Jerk.

Obviously I don't mean to deride Carter. I just didn't think the performance was anything to talk about. But hell, its better than Jessica Rabbit or Joey Lauren Adams.

Its undeniable that Jack's Joker was just Jack. Fuck that. I like Jack Nicholson, Jack Nicholson entertained me. But it was character acting. Ledger's performance was undoubtedly a real and great one. He became a character he was never seen as before. It was great and deserves credit. But I just think its overblown.

In part because its so fresh and recent that it resonates more. In part, yes, the "guy who died tragically young" thing because it allows an actor/musician/wrestler to rest on his great prime and never fade off. I once jokingly theorized that every great musician either dies young or lives long enough to lose standing as they fade away, lose their spark, or go insane. And then there's this "Ledger killed himself for the role" stuff which I think its ridiculous silliness but clearly any number of Dark Knight fans buy into it.

The vote might not change in 10 years, as Junkie said. I just don't think we can fairly evaluate stuff like this so early. It has nothing to do with Ledger as he's one of the few cases where I think he WILL still be in this conversation in 10 years where so many of these I think will lose standing with time. I just generally think its impossible to compare things without the proper perspective. The AWESOME movie you saw yesterday is going to being sitting front and center in your memory and seem so much more tangible than the AWESOME movie you saw 20 years ago. Its just natural.

Ernest Hemingway once wrote, "The world is a fine place and worth fighting for." I agree with the second part.

Byrnie, you are such a romantic!

Quentin got my vote. Pulp Fiction is directed brilliantly, the way it's de-constructed but you never lose interest in the film is what makes it stand out to me.

What Spielberg did in Saving Private Ryan just with the opening scene alone, is unbelievable. War vets said it was exactly how things happened on the Omaha beach (It was Omaha right?).

Gibson did a good job with Braveheart, but I always think that he was helped with the fact that people always love good underdog movies. If this story hadn't happen for real people would have probably said, "yea one guy against the British Monarchy... it's just a little too much to believe" (similar to what would have happen with the Apollo 13 movie).

And for me, Goodfellas will always come behind Godfather I and II. But that's a personal thing

Awesome Demko! +1

This

You Star Wars wanks are fucking homos. This is a disgrace.

Predator, surprisingly it's first vote.

Gotta go with Foster, just over Uma and JLA. Winslet is the most overrated actress in Hollywood.

Its gay. Intricately so.

That explains some things, Gator.

Motherfucker. Although I can't argue with it.

It's a Wonderful life (just a terrible draft)
Die Hard (it,s what I'm doing in this showdown)
The Godfather (I need a favor)
Top Secret (oh there are way better movies up there, but it reminds me of my sister... and family ALWAYS wins)

This was fun guys and girl.

ET
V
Ocean's 11
Star Wars

Schindler's
Cast Away
Hellboy
Gladiator

Yeah, I think the notion of "trilogies" is kind of overdone but they mean one overarching story in my book. If the set of films tells one main story, then its a set. Indiana Jones does not do that. Bond films don't do that.

Star Wars is the story of rebels fighting the Evil Empire, and Luke's growth into a Jedi Master and battle with Vader.
Spider-Man is about the growth of this teenager into a hero and coming to accept and live with the responsibility he feels. And the hell that plays on his personal life. The relationship with MJ as he loves her, lets her go, opens up to her and wins her, and then struggles to hang on to her. The relationship with Harry that goes from best friends to hated enemies to their final amends before Harry dies.

X-Men is the story of Professor X and his X-Men's battle with Magneto and his Brotherhood, and the hopes to gain acceptance with humanity. It tells the story of Wolverine going from loner to finding a home and family, to fighting for it because they fight for him, to making it what he's about. Magneto starting as a terrorist with a small group to planting seeds of discontent to finally leading an army in a full out assault. Rogue and the students going from scared children to heroes and Rogue taking the different path of looking for normalcy.

Ultimately its kind of hard to knock these films for being capable of viewing as stand alone pieces. They do tell a constant story, even if its not built with cliffhangers and "To Be Continued." As much as the Star Wars films leave open questions like "What happens with the war?" and "How do these relationships go?" X-Men leaves open questions like "How will the politicians rule with mutants?" and "How do these relationships go?"

The only real problem is that the 3rd installment of those films were quite inferior so they failed to tie things up as well as you'd hope. But Spidey/Harry does go from friends to enemies to friends from the 3 films in a complete story. And Harry joining Spidey's side and the two of them making amends is pretty meaningless if you never saw 1 and 2. Now again, that the movie blows kind of hurts this argument but its there in the outline if nothing else. And a failure for the filmmakers to properly tell the story shouldn't take away from the fact that it was drawn to work a certain way.

With X-Men if Professor X and Cyclops hadn't been killed so early it might feel a bit more circular because then its clearly Xavier vs Magneto, X-Men vs Brotherhood, Jean Grey & Cyclops. But for whatever actor or production reasons they ended up stepping off the tracks a bit and essentially making it Wolverine & Storm vs Magneto & Phoenix. But the outline is there if you look for it. The first film is about Wolverine and Rogue being found by Xavier and the X-Men coming together, specifically through the eyes of 2 outsiders finding a home. Meanwhile Magneto is the evil mutant threatening to make things worse. The second is about the X-Men growing as these students become heroes and Wolverine truly makes this his home and family. Meanwhile the seeds Magneto and others planted are turning things against the mutants and building to some bad stuff. The 3rd is about all of these seeds blossoming whether that's the ignorance and fear of humans, the army Magneto's formed to take control, or the army the X-Men have built to stop him. Could have had a lot more cohesiveness but still pretty much one big arch.

For the record, Chris Tucker was my LEAST favorite part of The Fifth Element.

And Nappy D is far different from the standard dick, fart, and sex jokes.

I LOVED Stick It and I'm not ashamed to say it. It got my first vote.

In the wise words of a great Canadian man:

"FUCK SUPERMAN."

Thank you.

No Country For Old Men, Falling Down, High Fidelity, Mystic River

The Usual Suspects, Wall Street, Old School, Step Brothers

Because I can sing high like this.