The Haunting (1963)

I finally got a chance to see Robert Wise's original 1963 version of The Haunting the other night, thanks to Dalekboy.

I am a huge fan of William Castle's 1959 House on Haunted Hill, in which an unapologetically B-grade spookfest is elevated to greatness by one of Vincent Price's signature performances. My highest hope for The Haunting was that it would be like House on Haunted Hill only moreso, and that hope was both met and exceeded.

The Haunting and House on Haunted Hill share some superficial similarities. They are both "spend the night in a haunted house" tales; they both feature groups of strangers drawn together by a charismatic gentleman; both stories have a creepy caretaker couple, an emphasis on the layouts of bedrooms and hallways, and a plot largely driven by a hysterical ingenue who may well be hallucinating more ghostly activity than is actually occurring. House on Haunted Hill, though, is strictly confined to the realm of cliche, despite some wonderfully ghoulish dialogue by screenwriter Robb White, whereas The Haunting is a full-fledged adaptation of Shirley Jackson's novel The Haunting of Hill House, complete with gorgeous narration of that book's opening paragraph:

"No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone."

The Haunting is unusual for a haunted house story in that it consistently underplays its hand. Eschewing ghosts and gore, it instead builds a pervasive horror through nothing more than sound effects, rattling doorknobs, and the continuous internal monologue of lead character Eleanor (played by Julie Harris). The monologue, which in other films would have been a crutch for bad storytelling, here is the star of the movie, and the growing discrepancy between Eleanor's narration and the objective reality on screen is the source of much of the movie's power.

Harris gives a fantastic performance as Eleanor, although Claire Bloom's understated and sympathetic portrayal of lesbian sidekick Theo steals the show. (Compare Bloom with Catherine Zeta-Jones' one-note rendition of the role in the 1999 remake.) The only weak point is Richard Johnson as gentleman host Dr John Markway; Johnson plays the role as a genial, wholesome father figure, while the reactions of the other characters suggest his intentions are considerably more dubious than the acting supports.

This is horror done to perfection; it's easily one of the great creepshows of film history and ranks with The Shining and The Exorcist as a movie that exceeds its genre. If, like me, you'd been slack on seeing this piece of our cinematic heritage, take the time to catch up at your earliest opportunity. And if you see this on DVD at a physical storefront in Canberra, let me know so I can go grab a copy for my own shelf!

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

David Fincher is the man who directed the excellent Seven and Fight Club. He's also the man behind the dull-as-dishwater Panic Room and the interminable Zodiac.

In The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Fincher tries to get away from his unsettling earlier films by presenting an offbeat fable-slash-biopic based on a story by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Brad Pitt plays Benjamin Button, a man born wrinkled and ossified, who ages backwards into a young man and eventually a child. The movie tells of his various adventures and his lifelong romance with the chronally-normal Daisy (Cate Blanchett).

Fincher does a creditable job. The movie regularly extracts cheap emotional reactions from the audience, and mixed in with the cliched heart-grabbers there are quite a number of genuinely powerful and unique moments. In one early scene a clock running backwards shows the dead soldiers of the first World War being returned to life; another sequence building up to a car accident is excellently done but betrayed by the scenes to either side of it.

Shot-for-shot, there's nothing wrong with Benjamin Button. Every scene is well made. It's in delivering the full package that the film falls short. The script is frequently awkward, starting with an unnecessary top-and-tail plotline about Cate Blanchett on her deathbed, and continuing with a weak structure and a wealth of not-quite-interesting minor characters. There's little focus or dynamism in the narrative. None of the main characters are particularly passionate or driven by desires and ambitions. The film expects that its sheer quirkiness will keep you watching, but really the motivation to stay tuned is for the next iteration of the excellent make-up effects which enable Pitt and Blanchett to play the same characters over decades of their lives.

Also, Fincher can't direct women. Seriously. We know what Cate Blanchett looks like when she's acting, and whatever the hell she's doing in Benjamin Button isn't it. She gets passed a fairly bad baton to start with, playing a romantic interest who's ultimately quite shallow and uninteresting, and she takes that and runs with it another mile down the Boulevard of Terrible Performances. I'd lay the blame at Blanchett's feet, but after Sigourney Weaver in Alien 3, Helena Bonham-Carter in Fight Club and Jodie Foster in Panic Room, Fincher is making a habit of having great actresses stink up the screen.

Brad Pitt's pretty decent, though. It's not a signature performance or anything, but considering he spends most of the film under a metric buttload of make-up, Pitt manages to make Button a genuinely endearing character who is enjoyable to watch on-screen. The only lacuna is the section where Button's on-screen age matches Pitt's real-life age, at which point Pitt throws the character out the window and just plays himself for ten minutes or so.

Benjamin Button ultimately isn't a terrible movie. It's worlds better than Fincher's last couple of films, although it falls a long way short of his best work. If you're looking for something special, you've come to the wrong place, but if you're happy to watch something that substitutes strong cinematography for genuine soul then Benjamin Button can be a perfectly good use of a couple of your hours.

The Day The Earth Stood Still

Remakes of sci-fi classics are rarely a good thing. Leonard Nimoy in Invasion of the Body Snatchers was a bad idea. Tom Cruise in War of the Worlds was a terrible idea.

Surprisingly, Keanu Reeves is rather good in The Day The Earth Stood Still.

The rest of the movie's pretty crap, though.

This isn't a movie that wallows in its crapness. There's some pretty good cinema buried within. The script isn't happy with re-doing the original version's alien-as-Jesus motif, and explores a range of other sci-fi allegories. It tries its hand at a Columbus-and-the-natives storyline. It plays with an environmental parable. It experiments with some ideas about societal evolution. It never really settles on any of them, though, and the whole thing ends up being a shallow and confused mess.

Jennifer Connelly is awful. I want her to be good. I really do. For some reason I'm convinced there's an actor buried in there somewhere, but if there is then they still haven't dug up its body. She brings nothing to the role and whenever she's on screen she leaves the audience wondering how long it will take Keanu Reeves to turn up so we can see the real movie.

Keanu Reeves, as I mentioned, is rather good. He plays the alien Klaatu. Klaatu is, by nature, expresionless, wooden, and speaks in a dull monotone. This is the role Keanu was born to play. He inhabits it with an eerie versimilitude. It is, on paper, an undemanding role, but Reeves brings a presence and seriousness to it that are quite honestly the best thing in the film.

The second best thing in the film is Gort. The classic killer robot is reimagined here as a 60 foot monstrosity, produced entirely with CGI, with a shape and tone more or less identical to the original. He looks, in the vernacular, frikkin' awesome, but that's not enough to save the movie from a couple of hours of punching nuns. Also, in the final "WTF" scenes of the movie he turns into a cloud of totally non-awesome nanites.

