My favorite movies and why

OK lets keep this post on the lighter side. I decided I want to share my favorite movies with you all and why, if you have not seen them, I would love to watch with you, that way I can interrupt with why I love it so much while we are watching.

Before I start the list I also want to share a few of the things that I look for in a movie.
First off with a few exceptions, I do not like predictable endings. Meaning if I can tell you the basic ending 30 minutes into the movie, then I am done watching. One major exception is the sports movie, cause we all know that 90% of the time, the main team will win in the end.
Second the story must flow and make sense, I cannot stand so many action/special effect movies due to the lack of this. Do not get me started on how much I hate the Transformer movies, didn't even watch the 3rd.
Third, I tend to favor certain actors, directors and writers. I think most people do as well, but many do not pay attention to who writes or directs closely, thus do not realize it.

I also love stories where the lead actor or story has a greater motive. IE killing the one who killed the love of your life is not enough, leading a county's army for freedom cause the love of your life was killed, well that's for real.

Here we go in no particular order.

The Untouchables. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094226/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Talk about a cast, Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, Robert De Niro, Andy Garcia, & Charles Martin Smith(if you do not know the name, check out his bio, he's been great in a lot of stuff,

Why is this awesome, I mentioned the actors, and the acting was superb, but the direction was even better. Just look at what Brian De Palma has done for Hollywood, and you would swear he was an actual mafia boss in a former life. The writing was excellent, with some great one liners. Eliot Ness throwing Frank Nitti off the roof was classic.  And in the end it was the fact of it being based off a real person, one who did what no other person wanted to do at the time. Actually stand up to an evil person, and win.

True Romance http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108399/?ref_=nv_sr_5

Talk about a cast. To many great names to list, just look it up.

One of Quentin Tarantino's early writing works. And directed by the late great Tony Scott. Look at that bio and a great director is an understatement.

The writing in this is second to none, with the banter between Christopher Walken and Dennis Hopper one of the best conversations ever put onto film, given the whole situation. It is a bit violent, but I think the story calls for it, unlike a lot of the excess violence of Tarantino's movies. Brad Pitt's 3 minutes in the movie is classic, and yes he has about 3 minutes of screen time. With the actors I just named they are not even any of the main characters.

American History X http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120586/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Edward Norton is one of the best actors of our Generation PERIOD. His first major role was in a low budget thriller along side Richard Gere called Primal Fear, and was ROBBED for best supporting actor Oscar by Cuba Gudding Jr. Yes Cuba was good in the high profile Jerry Mcguire, but anyone who saw Primal Fear knows Norton was robbed. There where even Academy voters who acknowledged after the awards where announced that they had not watched Primal Fear thus did not see Norton's performance.

This has not one, but two OMG scenes that even to this day still makes me cringe, but is so necessary for the story no one can argue they should have not put it in. It story is written perfectly, same writer who did the screenplay for "Blow". and acting is great. The ending to this day still makes me cry.p

Man on Fire and Training Day.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0328107/?ref_=nv_sr_1
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0139654/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Putting these two together, cause of the great Denzel. I also put him way up there in the list greatest actors of our generation, and do not think Ill get much argument.

Both these put his acting ability front and center, and highlights his ability to play either a good or bad guy, but more importantly, both at the same time. Denzel also chooses to work along side other great actors and with top notch directors, which has helped him get to where he is. And these two movies highlight those choices.

Braveheart http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112573/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Had to have at least one Mel Gibson movie on the list. I think it is so sad he has been blacklisted in Hollywood, for a couple mistakes he made while succumbing to his alcoholism. If Robert Downy Jr gets another chance, Mel should. But I digress.

Mel has been a part of many favorites, The Patriot and Ransom to name a couple. But Braveheart is  his greatest achievement in Hollywood.

Saving Private Ryan http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120815/?ref_=nv_sr_2

Another great cast lead by Tom Hanks, and directed by Spielberg.
Still to this day, at the end when Hank's character tells Damon's to "earn this", and then Damon's character asks his wife if he lived a good life. I tear up. Every time it gets me. Makes me think about the life we have been given, and if we have truly earned it. But also the struggle through out the story. Is the life of one man worth mutiple other??? If so why, and when???

A Few Good Men. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104257/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Rob Reiner directing yet another great cast of actors. I say great not even including Tom Cruise, cause though I loved him early in his career, with a couple exceptions I pretty much cannot stand him after this movie.  This movie lost out the "The Unforgiven" for best picture, and it could be forever debated which was better. Both where great, had great casts, great storyline with impact. But here is why I list Few Good Men above the other. Jennifer and I watched it on our first date. Well Jennifer kinda watched it. She fell asleep. It was very late/early in morning. The one scene that really gets me here is not the ending one between Cruise and Nicholson, but earlier ones between Cruise and Moore. The one when Cruise is playing softball, and of course the one when he is drunk, which he REALLY was when they filmed it.

