it in parts and this was the first time I've watched it fully I'm ashamed to say.

Again I'm writing this on a plane, this time from Colombo to Dubai, I've been awake god knows how many hours so this may not make sense. On a side note I've decided I hate flying from Australia to the Uk, it's just far too far. I think it's about time Branson got his finger out and made space flights accessible to the non filthy rich pretty soon.

So if you didn't know full metal jacket is a war movie, some would say the best ever made. It's realism hits home and gets you in to the head of a marine and what they go through, from boot camp (paradise island) showing how the marines are broken down and then rebuilt as killing machines. unfortunately for 1 recruit it was all too much and he took his own life along with the commanding officer. The movie then follows the new recruits to Vietnam, where the marines are fighting a war that they don't even know what its for. Which quite often is the case. A testament to the script writers as this move has been sampled to death, from the Scratch Perverts (DJ's) sampling the "war face speech" to some rapper who I can't remember sampling "ah me so horny, me love you long time"

I love war movies and hate them at the same time, I have all respect in the world for the armed forces, what they do on a daily basis is truly amazing so seeing a war movie really do make you think what these men and women are putting themselves through, but on the other hand they make brilliant movies that keep you hooked with the right amount of violence ,suspense and true feelings.

This movie set the standard for every war movie after it, I think saving private Ryan came out after this and is on par as a fantastic movie.

The scores

Visual
8/10 A move that would make you think it was set in an actual war zone, good guts and gore.

Sound
5/10 Other than shooting not much to give scores for.


Acting
8/10 Every character is brilliant. 


Plot
7/10 A war movie not just about the fighting but about the mental torture a recruit goes through. 

Ending
7/10 classy. loved it, didn't want it to end!

Final Score
35/50

Best movie so far from the list in my opinion.


Total Movie Minutes So Far ~ 2477

Next up Star Wars: Return Of The Jedi (1983)

#82 LA Confidential

1997

Russell Crowe and Guy Pearce

Kevin Spacey

I'm pretty sure before I watched this someone told me I would hate it, well low and behold.... I really enjoyed it. Its all about 1950's LA and the corruption that goes on inside the police department.

The photos I have added are in black and white but the movie is in colour don't worry. Guy Pearce's character Ed Exley is a straight down the line cop, works to the letter of the law and is getting ahead by doing so in his career, unlike almost all of the other cops on the force who resent Ed for what he is doing, especially after he sells out one of the forces own. The total apposite to Ed is Russell Crowes character Bud White. Bent as a ten bob note much like the rest of the force he has forged his career on braking the rules, covering his tracks and making personal gains.

Thirdly we have Jack Vincennes ( Kevin Spacey) another old school cop who uses the law to his own advantage, and is hell bent on ruining Exley's clean cut image, this is until certain events cause this trio to team up and try and discover what murky past has caused the force to become so corrupt.

The only problem with this movie is....

James Cromwell

His acting is brilliant, im not taking anything away from that, its his god awful accent. F**k me, I couldn't stand to listen to him. I think he was trying to do an Irish/american accent, and his catch phrase of "boyo" infuriated me further.

The scores

Visual
7/10 you know what, this had some pretty good wound injuries and shot impact things (not sure how to explain this) the costumes cars etc were good.

Sound
4/10 Nothing interesting, I really don't like old 40's/50's music. I know they cant use modern music for a 50's film but still, I just don't like it.

Acting
8/10 Top draw, enough said

Plot
8/10 I personally really like stories or corruption and this was really well written and portrayed.

Ending
8/10 Best Part, I love it when a good story has an equally good ending.

Final Score
35/50

A really good watch this one. Settle in for a Sunday afternoon movie and see the hours fly by watching this classic.

Total Movie Minutes So Far ~ 2361



Next Up, Full Metal Jacket.

#83 Chinatown

1974

Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway

A young jack Nicholson stars as the main character in this crime thriller. Strangely this movie turns out to revolve around incest for the second time in the top 100, the other one was of course Oldboy.

This movie wasn't quite as gripping as Oldboy though, it for me anyway dragged a little, a good storyline and plot but slightly drawn out.