For fans of the original, you need to know that the phrase "klaatu barada nikto" only appears in the movie once, it's mumbled, it's almost inaudible, it's near the start, and it has no plot significance. That's pretty much all you need to know to tell whether this remake's worth the time, so I probably should have put it at the start of the article. Copy this post into Word and move this paragraph to the top of the page to see a special "director's cut" of this review.

The Day The Earth Stood Still isn't the most awful remake in the history of remakes. It's halfway watchable and probably wouldn't suck as a rental or suchlike. But you'll have forgotten it existed within six months, if not sooner, so if you were on the fence about whether to see it save yourself the cash and go buy the new Prince of Persia game instead.

The new Prince of Persia game, it turns out, is rather good.

Quantum of Solace

Last night I saw Quantum of Solace. I was not impressed. I can't even remember the name of the female lead, she was so forgettable. Also, Bond has maybe a page of dialogue across the entire film.

Dear writers: I, also, can write a page of dialogue. If I did, you would then have two pages, and the movie would be approximately twice as good.

It's clear that Bond wants to talk. He's aware that the villain's not up to snuff and his fake-Bolivian assistant is sub-par, and he's a bit embarassed that Dame Judi Dench is doing all the heavy lifting vis-a-vis characterisation and humour. But every time he opens his mouth to chat there's an escaping prisoner or a corrupt policeman or an aerial dogfight or some damn thing.

Still, it was better than all the Brosnan films except Goldeneye put together. So it's not recommended viewing, but I don't feel violated as a human being.

Wanted

I went into Wanted with low expectations. It seemed reasonable that Wanted might be about as crapulent as the mediocre-but-watchable Jumper.

I set the bar too high. Way, way too high. Wanted is garbage from beginning to end.

The development of the movie goes as follows: noted comics writer Mark Millar (The Ultimates; Superman: Red Son) created a comic called Wanted. Later, a wandering tribe of barely pubescent orangutans made a completely unrelated film with the same name. Angelina Jolie stars.

To Hollywood executives that must have sounded like a one-hundred-proof bottle of win, but as so often happens they were so massively wrong that they tore a hole in space/time that even now remains in the ruins of their LA apartment gradually consuming our universe from the inside.

The plot follows white-collar worker Wesley Gibson. Wesley is what you'd get if Edward Norton's character from Fight Club were played by Hayden Christensen. No sooner has Wesley delivered a painfully whiny narration about his annoyingly pathetic life than he's inducted into a mysterious fraternity of super-assassins.

These assassins, descended from (I kid you not) homicidal medaeval weavers, are busily involved in killing off random citizens on the instructions of their magical loom. Wesley is put to work in the service of the all-powerful-loom, while simultaneously training to take down a powerful former assassin who's now gone rogue.

That may seem like an abridged version of the plot but if you make the mistake of seeing Wanted you'll realise that, no, that's the full monty. Super-assassins. They can curve bullets, which would be awesome were it not used so absolutely ludicrously. Also, their hyper-adrenaline lets them slow down time, which you would think would be a good excuse for gratuitous bullet-time effects but in actuality leads to a lot of tedious regular-style slow motion. With the possible exception of Angelina Jolie, no one in this film looks good in slow motion. There's not a lot of awesome slow mo fighting but there is a lot of non-awesome slow mo fat-bounce and jowl-wiggle. It's really quite disturbing.

The writers of Wanted clearly thought that they were both funny and awesome. The director thought it too, and helfpully inserted lots of pauses for the audience to laugh and gasp in. The writers, though, are not funny, and they are very definitely not awesome. Morgan Freeman is in this movie, and his wittiest line is "Oh, fuck me." When Morgan Freeman is in your movie and you still can't pull off witty or urbane then there is something deeply, deeply wrong.

I think some people will get enjoyment from Wanted but those people will be able to get equal enjoyment from throwing rocks at other rocks, which is cheaper. For the rest of us, this is an absolute no-go. I give it a solid rating of "not even if you liked Jumper."

The Incredible Hulk

The Incredible Hulk is a competent film, and it's a heroic improvement over the 2003 Ang Lee version, but it still falls short of being truly special.

This version assumes that by now you know who Bruce Banner, the Hulk, Thunderbolt Ross and Betty Ross are. A seventy-minute origin sequence was filmed, but it's been ripped out and replaced with a two minute montage that plays behind the opening credits. The story opens with Banner on the run and trying to control his Hulk problem, while General Ross organises a violent pursuit.

This isn't a sequel to the last movie; it throws Ang Lee's misguided creation onto the scrap heap and starts afresh. The story hinges around Banner's search for a cure. Banner is played by Edward Norton (Fight Club, American History X), who also had a hand in the final script. William Hurt is Thunderbolt Ross, and Liv Tyler is Betty. Tim Roth gives a scene-stealing performance as Emil Blonsky, a soldier under General Ross' command who eventually transforms into the monstrous Abomination.

The bulk of the movie is a direct answer to Ang Lee's 2003 Hulk. The moral greys and soul searching are gone, replaced by sequence after sequence where the Hulk shrugs off bullets and pulverises vehicles. It's like they took the amount of "Hulk smash" in the last movie and then subjected it to gamma radiation until it tripled in size and developed an attitude problem. The few occasions when smashing isn't occurring are used to show Norton and Tyler angsting at each other.

This is undeniably the Hulk of the comic books. Norton's portrayal of Banner (and indeed much of the plot) is drawn straight from Bruce Jones' recent run as writer of the comic book. The Hulk himself falls short of being incredible but is at least recognisable. Ultimately, to say that the film is hit-and-miss is really only to say that it's true to its four-colour roots.

It's all reasonably entertaining, but it's let down in the end on three fronts. Firstly, the characterisation just isn't there. The General Ross of the comics is famous for being a man who is not evil, merely misguidesd. William Hurt is well cast as Ross, and does his best given the material, but is ultimately tarred by the script as a fairly one-dimensional villain. Likewise, although the relationship between Bruce and Betty is front-and-centre there's absolutely no exploration of why these two people are even attracted to each other, let alone invested in saving each others' lives.

Secondly, the CGI isn't up to the task. The Hulk just isn't believable on screen. You won't believe he's really in the same physical location as the live-action actors, and in certain key scenes you'll swear that he's made with claymation. Even worse, the CGI Hulk is utterly charmless, devoid of any real emotion or personality. You won't love him, you won't fear him, you won't even really believe that he's pissed off, let alone the angriest one there is. The same to a lesser extent goes for the implementation of the Abomination during the final battle sequence.

Finally, the movie misses the mark thematically. Marvel is famous for the pathos and resonance of its heroes, but there's none of that here. Bruce Banner's heroism comes too easily, and he never really has to make any sacrifices or overcome any obstacles. He has his girlfriend, his self-respect and a potential cure all handed to him on a plate; he never works for any of it, and he throws himself into battle without any real moral struggle.

