My viewing adventures through the American Film Institutes top 100 motion pictures

1. Citizen Kane - 10/10
2. The Godfather - 10/10
3. Casablanca - 9/10
4. Raging Bull - 8/10
5. Singin' In The Rain - 10/10
6. Gone With The Wind - 9/10
7. Lawrence Of Arabia - 8/10
8. Schindler's List - 10/10
9. Vertigo - 10/10
10. The Wizard Of Oz - 9/10
11. City Lights - 8/10
12. The Searchers - 8/10
13. Star Wars - 10/10
14. Psycho - 9/10
15. 2001: A Space Odyssey - 10/10
16. Sunset Blvd. - 10/10
17. The Graduate - 10/10
18. The General - 10/10
19. On The Waterfront - 9/10
20. It's A Wonderful Life - 10/10
21. Chinatown - 9/10
22. Some Like It Hot - 10/10
23. The Grapes Of Wrath - 8/10
24. E.T. - 8/10 
25. To Kill A Mockingbird - 8/10
26. Mr. Smith Goes To Washington - 7/10
27. High Noon - 6/10
28. All About Eve - 7/10
29. Double Indemnity - 9/10
30. Apocalypse Now - 10/10
31. The Maltese Falcon - 8/10
32. The Godfather Part II - 8/10
33. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest - 8/10
34. Snow White And The Seven Dwarves - 10/10
35. Annie Hall - 7/10
36. The Bridge On The River Kwai - 8/10
37. The Best Years Of Our Lives - 8/10
38. The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre - 9/10
39. Dr. Strangelove - 10/10
40. The Sound Of Music - 9/10
41. King Kong (1933)- 10/10
42. Bonnie And Clyde - 9/10
43. Midnight Cowboy- 9/10
44. The Philadelphia Story - 9/10
45. Shane- 5/10
46. It Happened One Night - 8/10
47. A Streetcar Named Desire - 10/10
48. Rear Window - 10/10
49. Intolerance- 7/10
50. The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring - 8/10
51. West Side Story - 7/10
52. Taxi Driver - 10/10
53. The Deer Hunter - 8/10
54. M*A*S*H - 8/10
55. North By Northwest - 10/10
56. Jaws - 9/10
57. Rocky - 10/10
58. The Gold Rush - 10/10
59. Nashville - 8/10
60. Duck Soup - 6/10
61. Sullivan's Travels - 7/10
62. American Graffiti - 9/10
63. Cabaret - 8/10
64. Network - 10/10
65. The African Queen - 9/10
66. Raiders Of The Lost Ark - 10/10
67. Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf - 10/10
68. Unforgiven - 10/10
69. Tootsie - 10/10
70. A Clockwork Orange - 8/10
71. Saving Private Ryan - 9/10
72. The Shawshank Redemption - 9/10
73. Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid - 10/10
74. The Silence Of The Lambs - 8/10
75. In The Heat Of The Night - 10/10
76. Forrest Gump - 8/10
77.  All The President's Men - 7/10
78. Modern Times - 8/10
79. The Wild Bunch - 9/10
80. The Apartment - 10/10
81. Spartacus - 8/10
82. Sunrise - 10/10
83. Titanic - 7/10
84. Easy Rider - 9/10
85. A Night At The Opera - 5/10
86. Platoon - 8/10
87. 12 Angry Men - 8/10
88. Bringing Up Baby - 6/10
89. The Sixth Sense - 6/10
90. Swing Time - 7/10
91. Sophie's Choice - 5/10
92. Goodfellas - 7/10
93. The French Connection - 10/10
94. Pulp Fiction - 10/10
95. The Last Picture Show - 8/10
96. Do The Right Thing - 5/10
97. Blade Runner - 10/10
98. Yankee Doodle Dandy - 6/10
99. Toy Story - 10/10
100. Ben-Hur - 6/10

Man Of Steel

Yet another Superhero flick smashed into theaters last week and to no surprise at all Superman gets his second reboot in seven years. Director Zack Snyder (300), using the same gritty style that made the Dark Knight trilogy so great, gives us our third (don't forget about The Green Lantern) DC hero in what appears to be the upstart of a future Justice League movie, take that Marvel!

