By Adam McPartlan
OK, I’m back. Got distracted by grad school; haven’t really even seen a movie in a few months, never mind talked about my lists. But these are no longer my favorites; this is my list of 101 Films to See Before You Die. These lists vary from person to person, and even though I’ve already seen somewhere in the range of 1,000 movies in my lifetime (my God, those hours sure add up when you factor in that I’ve seen many movies multiple times), my list is sure to change as I see more. But at age 25, this is where my list stands. And again, for the sake of including multiple films, I have combined film series/trilogies where necessary. And I want to stress: this list is not a reflection of what I like in a movie; this is what I think is the list of movies that matter most to cinema and deserve to be seen above all others. These are well-made, well-acted, and/or well-written films to the point that they have earned a spot in film history for the work, and as such, deserve all of our attention. And now, without further ado, #101-87. (Next up, #86-72.)
101: Dodgeball
The fact that I have this here at all may confound some movie lovers. But let me tell you. I have never referenced a movie as many times as I have referenced this movie. The cultural impact this movie had is greater than many know or would like to admit, and while the movie is totally ridiculous, it’s a ridiculousness that isn’t outlandish and is incredibly fun to watch.
Notable quotes:
“If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball.”; “That’s a bold strategy, Cotton, let’s see if it pays off for him.”; “Nobody makes me bleed my own blood—nobody!”; “Oh my sweet Jesus.” “That’s rad.”; “Goddamn you, Bernice!!”
100: Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy
Again, shocking to some, but once you get into it, you really must watch these three. These films, particularly the first one, revived the pirates genre. Many films had been tried before, but none were ever as successful, financially or critically, compared to Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. As the series went on, yes, the quality of the scripts declined, but the franchise became a money-making juggernaut and, perhaps more importantly, revamped the visual effects industry. The films have been a staple of American culture for years, made Johnny Depp’s career, and, as far as the first one goes, gave us a twist on the pirates genre: pirates that want to return the treasure rather than steal it. It also marked the first film based on an amusement park ride and gave Hans Zimmer another iconic score to add to his repertoire.
Notable quotes:
“Me, I’m dishonest. And a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest. Honestly, it’s the honest ones you have to watch out for, because you can never predict when they’re going to do something incredibly…stupid.”; “Drink up me hearties, yo ho.”; “Parley.”; “I’m disinclined to acquiesce to your request. Means ‘no.’”; “I feel…cold.”; “So tell me, what’s become of my ship?”; “Part of the ship, part of the crew.”; “Why is the rum gone?…But why is the rum gone?!”; “Take what you can.” “Give nothing back.”; “You will always remember this as the day that you almost caught Captain Jack Sparrow.”
99: The Hunt (Jagten)
This Danish movie is truly a masterpiece. Yes it is foreign, but it was nominated for Best Foreign Film and should’ve been nominated for much more than just that. Mads Mikkelsen gives a kick-ass performance that will cut through you like the false accusation cut through him. Just a heads up: the dog dies. It’s depressing, as always in those cases, but for once, it’s not the saddest part of the whole movie. That belongs to Mikkelsen’s plea to his best friend to search his conscience and to realize it isn’t true. What am I talking about? Watch the movie and find out...and the ending will haunt you in a depressingly beautiful way.
Notable quotes (translated from Danish):
“The world is full of evil, but if we hold on to each other, it goes away.”; “Look into my eyes. Look me in the eyes. What do you see? Do you see anything? Nothing. There’s nothing. There’s nothing.”
98: Ocean’s series
As I said in my previous list, this series is really the ultimate caper series. All-star cast, interesting scripts, great chemistry, and a skilled director all add up to make this a fun 6 hours of your life.
Notable quotes:
“You called his niece a whore.” “A very cheap one.” “She’s seven.”; “You lose focus in this game for one second, somebody gets hurt.”; “Run and hide, asshole. Run and hide.”; “I only lied about being a thief.”; "See ya when I see ya."; "You of all people should know, Terry. In your hotel, there's always someone watching."
97: The Prestige
Truly a great piece of work by Chris Nolan, but because it came between his more critically recognized work of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, it goes largely forgotten. This movie, though, is arguably what launched him into the jaw-dropping finale moments for which he has become so renowned. Memento, being his first film, hadn’t set his course for what would be his personal touch with movies; The Prestige, with its beautiful acting, set design, script, and ending, made Nolan’s career as “the mind-fucker” assured.
