#151 The Station Agent

upbeat... heart-warming... poignant... uplifting... unsentimental...

#150 Dogville

This is the sad tale of the township of Dogville. Dogville was in the Rocky Mountains in the US of A. Up here where the road came to its definitive end near the entrance to the old, abandoned silver mine...

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#149 Nightcrawler

Dan Gilroy's thriller "Nightcrawler" is about an amateur cameraman who parlays his eye and his nerve into a successful small business, deceiving, manipulating and exploiting everyone who stands in his way. Shot by Paul Thomas Anderson's regular cinematographer Robert Elswit through what could be a Night Vision Rot filter, it's a film about how sociopaths get over on everyone else, and a portrait of a disturbed, marginal loner that would fit perfectly on a double bill with "Taxi Driver" and "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer." It's also a media satire in the spirit of "Network" and "To Die For" that takes the slogan "If it bleeds, it leads" to its horrifyingly logical conclusion. It's a comedy........

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#148 End of Watch

"End of Watch" is one of the best police movies in recent years, a virtuoso fusion of performances and often startling action. Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña are Taylor and Zavala, two Los Angeles street cops who bend a few rules but must be acknowledged as heroes. After too many police movies about officers who essentially use their badges as licenses to run wild, it's inspiring to realize that these men take their mission — to serve and protect — with such seriousness they're willing to risk their lives...

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#147 Brokeback Mountain

Ennis tells Jack about something he saw as a boy. "There were two old guys shacked up together. They were the joke of the town, even though they were pretty tough old birds." One day they were found beaten to death. Ennis says: "My dad, he made sure me and my brother saw it. For all I know, he did it."

This childhood memory is always there, the ghost in the room, in Ang Lee's "Brokeback Mountain." When he was taught by his father to hate homosexuals, Ennis was taught to hate his own feelings...

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#146 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

The best martial arts movies have nothing to do with fighting and everything to do with personal excellence. Their heroes transcend space, gravity, the limitations of the body and the fears of the mind. In a fight scene in a Western movie, it is assumed the fighters hate each other. In a martial arts movie, it's more as if the fighters are joining in a celebration of their powers...

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#145 Night on Earth

Mika: You called a taxi?

Man #1: No, we called a garbage truck. But you'll have to do the job...

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#144 The Last Emperor

Pu Yi, at 15: Where are your ancestors buried?

Reginald Fleming 'R.J.' Johnston: In Scotland, your majesty.

Pu Yi, at 15: But then, where's your skirt? In your country, men wear short skirts, do they not?

Reginald Fleming 'R.J.' Johnston: No, your majesty, Scotmen do not wear skirts. They wear kilts...

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#143 Citizen Kane

Female reporter: If you could've found out what Rosebud meant, I bet that would've explained everything.

Jerry Thompson: No, I don't think so; no. Mr. Kane was a man who got everything he wanted and then lost it. Maybe Rosebud was something he couldn't get, or something he lost. Anyway, it wouldn't have explained anything... I don't think any word can explain a man's life. No, I guess Rosebud is just a... piece in a jigsaw puzzle... a missing piece...

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#142 Plan 9 from Outer Space

Plan 9 from Outer Space (originally titled Grave Robbers from Outer Space) is a 1959 independently made American black-and-white science fiction horror film released by Distributors Corporation of America (as Valiant Pictures). The film was written, produced, directed, and edited by Ed Wood, and stars Gregory Walcott, Mona McKinnon, Tor Johnson, and Vampira. The film also posthumously bills Bela Lugosi as a star (silent footage of the actor had actually been shot by Wood for another, unfinished film just prior to Lugosi's death in 1956).

Plan 9 from Outer Space tells the story of extraterrestrials who are seeking to stop humanity from creating a doomsday weapon that could destroy the universe. The aliens implement "Plan 9", a scheme to resurrect the Earth's dead, referred to as "ghouls". By causing chaos, the aliens hope the crisis will force humanity to listen to them. If not, the aliens will then destroy mankind with armies of the undead.

Plan 9 from Outer Space played on television in relative obscurity until 1980, when authors Harry and Michael Medved dubbed the film the "worst movie ever made". Both Wood and his film were posthumously awarded two of Medveds' Golden Turkey Awards, as the Worst Director Ever and Worst Film, respectively...

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