Full Features List Author: Movie Compound Feature Title: The Movie Compound's Top 100 Movies You Should See Before You Die Extravaganza Date: Thursday September 30 2004 As an administrator of a movie site, your predominant motivation in starting your movie site should be to relate to the audience what films you think they should watch. In keeping true to that motivational formula, the staff members of the Movie Compound decided to compile "the ultimate list", which is much easier than it sounds. After much deliberation, writing, blood, sweat, tears, caffeine pills, Pepsi Vanilla, cheese and mushroom pizzas, and bathroom breaks, we've finally compiled that ultimate list: The Movie Compound's "Top 100 Movies You Should See Before You Die" Extravaganza. No matter what movies you may watch over the course of your life, we feel that the movies gathered together for this list-fest are ones that you should not, under any circumstances, go without viewing at least once. We're not saying you have to like these films, but at least give them all one chance. You never know...you might even *gasp* like them. Now for the official technobabble mumbo-jumbo: This list was compiled from the "Top Movies" lists of our eight current staff members (Chris, Sharkey, Boat, Jesse, Sam, Kara, Ragen, and Ady) and a former staff member (Huggy). All movies premiering in theatres or on video before December 31st, 2003, and all movies viewed by each staff member before that date, were eligible for inclusion on each staff members' list. The position of each film on our list was calculated using the following "quality points" system: each movie on the lists were designated a number, or "quality point". If a movie was in a certain staff members' number 1 spot, it received a "20", their number 2 movie received a "19", and so on. If a movie was found on another person's list, the quality points it received from appearing on that person's list increased its previous point total. So, if one staffer's number 1 movie was another staffer's number 2 movie, then the movie received 20 + 19 quality points, or 39 total quality points. As an added bonus, if a movie appeared on multiple lists, 5 quality points were awarded per list each movie was on. Example: if a movie appeared on 3 different lists, it gained 15 bonus quality points in addition to the quality points it had already earned. Get it? On our forthcoming list you will find the following information: The position the movie's quality points earned it on the list. In theory, the better movies are the ones closer to the top of the list (but all are great). The name of the movie and its year of release. The total number of quality points the movie received. The staff members whose lists contained that movie. The first ten films on our list have been commented on by one of the staff members who chose the film. If you roll your mouse over any of the images on the page, it will reveal one of the staff members' favorite quote from the film the image is from. (For larger quotes, you may have to keep moving your mouse over the image to finish reading.) And finally, some of the movie names are links to the Movie Compound review of that movie. We hope you find our list concise, [at the very least] partially definitive, and that you decide that you should probably see these films before you die. After all, where's the harm in wasting your life watching movies? That's what we do. And you could do a lot worse than watching the following: Pulp Fiction (1994) Quality Rating: 102 Chosen by: Ady, Chris, Jesse, Sam, Sharkey "Pulp Fiction was one of the most influential movies not only of 1994 and the decade, but of all time. The controversy that stems from its violence, the three-tier chronology, the snappy dialogue, the warped frame, the full characters, and the concentrated overseeing from Quentin Tarantino guaranteed this movie classic status. This is a film that knows what it's doing." -Jesse Fight Club (1999) Quality Rating: 80 Chosen by: Boat, Chris, Jesse, Sharkey "One of the truest disasters in rational thinking. Fight Club takes you on a ride into the warped mind of a man who has lost grip on his own reality, who ''befriends'' a ''man'' who is everything that he isn't yet is everything he desires to be. A guy movie all the way, David Fincher tosses us into the twisted world of Chuck Palahniuk's novel. This movie has it all; mischief, mayhem, AND soap." - Boat Psycho (1960) Quality Rating: 75 Chosen by: Ady, Huggy, Kara, Ragen "The Bates Motel. 