Notable quotes:
“You never understood why we did this. The audience knows the truth. The world is simple: it’s miserable, solid all the way through. But if you could fool them, even for a second, then you can make them wonder. And then you…then you got to see something really special. You really don’t know? It…it was the look on their faces.”; “Are you watching closely?”; “Because exact science, Mr. Angier, is not an exact science.”; “Now you’re looking for the secret. But you won’t find it, because, of course, you’re not really looking. You don’t really want to work it out. You want to be fooled.”
96: Dunkirk
It’s very rare when a director can take a piece of history everyone learned in middle school and make it into an unexpected film. Chris Nolan, though, used Dunkirk as a way to prove that even when we know the story, we don’t know the story. Of course, no Nolan masterpiece would be complete without a beautifully orchestrated Hans Zimmer score. You’re also given some beautiful performances, most of all from Harry Styles (and no, I cannot believe I’m saying that either, but it’s true). Add in the fact that this is the only movie for which he received an Oscar nomination for Best Director, and you have the biggest must-see in his entire repertoire.
Notable quotes:
“You can practically see it from here.” “What?” “Home.”; “Well done, lads. Well done.” “All we did is survive.” “That’s enough.”; “We shall fight on the beaches. We shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields and in the streets. We shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.”; “What do you see?” “Home.”
95: The Emperor’s New Groove
This movie could’ve gone on for another 2 hours and it still would’ve felt like one hour too little. One of the shortest movies on the list, this animated film probably would have won Best Animated Feature if that had been an Oscar category back in 2000. David Spade and John Goodman make the perfect Kuzco and Pacha, but let’s be honest: the movie is really all about Eartha Kitt as Yzma and Patrick Warburton as Kronk. From Kronk humming his own sneaking-around music to Yzma turning into a cat and landing on a giant trampoline, these two are really the heart of the laughs. But even if you don’t agree, you know you love this movie because it never gets old, whether you’re 5, 15, or 25.
Notable quotes:
“Pull the lever, Kronk. WRONG LEVEEEEEERRRRRR!!!!! Why do we even have that lever?”; “OK, why does she even have that lever?”; “DON’T THROW OFF HIS GROOVE!!! Beware the groove.”; “Boom, baby!”; “Yay, I’m a a llama again. Wait…”; “Squeak squeak squeak squeak squeaker” “…squeakin.”; “No touchy.”; “Hey, I’ve been turned into a cow. Can I go home?”; “Don’t tell me. We’re about to go over a huge waterfall.” “Yep.” “Sharp rocks at the bottom?” “Most likely.” “Bring it on. BOOYAAHAAA!”
94: The Secret of Kells
In a time of computer animation, Tomm Moore went to hand-drawn art for this beautiful work. I won’t talk at length about it; you just have to watch it and enjoy it. It’s actually pretty dark, since it tells the story of Ireland during the time of the Viking invasions, and it’s got some sad moments. But on the whole, this Oscar nominee for Best Animated Feature, the first of Moore’s short, but already illustrious career to garner to nod, is a beautifully drawn and written story fictionalizing the birth of Catholicism’s most important, and the world’s most expensive, book: the Book of Kells (incidentally, each of the three movies he has produced so far have been nominated of the award). The film weaves Irish folklore with Christian beliefs in a remarkable way, and by the end, if you haven’t shed a tear or two, you know you’re dead inside.
Notable quotes:
“The Book of Iona?” “The Book of Kells.”; “Pangur ban, Pangur ban.”; “I've seen suffering in the darkness. Yet I have seen beauty thrive in the most fragile of places. I have seen the book. The book that turned darkness into light.”; “Old fools should learn to keep quiet.” “Unless young fools want to learn.”; “You can’t find everything out from books, you know.” “I think I read that once.”
93: The Prince of Egypt
A slightly calmed down version of the story from the Old Testament, this movie makes the pain of brother against brother a little more real than The Ten Commandments. With Batman (Val Kilmer) voicing Moses and God, and Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) the voice of Rameses, you get a funny, yet faithful version of the story. Add in a Whitney Houston/Mariah Carey piece that won an Oscar for Best Original Song, and you have one of the most underrated animated films in history.
