They’re short, they’re sweet, and they usually feature an actor or celebrity as never seen before. With movies like Iron Man (2008), Thor (2011), and most recently X-Men: First Class (2011), cameos have become the norm. However, not all cameos are created equal: The best cameos are often those in which real people play themselves on screen, making it a huge surprise for the audience when they appear. Cameos don’t need to be ironic or funny to be memorable; they just need to be innovative and surprising.

Stan Lee, Alfred Hitchcock, Roger Corman, M. Night Shyamalan, and Stephen King didn’t make the list. Sure, their cameos are legendary, but they’re usually a given.

Blastr’s list (includes YouTube clips on their site)

1. George A. Romero in Silence of the Lambs (1991)
   The director behind the Night of the Living Dead franchise makes a blink-and-you-miss it appearance in Jonathan Demme’s thriller as a one of the many FBI agents who pull Clarice (Jodie Foster) away from a heated confrontation with Hannibal Lecter.
2. Peter Jackson in Hot Fuzz (2007)
   Jackson appears as a tweaked-out Santa Claus complete with beady eyes and a knife. His scene lasts a mere two seconds but leaves a lasting impression.
3. Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright (of Shaun of the Dead) in Land of the Dead (2005)
   They got the opportunity of a lifetime when they got to do a cameo in George A. Romero’s latest Dead sequel. The tables were turned when the duo were slathered in makeup and turned into the mindless zombies they’ve made fun of in the past.
4. John Hurt in Spaceballs (1987)
   In it, he was once again the victim of “stomach problems,” and the only thing he could say was “Oh no. Not again!”
5. Bill Murray in Zombieland (2009)
   Murray’s appearance was supposed to be a top-secret cameo to surprise fans. In the film, he plays himself, pretending to play a zombie to stay alive.
6. David Cronenberg in Jason X (2001)
   The director popping up in this sub-par sequel was just weird. But then again, this is the guy whose nicknames include King of Venereal Horror and the Baron of Blood, so we shouldn’t be too surprised.
7. Charlton Heston in Planet of the Apes (2001)
   This is irony at its best. The actor appeared in the 2001 Planet of the Apes remake that featured Mark Wahlberg as an out-of-place human and Heston as one of the land’s most respected ape elders.
8. Patrick Ewing in The Exorcist III (1990)
   What in the NBA player hell was going on with this movie? The third Exorcist had plenty of cameos, including Fabio and Larry King, but Patrick Ewing took the cake.
9. Samuel L. Jackson in Iron Man (2008)
   It’s no secret that Marvel’s Ultimate Nick Fury was modeled after Samuel L. Jackson, so to have him fill the role on the big screen was a dream come true?
10. Janet Leigh in Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998)
    Janet Leigh and her daughter, fellow scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis, joined forces for what we like to call “When Psycho met Halloween.” Leigh’s appearance is dripping with Hitchcock nostalgia when she gets into the same car that her character Marion Crane drove in Psycho and walks away when music from the original score starts playing.
11. Wes Craven in Scream (1996)
    The director pops up in a scene where he plays the high school janitor Fred, who happens to be wearing a striped green and red sweater and a brown fedora.
12. Gene Hackman in Young Frankenstein (1974)
    Its hilarious to see him out of his element as a bearded blind man trying to treat Frankenstein to a nice cup of espresso.
13. Keith Richards in Pirates of the Caribbean At World’s End (2007)
    Richards played Captain Teague in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, and as soon as he hit the screen the mood changed and poor Jack was shaking in his boots!
14. Johnny Depp in Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991)
    We were pleasantly surprised when Depp decided to acknowledge his roots. Depp’s first major film role was in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984). Since he appeared in the first film, it made sense that he’d pop up in what was supposed to be the last in the franchise.
15. William Shatner in Fanboys (2008)
    Mr. Shatner appears as an informant to a group of diehard fans on a serious mission. When they ask him how he’s been able to get his hands on classified information, he simply says, “Are you kidding? I’m William Shatner. I can score anything.”

Additional noteworthy cameos in feature films include:

• Alanis Morissette in Dogma (1999)
• Alice Cooper in Prince of Darkness (1987)
• Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Rundown (2003)
• Babe Ruth in Speedy (1928)
• Ben Affleck and Matt Damon in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001)
• Billy Idol in The Wedding Singer (1998)
• Bob Barker in Happy Gilmore (1996), “The price is wrong, bitch”
• Bob Saget in Half Baked (1998), Saget’s squeaky clean Full House image is shattered as he announces that marijuana is not a drug because he used to do sexual favors for cocaine.
• Bobby Knight in Anger Management (2003)
• Brad Pitt in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002)
• Bruce Springsteen in High Fidelity (2000)
• Buster Keaton (also Anna Q. Nilsson and H.B. Warner) in Sunset Boulevard (1950)
• Charlie Sheen in Being John Malkovich (1999)
• Christian Slater in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)
• Charlton Heston in Wayne’s World 2 (1993)
• Dan Aykroyd in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1994)
• Danny Ainge in The Singles Ward (2002)
• David Bowie in Zoolander (2001)
• David Crosby of Crosby, Stills & Nash and Glenn Close in Hook (1991)
• David Letterman in Cabin Boy (1994)
• Deborah Moore (Roger Moore’s daughter) in Die Another Day (2002)
• Don Shula in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994)
• Donald Sutherland in The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977)
• Elvis Costello and Mos Def in Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006)
• Elvis Costello in Spice World (1997), Costello also made cool cameo appearances in Americathon (1979), Straight to Hell (1987), 200 Cigarettes (1999), and Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999).
• Erin Brockavich in Erin Brockavich (2000)
• Ethel Merman in Airplane! (1980)



• Frank Sinatra in Cannonball Run II (1984) “Sinatra did his entire scene by sitting down at a desk and reading his lines into the camera, and then, on another day, Reynolds and the others looked into the camera and pretended to be looking at him. The over-the-shoulder shots are of a double. This is the movie equivalent to phoning it in.” – Roger Ebert (Chicago Sun Times Jan. 1, 1984)
• Hunter S. Thompson in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)
• Ian Brown in Harry Potter (2001)
• Jack Nicholson in Broadcast News (1987)
• James Caan (and Liza Minelli, Paul Newman, Burt Reynolds) in Silent Movie (1976)
• Jerry Springer in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999)
• Jim Boeheim in He Got Game (1998)
• Jim Garrison in JFK (1991)
• John Cusack in Stand by Me (1986)
• John Madden in Little Giants (1994)
• Julie Christie in Nashville (1975)
• Kurt Vonnegut in Back to School (1986)
• Lance Armstrong in Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (1994)
• Larry Bird in Blue Chips (1994)
• Larry Flynt in The People vs. Larry Flynt (1994)
• Lou Ferrigno in The Incredible Hulk (2008)
• Lou Piniella in Little Big League
• Madonna in Die Another Day (2002)
• Marshall McLuhan in Annie Hall (1977)
• Martin Scorsese in The Muse (1999)
• Martin Sheen in Hot Shots! Part Deux (1992)
• Meryl Streep in Stuck On You (2003)
• Mike Ditka in Kicking and Screaming (2005)
• Minnie Driver in GoldenEye (1995)
• Neil Patrick Harris in Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle (2004), Harris’ role is hilarious because all he wants is to go find some chicks and get laid, delivering the line, “the Doogie line always works on strippers!”
• Nelson Mandela in Malcolm X (1992)
• Orson Welles in The Muppet Movie (1979) The Muppet Movie and all subsequent Muppet movies have been crammed with cameos (Steve Martin, Richard Pryor, Mel Brooks, John Cleese, Elliot Gould, Cloris Leachman, etc.) but Welles’s appearance is a classic.
• Ozzy Osbourne in Trick or Treat (1986)
• Pamela Anderson in Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006)
• Quentin Tarantino in Little Nicky (2000)
• Randy Pausch in Star Trek (2009), see Randy’s last lecture at Carnegie Mellon
• Reggie Jackson in The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)
• Richard Branson in Casino Royale (2006)
• Robert Patrick in Wayne’s World (1992)
• Rodney Dangerfield in Natural Born Killers (1994) As Mallory’s (Juliette Lewis) abusive incestuous and just plain gruesome father Dangerfield steals the movie while repulsing us while an innocuous laugh track punctuates every line.
• Roger Moore in Curse of the Pink Panther (1983)
• Sammy Davis Jr. in Diamonds Are Forever (deleted scene – DVD) (1971)
• Samuel L. Jackson in Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004)
• Shirley MacLaine in Defending Your Life (1991)
• Snoop Dogg in Half Baked (1998)
• Spike Milligan in Life of Brian (1979)
• The Three Stooges in It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963) The slapstick trio only appear for five seconds as firemen at an airport. In a movie that may as way be called cameo city they just stand there in the middle of the chaos saying and doing nothing.
• Yul Brynner in The Magic Christian (1969)

