Keith Uhlich

Everyone loves a good action movie, even if some won’t admit it. Film school snobs may pretend to turn up their noses, but no matter how cultured you’d like to think you are, there’s a part of your lizard brain that loves explosions and shootouts and badass one-liners – and it needs to be satisfied.  But action flicks needn’t be dumb, loud or graphic to succeed. Some find beauty in orchestrated violence. Others might crane-kick you right in the heart. Some even have – gasp! – character development. And so, to help put together this definitive list of the greatest action movies ever made, we reached out to some of the people who understand the action genre better than anyone, from Die Hard director John McTiernan to Machete himself, Danny Trejo. Pull the pin, light the fuse and batten down the hatches – these are the most pulse-pounding, edge-of-your-seat thrill rides ever put to film.  Written by Eddy Frankel, Eddy Frankel, Yu An Su, Joshua Rothkopf, Trevor Johnston, Ashley Clark, Grady Hendrix, Tom Huddleston, Keith Uhlich, Dave Calhoun, Phil de Semlyen, Dave Calhoun and Matthew Singer Recommended: 🔥 The 100 best movies of all-time🪖 The 18 greatest stunts in cinema (as picked by the greatest stunt people)🥋 The 25 best martial arts movies of all-time

Sports are the apex of genuine human drama. Sure, for non-fans, professional athletics can seem like frivolous games, and in the broad view, that’s perhaps what they are. But sports are also a framework to tell great stories – of winners and losers, triumph and tragedy, conquering behemoths and inspiring underdogs.  No wonder, then, that filmmakers frequently draw upon sports for inspiration. Yes, sports movies can be filled with clichés, but there are many that manage to either subvert them or deliver them with so much emotion it’s like experiencing them for the first time. In this ranking of the 50 greatest sports movies, we’ve stuck to traditional athletic competition – apologies to The Color of Money and Searching for Bobby Fischer.  RECOMMENDED:🤾 The best Olympics movies to get you in the Olympic Spirit🌊 The 15 most epic surf movies🔎 The best biopics of all-time, ranked

If we’re being honest, not all the kids are all right. In fact, some are downright rude. Murderous, even. Yes, to be young is to feel the weight of society’s expectations on your shoulders, but the young people on our list of cinema’s most memorable depictions of youth in revolt aren’t just your average angsty adolescents. To be frank, many of them are irredeemable assholes. But that doesn’t mean we can’t catch a vicarious thrill from watching their exploits, and recall the days when we ourselves were young, dumb and angry at the world, rather than old, tired and resigned. We’ve ranked these movies as a countdown of bad behaviour, from mildly obnoxious to the straight-up criminal. Our only parameter: they must be teens and younger, not twentysomethings.    Recommended: 🧒 The 100 best teen movies of all-time😍 The best teen romance movies of all-time 🤯 The most controversial movies of all-time😬 The best thriller movies of all-time

Naturally, there are a lot of movies set in Los Angeles – it’s literally where American movies come from, after all. And yet, ‘LA movies’ seem less exalted than, say, New York movies or Paris movies. Maybe it’s because the city is harder to romanticise than other major cities, what with all the traffic, cosmetic tweakments and obsession with kale. Whatever the reason, it makes coming up with a list of truly great LA movies a tough task. But the great ones are really great. In terms of tone and subject matter, they’re as sprawling as the landscape itself, covering everything from showbiz dramas and inner-city thrillers to fizzy musical comedies and shadowy noirs. Here are our all-time favourites. Recommended: 🗽 The 101 best New York movies of all time🌭 The 27 best Chicago movies of all time💂 The 32 best London movies of all time🥖 The 54 best movies set in Paris

Genius South Korean director Bong Joon-ho said it best, while collecting his Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film in 2019 for his future historic Oscar winner, Parasite: ‘Once you overcome the one-inch tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films’. He was teasing, but it’s true: far too many filmgoers are scared off by the notion of international cinema. In cultural shorthand, ‘foreign films’ has long been a euphemism for snootiness, a stereotype that has indeed kept American audiences from experiencing some of the greatest movies ever made. Once you open yourself up to them, though, you’ll quickly find there’s nothing to be intimidated by, because the world of global cinema contains something for everyone, from eye-popping action flicks to goofy comedies, charming musicals to stylish thrillers to philosophical dramas. That’s why, in compiling this list of the best foreign films of all-time, we had to set some guidelines. We omitted silent films and determined that the movies had to be in a language that wasn’t English: so goodbye Britain and Australia. Other than those caveats, consider this your travel guide to the wide, wonderful world of international film.  Written by David Fear, Keith Uhlich, Andy Kryza, Joshua Rothkopf & Matthew Singer  Recommended: 🔥 The 100 best movies of all-time🇫🇷 The 100 best French movies of all-time, ranked🇰🇷 The best Korean movies of all-time🥋 The 25 best martial arts movies of all-time 

