79. The Apartment

The Apartment (1960)
Directed by Billy Wilder

I have to confess, I love most everything that writer/director Billy Wilder does. There isn’t a single film of his I’ve seen that I didn’t like, and this is my favorite of them all. For those who have never seen this film, I give a hearty recommendation to it. If you liked Jerry Maguire, then this is a film that I think you’ll find yourself loving as well.

It is one of those films that falls into the odd place between romance, comedy and drama. Most films can barely get one of those genres right, but this one is able to get all three right. Like Jerry Maguire, The Apartment tiptoes from great comedic set pieces to great moments of dramatic insight. It might not be as poppy or in your face as Jerry Maguire, but it got that film beat when it comes to heart. There is a moment late in the film where the movie implies that Shirley MacLaine does something insane (for those who’ve seen it, it’s the champagne moment), and it absolutely stopped me heart short. Thankfully, it leads into a wonderfully redemptive scene that steals the film.

It might be in black and white but this film still plays well to a modern audience thanks in large part to the witty writing and great performances. I promise you that you will laugh alongside with Jack Lemmon (“You should see my backhand”) and fall in love with Shirley MacLaine (“Shut up and deal”). Maybe your not sure about the closet space or the old furniture, but trust me, take a chance on The Apartment.

81. Police Story

Police Story (1985)
Directed by Jackie Chan

One of two Jackie Chan films to make my list, Police Story is the fullest expression of everything that Jackie Chan brings to the medium of film. As it is with the Marx Brothers, Jackie Chan films (and martial arts films in general) exist with completely different expectations and standards than other films. If you’re looking for the film that best represents Jackie Chan’s unique cinematic vision, then you should look no further than 1985’s Police Story.

Doing its part to usher in a new golden age of Hong Kong cinema, Jackie Chan’s Police Story is the prototype and model for contemporary martial arts police films. While the plot is conventional and filled with holes, it’s the revolution in tone and action that sets this film apart.
The film opens with an incredible shootout and car chase that destroys an entire slum built on a hillside (that has been copied in Michael Bay’s Bad Boys II), which showcases Chan’s willingness to obliterate the scale and intensity of other action films. To follow it up Chan chases the bad guys while hanging onto the sides of a moving bus (with an umbrella) the bus turns corners and oncoming cars fly by! What makes the action so fresh is the obvious risk in the stunts. When Chan is hanging off the back of a bus with an umbrella, there are no wires, no pads, and no stunt doubles; this is hardcore commitment.

That tone is throughout the entire film. In the first martial arts sequence, Chan doesn’t just merely fight around cars, he and his stunt team absolutely demolish them as their bodies smash through windows and bust off doors. If that wasn’t enough, Chan creates a ten minute finale in a shopping mall that literally dropped my jaw the first time I saw it. It was then and still is now, one of the most incredible action sequences ever filmed.

Chan and his team fight throughout the mall falling down escalators, falling off several stories to the floor, demolishing every glass case in sight, and finally sliding down an electrified pole from the ceiling to the floor. While the martial arts in this sequence isn’t as technical as his other films, there is a brutality and quickness to it all that outranks nearly everything you’ve ever seen.

Of course, action alone doesn’t make a Jackie Chan film. No Jackie Chan film would be complete without his particular touches, and Police Story has them all. Cases of mistaken identities, practical pranks, and hitting on women are all played for laughs. Jackie also gets the chance for his special brand of urban climbing (the man is one of the best at parkour before anyone recognized it), and for his own personality quirks (he gets to do the moonwalk in funny touch). Also found here are all the pratfalls and comedy setups that have come to epitomize Jackie Chan films (there is a hilarious multiple phone gag in this one)

There are Jackie Chan films with better plots (New Police Story), better action sequences (Legend of Drunken Master), better prop fights (First Strike), but this film literally has it all. Most Americans only know Chan from his Rush Hour series or his Shanghai series and those contains some good Chan stuff within a Hollywood context. However, if you want to see the action film as Jackie Chan sees it (without Hollywood strings), then this is the film to watch.