I'm particularly upset on this last point, so let me say it a little clearer. The Hulk should not get into dilemmas merely because he happens to be the star of the movie. The final battle of The Incredible Hulk could have been resolved just as neatly by Spider-Man or the X-Men. What makes the Hulk franchise memorable is that the Hulk is an archetypal force; he is the embodiment of rage. He stands when we are told to sit, he roars when we are told to be silent, and when all others are tired of fighting he is only just beginning to tap the depths of his fury. He is the Last Angry Man.

Furthermore, the very powers that enable Bruce Banner to be a hero are a curse to him. In The Incredible Hulk, Banner comes very near to a cure, but the plotline is deeply misplayed, as Banner uses the cure, finds it to be not totally effective, and then goes on to save the day. The absolute core of the Hulk is that Banner can either do the right thing, or be happy, but not both. The film should have had Banner forced to choose between either being cured, or defending others.

For all these reasons, this isn't the Hulk movie that fans have been waiting for, but it's a perfectly reasonable stopgap to fill the time while we wait for another iteration. If you're only going to see one superhero film this year, make it Iron Man, and if you have time for two then I suspect The Dark Knight will be next. But if you're a dedicated fan or an inveterate cinema-goer then it's fair to say you won't feel cheated by The Incredible Hulk.

UPDATE: I've just realised that these are almost the exact same criticisms I made of the Ang Lee version a couple of years ago. So at least I'm consistent.

Speed Racer

I enjoyed The Blair Witch Project, and I enjoyed Speed Racer.

I enjoyed Speed Racer, but you might not.

This is not your typical Hollywood almost-but-not-quite. This is a movie filled with real genius. It's clever, it's innovative, and it's driven by a totally lucid vision which remains uncompromised from first reel to last.

It's also heir to all the faults of its source material, including wafer-thin supporting characters, an aggressively child-friendly tone, and a tendency towards wince-inducing slapstick.

Speed Racer is wonderful, and it is awful, and its magic is that those two things don't cancel each other out but instead stand face to face, equally proud and locked in a kind of apocalyptic showdown.

This is a film directed by the Wachowski Brothers, and it's got the same kind of bipolar blues as their work on The Matrix Reloaded. One minute it's reminding you why you loved being eight years old, and the next it's making you glad you've grown up. It's based on the Japanese animated series of the same name, and it's hard to say that the movie isn't true to its roots.

Emile Hirsch (Lords of Dogtown) plays Speed Racer, a talented race driver on the speedways of a futuristic Earth. Haunted by the legacy of his deceased brother Rex, and targeted by an evil mega-corporation for elimination, Speed fights for the safety of his family through a series of increasingly high-stakes races.

Hirsch is competent as Speed Racer, but the show is stolen by John Goodman (Roseanne, The West Wing) as Speed's father, with a reasonably entertaining Christina Ricci (Sleepy Hollow) in the role of Trixie. Matthew Fox (Lost) struggles manfully to keep a straight face playing the enigmatic Racer X.

If Speed Racer had claimed to be based on a prominent racing videogame, I would have said it was the greatest game adaptation ever made. The movie shamelessly models its racetrack aesthetic on the best of history's high-tech racers; when you see the swooping midair courses festooned with cliffhanger drops and death-defying jumps you'll swear that you're watching F-Zero or Wipeout. Everything that makes those games awesome is on screen, and the car-related shenanigans displayed here cheerfully spend two hours kicking the laws of physics in the goolies in the most entertaining way you can possibly imagine.

The film is visually amazing. The special effects are very strong, and the Wachowskis make use of a layering technique which results not only in individual scenes being heavily composited, but in multiple scenes being stacked over each other. Action in one location can happen in the foreground while events elsewhere play out in the background; wipe transitions are accompanied by speaking characters sliding across the screen; televisions and mirrors frequently allow narratives to collide.

This layered style is bold, unique, and mostly successful. It gives the movie a sense of keen immediacy, which is backed up by a non-sequential narrative which slides back and forth between relatively slow backstory and thrilling race scenes.

By the way, if you're hoping that the movie will feature the classic Speed Racer theme, rest assured that it's here in spades, reworked through a score by composer Michael Giacchino (Lost, Cloverfield).

The movie's biggest problem is that it doesn't know who it's aiming at. The tone is built from the ground up to be suitable for pre-teens, which admittedly brings it into line with the original cartoon. However, only those old enough to remember watching on TV are going to appreciate what the Wachowskis are aiming for here, and they'll probably be put off by elements like a dung-flinging chimpanzee and a candy-obsessed fat kid.

Speed Racer isn't a love it or hate it movie. It's a hate it or enjoy it movie. It's got a lot of charm, backed by the kind of thrilling climax that you'd expect from the Wachowskis. It's also got a lot of problems. All I can say is that if you go in expecting nothing, you'll probably come out grinning from ear to ear.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

Those who know me will recall I was not impressed by the first Narnia film. Yesterday I was delighted to discover that Prince Caspian, although derivative and occasionally awkward, is worlds better than its gormless predecessor.

In Caspian the four Pevensie children return to Narnia to find that a thousand years have passed since their reign as Kings and Queens. Caer Paravel is reduced to ruins and the Narnians have been hunted to the brink of extinction by the vicious Telmarines. The children unite with the exiled Prince Caspian to reawaken the Narnians, defeat the Telmarines and return Aslan to his people.

Those expecting a faithful adaptation of the book will be disappointed; the movie gleefully dances around CS Lewis' plot, totally ignoring key aspects while liberally interjecting epic battles. That's fine by me; Prince Caspian was always the dud book in the Chronicles by my estimation, and that the movie wrings a watchable story from the tripe therein is little short of genius.

More to the point, Prince Caspian skillfully identifies the key themes of the book and puts them front and centre. Where the first film glossed over a lot of the Christian symbolism, Caspian makes it abundantly clear that Aslan is a surrogate Jesus, and most of the character arcs are really about faith and innocence. The fact that the movie embraces its source material allows the Narnia magic to really start flowing, and in the end the religious themes are no more offensive than Zeus turning up in a Hercules movie.

Anna Popplewell as Susan is by far the best of the lead actors, with Ben Barnes as Caspian and Peter Dinklage as Trumpkin running a distant second. The CGI characters are handled adequately, although the mouse Reepicheep (voiced by Eddie Izzard) isn't quite the triumph fans might have wanted. The Harry Gregson-Williams musical score is perfectly adequate but not exactly his best work.

Probably the most disappointing aspect of the movie is that it never finds a unique visual style. There's nothing here that you haven't already seen in Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter; in fact, certain scenes seem like shot-for-shot homage. It's like Walden Media chose not to hire their own concept artist, and instead just got their crew to rewatch a bunch of genre classics.

