The Midnight Max Review: My Favorite Films featuring the late Christopher Lee (1922-2015)

In Alphanumeric order-

1. 1941 (1979)
2. The Curse Of Frankenstein (1957)
3. Dr. Terror's House Of Horrors (1965)
4. The Gorgon (1964)
5. Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)
6. Horror Of Dracula (1958)
7. The Hound Of The Baskervilles (1959)
8. Hugo (2011)
9. The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
10. The Man With The Golden Gun (1974)
11. The Mummy (1959)
12. Sleepy Hollow (1999)

The Midnight Max Review: My Favorite Films From The Year 1983

In Alphanumeric order...

1. The Big Chill - Memorable Quote: "Amazing tradition. They throw a great party for you on the one day they know you can't come." - Memorable Soundtrack Selection: "Gimme Some Lovin'" by Spencer Davis Group and "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" by Marvin Gaye (A Highly Recommended Soundtrack Purchase)
2. Blue Thunder - Memorable Quote: "Catch you later!" - JAFO
3. Christine - Memorable Quote: "Whoa, whoa. You better watch what you say about my car. She's real sensitive."  Memorable Soundtrack/Original Score Selection: "Christine Attacks" music composed by John Carpenter
4. A Christmas Story - Memorable Quote: "You'll shoot your eye out, kid!" - Memorable Soundtrack Selection: "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" as performed by Bing Crosby and The Andrew Sisters
5. The Dead Zone - ""Bless me"? Do you know what God did for me? He threw an 18-wheeled truck at me and bounced me into nowhere for five years! When I woke up, my girl was gone, my job was gone, my legs are just about useless... Blessed me? God's been a real sport to me!"
6. Fire and Ice - Memorable Quote: "Don't hunt for death, boy. It finds us all soon enough."
7. Gorky Park - Memorable Quote: "Goodbye, pretty lady." - Memorable Soundtrack Selection: Swan Lake by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
8. High Road To China - Memorable Quote: "I should have sold you when I had the chance."
9. The Hunger - Memorable Quote: "You'll be back. When the hunger knows no reason! And then you'll need to feed, and you'll need me to show you how." - Memorable Soundtrack Selection: "Bela Lugosi's Dead" by Bauhaus
10. Krull - Memorable Quotes: "Freedom? We have it! And fame? Nah. It's an empty purse. Count it, go broke. Eat it, go hungry. Seek it, go mad!" - " Power is fleeting; love is eternal." and "Rocks in our pockets and gravestones above our heads is all we'll get from this journey." - Memorable Soundtrack Selection: Krull Main Theme by James Horner
11. Mickey's Christmas Carol - Memorable Quote: "And so, as punishment, I'm forced to carry these heavy chains for eternity! Maybe even longer."
12. Nate and Hayes - Memorable Quote: "Are you putting down in that book that I'm a pirate? Good! Because I am! Oh, I never flew the skull and crossbones. That's for your fictioneers. But I have sought pleasure and profit all my life at sea without regard for any man's law. That's not to say I didn't have my morals and standards! Sure, I had morals and standards. I never killed anyone who didn't have it coming. I never cheated an honest man. I never pillaged and I never raped."
13. The Osterman Weekend - Memorable Quote: "The truth is just a lie that hasn't been found out."
14. Return Of The Jedi - Memorable Quotes: "It's a trap!"  "I have a really bad feeling about this."  "Obi-Wan has taught you well."  "And now, young Skywalker... you will die."- Memorable Soundtrack: "Battle Of Endor" by John Williams
15. The Right Stuff - Memorable Quotes: Opening Narration: "There was a demon that lived in the air. They said whoever challenged him would die. Their controls would freeze up, their planes would buffet wildly, and they would disintegrate. The demon lived at Mach 1 on the meter, seven hundred and fifty miles an hour, where the air could no longer move out of the way. He lived behind a barrier through which they said no man could ever pass. They called it the sound barrier." and  "Fuckin' A, bubba."
16. The Star Chamber - Memorable Quote: "Someone has taken justice and hidden it in the law."
17. Sudden Impact - Memorable Quote: "Go ahead, make my day!"
18. Tender Mercies - Memorable Quote: "I don't trust happiness. I never did, I never will." - Memorable Soundtrack Selection: "It Hurts To Face Reality" as performed by Robert Duvall
19. Terms Of Endearment - Memorable Quote: "If you wanted to get me on my back, all you had to do was ask me." and "Don't worship me until I've earned it."
20. Michael Jackson's Thriller -Memorable Quote: Vincent Price's Narration - Memorable Soundtrack Selection: "Thriller" by Michael Jackson (of course)
21. To Be Or Not To Be - Memorable Quotes: "Ladies and Gentlemen: In the interest of clarity and sanity, the rest of this movie will not be in Polish" and "If it wasn't for Jews, fags, and gypsies, there would be no theater."
22. Tough Enough - Memorable Soundtrack Selection: "Rainbows Never Touch The Ground" as performed by Dennis Quaid
23. Twilight Zone: The Movie - Memorable Quote: "You want to see something really scary?" - Memorable Soundtrack Selection: "The Midnight Special" by Creedence Clearwater Revival
24. Uncommon Valor -Memorable Quote: "Boy, you usin' that oriental martial bullshit on me's gonna get real expensive." - Memorable Soundtrack Selection: "Brothers In The Night" by Ray Kennedy
25. National Lampoon's Vacation - Memorable Quote: "I think you're all fucked in the head. We're ten hours from the fucking fun park and you want to bail out. Well I'll tell you something. This is no longer a vacation. It's a quest. It's a quest for fun. You're gonna have fun, and I'm gonna have fun... We're all gonna have so much fucking fun we're gonna need plastic surgery to remove our goddamn smiles! You'll be whistling 'Zip-A-Dee Doo-Dah' out of your assholes! I must be crazy! I'm on a pilgrimage to see a moose. Praise Marty Moose! Holy Shit!" - Memorable Soundtrack Selection: "Holiday Road" by Lindsey Buckingham

