Die Hard (John McTiernan, 1988)

 Some say that action movies are crappy movies having no brains and no substance at all. I won't argue with the fact that a lot of action movies are incredibly moronic, but it is a fact that there are some which are unbelievably fun to watch. I first saw Die Hard at an open theater in the year 1988. I then rewatched the movie numerous times. I can say that although the movie is at moments preposterous is so utterly entertaining and fun that you forget everything else. I'm not sure what is the reason for being such a nice movie, although I definitely believe that Bruce Willis and the idea with the skyscraper have surely played an important role. You see sometimes when you're trying to use your brain to explain why you liked something you're losing the whole point. Die Hard might be a silly movie, but inside its silliness it's a great film. Who can really forget the amazing suspense of that film?

Although there are a lot of things that work in that movie I believe that the number one factor for its success is the villain. Played by the miraculous actor Alan Rickman, this figure, an arrogant sadist, is something much more than a puppet villain in this movie, is definitely the soul of the film. Fascinating action scenes, hidden humor, maliciousness, breathtaking moments, Die Hard has everything that an action film should have. It's one of the guilty pleasures that you love to watch every now and then, just to remind yourself that action has a clear and undeniable reason for existing as a genre. I think that of the numerous action movies that I have seen in my life, I put Die Hard among the highest positions. And I do that because it's a movie that I found myself taking it with me after the film finished.    

Platoon (Oliver Stone, 1986)

 

Although I believe that the best Vietnam war movie is Born On The Fourth Of July by the same director, I find Platoon to be a movie that set the ground for Vietnam war movies. The thing that stays with the viewer mostly after the film ends is the futility of this war. You see a whole movie about war at the Vietnamese jungle and you understand in the end that all this was for nothing. There was no real enemy in this war. Meaning that the Americans invented an enemy and called it Vietnam. It's very interesting to see the two sides of the same coin actually, the one being the character of Tom Berenger, a warlike sadist asshole and the other, the character of Willem Dafoe, an idealist soldier who has stopped believing in this war anymore. The guy who will fight till the end no matter if there is no real, fucking cause and the guy who will take his time and think of what he is really doing there. 

Platoon is without a doubt, realistic and bold. You have, at the same time, a bond with these men and you understand the mistake of their actions. Doomed to fight a war that it's not their own, because in reality there is no war there, only the anti-communist hysteria of America that led them there, you feel that these people are martyrs without a noble cause. What I got from the movie, finally, is that there is no war that is been played nicely. War is and will always be a seriously and destructively dirty thing. The first time that I saw Platoon I was really young and although I couldn't get the political effect of the movie, I still got the human aspect of the film. These people were send to be butchered there and there was no real reason for that. A gigantic waste was that war and Platoon shows that not by preaching anything, but by showing the reality of the thing. 

Radio Days (Woody Allen, 1987)

 

Apart from a great comedian, Woody Allen is also a great filmmaker. The way that he treats atmosphere and taste in his movies is, many times, absolutely phenomenal. Many unfortunately stay only to his jokes, but I assure that there is more in Woody than simple laughter. Radio Days is a nostalgic, retro trip to the radio days of the late 30s and 40s. The way that Woody treats this period is arguably astonishing. Although the movie is incredibly funny, there is another quality in the film that of the charm of the image and the tone. The frames and the scenes, beautifully carved, have an inner power, an outstanding allure that give to the film a warm smell, producing a cozy feeling to the viewer. Radio Days might be one of the most brilliant selections for times that you want to really feel something old and aesthetically satisfactory. The quality of the movie is so undeniably rich, so full of smells, images and emotions that after the movie you find yourself having that somehow stupid smile on your face like someone has given you back the toy that you had when you were little. 

Radio Days is altogether a triumph of beauty. It's not only the beauty of the actual filmic synthesis, but also is the beauty of the emotion that follows it. Woody makes films that aim for the heart that is unquestionably true. Finding yourself "trapped" within that family and their radio selections is something that makes you grow as a creature of feeling. And they are those feelings unbelievably strong, that Woody knows so well to produce. They are those feelings astonishingly exhilarating, that emerge from the film and they strike you cold dead and you find yourself being reborn again after the end of the movie. Radio Days is a moment in the endless filmography of Woody that marks the time when the American director took out all of his love for existence. Because the film has that universal quality inside of it. It speaks not only about the radio, not only about times that have passed, but most of all about humans and their deeds to this strange place that is called earth. 

Black Sunday (Mario Bava, 1960)

 Horror in the older days was all about atmosphere and not gore or scare that makes you lose your sleep for a fucking week afterwards. I never enjoyed to be brutalized by horror movies, that's why most contemporary horror films are not my cup of tee. I belong to the old days. 60s, 70s and 80s are my time. Black Sunday by Mario Bava is a movie that walks like a breath of poisonous and destructive air. The fog, the night, the coach, the castle, the people. All of them walk a road that is most mesmerizing in a way that you feel that you are living in a fairy tale as long as the film runs. A fairy tale that instead of princesses and fairies, has vampires who rise from their grave, bats, coffins, gloomy atmosphere and genuine scare. The flavor that the great Italian director put in his movie is so damn penetrating that you're left without words with eyes stuck to the screen waiting eagerly for the next old school shock scene. And that shock doesn't derive from backets of blood, but from things that live and lurk in the fucking darkness. 

