Thursday, March 15, 2012

100 Things I Love about Film (in no particular order:

1) “Sewer rat may taste like pumpkin pie, but I wouldn’t know cause I wouldn’t eat the filthy motherfucker.”
2) The first 20 minutes of Saving Private Ryan.
3) The dinner scene in Annie Hall.
4) Lt. Aldo Raine’s unwavering hatred of Nazis.
5) Vito Coreleone’s speech to Michael in the Garden.
6) “My name is Luke Skywalker and I’m here to rescue you.”
7) Aman-DUH!
8) Rusty’s compulsion to eat in every scene of Ocean’s 11.
9) The end credits of Michael Clayton.
10) Daniel Day Lewis in pretty much everything.
11) Nick Nolte’s tirade at the end of Blue Chips.
12) “That’s my mom’s favorite part”
13) Benecio Del Toro in Traffic.
14) Christopher Walken in Pulp Fiction.
15) North By Northwest
16) Spicoli
17) The unwavering love between Li Mu Bai and Yu Shu Lien.
18) “If I grew up on a farm and was retarded, Bruges might impress me, but I didn’t, so it doesn’t”
19) Meryl Streep’s glare over the top of her glasses.
20) “Gentleman, there is no fighting in the war room!”
21) Every second of 2001 A Space Odyssey.
22) Russell Crowe asking for money to feed his family in Cinderalla Man.
23) Rachel Dawes realizing the man jumping of the top of the building is none other than Bruce Wayne.
24) “A year ago these cops and lawyers wouldn’t dare cross you…”
25) Every scene with Alec Baldwin in the Departed.
26) Henry Hill’s paranoia at the end of Goodfellas.
27) Gene Hackman
28) Carey Mulligan
29) Emma Stone’s ability to banter.
30) Aaron Sorkin’s brilliance that is the Social Network.
31) David Fincher’s brilliance that is Zodiac, Fight Club, Social Network…
32) Wally Pfister’s eye.
33) Christopher Nolan’s surgical ability to get us all hooked.
34) Tarantino’s knowledge of Grindhouse/Exploitation flicks.
35) Martin Scorcese’s knowledge of all cinema.
36) Kubrick’s anti-studio sentiment.
37) George Lucas’s vision.
38) Spielberg’s Munich.
39) Denzel becoming Malcolm X.
40) Spike Lee getting the financial backing to complete Malcolm X.
41) Ben Kingsley as Gandhi.
42) Robin Williams as the Genie in the lamp.
43) East of Eden.
44) Rod Steiger in the Heat of the Night.
45) Casablanca and its capacity to never get stale.
46) Sergio Leone
47) Lee Van Cleef’s eyes.
48) “BLONDIE!”
49) The first ten minutes of Once Upon a Time in the West.
50) Sean Connery’s charisma as 007.
51) Daniel Craig’s ferocity as 007.
52) Matt Damon in Syriana.
53) George Clooney in Welcome to Collinwood.
54) The deserved respect of Marlon Brando’s Genius.
55) Amy Adams
56) Afro Samurai.
57) Cinema Paradiso
58) Kamal Hassan’s risk taking.
59) Natalie Portman’s not so innocence in The Professional.
60) Gary Oldman’s underappreciated turn as Commissioner Gordon.
61) Kathy Bates in Primary Colors.
62) Chili Palmer’s walk up the stairs and eventual tossing of Bear down the stairs.
63) The Royal Tenebaums.
64) Tom Cruise as Vincent.
65) “Attica! Attica!”
66) J.J. Gittes’s tactless joke.
67) Maria Elena’s tirades.
68) Terry Gilliam’s Vision.
69) Sam Raimi’s traditional filming attire.
70) Film not Digital.
71) Huge Budgets with amazing Screenplays.
72) Tiny Budgets with amazing Screenplays.
73) Dialogue.
74) The five minute Dunkirk Beach tracking shot.
75) The single shot from Children of Men.
76) Mel Gibson is Mad Max.
77) William Monahan’s wit.
78) David Mamet’s rhythm.
79) “As your lawyer I advise you to take two hits out of the brown bottle”
80) Gandolfini’s 5 minutes in True Romance.
81) The fucked up love story that is Kill Bill.
82) The visceral impact that is City of God.
83) The Girl in the Red Coat.
84) “That’s just like, your opinion, man!”
85) “It’s not the years, honey, it’s the mileage.”
86) Sean Penn in Sweet and Lowdown
87) Pan’s Labyrinth
88) The frenetic energy of Trainspotting.
89) Philip Seymour Hoffman as Lester Bangs
90) “Boy you two are just dumber than a bag of hammers!”
91) “AK-47! When you absolutely positively got to kill every motherfucker in the room…accept no substitute!”
92) “Happy Trails Hans!”
93) The complete satisfaction of watching and re-watching: A Prophet.
94) “Who are those guys?”
95) Toshiro Mifune
96) “The frost. Sometimes it makes the Blade Stick.”
97) The South Korean Film Industry
98) Tony Cheung
99) The short, but powerful resume of Heath Ledger
100) That the best is yet to come…