Top 100 Movies you must Watch... 31- Léon: The Professional

1994 Film

8.6/10-IMDb

79%-Rotten Tomatoes

Release date: November 18, 1994 (USA)

Director: Luc Besson

Screenplay: Luc Besson

Awards: Golden Reel Award for Best Sound Editing - Foreign Feature,Czech Lion Award for Best Foreign Language

Description

Leone "Léon" Montana (Jean Reno) is a hitman (or "cleaner", as he refers to himself) living a solitary life in New York City's Little Italy. His work comes from a mafioso named Tony (Danny Aiello), who operates from the "Supreme Macaroni Company" restaurant. Léon spends his idle time engaging in calisthenics, nurturing a houseplant that early on he describes as his "best friend",^[3] and (in one scene) watching old Gene Kelly musicals.

One day, Léon sees Mathilda Lando (Natalie Portman), a twelve-year-old girl who is smoking a cigarette and sporting a black eye. Mathilda lives with her dysfunctional family in an apartment down the hall. Her abusive father and self-absorbed stepmother have not noticed that Mathilda stopped attending class at her school for troubled girls. Mathilda's father (Michael Badalucco) attracts the ire of corrupt DEA agents, who have been paying him to stash cocaine in his apartment. After they discover some of the drugs missing, DEA agents storm the building, led by sharply dressed drug addict Norman Stansfield (Gary Oldman). During the raid, Stansfield quickly becomes unhinged and murders Mathilda's entire family one by one, except for Mathilda, who was missing only because she was out shopping. Mathilda returns from her shopping trip as the group cleans up the carnage, and realizes what happened just in time to continue down the hall, where a reluctant Léon gives her shelter.

Mathilda quickly discovers that Léon is a "cleaner", or hitman. She begs him to take care of her and to teach her his skills as a cleaner. She wants to avenge the murder of her four-year-old brother, telling Léon that he was the only one of her family she loved. Léon shows her how to use guns, including a scoped rifle. In return, she runs his errands, cleans his apartment, and teaches him how to read. Several times Mathilda tells Léon "I love you", but he offers no response.

Then one day after Mathilda has learned how to shoot, she fills a bag with guns from Léon's collection and sets out to kill Stansfield. She bluffs her way into the DEA office by posing as a delivery girl, only to be ambushed by Stansfield in a bathroom. Mathilda learns from Stansfield and one of his men that Léon has killed one of the corrupt DEA agents in Chinatown that morning. Léon, after discovering her plan in a note left for him, rescues Mathilda, shooting two more of Stansfield's men in the process.

Stansfield, now enraged that Léon has killed more of his men, goes to find Tony, then beats him to find out where Léon is.

When Mathilda returns home from grocery shopping, an NYPD ESU team sent by Stansfield takes her hostage and attempts to infiltrate Léon's apartment. Léon ambushes the ESU team and grabs Mathilda. Back in his apartment, Léon creates a quick escape for Mathilda by smashing a hole in an air shaft. He reassures her and tells her that he loves her and that she has given him "a taste for life", moments before the police come for him. In the chaos that follows, Léon sneaks out of the apartment building disguised as a wounded ESU officer. He goes unnoticed save for Stansfield, who recognizes him and follows him downstairs, sneaks up behind him, and shoots him in the back. As Léon falls, he places an object in Stansfield's hands that he says is "from Mathilda", and dies. Opening his hands to see the object, Stansfield discovers that it is the pin from a grenade. He then opens Léon's vest to find a cluster of active grenades, which detonate moments later, the huge explosion killing him instantly.

Mathilda heads to Tony's place as Léon had instructed her before he died. Tony refuses to give her the money he had saved for Léon, instead offering to give her money when she needs it. Tony tells her school should be her priority for now. Mathilda asks Tony to give her a job, insisting that she can "clean" like Léon. Tony sternly says he "ain't got no work for a 12-year-old kid!" With nowhere else to go, Mathilda returns to a private school from her past. She recounts her story to the headmistress, who readmits her. Mathilda then walks into a field near the school with Léon's houseplant in hand. She digs a hole and plants it, as she had told Léon he should, to give it roots.

. Wikipedia

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Top 100 Movies you must Watch... 18- Forrest Gump

1994 Film

8.7/10-IMDb

71%-Rotten Tomatoes

Release date: July 6, 1994 (USA)

Director: Robert Zemeckis

Sequel: Gump and Co.

