Miami Vice is a true hidden gem. Not many acknowledge its excellence. Well done for including it, David.

The only two films so far that are likely to make my list are Pride & Prejudice and High Fidelity. High Fidelity is very well written and very entertaining. Though it may not make my list, I admit that The Blair Witch Project freaked me out the first time I saw it. *shudders* It helped in freaking me out that when I got home from the midnight show of that movie, when I arrived home, I had to traverse (sprint through) 20 feet of darkness to the back door and then upon entering the house, had to go downstairs to the basement where my bedroom was. Needless to say, I was frozen between the darkness behind me and the unknown at the bottom of the stairs...

Collateral and Heat are better, sure, but Miami Vice is still a modern great. It doesn't say anywhere that you can only like two Mann films, you know. You can like all three.

I was bored to death by Miami Vice. I vaguely remember a few good scenes near the end though.

Love the inclusion of Miami Vice,

I think our love for it may, in some way, be propelled by the lukewarm reception to it from everyone else. It's a great film and deserves more of a mention than most other films get, especially in 2006, a weak year.

Miami Vice is not the highest Mann film on my list.

I do slightly prefer it to Collateral, though.

Tut tut.

We all know that Heat will feature on your Top 20. Rightly so.

Yep algren's right. All this years and you still don't know that who shall not be named very well, lol.

60. The Tales of Hoffmann (1951) - One of film history's greatest duos, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger released a number of fine films, including The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp and The Red Shoes, but my favorite of their shared oeuvre is this enchanting and unequaled cinematic opera and love story, an imaginative synthesis of dance, music, colorful production design, and photography as graceful as it is precise. And I am a near total uncultured swine when it comes to opera, so do not shy away from this film presuming it is only for aficionados and frequent visitors to the Metropolitan Opera.



59. Sleepy Hollow (1999) - Despite a few recent failures and lapses in judgment, I am a fan of Tim Burton. His films, both in their Gothic aesthetic and their melancholy understanding of the psychology of the outsider, influenced me a great deal as a child and teenager, and my favorite among them is this gorgeous and inventive adaptation of the iconic Washington Irving short story. In a neat twist, this version imagines Ichabod Crane as a Sir Arthur Conan Doyle style detective and early advocate of forensic science sent to to the title hamlet to investigate a series of murders by beheading.



58. The Piano (1993) - A mute pianist and her precocious daughter find themselves spirited to wild New Zealand where she is to wed a land baron she does not know. An already uncomfortable situation is complicated further when she falls for another man, one who lives more in tune with the foreign land's native people. Every element here is perfect, from the poignant performances (in the lead role, Holly Hunter conveys so much with just her eyes and physical gestures) to the way the untamed environment reflects the tempestuous interior lives and desires of the characters.



57. Children of Men (2006) - For an unexplained reason, humanity has lost the ability to procreate and now must wrestle with mortality as, with each new death, our species moves closer to extinction. This end-of-the-world conceit is the ground upon which an invigorating and provocative chase film with contemporary political overtones is constructed. The final 30 minutes, including a race through urban-warfare chaos presented in real time in a fluid continuous shot, must be the type of experience critics and scholars have in mind when they utilize the phrase "pure cinema."



56. City Lights (1931) - Charles Chaplin is a cinematic titan among cinematic titans, of course, and I, along with many others, consider this film his masterpiece. Not for the first time, he plays the role of the tramp, a traveling hobo who here falls in love with a blind girl and moves in and out of the life of a wealthy, volatile alcoholic. The film exudes a certain pure humanity and ends on an ambiguous grace note which has not lost one iota of power eight decades later. Another fantastic moment is an exciting set piece which finds the tramp entered, in an improbable and playful twist, in a boxing match, an early and definitive example of an action and stunt sequence.

Sleepy Hollow yo

I saw Sleepy Hollow so many times in theatres. I bought the toys, ha. I was obsessed with it when I was 9/10, and it still holds up.

Still only 1 match, but at least he mentioned the good Carter. I like the mention of the movie with Pierce Brosnan. Miami Vice was ok, but inferior to Heat, Insider, Collateral, Mohicans or Manhunter. On par with Thief I would say. Ever seen The Keep?

Caine during the Ipcress File, Funeral in Berlin, Get Carter, Black Windmill period was The Man.

Yes, I have seen The Keep. It is flawed, but I dig the concept and also the atmosphere Mann creates.

55. Forbidden Games (1952) - I am not sure any film captures the destructive tragedy of war as directly and with as much power as this intimate French drama. The film focuses on a small girl whose parents and pet dog die in a bombing during the Second World War. She is then adopted by a farming family and befriends one of their sons. Together, the two children cope with their hard-to-articulate fear and grief with macabre games, including holding funerals for small animals. The authenticity and depth of the children's performances is almost startling.



54. Frenzy (1972) - The penultimate feature by Master of Suspense Alfred Hitchcock is my second favorite of his films and without a shadow of a doubt his most undervalued. Tense and violent, but also laced with undeniable humor, the film finds the mythic director returning to his homeland of England to tell a story with recognizable suspense elements, including the frustration of a falsely indicted man and a disturbed serial murderer on the loose, with a renewed vitality and grit.