Movies made up of cameos:

• 24 Hour Party People (2002)
• Around the World in 80 Days (2004)
• Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star (2003)
• It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963)
• Nashville (1975)
• Prêt-à-Porter (1994)
• The Muppet Movie (1979)
• The Muse (1999)
• The Player (1992)
• Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007)
• What Just Happened (2008)
• Zoolander (2001)

SYNOPSIS: Star race car Lightning McQueen and his pal Mater head overseas to compete in the World Grand Prix race. But the road to the championship becomes rocky as Mater gets caught up in an intriguing adventure of his own: international espionage.

Pixar’s Cars 2 opens tomorrow (June 24) across the nation. Although I was certain that I would hate the original, I found Cars to very good – it’s no Toy Story – but I enjoyed it. Therefore, I’m looking forward to viewing the sequel, Cars 2. In that light here is some of the hype leading up to its general release on Friday.

Trailers

Theatrical Trailer

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Trailer 2
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Trailer 3
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Reviews

User reviews on IMDB:

We all know that Pixar makes incredible movies, I personally have never disliked a Pixar film. The first “Cars” film, was a great movie, not a perfect film. It was one of the least better films, Pixar has made, but that’s like saying, Insomnia was one of Christopher Nolan’s worst films. I had high expectations when coming to see the film, like I always have before I see a Pixar film.

After my viewing of the film, I have to say Pixar never fails to produce a great, entertaining film. Although it doesn’t reach the heights of Wall-E, Toy Story 3, etc. It still stands by itself pretty high up there. The animation is extremely well done, the look of the film is amazing. The voice actors are great, I miss Paul Newman though. Although the film is not perfect. The movie is not perfect though, the story is not great, but not bad, the movie does not have the emotional as other Pixar films, but it is definitely not a heartless film. But the film is definitely entertaining and a great beginning to 2011 Summer movie season. Take your whole family to see this movie, it will probably not disappoint. It will not only satisfy kids, but also the adults, this film is for everyone. Fun for kids, but the adults can also connect with it and will have a great time watching this movie in theaters. It is quite an adventure and I will be glad to give it a second viewing.

Cars 2 is a jarring sequel to Cars. While the first is a very sweet movie that charms viewers of all ages with its “fish out of water” story that explores the value of true friendship – the sequel is an espionage movie, with nods to James Bond, The Man Who Knew Too Much etc. It’s full of guns, bombs, explosions, fighting etc. The plot is very complicated and involves an environmental message about alternative fuels. Many cars are “killed”. It was a terrific movie for my 11 year old son (who loved it) but it really scared my 4 year old son – whose favourite movie is Cars. The script and visuals are clever as always (up to Pixar standards) but this film’s intended audience does not seem to include Cars’ youngest fans. I was slightly disappointed on behalf of the many young kids at our screening who idolize these characters. The film is more in line with the action and violence of The Incredibles which I loved but will not be showing my youngest until he is older. Parents be warned – probably more appropriate for 8 or 9 yr old children and up. Final note, the Toy Story short at the beginning was delightful. (I hope they don’t mess up Monsters Inc. next year)

A moronic review by nutter, Josh Berta – Cars: Pixar Falls for Intelligent Design

This weekend Cars 2 opens. It will be the first Pixar movie I make a point of not seeing. It’s not that I even mind so much that it’s propaganda, or even that it’s propaganda for “The Manufacturer.” In theory, I could forgive that. What I can’t forgive is that director John Lasseter and his team hung their hat on Intelligent Design, and alas, it’s anything but…

The Cars 2 Premier

Cars 2 had its world premiere June 18th at the legendary El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, California. Director John Lasseter, actors Owen Wilson, Larry the Cable Guy, Emily Mortimer, John Ratzenberger, Bonnie Hunt, Eddie Izzard, Lewis Hamilton, and others were in attendance to celebrate the film’s opening. Other celebs also joined in on the party, a full six days before Cars 2 opens in North America. Photos by Pixar Times.

Posters

Very cool movie imagery re-imagined as neon signage. The artist is ‘Mr. Whaite,’ but no biography information could be found.

More neon images, here.

A re-cut trailer, or retrailer is a parody trailer for a movie created by editing footage from that movie or from its original trailers, and thus are a form of mashup. They generally derive humor from misrepresenting the original film: for instance, a film with a murderous plot is made to look like a comedy, or vice versa. They became popular on the Internet in 2005.
- Wikipedia

Jerod at Midwest Sports Fan posted his list of The 15 Best Re-cut Movie Trailers:

One of the most clever and entertaining memes I’ve come across is the practice of re-cutting famous movies to create new, usually wonderfully ironic trailers.

Since there is nothing better to this morning, I have painstakingly watched as many of these re-cut trailers as I could find, sifted through the crap, and will now proudly present you with the following list of the best re-cut movie trailers.

His list is a decent one, although his first 3 are TV shows, not movies. And his decision to choose 3 versions of Dumb & Dumber as his his best is odd to say the least. Regardless, here is the list

Seinfeld’s George
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Seinfeld
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The Office
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The Shining (1980) as a Romantic Comedy
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Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)
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Mary Poppins (1964) as Scary Mary
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Sleepless in Seattle (1993) – Fatal Attraction version
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Shawshank Redemption as a Comedy
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Shawkshank Redemption as a Bromance
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Top Gun
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Home Alone as a Horror movie
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Forrest Gump – Forrest Goes Nuts
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And what Jerod claims in his trio of the best – go figure…

Dumb and Dumber as a Horror movie
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Dumb and Dumber – Emotional
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Dumb and Dumber Re-cut Movie Trailer: Overly Dramatic Edition
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And a few that we like, but didn’t make Jerod’s cut:

Brokeback to the Future
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Must Love Jaws
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The last two that we’ve included are not re-cuts, but rather mashups. So consider them as bonuses rather than part of the list.

The Dark Knight Trailer Recut – Toy Story 2
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Jedi Fiction
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We all know someone who’s a walking catchphrase waiting to happen; they relish that moment when they can slip in to a conversation their favorite over-used movie catchphrases. The interesting thing is that most people use the same ones, over and over again. – moviefone.com

Moviephone’s The 10 Most Over-Used Movie Catchphrases:

1. “You had me at hello.” Jerry Maguire (1996)
2. “I’m the king of the world!” Titanic (1997)
3. “Say hello to my little friend!” Scarface (1983)
4. “Run Forrest, run!” Forrest Gump (1994)
5. “Show me the money!” Jerry Maguire (1996)
6. “You can’t handle the truth!” A Few Good Men (1992)
7. “May the force be with you.” Star Wars (1977)
8. “Houston, we have a problem.” Apollo 13 (1995)
9. “… Bond. James Bond.” (James Bond)
10. “I’ll be back.” The Terminator (1984)

Other catchphrases that we’ve heard people use:

The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005)
David: You know how I know you’re gay?