Enjoy the entire Mall Fight sequence below. Let me know what you think.

Here is the bus sequence I described above. Enjoy!

82. The Descent

The Descent (2006)
Directed by Neil Marshall

It was an unlikely event that I even saw the film, but for it to climb its way into this list in front of other horror films like Psycho and Scream is a surprise for me. The Descent looks like a typical horror gore fest on the surface, but to me it’s one of the best cautionary tales about forgiveness, the effects of tragic deaths, and moving on that I’ve ever seen.

A year after the tragic death of her husband and child, Beth heads out to the Appalachian Mountains to spend some time and return to normal with her fellow daredevil girlfriends. They decide to spend their time spelunking in some of the Appalachian caves when one of the caves collapses and traps them underneath.

It’s true that there are scary creatures that kill their team off one by one (providing the standard genre fare), but it is done so well that there is some truly great moments of shock and gore. There are some perfect homages to other horror films as well, ranging from Apocalypse Now to The Blair Witch Project. This film gets the scares right, the logic of the scares, and it even gets the fighting back right.

Even better though is the social dynamic between all the women. Each woman is given a personality that adds something essential to the group dynamic creating a group of people as interesting as the jurors in 12 Angry Men. I appreciate that Neil Marshall is able to tell the personality and psychology of each of the women through the action and not through long takes of dialogue. It really is a superbly directed film.

I wouldn’t want to spoil the details of how the whole group unravels (that’s one of the true pleasures of the film), so I’ll just share with you my favorite aspect of the story. Beth’s inability to move pass the death of her child as well as forgive her friends (for reasons I won’t spoil here) are vital in how the story progresses. If you watch the film, I suggest you watch the unrated cut as it contains the original ending and not the American ending (its s British film).

This original ending is a powerful confirmation that unforgiveness and vengeance are caves of darkness with their own demons. The ending moments are just plain devastating for me. Its not an ending that satisfies genre convention, but it's one that truly transcends the genre. For those not into horror films, especially ones with gore, this may not be a film for you. However, if your just a little bit adventurous and willing to take a risk, I heartily recommend this film to you. This is my favorite pure horror film and the only one that I wouldn't want to live without.

83. Psycho

Psycho (1960)
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

The first of three Hitchcock films to make my list and its one I had to think about for quite some time. There’s no doubt there is much to like in Psycho, but as far as horror films go, I’d always felt like it was severely dated. What may have been scary in 1960, just doesn’t seem as visceral or horrific today. Ultimately, it was the film’s other elements that cemented it in place on my list.

Although the film’s scary moments are few, there are three legitimate moments of great tension. There is the iconic shower sequence, Arbogast’s murder, and the shocking ending. Despite those few moments, there is a wealth of other material to like. I think what sells me the most is the procedural nature of the film.

This is not a film in hurry. It takes its time to set up its story, then changes the story midstream, and then takes its time to find a conclusion. It lingers in conversations (giving us great moments between Leigh and Perkins), pauses while investigations take place (allowing Martin Balsam some great lines), and slowly makes its revelations (creating some iconic sequences). It’s this meticulous pace that always makes me return to this film. I really love that Hitchcock takes his time to do things like this. Of course, I haven’t even mentioned the famous score and the great cinematography (how the snooping cop is shot blows me away), all of which add up to a great and essential film.

86. City of God

City of God (2003)
Directed by Fernando Meirelles

City of God is Slumdog Millionaire with the guts and courage to be true to its story. While it contains all the vibrancy and urgency of life that people loved in Slumdog, City of God is faithful to the reality of the hard (godless) situations you find in slums, or in this case the favellas. Instead of throwing in a ‘feel good’ plotline about destiny (without squaring it with the destitution that so many are forced to live in), City of God pulls the viewer into the favella (the Brazilian version of the slum) and requires them to confront the evil, the moral decay, and the struggle to survive that characterize it. This is not a feel good film.