Prince Caspian is not the best fantasy movie ever made, but it's an entire exponential better than I was expecting, and ends up being pretty recommendable. The next Narnia book, Voyage of the Dawn Treader, is my favourite of the bunch, so if they can keep up this level of quality for at least one more film I'll be a very happy filmgoer.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

The new Indy is better than Temple of Doom. Just.

It actually leaps a whole bunch of hurdles. This is definitely Indiana Jones; despite a geriatric Harrison Ford there is no question this film is cut from the same cloth as its predecessors. And there are a lot of fun moments to justify your cost of entry.

But the plot's a bit of a muddle. It's a mystery why it's called Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, especially as there's no kingdom to be seen. A better name would have been Indiana Jones and the City of Gold, or Indiana Jones and the Saucer-Men From Mars. Or even Indiana Jones and the Retroactively Misnamed Third Movie.

Actually, they could have called it Indiana Jones and the Neverending Car Chase. The film starts with a drag race, moves swiftly to some shenanigans with cars in a warehouse, and segues neatly into a daring motorcylce escape. After that there's a protracted jeep chase featuring swordfighting, vine-swinging and a bazooka, and the whole thing caps off with Indy and crew going over a bunch of waterfalls. In a car. Man, those are some fantastic chases, but it would have been nice if sometimes Indy had done something on foot.

Cate Blanchett plays a generic Communist on the hunt for the titular Crystal Skull. She's clearly supposed to evoke the monocle-wearing Belloq from Raiders, but she never manages to emote any real evil, and after a while it just feels like Indy and his friends have developed a thing for punching women.

Ultimately there's two audiences who will end up seeing Crystal Skull. For one audience, they could have walked into a cinema and stared at a blank screen for two hours while the Indy theme music played and called it brilliance. I'm more or less in that crowd. The rest of the world, who were hoping for some sort of Indiana Jones Casino Royale, will likely be disappointed by this muddled tale of Aztecs and aliens.

100 Must-See Movies

The complete list of 100 movies, in no particular order. Click through the links to see the details for each movie.

1 to 10
1: The Sting (1973)
2: Poltergeist (1982)
3: Clerks (1994)
4: American Beauty (1999)
5: Birth of a Nation (1915)
6: The Killing (1956)
7: Donnie Darko (2001)
8: Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)
9: Crash (2004)
10: Taxi Driver (1976)
11 to 20
11: Beauty and the Beast (1991)
12: Trainspotting (1996)
13: Amelie (2001)
14: Blade Runner (1982)
15: Heathers (1989)
16: Dawn of the Dead (1978)
17: To Kill A Mockingbird (1962)
18: Scream (1996)
19: Duck Soup (1933)
20: Vertigo (1958)
21 to 30
21: Aliens (1986)
22: The Shining (1980)
23: Perfect Blue (1997)
24: Dark City (1998)
25: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
26: Rebel Without A Cause (1955)
27: Mulholland Drive (2001)
28: Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
29: Toy Story (1995)
30: Cabaret (1972)
31 to 40
31: Gladiator (2000)
32: Jurassic Park (1993)
33: The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)
34: Spellbound (1945)
35: Labyrinth (1986)
36: The Blair Witch Project (1999)
37: The Last Detail (1973)
38: Dr Strangelove, or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb (1964)
39: V for Vendetta (2006)
40: Reservoir Dogs (1992)
41 to 50
41: The Wizard of Oz (1939)
42: William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet (1996)
43: Gojira (Godzilla) (1954)
44: Fight Club (1999)
45: Brazil (1985)
46: Amistad (1997)
47: The Breakfast Club (1985)
48: Shaun of the Dead (2004)
49: High Society (1956)
50: The Matrix (1999)
51 to 60
51: Seven (1995)
52: Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)
53: Sympathy for Mr Vengeance (2002)
54: Strange Days (1995)
55: The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001 - 2003)
56: Wild Things (1998)
57: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
58: Paths of Glory (1957)
59: Empire Records (1995)
60: O Brother Where Art Thou? (2000)
61 to 70
61: The Exorcist (1973)
62: Bugsy Malone (1976)
63: Ocean's Eleven (2001)
64: Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
65: Full Metal Jacket (1987)
66: Goldfinger (1964)
67: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1990)
68: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)
69: Pulp Fiction (1994)
70: Cube (1997)
71 to 80
71: Om Shanti Om (2007)
72: The Ring (2002)
73: Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)
74: Ghostbusters (1984)
75: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
76: The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
77: Paprika (2006)
78: 12 Monkeys (1995)
79: The Princess Bride (1987)
80: Rocky (1976)
81 to 90
81: Primer (2004)
82: Hot Fuzz (2007)
83: Memento (2000)
84: House on Haunted Hill (1959)
85: 3:10 To Yuma (2007)
86: Shadow of the Vampire (2000)
87: Casablanca (1942)
88: Children of Men (2006)
89: Dangerous Liaisons (1988)
90: One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
91 to 100
91: Star Wars (1977)
92: 28 Days Later (2002)
93: Sneakers (1992)
94: Saw (2004)
95: Pirates of the Carribean: Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
96: Scent of a Woman (1992)
97: Rosemary's Baby (1968)
98: No Country For Old Men (2007)
99: Schindler's List (1993)
100: Citizen Kane (1941)

If you've enjoyed my 100 Must-See Movies posts, please leave a comment.

Dust Forms Words 100 Must-See Movies: 91 to 100

91: Star Wars (1977)
The original Star Wars by all rights should never have been a huge sucess. A pulp space-opera that placed a cast of largely unknown actors in a universe replete with jargon and loose ends, on face value it appeared to be identical to a range of mediocre B-grade titles that preceded it.

The genius, of course, is in the execution. The main cast has a wonderful presence and chemistry, the special effects are revolutionary, the signature John Williams score is amazing, and a host of creative energy is visible in every aspect of the production from its alien designs through to its special effects.

92: 28 Days Later (2002)
28 Days Later is Danny Boyle's great revival of the zombie horror genre. Cillian Murphy plays a man who awakens from a coma to discover that while he slept a terrible plague has ravaged Britain, turning its victims into violent madmen.

Like all the best zombie films, 28 Days Later is less about the zombies than it is about the survivors; the film explores a range of individual reactions to the disaster and the real danger eventually turns out to be not the zombies but the un-infected. The movie is particularly memorable for striking cinematography depicting an abandoned London. This is a landmark in genre cinema which will continue to attract audiences for a great many years.

93: Sneakers (1992)
The formula for a good caper movie is simple to grasp yet difficult to execute; it requires a strong ensemble cast, a range of clever cons, and a well-paced script to tie them together. Sneakers is a good example of getting it right.

