Blade Runner (1982) - #11

Empire top 301: #11
IMDb top 250: #124

Rating 10/10

Director: Ridley Scott
Writers: Hampton Fancher & David Webb Peoples
Starring: Harrison Ford, Sean Young, Rutger Hauer, Edward James Olmos & Daryl Hannah

"All those moments will be lost in time... like tears in rain... Time to die."

Blade Runner is a timeless, Sci-Fi classic and is certainly in my top 10 list of greatest films ever made. It's a treat for the eyes and the ears and in my opinion it is the greatest movie Ridley Scott has ever and probably will ever make. I've seen every version of the film but last night I watched my favourite, the 2007 Final Cut version. I was never fond of the happy ending in the original theatrical cut and I hated the narration, not just because Harrison sounds like he couldn't be bothered but for me it just didn't work. 

Harrison Ford plays Rick Deckard, a detective who specialises in the retirement (killing) of Replicants (a bioengineered being). He is called upon to retire four Replicants who have escaped from the off-world colonies, one of which is a new, improved and dangerous Nexus 6 Model. Ridley Scotts Blade Runner, based on the novel Do Androids Deam of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick is such a beautiful movie. His dystopian Los Angeles looks as amazing today as it did 31 years ago and has been copied in so many different movies it would be a chore to name them all. 

The production of this movie is stunning. Everything from the sets, to the clothes, to the vehicles have all been beautifully made and no detail is too small. The streets of Los Angeles look grim, and unpleasant and absolutely amazing. The Tyrell Corporation Pyramid building is still stunning as is the Bradbury Building.

The music perfectly encapsulates the feel of the movie, it's a combination of classical music and synthesisers that really fits the retro yet futuristic tone of the film. The piece playing over the closing titles is superb and the perfect way to end what I believe to be a perfect movie. 

Harrison Ford plays Rock Deckard a bit distant and emotionless but the part calls for this. At the end of the day Deckard is a killer and needs to be this way, however his scenes with Sean Young are great and he plays them well. Sean Young is great as Rachael and has never looked better; her outfits are works of art and she wears them beautifully. Rutger Hauer is brilliantly scary and chilling as Nexus 6 Model Roy Batty; even though I've seen the movie about 100 times my heart still beats fast during the climactic scenes in the home of J.F. Sebastian. Daryl Hannah is so gorgeous as Pris and I love her character. 

Not only is the movie a delight for the eyes but the story is great as well and really makes you think. For the most enjoyment watch the 2007 Final Cut with the ambiguous ending, it is the best. I cannot big this film up enough. It is an absolute classic and a MUST WATCH!!! I Love It! 

Forrest Gump (1994) - #34

Empire top 301: #34
IMDb top 250: #18

Rating 9/10

Director: Robert Zemeckis
Writers: Eric Roth
Starring: Tom Hanks, Gary Sinise, Robin Wright & Sally Field

"Life's a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get."

I have a real love/hate relationship with Forrest Gump. I love it because it's bloody brilliant and so charming and heartwarming, yet I hate it because it was the film that triumphed over Pulp Fiction and The Shawshank Redemption for the Oscar for Best Picture. Wow, 1994 was a good year for movies! Tom Hanks is Forrest Gump a not very intelligent man who through the teachings of his mother always seems to see the positive side of things and is present through many of America's historic moments. 

Tom Hanks is simply brilliant as Forrest Gump; very watchable in a performance that is so far away from the previous years Philadelphia (another fave of mine). He really is believable as Forrest and whilst it would be easy to do he never hams up the performance or plays it for jokes. There are times when his accent slips a little but I'm nit picking there. He carries the whole movie and his scenes with Gary Sinise, Robin Wright and Sally Field are great. 

