#39 The General - they're talking about a train...

1926. dir. Clyde Bruckman and Buster Keaton, starring Buster Keaton, Marion Mack.

Seen it before? No.

They made this movie when my lola was about 8 or 9 years old...Buster Keaton wasn't the only star of the film...the trains should have had screen credits as well...The General, the Texas, and one other which I can't remember, though historically speaking the train was named "The Yonah."

The music (added in 2003) was actually not so bad but was too comical (yes, I realize this movie is a comedy - you'll have to see for yourself the physical comedy endured - most likely - by Keaton, as I imagine stunt doubles weren't something you saw...though that's not what Singin' in the Rain was touting).

How fortunate and unfortunate for Johnny (Keaton's character) not to have been told the reason why he wasn't accepted as an enlisted serviceman. Unfortunate for Johnny because his love refused to acknowledge him - thinking he was a coward for not enlisting when it wasn't the case...and Fortunate for the South because Johnny was able to intercept the plans of the Union and save the train lines for the Confederacy.

Daniel hated the trains getting used inappropriately. The scene when the bridge exploded was probably the scene he hated the most...and apparently it was the most expensive part of any film in that era...

Would I see it again? I probably will if Daniel has anything to say about it.
Would I own it? Nah

#38 Dial M For Murder - or screw it up and get caught

1954. dir. Alfred Hitchcock, starring Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, Robert Cummings, John Williams.

Seen it before? No.

It's actually rather brilliant. Get some random person to kill your spouse and if that fails frame your spouse for the murder...but don't do it if she has a mystery writer for a boyfriend...cause by golly he'll figure it out!

Everything sounded perfect at the beginning but the whole time I was rooting for Tony Wendice to get what was coming to him. Grace Kelly shouldn't have had to go through that...and Kudos to Hitchcock for writing a story where we didn't have to watch the entire court proceeding...that definitely added the drama. Of course, you'll have to see for yourself. The movie was pretty perfect.

As for killing Sam, or having him killed...of course I wouldn't do that! I would never get the insurance money and I wouldn't want to end up in jail...oh yeah, and I love him...there's always that.

Would I see it again? Yeah, sure
Would I own it? I wonder if they still make the 3D version...
Hitchcock cameo about 13 minutes in it's kind of lame cause he's in a photograph.
If I were Margot I would have left that obnoxious ex athlete for the hottie writer!

#39 The General: If you lose this war don't blame me.

1926. dir. Clyde Bruckman and Buster Keaton, starring Buster Keaton, Marion Mack.

Seen it before? No.

Silent movie from way back when. Buster Keaton plays a train engineer living in Georgia in 1861. He tries to enlist in the Civil War, but they won't let him, so his woman breaks up with him. Then some Union spies steal his train, and kidnap the girl, so he chases after them. Hijinks Ensue.

This is a pretty good movie for its era. It's more action than comedy. Keaton is more spastic and physical than the more cerebral Charlie Chaplin, which fits the material well. A lot of the movie is spent in chase sequences on steam trains, and it's pretty clever how it was choreographed. It's all the more impressive when you consider that it was made all the way back in 1926, when there really wasn't much in the way of special effects technology. Pretty sure Keaton did all of his own stunts.

EDIT: Fun trivia from IMDB! "The scene in which The Texas crashes through the bridge was the single most expensive shot of the entire silent movie era."

Daniel watched it with us and he was very upset when the bridge collapsed and fell into the river. He kept saying, "I don't like it!" but I think he actually did because he stuck around for the whole movie.

Position on the list: 137
The music: Added in 2003, and it sucks.

#38 Dial M For Murder: It might work out on paper

1954. dir. Alfred Hitchcock, starring Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, Robert Cummings, John Williams.

Seen it before? No.

Hitchcock movie #2 out of 11. Taut and suspenseful as always. This one has a fairly intricate plot...

Ray Milland plays Tony Wendice, a washed up former tennis player with a rich wife Mary, played by Grace Kelly. He suspects she's cheating, and he's right... Her secret boyfriend is Mark, who comes and visits. She doesn't know that Tony knows about the affair, and while she's out with Mark, Tony tries to set up a perfect murder.

