10 Movies That I Want To Talk About

I have been itching to talk about these 10 movies for quite a while now. Unfortunately not all of them have come up so far in all my previous articles. So I decided that instead of waiting for the perfect opportunity to feature them on my page, why not write a separate article altogether where I will just rant about these movies. Bear in mind, these are not recommendations for anyone, as not all the movies on this list will be liked by the general audience. This article is specifically written for me. So here are 10 movies that I am absolutely itching to tell you about.

10. Heat

Talk about a perfect crime movie. The year is 2026 and currently I am absolutely enthused by crime movies. Since the past few months I have been on a ‘crime spree’. And Heat, is the perfect crime movie. I absolutely love Heat. Down to the last bit. It captures everything that I have been obsessed  with since these past few months – Los Angeles nights, neo-noir, cops & robbers, hyperprofessional thieves, suave dialogue, style, etc. 3 people came together and made Heat just for Razeen Saiyed in 1995 – Michael Mann, Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro.

Since then, I have also been obsessed with the 90s. Especially movies set in, or released in the 90s. I know this might sound stupid, but I like Heat even more because it was released in 1995. Had it been an 80s or a 70s movie then I probably would not have liked it so much. Another thing that I want to tell you is that the casting is perfect. Al Pacino is the cop, Robert DeNiro is the criminal. Swap them both and the movie would be miscast. And if I start talking about that diner scene then this would turn into a PhD paper (maybe it already is) so I will stop here with my most favourite quote from the movie:

“You know, we are sitting here, you and I, like a couple of regular fellas. You do what you do, and I do what I gotta do. And now that we've been face to face, if I'm there and I gotta put you away, I won't like it. But I tell you, if it's between you and some poor bastard whose wife you're gonna turn into a widow, brother, you are going down.”

 

9. Miami Vice

Another one by Michael Mann. But this time it is set in Miami, as the title suggests. This movie is actually inspired by a TV show of the same name. I haven’t seen the show yet but I am an absolute fan of the movie.

Miami Vice is just Heat if it had a better romantic plotline. It is about 2 detectives and their mission to take down the drug cartel. The thing that I love the most about this movie is this one scene where Sonny and Rico meet the ultimate ‘bad guy’. I love that scene because somehow the camerawork, the acting, the music, the lighting is such that it feels so sinister and you think, “oh no, this guy is for real”.

Miami Vice also has a really great romantic subplot somehow. The scenes between Sonny and Isabella feel natural, raw and suave. This is the one movie that I would love to see a remake of.

 

 

8. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

The best Western movie ever made. Hands down. Released in 1966, with a runtime of 2 hours and 41 minutes, this one stands out not only as the best Western but also as one of the best Hollywood movies ever made. It is pure entertainment, with a musical score that will knock your socks off.

There are very few movie characters that you can cosplay as during Halloween or any other event. Movies like Harry Potter, Jurrassic Park, Transformers, etc. have their own universes that have become so popular that some theme parks have specific rides just based on these franchises. The Dollars trilogy is one such movie franchise that I think is sellable. I wish I could go to a museum dedicated to Western movies. I wish I had action figures of Clint Eastwood, along with T-shirts, caps, hoodies, and other merchandise. That is how much I love this movie.

 

7. Syriana

Not many people would know about this one as it is not very popular. But the moment I saw it I was, as usual, obsessed. It falls under a superspecific genre called as Hyperlink cinema. A very unexplored theme, which means a movie where multiple storylines intersect with each other. All the characters’ actions have an effect on each other. Examples of hyperlink cinema include Pulp Fiction, Snatch, Traffic, Dunkirk, etc.  

Syriana was also extremely difficult to follow. It does not care to explain itself. There are a lot of political and legal jargon used in the movie. If a normal movie-goer would try to watch it they would get bored and switch it off.

What I loved about Syriana is that it does not take sides. It revolves around the CIA and its involvement with the affairs of the middle east. It doesn’t show that the heroes are the Americans and the villains are the Arabs. Rather it just shows the truth. Before Syriana, I was fairly uninterested in world news and politics. But since then, I have started following news channels and stay up to date with the current affairs.

 

 

6. Whiplash

Whiplash comes in my Letterboxd top four. It is my 3^rd most favourite movie of all time. What I love about Whiplash is the message that it gives – Obsession beats talent.

Of course, I don’t mean to say that Andrew Neiman was not talented. But it is not his talent or his love for music that drives him. It is his obsession that drives him. He is stubborn, he is egoistic and he does not give up. He wants to be famous and he would do anything to achieve it. Another fantabulous thing that I loved about Whiplash is that J.K. Simmons is not a good guy. Sometimes, some teachers are genuinely horrible people. If this was a Bollywood movie they would show a scene at the end of the movie where Andrew would look into Fletcher’s eyes, with tears, then go up to him and touch his feet. And then Fletcher would pull him into a hug and everyone would live happily forever after. But this is Hollywood. They did no such thing. I think Whiplash has one of the best endings of all time.

“I'd rather die drunk, broke at 34 and have people at a dinner table talk about me than live to be rich and sober at 90 and nobody remembered who I was.” Whiplash is the Devil Wears Prada for boys.