Kindergarten Cop (1990)
Detective John Kimble: It’s not a tumor!

Pulp Fiction (1994)
Jules: English, motherfucker, do you speak it?

Jules: Say ‘what’ again. Say ‘what’ again, I dare you, I double dare you motherfucker, say what one more … time!

Vincent: Bacon tastes gooood. Pork chops taste gooood.

Jules: Then why you try to fuck him like a bitch, Brett?

Jules: If my answers frighten you then you should cease asking scary questions.

Jules: Shit Negro! That’s all you had to say!

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994)
Ace Ventura: Do *not* go in there! Pheeww!

Ace Ventura: All righty, then.

Dirty Harry (1971)
Harry Callahan: …you’ve got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?

Taxi Driver (1976)
Travis Bickle: You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me?

Full Metal Jacket (1987)
Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: You are nothing but unorganized grabastic pieces of amphibian shit.

Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: Five-foot-nine, I didn’t know they stacked shit that high.

Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: I bet you’re the kind of guy that would fuck a person in the ass and not even have the …common courtesy to give him a reach-around.

Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: What is your major malfunction, numbnuts?

Pogue Colonel: Then how about getting with the program? Why don’t you jump on the team and come on in for the big win?

Da Nang Hooker: Well, baby, me so horny. Me so HORNY. Me love you long time.

RoboCop (1987)
RoboCop: Dead or alive, you’re coming with me.

Clarence Boddicker: Bitches, leave!

The Sixth Sense (1999)
Cole Sear: I see dead people.

The Matrix (1999)
Neo: I know kung fu.

Snakes on a Plane (2006)
Neville Flynn: Enough is enough! I have had it with these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane!

Die Hard (1988)
John McClane: Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker.

Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)
Austin Powers: Do I make you horny? Randy? Do I make you horny, baby, yeah, do I?

Austin Powers: Smashing Baby!
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999)
Fat Bastard: [to Mini Me] Get in my belly.

They Live (1988)
Nada: I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass… and I’m all out of bubblegum.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
Gandalf: You shall not pass!

300 (2006)
King Leonidas: For tonight, we dine in hell!

King Leonidas: Madness…? [shouting] This is Sparta!

Predator (1987)
Blain: I ain’t got time to bleed.

Dutch: [lying on the ground after being hit by Predator shoulder cannon, he motions to Anna] Run! Get to the chopper!

Blain: Bunch of slack-jawed faggots around here. This stuff will make you a god damned sexual Tyrannosaurus, just like me.

Dutch: If it bleeds, we can kill it.

Big Trouble in Little China (1986)
Thunder: Play your cards right… you live to talk about it!

Lethal Weapon (1987)
I’m too old for this shit!

Sudden Impact (1983)
Harry Callahan: Yeah… you’re a legend in your own mind.

Poltergeist (1982)
Carol Anne: They’re here.

Napoleon Dynamite (2004)
Napoleon Dynamite: You know, like nunchuku skills, bow hunting skills, computer hacking skills… Girls only want boyfriends who have great skills.

What’s a liger? Napoleon Dynamite: It’s pretty much my favorite animal. It’s like a lion and a tiger mixed… bred for its skills in magic.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
Knight 1: We are the Knights who say… NI.

Tombstone (1993)
Wyatt Earp: You gonna do somethin’? Or are you just gonna stand there and bleed?

Major League (1989)
Lou Brown: You may run like Hayes. but you hit like shit.

Ghost Busters (1984)
Dr. Peter Venkman: Let’s show this prehistoric bitch how we do things downtown…

Dr. Egon Spengler: Sorry, Venkman, I’m terrified beyond the capacity for rational thought.

Dr. Peter Venkman: We came, we saw, we kicked its ass!

Dr Ray Stantz: Listen… do you smell something?

Dr. Peter Venkman: Back off, man. I’m a scientist.

Janine Melnitz: I’ve quit better jobs than this.

Red Dawn (1984)
Robert: Wolverines!

Aliens (1986)
Apone: All right, sweethearts, what are you waiting for? Breakfast in bed? Another glorious day in the Corps! A day in the Marine Corps is like a day on the farm. Every meal’s a banquet! Every paycheck a fortune! Every formation a parade! I LOVE the Corps!

Hudson: We’re on an express elevator to hell; going down!

Hot as hell in here. Hudson: Yeah man, but it’s a dry heat!

Hudson: Hey, you may not been keeping up on current events, but we just got our asses kicked, pal!

Hudson: That’s it man, game over man, game over!

Apone: Allright, sweethearts, you heard the man and you know the drill! Assholes and elbows!

Hudson: We got tactical smart missiles, phase-plasma pulse rifles, RPGs, we got sonic electronic ball breakers! We got nukes, we got knives, sharp sticks…

Hudson: [puts his rifle against Burke's head] I say we grease this rat-fuck son-of-a-bitch right now.

Office Space (1999)
Drew: If things go well I might be showing her my O-face.

Michael Bolton: That’s the worst idea I’ve ever heard in my life.

Looks like you’ve been missing a lot of work lately. Peter Gibbons: I wouldn’t say I’ve been *missing* it, Bob.

Peter Gibbons: …when I make a mistake, I have eight different people coming by to tell me about it. That’s my only real motivation is not to be hassled, that and the fear of losing my job. But you know, Bob, that will only make someone work just hard enough not to get fired.

Michael Bolton: You and me both, man. That thing is lucky I’m not armed.

Peter Gibbons: Well, I generally come in at least fifteen minutes late, ah, I use the side door – that way Lumbergh can’t see me, heh heh – and, uh, after that I just sorta space out for about an hour… I just stare at my desk; but it looks like I’m working. I do that for probably another hour after lunch, too. I’d say in a given week I probably only do about fifteen minutes of real, actual, work.

Peter Gibbons: …every single day of my life has been worse than the day before it. So that means that every single day that you see me, that’s on the worst day of my life.

Star Wars (1977)
Han Solo: Punch it, Chewie!

Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Han Solo: Laugh it up, fuzzball.

Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi (1983)
Admiral Ackbar: It’s a trap!

What is that?
It’s a unicorn
Never seen one up close before
Beautiful
Get away, get away
I’m sorry

Without a doubt, the best of the five is The Gift by Carl Eric Rinsch

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Time travel

Metromix Chicago recently presented their list of The best adventures through past, present and future. We think they missed a few: Here is their list and our additions. All summaries are provided by IMDb.

• Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989) – In the small town of San Dimas, a few miles away from Los Angeles, there are two nearly brain dead teenage boys going by the names of Bill S, Preston ESQ. and Ted Theodore Logan, they have a dream together of starting their own rock and roll band called the “Wyld Stallions”. Unfortunately, they are still in high school and on the verge of failing out of their school as well, and if they do not pass their upcoming history report, they will be separated as a result of Ted’s father sending him to military school. But, what Bill and Ted do not know is that they must stay together to save the future. So, a man from the future named Rufus came to help them pass their report. So, both Bill and Ted decided to gather up historical figures which they need for their report.
• Time Bandits (1981) – Kevin, an imaginative child, goes on a time-traveling adventure with a bunch of treasure-hunting dwarves, who have “borrowed” a map to the Universe’s time holes from The Supreme Being.
• Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) – A space probe appears over 23rd century earth, emanating strange sounds towards the planet, and apparently waiting for something. As time goes on, the probe starts to cause major storms on earth and threaten its destruction. James T. Kirk and crew are called upon once again to save mankind. They discover the strange sound is actually the call of the humpback whale – which has been hunted to extinction. They have only one choice – to attempt to time travel back into the 20th century, locate a whale, and bring it back to 23rd century earth to reply to the probe.
• Primer (2004) – At night and on weekends, four men in a suburban garage have built a cottage industry of error-checking devices. But, they know that there is something more. There is some idea, some mechanism, some accidental side effect that is standing between them and a pure leap of innovation. And so, through trial and error they are building the device that is missing most. However, two of these men find the device and immediately realize that it is too valuable to market. The limit of their trust in each other is strained when they are faced with the question, If you always want what you can’t have, what do you want when you can have anything? Very confusing the first time you watch it, here is a timeline to help ease the confusion.
• Timecrimes/Los cronocrímenes (2007) – Hector is an ordinary man who’s moving to a new house with his wife. One evening, while he’s looking through his binoculars, he sees a naked girl in the woods. He decides to go there just to find that same girl laying on a rock. Suddenly, a man with a pink bandage covering his face, stabs Hector in his arm with scissors. Then a chase starts, leading Hector to a time machine that brings him back nearly an hour in the past. The man in charge of the time machine explains to Hector (Hector 2) that he must not interfere with the other Hector (Hector 1) so he can go into the time machine again.
• The Terminator (1984) – In the future, Skynet, a computer system fights a losing war against the humans who built it and who it nearly exterminated. Just before being destroyed, Skynet sends a Terminator back in time to kill Sarah, the mother to be of John Connor, the Leader of the human resistance. The terminator can pass for human, is nearly indestructible, and has only one mission, killing Sarah Connor. One soldier is sent back to protect her from the killing machine. He must find Sarah before the Terminator can carry out it’s mission.
• Back to the Future (1985) – Marty McFly helps out his friend Doc Brown, and ends up being taken back in time by Doc’s time-machine. Marty, a boy of the 80′s, has to come to grips with being in the 50′s and get his parents to fall in love to set straight the damage his presence has done to the events of the past. Also B2tF II and B2tF III
• Timecop (1994) – When the ability to travel through time is perfected, a new time of law enforcement agency is formed. It’s called Time Enforcement Commission or TEC. A cop Max Walker is assigned to the group. On the day he was chosen, some men attack him and kill his wife. Ten years later Max is still grieving but has become a good agent for the TEC. He tracks down a former co-worker who went into the past to make money. Max brings him back for sentencing but not after telling Max that Senator McComb the man in charge of TEC sent him. Max has his eye on McComb.
• The Butterfly Effect (2004) – Evan Treborn grows up in a small town with his single, working mother and his friends. He suffers from memory blackouts where he suddenly finds himself somewhere else, confused. Evan’s friends and mother hardly believe him, thinking he makes it up just to get out of trouble. As Evan grows up he has less of these blackouts until he seems to have recovered. Since the age of seven he has written a diary of his blackout moments so he can remember what happens.
• 12 Monkeys (1995) – An unknown and lethal virus has wiped out five billion people in 1996. Only 1% of the population has survived by the year 2035, and is forced to live underground. A convict (James Cole) reluctantly volunteers to be sent back in time to 1996 to gather information about the origin of the epidemic (who he’s told was spread by a mysterious “Army of the Twelve Monkeys”) and locate the virus before it mutates so that scientists can study it. Unfortunately Cole is mistakenly sent to 1990, six years earlier than expected, and is arrested and locked up in a mental institution, where he meets Dr. Kathryn Railly, a psychiatrist, and Jeffrey Goines, the insane son of a famous scientist and virus expert.

Additional time travel movies that Metromix overlooked:

Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel (2009) – Follows three social outcasts — two geeks and a cynic — as they attempt to navigate a time-travel conundrum in the middle of a British pub. Cassie is a girl from the future who sets the adventure in motion.

Groundhog Day (1993) – A weather man is reluctantly sent to cover a story about a weather forecasting “rat” (as he calls it). This is his fourth year on the story, and he makes no effort to hide his frustration. On awaking the ‘following’ day he discovers that it’s Groundhog Day again, and again, and again. First he uses this to his advantage, then comes the realisation that he is doomed to spend the rest of eternity in the same place, seeing the same people do the same thing EVERY day. Caveat: Some might argue that Groundhog Day is a time loop, not  time travel.

Donnie Darko (2001) – Troubled adolescent, Donnie Darko, receives a disturbing vision that the world will end in 28 days. With the help of various characters, including a 6 foot rabbit called Frank, he slowly discovers the mysterious physical and metaphysical laws that govern his life and that will lead up to the destruction of the universe.

The Time Machine (1960) – From the book by H.G. Wells, a scientist and tinkerer builds a time machine and uses it to explore the distant future where there are two races, a mild gentle race, and a cannibalistic one living underground. His machine is stolen by the underground race and he must risk being captured (and eaten) to return to his own time.

Black Knight (2001) – Jamal, a low-level worker at a shabby amusement park with a medieval theme, finds himself sent back to the year 1328 after he falls in the moat. Before he realizes what has happened, he finds himself mistaken for a messenger from Normandy, enlisted in a plot to kill the tyrant king, and preparing to open a chain of fast-food restaurants, not to mention falling in love with the leader of the assassination plan. “A minnow flapping about in a dirty puddle would make a better fish-out-of-water comedy than this. Lawrence is embarrassingly heavy-handed, shoving the word ‘ass’ into every second sentence then expecting us to collapse in hysterics.”

Millennium (1989) – An investigator seeking the cause of an airline disaster discovers the involvement of an organization of time travelers from a future Earth irreparably polluted who seek to rejuvenate the human race from those about to die in the past.

Time Traveler’s Wife (2009) – When Henry DeTamble meets Clare Abshire in a Chicago library they both understand that he is a time traveller, but she she knows much more than this about him as he has not yet been to the times and places where they have met before. He falls in love with her, as she has already with him, but his continuing unavoidable absences time travelling – and then returning with increasing knowledge of their future – makes things ever more difficult for Clare.

Time After Time (1979) – H.G. Wells has just invented a time machine but hasn’t tried it out yet. When he discovers that one of his friends is actually Jack the Ripper, Jack makes his escape using the time machine. Herbert follows Jack into the late 1970′s where he meets Amy, a bank clerk, who teaches Herbert about life in 70′s while they pursue Jack, who is enjoying the more violent society in which he continues his murderous activities.

Somewhere in Time (1980) – Young writer Richard Collier is met on the opening night of his first play by an old lady who begs him to “Come back to me”. Mystified, he tries to find out about her, and learns that she is a famous stage actress from the early 1900s, Elise McKenna. Becoming more and more obsessed with her, he manages, by self hypnosis, to travel back in time where he meets her. They fall in love, a matching that is not appreciated by her manager. Can their love outlast the immense problems caused by their “time” difference? And can Richard remain in a time that is not his?

Slaughterhouse Five (1972) – “Listen: Billie Pilgrim has come unstuck in time.” The opening words of the famous novel are the quickest summary of this haunting, funny film. Director Hill faithfully renders for the screen Vonnegut’s obsessive story of Pilgrim, who survives the 1945 firebombing of Dresden, then lives simultaneously in his past as a young American POW, in the future as a well-cared-for resident of a zoo on the planet Tralfamadore, and in the present as a middle-aged optometrist in Ilium, N.Y.

Biggles (1986) – One minute the New Yorker advertising expert Jim Ferguson is at a business party — the next he finds himself way back in 1917 in a plane fight during World War I. Mr. Raymond explains to him that he has a time-twin, to whom he’s relocated in space and time whenever one of them is in trouble. So he has to help his twin, biplane pilot Biggles, in his attempt to destroy a German super weapon, that could win their war. Of course it’s hard for Jim to explain his sudden disappearances to his fiance, Debbie.

Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann (1982) – Lyle, a motorcycle champion is traveling the Mexican desert, when he find himself in the action radius of a time machine. So he find himself one century back in the past between rapists, thiefs and murderers.

Army of Darkness (1992) – In this sequel to the Evil Dead films, a discount-store employee (“Name’s Ash. Housewares.”) is time-warped to a medieval castle beset by monstrous forces. Initially mistaken for an enemy, he is soon revealed as the prophecised savior who can quest for the Necronomicon, a book which can dispel the evil. Unfortunately, he screws up the magic words while collecting the tome, and releases an army of skeletons, led by his own Deadite counterpart. What follows is a thrilling, yet tongue-in-cheek battle between Ash’s 20th Century tactics and the minions of darkness.

Timeline (2003) – A group of archaeologists and combat experts led by Paul Walker and Frances O’Connor use a “3-D fax machine” to time-travel back to France in 1357, in hopes of retrieving Walker’s father and returning safely to the present. Fending for themselves against marauding hordes of medieval French warriors at war with the invading British, these semi-intrepid travelers find their body count rising, and the deadline for their return home is rapidly approaching.

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time/Toki o Kakeru Shōjo (2006) – A teenage girl finds that she has the ability to leap through time. With her newfound power, she tries to use it to her advantage, but soon finds that tampering with time can lead to some rather discomforting results.

Summer Time Machine Blues/Samâ taimu mashin burûsu (2005) – 5 college boys, Takuma, Masaru, Shunsuke, Atsushi and Daigo all belong to sci-fi club, but they are not interested in science at all. They usually just hang around, play baseball or card, or take bath at the public bath. One day, they accidentally spill Coke on the remote controller of the air-conditioner. In the sweating bath-like clubroom, suddenly a time machine appears. Eventually, they decide to go back to “yesterday” to bring the remote-controller. The mission ought to be quite easy, however, gradually they come to be worried.

Hot Tub Time Machine (2010) – Four guy friends, all of them bored with their adult lives, travel back to their respective 80s heydays thanks to a time-bending hot tub.

New Scientist is reporting that Star Trek fans should “prepare to be disappointed. Kirk, Spock and the rest of the crew would die within a second of the USS Enterprise approaching the speed of light.”

The problem lies with Einstein’s special theory of relativity. It transforms the thin wisp of hydrogen gas that permeates interstellar space into an intense radiation beam that would kill humans within seconds and destroy the spacecraft’s electronic instruments.

…

Worse is that the atoms’ kinetic energy also increases. For a crew to make the 50,000-light-year journey to the centre of the Milky Way within 10 years, they would have to travel at 99.999998 per cent the speed of light. At these speeds, hydrogen atoms would seem to reach a staggering 7 teraelectron volts – the same energy that protons will eventually reach in the Large Hadron Collider when it runs at full throttle. “For the crew, it would be like standing in front of the LHC beam,” says Edelstein.

You can read the whole article here.

Live long and prosper.

However, I had the feeling that there must be other well-known, fictional drugs in cinema. A little bit of research (thanks to Google and Wikipedia) turned up a plethora of pharmaceuticals the author neglected to mention…

Here is David’s list:

• Valkyr, Max Payne (2008) – An addictive blue liquid drug that was designed to either increase confidence or physical strength, but causes hallucinations that lead to suicide. Valkyr was developed for American soldiers fighting in the Middle East by the Aesir Corporation, but the project was shelved when 99% of all subjects suffered hallucinations. B.B., the head of Aesir’s security, and Sergeant Lupino, one of the successful test subjects, recreated the formula and started selling it on the streets of New York City.
• Spice Melange, Dune (1984) – (alternately, “the spice”) is the name of the fictional drug central to the Dune series of science fiction works by Frank Herbert. The most essential and valuable commodity in the universe, a geriatric drug that gives the user a longer lifespan, greater vitality, and heightened awareness; it can also unlock prescience in some subjects, depending upon the dosage and the consumer’s physiology. This prescience-enhancing property makes safe and accurate interstellar travel possible.
• Substance D, A Scanner Darkly (2006) – A lethally addictive street drug which eventually splits the users brain into two distinct combative entities. The ‘D’ stands for Death.
• Ephemerol, Scanners (1981) – Tranquilizer, used as a morning sickness remedy; a mutagen, it induces telekinetic and telepathic abilities. Ephemerol also suppresses those abilities in adults so affected. Loosely based on thalidomide (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thalidomide), a morning sickness remedy that was discovered to cause physical birth defects.
• Prozium, Equilibrium (2002) – an emotion-suppressing drug called Prozium, distributed at centers known as “Equilibrium”.
• Quietus, Children of Men (2006) – A suicide drug that appeared to be offered by the government.
• Moloko Plus, A Clockwork Orange (1971) – Several fictional drugs in the form of a milk cocktail called Moloko Plus. Vaietys include Moloko Vellocet (Possibly Barbiturates or Synthetix Opiates), Synthemesc (Synthetic Mescaline?), and Drenchrom (Possibly Adrenachrome).
• Nuke, Robocop 2 (1990) – A designer narcotic distributed by the Drug Lord and leader of the Nuke Cult, Cain (Tom Noonan). Cain appears to have a messiah complex due to his own drug abuse; he believes that Nuke is the way to paradise, and wants to distribute it to the entire city.
• Neuroin, Minority Report (2002) – Effects similar to heroin , transparent gaseous drug administered using plastic inhalers. Its street name is Clarity

Additonal pharmaceuticals we found in movies:

