30 Batman Begins (2005)
For somebody who claims to love superhero movies, my list is suspiciously low on movies of the caped variety. I'll say there are a lot more great superhero movies, and also comic based movies (like Sin City, Superman and the first Batman movie), but there is also a lot of crap in this genre. Plus, it's one of the genres most stuck in cliches, which makes a lot of superhero movies great fun to watch, but not very memorable. Batman Begins, however, is a brilliant movie, the best superhero movie in my opinion, with one of the best uses of comic source material in movie history. Christian Bale is amazing as the Dark Knight, the story is dark and moody but very interesting and to a fan of the Batman, it's filled with great references to the comic books.
29 Requiem for a Dream (2000)
This isn't the most cheerful movie I have ever seen, but it packs an emotional punch not many movies can come close to. It's about people who are addicted to drugs and who aren't able to deal with that very well. It does so in a completely relentless way, not shying away to show the ugly side of drug addiction. It sticks in your mind, mostly because of the impressive acting. Plus, any movie that features Marlon Wayans in a role that isn't shit must be very special indeed.
28 Ratatouille (2007)
The fact that I'm a big fan of Pixar shows in the number of their movies in my list, and even now I'm still wanting to put in more (and I'm heavily wondering why I kept my list Toy Story-less so far). Ratatouille, their most recent one, is beautiful in both story and animation. It's a simple story without any big evil bad guys or catchy songs, and the movie is all the better for it. Pixar has yet to make a bad movie. Scratch that: Pixar has yet to make an average movie.
27 The Replacements (2000)
Yeah, so now you are wondering what this is doing here. It has a 6 point something IMDB score and it was a big flop when it was released. Besides that, its a sports movie so full of cliches that anybody who has ever seen a sports movie can predict probably 95 percent of what is going to happen. However, this movie about a bunch of has-beens and never-will-be's who get to fill in for a professional American football team when the real team goes on a strike, is so well made and full of lovable characters that you cannot help but root for them. I've seen it a zillion times, and every time I get a cramp in my jaw from the silly grin I have on my face watching it. It actually features Keanu Reeves in one of his best roles, as the down on his luck quarterback who gets a final chance. And the ending of the movie surprisingly doesn't give in to cliches too much. This is a really joyful, wonderful movie.
26 Glengarry Glenn Ross (1992)
If you are easily offended, then look away: The main image I get in my head when I think of this movie is of Alan Arkin yelling "Show me the fucking leads!", which more or less sums up this movie perfectly. It's about a group of older salesman, who need leads (potential clients) to fill up their quota. It's mostly about a bunch of old geezers (and Al Pacino) yelling at each other, and it's great fun to watch. The great cast really let's loose with this movie, and you can see they had a lot of fun making this.
25 From Russia With Love (1963)
I've always been a big fan of James Bond, even after the recent pre-Casino Royale attrocities. This one is my favorite of all, with Sean Connery at his coolest, and the bad guys at their most coolly evil. Plus it features a long scene on a train, which I always dig a lot. There are plenty of great movies in this franchise, with memorable scenes, but this is a first minute to last minute excercise in how to make a great spy-movie.
24 Big Fish (2003)
I love most of what Tim Burton has made, and it was difficult to keep most of it out of the list. I chose Big Fish as my favorite Burton, as it features most of the elements I love in movies. There's weird and wonderful characters, with equally weird and wonderful backstories. There's a road trip element, there's romance, there's comedy, and there's a lot of scenes you would want to rewind, if only it didn't mean you would have to wait for all the other great scenes longer. Very emotional ending too, which is always a plus for me.
23 Before Sunrise (1995)
Before I saw this movie, I expected not much more than a sappy, boring romantic movie. After all, it's about a young man and a young woman (Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy) who don't do much more than walk around Vienna and talk. It only took a few minutes for me to be completely hooked, however. The chatter starts of as lightweight, but gains a lot of steam throughout the movie. Plus, the romantic energy is very believable, as this is one of the most believable couples in romantic movie history. Plus, it gives me a sunn, holiday feeling and foregoes the ending you normally get with movies like this. Not a romantic comedy, a real romantic movie.
22 My Neighbour Totoro (1988)
You can't beat Studio Ghibli when it comes to magical, wonderful and off beat animation. For them, My Neighbour Totoro is pretty down to earth, if you forget for a second that the titular character is a huge, soft, cat like creature who helps the two small heroines of this movie when times are tough. He doesn't do that with song and dance and life lessons like you mostly see in animated movies, but mostly by bouncing around a bit and screaming really loud. I can remember seeing this movie for the first time, a long time ago, and being surprised to see that there were actually animators who made animated movies that didn't follow the tried and tested Disney formula. And even though I enjoy the Disney formula, I might have enjoyed this wonderful piece of animation even more.