Notable quotes:
“Second born, second place.”; “Let my people go.”; “I am that I am.”; “You…and your people…have my permission to go.”; “Who made man’s mouth? Who made the deaf, the mute, the seeing or the blind? Did not I? NOW GO!”; “Oh my son…they were only slaves.”; “Look at your life through Heaven’s eyes.”; "Though hope is frail, it's hard to kill."
92: Hell or High Water
Not much to say. There is minimal dialogue, but the words that are used are necessary and pitch perfect to the story. Chris Pine gives the best performance of his career so far here, and while Jeff Bridges got out with an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor, Ben Foster gives the best performance of the movie as the brother who takes things too far in trying to repay a mortgage by robbing branches of the bank that owns that mortgage. Taylor Sheridan’s script is easily the best part of this movie, though, and no matter what you think of the acting, you’ll know that you just watched the script of a generational talent play out before your eyes.
Notable quotes:
“Lord of the plains…that’s me.”; “You fellas robbin’ the bank?” “What’s it look like, old man?” “But you ain’t Mexicans.”; “I never met nobody get away with anything…ever. You?” “Then why the hell did you agree to do it?” “Because you asked, little brother.”
91: Se7en
Look. There aren’t many movies that I hate that I can admit are necessary to life. But this is one. I only watch this movie when I’m getting one of my friends to watch it so I can enjoy the look on their face at the end. It’s disturbing, dark, twisted…and not just because Kevin Spacey is in it. But seriously…you’ll have trouble opening UPS packages for a while. It’s a masterpiece of a script with probably the most undervalued performances by Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman. You’ll enjoy about two hours of it and then be ready to kill someone at the end. So basically it's just another David Fincher film.
Notable quotes:
“What’s in the box?”; “Wanting people to listen, you can’t just tap them on the shoulder anymore. You have to hit them with a sledgehammer, and then you’ll notice you’ve got their strict attention.”; “Ernest Hemingway once wrote, ‘The world is a fine place and worth fighting for.’ I agree with the second part.”; “This guy’s methodical, exacting, and worst of all, patient.” “He’s a nut-bag! Just because the fucker’s got a library card doesn’t make him Yoda.”
90: Skyfall
If it makes you Bond fans feel better, you can consider this the stand-in that represents all Bond films, although I don't, because this one is the best. It has the quotes that made the first ones famous, and balances it with the best performances in any of the films by any Bond (Daniel Craig) or Bond villain (Javier Bardem). Also, this was the only film in the series to win an Oscar for its song until Spectre went on to win Best Original Song a few years later. It is also the only Bond film to win multiple Oscars, and is the most nominated Bond film in Oscar history (5). It was also the first Bond film to gross over $1 billion. Alotta firsts for being the 23rd film in a series.
Notable quotes:
“I'm frightened because our enemies are no longer known to us. They do not exist on a map. They're not nations, they're individuals. And look around you. Who do you fear?”; “Orphans always make the best recruits.”; “We are not now that strength which in old days moved Earth and Heaven, that which we are, we are: one equal temper of heroic hearts made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”; “Regret is unprofessional.”
89: Inglorious Basterds
Somehow this was the first film to get an Oscar for an actor in a Tarantino film. Christoph Waltz’ Nazi hunting Colonel Hans Landa is the best part of this whole movie. Honestly. It’s this high because of the writing, the ridiculousness of Brad Pitt, and the awesome performance of Christoph Waltz. The music is also pretty damn good, but really. Waltz’ opening scene and his work in the final 45 minutes make this movie better than it would have been had anyone else been cast in that role.
Notable quotes:
“OOOOH, that’s a Bingo! Is that the way you say it, ‘That’s a Bingo’?” “You just say, ‘Bingo.’” “Bingo! How fun!”; “Quite frankly, watchin Donny beat Nazis to death is the closest we ever get to goin to the movies. Donny!” “Yeah?” “We got a German here who wants to die for his country. Oblige him!”; “Say ‘auf wiedersehen’ to your Nazi balls.”; “You know how to get to Carnegie Hall, don’t ya? Practice.”; “You know somethin, Utovich? I think this just might be my masterpiece.”
