I was trying to think of an article with the Oscars coming up, but I really had a hard time thinking of you because I have not seen any of the movies nominated and have no interest in watching it.
But then I started thinking about some of the categories and came upon the "Best Original Score" which is awarded to the individual who composed the best score for a movie.
That got to me thinking about the best scores in movie history and the men who composed them, which lead them to this list: The 10 Best Film Composers in History(in my opinion) 10. Vangelis
Though his film composing history is limited, the Greek composer did live his mark on cinematic movie scores.
First, there was his iconic theme to the 1981 Best Picture winner Chariots of Fire, which helped won the Oscar for best original score and was the #1 song on the Billboard charts in May of 1982.
Then, there was his score to the 1982 movie Blade Runner, where his synthesizers combined with pianos and saxophones helped make set the dark tone of the movie and help make it one of the great sci-fi films of all time. 9. John Barry
Barry won Oscars for his scores in 1966's Born Free and 1968's The Lion in Winter, then earned nominations for his musical compositions in Out of Africa and Dances With Wolves, plus wrote the score for the 1981 erotic thriller Body Heat.
But Barry is best known for his work with the James Bond franchise as he composed the score for the first seven films of the series and 12 overall with his last being 1987's The Living Daylights, plus collaborating with Monty Norman on the iconic "James Bond Theme".
8. James Horner
Horner might be best known for his work with James Cameron as he composed the score for three Cameron movies: Aliens, Avatar, and Titanic, which he won the Oscar for.
But Horner also wrote memorable scores to the movies Apollo 13, Braveheart, Field of Dreams, and Glory, which's end theme was used in the trailer for Backdraft, leading me to believe that it was going to be in Backdraft, not knowing it had actually be used before in Glory.
But before all that, Horner composed the score for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, which in my opinion are the best scores out of the Star Trek movies. 7. Hans Zimmer
Zimmer's career began to take off in the late 80s when he composed the scores for back-to-back Best Picture winners Rain Man and Driving Miss Daisy.
Following his Oscar win for The Lion King, Zimmer's work crossed over into summer blockbusters such as Crimson Tide, The Rock, Gladiator, and the Pirates of the Caribbean films(he did not receive credit for the Curse of the Black Pearl, which had the best score out of all the Pirates films).
But his collaboration with fellow composer James Newton Howard on the score for The Dark Knight Trilogy and Man of Steel is what landed him a spot on this list.
6. Henry Mancini
Andy Williams owes a big part of his success to Mancini as he helped compose the song "Moon River" which was part of his musical score in 1961's Breakfast at Tiffany's, which would go on to be Williams' theme song and then had Williams sing the theme to Days of Wine and Roses, which would go on to win Best Original Song at the 1963 Oscars.
Still, Mancini did all right for himself without Williams as his "Love Theme" from the 1968 version of Romeo & Juliet hit #1 on the Billboard charts and wrote the iconic the "Pink Panther" theme from the 1963 movie.
5. Elmer Bernstein
Bernstein made a name for himself in the 1960s by composing the classic themes to The Magnificent Seven and The Great Escape as well as composing the music for To Kill A Mockingbird.
That would have been enough for a career until Bernstein experienced a renaissance when he wrote the score for the comedy National Lampoon's AnimalHouse, which began a string of comedies in which Bernstein would provide the score for(Airplane!, The Blues Brothers, Trading Places, and Ghostbusters).
Bernstein was nominated 10 times for Best Original Score, winning once for 1967's Thoroughly Modern Millie. 4. Bernard Herrmann
When your first movie score is Citizen Kane which many film critics consider the greatest movie of all time, and your last movie score is the 1976 classic Taxi Driver, I guess that would constitute as a pretty good career for a film composer.
But it was Herrmann's collaboration with film director Alfred Hitchcock, that made him one of the all-time great composers as he composed the score for seven of Hitchcock's films including Vertigo, Psycho, and North By Northwest(my personal favorite).
Although he was nominated only five times for an Oscar and won only once, The Devil and Miss Daniel Webster in 1941(the same year he was nominated for Citizen Kane), Herrmann made his mark on cinematic movie score history. 3. Max Steiner
To tell you the truth, I had never had of Max Steiner until I started do research for this article.
But when he saw the films he wrote the music for, I had to include him on the list.
Steiner was the John Williams of his day, which was the 1930s and 40s. as he wrote the score for some of the most famous of that era: King Kong(the 1933 version), Gone With the Wind and Casablanca.
Out of 24 nominations for Best Original Score, Steiner won three times(The Informer, Now, Voyager, and Since You Went Away).
While Steiner peaked in the 30s and 40s, he did come up with the memorable theme to A Summer Place, which was the number #1 song for nine consecutive weeks in 1960.
2. Jerry Goldsmith
Goldsmith was nominated 18 times for Best Original Score, winning once for his work in the 1976 horror classic The Omen, and composed the memorable theme to Patton as well as writing the scores for two of the greatest sports movies of all time, Hoosiers and Rudy.
Goldsmith also wrote the scores for classics such as the original Planet of the Apes, Chinatown, Poltergeist, and Alien to go along with other great scores such as the first three movies of the Rambo franchise and Air Force One.
But Goldsmith's most iconic piece of music is the theme to Star Trek: The Motion Picture, which would be later used as the theme to the TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation.
