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The 30 Best Action Scenes in Movie History
Favs/dislikes: 2:0. There are hundreds of unforgettable action scenes in the archives of cinema past. To try and specify any small number of them is nearly impossible, maybe even futile, but what’s the fun in not trying? Here you will find 30 great action scenes, separated by category (Chases, Shootouts/Battles, and Fight Scenes). Be forewarned, although it has been attempted to be written with as few spoilers as possible, this list does discuss specific scenes from these films, some of which discuss the climax or ending of the film. -
The 50 Best Movie Posters Ever
Favs/dislikes: 2:0. Sometimes, one sheet is all it takes to pique your interest in a film: a dazzling color scheme, a clever concept, an arresting image. Film posters are more than just marketing materials – they’re undeniably an artform in themselves, with the world’s greatest illustrators and designers (including the likes of Drew Struzan, Saul Bass, and Bill Gold who passed away earlier in 2018) producing works that have sometimes become as iconic as the movies they’re promoting. Empire has gone back to the drawing board to find the 50 greatest movie posters to ever grace cinemas, bedrooms, and billboards everywhere. -
The Best Cinematography of the 21st Century
Favs/dislikes: 2:0. The technology of cinematography has undergone some of the most seismic shifts in film history this century, with what began in the 2000s as an almost entirely photochemical process transforming into the digitally captured, manipulated, and projected images of today. The art of cinematography, however — using light, color, and texture to express ideas and elicit emotional reactions from the audience — remains intact. In 2017, IndieWire made a list of the best shot feature films of the century thus far; the list was updated in 2020, and what follows is the third and most extensive version of the list. It’s also the first to be spearheaded by the IndieWire Craft team, which has grown considerably since this list was first published. Ranking cinematography is, in some ways, a fool’s errand given the broad variety of genres, resources, and intentions encompassed by the films below, but these are 60 titles that IndieWire believes will stand the test of time. -
Top 10 Best Cringe Comedy TV Shows
Favs/dislikes: 2:0. You know how they say it’s impossible to look away from a train wreck? Welcome to WatchMojo.com, and today we’re counting down our picks for the Top 10 Cringe Humor Shows. For this list, we’ve selected our favorite shows that often utilize uncomfortable situations in the name of comedy. We’re also considering shows that have aspects of reality television, as long as the host and audience are in on the joke. -
Top 10 Documentary Mini-Series by Watchmojo.com
Favs/dislikes: 2:0. These mini-series were so good, you’ll wish they were even longer. Welcome to WatchMojo.com, and today we’re counting down the top 10 documentary mini-series. For this list, we’re focusing on documentaries that were split into several different episodes that ran over a specific period of time, rather than feature-length one-parter docs. -
Top 100 Films by Kanobu
Favs/dislikes: 2:0. Greatest films of all times by "Kanoby" -
Top 20 Creepiest Documentaries Ever Made
Favs/dislikes: 2:0. These films will make your skin crawl. Welcome to WatchMojo and today we’ll be counting down our picks for the Top 10 Creepiest Documentaries. For this, we’re looking at documentaries tackling unsettling subject matter in disturbing ways. However, don’t expect to see any multi-part docuseries, because we’ve decided to save those for another day. -
10 Almost-Great Screenplays
Favs/dislikes: 1:0. An almost-great screenplay can be more frustrating than a really bad one. The potential is strong and the execution is almost there, but something went wrong at the final hurdle. Of course, it’s easy to pick out flaws in retrospect or to credit (or blame) the writer for something that wasn’t their idea. So many things can go wrong on a script’s journey to the screen that it can feel like a miracle there are any almost-great films in the first place. The problem is, as author and screenwriter William Goldman famously said: “Nobody knows anything…… Not one person in the entire motion picture field knows for a certainty what’s going to work. Every time out it’s a guess and, if you’re lucky, an educated one.” With all that in mind, and judging from what made it into the finished films, for this list we focus on 10 almost-great screenplays, what flaws each script has and how, with a few tweaks, they could have been great. -
10 Classic Films That Are Ideologically Inacceptable Today
Favs/dislikes: 1:0. The history of film is the history of mankind from 1895 to the present day. Cinema has documented everything from the palpable and the general (conflicts, geo-political changes, significant events, remarkable destinies) to the impalpable and the intimate (thinking movements, behavioral adjustments, deaths, rebirths and emergences of values). More deeply than finance, more covertly than artistry, it is ideology that was, is and will always be the backbone of cinema. Therefore, it is only natural that films would form an extraordinarily accurate map of the changes that occurred in their makers’ and their audiences’ mentalities. The 20th century has been a period of intense questioning, during which practical philosophies have dislodged one another with stunning rapidity. Here are ten films that illustrate how greatly morals have shifted during this brief lapse of time that is called contemporary period. -