We follow JJ Gittes who is a private investigator, he is enlisted to spy on a rich woman's husband to see if he is having an affair, and as it turned out, yes he was. Once this news breaks in the paper, JJ finds out he wasn't enlisted by the wife at all, yet it was someone acting as her on behalf of a greater power.

JJ finally meets the real a wife once the husband is killed, he is then sent on a fact finding mission to find out who killed her husband and why. While he is trying to find the facts one of his old police friends is on his back trying to take him down for whit holding information regarding the death.

I watched this movie on a flight from Australia to Singapore to try and pass a few hours of the flight, but to be honest, it made the flight seem longer, I think it was partly the movie and the fact I was starving (left my wallet in my bag and I had the window seat so couldn't get to it). That aside it wasn't all bad, we had some boob action, some shooting and the sound track was pretty intense, to the point where it was trying to build the movie up to something it couldn't deliver.

Like a few movies from the era, the last 20 mins were crammed with the best parts, and the other hour and 50 minutes were filler to make you feel like you had got value for your money. Nicholson is by far the stand out actor with the leading lady close behind.

The scores

Visual
6/10 nothing awe inspiring, some good makeup when a certain character gets shot in the eye

Sound
5/10 this was good build up, but then took it too far, I laughed at one point, so it must have been bad.


Acting7/10 Nicholson acted with class, just a shame the movie wasn't up to his standard.


Plot7/10 the plot was good and had you guessing till the end, it was just dragged out.

Ending
7/10 Best part of the movie, very typical of a movie that predates 1990 (so far I have found anyway)

Final Score
32/50

Total Movie Minutes So Far ~ 2223
So again I'm not sure how this is on the top 100, there are many movies better than this, maybe it could be because of Nicholson, or the fact that it probably started to define a movie genre or that people who voted for it did so after a few years and look back in with with pleasant nostalgia.

Next up LA Confidential (1997)

#84 Braveheart

1995

Director and Star Mel Gibson

So Im sure almost everyone on the planet has seen this movie, so that means this Blog will be pretty easy to write, and pretty short. A little note to add though, as an Englishman I think we are portrayed in a bad light, I mean its not like Scotland are still trying to get Independence from us is it? In all fairness though, the English were a pretty ruthless lot back back. For a tiny little country we managed to, at one point in time or another, rule half of the world, now though we have given most of it back (because we are nice like that) and unfortunately we now have to help out America to win their wars for them, anyway I digress....

The story...

William Wallace is a wee Scottish boy at the start of this movie, He experiences his dad and other close family and friends be killed at the hands of the English, trying to fight for the freedom of Scotland. When he is older he secretly marries a girl, who is then killed for not letting an English guard rape her, this (as it would be for any man) was the last straw. William Wallace starts to build an army, firstly seeking revenge on anyone who has done him or his close friends harm. As word spreads about this army, he gets more and more recruits, eventually he has enough to start to take down the English, firstly starting with the outposts in Scotland and then moving through to York in England. Unfortunately Wallace is betrayed by a Scott who is offered land to give Wallace up.

I have seen this movie before maybe 10 years ago now, and I remembered it with fond memories, a great movie with a real passion behind it, telling a story that was essentially true, of how the Scottish wanted to rule their own land. Unfortunately watching it again slightly tainted it. I sure didn't remember how long it was, 3 hours it is, and I didn't quite remember the comedy deaths (and there are plenty) while in battle, But the parts that mattered, the emotion, the meaning behind it was still as brilliant as it was the first time I saw it. 


The Scores

Visual
7/10 - Great battle scenes, some gore and good costumes.

Sound
7/10 - This makes the movie what it is, big classical scores tell you what emotions you should be feeling.

Acting
7/10 - Good, by everyone, good.

Plot
8/10 - Bit crazy how the Scotts wanted to bite the hand that fed them ;)

Ending 
8/10 - Good ending, emotional!

Final Score

38/50

If you haven't seen it, where have you been? Get it watched.....

Total Movie Minutes So Far ~ 2093 (That's almost 35 hours by the way)

Next up is Chinatown (1974)

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Thanks, Luke.