1. John Williams
Who else do you think would be #1? I mean, you're talking about the man who has come up with some of the most iconic music in movie history: the Jaws theme, composing the soundtrack to the Star Wars Saga, the Raiders march in Raiders of the Lost Ark which become Indiana Jones' theme, as well as the theme to the original Superman movie.
Plus, Williams was responsible for the score on ET: The Extra-Terrestrial, Jurassic Park, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Schindler's List, and the Harry Potter series.
With a record 45 nominations for Best Original Score(five wins) and three of the American Film Institute(AFI)'s top 25 film scores of all time, including number #1 for Star Wars, it is easy to see why Williams is the greatest film composer of all time.
Plus, I can't imagine a world with the Imperial March(Darth Vader's theme);
The other day I wrote an article about what are I thought were the 15 best "threequels" or third installments of a movie franchise of all time were(To view it, click here http://rantingaboutmovies.blogspot.com/2017/02/15-best-threequels.html).
After writing that article, I started to think what are the best "fourquels" or fourth installments of a movie franchise.
So, I've decided to do another list, this one consisting of what I think are the 10 best fourquels in movie history.
10. Thunderball(1965)
When adjusted for inflation, Thunderball is actually the highest grossing James Bond movie of all time.
Anyway, Sean Connery's fourth outing as agent 007 includes a number of memorable moments from the franchise including the climatic underwater harpoon battle scene, Bond killing a would-be assassin with a harpoon, then quipping "I think he got the point" and the famous jet-pack escape in the film's prologue.
9. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire(2005)
The Harry Potter franchise continued its path toward a darker, more serious tone as this was the first movie in the franchise that earned a PG-13 rating .
The film does a good job of telling the audience that Harry, Ron, and Hermoine are no longer children as they deal with romance as Harry and Ron are jealous that their crushes do not attend with them to a dance known as the Yule Ball and have to face death as a friend of Harry, Cedric Diggory, played by a pre-Twilight Robert Pattinson, is killed during the movie.
Plus, we finally get to see a glimpse of Harry's arch-nemesis: Lord Voldemort. 8. Jurassic World(2015)
22 years after Jurassic Park, we finally get to see what a functioning dinosaur theme park looks like in Jurassic World.
Of course, the park comes into danger when their new creation, the Indominus Rex, escapes and creates chaos throughout the park, forcing Chris Pratt to save the day.
While the film might not have much of a story, it is still good popcorn entertainment thanks to Pratt's performance as well as the action sequences including the climatic battle between the Indominus, a T-Rex, and some velcioraptors.
Plus, Bryce Dallas Howard pulls off an impressive feat as she is able to run around with high heels on.
7. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol(2011)
One of the issues that film critics and some fans of the first three Mission Impossible movies was that it was focused too much on Tom Cruise and not the team, unlike the old TV show(For you kids out there, Mission: Impossible was a TV series that ran from 1966-1973 on CBS
However, in Ghost Protocol, the other members of Cruise's team get to shine as the IMF is disavowed after being framed for an attack on the Kremlin in Moscow.
This forces Cruise's Ethan Hunt to rely on only three other agents: Benji Dunn, the film's comic relief done very well by Simon Pegg, Jane Carter, played by the very sexy Paula Patton(why did Robin Thicke cheat on her?) and the mysterious analyst William Brandt, played by Jeremy Renner.
The film also features a spectacular stunt in which Hunt has to climb the outside of the Burj Khalifa tower in Dubai, which Cruise performed without a stunt double. 6. Live Free or Die Hard(2007)
12 years after his last adventure in Die Hard with a Vengeance, Bruce Willis' John McClane returns to save the United States from cyber-terrorists who have hacked into the federal government to create chaos throughout America.
The film has incredible action, including the tunnel scene which ends with McClane driving a car off a toll booth and into the air to explode a helicopter because he was out of bullets, another great sidekick in computer hacker Matt Farrell, played by Justin Long, and the theme that being a hero isn't all that is cracked up to be as McClane is divorced and tries to repair the relationship with his estranged daughter, Lucy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) who uses the name "Generro" like her mother did in the first Die Hard. 5. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home(1986)
Some fans might be turned off by the film's environmental message to save the whales, but the fourth entry of the Star Trek franchise is one of the best because of the comedy that ensues as the crew of the Enterprise are like a fish out of water(sorry about the pun) in 1986 San Francisco resulting in numerous funny moments including Chekov's search for the nuclear "wessels", Kirk and Spock being rejected by a bus because they did not know what the driver meant by exact change, and Scotty using a mouse as a device to talk to the computer. 4. Rocky IV(1985)
This is the Rocky movie where Rocky(Sylvester Stallone) goes to Russia to avenge the death of Apollo Creed(Carl Weathers) at the hands of Ivan Drago(Dolph Lundgren).
Having a hard act to follow in Rocky III's Clubber Lang(Mr. T), Lundgren does a good job of potraying the cold, heartless Soviet boxer with classic lines like "If he dies, he dies" when he knocks out Creed and of course telling Rocky "I must break you" before their fight.
While critics panned the movie, Rocky IV became the highest-grossing film of the franchise and was the highest grossing sports film of all time until The Blind Side in 2009. 3. Toy Story 4(2019)
When Woody, Buzz and the rest of the toys were donated from Andy to a little girl named Bonnie at the end of Toy Story 3, many thought that was the end of the Toy Story franchise.