21 Way Out West (1937)
It's impossible for me to make a list of my favorite movies and to then not include a Laurel and Hardy movie. There was a time when their movies were on TV all the time, and I used to record all of them on a growing pile of VCR tapes. I even went to special Laurel and Hardy conventions in Amsterdam cinema The Movies, though that's so long ago I can hardly remember which movies played there. They're a great team, probably the funniest comedy team in movie history, and Way Out West is, in my opinion, by far their funniest movie. Many of their pictures have dated somewhat, but this wild west sendup one is still as fresh now as it was back then.
20 Strangers on a Train (1951)
Alfred Hitchcock was the king of suspense, and they don't get much more suspenseful than this one. North By Northwest and The Lady Vanishes were also on the (not so) shortlist of movies who could have made it into the Top 50, but I can remember being glued to my seat the most with this particular picture. And when I saw this movie again a few years ago, it hadn't lost any of it's suspense.
19 Finding Nemo (2003)
Here we go with more Pixar, and it's not even the last Pixar movie on the list. This is one of the pictures that shows how brilliant Pixar really is. It came out around the time Dreamworks dropped their talking fish picture Shark Tale, but while that movie is unfunny formula crap, Nemo is an amazing experience. After I had seen it for the first time (in a double bill with Pirates of the Caribbean, which just missed out on the list), I was at a loss for words to describe my favorite part. Was it the seagulls? Bruce the shark? The turtles? The fish in the fish tank? Forget about it. This is one of those rare movies where every second is as memorable as the next one.
18 Spirited Away (2001)
Surprisingly, the last traditionally animated movie in the list is not a Disney movie (well, and neither was the second to last). I'm a huge fan of Disney, and have many of their movies on DVD, but when you have seen them all a few too many times, you get stuck into thinking all animated movies have to follow a certain pattern. And when you then see animated movies that forego the Disney tradition and come up with something that is actually truly refreshing... Well let's just say it was a bit of a shock for me. I know it's risky to put something as off beat as Spirited Away before the real Disney classics, and I wouldn't be surprised if I would change my mind in a later list of my favorite movies, but I'm in that zone right now where off beat works better for me than traditional. Plus, it's just a brilliant movie.
17 Rio Bravo (1959)
When I was a kid, I hated westerns. I thought it was fun to play cowboy in the streets, but I was more interested in things like James Bond and Star Wars. Later on, I started appreciating the genre a lot more, and this movie is to blame for it. It may not be the most spectacular or memorable western ever made, but to me this is the best wild west movie I have ever seen. It follows the archetypal western story of a sherrif and his kooky sidekicks, holed up in the sherrif's office with a prisoner they don't want to let go, while the most notorious crime boss in the area wants him set free. A huge shoot out follows, of the type they don't put into movies enough these days. John Wayne is at his best in this movie, and so is Dean Martin.
16 The Incredibles (2004)
Let's get it over with: Yeah yeah, this movie is incredible. There. Being a huge fan of superhero movies, the idea of Pixar making one was hugely exciting. I could never have expected the end result to be this good, however. Sure, it uses all the cliches you can think of, but does so better than any other superhero movie. Pixar puts their own unique spin on all the cliches, creating a world that just begs to be rediscovered. So, Brad, where's the sequel?
15 Face/Off (1997)
At the time this movie came out, I was a huge fan of both Nicholas Cage (remember, this was before he started making one horrible movie after another) and John Woo, and John Travolta was still riding the wave of his Pulp Fiction fuelled comeback. So to say I was excited about this movie is an understatement. And unlike lots of other movies I have been excited about in my life, this one didn't disappoint. The story, about a cop swapping his face with that of a criminal so he can infiltrate his gang and find out where the bad guy has put a bomb that can blow up a whole city, was kind of far fetched, but it was executed so well nobody cared. The good thing about this movie is that it's not just a cool action flick, but it goes much deeper than that. As the cop infiltrates the bad guy's gang, he finds out that many of his cronies are just human beings with feelings as well. And I still love that shoot out where the noise of the bullets is drowned out by Somewhere over the Rainbow playing on a little boy's walkman.