Robert Redford plays the head of a "tiger team", taking money from companies to test their security via attempted penenetration. However, his criminal past catches up with him when the CIA blackmail him into using his team to steal a revolutionary cryptographic device. The range of supporting stars includes Dan Akroyd, Sidney Poitier, River Phoenix and Mary McDonnell, who together make for a highly entertaining film.

94: Saw (2004)
Saw is the movie that kick-started the sub-genre of "torture porn", also known as torture horror, which along with the influence of Japan has been one of the driving forces behind horror cinema in the 21st century. It's a movement that has been perhaps justly criticised for its gratuitous and disturbing content, but it's important to remember that a good film is a good film regardless of its genre.

Saw is a good film. It tells the tale of the Jigsaw Killer, who places each of his victims inside a gruesome but escapable deathtrap designed to make them reflect on their life. It's clever, it's well-filmed, and it justifies each of its nightmarish set-pieces in the context of a suspenseful and gripping plot. Regardless of your opinions or apprehensions about torture horror, don't make the mistake of lumping Saw with its contemporaries, and take the chance to check it out. Possibly in a well-lit room in the company of friends.

95: Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
A big-budget pirate movie was never likely to be totally awful, but Pirates of the Caribbean turned out to be something enduringly special, becoming a blockbuster adventure that captured the spirit of classics such as Indiana Jones and Star Wars.

Certainly Gore Verbinski's directing played a large part in the film's success, but the centrepiece of Pirates is unquestionably Johnny Depp's outrageous portrayal of the antiheroic Captain Jack Sparrow. The usual array of ancillary excellence is on show around the edges: a scintillating score, captivating visual design, and supporting performances from Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, and the scene-stealing Geoffrey Rush.

96: Scent Of A Woman (1992)
Al Pacino is a fantastic actor, and it's rarely as obvious as in Scent of a Woman, a remake of Dino Risi's 1974 Profumo di donna. Pacino plays a retired lieutenant colonel suffering from blindness; he bullies a local school student (Chris O'Donnell) into acting as his aide on an unannounced visit to New York. It soon becomes clear that the lieutenant colonel plans to make this his last journey; after completing his final days in New York he intends to commit suicide.

What makes the film work is the way it introduces you to Pacino's character. What initially seems like a loud, crass, domineering soldier eventually turns out to be... well, a loud, crass, complex soldier. It's a plot arc that could only work with a truly magical performance in the lead role, and Pacino delivers in style.

97: Rosemary's Baby (1968)
Roman Polanski's adaptation of Ira Levin's novel Rosemary's Baby is a landmark horror thriller often overlooked in favour of later creations such as The Exorcist. Mia Farrow plays the titular Rosemary, who falls pregnant after moving into a new apartment with her husband. The pregnancy seems anything but normal, though, and soon Rosemary becomes convinced that she is the target of a Satanic conspiracy.

One of the great things about this film is how it starts out as a romantic comedy and becomes a creepy psychological horror almost by stealth. Another strong aspect is its exploration of societal attitudes towards pregnancy; Rosemary's concerns are dismissed as the delusions of "typical female hysteria", and to be fair she is irrational and hysterical, although for apparently good reason. On a historical note, Rosemary's Baby was the last movie Polanski made before his pregnant wife Sharon Tate was murdered by members of Charlie Manson's cult.

98: No Country For Old Men (2007)
Once again the Coen Brothers deliver an offensively anticlimactic ending, but it's at the end of a film so intensely well made that you can't help but forgive them after poisoning only two or three of their pets. Josh Brolin plays a Texas redneck who stumbles across a fortune in drug money; Javier Bardem is the sociopathic killer hired to track him from Texas to Mexico and recover the money.

This is another of the Coens' "regional" films; here the region in question is Texas and the dialogue is filled with drawling accents and charming idiom. Brolin and Bardem are both fantastic, as is Tommy Lee Jones as a sherriff who never quite becomes important to the plot despite taking up a surprisingly large amount of screen time. This is the most technically accomplished film in the Coens' repertoire and its lasting beauty will remain with you long after your violent anger at the ending has passed.

99: Schindler's List (1993)
Steven Spielberg's 1993 film Schindler's List was a radical shift in style for the prominent director. Where previously he'd been an industry icon known for churning out family-friendly adventure laced with cutting special effects, in Schindler's List he delivered a miserable black and white drama dealing largely with the Nazi extermination of Jews.

The movie tells the real-life story of Oskar Schindler, businessman and Nazi collaborator, who ended up saving hundreds of Jews from German death camps in the closing days of World War II. This is easily Spielberg's best film, powerfully mixing audience expectations with the real stories of Holocaust survivors to create a compelling and heart-wrenching cinematic experience.

100: Citizen Kane (1941)
Citizen Kane has a kind of legendary status in the world of film, frequently listed as the greatest movie ever made. It's not the greatest movie ever made. It's unfocused and poorly paced, and the famous "Rosebud" angle creates an artificial narrative drive that conceals the weakness of the central plot.

But it is good. I'd go so far as to say it's very good. And it's tremendously historically significant. If the 1920s are the birth of cinema, then Citizen Kane is its coming of age. Orson Welles brings together a range of technical and artistic devices, none of them original, and uses them together to achieve a deliberate effect in the mood and perception of the viewer. It's the point at which film went from being merely an extension of photography or theatre and became a complex and unique medium in its own right. Even if only to dislike it for your own unique reasons, this is a film that you absolutely need to see.

Dust Forms Words 100 Must-See Movies: 81 to 90

81: Primer (2004)
Filmed on a mere $7,000, Primer is the best time-travel movie ever shot, despite never using the words "time" and "travel" in the same sentence. Its dense scientific jargon and frequently subtle plot twists mean that it may take several watchings before you see everything there is to see, but the film is presented in such a well-paced manner that it's a pleasure to rewatch.

The thing that stands out most in the film is how real everything feels; the discovery that leads to the time travel occurs in a way that feels believable and the technology has practical limitations that eventually turn out to not be so significant as first believed. The two main characters have very human reactions to their discovery, and the low budget brings the action into houses and garages, creating a domestic down-to-earth feel for the whole film.

82: Hot Fuzz (2007)
The second cinematic team-up between Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright is as strong as their first. Hot Fuzz is ostensibly the story of a big-city cop in a small England town, but along the way it plays with the conventions of Westerns, buddy comedies, and small-town conspiracy movies.

The first act is a little slow, but if the film spends a lot of time loading guns up front it's only because it fires so many at the end. The climax is non-stop brilliance. Hot Fuzz is easily one of the funniest British comedies ever made, and like Shaun of the Dead it carries a strong and coherent plotline behind the humour.