But Pixar was able to come up with another fantastic entry in this magical franchise that gave fans once again the laughter and emotion that comes with every Toy Story.
In this installment, Woody(Tom Hanks) has been regulated to the closet of his new owner, Bonnie, but yet spends the film trying to make her happy when her toy that she made named Forky runs away and Woody attempts to bring him home because he doesn't want Bonnie to be upset.
Along the way, he meets with an old friend in Bo Peep(Annie Potts), that had been given up years before by Andy's sister, and finds a new purpose in his life: to search for lost toys and find them a owner who will love them. 2. Mad Max: Fury Road(2015)
It's not just the fact that this movie earned 10 Academy Award nominations including Best Picture and Best Director for George Miller and that is has a rating of 97% by critics(86% by fans) on Rotten Tomatoes, but the fact that the Mad Max franchise could succeed without Mel Gibson and that an action movie can be made without an overdose of CGI.
Director George Miller says that 80% of the effects were not CGI in creating his masterpiece in which Mad Max, now played by Tom Hardy, helps Imperator Furiosa(Charlize Theron)and the five wives of Immortan Joe escape in an armored truck known as the "War Rig".
Essentially, the whole movie is one long chase, but it works and helps us all get beyond Thunderdome. 1. Avengers: Endgame(2019)
While it is the 22nd film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, this is the 4th Marvel movie under The Avengers moniker and considered by many Marvel fans as the best movie out of the entire 22-movie saga.
Following the events of Infinity War where Thanos wiped out half of the universe, the remaining Avengers(Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Hawkeye, Black Widow, Ant-Man, War Machine, Nebula, and Rocket Racoon)go back in time to collect the Infinity Stones that Thanos used in the previous film to reverse the damage he did and bring the other half of the universe back to life.
The movie features some surprise cameos from characters from previous movies such as Tilda Swinton's The Ancient One from Doctor Strange and Rene Russo, who played Frigga, Thor's mother in the first two Thor movies.
The movie also features some of the most memorable moments in comic book film history such as Captain America wielding Thor's hammer, the return of the heroes who turned into dust in Infinity War just in time for the final battle and Iron Man's "I am Iron Man" line.
While there will be more Marvel movies, Endgame provides an satisfying conclusion for some major characters while setting up more fun in the future for the MCU.
Sometimes the third time is not the charm in Hollywood as the third installment of a film franchise could be so disappointing it leaves critics and fans bemused and bewildered.
Some examples of bad threequels are Batman Forever, Spider-Man 3, Superman III, and The Matrix Revolutions.
However, there are times when the third installment can shine and been seen as equal to or better than their predecessors.
With that in mind, I have decided to put together a list of what I think the 15 best threequels are in movie history, using my personal opinion combined with what critics and fans(i.e, using scores from Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB to help me out).
Let's get started(Warning: There are spoilers so if have never seen any of these movies, you may not want to read this article or just scroll down to see the list and read the text) 15. Back To The Future Part III(1990)
This was the one set in the west as Marty McFly(Michael J. Fox) tries to bring Doc(Christopher Lloyd) back to 1985 after he learns that Doc is killed in 1885.
The film is highlighted by McFly using the name Clint Eastwood when he is in the west and Doc's romance with Clara(Mary Steenburgen) which gives the film its emotional lift.
While it might be considered the weakest of the three movies, the final chapter of the Back to the Future trilogy provides a satisfying conclusion to the series as it provides finality with the DeLeorean being destroyed and Doc settling down with Clara with a time-traveling locomotive.
14. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation(1989)
Unlike the other Vacation movies, this one is set at home as Clark Griswold(Chevy Chase) tries to provide a "fun, old-fashioned Christmas" in his home in Chicago with both sets of grandparents and Uncle Eddie(Randy Quaid) and his family, which like the all Vacation movies provides disastrous results.
While initially given mixed reviews when it first came out, Christmas Vacation has become recognized one of the great Christmas movies and it is easily the funniest Vacation sequel.
13. Rocky III(1982)
The world was introduced to Mr.T as he played Clubber Lang, the challenger who takes Rocky Balboa's heavyweight title and pride away from him.
Rocky rediscovers the "Eye of the Tiger" thanks to his former rival Apollo Creed, who makes a babyface turn(that's pro wrestling lingo for a bad guy turning into a good guy) as he helps train Rocky into reclaiming the heavyweight title and begins one of the great bromances in cinema history, with the infamous beach run scene which ends with them hugging in the water.
The film also features a memorable sequence as Rocky fights Thunderlips, played by Hulk Hogan, and numerous classic lines by Mr. T including "I pity the fool" and his prediction for the fight "Pain."
12. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban(2004)
The Prisoner of Azkaban marks a big turning point in the Harry Potter franchise as the series shifts away from its kid-friendly tone into a more serious, darker one as Potter(Daniel Radcliffe) is set to face off with a man named Sirius Black(Gary Oldman) who escapes from prison, leading many to believe that he intends to kill Potter, only to find out that he is Harry's godfather and was framed for betraying Harry's parents and sending them to death at the hands of Lord Voldemort.
