My 100 Favorite Movies with Reviews (55-51)

55. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

I don’t think I have anything bad to say about this movie. It’s a near-perfect adaptation of the near-perfect novel by Harper Lee. Its statements on racism, its characters, and its performance by Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch remain some of the best in Hollywood’s history.

It’s essentially two stories in one: the coming of age of Scout Finch and the story of her father, who must defend a black man in a very racist Alabama town. While there are some great moments early on, the court scenes are the best parts.

This film manages to perfectly balance nostalgia and the theme of the loss of innocence in a way I’ve never seen before or since. Scout is a flawed but well-meaning individual in a flawed society. This is an absolute classic and one of the few movies everyone must see before they die.

54. Pulp Fiction (1994)

While not my favorite filmmaker, I have a ton of respect for Quentin Tarantino and what he attempts to do with each film. Drawing inspiration from spaghetti westerns and other “campy” genre films, he always manages to make a completely unique story and tell it in an unprecedented way.

Pulp Fiction is his best film and also his hardest to explain. It’s a few different chapters, but they also intersect. So it’s nonlinear but at the end of the film, you can tell what happened when if you really care to think about it. And you probably will.

As usual, Tarantino fills his film with rich, entertaining dialogue, but unlike in Reservoir Dogs, he also has interesting and relatable characters that make the film at times hilarious and at times tragic.

53. Turner and Hooch (1989)

I love this movie. It’s the best stupid little dog comedy I’ve seen by far, because of the witticism of the dialogue. Tom Hanks, in one of his last comedian roles, is hilarious.

This movie is so quotable and has a ton of one-liners that have stuck in my head for years. In addition to this, it’s a pretty interesting murder mystery. By no means is this film groundbreaking but somehow, I still love it.

52. Major League (1989)

Major League is a hilarious baseball comedy about a team that is put together to be intentionally bad. Of course, the formula allows them to get their bearings and end up winning the pennant, but that’s not what this movie is about. It’s about the hilarity.

There are so many great moments, particularly in the beginning. When they’re looking at the list of players they want to sign and one scout says, “This guy here is dead” and when Charlie Sheen is asked what league he played in last year and replies, “California Penal.” It’s just a really funny movie.

And then there’s Bob Uecker as the announcer, Harry Doyle. He is great. I grew up with him in Milwaukee as one of the greatest baseball announcers of all time, but this more than anything is what cemented him as a classic. His serious commentary on otherwise ridiculous events and his occasional swearing on-air, justifying it by “no one is listening anyway” are all hilarious.

I can’t say this is a great film, but it is really entertaining and relentlessly comical.

51. Gran Torino (2008)

When I saw this, it was the first R-rated film I saw in theaters, and it didn’t disappoint. It features Clint Eastwood’s finest acting performance of his career, playing Walt Kowalski, an old, conservative Vietnam veteran living alone in a neighborhood of Hmong immigrants. He is disgusted by the foreign influence on his neighborhood but eventually becomes more disgusted with the violence of the Hmong gang.

He forms a relationship with a family, particularly a teenage boy named Tao. Predictably, perhaps, Kowalski begins to see things in a different light and become a good person, though his racist slurs never cease.

Another interesting relationship in this film is the one Kowalski has with a young priest who had known his deceased wife well. Though he seems to reject everything the priest has to say, it is clear through his changing actions that the young priest is affecting him.

I also thought the ending to this film was brilliant, and I am not going to give away anything about it.

While the storyline is pretty basic and predictable, it’s a very good movie primarily because of Eastwood’s acting. He plays basically an aged Dirty Harry who ends up becoming sentimental and you believe every bit of it. I still hate that he didn’t get an Oscar nomination, though I realize he wouldn’t have won going against Sean Penn and Mickey Rourke. It’s the perfect way to end a brilliant acting career that’s spawned half a decade.