83: Memento (2000)
Directed by Christopher Nolan, Memento is the tale of Leonard, a man unable to form new memories after suffering a traumatic incident. Keeping track of his life with photographs, notes, and tattoos, Leonard is engaged in a search for the man who raped and murdered his wife. The film plays out backwards, starting with the conclusion of Leonard's search and moving earlier in time with each new scene, effectively keeping the audience in Leonard's situation of not knowing the past except by the notes he has left himself.

Guy Pearce is fantastic as Leonard but the real power of the movie comes from its script, written by Nolan himself after adapting it from a short story by his brother. It's a moving, thought provoking, and powerfully depressing movie that leaves the viewer stunned.

84: House On Haunted Hill (1959)
House on Haunted Hill isn't a good movie - it's a great one. But more, I suspect, for horror movie afficionadoes than average filmgoers. It's by William Castle, famed "gimmick" director, who claimed to have filmed the movie in a new technique called "Emergo". Surprised cinema-goers discovered that "Emergo" consisted of a fake skeleton on a pulley which would fly over their heads during the film's climax.

Gimmicks aside, the action on screen is still highly entertaining. This is classic Vincent Price, and forms a good education as to why Price is a horror icon. Here he plays an eccentric millionaire who has invited a group of strangers to spend the night in a haunted mansion, where those who survive the night will be paid $10,000. The movie is actually more psychological thriller than ghost story, but Price's performance dominates the film, aided by Carol Ohmart as his manipulative wife and Elisha Cook Jr and Julie Mitchum in supporting parts. House on Haunted Hill exists as a black and white original, a colorised update, and a 1999 remake; if you can get your hands on it, the original is definitely the one to watch.

85: 3:10 To Yuma (2007)
James Mangold's remake of the 1957 film 3:10 To Yuma is one of the finest Westerns ever made. It's the struggle of one man (Christian Bale) to save his farm and win the respect of his son by escorting a notorious bandit (Russell Crowe) to the 3.10 train to Yuma Prison.

Beautiful landscape photography goes a long way to establishing the mood of the film. Christian Bale's complex characterisation of the protagonist makes an interesting contrast to Crowe's suave charisma. 3:10 To Yuma does a bit of everything, and does it consistently right, reminding you exactly why the world once loved Westerns so dearly.

86: Shadow of the Vampire (2000)
Simultaneously a clever horror movie and a loving exploration of the age of silent film, Shadow of the Vampire is set during the 1922 filming of the movie Nosferatu. The plot explores the notion that real-life Nosferatu star Max Shreck was in fact a vampire himself. Shadow of the Vampire narrates the outrageous lives of the cast and crew, while simultaneously delivering a horror story that mirrors the events of Nosferatu.

Willem Dafoe as Max Shreck and John Malkovich as filmmaker FW Murnau are the heart of this decidedly odd creation. It's a movie about a silent movie, shot in the style of a silent movie complete with title cards and artificially-added film defects. It's clever, it's highly original, and it's more than a little unsettling.

87: Casablanca (1942)
Ingrid Bergman is amazing in everything she touches; Humphrey Bogart's performance is far above his norm. There's romance, and stoicism, and some Nazis who are, on average, thwarted. But even that can't really explain exactly why Casablanca is so good.

This is a tale of separated lovers who reunite in the Moroccan city of Casablanca during its Nazi occupation; Bogart plays an expatriot nightclub owner while Bergman is the wife of an important resistance leader seeking to escape the city. Sometimes movies just come together to be more than the sum of their parts; Casablanca is one such indefinably excellent film.

88: Children of Men (2006)
Children of Men may ostensibly be a science fiction film, but the sci-fi takes a back seat to real human drama and disturbing political commentary. It's directed by Alfonso Cuaron, who has a genius for creating this kind of pensive fantasy. Clive Owen plays Theo, who lives in a world where no child has been born in eighteen years; the world economy is in chaos and Britain, under the rule of a totalitarian regime, is under siege from an unceasing tide of refugees seeking political stablity and freedom.

The film concerns Theo's journey escorting the world's only pregnant woman to the custody of the near-mythical Human Project, all the while hunted both by the government and by revolutionary extremists. It's an amazing film from start to finish, particularly the technically complex battle scenes in the third act. It's a tragedy that more people haven't seen this movie.

89: Dangerous Liaisons (1988)
Cruel Intentions is a movie based on a film based on a play based on a book based on allegedly real events. Dangerous Liaisons is one step simpler, being the film based on the play, and is by a process of logic therefore an exponentially better movie. Attempts to extrapolate this logic into some sort of blessing of the play or the book are unsafe and should not be attempted.

John Malkovich and Glenn Close play rival 18th century nobles, who obtain their chief amusement through the seduction and ruination of the innocent. The two leads are amazing, particularly Close as the complex Marquise de Merteuil. Period dramas like this rise and fall on their wit, costuming and visual authenticity, so it's no surprise Dangerous Liaisons won Oscars for its screenplay, costume design and art direction.

90: One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
Jack Nicholson has one of the most enviable careers in Hollywood; his list of Oscar nominations alone is longer than the entire resume of many actors. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest is yet another of his signature roles, in which he plays criminal Randle McMurphy, who schemes his way out of jail and into a mental ward in the belief it will allow him to finish his sentence in luxury. However, he finds himself and his fellow mental patients under the jurisdiction of Nurse Ratched, a petty tyrant who runs the ward with an iron fist.

Told in the style of a jailbreak film, Randle's struggle against Ratched is the classic story of one man against an unjust system; Nicholson is absolutely perfect in the role and does full justice to the poignant script. There's very little to criticise about One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest and it well deserves its place in film history.

Dust Forms Words 100 Must-See Movies: 71 to 80

71: Om Shanti Om (2007)
It's hard to be more Bollywood than Om Shanti Om. Not only is it the highest grossing Hindi film of all time, but it features no less than 32 A-list Bollywood stars together in one movie. Om Shanti Om is like two movies back to back. The first act is a romantic tragedy in which Shahrukh Khan plays a bumblingly loveable would-be actor who falls for a glamorous Bollywood diva. The second act sees Khan reincarnated as a wealthy but brilliant playboy who is driven by visions of his past life to wreak revenge upon an evil film producer.

The narrative is littered with Bollywood parodies and in-jokes which are likely to be mostly lost on Western audiences, but the humour and enthusiasm shine through regardless. More importantly, the plot is solid and exceedingly well told, built around a showstopping performance from Khan. Each and every musical number is catchy, dynamic and perfectly choreographed, both complementing and advancing the plot. If you're new to Bollywood, then Om Shanti Om is what the fuss is all about, and if you somehow get a chance to see it on the big screen then you should quietly murder your own family in order to do so.

