AAFS Nominations
Jaweed Malik
here are my top 10 fav movies at the moment in no particular order
1. Pulp Fiction - full of stars, life, unorthodox sexual encounters, confused morality and funny, a bit like my life!
2. The Terminator - Great movie with Arnie, action plot and a nice lookin chick
3. The Godfather Trilogy - Marlon does the business in 1, Rob rocks in 2 and Al Pacino is great in all 3 and makes better offers !!!
4. Raiders of the Lost Ark - This is really great adventure hero..I wanted to be Indiana Jones when I was growing up but my parents were not to impressed since they hailed from Pakistan!!
5. Betty Blue - The opening scene and I was hooked.
6. Le Cop - This is a funny movie and it's foreign to demonstrate that I am cultured and I loved it!! Pity it was not in English!!
7. On the Waterfront - Brando was fantastic and I cannot believe I love this movie cos it's in black and white
8. Scarface - This is a great movie and Al Pacino as the man Tony, blew me away. I saw this movie when I was about 12 and I did not realise that you were meant sniff talcum powder!!
9. The Magnificant 7 - I loved the bloody tune!!!!!! Great plot and it even inspired me to watch that Japo dude's version!! The baddies are beaten by the goodies but it was a close shave (no, I am not refering to Yul's haircut!!)
10. Basic Instinct - I really wanted to say "Deep Throat" but some of the readers may have found that a bit hard to swallow!!! I fancy Sharon Stone..even now!!I liked the plot and coming from Newcastle am used to girls rubbing against themselves in niteclubs!!Did try to find that bed with the metal headboard in the bulletin board but to no available. However I am keeping my legs crossed!!!
That's all folks!
Jack Rigg
A Man For all Seasons
Othello ( NT Olivier, Finlay, Smith)
Sunday, Bloody Sunday
Death in Venice
Black Narcissus
Saturday Night, Sunday morning
In the Heat of the Night
The Robe
The Damned
West Side Story
Justin Scholes
In no particular order (I do not feel qualified to grade such works of genius) here are the ten films that I believe best represent all that is great about the medium of film.
Be it the glorious costumes, the inspired dialogue, the groundbreaking camerawork or indeed the meticulous attention to every little detail of the masterpiece I feel that these are true classics. It is impossible to put a finger on any one aspect of greatness but I find that in each of these cases it comes down to the basic ability of the director to bring one to tears of despair in one frame and tears of joy in the next.
For this, I salute you dear creators and thank you from the bottom of my heart. My life has been made better by your dreams…
Xanadu
A roller-skating goddess (Olivia Newton-John) comes to life from a Venice Beach mural and falls in love with a struggling artist (Michael Beck). This is, of course, a re-working of Federico Fellini's La Strada with certain aspects of Gabriel Axel's Babette's Feast but Xanadu has the added bonus of a groooovy up-tempo soundtrack to make you boogie-oogie. In my mind the Pope himself should ask Olly Neutron-Bomb (sic) to write a few hymns, guaranteeing that the youth would be up and worshipping on a Sunday morning. This film is also notable for being a truly graceful way for Gene Kelly to end his career. Thumbs up all round.
Dead Poets Society
This heart-rending story revolves around a gang of loveable upper class teenagers at a top school who are led of the rails by a meddlesome English teacher. In my opinion this gut-wrenching rite-de-passage deserves it’s spot on anyone’s Top Ten. You’ll cry with disbelief as Robert Sean Leonard tragically takes his own life because his father won’t let him be in the school play. A superb chance for ordinary folks like you and me to see believable characters with believable problems. THIS is “how life is” Macy Gray, and you can keep your ghetto claptrap.
Barb Wire
Here we have a totally original story, which is so rare in this day and age. Pamela Anderson stars as Barb, a night club owner who avoids trouble with fascists until her old boyfriend Axel Hood (Temuera Morrison) turns up with his new partner – Cora D, the head of The Resistance (Victoria Rowell.) The ending is truly touching as she sends the love of her life away with her rival d’amour to aid the cause. True genius. No-one has ever written anything like this before.