The story of this Man Of Steel begins with the actual birth of Superman and sets the foundation of Krypton's demise and Clark Kent's arrival to Smallville, Kansas. Through this prologue we are introduced to Kent's father Jor-El (Russel Crowe) and the villainous General Zod (Michael Shannon) both of whom help shape the hero we all know and... love? as well as vividly show the destruction of his home planet. Throughout the film we see Clark drifting from job to job as he works to hide his powers from the world as well as flashbacks to his coming-of-age with his father (Kevin Costner) and mother (Diane Lane). Eventually the love interest Lois Lane (Amy Adams) finds her way to the screen as she is researching a news story about an anomaly found in the arctic. After some life saving and some conversations filled with sexual tension, General Zod arrives at Earth looking to repopulate the planet with Kryptonians through the apocalypse of man kind. Who will stop him?? It's a mystery...

All in all the film was rather dull, the special effects were nothing special and the story itself is one we have all heard. Michael Shannon was a very good casting choice as his talents are so underrated, I expect big things from him in the future the other actors however were a bit too corny, if they are looking to give Superman a new image they need to cut his phony integrity and give him an edge. One new theme used in the film is the ploy of making Superman a Christ-like hero, which is all well and good but what audiences today seem to be drawn to is a character with more of a moral conflict and the all powerful do-gooder isn't someone that we can connect with and doesn't allow for a plot that puts you on the edge of your seat.

I give Man of Steel a 4 out of 10. Superman is one of the oldest superheros and should be put in the hall of fame for children of the future to marvel at (pun intended of course).

Epic

Epic is the newest animated fantasy movie from Blue Sky Studios (Ice Age, Rio) and really the only film aimed for children in theaters. Directed by Chris Wedge (Ice Age, Robots) and with a cast full of big names, this film may sound like an enjoyable one, but unfortunately does not live up to the hype.

The life of Mary Kathryn (Amanda Seyfried) has been tough, her Mother had recently passed away and she had to move back in with her eccentric Father Dr. Bomba (Jason Sudeikis) who is obsessed with the idea of little people living in the surrounding forest. It is in fact this obsession that caused MK’s mother to leave her father and bring MK to the City. But here is the kicker… THERE ARE LITTLE PEOPLE THAT LIVE IN THE FOREST! They live in a medieval society where the good guys, the Leafmen, keep the forest beautiful by fighting off the Boggans and their evil leader Mandrake (Christoph Waltz) who rot away everything they touch. The Queen of the forest, Tara (Beyonce Knowles), heads out to a field of leaf pods to choose her heir, but when she arrives she, along with the Leader of the Leafmen, Ronin (Colin Farrell), are ambushed by a giant army of Boggans and the whole forest goes into disarray as the leaf pod is stolen and the Queen is killed. At the moment of Tara’s death our main character MK stumbles upon the queen’s last moments in life and is transformed into a smaller person just like the Leafmen. It is up to MK, Ronin, a young soldier named Nod (Josh Hutcherson) and a the comical Snail and Slug Mub (Aziz Ansari) and Grub (Chris O’Dowd) to obtain the leaf pod and restore the forest to its former glory.

For children, this film is great, it’s appropriately action packed and the clean comedy will make you smile every once in a while. The casting choices were a bit odd and even though Beyonce, Steven Tyler, and Pitbull are talented people, they should stick to music. The animation is nothing special, it doesn't push the boundaries of this art form, but is not poor quality. The real problem lies within the story itself. At the beginning of the film the death of MK’s mother had recently passed away, a taxing emotional toll on a 17 year old girl, however this only seems to affect MK for the first 3 minutes of the film, it’s not very important to the story but it is important for the characterization. It is as if the film has only one main focus and that the possible sub-plots are irrelevant which could be due to the 102 minute running time.

All in all the film has the makings of an interesting story in a clever fantasy world, but doesn't reach its full potential. For children this would be a great movie to see, but for those of us over 10 this may be one movie to skip. 4/10