Yusaku Matsuda's worst movie and Movie Fanatics Top 150 (1)

In my personal promise to watch all Seijun Suzuki movies released on DVD I recently watched Kagero-za, the second in the Taisho Trilogy released by Kino. I am starting to see why Kino did this series, and not Criterion. Despite starring one of my favorite actors from Japan, Yusaku Matsuda, this movie was hard to get into to. The two hour plus runtime is way to long for what Suzuki is trying to accomplish. I will watch the third in the series, but am not too excited about it. It is made 10 years after Kagero-za, so I do have a little faith it will show some improvement.

One of my favorites periodicals, Japan's Cut magazine, recently released their Movie Fanatacs Poll of the Best 150 Movies Made... Over the next couple weeks I will reveal their list, with comments. It seems this list is comprised of movies from all over the world (though the highest non-English movie is number 62), and isn't just a poll of Japanese movie fans, but 100,000 fanatics from all over the world.

Cut Magazine Movie Fanatics Top 150

141-150

150. Blue Velvet (1986) I first saw this when it came out, then again when I was studying the history of motion pictures in college. My professor hated the movie, but, for some reason, felt compelled to show it each year. David Lynch is such a difficult director to comprehend, I think watching a movie like this is required, when he was slightly more accessible. A worthy choice and a good movie.

149. Trainspotting (1996) A great novel with a worthy director and diverse, talented cast should always lead to the result of a movie this good. Unfortunately that isn't always true, but thanks to DVD we can always go back the Trainspotting as one of those quirky, weird, non-linear novels that resulted in a comprehensible, stylish movie, and introduced most of the world to the fantastic Ewan McGregor.

148. Goldfinger - 007 (1964) It's been a few years since I've seen this. To me Bond is Sean Connery, (not the other way around), and this is why. I am looking forward to seeing Daniel Craig tackle the role this year in Casino Royale. He was fantastic in Layer Cake.

147. Good Will Hunting (1997) Did the planets line up right, the stars all fall in place at the right time for Matt Damon and Ben Affleck when the inspiration for this movie hit them? Absolutley, but it is terrific and it works and post-GWH copies have paled in comparison.

146. The Evil Dead (1981) You know, I don't like zombie movies. And I will repeat this sentence more than twice on this list.

145. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) Ang Lee introduces wired kung-fu fighting to the rest of the world. I could forgive it then, but watching this now, the "weightless fight sequences" are distracting. Even Goerge Lucas tries to follow the laws of physics. An otherwise excellent cast and excellent movie.

144. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) Never read it, never saw it. Though I am sure I will someday.

143. Platoon (1986) It's funny, I wasn't allowed in the movie theater in 1986 to see this movie because I was too young. It was the first (and probably last time) I was ever asked for ID to see a movie, despite the fact that every 15-year-old SHOULD have been let in to see it. Now I can tell you that it's a modern classic for a reason.

142. Field of Dreams (1989) America loves Kevin Costner, then hates Kevin Costner, then loves him again. This was made when he was on an upswing. I am not a particular fan of sports movies, including baseball movies, but Field of Dreams and The Natural are two that I can handle.

141. Swingers (1996) Now we are getting to the comedies, and the movies that are truly my personal favorites. Comedy is it's own monster, and a good comedic movie is one that can be watched again and again and gets better and better. Swingers is one of those movies. Jon Favreau is the perfect yang to Vince Vaughn ying. The dialog is natural and believable, and Vince Vaughn has been playing some version of his role in this movie in every movie he has been in since. See the original VV in Swingers.