72: The Ring (2002)
People regularly try and tell me that the Japanese Ringu is better than the Western remake. With all due respect, I just don't know how they could possibly think that. It has everything that worked in the original, with the added benefits of Gore Verbinski's stunning direction and Naomi Watts' incredible perfomance in the lead role.

The movie relates the tale of a cursed video that sentences its viewers to seven days of horror followed by death. Despite its horror origins, this is a beautiful film. It's filled with stark and powerful images, not the least of which is the footage comprising the cursed video itself. Other memorable shots include the "burning tree", and the death of the mad horse. Not only is this an eye-wideningly well made film, but it single-handedly reshaped Western horror for the 21st century by exposing audiences to the bleak and inexplicable Japanese explorations of the genre.

73: Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)
Often seen as "the British answer to Pulp Fiction", Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is an ensemble-cast crime film written and directed by Guy Ritchie, a man probably now more famous for being married to Madonna.

Along with Snatch, also by Ritchie, Lock Stock is responsible for triggering a short-lived revival of the British crime sub-genre. Featuring great performances from Vinnie Jones and Jason Statham, Lock Stock is an enjoyable tightly paced ride through London's underworld driven mostly by clever dialogue and a labrynthine plot.

74: Ghostbusters (1984)
Sci-fi comedy isn't always something that works particularly well, but one of the reasons people keep trying is just how entertaining it can be when done right. Ghostbusters is the gold standard in the genre; a fantastic cast, strong writing, unique ideas and a solid plot come together to form a timelessly enjoyable film.

Bill Murray, Dan Ackroyd and Harold Ramis play three parapsychology professors who go into business as "ghost busters", claiming to detect and trap "spectral entities" with the aid of their custom technology. Initially regarded as a laughing stock, the three become uniquely placed to save reality when New York is threatened by the invasion of the Sumerian god Gozer. If the three main Ghostbusters aren't enough to sell you on the film, then try memorable supporting performances by Rick Moranis and Sigourney Weaver, or fantastic set pieces including the capture of the green ghost Slimer or the battle against the giant Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.

75: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
Western buddy film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid follows two turn-of-the-century bandits through the tail end of their career. After a failed bank robbery, Butch (played by Paul Newman) and Sundance (Robert Redford) become the target of a determined manhunt by lawman Joe Lefours; the film follows them as they take to the road, leaving a string of robberies in their wake.

Much like The Sting, the core of the movie is the on-screen chemistry of Newman and Redford, and the light-hearted and frequently funny dialogue between them. Although based on real events, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is unapologetic in romanticising its subject matter, which ultimately results in its memorable and often-parodied final scene.

76: The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
This is the greatest jailbreak movie of all time. Tim Robbins stars as a man unjustly sentenced to two consecutive life sentences in Shawshank Prison. Morgan Freeman plays a fellow lifer with a heart of gold, and doubles as the film's narrator. The story tells of Robbins' heartbreaking experiences in prison and his decades-in-the-making escape plan.

This is the signature performance of both Freeman and Robbins; their ability to command the audience's attention is the fuel that keeps the film moving. It's based on a Stephen King novella, and directed by Frank Darabont, a man who's made his career out of adapting King to the big screen (other Darabont films include The Green Mile and The Mist). The Shawshank Redemption is cleverly and sensitively made, and hugely powerful and moving.

77: Paprika (2006)
Where Perfect Blue was a plot-focused murder mystery, Paprika is a film which wilfully ignores story and structure in order to present a beautifully psychedelic visual odyssey. Like Perfect Blue, Paprika comes from director Satoshi Kon. The narrative of Paprika focuses on a new psychiatric therapy that treats patients by allowing the therapist to directly enter the patient's dreams. However, soon after its development signs are revealed that patients' dreams are merging into a single nightmare, into which is sucked protagonist Atsuko Chiba and her dream-state alter-ego Paprika.

The movie looks and sounds astonishing, particularly the opening sequences. At times it feels more like an extended music video than a story. Despite all that, the movie remains satisfying from beginning to end and is a generally uplifting experience.

78: 12 Monkeys (1995)
Terry Gilliam's time-travelling end-of-the-world story 12 Monkeys has the unfortunate curse of being middle child in a decade of exemplary science fiction. While not forgotten by audiences, its unique charm often suffers for being released so close to classics like Dark City, Cube and The Matrix. In a world ravaged by the aftermath of a terrible plague, Bruce Willis plays a prisoner who "volunteers" to take part in a dangerous experiment: to travel back in time to 1996 and identify the source of the plague that destroyed mankind. However, when he goes off course and lands in 1990 instead of 1996, he is committed to a psychiatric institution where he begins to doubt that the future he came from ever really existed.

A great performance by Brad Pitt makes up for a decidedly lackluster one by Madeleine Stowe. Paul Buckmaster's catchy off-beat theme music helps set the tone of the movie as it examines questions of sanity, memory and predestination.

79: The Princess Bride (1987)
Rob Reiner's comedic fairytale The Princess Bride ranks next to (or just below) The Labyrinth as the finest fantasy movie of the 80s, and until the release of The Lord of the Rings had a strong claim as the finest fantasy ever made. Telling an unlikely tale of romance, kidnapping and revenge, it succeeded in winning over audiences of all ages, despite returning only a modest profit at the box office.

The outrageous narrative is carried by the charisma of all of the leads, with Robert Wright Penn in the title role as Buttercup, Cary Elwes as her lost love Westley, and supporting parts from Wallace Shawn, Mandy Patinkin, Andre the Giant and Billy Crystal. The excellent script has led to The Princess Bride being a regularly-quoted pop-culture icon.

80: Rocky (1976)
If a court were ever to put Sylvester Stallone's career on trial, Rocky would be the star witness for the defence. Stallone plays a third-rate amateur boxer who gets a once-in-a-lifetime chance when he is picked to fight in a promotional match against the heavweight boxing champion.

As well as starring, Stallone is also the man behind the script, and its lack of polish works to its advantage in making the characters seem like real, fallible people. That feeling of flawed humanity is what makes the film exceptional, continuing into the complex figure of Rocky's trainer Micky, and the movie's ending, which is far from typical Hollywood fare. Regardless of the experiences you may have had with other Stallone films, Rocky is something special.

Dust Forms Words 100 Must-See Movies: 61 to 70

61: The Exorcist (1973)
William Friedkin's adaptation of The Exorcist is one of the best and most significant horror movies ever filmed. The plot deals with the possession of 12-year-old Regan MacNeill by an evil force, the reaction to that event by her mother, and the subsequent attempted exorcism. The Exorcist is very much in the vein of Roman Polanski's earlier film Rosemary's Baby but where that movie was really more psychological thriller than horror film, The Exorcist is definitely out to shock and scare.

