Oftentimes, the best way for a film (be it an action movie or not) to make its mark is to deliver a memorable fight scene. Trying to narrow down a Top 10 greatest movie fight scenes was much tougher than I thought. This list is wide-ranging, featuring hands (sometimes unattached), weapons and often uneven odds. However, all are amazing and memorable in their own unique way. I’m sure I left off some favorites, so please tell me what I missed.
10. Rocky Balboa vs. Ivan Drago in Rocky IV (Stallone, 1985)
Sure, this movie is shameless propaganda and its image of Iron Curtain Russia has dated badly. Ivan (“If he dies, he dies”) Drago is the quintessential evil Soviet athlete, a soulless machine made superhuman through the use of performance enhancing drugs (good thing American athletes would NEVER do something like that!). Still, the moment when American hero Rocky starts pummeling Drago is thrilling. I will never forget the packed theatre I saw this film in absolutely exploding during this fight.
While searching for a new Top 5 topic, I stumbled upon an ingenious term coined by ESPN writer Bill Simmons: namely, the “spork” flick, which he defines as a term “to cover any chick flick that disguises itself as a sports movie, except enough is in there to make male AND female viewers happy.” To follow my list of the Top 5 spork flicks of all time. Feel free to offer me any I might have missed.
Rocky (1976)
A surprise? Not really, if you watch it again. What made the original Rocky great (and where the sequels went off the tracks, in my opinion) is that the original is just as much about Adrian ([Talia Shire]) as it is Rocky ([Sylvester Stallone]). While it is remembered for its still powerful training sequences and the final fight, it is a very sweet and moving romance at its core. Just as Rocky is trying to prove to the world and to himself that he is not a loser, so is she. She slowly emerges from her shyness and from under the thumb of her brother Paulie ([Burt Young]) in order to find a new life with Rocky. The shameless but wonderful ending, in which he yells her name as she runs to the ring, is still guaranteed to get the tear ducts flowing. In the final shot, you realize they both have won.
In making my list of the Top 10 films of the decade, I must admit that I have not yet seen certain films that have garnered much praise and attention (films such as 21 Grams, The Hurt Locker, Up, Waltz with Bashir and The White Ribbon). I will also not even pretend my list is the definitive Top 10 for the decade. Still, if I can get at least one reader to consider viewing each of these outstanding films, my attempt has served its purpose.
1) Mulholland Drive-Lynch, 2001
I selected Lynch’s erotic masterpiece as the best film of the decade simply because it continues to amaze and confound me with every viewing. Save for perhaps Lynch’s own Eraserhead and the masterworks of Bunuel, no film has come as close to capturing the actual tone and texture of a dream. Each viewing presents a new clue, a different way to view the mystery that was not noticed before. It features great acting, with Naomi Watts giving one of the great acting performances of the decade. Equal parts erotic, funny and scary as hell, it’s about all I could want out of a movie.
When one of the most memorable nude scenes of the year involves a middle aged, balding, overweight flasher (Observe and Report), you can easily surmise that 2009 was a year lacking in sizzle at the box office. Furthermore, of what I consider the most memorable sexy scenes in 2009, only one involved a major studio project. Whatever the reason (political or otherwise), 2009 was a weak year for sex in the cinema.
The top 5:
Watchmen
Hands down (at least to me) the best movie sex scene in 2009 was the lovemaking session between Silk Spectre II and Nite Owl on board the Nite Owl’s ship. Malin Ackerman is stunningly beautiful in or out of her costume. The love scene is also given a surprising sadness and poignancy as it is accompanied by Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” on the soundtrack.
Since, in the wake of The Twilight Saga: New Moon, vampires are all the rage, I thought I offer a little list for those who would like to see good vampire films that exist outside of the trappings of the teen romance novel (warning: most of these films listed below are not about “nice” vampires like Edward).
Nosferatu (Murnau, 1922)
The first notable vampire film is still the best and remains the measuring stick by which all vampire films are measured. Max Schreck’s legendary Count Orlok remains a fearsome presence (not romantic, but rat like, which is fitting because the vampire’s origins are link to disease and death; the count indeed sleeps in a grave filled with dirt from the graves of those lost to the Plague). Many moments, such as the count’s clawing shadow on the wall and his rise from his coffin on a doomed ship, remain frightening.
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Nosferatu (Murnau, 1922) 
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