• Bacta, Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980) – Bacta is a healing substance available from the planet Thyferra. Bacta was invented by the insectoid Vratix of Thyferra by mixing alazhi salve with a synthetic liquid chemical called kavam. This concoction is further mixed with a colorless viscous liquid called ambori. It mimics the body’s fluids and helps in regeneration. It is used to help with cuts and burns as well as severe cellular damage, such as frostbite.
• Bellerophon, Mission: Impossible II (2006) – the antidote to the fictional Chimera virus in the film
• Dehalcynate, The Island (2005) – A concentrated solution which is fatal if not diluted. The name of the drug is not spoken in the film, but the labels on the bottles are seen in a few frames.
• Dypraxa, The Constant Gardener (2005) – Dypraxa is a drug advertised by the fictional company ThreeBees. It is being tested on poor Kenyans in exchange for free medical treatment. It is intended to treat tuberculosis, or TB, and was created in anticipation of a future TB epidemic.
• Gambutrol, The Exorcism of Emily Rose – A fictional anti-epileptic drug prescribed to Emily Rose by her doctor which supposedly “locks” her demonic possessions into her mind, leading her priest (Father Moore) to stop the medication, which in turn leads to his eventual incarceration under the charge of negligent homicide. This is most likely a spin off of the real anticonvulsant/anti-epileptic medication, Gabitril
• Hypnocil, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warrior (1987) / Freddy vs. Jason (2003) – A dream suppressant pill. Prevents people from dreaming and keeps them from being attacked by Freddy Krueger, for unless you’re dreaming, he can’t hurt or kill you. When on this drug, he is essentially powerless to harm you.
• Imobatine, Freddy vs. Jason (2003) – “A syringe and a bottle with a pink liquid in it. The label on the bottle reads IMOBATINE.” Used by Freddy on Jason to make him sleep and drag it into the dream world. Freddy tries to kill him in a place where he can’t be defeated.
• Novril, Misery (1990) – A powerful, highly-addictive analgesic (Codeine) administered to the novelist Paul Sheldon by his nurse and “number one fan”, Annie Wilkes. In the film, Novril is in capsule form and is tasteless and non-addictive.
• Prexilin, She Hate Me (2004) – A HIV vaccine that reportedly cures 100% of users. However, it is revealed that tests results have been tampered with in order to get FDA approval. Actually the vaccine is effective only in 75% of the cases.
• Provasic (RDU-90), The Fugitive (1993) – A “miracle drug” developed by Devlin-MacGregor Pharmaceuticals. Provasic produces drug-induced hepatitis, but the producers alter the test results in order to get FDA approval. This side effect and the cover up are discovered by doctor Richard Kimble.
• Retinax V, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (- Medication usually prescribed as a treatment for people with hypermetropia, or far-sightedness, in the 23rd century. Some people, such as James T. Kirk, were allergic to this form of medication, and the alternative of “reading glasses” was therefore still required.
• Experimental Serum 114, A Clockwork Orange (1971) – A drug which causes severe nausea, pain, and discomfort. It is injected during the Ludovico treatment, which uses a series of violent images forced on the viewer in order to cure violent urges in criminals.
• Turbolax, Dumb and Dumber (1994) – A very powerful laxative.
• Zydrate, Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008) – Zydrate is the prototype narcotic drug and is the standard against which all other opioids are tested. It interacts predominantly with the opioid receptor. Zydrate is extracted from corpses and glows blue.
• Gleemonex, Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy (1996) – Anti-depressant that effectively cures depression rather than alleviating the symptoms. It is a blue hue in its synthesized state, but it is distributed as an orange pill. An unfortunate side-effect permanently locks users into his/her happiest memory, effectively making the user comatose. Rumor suggests the drug may contain monkey semen. The proper or common name of Gleemonex is revealed to be Duoroflouriximinimum 602.
• Ladder, Jacob’s Ladder (1990) – Aggression-enhancing drug created by the U.S. Army’s Chemical Warfare division in Saigon during the Vietnam War and tested on American troops in the Mekong Delta, with horrific results. Based on the Army’s purported experimentation with a hallucinogenic drug called BZ.
• Lot Six, Firestarter (1984) – Mild hallucinogenic substance designed to induce extra sensory perception in patients. Administered by a government organization known as The Shop to 12 subjects in 1969. Scientifically known as di-lysergic triune acid, but nicknamed “booster acid” by the team developing it. A side effect includes chromosomal mutation.
• Polydichloric euthymol (PDE), Outland (1981) – An amphetamine-type drug that in the short term makes human beings capable of doing fourteen hours’ work in six hours, but in the long term induces psychosis and subsequent death. The name of the drug is the same with that of the explosive used in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) and with a molecule simulated in The Relic (1997).
• Project 5 formulas, The Lawnmower Man (1992) – A collection of drugs designed to increase neurochemical activity and enhance intelligence. Developed and tested on animals, their use on humans is strongly contraindicated.
• Bug Powder, Naked Lunch (1991) – Yellow powder initially used by exterminators to kill bugs. When injected into the bloodstream it can cause, what Joan Lee describes as, “a literary high” and may or may not be a hallucinogen.
• Plutonian Nyborg, Heavy Metal (1981) – An inhaled white powder whose appearance resembles cocaine, and whose effects resemble those of marijuana; but seems to have an effect similar to marijuana, if you are to judge from their speech and actions. However, with the trippy scenes that follow the characters’ ingestion of the drug, the creators may have intended to suggest effects similar to hallucinogens such as LSD.
• Red Death, Bringing Out the Dead (1999) – A dangerous strain of heroin possibly mixed with an unknown amino acid. It causes people to overdose more easily, and requires much more Naloxone than normal to bring people out of it.
• Space Coke, Cheech and Chong’s Next Movie (1980) – An insanely powerful stimulant of extraterrestrial origin.
• Alkadexabenzathera-podazalamide, How to Murder Your Wife (1965) – Also known in the movie as “goof balls” which, when taken in combination with alcohol produce an effect of “Ziiiiiip, Flop.”
• Re-Agent, Re-Animator (1985) – Unnamed, unspecified green neon chemical substance which is capable of resurrecting the dead, right down to the molecular level. In a deleted scene in the film, Herbert West is shown using it as a stimulant, and is apparently quite addicted to it.
• Adrenochrome, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) – not to be confused real chemical of the same name, supposedly taken directly from the adrenaline gland of a living human being.
• Butazamine, Dead Ringers (1988) – Diet pill (Amphetamine). Claire Niveau uses it as an aphrodisiac – “it makes sex come on like Nagasaki.”
• Crystal Dream, Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man (1991) – “There’s a new drug out there called Crystal Dream. Now, what it is, you don’t shoot it, you don’t smoke it, you don’t snort it. Apparently, you put it in your eyes, and it tells you lies.”
• E-Z 4, Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) – An aerosol sleep-inducing agent. Non-fatal and fast-acting, but causes a bad headache.
• Iocaine powder, The Princess Bride (1987) – odorless, tasteless, dissolves instantly in water, and is among the more deadly poisons known to man. It is well known to come from Australia.
• Ortho-pure Procreation Pills, The Running Man (1987)
• Trinity, The Crow: City of Angels (1996) – addictive powder distributed in tiny glassine envelopes. The face of the envelope has been stamped with an image – a cartoon imp with a idiot grin giving the thumbs-up sign.
• Red Pill/Blue Pill, The Matrix – The pills are philosophical symbolism: The red pill will answer the question “what is the Matrix?” (by removing Neo from it) and the blue pill simply for life to carry on as before.

Earlier this year, IGN published its list of what it claimed to be the fifteen most disturbing movies. Here’s how they introduced the list:

What’s the difference between scary and disturbing. Can a film be one and not the other? Which movies really make you go home from the theater in fear or cower into your couch considering some awful truth, squirming uncomfortably at some hideous sight or sound? We here at IGN Movies have put together a list of the 15 Most Disturbing Movies, looking back over the last few decades of cinema to find the films that made us feel dirty or voyeuristic or ashamed to be human, offered to you here in no particular order.

Its a mediocre collection of films, but quite frankly either the author has no clue about ‘disturbing’ or he’s lived a rather sheltered life. Yes, some are gory and touch on uncomfortable situation (i.e. rape), but the ‘most disturbing?’ — we beg to differ. Here is their list with summaries by IMBD. Afterwards we take it up a few notches and introduce you to the really vile experiences.

IGN’s list

The Hills Have Eyes (2006) – While traveling in a trailer to California through the New Mexico Desert, a family is misled to a shortcut going to nowhere by the owner of an isolated gas station and wrecks the car in a rock. Along the night and on the next day, they are attacked by a group of deformed cannibals, fruit of the atmospheric nuclear tests conducted by USA from 1945 to 1962 in that spot. Absolutely trapped by the psychotics, they have to fight to survive.

The Exorcist (1973) – Something beyond evil is happening in a little girl’s room. Regan has brutally changed both in the way she looks and the way she acts, with violent outbursts on everyone who comes in contact with her. Her worried mother gets in contact with a priest who comes to the conclusion that Regan is possessed. The top priest who can deal with an exorcism, Father Merrin, is called in to help save Regan from the demon inside her.

A Clockwork Orange (1971) – In a futuristic Britain, a gang of teenagers go on the rampage every night, beating and raping helpless victims. After one of the boys quells an uprising in the gang, they knock him out and leave him for the police to find. He agrees to try “aversion therapy” to shorten his jail sentence. When he is eventually let out, he hates violence, but the rest of his gang members are still after him.

