OZARK'S TOP 250 MOVIES: #60-#51

#60 - Manhunter (1986)
Before Silence of the Lambs brought us Hannibal Lecter the first incarnation was potrayed by Brian Cox in this the screen version of Harris' 'Red Dragon' novel. Michael Mann handles the whole affair with usual style bringing out all the tension up until the finale to the sounds of In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida by Iron Butterfly. Hunt this one down.

#59 - Unforgiven (1992)
Clint Eastwood lived upto and beyond all his expectations for this his last western. Academy award performances aside this is the perfect tale for the setting, as Clint is the aging gunslinger for hire trying to go straight who ends trying to make a few last dollars taking down sme bad guys with bounties on their heads.

#58 - Carlito's Way (1993)
"If you can't see the angles no more, you're in trouble."
De Palma and Pacino team up again for another gangster film. This time instead of Pacino character trying to make a name for himself ala Scarface, he is an already established hood trying to go straight. And he learns the hard way there is no way to escape your past.

#57 - Casablanca (1942)
A timeless love story in a the war torn Morrocan city of Casablanca. Bogart and Bacall at the peak of their careers are incredible together. This truly is a film that will stand the test of time.

#56 - Bullet in the Head (1990)
This is John Woo's Deer Hunter. A tale of four friends who get sucked into the war in Vietnam and the reprecussions it has on their friendship after it is all over. All played out with Woo's heroic bloodshed pathos but even more so as this movie delves more into the emmotions than any other Woo film has gone.

#55 - Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (1983)
The conclussion to Lucas' original trilogy is a little weaker than the two parts preceeding it. Yes the ewoks are cute but after seeing Episode III recently you only begin to wish that Lucas had the technology back then to put the finale on the wookie homeworld. Oh well. It is still a marvellous lavish epic.

#54 - Robocop (1987)
"Dead or alive, you're coming with me."
Verhoeven's action movie that contains a Christ effergy and a social commentary on the corruption of corporate America is a much deeper action sci-fi than most. Complemented by great design work from Rob Bottin and Phil Tippet.

#53 - Twelve Monkeys (1995)
Terry Gilliam's best and most mainstream. The time travel throws the viewer around leaving us wondering if Bruce Willis' character is really insane or if it really is happening to him. Just a great, fascinating and very clever sci-fi.

#52 - Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
"This all means something."
Spielberg next movie after his blockbuster breakout with Jaws is a touching sci-fi opus. He is a great advocate for there is life out there somewhere other than Earth. Five key notes have never meant so much.

#51 - The Goonies (1985)
Long before he was a Hobbit, Sean Astin was a kid. Sean Astin was Mikey. A family film which hits all the right marks 20 years on. As The Goonies, a group of friends, go in search of the pirate One-Eyed Willie's lost treasure. A film I plan on making my kids watch repeatedly and then my grandkids too.

OZARK'S NOT QUITE TOP 250 MOVIES: Part Deux

HOLLYWOOD ACTION MOVIES:

The action genre often tries hard to be something more than what it really is. Face it movies like Con Air and Die Hard 2 aren't going to win oscars but they can try to get some recognition by changing up the usual cliches that go along with the genre. Get in some great writers to work on the dialogue, make the one-liners more snappy, great chemistry between the leads and so on. You can often find a very low budget action movie that works alot better than a movie with a budget ten times as much. So of those DTV movies often star the likes of Jean Claude Van Damme and Steven Seagal who even at their own peaks actually turned out very watchable movies I like to to tale time to mention a couple:

Jean Claude Van Damme:
Hard Target (1993) - The first US movie from Hong Kong autuer John Woo included all his trademarks and wasn't a complete disappointment.

Steven Seagal:
Under Siege (1992) - Before Seagal went all eco-warrior on us, he was Casey Ryback a chef who used to be a SEAL. Supported by a excellent bad guy cast of Gary Busey and Tommy Lee Jones this is movie that works. And the sequel wasn't half bad either.

I even live in hope that one day these two could turn in movies of the same quality. Right now Van Damme is the only one who seems to be moving in the right direction.

