Five of the ten best movies of motion picture history are the subject of this web site. Another five of the ten best of Hollywood are presented in the Ten Best Movies (Part 2). All these movies are worth watching over and over. The ten best movies discussed are my personal favorites. Some , e.g., Apocalypse Now, are terribly flawed but so was Tolstoy's novel War and Peace. Yet, both Apocalypse Now and War and Peace are great works of art and entertaining to read or watch.
Some old classics may deserve a place in the Ten Best Movies listed here but, if a classic is showing its age, I leave it out. Those listed are strictly for watching.
(The following are not arranged in order because of the close relationship of the two Kill Bill movies)
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The rambling, gloomy movie is a tale of the Vietnam War and its horrors. A young army officer, Martin Sheen, is sent on an odyssey up a Vietnam - Cambodia jungle river to assassinate a renegade U.S. Army Colonel played by Marlon Brando. Adventure follows adventure as Sheen's boat and crew encounter a ferocious tiger, hostile natives, a French outpost whose personnel are determined to maintain the old plantation style come hell or high water, and worst of all, U.S. army outposts on the river where military law & order had completely broken down. And, finally, almost anticlimactically, Marlon Brando. The acting includes some overacting by Brando & Robert Duvall, but Sheen is perfect as the soldier-assassin. Probably Sheen's greatest role ever. The bit players are excellent. The atmosphere created is the best ever.
I just saw the French outpost segment for the first time as it was not included in the original release. Even though it was somewhat difficult to understand the French accents and the sound track was not too good, the segment, while not necessary for the overall story, was a superb addition to the movie and I can see the French outpost story segment might be worthy of a full-length movie itself. The segment, which includes an attractive French (French-looking, anyway!) actress, has a certain Casablanca atmosphere to it. People trying to live in a world that has passed them by! For some reason, I like that.
Unfortunately, the new DVD release also included some ugly scenes involving the playboy bunny-types shown in the original release visiting the army outposts. The revived scenes should have been left in the trash can. Still other scenes in the new release DVD add little to the movie story but dramatically show how discipline at the isolated army posts along the river had broken down. Some real scary stuff!
Apocalypse Now is a work of genius.
(Coppola also directed the Godfather movies.)
A Quentin Tarantino-directed movie and some think it is his best (I give the edge to Kill Bill 1). Tarantino goes bananas with the scene sequencing. Because of this, the movie would make almost as must sense if it were run backwards.
But how entertaining!. The cast is incredible - Uma Thurman (she is a Tarantino favorite), John Travolta, Samuel Jackson, Bruce Willis, etc. The pair of Jackson & Travolta as hit men is particularly good, but, then, so is Bruce Willis carving up a couple of sadistic creatures that deserved to die in the worst way (and do!). The "night out" with Thurman & Travolta is considered a movie classic and their public demanded (and later got) a rematch on the dance floor.
Really, I see no weaknesses in the movie and, like most Tarantino movies, you can't stop watching once you start.
This is a good western movie but barely beats out two of Clint Eastwood's best westerns: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly and High Plains Drifter.
In Once Upon a Time in the West, In the railroad is coming to town and Henry Fonda, the arch-villain, knows it and is trying to gain control of land where the railroad station will be built. Charles Bronson is the good guy in this one. The shootout at the beginning of the movie between Bronson and three baddies is a western movie classic and the final showdown between Bronson and Fonda is a good one. In between, there is gunplay, sadistic behavior, threats galore, crude comedy, and even a tiny amount of romance.
This was one of the so-called spaghetti western movies, a designation that includes many of the Clint Eastwood westerns. Many of the spaghetti westerns, including Once Upon a Time in the West, were directed by Sergio Leone. .
My big question on this one is how they got Henry Fonda to play the bad boy which he does very well. I always picture him as the hero. Fonda is good in this but the real star has to be Bronson who was perfect for his role and was probably the best western gunfighter ever. I can watch this one over and over but, then, I can do the same for the two Clint Eastwood westerns mentioned above.
A tale of betrayal and sweet revenge!
One of the best action movies of all time. And it features a girl heroine of all things! I loved the theme of a terribly-wronged, brave girl, Uma Thurman, who fights her way back from being totally down and who extracts revenge from those who wronged her. Uma had my sympathy and support all the way.
The movie, has weaknesses including some unbelievable (but exciting!) action scenes and scenes being shown out of sequence (Tarantino style) but, still it is a gripping story that is difficult to stop watching.
Tarantino is at his absolute best as director. Of course, I have a personal interest in any movies which include Okinawa scenes. I spent a year on the island during my military service and always enjoy the Okinawa connection in movies, rare though they are.
If you are offended by martial arts movies, skip the movie although I am not too fond of the martial arts movies and I was not turned off by the action in the movie.
This movie is both a prequel and a sequel to Kill Bill, above. Quentin Tarantino separated the two when it was apparent a single movie would be too long. I saw Kill Bill first which is the best way for viewing the two.
I was enraged in Kill Bill 1 at the brutal treatment that put Uma Thurman in a coma for four years, more so because no clear explanation for the mistreatment was ever fully given. So, I was in her corner 100% rooting for her as she took out the bad guys (and gals!) I hated the unseen villain, David Carradine. In the sequel, however, the questions that bothered me as to why Thurman was so mistreated are, at least, partly answered. And, although Thurman is still very much the heroine, the human side of the arch-villain, David Carradine is shown. And, a new question emerges from the sequel: Can revenge be carried too far? At some point, it appears that one needs to just stop the killing. But maybe that is just my liberal voice making noise.
In any event, Kill Bill 2 is also loaded with action and the bad guys mostly get what they deserve. I must confess, though, that I wanted to see Carradine live. I wanted to see he and Uma forgive and forget and ride off into the sunset together with their toddler daughter. But such was not to be. Tarrantino can be (usually is!) ruthless.
Both Thurman and Carradine were great in the two Kill Bill movies.
Five of the ten best movies are discussed. Each of the five are strictly for watching.
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Updated: 06/28/2009
e-mail me @ vanc13@cox.net (Movie Reviewer: Van Cook)
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