Audition/Ôdishon (1999) – Seven years after the death of his wife, company executive Aoyama is invited to sit in on auditions for an actress. Leafing through the resumés in advance, his eye is caught by Yamazaki Asami, a striking young woman with ballet training. On the day of the audition, she’s the last person they see. Aoyama is hooked. He notes her number from her file, calls her and takes her to dinner. He hesitates to call again, worried that he’ll seem too eager. When he does, Asami knowingly lets the phone ring for some time before answering. She’s alone in her darkened room – alone, that is, apart from the writhing victim she has tied up in a sack on the floor. Finally, the first one in the list that would make my list of disturbing films. The horrible things near the end of the movie are pretty stomach churning, but are made more so because of the context. Throughout this movie, things were quiet and understated. It is so much more jarring to see the guy that we’ve spent over an hour and half with slowly tortured. Not only that, he didn’t deserve it; he was just a lonely widower trying to find happiness.

Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma / Salo, or 120 Days of Sodom (1975) – Set in the Nazi-controlled, northern Italian state of Salo in 1944, four dignitaries round up sixteen perfect specimens of youth and take them together with guards, servants and studs to a palace near Marzabotto. In addition, there are four middle-aged women: three of whom recount arousing stories whilst the fourth accompanies on the piano. The story is largely taken up with their recounting the stories of Dante and De Sade: the Circle of Manias, the Circle of Shit and the Circle of Blood. Following this, the youths are executed whilst each libertine takes his turn as voyeur. This film is definitely one of the most vile things ever put on celluloid. Despite being 35 years old, Salo is probably the most cruel and repulsive film ever made, not just in Italy but in the whole world; It depicts the worse atrocities inflicted to humans by humans. I saw this film fifteen years ago (criterion version) and I don’t want to see ever again.

El Topo (1970) – The gunfighter El Topo (“The Mole”) and his young son ride through a desert to a village, whose inhabitants have been massacred. Bandits are nearby, torturing and killing the survivors. El Topo rescues a woman (Mara), who leads him on a mission to find and defeat the four master gunmen of the desert. Leaving his son with a group of monks, El Topo and Mara complete the mission, accompanied by a mysterious woman in black. The woman leaves El Topo wounded in the desert, where he is found by a clan of deformed people who take him to the remote cavern where they live. Awakening years later, he goes with a dwarf woman to a nearby town, promising to dig a tunnel through which the cave-dwellers can escape. They find the town run by a vicious sheriff and home to a bizarre religious cult. El Topo’s son, now a man, is a monk in the town. The completion of the tunnel leads El Topo, the townspeople, and the cave-dwellers to a bloody and tragic end. Bizarre,surreal and amazingly violent – yes, most disturbing – no.

Hard Candy (2005) – After three weeks chatting with the thirty-two years old photographer Jeff Kohlver in Internet, fourteen year-old Hayley Stark meets him in the Nighthawks coffee shop. Hayley flirts with him in spite of the difference of ages and proposes to go to his house. Once there, she prepares screwdriver for them and Jeff passes out. When he awakes, he is tied up to a chair, and Hayley accuses him of pedophilia. Jeff denies, and Hayley begin to torture him, in a mouse and cat game. This movie is about torture, castration and extreme violence against men.  Five foot tall Stark first appears to be a cute, naive 14 year old who arranges to meet a mysterious adult man called Jeff. After drugging him she reveals her true colors as a psychotic paedophile vigilante complete with superhuman strength and the torture skills of a terrorist. Interesting movie, but I wouldn’t classify as ‘most disturbing.’

Requiem for a Dream (2000) – Drugs. They consume mind, body and soul. Once you’re hooked, you’re hooked. Four lives. Four addicts. Four failures. Doing their best to succeed in the world, but failing miserably, four people get hooked on various drugs. Despite their aspirations of greatness, they succumb to their addictions. Watching the addicts spiral out of control, we bear witness to the dirtiest, ugliest portions of the underworld addicts reside in. It is shocking and eye-opening but demands to be seen by both addicts and non-addicts alike.

The Last House on the Left (1972) – After kidnapping and butchering two teenagers, a gang of rapists and murderers unknowingly seeks refuge with the parents of one of the victims.

Day of the Woman / I Spit on Your Grave (1978) – The film follows Jennifer, a writer who is working on a new novel and needs to get out of the city to finish it. She hires a riverside apartment in upstate New York to finish her novel, attracting the attention of a number of rowdy male locals. They catch Jenifer one day and strip her naked for the village idiot (Matthew) and rape her. Jennifer is later attacked and raped a further two times by the four degenerates, and her novel is also destroyed. But Jennifer slowly recovers and in her now-twisted, psychotic mind, she then begins to seek revenge on the four men who raped her.

Oldboy (2003) – An average man is kidnapped and imprisoned in a shabby cell for 15 years without explanation. He then is released, equipped with money, a cellphone and expensive clothes. As he strives to explain his imprisonment and get his revenge, he soon finds out that not only his kidnapper has still plans for him, but that those plans will serve as the even worse finale to 15 years of imprisonment.

Jacob’s Ladder (1990) – New York postal worker Jacob Singer is trying to keep his frayed life from unraveling. His days are increasingly being invaded by flashbacks to his first marriage, his now-dead son, and his tour of duty in Vietnam. Although his new wife tries to help Jacob keep his grip on sanity, the line between reality and delusion is steadily growing more and more uncertain. Jacob’s Ladder?!?! Really? Oh please.

The Strangers (2008) – After returning from a wedding reception, a couple staying in an isolated vacation house receive a knock on the door in the mid-hours of the night. What ensues is a violent invasion by three strangers, their faces hidden behind masks. The couple find themselves in a violent struggle, in which they go beyond what either of them thought capable in order to survive.

Videodrome (1983) – The president of Civic TV Channel 83, Max Renn, is always looking for new cheap and erotic movies for his station. When his employee, Harlan, decodes a pirate video broadcast showing torture, murder, and mutilation called “Videodrome,” Max becomes obsessed to get this series for his channel. He contacts his supplier, Masha, and asks her to find the party responsible for the transmission. A couple of days later, Masha tells that “Videodrome” is real snuff movies. Max’s sado-masochistic girlfriend Nicki Brand decides to travel to Pittsburgh, where the show is based, to audition. Max investigates further, and through a video by the media prophet Brian O’Blivion, he learns that that TV screens are the retina of the mind’s eye, being part of the brain, and “Videodrome” transmissions create a brain tumor in the viewer, changing the reality through video hallucination.

Cannibal Holocaust (1980) – A New York anthropologist named Professor Harold Monroe travels to the wild, inhospitable jungles of South America to find out what happened to a documentary film crew that disappeared two months before while filming a documentary about primitive cannibal tribes deep in the rain forest. With the help of two local guides, Professor Monroe encounters two tribes, the Yacumo and the Yanomamo. While under the hospitality of the latter tribe, he finds the remains of the crew and several reels of their undeveloped film. Upon returning to New York City, Professor Monroe views the film in detail, featuring the director Alan Yates, his girlfriend Faye Daniels, and cameramen Jack Anders and Mark Tomaso. After a few days of traveling, the film details how the crew staged all the footage for their documentary by terrorizing and torturing the natives. Cannibal Holocaust is one of the most disturbing motion picture ever made. This film is one that we can all agree on: The brutality shown and the unbelievable disregard for emotion portrayed is enough to make you shudder in revulsion. Some of the displays in the movie are hard to even believe a human being could think up such vile and putrid acts. Of course it’s perverse, and of course it’s repulsive and objectionable, but despite all this, it’s still an incredible film. Similar films from the Italian cannibal subgenre include Mangiati Vivi / Eaten Alive(1977), Cannibal Ferox / Make Them Die Slowly (1981), and  Natura Contro / Cannibal Holocaust II (1988).