The Midnight Max Review: My Favorite Films From The Year 2014

In Alphanumeric order-

(Film Title - Grade - Best of 2014 "Awards")

1. 300: Rise Of An Empire - 8.0 - Most Unnecessarily Trashed Film
2. Big Hero 6 - 8.5
3. Birdman - 9.5 - Best Film/Best Drama/Best Performance From A Leading Actor: Michael Keaton
4. Blue Ruin - 9.5 - Best Thriller/Best Film You Didn't See
5. The Boxtrolls - 8.5
6. Calvary - 8.5 - Best Cinematography
7. Captain America: The Winter Soldier - 8.5
8. Cheap Thrills - 8
9. Chef - 9 - Best Comedy
10. Cold In July - 9 - Favorite Film - Best Original Score
11. The Dark Valley - 8.5 - Best Western
12. The Double - 8
13. The Drop - 8.5
14. Edge Of Tomorrow - 8
15. Enemy - 8.5 - Best Ending
16. Ernest & Celestine - 9 - Best (Animated) Film You Didn't See
17. Godzilla - 8.5 - Best Creature Feature/Best Reboot or Remake
18. The Grand Budapest Hotel - 9 - Only Film of 2014 To Make Me Laugh Out Loud AND Shed a Tear...
19. Guardians Of The Galaxy - 9 - Best Comic Book Film
20. The Guest - 8 - Biggest Guilty Pleasure/Best Soundtrack
21. The Homesman - 8.5
22. Housebound - 8.5 - Best Horror Film
23. How To Train Your Dragon 2 - 9.5 - Best Animated Film/Best Sequel/Best Fantasy Film
24. In Your Eyes - 8
25. Joe - 9 - Biggest Surprise
26. John Wick - 8.5 - Best American Action Film
27. Muppets Most Wanted - 8.5
28. The Raid 2 - 9.5 - Best Overall Action Film/Best Foreign Film
29. The Rover - 8.5
30. The Salvation - 8
31. The Skeleton Twins - 8
32. Under The Skin - 9 - Best Sci-Fi Film/Best Mind Trip
33. What If - 8.5 - Best Romantic Comedy
34. Wild - 8.5 - Best Performance From A Leading Actress: Reese Witherspoon
35. X-Men: Days Of Future Past - 8.5

