Top Ten Movies

10) The Fountain

Maybe not the greatest love story but the most magical and unique. Stunning visuals and music with powerful performances, it's probably the most epic artsy movie ever made. It's too bad it didn't receive that much attention or money. 

9) Goodfellas

In my opinion, the best Martin Scorsece film (maybe the exception of Raging Bull), though you can't really go wrong with any of his movies. It's one of the pioneers in gangster movies and sparked a trend in wise-guy films. Joe Pesci deserves his Oscar and creates a niche for himself as the ultimate wise guy. Other mentions to Robert De Niro and Ray Liotta. Dialogue and conversations were never so entertaining. 

8) Sideways

Paul Giamatti was snubbed for an Oscar nomination. You learn a lot about wine as well as the miserable parts of love (works well together I guess). It's depressingly funny in the sense that you will laugh a lot at the jokes but would feel the same melancholy the character feels. This is the story of the good guy that finishes last. Finally.

7) The Dark Knight

Need I say more? It earned every cent it received. It's the most epic movie ever made, and every dollar of its $180 million budget was used wisely and was compensated enormously. With an outstanding cast and a rising director (Christopher Nolan), it's not only the best comic book movie ever made, it was arguably the best movie of 2008. And Heath Ledger gives the best acting job of that year too. The fastest 2h 30 min movie ever made.

6) Slumdog Millionaire

When everyone though the Dark Knight was so good, along came this movie. It's pretty much the anti-Dark Knight. Its heroes are poor, its city undeveloped, but in no way the story is any less incredible. It seems like your typical love story: Boy loves girl, girl loves boy, obstacles in the way, boy finds girl. Why then when you watch it are you constantly surprised? It's definitely the most beautiful, elegant love story of the last decade. And during these economic troubles, this movie brings hope and how life can still be valuable without any money. It's the movie that definitely should represent the year 2008 (winning best picture).

5) There Will Be Blood

My favorite director, Paul Thomas Anderson, makes his 4th feature film, this time with Daniel Day Lewis; the perfect combination. It's such a dark film that discusses traditional themes of greed, business, and family. It's cinematography brings forth so subtly and effectively the calculating mind of Daniel Plainview. Lewis gives another Best Actor performance, saying lines brilliantly adapted by Anderson (from the book Oil!). 

4) The Godfather

(see the Godfather Part II)

3) Lost in Translation

I've always felt like this movie is a sequel of Groundhog Day, except 20 years after that February 2nd, and that the news Producer Bill Murray ended up became his wife. Murray doesn't really use the same sarcasm or cynicism, but something more mature and intimate as he meets a much younger girl in the unfamiliar streets of Tokyo. With clever, charming dialogue written by Sofia Coppola, this film managed to acquire chemistry between two very different actors of two very different generations. It's heart breaking, it's heart lifting. It doesn't need anything grandeur, but uses the intimate, personal emotions of the characters utterly lost in their lives, but finding themselves within each other. Fantastic.

2) Children of Men

I saw the trailer for this movie and I remember really wanting to watch it. Months later, I acquired a DVD copy of it. Sometimes I would watch movies to sleep, but in this case, how could I? So many moments I just had to sit up and be in awe because I couldn't believe what I was watching. In this dystopian world where women are infertile, it seems very real on what would happen. War, famine, deportation, etc., etc. Really, I think this movie is based on what's happening now, just a mild caricature. It's more than another "What-if" scenario, and its not really a fantasy, sci-fi flick. It's too real to be true. This is the most compelling, visionary movie I have ever watched. My only regret in life is that I didn't watch this in a cinema room.

1) The Godfather Part II

The reason why I didn't say the Godfather trilogy is because of Part III, and the reason why I split between Part I and Part II is because they are different movies. Part I is still brilliant and for the same reasons. I think the reason that Part II is better than Part I is really Michael Corleone. Everyone hates him as a good guy. He's not as interesting or compelling pre-murdering Sollozzo. And really, since Apollonia died, Michael has not smiled once until Part III. 

Francis Ford Coppolla, Mario Puzo, Robert De Niro, Marlon Brando, and Al Pacino teams up and creates the original gangster film. The difference is that these gangsters don't want to be gangsters, but is looking for legitimacy in society but without mitigating any of their success. Because of this they lost their families and their sanity.

Everything is just perfect in these two movies. Great story, the most memorable dialogue (I'll make him an offer he can't refuse), great cast and acting, great everything. It's really not a surprise this makes number 1 for many top tens. It says family is the most important value, and how business can turn you into an evil, cold creature. Every shot is basically a photograph, and the whole thing is simply a piece of art. Put is simply, this is the best movie ever made.

*Outside Looking In: Fight Club, Moulin Rouge, Scarface, Princess Mononoke, Malcolm X, Kill Bill Vol. 2, Groundhog Day, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly