Movies, A-Z

Nobody officially “tagged” me for this, but I saw it at Easily Distracted, and it seems like a good post topic for the Friday before Christmas. The idea is to pick one movie title for each letter of the alphabet.

The list below the fold is not an attempt to come up with Great Films for each letter of the alphabet; rather, it’s a list of movies that I liked enough to be willing to watch them again. I’m fully aware that not all of them are cinematic triumphs, but I like them, and that’s what matters here.

  • After Hours A quirky and amusing early Scorsese movie. Alternate choice: The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eight Dimension
  • The Blues Brothers Belushi’s best movie.
  • Casablanca It really is that good. Seasonally appropriate alternative: A Christmas Story.
  • Dr. Strangelove, or How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Bomb Deeply silly, but serious at the same time. Die Hard and The Dark Knight are strong contenders as well.
  • The Empire Strikes Back Far and away the best of the three Star Wars movies.
  • The Fellowship of the Ring OK, maybe I’m cheating by leaving out the series title, but this is outstanding. The ride of the Rohirrim in the third movie is probably the best moment, but this is the best movie.
  • The Great Dictator Chaplin plays Hitler. I watched this for a class, but I still really like it.
  • Hoosiers An absolute must for any hoops junkie.
  • Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade It’s probably not as good a movie as Raiders of the Lost Ark, but it’s a whole lot of fun. And at a better spot in the alphabet.
  • Jaws I’m kind of at a loss when it comes to movies starting with “J.” This is a good piece of work, though.
  • Kung Fu Hustle K is a weak letter, too, but I’m pretty happy with this one. Shaolin Soccer made more sense, but the over-the-top fight scenes in this are hilarious.
  • LA Story Steve Martin’s best movie. Favorite quote: “When I’m around you, I find myself showing off, which is the idiot’s version of being interesting.”
  • Midnight Run I watched this so many times in college, I can just about play it frame by frame in my mind.
  • No Country for Old Men “N” is another weak letter. At least, I’m having a hard time coming up with a better “N” movie. No Way Out, maybe?
  • Ocean’s Eleven The first one with Clooney and Pitt is a nearly perfect caper movie.
  • The Princess Bride Another one I can play frame-by-frame, but would still watch again. Pulp Fiction would be the other obvious choice.
  • Q… I got nothing. Sorry.
  • Reservoir Dogs Since Tarantino got edged out by Wesley and Buttercup, we’ll give this the nod over Raiders of the Lost Ark.
  • The Silence of the Lambs Since George Lucas already got one movie on the list, we’ll give this the nod over Star Wars.
  • Trainspotting Not the romantic movie about heroin that Bob Dole thought, but a good film. Time Bandits would be a fine lighter alternative.
  • Unforgiven Eastwood deconstructs the Western.
  • V… Again, I don’t have much of anything. I’ve only seen bits of V for Vendetta, which looks pretty, but doesn’t make that much sense. I’ve never seen Vertigo.
  • The Wizard of Oz “W” is another tough letter. This is the best I can come up with at the moment.
  • X-Men 2 If I have to have an X, this would be the one.
  • Young Frankenstein Incredibly juvenile, but fun.
  • Z… Again, not a rich letter. The only “Z” movie that I’m sure I’ve seen is probably Zorro, the Gay Blade, which isn’t exactly brilliant.

So, there you go. Feel free to suggest alternatives in the comments, or fill in the gaps in my list.

15 comments

  1. V for Vendetta doesn’t make sense if you only watch parts of it. But I have to say it’s one of the better dystopia movies I’ve seen in a long time (although that might be mainly because I like Natalie Portman).

    And I completely agree with your assessment of Ocean’s Eleven and The Empire Strikes Back.

    I’d go with The Sting for S, personally…but that’s just me!

  2. For the noted tough letters…

    Juno, Kill Bill, No country for old men, Quiz Show, V for Vendetta, Wedding Crashers, X2, Zodiac

  3. Do watch Vertigo — one of Hitchcock’s best.

    For a good Z, another oldie worth seeing is Zorba the Greek with Anthony Quinn.

  4. V for Vendetta doesn’t make sense if you only watch parts of it.

    I’ve read the graphic novel, so I had some idea of what was going on.

    I haven’t seen Juno, Quiz Show, Wedding Crashers, Zodiac, or Zorba the Greek. Kill Bill vol. 1 is great, but somewhat marred by the way the second part falls apart at the end.