Honorable Mentions: Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, Veronica Mars, Locke, The Two Faces Of January, Automata, Fury, Stretch, Horns, The Fault In Our Stars, Whiplash, Song Of The Sea, The Book Of Life and Tracks

The Guilty Pleasures: The Interview, I, Frankenstein, Pompeii, Sabotage, Grand Piano, Neighbors, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Inherent Vice, Hercules, The Expendables 3 and The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies

The Most Overrated: I didn't like them, nor did I hate them- I just couldn't figure out what all the buzz was about: Nightcrawler, The Babadook, Interstellar, The Lego Movie, A Most Violent Year, Obvious Child, Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes, Boyhood, The Imitation Game, American Sniper, The Theory Of Everything, A Most Wanted Man, Snowpiercer, Noah, Rudderless, Begin Again, Laggies and Gone Girl

The Worst: Winter's Tale narrowly beats out The Legend Of Hercules as my pick for absolute worst of 2014 followed by The Captive, In Fear, Dracula Untold, The November Man, Maleficent, Whitewash, Transformers: Age Of Extinction, In The Blood, Transcendence, 3 Days To Kill, Adult World, Non-Stop, Raze and Labor Day. 

The Midnight Max Review: My Favorite Films From The Year 1975

 In Alphanumeric Order...

1.  3 Days Of The Condor - Advice from an Assassin - Tagline: His code name is Condor. In the next twenty-four hours everyone he trusts will try to kill him. - Memorable quote: "Boy, what is it with you people? You think not getting caught in a lie is the same thing as telling the truth?" - "I don't remember yesterday. Today it rained."
2. The Apple Dumpling Gang - Tagline:Wanted: For chicanery, skulduggery, tomfoolery and habitual bungling! - Memorable quote: "You know something, Amos? The Lord poured your brains in with a teaspoon, and somebody joggled His arm. I keep trying to tell you we ain't got no lead to throw, and no powder to throw it with."- Memorable Soundtrack/score selection: The Apple Dumpling Gang by Shane Tatum
3. Bite The Bullet - Memorable quote: "We came out of the jungle and there it was - San Juan Hill. The Spanish guns lookin' right down our throat, the sharpshooters pickin' us off and we just charged right up that hill! ... That's not the way it happened at all. It wasn't anything like it was in San Antoine where we did our trainin'. That's where I ran into Luke and a lot of other men from every other country who wanted to be Roughriders. Bakers and barbers and Congressman, cattlemen, ballplayers, farmers and porters... cowboys. No, we didn't rough ride up that hill, 'cause we didn't have any horses. We didn't charge up there, either. We crawled up there on our scared bellies. There was only one horse and one rider - that was Colonel Teddy. He went chargin' up that damn hill and they shot his glasses off. He put on another pair and they nipped him in the elbow, and he said, "Follow me!" And we did, 'cause we was too damned ashamed not to."
4. Breakheart Pass - Tagline: Death rode the rails to Breakheart Pass - Memorable quote: "When a man is a killer, arsonist, a cheat and a coward, it's hardly surprising if he turns out to be a liar as well."
5. The Drowning Pool - Tagline: Harper days are here again...  - Memorable quote: (Last Lines) "Harper, you're not such a tough guy."
6. The Eiger Sanction - Memorable quote: "Don't for get your trench coat. How's anybody gonna recognize you without your disguise?"
7. Farewell, My Lovely - Memorable quotes: "Now wait a minute. I've been slapped, scratched, punched, knocked unconscious, drugged, and shot at, looking for your Velma, so quit trying to make a milkshake out of my insides, will you?" - "This past spring was the first that I felt tired and realized I was growing old. Maybe it was the rotten weather we'd had in L.A. Maybe the rotten cases I'd had. Mostly chasing a few missing husbands and then chasing their wives once I found them, in order to get paid. Or maybe it was just the plain fact that I am tired and growing old."
