One sentence reviews.

I have this list of 50 recommended movies down my sidebar. So now I will try and explain in as few words as possible WHY they are recommended.


Amelie
Just a really really nice movie.

La Cite Des Enfants Perdus (Eng title: The City Of Lost Children)
Unable to speak French, Ron Perlman memorised all his lines from cassette.

Cry Freedom
Incredibly moving true story.

Dark City
Made in Australia, it's got Matrix-trilogy-like ideas compressed into a single, good, pre-Matrix, movie.

Das Boot (Eng title: The Boat)
The best anti-war movie... watch the Director's Cut in German with subtitles if possible.

Delicatessen
A post apocalyptic Paris, where people eat their neighbours?

Die Hard
The first one is still the best.

Dinosaur
A little bit of real landscapes combined with CGI... and it's a cartoon with NO KIDDIE SONGS!

Doctor No
The cinema-going public were introduced to Bond, James Bond, for the first time by young Sean.

Doctor Strangelove: Or, How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb
Peter Sellers in possibly the three most brilliant roles of his career.

Donnie Brasco
Fuggedabahdit.

Donnie Darko
Watch this and you will be thinking about time travel... and rabbits... all week.

The Fifth Element
Director Luc Besson picked up a short story he wrote aged thirteen and thought "I think I'll make myself a movie..."

Finding Nemo
Best cartoon I've seen in ages.

Gladiator
Russell Crowe fights his way from general to slave to gladiator... and Hans Zimmer did the music.

The Great Escape
Steve McQueen, the Cooler King.

In The Name Of The Father
Good soundtrack, great movie, based on a true story.

Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade
Sean Connery as Dr Jones Senior!

The (original) Italian Job
MINIS!

Labyrinth
Come on, it's the Muppets on drugs... who could resist?

The Last Of The Mohicans
Awesome soundtrack, fantastic scenery, lots of Indians fighting Indians and redcoats.

The Last Samurai
This was my best movie of 2004... good scenery (Kyoto/NZ) and good story.

Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels
Love the cliff-hanger ending.

The Lord Of The Rings trilogy
Two words... FAN-TASTIC.

Lost In Translation
Subtle, unobtrusive comedic drama about an insomniac's weekend in Tokyo.

Minority Report
Based on a short story by Philip K Dick... read the story, watch the movie, both are good.

Mission: Impossible
Nice fun action movie with the odd twist to make you think.

Monty Python And The Holy Grail
"You must chop down the tallest tree in the forest, using only... a herring!"

The Outlaw Josey Wales
Clint Eastwood rules... I reckon so.

Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl
Johnny Depp pretends to be a gay Keith Richards... "I'm Captain Jack Sparrow."

The (original) Planet Of The Apes
OK, so the Simpsons may have given away the ending to this, but it remains great.

The Power Of One
Another movie with a great (Hans Zimmer) soundtrack.

The Princess Bride
"As you wish..."

The Professional
Jean Reno is great as the hitman with the heart of gold.

The Rock
Among many other scenes, the one where Sean Connery steps out the boiler-room door and says "Gentlemen, welcome to Alcatrazh."

Shrek
Literary jokes in a computer-animated cartoon movie - Yay!

Snatch
I don't think even Brad Pitt understands his own accent.

Speed
There's a bomb on a bus... whoa.

The (original) Star Wars trilogy
Watch these movies, the ones before George Lucas got his hands on cute kids and CGI.

10 Things I Hate About You
Can Shakespeare be hip... I think so!

The Terminator
The Governator!

This Is Spinal Tap
This movie goes to 11.

Time Bandits
John Cleese as Robin Hood.

La Totale (Eng title: Jackpot!)
The French 007/spy/parody/comedy James Cameron based True Lies on.

2001: A Space Odyssey
It's half an hour till the first bit of dialogue... gotta love that.

Twin Dragons
Jackie Chan and Jackie Chan are twins separated at birth who meet up when they're older... apparently remade disastrously by Jean-Claude Van Damme.

The Usual Suspects
I won't spoil the twists for you.

Les Visiteurs
Before the recent Hollywood re-version, there was the original and the best.

X-Men
How cool is Wolverine?

Yellow Submarine
Cool music, the Beatles, psychedelic colours, all add up to one groovy cartoon.