Top 5 best films I've ever seen.

Because a top 5 list is definitely not a lazy thing to do.

I'm sorely lacking in any sort of motivation to even do anything lately and I apologise for that, but I'm just trying my best so I'm sorry if this sucks but y'know, we're all gonna have to deal with it for now.

With that out of the way, this is a list of the top 5 best films I've ever seen in my painfully long 19 years of being. This list includes all genre's of film and I've limited it down to only one Disney film because...hell if I picked all my favourites including all the Disney films then they'd take up the whole list and I might as well just name it "Top 5 best Disney films I've ever seen". Maybe I could do a list of those one day...It might have to be more than 5 but I might still do it. I also won't be giving sequels their own slot on the list, however, if I did like the film and its sequel then I'll put the sequel on the list. The films listed are in no particular order. Keep in mind that this is my own opinion and the best films I have ever seen will probably be different to the best you've seen.

With that said, onto the list.

• Fantasia. Alright, let's get this Disney one out of the way. This is such a gorgeous film and to me, it's the peak of Disney animation. Fantasia is an experiment in art which is just so interesting in its background. Originally intended to be a Micky Mouse short to bring the irritating Mouse back into the limelight with the short titled The Sorcerers Apprentice, which is also where you see that cute little wizard's hat first appear. Apparently, the budget for that short just kept growing and growing until eventually, they decided "fuck it" and made a feature length film about it. This entire film is just amazing and you really do see the artistic expression that, honestly, you very rarely ever get with an animated film with a structured story that's meant to suck you in. I'm not saying you don't get sucked into these films, I'm just saying that you see an animated story and while there is artistic expression involved, the animators have to go with the actor's performances rather than letting themselves lose y'know? If you haven't seen it yet I definitely recommend it because it's a beautiful film and as far as "underrated Disney films" go, this is definitely among them. 

• The Exorcist. I would like to clarify right now, that I haven't seen this recently, nor have I seen it in the past 10 years. I saw this once when I was a child and it scared the hell out of me. I was 9 years old and had to sleep in my parent's bed for two weeks. I would also like to clarify that my parents were not the ones who showed me this film, they were good to me like that. I was shown this film by some girl I was apparently friends with who was the same age as me, we were at her mother's friends house or something which was about an hour or more away from where I lived so I couldn't just leave, I had to sit and watch it and deal with the trauma as a young girl is very convincingly possessed by a Demon, not the Devil. I understand that's a massive misconception considering Regan herself says Quote: "And I'm the Devil, now kindly undo these straps." How do I know she's not possessed by the Devil considering she's said it? I did some research. It seems as though the demon (Pazuzu) has a fairly heightened sense of self. 

     So with that said, you're probably wondering why I this is one of the best films I've ever seen. I saw it when I was 9, how can I possibly even remember what it's like? How can I say it's one of the best films I've seen if it scared me to the point I had to sleep in parents bed for a couple of weeks? Well...that's why. It's scary as hell and incredibly well done. The makeup for example in this film is insanely good, Max Von Sydow was, at the time, 44-years-old and was made up to look like an elderly man and only recently did I learn this. I always thought the guy was like 80 or something when he played Father Merrin. Of course, the makeup for the possessed Regan was also incredible and horrific but Sydow's makeup genuinely blows my mind anytime I see a clip or picture of him from the film. Mercedes McCambridge also does a great job with the voice of the possessed child and honestly, I can't praise this film enough. I respect the fact that it scared me, I respect that even going near my dad's VHS copy of it or even the extended DVD edition with the crab walk scene - makes me incredibly uncomfortable and tense. I find myself constantly thinking "I should watch this again, I'm a grown up, I can handle it. Hell, horror films barely scare me so why should this?" But I'd have to watch it during the day and with someone willing to watch it and hold my hand and then stay up with me the whole night after. (And also let me cry because I cry a lot apparently). I do think people should watch this but only if you're willing to go to church to get the DVD blessed or something. Maybe I'll do a full review on it and the impact it had on me...I don't know. Maybe I'll do it for Halloween....

• Face/Off. Onto something a lot less scary, this film is definitely one of my favourite films ever. But this isn't a list of my favourites, this is a list of the best I've seen and the reason it's on here is because it has one of the best concepts a film can ever have. Over actor Nicolas Cage playing over actor John Travolta in a film that practically encourages them to overact and take advantage of our favourite American cop cliches. The film also comes with some perfectly stupid lines of dialogue that you can just throw into the conversation and either get a laugh out of the quote or just some weird looks. I've already written about this so I'll leave a link at the end of the list and you can read more about what I thought of it there.

• A Clockwork Orange. Again, I've already talked about this one before so I'll keep this short. This film ignited my love for both Kubrick films and Malcolm Mcdowell. I love the book, in fact, I own about 3 or 4 copies of it, two have a sort of dictionary so people can understand the language used and the other(s) don't. The film centres on a "boy" who is just besotted with violence of all kinds and ends up in prison where he is conditioned to do no wrong going against his natural urges. Being a Kubrick it's obviously amazing to look at, you can just watch this with the sound off and just admire every shot in the film, it's beautiful and very clearly the result of a perfectionist's hard work. I definitely recommend this film too because damn, it's amazing.

• Hot Fuzz. From amazing art to possession to over acting and brainwashing to...a Simon Pegg and Nick Frost comedy? Yeah but you see, this is one of the best comedies in years. I watched it last night and pretty much every joke works, nearly every line of dialogue comes back as an awesome one-liner, even something as mundane as Aaron A Aaronson comes back as a throwaway joke at the end but it shows the level of attention the writers gave to this. They looked at nearly every trope in police action films and just played with them. There are even two very plausible reasons for the events in the film but of course, the silly route is the one the characters take making the joke even funnier. The best part of the film? It accurately portrays life as a police officer, specifically one aspect, and it's that there is a lot of paperwork involved which is something big budget blockbusters seem to neglect a lot of the time. I don't know what else to say other than you should see it, at the time I'm writing this it's on Netflix so head there if you want to try it for yourself before buying a copy of it. 

So that's the list, the top 5 best films I've ever seen. As I was writing this I thought of a few more films but they were fairly recent, only being out for a year at most so I didn't put them on the list for that reason. I might do another list of those at some point but this will have to do for now. I hope you enjoyed it and if you have a different opinion than me on these films then I'm open to discussing it with you.

Links to reviews
A Clockwork Orange
Face/Off

This is just my opinion and if you disagree then that's great, I'm open to discussion and I'm always interested to hear how you feel about the films listed. This is also a critique which is considered "Fair Use" under the Copyright Act 1976. If you like the films listed then go and support its creators by buying the DVD or Bluray.