Movie Cynics (dead link) has listed their favorite tough guys from movies. They explain the criteria for inclusion:

• The list is about characters, not actors.
• No older movie, because the fights didn’t look as realistic back then.
• Pulling a trigger just isn’t enough, which is why there is no entry for Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Here’s the list:

1. Walker played by Lee Marvin, Point Blank (1967) – Based on the theme of the individual pitted against the large, impersonal organization. Here the central character is an old-fashioned loner of a gunman embroiled with a large-scale, corporate criminal operation behind a respectable-looking ‘front’. Without delving into psychology or motivation, the film places emphasis on action and surface appearances, superbly capturing the glossy, depersonalized feel of a 1967 Los Angeles–a nightmare landscape of concrete, glass and coiling freeways.
2. Luke Jackson played by Paul Newman, Cool Hand Luke (1967) – Luke Jackson is a cool, gutsy prisoner in a Southern chain gang, who, while refusing to buckle under to authority, keeps escaping and being recaptured. The prisoners admire Luke because, as Dragline explains it, “You’re an original, that’s what you are!” Nevertheless, the camp staff actively works to crush Luke until he finally breaks.
3. Marv played by Mickey Rourke, Sin City (2005) – Four tales of crime adapted from Frank Miller’s popular comics, focusing around a muscular brute who’s looking for the person responsible for the death of his beloved Goldie, a man fed up with Sin City’s corrupt law enforcement who takes the law into his own hands after a horrible mistake, a cop who risks his life to protect a girl from a deformed pedophile, and a hitman looking to make a little cash.
4. John McClane played by Bruce Willis, Die Hard (1988) – New York City Detective John McClane has just arrived in Los Angeles to spend Christmas with his wife. Unfortunatly, it is not going to be a Merry Christmas for everyone. A group of terrorists, led by Hans Gruber is holding everyone in the Nakatomi Plaza building hostage. With no way of anyone getting in or out, it’s up to McClane to stop them all.
5. Tyler Durden played by Brad Pitt, Fight Club (1999) – lonely, isolated thirty-something young professional seeks an escape from his mundane existence with the help of a devious soap salesman. They find their release from the prison of reality through underground fight clubs, where men can be what the world now denies them. Their boxing matches and harmless pranks soon lead to an out-of-control spiral towards oblivion.
6. ‘Mad’ Max Rockatansky played by Mel Gibson, Mad Max (1979)  – A vision of an apocalyptic future set in the wastelands of Australia. Total social decay is just around the corner in this spectacular cheap budget gang orientated road movie. Where the cops do their best to lay down the law and the outlaw gangs try their hardest to defy the system. Leather clad Max Rockatansky husband, father and cop turns judge, juror and executioner after his best friend, wife and baby are killed. Here we see the final days of normality of a man who had everything to live for, and his slip into the abyss of madness. Mad Max is the antihero on the road to vengeance and oblivion. Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981) – A former police officer is now a lone wanderer, travelling through a devasted Australia after a nuclear war looking for the now-priceless fuel of petrol. He lives to survive and is none too pleased when he finds himself the only hope of a small group of honest people running a remote oil refinery. He must protect them from the bike gang that is terrorising them whilst transporting their entire fuel supply to safety.
7. John J. Rambo played by Sylvester Stallone, First Blood (1982)
8. Rocky Balboa played by Sylvester Stallone, Rocky (1976)
9. Paul Kersey played by Charles Bronson, Death Wish (1974)
10. George Taylor played by Charlton Heston, Planet of the Apes (1968)
11. William Wallace played by Mel Gibson, Braveheart (1995)
12. Big Chris played by Vinnie Jones; Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)
13. Snake Plissken played by Kurt Russell, Escape from New York (1981)
14. Ajax played by James Remar, The Warriors (1979)
15. Perry played by Tony Ganios, The Wanderers (1979)
16. Michael Vronsky played by Robert De Niro, The Deer Hunter (1978)
17. Dae-su Oh played by Min-sik Choi, Oldboy (2003)
18. Taylor Reese played by Vin Diesel, Knockaround Guys (2001)
19. Sergeant Mike Horvath played by Tom Sizemore, Saving Private Ryan (1998)
20. Doc Holliday played by Val Kilmer, Tombstone (1993)

Popularity: 1%

Nothing says intense drama to Hollywood like a character melodramatically screaming, “Noooooooo!” into the camera. To illustrate the phenomena, kontraband.com presents a compilation of “NOOOOoooo” from various movies and television shows.