The film is considered to be one of, if not the best Harry Potter as we see more character development and signs of the brooding romance between Ron(Rupert Grint) and Hermoine(Emma Watson). 11. The Bourne Ultimatum(2007)
The third Jason Bourne movie sees the title character played by Matt Damon finally learn regain his full memory and helps bring down the CIA plans for a new black operations program called Operation Blackbrair, an upgrade over the Operation Treadstone program of which Bourne is the only survivor.
The film is critically accliamed, with a 86% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and ranks in the top 250 movies, as voted on by users of the Internet Movie Database(IMDB).
10. Thor: Ragnarok(2017)
After a decent first movie which was followed by perhaps the weakest movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor's third solo movie delivered with its mixture of action and humor.
With help from other Avengers, the Hulk and Doctor Strange, plus the the introduction of Valkyrie, a drunken female warrior from Asgard, and another great performance by Tom Hiddleston as the mischievous Loki, Ragnarok gave Marvel fans what is easily the best Thor movie. 9. Captain America: Civil War(2016)
Marvel showed how it's done when you put two of its beloved superhero characters against each other while introducing new characters in Civil War.
Divided on whether they need oversight, the Avengers split into two factions: Team Captain America(Captain America, Falcon, Winter Soldier, Hawkeye, Ant-Man, Scarlet Witch) and Team Iron Man(Iron Man, Black Widow, War Machine, Black Panther, Vision, Spider-Man) culminating in an explosive battle.
Despite the numerous Marvel characters, as well as the splendid additions of Black Panther and Spider-Man to the Universe, the film's heart is still Captain America(Chris Evans) and his loyalty to help Bucky Barnes(Sebastien Stan) who has become a brainwashed assassin known as the Winter Soldier, revert back to the man who he was in the first Captain America movie.
The highlights of the movie is the battle between the two factions and the numerous funny moments including Spider-Man using his webs to bring down a Ant-Man(Paul Rudd) who has grown to giant size, with a quip "Hey, you guys ever see that really old movie, The Empire Strikes Back" and the back-and-forth banter between Falcon and the Winter Soldier. 8. Toy Story 3(2010)
The third installment of the Toy Story franchise is the most emotional one as our favorite toys have to deal with the fact that their beloved owner, Andy, is growing up.
The toys are sent to a day-care center where they are confronted by a sadistic Lotso, a disgruntled Lots-O-Huggin bear who decides which toys are played with toddlers(who play roughly) and older kids(who do not play as rough).
The toys eventually escape and get one last chance to play with Andy before he leaves for college as he hands off his toys to a new owner in a girl named Bonnie.
Even the movie is very emotional, it does feature an hilarious sequence in which Buzz Lightyear, who had been in demo mode by Lotso, is but in Spanish mode resulting in a funny dance with Jesse, the cowgirl companion to Woody.
7. Avengers: Infinity War(2018)
Almost all of the heroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe came together in this epic threequel which produced one of the most memorable endings in recent movie history.
Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, the Guardians of the Galaxy and others team up to face off against Thanos, who is trying to collect all the infinity stones so he can wipe out off the universe.
With a cast of almost two dozen heroes(that's 24), the directors of the film, the Russo brothers, are able to pull off a balanced story and give significant screen time to almost every hero.
Plus, it was fun to see the great pairings such as Iron Man and Doctor Strange or Thor and the Guardians of the Galaxy(especially Rocket Racoon) or Captain America and Black Panther.
And it had the best villain in the 20-plus Marvel Cinematic Universe in Thanos, by making him an seemingly unstoppable force and winds up successful with his mission to "balance" the universe in his eyes with a snap of his fingers. 6. Return of the Jedi(1983)
While many Star Wars fans feel that Jedi is a drop off from its two predecessors, A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi is still a classic.
We got to see Jabba the Hutt for the first time(though he was seen in A New Hope when it was the special edition of the film was released in 1997) and for better or worse, we are introduced to the Ewoks, the little creatures that occupy the forest moon of Endor.
But at the heart of the movie is the redemption of Darth Vader, as he is brought back from the dark side by his son, Luke, who in in this episode is a complete bad ass, as he has mastered his Jedi skills and sheds his whiny persona that we saw in A New Hope.
Plus, we see Luke's wisdom come through and he tries not to fight Vader and then tosses his lightsaber away after the Emperor suggests he join him after defeating the Sith Lord in an epic lightsaber duel.
Lando Calrissian(Billy Dee Williams) also redeems himself as he helps Luke, Chewie, and Leia help rescue Han Solo from Jabba and pilots the Millennium Falcon in the awesome space battle in an attack on the new Death Star, with Wedge Antilles getting a chance to shine as he becomes Red Leader in the battle.
But the most important reason Return of the Jedi is one of the great three-quels: Princess Leia in a gold bikini. 5. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade(1989)
After fans felt that Steven Spielberg and George Lucas went too dark with The Temple of Doom, the Indiana Jones recaptured the charm of Raiders of the Lost Ark by introducing Indy's father, played by Sean Connery.
The banter between Connery and Harrison Ford was fantastic as it provided many funny moments including the sequence where the two are tied together to a chair while they are surrounded by fire and the revelation that they both slept with the same girl(not at the same time because that would be disgusting). Last Crusade also features the return of Sallah(John Rhys-Davies) and an expanded role for Marcus Brody(Denholm Ellliott)where it is revealed that he is a complete ditz as Indy reveals that Brody once got lost in his own museum.