10 Creepiest, Yuckiest, Ickiest Bug Horror Movies
Favs/dislikes: 1:0. Horror movies have a wide, potentially endless range of things that can be manipulated and shaped into terrifying objects, threats, and nightmares. Something that requires very little work on the part of a film/filmmaker to make creepy and disturbing, though, is our innate fear and disgust of bugs. It’s an easy jump from seeing them onscreen to imagining them crawling all over our skin, and horror movies know it. For our look at the ten best examples of bug horror on the big screen, we decided on a single rule: we’re ignoring the fact that spiders aren’t actually bugs. I know, we’re terrible. It’s not like we went nuts with it, though, as spiders only headline two of the ten films. Three feature ants, three are about roaches, one squirts worms in your eyes, and one of them stars carnivorous slugs. Which reminds me, neither worms nor slugs are bugs either. Anyway… for the duration of this post, let’s just remember that spiders — and worms and slugs — are “bugs.” Now please join me and the crew (Chris Coffel, Valerie Ettenhofer, Kieran Fisher, Brad Gullickson, Meg Shields, Anna Swanson, Jacob Trussell) as we point our magnifying glass towards ten of the best bug horror movies! -
10 great body horror films
Favs/dislikes: 1:0. “The term ‘biological horror,’” David Cronenberg once said, “really refers to the fact that my films are very body-conscious. They’re very conscious of physical existence as a living organism, rather than other horror films or science-fiction films which are very technologically oriented, or concerned with the supernatural, and in that sense are very disembodied.” As the Canadian maestro returns to the big screen with Crimes of the Future (2022), a film pitched in the press – if not by its director, who has long shied away from applying the term to his own work – as a return to the realms of ‘body’ or ‘biological’ horror, we’re taking a look back at some great films that deal in the treacheries of the flesh. Referring to a distinct subgenre in horror cinema that variously trades in aberration, mutation, transformation and a loss of conscious control over the human body – often accompanied by generous volumes of squicky corporeal trauma – body horror usually requires a certain level of tolerance for on-screen yucks. The genesis of the term itself can be traced back to a 1983 essay by the Australian academic Philip Brophy – who would go on to practise what he preached by directing the 1993 feature Body Melt – but its conceptual tropes stretch all the way back into the realms of gothic literature. While biological horror movies offer boundless opportunities for the greatest FX artists in the business to let their imaginations run wild, the subgenre has long proved fertile ground for its political potential, where questions of bodily integrity and autonomy are inherently foregrounded. Here are 10 greats that you might not want to watch on a full stomach. -
10 great films about making a fresh start
Favs/dislikes: 1:0. Each new year comes with tantalising scope for self reinvention. The turn of the calendar presents an illusory milestone that lures many of us into hoping we can somehow force a step-change in our character or situation that will bring us closer to being the person we really want to be. Yet, however big or small the resolutions we make for ourselves, the change is fraught with the pitfalls of simply relaxing back into the person it’s always been easy to be – with the same shortcomings and neuroses. In films, turning over a new leaf comes so much easier. All the same pitfalls and setbacks are there, of course, but the arc of a satisfying story depends on forward movement and the sense that the characters are ending in a different place from where they began. Hopes can and will be fulfilled. In Eric Rohmer’s spellbinding 1986 film The Green Ray, change comes not in January but at the height of summer. Parisian secretary Delphine (Marie Rivière) has been dumped by her boyfriend just prior to holiday season. Her plans abandoned, she flits from one destination to another, joining friends, striking off on her own – but it seems there’s nothing anyone can do to awaken her from her sadness and sense of isolation. It’s easy to take against Delphine. She’s self-absorbed and prickly to engage with – refusing to do much to help her situation. But therein lies the truthfulness of her character. Despondency makes a mountain of starting over and pulling your own socks up. Yet, while completely naturalistic in its 16mm filming and improvised acting, there’s a sublime, almost mystical feel to Rohmer’s film. It’s something about the wind in the trees, and the playing cards that Delphine finds from time to time abandoned in the street. And hope will come in the strangest place: in an overheard conversation about an optical illusion (the ‘green ray’ of the title) which – on rare occasions – can be glimpsed as the sun sets over the sea. When, like Rohmer’s heroine, you need inspiration for taking a new step, these 10 films offer 10 possible paths to fresh horizons. -
