On this page I indulge in one of my fantasies: What kind of job would I now have if I didn't spend some of the best years of my youth in graduate school for mathematics?

It's a safe bet that I wouldn't be a film critic, so why not play one here? After all, I too have my list of favorite flicks. Besides, maybe Siskel & Ebert have a web-page somewhere where they pretend that they are mathematicians, and so symmetry dictates that I prepare this page, just in case.

• Drama/Action/Adventure/Romance:
  • Dead Poet's Society (Robin Williams in a powerful saga)
  • One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Jack Nicholson vs. Louise Fletcher)
  • The Fisher King (Robin Williams, Jeff Bridges)
  • Awakenings (Robin Williams, Robert DeNiro)
  • JFK (Kevin Costner, Sissy Spacek, Jack Lemmon, Ed Asner, Donald Sutherland, Walter Mathau, John Candy, Joe Pesci; the epitome of "Docudrama")
  • Field of Dreams (Kevin Costner, James Earl Jones; If you film it, they will watch. But seriously, see it again. It's less confusing and more enjoyable the second time around!)
  • The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (Humphrey Bogart in one of his best - this movie needs "no stinking badges" to alert people just how good it is.)
  • The African Queen (Humphrey Bogart & Katherine Hepburn. A great movie - Bogie gets his only oscar. Other great Bogart movies include
    • The Petrified Forest - it made his career;
    • To Have & Have Not - Bogart paired with Lauren Bacall for the first time;
    • Key Largo Edward G. Robinson reverses roles with Bogie in the Petrified Forest;
    • Casablanca (with Ingrid Bergman, Peter Lorre & Sydney Greenstreet);
    • Dark Passage
    • and more listed below in the film noir section...)
  • Die Hard (Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman - For a movie about pointless violence with a lot of explosions, it is very good. Other films about pointless violence with lots of explosions use it as a measuring stick.)
  • Titanic (Great story. Great Romance. Great Special effects. a job well-done - except the unbelieveable part where the star tosses the 56-carat diamond into the sea. I don't care what a rebel she was, I don't care if the only value the stone had to her was symbolic. I don't care that she rejected the riches the stone offered and never turned in the stone for 84 years. Imagine the way it could have changed the life of someone, say, her granddaughter, had she given it to them instead of wasting it!)

  • Most Over-rated: Gone With The Wind (Frankly, My Dear, I just don't give a damn about this movie.)
  

• Comedy:
  • The Out of Towners (see this classic with Jack Lemmon before you decide to visit New York City...)
  • Young Frankenstein (Gene Wilder, Terri Garr, Cloris Leachman & Marty Feldman bring this Mel Brooks parody to life. Another classic Mel Brooks film is the western parody Blazing Saddles)
  • Midnight Run (Robert DeNiro, Charles Grodin - a severely under-rated comedy)
  • All of Me (Lily Tomlin really gets into Steve Martin in this one!)
  • Ruthless People (Danny DeVito, Bette Midler)
  • Tootsie (Dustin Hoffman proves he can do comedy, and very well at that. Not until Robin Williams did Mrs. Doubtfire did anyone do a better job of cross-dressing in a mainstream flick.)
  • Some Like it Hot (Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, Marilyn Monroe - while we're on the subject of cross-dressing...)
  • It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (Jonathan Winters, Phil Silvers, Milton Berle, Spencer Tracy, Jim Backus et al search for the big "W" which marks a hidden treasure. )

  • Most Over-rated: The Great Race (Tony Curtis & Jack Lemmon make a lemon. Hard to believe, isn't it?)
  

• Science Fiction:
  The Forbidden Planet (Walter Pidgeon, Leslie Nielsen. Based loosely on Shakespeare's The Tempest. Great special effects for the time!)
  • Aliens (Sigourney Weaver)
  • Predator (Arnold "I'll Be Back" Swarzenegger, Carl Weathers)
  • The Day the Earth Stood Still ( The People of Earth had better stop making war on one another or else! This was the threat from the extra-terrestrial Klaatu and his indestructible robot pal Gort. Of course, the robot was stopped in his tracks by the uttering of the famous magic words: "Klaatu - Nikto Maurada"!)
  • The Abyss (Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio - The People of Earth had better stop making war on one another or else! Hey, this sounds familiar.... Maybe they should subtitle it The Day the Seas Stood Still.)
  • Fantastic Voyage (Adaptation of the Isaac Asimov classic starring Donald Pleasance & Racquel Welch)
  • The Time Machine (Rod Taylor - Good adaptation of H.G.Wells classic)
  • Brainstorm (Christopher Walken, Natalie Wood - Natalie Wood's last movie.)
  • The Terminator (As promised, Arnold is back.)
  • Jurassic Park ( adaptation of the Michael Crichton Novel.)
  • 2001 - A space Oddysey (adaptation of the Arthur C. Clarke classic)
  • The Incredible Shrinking Man A Classic!
  • The First Men in the Moon This HG Wells story has it all: anti-gravity paint, advanced race of alien insectoids who are nevertheless wiped out by the common cold, effects by Ray Harryhausen (of Jason & the Argonauts & Clash of the Titans fame), and wry humor, including a (perhaps unintended) jab at the anal-retentiveness of NASA. Rather than plan the liftoff down to the second, the heros sit around the spaceship reading the morning paper just before their trip to the moon. "Well, it's time to go" the `captain' says nonchalantly, and off they go...