Cartoons aren’t just for kids, of course. But for most kids, cartoons are where a love of movies often starts. No matter how highfalutin your taste in movies as an adult, chances are, your first cinematic obsession was an animation – whether it was a classic of Disney’s Golden Age or its ‘90s renaissance period, a Pixar heart-tugger or perhaps even a Studio Ghibli masterpiece. It’s a love most of us never never fully grow out of, either. Ask any parent about the joys of early child-rearing and they’ll undoubtedly tell you about showing their kids a cartoon they loved as a young’un. It’s a magical experience you get from few other forms of entertainment.   But the best animated movies don’t just appeal to kids, nor childhood nostalgia. They work on multiple levels, for broad audiences and age groups. In composing this list of the greatest animated movies ever made, we polled Time Out writers and experts including Fantastic Mr Fox’s Wes Anderson and Wallace and Gromit’s Nick Park, and the results run the gamut, from from those Disney, Pixar and Ghibli no-brainers to stop-motion nightmares, psychedelic headtrips, illustrated documentaries and bizarre experimental features that are decidedly for adults only. The movies on this list may make you feel like a kid again – but they may also blow your grown-up mind in ways you never expected.  Written by Trevor Johnston, David Ehrlich, Joshua Rothkoph, Tom Huddleston, Andy Kryza, Guy Lodge, Dave Calhoun, Keith Uhlich, Cath Clarke and M

To the victor goes the spoils – and to the losers goes the social media outrage. That’s effectively how the Oscars operate. As the actual telecast honours the year’s standout cinematic performances, viewers jump on Twitter to express righteous anger over just how wrong the voters got it. It makes sense: the Academy has screwed up often enough that you almost expect it to happen half the time. Every once in a while, though, the Academy gets it spot-on – and those instances deserve recognition. Here are 50 times when they nailed the bullseye. Recommended: 👎 The 20 worst Oscar winners in history👍 The best films of 2022🙌 The most anticipated movies coming out in 2023🔥 The 100 best movies of all time

Será que os filmes da Disney são sensatos, divertidos e visualmente estimulantes – perfeitos para toda a família? Ou são uma lamechice que só serve para fazer uma lavagem cerebral às crianças? Toda a gente tem uma opinião sobre os mais de 50 filmes de animação que foram lançados ao longo dos anos pela empresa fundada por Walt Disney, a começar pela Branca de Neve, em 1937, até às galinhas dos ovos de ouro que foram Frozen: O Reino do Gelo e a sua continuação. Mas quais são afinal aqueles que merecem um lugar de destaque na prateleira? E quais os que mais valia serem esquecidos? Elencámos os piores e os melhores filmes de animação da Disney, disponíveis no serviço de streaming Disney+. Recomendado: Filmes de animação que ganharam um Óscar

O potencial cinematográfico (e não só) da ficção científica é quase infinito. É nestes filmes que os nossos maiores pesadelos podem tornar-se realidade e os nossos sonhos concretizar-se, ao mesmo tempo que é dito e posto em causa algo sobre o nosso presente. E o género sempre fez as delícias do público, desde o tempo dos efeitos especiais básicos e rudimentares dos filmes mudos ao excesso digital dos blockbusters contemporâneos. Hoje, no entanto, é a própria crítica quem aplaude e celebra muitos destes filmes, tal como acontece com os super-heróis e o terror. A pensar nisso, elegemos os 100 melhores filmes de ficção científica de sempre. Recomendado: Filmes em cartaz esta semana

Será que os filmes da Disney são sensatos, divertidos e visualmente estimulantes – perfeitos para toda a família? Ou são uma lamechice que só serve para fazer uma lavagem cerebral às crianças? Toda a gente tem uma opinião sobre os mais de 50 filmes de animação que foram lançados ao longo dos anos pela empresa fundada por Walt Disney, a começar pela Branca de Neve, em 1937, até à galinha dos ovos de ouro que foi Frozen: O Reino do Gelo e a sua continuação. Mas quais são afinal aqueles que merecem um lugar de destaque na prateleira? E quais os que mais valia serem esquecidos? Elencámos os piores e os melhores filmes de animação da Disney, disponíveis no serviço de streaming Disney+ a partir de 15 de Setembro. Recomendado: Os melhores filmes para toda a família

