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With my wife out of town 'til tomorrow night I'm looking forward to settling in for an uninterrupted guy movie marathon.
I'm curious for your all-time top ten list of Guy Movies. Mine would be as follows:
10. (tie) The Great Escape and The Magnificent Seven
Same director, much overlap in the cast, both one hell of a lot of fun. I would give the edge to The Great Escape except Yul Brynner is a cooler pack leader than Richard Attenborough. Magnificent Seven gets my vote for best of the old school Hollywood westerns.
9. Deliverance
I don't watch slasher movies anymore, but I saw a few back in the day. Many of which were set in campground type settings. But it's Ned Beatty sqealing like a pig that makes me watch my back in the woods.
8. Cool Hand Luke
"Sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand."
7. The Blues Brothers
There had to be a buddy movie on the list and I can't think of a better one. The movie takes two lead characters that barely talk, a bunch of musicians that can't act, and about 45 minutes worth of plot, and stretches it out to over two hours with cool music and sublimely ridiculous car chases. The fact that it works flawlessly has to put it on the guy movie list. "Jesus H. Tap Dancing Christ, I have seen the light!"
6. The Proposition
Easily the most overlooked movie of the past decade. A brutal intelligent western set in the Australian outback, it reminds me of Unforgiven and Gangs of New York but it's better than both. Clearly inspired by one of the great guy novels, Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian.
5. No Country for Old Men
I dragged my wife along to see this in the theatre. She was traumatized, and not a little mad at me when it was over. I had to see bad things to make up for it... Jane Austin bad... As for me, I thought it was the most intense, edge of the seat movie ever.
4. Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia
The title pretty much sums it up. Warren Oates plays a lowlife American piano player in a sleazy Mexican dive, who gets wrapped up in a quest to bring Mr. Garcia's head to the land baron that put a bounty on it. Basically a western, but filmed and set in the 1970's. Oates gives an odd, manic, perfect performance.
3. Bullitt
Before Axl Foley, before Dirty Harry, before Popeye Doyle there was Frank Bullitt. Steve McQueen invents the bad ass independent cop genre and takes his Mustang for one hell of ride.
2. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
You can't have a list like this without Clint Eastwood. The whole Dollars Trilogy is classic, but this is the biggest, noisiest, funniest, best of the three. Eli Wallach gives one of the most unforgettable supporting performances in film history. "What the hell is this? One bastard goes in, another bastard comes out!"
1. GoodFellas
Quite simply a perfect movie. Perfect cast, perfect dialogue, perfect detail, perfect soundtrack, perfect camera work. Three hours long and it flies by. I love everything about this movie, especially the little details. I love Nicky Eyes and the guy who's gonna get the papers, get the papers. I love it when Joe Pesci's mom (played by Martin Scorcese's mom) says about her painting "One's looking one way, one's looking the other. So what?" I love how most of the narration is lifted straight out of the book Wiseguys straight from the mouth of the real Henry Hill. I love when Ray Liotta says, "Now I have to live the rest of my life like a schnook" followed immediately my Sid Vicious's cover of "My Way." Unimprovable.
Honorable Mentions:
A Clockwork Orange
Desperado
Reservoir Dogs
Friday Night Lights
Animal House
The Big Lebowski
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai
I'm curious for your all-time top ten list of Guy Movies. Mine would be as follows:
10. (tie) The Great Escape and The Magnificent Seven
Same director, much overlap in the cast, both one hell of a lot of fun. I would give the edge to The Great Escape except Yul Brynner is a cooler pack leader than Richard Attenborough. Magnificent Seven gets my vote for best of the old school Hollywood westerns.
9. Deliverance
I don't watch slasher movies anymore, but I saw a few back in the day. Many of which were set in campground type settings. But it's Ned Beatty sqealing like a pig that makes me watch my back in the woods.
8. Cool Hand Luke
"Sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand."
7. The Blues Brothers
There had to be a buddy movie on the list and I can't think of a better one. The movie takes two lead characters that barely talk, a bunch of musicians that can't act, and about 45 minutes worth of plot, and stretches it out to over two hours with cool music and sublimely ridiculous car chases. The fact that it works flawlessly has to put it on the guy movie list. "Jesus H. Tap Dancing Christ, I have seen the light!"
6. The Proposition
Easily the most overlooked movie of the past decade. A brutal intelligent western set in the Australian outback, it reminds me of Unforgiven and Gangs of New York but it's better than both. Clearly inspired by one of the great guy novels, Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian.
5. No Country for Old Men
I dragged my wife along to see this in the theatre. She was traumatized, and not a little mad at me when it was over. I had to see bad things to make up for it... Jane Austin bad... As for me, I thought it was the most intense, edge of the seat movie ever.
4. Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia
The title pretty much sums it up. Warren Oates plays a lowlife American piano player in a sleazy Mexican dive, who gets wrapped up in a quest to bring Mr. Garcia's head to the land baron that put a bounty on it. Basically a western, but filmed and set in the 1970's. Oates gives an odd, manic, perfect performance.
3. Bullitt
Before Axl Foley, before Dirty Harry, before Popeye Doyle there was Frank Bullitt. Steve McQueen invents the bad ass independent cop genre and takes his Mustang for one hell of ride.
2. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
You can't have a list like this without Clint Eastwood. The whole Dollars Trilogy is classic, but this is the biggest, noisiest, funniest, best of the three. Eli Wallach gives one of the most unforgettable supporting performances in film history. "What the hell is this? One bastard goes in, another bastard comes out!"
1. GoodFellas
Quite simply a perfect movie. Perfect cast, perfect dialogue, perfect detail, perfect soundtrack, perfect camera work. Three hours long and it flies by. I love everything about this movie, especially the little details. I love Nicky Eyes and the guy who's gonna get the papers, get the papers. I love it when Joe Pesci's mom (played by Martin Scorcese's mom) says about her painting "One's looking one way, one's looking the other. So what?" I love how most of the narration is lifted straight out of the book Wiseguys straight from the mouth of the real Henry Hill. I love when Ray Liotta says, "Now I have to live the rest of my life like a schnook" followed immediately my Sid Vicious's cover of "My Way." Unimprovable.
Honorable Mentions:
A Clockwork Orange
Desperado
Reservoir Dogs
Friday Night Lights
Animal House
The Big Lebowski
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai
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