Paul Hsieh's
favourite movies
That's right, its just my opinion about movies. There was a time in my life
where I had an absolutely voratious appetite for movies, so I figure I might
as well put all that movie experience to some use. The movies are roughly
listed in order of my personal preference. Every movie listed here is at
least 4 and half stars (out of 5).
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My Favorite Movies
My Suggestion Box
Here are a list of some suggestions I have received so far:
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Of the above I have seen those that have been bolded. Most are good movies but do not quite rank a 5/5 for me. Sorry. I will try to catch the others when I get a chance.
My Comments
Casablanca just seems so dated to me. I was far less impressed with it than most people I know. Bogart just doesn't do it for me.The Player and Short Cuts seemed like the same movie to me somehow. Both were extremely long, and had lots and lots of characters with an oddly intertwining story. I liked both ... but not that much.
Regarding Henry was interesting, but its hard not to compare it to the Doctor, or Mosquito Coast (for two seperate reasons) both of which I consider to be superior films, again for seperate reasons.
The God father series of films are very epic in nature and are very impressive. But I've never really had a taste for the mob style film. Its like The Firm, or Apocolypse Now in that it was very well done in its treatment of the subject matter but had a hard time reaching me personally.
The Seven Samurai is a cool film, but lets face it, its pretty simplistic. It
doesn't compare with Kurasawa's superior "Dreams", though I suspect I am in the
minority in my opinion. Ok, I've reconsidered. The Seven Samurai is
actually kind of cool.
Mission: Impossible is just a toned down remake of Top Gun with a different subject matter. So are a lot of Tom Cruise films. No seriously, think about it. In all honesty, its not a bad film, but not especially deep in any way.
I can't believe Siskel and Ebert liked Dumb and Dumber. That has to be the one of the stupidest movies of all time, and not just because of the two bumbling lead characters. This is just Jim Carey cashing in. The Cable Guy is even worse. (I don't much like Mathew Broderick, so that movie was kind of doomed from the start for me.)
By contrast, Liar, Liar, was at least original. But, in my opinion, does not measure up even to the Mask, which itself does not make my list of upper echelon movies.
From Dusk 'Til Dawn ... are you kidding me? This movie made no sense. While it had many of the Tarantinoisms that made Resevoir Dogs and Pulp fiction so good, the story, the acting and the characters were so lacking as to make the movie boring to me. Four Rooms was a much better film, but a little dull at moments (kudos to the always excellent Tim Roth.) (Jackie Brown really didn't do it for me either -- it looks like Tarantino has run out of good material.)
I was only half watching Evil Dead 2 while I was playing some board games. I am sure the fact that my brain wasn't saturated with this movie prevented me from going catatonic or something. I am sorry, but I put this in the "Big Trouble in Little China Category". Campy to the point of pointlessness.
A Clockwork Orange, is a good and deeply disturbing film. Right up there with the Shining. Both movies don't quite make it to my 5/5 list only because I am picky. :o)
Virtuosity does not deserve comment. Ok I'll give it one: that movie was a piece of crap.
2001: A Space Odyssey really almost just barely doesn't make it onto my list. Its a little slow, and hard to follow (but it helps if you've read the book.) Although it did not do very well, I liked the sequel 2010 almost as much. Aliens and Star Wars are both excellent films but like 2001 both don't quite make it to the top of my list.
The Hudsucker Proxy is really an excellent film, and I am almost reconsidering adding it to my honorable mention list. Let me think it over ... :o)
Jacob's Ladder is a good film. But it seemed to too closely follow the Brazil formula (without the dark humour.)
Cadillac Man. Robin Williams and Tim Robbins did a great job, but the story was weak.
Casino was really just a showcase of the three talented leads. The story was not bad, but it was diffinately missing essential substance to make the movie worth while.
Groundhog Day is a great film. But its a little too silly to be taken seriously. This movie has replay value. The Princess Bride is a funny movie, but was certainly not a really great movie.
Taxi Driver ... uh I didn't get it. DeNiro was excellent, but this movie just didn't do it for me.
The Fifth Element reminded me of the theatrical release of the Abyss. Its a movie in search of a better motivation and a better ending. Sorry but the big black evil ball is a less than compelling bad guy.
Sleepless in Seattle?? Don't make me sick. Two people sent me this movie. I know its a "date" movie that's supposed to appeal to women, but this is just such a bad movie that can't even pretend to be in the same class as "When Harry met Sally". In all cases I think the characters are the worst that the respective actors have ever played (including Rosie O'Donnel and Bill Pulman.)