88: The Bourne trilogy
This movie series (and I stress only the first three) might be the best trilogy in cinema history. Each one builds off the last, and they get better and better as times goes on. Many will tell you The Godfather, Part 3 is a piece of crap compared to the first two; many others would argue that The Two Towers is hardly as good as either the first or the third films in the LOTR trilogy. No one will argue either about this trilogy. The Bourne Ultimatum was the third installment, but was the only one to get nominated for any Oscar…and it won all three. The first film set everything up and took people by surprise, but the second one built on the story of the first, pulled back on the action, and let Matt Damon, Julia Stiles, Brian Cox, and Joan Allen carry it with their acting prowess. Spoiler (kinda): the best part of the whole series in terms of acting is in the second film when Bourne apologizes to the daughter of his first victim. The scene is brief, soft-spoken (unlike the bombastic film surrounding it), and very emotional given the usual demeanor of Damon’s character. This film is also when Paul Greengrass took over directing (he also directed the third and fifth films in the series). You ever want to spend 6 hours of your life watching great action with great acting, and probably the best performance of Clive Owen’s career in spite of having only a few lines of dialogue, you’ll have a fantastic time with this movie trilogy.
Notable quotes:
“Look at this…look at what they make you give.”; “Do you even know why you’re supposed to kill me? Look at us. Look at what they make you give.”; “When we’re finished with you, you will no longer be David Webb.”; “Jesus Christ, what is the French word for ‘stakeout’?”; “If you were in your office right now, we’d be having this conversation face-to-face.”; “You were born 4/15/71 in Nixa, Missouri.”; “I remember everything. I’m no longer Jason Bourne.”; “Uh, sir, he drove off the roof.”; “Do you have ID?” “Not really.”; “I’m sorry.”
87: High Anxiety
I know. Why is this on the list and not Blazing Saddles? Well first of all, there’s a spoiler about my list: no Blazing Saddles. Second, because this is the SNL version of basically every Hitchcock film ever made. It is the origin of parody films. Airplane! came out three years after this, SNL had only been out for two years at this point, and Mel Brooks had already made a name for himself as a satirist with The Producers two years before Monty Python was even a tv show, never mind in theaters. Also, there probably wouldn’t be a Scary Movie franchise if not for this piece. If given the opportunity, watch everything Mel Brooks has ever touched, from the tv show Get Smart to this film to The History of the World, Part I. But if you can’t do it all, watch the greatest satirist of our time do the spoof movie that started it all.
Notable quotes:
“What a dramatic airport.”; “I BEEPED! I BEEPED!”; “Rate of patient recovery?…Once in a blue moon.”; “I understand now. It’s not heights I’m afraid of…it’s PARENTS!”; “HERE! HERE! HERE’S YOUR PAPER!…HAPPY NOW?! HAPPY NOW?!”
Again, shocking to some, but once you get into it, you really must watch these three. These films, particularly the first one, revived the pirates genre. Many films had been tried before, but none were ever as successful, financially or critically, compared to Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. As the series went on, yes, the quality of the scripts declined, but the franchise became a money-making juggernaut and, perhaps more importantly, revamped the visual effects industry. The films have been a staple of American culture for years, made Johnny Depp’s career, and, as far as the first one goes, gave us a twist on the pirates genre: pirates that want to return the treasure rather than steal it. It also marked the first film based on an amusement park ride and gave Hans Zimmer another iconic score to add to his repertoire.
Notable quotes:
“Me, I’m dishonest. And a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest. Honestly, it’s the honest ones you have to watch out for, because you can never predict when they’re going to do something incredibly…stupid.”; “Drink up me hearties, yo ho.”; “Parley.”; “I’m disinclined to acquiesce to your request. Means ‘no.’”; “I feel…cold.”; “So tell me, what’s become of my ship?”; “Part of the ship, part of the crew.”; “Why is the rum gone?…But why is the rum gone?!”; “Take what you can.” “Give nothing back.”; “You will always remember this as the day that you almost caught Captain Jack Sparrow.”