Mannequin / Mannequin 2
Impossible to choose one so I’ve had to plump for both of them I’m afraid. A slap-bang up to date reworking of Pygmalion in which a pervert (Andrew Macarthy) makes a dummy (Kim Catrrall) come to life for sex games. The films did a lot to help political correctness in America by making one of the main characters – ‘Hollywood’ (played for laughs by Meshach Taylor) both African-American AND homosexual as well. Truly groundbreaking although many saw the character as a Sammy Davis Jr for the Pepsi generation. COOL!
Breakdance 2 - Electric Boogaloo
They say there are only 7 stories. Breakdance 2 - Electric Boogaloo is number 8. Need I say more?
Bachelor Party
This is actually a reworking of an ancient Japanese text. On the eve of his wedding to a beautiful virgin (Tawny Kitaen), a boy (Tom Hanks) takes part in a series of tests of manhood for thus it is written and so it shall be for alway. As his trials get gradually harder, he faces many bared breasts, runs out of many rooms going “WOOOAHHH” and has to deal with a donkey that’s overdosed. He marries his wife a man and a hero. Inspiring.
Interestingly this was remade years later by Disney under the name Aladdin 2 The Return of Jafar.
Shirley Valentine
A modern classic. An oppressed housewife (Pauline Collins) has a cruel husband (Bernard Hill) who treats her with disdain and refuses to accept her as her own woman. After working hard all day to feed her he comes home only to find that Shirley has fed the neighbours dog the steak he’d bought for his dinner (or rather his “tea” as the provincials say) and served him egg and chips instead (Yum!). Unreasonably he berates her for this and Shirley leaves him to go to Greece and sex up a waiter (Tom Conte). Anyone at the time who was heard to say that this film was appalling was condemned as being a “man” and rightly so. It’s a feminist no holds barred barn-stormer that shows all women they can stay at home while their husbands work, waste expensive food and then get “jiggy” with a swarthy foreigner. What a great message. What a great film!
Coneheads
A hysterical Saturday Night Live spin-off that shows taking a 2 minute sketch and dragging it out over 2 hours sometimes works… AND HOW! The cavalcade of comedy is notable mainly for a riotous performance from top stand-up comedian and star of ‘A Different World’ Sinbad. ARF!
Bedtime for Bonzo
Bedtime for Bonzo is a dark tale, which focuses on the forbidden love between a man and a monkey. A simple minded fundamentalist Christian (George Bush) enraged by the local school teaching Evolutionism sleeps with a monkey to find out “what the heck all this fuss is about consarn it”. He soon falls deeply in love with his simian bedmate but throughout the film an internal battle rages within him as he fights his base, carnal desires. The theme of God versus Ape continues until the terrifying and tragic climax in which the hero holds the power of the whole world in his hands. Based on a true (if unlikely) story.
Judge Dredd
Dredd, the archetypal comic-book anti-hero is brought to life in this roller-coaster ride of a movie. Cunningly the director manages to retain the two-dimensional qualities of the original illustrated characters by casting Sylvester Stallone and Diane Lane. Many fans of the comics claimed that this film bore no relation to their hero as he took off his helmet and ultimately his uniform too and instead roamed The Forbidden Zone in a vest – nothing more than a kind of Die Hard in the future. However I charge them with being nay-saying stay-at-homes with no girlfriends. It’s clear to the connoisseur that what the brooding character of Dredd needed was a wisecracking sidekick played here by the uproarious Rob Schneider. A cult classic, well almost (wink).
So now the cinema is closed, the screen is dark and the ushers have ushed and alas we too must make our weary ways home. But do not be sad gentle patron for remember the shows will go on and tomorrow is another day! Adieu.
(As ever with the subject of film, there will of course be several of you who disagree with my choices and in the spirit of an open forum I grudgingly accept your opinions. However, know now that you are wrong you poor fools for my list is the list that is right.)
Ted Hennessy
A List of Favourite Movies - a formative years list based on the effect
they had on me on first viewing, I'm going with my heart!
1) One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Milos Foreman? - Pass the largactyl!
2) Taxi Driver - Martin Scorsese - Pass the jam and sugar on toast!
3) A Clockwork Orange - Stanley Kubrick - Pass the milako plus!
4) Satyricon (What was all that about???!!!) - Frederico Fellini - Pass the
synopsis!
