Books N Movies Rants

Started as a blog of a father trying to create the perfect list of books and movies that his son should read and watch. Now it is that and some general rants. Scroll down for the lists. If you have a list of 10 books and 10 movies please send it to me.

March 30, 2006

Updated Lists

We have updates to the lists:

First The Best Movies:
  1. Star Wars: Episode 4 A New Hope - First movie put on the list - 5 votes
  2. Casablanca - 4 votes
  3. Lord Of the Rings Trilogy - 4 votes
  4. A Wonderful Life - 2 Votes
  5. Blade Runner - 2 Votes
  6. Clerks - 2 Votes
  7. Star Wars 5 - Empire Strikes Back - 2 votes
  8. Exorcist - 2 Votes
  9. Ghost Dog 2 - votes
  10. Gone With the Wind - 2 votes
  11. Jaws - 2 votes
  12. Manchurian Candidate (original) - 2 votes
  13. One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest - 2 Votes
  14. Rashomon - 2 votes
  15. The 10 Commandments - Original with Charlton Heston - 2 votes
  16. The Godfather - 2 votes
  17. The Sound of Music - 2 votes
  18. Wizard of Oz - 2 Votes
  19. Abbot & Costello meet Frankenstein
  20. Animal House
  21. Aliens
  22. Apocalypse Now
  23. Barbarella
  24. Battle of the Bulge - Henry Fonda
  25. BeastMaster
  26. Bells of St. Mary's
  27. Bowling for Columbine
  28. Brain Candy
  29. Brazil
  30. Bridge of the River Kwai
  31. Bridges of Madison county
  32. Children of Paradise
  33. Citizen Kane
  34. Clash of the Titans
  35. Contact
  36. Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
  37. Die Hard
  38. Dogma
  39. Dracula (Original with Bella Ligousi)
  40. Dune
  41. Fantasia
  42. Fight Club
  43. For a Few Dollars More
  44. Forest Gump
  45. Galaxy Quest
  46. Goldfinger
  47. Goodfellas
  48. Heavenly Creatures
  49. Hello Dolly
  50. Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade
  51. Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back
  52. Kung Fu - David Carradine, Made for TV
  53. Manchurian Candidate (remake)
  54. Modern Times
  55. Moulin Rouge
  56. Nightmare Before Christmas
  57. North By Northwest
  58. Office Space
  59. Out of Africa
  60. Princes Bride
  61. Project A - Jackie Chan
  62. Psycho
  63. Re-animator
  64. Rear Window
  65. Robin Hood with Errol Flynn
  66. Royal Tenenbaums
  67. Schindler's List
  68. Silence of the Lambs
  69. Seven Samurai
  70. Singing in the Rain
  71. Star Wars 6 - Return of the Jedi
  72. The Big Lebowski
  73. The Cocoanuts with The Marx Brothers
  74. The Cook The Thief His Wife & Her Lover
  75. The Godfather 2
  76. The Great Race
  77. The Greatest Story Ever Told
  78. The Incredibles
  79. The Passion of the Christ
  80. The Quiet Man
  81. The Ring
  82. The Seventh Seal
  83. The Shining
  84. The Thin Man
  85. The Thing (original)
  86. The way we were
  87. The Wolf Man
  88. The Zero Effect
  89. Texas Chainsaw Massacarre - (original)
  90. They were expendable
  91. West Side Story
  92. Young Frankenstein
  93. Zatoichi

Now for the Books
  1. Lord of the Rings Trilogy - 5 votes
  2. Moby Dick - Melville - 5 votes
  3. Ulysses - James Joyce - 3 votes
  4. 100 years of solitude - Garcia Marquez - 2 votes
  5. A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens - 2 Votes
  6. Animal Farm - Orwell - 2 Votes
  7. Any book by Kurt Vonnegut - 2 votes
  8. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller - 2 votes
  9. Dune - 2 votes
  10. Geek Love - 2 votes
  11. Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - 2 Votes
  12. Illuminatus! - Robert Anton Wilson & Robert Shae - 2 votes - First book to receive multiple votes & first book put on the list
  13. Junkie - William S. Burroughs - 2 Votes
  14. Odyssey - 2 votes
  15. Silence of the Lambs- 2 Votes
  16. The Stand - S. King - 2 Votes
  17. The Stranger - Albert Camus - 2 votes
  18. The World According to Garp - 2 Votes
  19. Waiting For Godot - Samuel Beckett - 2 votes
  20. Watchmen - 2 votes
  21. Wuthering Heights - 2 votes
  22. 1984
  23. A Brief History of Time - Stephen Hawking
  24. A good biography on Abraham Lincoln
  25. Alone---Byrd
  26. American Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis
  27. An American Tragedy - Theodore Dreiser
  28. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding - John Locke
  29. Anna Karenina - Tolstoy
  30. Anything by Kipling
  31. Anything by Cussler
  32. As Told at the Explorers Club
  33. Athletic Shorts - Chris Crutcher or anything else by him
  34. Battle Cry Freedom
  35. Belladonna - Karen Moline
  36. Beowulf
  37. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
  38. Bodyline Autopsy by David Frith
  39. Borstal Boy
  40. Catcher and the Rye - Salinger
  41. Civil War - Shelby Foote
  42. Cloudsplitter - Russell Banks
  43. Collected Star Man comics - James Robinson
  44. Collected Stories - Franz Kafka
  45. Collected Stories - Edgar Allan Poe
  46. Confronting Silence - Toru Takemitsu
  47. Cosmos - Carl Sagan
  48. Crackpot: The Obsessions of John Waters - John Waters
  49. Crime and Punishment - Fydor Dostoyevsky
  50. Dark Knight Returns - Frank Miller
  51. DareDevil - Frank Miller
  52. DK Atlas of World History
  53. Don't smoke grass on my father's lawn (son of Charlie Chaplin),
  54. Dreadnought - Robert Massie
  55. Einstein's Dreams - Alan Lightman
  56. Enders Game - Orson Scott Card
  57. Fahrenheir 451 - Ray Bradbury
  58. Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail 72, - Hunter Thompson
  59. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter Thompson
  60. Flyboys---Bradley
  61. Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel - Groucho and Chico Marx
  62. For Whom the Bell Tolls---Hemingway
  63. Foucault's Pendulum
  64. Fountainhead
  65. Getting Things Done
  66. Girlfriend in a Coma - Douglas Coupland
  67. Godel, Escher, Bach - Douglas Hofstadter
  68. Gone with the Wind
  69. Good Earth
  70. Good Omens - Neil Gaimen and Terry Pratchet
  71. Gravity's Rainbow - Thomas Pynchon
  72. Great Gatsby
  73. Green Arrow, Archers Quest - Brad Meltzer, Phil Hester
  74. Green Eggs and Ham - Dr. Seuss
  75. Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond
  76. Gulliver's Travels
  77. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
  78. How The Dead Live - Will Self
  79. I know why the Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou
  80. Iliad - Homer
  81. In Dubious Battle - Steinbeck
  82. In Search of Schrödinger's Cat - John Gibbons (non fiction)
  83. In the Heart of the sea---Plhilbrick
  84. It - S. King
  85. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
  86. Kane & Abel
  87. Lance Armstrong's first book
  88. L.A. Confidential - James Elroy
  89. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol 1
  90. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
  91. Life on Earth by David Attenborough
  92. Love in the time of Cholera
  93. Madam Bovary
  94. Maltese Falcon
  95. Meditations on First Philosophy - Descartes
  96. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
  97. Middlemarch - George Eliot
  98. Monkey, A Journey to the West
  99. Neuromancer - William Gibson
  100. Of Mice & Men - John Steinbeck
  101. Old Man and the Sea - Hemmingway
  102. On the Road
  103. Oxbow Incident
  104. Paradise Lost
  105. Pharmakopia
  106. Poetics of Music - Igor Stravinsky
  107. Portable Beat Reader - many writers (Ginsberg, Kerouac, Burroughs)
  108. Rose Madder - S. King
  109. Rule of the Bone - Russell Banks
  110. Science and Human Values - Bronowski
  111. Shackleton
  112. Siddhartha - Herman Hesse
  113. Snow Ghosts (also called The Snowstorm)
  114. Still Life with Woodpecker - Robbins
  115. Swamp Thing - Alan Moore
  116. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
  117. The Abs Diet - David Zinczenko
  118. The Big Book of Conspiracies - Robert Anton Wilson
  119. The Big Sea - Langston Hughes
  120. The Collected Calvin & Hobbes
  121. The Cousins' War
  122. The Dilbert Principle or The Way of the Weasel - Scott Adams
  123. The Firm---Grisham
  124. The Godfather - Mario Puzo
  125. The Great War and Modern Memory
  126. The Heart is Deceitful Above All things - JT Leroy
  127. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
  128. The Illuminati Papers - Robert Anton Wilson
  129. The Pirate Lafayette,
  130. The Power of Myth - Joseph Campbell
  131. The Prince
  132. The Proud Tower
  133. The Rites of Spring - Madras Eckstein
  134. The Secret of the Unicorn/Red Rackham's Treasure by Herge
  135. The Son Also Rises - Hemmingway
  136. The Third Chimpanzee - Jared Diamond
  137. The Tin Drum - Gunter Grass
  138. The Tipping Point
  139. The Trial - Kafka
  140. The Wizard of Oz series - Frank L Baum
  141. Three Musketeers
  142. Tom Sawyer - Mark Tawain
  143. Tomb of Dracula - Marv Wolfman
  144. Tropic of Cancer - Henry Miller
  145. Walden - Thoreau
  146. Warriors of God
  147. Where the Wild Things Are - Maurice Sendak
  148. White Noise
  149. Winnie the Pooh
  150. Winter Soldier - Robert Ketchum
  151. Wonderful Life by Stephen Jay Gould
  152. Zen and art of Motorcycle Maintenance
And Now for the Worst Movies

