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Aug. 7, 2005 I enjoyed reading Timothy N. Stelly, Sr.’s recent top-100 all-time movie list (see “King Kong Ain’t Got Nothing On Me! My Top 100 Films”, from July 26). But his list didn’t include some films, including those in the science-fiction and disaster genres, that I love to watch. My list isn’t quite as long as Timothy’s is, nor does it include some of the most popular movies of all time, including the Star Wars series (never seen any of them in their entirety) or E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (never seen all of it, either). But you’re getting some good bang for the buck, because I’ve included descriptions of each movie. The movies are listed in no particular order. 1. Dr. Strangelove, Or: How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Bomb. One of the funniest movies of all time, and a true gem by director Stanley Kubrick, Dr. Strangelove features the versatile Peter Sellers in three different roles, including the title character, a German scientist charged with figuring out how to preserve humanity in the face of global nuclear conflict. But it’s George C. Scott, as a slightly cracked air force general, and Slim Pickens, as the pilot of the fateful bomber that doesn’t get the recall code, who really steal the show. The movie was based on the novel “Red Alert”, by former RAF officer Peter George, who worked with Kubrick and American satirist Terry Southern to craft the screenplay. 2. Marooned. Richard Crenna, Gene Hackman and James Franciscus play three weary astronauts on their way home from a five-month stay aboard America’s first space station. But the main engine on their Apollo spacecraft refuses to fire, stranding them in orbit and forcing the space agency’s boss (Gregory Peck) to order a do-or-die rescue mission. Marooned was based on the novel by aviation expert Martin Caidin, won an Academy Award for its special effects (1969), and is largely credited with planting the seeds for the historic Apollo-Soyuz joint mission (1975). 3. It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. A huge cast led by Spencer Tracy, in one of his last film roles, takes up the chase for a pile of loot hidden by the sea in California. Just about every comic in Hollywood showed up for this movie, including Milton Berle, Sid Caesar and Jimmy Durante. This surprisingly durable comedy was directed by Stanley Kramer, who is better known for more dramatic fare like Inherit the Wind and Judgment at Nuremburg. 4. The Towering Inferno. Already working to adapt The Glass Inferno, a novel by Thomas N. Scortia and Frank M. Robinson, for 20th Century Fox, Irwin Allen found out that Warner Bros. was setting out to make a similar movie based on The Tower, a novel by Richard Martin Stern. Allen was able to convince both studios to make one great movie instead of two good movies facing off against each other, the first such collaboration in cinema history The requisite all-star cast was led by Paul Newman as the architect of the world’s tallest building and Steve McQueen as the fire chief determined to put out the world’s biggest fire. 5. Apollo 13. Inspired by the real-life drama America’s third lunar landing attempt, director Ron Howard brought this blockbuster to the screen in 1995. Tom Hanks, a big supporter of the space program who would later executive-produce the HBO mini-series From the Earth to the Moon, plays astronaut Jim Lovell, the commander of the ill-fated mission to the Fra Mauro highlands. Bill Paxton is along for the ride as lunar module pilot Fred Haise, Kevin Bacon plays command module pilot Jack Swigert, and Gary Sinise plays astronaut Ken Mattingly, who was bumped from the mission due to a fear that he might catch the measles. Jim Lovell makes a cameo appearance as the captain of Apollo 13’s recovery ship. Ed Harris was nominated for an Academy Award for his portrayal of Apollo 13’s flight director, Gene Krantz. Apollo 13 was based on the non-fiction book Lost Moon, by Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger. 6. Why Do Fools Fall In Love. A trip back to a time when the music was more innocent and people much more trusting, Why Do Fools Fall In Love is the story of singing sensation Frankie Lymon (Larenz Tate), who, during his brief life, marries three different women (played by Halle Berry, Vivica A. Fox and Lela Rochon). All three women love him, but it isn’t until Lymon dies of a heroin overdose in 1968 that they discover each other and that he was married to them all at the same time. Strong acting and authenticity of the elements of the period make this movie stand out. 7. What’s Love Got to Do with It. A small-town girl from Tennessee fights abuse and marital infidelity and becomes a driving force in popular music. Tour-de-force performances by Angela Bassett as singer Tina Turner and Laurence Fishburne as her abusive husband, Ike, bring palpable power and emotion to this brilliant movie. 8. The Green Mile. In 1930s Louisiana, a large, gentle-hearted black man with the power to heal is caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. Sentenced to die in the state’s electric chair for two murders he didn’t commit, he spends his remaining time healing those in need, and even exacting justice in a deliciously satisfying way. Michael Clarke Duncan towers in a wonderful performance, overshadowing the gifted Tom Hanks and reliable character actors James Cromwell and David Morse. The Green Mile is based on a novel by Stephen King. 9. Fail Safe. Where Dr. Strangelove plays accidental nuclear war for laughs, Fail Safe faces it straight up, with tension at every turn. Henry Fonda plays a President who is desperate to avoid the unthinkable at all costs, and makes a decision that even today wrenches the gut. Walter Matthau plays an academic convinced that America’s greatest hope lies in destroying the Soviet empire. And a young Larry Hagman is on hand as Fonda’s Russian interpreter. Based on the novel by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler, Fail Safe was redone live on CBS in 2000. 