14 The Princess Bride (1987)
A lot of my friends are now saying: Ah, I was already waiting for that one. This is the movie I bug my friends about all the time. It's one of those movies you read about all the time in kids magazines, and which was on kids television programmes every other day, but which didn't even reach the cinema in my hometown. So it took me a few years to finally see it, but it was every bit as good as I had hoped. Yeah, by far the funniest fantasy movie in history, showing that Cary Elwes could have been a star if he would have made more movies as great as this one. Oh, and William Goldman's book is even better.
13 The Matrix (1999)
I hate to say it, but if it wasn't for the sequels, this movie would probably have been higher in the list. You can wonder if it's possible for a movie's sequels to sour you on the original, but in this case it's sadly true. It's hard for me to watch this movie and not be reminded of those two awful hours I spent in the cinema watching that crapfest Matrix Revolutions. I saw the original in the cinemas five times and would have probably seen it even more if I would have had the time to go more often, and it's still as kick-ass now as it was back then. Maybe I will have been able to block the sequels out of my mind in five years time, and the movie can rise in the list again.
12 Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987)
In my humble opinion, this is the funniest movie ever made. It features Steve Martin and John Candy in their best roles of their careers, as they play two guys who try to get home for Thanksgiving, only to be held up by a snow storm that wipes out all possibility of going home by plane. Other transport is sought, and as they get closer to home, their trip gets more and more disastrous. It does not matter how many times I see this movie, I still get pain in my sides from laughing so hard. Plus, it features what could very well be the funniest scene ever in a movie: "Those aren't pillows!"
11 Groundhog Day
I'm always a bit wary of high concept movies, because most of these just exist because the filmmakers thought they had a cool idea, but they didn't really have a good idea on how to sustain this for a full movie (like Bruce Almighty). Groundhog Day is a perfect showcase of how to do it, though. The idea is deceptively simple: grumpy news reporter gets stuck in a small town, due to the bad weather, and when he wakes up the next morning, it's the same day as it was yesterday. At first, he thinks this is weird, but then he finds out every day is exactly the same day and there is no way for him to break out of it. This is Bill Murray at his best in a movie that seems like it was written for him. It's exciting to see such a brilliant idea executed so well, and the comedy is well balanced by more romantic and emotional moments. Plus it has Chris Elliot, which is (almost) always a bonus.
10 Cidade de Deus (2002)
And on to the top ten. This is probably one of the grittiest movies I have ever seen, or at least the grittiest movie I have seen where I didn't feel that all this grit was just used to shock and stun without actually telling a story. But this movie about one of the most dangerous neighbourhoods in Rio de Janeiro is amazing, and while it does shock and stun, this is all grounded in a story that will make your stomach turn time and time again. It shows life isn't worth a thing in the ghetto of this city, and it will quickly sober up anybody expecting to just see a cool gangster type movie.
9 Back to the Future (1985)
This is probably the movie I have seen the most times. It's a good example of a great movie that wasn't ruined by its sequels (which I have also seen a few times too many), and might be the best use of a brilliant idea in the history of cinema. Michael J. Fox was never better than in this movie, and neither was Christopher Lloyd, and it hooked me on the concept of time travel in a big way. The movie is funny, sweet, inventive and exciting, and introduced the world to the catchphrase "Hello, McFly!" which some of my friends even use to this day. There is talk of a fourth movie, but let's not ruin what is still one of the greatest cinematic experiences of my life. First seeing this movie in the cinema gave me an incredible sensation that I had just seen something that would change me, and it's one of the movies and books that got me into writing stories myself.
8 Before Sunset (2004)
This is the rare case of a sequel being even better than the already wonderful original movie. We revisit the characters from the movie that was 24 on my list, and find that they may have grown older, and they may not have seen each other anymore after their encounter in the first movie, but they surely haven't forgotten each other. Even though at first I wondered why they would ruin the ending of the first movie by making a sequel, I quickly found out that revisiting these characters was like meeting old friends you hadn't seen for a long time. The movie is shot in realtime, with a lot of improvisation going on, and even though it's basically a movie of two people talking, it's so fresh and wonderful that you can only hope they will make a third part someday.
7 Amelie (2001)
I realise I have used the word wonderful a few too many times already in this list, but there is no other way to describe this movie, other than: Wonderfully quirky. This story about a young French woman who one day decides to change the lives of the people around her, is like a modern fairy tale. It looks like one, it plays like one and it ends like one, and every brilliant minute of this picture is so full of inventiveness that the first time I saw it, it made me wonder why I ever even watch formulaic Hollywood movies anymore.