8. Hard Times - Memorable quote: "Well, you know Chick, like old momma said, next best thing to playing and winning is playing and losing."
9. JAWS - Quint's Last Stand - Memorable quotes: "You're gonna need a bigger boat." - Quint's account of the sinking of the U.S.S. Indianapolis - "Smile, you Son Of A Bitch!" - "This was no boat accident!" - "That's some bad hat, Harry!" - Memorable Soundtrack/Score selection: Main Title (Theme From JAWS) as composed by John Williams - Show Me The Way To Go Home as performed by Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss and Roy Scheider - Spanish Ladies as performed by Robert Shaw
10. The Man Who Would Be King - Memorable quotes: "Now listen to me you benighted muckers. We're going to teach you soldiering. The world's noblest profession. When we're done with you, you'll be able to slaughter your enemies like civilized men." - "God's Holy Trousers!"
11. Night Moves - Tagline: Maybe he would find the girl... maybe he would find himself. Memorable quote: "Listen Delly, I know it doesn't make much sense when you're sixteen. Don't worry. When you get to be forty, it isn't any better."- "When the president got shot, I was on my way to San Diego. Football game. When Bobby got shot, I was sitting in a car waiting for a guy to come out of a house with his girlfriend. Working on a divorce case. One of those times I wish I was in another business."
12. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest - Tagline: If he's crazy, what does that make you? Memorable quotes: "Mmmmmm, Juicy Fruit." - "But I tried, didn't I? Goddamnit, at least I did that." - "They was giving me ten thousand watts a day, you know, and I'm hot to trot! The next woman takes me on's gonna light up like a pinball machine and pay off in silver dollars!" -  "Goddammit chief, you fooled 'em all!" -  Memorable Soundtrack/score selection: One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (Closing Theme) by Jack Nitzsche
13. The Return Of The Pink Panther - Memorable quotes: "You fool! You raving Oriental idiot! There is a time and a place for everything, Cato! And this is it!" - "Compared to Clouseau, Attila the Hun was a Red Cross volunteer!" - Memorable Soundtrack/Score selection: The Pink Panther Theme by Henry Mancini
14. Rooster Cogburn - Memorable quotes: (Last Lines) - Eula Goodnight (Katharine Hepburn) : "Reuben, I have to say it. Livin' with you has been an adventure any woman would relish for the rest o' time. I look at cha, with your burned out face and your big belly and your bear-like paws and your shining eye, and I have to say you're a credit to the whole male sex, and I'm proud to have ya for my friend." Rooster Cogburn (John Wayne): "I'll be damned if she didn't get the last word in again. Well..."
15. Terror Of Mecha-Godzilla - Tagline: Metal Meets Monster - Memorable quote: "All right, we'll let them fight. Titanosaurus will be killed and Godzilla badly hurt; then, Mechagodzilla will be alone and we will march on Tokyo unopposed, and then we'll destroy it utterly!"- Memorable Soundtrack/score selection: Main Title (From Terror Of Mechagodzilla) Music composed and conducted by Akira Ifukube.
16. The Wind And The Lion - Memorable quote: "Mrs. Pendecaris, you're a great deal of trouble." - "To Theodore Roosevelt - you are like the Wind and I like the Lion. You form the Tempest. The sand stings my eyes and the Ground is parched. I roar in defiance but you do not hear. But between us there is a difference. I, like the lion, must remain in my place. While you like the wind will never know yours. - Mulay Hamid El Raisuli, Lord of the Riff, Sultan to the Berbers, Last of the Barbary Pirates."- Memorable Soundtrack/Score selection: The Wind And The Lion Suite by Jerry Goldsmith

