100 Things I Love About The Movies

Inspired by Cinema Fanatic and Jason.



1. Raul Julia and Angelica Huston as Gomez and Morticia Addams
2. Harrison Ford's caving to Gary Oldman in order to save his daughter's life in Air Force One
3. Grumpy the dwarf
4. Nick and Nora
5. Disney's version of Captain Nemo's Nautilus
6. Mr. Whitmore and Helga in Atlantis: The Lost Empire
7. The five notes from Close Encounters of the Third Kind
8. Both performances of Peter Pan in Finding Neverland
9. Ernest as the snake farmer in Ernest Saves Christmas
10. Bowing to the Hobbits in Return of the King





11. Alastair Sim's standing on his head in Scrooge
12. Michael Wincott's voice
13. Tracey Walter and Grace Jones' giving Olivia d'Abo a sex ed lesson in Conan the Destroyer
14. Helvetica Black's theme song in Shorts
15. Bill Murray's almost having a perfect Groundhog Day, but screwing it up because Andie Macdowell thinks he's been stalking her
16. Watching the Harry Potter cast grow up
17. Robert Downey Jr.'s comeback
18. Alfred Hitchcock's surprises
19. Errol Flynn's swagger
20. Kate Beckinsale's look in Underworld



21. Jean Rogers as Dale Arden in Flash Gordon
22. Mysterious strangers in boarding houses
23. Christopher Reeve's Clark Kent
24. "In space no one can hear you scream."
25. Kirk's refusing to lose in Wrath of Khan
26. Hugh Jackman as Wolverine
27. Syndrome's island base in The Incredibles
28. River Tam's becoming badass in Serenity
29. Hulk vs. tanks in the desert in Ang Lee's Hulk
30. Friends becoming lovers as in Some Kind of Wonderful and When Harry Met Sally...



31. The creature from the Black Lagoon
32. Elizabeth Swan in Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and 3
33. The Dread Pirate Wesley
34. Robert Newton as Long John Silver
35. Joe Jr. in While You Were Sleeping
36. Any Vera Ellen dance number in White Christmas
37. The cantina scene in Star Wars
38. Orson Welles' laugh
39. Cary Grant's suits
40. John Hughes' soundtracks



41. Every song in Disney's The Jungle Book
42. "No smoking in the Skull Cave."
43. Johnny Weissmuller's Tarzan yell
44. Maureen O'Sullivan's outfit in Tarzan and His Mate
45. Buster Keaton's lack of facial expression
46. Clint Eastwood's squint
47. Bela Lugosi's accent
48. The flying cars in Blade Runner
49. The Star Destroyer fly-over at the beginning of Star Wars
50. "I don't know. I'm making this up as I go along."



51. Batman's trying to get rid of a bomb in the 1966 Batman
52. Yvonne's crying during "La Marseillaise" in Casablanca (hell, the whole scene)
53. "Now I have a machine gun. Ho. Ho. Ho."
54. John Rambo outnumbered in the woods or jungle
55. "Why don't you knock it off with them negative waves, Moriarty?"
56. Keira Knightley in King Arthur
57. Angelina Jolie's lips
58. Jody Foster's voice
59. Jody Foster's legs in Inside Man
60. Gerard Butler as Alex Rover in Nim's Island



61. Peter Lorre's eyes
62. Claude Rains' voice
63. George Sanders' voice
64. Ingrid Bergman's face
65. Sean Connery's first line in Dr. No
66. Harrison Ford as the bellhop in Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round
67. The theme song to Diamonds Are Forever
68. Roger Moore's pushing a car - with the villain still inside - over a cliff with his foot in For Your Eyes Only
69. Eddie Murphy's improv in his early films
70. Nicole Kidman's hair in Far and Away



71. The Bride of Frankenstein's hair and dress
72. Lou Costello when he's scared
73. German Expressionism
74. Lon Chaney Jr. as Larry Talbot
75. Everything about Curse of the Demon
76. Captain Jack Sparrow
77. Ray Parks in Phantom Menace and Sleepy Hollow
78. The Monster's fur vest in Son of Frankenstein
79. Brandon Lee on the fire escape in The Crow
80. Keifer Sutherland in The Lost Boys



81. Sidney Poitier's "I owe you nothing" speech to his dad in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?
82. Harrison Ford's hat in American Graffiti
83. The last five minutes of Rocky
84. The leg lamp in A Christmas Story
85. Helena Bonham Carter in period dramas
86. John Bender in The Breakfast Club
87. Steff in Pretty in Pink
88. The baby name suggestions during the credits of She's Having a Baby
89. Kenneth Branagh and Shakespeare
90. Keira Knightley's making my heart stop in Love Actually



91. King Kong's fighting three T-Rexes in Peter Jackson's version
92. The music in Gojira
93. "I am not a gun."
94. "I thought you said your dog did not bite." "That is not my dog."
95. Hilary Swank as Maggie Fitzgerald in Million Dollar Baby
96. Ian McKellen's "butter" sermon in Cold Comfort Farm
97. Don Cheadle as Mouse in Devil in a Blue Dress
98. John Travolta's watching A Touch of Evil in Get Shorty
99. Ashley Judd's sweat in A Time to Kill
100. Keyser Söze

10 movies I didn't care for in 2010

Unlike yesterday's list, these movies did have something positive about them. Not enough to make me like any of them, but enough to keep me from screaming that I wanted my two hours back right after.


