The Defiant Ones

Stars - Sidney Poitier (#22); Cheers (#55)

Have I mentioned that I love Sidney Poitier? 

The Defiant Ones tackles racism, with a pair of escaped convicts, one black and one white, chained together and dependent on each other.  It could have been sappy, but it wasn't.  It could have been an edge-of-your-seat adventure, but it wasn't.  It was realistic, and I liked it.

Oh, and I love how buff Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier are in this poster.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmGyRIK_dqc

AFI Top 100 Cheers

I haven't yet seen The Defiant Ones and I can't figure out why neither Netflix nor the library has it. Oh well.  Overall, a pretty good list.  I don't think Breaking Away or 2001 should be on it.  They were stupid and pointless.  As for the others, I may not have liked them all but at least I see how they fit this category.  It fits that Jimmy Stewart, Gary Cooper, Tom Hanks, and Frank Capra are well-represented here.

But while I'm not going to be petty about the order, I have to disagree with The Sound of Music being as low as #41.  Have they not seen that movie?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AJI6XTRGsc

In the Heat of the Night

Top 100 (#75 Revised); Stars - Sidney Poitier (#22); Cheers (#21); Quotes - "They call me Mr. Tibbs" (#16); Heroes - Virgil Tibbs (#19)

Excellent movie.  A Philadelphia homicide detective is falsely accused of murder while visiting relatives in the South.  He then has to help the racist sheriff figure out who really did it.

Have I mentioned that I love Sidney Poitier?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLltYjpxpwI

Ray

Cheers (#99)

I have a hard time feeling a lot of love for a character who just about destroyed his life with drugs and womanizing.  He cleaned himself up and became a better person, but that was only in the last few minutes of the movie.  His mama raised him much better than that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZJxL3PrrLM 

City Lights

Top 100 (#76/11); Laughs (#38); Stars - Charlie Chaplin (#10); Cheers (#31); Heroes - The Tramp (#38); Passions (#10); Top Ten - Romantic Comedy (#1)

Good, sweet, but maybe a bit overhyped - then again, I'm watching it 80 years later.  The Tramp falls in love with a blind girl and tries to come up with the money she needs to save the home where she lives with her grandmother. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rkNBH5fbMk

Thelma and Louise

Thrills (#76); Stars - Geena Davis (Current); Cheers (#78); Heroes - Thelma Dickerson and Louise Sawyer (#24)

First, I'd just like to say that if I were Susan Sarandon, I would have pushed Thelma into the Grand Canyon about 30 minutes into the movie.  Oh my gosh, she was an idiot.  How on earth can Geena Davis think she was portraying a strong woman?

Secondly, I strongly question the "heroes" list.  Sure, they deserved a cheer for shooting the would-be rapist.  But after that, everything they did was just plain wrong and anything but heroic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIb6AZdTr-A

Cool Hand Luke

Cheers (#71); Quotes - "What we've got here is failure to communicate" (#11); Heroes - Luke Jackson (#30)

Paul Newman's baby blues sure are nice.  Other than that, though, I didn't much care (as in basically my feelings are neutral) for this movie.  It's very much a guy story.

The Cheers barflys called Cool Hand Luke one of the sweatiest movies of all time.  They're probably right.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6zuBcppwjo

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town

Laughs (#70); Stars - Gary Cooper (#11); Cheers (#83)

Sometimes I wonder how I've gone so long without seeing these delightful movies.  The world needs more Mr. Deedses, pixilated or not.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1T3_4zWMspo

Places in the Heart

Cheers (#95)

A widow tries to hold on to her husband's land, with the help of a blind renter and a black drifter. 

It was good, and could have been a great family movie were it not for the unnecessary subplot about her brother-in-law's extramarital affair.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_4eoSPYL_M

The Day the Earth Stood Still

Thrills (#82); Cheers (#67); Top Ten - Science Fiction (#5)

Aliens come to earth to warn earthlings that they'd better start getting along and be friends, or else the aliens will kill them. 

Inspiring world peace message.

What I don't get, though, is why the woman carried by the alien robot in the poster doesn't look remotely like Patricia Neal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IPAOxrH7Ro 

The Spirit of St. Louis

Stars - James Stewart (#3); Cheers (#69)

I guess I hadn't really thought about the fact that Lindbergh was a nobody before he crossed the Atlantic.  He was trying to get funding for his flight and no one wanted to sponsor him.