  1. 13 Ghosts - The remake
  2. 30th Anniversary Night of the Living Dead DVD - they recut the film.
  3. Atlantis: The Lost Empire
  4. Batman - Another Tim Burton movie
  5. Blue velvet
  6. Boxing Helena
  7. Casino Royale (1967 starring David Niven)
  8. Destiny Turns On the Radio
  9. Die Another Day
  10. Double Agent 73
  11. Eraserhead
  12. Family Stone
  13. Howling 2
  14. Howling 3
  15. Howling 4
  16. Howling 5
  17. Interview with a Vampire
  18. Ishtar
  19. Jaws 3D
  20. Mars Attacks
  21. Meet the Fockers
  22. Plan 9 From Outer Space
  23. Planet of the Apes - the Tim (I have to wipe my ass on really good things) Burton remake.
  24. Rocky Horror Picture Show
  25. Something about Mary
  26. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
  27. Starship Troopers
  28. Surf Nazi's Must Die
  29. Tarzan the Ape Man
  30. Top Gun

Here are some of the comments people submitted with their best and worst picks.

First the worst picks:

  1. Planet of the Apes - the Tim (I have to wipe my ass on really good things) Burton remake. What a monumental piece of crap. I have had hemorrhoids that I enjoyed more. And the ending - what the ever living fuck was that? The movie contradicted itself so many times and in so many ways it makes my brain hurt just thinking about it. Do not see it. First movie with 2 votes.
  2. 30th Anniversary Night of the Living Dead DVD - they recut the film. Check out this great rant http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=4397 - Best Rant about a bad movie ever!
  3. Batman - Another Tim Burton suck fest. I have to admit I saw this twice because the first time I could not believe how bad it was. I figured "Well I am a fan of the Batman comic, so maybe I am just being really hard on the film." So in all fairness I saw it again. Still sucked
  4. Blue velvet - Imagine Salvador Dali directing "Abbot & Costello meet Marilyn Chambers". Now make it unfunny and boring. I was more interested in the coat of the guy sitting in front of me than this movie. I think if a date drags you to a movie that sucks this bad she ows your a BJ.
  5. Boxing Helena - Another film that even though there is a lot of nudity, and hot nudity at that, it does not matter - nothing will ever save this movie. When I and the audience left the movie we told the people waiting on line to go see another film. When someone responded that it could not be that bad, we all looked at each other and in unison said "It's a dream sequence". Everyone on line went to another movie.
  6. Destiny Turns On the Radio - One of the most boring movies ever made. Quentin Tarantino guest starred as a favor to his no-talent director buddy. A complete waste of everyone's time.
  7. Double Agent 73 - This is a soft core movie where secret agent Chesty Morgan has a camera inserted in her breast so when she wants to take a picture she whips it out and squeezes. I was going through puberty when I saw this movie and even all the nudity could not save this movie.
  8. Mars Attacks - In the long, long list of awful, fake-artsy Tim Burton movies, this one sucks the most ass. Quite a feat there, Tim.
  9. Something about Mary - Cameron Diaze would have to actually give blowjobs in the theater to get me to see this waste of time again.
  10. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier - Shatner finally gets to direct one and boy is it an ass wipe of a film. The plot involves Spock's long lost never mentioned brother. But the main reason he did it - the final fight of the movie - Kirk vs. God. And Kirk wins.
  11. Surf Nazi's Must Die - The shittiest of all the shitty Troma movies. Granted, that's like comparing which is worse: leprosy or ebola. They both suck, but which would you rather die from?