Number 40



I appreciated that it made an attempt to fill in Fred Krueger's backstory and even played with the idea of turning him into a sympathetic character. But then it wussed out Big Time and just remade the original.

Number 39



I don't have a high tolerance for romantic comedies, but this had a couple of things going for it. I love movies with large casts and intertwining plots (Playing by Heart and Crash, for instance) and I like a lot of the people in this one (mostly folks from Alias and Grey's Anatomy, and Anne Hathaway and Queen Latifah). But there was an unfortunate, anthology-like feel to it where - even though the stories connected - they weren't consistent in tone or quality and I found myself wishing to skip past many of them, even when they featured a favorite actor.

Number 38



I knew what I was getting into by going to see this, but there was nothing else going on at the theater that week. Two years ago, I was a big Gerard Butler fan, but with The Ugly Truth, Gamer, and Law Abiding Citizen he's been working hard to fix that. On the other hand, while I don't like a lot of romantic comedies, I do like certain things about them and The Bounty Hunter managed to push a couple of those buttons. Not creatively,  mind you, but in that knee-jerk, "I like it when they do that" way. And Butler and Aniston are nice to look at. I have to take Jennifer Aniston in small doses, but this is the first thing I've seen her in since the last season of Friends.


Number 37



This was the movie that killed 3D for me. It was murky and thanks to the 3D's being added in post-production, those effects were lame and unnecessary. The story wasn't much better. The scenes with the gods could've been left out with no effect on the plot and none of the actors looked like they were trying very hard. Also, if you're going to throw in Bubo (not necessarily a great decision in the first place), don't throw him in just to laugh at him. You're only reminding us how silly this all is. What I did like though were the creature designs, some of the fights, and that Perseus didn't end up with Andromeda. Though that last one is because there was no chemistry between the two of them and forcing a marriage at the end would've made the movie lamer still. I also think that Gemma Arterton makes a much prettier Burgess Meredith than Burgess Meredith did.

Number 36



I expected to hate this, so it's actually an upgrade to put it on today's list. Travolta was absolutely grating in the trailers, but I was surprised to find him kind of funny in the movie. The plot didn't make a whole lot of sense, but the movie tried some new things and I usually appreciate that.

Number 35



I went to see this for one reason: Timothy Olyphant. And on that level, it didn't disappoint. The rest of it though was a pretty trite - though effectively scary at times - horror movie with a lame ending.

Number 34



Speaking of lame endings. They had me right up until then though. Butt-kicking Denzel and any kind of Mila Kunis will do that for you.

Number 33



Yes, I liked this better than Clash of the Titans. What does that tell you? Well, for one thing, the 3D was infinitely better.

For another, Step Up 3D delivers exactly what it promises: hot people dancing and nothing else. It rips off the thousand other dance movies that came before it ("They're going to tear down our hangout spot! We have to win the dance contest so we can save it!"), but I can't decide if that's laziness or a charming homage. I have to give the movie credit for meeting all its goals; it's just that they set the bar so very, very low.

Number 32



This was going to be a fascinating update of Frankenstein. It was headed in that direction and I even appreciated the creepy, "oh-they-went-too-far" scene for what it said about the characters and the Wrongness of the whole situation. But then the third act started and it all fell apart.

Number 31



I laughed a lot harder at this one than I did at Dinner for Schmucks ("Hey, hey, yo, yo. I'll be down in a minute. I'm having sex.") and appreciated the Adventures in Babysitting-ness of it all, but I wanted to connect more with Steve Carell and Tina Fey's characters than I did. Their worries about their marriage felt forced, which undermined them as characters and the plot in general.

24 movies I missed in 2010

The list-making bug caught up with me yesterday, so I'm not going to be able to leave it alone with just songs and comics. Over the coming week I'm going to post about every 2010 movie I saw. All 52 of them. In order from least favorite to most.

But as I made the list, I was also reminded of all the movies that I wanted to see this year, but never got around to for a variety of reasons. So, by way of explaining why you won't see Toy Story 3 or Harry Potter 7.1 on the big list, here are - in alphabetical order - all the movies that I wish I could've caught in the theater in 2010. Some of them (Harry Potter) I hope to still see on the Big Screen, but I'll have to wait for most until they hit the Netflix.

I'm tempted to comment on why I want to see each of the following movies or - better yet - why I missed them, but I'll resist that. If you really want to know why any of these appear here, I'll be happy to go into detail in the comments.