He hires a casual acquaintance, Captain Lesgate, to murder her while he's out with Mark, so he'll have an alibi. Lesgate is a shady character, so Tony is able to blackmail him into doing the deed. But then he botches it, so Tony is forced to resort to Plan B: Frame his wife for murder...

My wife always jokes that she can kill me and get away with it. "I know people", she says, "I would have an alibi, nobody would suspect a thing." She is of course full of it. She would screw up some minor detail and the whole thing would fall apart. Hopefully this movie was instructional for her.

Position on the list: 197
Hitchcock's cameo: I didn't see one. Must be a blink-and-you-missed-it sort of thing.

#37 The Incredibles - Da Dum Dum Da Dah...where is the sequel?

2004. dir. Brad Bird, starring Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter, Jason Lee, Sarah Vowell, Samuel L. Jackson.

Seen it before? Yes.

If you haven't seen this movie yet, I definitely think you should! The animators at Pixar really outdid themselves with this visually appealing, all-ages, super-hero movie!

Bob is Mr. Incredible and is married to Helen aka Elasti-girl. They have three kids, Violet (who can disappear and throw force fields), Dash (who can run faster than a speeding bullet - which they show you), and a baby, Jack-Jack (whom it is later revealed turns into many, many horrifying creatures!). "Supers" are in hiding among the regular humans and a madman is creating robots that can cause chaos and destruction which only he can stop.

Why I love this movie:
1. The animation is amazing. My favorite scenes all take place on the island...if there is such an island I would LOVE to visit it...don't get me wrong, I've island hopped in the PI but the island in this movie is just so amazing...speaking of which, how in and where the hell did that kid get the money to inhabit a lush island and create all the cool modes of transportation?!?!?;
2. Edna...She is one of those characters who sticks with you for a long time. She kind of reminds me of Lind Hunt...and looks like her too!
3. The super powers are AWESOME!!! I would like Violet's thank you very much!
4. Fro-zone - Samuel L. Jackson...making him, by sheer volume numbers, the top grossing actor (over Harrison Ford if you can believe it)
5. Wallace Shawn - even if you HATED the character and wanted to throw him through the walls of Insuracare like Bob did, you have to admit, that voice is just hilarious to listen to!
6. Helen flying the plane...AWESOME that they had her do it instead of what they originally intended - having her former flight companion (a man) fly.
7. Have I mentioned the island is amazing? A modern engineering marvel if it ever existed!
8. Mirage...that voice, so sultry, so perfect for the character that was drawn...and belonging to the eldest daughter in Tortilla Soup.
9. Sibling rivalry is hilarious and totally real. Of COURSE the young boy would make fun of his sister's jr. high school crush!
10. All parts when the little kid on the tricycle sees Bob interacting with the car...

So the question is, when did this movie take place? Mr. Incredible looked through the database and it seemed like ElastiGirls' last sighting was '55...and the cars looked older...Even with fifteen years passing it would only be '70...If you have the answer for me I would LOVE to know!

Would I see it again? HELL YES!
Own it? Yup
Favorite line: My God, you've gotten fat!

#37 The Incredibles: I'm still geeking out about it

2004. dir. Brad Bird, starring Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter, Jason Lee, Sarah Vowell, Samuel L. Jackson.

Seen it before? Yes.

Pixar movie #2, and in my opinion, the best superhero movie ever made. Yeah, that's right. Here's why:

1. Rated PG, and people of all ages can enjoy it. Hey idiots making rated-R comic book movies, what are you thinking?
   
2. The superheroes have clearly defined, actually useful powers. The movie sticks with them, too: doesn't cheat and pull out ridiculous stuff in the third act, like in Dark Knight with the cell phone thing, or every damn Superman movie ever made.
   
3. The superheroes have actual personalities. It's a family of superheroes that acts like a real family, like all the scenes with Mr. and Mrs. Incredible arguing about stupid crap, and the sibling rivalry with Dash and Violet. This was the problem with Hulk, Daredevil, and so many others.
   
4. The villain has a plan that actually makes sense. This was in my opinion the most annoying thing about Dark Knight, that the Joker just does whatever for no reason.
   
5. They kept it simple. You don't need an overly complex plot to make a fantasy/sci-fi/superhero movie work, and usually it's detrimental. Why? Plot holes. If the characters have magical or super abilities, or miraculous new technology, it's too easy to make logic mistakes. The writers really need to think carefully, but most of them don't, and try to confuse you instead.
   
6. Great action scenes. The characters use their superpowers in clever and unexpected ways.
   
7. Depth. Explores the purpose and meaning of superhero stories, but not in a way that they beat you over the head with it... like the last 15 minutes of a certain other superhero movie I could name.
   
8. The animation is awesome; every scene is colorful and kinetic. Loved the scenes in the volcano.
   
9. Edna Mode!

Position on the list: 177
The second best superhero movie: Batman. The 1989 version with Jack Nicholson.

#36 The Day the Earth Stood Still - starring Tom W.

1951. dir Robert Wise, starring Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Hugh Marlowe, Sam Jaffe, Billy Gray.

Seen it before? No.

So Sam gave you the plot synopsis...Alien comes in from outer space to stop earth people from using their latest inventions to disrupt the peace and harmony of the surrounding planets, galaxy, etc. The problem (among others) is that they chose to land in America which, at the time, was not getting along with the Soviet Union...

Klaatu mentioned something along the lines of, 'if you don't put together the top leaders of the nations of this world we'll have to resort to violence, it appears to be the only way to get through to you'...it's not the exact quote but it speaks volumes of 1951 and today, unfortunately. Take a look at the war in the middle east, what Bin Laden had his followers do to the United States; what people in some African nations are having to deal with - specifically children with guns who are toting weapons and killing others; etc. etc. etc. - Violence is the one thing that seems to call people to action...and it just makes me angry...but that's not the point of this blog so I'll save it for another time.

I liked the simplicity of this movie and the great effects the producers created considering the time the movie came out. Sam almost ruined this movie for me by saying that the man who played Klaatu looks like a certain person I have known since I was ten...both are quite good looking! I thought it was hilariously lame that the US government put so few men by the space ship to "watch" it and then the chase scene happened and the space ship was left by itself...um, HELLO!!?!??! And why couldn't they have just shot the tires off the cab? Why did they have military sit at posts and report in to the leaders? That's a freaking ridiculous waste of resources! ARGH!

I liked the little boy's tour of DC...Sam and I have done the tour ourselves but the perspective the little boy gave about the wars this country experienced gave Klaatu and probably the people who watched this originally and today, myself included, a LOT to think about.

Would I see it again? Absolutely.
Would I watch the Keanu Reeves remake? Um, no thanks.

#36 The Day The Earth Stood Still: Klaatu Barada Nikto

1951. dir Robert Wise, starring Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Hugh Marlowe, Sam Jaffe, Billy Gray.

Seen it before? No.

Another day, another robot movie... well, this one is more of an alien robot movie. A flying saucer lands in the middle of the Mall in Washington DC. Out comes Klaatu (Michael Rennie), one of the most half-assed movie aliens of all time. He looks exactly like a human. The only "alien" thing about him is the way he talks, sort of a monotone. Not surprisingly he was played by Keanu Reeves in the 2008 remake. Also in the flying saucer is Gort, an 8-foot tall silver robot. Gort has an amusingly cheesy rubber costume and heat vision that can vaporize things.

Gort and Klaatu bring a message that Earth must get rid of its weapons of mass destruction and submit to weapons inspections or face destruction. Hmm, sounds familiar. Actually it's a fairly obvious Cold War analogy - nobody will listen to Klaatu because the Soviets won't cooperate with the American, hurr hurr.

What we have here is what Roger Ebert calls an Idiot Plot:

A plot which is kept in motion solely by virtue of the fact that everybody involved is an idiot.

For example, the army assigns a bunch of people to watch the flying saucer after it lands to see if anything happens. And by "a bunch" I mean two. Gort knocks them both out. The army figures out that Gort had moved, so they assign... another two guys to watch him. Needless to say this is not more successful. Later, Klaatu knocks out all of the electricity in the world. Oh, and Gort vaporizes all of the army's weapons. Clearly the aliens are powerful and dangerous, so what does the Army do? Shoot Klaatu? Klaatu's body is in jail, but once again nobody is watching him, so Gort breaks into the prison and steals him, and carries him from the jail back to the spaceship. Nobody notices, despite the fact that Gort is an 8 foot robot who walks about 2 miles an hour. Oh, and how does Klaatu get caught? Well, only three people know who he is, one of whom wants to turn him in. That person knows where the house is that Klaatu was staying at. Klaatu, wishing to evade capture, goes and hides out. Oh no, wait, he doesn't. He goes back to the house. Morons!

Anyway, it's a fun movie. Cheesy 50's sci-fi goodness with a great Bernard Herrmann score.

Position on the list: Oh shit! It's not there anymore!
Appears to have been bumped by: Trufant's The 400 Blows. Doesn't matter, we're doing the list as it was on Dec. 15 of last year.

#35 Blade Runner - Darryl Hannah (at probably her hottest) looking extremely creepy

1982. dir. Ridley Scott, starring Harrison Ford, Sean Young, Rutger Hauer, Darryl Hannah.

Seen it before? No.

So I do get it. Harrison Ford comes out of retirement to kill four replicants (aka robots created to be "more human than human") who have come back to Earth after being banished to outer space forever. There's a stripper, the leader, his girlfriend, and the guy at the beginning of the film who get interviewed to see if he is a replicant. There's a girl, the assistant to the company head which created the replicants, who is one but has been screwed with so she has memories of being a kid.

I'll give them credit...for 1982 the future is pretty freaking awesome looking - they traded smog in LA for rain from Seattle. The billboards that are all over the buildings look like Tokyo from Lost in Translation or Times Square in New York...in other words, aside from the crazy buildings (which almost couldn't stand the way they are in the movie), the visionaries of this movie weren't so far off.

I love Harrison Ford but not in this movie. I wasn't too keen on most of the costumes but again, for 1982, they WERE pretty awesome...especially Zhora's raincoat (clear) and all other costumes in that part of the movie. I agree with Sam...the foundation was pretty cool...they could have gone in a different direction and it would have been WAY better...um, and the voice-over? Three words - DRIPPING WITH SARCASM!!!

Would I see it again? Yeah, sure, just in case I missed something
Would I own it? No
# of lines Edward James Olmos had as Gaff on-screen: 7

#35 Blade Runner: You have burned so very, very brightly

1982. dir. Ridley Scott, starring Harrison Ford, Sean Young, Rutger Hauer, Darryl Hannah.

Seen it before? No.

First, a blog policy: Director's Cut Is Not Considered. Particularly important here, because according to a lot of the internet feedback on this movie, the Director's Cut fixes some of the problems - for example, removing the unnecessary tacked-on voiceover.

So it's the future again; 2019 to be exact. That's four years after Back To The Future II for those keeping score. Future Los Angeles is dreary and overcrowded, with loads of ugly futuristic buildings and neon signs. Also it rains constantly, making it seem more like Future Seattle or something. A corporation has built some killer robots called Replicants for use in outer space. They're almost indistinguishable from humans, to the point where you have to give them a Voight-Kampff test to be sure - sort of like a Turing Test meets the MMPI meets an eye exam.

So predictably some of the robots go berserk and escape outer space and land in LA, and it's Harrison Ford's job to go stop them. He's a Blade Runner. Why is he called a Blade Runner? Excellent question. It's not like he uses a katana to stop the replicants or anything, he uses a pistol. The replicants are fairly disappointing. Seems like you only have to shoot them once or twice to bring them down... compare that to the T-800, or Robocop, where the bullets just bounce off of them. They don't really have much in the way of super abilities either. Harrison Ford, oddly, has sex with one of them, which I guess makes him a robosexual?

I just don't get the hype for this movie. Ridley Scott's future-noir vision of dystopic Los Angeles is pretty awesome, and has been a huge influence on later movies. (I immediately thought of Minority Report, Star Wars Episode II, and of all things, Idiocracy.) So yeah, stylistically, it's great. I also liked the score by Vangelis, who was the Mozart of pretentious 80's synthesizer music. I thought the premise was intriguing: robot replicants who can blend in with humans. There are a million ways the story could have gone, so I guess I was disappointed that they didn't really do anything interesting plot-wise. There's no real ambiguity as to who the replicants are, no intrigue, none of that. Just Harrison Ford hunting them down. Maybe we'll watch The Terminator this week...

Position on the list: 109
Oops! The following things still exist in Movie 2019: CRT monitors, Atari, Pan-Am, film cameras

#34 Amélie - Fifteen

2001. dir. Jean-Pierre Jeunet, starring Audrey Tautou, Mathieu Kassovitz, Serge Merlin. French with subtitles.

Seen it before? Yes

I liked it so much the first time I saw it (though I was extremely tired and fell asleep) that Sam bought it for me as a present. I don't think I've ever watched it without the English captions...Maybe I could use this movie to learn French...ha ha.

I loved Amélie's smile. It was both mischievous and child-like even though sometimes the smiles would come out during times you would not expect...in the middle of sex for one. I loved that all the people had quirks that made them more real. I felt bad that young Amélie was so devoid of interaction with her father that her heart would race and therefore he thought she had a heart condition.

I loved the movie so much that I could write a novel so I'll try to keep this short and sweet...
Likes -
1. Bretodeau - How sweet! A chicken and roast potatoes every Tuesday and a tiny box of childhood
2. The traveling garden gnome...this movie came out in 2001...Travelocity began running their gnome adds in 2004...
3. Retribution and the grocery store manager...little things like electrocution and tooth-glue; smaller shoes and something in the liquor he drank.
4. The Renoir painter...with more insight than any other character
5. The minute Amélie spent with the man from the subway who plays records -

Amélie: [to blind man] Let me help you. Step down. Here we go! The drum major's widow! She's worn his coat since the day he died. The horse's head has lost an ear! That's the florist laughing. He has crinkly eyes. In the bakery window, lollipops. Smell that! They're giving out melon slices! Sugarplum, ice cream! We're passing the park butcher. Ham, 79 francs. Spareribs, 45! Now the cheese shop. Picadors are 12.90. Cabecaus 23.50. A baby's watching a dog that's watching the chickens. Now we're at the kiosk by the metro. I'll leave you here. Bye!

6. Amélie's interactions with her distant/reclusive father; particularly -

Amélie: [to her father, who is not paying attention] I had two heart attacks, an abortion, did crack... while I was pregnant. Other than that, I'm fine.

7. The photo booth pictures...sure they were half the "non-existent" plot but it was rather amusing to learn who the mystery man was
8. The creepy stalker guy and the hypochondriac cigarette sales girl - do people really exist who are this neurotic? In real life - SCARY; in this movie - quite hilarious actually
9. One of my most favorite parts:

Narrator: Amélie still seeks solitude. She amuses herself with silly questions about the world below, such as "How many people are having an orgasm right now?"
[scenes of various orgasms taking place]
Amélie: Fifteen.

Dislikes -
The grocery man and how he was mean to his employee - ARGH!
What happened to her mother...
The crazy landlady - he's gone, move on...I know this sounds mean but you'll see.

Okay, Yes, I would absolutely see it again...
Yes, I own it...
No, I didn't get a tooth infection from watching the film, unlike my handsome husband apparently did.

#34 Amélie: Quinze!

2001. dir. Jean-Pierre Jeunet, starring Audrey Tautou, Mathieu Kassovitz, Serge Merlin. French with subtitles.

Seen it before? About 3/4 of it.