#85 Oldboy (Oldeuboi)

2003

Min-sik Choi 

Hye-Jeong Kang (right)

Looking at the list so far this was the most modern movie,and  was looking forward to it, until I found out its a bloody Korean movie. I am no expert on Korean movies, nor do I think ive ever seen one, or even heard of one, but who knew Korea could make such a good movie like Oldboy. The movie is gripping, gritty and god damn brilliant! so good in fact, it is being remade this year by the Americans, Spike Lee as director and Samuel L Jackson as the lead. Ill be very interested to see how their adaptation of the move comes out, because the original has a very bizarre storyline.

The movie starts with Dae-su oh (Min-sik Choi) drunk in a police station, it shows him being loud and brash, constantly talking, and holding a present for his 3 year old daughter. His friend comes to bail him out and they set off home, on the way the use a payphone to call home and tell his family he will be home soon, while his friend is on the phone Dae-su oh disappears in to thin air, leaving the present he has bought laying in the rain. 

Cut to the next scene and Dae-su oh is imprisoned in a room, he has been there for 2 months already and is pleading with the person serving him food through a small hatch in the door to let him go, or tell him why he is there and how long he is there for. We get taken in to Dae-su oh's room and its a small "hotel room" with a shower, TV, bed, clock and a picture on the wall that says "Laugh and the world laughs with you. Weep and you weep alone".

Dae-su ho is gasses every night to make him sleep, while he is in a gas induced coma, they would cut his hair, change his clothes etc... while he is in the cell he is watching the news when he see's that his wife and child have been murdered and he was framed as the man who did it. After this Dae-su oh goes a bit crazy, he starts to train to fight, punching the walls until his knuckles are burst open and bleeding. He is also slowly cutting away at the wall to escape to freedom.

Randomly (so it seems to Dae-su oh) after 15 years he is released. He has a suit on and a mobile phone. The first place he goes is for some food and decides he wants to eat something alive, so he eats a live squid. Once eaten his phone rings, and he collapses on the table, the girl serving him takes him home and nurses him back to health.


When he awakes he tells the girl his story and that he is seeking revenge, the girl offers to help and so they set off on trying to find who did this to him and why. The whole film is a big game to Dae-su oh's captor, they are constantly following him and predicting his movements. Unknown to Dae-su oh he was hypnotized in his cell, and everything that he has been doing has been pre programmed into his head, the have also hypnotized the girl at the restaurant    Dae-su oh falls in love with the girl who he has been helping him, and they finally have sex after many days of dae-su oh trying. 

Now here's the crazy twist (spoiler alert) as you find out in the end, The girl who has been helping Dae-su oh is actually his daughter, she was never murdered. So essentially the captor of Dae-su oh did all of this just to make him have sex with his daughter. He did this because, back in school Dae-su oh saw his captor have sex with his sister, the captor then killed his sister to hide the fact that he got her pregnant. 

This crazy story is entwined with gory violence  for some reason Dae-su oh's weapon of choice is a hammer, he likes to pull peoples teeth out with it! Dae-su oh also decides to cut his tongue out, to show his captor he will never tell anyone about what he did with his sister, in return his captor will not tell the daughter that she has slept with her dad.

The Scores

Visual
7/10 - Good action and fighting scenes

Sound
5/10 - Well as the talking was in Korean I don't know how it sounded, but im pretty sure the sub titles didn't say everything that was being said by the actor.

Acting
7/10 - Good acting by the man character.

Plot
8/10 - Brilliant plot, pretty twisted, but I like that!

Ending 
7/10 - Now, the actual ending is a bit "meh" but the build up towards the end is great, so it gets a good score.

Final Score

35/50

Great movie, I couldn't believe how good it actually was. I would recommend everyone who reads this to give it a watch. If you don't want to watch the Korean version watch the American version, although I think they will change the story too much and make it less gritty, So my recommendation is watch this one!!!

Total Movie Minutes So Far ~ 1916

Next up is Braveheart (1995)

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Thanks, Luke.