The Midnight Max Review: My Favorite Films From The Year 1986

1.  8 Million Ways To Die - Tagline: There Are Eight Million Stories In The Naked City...
2. 52 Pick-Up - Memorable quote: "So long, Sport!"
3. Aliens - Memorable quote: "Get away from her, you BITCH!" - Memorable soundtrack/score selection: Bishop's Countdown by James Horner
4.  An American Tail - Memorable quote: "Qu'est-ce que c'est? A little immigrant. Now they are coming by bottle."- Memorable soundtrack/score selection: Somewhere Out There as performed by Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram
5. The Big Easy - "Just relax, darlin'. This is the Big Easy. Folks have a certain way o' doin' things down here."
6. Big Trouble In Little China - Memorable quotes: "When some wild-eyed, eight-foot-tall maniac grabs your neck, taps the back of your favorite head up against the barroom wall, and he looks you crooked in the eye and he asks you if ya paid your dues, you just stare that big sucker right back in the eye, and you remember what ol' Jack Burton always says at a time like that: "Have ya paid your dues, Jack?" "Yessir, the check is in the mail."-" & "It's all in the reflexes." - Memorable soundtrack/score selection: Pork Chop Express by John Carpenter
7. Critters -Tagline: They bite!
8. Crocodile Dundee - Memorable quote: "That's not a knife... THAT's a knife!" Memorable soundtrack/score selection: Theme from Crocodile Dundee by Peter Best
9. The Delta Force - Chuck Norris kicking ass!
10. Down And Out In Beverly Hills - Memorable quote: "Call 9-1-1, call 9-1-1, call 9-1-1!" - Memorable soundtrack/score selection: Once In A Lifetime by The Talking Heads
11. Ferris Bueller's Day Off - Memorable quote: "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." - Memorable soundtrack/score selection: Twist & Shout by The Beatles
12. Flight Of The Navigator - Memorable quote: "See ya later, Navigator!"
13. The Fly - Memorable quote: "I'm saying... I'm saying I - I'm an insect who dreamt he was a man and loved it. But now the dream is over... and the insect is awake."
14. F/X - Tagline: Murder by Illusion
15. The Great Mouse Detective - Memorable quote: "From that time on, Basil and I were a close team. We had many cases together, but I'll always look back on that first with the most fondness; my introduction to Basil of Baker Street, the great mouse detective."
16. Heartbreak Ridge - Memorable quote: "This is the AK-47 assault rifle, the preferred weapon of your enemy; and it makes a distinctive sound when fired at you, so remember it."
17. Highlander - Memorable quote: "There can be only One." - Memorable soundtrack/score selection(s): Queen's Princes Of The Universe & Who Wants To Live Forever?
18. Iron Eagle - Memorable quote: "This one's for you, Chappy." - Memorable soundtrack/score selection: Gimme Some Lovin' by The Spencer Davis Group
19. Let's Get Harry - Tagline: An Adventure about the Hero in all of us
20. Little Shop Of Horrors - Memorable quote: "Feed me, Seymour!" - Memorable soundtrack/score selection: Mean Green Mother From Outer Space as performed by Levi Stubbs and The Four Tops 
21. Manhunter - Memorable quote: "It's just you and me now, sport. And I'm going to find you, God damn it."- Memorable soundtrack/score selection: Inna Godda Davida by Iron Butterfly
22. Mona Lisa - Memorable soundtrack/score selection: In Too Deep by Genesis
23. The Morning After - Tagline: Last night she drank to forget. Today she woke up to a murder. Is he her last hope or the last man she should trust?
24. The Name Of The Rose - Memorable quote: "...And yet, now that I am an old, old man, I must confess that of all the faces that appear to me out of the past, the one I see most clearly is that of the girl of whom I've never ceased to dream these many long years. She was the only earthly love in my life, yet I never knew, nor ever learned, her name."
25. Night Of The Creeps - Memorable quote: "Thrill me!" - Memorable soundtrack/score selection: The Stroll by The Diamonds
26. No Mercy - Memorable quote: "I know the secret to happiness...a girl with freckles on her tits."
27. One Crazy Summer - Memorable quote: "Why am I talking to you? You're not a man, you're a cat! Go back to your feline world!"
28. Platoon - Memorable quote: "Somebody once wrote, "Hell is the impossibility of reason." That's what this place feels like. Hell."- Memorable soundtrack/score selection: Adagio For Strings as composed by Samuel Barber
29. Short Circuit - Memorable quote: "Number 5 is alive."
30. Something Wild - "I'd rather be a live dog than a dead lion." - Memorable soundtrack/score selection: Wild Thing by The Troggs
31. Stand By Me - Memorable quote: "I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?" - Memorable soundtrack/score selection: Stand By Me by Ben E King
32. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home - Memorable quote: "Admiral, there be whales here!"
33. Three Amigos - Memorable quote: "Would you say I have a plethora of pinatas?" - Memorable soundtrack/score selection: Blue Shadows as performed by Martin Short, Steve Martin and Chevy Chase
34. Top Gun - Memorable quote: "I feel the need...the need for speed!" - Memorable soundtrack/score selection: Take My Breath Away by Berlin
35. Vamp - Memorable quote: "Formica, go figure."
36. Wanted: Dead Or Alive - Memorable quote: "Fuck the bonus!"

