#47 INSOMNIA Erik Skjoldbjærg 1997

  Love Nolan, but this is definitely a superior film. Skarsgard's waking nightmare ironically reminds me far more strongly of Nolan's Memento than the feel Nolan gave to his take on this film. Also, the mysterious (to me) cultural nuances not only between Sweden and Norway, but between Norway and the beyond-the-Arctic-Circle Norway, form a …

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#594 GODZILLA: The Monster We Made Ishiro Honda 1954

"If you ridicule our traditions..."   As far as symbols of latent fear in technology go, Godzilla is up there. His roots lie in Frankenstein's monster, which also served as a baseline for the Terminator, 30 years later after another signficant bump in technology. With these "bumps" come existential threats; it's a pattern well established in …

#45 Emotional Warfare in TASTE OF CHERRY Abbas Kiarostami 1997

A compelling and even inspirational film, as a film. I was soaking in the Iranian landscape out the windows as if I were the passenger: make no mistake, we are the passengers. Ashes to ashes dust to dust: From start to finish images of dust and earth, and the driver next to the earth. The …

#108 THE ROCK Michael Bay 1996

5 stars are warranted when a film is as enjoyble as advertised. This is time for pure fun, not a cinematic exegesis. Some English student wrote a script, threw in a few James Bond hinty hints, and let Nick Cage lose his shit, but funny. Don't forget that Michael Biehn is the Terminator and Aliens …