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- DirectorIrvin KershnerStarsMark HamillHarrison FordCarrie FisherAfter the Rebel Alliance are overpowered by the Empire, Luke Skywalker begins his Jedi training with Yoda, while his friends are pursued across the galaxy by Darth Vader and bounty hunter Boba Fett.USP: Where Star Wars had been an unabashedly exciting space adventure, Empire Strikes Back introduced complexity and uncertainty to the galaxy far, far away. The stakes are raised, the characters relationships tested and evolved in surprising ways, and a dash of pure black is mixed into those primary paint colours. As George Lucas himself describes it in our issue, "It's soulful, but in a different way from Episode IV. It's a little bit more adult. I'm more of a goofy director. Star Wars skews slightly younger than you'd expect; it was a film for 12-year-olds. Empire's like that but a bit of the goofiness has been shaved off it. [Director Irvin] Kershner was much more of a serious person. He loved the whole religious aspect of it, Luke learning the Force."
MVP: Mark Hamill as Luke. Last time we saw him, he'd been making eyes at Princess Leia and gazing about in wide-eyed wonder. Here, he is battle-hardened even before he is reforged by Yoda into something approaching the zen master he will become. But that self-control is tested to breaking point and beyond with Darth's revelations during their duel below Cloud City. It's a huge twist, and it's Hamill's anguished reaction that gives the moment such power and impact.
OMG: While the Skywalker family soap does most of the heavy dramatic lifting of the film, and the comedy is handled by Yoda and R2, another addition to Empire that was largely absent from its predecessor is that of a love story. Han and Leia are perfectly mismatched, and from that brilliant first kiss ("I'm nice men") things seem to be building nicely until their last, desperate moments together. "I love you," she finally admits. "I know," he says, as he's lowered into the carbon chamber. HOW COULD YOU LEAVE THIS ON A CLIFFHANGER? - DirectorFrancis Ford CoppolaStarsMarlon BrandoAl PacinoJames CaanThe aging patriarch of an organized crime dynasty transfers control of his clandestine empire to his reluctant son.USP: Not just one of the most quotable, and quoted, scripts in cinema ("I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse"), it's also one of the most impressive silk-purse-of-a-sow's-ear jobs in screenwriting history, magicking mediocre source material into a grand criminal opera. Put a lot of cannoli kids through school, too.
MVP: Gordon Willis, whose top lighting of Brando (and cat) made Don Corleone into a shadowy crime deity. Not everyone flocked to lionise the 'Prince of Darkness' at the time – "I got a lot of criticism," Willis would later remember, "because they said, well, you can't see Brando's eyes!" – and Paramount fretted for the viewing experience of drive-in audiences, but they all missed the essential point. "I deliberately didn't want to see his eyes", the late, great DP pointed out, "so you saw this mysterious human being thinking about something, but you didn't know what the hell was going on." Like a whack-happy Rembrandt subject, the results could easily hang in a gallery.
OMG: When studio honcho Jack Woltz declines to cast Vito's godson in his next picture, he finds out the hard way why the horse's head is the Mafia's bedfellow of choice. Well, apart from the fishes. - DirectorChristopher NolanStarsChristian BaleHeath LedgerAaron EckhartWhen the menace known as the Joker wreaks havoc and chaos on the people of Gotham, Batman must accept one of the greatest psychological and physical tests of his ability to fight injustice.
- DirectorFrank DarabontStarsTim RobbinsMorgan FreemanBob GuntonOver the course of several years, two convicts form a friendship, seeking consolation and, eventually, redemption through basic compassion.USP: The highest-ranking debut on the list (and the only film that's retained the exact same placing since our last Greatest Movies poll), Frank Darabont's Stephen King adaptation is the perfect mix of modern sensibilities (man, it is brutal) and classical storytelling nous. Yet it resonates because the relationship between Tim Robbins' Andy and Morgan Freeman's Red is one of cinema's greatest friendships: earned, touching and true. Twenty years later, even if you know its secrets, the ending is still devastating.
MVP: Morgan Freeman in general and Morgan Freeman's voice in particular - his golden tones turn a potentially on-the-nose narration into poetry.
OMG: Andy Dufresne locks the warden's door and blisses out to Mozart's The Marriage Of Figaro - blaring out over the PA system, the whole prison yard is transfixed. In a tough 142 minutes, it is a beautifully realised moment of grace. - DirectorQuentin TarantinoStarsJohn TravoltaUma ThurmanSamuel L. JacksonThe lives of two mob hitmen, a boxer, a gangster and his wife, and a pair of diner bandits intertwine in four tales of violence and redemption.USP: Quentin Tarantino's three-classic-crime-pitches-for-the-price-of-one remains his masterpiece, a gourmet smorgasbord of movie lore — from Howard Hawks to Jean-Luc Godard via Douglas Sirk — transformed into something original, vital and still essential. Chock-full of powerful performances, classic scenes, tricksy yarn-spinning, great tunes you'd never heard before and all tied up with enough verve and energy to get to the moon and back, if you don't love Pulp Fiction, you must really question whether you love movies at all.
MVP: Tarantino the writer, shared with Roger Avary. Can you think of a film that covers more diverse topics in dialogue as the metric system, foot massages, The Guns Of Navarone, the nature of character, blueberry pancakes, the good old days of robbing liquor stores and Amsterdam's drug laws?