  8. One can do this for almost any given decade. For example, throwing in some Sci-Fi TV series and TV movies as needed:

    A: “The Andromeda Strain” (1971), “Alien” (1979), “Altered States” (1980)

    B: “A Boy and His Dog” (1975), “Battlestar Galactica” (1979), “Buck Rogers in the 25th Century” (1979), “Battle Beyond the Stars” (1980)

    C: “A Clockwork Orange” (1971), “Colossus: The Forbin Project” (1970), “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” (1977)

    D: “Demon Seed” (1977)

    E: “Earth 2”, NBC, 1994-1995; “Eerie Indiana”, Fox 1995, revived 1997

    F: “Futureworld (1976), “The Food of the Gods” (1976), “Flash Gordon” (1980)

    G: “Gemini Man”, NBC, 23 Sep 1976-28 Oct 1976

    H: “Hangar 18” (1980)

    I: “Invasion of the Bodysnatchers (1978), “The Island of Dr. Moreau” (1977)

    J: New Adventures of Jonny Quest, partly 3-D computer animated, based on old animated series of Jonny Quest (ABC, 18 Sep 1964-9 Sep 1965); “Jupiter Moon”, British, 1990s

    K: “King Kong” (1976), “Killdozer”, ABC, 1972

    L: “The Land that Time Forgot” (1975), “Lord of the Rings” (1978)

    M: “The Man Who Fell to Earth” (1976), “Mad Max” (1979)

    N: “Night Gallery”, NBC, 16 Dec 1970-12 Aug 1973

    O: “The Omega Man” (1971)

    P: “The People that Time Forgot” (1977), “Parts: The Clonus Horror” (1978)

    Q: “Quark”, NBC, 24 Feb 1978- 14 Apr 1978

    R: “Rollerball” (1975)

    S: “Silent Running” (1972), “Slaughterhouse-Five” (1972), “Sleeper” (1973), “Soylent Green” (1973), “Star Wars” (1977), “Superman: The Movie” (1978)

    T: “THX 1138” (1971), “The Terminal Man” (1974), “Time After Time” (1979)

    U: “UFO”, ITC/Syndicated, Produced 1970 (26 episodes), released Fall 1972; “The UFO Incident”, NBC, 1975

    V: “Vampires”, Fox, Fall 1997

    W: “West World” (1973), “Wizards” (1977), “Watership Down” (1979), “Wonder Woman”, ABC (Dec 1976-July 1977) and CBS (Sep 1977-Sep 1979)

    X: “Xena: Warrior Princess”, “The X-Files”

    Y: “Young Frankenstein” (1974)

    Z: “Zardoz” (1974)

    Yah, okay, I cheated a couple of times — but I cheated fairly, instead of dragging in something really obscure to show off.

  9. Well I was going to do this myself until I saw that you stole my Z punchline with “Zorro: The Gay Blade”. This is one of those movies that was on HBO every 16 hours back in the mid 80s, so I sort of accidentally saw about 30 times when I was an early-teenager. Which means I can still recite various bits of dialogue and stupid jokes.

  10. Although I liked LA Story, I would have to go with Life of Brian or LA Confidential there.

    For M, Miller’s Crossing and for R, Rushmore.

    It’s tough to narrow it down to just one per letter, isn’t it.

  11. Quigley Down Under. I can never turn down a Laura San Giacomo movie. Plus, there’s that guy Tom something in it too…. And it also has Alan Rickman, given you like Die Hard.

  12. Waking Ned Devine. A couple of other good Brit/UK movies: Dog Soldiers, Greenfingers, & The Descent. Actually that’s three.

    Van Helsing is interesting in that it is so over the top. And it has Kate Beckinsale.

    Jurassic Park?

  13. Watch “The Third Man” and get back to me.

    S is really tough. “Sunset Boulevard” also belongs on the list that Jonathan posted, more so than Sleeper (even if I did almost fall out of my seat at times watching it and Young Frankenstein).

    C should include “Catch 22”. It is a brilliantly made version of a brilliant book.

    Now, where do you put “2001, A Space Odyssey”?

  14. J – jumanji
    Z – zathura (virtually a remake of jumanji, but the special effects are cooler).
    N – Night of the Living Dead, Night of the Iguana, Night at the Opera, Night on Earth, etc.
    W – what, no Water World?
    Q – Q&A

  15. Professor Bob Grakal, who’s taught film and televsion besides his usual History and Reading and Baseball, adds an E, I, and Q to my decadal sci-fi list:

    Don’t forget “Earth vs the Flying Saucers” with the tackiest saucers this side on Plan 9… and “Quatermass 2” in which Brian Donlevy has to battle this eco-plasma icky creatures that land on earth via meteors and of course “Invaders from Mars” with the giant aliens with the “zipper” that runs up their sides and the sand that swallows everyone. Great stuff! Happy holidays..

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