The Worlds Best Films

The Year of Beasts of the Southern Wild

2013-01-04T17:02:00.002-08:00

Beasts of the Southern Wild is a amazing debut film by director Benh Zeitlin, from a play by Lucy Alibar, a fellow writer that Zeitlin met in a writer's workshop as a teenager. The unlikely star of the film is six year old Quvenzhané Wallis, who had to pretend to be six when she was five to beat out 4,000 others for this part in auditions. Her character is to be brave and strong, so Nazie, as

School Security: Deputized Security Officers

2012-12-15T11:16:00.003-08:00

Deputized Security Officers My idea is a deputized security person: a plainclothes officer on site watching monitors of each entrance at a school, can spot intruder, notify police, hopefully take out the shooter (head shot, they wear body armor), or occupy them until backup. A sonic gunshot detector is easy, wireless alarm to police IF a shot occurs in a school so they know right away, that

My Five Best Photo Contest Entries

2012-10-26T23:01:00.001-07:00

I just entered these five photos of mine at the 1x photo site for their contest. My categories are Landscape (Sunset Fisherman at Grizzly Island Wildlife Refuge), Nature (Blackbirds on a Bench), Architecture (Nieman Marcus Holiday Ceiling, Leila's - Curtain Dance), and Street (Hudson Peach Farms Halloween Decor) Please check out their site in case there are viewer votes! I

Top Ranked Black and White Films

2012-04-27T18:11:00.000-07:00

All Ranked Black and White Films, and more (2011 Edition) I dipped down to the top 1200 films to create a bigger list of bw titles, as only 298 made the top 1000. Production still from Lang's Metropolis BW rank - Title (Year) - Director - Overall Rank 1. Seven Samurai, The (1954) Kurosawa, Akira #2 2. Metropolis (1927) Lang, Fritz #7 3. Modern Times (1936) Chaplin, Charles #9 4. Night of The

Top 100 Holocaust Films

2012-04-17T11:11:00.000-07:00

[First published for Jewish Heritage Month, for my Jewish friends. No matter what your religion (or lack of one) everyone deserves justice and dignity in life, that should be basic human right that we all should fight for vigilantly] I received this following message via email on 4/17/2012, and did not know about this observance in Israel, so I'm sure many of you don't as well, so I wanted to

DVD Movies For Sale

2012-03-09T10:59:00.001-08:00

I'm starting to sell part of my personal dvd collection, I just have too many now.. If marked "like new", they were played once; the others are all in very good condition. I'm putting them on EBay, but since they take a cut, I can sell them here for less, also through PayPal.. All are widescreen format unless marked otherwise. Prices include shipping. Click any image for a full-sized view and

The James Bond Film Series

2012-02-28T08:28:00.000-08:00

Ursula Andress in Doctor No, the first James Bond film I just reviewed the James Bond series at my companion site, 1000 Dvds to See. I concentrated on my favorite Sean Connery films and Casino Royale, the first with Daniel Craig. Personally, I didn't like any of the Roger Moore or Pierce Brosnan 007 films, so I didn't mention those at all. Check them out, they are timeless, along with the

2012 Academy Award Winners

2012-02-26T21:04:00.000-08:00

Academy Awards 2012 [for films released in 2011] Most Awards: The Artist (Michel Hazanavicius) and Hugo (Martin Scorsese), 5 each [Iron Lady won 2] Best Picture: The Artist Best Director: Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist Best Actress: Meryl Streep, Iron Lady [This was Streep's third Oscar, and her 17th nomination, the most ever; her 3rd for acting ties her with Katharine Hepburn] Best

Best Film Awards for 2011

2012-02-26T21:02:00.000-08:00

Current list of best film awards winners for 2011 releases [Updated 2.27.12] MAJOR AWARDS Cannes, Palm d’Or: The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick) Malick has a degree in philosophy from Harvard, was a Rhodes scholar, and a professor at MIT. This is only his fifth film in 38 years, beginning with Badlands (1973). This film won't please the masses because it lacks a typically literary story

Academy Awards for Best Picture and Director

2012-02-26T20:58:00.000-08:00

Best Picture Oscar® Winners [updated 2.27.12] * = Director also won an Oscar 2011 The Artist Directed by Michel Hazanavicius* 2010 The King's Speech Directed by Tom Hooper* 2009 The Hurt Locker Directed by Kathryn Bigelow* 2008 Slumdog Millionaire Directed by Danny Boyle* 2007 No Country for Old Men Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen* 2006 The Departed Directed by Martin Scorcese* 2005

2012 Independent Spirit Awards

2012-02-26T04:06:00.000-08:00

Indie Spirit Awards 2012 (for films released in 2011) This continues the recent tide of approval for The Artist, which has now passed The Tree of Life with the most awards for the year, raising it's total to 69 awards overall, with certainly more to follow at tonight's Oscars®. Best Feature: "The Artist" Best Director: Michel Hazanavicius, "The Artist" Best Female Lead: Michelle Williams

A Self-Portrait

2012-02-16T15:26:00.000-08:00

My first self-portrait with my new digital Nikon, with my favorite cat, Puffy. As Lily Tomlin said, "I am a real person, much like yourself". Puffy wandered into my yard when I lived in Hayward, California, due to my animal magnetism no doubt, and he was so fuzzy and small that he looked all puffed out, hence the name; plus, he was the color of a puff of smoke. He's been attached to me ever

