Rico's Thirteen { I }

Rico: All right, so here's the plan, we're going to Las Vegas and...

You: Wait hold on a minute, you're gonna knock over a casino?

(Rico smiles and mouths the word "three")

You: Well if we're going to do this we have be to nuts and we're gonna need a crew as nuts as we are...you do you got in mind?

(Insert catchy, jazzy David Holmes interlude here)


...Okay I'll end it right there. As much as I would love to star in a Las Vegas heist movie with you, along side the amazing George Clooney and bad-ass Brad Pitt, this is not was this blog about! Rico's Thirteen, although not as catchy as Ocean's Thirteen, is my prestigious list of the thirteen best movies I have seen..ever. I decided to lay off continuing my previous blog series: MASTERPIECE this week in order to let you guys know what type of movies I enjoy, what genres I prefer, and directing / acting styles that really appeal to me. Why thirteen? I guess I like the number. And it's funny because no matter what I do or how hard I try, I just can't narrow my favorites to a top 10 list.

Again this is a very personal blog, you don't have to agree with my list. It just gives you an idea of my  preferences.  And, please criticize, scrutinize, even insult me if one of YOU'RE favorites didn't make the list or didn't even get mentioned at all. I admit, there are a lot of classics and indie films I have yet to watch and my taste is mostly of contemporary pieces. List movies that you think should have made this list on the comment box and I will make sure to watch them and probably make on of these soon in the future. Plus your criticism will expand my movie mind so please please speak up!

I will be dividing this into a 4 part blog series, culminating with my favorite movie of all-time. I am doing this for two reasons: 1) To make it suspenseful and hopefully make you come back for more. 2) So I can post continuations fulfilling my 2 posts every week. YEAAA.

Rico 13:

HONORABLE MENTIONS


Memento
Reservoir Dogs
Full Metal Jacket
Tropic Thunder
Slumdog Millionaire



13. The Bourne Identity

And we start with a bang! Originally, a espionage novel written by Robert Ludlum, The Bourne Identity, starring Matt Damon and directed by Doug Liman, follows the journey of a man who can't remember who he is or where he is going. But he does remember how to beat the crap out of bad guys, climb walls ala Spider-Man, and escape on a mini-cooper whilst being chased by an entire police force, so it all works out. Matt Damon delivers an excellent performance in this top rate thriller as the spy-no-more with a great cold persona. This movie was also set around beautiful locations in Europe such as Paris, Rome, Switzerland, and Munich, serving as a temporary European tour of the continent. Great movie. And in my opinion, much more sympathetic than that other spy movie franchise...

12. American History X



Perhaps the most controversial and most powerful movie since The Birth of a Nation, Edward Norton plays a disgruntled Neo-Nazi whose racism and inhumanity drives him to commit violent acts against non-whites in preservation of "white supremacy." His nazism takes him to an all-time low in life; with him being incarcerated to a maximum facility prison and having broken family ties. We follow this man's journey as he strives to leave his past behind him and start a new life, saving as much people from committing the same mistake made. This movie mainly deals with the underlying, and sometimes dangerous, topic of racism and violence in the modern age and puts it right in front of the audience, who otherwise feel uncomfortable talking about anything race-related. This was, in my opinion, Edward Norton's best performance up to date. His transformation in the role was amazing and touched the lives of many.

11. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

How can you not like Pirates of the Caribbean? You have pirates, the beautiful Caribbean, flintlocks and cutlasses, cursed treasure gold (or "booty" in pirate terms. i took Piracy in high school. yeah), amazing ships and naval battles, and Johnny Depp. All of that plus a little Jerry Bruckheimer action, and some of Keira Knightley and a bearded Orlando Bloom equals all kinds of success. Okay, parts 2 and 3 were kind of a disappointment; and when I say "kind of a disappointment" I meant "a total flop." But that doesn't change the fact that "Pirates" was a great movie. I think it was so good because it was much better than many people had anticipated it to be. I mean the movie was a inspired by a DisneyLand ride after all, right? Instead of just a popcorn one-hit wonder, the movie was filled with humor, action, and entertainment. It also a great plot going for it, along with numerous interesting and occasionally hilarious subplots (Jack's escape from the island using turtles and his back-hair). Johnny Depp delivers a performance to remember as Captain Jack Sparrow, and turns him into one of the most iconic characters in film history. 

- movies 10,9,8 coming next blog...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120586/http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0325980/