Well, that’s IGN’s list. As you can see, they had a few hits but for the most part their choices are less than stellar. Now onto the really nasty ones:

The Girl Next Door (2007) – The story revolves around two girls who have recently been orphaned and are sent to live with their aunt who has three young sons. She is a middle aged woman obsessed with feminine purity who sees the new arrivals as a potentially corrupting influence on the masculine world she presides over. She actively encourages her sons to perpetrate more and more severe acts of bullying and sadism against the older girl who is eventually tied up in the basement and used as a play thing by all the neighbourhood children. Only the boy who lives next door, who has become friends with the girl, has a growing sense of unease about the “games” which are taking a very sinister turn, yet he is powerless to change the course of events.

Nekromantik (1987) – Robert Schmadtke works at a streetcleaning agency. He has a strange kind of hobby; he collects body parts and preserves them on alcohol. His girlfriend adores him, for because his job and attraction to corpses. One day Robert brings home a complete corpse. Betty gets really excited… until Robert looses his job.

Nekromantik 2 (1991) – The sexy nurse Monika has a problem, she is torn between two lovers one alive and one dead. The living lover is handsome and trustworthy, but is he as good in bed as the dead and rotting Rob?

Hei Tai Yang 731 / Men Behind The Sun (1988) – Story of a Japanese terror camp in the end of WW2, where the Japanese are using the Chinese as guinea pigs in terrible experiments to develop deadly bacterial-plagues. This is the first movie to be rated “III” (equivalent to the US rating NC-17) in Hong Kong. This film, based on a real camp (Unit 731, Japanese Experimentation Camp, 1937 – 1945), has some of the most revolting gore I have ever seen. This is definitely not an enjoyable movie. Any Italian cannibal movie I can think of is more upbeat than this.

Murder Set Pieces (2004) – Set against Sin City, Las Vegas, “Murder-Set-Pieces” tells the story of a fashion photographer whose vocation is murder – a voyeuristic nightmare of blood, sex and brutality. What is called the most graphic and disturbing horror film ever made is nothing more than gore for the sake of gore, violence for the sake of violence, and vicious bloodshed for the sake of vicious bloodshed.

Ginî piggu 2: Chiniku no hana / Guinea Pig: Flower of Flesh and Blood (1985) – A woman walking home late at night is attacked by an unknown assailant who knocks her out with chloroform. When she regains consciousness, she finds herself tied to a bed in a blood- spattered dungeon, at the mercy of a white-faced man in a samurai helmet who wants to turn her into a “flower of blood and flesh.” He then proceeds to slowly dismember and disembowel her as the camera records it all.

Cutting Moments (1997) – In the center of a monotonous suburban existence, Sarah lives silently and in subservience to her icy husband Patrick. They have been together far too long, and Patrick’s affections for his wife have all but vanished. Instead, his sexual urges are tempting him to lust after their own son. Realizing how far gone her husband is, Sarah undertakes drastic, shockingly sickening measures to salvage some sense of her life and purge her years of festering resentment.

Aftermath (1994) – When the others leave for the night, the last mortician begins to fondle the corpses. He quickly moves to the corpse of a young woman who died in a car crash, tearing her clothes off and mutilating her body. He then mounts her and rapes her corpse while taking pictures with a camera and timer. He brings her heart back home to his dog for food. One of the hardest to stomach movies you will ever see. The footage is as shocking as it sounds, trust me.

Schramm (1993) – Lothar Schramm is a simple man with complex problems, yet he seems like such a nice guy. He works as a taxi driver and lives by himself where he is happy to answer his door to strangers and kill them outright. As with many shy loner types he has a problem dealing with woman so he drugs them and photographs their nude bodies for sexual stimulation. He then murders his helpless victims and so goes the life of a deranged serial killer.

Begotten (1990) – Based on the nihilistic philosophy that life is nothing more than man spasming above ground, this contains the most intense and grisly imagery you’ll ever see in a film. There is no dialogue, only image after image describing the cycle of life. The film’s combination of stark black and white photography compounded with some truly creepy background sounds work to drive home the maker’s message. My advice, don’t watch it: Begotten (a horrifically blasphemous film) will stick with you for the rest of your life, like it or not.

Pink Flamingos (1972) – Sleaze queen Divine lives in a caravan with her mad hippie son Crackers and her 250-pound mother Mama Edie, trying to rest quietly on their laurels as ‘the filthiest people alive’. But competition is brewing in the form of Connie and Raymond Marble, who sell heroin to schoolchildren and kidnap and impregnate female hitchhikers, selling the babies to lesbian couples. Finally, they challenge Divine directly, and battle commences.

Koroshiya 1 / Ichi the Killer (2001) – When the Yakuza boss Anjo disappears with e fortune of his gang, his sadomasochist number one and lover Kakihara and his men search for him. The mysterious Jiji arrives in their office and accuses the rival Yakuza Suzuki of abducting Anjo, and Kakihara tortures him trying to locate the boss. When Kakihara realizes that he has committed a mistake, he pays with his tongue to the Yakuza and sooner he finds that the responsible is the psychopath and mentally deficient Ichi, who was abused in his childhood and is sexually repressed, and is controlled by Jiji using his skills in martial arts and blades to eliminate the gangsters.

Sweet Movie (1974) – The intercut story of two women: a nearly-mute beauty queen who descends into withdrawal and madness, and another who captains a ship laden with candy and sugar, luring men and boys aboard for sex, death, and revolutionary talk. The beauty queen passes from a wealthy husband whose honeymoon delight is to urinate on her, to a muscular keeper who punches her, stows her in a suitcase, and ships her to Paris, to a lip-synching rock idol with whom she has a love spasm, to an Austrian commune complete with a banquet of vomit, urine, feces, chopped dildos, and wet nurses.

Philosophy of a Knife (2008) – The true history of Japanese Unit 731, from its beginnings in the 1930s to its demise in 1945, and the subsequent trials in Khabarovsk, USSR, of many of the Japanese doctors from Unit 731. The facts are told, and previously unknown evidence is revealed by an eyewitness to these events, former doctor and military translator, Anatoly Protasov. Part documentary and part feature, the story is shown from the perspective of a young Japanese nurse who witnessed many of horrors, and a young Japanese officer who is torn between his sincere convictions that he is serving the greater purpose, and the deep sympathy he feels for an imprisoned Russian girl. His life is a living hell as he’s compelled to carry out atrocious experiments on the other prisoners, using them as guinea pigs in this shocking tale of mankind’s barbarity.

Bijitâ Q / Visitor Q+ (2001) – A father, who is a failed former television reporter tries to mount a documentary about violence and sex among youths. He proceeds to have sex with his daughter who is now a prostitute and films his son being humiliated and hit by classmates. “Q”, a perfect stranger somehow gets involved and enter the bizzare family who’s son beats his mom, who in turn is also a prostitute and a heroin addict.

August Underground’s Mordum (2003) – Two deranged friends bring along another guy to go on a random murder rampage. They kidnapped lesbian lovers, couples and they torture them in any way that the viewer can imagine. What happens in Mordum is so over the top and grotesque, that it no longer seems real. Although not a great film, Mordum will nevertheless find an audience amongst gore-hounds and fans of extreme cinema thanks to stomach-churning effects and a few taboo-busting scenes: a man is forced to emasculate himself with a pair of scissors; a woman makes herself vomit over her two screaming victims; a man guts a woman, then drops his trousers and proceeds to ‘bang away’ at the dead woman’s abdominal cavity; and then there’s the notorious bath scene which takes sexual deviancy on film to a new level.

Updated 12/16/2009: Added additional information to Cannibal Holocaust entry

Updated 12/17/2009: Added thumbnails for each movie