OMG: Vincent Vega (John Travolta) takes Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman) on a date and we go along to savour every moment. Even the uncomfortable silences. - DirectorGeorge LucasStarsMark HamillHarrison FordCarrie FisherLuke Skywalker joins forces with a Jedi Knight, a cocky pilot, a Wookiee and two droids to save the galaxy from the Empire's world-destroying battle station, while also attempting to rescue Princess Leia from the mysterious Darth Vader.USP: It's hard to think of any studio film that's been green-lit since Empire's birth that sounds as insane as Star Wars must have in 1976. So it's set in space… but a long time ago. There are duelling knights… but also World War II-style dogfights… And it goes from a dusty Western to a rescue-the-princess quest… Yet George Lucas blended all those mythic elements into the ultimate cinematic power smoothie.
MVP: Darth Vader, a perfectly formed screen villain: physically imposing (thanks, Dave Prowse), menacingly stentorian (cheers, James Earl Jones), an evil warrior-monk with an oil-black robo-skull face — that also somehow makes him look a little sad, hinting at buried tragedies within.
OMG: It might be the second-best Star Wars movie, but it has the best opening: the fanfare, the crawl, and that flyover from the biggest spaceship anyone had ever seen. - DirectorPeter JacksonStarsElijah WoodIan McKellenOrlando BloomA meek Hobbit from the Shire and eight companions set out on a journey to destroy the powerful One Ring and save Middle-earth from the Dark Lord Sauron.USP: Not even Smaug the Chiefest and Greatest of Calamities can usurp this from its place as most precioussss Middle-earth instalment. It has a cornucopia of wonders: hissing ghoul-kings, a jolly wizard, goblins that can scuttle up walls and the best fireworks ever. But at its core is a warm heart, personified by four mild-mannered halflings who'd rather be at the pub than leaping across bottomless ravines. Starting as a (relatively) small-scale chase flick and slowly expanding in scope as the Fellowship is formed, it is, hands-down, the most magical men-on-a-mission movie ever made.
MVP: Howard Shore, whose first fantasy score (if you don't count Big) fizzes with imagination. Building from meadowy whimsy to grim Dwarvish chants, it introduces iconic themes that the Hobbit films are still quoting.
OMG: The moment where Bilbo (Ian Holm) transforms into a slavering monster and goes, "GRAAAH!" is still endlessly upsetting. You can almost hear Peter Jackson giggling in the cutting room. - DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsRoy ScheiderRobert ShawRichard DreyfussWhen a killer shark unleashes chaos on a beach community off Cape Cod, it's up to a local sheriff, a marine biologist, and an old seafarer to hunt the beast down.USP: In different hands, Jaws could have ended up being just another '70s freak-of-nature disaster pic. Or, given the daily calamities of its watery shoot, it could have just simply been a disaster. But Steven Spielberg (then only in his late twenties) snatched victory from the big, rubbery teeth of defeat with a less-is-more approach as far as the Great White (WHO IS NOT CALLED 'JAWS') was concerned and, more crucially, by also nudging the film into an entirely different genre for its second half and turning out what is in fact Hollywood's greatest guys-on-a-fishing-trip movie.
MVP: Composer John Williams, for somehow making two notes scarier than an actual giant shark.
OMG: Yes, it's an obvious one, but it has to still be the EEEEK! appearance of Ben Gardner's severed, fish-nibbled head - apart from anything else, it's solid proof of the value of test screenings and reshoots. - DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsHarrison FordKaren AllenPaul FreemanIn 1936, archaeologist and adventurer Indiana Jones is hired by the U.S. government to find the Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis can obtain its awesome powers.USP: It's dropped seven places since our last poll in 2008, possibly due to residual ill-will towards Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull. But don't let rubbish digital gophers obscure the genius of Indy's original and best-by-far escapade. Raiders Of The Lost Ark's action is, of course, glorious. Made back when green-screen was just a twinkle in George Lucas' eye, Harrison Ford (or, often, Vic Armstrong) drops into an actual snake-pit, is dragged behind an actual truck and rides an actual submarine in an actual ocean (okay, the face-melting is fake). But what makes it a timeless classic is Lawrence Kasdan's whip-smart script, by turns solemn and silly, with a quotable line always just around the corner. In a thousand years, this movie will still be worth something.
MVP: It's too hard to pick between Spielberg, Lucas, Kasdan and Ford, so we'll go with the Nazi monkey.
OMG: The opening sequence, in which Dr. Jones infiltrates a fiendishly booby-trapped jungle temple, is pure gold. Much like the freaky Chachapoyan Fertility Idol he finds there. - DirectorChristopher NolanStarsLeonardo DiCaprioJoseph Gordon-LevittElliot PageA thief who steals corporate secrets through the use of dream-sharing technology is given the inverse task of planting an idea into the mind of a C.E.O., but his tragic past may doom the project and his team to disaster.USP: Perhaps the most high-brow action film ever made, Inception builds its thrills quite literally from its characters' imaginations. Location, gravity and the weather are all maleable as a team of gifted thieves try to con a wealthy daddy's boy into giving them the key to his fortune. Nolan keeps the pace moving so briskly that audiences barely have time to get confused, and sets a story of existential confusion against a backdrop of fantastical dream worlds.
MVP: Christopher Nolan, first for selling a major studio on the most expensive, least obviously commercial film premise in recent history, and then for delivering a blockbuster hit that enthralled audiences everywhere.
OMG: Arguably the film is one long OMG moment, but the sight of Paris streets folding into the sky like pages of a book is one that still boggles our mind. - DirectorRidley ScottStarsHarrison FordRutger HauerSean YoungA blade runner must pursue and terminate four replicants who stole a ship in space and have returned to Earth to find their creator.USP: Ridley Scott's slick future noir infamously tanked on release, yet came to define a whole new wave of dark sci-fi.
