Posts Tagged ‘Inglourious Basterds’

This weekend, the first of many upcoming superhero reboots will be released. Leading the pack before the rumored Fantastic Four restart and next summer’s The Amazing Spider-Man is X-Men: First Class, director Matthew Vaughn’s tale of the beginning of Professor Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters in the 60s and the friendship between Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr, who will become Magneto. Vaughn has cast this new film in the X-Men franchise with some of the most talented actors of today. So before seeing his newest film, check out some of the under-ranked films from the stars of X-Men: First Class.

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As the Oscar telecast creeps up on us again, it begs the question: How many times has the Academy really gotten this “Best Picture” thing right, anyway?

Think about it. How many controversial decisions are there in the Academy’s history? How many times is a movie other than Best Picture long remembered as the best of the year?

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Since last fall’s revamping of Flickchart‘s global ranking system (see the official announcement about that here), many films have found themselves moved around on the global charts. But one thing remains consistent: the Directors Who Dominate continue to do so. Previously covered in this series, Christopher Nolan and Quentin Tarantino remain at the top of the charts (with their highest-ranked films at #1 and #4, respectively.) But the biggest change is that their newest efforts (Inception and Inglourious Basterds) have a much stronger presence on the chart, where they now appear at #2 and #13. And this brings us to another director who continually dominates, the man who is widely regarded (for good or ill) as the father of the modern blockbuster: Steven Spielberg.

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There are some films on my Flickchart that rank higher than they might have, simply because they contain just one scene that held me captivated. Overall, I may not have cared for the movie, but one particular scene or sequence just caught my attention, and I had to admit: I wish the whole movie could have been like that.

Here are a few films that find themselves pulled from the dregs at the bottom of my Flickchart, buoyed in the middling middle on the strength of one or two effective scenes. One is the first R-rated film to win the Best Picture Oscar. One is considered a modern-day masterpiece. One is a mediocre action flick from a director best known for mediocre action flicks. They all have one thing in common: I didn’t love them…but I loved something about them. (Caution to those who might not have seen the films discussed; there may be a few minor spoilers.)

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It doesn’t get more dominating than having directed the highest-ranked film on Flickchart’s list of The Best Movies of All Time. But the man behind The Dark Knight is not only responsible for the highest-grossing movie of 2008 (and a member of that elite billion-dollar club). Every one of the seven feature films he has directed has been a hit with critics, and several have been big hits at the box office. They’re also hits on Flickchart. In this entry of Directors Who Dominate, we shine the spotlight on the dark figure of Christopher Nolan.

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