Achilles' Top 10 Movies

I love some fantasy, but something serious and mythical. Lands that are filled with creatures, weird locations, temples and most importantly - mystery all around. You never know what you're gonna see next in this world. All of a sudden someone says "Oh no, that's a Valley of Trolls" and you go oh-oh and all kinds of thing run through your head, stuff like that is what I love the most. "Legend" was close to that and Conan movies were just that as well, but what really hit the mark for me was Willow. It's just a perfect and best fantasy movie there is. The music is brilliant itself. I'm a big fan of soundtracks and I enjoyed James Horner's score. It was phenomenal and brought that mystical and fantasy feeling right away starting with opening credits.
The story is really good - action and drama and love story in one. I didn't like the two mini guys though. They were put there as a comic relief but it just really didn't work and all the scenes with them were totally out of place.
Also can't forget to mention General Kael -one of the coolest 80's villains ever, yet never got a proper credit and recognition and falls into the 'forgotten characters 'category

Val Kilmer was perfect for the role. I'm not a big fan of Kilmer, I think he's like a mannequin, but here he was exceptionally good and perfectly cast



This is a movie loosely based on Stephen King's short story with the same title. It's a story about a scientist played by Pierce Brosnan who's secretly experimenting on his mentally challenged neighbor Job.

As a result, Job's retardation disappears but things go wrong. He doesn't stop on that, his intelligence keeps growing to the point where he can move things and control everything with his mind. But the worst part is the side effects - the uncontrollable attacks of fury.

Great, GREAT movie with horror like atmosphere and THE best cliffhanger/ending in movie history, which I'm not gonna reveal.
Few years later someone else did a terrible sequel that was one of the worst if not the worst movies in history and was aimed at younger audience (!)



This movie really surprised me.I expected a pretty good flick (after all its from Steven Spielberg himself!) and I ended up having another on in my favorites. I think this is Spielberg's BEST movie to date, closely followed by the first Jurassic Park and Hook. The special effects are exceptionally good, considering the fact that CG's quality had GREATLY degenerated since the decade has started and nowadays it looks incredibly fake, looking like a fake paste on animation. If you can tell whats CG, then its obviously not doing its job. Personally I believe modern CG (around 2002-today) with just few exceptions looks as fake as the 80's stop motion animation
Anyway, it's an alien invasion movie unlike any other.
I think its done in the most realistic way. And as oppose to other invasion movies, this one is told from the runners' perspective. We don't see TV or military briefings or reactions around the world like in Independence Day or Close Encounters. We see it all from the eyes of little girl, teenage boy and their dad trying to run and survive.

Another thing that I love so much about that movie is how it shows our animalistic side taking over in extreme situations. People killing each other and doing the craziest things possible just to survive. Something similar we've seen in Titanic.



Now, Batman Begins was the biggest surprise for me as far as the movies go. I was almost forced to go see it in the theaters and hated it right away. I couldn't understand how a relatively fresh movie which was at that point the most successful comic book movie ever (talking about 1989's batman) was being redone. yeah, it wasn't being redone, Begins just went back to it's roots after the kiddie toy commercials that Schumacher did. But still, I thought an idea of a remake was horrible, especially such beloved classic. So I sat down on my seat, crossed my arms and thought "wow me". And it did. It really to the point that it's so very high on my list and I absolutely loved it! The vibe, the atmosphere, just amazing. I loved the fact that Batman was approached in a serious manner and made into a serious realistic movie, as oppose to all those cartoony Marvel flicks like Fantastic Four or Iron man.

Every single actor from bale to Oldman did a phenomenal job. It was never the case before when a new version would replace my beloved classic in my favorites, the movie was THAT good.




Boy this is a great movie. John Williams' score alone makes it a winner, and Kevin Costner and Morgan Freeman are phenomenal. Very serious and the most epic and mature version of Robin Hood and I just gotta mention the music again because it's really something. RH is an emotional rollercoaster and shows the struggles of the villagers against the cruel Nottingham Sheriff played by awesome Alan Rickman who also played Hans in Die Hard

This movie is a must and it's timeless. It perfectly stood the test of time




Terrifying and very moving thriller. Very. In the vein of Schindler's List, this is the story that's set in a fictional world where Nazi Germany had won the WWII and took over the Europe. It's 1950's and with Holocaust still being a huge secret, an American reporter and good guy SS Detective played by phenomenal Rutger Hauer are discovering the gruesome and heart breaking mysteries.

Everytime I see this movie it really moves me. This is a thriller filled with mysteries and conspiracies with the plot slowly revealing what's going on as the movie progresses. It keeps you on the edge of your seat the entire time, and the thriller music with subtle piano keys hits helps set the atmosphere as well. The movie always leaves me with mixed emotions - the two main heroes die at the end in the rain, sacrificing their lives to reveal Germany's cruel secrets. We then get informed by the main character's son's voiceover that it led to Germania's (the fictional Nazi country spanning through the entire Europe) had fallen few years later. But the deaths of the main characters that sadly planned a new life in US just leaves you really sad and a bit depressed.

If you liked Schindler's List and Munich, and if you like breath stopping thrillers with lots of mysteries that come together piece by piece, this is the best movie for you. Phenomenal movie



The absolute action and sci fi classic and a movie milestone. I don't think there's anybody who haven't seen it at one point. One of the most original movies ever with an incredible depth in the characters. The story of the iconic trio, bratty John, Rambo-like Sarah and T-800 trying to save themselves from one of the most original and unstoppable creatures in the movie history - the liquid, shape changing T-1000. I don't think there's much to be said about this one cause everyone knows it. Action, adventure, great FX, metallic music and in depth story made this one a winner for me.