It's a whimsical comedy, sort of? Audrey Tautou plays the titular Amélie, who lives in Paris and has an active imagination. She works at a restaurant with an assortment of neurotics and weirdos. Actually the whole movie is like that; everyone is quirky, and the narrator will tell you all of their quirks. There's not really much of a plot. Amélie decides to start helping people (well, most people; not the verbally abusive grocery store guy. She decides to mess with him in hilariously subtle ways.) She becomes infatuated with a guy who picks up discarded bits of photos from a photo booth, but she's too chicken to seal the deal, so she makes him chase her for about half of the movie...

It's all very cutesy. It takes place in this sort of over-saturated colorful storybook version of Paris. Having never been there I can't say how realistic any of it is, but I'm guessing "not very". It's very amusing, with lots of little random goofy scenes, but I don't think it needs to be 2 hours long. It has the effect of eating an entire box of Pixie Stix in one shot.

Position on the list: 44
Favorite little random diversion: Amélie imagines what happened to photo booth guy... He becomes a Mujahideen?

#33 The Big Sleep - a movie that put Sam to sleep...ha ha ha

1946. dir. Howard Hawks, starring Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall.

Seen it before? No.

The whole time I was watching this movie I had Bertie Higgins' Key Largo playing in my head! GAH! Did you know that Lauren Bacall was twenty-five years younger than Humphrey Bogart? I sure as hell didn't.

Sam's right...again...this movie was pretty difficult to follow but was interesting enough for me to stay awake...as opposed to my other half who fell asleep halfway through the film.

The one thing that Sam didn't mention was that, despite the delivery of his lines, Bogart was the George Clooney of his time (-the looks)...charming - in a flirty way despite not being terribly good looking...and a ladies man (yes, I went there). There were at least ten dames in the film and all of them flirted with him in such an embarrassing way. I swear that the suits he was put in were being worn high (think of Urkel from Family Matters). Also, I know this is blasphemous but his head looked bigger in proportion to his body...the entire movie!

Lauren Bacall has a great voice and her streak at the in-home casino was just awesome...I mean, come on, winning $28,000 in one spin of roulette? AWESOME! And adjusting for inflation...well, that's a nice chunk of change (roughly $305584.57 in 2008).

Would I watch it again? Yes, because you have to watch this movie more than once to get it.
Would I own it? It's on Netflix on Demand for now.

Koo Koo Ka-choo

One more thing about The Graduate has been bothering me...

The song. "Mrs. Robinson" by Simon and Garfunkel. Due to pervasive Baby Boomer nostalgia, I've heard this song so many times that the lyrics are more familiar to me than my own high school's fight song¹. I guess I just always assumed the lyrics would make sense after I finally got around to seeing The Graduate, but this has not been the case. I don't think Mrs. Robinson prays at any point in the movie. There's no pantry, no cupcakes, no candidate's debate, and Joe DiMaggio of course has nothing to do with anything.

What the hell, 1967? Make more sense!

1. "Fight on, Saxons... something something something... victory?"

#33 The Big Sleep: $25 a day plus expenses

1946. dir. Howard Hawks, starring Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall.

Seen it before? No.

So here we go with another ridiculous 40's film noir, this one adapted from a Raymond Chandler novel. (William Faulkner was one of the screenwriters.) I'm going to be totally honest: I don't like Humphrey Bogart. He can't act as well as Orson Welles or Marlon Brando, and he doesn't have the charm of Cary Grant or Spencer Tracy, so why am I supposed to like him? It seems like he was good at being a movie star; you know, being glamorous, that sort of thing, but why should I care about that?

This movie stars Bogart as Philip Marlowe, who is a private detective hired to track down the people who are blackmailing the Sternwood family. Specifically, it's the two daughters, one of whom has a gambling problem, and the other one was involved in pornography. I think. Hays Code era means you couldn't discuss it directly. The plot gets more convoluted from there, to the point where it becomes just totally confusing.