#86 Monty Python And The Holy Grail

1975

John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin

This movie is only the second movie so far from the list I have seen before, and what a classic it is. If you like mental humor, total randomness and not really knowing whats going on, this is for you. Im not a 100% sure people outside of the UK will fully get the humor, but it is written by the same zany bunch who wrote A Fish Called Wanda and  The Life Of Brian.

Straight from the first minute you know what kind of movie you are in for, as the credits roll they start off correct, and as they progress they start to get a bit silly, until they are stopped and a message says they have sacked the person who has done this. The movie begins with the sound of a man riding a horse through a field, what we actually get is King Arthur prancing around like a horse, while his servant claps to coconut shells together to make him sound like a horse.

To go in to the story of this movie will take me forever, as there are about 10 different stories all culminating towards the same end goal, to find the holy grail. So instead I thought id just point out a few of my favorite parts and the more mental aspects of the movie. As I said before, for some reason the knights of the round table are all walking around like horses rather than riding them, on their quest for the grail the encounter many challenges. One of the challenges they come across is the dark knight who is protecting a bridge, he tells king Arthur he will kill him rather than let him across the bridge. A sword fight ensues and king Arthur cuts off the mans right arm, to which the the conversation goes:

Arthur: Ha I win

Knight: Tis just a scratch

Arthur: Your arm is off

Knight: no it isnt

Arthur: yes it is.. look..

They then continue to fight until he cuts the knights other arm off, to which the Knight says "its nothing but a flesh wound". The Knight then decided he can try and win by headbutting Arthur, this is until the knight gets cut in half. Other things that are awesome and strange at the same time include a killer bunny rabbit, some knights who need a shrubbery to allow you past, a 3 headed knight and a village that is desperate to burn a woman they suspect is a witch, and use the logic that if she weighs the same as a duck shes a witch.

Another classic scene is when Arthur comes across some peasants working in a field, only for the peasant to have a conversation  with Arthur about the economic structure and democracy. Its that kind of randomness that makes this film what it is, some of the stuff is just so daft you have to just laugh at it. It is really nice to see a 35 year old English comedy still up there with the cinema greats.I do recon this is a movie that you either love or hate, there is no middle ground, you either get the humor, or you just think its stupid which probably makes you stupid, but who am I to judge :)

The ending is the most random part of all, I want you to watch it if you haven't already, so ill leave that bit a mystery.

The Scores

Visual
6/10 - Difficult one this, because its not trying to be serious, so the sets etc.. are not fully how you thought they would be.

Sound
5/10 - Not a great deal of sounds, some funny songs throughout 

Acting
7/10 - again the acting is hard to judge, because its a movie about a book of a movie and the craziness of it all means they act it really well, but really poorly at the same time.

Plot
5/10 - Plot is simple, all the different stories all come together in the end.

Ending 
7/10 - Ending gets a decent score as its just crazy, if you were sat in the cinema, you would be saying "huh, has it ended? Like that? really?"

Final Score

30/50

Brilliant comedy by some brilliant English comedy minds.

Total Movie Minutes So Far ~ 1796

Next up is Oldboy (2003)

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Thanks, Luke.

#87 Singin' In The Rain

1952

Jean Hagen

Gene Kelly

Donald Oconnor

Debbie Reynolds (Center)

So this is it, the last of the terrible run of movies I had no interest in, Some of them threw up surprises and I actually liked them, others were not so enjoyable. Singin' in the rain is a musical, and to be honest, I cant stand musicals, so I wasn't looking forward to watching this at all. The first half isn't that musical like but the second half is one big sing song.

The Storyline

The movie is set in 1927, Don Lockwood (Kelly) and Lina Lamont (Hagen) are a famous on screen silent movie couple, the only problem is, Don knows this has only been set up for the media, but Lina doesn't understand that and thinks he really does love her. This is set around the time movies with sound were being invented, unfortunately for this pair, Lina has a shrill voice, she cant sing and she cant act. The movie company make their first ever movie with sound, and it is laughed out of the cinema due to Lina's incredibly bad performance . Don comes up with an idea to change the movie in to a musical and use Kathy Sleden (Reynolds) to voice over the parts played by Lina. In return for doing the voice over Kathy is promised a bigger role in the next movie, Lina has other ideas for Kathy's fate.