MVP: Futurist Syd Mead, for his invaluable contribution to the film's iconic look.
OMG: There's something about the disturbing way Pris (Daryl Hannah) flips out when Deckard shoots her that never quite leaves you. - DirectorPeter JacksonStarsElijah WoodViggo MortensenIan McKellenGandalf and Aragorn lead the World of Men against Sauron's army to draw his gaze from Frodo and Sam as they approach Mount Doom with the One Ring.USP: The capstone of Peter Jackson's epic Tolkien trilogy.
MVP: The combined talents of the Weta Workshop and Weta Digital, who brought Middle-earth and its denizens to astonishing life.
OMG: In a word, Shelob. - DirectorMartin ScorseseStarsRobert De NiroRay LiottaJoe PesciThe story of Henry Hill and his life in the mafia, covering his relationship with his wife Karen and his mob partners Jimmy Conway and Tommy DeVito.
- DirectorDavid FincherStarsBrad PittEdward NortonMeat LoafAn insomniac office worker and a devil-may-care soap maker form an underground fight club that evolves into much more.
- DirectorFrancis Ford CoppolaStarsAl PacinoRobert De NiroRobert DuvallThe early life and career of Vito Corleone in 1920s New York City is portrayed, while his son, Michael, expands and tightens his grip on the family crime syndicate.USP: Coppola achieves the seemingly impossible by making an even deeper film than the original Godfather.
MVP: John Cazale as the hapless Fredo.
OMG: Robert De Niro plays the young Marlon Brando. - DirectorJoss WhedonStarsRobert Downey Jr.Chris EvansScarlett JohanssonEarth's mightiest heroes must come together and learn to fight as a team if they are going to stop the mischievous Loki and his alien army from enslaving humanity.USP: Marvel brings its screen superhero roster together for the first time, with spectacular success. Joss Whedon is the ringmaster.
MVP: The surprise casting of Mark Ruffalo makes the third modern Hulk by far the best. He's a great Banner too.
OMG: "Puny god!" - DirectorRobert ZemeckisStarsMichael J. FoxChristopher LloydLea ThompsonMarty McFly, a 17-year-old high school student, is accidentally sent 30 years into the past in a time-traveling DeLorean invented by his close friend, the maverick scientist Doc Brown.USP: Timeless romantic caper comedy from Robert Zemeckis.
MVP: Christopher Lloyd's beyond-eccentric Doc Emmett Brown, inventor of the DeLorean time machine and the flux capacitor.
OMG: Death-defying dangling from the Hill Valley clock tower. - DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsSam NeillLaura DernJeff GoldblumA pragmatic paleontologist touring an almost complete theme park on an island in Central America is tasked with protecting a couple of kids after a power failure causes the park's cloned dinosaurs to run loose.USP: Spielberg's glorious dinosaur theme-park ride.
MVP: Stan Winston and ILM, combining state-of-the-art practical FX and bleeding-edge CGI to bring the beasts convincingly to life.
OMG: Our first arrival on Isla Nublar. - DirectorJames CameronStarsSigourney WeaverMichael BiehnCarrie HennDecades after surviving the Nostromo incident, Ellen Ripley is sent out to re-establish contact with a terraforming colony but finds herself battling the Alien Queen and her offspring.USP: James Cameron constructs an all-out war sequel from the bones of the sombre original.
MVP: Sigourney Weaver, stepping up from embattled survivor to action heroine. Not bad for a human.
OMG: The Alien Queen is revealed. - DirectorFrancis Ford CoppolaStarsMartin SheenMarlon BrandoRobert DuvallA U.S. Army officer serving in Vietnam is tasked with assassinating a renegade Special Forces Colonel who sees himself as a god.USP: Francis Ford Coppola's lunatic bad trip to Vietnam.
MVP: Robert Duvall's insane Colonel Kilgore. He loves the smell of napalm in the morning.
OMG: An elephantine Marlon Brando, mumbling at river's end. - DirectorRidley ScottStarsSigourney WeaverTom SkerrittJohn HurtThe crew of a commercial spacecraft encounters a deadly lifeform after investigating a mysterious transmission of unknown origin.USP: Pulp sci-fi horror elevated to the level of art by Ridley Scott.
MVP: H. R. Giger whose designs created a classic monster.
OMG: John Hurt's tummy explodes. - DirectorStanley KubrickStarsKeir DulleaGary LockwoodWilliam SylvesterAfter uncovering a mysterious artifact buried beneath the Lunar surface, a spacecraft is sent to Jupiter to find its origins: a spacecraft manned by two men and the supercomputer HAL 9000.USP: Kubrick's visionary journey into space.
MVP: Douglas Rain, providing implacable menace as the voice of sentient computer HAL 9000.
OMG: A single match cut advances the narrative millions of years in a split-second - DirectorLana WachowskiLilly WachowskiStarsKeanu ReevesLaurence FishburneCarrie-Anne MossWhen a beautiful stranger leads computer hacker Neo to a forbidding underworld, he discovers the shocking truth--the life he knows is the elaborate deception of an evil cyber-intelligence.USP: Game-changing cyberpunk action from the Wachowskis.
MVP: John Gaeta and his Manex Visual Effects team, responsible for the execution of bullet time.
OMG: Trinity swings from a helicopter as it crashes into the rippling glass side of skyscraper. - DirectorJoel CoenEthan CoenStarsJeff BridgesJohn GoodmanJulianne MooreJeff "The Dude" Lebowski, mistaken for a millionaire of the same name, seeks restitution for his ruined rug and enlists his bowling buddies to help get it.USP: Labyrinthine, deadpan, Chandleresque mystery from the Coens. With bowling.