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“I thought you of all people would appreciate efforts to deconstruct the colonialist paternalistic agrarian hierarchy that disenfranchises the Tanga te Whenua and erodes the natural resources of Aotearoa.”
Release: 2006
Runtime: 1 hour, 27 min
Genre: Horror, Comedy
Language: English
MPAA Rating: R
Starring: Nathan Meister, Danielle Mason, Peter Feeney, Tammy Davis, Glenis Levestam, Tandi Wright, Oliver Driver, Matthew Chamberlain

Amazon Link: Black Sheep

SYNOPSIS: An experiment gone horribly wrong turns flocks of docile sheep into zombie sheep in this black comedy by Jonathan King. When the death of his father and probataphobia, fear of sheep, brings him to the verge of a nervous breakdown, skilled farmer, Henry Oldfield (Nathan Meister), leaves the family farm. Fifteen years later, Henry discovers that his brother, Angus (Peter Feeney), has been performing genetic experiments on the sheep. Unfortunately for both the brothers and everyone else, the experiments have produced a strain of sheep that crave human flesh and will stop at nothing to satisfy their hunger.

In New Zealand, there are more 10 sheep for every person. Therefore, it can be assumed that it was only a matter of time before someone from that part of the world made a movie about the sheep. That person is Jonathan King. And as far black comedies go, King’s zombie sheep flick reminds viewers a great of deal of Edgar Wright’s zom com, Shaun of the Dead.

The Oldfield farm has been in the family for a hundred years but when dad dies, younger brother Henry moves away with a vicious phobia of sheep leaving older, evil brother Angus to mind the farm. Unfortunately, Angus has no interest in traditional farming and has adopts a genetic program to create a better sheep: the Oldfield.

When a pair of well-intentioned animal rights activists accidentally release one of the mutant sheep, they unwittingly trigger an ovine massacre. One bite from one of these genetic freaks has the power to turn regular sheep into rampaging bloodthirsty beasts Humans bitten are transformed into a monstrous were-sheep.

Now Henry has to overcome more than his phobia as he faces flesh-eating sheep with blood-soaked muzzles. He gets some help from the local farmhand Tucker (Tammy Davis) and a cute vegan named Experience (Danielle Mason).

Black Sheep is a horror-comedy, light on the horror (not the gore) and heavy on the comedy. Director Jonathan King wastes no time plunging in full-scale: The blood is hot and copious, the wool white and fluffy, and the dialogue and situations every bit as silly as you might expect. Black Sheep is more of a gross-out black comedy than a smartly crafted take on the zombie genre. But the film definitely has many hilarious moments. I give King credit for a clever twist on the zombie/gore formula; however, this isn’t the first time that warm and fuzzy creatures have turned lethal. There’s the killer rabbit from Monty Python’s Holy Grail and the unforgettable Night of the Lepus. Nonetheless, Black Sheep does deserve kudos for taking the genre to a nasty yet grossly funny extreme: Its a film that’s not sheepish about gore or the violence of the lambs. Sorry, I couldn’t resist.

Popularity: 3%

In time for October viewing, Boston.com has compiled a list of the top 50 scariest movies of all time. The whole list of 50 is presented here so you don’t have to click through 50 pages — Yep, that’s right one movie per page. The plot outlines are from IMDb, the comments are ours.