All in all its a story of a love triangle, and it all ends happily for 2 points of the triangle, the other point is left humiliated after she tries to screw over Kathy and the whole movie company. For a musical I didn't hate it,the first half of the movie had little singing in it and im glad it was only 103 minutes as the second half was all singing practically.

The Scores

Visual
6/10 - Some good singing and dancing as you would expect

Sound
5/10 - lots of musical singing, not really my cup of tea

Acting
6/10 - Very well acted, think that's what made it watchable for me.

Plot
5/10 - Nothing too brain taxing

Ending 
6/10 - Nice to see the stupid Lina get what she deserved.

Final Score

28/50

For a Sunday, hung over, It was ok just to lay an watch.

Total Movie Minutes So Far ~ 1705

Next up is Monty Python And The Holy Grail (1975)

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Thanks, Luke.

#88 Some Like It Hot

1959

Director Billy Wilder (The Apartment)

Marilyn Monroe

Jack Lemmon ( The Apartment)

Wilder and Lemmon team up again in another movie on the top 100. The Apartment (also featuring these two) came out a year after this, but I can see why the Director would choose him as his leading man. Lemmon is charismatic, funny an a brilliant actor for that era. I had to watch this at the second time of asking due to technical difficulties....

The storyline...

The year is 1929, Jerry (Lemmon) and Joe (Tony Curtis) are two guys playing in a band, the venue they are playing is in a Chicago mortuary, which has been slightly modified to hold a nightclub, equipped with band, dancers and illegal booze. The club is ran by some mobsters, and we see the bar being raided in the early part of the movie. Jerry and Joe manage to escape, and with no wages coming to them are desperate for a job. After they get caught being witnesses to a murder by the same mob, they flee to Florida, disguised as women in an all women band. The movie really gets going when Sugar (Monroe) comes in. She is a slightly dim, off the rails kinda woman, and shes pretty gullible too, but saying that Monroe is sexiness personified, the whole film is set to revolve around her, and why the hell not!




This is a pretty clever movie as it wants you to think the movie is about the mobsters and the chase, but really its just about sex. Initially Jerry and Joe are both fighting for the attention of Sugar, until Joe gets the upper hand. As Jerry and Joe are both pretending to be women they can get in close and find out what Sugar likes,

Joe, acting as an oil tycoon to lure Sugar in.

then Joe uses this to lure her in, when later that day he is dressed as a rich man pretending to be one of the owners of the oil company, Shell. Now while this is going off Jerry is being stalked by a rich man who owns a boat that is docked there, Joe makes Jerry take the man out dancing while he takes Sugar on his boat.

I enjoyed this movie just the same as I enjoyed The Apartment, it was an easy watch, plenty of funny parts and plenty of shots of Sugar exposing her self just enough to make it classy and sexy. As the theme continues with old black and white movies I could have easily knocked 20 mins off this, im not sure if it was just because I was very tired when watching it or because it really was just padded out in places. The overall story of two blatant men dressed as women was quite unbelievable but that added to the comedy of it all. There are a couple of things that annoyed me in this like the two of them talking like men to each other, yet someone behind a curtain couldn't hear them and a guy who had 5 men shooting at him, still managed to be alive to use a telephone, but hey, lets just say back in the 50's they just wanted a funny movie, not necessarily a true to life one.

The Scores

Visual
7/10 - Cant complain with looking at a scantily clad Monroe for a few hours

Sound
4/10 They are in a band, thats most of the music we get.

Acting
8/10 Lemmon, Monroe and Curtis all play brilliant parts.

Plot
5/10 - pretty stupid, and near on possible to pull off in real life, but that added to the comedy.

Ending 
4/10 - I couldn't believe how it ended, it just...ended...

Final Score

28/50

I enjoyed watching this movie, an easy watch if you have 2 hours to burn.

Total Movie Minutes So Far ~ 1602

Next up Singing In The Rain....... Kill me now!

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Thanks, Luke.