12 cabins, 12 vacancies... Psycho is black and white horror at its finest, and one of the most believable horror films ever created. Hitchcock took us into the mind of Norman Bates, and we fought like hell for the rest of the movie to get out. No one could play Norman the way Anthony Perkins did - Norman's nice, sweet, and caring character was a complete contrast to his "mother", which is enough to drive anyone mad. But then again, we all go a little mad sometimes, don't we?" -Ragen Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The (2003) Quality Rating: 68 Chosen by: Boat, Chris, Ragen "When Aragorn gave his sympathetic but undefeated smile and uttered "For Frodo..." and raced towards Sauron's army, I busted out bawling. These people had been through so much, and I felt their pain. This was it, take it or leave it. The fate of the entire world now rested in the small hands of a couple of Hobbits racing up the side of a volcano for all they were worth while everyone made one last, final, caution-to-the-wind stand for their right to live. It was and, I can say with all confidence, will remain the most powerful thing I've ever seen and experienced with a film." -Chris Braveheart (1995) Quality Rating: 67 Chosen by: Boat, Chris, Sharkey "There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Braveheart is one of the greatest movies of all-time. It is one of the very few absolute masterpieces of cinema, and a long jump away from Mel Gibson's Lethal Weapon days. I think, if there were laws governing film watching, every person should be required to see three films: The Godfather, Clerks, and Braveheart. Every movie watcher dies, not every movie watcher really lives. And one has not lived until they've watched Gibson's gift to the world, Braveheart." -Chris Goodfellas (1990) Quality Rating: 60 Chosen by: Ady, Chris, Sam, Sharkey "Goodfellas is probably one of the finest examples of a film where the director successfully makes the audience root for the bad guy; a lot of this is also due to Ray Liotta's performance as Henry Hill, which is quite possibly his finest cinematic moment. Scorcese has created such a rich environment, and his snappy let's-get-to-the-point direction is only complimented by Nicholas Pileggi's quirky screenplay which gets you deep inside the characters like few movies ever do. There's no doubt that this is the best mob film since The Godfather." - Sam Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The (2002) Quality Rating: 58 Chosen by: Boat, Chris, Sharkey "The Two Towers is, quite frankly, a cinematic masterpiece. The sheer scale of the opening scene of The Two Towers is immense and pretty much blows Fellowship's action scenes out of the water, just as you'd expect. If you've seen the first film of this three part series then you will know that it is no easy feat since I can't say a bad word against Fellowship. The opening scene in all its glory is however a mere taste of the enthralling action scenes that take place later on in the film at Isengard and Helm's Deep. I can't honestly find anything that I can truly complain about with this movie." -Sharkey Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The (2001) Quality Rating: 56 Chosen by: Boat, Chris, Sharkey "One of the greatest things about Fellowship is that it is a real feast of eye candy. It's heavily CG-ed, but not to the point that everything on screen looks hollow. That is the beauty of the whole thing; that it is three dimensional. Jackson has created a living, breathing fantasy world flourishing with depth and intelligence. Middle Earth now exists as a real place, with real people, who have real feelings. By the end of the movie you will know the locations as well as your own home, because as far as you're concerned; you have become a citizen of a vast land populated by magnificent and bizarre creatures. But with everything great thing that is there on screen, Fellowship is a teenie-weenie mite, merely the first valiant footstep of a Bible-length epic. Sure Fellowship is action packed, but it's only the beginning." -Sam Apocalypse Now (1979) Quality Rating: 50 Chosen by: Ady, Jesse "To me, Apocalypse Now represents the fragility of the mind and the endurance of the soul. Life was certainly affected by 'Nam in the '60s, but the soldiers were the ones wedged into the rusted works of war. The best movie to reveal the horrors of such an atrocity must adapt its mode of thinking to that of the atrocity, and Apocalypse Now does just that. Personally, I think it knocks the socks off of The Godfather... Apocalypse Now spoke to me in a language I could never understand. But I'll keep the words forever, as long as I live, in hopes of translation. Until then, there's only the smell of napalm to think about." -Jesse American Beauty (1999) Quality Rating: 46 Chosen by: Boat, Jesse, Sharkey "In the strictest phsyical and chemical form, life is defined as what gives us the ability to be. In our commonplace fashion, it means that thing that we exist in from the day we are born to the day we die. And in the many statistics of the world, it is a single living being. Thousands upon thousands