The darkest of all Batmans. This one was so grim and dark that it was the only Batman movie in history to date that was being so criticized for being too dark and evil, and because of this Burton was not re-hired by WB and met with heavy criticism (The Dark Knight also got a similar response as being too dark but not to that proportions).
People around the world were saying that a deformed man trying to kill children in the sewers was way too much. In addition to that, Burton's Batman was the only one that actually killed (and did so in both movies).

Also, Kenner didn't release toys with the likeness of the characters from the movie because they were too horrorish (Penguin)

or way too sexual (Catwoman), and used comic book likenesses instead. People bashed it for being a black and white-ish dark movie, but I LOVE IT!!! The fact that's its the most badass and has the trademark 'weird' aura that Burton always gives his movies was just phenomenal, as was Danny Elfman's Operatic music. Plus the characters - Batman was so fascinating, he was one big mystery. He seemed normal yet he wasn't and in those movies he seemed like some weird psycho who we really didn't know. We knew his enemies much more than him. I think that original approach of making the villains the main characters we get to know on screen and making Batman the other, mysterious guy we don't really know was brilliant
Michelle Pfeiffer's character just oozed with sexual innuendos




Now, if you like Alfred Hitchcock you'll love this movie. It was modeled after his movies and done in that style. Bone and blood chilling to the end, the mystery thriller about a murderer and a flawed detective falling for the suspect. The movie's really screwing with your head and you're not sure of anything till the very end. And even then you'll left with lots of questions. Masterpiece. Nick Curran, the character played by Michael Douglas, is a one tough cop but emotionally unstable. He's also a heavy drinker, ex-coke head and has a dark past in addition to that.

So in the beginning you're sure its Katherine whose the murderer, but then you think shes not, then you're not sure , then you think its her again, then its not and so on. Love it



A techno take on 1978's "Halloween". We again witness a relentless Mike Myers character after a teenage girl. With boyfriend type on her side and "Psycho"-like music, "The Terminator" was everything horror movies were at that point. For the most part, the movie keeps us in question. We don't know what's going on yet. All we know is that there's a killer in LA who kills the women alphabetically from the phone book, dubbed "Phone Book Killer" by the press.
The movie scared me so much that I missed all those hits with Arnie because he was like Freddy Krueger to me. I was so scared of that movie and that character that I was afraid to look at the VHS cover to look him in the eyes (Ah, kids!)




*ducks*

Yeah I know. You guys are probably screaming "murder" right now. The new trilogy gets an incredible amount of crap and in my opinion is that its 100% because of bias. Maybe fans expected a copy of the original trilogy, maybe they expected the same thing being done over again. I don't know. All I know is that I grew up with original Star Wars as well, but objectively I can easily tell the new trilogy is much deeper, has a much more mature plot and depth of characters while the original trilogy was simply a space adventure. Yes, I actually prefer the new trilogy. Aside form stronger plot and depth, it's also incredibly emotional, more so than almost every other movie I would say, because we grew up with the characters, seeing them develop in 3 long movies. That is a very strong connection establishment.
That's one of the reasons why this series is so incredible. It had hours and hours to connect us with the characters and we see the crap Anakin goes through, and one tragedy after another that struck him and it all pushes him over the edge. Anakin Skywalker is an incredibly complex character who just had a very crappy life and a lot of stuff that just kept stinging him time after time. And on top of that, the very last thing he had in this world, his love, is said to die soon. The whole story is very moving and the third movie squeezes tears from my eyes.

Episode III is when everything comes together. I knew all the characters we got used to will either die or end up loosing, but I didn't know it's gonna end for them THAT badly!
It's basically a very tragic love story and a story of a boy who lost everything he knew and loved.

The moment when Anakin turned against Mace Windu was the most shocking scene ever for me! Even more so than finding out that Vader is Luke's father.
And then of course, the final duel between two best friends. I always loved the lightsaber duels in Star Wars, but in the new trilogy they're virtually even flying everywhere and the duels are breath stopping. The new ones make the old ones look like two old people poking themsleves with sticks. The new trilogy's action is really something

The scene that could be called Anakin's and Obi Wan's farewell always brings tears to my eyes. Its such an emotional scene, and coupled with John Williams' score its just heart breaking.
You can even feel Vader's pain as he basically got left with nothing and ended up being a cripple encased in the cybernetic, life supporting armor suit.

This is one great tragic sci fi story



First of all I wanna mention James Horner's music which is by far the best movie music ever, especially the ship departure track.
This movie is so touching that it always gets me crying like a baby even thought I consider myself a tough guy ;)
As great as the movie is, it's truly sad that such thing really happened and so many people and small kids died that tragic night.

I believe the story's the best ever as are FX and music. James Cameron is the only director in the world who is so obsessed with his movies. He even RESIGNED from his directors pay in order to gain more time in the movie! This guy is truly and artist passionate about movies. And also note how he never did a movie that was following whats popular in theaters. He was always the leader, never the follower, and Titanic ended up being the most successful movie ever, with the most Oscars ever. And this is already the second of Cameron's movies that had the title of being the biggest and most expensive.


Hope you enjoyed the article and won't tear me apart. Looking forward to your comments fellow junkers.