After the first time I watched City of God, I actually fell into a depression that I didn't shake off for nearly three days. I could not believe that the film was based on a true story and that this could really happen in people’s lives. The ability for this film to convey the hopeless and endless circles of poverty and violence is not only powerful, but also dangerous. I caution those who enter into this film, it will challenge you. There are no easy answers here, no trite conclusions, and it’s all the more impactful for that.


I’m going to end this commentary here (even though I haven’t given a plotline or anything) because I think you get the picture of how I feel about it. I wouldn’t want to do without this film because it is a constant reminder about what people will do to survive, how decisions to do the wrong thing can lead to real moral decay, and how hopeless some situations can truly be. It’s a wake-up call to the idealistic, and a punch in the stomach to those with lofty ideas of a blind force of fate and destiny. Perhaps that exists in other places, but not in the City of God.

87. Ordinary People

Ordinary People (1980)
Directed by Robert Redford

Every now and then there is a film that comes along and breaks the normal mold for all that have come before it, Ordinary People does that for the family drama. Gone from this film is the comedy/drama tight walk that Billy Wilder made a living on, the ‘fake’ play dialogue of so many 60’s family dramas, and the “misunderstood” teen angst of Rebel Without a Cause. In place is a dramatic ‘realism’ (that I tend to favor) that is more akin to films like Good Will Hunting and In the Bedroom, than something like Jerry Maguire.

Central to the success of this film is Robert Redford’s stripped down and straightforward direction and the internalized and natural performances. This is the definition of an actor’s film with Donald Sutherland, Mary Tyler Moore, Timothy Hutton and Judd Hirsch all deserving Oscar nominations and wins.

As the tragic death of a son strikes the family, each actor perfectly inhabits the way in which each character reacts to the tragedy. Conrad, the surviving son, attempts to commit suicide after his brother dies and must spend the rest of the film returning to normalcy, within society and within himself. Played excellently by Timothy Hutton, Conrad struggles with his feelings and wonders if they will lead him to suicide again.

Conrad’s parents, played by Donald Sutherland and Mary Tyler Moore, are given the lion share of dramatic scenes, and they do not disappoint. Donald is perfect as the introspective father who doesn’t know how to help his son Conrad. There is such a restrained regret tattooed on the Sutherland’s face during his scenes that you could tell it paints every scene he is given. Mary Tyler Moore delivers the perfect portrait of a mother who was overwhelmed by grief so much that she detaches completely from giving anyone else her love. These roles play refreshingly against type for each actor and they exploit that perfectly in the film.

Filling out the cast is Judd Hirsch who plays Conrad’s psychiatrist. Conrad’s sessions with Judd are the turning points in the script and ultimately provide Conrad with the catharsis and perspective needed to continue on. In a role that could’ve bordered into just another “wise old man” routine, Judd is able to ground the character enough to make the relationship feel real and palpable. It also helps that Judd gets the best line in the film, “A little advice about feelings kiddo; don't expect it always to tickle.”

By the end, the film finds the perfect ending for all that had gone before it. Sure, there are some faults to the film (I feel there is a little too much Freudian style diagnosis of the characters going on), but they are small and don’t really affect my enjoyment of it. By the time the credits roll, I always feel like I have truly been a member of the family and shared their struggles, trials, and revelations. What more could you ask of a family drama?

Other Essentials: Mary Tyler Moore’s “Tell me the meaning of happy” scene, the awkward family picture scene, Sutherland’s scene with Moore about changing clothes

88. Jerry Maguire

Jerry Maguire (1996)
Directed by Cameron Crowe

One of the few romantic comedies that you will find on my list; Jerry Maguire is a fun story featuring some extremely likeable and unique characters. What makes this particular romantic comedy different from the many that I typically dislike is the fact while being a romantic comedy at heart; it really doesn’t play like one at all.

The typical romantic comedy formula is eschewed in Jerry Maguire for kind of an oddball plotline that takes a few unexpected turns and then U-turns. Sure there is still the meet cute and courting process, as well as the woman sidekick with support and suspicion, but there seems to be a willingness to move past such conventions and strike some seriously deep material.

