102 MOVIES THAT YOU SHOULD SEE

Film critic Jim Emerson recently compiled a list of 102 movies that you should see before you can consider yourself movie-literate:

"...they [are] the movies you just kind of figure everybody ought to have seen in order to have any sort of informed discussion about movies. They're the common cultural currency of our time, the basic cinematic texts that everyone should know, at minimum, to be somewhat "movie-literate."

Here's his list. The ones with an asterisk are the ones I've seen.

* 2001: A Space Odyssey
* The 400 Blows
*8 1/2
Aguirre, the Wrath of God
* Alien
All About Eve
* Annie Hall
* Apocalypse Now
* Bambi
The Battleship Potemkin
The Best Years of Our Lives
The Big Red One
*The Bicycle Thief
The Big Sleep
* Blade Runner
*Blowup
* Blue Velvet
*Bonnie and Clyde
*Breathless
Bringing Up Baby
*Carrie
Casablanca
Un Chien Andalou
Children of Paradise / Les Enfants du Paradis
* Chinatown
* Citizen Kane
* A Clockwork Orange
* The Crying Game
*The Day the Earth Stood Still
Days of Heaven
* Dirty Harry
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
* Do the Right Thing
La Dolce Vita
*Double Indemnity
* Dr. Strangelove
Duck Soup
* E.T. -- The Extra-Terrestrial
*Easy Rider
* The Empire Strikes Back
*The Exorcist
* Fargo
* Fight Club
*Frankenstein
The General
* The Godfather, The Godfather, Part II
Gone With the Wind
* GoodFellas
* The Graduate
*Halloween
* A Hard Day's Night
Intolerance
It's a Gift
* It's a Wonderful Life
*Jaws
The Lady Eve
Lawrence of Arabia
M
*Mad Max 2 / The Road Warrior
The Maltese Falcon
The Manchurian Candidate
Metropolis
Modern Times
* Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Nashville
*The Night of the Hunter
*Night of the Living Dead
* North by Northwest
Nosferatu
* On the Waterfront
*Once Upon a Time in the West
Out of the Past
Persona
*Pink Flamingos
*Psycho
* Pulp Fiction
Rashomon
* Rear Window
*Rebel Without a Cause
Red River
*Repulsion
The Rules of the Game
* Scarface
The Scarlet Empress
* Schindler's List
*The Searchers
* The Seven Samurai
Singin' in the Rain
*Some Like It Hot
A Star Is Born
A Streetcar Named Desire
*Sunset Boulevard
* Taxi Driver
The Third Man
Tokyo Story
* Touch of Evil
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
*Trouble in Paradise
*Vertigo
* West Side Story
*The Wild Bunch
* The Wizard of Oz

I've seen a total of 63. Either I'm very movie-literate or I need to get a life. How'd you do? Post a comment and let me know.

COMIC BOOK MOVIES THATSMELL OF MONKEY POO!Part 1

After hours of long work and questioning various Humans by my Monkey Army, here are the final results for the worst Comic Book movies ever made:

15. Swamp Thing

All the basic elements are still here from the comic, Allec Holland falls into a swamp after a massive explosion brought on by some evil henchmen of Arcane. An evil criminal mastermind who wants to steal Alec's magic concoction. But Wes Craven wants to turn this into a spoofy monster movie from the 1950s. Totally missing the gothic horror of the 1970s Comic by Len Wein and Berni Wrightson. Awful acting by Adrienne Barbeau and also spawned a sequel (what was the studio thinking) with Heather Locklear!?!!

14.Steel

Yeah, great idea...let's make a movie starring that great thespian Shaquille O'Neal and let's not even use much of the source material from DC's Steel comic book. Stick to Basketball, or something that doesn't involve talking, you mumbling giant.

13.Howard the Duck

Steve Gerber's Marvel Comic is given it's big screen incarnation strarring Lea Thompson (post Back to the Future) and Tim Robbins!!? A great actor who probably shouldn't even be in this movie, but he was young and starving, so we'll forgive him. The comic book had such a cult following and any attempts to bring its originality to the screen failed miserably. Goofy and sophomoric--should appeal to kids and coma patients.

12.Superman 3

After two great Superman movies we're offered this piece of poo. Richard Pryor stars with Christopher Reeves in this slapstick version of Superman. Best parts: The evil Superman flicking peanuts at bottles in a bar and Superman and Clark Kent battling it out in a junkyard with Clark getting crushed in the heavy machinery. Hilarious!

11.Batman Forever

The third Batman movie is the first directed by Joel Schumacher--oh, why did you leave us Tim Burton? Totally trashing what Burton had brought to the earlier Batman movies--a dark, brooding Batman--Schumacher gives us Val Kilmer as Batman. Blonde and bland. Trying to get more bang for their buck, Robin shows up plus Two-face and Jim Carrey over-acting as usual, as The Riddler. A Neon piece of dog turd.