MVP: Jeff Bridges' Dude. He really ties the film together.
OMG: A dream sequence that makes Kenny Rogers ineffably cool. - DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsLiam NeesonRalph FiennesBen KingsleyIn German-occupied Poland during World War II, industrialist Oskar Schindler gradually becomes concerned for his Jewish workforce after witnessing their persecution by the Nazis.USP: Devastating Holocaust drama from Thomas Keneally's famous novel.
MVP: Spielberg, who somehow directed this and Jurassic Park in the same year.
OMG: The banal evil of Ralph Fiennes' Untersturmführer Amon Goeth. - DirectorMichael CurtizStarsHumphrey BogartIngrid BergmanPaul HenreidA cynical expatriate American cafe owner struggles to decide whether or not to help his former lover and her fugitive husband escape the Nazis in French Morocco.USP: Wartime intrigue in Morocco, with Bogart and Bergman on classic form.
MVP: The crackling, apparently effortless dialogue of writers the Epstein Brothers.
OMG: Here's looking at a truly great parting shot. - DirectorRidley ScottStarsRussell CroweJoaquin PhoenixConnie NielsenA former Roman General sets out to exact vengeance against the corrupt emperor who murdered his family and sent him into slavery.USP: Ridley Scott reclaims historical epics for the 21st century. We are entertained.
MVP: Oliver Reed plays the grizzled Antonius Proximo. His final role was a fitting swan-song.
OMG: Snow and fire in the opening battle. - DirectorJames CameronStarsArnold SchwarzeneggerLinda HamiltonEdward FurlongA cyborg, identical to the one who failed to kill Sarah Connor, must now protect her ten year old son John from an even more advanced and powerful cyborg.USP: James Cameron exponentially ups the stakes on his original classic.
MVP: The boffins at ILM, who made mimetic poly-alloy seem thrillingly real.
OMG: The T-1000 forms itself from a puddle on a chequered floor. - DirectorPaul Thomas AndersonStarsDaniel Day-LewisPaul DanoCiarán HindsA story of family, religion, hatred, oil and madness, focusing on a turn-of-the-century prospector in the early days of the business.
- DirectorSam MendesStarsKevin SpaceyAnnette BeningThora BirchA sexually frustrated suburban father has a mid-life crisis after becoming infatuated with his daughter's best friend.USP: Sam Mendes' debut dissection of middle-class modern malaise.
MVP: Spacey's grandstanding comic centrepiece, Lester Burnham.
OMG: Mena Suvari's bath of rose petals remains an extraordinary image. - DirectorDavid LeanStarsPeter O'TooleAlec GuinnessAnthony QuinnThe story of T.E. Lawrence, the English officer who successfully united and led the diverse, often warring, Arab tribes during World War I in order to fight the Turks.
- DirectorBryan SingerStarsKevin SpaceyGabriel ByrneChazz PalminteriThe sole survivor of a pier shoot-out tells the story of how a notorious criminal influenced the events that began with five criminals meeting in a seemingly random police lineup.USP: Bryan Singer's crimer in which all is never as it seems.
MVP: Benicio Del Toro making himself deliberately, hilariously difficult to understand.
OMG: A noticeboard, a falling coffee cup, and a jaw-dropping revelation. - DirectorOrson WellesStarsOrson WellesJoseph CottenDorothy ComingoreFollowing the death of publishing tycoon Charles Foster Kane, reporters scramble to uncover the meaning of his final utterance: 'Rosebud.'
- DirectorRobert ZemeckisStarsTom HanksRobin WrightGary SiniseThe history of the United States from the 1950s to the '70s unfolds from the perspective of an Alabama man with an IQ of 75, who yearns to be reunited with his childhood sweetheart.USP: The inexplicable life story of Tom Hanks' unlikely hero.
MVP: Screenwriter Eric Roth plays up the romance and irons out the cynicism of Winstom Groom's source novel.
OMG: Gary Sinise gets legless. - DirectorAlfonso CuarónStarsSandra BullockGeorge ClooneyEd HarrisDr Ryan Stone, an engineer on her first time on a space mission, and Matt Kowalski, an astronaut on his final expedition, have to survive in space after they are hit by debris while spacewalking.
- DirectorMichael MannStarsAl PacinoRobert De NiroVal KilmerA group of high-end professional thieves start to feel the heat from the LAPD when they unknowingly leave a verbal clue at their latest heist.USP: Epic crime drama of cops and robbers in an LA takedown.
MVP: He was already good, but Michael Mann here joined the ranks of the truly great thriller directors.
OMG: De Niro and Pacino: together in the same scene at last! - DirectorDavid FincherStarsMorgan FreemanBrad PittKevin SpaceyTwo detectives, a rookie and a veteran, hunt a serial killer who uses the seven deadly sins as his motives.USP: Bleak, Gothic serial killer drama, with Pitt and Freeman on the trail of Deadly Sins Spacey.
MVP: After the Alien3 debacle, this was David Fincher's real debut.
OMG: Victim Two, Sloth, suddenly awakens, providing the biggest jump. - DirectorJohn HughesStarsEmilio EstevezJudd NelsonMolly RingwaldFive high school students meet in Saturday detention and discover how they have a great deal more in common than they thought.USP: Five high-school stereotypes learn that they're actually all just people.
MVP: Paul Gleason as school principal Richard Vernon, because he gives up his Saturday too and then gets a lot of grief for it.