  12. Tarzan the Ape Man - This convinced me that Bo Derek sucks. In fact, everyone involved with this movie sucks. I suck for sitting thru it. Boring soft-core porn for people who are afraid to watch the real thing.
  13. Top Gun - Jingoistic Tom Cruise bullshit with an annoying, awful soundtrack. This movie is why the 80's sucked. Really. It's solely responsible. It ruined the decade for me.

Now the good movies and books:

  1. Clerks – This is a movie about what my life could have been. I had a friend that worked in a comic shop who was a lot like Dante and there is always a “Randle” at a comic store. Another buddy and I used to hang out there. I was the Silent Bob to his Jay. Hell I used to date girls who lived in that town in New Jersey. Scary how much it got right.
  2. The Passion of the Christ - Haven't seen it but read the book. I have noticed it's effect upon people and add it to this list based on that. A lesson in love that has a greater impact upon one's thinking than the common viewer recognizes.
  3. The Greatest Story Ever Told - The story of Christ; done well for film. (Trivia: John Wayne plays the Centurion. He has one line: "Truly this was the Son of God." You recognize that voice instantly.)
  4. Dune - The movie is not as good as the book but is worthy in its own right. The Mentat mantra spoken upon taking the Juice of Sapho is original to the movie and not in the books; "It is by will alone I set my mind in motion...". It was that mantra that inspired my writing of the cocaine mantra: "It is by will alone I set my lust in motion...".
  5. The Thin Man – Nick and Nora Charles are one of the great underrated screen couples. Nick’s desire to not get involved vs. Nora’s desire to get involved. Nick’s bumbling drunk investigating is in many ways a pre-curser to Columbo’s style of investigation. Plus it’s really funny.
  6. Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back – Went to see this a few days after September 11th. We were living in the West Village at the time off 6th Avenue and used to see The World Trade Center every day. My wife had lost friends in the attack and we had both over the last few months been offered jobs down there. Fortunately we had turned them down. We could not watch the news on TV any more. It was too much. We lived below 14th street so we could not even take our car out of the garage and get out of town. So we decided to go to the movies. And we laughed. A lot. If a movie can make you laugh with all that going on - it is funny. And will always hold a special place for me.
  7. Dogma – One of the great funny movies about religion and the end of the world. Very clearly it sets out various themes or schools of religious thought while at the same time remaining light and funny. Ben Affleck doesn’t suck in it, which is an achievement in and of itself. And Salma Hayek as a stripper in a Catholic Schoolgirl outfit, is worth the price of admission alone. Kevin Smith does have knack for getting hot girls in cool outfits. Have you seen Eliza Dushku and Shannon Elizabeth in the cat suits in Jay and Silent Bob?
  8. Abbot & Costello meet Frankenstein – What made the Abbot & Costello movies so great is that everyone else in the movie would play the film straight. All the comedy was left to them. This is style is even more evident in this movie. Bela Ligousi and Lon Channy Jr. play Dracula and the Wolfman absolutely straight, like it was any other horror film. This makes the comedy so much more funny.
  9. Empire Strikes Back – Why Empire Strikes Back instead of Star Wars – Finding out Darth Vader is Luke’s farther is a major event in movie history. It’s Huge. Plus better directing and more exciting. It has everything right.