They get a bad rap from snobs, but don’t mess with action movies—they’re pumped up, loaded with ammo and in your face like Arnold Schwarzenegger on a bad day. Truth be told, no one can live solely on Woody Allen movies or animation alone. We need explosions periodically. Big ones. Preferably accompanied by catchphrases and squealing electric guitars. With crucial contributions from Hong Kong and France, the genre has a global richness that sneaks up on you like a swarthy henchman with a knife clenched between his teeth. And when we arrived at action’s ’80s movies heyday, when Hollywood stars ruled the roost, our research was euphoric. We’ve polled over 50 experts in the field, from essential directors like Die Hard’s John McTiernan to the actual folks in the line of fire, such as Machete himself, Danny Trejo. Critics and experts have weighed in, too. And if we’ve missed something, drop a bomb in our comments. RECOMMENDED: Full guide to the 100 best movies of all time

Are Disney films wise, funny and visually stunning – perfect for all the family? Or are they sappy and sentimental, brainwashing kids with all-American values? Everyone has an opinion of the 53 animations released over the years by the Walt Disney Company, beginning in 1937 with ‘Snow White’ and hitting new heights with last year’s box office bonanza ‘Frozen’. What cannot be denied is how loved these films are in every corner of the globe. But which Disney movies deserve a place on your DVD shelf, and which are best forgotten? We count down the best and worst Disney animated movies.

The pieces are more intriguing than the whole in Mathieu Amalric’s jaggedly alluring murder thriller, adapted from a novel by prolific Belgian mystery writer Georges Simenon. The film deconstructs a soured love affair in which a man, Julien (Amalric), finds himself caught between his mistress Esther (Stéphanie Cléau) and his wife Delphine (Léa Drucker). It opens in sensuous and near-absurd fashion as Julien and Esther share an afternoon of passion in the eponymous room, their bodies abstracted – a breast in the corner of the frame, saliva-flecked lips shot in extreme close-up – and their orgasmic cries building. A drop of blood falls on the sheets: Esther has bitten Julien (to his baffled delight), but you might also say she’s vampirically infected him. Come what may, they will not be separated. No sooner has erotic bliss subsided than we’re in a sterile magistrate’s chambers where Julien is being interrogated about his involvement in some murderous business. We don’t find out the specifics of his alleged crime immediately. Instead, the film jumps around in time, from Julien and Esther’s first sexual encounter, to the cheating husband’s increasingly temperamental interactions with his spouse, back to that inviting blue-walled hotel room and forward to the oppressive courthouse where Julien and Esther’s fate will be decided. Shame and regret hang over every scene, and these feelings only deepen the longer the movie goes on. This is less of a whodunit than a psychological portr

It begins with a murder: A sparkle-suited pimp lip-synching to a Dean Martin ditty is stabbed in a Cambodian nightclub. Everyone scatters. Then a luminous young woman steps forward, looks directly into the camera and sings a haunting solo rendition of a Mozart choral. This preamble is surely a contender for scene of the year—and the rest of Chantal Akerman’s loose adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s novel about a merchant sailor (Stanislas Merhar) and his half-caste daughter (Aurora Marion) more than lives up to its defiantly strange opening. Imagine the Belgian writer-director’s latest as the inverse of her celebrated study of a French housewife on the edge, 'Jeanne Dielman' (1975), working backward from, and oftentimes around, the narrative’s confrontational denouement. Akerman’s formal control is, as always, astounding: Long takes abound, and the sound design, with its symphonic mix of chirping creatures, ambient buzzing and otherworldly music cues, is so immersive that you can almost feel the oppressive humidity of the occidental setting. But it is the richly evocative performances of Marion (aggressive yet enticing) and Merhar (wearing world-weariness like an aged suit) that cut deepest. They’re the perfect vehicles for Akerman to explore the heart-of-darkness existentialism so integral to Conrad, and you understand why—as in the two lengthy close-ups that bookend her uniquely enthralling feature—she lingers on both actors every chance she gets.

Rejoice, fans of The Rocky Horror Picture Show! This Saturday 11 at 8:15pm, the IFC Center is hosting a special screening of the 1975 cult movie musical.Though it takes place earlier in the evening rather than at midnight, talking back at the movie is still surely encouraged (though we can't speak for throwing rice and other objects at the screen). However, the real news is that Baz Luhrmann, the musical-obsessed director of Moulin Rouge! (2001), will be in attendance with Rocky Horror star Susan Sarandon (who you might remember guest-edited our mag a few months back). The duo will discuss the film after it screens, and it should be fun to geek out along with them.