OMG: No one has ever punched the air as convincingly as Judd Nelson in that final freeze-frame. - DirectorJohn McTiernanStarsBruce WillisAlan RickmanBonnie BedeliaA New York City police officer tries to save his estranged wife and several others taken hostage by terrorists during a Christmas party at the Nakatomi Plaza in Los Angeles.USP: John McTiernan reinvents the action movie... as a Christmas Western.
MVP: Bruce Willis leaves Moonlighting behind forever, armed with a machine gun, ho ho ho.
OMG: Fire-hose skyscraper abseiling. - DirectorFrank CapraStarsJames StewartDonna ReedLionel BarrymoreAn angel is sent from Heaven to help a desperately frustrated businessman by showing him what life would have been like if he had never existed.USP: Capra's Christmas classic is surprisingly downbeat until its beautifully moving ending.
MVP: Henry Travers' twinkle-eyed angel, Clarence Odbody.
OMG: George Bailey's horrified arrival in the awful Pottersville. - DirectorMilos FormanStarsJack NicholsonLouise FletcherMichael BerrymanIn the Fall of 1963, a Korean War veteran and criminal pleads insanity and is admitted to a mental institution, where he rallies up the scared patients against the tyrannical nurse.USP: Milos Forman's flawless Kesey adaptation pays off in silver dollars. Nicholson is electric.
MVP: Louise Fletcher's antagonist: both sympathetic and hissable.
OMG: The Chief reveals his secret. - DirectorSergio LeoneStarsHenry FondaCharles BronsonClaudia CardinaleA mysterious stranger with a harmonica joins forces with a notorious desperado to protect a beautiful widow from a ruthless assassin working for the railroad.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsJames StewartKim NovakBarbara Bel GeddesA former San Francisco police detective juggles wrestling with his personal demons and becoming obsessed with the hauntingly beautiful woman he has been hired to trail, who may be deeply disturbed.USP: Deep psychological trauma from the Master Of Suspense.
MVP: Everyman James Stewart on the verge and over the edge of a nervous breakdown.
OMG: A nun rising, spectre-like, from a bell tower trapdoor. - DirectorMartin ScorseseStarsRobert De NiroJodie FosterCybill ShepherdA mentally unstable veteran works as a nighttime taxi driver in New York City, where the perceived decadence and sleaze fuels his urge for violent action.
- DirectorSam MendesStarsDaniel CraigJavier BardemNaomie HarrisJames Bond's loyalty to M is tested when her past comes back to haunt her. When MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost.USP: Daniel Craig's Bond returned damaged and older, as he and M (Judi Dench) tackled ghosts from their past. But it wasn't all gloom — director Sam Mendes gave the 50th anniversary movie a welcome old-school sheen.
MVP: See writer John Logan's answer on page 105.
OMG: During the thrilling opening sequence, we see Bond check his cuffs. That's how 007 rolls. - DirectorPeter JacksonStarsElijah WoodIan McKellenViggo MortensenWhile Frodo and Sam edge closer to Mordor with the help of the shifty Gollum, the divided fellowship makes a stand against Sauron's new ally, Saruman, and his hordes of Isengard.USP: If Fellowship was a journey movie, this put the trilogy firmly on massive-scale battle-pic territory.
MVP: Andy Serkis' extraordinary Gollum. A performance-capture career is born.
OMG: The Uruk-hai march on man-bastion Helm's Deep in a midnight storm. - DirectorSergio LeoneStarsClint EastwoodEli WallachLee Van CleefA bounty hunting scam joins two men in an uneasy alliance against a third in a race to find a fortune in gold buried in a remote cemetery.USP: Sergio Leone delivered a Civil War epic with an amoral alliance-shifting treasure hunt at its core.
MVP: Eli Wallach as the nasty, rattish yet somehow lovable Tuco.
OMG: The Ecstasy Of Gold... - DirectorPaul Thomas AndersonStarsTom CruiseJason RobardsJulianne MooreAn epic mosaic of interrelated characters in search of love, forgiveness and meaning in the San Fernando Valley.
- DirectorNicolas Winding RefnStarsRyan GoslingCarey MulliganBryan CranstonA mysterious Hollywood action film stuntman gets in trouble with gangsters when he tries to help his neighbor's husband rob a pawn shop while serving as his getaway driver.
- DirectorGuillermo del ToroStarsIvana BaqueroAriadna GilSergi LópezIn the Falangist Spain of 1944, the bookish young stepdaughter of a sadistic army officer escapes into an eerie but captivating fantasy world.
- DirectorSidney LumetStarsHenry FondaLee J. CobbMartin BalsamThe jury in a New York City murder trial is frustrated by a single member whose skeptical caution forces them to more carefully consider the evidence before jumping to a hasty verdict.USP: Our unanimous verdict is that this is a superbly acted ensemble piece.
MVP: Screenwriter Reginald Rose, producing and adapting his own play for the second time.
OMG: The relief of finally leaving that single set. (In a good way.) - DirectorVictor FlemingGeorge CukorSam WoodStarsClark GableVivien LeighThomas MitchellA sheltered and manipulative Southern belle and a roguish profiteer face off in a turbulent romance as the society around them crumbles with the end of slavery and is rebuilt during the Civil War and Reconstruction periods.
- DirectorStanley KubrickStarsJack NicholsonShelley DuvallDanny LloydA family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where a sinister presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from both past and future.USP: Kubrick keeps the blood flowing as Jack Nicholson loses his mind in an empty hotel.
MVP: Danny Lloyd as the "shining" Torrance Jr., who easily keeps pace with his on-screen dad, performance-wise.