99: The Hunt (Jagten)
This Danish movie is truly a masterpiece. Yes it is foreign, but it was nominated for Best Foreign Film and should’ve been nominated for much more than just that. Mads Mikkelsen gives a kick-ass performance that will cut through you like the false accusation cut through him. Just a heads up: the dog dies. It’s depressing, as always in those cases, but for once, it’s not the saddest part of the whole movie. That belongs to Mikkelsen’s plea to his best friend to search his conscience and to realize it isn’t true. What am I talking about? Watch the movie and find out...and the ending will haunt you in a depressingly beautiful way.
Notable quotes (translated from Danish):
“The world is full of evil, but if we hold on to each other, it goes away.”; “Look into my eyes. Look me in the eyes. What do you see? Do you see anything? Nothing. There’s nothing. There’s nothing.”
98: Ocean’s series
As I said in my previous list, this series is really the ultimate caper series. All-star cast, interesting scripts, great chemistry, and a skilled director all add up to make this a fun 6 hours of your life.
Notable quotes:
“You called his niece a whore.” “A very cheap one.” “She’s seven.”; “You lose focus in this game for one second, somebody gets hurt.”; “Run and hide, asshole. Run and hide.”; “I only lied about being a thief.”; "See ya when I see ya."; "You of all people should know, Terry. In your hotel, there's always someone watching."
97: The Prestige
Truly a great piece of work by Chris Nolan, but because it came between his more critically recognized work of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, it goes largely forgotten. This movie, though, is arguably what launched him into the jaw-dropping finale moments for which he has become so renowned. Memento, being his first film, hadn’t set his course for what would be his personal touch with movies; The Prestige, with its beautiful acting, set design, script, and ending, made Nolan’s career as “the mind-fucker” assured.
Notable quotes:
“You never understood why we did this. The audience knows the truth. The world is simple: it’s miserable, solid all the way through. But if you could fool them, even for a second, then you can make them wonder. And then you…then you got to see something really special. You really don’t know? It…it was the look on their faces.”; “Are you watching closely?”; “Because exact science, Mr. Angier, is not an exact science.”; “Now you’re looking for the secret. But you won’t find it, because, of course, you’re not really looking. You don’t really want to work it out. You want to be fooled.”
96: Dunkirk
It’s very rare when a director can take a piece of history everyone learned in middle school and make it into an unexpected film. Chris Nolan, though, used Dunkirk as a way to prove that even when we know the story, we don’t know the story. Of course, no Nolan masterpiece would be complete without a beautifully orchestrated Hans Zimmer score. You’re also given some beautiful performances, most of all from Harry Styles (and no, I cannot believe I’m saying that either, but it’s true). Add in the fact that this is the only movie for which he received an Oscar nomination for Best Director, and you have the biggest must-see in his entire repertoire.
Notable quotes:
“You can practically see it from here.” “What?” “Home.”; “Well done, lads. Well done.” “All we did is survive.” “That’s enough.”; “We shall fight on the beaches. We shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields and in the streets. We shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.”; “What do you see?” “Home.”
95: The Emperor’s New Groove
This movie could’ve gone on for another 2 hours and it still would’ve felt like one hour too little. One of the shortest movies on the list, this animated film probably would have won Best Animated Feature if that had been an Oscar category back in 2000. David Spade and John Goodman make the perfect Kuzco and Pacha, but let’s be honest: the movie is really all about Eartha Kitt as Yzma and Patrick Warburton as Kronk. From Kronk humming his own sneaking-around music to Yzma turning into a cat and landing on a giant trampoline, these two are really the heart of the laughs. But even if you don’t agree, you know you love this movie because it never gets old, whether you’re 5, 15, or 25.
Notable quotes:
“Pull the lever, Kronk. WRONG LEVEEEEEERRRRRR!!!!! Why do we even have that lever?”; “OK, why does she even have that lever?”; “DON’T THROW OFF HIS GROOVE!!! Beware the groove.”; “Boom, baby!”; “Yay, I’m a a llama again. Wait…”; “Squeak squeak squeak squeak squeaker” “…squeakin.”; “No touchy.”; “Hey, I’ve been turned into a cow. Can I go home?”; “Don’t tell me. We’re about to go over a huge waterfall.” “Yep.” “Sharp rocks at the bottom?” “Most likely.” “Bring it on. BOOYAAHAAA!”
