10.13 Assassins (dir. Takashi Miike)

If you’ve seen Kurosawa’s masterpiece, Seven Samurai, then you already know the basic plot of this movie. However, what you may not know is how much more improved the action and the drama of the film is. If you throw in a truly vile antagonist and give us thirteen of the most badass samurais as well as a large (almost) forty-five minute chunk of climactic action sequence after sequence then you will get in return 13 Assassins. A glorious brilliantly filmed action movie that I doubt can be repeated anytime soon.

9. I Saw The Devil (dir. Kim Ji-Woon)

Starring Byung-hun Lee as one of the most badass protagonists and Min-sik Choi (from Oldboy) as one of the most badass antagonists we’re given a near three hour long battle between these two forces that drags on as meant to be torture and we see the role of the “Devil” switch back and forth throughout the movie.

I was particularly harsh on the film the first time around (in a lost episode of TUMP) but after revisiting it I can say that I was wrong and it is fantastic to attempt to endure the violent battles of these two enemies.

8. Project Nim (dir. James Marsh)

In recent years I’ve become a particular fan of documentary filmmaking. Before I wanted all the bang of the blockbuster, but now I’m very pleased to sit down and just have you tell me an engaging story.

So when the director of Man on Wire decided to look into the life of the “first” chimp to be tested to see how similar and different we are from them psychologically by having him live among humans from birth and be taught to speak sign language. The documentary definitely eventually gets around to the idea that as valid as this question is scientifically is it worth what it does to Nim eventually. While this treatment at time isn’t humane, does that matter since the subject isn’t human?

7. The Guard (dir. John Michael McDonagh)

The brother of writer/director Michael McDonagh (In Bruges) decides to give me a spiritual sequel to In Bruges with Brendan Gleeson playing the most badass and entertainingly racist small town Irish police officer that happens to have to team up with an FBI agent who’s in town for an alleged drug deal that’s about to happen.

If you’ve watched enough movies, and specifically films dealing with police chasing down drug deals, then you know what to expect. This film does that, but does a great job of highlighting all of those moments we don’t see and admitting that those movies exist. My favourite example is a scene where Mark Strong bribes off the police and these small town people, so excited, asks him if “it’s all there” only to get the best movie response to a dumb question.

6. Contagion (dir. Steven Soderbergh)

Horror films main purpose is to frighten you. Usually they do this with ghosts, zombies, demons and psychotic intruders. However, not many decide to ground themselves in reality with the notion of a widespread epidemic of a virus that we can neither treat nor contain.

Soderbergh creates a massive story of how the world would truly be affected if this ever happened. Taking a look at the press, the scientists working for a cure, the origin point, and even the government all making me want to go home and by a lifetime supply of Pure All. It’s fantastic.

<<#15 – #11     #5 – #1>>