Part III - Movies

We're back with the desert island category of movies.  Most everyone can figure this much out about me:  I love mob movies, I love buddy comedies, and I love great movie speeches.  So, I think what we should do here is break it down by genre and then more specific categories that I deem relevant...afterall, maybe 5 people read this thing anyway, so who am I really leaving out by tailoring it to stuff I like.  Away we go:

Westerns:  This is a good place to start because there's not much of a debate going on in my mind.  There's the pick and then everything else.  Admittedly, I am not a scholar in the old school, John Wayne westerns (I've seen maybe 3), and as much as I love Butch and Sundance, I'm going with William Munny on this one.  Eastwood just tears the cover off the ball with this movie.  It's got everything: struggle against self, great dialogue, and most importantly it's got a climactic scene where the guy walks into the bar to kill the man that shot his buddy down.  Just an awesome movie on so many levels.

The pick:  Unforgiven

Indie Film:  Once again, this one wins in a walk.  Garden State didn't age well in my opinion, but I will say that I like that movie a lot.  Great soundtrack, quotable, etc. Reservoir Dogs was an awesome movie, but it doesn't feel as "indie" to me because it had some established stars in it.  Plus, it seems more the rough draft for Tarantino before Pulp Fiction.  When you think about an indie film, a guy making a movie happen from scratch and bringing his friends along for the ride, launching the star into stardom (albeit years later), it's all about this pick.  Quotable, re-watchable, a few iconic moments.  Plus, when Vince Vaughn is on his game, nothing trumps it.

The pick:  Swingers 

Comedy:  Ok, now we have a debate.  I just need to make picks in subcategories first:

-Made me laugh the hardest scene: dinner scene in The Nutty Professor

-Made me laugh the hardest from start to finish the first time I saw it: Wedding Crashers

-Most quotable:  Dumb and Dumber edges Lebowski by an eyelash

-British comedy: Monty Python and the Holy Grail

-Mockumentary:  Best in Show

But the best mix of everything, the one that stays the freshest over the years, the one that immediately makes you friends with someone when you tell them you love it:

The pick: The Big Lebowski 

Sports Movie:  No debate here.  And the reason is that sports movies are all the same now.  I don't understand how there are so many smart people in the world and no one has figured out how to make a good sports movie anymore.  I think it can all be traced back to the fact that there just aren't many actors that are both athletic and good at acting too.  Kevin Costner cornered the market here for years (and that's the best we can do?!).  Note: I don't really consider Rocky a sports movie because there's only one fight and it is only 5 minutes of the movie.  Note II: I just remembered how good The Natural is, but still...

The pick:  Hoosiers

Musicals:  not really, I'm just kidding.

Action Movie:  It's all about what you like here.  Rather than list all the good and bad, I'll get right to it.  All star cast, great story, great acting, re-watchable, one of the all time great scenes near the end.  And yet some people forget about this movie:

The pick:  Heat

High School Movie:

Lots of people like lots of things.  I'll go with the one that I've seen a million times and could see a million more:

The pick:  Dazed and Confused

Courtroom Drama:

With respect to all the ones that came before and after this one, I like great performances, and Edward Norton was off the charts in

The pick:  Primal Fear  

Thriller:  A lot of good ones in this category, but for brevity's sake I'll get right to it.  This one features the most electrifying 16 minute Oscar winning performance ever.  Also, it is the last movie to win Best Picture, Director, Actor, and Actress.  Strong.

The pick:  The Silence of the Lambs

Drama (ok, let's call it what it is for me)

Mafia movie: This will be its own post one day, I don't feel I can devote the right amount of time to this, but here goes.

Let me say this to begin with, I know you're not a mob movie fan if you tell me that your favorite is Scarface.  That's crap.  As far as this genre goes, that one plays like a music video.  I'll tell you what it's like...it's like a Will Ferrell movie is now.  One guy carrying it as far as he can and by the end, he's given out.  You have to have a good team to make a movie and this one had a crappy job on everything except the starring role.

People forget about Donny Brasco, but it is WAY better than this movie, and it has Johnny Depp rocking the Fed role.  

Now...

As good as Goodfellas is, it suffers in these ways for me (for you): 

1.  It doesn't have Marlon Brando or Al Pacino

2. The ending seems a little abrupt to me.  In fact once he sells out, I can turn it off usually.  You shouldn't ever feel that way about a desert island pick, you should be captivated til the last second.

Goodfellas is great, just not the top spot(s).  I actually find Casino to be more re-watchable.  The Departed is not aging as well as I'd hoped, but it's still great.

So the question is, Godfather I or II.  It's tough, but it comes down to this: one has the greatest actor ever, and the other doesn't.  Marlon Brando is simply the best to ever stand in front of a camera.  Al Pacino was better in the second one, but he's still awesome in part I.  If you threw out all these subcategories and just said I could only take one movie, it would be...

the pick:  The Godfather part I

  

I'm drained I can't go any further.  I left out War movie - Saving Private Ryan, Love Story - Jerry Maguire, 80s movie - Top Gun, gotta stop, movie without a category - Fight Club, I've done too many categories...This is my albatross!