100 Film Favorites – #17: Toy Story 2 (John Lasseter, 1999) “When somebody loved me, everything was beautiful. Every hour we spent together lives within my heart.” And so we come to the highest-ranking (fully) animated film of the Countdown. Let me be clear: I love animation, and could talk at length about many animated…
100 Film Favorites – #18: Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino, 2009) “This just might be my masterpiece.” We’re now getting into movies where it’s almost hard for me to say anything about each selection beyond “OMG guys this movie is great.” I’ll keep trying, but I make no promises past #15. Inglourious Basterds is a war…
100 Film Favorites – #19: Forrest Gump (Robert Zemeckis, 1994) “I don’t know if we each have a destiny, or if we’re all just floating around accidental-like on a breeze…but I think maybe it’s both.” I just realized that Robert Zemeckis has a really good track record on this Countdown. I may have to do…
100 Film Favorites – #20: The Court Jester (Melvin Frank & Norman Panama, 1956) “Get it?” “Got it.” “Good.” We’re down to the Top 20! Throughout this Countdown, I have generally tried to avoid assigning selections the distinction of “best ____ ever made.” Determining which films are “the greatest of all time” is a highly…
100 Film Favorites – #21: Back to the Future Part III (Robert Zemeckis, 1990) Okay, first thing’s first: I know a lot of Back to the Future fans will probably regard this as blasphemy. Literally every countdown I’ve seen ranks Back to the Future Part II above Part III. So perhaps this is the first…
100 Film Favorites – #22: Back to the Future Part II (Robert Zemeckis, 1989) “Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.” Those words, spoken by all-time great “mad scientist” character “Doc” Emmet Brown, end 1985’s Back to the Future on a cliff-hanger. After Marty McFly’s time-trip to 1955 in the first film proved a…
100 Film Favorites – #23: Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (Mel Stuart, 1971) Today’s entry is another family musical from the team of Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley, the same pair that scored 1967’s Doctor Dolittle. Adapted from Roald Dahl’s novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the film tells the story of Charlie Bucket,…
100 Film Favorites – #24: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (Ken Hughes, 1968) Today’s film stars Dick Van Dyke and features songs written by the Sherman Brothers, but it’s not Mary Poppins. It was adapted from a novel by Ian Fleming and produced by Albert R. Broccoli, but it’s not a James Bond movie. It’s Chitty…
100 Film Favorites – #25: Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Terry Gilliam & Terry Jones,1975) “On second thought, let’s not go to Camelot. It is a silly place.” Today, we sally forth into the final quarter of our Countdown. Thanks once again to everybody who has been following along for the last 75 posts.…
100 Film Favorites – #26: Labyrinth (Jim Henson, 1986) Over the span of a few years in the mid 1980s, the American mass media suddenly became aware of the growing popularity of the fantasy genre, spurred by the debut of the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game in the late 70s. While some conservative groups responded…