Here are why some books made the list:

  1. Illuminatus! - Robert Anton Wilson & Robert Shae – “Illuminatus! is important on several levels. Some of the elements of import are the inculcation of non-linear thinking in the reader and the entering into and out of paranoia that the book deliberately brings to the reader. Illuminatus! helps to develop a more powerful, more resilient, mind. It brings the reader to a heightened state. It explores "What is reality?".”
  2. Dune – “Dune is one of the greatest books ever written. It delves into the human condition and forces the reader to ask "what is human?". It shows the reader that human potential is limitless. That the limits we impose upon ourselves are often arbitrary and that the limits of what we can do are yet to be discovered. It directs, if subtly, the reader to explore the concept of multi-dimensional existence; that we do in fact exist on more planes of consciousness and dimension than perhaps are formally recognized today. Not all can be explained in terms of mathematics. Some things can be known, but not taught. Mathematically describe the flapping of a flag or hold a cloth in the wind? Which imparts the lesson of movement? Learned but not taught. So it is with Dune. The forces and motions of a society as a whole are greater than the sum of the individual parts. You cannot give a simpleton diagnosis to a society at large. There are forces of great power and limitless (apparent) energy. The drive to procreate. The need for love. The dangers of indulgence. As we act so do we become. The myriad slippery slopes we face in our daily choices. Dune makes one think and in thinking, in being aware of a life as a system, a system that impacts and echoes through other systems, one is awake. This is a lesson of the Kwisatz Haderach: One man is always the difference. Everything we do or don't do every day counts. It affects all of mankind. The echo of one can change the thought of all. Dune is required reading because it is essential to the development of the species in getting on with its growth that the Sleeper Must Awaken.”
  3. Good Omens - Neil Gaimen and Terry Pratchet – The funniest book I have ever read. I was laughing so hard I had to put the book down. If I thought about the book while riding the subway on my way to work, I would just burst out laughing.
  4. Einstein’s Dreams - Alan Lightman – The most poetic non-poetry book I have ever read. Deals with the fairly complicated concept of time in a beautiful and simple way. One of those books that gets you to pause and really think about important concepts and issues, yet remains light.
  5. Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail 72, - Hunter Thompson – Best book on politics ever. Glimpse into, what has turned out to be a simpler time. Plus the Nixon discussing football section shows a different light on a president whose positive accomplishments have been forgotten in the light of his crimes. Seems like now presidential crimes are forgotten far to quickly.
  6. As Told at the Explorers Club – Great stories by real people who lived the lives most of us read about in books or go to movies to see. I found it hard to go back to reading fiction after reading about some of the things these people have seen and done.
  7. The Collected Star Man comics – James Robinson – First of all the art is amazing. If you like stuff from the Golden Age of comics, it does it well. Written with a lot of respect, thought and intelligence. It has real emotion. One part always makes me want to cry. Three characters go into Hell and are tested. It’s the most emotionally real comic I have ever read. Striking at the core of you in that it’s relationship between the characters are real. More so than any other comic or book that I have ever read.
  8. Tom Sawyer - is a book which I probably read three times and would recommend to every young American. It is part history, adventure and life. I could have closed my eyes and I was Tom.