Anyways, I love Jimmy Stewart, and the movie was fine.  It just isn't one of my favorite Stewart films.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d19eSW3p_MY

Spartacus

Top 100 (Revised #81); Thrills (#62); Stars - Kirk Douglas (#17); Cheers (#44); Heroes - Spartacus (#22); Top Ten - Epic (#5)

What?  "I am Spartacus" is not one of the top quotes?  Who came up with these lists?

Overall, I'd say it was good for a guy movie.  Not one of my favorites though.  But Goose Cousin loves Kirk Douglas' butt chin.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V32PWJX-GpY

Captains Courageous

Stars - Spencer Tracy (#9); Cheers (#94)

Spoiled brat Bartholomew falls overboard from his big ocean liner and is lost at sea.  He's rescued by a fishing boat and has to wait three months until they return to shore.  Needless to say, they don't put up with his tantrums and demands.

I didn't have high hopes, but I liked this movie. Freddie Bartholomew wasn't annoying, and I loved Spencer Tracy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OEEs2L49wc 

Birdman of Alcatraz

Stars - Burt Lancaster (#18); Cheers (#76)

Maybe I'll have to read the book.  It seemed like it was missing something.  For one thing, I don't really understand why his parole kept being rejected.  For another, I don't know why he was called the Birdman of Alcatraz when he was actually the Birdman of Leavenworth.  And there just seemed to be a bunch of holes in the story.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oj1zvM3325w

Silkwood

Stars - Cher (Current - Not Rated); Cheers (#66); Heroes - Karen Silkwood (#47)

Enh.  I think I was supposed to care, but the truth was I didn't like Karen Silkwood, so I wasn't drawn to her cause.  The movie is about how she discovered unsafe conditions at the nuclear power plant where she worked and tried to stop it. 

Cher's character was totally pointless, and Kurt Russell didn't have much of a purpose either.  And I think they tried to paint Silkwood as a martyr, while there's really no evidence of foul play in the car accident that caused her death.

I don't have a clip, because the decontamination scene in Silkwood reminded me very much of the scene in Monsters Inc, but sadly I can't find it.  Feel free to watch the movie (Monsters) and see it for yourself.

What's Love Got to Do With It?

Cheers (#85)

Angela Bassett and Laurence Fishbourne were excellent in this movie.  The movie itself I could take or leave.  I don't care much for Tina Turner.

As for the story - I really don't get how people can just look away when they see someone being abused.  So many people knew what Ike was doing to Tina, yet they said nothing.  Props to the one woman who finally became the person Tina could talk to, and props to the hotel manager who, when a beaten, penniless Tina showed up at his front desk, gave her a room, no questions asked.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFUaHWAJ9_4

The Bridge on the River Kwai

Top 100 (#13/36); Thrills (#58); Stars - William Holden (#25); Cheers (#14)

Total guy movie.  Japanese soldiers force Allied POWs to build a bridge.  Yep, that's what it's about.  Alec Guinness played an arrogant, racist British officer who helped me understand why my father always said, "Don't call me sir!  I work for a living."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vL4kXJ6857k

The Best Years of Our Lives

Top 100 (#37/37); Cheers (#11)

Long movie, but a good glimpse of the trials veterans face when they come home from war.  I'm sure the issues aren't a whole lot different now than they were then.  It felt like a radio production, which it wasn't originally, but the actors did perform it for radio later.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8tqGAsOkPs

Sounder

Cheers (#61)

Good movie, based on a really good book.  But it seems a bit out of place on this list because AFI didn't recognize very many feel-good family films.  Did it deserve its spot?  Yes.  I'm just surprised AFI thought so, too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBlitTE9kLk

Seabiscuit

Cheers (#50)

I like (not love) horse movies.  The Man From Snowy River is definitely the best.  But truth be told, if you've seen one, you've seen them all.  There's not a whole lot of variance of plot.

And so my review is that Seabiscuit is just like every other horse movie.  If you like them, you'll like this movie.  If you don't, you won't.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7OHUndHCLg