At The Screengrab: Best and Worst Death Scenes!

I've been remiss about posting Screengrab lists for the last couple of weeks, which is a shame because we've been on fire! This week is Best and Worst Death Scenes in the Movies. Here's the links.

The BEST:
Part 1: Scanners, Alien, The Fury, Jaws, Deep Blue Sea, White Heat.
Part 2: Big Fish, Blade Runner, Night of the Living Dead, Bonnie and Clyde, Citizen Kane.
Part 3: The Sixth Sense, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, The Shining, Dr. Strangelove.
Part 4: Terminator 2: Judgment Day, American History X, Breathless, Pierrot Le Fou*, Psycho, King Kong.
Part 5: Bambi, Terms of Endearment, Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia*, Major Dundee*, Ride The High Country*, Throne of Blood*, Ikiru*.
Part 6: Who'll Stop The Rain?, Stroszek*, The Man Who Would Be King, The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Les Diaboliques*, Kind Hearts & Coronets.
Part 7: Synecdoche, New York*, L.A. Confidential, Speed, Gunman, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, The Night of the Hunter*.

The WORST:
Part 8: Dancer In The Dark, Saving Private Ryan*, Braveheart*, Star Trek: Generations, The Godfather Part III.
Part 9: Return of the Jedi, It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, Rambo: First Blood Part II, The Children's Hour, Friday The 13th, Watchmen, Torn Curtain, Scarface.

* written by yours truly.

At The Screengrab: Top Ten Worst... Movies... Ever!

Two weeks ago at the Screengrab, we posted our worst movies of all time, individual and aggregated. These proved controversial, because someone always loves things that you do not. But here they are, for this thing called posterity.

Aggregate List:
(10) Breaking The Waves, (9) They're Just My Friends, (8) Wired, (7) Field of Dreams, (6) Cannonball Run II.
(5) Independence Day, (4) Batman And Robin, (3) Battlefield Earth, (2) Showgirls, and (1) Baby Geniuses.

Individual Lists:
Scott Von Doviak's Worst Movies Ever.
Nick Shager's Worst Movies Ever.
Leonard Pierce's Worst Movies Ever.
My Worst Movies Ever, Part I.
My Worst Movies Ever, Part II.
Phil Nugent's Worst Movies Ever, Part I.
Phil Nugent's Worst Movies Ever, Part II.
Andrew Osborne's Worst Movies Ever.

My list was:

1. K-Pax
2. Forrest Gump
3. Moulin Rouge
4. Signs
5. Natural Born Killers
6. Life Is Beautiful
7. Happiness
8. In The Company Of Men
9. Highlander 2: The Quickening
10. The Brothers McMullen

Special Haiku Honorable Mentions to:

• American Beauty
• Armageddon
• Dead Poets Society
• You've Got Mail
• Memento

At the Screengrab: TOP TEN BEST MOVIES EVER!!

Here's last week's list: our aggregate and individual picks for top ten best movies.

Aggregated picks:
(10) Days of Heaven/Belle de Jour/Star Wars (tie), (9) The Wild Bunch, (8) Sunset Boulevard.
(7) Once Upon A Time In The West, (6) Citizen Kane, (5) The Godfather Part II, (4) The Rules of the Game/The Grand Illusion (tie).
(3) 2001: A Space Odyssey, (2) The Godfather, (1) McCabe and Mrs. Miller.

Individual picks:
Phil Nugent's picks part 1.
Phil Nugent's picks part 2.
Nick Shager's picks.
My picks.
Leonard Pierce's picks.
Paul Clark's picks.
Scott Von Doviak and Andrew Osborne's picks.

My picks, for the record:

1. The Wild Bunch
2. The Seven Samurai
3. McCabe and Mrs. Miller
4. Badlands/Days of Heaven (tie)
5. Grand Illusion/The Rules of the Game (tie)
6. The Searchers
7. The Godfather Part II
8. Unfaithfully Yours/The Lady Eve (tie)
9. Vertigo/La Jetee (tie)
10. Cockfighter
11. Touch of Evil/Yojimbo (tie)
12. Singin' In The Rain

Ought to be on the list, but ain't:

• Aguirre, Wrath of God
• The Battle of Algiers
• Chinatown
• Ikiru
• Killer of Sheep
• Miller's Crossing
• Night of the Hunter
• Playtime
• Ride The High Country
• Rio Bravo
• Week End

The Screengrab: Death Watch

Also at the Screengrab: the final curtain is nigh.