Lauren Bacall is okay, but Bogart is in pretty much every scene, and he says every one of his lines the same way. The villains are hastily sketched and interchangeable. A movie like this needs good supporting players... think of all the colorful characters in Casablanca, which is a Bogart movie I actually liked. Not this one. It was boring and hard to follow. Release the hounds...

Position on the list: 138
Lauren Bacall: Still alive, and still acting. Her IMDB page is a sad state of affairs. Her most recent finished project was something called "Scooby-Doo and The Goblin King". What the hell? Did she lose all of her money or something?

#32 Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid - Brokeback Mountain has nothing on these guys...

1969. dir. George Roy Hill, starring Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Marianne Ross.

Seen it before? No.

We watched this movie the day after watching the Graduate which Sam told me Robert Redford went out for...but was then rejected since the director (I think) asked him if he knew what it was like to be rejected by a woman and he had no idea what the director was talking about. That makes sense. Have you SEEN Robert Redford as a young man? HELLO!!!!

I don't know how Etta did it...managing two men who are so incredibly good looking and who happen to be perpetual criminals. I love how, since she's a school teacher, that she taught them enough Spanish to rob banks and others in Bolivia...speaking of which, why Bolivia? Don't get me wrong, their journey to get to Bolivia was quite entertaining (a stop in either Atlantic City or Coney Island - admittedly I wasn't playing as close attention to the screen as I could have been)...and getting there was even more hilarious because Robert Redford was ticked off they landed seemingly in the middle of nowhere...and then she helps them with their robbery attempts (and successfully so at that!).

I thought it was a good movie. I thought the relationship between Butch and the Kid was really interesting. Butch never killed anyone by shooting? Really? and Why was the Kid so attached? Of course they would never play the romance card, but still. Interesting. Watch it and make your own conclusions. And yes, that was a young Cloris Leachman as a brothel worker...

Favorite scene - Percy Garris (the Captain from Cool Hand Luke) is now the boys' boss because they decided to "go straight" and knowing how they would act they are paranoid about an ambush...particularly the last thing Percy says...

Percy Garris: [singing] Oh don't you remember sweet Betsy from Pike / Crossed the high mountains with her lover Ike / Two yoke of oxen and big yellow dog / Called Shanghai rooster and one spotted hog / Hoodle-dang-hootie-i-doh, hoodle-dang-hootie-ay, hoodle-dang-hootie-i-doh, hoodle-dang-hootie-ay / Shanghai ran off and the cattle all died / last piece of bacon that morning was fried...
Butch Cassidy: [interrupting] I think they're in the trees up ahead.
Sundance Kid: In the bushes on the left.
Butch Cassidy: I'm telling you they're in the trees up ahead.
Sundance Kid: You take the trees, I'll take the bushes.
Percy Garris: Will you two beginners cut it out.
Butch Cassidy: Well, we're just trying to spot an ambush, Mr. Garris.
Percy Garris: Morons. I've got morons on my team. Nobody is going to rob us going down the mountain. We have got no money going down the mountain. When we have got the money, on the way back, then you can sweat.

Would I watch it again? Yes
Would I own it? It was pretty entertaining so yes.

#32 Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid: He'll feel a lot better after he's robbed a couple of banks.

1969. dir. George Roy Hill, starring Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Marianne Ross.

Seen it before? No.

Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman) and the Sundance Kid (Robert Redford) are robbers in the old west, and heterosexual life partners. Butch is the "smart" one, and Sundance does most of the shooting and blowing stuff up. They've very quippy with each other, and they sort-of share a girlfriend (Marianne Ross). They rob the Union Pacific one time too many, so the railroad hires an all-star team to track them down and kill them. They hide out in Bolivia, where things are't any easier for them.

Ehh... it's funny and well-made, but I don't really have a whole lot to say about this one. Oh, yeah: What was with that whole "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" sequence on the bike? The problem with putting a contemporary pop song in a period piece is that it becomes a huge anachronism. That song just screams "1960's".

Position on the list: 150
The guy tracking them: LaFors. He wears a white straw hat. Hmm, I think I might have seen that in another movie...