OMG: "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy..." Repeat as desired. - DirectorStanley KubrickStarsMalcolm McDowellPatrick MageeMichael BatesIn the future, a sadistic gang leader is imprisoned and volunteers for a conduct-aversion experiment, but it doesn't go as planned.USP: Kubrick on infamous satirical form, adapting Anthony Burgess' controversial novel.
MVP: Patrick Magee chews the scenery as a former victim of Malcolm
OMG: The Singin' In The Rain sequence. - DirectorMartin ScorseseStarsLeonardo DiCaprioMatt DamonJack NicholsonAn undercover cop and a mole in the police attempt to identify each other while infiltrating an Irish gang in South Boston.
- DirectorLuc BessonStarsJean RenoGary OldmanNatalie Portman12-year-old Mathilda is reluctantly taken in by Léon, a professional assassin, after her family is murdered. An unusual relationship forms as she becomes his protégée and learns the assassin's trade.USP: Luc Besson's thrilling hitman actioner is also the wrongest-yet-rightest love story.
MVP: The 12 year-old Natalie Portman is unforgettable in her first major role.
OMG: Gary Oldman makes his entrance as the insane DEA agent Stansfield. - DirectorAkira KurosawaStarsToshirô MifuneTakashi ShimuraKeiko TsushimaFarmers from a village exploited by bandits hire a veteran samurai for protection, who gathers six other samurai to join him.USP: Epochal epic drama from director Akira Kurosawa.
MVP: Kurosawa regular Toshiro Mifune's comic turn as the manic and temperamental ronin Kikuchiyo.
OMG: The final, costly battle in a torrential rain storm. - DirectorJohn LasseterStarsTom HanksTim AllenDon RicklesA cowboy doll is profoundly threatened and jealous when a new spaceman action figure supplants him as top toy in a boy's bedroom.USP: Pixar soars to infinity and beyond with its first feature.
MVP: Tom Hanks and Tim Allen's double act gave the film its heart, but Allen deserves most props for nailing deluded hero Buzz.
OMG: The horror of Sid's house. - DirectorChristopher NolanStarsGuy PearceCarrie-Anne MossJoe PantolianoA man with short-term memory loss attempts to track down his wife's murderer.USP: The end is the beginning is the end in Christopher Nolan's ingenious backwards thriller.
MVP: Guy Pearce, seizing his scrambled amnesiac role by its tattooed neck.
OMG: The final twist that starts the story. - DirectorDanny BoyleStarsEwan McGregorEwen BremnerJonny Lee MillerRenton, deeply immersed in the Edinburgh drug scene, tries to clean up and get out despite the allure of drugs and the influence of friends.
- DirectorPark Chan-wookStarsChoi Min-sikYoo Ji-taeKang Hye-jeongAfter being kidnapped and imprisoned for fifteen years, Oh Dae-Su is released, only to find that he must track down his captor in five days.
- DirectorJames CameronStarsLeonardo DiCaprioKate WinsletBilly ZaneA seventeen-year-old aristocrat falls in love with a kind but poor artist aboard the luxurious, ill-fated R.M.S. Titanic.USP: James Cameron proved 'em all wrong, turning a 'disaster in the making' into a massive box-office, Oscar-hoovering hit.
MVP: Bond-regular production designer Peter Lamont for so perfectly recreating the ship, from steerage to first class.
OMG: "Never let go..." - DirectorIvan ReitmanStarsBill MurrayDan AykroydSigourney WeaverThree parapsychologists forced out of their university funding set up shop as a unique ghost removal service in New York City, attracting frightened yet skeptical customers.USP: Who you gonna call for a supernatural comedy beloved of generations? This lot.
MVP: Bill Murray, bringing smart-ass cool to the supernatural shenanigans, and coping admirably with being slimed.
OMG: The library ghost objects to her reading being disturbed. - DirectorJohn CarpenterStarsKurt RussellWilford BrimleyKeith DavidA research team in Antarctica is hunted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of its victims.
- DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsHenry ThomasDrew BarrymorePeter CoyoteA troubled child summons the courage to help a friendly alien escape from Earth and return to his home planet.USP: Spielberg's blockbusting, heartwarming family sci-fi.
MVP: The late, great Carlo Rambaldi, creator of the strangely ugly, oddly cute alien exile.
OMG: Pushbikes in flight. - DirectorRoger AllersRob MinkoffStarsMatthew BroderickJeremy IronsJames Earl JonesLion prince Simba and his father are targeted by his bitter uncle, who wants to ascend the throne himself.USP: Disney animal magic, which represents the peak of the Mouse House revival era.
MVP: James Earl Jones, putting that majestic voice to use as King Mufasa.
OMG: The stampeding wildebeest set-piece. - DirectorJonathan DemmeStarsJodie FosterAnthony HopkinsScott GlennA young F.B.I. cadet must receive the help of an incarcerated and manipulative cannibal killer to help catch another serial killer, a madman who skins his victims.USP: Jonathan Demme's chilling adaptation of Thomas Harris' serial-killer bestseller.
MVP: Anthony Hopkins, making a household name of Hannibal Lecter and effecting his own career renaissance.
OMG: Lecter makes his escape. - DirectorJean-Pierre JeunetStarsAudrey TautouMathieu KassovitzRufusDespite being caught in her imaginative world, Amelie, a young waitress, decides to help people find happiness. Her quest to spread joy leads her on a journey where she finds true love.