Thankfully, there is no sequence where Jerry is suspected of cheating or something is just misconstrued leading to faux romantic comedy breakup before the happy ending. Instead, Cameron Crowe gives us real insight into the heart of our characters. After the initial wedding (when most films would’ve ended), Jerry is still learning how to truly value Dorothy and the film doesn’t give Jerry an easy ending.

In the end, I liked the parallel between marriage and the sports agent industry. It’s not until Jerry learns true humility and truly what it means to hang in with someone, care for them, desire the best for them, does the film allow him success in either areas. The film is helped enormously by a great performance by Tom Cruise, definitely one of his greatest.

All that and I haven’t even mentioned all the great scenes, quotable lines, and fantastic supporting roles (Cuba Gooding Jr. deserved every bit of his Oscar) that fill out this truly satisfying film. All in all, this is a great story with a great central character with some truly great insight. All reasons I wouldn’t want to do without it.

91. Aladdin

Aladdin (1991)
Directed by Ron Clements and John Musker

In a choice that may anger certain readers (one Justin Hawks in particular), Aladdin makes my list as the one Disney musical I would want above all the others. Before casting the opinion aside, hear me out on this one. I’ve taken a lot of time to think about the pro’s and cons of all the Disney musicals and here are the reasons I would take Aladdin above them all. Brace yourself; you may not have thought about these films this much before.

Primarily, I find Aladdin the most emotionally enjoyable and intellectually satisfying of the Disney musicals. I enjoy all of the major Disney musicals, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King. What follows is a small dissection of what makes Aladdin the most essential of all four. Some may say I am picking them apart a little too much, but I told you earlier that I ‘enjoy’ them all, and I am here now looking for what differentiates them from each other.

The Little Mermaid is a fantastic film with great music and very likeable characters. However, our heroine must find her satisfaction and enjoyment in the person of someone she hardly even knows. Is the lesson of the film that we should follow blindly (giving up essential parts of our nature) for irrational desires? It all works out in the end (to our delight), but doesn’t a closer examination of the message notch it down a little?

Beauty and the Beast is also a fantastic film filled with great musical moments and likeable characters as well. In fact, It was nominated for an Academy Award, which is not all that surprising considering that it’s seemingly the most mature of the Disney four. Here again, the ultimate message of the film brings it down a few notches. Bill Chambers from http://www.filmfreakcentral.net/ says it best, “Belle, the titular 'beauty,' is the archetypal freethinking Disney heroine nonetheless given an ultimatum: this dude or that dude. She doesn't care to end up with Volvo-chinned Gaston because he wants a slave for a wife; meanwhile, she falls for a hot-tempered manimal, but is it any coincidence that he showers her with gifts the whole time? Disney's Beauty and the Beast is about a superficial woman rejecting one superficial man for another who happens to be ugly enough to ennoble her decision. Gaston is the only character honest with himself in this corrupt, self-righteous enterprise, which rewards Belle's patience by having Beast revert to a chiselled Aryan in the denouement.” At least Shrek got it right, Shrek and Fiona needed to remain ogres to retain the true power of the message.

My thoughts on The Lion King are featured here, but let me just add a few notes to it. There is something askew about the message of The Lion King when it supports the “caste” system of the jungle. The central message the movie puts forward is about not running from your past and becoming ‘who’ you are meant to be; but how does this whole “meant to be king” and “circle of life” fit into our society that is primarily a democracy and meritocracy? If we are going to anthropomorphize our animals and praise certain aspects of the animal world (like the circle of life), then I take a little bit of caution to the film’s other messages.

This brings me to Aladdin. While I find the film incredibly enjoyable (due in no small part to Robin Williams’ Genie), its also the most intellectually and thematically satisfying. Here we have two characters who yearn for a “better” world (some might say, "A Whole New World"); Jasmine the Princess yearns to be away from the suffocating traditionalism of the palace while Aladdin dreams to be rid of the suffocating poverty of the slums. Both characters ultimately realize that true freedom isn't being away from their current locations or circumstances; its about pursuing the things you want and love regardless of obstacles, locaton, and circumstances.