of definitions can be applied to the word "life". Heaven. Hell. Blessing. Punishment. An enigma. A simple God-headed creation. We all have our perception, and it may change, but one's life is one's life. Only you will know completely what your life is like. And we can only wonder what the lives of others are like. We can say we know, but we don't. Not really. But we can guess. We can peer into the lives of fictional people, borne of real people. And through that we can understand much more about life than we have the capacity to know, because our life is ours and it will only change the way it was meant to change. American Beauty is an example of a movie that attempts to teach you this simple fact. And I think it really succeeded." -Jesse Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, Il / Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, The (1966) ? 44 ? Ady, Jesse Godfather, The (1972) ? 42 ? Ady, Chris 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) ? 41 ? Ady, Chris Dirty Harry (1971) ? 41 ? Ady, Huggy Clerks (1994) ? 38 ? Chris, Jesse Matrix, The (1999) ? 38 ? Boat, Kara, Sharkey Forrest Gump (1994) ? 37 ? Boat, Huggy, Sam Jaws (1975) ? 37 ? Ady, Huggy, Kara Planet of the Apes (1968) ? 37 ? Chris, Huggy, Ragen Unforgiven (1992) ? 37 ? Boat, Jesse Star Wars: Episode IV ? A New Hope (1977) ? 36 ? Kara, Sam Se7en (1995) ? 35 ? Boat, Sharkey Exorcist, The (1973) ? 33 ? Ady, Kara Star Wars: Episode V ? The Empire Strikes Back (1980) ? 32 ? Ady, Boat Memento (2000)? 30 ? Ragen, Sharkey Schindler's List (1993) ? 30 ? Huggy, Jesse Usual Suspects, The (1995) ? 30 ? Ragen, Sharkey Reservoir Dogs (1992) ? 28 ? Chris, Sharkey Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) ? 26 ? Huggy, Jesse Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi / Spirited Away (2001) ? 26 ? Boat, Sam Alien (1979) ? 25 ? Ady, Sharkey Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) ? 22 ? Jesse, Sharkey A Night to Remember (1958) ? 20 ? Huggy Blade Runner (1982) ? 20 ? Sam L.A. Confidential (1997) ? 20 ? Ragen Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) ? 19 ? Kara Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (1993) ? 19 ? Boat French Connection, The (1971) ? 19 ? Ady, Huggy Network (1976) ? 19 ? Huggy Halloween (1978) ? 18 ? Ragen Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) ? 18 ? Boat, Chris It's a Wonderful Life (1946) ? 18 ? Chris On the Beach (1959) ? 18 ? Huggy Rocky Horror Picture Show, The (1975) ? 18 ? Sam Shichinin no samurai / The Seven Samurai (1954) ? 18 ? Boat Rebel Without a Cause (1955) ? 17 ? Kara True Romance (1993) ? 17 ? Sam Full Metal Jacket (1987) ? 16 ? Kara Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) ? 16 ? Ragen C'era una volta il West / Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) ? 16 ? Ady sex, lies, and videotape (1989) ? 16 ? Jesse Finding Nemo (2003) ? 15 ? Ragen Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003) ? 15 ? Chris, Sam Midnight Cowboy (1969) ? 15 ? Jesse Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) ? 15 ? Chris, Ragen Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) ? 15 ? Sam Fatal Attraction (1987) ? 14 ? Kara Gangster No. 1 (2000) ? 14 ? Jesse Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) ? 14 ? Sam Saving Private Ryan (1998) ? 14 ? Boat Say Anything... (1989) ? 14 ? Ragen Requiem for a Dream (2000) ? 13 ? Ragen Rocky (1976) ? 13 ? Huggy Sound of Music, The (1965) ? 13 ? Kara Airplane! (1980) ? 12 ? Sam American Psycho (2000) ? 12 ? Ragen All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) ? 11 ? Huggy Aliens (1986) ? 11 ? Kara Chasing Amy (1997) ? 11 ? Boat Dream for an Insomniac (1996) ? 11 ? Ragen Love Actually (2003) ? 11 ? Chris Defiant Ones, The (1958) ? 10 ? Kara General, The (1927) ? 10 ? Huggy Harvey (1950) ? 10 ? Sam Taxi Driver (1976) ? 10 ? Jesse Alice in Wonderland (1951) ? 9 ? Ragen Almost Famous (2000) ? 9 ? Sam Big Lebowski, The (1998) ? 9 ? Jesse Bonnie and Clyde (1967) ? 9 ? Kara Point Break (1991) ? 9 ? Sharkey Slap Shot (1977) ? 9 ? Huggy Trainspotting (1996) ? 9 ? Ady Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971) ? 9 ? Chris A Few Good Men (1992) ? 8 ? Sharkey North by Northwest (1959) ? 8 ? Ragen, Sam Ringu / The Ring - Japanese Version (1998) ? 8 ? Ragen Ten Commandments, The (1956) ? 8 ? Kara Magnum Force (1973) ? 7 ? Huggy Manhattan (1979) ? 7 ? Jesse Romeo + Juliet (1996) ? 7 ? Kara Strangers on a Train (1951) ? 7 ? Ragen Texas Chain Saw Massacre, The (1974) ? 7 ? Ady Elephant Man, The (1980) ? 6 ? Sam Evil Dead, The (1981) ? 6 ? Chris Green Mile, The (1999) ? 6 ? Sharkey My Own Private Idaho (1991) ? 6 ? Jesse Rear Window (1954) ? 6 ? Ady Fifth Element, The (1997) ? 5 ? Sam Gladiator (2000) ? 5 ? Sharkey Longest Day, The (1962) ? 5 ? Huggy

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