Top 5 Christopher Nolan movies

Christopher Nolan is the greatest contemporary director in Hollywood today (http://bit.ly/1NZyz1d).  He has been known for his psychological thrillers and crazy plot twists.  While he has developed a cult of fan boys, my stance is pretty simple:  I am a fan of good movies and Nolan makes good movies.  With his lowest rotten tomato score being a 76, he can back up the claim that he has some of the greatest work of the last 15 years.

 

#5:  The Prestige (2006)

The Prestige focuses on two rival magicians that are willing to risk their entire lives to see the other one fail.  Featuring Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman, Michael Caine, and Scarlett Johansson, The Prestige has a star-studded cast that play perfectly off of each other.  This movie is known for its triple plot twist at the end of the movie.  Viewers left the theaters and were in shock.  They tried to wrap their head around how they couldn’t see the twists coming but were amazed at the same time.

 

#4:  Memento (2000)

This is the movie that put Christopher Nolan on the map.  The movie follows a detective (Guy Pearce) who cannot form new memories.  He leaves a huge list of clues behind as he tries to piece together who murdered his wife.  The psychological thriller has multiple plot twists and keeps viewers on their toes.  It is one of the best debut movies for directors and remains a huge cult classic.

 

#3:  The Dark Knight (2008)

Wow it hurts to put The Dark Knight at number three but that’s how great Nolan is.  This movie moved him from a solid director to one of the best directors today.  Heath Ledger gave one of the greatest acting performances of all-time with his role as the Joker (just watch how perfect this scene is:  http://bit.ly/1DPXXFi).  Nobody had ever done something like this before and Jared Leto will have a difficult time matching it in Suicide Squad.  Marvel may have beaten DC with the shared universe, but DC still has the best superhero movie ever with The Dark Knight.

 

#2:  Inception (2010)

This movie created the modern trailer.  Almost every preview you see for movies now follows the sequence and includes the “bwah”s that were first shown in Inception.  This mind-bender is a must-see for everybody, movie fan or not.  Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Tom Hardy’s chemistry mixed perfectly together as they helped create one of the best movies of all-time.  The dedication to realism is insane (instead of using green screens, he built a 150-foot hotel wing put on a rotation machine in this scene:  http://bit.ly/1FI2R4Y).  Nolan’s attention to detail makes the movie seem even more realistic and crazy.

 

Honorable Mention:

Insomnia (2002)

Batman Begins (2005)

 

#1:  Interstellar (2014)

This movie is perfect.  It is a complex scientific movie that completely holds up when tested (unlike Gravity which fell apart as soon as somebody looked at it).  The movie stars Matthew McConaughey as a pilot in the future that teams up with three astronauts in an attempt to find a new planet for humanity to colonize.  As time goes on, they feel pressured as Earth’s natural resources begin to run out.  The movie is a technical masterpiece (check out the wormhole scene: http://bit.ly/1FI3Sdf) and explores so many scientific theories. It is a must see and was the most polarizing movie of last year.

 

Which director/actor should I do next?  Let me know who you want to see.

Top 5 Movie Plot Twists of All-Time

We all love a plot twist at the end of the movie.  Nobody sees them coming and it completely changes how we see the movie. Here is a list of the top five best movie plot twists out there.  Before I even start anything however, SPOILER ALERT!!!!

#5:  The Village (2004)

While director M. Night Shyamalan has been known to try and force unneeded plot twists, this is one of the few that actually worked out.  The Village focuses on a secluded group of 19th century villagers that are surrounded by a mysterious forest.  Inside the forest, there are strange monsters that lurk and attack those who try to venture outside it.

As it turns out, The Village is actually set in modern times.  Some of the oldest members of the community secluded themselves from the world in an attempt to cleanse humanity and didn’t want any of the younger members leaving the group.

#4:  The Sixth Sense (1999)

Okay, so I guess lightning can strike twice for Shyamalan as The Sixth Sense also had one of the best twist endings out there.  We follow a young boy who can see ghosts and his psychiatrist, played by Bruce Willis, who helps him deal with it. As the movie goes on, the boy slowly comes to terms with his dilemma, but we learn that his psychiatrist has actually been dead the whole time. (http://bit.ly/19hzDic sorry for the poor quality)  Shyamalan has tried and failed countless times to recreate the success of The Sixth Sense over and over again and we are getting a little tired of it.

#3:  Psycho (1960)

While it may be commonplace in today’s movie culture, Psycho was the first time that a villain in a horror movie was suffering from a multiple personality disorder.  Everybody assumed that it was Mrs. Bates who was the killer when it really was Norman dressed as his mother; he even had a taxidermy made of her dead body (http://bit.ly/1b8tmpT). This Alfred Hitchcock masterpiece had the first real plot twist that stood out in movie history.  It will be a long time before anybody forgets about it too!

#2:  Planet of the Apes (1968)

While Hollywood is drooling over the recent remakes leading up to Planet of the Apes, almost nobody will be as surprised by the twist ending as they were for the original.  In an attempt to escape a planet where apes rule and the few humans left are merely hunted for sport, George Taylor (Charlton Heston) has finally gotten away from the apes and is looking for a way home.  Here is what happens instead:  http://bit.ly/Xg3iCF

Along with Psycho, Planet of the Apes was the second huge plot twist that remains a huge part of pop-culture.

