6. Kill Bill (2003-2004)
There’s no shortage of worthy contenders for this list within Quentin Tarantino’s tenfold catalog — let’s be honest here, “Pulp Fiction” or “Inglourious Basterds” could’ve each made the cut without anyone batting an eye — but this wuxia-inspired two-hander splatter-fest starring Uma Thurman as a katana-wielding heroine levels all the competition in terms of sheer entertainment value.
In a body of work brimming with nods and thinly-veiled homages to a plethora of B-movie gems, obscure grindhouse fixtures, and foreign exploitation flicks the former video store clerk devoured in his youth, this blood-soaked, off-the-wall riff on Toshiya Fujita’s 1973 “Lady Snowblood” filtered through the Spaghetti Western and Shaw Brothers aesthetic stands as the purest example of Tarantino’s peerless ability to turn lowbrow pastiche into high art. The first volume feels noticeably tighter and overall inspired than its follow-up, but watching the whole 4-hour bloody affair back-to-back is well worth clearing your schedule for and evidently the only way the saga was meant to be experienced.
7. North by Northwest (1959)
Is it an unpopular opinion to claim that this proto-Bond espionage thriller about Cary Grant’s Madison Avenue ad man becoming unwittingly embroiled in a cat and mouse game across the nation after being mistaken for a spy might be Hitchcock’s finest hour?
There’s such an abundance to choose from the Master of Suspense’s staggering body of work that it ultimately boils down to personal preference — one can easily see “Psycho” being the obvious top vote-getter, while “Vertigo” came within spitting distance from securing the number one spot in the prestigious once-in-a-decade Sight & Sound poll. But for our money, of the whopping 50+ directing credits to Hitchcock’s name, “North by Northwest” is, if not his best overall, at least his silliest and most devilishly fun.
This Cold War-era case of mistaken identity has been a huge influential touchstone in modern thrillers and its standout scenes — the crop-dusting set piece and the final Mount Rushmore chase are the undoubted highlights — are so embedded in pop culture by now that one may fear “North by Northwest” runs the risk of feeling archetypical by today’s standards. (Spoiler alert: The film holds up magnificently).
8. Bringing Up Baby (1938)
What could be better than settling down to watch one of the best Cary Grant movies of all time? Try following it up with another stone-cold classic featuring Paramount’s former leading man at its center at the mercy of his radiant female co-star (in this case, pitted against fellow A-list icon Katharine Hepburn in the role of a sharp-tongued heiress). Expect plenty of banter, rapid-fire dialogue, and screwball shenanigans in Howard Hawks’ witty 1938 romp, one of the most durable and hysterically funny Golden Age comedies as well as the best cinematic tonic to lift your spirits and wash away the blues.
Retrieving a missing dinosaur bone, chasing off a leopard on the loose, and spending the night in jail are all par for the course for Grant’s feckless paleontologist David Huxley, who finds himself way out of his depth while enduring Hepburn’s eccentric human dynamo in hopes of securing a generous million-dollar donation to his museum. Funny, unpredictable, and built to withstand repeated viewings, “Bringing Up Baby” is the kind of cinematic comfort food that you can simply watch over and over again.
9. The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter (1984)
At their absolute peak, the Shaw Brothers were pumping out such an absurd number of martial arts flicks on a yearly basis that by the mid-1980s more than a thousand Hong Kong titles bore their name. But unaccustomed viewers looking to dip their toes into the famed studio’s vast catalog could not ask for a better introduction than Lau Kar-leung’s magnum opus, a full six-course meal for the senses boasting arguably the greatest display of stunt work and choreographed fights ever put to film.
You haven’t truly experienced the full breadth of action cinema until you sit through the entirety of this spellbinding revenge tale, which recounts the path of vengeance of a Chinese soldier who’s betrayed and defeated in battle by a traitorous general in cahoots with the invading Mongols. Forced to retreat to a secluded Buddhist temple, he devotes himself full-time to becoming a pole staff-wielding, all-around badass monk in order to lay waste on those who wronged his royal family and killed his father.
Granted, the story beats sound fairly standard genre fare on paper, but the real juice is in the action, particularly during the glorious, jaw-dropping 15-minute finale — a teeth-ripping, mind-blowing set piece that simply needs to be seen to be believed and is without a doubt one of the greatest climaxes of all time.
10. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
If you’re part of a certain generation that grew up watching Monty Python’s sly retelling of the famed Arthurian legend on repeat until their VHS copy wore out or snapped in half, know that you have Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and Genesis among those to thank for. Rock-and-roll’s cream of the crop united to contribute to the film’s modest $200,000 budget and thus allowed the beloved British comedy crew to crank up their absurdist humor to 11 and seal their place in the all-time comedy pantheon in the downtime between shooting seasons for their hit TV show.
Lacing its satirical jabs at everything from religious dogmas, medieval mythmaking, the French, the British and old-fashioned chivalry codes, “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” clocks in at a tight and crisp hour and a half, boasting perhaps the highest batting averages of any film in terms of quotable gag-for-gag hit rate and without ever overstaying its welcome at that. In a genre like comedy where films tend to age faster than usual and older titles are liable to be rather hit-and-miss among younger audiences, it’s a pleasing surprise to revisit this 1970s artifact and realize that no dust has yet settled — “Holy Grail” still manages to delight almost 50 years on.