H
Joined: Aug 22, 2002
Posts: 3691
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H
I don't think that these are the five best movies ever, but they are my five favorites:
Box of Moonlight (Tom DiCillo, 1996)
A sweet, little movie, far from perfect, but wonderful. A lot of parallels between the relationship between Al Fountain & The Kid and my little brother & I. By far my favorite movie, and one of my favorite soundtracks, to boot. I watch it regularly (though the DVD is letterboxed instead of being 16x9 enhanced, darnit!).
Mary Poppins (Robert Stevenson for Walt Disney, 1964)
A representation of everything that Disney was doing right, all in one marvelously entertaining film. Amazing matte artwork by Peter Ellenshaw, catchy and touching music by the Sherman brothers, child actors you don't want to strangle, animated sequences that don't distract or detract from the live action, great comedy from Ed Wynn and Dick Van Dyke, and the enchanting presence and voice of Julie Andrews. An engrossing, well executed (and nice & long) fantasy.
Evil Dead 2 (Sam Raimi, 1987)
If you haven't seen this movie, you have to. Now. Tonight. Go rent it. Have a beer before you watch it. Let yourself giggle. It's okay. You don't need (or even want) to see the first Evil Dead to appreciate it, it stands on its own. If given the opportunity, I would gladly have Bruce Campbell's baby. Groovy.
The Three Caballeros (Norman Ferguson, for Walt Disney, 1944
The Disney Studios went through a very rough period during World War II--in keeping with the many sacrifices made all over the country in those years, the studio was essentially taken over by the military to produce propaganda & training films, and work on full-length features was not possible. The studio turned to packaged films made up of short animated sequences to start to make money again. The US Government also enlisted Disney's help in spreading goodwill south of the US border. The first South American travelogue produced by Disney was called "Saludos Amigos," this is the second one. I could go on and on about all the aspects of this movie that make it a must-see (film of South America & Mexico, Donald Duck at his best, lovely ladies in 40s swimwear, artwork by Mary Blair, "The Coldblooded Penguin," fantastic music), but I'll highlight my favorite: a stunningly gorgeous animated sequence, much in the style of Fantasia, to Bing Crosby singing "Baia."
The Big Lebowski (Coen Brothers, 1998)
There's been plenty of discussion about the Big Lebowski here before, so I won't belabor it here, except to point out that this film (besides having the great advantage of being written by the exceedingly clever Coen brothers) has a number of actors that are all capable of excellence, and all of them deliver uncommonly good performances here: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Steve Buscemi, John Goodman, John Turturro, Sam Elliot, and last but not least, a surprisingly different performance by Jeff Bridges. Flea being in it (I've had a bit of a crush for some years now) is just frosting.
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