#21: The Usual Suspects

The Usual Suspects is such a phenomenal movie, I can't rave enough about how great this movie is. From beginning to end, at no point in time should you be bored watching this movie. Every minute is either filled with non-stop action, or your laughing at how funny Benicio Del Toro is. Stephen Baldwin is obviously great, especially when he gets to play the role of a car-jacker. I'll just go through the list because I feel that I just might have to. Gabriel Byrne plays off his role of "Dean Keaton" so well, that it may just seem to viewers that it actually might just be him in real life. Kevin Pollack is my least favorite in the bunch but that doesn't mean he didn't play his role well. Last but not least the greatest of them all, Kevin Spacey takes the gold medal for his performance. If anyone's keeping track still, Kevin Spacey is one of my top 5 actors. He's such a brilliant actor, he can play any role any which way he wants and receive an Oscar Winning Performance. Bryan Singler did a great job directing this film, while Christopher McQuarrie's brilliance of creating such a movie is a gift to us all. Oh, and this film may have one of the best twists of ever created. Absolutely amazing movie, anyone who hasn't seen this, has to go see this film immediately.

Overall Rating: 9.5/10

- Josh Berg

#13: Shooter

Marky Mark Wahlberg plays a widely known marksmen, able to hunt down and snipe people from miles away. Definitely one of his top movies; he also knows how to produce very well. Some of his other films have not been so good though; when I saw The Other Guys this summer, it made me think he was an absolute joke. Will Farrell stepped up and saved that movie.  The Departed was great but The Happening was horrendous, the movie in general but the acting too.  Okay, but getting back to Shooter, the movie actually had a very creative idea for a film. I really liked the concept and the performances by all the actors and I thought Antoine Fuqua did a really good job of directing this film - all the scenes and shots from the film are right on target and so clear. The in-depth details of the movie are great as well. I don't want to ruin it but I thought this movie was definitely worth seeing if you like action and shooting films.

Overall Rating: 8.3 / 10

- Josh Berg

Shooter was one of those movies, for me, that I loved when it came out, and didn't put much thought into afterwards. A co-worker of mine at the video rental store said the mark of a good movie is one that you keep thinking about after you see it. I think that - sadly - Shooter falls short of being a classic for this reason.

Besides taking some liberties with physics and plausibility (as any action movie does, and I don't hold against them), the Shooter went just a little bit too far with its scope, in my opinion. It's hard to say much at all without giving it away, but to make this movie a classic it would have to hold the "could this really happen?" quality that movies like The Bourne Identity or Babel. That's not to say Shooter isn't a ton of fun and definitely worth a watch, but it's not to be placed on the same shelf as The Matrix and the like.

Overall Rating: 7.1 / 10


-Taylor Dobbs

#12: Armored

Armored was a cookie-cutter action flick. Every turn was predictable and the characters had about as much depth as a rain gutter. I'll admit it was sort of fun to watch, but not really worth the 80 minutes I spent watching it. It was good in that it seemed to know what it was. There weren't any twists that you could tell the director meant to be mind-blowing and weren't, which was good, but it wasn't so fun to watch. Predictable for sure, and watching it right after The Town made it feel like a kiddie pool after a day at the ocean.

I'd only really recommend this movie if you just got your wisdom teeth out and you're stuck in bed for three days and the only other option is watching a spider build its web. Otherwise, go see The Town unless your taste in movies has taken the same turn as Lawrence Fishburne's acting career (he co-starred).

Overall Rating: 6.2 / 10


-Taylor Dobbs

Armored was a very predictable so-called "robbery" film. It was definitely not a top-notch movie and certainly not worth seeing in theaters. Towards the end of the Armored, the film will keep you on the edge of your seat, don't get me wrong. It's just another one of those attempts to make a decent movie that's been done before. It reminded me a little of the movie Heat in one scene, but definitely not nearly as good. Lawrence Fishburne is nothing more than average and Matt Dillon obviously plays the antagonist, as he does in almost all of his movies. I just wouldn't recommend seeing this movie, if you want, go for it, but it's not a preference of mine. 

Overall Rating: 6.0 / 10 

- Josh Berg