Anyway... here are some other movies that didn't quite make the top 250:
Bad Boys (1995) - Courtesey of Michael Bay comes his big screen debut included all the little nuances we have now come to expect of him. This is a movie that is just down right fun, turn the sound system, sit back and whacha gonna do?
Last Boy Scout (1991) - From the master producer Joel Silver, the man behind the Matrix and Lethal Weapon series comes this Bruce Willis flick.
Die Hard With a Vengeance (1995) - Bruce is back again. This time the series goes back to the original director and switches it up so it isn't set at Christmas. Adding Samuel L Jackson as the sidekick adds even more pep back into the trilogy.
Speed (1994) - Making an action star out of Keanu is a tough thing, and this blockbuster action film almost slipped under the radar in '94 and was the suprise hit of the summer.
True Lies (1994) - Arnie once again proved he is the goto guy for big time action in this spy movie spin with a little bit of comedy.
Long Kiss Goodnight (1996) - Renny Harlin cemented himself on the action director map with this fun and violent film. Geena Davis is great in the action heroine role.*

I'm sure there are more I have missed... but oh well... I'm going to go watch the opening sequence of Face/Off for the hundredth time.

*Just an added note, a year after this film everyone was going nuts over Demi Moore turn herself into the action hero and saying the line "Suck my dick!!". I just don't think Geena got enough recognition for what she did to herself and also the fact that she says the same line in LKG.

OZARK'S TOP 250 MOVIES: #70-#61

#70 - Reservoir Dogs (1991)
"Are you cool? I need you cool."
Blasting onto the movie scene with a self-assured coolness and a deft touch for dialogue came Quentin Tarantino's debut crime picture about the heist gone wrong. Mixing pop culture references, profanity and violence this stills holds up as cult classic.

#69 - Napoleon Dynamite (2004)
A hilarious quirky indie-film about a guy who must be the ultimate nerd who sets about to help his friend win the class presidency whilst trying to deal with his family at home. A new star is born in Jon Heder as the title role and boy can he dance.

#68 - Withnail & I (1987)
"I feel like a pig shat in my head."
A couple of would-be actors in 60s London deciede it is time to getting away from it all and try to take a vacation in the Lake District. This british comedy has inspired a thousand drinking games, except for the part where Withnail drinks lighter fluid. This film is not only brilliantly funny but also very intelligent beyond all the drunken swearing.

#67 - Alien (1979)
In space no one can hear you scream. But you can feel the terror nevertheless. Whilst making a star out of Sigourney Weaver, Ridley Scott managed to helm a truly scary horror sci-fi. Also making a cinematic icon out of the creature in the process.

#66 - A Fistful of Dollars (1964)
"My mule don't like you laughing."
After establish himself as a TV star on the show Rawhide Clint Eastwood stepped into the cowboy hat and poncho for the first film in Sergio Leone's fantastic dollars trilogy. The plot is basically a remake of Japanese film Yojimbo but transfered into a Spaghetti western as Clint is the man with no name who walks into a town run by two warring outfits and he sets about stirring it up until he is the last man standing.

#65 - Die Hard (1988)
"Yippie-kay-ay mother fucker."
Bruce Willis as an action star? In the 80s this seemed like a joke question but after this one you couldn't at him without seeing the dirty white vest. Creating it's own genre of the lone gun against impossible odds lead by euro-trash bad guys (Alan Rickman is sublime), Christmas will never be the same.

#64 - Clerks (1994)
"Oooohhh Navy Seals!"
Kevin Smith seemingly created a movie that reached out to the frustrated cashier in all of us. Everytime one of those customers comes up to you with that attitude or dumb question you just wanted to be Randall and just tell them what is really on your mind. You have the power, abuse it.

#63 - The Blues Brothers (1980)
"I hate Illinois nazis."
Quite simply the best thing to come out of a Saturday Night Live skit. The barrage of great music, memorable quotes and funny characters keep this one running. Plus it doesn't hurt to have the destruction of the most police cars in movie history as the end sequence.

#62 - Rear Window (1954)
Or 'What James Stewart Saw'. Hitchcock revs up the suspense as we the audience are dragged in as voyeurs on our neighbors along with Jimmy as he suspects the person across the way in his apartment complex may or may not have murdered his significant other. Forever homaged never equalled.

#61 - Shallow Grave (1994)
This low budget pitch black comedy thriller from Danny Boyle really tries to answer the age old question. If you wake up one morning, your new roommate is dead and there is a bag with a shitload of money under his bed, what do you do? This film is a well concieved and fascinating character study of the effects of greed on friends. Paranoia, betrayal and murder.

WORK - Internalising my anger...

..is something I really need to stop doing.

Okay these four kids, probably 13/14 year olds come in with their skateboards. One of them had fallen and they wanted a band-aid or two. So nice guy that I am, usually, let them sit down and patch themselves up of course thinking they are going to leave in a couple of minutes...

