So, Citizen Kane has come out on top once again in AFI’s top 100 American films list - and rightfully so. There are films that I like more than Citizen Kane, but there is no better movie in American cinema. It’s got it all: the groundbreaking direction of Orson Welles (which anticipates film noir very nicely), the performances and the writing. I just can’t image AFI choosing anything else.

I’m just glad that they dropped Dances with Wolves off the list. I like Costner as much as the next guy, but that has got to be the most overrated movie ever. It beat Goodfellas for the best picture Oscar.

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Director: Stanley Kubrick

Cast: Sterling Hayden, Coleen Gray, Vince Edwards

*****/*****

One of Kubrick’s early films, The Killing is a tight and suspensful film noir that is truly one of the standouts of the genre. Sterling Hayden (one of the few actors who collaborated with Kubrick more than once) stars as Johnny Clay, an ex-con with a plan to steal $2 million from a race track. Clay assembles a crew of crooks and desperate men to pull off the heist, but slowly their plan begins to unravel.

The film features fantastic black and white photography, an innovating structure, and all the hallmarks of great film-noir: hard boiled men, a reacherous femme fatale, and gritty story telling.

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A major heist goes off as planned, until bad luck and double crosses cause everything to unravel.

Directed by John Huston

Genres
Crime, Film-Noir, Drama

Cast
Sterling Hayden, Louis Calhern, Jean Hagen, James Whitmore, Sam Jaffe, John McIntire, Marc Lawrence, Barry Kelley, Anthony Caruso, Teresa Celli, Marilyn Monroe, William ‘Wee Willie’ Davis, Dorothy Tree, Brad Dexter, John Maxwell

****/*****

From director John Huston is the awesome and atmospheric film noir.  Sterling Hayden (Dr. Strangelove) stars as a hard as nails ex-con who gets wrapped up in a jewelry heist.  The Asphalt Jungle also marks an early role for a young Marilyn Monroe.

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A film that explores the dark and miserable southern town Basin City and tells the story of three different people, all caught up in the violent corruption of the city.

Directed by
Robert Rodriguez

Genres
Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller

Cast
Jessica Alba, Devon Aoki, Alexis Bledel, Powers Boothe, Cara D. Briggs, Jude Ciccolella, Jeffrey J. Dashnaw, Rosario Dawson, Jesse De Luna, Benicio Del Toro, Jason Douglas, Michael Clarke Duncan

*****/*****

Guns, dames and castrations abound in director Robert Rodriguez’s (Planet Terror, Once Upon a Time in Mexico) stylish and totally faithful adaptation of Frank Miller’s comic-book series. Specifically, the film adapts four of Miller’s short stories: it begins with “The Customer is Always Right”, a short little ditty (featuring a surprisingly well cast Josh Hartnett) that sets the tone for the awesome, hyper-charged neo-noir that is to come. Sin City then moves on to tell the first part of “That Yellow Bastard”, featuring Bruce Willis as Hartigan, a hard-boiled cop trying to save the irresistable Nancy Callihan (Jessica Alba) from a well connected pedophile played by Nick Stahl (Terminator 3). From the film moves to “The Hard Good-bye”, where a nearly unrecognizable Mickey Rourke plays Marv, a dimwitted but goot hearted street fighter seeking to avenge the death of Goldie (Jamie King) - the only woman who was ever nice to him. “The Big Fat Kill” features the perfectly cast Clive Owen and the girls of Old Town (Rosario Dawson, Alexis Bledel, Devon Aoki and more) facing off with corrupt cop Jackie Boy (Benicio Del Toro). Finally the film moves back to finish “That Yellow Bastard” for a rousing, if somewhat dark finale.

Of the four stories told in Sin City, Marv’s is probably the strongest, but the entire film is pure entertainment in the fine tradition of hyper-masculine film-noir. It looks and sounds great, and the DVD is full of great special features and deleted scenes. Watch for an extended sequence guest directed by the one and only Quentin Tarantino

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