  • Most Over-rated: The Thing (original 1950's version) (the remake from the 1980's starring Kurt Russell is much better).
  

• War movies:
  • Born on the Fourth of July (Tom Cruise really can act if he tries!)
  • Apocalypse Now! (Martin Sheen, Dennis Hopper, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall - the definitive Vietnam movie)
  • The Great Escape (Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, David McCallum, James Garner, Donald Pleasance)
  • Kelly's Hero's (Donald Sutherland, Clint Eastwood, Telly Savalas, Don Rickles, as a band of misfit soldiers/bank-robbers who inadvertantly become heros.)
  • Braveheart (Mel Gibson - some amazing battlefield scenes - shows the absolute chaos and cruelty of war.)
  • The Hunt for Red October (Sean Connery; I guess I can include Cold War movies in this category, and this is one of the best.)
  • The Beguiled (Clint Eastwood as a Union soldier during the civil war who is wounded and "taken in" by a southern girls school. When he becomes the center of attention of the students - and the teacher - he begins to enjoy himself, but before long he probably wishes the confederate soldiers had captured him....)
  • The Caine Mutiny (Humphrey Bogart loses his marbles - there they are! Right in his hand!)
  

• Westerns:
  • Dances With Wolves (Kevin Costner's epic western)
  • The Outlaw Josey Wales (Clint Eastwood)
  • The Pale Rider (Clint Eastwood)
  • The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef; a characteristic Spaghetti Western from the director Sergio Leone)
  • The Last of the Mohicans (Daniel Day-Lewis; great adaptation of the James Fennimore Cooper story)

    (You'll find no John Wayne movies listed here, although I did like one or two of them...a little.)

  

• Horror:
  • The Shining (Jack Nicholson, Shelly Duvall)
  • The Evil Dead II (So `tongue-in-cheek', it's almost a parody of the genre).
  • Poltergeist (I liked this better than the Exorcist.)
  • The Howling (Of all the Werewolf movies, this one has to be the best.)
  • From Beyond (Jeffrey Coombs, Barbara Crampton; adapted from the H.P. Lovecraft story)
  • The Re-animator, (Jeffrey Coombs, Barbara Crampton; another flick based on the work of H.P. Lovecraft.)

  • Most Over-rated: Night of the Living Dead (who watches this crap?)
  

• Mystery/Film Noir/Gangster Films:
  • The Untouchables (Kevin Costner, Robert DeNiro, Sean Connery, Andy Garcia - how could it miss?)
  • Double Indemnity (Edward G. Robinson, Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray. Fred MacMurray!? Yes! An interesting role for Fred as a cynical, amoral, - dare I say it? - `bad guy'. Note the cute little role-reversal with Edward G. Robinson in the last scene with the match.)
  • The Public Enemy (James Cagne, Jean Harlow)
  • The Maltese Falcon (Another Bogart classic, classic performances by Peter Lorre & Mary Astor.)
  • The Big Sleep (Original: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall. Some argue that this is THE greatest American movie ever made. Remake: Robert Mitchum)
  • The Roaring Twenties (Humphrey Bogart & James Cagne in the same flick! Wow!)
  • Angels with Dirty Faces (Humphrey Bogart & James Cagne in the same flick! Wow!)
  • Alfred Hitchcock ouvre, especially:
    • North by Northwest (Carey Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason)
    • Psycho (Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles)
    • Vertigo (James Stewart, Kim Novac)
    • Rear Window (James Stewart, Raymond Burr, Grace Kelly)
    • The Birds (Rod Taylor, Jessica Tandy, Suzanne Pleshette, Tippi Hedren)
  • Goodfellas (Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci, Ray Liotta)
  • The Godfather series (Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro, Diane Keaton, et al. OK, so this is an obvious choice -You gotta problem wit dat?
  • Chinatown (Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway)
  