10. Farewell to Space Battleship Yamato: In The Name of Love. The success of the animated Japanese television series Space Battleship Yamato, and a feature film based on that series, led to this second movie. The Yamato, having saved Earth from radiation poisoning, is brought out of mothballs to face a new threat—a giant white comet that hides a floating military city bent on destruction. This was originally supposed to be Yamato’s swan song, as most of the crew die, and the Yamato itself is sacrificed to save mankind. But the fans won out, and the story was retold (minus most of the deaths) in a second television series. That series made it to the United States in the late 1970s as The Comet Empire arc of Star Blazers. Oddly enough, this is the only one of the five Yamato feature films to be dubbed in English. 11. He Got Game. Denzel Washington shines as Jake Shuttlesworth, a convict whose freedom depends on which college his son, Jesus, played by NBA sharpshooter Ray Allen, decides to play for. The governor (the durable Ned Beatty) wants Jesus to go to his alma mater, Big State, and releases Jake for one week to see if he can convince him to grant the governor his wish. Spike Lee wrote and directed this sports drama, which gives a glimpse at the world of big-time college athletics and its impact on young African-American men. Some of the basketball scenes were shot at the Charlotte Coliseum and Lawrence Joel Coliseum in Winston-Salem. 12. Superman. Look, up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s unknown actor Christopher Reeve, whose career took flight when he was selected to play the Man of Steel, in this 1978 adaptation of the popular DC Comics superhero. Here, we learn the story of little Kal-El, see the brutal fate of his home planet Krypton, and follow him from his discovery in a field to his ascent as America’s hero. Gene Hackman does a great comic turn as Superman’s nemesis, the scheming Lex Luthor, while Margot Kidder hams it up as Daily Planet super-scooper Lois Lane. 13. Shrek. A big green ogre who wants nothing but peace finds his swamp crowded with cast-offs. To get his land back, he must bring rescue a fetching princess from a dark tower and bring her back to the king, who plans to marry her. Featuring the voice talents of Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, John Lithgow and Cameron Diaz, Shrek is based on the book by William Steig. 14. Independence Day. Los Angeles, New York, and Washington literally get blown off the face of the planet by powerful alien heat rays. Never fear, though, because our intrepid heroes—a Marine fighter pilot (Will Smith) who dreams of being an astronaut and a computer geek (Jeff Goldblum)—know exactly how to dispose of the menace. Director Roland Emmerich pays homage to campy sci-fi movies of the 50s and disaster movies of the 70s with this witty and action-packed romp. 15. The Princess Bride. A doddering grandfather (lovingly played by Peter Falk) tells a story of action, adventure, and romance to his precocious but sick grandson (Fred Savage, before “The Wonder Years”). Cary Elwes, Mandy Patinkin, and Robin Wright lead a cast that includes the late pro wrestler Andre the Giant and comedian Billy Crystal. 16. What About Bob? Psychologist Leo Marvin (Richard Dreyfuss) wants to get away from his New York office and spend some time with his family in Maine. But Bob Wiley (a deliciously neurotic Bill Murray) foils his plans, following the good doc and making life miserable for him. 17. Contact. Based on the novel by the last astronomer Carl Sagan, Contact stars Jodie Foster as a radio astronomer who discovers intelligent life beyond our solar system. That life, radiating from the star Vega, sends instructions on building a machine that may be either a blessing or a curse to mankind. Tom Skerritt is on board as Foster’s glory-hound boss, and Matthew McConaughey plays a clergyman who falls for Foster and struggles with his own faith. 18. Airplane! A hilarious send-up of Universal’s more earnest Airport series of movies (themselves based on Arthur Hailey’s novel), Airplane! reflects silliness and comedic timing at its finest. Robert Hays is Ted Striker, a former fighter pilot trying to come to grips with life after a combat mission gone wrong. After the flight crew, which includes Peter Graves and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar get sick, he’s got to land the bird in Chicago. 19. Meteor. A Swiss ski village gets buried under a billion tons of snow; Hong Kong gets washed away by a huge tidal wave; and New York gets blasted off the face of the earth (again). And those are by smaller meteor impacts. The big one, five miles wide, can only be stopped by space-based, nuclear-tipped rockets that the United States and the Soviet Union have been saving to use on each other. Bad acting and bad special effects give a new meaning to the term “disaster movie”. But Meteor does have its basis in fact, in the form of MIT's Project Icarus. 20. Citizen Kane. No list of favorite movies would be complete without this classic, based loosely on the life of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst. Orson Welles starred as the mercurial Charles Foster Kane, whose career rise and fall is chronicled with realism and candor, thanks to a script by Herman J. Mankiewicz, cinematography by Gregg Toland, and direction by Welles himself. ------------ About the author: Claxton Graham has written a number of articles for Useless Knowledge. He works as a business systems analyst. Email: scifiwriter8502@email.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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