Charity Wakefield, Film Goddess

2012-02-14T08:48:00.008-08:00

The most beautiful flower in the greenhouse I saw British actress Charity Wakefield in the 2008 miniseries of Jane Austen's novel Sense and Sensibility, and fell in love with her fresh beauty. I was surprised that at IMDB there were only two photos of her, and none at all at Fanpix. So I did a search on the internet and found all of these, and decided to post them here so the world can see them

Downton Abbey Season One Review

2012-02-03T15:13:00.000-08:00

Jim Carter as the butler leads the servant staff (L), whileHugh Bonneville as the Earl heads the family (R) I just reviewed Downton Abbey, Season One at my companion site, 1000 Dvds to See. I gave it one of just 40 perfect 10's I've awarded out of 830 reviews so far. As far as tv goes, and especially Masterpiece Theater, it doesn't get any better than this. Season one was seven episodes, just

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo Remake

2012-01-31T08:23:00.000-08:00

David Fincher, 2011 The long-awaited Americanized version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo became one of the latest movies to explore the darker side of killers, as if there is a light side. If you like this movie, you should have read all three bestselling books by Stieg Larsson and watched all three movies, the Swedish-Danish versions. The English version is quite interesting once you get

2012 Academy Award Nominations

2012-01-27T20:47:00.000-08:00

2012 Oscar Nominations (for 2011 films) My predictions are in gold Best Picture “The Artist” Thomas Langmann, Producer “The Descendants” Jim Burke, Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor, Producers “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” Scott Rudin, Producer “The Help” Brunson Green, Chris Columbus and Michael Barnathan, Producers “Hugo” Graham King and Martin Scorsese, Producers “Midnight in Paris”

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Trivia

2012-01-25T11:54:00.000-08:00

More Than You Want to Know About The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Probably the most popular children’s film of all time, and listed as the top fantasy by the American Film Institute, the 1939 film was released to mixed reviews (Harvard Lampoon awarded it “worst film of all-time”) and commercial failure (according to some sources, it broke even) after being MGM’s most expensive production up to that

Top 500 Ranked U.S. Films of All Time

2012-01-22T23:57:00.000-08:00

All U.S. Films Ranked in the top 1000 509 Total Films Some of these films were joint productions, such as A Clockwork Orange and Bridge on the River Kwai (US-UK), and Doctor Zhivago (US-Italy), and I listed all those that were in English, which eliminated Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (US-China-Taiwan). [No, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly was thankfully not a U.S. production, it was a joint

Golden Globe Awards for 2011

2012-01-16T17:04:00.000-08:00

Golden Globe winners (for 2011 releases) Film Awards Best Film, drama: The Descendants (Alexander Payne) Best Film, comedy/musical: The Artist (Michel Havanavicius) Best Director: Martin Scorsese, Hugo Best Actor, drama: George Clooney, The Descendents Best Actor, comedy/musical: Jean Dujardin, The Artist Best Actress, drama: Meryl Streep, Iron Lady Best Actress, comedy/musical: Michelle

Top Ranked Films of Douglas Sirk

2011-12-29T23:44:00.000-08:00

Douglas Sirk 4 titles, 82nd in points with 10,048 Douglas Sirk made some well crafted films of what many would call soap opera, but if included in that class, then he made some of the best ones ever made during this era of the 50’s, dominated by Madison Avenue and a desire to conform. These are all the films of American director Douglas Sirk that made the top 1000 in our 2011 update of the

Top Ranked Films of Rob Reiner

2011-12-27T23:33:00.000-08:00

Rob Reiner: actor, director, dadRob Reiner 3 titles, 93rd in points with 9,078 Rob Reiner is best known as (a) the son of Carl Reiner, who played the producer on the Dick Van Dyke show (b) the Meathead on All in the Family on tv (c) a quality comedy director. Pick any letter, I first knew him as Meathead; at any rate, he’s far funnier than his dad. These are all the films of American director

Top Ranked Films of Nicolas Roeg

2011-12-23T23:43:00.000-08:00

Nicolas Roeg 4 titles, 90th in points with 9,472 Roeg is a cinematographer turned director with some imaginative, stunning results, especially from a visual sense. A veteran of British cinema for 23 years before directing, he once worked on the second unit for David Lean on Lawrence of Arabia, one of my favorite films. Performance (1970) woke me up when I first saw it, with gangster James Fox

Top Ranked Films of Vincente Minnelli

2011-12-20T22:41:00.000-08:00

Vincente and Liza Minnelli Vincente Minnelli 5 titles, 91st in points with 9,392 Minnelli is perhaps best known as the husband of Judy Garland that father Liza Minnelli, giving rise to one of the greatest Oscar® trivia facts ever: who is the only Oscar®-winner whose parents also won Oscars®? He is an underrated director, considered two of his films won best picture, and his most popular films

Top Ranked Films of Danny Boyle

2011-12-19T21:53:00.000-08:00

Danny Boyle 3 titles, 85th in points with 9,917 Danny Boyle is constantly surprising people. After a string of well-made films that still didn’t make him a household name, like Shallow Grave (reminiscent of Hitchcock), Millions, and the better-known Trainspotting, which I think has achieved cult status, Boyle made Slumdog Millionaire. This surpising film seemingly combined inspiration from

Top Ranked Films of Satyajit Ray

2011-12-18T23:13:00.000-08:00

Satyajit Ray 5 titles, 84th in points with 9,953 Satyajit Ray is India’s most famous filmmaker, and might appropriately be called the Father of Indian Cinema. Just before his death, he received an honorary Oscar for his life’s work. After his death, hundreds of thousands of Indians gathered around his house in respect. Many other filmmakers outside of India are said to have been either