1. The Thing (1982) – Scientists in the Antarctic are confronted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of the people that it kills.
2. Ju-on (2000) – Jealous of his wifes love for another man, a teacher from her high school, a man brutally kills his wife and young son.
3. The Ring (2002) – A young journalist must investigate a mysterious videotape which seems to cause the death of anyone in a week of viewing it. The Japanese original, Ringu, is much better in our opinion.
4. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) – In San Francisco, a group of people discover the human race is being replaced one by one, with clones devoid of emotion.
5. Alien (1979) – A mining ship, investigating a suspected SOS, lands on a distant planet. The crew discovers some strange creatures and investigates. While Aliens was good, it was Aliens that combine top-notch space marine action and edge of your seat scares. Only downside to Aliens was that child screaming, “RIPLEEEEEEEEEEEEEE” the whole time.
   
6. Dawn of the Dead (1978) – Following an ever-growing epidemic of zombies that have risen from the dead, two Philadelphia SWAT team members, a traffic reporter, and his television-executive girlfriend seek refuge in a secluded shopping mall.
7. Evil Dead II (1987) – The lone survivor of an onslaught of flesh-possessing spirits holds up in a cabin with a group of strangers while the demons continue their attack. One of our favorite horror films – gory, campy, and chock-full of Bruce Campbell.
8. Halloween (1978) – A psychotic murderer institutionalized since childhood escapes on a mindless rampage while his doctor chases him through the streets.
9. The Shining (1980) – A family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where an evil and spiritual presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from the past and of the future.
10. Quartermass and the Pit (1967) – An ancient Martian spaceship is unearthed in London, and proves to have powerful psychic effects on the people around. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 3%

Chris Healy over at Cookie Magazine lists their top 25 favorite family films. Here’s the list (the comments are ours):

• The Goonies (1985, PG) – A bit potty-mouthed for a ‘family’ movie: There’s some language in it and some suggestive material that parents may not want to expose their kids to just yet. If The Goonies had been made today, it would have garnered a PG-13 rating instead of the PG rating.
• Babe (1995, G)
• The Sound of Music (1965, G)
• Singin’ In the Rain (1952, G)
• Finding Nemo (2003, G)
• Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971, G) – Go with the original – we reccomend avoiding Burton’s 2007 attempt to remake Willy into a cross between Wacko and Weirdo.
• Toy Story (1995, G) – We would have also added Pixar’s Toy Story II and Monsters Inc. to the list.
• Spirited Away (2001, PG)
• Mary Poppins (1964, G)
• March of the Penguins (2005, G)
• The Princess Bride (1987, PG)
• E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982, PG) – If you can find a copy, go for the original 1982 version, not the 2002 ‘enhanced’ version. Commentary on new version: “I can’t watch the version that has the changes without it distracting me. I have seen this movie so many times as a kid, that I know it by heart/ I actually anticipate every scene, every line, every shot. When I get to a point where a change has been made, it is like a slight bump in the road. ‘Oh, look they changed that’ or ‘They changed that line’ or ‘That shot has been cut.’ It takes me out of the movie for just a second, and when there are so many changes that you are constantly being taken out of the movie, it ruins it.”
• The Wizard of Oz (1939, G)
• Happy Feet (2006, PG)
• The Lady and the Tramp (1955, G) – Avoid the direct-to-video Lady and the Tramp II – Scamp’s Adventure. It’s sad that this is what Disney has come to – taking successful films, and turning them into lamed, limping sequels.
• The Parent Trap (1961, G) – Go with the original, 1998′s remake is a bit too racy for young children
• The Muppet Movie (1979, G)
• Shrek (2001, PG) – Shrek takes a very un-Pixar approach to family entertainment by resorting to crudities, bathroom humor and profanity that will give pause to families, particularly those with younger children.
• Star Wars (1977, PG)
• Freaky Friday (1976, G)
• Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-rabbit (2005, G)
• The Iron Giant (1999, PG) – Our only complaint with this film is the heavy-handed anti-gun message: hunters are cold-blooded killers and guns serve no purpose but to harm — good movie, bad anti-gun propaganda.
• The Bad News Bears (1976, PG) – raunchy, tasteless humor and the 2005 remake is no better. Definitely NOT a family movie. What was Cookie Magazine thinking?
• A Little Princess (1995, G)
• My Neighber Totoro (1988, G) – The animation is absolutely stunning and the story is deceptively simple, told with patient, subtle attention to detail.

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