Black Sunday is a movie that lives and breathes inside you after the film finishes. It has that strange agenda where scenes and images from the movie pop up in your brain like ads on the internet and make you shiver like a child that was taken out of the pool on a winter day. Black Sunday is old, but it was old even the day it was shot. It has that ancient, foggy, dusty smell all over that movie. It begins from the fire that is burning in that fireplace of that huge and scary castle and ends up in the tomb where the vampire was buried in the opening scene. I can easily say that this movie is for people who drink their whiskey malt. It's for people with long cigars, that enjoy the fireplace on a cold winter night. It's for people who know the word "finesse" like they know their name. Black Sunday is a movie that will live forever, because it wasn't made in 1960, but it was forged in the same place that the one ring from Lord Of The Rings was forged. Its power is endless.  

Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, 2001)

 

This movie continues to be one of the most famous riddles in modern cinema. There were many who said that finally didn't like the movie because they couldn't understand what the fuck was happening in there. And although the movie can be explained as a normal story that is been presented in the most unorthodox and surreal way, the most important thing of the movie is not to understand but to feel, finally. Mulholland Drive is a movie that can be sensed for its fragile and together raw power. The one moment is violent and scary and the other is sweet and tender. The game that it plays with the viewer, that continuous change of mood, where you don't know what is coming next, adds to the film's mysterious and mystic agenda. Mulholland Drive is a profound and unique filmic journey that can be understood only through the heart of the viewer. It's what you sense and then understand that matters here.

I have seen Mulholland Drive numerous times as I am a big fan of the movie and of David Lynch's cinema. I have to say that every time that I watch that movie I sense something knew and different. It's like every time I see a new movie. And because of the highly symbolical story and the scattered plot you feel that you are been taken to a place where mysterious deeds are taking place and you are standing in the middle utterly baffled and bewildered. But this is all part of a higher plan from the great American creator of the dreamy surrealism. The film deliberately make you feel that way in order for the trip of the film to be felt in a higher volume and level. If this movie was linear and easily understood it would have been robbed of all its miraculous potential and charm. Mulholland Drive is a difficult movie to watch and follow, but I think that the thing that it leaves in your soul is quite a present for your trouble. One of the best American movies of the 21st century. 

MaXXXine (Ti West, 2024)

 

I have said it many times that most of the movies which have something to say, rely heavily on style and flavor. MaXXXine is a horror movie taking place in the 80s, the third installment in Ti West's X film series, and it is doing a truly wonderful work in depicting reality at this particular decade. The film as a story is quite promising and the twist in the end is totally creative, but I think that the most important aspect of the movie and its success is its smell. From VHS tapes to neon light signs the filmic world of MaXXXine is one to be adored. The dive that you take back in time and if are a guy like me who was a kid in the 80s, you feel that you are thrown in a wonderland where everything seems so glossy and shiny and altogether deeply charming. MaXXXine has definitely the brains for the style that it offers. It has that certain something that makes the movie a retro gem, a travel "back to the future".

As you find yourself attached to the film's suspenseful story, you think that the filmic environment is another character. The 80s element in this movie plays such an important role that you could watch the movie run for three fucking hours if it was possible. You rarely find films that talk about the past and have such a thorough depiction of the time that they are referring. I could say that the movie is at times much better even than movies that were actually shot in the 80s. The touch of the movie is so deeply realistic and fantasizing at the same time that you are left absolutely speechless by it. I can say easily that this is the way that horror films should work. This is the way that a real addictive movie should be made. With a strong feeling and smell of the set and environment and with a strong and promising premise. That's the combination that makes great movies. That is why Ti West is one of the greatest horror filmmakers of our time. 

 

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Jim Sharman, 1975)

 

Rocky Horror Picture Show was one of those cult classics that I had never seen. It took me many years to finally decide to watch it. Although I was genuinely interested for the movie, there was something that was holding me back. And fact is that after I saw it, I understood my reluctance to watch it. The movie has most certainly some interesting elements and it carries a craziness that is deeply authentic, but is an exhausting movie, hands down. And the reason for being an exhausting movie are the songs. I understand a movie to be a musical, a genre that I never loved, but song after song after song gets unbelievably tedious and tiresome. A movie is more than anything a prose, a film. When you strip your movie almost completely of dialogue and you're left with a continuous parade of interesting maybe, but boring nevertheless, songs the movie is robbed of its potential charm.

And of course that is a shame because the set and the costumes are fabulous, incredibly creative and fantasizing, the performances are of high quality and the general atmosphere of the movie speaks about a real transgressive story. If that movie was a normal comedy horror movie and not musical or maybe a musical but with half the songs it would have been a brilliant film. I understand deeply the need to make a different sarcastic musical, but you must think of the audience also, because they suffer with this movie and its endless singing. There are so many songs in that film that near the end I wasn't even paying real attention to the film anymore. I was so genuinely disturbed by the la la la that I wanted the film to finally end and be on my way. This obsession to the film's songs makes the movie to look dated even by musical standards. Cult movie for sure, but for people with a lot of patience I must say.