I have seen Natural Born Killers in the theaters, and I thought it was aweful. The director's cut may be better (it certainly was for Blade Runner and the Abyss, so I won't be so quick to dismiss NBK just because I hated the theatrical release.) Trainspotting is an extreme movie, but I didn't find anything about it that made this movie really good. I'm not sure why it got such rave reviews.
I truly hate Kevin Costner. I mean I hate him worse than I hate Adam Sandler.
Costner is in the worst movie of all time: Tin Cup, and even in the good
movies that he has been in, I always wished that someone else was playing his
role. That's why I have avoided JFK. Lots of people have
recommended it to me, so if I get the chance I guess I will watch
it. Ok, I've watched this movie. It was ok (once again ... why
Costner? Get him the hell off the screen) but it just seemed like a vehicle
for Stone to voice his conspiracy theory about the assasination of JFK. Now
there is something to the whole thing about the whole JFK thing, but what I
can't figure out is why didn't they use modern special effects to reproduce
the assasination incident itself with incredible detail? From what I know of
the case, there is sufficient evidence to at least know what happened *after*
the bullets left their gun barrels -- so a bullet time camera view, and shown
impacts ... hey, if they showed that, then I think that alone could have made
this movie worthwhile. But instead they concentrate of the court cases, the
alegations, and the conspiracy theories.
The story of "La Femme Nikita" is excellent. I thought "The Point of No Return" was about as good. The problem I had with both films was that the acting was poor. By contrast, "The Professional" which had an equally good story, had awesome actors.
Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern are Dead is a very clever movie. I enjoyed it the first time I saw it, but surprisingly it has very little replay value.
Contact covered a subject of deep personal interest to me; the conflict between science and religion. I am one of those fascist atheist scumbags; I've earned enough credits to get my "Evil Scientist's Card" if I ever need it. Nevertheless, the movie raises the question of the conflict that was probably first discovered by Godel. Namely what happens when science/math fails to provide the credibility that it is so heavily rooted in. What happens when the truth is out of reach of logic and analysis and we are left with nothing more than faith?
Anyhow, as a movie it had severe problems with being preachy when it needed to be deep, and clever when it needed to be profound. On the other hand, even Carl Sagan (who wrote the book upon which the movie is based) himself has fallen into this trap (in the past he has claimed that an exploding nuke roughly equivalent to the size of the Chernobyl disaster would almost certainly send the earth into a nuclear winter, and claimed to prove the existence of extra terrestrial life by showing that the probability of it within some reasonable fixed distance was greater than 0.)
Finally, Titanic. Of all of Cameron's movies, the academy decides to give him accolades for Titanic? If you like DeCaprio and/or Winslett then it was entertaining. I kept waiting for jaws to come and eat everyone in sight or something. Seriously, it wasn't too bad, just nothing special.
As to Cool Hand Luke, yes I got the message. But I think I learn more about prison life, and character from listening to the radio station WBAI in New York than I did from watching this movie.
City of Angels is a nice story that is also quite original (Update actually, apparently its a remake of the movie "Wings of Desire".). However, it does no go in any direction with enough thrust to merit this as a great movie. The whole mood for the movie was ridiculously subdued, which worked as an effect in of itself, but seemed to have an overall effect of dullening the story.
The Prophecy is a cool and original movie (compare to Dogma, which is too campy and random by comparison.) But Lucifer seemed unimpressive, and I was not really pleased with the very slow pacing of the movie. The native witch doctoring seemed artificially tied in.
Ghost in the Shell is cool, but its not quite up there with Princess Mononoke
or Akira. Parts of it seemed too confusing, and I think it was meant to be
that way, but it didn't add much to it. It has been suggested that this movie
was a floor plan for The Matrix. That's possible, but I would also add that
the Matrix is a better execution. Ok, whoever suggested this movie
to me, upon reviewing it, I've changed my mind. Indeed this is a great film.
Movie Quote Quiz!
Below are lines from movies that appear from above. See if you can match the quote with the movie. Just enter the name of the movie in the space provided after each quote. Be sure to type the name in exactly. Many of these quotes are from memory, but none are too far off the actual dialogue. Press the Check Answer button to check each answer. Press Reload on your browser to clear the input fields.
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