TOP 150 MOVIES

Imaginatively depicting the banality, adventure and enlightenment of living the same day over again and again and again and… Groundhog Day broke new ground by blending the rom-com with a spiritually rich story about learning to love life one repeated day at a time.

Directed by Harold Ramis (Multiplicity) by way of Frank Capra, Groundhog Day  starsa brilliant Bill Murray as cynical weatherman Phil, whose nightmare assignment of covering the Groundhog Day festivities is made worse when he’s trapped in a time loop and forced into reliving the same day repeatedly.

Thought provoking as well as entertainingly heartfelt, Groundhog Day leaves the sci-fi out of the time-travel movie, opting for character to sell this brand of fantasy comedy.   

A moving, at times funny, and immensely tragic film, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest demonstrates how the human spirit can be broken under, and rise over, an oppressive and rigid system.

One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest  focuses on Randle Patrick McMurphy (Jack Nicholson), a repeat violent offender who is transferred to a mental institution where his mental health is to be evaluated. A rebel who has a disdain for authority, McMurphy raises hell within the once stable environment drawing the wrath of the cold Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher.)

Milos Forman (Amadeus) provides strong direction in his Hollywood film debut. His emphasis on reality can be seen in every shot and every performance, especially from Nicholson perhaps delivers his best and most memorable performance in Randal McMurphy.

Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid stands as a monumental piece of cinema, in part due to it being the film to combine the talents Paul Newman and Robert Redford.

Loosely based on true events, Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid follows successful train robbers Butch and Sundance as they travel to Bolivia in order to evade a posse set on shooting first and asking questions later.

Superbly directed by George Roy Hill (Cool Hand Luke) and featuring a cracking script by William Goldman (All the President’s Men), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is made even better by the excellent chemistry between Newman and Redford, perhaps the best dynamic duo to appear on screen.

Arrival is an all-encompassing achievement that transcends genre with its emotional, visual and philosophical riches.

Arrival begins with alien visitors landing their egg-shaped UFOs in numerous locations around the world. Amidst the mad scramble of doomsday looting and worldwide political chest beating, linguist professor Louise Banks (Amy Adams) is tasked to help establish a line of communication with the extra-terrestrials to find out just what their intentions are.

Each close encounter between Louise and the shadowy alien creatures comes with much tension (aided enormously by Johann Johannson’s moody, emotionally rich score) and inquisitive intelligence, with many moments of tangible dread made even more tense through director Dines Villeneve’s (Dune) perfect puppeteering of our all too human curiosity for the unknown, as we gaze upon this interaction between human and extra-terrestrial that has never quite hit the same emotional, spirited and intellectual pay-dirt that it does here.

When it comes to the many attributes that makes Steven Spielberg such a lauded and popular filmmaker, his ability to create top grade action-adventure movies ranks high. Raiders of the Lost Ark is a case in point.

Introducing everyone’s favourite whip towing, fedora wearing archaeologist Dr. Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford), Raiders of the Lost Ark saw Spielberg hit another level in his filmmaking prowess in this George Lucas conceived, Lawrence Kasdan penned adventure where Dr. Jones must find the legendary Ark of the Covenant before it falls into the hands of occult obsessed Nazi’s.

Beginning with an iconic opening sequence and filled with many more memorable moments, Raiders of the Lost Ark also features what many believe to be the ultimate Harrison Ford performance, where his movie star charm, sly humour, no nonsense demeanour, and one hell of an over hand right make for an iconic character. 

In the 1995 crime epic Heat, writer/director Michael Mann (The Insider) brought together two of cinemas most influential and celebrated actors: Robert De Niro and Al Pacino.

De Niro stars as Neil McCauley, an ice cold, disciplined master thief, who grabs the attention of dogged and bombastic police detective Lt. Vincent Hanna (Pacino) after a carefully planned armoured car robbery turns into an un-necessary blood bath.    

Mann delivers a superbly written, exceptionally directed, and unconventional crime saga about the relationship between cop and criminal and the people who shape their lives. A stellar supporting cast - Val Kilmer, Ashley Judd, Diane Venora and Jon Voight- all give great performances.  But the real highlights (and drawcard) belong to the excellent turns by master thespians De Niro and Pacino.

1986 was a good year for director Oliver Stone. While Platoon won all the pundits, the little seen Salvador still stands as the better film that still packs a powerful punch 40 years later.

Based on the true accounts of freelance war photographer and radical Richard Boyle (James Woods), this hard-hitting film follows Boyle as he covers the madness which was the Salvadoran civil war, and the fragile political mechanism behind it. 

Woods has never been better as a weasel trying to find sense and salvation in an horrendous war, while Stone made his mark as an important filmmaker with Salvador his first true breakthrough film.

Philip Kaufman’s (Invasion of the Body Snatchers) informative, absorbing and immensely entertaining biopic about the original Mercury 7 astronauts is the quintessential film dealing with space travel.

Starring an excellent ensemble cast who brilliantly portray these courageous men (and their long-suffering women), The Right Stuff spares no detail in presenting the facts of a major scientific endeavour during a time when innovation and exploration was championed by government and the public.

Grand yet colourful, important yet never pompous, Kaufman delivers a compelling look at the men who made space travel possible. The Right Stuff captures both the danger of the early flights and the competitive pressure that drove the program, giving the story a human weight that goes beyond the history.

Oliver Stone already had two outstanding war films to his name (Salvador, Platoon) before directing this stirring late 1980s classic to a much-deserved best director Oscar win.

Born on the Fourth of July tells the true story of Vietnam veteran Ron Kovic, documenting his journey from eager volunteer to bitter handicapped war veteran, to anti-war patriot, all done with a stunning clarity via Stone’s always unwavering eye.

Tom Cruise delivers a career best performance as Kovic, proving there is indeed a fine actor behind the movie star exterior. His physical and emotional commitment gives the film its force, particularly in the scenes that track Kovic’s growing anger and disillusionment.

If you wrote a list of movies that make men weep like babies, Field of Dreams would surely be up there.

A perfectly cast Kevin Costner stars as Iowa corn farmer Ray Kinsella. When a strange voice haunts him daily, he interprets this ghostly message as a command to build a baseball field on his land, leading to a strange yet beautiful journey of redeeming past regrets.

Director Phil Alden Robinson (Sneakers) perfectly blends themes of baseball, the supernatural and family to make for an incredibly touching movie, where the fathers love for his son knows no boundaries.