10 great films about recluses
Favs/dislikes: 1:0. From the broody loners of gothic literature to the rugged pioneers of survivalist documentaries, recluses have long been a source of fascination for artists and audiences alike. We’ve all heaved a sigh of relief after escaping tedious company, but to leave society forever? Humans are fundamentally pack animals, so when one separates from the herd and wanders off, we can’t help but plumb the depths of their psyche for answers. Defining a recluse isn’t as straightforward as it seems. It’s a person who lives a solitary existence, of course, but there also needs to be an element of self-determination, otherwise any old prisoner will do. Dae-su Oh in Oldboy (2004)? Prisoner. Carol in Repulsion (1965)? Recluse. The incarcerated children in Dogtooth (2009)? Prisoners. Miss Havisham of Great Expectations? Recluse. You get the idea. Prisoners and recluses have very different motivations and mindsets; conflating the two would be a mistake. Marie Lidén’s new documentary Electric Malady is about William, a man who believes modern life – and specifically, electricity – is making him ill, and his only option for survival is to live in a log cabin deep in the Swedish woods. Whether or not William’s electrosensitivity is real or psychosomatic (something Lindén tactfully explores in the documentary), his pain is real. It’s a key theme among the films on this list, many of which feature recluses whose impetus is a push from society, rather than a pull towards solitude. -
10 Great Movies That Are Difficult To Discuss
Favs/dislikes: 1:0. Film is a delicate art form. It can be used as a tool for entertainment, spawning massive box office franchises that earn billions of dollars. While other films are made to be social commentary, looking at the fringes of human existence to reflect on mankind. Film is one of those rare forms of artistic expression that can be crowd pleasing and thought-provoking within the same spectrum. Through over 100 years of moviemaking, the process has matured and changed, creating ideals on form and element that are taught at a mature academic level. Cinema has a rich history. There have been triumphs and failures, but above all there has been difficulty. Whether from controversy, density, or confusion, film can be astoundingly polarizing to their audience. History’s reflection on cinema can be very hostile. Films can be loved in their time, then despised as they are discussed throughout time. Whether the cultural and political consciousness has altered or the content has been deemed “offensive”, filmmakers have been persecuted and misunderstood for their creations. Filmmakers can challenge audiences’ perceptions down to very soul. This can result in abstract or dense pieces that could take years for adequate reflection. Politics change, national feelings change, and storytelling can develop, but these films have found themselves at a crossroad that make them a great challenge. -
10 Great Movies That Explore Human Alienation
Favs/dislikes: 1:0. Some of the best movies ever made have been inspired by loneliness and isolation. There is still something to be said for the film that shines a light on the theme of alienation. By returning to this timeless concept, and taking a look at all the different lonely characters in film, there are lessons to be learned for our own lives. Here are 10 of the best films that explore human alienation. -
10 Great Movies You Need To See To Really Understand BDSM
Favs/dislikes: 1:0. When most people think of “BDSM”, they might immediately have an idea in mind about what it means. In the world of film, however, BDSM isn’t all whips and chains. Relationships can be depicted in different ways that are not heteronormative, often to great results. Before the recent popularizing of Fifty Shades of Grey, there were several other films that made use of nontraditional relationships. This list includes a few of the best to tackle to subject successfully. -
10 great puzzle films
Favs/dislikes: 1:0. “What’s in the box?” wails Brad Pitt’s panicked detective to Kevin Spacey’s implacable serial killer at the end of David Fincher’s pitch-black thriller Se7en (1995). Soon enough Pitt, and the audience, learn the horrific truth about Spacey’s special delivery. It’s testament to the enduring power of mysteries – the who-, why- and how-dunnits – that we always need to know, no matter how awful the solution might be. And those that can still pull one over on game and experienced armchair sleuths – Rian Johnson’s Knives Out (2019) and its upcoming sequel are fine recent examples – are valuable indeed. Of course, those are just one type of ‘puzzle’ movie. Some don’t so much contain a riddle to solve as much as the film itself is constructed as an enigma that defies easy answers, or any definite answer at all. This could be the interlocking double timeframes of Christopher Nolan’s Memento (2000), which tries to replicate its amnesiac protagonist’s short-term memory lapses. Or the playful narrative diversions and roundelay of shifting identities in certain Jacques Rivette films. Peter Greenaway’s breakthrough feature, The Draughtsman’s Contract (1982), appeared 40 years ago and immediately put its own deft, acerbic headspin on British period films. It tells of the titular, entitled 17th-century draughtsman hired to make 12 drawings of a landowner’s country estate by his wife. In return, and in addition to his fee, she will satisfy his pleasures. But that’s only the start of a series of covert transactions, concealed vantage points and hidden motivations to be teased out by the viewer from Greenaway’s precise tableaux. The director would go on to make even more oblique, enigmatic work (often structured around a particular key or code), one of which features below in a selection of cinema’s most beautifully, often hypnotically, baffling brainteasers. -
