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Taking a break from analyzing the insanity of the GOP and knowing far too much about cooking, Steve Gilliard has a bit about movies you haven't seen.

This got me to thinking: what films have had a huge influence on me that might not be well known. Or maybe they are and I'm just a victim of Wedge Syndrome.^*

12) The Last Starfighter

Greetings, Starfighter. You have been recruited by the Star League to defend the Frontier against Xur and the Ko-Dan Armada.

(And no, I didn't need to look that up at all.) It's no Green Lantern oath, but for my generation, it did OK. Made with Cray-2 supercomputers, which was pretty freaking sweet at the time, but nowadays you could probably render this whole film in about a week on any machine you find off the shelf. Still, lovely performances by the much-missed Robert Preston, and the hard-working Dan O'Herlihy.

11) Cold Fever
Quite probably the only Japanese-Icelandic joint venture ever. A Japanese man cuts his trip short to perform rituals in Iceland where his parents were killed. Haunting in places, beautiful in others, marred only slightly by the fucked-up trip through Tarantino-land with Fisher Stevens (sock puppets and yelling are involved). And that still makes me laugh.

10) Top Secret
Val Kilmer's in the new Shane Black vehicle Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, so I am hoping he's in a bit of a comeback. That being said, this is my favorite film of his from the 80s, where Kilmer's channeling Elvis fighting the evil East Germans. Plus, Omar Sharif in a comedic role. (!)

9) His Girl Friday
The Front Page has been remade several times, but this is the best version. (The Jack Lemmon/Walter Matthau version in the 70s should be freaking awesome, but it's boring as hell. Go figure.) Cary Grant and Rosalind Russel in a rapid-fire duel of wits that gets me laughing every time. There are two DVDs of this of this: get the newer one as the print is better.

8) King of Comedy
Stephen Chow as a shoddy actor trying to make it any way he can. Look for a great cameo by Jackie Chan, and the outtakes at the end where everybody attempts what may be the best acting audition scene ever. You can't really go wrong with his later stuff (rumor has it that they're making Kung Fu Hustle 2!), but I really dig this one.

7) A Midwinter's Tale
Kenneth Branagh directs this tale of a group of actors trying to put on Hamlet in a church in the middle of nowhere over Christmas. Well worth seeing if you can find it but it's out of print and I've been looking for it for years. Movie Madness has it, but not everybody lives near Movie Madness.

6) Returner
OK, take The Matrix, combine it with The Terminator, and The
Transformers, with robots in disguise. Then add in a hunky dude saving the universe? Nuff said.

5) After Life
Thought-provoking film about the afterlife, where you get to make one movie about a particular scene in your life before going on to whatever's next. Folks who have passed on before you are there to help you with the staging, writing, and directing. Simply marvelous.

4) Whisper of the Heart
One of Studio Ghibli's lesser-known movies, the sequel (The Cat Returns) has already been released under the Disney deal but this one remains in the archives. Boy meets girl. Boy wants to impress girl. Girl meets cat. Cat rides subway. Girl visits magical realm. Girl meets boy. Audience sobs at the end.

3) God of Gamblers | Once A Thief (tie)
On paper, God of Gamblers sounds really stupid, and it should suck, but then there is the awesome power of Chow Yun-Fat. Sure, he looks cooler than any human being ever, shooting folks with two handguns while sliding down a bannister in Hard Boiled, or wielding the Green Dragon in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but if you want acting, serious acting, watch his range in this. Spawned a ton of sequels and imitators, and for a while it had the worst DVD pressing ever. But if you can find a copy of the new release, do yourself a favor and watch him kick ass.

Also take a look at the under-appreciated gem that is Once a Thief. Double-crosses, flaming basketballs of doom, defeating security systems with the power of wine. I've heard that John Woo calls this one of his favorite movies that he's done. Watch it and see why.

2) LA Story
Remember when Steve Martin made great films? OK, so this is probably somewhat well known, starring a ton of people, but I don't think it did very well at the box office. I find myself quoting this film constantly, even now. The New Cruelty can be blamed for a great many things.

1) The Legend of Fong Sai Yuk
This was the first HK film I ever saw and it changed my life. There's a battle on top of a crowd, where whoever can beat Tiger Li's wife gets the hand of his daughter in marriage. I'm not even sure why they bother making movies anymore—film's crowning achievement was made when this was released.

Also, if you're into the new Doctor Who, and I know I am, you may be interested in this: Plot summary for the Doctor Who Christmas Invasion

^*--Wedge Syndrome is what makes geeks list "Wedge Antilles" as their favorite character in Star Wars. Sure, he's the only character in the entire trilogy to survive both attacks on the Death Stars (other than Luke, Han, Chewbacca, and the Millennium Falcon). But even knowing who he is marks you as the kind of l33t person who can quote huge chunks of dialogue with no prompting, and not such a base fan as to actually prefer Boba Fett or some other character.

I suppose the Star Trek equivalent would be liking Chief O'Brien before he went to Deep Space Nine. Wait, maybe there isn't one.