Top Ten Favourite Hollywood Flicks.

[groucho070]

Was revisiting my website on my top ten favourite flicks that I listed seven years ago. Strange, there is nothing much to change.

1st September 2002


Apocalypse Now (1979)

Harrowing. Eerie. Brando's best performance and Coppola's perfect direction will never be matched again, even by themselves. Knowing the making of this film will add to the intensity. "The Horror...the horror..."

Big Sleep, The (1945)

Raymond Chandler is my favourite writer. Bogart plays Philip Marlowe, my favourite fictional P.I. It is all there, the dialogues, the characters, the humour and the performance. The book came alive in this film, and I can watch it again and again and again and again... : "Is it any of your business?" "I can make it my business" "I can make your business mine" "You won't like it, the pay's too small"

Citizen Kane (1941)

A must for every director wannabe. Often immitated, sometimes to excess. Directed by a 25 yearl old Orson Welles. This film will stand alone as the yardstick for every other film, in cinematograpy, direction and what-nots. "I run a couple of newspapers. What do you do?"

Duck Soup (1933)

There will never be another Marx Brothers, especially Groucho. This is their best, and easily the best comedy I had ever seen. Satire, spoof, parody, you name it. It is all in this film. "Clear? Huh! Why a four-year-old child could understand this report. Run out and find me a four-year-old child. I can't make head or tail out of it."

Empire Strikes Back, The (1980)

Lucas may make more prequels and sequels, but it ain't gonna be the same as this baby. Its a screen spectacle beyond imagination that Lucas manage to pull with better budget than Star Wars. Darth Vader and his imperial march theme is what Star Wars is all about. "No, I am your father. "


From Russia With Love (1963)

Perfect Bond movie that has never been remade (all bond films are Goldfinger remakes, period). It is also the favourite of its director Terence Young, actor Sean Connery, and editor Peter Hunt. I even have its soundtrack. "My job is to kill you and deliver the Lektor. How I do it is my business"


Godfather, The (1971)

Can a movie about a family be exciting. Watch this. A wet dream for casting department. The theme of loyalty and betrayal had never been explored with such intensity as witnessed in this epic. I could put Godfather part 2 to share this spot. Can I? "Ill make him an offer he cant refuse."


Julius Caesar (1953)

I got hooked with Bard with this one. I realised how great an actor John Gielgud was. This film shows that you can even shoot a poetry and make it an entertaining movie. Kudos to Joseph L. Mankiewicz. "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears..."


Raging Bull (1980)

This movie will make you sweat, grit your teeth and not blink a second - figure of speech. De Niro's finest performance. Scorcese's yardstick product. Thelma Schoonmaker's examplary editing. The last of the great photography in Black and White. "Hey, Ray, I never went down, man! You never got me down, Ray! You hear me, you never got me down."

White Hunter Black Heart (1989)

Clint Eastwood in his best form, both as an actor and director. Only Eastwood can spot humour in cynicism, and fun in self-destruction. Apart from all that, this is one hell of an entertainment. "You know, one of these days they'll even name an academy award after me and you know what? All the wrong guys will get it."

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I wrote them in 2002 and I don't want to change anything.

Okay, I am tempted to remove Caesar (I was obsessed with Brando those days, so its my fault) and might wanna put Heat (1995). Got to think about it.


What about you guys?