94: The Secret of Kells
In a time of computer animation, Tomm Moore went to hand-drawn art for this beautiful work. I won’t talk at length about it; you just have to watch it and enjoy it. It’s actually pretty dark, since it tells the story of Ireland during the time of the Viking invasions, and it’s got some sad moments. But on the whole, this Oscar nominee for Best Animated Feature, the first of Moore’s short, but already illustrious career to garner to nod, is a beautifully drawn and written story fictionalizing the birth of Catholicism’s most important, and the world’s most expensive, book: the Book of Kells (incidentally, each of the three movies he has produced so far have been nominated of the award). The film weaves Irish folklore with Christian beliefs in a remarkable way, and by the end, if you haven’t shed a tear or two, you know you’re dead inside.
Notable quotes:
“The Book of Iona?” “The Book of Kells.”; “Pangur ban, Pangur ban.”; “I've seen suffering in the darkness. Yet I have seen beauty thrive in the most fragile of places. I have seen the book. The book that turned darkness into light.”; “Old fools should learn to keep quiet.” “Unless young fools want to learn.”; “You can’t find everything out from books, you know.” “I think I read that once.”
93: The Prince of Egypt
A slightly calmed down version of the story from the Old Testament, this movie makes the pain of brother against brother a little more real than The Ten Commandments. With Batman (Val Kilmer) voicing Moses and God, and Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) the voice of Rameses, you get a funny, yet faithful version of the story. Add in a Whitney Houston/Mariah Carey piece that won an Oscar for Best Original Song, and you have one of the most underrated animated films in history.
Notable quotes:
“Second born, second place.”; “Let my people go.”; “I am that I am.”; “You…and your people…have my permission to go.”; “Who made man’s mouth? Who made the deaf, the mute, the seeing or the blind? Did not I? NOW GO!”; “Oh my son…they were only slaves.”; “Look at your life through Heaven’s eyes.”; "Though hope is frail, it's hard to kill."
92: Hell or High Water
Not much to say. There is minimal dialogue, but the words that are used are necessary and pitch perfect to the story. Chris Pine gives the best performance of his career so far here, and while Jeff Bridges got out with an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor, Ben Foster gives the best performance of the movie as the brother who takes things too far in trying to repay a mortgage by robbing branches of the bank that owns that mortgage. Taylor Sheridan’s script is easily the best part of this movie, though, and no matter what you think of the acting, you’ll know that you just watched the script of a generational talent play out before your eyes.
Notable quotes:
“Lord of the plains…that’s me.”; “You fellas robbin’ the bank?” “What’s it look like, old man?” “But you ain’t Mexicans.”; “I never met nobody get away with anything…ever. You?” “Then why the hell did you agree to do it?” “Because you asked, little brother.”
91: Se7en
Look. There aren’t many movies that I hate that I can admit are necessary to life. But this is one. I only watch this movie when I’m getting one of my friends to watch it so I can enjoy the look on their face at the end. It’s disturbing, dark, twisted…and not just because Kevin Spacey is in it. But seriously…you’ll have trouble opening UPS packages for a while. It’s a masterpiece of a script with probably the most undervalued performances by Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman. You’ll enjoy about two hours of it and then be ready to kill someone at the end. So basically it's just another David Fincher film.
Notable quotes:
“What’s in the box?”; “Wanting people to listen, you can’t just tap them on the shoulder anymore. You have to hit them with a sledgehammer, and then you’ll notice you’ve got their strict attention.”; “Ernest Hemingway once wrote, ‘The world is a fine place and worth fighting for.’ I agree with the second part.”; “This guy’s methodical, exacting, and worst of all, patient.” “He’s a nut-bag! Just because the fucker’s got a library card doesn’t make him Yoda.”
90: Skyfall
If it makes you Bond fans feel better, you can consider this the stand-in that represents all Bond films, although I don't, because this one is the best. It has the quotes that made the first ones famous, and balances it with the best performances in any of the films by any Bond (Daniel Craig) or Bond villain (Javier Bardem). Also, this was the only film in the series to win an Oscar for its song until Spectre went on to win Best Original Song a few years later. It is also the only Bond film to win multiple Oscars, and is the most nominated Bond film in Oscar history (5). It was also the first Bond film to gross over $1 billion. Alotta firsts for being the 23rd film in a series.