The movie is very heartwarming and uplifting but it is also very sad and tragic. The whole Jenny storyline is depressing and heartbreaking; she was so damaged and used Forrest whenever she felt low, then dropped him as soon as she got a better offer or things got serious. It's all the more sad for Forrest because he really loved her, she was everything to him. The story is told beautifully and they way their lives go in two completely different way but always coming back to each other is lovely. I love Robin Wright as Jenny, she's fantastic. Gary Sinise and Sally Field are equally as impressive as the two leads, as is the whole cast to be fair. Right down to the old woman sitting at the bus stop. 

The story is great in how it portrays the historic moments. Ok, there are some when it gets a bit silly, like the Watergate scene, but it makes for fun viewing. The movie also has one of the best scores and soundtracks ever, it's one great song after another and the music really helps to tell the story. 

It really is a sweet and lovely film that is beautifully written and filmed. It's a movie I could watch again & again and never get bored and you can't ask for more than that!

Chinatown (1974) - #118

Empire top 301: #118
IMDb top 250: #86

Rating 8/10

Director: Roman Polanski
Writers: Robert Towne
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway & John Huston

"Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown."

I had never seen this movie and it's one I've always wanted to watch but never got around to it. When I saw it was included in the 500 I thought great, now I have to get around to watching it. I've decided to have a Roman Polanski day, starting with Chinatown and then Rosemary's Baby a bit later (review to follow). Jack Nicholson stars as Jake Gittes, a private detective hired to investigate an adulterer only to be drawn in to a complex web of lies and murder.

Robert Towne's script is superb, the dialogue sharp and clever and there are some great lines throughout, I particularly loved Jake telling to the cop, how the cops wife had caused the cut on his nose. The plot is engaging and constantly keeps you guessing, right up until the final conclusion. This is film-noir at it's finest and Roman Polanski's direction is amazing, there is a real mood to the piece helped by fantastic cinematography and a haunting score. The score is one of the best I've ever heard. The pacing of the film is slow and deliberate, allowing the viewer to uncover the mystery at the same time as Jake, you take in everything he does. whilst the opening of a drawer or a shot of a pond may reveal nothing on first glance it will later become relevant; this a film that requires you to think, to pay attention.

The costumes in the movie are fantastic, the suits especially those worn by Jack Nicholson's character are exquisitely tailored and Faye Dunaway's Evelyn looks flawless. Dunaway was such a beauty!

Jack Nicholson delivers a brilliant performance as Jake and has created a character you want to see again (perhaps one day I will get around to watching The Two Jakes). Faye Dunaway is equally as good as Evelyn; she brings life to this flawed and damaged character and whilst he's not in the movie much John Huston owns the scenes that he is in. 

Chinatown is a great movie, one that I would highly recommend. 

Heat (1995) - #36

Empire top 301: #36
IMDB top 250: #120

Rating 8/10

Director: Michael Mann
Writers: Michael Mann
Starring: Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Val Kilmer, Jon Voight, Tom Sizemore, Natalie Portman & Ashley Judd

"Don't let yourself get attached to anything you are not willing to walk out on in 30 seconds flat if you feel the heat around the corner."

I'd never seen Heat before but it's one of those films that seems to get a two thumbs up from everyone who has seen it. I'd gone into this movie with high expectations, especially as this is the first movie featuring Pacino and De Niro acting together. Two of the greatest actors ever starring opposite one another, how could my expectations not be high? Surely they wouldn't pick an awful movie to mark this event!! 

I'm happy to say that my expectations were met and Heat is a very good movie. Obviously the main attraction is Pacino Vs De Niro and the scenes they have together are great. The 'Table' scene is a masterclass in acting; there is no showboating or eating of scenery, just quiet soft dialogue and the acting is all in the eyes and the facial expressions. If it's eating of scenery you're after don't worry Pacino still has his trademark 'shouting/raised voice' moments. In Neil McCauley De Niro has given us one of the best movie criminals ever, you really believe even though it would hurt him to do so, he would leave the person he loves most in 30 seconds flat. 