53. Jackie Brown (1997) - The best film writer/director Quentin Tarantino has released to date, this Elmore Leonard adaptation includes the flourishes we have come to expect from Tarantino, including actors and visual ideas drawn from the African American exploitation cinema of the 1970s, but is also his most mature and moving picture to date. Beneath the mile-a-minute, profane dialogue and criminal activity lies a touching story of two older people bored with their lives who find and revitalize each other before sadly parting ways. The subtle and tender interaction of Pam Grier and Robert Forster lifts and enriches the soul.



52. The Sting (1973) - The pairing, Paul Newman and Robert Redford, is so iconic and so spot-on, one can almost forget they only made two films together. Of the two, both top-notch, I prefer The Sting by a hair. It is a period crime comedy which achieves a great deal without once sacrificing its light-as-a-feather charm. And as is always the case with the greatest confidence-artist stories, every tension and thread comes together just so, pleasing and surprising the audience and inviting, or even demanding, repeat viewings. Studios today should release this type of film, as smart and mature as it is purely and unashamedly escapist, more often.



51. The Company of Wolves (1984) - The stories of Angela Carter from which this film is adapted dive headfirst into the sexual undertones of the fairy tales we hear again and again growing up, including Red Riding Hood and her masculine wolf foe, exploring their psychological dimensions and indulging their more violent inclinations. A romantic director with a taste for the ghastly and a stylist of the highest order, Neil Jordan turns Carter's words into an eerie and luxuriant film which nearly perfectly functions with the quote-unquote logic of a dream (or nightmare).

Company of Wolves is horrible.

Yo momma.

Jacky Brown!

fuck the piano, downright offensive piece of shit.

but children of men is good.

Well I guess I underestimated the amount of movies I'd like on here. It's not as edgy and shocking as I'd expected. Which is a good thing, it makes you more human. I had a feeling Jackie Brown would be your favorite QT movie. I think me and you are the only ones representing Mr. Chris Tucker.

50. Le cercle rouge (1970) - Known best as one of France's finest directors, with a particular ability to tell icy and minimalist gangster stories, Jean-Pierre Melville led an interesting life, naming himself after the larger-than-life American author and fighting with the French Resistance before the start of his cinematic career. Among his many fine films, my preference is one of his later releases, Le cercle rouge, a deliberate and methodical heist chronicle concerned with the isolation and distrust required of thieves and the policemen who chase them. The fateful heist to which much of the film slowly builds is an extended set piece shot through with armrest-clenching tension.



49. Before Sunset (2004) - Who could have expected Before Sunrise, a charming romantic drama which proved a minor art-house hit in the mid-1990s, to receive a sequel almost a decade later? The unusual idea, however, proves rewarding beyond belief, giving the actors and director a chance to return to their shared creative space as different people, changed and hardened and inspired by years of further life experience. The result is a bewitching romantic fantasy (soul mates who lost hold of one another reunited in Paris!) which also functions as a plaintive meditation on aging, regret, and second chances. Before Sunrise is an earnest and idealistic gem. Before Midnight is brutal and courageous. Both are essential, but I believe the second film is this improbable franchise's definitive statement.



48. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) - As the flower-power uplift of the sixties fades and gives way to a more guarded and vicious era, influential renegade journalist Hunter S. Thompson ("Raoul") and his unstable Samoan lawyer speed toward Sin City in a rented car weighed down with an extreme amount of alcohol and drugs. Their aim, in theory at least, is to cover an upcoming motorcycle race, but the trip descends into a psychedelic whirlwind which also reflects and reveals the heart of a nation during a time of extreme cultural, political, and social upheaval. Many said the Thompson text could not be filmed. They simply did not possess the requisite level of bravery and imagination. "This is bat country!"



47. Heaven's Gate (1980) - It can be tempting, for those in the media in particular, to conflate a film's financial performance and its artistic merit. Heaven's Gate was an enormous dud. More than any other single film, it ended a period in which mainstream studios gave almost complete creative control, and large budgets, to up-and-coming directors labeled visionaries. It forever stunted the previously promising film career of country-music singer/songwriter Kris Kristofferson. But, damn it, it is still great. An ambitious Western, the story turns on an Ivy League graduate who goes west as a federal marshal and becomes involved in a war waged by land barons, immigrants, and ranchers. Both honoring and subverting its genre, the long film is exciting, majestic, sensual, perhaps a tad indulgent (or mad), and very satisfying.



46. The Lion in Winter (1968) - Legends both, Katharine Hepburn and Peter O'Toole deliver the finest performances of their prestigious careers in this absorbing and sharp adaptation of the James Goldman play of the same name. Set in medieval France, the film casts O'Toole as Henry II of England, feuding with his estranged and ambitious wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, over wealth, power, and legacy alongside their three sons. Here is a film which is perfectly acted and overflowing with rich dialogue and fascinating characters in conflict and crisis.

When I look at David's list, all I can think is "I need to be downloading me some movies".

Before Sunset is awesome, and both it and Before Sunrise will likely be on my list once it's finished. I haven't seen Before Midnight yet, but that could get on too if it's anywhere close to as great as the other two.

Love the inclusion of Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas. Probably won't make my top 100, but I really enjoyed it.

This is a clear example of the "being different for the sake of being different" movement.

You're probably right, but isn't it better than liking Britney Spears?