#30-21 of 50 Guy Movies: A Modern Guide

March 20th, 2008 · 2 Comments · Tagged as Guy Movies

30. Collateral. Tom Cruise as a bad guy? A very rare occurrence. This hitman has some work to do, but he takes a cab to do his business. Jamie Foxx is the unlucky cab driver who tries to save the final target. A very convincing thriller.

29. Match Point. Your momma probably warned you about women like this, but most femme fatales have never looked as good as Scarlett Johansson. It’s not your daddy’s Woody Allen movies. Unlike most older Woody Allen movies, which are very cerebral, this one’s so much sexier because of Johansson’s quirky, sensual beauty.

28. Lucky Number Slevin. Josh Hartnett is Slevin Kelevra, who is mistaken for his friend, Nick, who owes a lot of money to The Rabbi (Ben Kingsley) and The Boss (Morgan Freeman), both crime lords, and is pursued by an assassin, Mr. Goodkat (Bruce Willis), and a detective. He has only lovely Lindsey (Lucy Liu) to help him solve Nick’s disappearance and get out of trouble. Best lines: Goodkat says, “I’m a world class asssassin, f**khead,” when asked by Slevin how he found him at the airport.

27. Carlito’s Way. Al Pacino stars as ex-con who wants to live a cleaner life. Except former associates, family, and his lawyer keep dragging him back into the life he once lived. Incredible performances from the supporting cast. Best lines: Pacino to the gang who killed his nephew in their bar, with an empty gun: “Here comes the pain”, followed by “I don’t invite this sh*t; it just comes to me” (in narration).

26. The Killer. John Woo might be considered Hong Kong’s equivalent of Quentin Tarantino. Some of Woo’s movies might in fact be more violent. In The Killer, the quietly charismatic Chow Yun-Fat, as Ah Jong, takes one last job, planning to retire and take care of a singer he accidentally blinded once, but gets double-crossed.

25. 300. This 5th century B.C. tale, based on Frank Miller’s graphic novel “300″, weaves history with incredible, violent battle scenes as King Leonidas defends Sparta against the Persians. As with other movies based on Miller’s graphic novels (e.g., Sin City, elsewhere in this list), the visual style tries to maintain the feel of a graphic novel.

24. Trainspotting. (The trainspotting was a male activity in 80s Britain and refers to a variety of obsessions.) The movie has one of the most wretched yet screamingly funny toilet scenes in cinema history. Keep in mind that it’s a drug movie, about a small group of friends and their way of coping with life, what they descend to to get by. Best lines: “For a vegetarian, Ren, you’re a f**king evil shite.” But be warned about some of the awful scenes that’ll follow. If you get through it all, hopefully you’ll get the point.

23. Snatch. No, we can’t understand what the hell Brad Pitt’s Mickey O’Neil is saying, either. But this is a Guy Ritichie film with Jason Statham, lots of very colorful characters, stolen diamonds, a lot of ass-kicking, and Brad Pitt as a Gypsy bare-knuckle fighter. A classic.

22. American Gangster. You don’t see Denzel Washington in too many villain roles. One was as a cop on the dark side in Training Day (elsewhere in this list). Another is in American Gangster, set in the 1970s, where he plays a Manhattan heroin kingpin. Russell Crowe plays the detective trying to bring him down.

21. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Guy Ritchie is a master at crime/ thrillers that have an injection of comedy. In this Lock, Stock, the lesson is: don’t play in crooked card games, especially when they’re run by someone named Hatchet Harry, who says you now owe him a half million Pounds. Don’t trump that mistake by trying to rob a gang who plan to rob a pot-growing operation.

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2 responses so far ↓

50 Movies That All Guys Should See Before They Die - A Modern Guide | Movie Crunch // Mar 26, 2008 at 2:50 pm

[…] 30-21 of 50 Guy Movies: A Modern Guide. […]
me // Mar 27, 2008 at 1:37 pm

“For a vegetarian, Ren, you’re a f**king evil shite.”
should be
“For a vegetarian, Rent, you’re a f**king evil shot.”