The rest of the cast are good, however I had to put subtitles on during Jon Voight's scenes because at times I couldn't understand a word he was saying. I wasn't particularly fond of Eady (Amy Brenneman) or Lauren (Natalie Portman) and I don't really think they were needed in the film; they were probably included to give Pacino and De Niro's characters a back story and make them more 'human' but for me they added nothing. 

I had my surround sound on very loud and this made the bank robbery and subsequent shoot out scene even more brilliant than it would have been on normal volume; this is another real standout moment. The scope of this movie is huge and it's no surprise to learn that it was the inspiration for Nolan's Gotham in the Dark Knight Trilogy. The only thing that bugged me about this movie is the background music played during some scenes, it wasn't needed and at times I found it distracting as it just comes out of nowhere and puts you off the scene. But this is just a minor issue. 

Heat is a great film worthy of the two legends that star in it! 

Field of Dreams (1989) - #191

Empire top 301: #191
IMDb top 250: -

Rating 6/10

Director: Phil Alden Robinson
Writers: Phil Alden Robinson
Starring: Kevin Costner, James Earl Jones & Ray Liotta

"If you build it, he will come."

I've never seen Field of Dreams and truth be told it's not one of the movies I got excited about watching when I first looked through the top 500. However, today I randomly picked a number between 1 and 500 and decided to watch whatever fell under that number, I picked 260. Field of Dreams is a lovely movie for a lazy Sunday afternoon but I certainly wouldn't class it as one of the greatest ever made. 

The film is about Ray Kinsella a man who buys a farm with his wife and starts hearing a voice which tells him to build a baseball field, "If you build it, he will come." Once he builds the field a serious of clues and events lead Ray to what he was looking for right at the beginning. It's a sweet movie about family, in particular fathers and sons and I must admit I did have a little lump in my throat at the end. 

Kevin Costner is pretty much Kevin Costner, which isn't a bad thing because he's not a terrible actor but it's not 'performance of a lifetime' stuff. James Earl Jones is good and I could listen to his voice all day. He could read the phonebook and make it entertaining. Ray Liotta is decent as is Amy Madigan who was very funny in the PTA scene. 

There are other funny moments in the movie and it is has a "magical" feeling about it - helped by James Horners score - but it got to the point where I couldn't figure out who was a ghost and who wasn't, was there some time-traveling going on, were they all crazy....I wasn't quite sure and it left me a bit, huh, at times. 

I'm glad I've watched it but not one I'd rush to watch again.

Se7en (1995) - #37

Empire top 301: #37
IMDb top 250: #22

Rating 9/10

Director: David Fincher
Writers: Andrew Kevin Walker
Starring: Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt & Gwyenth Paltrow

"You're no messiah. You're a movie of the week. You're a fucking t-shirt, at best."

I love this film. I love everything about it. It's a brilliantly written, filmed and acted piece of work! It's ingeniously clever but never too clever for it's own good making it hard to follow and it has one of the best, most depressing endings in any movie ever! 

  

David Fincher's direction is so gothic and gritty and the sets are so good you can almost smell the crime scenes! The movie is gruesome but never violent as you never actually see the killer murder anybody! There is one particularly gruesome scene involving a prostitute and a deadly sex toy that will stay with you for days afterwards, and you don't even see it happen. This is down to some fantastic writing and brilliant acting from all involved. 

The pairing of Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman is brilliant and both play their parts excellently,  especially Freeman. Gwyneth Paltrow offers solid supporting and does well with what little she has to do. 

I don't want to ruin the movie for those who haven't seen it so I shall say no more, except this is a brilliantly dark, chilling, thriller of a movie that I will never tire of watching!  

Beauty and The Beast (1991) - #157

Empire top 301: #157
IDMb top 250: #240

Rating 9/10

Directors: Gary Trousdale & Kirk Wise
Writers: Linda Woolverton
Starring: Paige O'Hara, Jerry Orbach, David Ogden Stiers & Angela Lansbury

"Tale as old as time....."

Beauty and the Beast is one of Disney's greatest achievements. The first animated film to be nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards and when you see it - if you haven't already - you'll understand why. It's a movie I'll show my Goddaughters when they're old enough to enjoy it. 

Released in 1991 the animation still holds up today. I've got the 30th anniversary edition on DVD which includes the previously deleted song Human Again. The digital restoration makes the film look better than ever before, I just wish I'd seen it in 3D when it was re-released. 

The songs in Beauty and the Beast are some of the best from any Disney movie!  The obvious one 'Beaty and The Beast' is beautiful and I much prefer the Angela Lansbury version in the movie than the Celine Dion one in the credits. 'Be Our Guest' is a brilliant number and the animation during this scene is great.

Every character in this film is great from squabbling duo Lumiere and Cogsworth, to the lovely Mrs Potts and her son Chip. They're all voiced perfectly. Belle is a perfect Disney Princess, one who has a bit of something about her, she knows her own mind and is quite feisty which is a refreshing change from the previous Disney Princesses, yet she's really sensitive and caring. And the Yellow Gown Belle wears is perhaps the best Disney Princess outfit, EVER! 

This is a really magical movie, full of great songs and a beautiful story! There's every chance you'll have a little tear in your eye by the end. I should note this is my sisters favourite movie of all time! Brilliant!

Jaws (1975) - #8

Empire top 301: #8
IMDb top 250: #148

Rating 8/10

Director: Steven Spielberg
Writers: Peter Benchley & Carl Gottlieb
Starring: Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw & Richard Dreyfuss

"You're gonna need a bigger boat."

I love Jaws, have done since the first time I saw it when I was about 12. It's just a brilliant movie. The thing that makes this movie so good and effective is the build up, it's well over half way into the movie before we get a good look at Jaws. Most of the kills are from Jaws point of view and all built up with John Williams brilliant score. This is one of Spielberg's best films and one that is still as good today as it was 38 years ago. Yes, at times Jaws looks a bit fake by today's standards but it's still pretty good. 

Every actor in this film does a really good job, especially Robert Shaw who's Indianapolis speech  is pretty amazing and still gives me chills. There are plenty of laughs and scares, the head coming out of the boat still makes me jump even though I know it's coming. 

Jaws is a great movie and really deserves to be in the top 500 greatest movies of all time. It's definitely in my top 500! 

American Psycho (2000) - #156

Empire top 301: #156
IMDb top 250: -

Rating 6/10

Director: Mary Harron
Writers: Mary Harron & Guinevere Turner 
Starring: Christian Bale, Reese Witherspoon, Willem Dafoe & Justin Theroux

"I don't want to get you drunk, but, ah, that's a very fine Chardonnay you're not drinking."

I have read a few pages of Brett Easton Ellis' American Psycho and a few pages was all I could handle.   I read the disturbing rat torture scene and I just couldn't bring myself to read anymore. The film does not include this scene, thankfully. In the hands of the wrong director this film could have very easily turned out to be a silly torture porn movie but Marry Harron manages to make a really stylish and some might say thought provoking film.

The film only gets a 6 out of 10 from me because I neither loved or hated it, it was just a bit meh. Sure it looks good, the soundtrack is great and Christian Bale gives a good performance but it just doesn't do anything for me. It's not a bad movie, it kept my attention for the duration but when it ended I was a bit, so what. Nothing is resolved by the end of this movie and you have to make up your own mind about who is Patrick Bateman and did he commit all those murders and I do like an ambiguous ending.

I did feel that Reese Witherspoon and Willem Dafoe were criminally underused and their characters were a bit pointless but this is Bales' movie and he carries it well. There are some great scenes and at times it is quite funny, Bale doing the moonwalk before axing Jared Leto was inspired and really made me laugh out loud.

Now I'd love to sit and critique this film some more but I have to return some videotapes!