SimbaKing94's Top 50 Favorite Movies of All Time Part III: 30-21

30. Ponyo (2008)
Director: Hayao Miyazaki 
Starring: Noah Cyrus, Liam Neeson, Cate Blanchett

I don't care who you are or how discriminatory you are against Animation/ anime, every best movie ever made list needs at least one Hayao Miyazaki movie.  I had a hard time deciding which of the movies of his I liked the most.  Howl's Moving Castle was the last of them I saw, and Ponyo was the first I saw.  I chose Ponyo, because this was the first time I was able to recognize the genius of Miyazaki.  As much as I loved Spirited Away, I just found Ponyo was more engaging and by far the most entertaining of the Miyazaki I saw.  Primarily because of the relationships, whether it's between Ponyo and Sosuke, Ponyo and her father, or even Ponyo's parents.  I have yet to see the Japanese version of this film, but when you get the big names of Cate Blanchett and Liam Neeson on this film, I have to get a copy of this film at some point.  As with all of his stories, Ponyo has incredible animation and great heart.  I cannot acclaim this movie enough.  But I have more films to cover.

29. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
Director: Gore Verbinski 
Starring: Johnny Depp, Geoffery Rush, Keira Knightley, Orlando Bloom

Who else out there wanted to be a pirate when they grew up after watching this movie?  Despite several wretched followups, The Curse of the Black Pearl is the absolutely perfect pirate movie.  It has skullduggery, pirates acting like pirates, swordfights, and treasure hunting.  Johnny Depp, who has gained infamy for his portrayal of Captain Jack Sparrow, is of course brilliant.  But the rest of the cast is also fairly well rounded.  After getting his feet wet in Fellowship of the Ring, Orlando Bloom took Hollywood by storm as Will Turner, while Geoffrey Rush was awesome as Captain Barbossa.  One of the best films Disney made in the 2000's, the first journey of Jack Sparrow will always be the best.  No substitute.

28. Shrek 2 (2004)
Directors: Kelly Asbury, Conrad Vernon, Andrew Adamson
Starring: Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, Antonio Banderas

Were it not for this film's influence on an endless line of "not as funny" comedies (Madagsascar, Madagascar 2, Monsters v. Aliens, Shrek 3, Shark Tale), Shrek 2 would have had a serious case to take a spot in the Top 10.  This film is a comedic marvel, every single joke in this movie hits a gem and it never overuses the jokes, like other Dreamworks movies do.  While I am absolutely fine with the first Shrek movie, this one completely knocks the first out of the ballpark.  The villain reaches new levels of evil and cruelty, the new characters are so well thought of, that it makes it seem that they were in the first movie too, and the pop cultural references aren't nearly as annoying as they were in say Shark Tale.  Shrek 2 is one of the funniest movies ever made, and almost had a solid case to make it into the Top 10.  Seriously, if you haven't seen this movie, SEE IT!

27. Gone With the Wind (1939)
Director: Victor Fleming 
Starring: Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Leslie Howard

There are few modern movie marvels that can compare to the stunning wonder of Gone With the Wind.  Despite the great depths of raw emotion and power in the film, I only find my serious interest in the first half.  While the first half is a historical drama filled with war and a romantic underpinning, the second half of the film drags on through the long periods of Reconstruction and the never ending soap opera of Scarlett, Rhett, Ashley, and Melanie.  Nevertheless, there is a reason Gone With the Wind among the most acclaimed and most successful films ever made.  It took risks, gave us a sweeping epic in scale and fortitude, and gave us a cunning and insightful female lead that was as deadly as she was beautiful, with the brain of a super villain and the vanity of the Queen from Snow White.  It's epic in scale, dramatic in storytelling, and grim in tone.  Gone With the Wind is one of the best, for a reason.

26. Forrest Gump (1994)
Director: Robert Zemeckis 
Starring: Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise 

An expected one for a Top Movie list, but with good reason.  1994 was one of the best years for movies ever.  We had The Shawshank Redemption and two other films that I can assure you will be on this list.  But we also had Forrest Gump, a movie that was basically guaranteed Oscar glory, despite several worthy recipients.  Hanks, of course, is stellar as the titular character, while Robin Wright as Jenny and Gary Sinise as Lieutenant Dan also manage to add to the depth of drama that this film is easily able to convey.  Like with The Last Crusade, it's a film that has several surreal moments, such as Forrest discovering the Watergate scandal, and receiving notoriety from such historical people as JFK among others.  It's a story that is simple and yet at the same time, deeply thought provoking and meaningful.

