100 Reasons Why I Love the Movies

1. The end of any Wes Anderson film where he shows the entire cast in one grand ending scene.

2. “You just shot an unarmed man!” “He should’ve armed himself then.”

3. Watching a film over and over – realizing that I’m not just fascinated by it for seemingly unknown reasons – I’m actually falling in love with it.

4. Jesus Franco’s use of the zoom

5. SAUL!!!

6. Hubcap shaped flying saucers

7. Toshiro Mifune + Akira Kurosawa

8. Well composed cinematography that makes every still shot look great as a stand-alone picture

9. Kermit the Frog riding a bicycle

10. Albert Brooks version of purgatory in DEFENDING YOUR LIFE

11. Indiana Jones brings a pistol to the sword fight

12. The room stretching opening to SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD and how that shot wasn’t CGI

13. The choreography of not only the action but direction and editing of Rieko Ike’s nude sword fight in SEX & FURY

14. Going to an early weekday matinee

15. Ennio Morricone’s score for THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE UGLY

16. Steve McQueen’s car skidding out at the end of the chase in BULLIT

17. “I kick arse for the Lord!”

18. Dirty Harry Callahan lecturing his partner about it being wrong to put ketchup on a hot dog

19. Watching older films on the big screen

20. Quoting PEE WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE like I was still 10-years old

21. Dario Argento use of color in SUSPIRIA

22. Grindhouse Experience/Exploitation Cinema double feature DVD releases with the trailers in-between

23. The intensity of Klaus Kinski

24. Ed Wood Jr. explaining his struggle to make PLAN 9 to Orson Welles in ED WOOD

25. Koryu Lee’s inability to save anyone in any of the SISTER STREET FIGHTER films

26. The use of puppets, stop-motion animation and animatronics instead of CGI

27. When actors learn to play an instrument for a role

28. Getting to see the world after the apocalypse

29. Brendan Gleeson

30. Danny Boyle directing and mastering a film from a different genre every film

31. Science fiction with social commentary

32. Christina Lindberg’s outfit in THRILLER

33. When a truly horrible villain gets the gruesome end they deserve

34. B-Movie/Grindhouse film posters

35. Staying up for hours reworking the story of the STAR WARS prequels with my brother

36. The Hoover family and their VW Bus

37. Morgan Freeman’s narration on THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION

38. Finding out Cate Blanchett actually had a speaking role in HOT FUZZ

39. Meiko Kaji

40. Over-the-top Luc Besson action films

41. Mystery Science Theater 3000 commentary tracks

42. “Know why I know this is a shit idea? Because it’s obviously a shit idea!”

43. Figuring out the film half-way through – and being 100% correct – but loving the ride anyway

44. Rooting for the curmudgeon to change his ways

45. Walking into a movie blind and being surprised

46. Filmmakers who take a bleak premise and make you feel optimistic

47. The fantasy worlds of Jim Henson

48. Godzilla stomping on model buildings

49. The drive-in experience

50. 42nd Street Forever DVD’s – two solid hours of exploitation film trailers

51. Whatever Ripley was singing while putting on her space suit at the end of ALIEN

52. Viggo Mortensen

53. The lost goblin in the hallway in TROLL 2

54. The different angles at which you can watch truly great movies and the different metaphors you can spot

55. Orson Welles smashing through the floor to get the camera angle just right for a shot in CITIZEN KANE

56. “Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, no job is too big, no fee is too big!”

57. When someone talks about an obscure movie – and you look at them and say “Oh yeah! I know that one!”

58. The chess scene in the original THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR

59. Countess Nadina sunbathing

60. BLADE RUNNER’s art direction

61. Terry Gilliam’s imagination

62. The fury of Franco Nero

63. “…I will find you and I will kill you.” … “Good luck.”

64. Watching a film with my father

65. Scarlett Johansson

66. Great performances are never lost

67. Denzel Washington in MAN ON FIRE

68. The mud stacking peasants in MONTY PYTHON’S HOLY GRAIL

69. Overly complicated revenge plots – such as putting a bunch of motherfucking snakes on a motherfucking plane

70. Geum-ja’s pistol

71. The police chief who always curses out the hero cop

72. Weapons hidden in Coffy’s afro

73. The tension built up in the eyes for the duel in the graveyard in THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE UGLY

74. How you never want to be X many days from retirement as a cop

75. How the investigation is more interesting than the crimes in ZODIAC

76. When Lars finally met a real girl

77. Any Pixar feature film

78. Movie premise: A world famous bouncer is recruited to clean up a bar

79. Clint riding into town out of the heat waves of the desert

80. Seeing Chicago all over THE DARK KNIGHT

81. Leaving the audience the build up to but not the answer to the last question before the credits roll

82. “This is my boomstick!”

83. The ZOMBIELAND cameo

84. The way Karl talks

85. John Phillip Law’s laugh in SPACE MUTINY

86. “You’re an inanimate fucking object!”

87. The crowd chanting “Mo cuishle”

88. Lina Romay’s smirk

89. Finally having the answer to who would win in a fight between Freddy & Jason

90. Watching people worse off than you or I make it through

91. Films that could only be made outside of Hollywood

92. Stan Winston’s creature shops

93. Bob Hoskin’s uncomfortable car ride in THE LONG GOOD FRIDAY

94. Danny the Dog

95. Pedro Almodovar’s mother issues make great films

96. After our hero is told by everyone they can’t do it – they do

97. The writing and directing of Tom McCarthy

98. Trying to find meaning in the reason why a certain movie is someone’s favorite…

99. …Trying to figure out the deeper meanings as to why my favorite is my favorite

100. Pressing play on what will soon become one of my favorite films