And then there there is memorable the appearance of the old knight guarding the Holy Grail towards the end of the film with his "Choose wisely" when it comes to finding the Grail.
All the humor and action(the boat chase through Venice and the prologue that sees how Indy got his fear of snakes, his scar, and his attire) make Last Crusade far and away the best Indiana Jones sequel. 4. The Dark Knight Rises(2012)
The third movie in Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy had a hard act to follow after the gripping performance by Heath Ledger as the Joker, which posthumously won him an Oscar, but Nolan delivers with The Dark Knight Rises
The film delivers us a new villain, Bane(Tom Hardy), who is so strong that he breaks Batman's back in a fight midway through the film and brings anarchy to Gotham City as he has bridges to Gotham explode, holds the city hostage with a nuclear bomb, and releases all the prisoners out into the city.
The theme of the movie is rising from the ashes, as Bruce Wayne(Christian Bale), climbs out of the prison that Bane put him in after their fight, and returns to Gotham to save the city from Bane and Talia ah-Gaul, (in a not-so surprise twist if you are a comic book fan), with help from Commissioner Gordon(Gary Oldman), John Blake(Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who saw through Wayne's playboy persona to know that he is really Batman, and Selina Kyle, played by Anne Hathaway, who does a fine job in the role of Catwoman after initial backlash to her casting in the iconic role.
Plus, the movie gives Bruce Wayne a happy ending, as throughout the film, many of the characters like Alfred and Bane, believes he doesn't care if he dies, only to find out he runs off to Italy with Selina after saving Gotham from the atomic bomb. 3. Goldfinger(1964)
To many fans of the James Bond franchise, this is the quintessential 007 movie as it is the first Bond movie to feature a theme song over the opening credits(sung by Shirley Bassey) as well as the extensive use of gadgets, including a Aston-Martin with an ejector seat(Ejector seat, you're joking) and marks the first time that Bond asks for his favorite drink (Vodka martini, shaken, not stirred). Goldfinger features some of the most memorable moments in James Bond history including the naked girl painted in gold, Goldfinger threatening to kill Bond with a laser, to which Bond responds "You expect me to talk" with Goldfinger's classic response "No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die" and the stoppage of the bomb to explode Fort Knox on "007".
Plus, it also has the most infamous Bond girl name: Pussy Galore
2. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King(2003)
The Lord of the Rings trilogy came to a rousing conclusion as it won 11 Academy Awards including Best Picture.
The best moments of the film include the dramatic Battle of the Pelennor Fields, Aragron accepting his destiny as the king of Men, and Sam saving Frodo from Gollum's diabolic scheme as they are able to destroy the ring in the fires of Mount Doom.
The only thing coming Return of the King from being the #1 threequel is the 15 endings that the film had before the movie was finally over. 1. The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly(1967)
Though is considered a prequel as it is set before the events of A Fistful of Dollars and For A Few Dollars More, the final movie in director Sergio Leone's Man with No Name trilogy is considered to be the greatest Western movie of all time.
Clint Eastwood plays the "Good", a bounty hunter, while Lee Van Cleef plays the "Bad" a ruthless mercenary, and Eli Wallach the "Ugly", a Mexican bandit, who all after $200,000 of gold during the Civil War.
The film is thought to be the standard-bearer for the "Spaghetti Western" a satire of the old John Wayne Westerns, as Eastwood is more of an anti-hero as he more interested in money rather than saving people as evident in the film's first act as he captures Wallach's character to collect a bounty and set him up for a hanging, only to have "Blondie" as he referred to in the film by Wallach's "Tuco", shoot the noose just before he is killed so the two could do the act in another town to collect more money.
The film has been rated on many all-time movie lists including Empire Magazine's "500 Greatest Movies" where it placed 25th and it was listed on Time Magazine's "100 Greatest Movies" thanks in large part to the performances by Eastwood, Van Cleef and Wallach, plus the fantastic cinematography of Leone(especially the climactic standoff) and of course, the famous theme song.
Honorable Mention: Skyfall
While is officially the 23rd movie in the James Bond franchise, some consider Skyfall a three-quel as its the second movie following the reboot of the franchise in Casino Royale.
Following the dark Quantum of Solace, Skyfall balances out the new mood set by the Daniel Craig movies and the old-fashioned quips and gadgets in previous 007 films such as Bond jumping onto a passenger train in the film's prologue, where he calmly adjusts his cuffs and tells M(Judi Dench) through his earpiece that he was just "changing carriages". Skyfall also re-introduces Miss Moneypenny, who starts out the film as a field agent but goes back to her role as secretary at film's end and a new, younger version of Q who tells Bond "Were expecting you a exploding pen? We don't really go in for that anymore" when he gives 007 his gadgets in their first scene together.
And the movie features one of the better James Bond theme songs, thanks to Adele.
The 37th Golden Raspberry Awards, or Razzies, announced its nominations for they what they felt was the worst in film over the past year and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice racked up eight nominations.
While the movie did have its flaws(a hammy performance by Jesse Eisenberg, the whole "Martha" thing), I actually thought the movie was decent and had some strong points(Jeremy Irons' performance, the Batman warehouse fight scene, and Wonder Woman's entrance in the climatic battle).