Linda Blair in the role of Regan is forcefully unsettling, and at release the film traumatised many audiences both with its confronting and arguably blasphemous content, and with its regular superimposition of demonic faces onto the screen at near-subliminal speeds. Two theatrical versions exist - the original cut, and an extended "version you've never seen". Personally I feel the latter is by far the better but some fans prefer the more concise original; watch them both and make up your own mind.

62: Bugsy Malone (1976)
A 1930s gangster musical with all the roles played by children? It sounds like a recipe for disaster but somehow became one of the most lovable movies ever produced for the big screen. An itsy-bitsy Scott Baio plays Bugsy, a two-bit boxing promoter who gets fast-talked into working for mob boss Fat Sam. When gang war breaks out between Fat Sam and Dandy Dan, Bugsy is caught in the middle, while at the same time he strives to win the affections of girl-next-door Blousey Brown.

The majority of the child cast is good, but 15-year-old Jodie Foster as the sultry Tallulah blows her co-stars out of the water. The musical score is catchy and poignantly delivered, and the script is sharp and peppered with well-honed jokes. Watch out for cameos from pint-sized versions of Press Gang's Dexter Fletcher and Doctor Who's Bonnie Langford.

63: Ocean's Eleven (2001)
With all due respect to Messrs. Sinatra, Martin and Davis, the 2001 remake of Ocean's Eleven is easily the better version. George Clooney plays Danny Ocean, who collects an ensemble cast in order to perform the heist of a lifetime by stealing from a legendary Vegas casino vault. Matt Damon and Brad Pitt co-star, and the rapport between the lead actors is the heart and soul of this first-class film.

Wrapped around the dynamic central cast is a genuinely clever heist plan, snappy dialogue, and a host of well-used cameos from Hollywood and Vegas notables. Considering that it's directed by Steven Soderbergh, the man who made the annoying Erin Brokovich and the interminable Solaris remake, it's all the more surprising that Ocean's Eleven is one of the most thoroughly fun films that America has to offer.

64: Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Four movies later, it seems the original is still the best. A charismatic performance by Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones and an iconic musical score by John Williams are the backbone of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Shot on the relatively low budget of $20 million, the film re-invigorated Steven Spielberg's career after his poorly-received 1941 and ended up making back close to $350 million at the box office.

Themed on the pulp serials of the 30s and 40s, the success of Raiders is in its non-stop over-the-top adventure, the real humanity of Jones as a character, and in the presence that Harrison Ford invests the role with.

65: Full Metal Jacket (1987)
Stanley Kubrick's Vietnam War opus Full Metal Jacket initally suffered unfairly from comparison to Oliver Stone's Platoon, released around the same time. History seems to have largely come to the conclusion, though, that Full Metal Jacket is the superior film. The plot initially deals with the traumatising of awkward new recruit "Gomer Pyle" by his now-iconic drill sergeant, and then moves to Vietnam to follow an army reporter on a journey across the country towards a fateful confrontation with a Vietcong sniper in Hue City.

Full Metal Jacket starts with an impressive script adapted from Gustav Hasford's novel The Short Timers, and fleshes it out with strong performances, excellent directing, and one of the best uses of a licensed soundtrack in any movie ever. It's a war movie that manages to be simultaneously traumatic and a lot of a fun, and is well worth anyone's time.

66: Goldfinger (1964)
If there's one film that perfectly summarises everything that James Bond is about, it's Goldfinger. The magic starts with the Shirley Bassey theme song, and continues through a cast of unforgettable characters including the hat-throwing Oddjob, the absurdly named Pussy Galore, and head villain Auric Goldfinger himself.

While GoldenEye and Casino Royale both lay strong claims to being the greatest Bond movies ever made, Goldfinger is ultimately the movie that best captures the outrageous over-the-top charm that makes Bond so enjoyable.

67: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1990)
Sometimes an amazing script can drive a movie to greatness despite some distinctly sub-par directing, and that's the case with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. It has both the amazing luck to be written by Tom Stoppard, and the cruel misfortune to be directed by Tom Stoppard.

The story follows, unsurprisingly, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two minor characters from Shakespeare's Hamlet, as they attempt to live normal and fulfilling lives, despite being poorly-defined and ultimately ill-fated supporting characters in another person's play. Surpassingly strange and brilliantly written, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is highbrow British humour at its finest, despite being, as it turned out, filmed in Slovenia.

68: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)
It's a matter of debate whether you can best describe the career of Tim Burton as "memorably average" or "on average, memorable". He keeps churning out these beautifully quirky stench-piles with names like Edward Scissorhands or Beetlejuice and the public just keeps nodding appreciatively and asking for more. I can't stand the things personally but a kind of deep-seated masochism makes me keep paying money to see them. In any case, it just wouldn't be a 100 Must-See Movies without mentioning Burton somewhere, so I'm throwing in the only one of his creations which I would actually recommend to people who I like.

Sweeney Todd is an adaptation of the similarly-named Stephen Sondheim stage musical, and follows the quest for revenge of one Benjamin Barker, a barber-slash-convict who turns out to be at least five beers short of a sixpack. After slouching his way through earlier Burton films, Johnny Depp apparently went away and learned how to act, and returns to inhabit the title role as if he was born for it. Helena Bonham Carter is so excellent as Mrs Lovett that you're almost tempted to forgive her the rest of her career. Stage musicals don't often work well on screen so when one is as uncompromisingly high-quality as this it's a rare and quite special treat.

69: Pulp Fiction (1994)
Quentin Tarantino's stylish crime adventure Pulp Fiction is not often compared to Citizen Kane, which is perhaps a shame. The genius of Kane was using a wide variety of cinematic techniques, none new, in concert to achieve a comprehensive, deliberate and powerful on-screen effect. Pulp Fiction pulls off much the same trick.

The narrative is presented non-sequentially, not just to aid in telling the story but as a deliberate challenge to audiences to pay attention and think about what's taking place. The soundtrack makes use of Tarantino's signature laid-back 70s surf rock to set a tone both evocative of spaghetti Westerns and often deliberately at odds with the action on screen. The pacing alternates low-key comedic dialogue with gruesome violence to dramatic effect. However, against everyting good in this film, it should be remembered that this is also the movie that brought John Travolta's career back to horrible, shambling, brain-devouring life.

70: Cube (1997)
Focused, bleak, and cerebral, Cube is one of the best science-fiction movies ever made, and is all the more amazing for having been made in Canada on a budget of less than half a million dollars. It concerns the plight of a group of apparently average people who wake to find themselves in a three-dimensional maze of cubical rooms interlaced with lethal traps.

The film moves quickly from the opening shots and doesn't stop to let the audience draw its breath, even when the plot starts to work in some reasonably complex mental mathematics. Part psychological thriller and part cabin-fever horrorshow, Cube is a movie that will stay with you long after its breathtaking final scenes.