It’s to the filmmakers credit that the Genie does not just represent a just a funny sidekick, but represents another character who is in a way shackled and desiring freedom. Aladdin’s decision to use his last wish to free the Genie isn’t just a great moment for the audience (because we like the Genie), but because it completes Aladdin’s character. Aladdin’s freeing of the Genie demonstrates his revelation that his real happiness doesn't lay in wishing for a change in places or circumstances, and thus he turns his wish over to help someone else gain their freedom.

Even Aladdin’s defeat of Jafar plays on the theme of freedom. Whereas Aladdin comes to the realization that freedom doesn’t rely upon power and materials, Jafar’s ultimate ruin comes from his unending desire to aquire them. Jafar is defeated, not because Aladdin is stronger, but because he Aladdin is able to pay on this desire, and trick Jafar into enslaving himself. That my friends, is a lesson for the ages.

If you like any of the other Disney musicals more than Aladdin, that’s okay with me. I’m not on a crusade to make you change your mind, just help you understand mine better (now if you do change you mind that’s fine too). I find them all very enjoyable, but Aladdin to be the one Disney musical above all, that I can’t live without.

92. Speed

Speed (1994)
Directed by Jan de Bont

I stood with my parents in front of the Oaks Theatre near the Melbourne Square Mall. We had two choices, Speed or The Lion King. We chose Speed as a family (even though I was eleven, I still felt a little old for a cartoon), and we all had a fantastic film experience. Who would’ve thought that fifteen years later I would rank Speed just a bit above The Lion King in my “Films I Can’t Live Without” List? In hindsight, our family made the better decision.

Speed is a classic action film (even if it really is Die Hard On a Bus). From the superb opening elevator situation to the closing subway jump, this is a classic nail biter. I’ve seen a lot of films since and few are able to match the brake neck pace that Speed attains, while still retaining a few interesting characters. The 1990s contained a plethora of “I’ve got a hostage” films, but this is the crème of the crop.

Speed was a star-making film for Keanu “What’re you gonna do” Reeves and Sandra “Wilcat behind the wheel” Bullock. Both actors have great charisma and create (along with Jeff Daniels) interesting enough performances to carry a film without a true blue plot beyond its basic premise.

For such an engaging and suspenseful movie to come out of what amounts to a lot of driving around is a testament to the performances, editing and directing. For a fun, wholesome (outside of some vulgar language), and exciting time at the movies, you can’t get much better than Speed.

Other Essentials: Classic action score, “The airport, I’ve already seen the airport”, “Shoot the hostage”, and the ridiculous bus jump sequences that works for some strange reason

93. The Emperor's New Groove

The Emperor’s New Groove (2000)
Directed by Mark Dindal

I first saw The Emperor’s New Groove in the fall of 2000 on a night when I was in a particularly bad mood. My friends and I drove nearly an hour to the Vero AMC, a nice theatre we would go to when we so desired. In a way that only a truly pleasant film experience can, The Emperor’s New Groove completely changed my spirits and had my friends and I laughing the whole car ride back. I’ve watched it several times since and its simple delights have not diminished.

Much like Kung Fu Panda, there is a sweet innocence to the story of Emperor’s New Groove that makes it such straightforward pleasure to watch. The decision to tone down the animation and go with a stylized look versus a realistic look adds to the “pull up a chair and hear a story” quality that I love. I think I am going to stop myself for a moment. It’s hard for me to encapsulate all the details that work so well for me in this film, so I think I am just going to stop myself here.

There is no overarching social commentary, deep insights, or deep artistic cry in this film,and while the technical aspects are exemplary (the voice over work Kitt, Goodman, and Spade are fantastic), it may be best if I just stick to the basics. I enjoy this film. Its simple and well told. When I am feeling down and need a pick me up, this one will always do it. What more needs to be said? This is a film I can’t live without.