First Twin Peaks. Now news comes that a new installment in the phantom-fighting horror-comedy series Ghostbusters is officially greenlit. But there's a twist (isn't there always?): According to director-cowriter Paul Feig, it'll be a quartet of gals trying desperately not to cross the streams while bringing down the 21st-century equivalent of Gozer the Gozerian (see image above). Once your disappointment in the potential lack of Bill Murray and company subsides (and who's to say they won't make cameos?), this is a very intriguing development. With so many talented film comediennes out there, the casting possibilities are endless: Melissa McCarthy and Tina Fey? Kristens Wiig and Schaal? Maybe get indie darlings Jenny Slate and Lake Bell to strap on the famed ghostbusting packs. Who would you like to see take on the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man (or Woman)?

Oh Twittersphere, how we love thee. Earlier this morning, William Shatner posted a now-deleted tweet ("I'm baaaaccckk!!!") on his official account. The folks at the Hollywood Reporter coupled this with a prior story from Badass Digest and took it to mean that the Shat was returning to the role that made his career (Capt./Admiral James T. Kirk) in the third installment of the rebooted Star Trek franchise. (Read our own reviews of the first two films in the new series: Star Trek (2009) and Star Trek: Into Darkness (2013).)  Bill S. quickly worked to debunk the rumor in a followup tweet, but the story had already blown up to "print the legend" proportions. And let's admit, there's some giddiness-stoking fun to be had in the possibility (however remote) that old Captain Kirk may be back to share the screen with his younger self, played by Chris Pine. (If Leonard Nimoy and Zachary Quinto can do it…) Only time will tell if Shatner might really know more than he'd prefer to let on. Let's dream until then.

No television series has had quite the iconic and long-lasting influence as Twin Peaks, which brought surrealist filmmaking maestro David Lynch to the small screen. Along with his cowriting partner Mark Frost (not to mention a never-to-be-equaled ensemble cast), he promptly exploded the possibilities of long-form TV narrative, paving the way for network series like The X-Files and pay-cable discussion magnets like The Sopranos and True Detective.  "It is happening again," says the Giant (Carel Struycken)—one of the supernatural denizens of Twin Peaks's otherworldly Black Lodge—to our lawman hero Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan). And that's turned out to be prophecy: Twenty-five years after the series ended its run on ABC (a highly underrated feature film, Fire Walk With Me, was released in 1992), it's been announced via Deadline that Twin Peaks will return as a limited 9-episode series on Showtime in 2016. All installments will be written by Lynch and Frost, and directed by Lynch. (Aside from shorts and commercials, the latter hasn't made a proper feature since 2006's masterful Inland Empire.) In this interview with Michael Ausiello, Frost promises new and old faces will appear, and goes into some general specifics about the origins of the project. The first official teaser for the series is embedded below. 2016 can't come soon enough.    

Yesterday the powers-that-be at the Film Society of Lincoln Center announced the main slate for the cinematic event of the fall—the 52nd New York Film Festival. Previously we'd heard about the Opening Night feature (David Fincher's adaptation of author Gillian Flynn's massively popular thriller Gone Girl, pictured above, starring Ben Affleck as an unhappy spouse accused of murder); the Centerpiece selection (Paul Thomas Anderson's take on Thomas Pynchon's delightfully strange novel Inherent Vice, starring Joaquin Phoenix as a pot-addled private investigator); and the closing night film (Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's batshit-looking black comedy Birdman or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance with Michael Keaton riffing on his former Batman persona). Now we get a look at the full list of 30 movies that will be screened in this exclusive, highly-regarded fest, several of which are world premieres, others that have screened at Sundance and Cannes.  Start your planning today by checking out our reviews of 2014 New York Film Festival titles we've already seen and reviewed on the circuit: Clouds of Sils Maria (Olivier Assayas), Foxcatcher (Bennett Miller), Goodbye to Language (Jean-Luc Godard), Maps to the Stars (David Cronenberg), Mr. Turner (Mike Leigh), Saint Laurent (Bertrand Bonello), Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako), Whiplash (Damien Chazelle) and The Wonders (Alice Rohrwacher). 