And for those who hated the film when you saw in theaters, I recommend watching the Ultimate Edition, which is a half-hour longer than the theatrical version and fills up some plot holes as it gives depth to Lex Luthor's plot to put the Caped Crusader and Man of Steel against each other as well as giving Henry Cavill more screen time.
However, like I said, the movie had its flaws, and I think it could have worked better if one of these three solutions that I am going to present would have been applied:
Make it more Superman Centric
When Man of Steel was released in 2013, many fans thought Henry Cavill's Superman was going to be the central character in the DC Universe.
But in Dawn of Justice, Cavill was kicked to the curb as he had only 43 lines of dialogue in the theatrical version of the film.
It's a shame because I think Cavill has done a good job as the Man of Steel and felt the movie was better when Superman was the focus and how in the film, characters debated whether or not the world should trust the Kryptonian.
What director Zach Snyder and the writers could have done is essentially made the movie Man of Steel 2 but still have Batman in the film as a supporting character.
Basically, they could have had Superman be trying to do what he does(save the world), but have Batman as a mysterious figure who is shadowing the Man of Steel, leading Clark Kent to ask himself "Who is this Batman and what his problem with me?"
Then, we could have seen more of Cavill as Clark Kent as he investigates the Dark Knight's past or have Batman came out of retirement like in the graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns to fight Superman.
Also by making the movie more Superman-centric, it could have allowed for us to see more of Lex Luthor pulling the strings of his plan or have him recruit the Batman out of retirement and convince him he needs to destroy Superman.
Another way would have been not to include Batman at all, but still have Wonder Woman show up and have Superman have the "Knightmare" where he sees a desolate Earth, leading him to believe him a greater threat is out there and that the Justice League needs to be formed.
By doing this, they could save Batman for Justice League as Superman tries to recruit Batman out of retirement to join the Justice League.
Given Batman a movie before hand
After all the backlash of his casting, I thought Ben Affleck did a good job as Batman, who in this incarnation of the Dark Knight character has become disillusioned after fighting criminals for 20 years and no longer lives up to his code of not killing people.
According to some accounts, he is responsible for the death of 21 criminals in Batman v Superman, but to quote Arnold Schwarznegger in True Lies "Yes, but they were bad".
But how did the Batman get to this point where he is so cynical and has no problem with his actions that kill people?
We didn't have to worry about Wonder Woman's backstory because we knew going into Dawn of Justice that there was going to be a movie detailing her past(which comes out this June), but with Batman, some fans were of kind of saying to themselves "What is Batman's deal?"
The only glimpse to see why Batman is the way he is in Dawn of Justice is his talk to Alfred about needing to destroy Superman and a image on a statue of Robin, which leads us to assume that the Boy Wonder was killed at some point during Batman's 20 years of crime-fighting.
A solo Batman movie released before Dawn of Justice, could have better explained how Batman got to be so ruthless and why he does not live up to his moral code of not killing anyone anymore.
Perhaps adopting the famous storylines from the comics like The Killing Joke where the Joker paralyzes Batgirl with a gunshot and A Death in The Family where Robin is killed by a bomb set up by the Joker, could have been used and actually made use of Jared Leto's Joker, who was barely in the DC Universe's third film Suicide Squad, which by the way is way more incoherent that Dawn of Justice.
And you could have the scene where Bruce Wayne goes into Metropolis and looks at Superman in the sky as the final scene of the movie, setting up the cliff-hanger where you know Batman and Superman are going to go at it in the next movie.
Split it into two movies
There are reports that there is a four-hour cut of the movie, which could have been easily split into two 2-hour movies.
They did this with the final movies of the Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, and Twilight series, so why not with Batman v Superman?
Therefore, you could have given more time to flesh out the stories of all the main characters(Batman, Superman, Lex Luthor)
So if Snyder and Warner Brothers wanted to go with Batman v Superman as the second film of the DC Universe and not have a Batman movie before Dawn of Justice, we could have had flashbacks of the Dark Knight, like they did with Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad to show us how he got where he is at the time of Dawn of Justice rather than have him just look at the sky and see Superman fighting Zod after his building collapsed during their fight in Metropolis.
Plus, we could have possibly seen more of Lex Luthor plotting his master plan and more of Clark Kent's investigation of Batman's past, which could have included how he found out Bruce Wayne's mother's name was Martha, which would have allowed to have the whole "Martha" thing to work better.
Could have any of these three possibilities made Batman v Superman work better? Let me know what you think
We are well into the new year, which is usually a slow time for movies with mostly junk movies coming out until the spring.
With that in mind, I have written down the eight movies I plan or wish to see in the year 2017 and what my hopes are for these films.
I have also included the trailers or teasers for these films to go along with my thoughts.
As Heath Ledger's Joker would say, here we go: Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 (May 5)
Sequels in the Marvel Cinematic Universe have tended to be weaker than their predecessors such as the Avengers: Age of Ultron, Iron Man 2, and Thor: The Dark World, but hopefully that will not be the case with Guardians.
The trailer looks promising in that the sequel could be funnier than the first one, especially with Rocket Raccoon now having to take care of Baby Groot.
Plus, I am curious what new songs will be included in this one.
Wonder Woman(June 2)
While the Marvel Universe has garnered praise from critics and fans alike, the first three films of the DC Universe have polarized these same people.