Honorable Mention:

The Usual Suspects (1995):  Kevin Spacey is Keyser Soze

Now You See Me (2013):  Mark Ruffalo’s character set the whole thing up

SE7EN (1999):  Brad Pitt’s wife is the final victim

The Prestige (2006):  twist #1: Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) is the lord who will take Alfred Borden’s (Christian Bale)                                                     daughter

twist #2:  Borden had a twin who helped him and posed as Fallon.  He even cut off his ring finger to                                                make it more legitimate.  The “good Borden” will live and keep his daughter

twist #3:  Angier found a way to clone himself and killed the clone after each trick

#1: Star Wars (V):  The Empire Strikes Back

Plot twists don’t get any bigger than this.  We would never see a huge cultural phenomenon today deal out such a huge twist, but George Lucas did it in 1980 and it worked perfectly.  At the height of Star Wars‘ cultural prowess, Lucas revealed the twist that Darth Vader was really Luke’s father.  Not a single soul on planet Earth predicted it.  I wish I could travel back in time just to see the look on everybody’s face when Vader uttered the infamous, “No, I am your father!”  I could watch it again and again and again: http://bit.ly/1FZVFjF  We were all caught off guard by Luke getting his hand cut off a few minutes before, so nobody was expecting this.

Thought of a better plot twist? Let me know what you think.

Top 50 Movies of All-Time (#40-31)

For my next installment of the 50 greatest movies I have ever seen, I will be listing numbers 40 through 31.  If you haven’t already, make sure to check out my honorable mentions and #50-41 below.

Honorable mention: https://cinemastickler.wordpress.com/2015/03/03/top-50-movies-of-all-time-the-honorable-mentions/

#50-41:  https://cinemastickler.wordpress.com/2015/03/04/top-50-movies-of-all-time-50-41/

Now that we are all caught up, here are some of the top 40 movies out there:

#40:  The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

The final installment of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises had a few interesting twists that made it a really solid movie.  Although he was hard to understand, Tom Hardy gave a great performance as Bane.  The star cast of Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Marion Cotillard help anchor the movie.  Plus, it has one of the greatest opening sequences of all-time:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRCM0jWEQjQ

#39:  Boyhood (2014)

Richard Linklater’s 12 year project surprisingly only walked away with one Oscar in 2015. Following the story of Mason (Ellar Coltrane) as he grows up from six years old to a college student, Boyhood was a huge indie project that attracted a ton of attention this year.  Make sure to check it out!

#38:  Glory Road (2006)

The historical movie depicting the first all-black starting five of a college basketball team, Glory Road follows the 1966 Texas Western team that won the NCAA tournament.  An extremely underrated movie, it is one of the best sports movies out there.  We watch how the team overcame racism, personal issues, and being severely underrated.  It is the perfect movie for sports and history fans alike.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZZS2IwzMFU

#37:  Star Wars (III):  Revenge of the Sith (2005)

While you won’t see all of the Star Wars sage in the top 50, Revenge of the Sith is the first one to crack the list.  The last movie in George Lucas’ series, Revenge of the Sith bridged the gap between the new trilogy and the old one.  Nobody is forgetting that intense fight between Anakin and Obi-Wan on Mustafar.  That has to be one of the best choreographed scenes in movie history (it is not sped up or anything!):  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9b_i9K0BNAc

#36:  Toy Story 3 (2010)

The best of the three Toy Story movies, this movie perfectly wrapped up the trilogy (even if Pixar is making a money-grab fourth one).  We laughed, cried, and felt nostalgic throughout the entire viewing.  It is definitely one of the best 40 movies out there.

#35:  The Prestige (2006)

The Prestige is one of Nolan’s most underrated movies.  It is a story of two dueling magicians (Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale) in the early 20th century.  We watch the two continuously try to one-up the other one.  While Nolan has been known for throwing in plot twists, this movie has a triple plot twist at the end.

#34:  American Beauty (1999)

The Best Picture winner of the 72nd Academy Awards, American Beauty is a great film that makes you question materialism, self-liberation, and paternal love.  Kevin Spacey, who won the Oscar for Best Actor, plays a suburban dad named Lester Burnham.  After he grows tired of his family’s boring life, he decides to serve nothing but himself.  We watch his the family start getting annoyed by each other as they are egged on by their next door neighbor’s mysterious son.

#33:  Airplane! (1980)

As one of the funniest movies I have ever seen, Airplane! is one of the best cult comedies out there. It is the movie credited with turning Leslie Nielsen from a serious actor into his well-known deadpan comedy role.  It is also where the famous phrase, “I am serious, and don’t call me Shirley came from.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0A5t5_O8hdA

#32:  Saving Mr. Banks (2013)

I watched this movie on a plane and honestly didn’t have high expectations for it.  When I did see it, I was blown away.  The movie depicts the true story of Walt Disney trying to acquire the rights to make a Mary Poppins movie.  It took him almost 20 years of dedicated pushing and urging, but we all know how it turned out.  Tom Hanks gives a tremendous performance as Disney while Emma Thompson portrays author P.L. Travers.  This spoon full of sugar is a great historical and emotional movie.

#31:  Captain Phillips (2013)

The second straight Tom Hanks movie on the list, Captain Phillips is a great movie that is based on the hijacking of the Maersk Alabama cargo ship in 2009.  In order to keep his crew safe, Richard Phillips offered himself as a hostage for the Somali pirates who attacked the ship.  After spending about two intense days with the pirates, the Navy SEALS attempt an extraction plan to try and save Phillip’s life.  It is an intense movie that kept me sweating on the edge of my seat the entire time and a must-see for thriller fans.