Team film are big fans of Richard Linklater's latest, Boyhood, and while the film is showing pretty remarkable box office staying power, we can't help but wonder: What's next? The rumor was that the Texas auteur would be moving on to a redo of the 1964 live-action/animated feature The Incredible Mr. Limpet. (The original starred Don Knotts as—we kid you not—a talking fish.) But word comes now from the Hollywood Reporter that Linklater is exiting that project and moving on to something even more exciting, namely a sorta-sequel to his great teenage hangout movie Dazed and Confused (1993). Tentatively titled That's What I'm Talking About, the film transposes Dazed's day-in-the-life structure from a '70s high school to an '80s college. It's purportedly based on Linklater's own experiences, and we for one can't wait to see what he comes up with. (Maybe there's even a place for Boyhood's talented star Ellar Coltrane.) And if that weren't enough on the Linklater front, word has also come down that cable network Nickelodeon has ordered a 13-episode series based on the director's 2001 hit School of Rock. Casting hasn't been announced yet, though we doubt star Jack Black (who was also in R.L.'s 2011 black comedy, Bernie) will be returning to teach a new gaggle of kids about the best in rock-'n'-roll. Still, Linklater is executive producing the series, so hopefully its infectious spirit can live on in the transition from big-screen to small.

The movie-hype machine was in a post-apocalyptic kind of mood this weekend as the trailers for two highly anticipated dystopian thrillers premiered. Fans have been longing for a new entry in the seminal Mad Max series, and now—just about thirty years since Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985)—the former cop-turned-outlaw is back to wreak some bone-crunching, car-crushing havoc. Tom Hardy takes over for Mel Gibson in the title role, and his costars include seasoned celeb Charlize Theron (sporting what looks like a killer mechanical hand) as well as fresh-faced up-and-comers Nicholas Hoult and Rosie Huntington-Whitely. Perhaps most excitingly, though, series creator George Miller is back in the director's chair, and based on the the jaw-dropping trailer (a gearhead chase sequence set during a calamitous sandstorm? Yes, please!), it looks like he's still got a killer eye for action. Look for the movie sometime in 2015. And then there's Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence). When we last saw Panem's celebrated warrior—in 2013's The Hunger Games: Catching Fire—she was being airlifted to a secret base, home to an army rising up against the totalitarian government led by the vicious President Snow (Donald Sutherland). In the just-released teaser trailer for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay—Part 1, we finally get a glimpse of her new environs, populated by characters old (the late Philip Seymour Hoffman's slippery double-agent Plutarch Heavensbee) and new (Julianne Moore's haunted-looking r

Dead Man (1995) This provocative and mesmerizing black-and-white Western from Jim Jarmusch (Only Lovers Left Alive) is arguably his masterpiece. A pre-Pirates of the Caribbean Johnny Depp stars as meek accountant William Blake (yes, he shares his name with the famous Romantic Age poet), who travels to the wild, wild west for a job and instead gets a bullet to the chest. Slowly dying, he embarks on a spiritual quest with the aid of Nobody (Gary Farmer), a hilariously condescending Native American with a killer catchphrase ("Stupid fucking white man") and prime survival skills. Jarmusch's oddball humor is fully evident; ready yourself for the Iggy Pop/Jared Harris/Billy Bob Thornton campfire sequence with its cross-dressing shenanigans and sudden bursts of slapstick violence. But this is also his most trenchant film for the way it confronts America's troubled (and troubling) history. All that a killer Neil Young guitar score! Nitehawk Cinema in Williamsburg is presenting the movie in 35mm on Fri 25 and Sat 26 at midnight, so you're sure to get an appreciative crowd for this cult classic.

It’s been a banner summer for cinephiles; this weekend was no exception. Viewers saw an army of CGI simians raging against their human masters (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes) as well as the vividly emotional spectacle of watching a Texas kid grow into a college-bound adult (Boyhood). But there were great things happening off the big screen, too, as three of our favorite recent movies now arrive on streaming services and Blu-ray. We’re big fans of writer-director James Gray (Two Lovers) and he outdid himself with his period melodrama The Immigrant, starring Marion Cotillard as a Ellis Island refugee who gets involved with a con artist in 1920s Manhattan. Beautifully photographed by the great cinematographer Darius Khondji, the film debuts on Netflix after a limited theatrical run. (Check out our list of other recent additions to the streaming service here.) Over the weekend, another movie came to home video—though, in a unique twist, not as it was losing theatrical venues, but gaining them. You can watch Bong Joon-ho’s inventive dystopian thriller Snowpiercer—which features Captain America himself, Chris Evans, as the leader of a revolution aboard a train populated by the last remnants of humanity—in the multiplex or on your personal monitor of choice via Amazon and other such services. This is all part of a new release strategy being tested by the film’s American distributor, The Weinstein Company. Though the movie is a thrilling big-screen experience, it’s nice to know you