- DirectorMartin ScorseseStarsRobert De NiroCathy MoriartyJoe PesciThe life of boxer Jake LaMotta, whose violence and temper that led him to the top in the ring destroyed his life outside of it.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsAnthony PerkinsJanet LeighVera MilesA Phoenix secretary embezzles $40,000 from her employer's client, goes on the run and checks into a remote motel run by a young man under the domination of his mother.USP: Hitchcock's scurrilous genius manifests once again, at the Bates Motel.
MVP: Perkins as Norman Bates, in a twitchy but oddly touching performance.
OMG: Martin Balsam takes the stairs. - DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsJames StewartGrace KellyWendell CoreyA wheelchair-bound photographer spies on his neighbors from his Greenwich Village courtyard apartment window and, despite the skepticism of his fashion-model girlfriend, becomes convinced one of them has committed murder.USP: Hitchcock proves he can even wring suspense from the confines of a wheelchair.
MVP: Hitch, spinning a hokey premise into a nuanced masterpiece.
OMG: Grace Kelly goes trespassing. - DirectorChristopher NolanStarsChristian BaleTom HardyAnne HathawayEight years after the Joker's reign of chaos, Batman is coerced out of exile with the assistance of the mysterious Selina Kyle in order to defend Gotham City from the vicious guerrilla terrorist Bane.USP: Nolan triumphantly completes his Batman trilogy with an emphysemic roar.
MVP: Cinematographer Wally Pfister, continuing to create that unique Dark Knight aesthetic.
OMG: Eleven thousand extras witness the Gotham Stadium attack. - DirectorSofia CoppolaStarsBill MurrayScarlett JohanssonGiovanni RibisiA faded movie star and a neglected young woman form an unlikely bond after crossing paths in Tokyo.USP: An enigmatic almost-affair between Americans in Tokyo, as witnessed by Sofia Coppola.
MVP: Director/writer Coppola, for somehow making jetlag beautiful.
OMG: Bill Murray's heartbreaking, inaudible farewell to Scarlett Johansson. - DirectorRob ReinerStarsWil WheatonRiver PhoenixCorey FeldmanA writer recounts a childhood journey with his friends to find the body of a missing boy.USP: Rob Reiner crafts the perfect coming-of-age pic.
MVP: Wil Wheaton carries the film as budding author Gordie Lachance. Put Wesley Crusher from your minds.
OMG: Blueberry chunder tsunami. - DirectorQuentin TarantinoStarsHarvey KeitelTim RothMichael MadsenWhen a simple jewelry heist goes horribly wrong, the surviving criminals begin to suspect that one of them is a police informant.USP: Riveting post-heist thriller, heralding the '90s US indie-crime boom.
MVP: QT, extraordinarily assured in his directing debut.
OMG: Stealers Wheel?! - DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsTom HanksMatt DamonTom SizemoreFollowing the Normandy Landings, a group of U.S. soldiers go behind enemy lines to retrieve a paratrooper whose brothers have been killed in action.
- DirectorCarol ReedStarsOrson WellesJoseph CottenAlida ValliPulp novelist Holly Martins travels to shadowy, postwar Vienna, only to find himself investigating the mysterious death of an old friend, Harry Lime.
- DirectorMichel GondryStarsJim CarreyKate WinsletTom WilkinsonWhen their relationship turns sour, a couple undergoes a medical procedure to have each other erased from their memories forever.USP: Wish you could shake that ex out of your brain? Michel Gondry's eerie, funny sci-fi shows why that might be a bad idea.
MVP: Kate Winslet's hair.
OMG: Baby memories. - DirectorCurtis HansonStarsKevin SpaceyRussell CroweGuy PearceAs corruption grows in 1950s Los Angeles, three policemen - one strait-laced, one brutal, and one sleazy - investigate a series of murders with their own brand of justice.USP: Christmas-set mystery that scrapes the tinsel off Tinseltown, revealing a rotting tree beneath.
MVP: Writer Brian Helgeland, radically reworking James Ellroy's novel while retaining the mordant wit.
OMG: "Rollo Tamasi." - DirectorBilly WilderStarsMarilyn MonroeTony CurtisJack LemmonAfter two male musicians witness a mob hit, they flee the state in an all-female band disguised as women, but further complications set in.USP: Ends with one of its heroes heading off into the sunset with a dirty old man, but somehow still feels wholesome. Now that's subversive.
MVP: Cary Grant, for inspiring "Junior".
OMG: "Nobody's perfect." - DirectorQuentin TarantinoStarsBrad PittDiane KrugerEli RothIn Nazi-occupied France during World War II, a plan to assassinate Nazi leaders by a group of Jewish U.S. soldiers coincides with a theatre owner's vengeful plans for the same.
- DirectorHayao MiyazakiStarsDaveigh ChaseSuzanne PleshetteMiyu IrinoDuring her family's move to the suburbs, a sullen 10-year-old girl wanders into a world ruled by gods, witches and spirits, and where humans are changed into beasts.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsCary GrantEva Marie SaintJames MasonA New York City advertising executive goes on the run after being mistaken for a government agent by a group of foreign spies, and falls for a woman whose loyalties he begins to doubt.USP: The classiest caper ever.
MVP: Mount Rushmore sculptor Gutzon Borglum, who unwittingly designed one of Hitch's greatest sets. In an early draft Cary Grant hid inside Lincoln's nose.
OMG: The saucy cut from stars kissing to a train entering a tunnel. - DirectorRichard KellyStarsJake GyllenhaalJena MaloneMary McDonnellAfter narrowly escaping a bizarre accident, a troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a man in a large rabbit suit who manipulates him to commit a series of crimes.USP: Alice In Wonderland's March Hare was once the trippiest rabbit in fiction. Not anymore, thanks to Richard Kelly's un-synopsisable cult classic.