10.Elektra

Jennifer Garner stars in this prequel to the just-as-crappy Daredevil. This ain't Frank Miller's version of Elektra, this is a movie with awful acting by Garner and a bunch of flying ninjas and Typhoid Mary thrown in just for the hell of it. Crap!

COMIC BOOK MOVIES THAT SMELL OF MONKEY POO!Part 2

More Comic Book movie badness gathered by my Monkey army.

9.Judge Dredd

Sylvester Stallone stars as Judge Dredd, a cop in the future who in the Comic book version is judge and jury. Not so in the watered down movie version where Judge Dredd is made more sympathetic and boring. In the comic he would have shot first and asked questions later. In the movie we see none of that and have to suffer through Rob Schneider for comedy relief. Crap!

8.Tank Girl

Jamie Hewlett's Tank Girl is one movie that probably should have stayed a Comic Book. The comic is funny and has great art but it just doesn't translate well to the movie version. Lori Petty is annoying and Iggy Pop makes a cameo as a half human, half kangaroo ripper. The only good thing about this movie was the animated sequences. Maybe they should have just made an animated version!

7.The Punisher

Now I'm talking about the Dolph Lundgren version, not the new one. Which probably should be on here too but isn't. Dolph stars as The Punisher, with his blonde hair dyed black, riding around on his motorcycle shooting all the bad guys. Really funny fight scenes that aren't meant to be and just plain bad. He doesn't even have his cool skull logo on his shirt. C'mon!

6.The Hulk

Ang Lee's Hulk should have been good. A great director with a rich back story from the original Comic Books. But it just didn't work. Very slow-paced at the beginning and only really gets going when the Hulk is fighting and smashing things. Which is the only good thing about this movie. I would have paid for a whole movie of the Hulk just fighting with eveyone, but not so here. Nick Nolte overacts in the whole movie and looks like Charles Manson on crack. Has an awful tacked-on ending which presumably was meant to imply a sequel. Let's hope not.

5.The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

Alan Moore's League is brought to the big screen starring Sean Connery as Adam Quatermain. The comic is incredible, bringing various literary characters together to fight crime for the English government. The movie version has, with the cast from the comic version, Tom Sawyer and Dorian Gray as two of the most annoying crime fighters ever. Boring!! No wonder Alan Moore doesn't want his name on any movie versions of his work.

COMIC BOOK MOVIES THAT SMELL OF MONKEY POO! Part 3

And now for the grand finale!

4.Spawn

Todd Mcfarlane's Spawn isn't all bad, there's some good special effects and the look of the movie is pretty true to the Comic Book. But then there's John Leguizamo as a demonic Clown, over-acting and really annoying, and Martin Sheen as Spawn's evil government supervisor, who seems to have forgotten how to act entirely. I actually thought the HBO cartoon version was much better--maybe they should have just done an animated movie altogether.

3.Daredevil

Ben Affleck stars as Matt Murdock, alias Daredevil, in this stinker. Taking much of the story from Frank Miller's Elektra saga, you'd think they wouldn't be able to screw things up. Sorry to say, they did. Ben Affleck is annoying as ever, stiff and boring, Jennifer Garner as Elektra is totally miscast. Collin Farrell as Bullseye, sent out to kill Daredevil, is so over the top he's actually kind of enjoyable to watch. Best scene, the fight between Matt Murdock and Elektra in the playground. Balancing on see-saws and flipping around like idiots while no one seems to notice. Crap!

2.Catwoman

DC Comics' Catwoman shows up on the big screen starring Halle Berry. Totally ignoring the comic book version and coming up with an all new origin, doesn't help matters much either. Halle Berry's Catwoman costume is hilarious, with her big cat forehead and ripped up bondage outfit. Sharon Stone is awful as a super-powered billionairess who turns to stone at the end of the movie. Her real-life face lift looking much the same as her rock hard face in the movie. Cat turd!

1.Batman & Robin

Ah, the biggest poo smelling movie rises to the top of the crap pile. The fourth in the Batman series and the second directed by Joel Schumacher stars George Clooney as Batman and Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mister Freeze. Arnold spouts such classic one-liners as "Cool out" and "Put them on ice". Uma Thurman as Poison Ivy doing her Poison Ivy things. Alicia Silverstone as Alfred's niece who becomes Batgirl (what?!) later on in the movie. Even Bane shows up for the hell of it. Stupidest parts, the costume changing sequence with Batman, Robin and Batgirl, who all seem to have erect nipples on their costumes and when Batman whips out his Bat credit card to bid on something at an auction. Where does he get his bill sent for this credit card, the Batcave? Bat crap!