34 - Seven Samurai
Akira Kurosawa is one of those directors that directors love. Like Hitchcock and Kubrick, Kurosawa has a classic quality that is in all his work. Seven Samurai is possibly his best Samurai movie. When a small village is raided by bandits who promise to return again, the town hires a ronin to protect them. The ronin recruits the best men he can find and so they prepare the town for a final showdown that for the time, is epic. The use of horses and action in part made this film translate so well to the western genre, resulting in The Magnificent Seven.
Best bit: An early duel between two swordsmen that is oven in one decisive strike. Apparently the scene inspired the famous gun duels that became a convention of the western.
33 - Escape From New York
Now, forget that it is old as hell. Forget the dated effects and the laughable ideas of futuristic. Forget the terrible synth music. Now put your mind back in the 80s and think about it. If you use your imagination, and squint really hard you'll see. This film is awesome. The film that inspired Solid Snake cannot be bad, and it isn't it is just dated as hell. That doesn't stop the concept being awesome though and the concept that Manhattan is a prison, and the only guy that can save the president is called Snake.....is sweeeet. Kurt Russell is super cool in his stubble and eye patch combo. Sure he is wooden but who wasn't in the 80s. John Carpenter was better known for giving us the slasher genre but for me, he will always be the guy who gave us Solid "A Hind D?" Snake.
Best bit: Ummm, everything.........ok, the glider.
32 - High Noon
Fred Zinnemann's classic western is still one of the best loved and most well respected in the genre. The story of one good man facing an impending evil is way ahead of its time. Gary Cooper stars as Marshal Kane, who on the day of his wedding (and retirement) learns that the infamous Frank Miller will be arriving on the noon train to exact his revenge on the man who arrested him. Kane's wife begs him to flee but he refused to live a life of fear so Kane returns to the town to enlist help from the people he spent his life protecting. But no one is brave enough to stand by Marshal Kane and in the end it comes down to Kane's bravery and cunning, in one of the best choreographed and most spectacular showdowns in cinema history.
Best bit: The showdown of course!
31 - Hard Boiled
Hailed by many as John Woo's best film, Hard Boiled is the kind of action movie that only comes along once in a generation. While it's 80s-ness has dated it, the gun fights are still pure bullet ballet and the climactic showdown in a hospital has to be seen to be believed. Hard Boiled stars Woo's muse Chow Yun Fat and Hong Kong super star Tony Leung and the two leads are excellent. The real star of the show is the shootouts, which are some of the best ever shot. Doves and slow mo may be laughable now but at the time we were like "wow...slow mo......and look a dove!".
Best bit: Chow Yun Fat coochy cooing a baby while shooting people with a 12 gauge shotgun.