 

5. Spider-Man: No Way Home

Let’s come to my favourite Marvel movie. Spider-Man: No Way Home is quite obviously the best movie Marvel has made. Maybe one can argue that Avengers: Endgame was even better and I would not say no. But to me, No Way Home has a special place in my heart. I think very few movies bring back old characters for nostalgic reasons. No Way Home made it popular.

I remember the winter of 2021. Everyone in my school and on the internet was debating whether Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire would be back in No Way Home. We were all super excited and the week when it was supposed to come out, it was the only topic I could hear going around. I remember the morning it released I came to school and the first thing I said with a beaming pride was, “woh dono aa gaye”.

The 2000s generation grew up watching Spider-Man movies. For us, it was a dream come true. Our heroes had returned to the big screen and were teaming up to defeat the bad guys. I still remember the crazy screams from the theatre. It was truly an era. This is something that I thank Marvel for. It is extremely difficult to recreate this. I feel bad for the people who believe that Marvel is a circus.

 

4. Rango

Rango is my most favourite animated movie of all time. And surprisingly, it is a Western movie. The best part about Rango is that it is a movie that can be enjoyed by everyone of all ages.

It is wickedly funny and visually aesthetic. The animation is not choppy at all. The animals created in the movie are detailed and look realistic to some extent. Rango follows the typical Western story of ‘stranger walks into town’ but with a twist, where the stranger is actually an idiotic lizard who aspires to be an actor and doesn’t have the most basic survival skills. The fact that it is voiced by none other than Johnny Depp makes it even more enjoyable.

Unfortunately it may not be as good as Sergio Leone’s Dollars trilogy because ultimately it is a kids movie, it still pays a witty homage to Clint Eastwood. Do watch Rango in case you’re looking for something light-hearted and fun.

 

3. The Running Man

This one is a fairly recent movie that I liked. It is not one of the best movies I have ever watched as I feel it could do well with some tweaks here and there, but I liked the idea. It follows Ben Richards, a struggling common man in the near future, who, in order to support his family, joins a dangerous reality TV show called as The Running Man. In that show, the participants are hunted by ‘hunters’ as well as the general public.

It is a science fiction action movie that is well made and has good action sequences and a great plot. What disappoints me is that it has the potential to be a great science fiction action movie. It lacks a good musical score, it required more famous actors, and there were a few inconsistencies in the movie which was difficult to ignore. But overall, what I loved about The Running Man was what happens in Spider-Man: No Way Home too. It follows the ‘protagonist v/s the world’ formula, quite literally! Basically a movie where the main character is alone and has to fight off the whole world. Kind of like a one-man-army. I think this formula has great potential and should be experimented with, more often.

 

 

2. Kingdom of Heaven

After Blade Runner, Kingdom of Heaven is director Ridley Scott’s best work. I may be wrong as I have not seen all of his movies but I can bet you that Kingdom of Heaven is up there with his best.

Standing at a runtime of 2 hours and 24 minutes, Kingdom of Heaven was a box office and critical failure when it was released. The reason was that Mr. Scott was forced to make creative changes to the movie and the original director’s cut was scrapped (which seems to be a recurring problem for Mr. Scott). Later on when the director’s cut was released, it garnered widespread acclaim.

Although there is a divide between critics, as some felt it downgrades Christian values and lauds Islam. Here is a snippet from Wikipedia:
John Harlow of The Times wrote that Christianity is portrayed in an unfavourable light and the value of Christian belief is diminished, especially in the portrayal of Patriarch Heraclius of Jerusalem.^[32]

Here is another snippet from Wikipedia, in favour of the movie:

Scott defended the depiction of the Muslim - Christian relationship in footage on the DVD version of the movie's extra features - Scott sees this portrayal as being a contemporary look at the history. He argued that peace and brutality are concepts relative to one's experience. Since contemporary society is so far removed from the brutal times in which the movie takes place, he told the story in a way that he felt was faithful to the source material yet was more accessible to a modern audience.

 

 

1. The Outsiders

I watched this one fairly recently, around a few months ago. I immediately fell in love with it. The Outsiders is a 1983 film by none other than Francis Ford Coppola (director of The Godfather and Apocalypse Now). It features some really big names such as Tom Cruise, Ralph Macchio, Patrick Swayze, Matt Dillon, etc. All of them would one day go on to become superstars in the Hollywood industry. But in 1983, they were almost unknown, and extremely young. The film follows a group of poor and brutish group of boys who call themselves the Greasers. It follows their rivalry with the richer and ‘sophisticated’ gang the Socs. It starts off rough, and untamed, showing the uncouth and uncultured part of USA. It features many songs by Elvis Presley in between the scenes, which only boosts the American-ness of the movie.

But what I particularly liked about it, is that as the film goes by, it gets much warmer, much more humane. The characters undergo different life-changing events. Their perspective changes. Their demeanour changes. In one of the scenes, the character played by Ralph Macchio (Johnny) says to his friend Ponyboy, “I never noticed colors and clouds and stuff until you kept remindin' me about 'em. It's kinda like they were never there before.”

And this is such a beautiful and naïve line. Often times we are so lost in our worldly duties and problems that never once have we ever stopped to appreciate nature and absorb all the different colours in them.

Overall, The Outsiders is a raw and unfiltered movie that will make you go through many different emotions. Of course, it is not comparable to Shawshank Redemption or Forrest Gump, but as a young man, I relate with The Outsiders more than Shawshank and Forrest.

 

Thank you!