Hopefully, that will change with Wonder Woman, as Gal Gadot,who was one of the highlights in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and having Chris Pine(aka Captain Kirk from the Star Trek reboots) as Steve Trevor, Wonder Woman's love interest, should be an added bonus.
And by the looks of the trailer, this one might have a lighter tone than the previous DC movies, which some fans have complained about.(Click twice to play).
Transformers: The Last Knight (June 23)
I'll admit it, I have seen all four Transformers movies in the theaters, but to the haters out there I'll just say this: The Transformers is kind like of a 80s horror slasher franchise like Halloween and Friday the 13th in that you're not going to get much of a story, you're just watching for the action sequences.
However, this Transformers movie has the potential for an interesting story by the early marketing campaign indicating Optimus Prime has gone to the dark side.
Plus, Mark Wahlberg is an improvement over Shia LaBeouf.
Spider-Man: Homecoming (July 7)
While this is the third reboot of the iconic Marvelcharacter in just 15 years, this one looks like it will differentiate itself from the previous five Spider-Man movies as it will include another Marvel comic book hero in Iron Man, played by Robert Downey Jr., and the fact that one of Peter Parker's friends will actually know that he is Spider-Man.
The inclusion of Spider-Man in Captain America:Civil War helped make that film in my opinion the best Marvel movie to date, and hopefully Tom Holland, the man playing Spider-Man, will once again provide a charming performance as the famous web-crawler.
Blade Runner 2049 (October 6)
This one has the most nervous because the original Blade Runner is considered one of the greatest films of all time and is one of my personal favorites.
But there is still great potential with director Denis Villeneuve's success from Arrival and Sicario, to go along with Ryan Gosling taking over the lead role.
I am curious, as many Blade Runner fans are, is to how they handle is Deckard(that's Harrison Ford's character) a replicant mystery and if Jared Leto will actually be consequential to the plot, unlike his Joker in Suicide Squad.
However, the visuals do look promising and my hope is that this will be what Mad Max: Fury Road was to the Mad Max franchise, a worthy entry in the series.
Thor: Ragnarok (November 3)
In my opinion, the Thor movies have been the weakest films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but that might change with the third solo Thor movie as it will include the Hulk, played by Mark Ruffalo, and Doctor Strange, played by Benedict Cumberbatch.
The hope is that these additions will give Marvel fans another Captain America: Civil War, in that we see some Avengers characters gave us another good movie.
Justice League (November 17)
This could be the film that makes or breaks the DC Universe in its ongoing battle with Marvel.
We will get to see Ben Affleck and Gal Gadot as Batman and Wonder Woman again, respectively, plus be introduced to Aquaman, Cyborg, and the Flash(though we have seen him briefly in Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad.
But the biggest question going into Justice League is how do they bring Superman back from the dead and if the Man of Steel's reintroduction into the DC Universe will quiet critics of how he was been portrayed so far in previous DC films.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi (December 15)
Ever since Disney bought Lucasfilm and decided to re-open the Star Wars franchise, they have hit back-to-back home runs with The Force Awakens and Rogue One, wiping the taste out of many months of Star Wars fans who were infuriated by the prequels.
With Han Solo out of the picture, now the focus turns to Luke Skywalker, as hopefully he will have at least one line in this one, plus advancing the stories of the new characters(Rey, Finn, Kylo Ren) and hopefully more Poe Dameron, the X-Wing pilot played by Oscar Isaac.
But with the death of Carrie Fisher, I think the biggest question will be what will happen to Princess Leia with who are Rey's parents now coming in second, though that one might not be answered till Episode IX.
So those are the movies I am looking forward to in 2017 and hopefully most of them, if not all will be awesome.
I finally saw Rogue One, the Star Wars movie about how the Rebels stole the plans for the Death Star which was the Empire's superweapon that was destroyed out at the end of the original Star Wars or Episode IV: A New Hope.
As you can tell by the headline, I loved the movie as Disney hit a home run again since they bought Lucasfilm and began releasing new Star Wars movies, starting with The Force Awakens back in December 2015.
Now if you haven't seen the movie yet, I suggest you stop reading this article right now because I will discuss many spoilers from this entry as well as other Star Wars films.
For the second straight Star Wars movie, the film's central character and protagonist is a female character in the form of Jyn Erso played by Felicity Jones, a petty criminal who is the daughter of one of the builders of the Death Star, Galen played by Mads Mikkelson(also the villain from Doctor Strange).
Jyn is broken out of prison by Cassian Andor(Diego Luna) and is basically given a free pardon in exchange for arranging a meeting with Saw Gerrera(Forest Whitaker) in hopes of extracting her father.
Erso's arc is similar to that of Han Solo in A New Hope in that she really isn't interested in joining up with the Rebellion in the beginning, but as the movie progresses, she becomes a leader after witnessing a hologram of her father, detailing the weakness of the Death Star that he built in so it can be destroyed, which was apparently a huge plot hole that I never noticed in the many viewings of A New Hope.
Jyn gives Star Wars yet another strong female character like Rey in The Force Awakens as she becomes a believer in the cause of the Rebellion and helps recruit the small squad of Rebels that become known as "Rogue One" to steal the plans for the Death Star.