25. Moneyball (2011)
Director: Bennett Miller
Starring: Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, Philip Seymour Hoffman

While I will be the first person to admit that the theories and ideas portrayed in this novel and movie are slowly murdering baseball for future generations, when you are the GM of a team with an extremely low payroll and need to think out of the box to outsmart big budget teams like the Yankees and Dodgers, the ideas portrayed in Moneyball should be your first place to go.  Brad Pitt is a believable Billy Beane, a GM with aspirations to find ways to win baseball games within a payroll one quarter that of many of his competitors, while Jonah Hill plays the fictional character of Peter Brand (real life Paul Depodesta, assistant GM for the Mets today), a harvard graduate who thinks he can turn baseball into a game of numbers and find true value where others don't see it.  The ultimate story of misfits, Moneyball refuses to sugarcoat things and actually ends on a rather omniscient note, with Billy Beane turning down the Boston Red Sox offer to manage them, only to watch the Red Sox go out and win the World Series in 2004, while Beane has yet to reach one himself.

24. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Director: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, Vin Diesel

Like I said with Gone With the Wind, I prefer movies about war over movies with soap opera undertones.  Maybe it was because I was a huge history buff in High School.  But when it comes to war movies, even ones that are bloody and gory (Pearl Harbor), I still wince at some of the sights in Saving Private Ryan.  The movie begins with the invasion of Normandy in 1944, and the bloodbath in the movie doesn't stop until the last few minutes.  It's a movie about one group of soldier's extraordinary reslience to break into mainland France while searching for a soldier with an order to return home, who's missing somewhere behind enemy lines.  Hanks is once more solid, while the rest of the actors act more like people than those seen in Pearl Harbor.  A gem that got screwed out of Oscar Glory, Saving Private Ryan was quite possibly the best live action movie made in the post 1995 world.

23. Ghostbusters (1984)
Director: Ivan Reitman
Starring: Harold Ramis, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd

"Who ya gonna call?"

Ghostbusters was one of the first non kids movies I saw with someone, along with Star Wars and Jurassic Park.  Unlike the other comedic gems of the 1980's, which were mostly spoof films like Airplane! and Spaceballs, this film is an absolute comic marvel.  Ever single main actor in this movie has their hilarious moments, while some of the effects still look cool by today's standards.  I swear, if they ever remade this movie, I'd flip the shit.  This and the Original Star Wars trilogy are just a handful of movies that should NEVER be remade, by any standards!  I'm serious!  DON"T YOU DARE SCREW THIS MOVIE UP, AYKROYD!!!

22. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
Director: Peter Jackson
Starring: Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Sean Bean, Ian McKellan

Not a single aspiring High Fantasy author like myself could help but draw infulence on your own stories from those of J.R.R Tolkein.  Of the three Lord of the Rings movies, while I prefer The Two Towers over the others, I do admit Fellowship is probably the most well rounded of the three.  It allows us time to get to know most of, if not all of the characters, while giving both Sauron and Saruman their own time to act as the main villains.  We get that epic fight with the Balrog, we get to see Christopher Lee revive his career as Saruman, and once more, Sean Bean gets to die.  While there aren't any epic battles in this one, like there were both Two Towers and Return of the King, Fellowship allows us to emerse ourselves into the world and not necesarily the battles.  We needed to learn to care for these characters before we saw them in any huge battles, something Jackson did brilliantly.

21. Pulp Fiction (1994)
Director: Quentin Tarantino 
Starring: John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman

I think I might just have to get a bit older and more world weary to fully grasp the wonder and awe of Tarantino's work.  Of the two of his works I have seen (Pulp Fiction and Inglorious Bastards), I find myself leaning more towards Pulp Fiction, mainly because this film has some of my all time favorite scenes from any movie, period.  Such as when their interrogating Brett about Marsellus Wallace, to Travolta shooting Marvin in the face in the car accidentally, to Christopher Walken's hilariously awkward cameo to give Butch his father's watch.  One of the best movies ever made is also one of my favorites.  But there could only be one King of 1994.  But we'll find out where he ranked later on in the countdown.