Top 50 Favorite Movies, Part 1 (#50-46)

As the title suggests, these are my current favorite movies. I try to revamp my lists every few years, and this one is much different from the previous one I made in 2013. My opinion and tastes are always evolving, which I see as only a good thing. Some things do stay the same, however, so don't be terribly surprised if you see some similar titles to my previous list. The types of movies I've started watching over the past few years definitely reflect on this list, but these are mostly movies I've known for quite some time. This isn't just an "omg I watched a movie last week and it's my favorite ever" list like I see so often, but I'm not so unshakable that I can't let time change my thoughts on something I used to dislike. It's also possible I missed several movies I could have put on here. Believe me, it's hard to narrow roughly 4000 movies down to the 50 that I like the best. I've tried to represent my taste with these selections as well as just be honest about what I enjoy and seek to watch the most often.

And now let's get to the list. These are my 50 favorite movies, 2018 edition.

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50. Godzilla, 1954
dir. Ishiro Honda
Horror/Fantasy/Sci-Fi

In a decade full of giant irradiated monsters, none stood quite as tall and lasted nearly as long as Godzilla, the creature that spawned a never-ending series of sequels and spinoffs. And as much as I love most eras of Godzilla, from the corny to the more serious and cool, the one that still gets me the most excited and functions the best as a fully fleshed-out movie is the 1954 original. Before the series became

Our Movie Awards - 2017

Me and my special team of expert have put together our own small awards for movies of 2017. Instead of making it into a huge thing, here are our winners and nominees. For sake of simplicity, we tried to keep the number of nominees to a minimum. Here is what we came up with.



Best Poster
Winner: Good Time

200 Items Or Less: Young Frankenstein (1974)

A few thoughts: One of the most perfect parody movies ever made, this Mel Brooks spoof of the Universal Frankenstein films from the 1930s captures the mood and aesthetic of the originals, and plays off individual moments amazingly. There are a ton of little gems in here that only people very familiar with the Frankenstein movies would understand or enjoy, but there is a wide-open appeal to it that keeps it from being too niche. The physical comedy, quips, one-liners in this movie are almost all terrific, making me laugh as hard at them now as I did about 15 viewings and as many years ago. The cast is totally great, so singling out just one performance would be unfair to the rest of them. Regardless, there isn't a weak cog in the central cast, which is pretty impressive for a movie with close to 10 characters who get a decent amount of screentime. The music is memorable and thematically appropriate, the attention to detail with the production is almost unbelievable, and my only real complaint is that I feel the movie goes on for about 10-15 minutes too long. But it never stops being good, so whatever.

My Favorite Movies of 2017

I planned on doing this much earlier, but I want to see the things I know I want to see before I make a list like this, and I feel I'm pretty well caught up now. Anyway, I don't plan on writing a ton for this post, so we'll get through them pretty quickly. First up are my unnumbered honorable mentions.


Lucky

200 Items Or Less: From Beyond The Grave (1974)

A few thoughts: The 7th and final Amicus horror anthology, ending a decade-long string of portmanteau films from the studio, and while it isn't particularly amazing, there's still a lot of greatness in this movie. With Peter Cushing back in the "host" position, this movie does an effective job at working each story segment into the wraparound. There's a bizarre sense of cosmic justice to this movie that I enjoy, providing the characters with the opportunity to make it out alive by being generally decent people. With segments starring David Warner, Ian Bannen, and Donald Pleasence, the cast of this movie is probably better than any of the other films, and none of these actors feel underused. As usual, I love the movie's aesthetic, and the general sense of unease and weirdness to these stories definitely adds to the creepiness factor. As a whole, this is probably the most linear of these anthologies, and while I wouldn't consider it one of my favorites, it's still a pretty nifty anthology and a fitting end to a loose series of awesome horror movies.