• 60's & early 70's culture/counterculture:
  • The Big Chill (William Hurt, Jeff Goldblum, Glenn Close, et al)
  • Alice's Restaurant ( Arlo Guthrie)
  • Easy Rider (Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper; as much as I like the cast, this one is a bit over-rated).
  • Woodstock (The film may not be much, but the music is great!)
  • Celebration at Big Sur (Another time-capsule of 60's music, featuring CSNY, Joni Mitchell, John Sebastian (of Lovin' Spoonful fame), Joan Baez

  

• Honorable mention:
  • The Getaway (James Woods, Kim Basinger, Alec Baldwin)
  • Fantasia (Disney Studios prove their mastery of animation)
  • The Fugitive (Harrison Ford, Tommy Lee Jones)
  • No Way Out (Kevin Costner, Gene Hackman; a good modern spy story)
  • Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (Kevin Costner, Alan Rickman, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Christian Slater, cameo appearance by Sean Connery)
  • The Wizard of Oz (Judy Garland. A classic!)
  • 48 Hours (Nick Nolte, Eddie Murphy)
  • Ghost (Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore, Whoopi Goldberg - this one is severely under-rated. Whoopi is a riot.)
  • The Rain Man (Dustin Hoffman, Tom Cruise)
  • The Odd Couple (Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau)
  • Love Letters (Joseph Cotten, Jennifer Jones in a modern "Cyrano DeBergerac" Story with a twist)
  • Black Widow ( Debra Winger, Theresa Russell)
  • It's My Turn (I had to mention this flick starring Jill Clayburgh as a female research mathematician, with romantic ties to a pro baseball player (Michael Douglas). Also stars Charles Grodin. They tried to be "mathematically correct": One scene shows Jill C. scribbling on the back of an envelope while lying around in bed with Michael D. - among the scribblings are actual mathematical symbols such as Dynkin diagram for the E8 root system, but the best is the opening scene where Jill gives a correct proof of the so-called snake lemma from homological algebra while deftly dealing with annoying questions from a grad student.)
  • Lethal Weapon I & II (Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Gary Busey, Joe Pesci)
  • Bonnie & Clyde (Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway)
  • White Heat (James Cagne)
  • Star Wars Trilogy (Harrison Ford, Mark Hammil)
  • Twelve Angry Men ( Henry Fonda, Jack Klugman, Lee J. Cobb)
  • Annie Hall (Woody Allen, Diane Keaton)
  • Ghostbusters (Bill Murray, Dan Ackyroyd, Sigourney Weaver, Rick Moranis)
  • Three Fugitives (Nick Nolte, Martin Short)
  • Jewel of the Nile (Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner, Danny DeVito)
  • Jason and the Argonauts ( Todd Armstrong, Nancy Kovack. Great special effects by Ray Harryhausen)
  • The Color Purple (Whoopi Goldberg, Danny Glover)
  • Air Force One (Harrison Ford)
  • Take the Money & Run (Woody Allen)
  • Ironweed (Jack Nicholson, Meryl Streep, Fred Gwynne)
  • Starman (Jeff Bridges; Sort of like a cross between Close Encounters of the Third Kind & E.T., but better than both.)
  • Enemy Mine (A nice little parable for anti-racism in a science - fiction setting)
  • Paper Moon (Ryan & Tatum O'Neal)
  • Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman)
  • Going South (Jack Nicholson, John Belushi, Danny DeVito, Christopher Lloyd
  • Backdraft (Donald Sutherland gets all the bizzare roles!)
  • They Drive By Night (Humphrey Bogart, Ida Lupino, George Raft)
  • Cape Fear (Robert Mitchum, Gregory Peck) The remake starring Robert DeNiro & Nick Nolte isn't bad either.)
  • Eraserhead A bizzare creation from the mind of David Lynch, who also brought you Blue Velvet (Dennis Hopper)
  • 8 1/2, La Dolce Vita (and other films by Fellini.)
  • Golden Earrings (Ray Milland, Marlene Dietrich)
  • The Long Hot Summer (Paul Newman)
  • The Mission (Robert DeNiro, Jeremy Irons)
  • The China Syndrome (Jack Lemmon, Jane Fonda, Michael Douglas)
  • The Fly ( Vincent Price, Al Hedison, Patricia Owens; but like most films, the written version is even better.)
  • Overboard (Kurt Russell, Goldie Hawn. Lighthearted, uplifting commentary on matrimonial bliss from a couple who should know!)

If you enjoy movies, visit the Oracle of Bacon, a website devoted to computing the "Bacon number" (as in Kevin Bacon) of any actor/actress. (For the mathematicians among you, this is just like the "Erdös Number" of a mathematician, with movie costars playing the role of mathematical collaborators.)

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