10 great walking films
Favs/dislikes: 1:0. Cinema loves journeys. As a structuring tool, creating a long or short journey is one of the commonest occurrences in film; one that provides a physical beginning and end to a narrative. While a multitude of directors and genres have toyed with the potential mapping various journeys via transport – the road movie in particular – there’s something far more dramatic in showing characters that determinedly walk to where they want to go. Whether using it as a visual tool, just as British director Alan Clarke did in his many famed walking shots, or building whole narratives around a walk, as in many films by French directors Éric Rohmer and Agnès Varda, walking has always been a powerful way to not simply explore place and geography but also to explore character. Considering the slow pace, at least in comparison to other possible methods of getting from A to B, walking can make for surprisingly powerful and dramatic visuals on screen, whether traipsing across dangerous industrial zones, guarded national borders or simply down the busy street of a capital city. As the new British comedy The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry sends Jim Broadbent on an epic traipse from Devon to Berwick-upon-Tweed, here are 10 films it follows in footsteps. -
10 Movies From The 2010s With The Best Dialogue
Favs/dislikes: 1:0. We all know the show “don’t tell” rule when it comes to film. However, certain filmmakers and films use dialogue so specifically that it creates its own poetry. These words tie into the visuals, become a motif for a character, or truly drive the story. Here are the best films of the decade that use dialogue to the fullest. -
14 of the best horror movies for testing surround sound
Favs/dislikes: 1:0. While the nostalgia of mono audio and grainy low-budget pictures may be a part of the attraction of the genre's history, it pays for today’s horror films (and the increasing number of restorations) to look and sound their best. After all, why wouldn't you want to feel like you’re in an old, creepy haunted house? With the lights off... stood in silence... waiting for a killer to strike? We've rounded up 14 (because 13 would have been just too meta) of the best horror movies with soundtracks dead-certain to send shivers down your spine and also give your surround sound system a run for its money. Just don't throw a remote control at it out of fear. Lights down, volume up, baseball bat on standby... -
15 Best Horror Movies Set In The Woods
Favs/dislikes: 1:0. As simple a setting as it may seem, woodlands and forests are one of the most effective backdrops for horror stories, and, in the case of movies, they can sometimes have a menacing natural beauty to them. Horror movies set in the woods also tend to be lower budget features, reducing studio oversight and freeing filmmakers to be more provocative, shocking, and experimental with their ideas. Some of the most well-known horror movies set in the woods are counted as some of the best horror movies of all time, they span various distinct sub-genres of horror and can boast some of the finest casts and memorable characters within the genre. From cult slasher favorites to critically acclaimed modern classics, the best horror movies set in the woods demonstrate how one genre can take one type of location and use it in so many different and effective ways. Whether searching for gore, ghosts, monsters, psychological horror, or even post-apocalyptic survival horror, genre fans are spoiled for choice when it comes to these films. Many of the best horror movies set in the woods are also available on free streaming services, meaning that–truly–anyone can enjoy them if they're prepared for plenty of eerie scares. -
15 Brilliant Flashback Examples for Screenwriters and Filmmakers
Favs/dislikes: 1:0. It’s almost hard to think of a modern film that doesn’t have a flashback example somewhere within it. Of course, that’s not strictly true. But it is true that flashbacks are a key part of a screenwriting arsenal. Modern film and TV is full of flashback examples. Screenwriters and filmmakers will use them for a variety of reasons. Often it will be expositional, often it will be to add dynamism. As audiences, we can usually tell when a flashback feels contrived or when it feels genuine and effective. For a screenwriter, using flashbacks can be a very tempting way of making a screenplay more dynamic. But it’s important to hone in on why you are using a flashback. Don’t use a flashback to just remind the audience of something they have already seen. Or if you do this proceed with caution. Know that you could frustrate your audience by patronising them, assuming they won’t be able to remember information and that you need to remind them of it. Use a flashback to add to the story rather than to run along side it. In this article, we’re not going to look necessarily at movies that are entirely built around flashbacks or told from the perspective of a flashback (like Memento, Forest Gump or Titanic for example). Instead, we will look at flashback examples that feature briefly or intermittently throughout a screenplay. They might just feature once, or they might crop up a couple of times. Furthermore, what flashback examples are innovative in how they use flashback? Overall, we’ll demonstrate how best to use flashbacks to add to and accentuate your story. -