Screengrab Death Watch: Day One

That was published Wednesday. We've got until June 1 and then we're on the cutting room floor.

At The Screengrab: Great Beginnings!

The Screengrab list o' the week is about the best opening sequences in film.

Part I: Touch Of Evil (which I wrote), Once Upon A Time In The West, Raising Arizona, and The Player.

Part II: Mulholland Drive, Boogie Nights, Manhattan, and 8 1/2 plus Wild Strawberries (which I wrote).

Part III: Cliffhanger, Werckmeister Harmonies, Dawn of the Dead, and No Country For Old Men (which I wrote).

Part IV: Do The Right Thing, Apocalypse Now, Barbarella, La Dolce Vita, and The Searchers (which I wrote).

Part V: The Wild Bunch (which I wrote), Blow Out, Goodfellas, Dead Man (which I wrote), Jackie Brown, and Jaws plus Star Wars.

Check 'em out!

At The Screengrab: The Hemingway Night

Forgot to mention a review I wrote about a great short movie at the Screengrab last week. The Hemingway Night! Check it out should the opportunity arise.

At The Screengrab: DVR-worthy movies this week

The Grand Illusion, Living In Oblivion, The Maltese Falcon, Paranoid Park, and the Hidden Fortress. Click the link to find out when!

At The Screengrab: Beat The Clock!

The Screengrab list this week is on races against time, our little homage to tax day. I went existential on the idea of the race against time, choosing to focus on movies about how slippery time is, and how even the most languid conversation and ambitious undertaking is always fighting the clock.

Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV
Part V - I wrote Before Sunset and The Testament of Dr. Mabuse
Part VI - I wrote Synecdoche, New York and Dead Man

At The Screengrab: Review of Around

In which I discuss a first-time film (Around, they call it) with faults aplenty, but some skill and vision, too.

At The Screengrab: April Fools!

Our favorite comic characters at the Screengrab this week.

Part 1
Part 2 - I wrote The Jerk and Mon Oncle
Part 3
Part 4 - I wrote Unfaithfully Yours and Boudu Saved From Drowning
Part 5
Part 6 - I wrote Raising Arizona
Part 7
Part 8

Screengrab Review: American Prince

As you may or may not know, I'm covering SXSW for The Screengrab. Here's my first write-up! Expect at least one more later today.

Big Week for Your DVR

Although I've tried to scale back the Set Your DVR! column at the Screengrab, this week has no fewer than 14 movies that I had to recommend. Check it out.

DVR-worthy movies on cable this weekend

Here's my recommended movies for you to record off cable this weekend: Samurai III, 8 1/2, and Amarcord. Link goes to the Screengrab at nerve.com.

Bloody Valentines at the Screengrab

Here's this week's Screengrab list! It's all about the worst movie romances in history. I wrote the bulk (all but the first one) of Part Two and a piece on Days of Heaven somewhere else. But the whole thing is chock full of good writing, so check it out!

Screengrab Review: Peter and the Wolf

A new edition of my ever-popular irregular column about children's movies! Here's what I have to say about Suzie Templeton's 2008 short Peter and the Wolf.

Blog post on The Screengrab. Set Your DVR!: January 26 - 30, 2009. Recommended films this week:

• Vincent and Theo,
• Harlan County, USA, and
• The Night of the Hunter.

Screengrab List: Favorite Prison Movies

In the wake of President Obama's order closing Gitmo, our weekly Screengrab list focuses on prison movies. I wrote about The Grand Illusion in the first part, plus a few more movies in parts 4 and 5.

Tonight on IFC: Last Night At The Alamo

Set your DVR! Here's what I wrote about this over at the Screengrab.

Screengrab Review: Six Man, Texas

I'm proud of this review. It has some clunky writing, yep. But it's not too far from how I pictured it. That means everyone else will most likely hate it.

Plus, I forgot to post it, but here's a column about My Neighbor Totoro from last week.

Remember that these are at Nerve.com, which has some smutty content (although not on this blog). Browse accordingly!