The Midnight Max Review: My Favorite Comics and Graphic Novels of 2014

For what it's worth, here's a list of my favorite comics and graphic novels of 2014...

1. All Star Western, Volume 4: Gold Standard (DC Comics)
2. Aquaman, Volume 4: Death Of A King (DC)
3. Baltimore, Volume 4: Chapel Of Bones (Dark Horse Comics)
4. Batman: The Dark Knight, Volume 3: Mad (DC)
5. Batman: Detective Comics, Volume 4: The Wrath (DC)
6. Batman: Eternal, Volume 1 (DC)
7. Batman, Volume 3: Death Of The Family (DC)
8. The Goon, Volume 13: For Want Of Whiskey and Blood (Dark Horse Comics)
9. Hellboy In Hell, Volume 1: The Descent (Dark Horse Comics)
10. Justice League, Volume 3: Throne Of Atlantis (DC)
11. King Conan, Volume 1: Hour Of The Dragon (Dark Horse Comics)
12. Lobster Johnson, Volume 3: Satan Smells A Rat (Dark Horse Comics)
13. The Lone Ranger, Volume 7: Back East (Dynamite Entertainment)
14. The Punisher, Volume 1: Black & White (Marvel Comics)
15. Robocop, Volume 2: The Last Stand: Part 2 (BOOM! Studios)
16. The Shadow, Volume 3: The Light Of The World (Dynamite Entertainment)
17. Superman: Action Comics, Volume 3: At The End Of Days (DC)
18. Superman: Unchained, Volume 1 (DC)
19. Swamp Thing, Volume 5: The Killing Field (DC)
20. Thor: God Of Thunder, Volume 1: The God Butcher (Marvel Comics)

The Midnight Max Review: My Favorite Christmas Films...

My All-Time Favorite Christmas Films... (In Alphanumerical Order)

1. 1941 (1979)
2. 3 Godfathers (1948)
3. Babes In Toyland (1934)
4. Bad Santa (2003)
5. The Bishop's Wife (1947)
6. A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)
7. A Christmas Story (1983)
8. Christmas Vacation (1989)
9. Die Hard (1988)
10. Die Hard 2 (1990)
11. Gremlins (1984)
12. Grumpy Old Men (1993)
13. The Ice Harvest (2005)
14. It's A Wonderful Life (1946)
15. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)
16. Lethal Weapon (1987)
17. Love, Actually (2003)
18. Mickey's Christmas Carol (1983)
19. Miracle On 34th Street (1947)
20. The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)
21. The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
22. Rare Exports (2010)
23. Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)
24. Scrooge (1970)
25. Scrooged (1988)
26. The Shop Around The Corner (1940)
27. Stalag 17 (1953)
28. The Thin Man (1934)
29. Three Godfathers (1936)
30. We're No Angels (1955)

I may as well begrudgingly reveal my affinity for the admittedly atrocious Reindeer Games (2000) as a tacked-on guilty pleasure- then again, maybe it's just one particular pool scene in the movie that keeps it rattling around in the conscience...