The Dark Knight and X2, Xmen United.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0468569/?ref_=nv_sr_1
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0290334/?ref_=nv_sr_1

If you know me you know my comic geekiness. These two movies along with Spiderman 2 are the reasons we have so many comic book movie franchises out there. All 3 of these are due to a well written origin movie, that was successful, and was successful due to the writing. They had a long term goal for a franchise with multiple movies, but did not allow that goal to rush the first one. They took time, and made the 1st one properly, to ensure the ones to follow where even greater.

Both DK and X2 have GREAT opening scenes, Nitecrawler popping in and out of the rooms in the white house, and Joker's crew robbing the mods bank. Got your attention from the get go, and played a HUGE part in the ultimate storyline. Both highlighted the saying made famous by the 3rd mentioned comic here. "With great power comes great responsibility".

And Heath Ledger's portrayal of the Joker, will forever go down one of the greatest performances out of Hollywood, easily of all Comic based stories.

Momento and Fight Club.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0209144/?ref_=nv_sr_1
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0137523/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Putting these two together. They both had directors that at the time where pretty unknown, Nolan, and Fincher but the main reason putting them together, is the way each story played out. Both had stories a bit hard to keep up with, but you stayed glued, and then the ending, OMG was all you could say at both. I will also include a 3rd in this "Se7en". http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000093/?ref_=tt_ov_st. Up until this movie Brad Pitt was just a hunk, doing all sort of TV, and randomly put into a movie for his sexiness. But here he came out as a great actor, well this one and 12 Monkeys, came out same year and Brad won Golden Globe for best supporting actor. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114746/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_36. After this Pitt was a real leading man. Some could even say I developed a man crush on him.

The Matrix http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133093/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Here is an example where I was truly blown away by special effects. But who could not be. Keanu is not a great actor, maybe not even a good one, but this role was a perfect fit. Fishburn was perfect as well. Storyline though was not one anyone would call great, but it was good, and made you think. Great soundtrack added to the movie perfectly. All in all it was great in enough aspects to elevate the other aspects that where average.

Liar Liar http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119528/?ref_=nv_sr_2

I had to include a comedy, even though I am very hard to please with comedies. When it comes to comedy I need it to be unexpected, but realistic in the storyline. Jim Carey can be very annoying, and stupid, but this movie had me rolling. It was Jim Carey crazy stupid, but if you think about it, if someone was forced to be honest like he was, in the situation he was in, then everything that happened was pretty realistic. I also have a special place for this movie cause it was the 1st movie Jenn and I saw as a married couple. We watched it on our honeymoon. Took a break from walking the river walk, and decided this was a good way to give our feet a rest.

The Princess Bride. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093779/?ref_=nv_sr_1

If you have not seen this, then you must watch it now. I mean it, Stop what you are doing, go to on demand or netflix or wherever to go to for movies, and watch it NOW. You cannot say no to this, actually your only response to this is "As you wish".

Oh and another Rob Reiner film.

Snatch http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0208092/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Back to my man crush. Writer/Director Guy Ritchie was supposed to be the next great one. This movie and Lock Stock and 2 Smoking Barrels is why.  Jason Statham was in the middle of many very good movies. Brad Pitt again shows why he is way more than looks. And the story as a whole comes together with an ending that you just had to yell a resounding "YES" too.

The Crow http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109506/?ref_=nv_sr_2

20 years ago, making movies from graphic novels was just starting to become a thing. Brandon Lee had just a few movies under his belt, but was showing some good skills.

This movie as a whole was not what I would normally consider great, but it was overall good in every aspects. What made it so great was the soundtrack. In the height of the alternative grunge movement, each song was almost perfectly paired with a specific scene making said scene twice as good than it would have been without the music. This also was Brandon's last film as he was "accidentally" shot filming one of the last scenes they had to shoot. A real bullet was lodged in the barrel from a previous scene and when used in the last scene the pressure of the blank firing actually shot the bullet out.

Overall after watching this at the theater with my older brother, I went immediately to the record store, (remember those) and bought the soundtrack.

Well there's more than I planned on writing about but as I wrote more came to mind I could not leave out. Please feel free to share with me your favorites, and why. I have always thought it would be fun to get a r group of movie lovers together and spend a day.night just watching each others favs and debate there greatness as well as act/sing/quote along with them all.