Favorite movies

The intertwining plots that are Inarritu's style became more carefully polished and star studded with each film he made. That's why this raw, messy debut is easily the best one.

This typical "on the run from the mob" road movie pays homage to Elvis, Tarantino and Bonnie and Clyde. The cast is unbelievable and there is enough stylized violence to satisfy both Guy Ritchie and John Woo's typical quotas!

This modern western revisits the themes of natives and outlaws and lawmen in the usual untamed frontier. The story is brutally violent, and in contrast, the Outback landscapes are incredibly beautiful.

The cast is great, and nobody makes political thrillers quite like Costa-Gavras. Although the political incident portrayed in this film may be unfamiliar to modern audiences, the same sort of thing has been repeated countless times in many other countries.

This is a simple story of a young man who goes to prison, and of his gradual rise inside the organized crime hierarchy. The supernatural elements and gripping directing make this intense prison saga an epic crime thriller.

A superior martial arts expert at the peak of his career in his best film. Jet Li kicks some ass before he goes off to Hollywood to fade away.

This is one of the few BIG (as in special effects) comedies that actually works perfectly. The cast is truly funny and the effects don't overshadow the comedy. Many box office bombs have tried and failed to copy this formula.

I still can't believe this is from 1951. If you watched any of the news coverage of the Chilean minors in 2010, this film actually predicted that kind of media circus 60 years earlier! Kirk Douglas also plays one of the most memorable characters in film history, as the ruthless reporter, Chuck Tatum.

Bergman's most challenging film. This examines the human psyche as well as the nature of cinema itself.

Sci-fi film noir at its best. I always wonder why people dislike Blade Runner. Is it because they want to see Han Solo? The film is a psychological thriller with amazing cinematography, not Star Wars.

This film honors the old fashioned film noir by maintaining the style and characters of the genre. Great performances make the film especially enjoyable.

This early version of the "film noir" has all the elements that Hollywood would turn into cliche. The love triangles, the femme fatal, the sneaking around in the shadows... Ultimately, this film is also an excellent thriller on its own merits.

To me, this is a documentary about America. Everybody wants to have their American dream come true (in this case by becoming NBA superstars), but there is only room for a handful of those successes, while the road to the top is littered by the millions who couldn't make it. This film follows two of these young men, who can say they at least got closer to their dream than most of us do.

The story of a man who must convince a heavenly courtroom to spare his life. This is in my top 100 simply for being so damn English!

The classic dystopian sci fi flick. There are psychological themes about curing the criminal mind, but the moral of the story is, every generation thinks the one after it is crazy. Great soundtrack too.

Why have another alien pick off another crew one by one, when you can have a whole squad of marines fight a whole nest of bloodthirsty aliens? James Cameron thinks bigger - as he usually does - and it works once again!

Banksy isn't the only master of (fake?) documentaries. Robert Flaherty gave us this "authentic" slice of Inuit life decades ago... but why does Nanook hunt with a spear instead of using his gun? Busted!

Another Antonioni essay on alienation and loneliness. This one is especially interesting for visualizing the massive environmental damage that we, the western world, have come to accept as the cost of our decadent lifestyles.

This film documents the story of a strange con artist being put on trial in Iran for impersonating a famous Iranian director. But to add to the confusion, all the characters in the story actually play themselves, even during flashback scenes showing the crime!

A very accurate prediction of "news" becoming "info-tainment". The entertainment people run the news division, the raving lunatic becomes a media icon, how did they predict the future like this so accurately?

The deconstruction of an action movie. If you ever watched a frantic caper and wondered, "What if they did this differently?" Well, this film does do it differently!

This film is different every time you watch it. But really its not the film that's different, it's yourself. I need to watch this again.

James Cameron constantly redefines special effects, and this film was no exception in its day. As teenage boys, we would theorize endlessly about fighting invincible Terminators and navigate the complex time travel scenarios, as we watched this movie multiple times. That's why this film is superior to the overly simplistic - though visually impressive - Avatar.

This film documents what may forever be considered Mankind's greatest achievement - getting up on that moon - especially if the Mayan calender is correct and our time is up.

This film was a defining moment in the film promotion business, in the style of horror films and in the hugely influential career of Steven Spielberg. But most of all it's a silly monster movie that had to improvise because the monster didn't look very scary.

Even though some of the "insurgents" are played by themselves, the film nevertheless does a good job of showing both sides, as the oppressive French occupiers and the local Algerian "terrorists" inflict terrible damage on one another. Oddly enough, this film is as relevant as The Hurt Locker to modern warfare, as history has unfolded since these events.

American realism at its finest. Much like the Bicycle Thief of 50+ years earlier, this film depicts a poor family scrounging around for their own survival. The shocking part is when the camera pans over from the third world poverty of these street kids, to Shea Stadium, and you realize this actually takes place in the richest country in the world.

Bogart is Sam Spade, the prototype detective character for all film noirs to follow. Don't worry, unlike The Big Sleep, this mystery will actually make sense in the end.

This short documentary tells you all you could ever want to know about the holocaust... and all you could probably ever stand to watch about such a horrific event.

The great western that uses real-time to enhance the suspense of the impending showdown. Perhaps the all-good sheriff and all-evil outlaws are a bit dated, but the selfishness of the town locals is a good metaphor for society, even in modern times.

I admire the boldness and insanity and arrogance that Coppola had in pursuing this impossible project. This should have been the greatest failure in film history, the way things were going, and yet it ended up being just plain great. That is why this surpasses even The Godfather in Coppola's own catalog.

Park Row is a low budget depiction of the early days of newspapers, when there were actually gang-wars between competing papers. The story is fascinating, but Fuller's fast paced directing is the highlight of the film.

The "Orson Welles Cut" of Touch of Evil features the greatest opening scene in film history. The dirty cops, dirty women and dirty gangsters are all surprisingly modern characters for a 1950s film.

The Hitchcock spy thriller. Sadly, the James Bond series has yet to surpass this film, even with over 20 attempts.

This coming of age story captures childhood imagination perfectly.

The whale comes to town, resulting in unimaginable chaos and upheaval. This film is surreal and full of incredibly long takes that hypnotize the viewer.

Widely considered the finest film noir. The story is constructed in masterful fashion and the characters quickly became endlessly recyclable archetypes of cinema.

The Boyz Dans Le Hood from Paris features a great cast - especially Vincent Cassel - and exciting directing by Matthieu Kassovitz. The multicultural ghettos of Paris are fully exposed in this film, but it could really be about any city in the world.

The great Truffaut coming of age essay is unforgettable and features one of the better child acting performances of all times.

The story of WWII as seen from Japan through the eyes of a young brother and sister. This may be the most heartbreaking film ever made.

This Resnais experiment plays around with time and space. The love affair of the two main characters is a metaphor for the atomic bombing of Hiroshima! Wow.

The sci fi film that all others are measured by. Machines run the world, robot doppelgangers replace their human twins, absolute power corrupts absolutely... There may be some kind of story going on in this spectacle, but let's be honest, it's really all about the look of the film.

This meditation on poverty, crime, survival and love is pieced together in a timeless, dreamy manner. Bresson ignores the rules of typical cinema, so the result is both confusing and rewarding.