MVP: Tears For Fears.
OMG: Swayze? Swayze. - DirectorMartin ScorseseStarsLeonardo DiCaprioJonah HillMargot RobbieBased on the true story of Jordan Belfort, from his rise to a wealthy stock-broker living the high life to his fall involving crime, corruption and the federal government.
- DirectorQuentin TarantinoStarsJamie FoxxChristoph WaltzLeonardo DiCaprioWith the help of a German bounty-hunter, a freed slave sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal plantation owner in Mississippi.USP: The Wild Bunch? Tarantino *beep* 'em. His first Western is so raucously, violently entertaining, he's making another.
MVP: Fritz the nodding horse.
OMG: Calvin Candie's anatomy class. - DirectorFrançois TruffautStarsJean-Pierre LéaudAlbert RémyClaire MaurierA young boy, left without attention, delves into a life of petty crime.
- DirectorFernando MeirellesKátia LundStarsAlexandre RodriguesLeandro FirminoMatheus NachtergaeleIn the slums of Rio, two kids' paths diverge as one struggles to become a photographer and the other a kingpin.
- DirectorNicholas MeyerStarsWilliam ShatnerLeonard NimoyDeForest KelleyWith the assistance of the Enterprise crew, Admiral Kirk must stop an old nemesis, Khan Noonien Singh, from using the life-generating Genesis Device as the ultimate weapon.
- DirectorJoss WhedonStarsNathan FillionGina TorresChiwetel EjioforThe crew of the ship Serenity try to evade an assassin sent to recapture telepath River.USP: Joss Whedon's cancelled TV space-buccaneers make good with a blow-out feature. Let's hope they show up in Avengers 3.
MVP: Whedon, whose script is not scant on quip.
OMG: Wash washes out. - DirectorTony ScottStarsChristian SlaterPatricia ArquetteDennis HopperIn Detroit, a pop-culture nerd steals cocaine from his new wife's pimp and tries to sell it in Hollywood, prompting the mobsters who own the drugs to pursue the couple.
- DirectorBruce RobinsonStarsRichard E. GrantPaul McGannRichard GriffithsIn 1969, two substance-abusing, unemployed actors retreat to the countryside for a holiday that proves disastrous.
- DirectorJoel CoenEthan CoenStarsWilliam H. MacyFrances McDormandSteve BuscemiMinnesota car salesman Jerry Lundegaard's inept crime falls apart due to his and his henchmen's bungling and the persistent police work of the quite pregnant Marge Gunderson.USP: The snow's white. The blood's red. The comedy's black. The Coens wreak havoc in their hometown. Naughty boys.
MVP: Frances McDormand? You're darn tootin'.
OMG: Misuse of a woodchipper. - DirectorQuentin TarantinoStarsUma ThurmanDavid CarradineDaryl HannahAfter awakening from a four-year coma, a former assassin wreaks vengeance on the team of assassins who betrayed her.
- DirectorJohn G. AvildsenStarsSylvester StalloneTalia ShireBurt YoungA small-time Philadelphia boxer gets a supremely rare chance to fight the world heavyweight champion in a bout in which he strives to go the distance for his self-respect.USP: The most iconic sports film of all time, it's still inspiring people the world over to punch slabs of beef (maybe).
MVP: Sly Stallone, who wrote and starred. After him, that poor cow.
OMG: "ADRIAAAN!" - DirectorStanley DonenGene KellyStarsGene KellyDonald O'ConnorDebbie ReynoldsA silent film star falls for a chorus girl just as he and his delusionally jealous screen partner are trying to make the difficult transition to talking pictures in 1920s Hollywood.USP: The most joyful movie about movies ever made, driven by a never-better Gene Kelly.
MVP: Jean Hagen, who gamely sneers as the awful Lina Lamont while everyone around her gets to sing and dance beautifully.
OMG: The entirety of the matchless singin' in the rain sequence, but especially the moment where Kelly just starts splashing in puddles. - DirectorCameron CroweStarsBilly CrudupPatrick FugitKate HudsonA high-school boy in the early 1970s is given the chance to write a story for Rolling Stone magazine about an up-and-coming rock band as he accompanies them on their concert tour.USP: Cameron Crowe's love for big-haired '70s rock proved to be contagious. It obviously still is.
MVP: Music supervisor Danny Bramson, for clearing all the rights.
OMG: Tiny Dancer. - DirectorEthan CoenJoel CoenStarsTommy Lee JonesJavier BardemJosh BrolinViolence and mayhem ensue after a hunter stumbles upon the aftermath of a drug deal gone wrong and over two million dollars in cash near the Rio Grande.
- DirectorJohn LandisStarsJohn BelushiDan AykroydCab CallowayJake Blues rejoins with his brother Elwood after being released from prison, but the duo has just days to reunite their old R&B band and save the Catholic home where the two were raised, outrunning the police as they tear through Chicago.USP: Great music, 900 smashed cars, a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes and two comedians in sunglasses. Hit it.
MVP: Dan Aykroyd, for managing to wrangle a drugged-up Belushi through the shoot.
OMG: The cop-cruiser pile-up. - DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsHarrison FordSean ConneryAlison DoodyIn 1938, after his father goes missing while pursuing the Holy Grail, Indiana Jones finds himself up against the Nazis again to stop them from obtaining its powers.USP: Spielberg and Lucas add Dad, amping up the comedy and turning their Thuggee-slayer into an exasperated teenager.
MVP: Sean Connery, giddy as a schoolboy as Jones The Elder.
OMG: Escape from Castle Brunwald.