...next thing I know as I see them about to leave.. my co-worker says something and they come upto the front desk and start talking to her. She doesn't try to encourage them to leave the hotel she evens goes to the point of showing them pictures on her son... So here I am getting pissed and more pissed at the situation that I feel I started by letting them sit down and fix their wounds.

...well then they ask me where I am from? Of course I tell them.. I'm polite.. I'm english for fuck's sake... but anyhow... She all tells me to say "Bloody hell" or "Bloody bastard".... So in the course or telling to leave the hotel and after much heckling.. I say You Bloody bastards get out of my hotel... big mistake.. then they pull out a camcorder and ask me to do it for the camera... I immediately step around the corner... there is no way I am getting caught on camera saying something like in my uniform.. knowing my luck it would end up on the internet being download of the week....

...so from around the corner I am saying turn it off.. get out of the hotel.. and my co-worker isn't helping much as she keeps begging me to do it.... so in the end I just snap say I am calling the police and yell at the top of my lungs... "GET OUT!!!!".. not6 the most professional way of dealing with it... but hey they did leave.

IN THE NEWS - Moment of silence...

A wrestler was discovered dead in his Minneapolis hotel room on Sunday, just hours before a scheduled performance in a World Wrestling Entertainment show. He was 38. Eduardo Gory Guerrero, best known for participating in WWE Smackdown!, was found by his nephew and hotel security after failing to respond to a wake-up call. Police are investigating the mysterious demise but, as yet, do not suspect foul play. WWE chairman Vince McMahon paid tribute to the heavyweight saying, "This is a huge loss. Eddie was a wonderful, fun-loving human being. Eddie was a consummate performer."

I mention this because I was a fan of WWF/WWE and remember the better days.
The days of Mama Cita Chyna.
Eddie was a great star and he will be missed.

OZARK'S TOP 250 MOVIES: #80-#71

#80 - Spartacus (1960)
Kirk Douglas is Spartacus. Kubrick as always does a masterful job of directing this epic. The granduer still amazes over 4o years later. A film that is timeless.

#79 - Shaun of the Dead (2004)
Billed as a romantic comedy with zombies here is a satire of zombie films that is better than most of the movies it is having jokes at the expense of. Simon Pegg is fantastic as the Shaun of the title as he battles his way through zombies to save his mum, his girlfriend and his pub.

#78 - The Ladykillers (1955)
The best of the Ealing comedies this again stars regular Alec Guinness, who puts in another fabulous acting turn as the creepy leader of potential robbers planning their big heist whilst hiding out in a sweet old lady's home.

#77 - Back to the Future (1985)
"You made a time machine out of a DeLorean?!"
Michael J Fox's defining role as Marty McFly is still as fantastic and fun as it was twenty years ago, as he travels back through time to the 50s in Doc Brown's time machine. A marvellous family film get the kids in, sit down and enjoy. Again and again.

#76 - Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
One of the definitive WWII movies. Directed by David Lean the story is of a British colonel (Alec Guinness) who after being in a Japanese POW camp for while comes to a truce with the camp commander and offers to help him build a bridge, unaware of the Allied's plan to blow up said bridge.

#75 - The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)
Woody Allen's best movies are mainly the ones he doesn't star in himself and this is the perfect example of that theory. As Jeff Daniels stars in dual roles of firstly actor and the character this actor plays in a movie, as that character walks off a movie screen into Mia Farrow's life. A wonderfully touching romantic comedy featuring the best of Woody Allen's writing.

#74 - Blazing Saddles (1974)
It's the old west and in a ploy to ruin a town a corrupt politician hires a black sheriff (Cleavon Little) little does he know that would be his big mistake. Of all Mel Brooks' comedies this is the best. A terrific jab at the old Hollywood westerns and toward the end a marvellous poke at Hollywood itself as the movie spills out into the studio.

#73 - Airplane! (1980)
"Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue."
The daddy of all spoof movies, this is the Zuckers & Abrahams at their funniest. The crew is all falling ill and the only person who can land the plane is an ex-pilot who is terrified of flying. Surely they can't be serious. Yes they are... but don't call me Shirley.

#72 - Spider-Man 2 (2004)
The sequel to a great super-hero film, is the best incarnation of a super-hero ever. Tobey Maguire is most assured in the hero role and Alfred Molina is incredible as the evil Doc Ock. The real star is the huge action sequences.

#71 - Romeo and Juliet (1997)
Baz Luhrmann came out of nowhere with this MTV-esque version of the Shakespearean text. The original dialogue blends in perfectly with the modern vista of Verona Beach and the leads were perfectly cast for DiCaprio and Danes.