Notable quotes:
“I'm frightened because our enemies are no longer known to us. They do not exist on a map. They're not nations, they're individuals. And look around you. Who do you fear?”; “Orphans always make the best recruits.”; “We are not now that strength which in old days moved Earth and Heaven, that which we are, we are: one equal temper of heroic hearts made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”; “Regret is unprofessional.”
89: Inglorious Basterds
Somehow this was the first film to get an Oscar for an actor in a Tarantino film. Christoph Waltz’ Nazi hunting Colonel Hans Landa is the best part of this whole movie. Honestly. It’s this high because of the writing, the ridiculousness of Brad Pitt, and the awesome performance of Christoph Waltz. The music is also pretty damn good, but really. Waltz’ opening scene and his work in the final 45 minutes make this movie better than it would have been had anyone else been cast in that role.
Notable quotes:
“OOOOH, that’s a Bingo! Is that the way you say it, ‘That’s a Bingo’?” “You just say, ‘Bingo.’” “Bingo! How fun!”; “Quite frankly, watchin Donny beat Nazis to death is the closest we ever get to goin to the movies. Donny!” “Yeah?” “We got a German here who wants to die for his country. Oblige him!”; “Say ‘auf wiedersehen’ to your Nazi balls.”; “You know how to get to Carnegie Hall, don’t ya? Practice.”; “You know somethin, Utovich? I think this just might be my masterpiece.”
88: The Bourne trilogy
This movie series (and I stress only the first three) might be the best trilogy in cinema history. Each one builds off the last, and they get better and better as times goes on. Many will tell you The Godfather, Part 3 is a piece of crap compared to the first two; many others would argue that The Two Towers is hardly as good as either the first or the third films in the LOTR trilogy. No one will argue either about this trilogy. The Bourne Ultimatum was the third installment, but was the only one to get nominated for any Oscar…and it won all three. The first film set everything up and took people by surprise, but the second one built on the story of the first, pulled back on the action, and let Matt Damon, Julia Stiles, Brian Cox, and Joan Allen carry it with their acting prowess. Spoiler (kinda): the best part of the whole series in terms of acting is in the second film when Bourne apologizes to the daughter of his first victim. The scene is brief, soft-spoken (unlike the bombastic film surrounding it), and very emotional given the usual demeanor of Damon’s character. This film is also when Paul Greengrass took over directing (he also directed the third and fifth films in the series). You ever want to spend 6 hours of your life watching great action with great acting, and probably the best performance of Clive Owen’s career in spite of having only a few lines of dialogue, you’ll have a fantastic time with this movie trilogy.
Notable quotes:
“Look at this…look at what they make you give.”; “Do you even know why you’re supposed to kill me? Look at us. Look at what they make you give.”; “When we’re finished with you, you will no longer be David Webb.”; “Jesus Christ, what is the French word for ‘stakeout’?”; “If you were in your office right now, we’d be having this conversation face-to-face.”; “You were born 4/15/71 in Nixa, Missouri.”; “I remember everything. I’m no longer Jason Bourne.”; “Uh, sir, he drove off the roof.”; “Do you have ID?” “Not really.”; “I’m sorry.”
87: High Anxiety
I know. Why is this on the list and not Blazing Saddles? Well first of all, there’s a spoiler about my list: no Blazing Saddles. Second, because this is the SNL version of basically every Hitchcock film ever made. It is the origin of parody films. Airplane! came out three years after this, SNL had only been out for two years at this point, and Mel Brooks had already made a name for himself as a satirist with The Producers two years before Monty Python was even a tv show, never mind in theaters. Also, there probably wouldn’t be a Scary Movie franchise if not for this piece. If given the opportunity, watch everything Mel Brooks has ever touched, from the tv show Get Smart to this film to The History of the World, Part I. But if you can’t do it all, watch the greatest satirist of our time do the spoof movie that started it all.
Notable quotes:
“What a dramatic airport.”; “I BEEPED! I BEEPED!”; “Rate of patient recovery?…Once in a blue moon.”; “I understand now. It’s not heights I’m afraid of…it’s PARENTS!”; “HERE! HERE! HERE’S YOUR PAPER!…HAPPY NOW?! HAPPY NOW?!”