Erso is just one of the many great characters to come out of Rogue One, but perhaps my favorite is Chirrut Imue, a blind warrior who believes in the Force as he repeatedly says throughout the film "I'm one with the force, the force is with me", played by Hong Kong action star Donnie Yen.
Imue kicks some serious ass in the movie and has some of the movie's funniest lines, such as "Is your foot okay?" when he singlehandly beats up a group of Stormtroopers and when he is blindfolded by Gerrera's gang by saying "Are you kidding me?I'm blind".
That is also Imue's banter with his friend, merceany friend Baze Melbus(Jiang Wen)such as Baze telling Imue "Good luck" with Imue responding "I don't need luck, I have you".
To me, Melbus and Imue go down as the one of the many great duos in the Star Wars franchise and I hope there is a book or comic or something that explains their origin story or how they got together because that would be fun to see.
There is also K-2SO, the Imperial droid reprogrammed by the Rebels, which is voiced by Alan Tudyk, who provides much of the movie's comic relief, but in a way that isn't annoying like Jar Jar Binks in The Phantom Menace.
K-2SO comes across as a Chandler Bing type of droid with his sarcasm during the film such as knocking out Jyn by saying "Congratulations!You're being rescued" when Andor captures Erso early in the film.
There's another great moment with the K-2SO as he tries to utter the famous line "I've got a bad feeling about this" only to get interrupted by Jyn and Cassian when the three disguise themselves as they enter the Imperial Base where the Death Star plans are being held.
Then, there are the numerous Easter eggs and cameos throughout the film such as Jimmy Smits reprising his role as Senator Bail Organa, the adoptive father of Princess Leia, as well as Mon Montha, and the encounter Jyn has with the two aliens Luke and Obi-Wan encounter in the catina scene in A New Hope.
Through the film was great, I do have two minor issues.
One, I thought the main antagonist was going to be Orson Kennic, the man in charge of building the Death Star, played by Ben Maddlesohn, who is also in The Dark Knight Rises as John Daggett.
But it seemed to me that Maddlesohn's role as the main antagonist was overtaken by the CGI version of Grand Moff Tarkin.
I had no issue with the CGI use of Tarkin, he looked pretty real to me, but the trailers had indicated that Kennic was like I said, going to be the main antagonist as he was supposed to be the man overseeing the Death Star's construction, only to have Tarkin to take away his role toward the middle of the film.
Which leads me to my other problem: there was so much stuff from the trailers that were not seen in the final cut, like Jyn's encounter with a TIE fighter.
When I saw that during the trailer that aired during the Olympics, I did my Keanu Reeves' "Whoa", but we did not see that.
I guess I'll have to wait for the Blu-Ray and the deleted scenes to see what happened to the TIE Fighter.
Now that I got my only complaints about the film out of the way, it is time for my favorite moment or moments of Rogue One: Darth Vader.
Vader only shows up for two scenes, but they are memorable as the first one occurs on Mustafar, the planet where he dueled with Obi-Wan in Revenge of the Sith, and gives another callback to A New Hope when he uses the Force to choke Drennic and tells him "Be careful not to choke on your own aspirations" when Drennic asks the Dark Lord if he is still in charge of the Death Star project.
But his best scene, which is also the best moment of the movie, comes in the climatic ending after Jyn is able to transmit the Death Star plans to the Rebels, when Vader boards the Rebel ship in hopes of retrieving the plans as the Dark Lord of the Sith unleashes his fury as he uses his lightsaber, Force chokes and throws as he slashes his way through numerous Rebels in attempts to get back the plans.
This is the Vader that we grew up and loved, and not this guy:
And George Lucas decided to put this in the climax of Return of the Jedi when he released it on Blu-Ray?
Since I knew that the Rebels were going to win, because it said so in the opening text crawl of A New Hope, the only surprise to me was that Jyn Erso did not survive the film's events, as she dies along with Cassian when Tarkin orders the base where she steals the Death Star's plans to be destroyed by the ray from the Death Star.
I had a feeling that the majority of the new characters in Rogue One would die, but I thought Erso would survive just keep us guessing about who Rey's parents are, since Erso had a British accent much like Rey.
But I guess the head honchos at Lucasfilm want fans to keep that a mystery as we head into Episode VIII.
In conclusion, Rogue One was fantastic and joins the Original Trilogy and The Force Awakens as truly magical films and shows us why so many people around the world love Star Wars.
My name is A.J. Foss and welcome to Ranting About Movies.
So, what is this blog about? Essentially, it's me ranting about movies, just like the name of the blog says.
Okay, let me go a little bit deeper.
If you think this is a simple movie review site, you're wrong because I only go to about the movies around three times a year.
Technically, I will be reviewing movies, but one of the things I want to do is defend some movies that I feel are not bad as other Internet commentators would make you out to believe, for example the Star Wars prequels.
Yes, the prequels are no where near as good as the original trilogy, but there are a few good things or scenes from those three movies, that I would point out to you in that type of article.
I will also do a lot of countdown lists such as best sequels or best franchises.
And I will try to review some movies that I have seen recently, but don't expect them to be immediately after the film released like Rogue One which I still haven't seen.
For those interested in continuing to follow this blog, I will have to warn that I will discuss spoilers in my observations, so if you want read about something that does not contain spoilers, then this is probably not the movie blog for you.
Anyway, there is my introduction and I hope to have an article written up for you soon.
Stay tuned.