5) Raging Bull - Martin Scorsese - Pass the linament!
6) Apocalypse Now - Francis Ford Coppola - Pass the acid!
7) The Godfather (Part 1 and 2) - Francis Ford Coppola - Pass the popcorn!
8) The Last Wave - Peter Weir Spooky! - Point the bone!
9) Amadeus - ? - Pass the cream cakes!
10) Trainspotting - ? Pass the skag!
Sarah Walker's Top Ten
1) L'Atalante
2) Casablanca (like Hamlet it's full of quotations - I wonder why)
(the perfect double bill for a long evening is Casablanca followed by
Woody Allen's "Play it Again, Sam" - come on, AAFS!)
3) The Long Good Friday
4) Citizen Kane (oh alright then!)
5) Buena Vista Social Club
6) Blade Runner
7) Morte di un Matematico Napolitano - probably for sentimental reasons.
Unfortunately I no longer have a copy of this, but I remember it as
brilliant.
8) Leaving Las Vegas
9) Derek Jarman's The Tempest
10) Iron Ladies
Catherine Journeax's Top Ten
1) David McQueen’s Top Ten
| My ‘top ten’ films would probably change from week to week and I've not made any attempt to put 'greatest' in the sense of historically important. These are 10 'great' films that jostle amongst many others in a long list of favourites. They are in a very rough order of merit so that we can try to find out AAFS’s ‘greatest’ film at some point. Having said that ranking completely different films is like trying to rank vintage wine against mature cheese (or something) so it is a little ridiculous. | |
1) Casablanca - Michael Curtis
Pure, distilled Hollywood genius.
2) The Wizard of Oz – Victor Fleming
I hate musicals, but this film and ‘Oliver’ are brilliant exceptions. The Wizard of Oz is a true one off – no has even tried to make anything similar since. Superb design, art work, songs, casting and direction. The transition from black-and-white Kansas to glorious-technicolour Munchkinland is one of my earliest film memories along with other bizarre and spooky scenes such as the twister and the wicked witch of the east’s appearances. A showcase for the potential genius of Hollywood’s studio system rather than a single director’s achievement.
3) Kes - Ken Loach
Loach will be remembered for a remarkable body of work (like Woody Allen he seems able to put out films almost every year), but Kes remains his best.
4) Withnail and I – Bruce Robinson
I think Withnail is the funniest film ever made – why can’t the British make more films like this?
5) Come and See - Elem Klimov
A harrowing Russian war film about the German army’s advance across Soviet territory. This film was made in 1985 and there was nothing quite as grueling on western screens until Schindler’s List (or maybe the first twenty minutes of Saving Private Ryan).
6) Get Carter – Mike Hodges
I saw this when I was 15 and it was the first time I had seen Britain presented in such a cold, hard light. Michael Caine is totally convincing as the gangland criminal. Unlike most screen villains he is neither stupid, funny or lovable. A bleak, but powerful film.
7) Festen (Celebration) – Thomas Vinterberg
A brilliant drama from the Dogma school about a wealthy hotel owner’s birthday party (that turns into the family reunion from hell). Excellent script and characters brought to life by ensemble acting at its best and fantastic photography using a video camera you can buy at Carrefour. The film was made in Denmark on a tiny budget and proves that great cinema doesn’t need a million dollar budgets.
8) Last Tango in Paris - Bernardo Bertolucci
Brando gave so many great performances, but this was his least mannered and most convincing. An excellent script, beautifully filmed.
9) The Servant - Joseph Losey
Razor sharp dialogue, performances and photography. The British class system under a microscope. The black and white screen never looked so sinister.
10) The Tin Drum - Volker Schlondorff
A boy that refuses to grow up, whose shriek can shatter glass. Set during the rise of the Nazis and continues through the war. I love films that take you by surprise from moment to moment and the Tin Drum is a stunning example of that kind of film.
I’m sure this list will have changed by tonight, but there it is for the moment. It drove me mad trying to mail it down to ten because there were so many other great films that ‘could have been contenders’. Click here for 'runners up list'.
Looking forward to seeing some more of your top ten greatest films on this site! To submit you top ten (just a list in order, or with comments, also rans etc) please click below:
submit your top ten
