7. One Eight Seven
One Eight Seven is famous for being Samuel L Jackson's first top-billed starring role. Up until then Jackson had proven himself in supporting roles or as part of an ensemble (like Pulp Fiction) but One Eight Seven (often abbreviated to 187) saw the actor take the lead as a science teacher who, after being near-fatally stabbed by a student, moves from New York to LA to rehabilitate. Whilst in LA, Jackson takes a supply role in a troubled, largely Hispanic school where he finds himself engaging in a power struggle with the members of a criminal gangs operating in the classroom. One Eight Seven is not about a messiah-like teacher coming into the lives of challenging 'victim-of-their-upbringing' kids and inspiring them to change their lives around. There is no humanizing revelation about the power of the education system. It is not 'Coach Carter'. Jackon's Mr Garfield is a battered, broken man whose faith in the system is all but spent, he's out of his depth and enacting his own vigilante form of justice on those he feels are beyond salvation. It's an entertaining thriller that tries to offer an alternative perspective of the classroom to the bubble-wrapped dramas - the 'redemption for everyone' endings that Hollywood likes to produce. It demonstrates why the man so cool he can make a single letter sound bad-ass, has gone on to have a hugely successful career in the industry.