6 Monsters Inc (2001)
And there it is, my favorite animated movie of all time. Yeah, its another Pixar-movie, and not the one most people would probably name as their favorite. But I just love everything about this picture, from the great idea behind it, to the memorable characters and setting and the emotional bits that spice it up a little bit. I know I am hammering on about this emotional stuff in this list, but to me it adds to a movie greatly. No, I've never cried at a movie, but when a movie is able to give me a lump in my throat at the ending, it scores a lot of bonus points. And when this lump follows what is to me the most exciting and inventive animated movie ever made, then I'm in movie heaven.
5 The Big Lebowski (1998)
Just typing the title to this movie makes a whole bunch of quotes run through my head, but since they have been done to death in other articles about this movie, and I'm sick and tired of people using quotes from this movie in every day conversation, I'll pass on using them. Or maybe I won't: "This is what happens when you fuck a stranger in the ass!" I'm sorry, I couldn't help it. I can remember watching this movie together with a friend of mine who was studying psychology at the time, and when we got out the cinema, I had to support him or he would have fallen down. He had never seen anything like this movie and went into a rant about all the psychological stuff going on in what is probably the Coen Brothers most beloved picture. My head was reeling too after seeing this movie, but that was just because I thought it was the coolest piece of cinema I had ever seen.
4 Leon (1994)
I saw this movie during a special movie night, in which the audience was shown the Dutch premieres of The Mask and The Crow. Two highly anticipated movies, which were seperated by a special sneak movie in between. The crowd was speculating what this movie would be, and when this unknown picture called Leon started, everybody was like: "What on earth?" Needless to say, Leon blew both other movies away and when the crowd left afterwards, all they talked about was Luc Bessons fantastic hitman epic.
3 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
I know a lot of people who hate this movie, and who think it is hugely overrated. They don't dig the concept and the execution and think it is too far fetched and improbable. I guess I cannot blame them, but I can only advise these people to watch the movie again and scratch away the weird and offbeat surface. Because underneath is a wonderful (there's that word again) love story that gives substance to all the weirdness going on. It's not likely you will ever see Jim Carrey this good again, while Kate Winslet is also close to the best she has ever done. This is a great movie to wonder how on earth the screenwriter ever came up with all this weird shit, and to then applaud him for having the balls to write it down and sell it to a movie studio.
2 Almost Famous (2000)
This picture right here is one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. It's a lovingly crafted, beautifully written and wonderfully acted movie that stunned me the first time I saw it. Very rarely do movies give you such a deep sensation of really being there along with the characters as this movie does. It feels a bit like Spinal Tap, it feels a bit like The Wonder Years, and it feels a bit like the best movie I have ever seen. If only it wasn't for the movie in that spot now.
1 Lost in Translation (2004)
I guess the number one isn't really a shock to people who have followed this blog, and also not to the friends who have wanted to borrow this movie from me. They can borrow any movie from my collection they want, but not this one, as I can be struck at any time by an unstoppable urge to put it in the DVD-player and watch it again. It's fitting that a movie about people who are bored is never able to bore me, but it's hard to describe why I love Lost in Translation so much. It's not super funny, there are no great action scenes, and for a romantic movie, there's not actually a lot going on of what you would clearly classify as romantic action. It's really just about two people who are jetlagged and hanging out together in Tokyo, a city neither of them understands. And still you wish you were there with them. It's the movie that made Bill Murray one of my favorite actors all over again, and which put Scarlett Johansson on the radar. It also features my favorite scene in a movie ever (no, not the ending scene, and also not the karaoke scene, although those are great as well), even though that scene is also just about two bored people not really doing much. I know a lot of people who have watched this movie and wondered: "Is that all?", and at those times I was equally unable to convince them of the fact that this movie is truly a piece of beauty. Put me in front of a TV with this movie on it, though, and for 102 minutes I'm the happiest man on earth.
The moment I clicked post on my list of 50 favorite movies of all time, I had this creeping sensation that I had forgotten movies. Of course, when friends and family saw the list, they started reminding me of the movies I had forgotten. Embarrasingly, some of these movies belong pretty high on the list. HOW ON EARTH COULD I HAVE FORGOTTEN THE IRON GIANT? This might actually be my favorite 2D animated movie, instead of Spirited Away (though that is still up in the air). And where is Cinderella Man? I love sports movies, and that is maybe the finest example of the genre. And with Heath Ledger's sad passing last night, I realised I had also forgotten A Knight's Tale, not considered his best work by a long shot, but his movie that most entertains me time and time again. I'm sure there's other movies to include on the list, so as you can understand, there will be an update someday soon. Though I think I will wait a bit and prepare this better. It will probably end up as a Top 100 at the end of the year. The top 10 still stands pretty strong though, I'm interested to see if I will see anything this year that can make a dent in that group of films.