15 Great Movies About Police Corruption That Are Worth Watching
Favs/dislikes: 1:0. The thin blue line has been featured time and time again throughout cinema history. From hardboiled detective thrillers to intense character studies, corrupt police officers have been a fixture in movies. Sometimes we may root for the hero, the Boy Scout, the white knight who swoops in to clean up the crooked police department but there are those rare instances where we find ourselves on the other side of the line wanting the bad cop to get away. There is something to be said about being bound by an oath or code that cements the ties between individuals. They are sworn to protect civilians but also adhere to an unspoken bond to protect each other, even when they’re on the take. Films about police work show us the behind the scene footage we may not get to see in real life. It’s even more fascinating to see the inner workings of a cop operating outside the law. There are always means to an end, however, and sometimes these films feature cops who may have been pushed into these circumstances. Other times, the corrupt cop is an absolute monster who loves nothing more than to hurt innocent people. From corrupt lone wolves to systemic level corruption, crooked cop thrillers/dramas have set the scene for some intense films. -
20 Best Horror Scripts to Download and Read for Free
Favs/dislikes: 1:0. 20 horror scripts to download and take your horror writing to the next level. -
20 Black and White Films With The Most Beautiful Widescreen Composition
Favs/dislikes: 1:0. There is nothing new under the sun and little that has ever been completely new in the cinematic world, either. The widescreen era in the motion picture world began in the early 1950s with the emergence of Cinerama and Cinemascope. These processes were introduced in an effort to lure newly converted TV fans back to the theaters by virtue of changing the shape of the motion picture screen from the long used “Academy Format”, which used a ratio of 4:3 to one of 2:35 to 1 or even wider. In truth, this type of process had been in existence since the late silent era and Fox Films and a few independent producers had tried to introduce it into American filmmaking in the early 1930s. However, first depression then global world events prevented the introduction of anything more that was new and elaborate in the world of motion picture theaters for some two decades. Then came television and the threat it carried to the movie world. In the effort to lure the audiences back, the film companies sought to give the public whatever TV couldn’t offer. Widescreen was certainly something different from TV but so, largely, was something else: color. Though there were experimental color broadcasts from the late 1940s, color on TV wouldn’t come into practical usage until the mid-1960s. Color had been a part of the movie world since the silent era of the 1920s, though not perfected until 1935. However, it was an expensive process and, though bright and radiant, it had the drawback of not being able to achieve the depth of focus and intensity of black and white. Thus, it was largely consigned to musicals, comedies, and period pieces. When widescreen came in, which was a bit costly as well, the film studios largely were of a mind that the high price meant that all widescreen films would also be shot in color in order to increase potential revenue. The problem with this is that some films needed, artistically, to be shot in black and white. Some subjects were far better served by monochrome and the depth of focus and use of light and shadow essential to telling the story correctly. At first it was a hard sell on the part of the director to make black and white filming possible. Fox studio head Darryl Zanuck had gone so far as to declare black and white dead (ironically, he would violate this more than once himself when he went into independent production a few years later). Thankfully, black and white was allowed to be used a number of times until the color era was firmly established in 1968 (the last year the Motion Picture Academy would give out awards in specific black and white craft categories was 1967). Europe and Asia were a bit more lenient in allowing black and white but film makers faced a color challenge there as well. The sad irony is that black and white anamorphic films are among the most aesthetically pleasing of all films, containing both great breath and depth. Following are some fine examples of this. (Note: non-ananamorphic widescreen black and white films such as Touch of Evil, Night of the Hunter, and Psycho are not covered in this article.)
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