Screenplay: Eric Roth

Awards: Academy Award for Best Picture, Academy Award for Best Actor, Academy Award for Best Director, Golden Globe Award for Best Drama Film, Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay, Academy Award for Visual Effects, Academy Award for Film Editing, Golden Globe Award for Best Director - Film, Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Drama Film, Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role, National Board of Review Award for Best Film, BAFTA Award for Best Special Visual Effects, Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor, National Board of Review Award for Best Actor, DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film, Funniest Actor In A Motion Picture (Leading Role), PGA Producer of the Year Award for Motion Picture Producer of the Year,People's Choice Award for Favorite Movie, Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor, People's Choice Award for Favorite Drama Movie,People's Choice Award for Favorite Actor in a Dramatic Motion Picture,Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor

Description

While waiting at a bus stop, Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks) begins telling his life story to various strangers sitting near him on the bench, the first being a young woman. His story begins with the leg braces he had to wear as a child, which resulted in him being bullied by other children. He lives with his mother (Sally Field), who tells him that "stupid is as stupid does." His mother runs a rooming house and Forrest teaches one of their guests, a young Elvis Presley, a hip-swinging dance. On a bus for his first day of school, Forrest meets Jenny (Robin Wright), with whom he immediately falls in love, and they become best friends. One day, while fleeing from some bullies, Forrest's leg braces break apart and fall away and he discovers that he can run very fast which, despite his below-average intelligence, earns him a scholarship to the University of Alabama from Bear Bryant. While in college, he witnesses George Wallace's Stand in the Schoolhouse Door, is named an All-Americanfootball player, and meets President John F. Kennedy. At this point, the young woman goes on her bus and is soon followed by a woman and her child.

After graduating, Forrest enlists in the United States Army, where he becomes friends with Benjamin Buford "Bubba" Blue (Mykelti Williamson), and they agree to go into the shrimping business together. They are sent to Vietnam, and while on patrol, their platoon is ambushed. Forrest saves four of the men in his platoon, including platoon leader 2nd Lt. Dan Taylor (Gary Sinise), but Bubba is killed. Here it is shown that the current listener is a middle-aged man. Forrest himself is shot in the butt and receives the Medal of Honor from President Lyndon B. Johnson. While recovering from his injuries Forrest meets Lt. Dan again, who has had to have both of his legs amputated below the knees due to his wounds. As such, Lt. Dan is furious at Forrest for leaving him a "cripple" and cheating him out of his destiny to die in an American war like all of his ancestors. In Washington, Forrest is swept up in an anti-war rally at the National Mall and is reunited with Jenny, who is now part of the hippie counterculture movement. They spend the night walking around the capital, but she leaves with her abusive boyfriend the following day.

Forrest discovers an aptitude for ping pong and begins playing for the U.S. Army team, eventually competing against Chinese teams on a goodwill tour. He goes to the White House again and meets President Richard Nixon who provides him a room at the Watergate hotel, where Forrest inadvertently helps expose the Watergate scandal. For his numerous accomplishments, Forrest is invited onto The Dick Cavett Show alongside John Lennon, and helps inspire Lennon's song "Imagine". He again encounters Lt. Dan, who is now an embittered drunk living on welfare. Dan is scornful of Forrest's plans to enter the shrimping business and mockingly promises to be Forrest's first mate if he ever succeeds. As the night goes on, Forrest thinks about Jenny and what she is doing. Unbeknownst to him even in the present, Jenny is living life on the edge of self-destruction, having been with countless men and become addicted toheroin; she even considers suicide that night, but decides against it at the last minute.

Forrest is discharged from the military and using money from a ping pong endorsement, Forrest buys a shrimping boat, fulfilling his wartime promise to Bubba, and names it "Jenny". Dan keeps his own promise and joins Forrest as first mate. They initially have little luck, but after Hurricane Carmen destroys every other shrimping boat in the region, the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company becomes a huge success due to the elimination of competition. Having had an epiphany during the hurricane, Dan finally thanks Forrest for saving his life. Forrest then returns home to care for his ailing mother, who dies soon afterwards. Forrest leaves the company in the hands of Dan, who invests their wealth in shares of a "fruit company" (Apple Computer), making them both millionaires. Eventually, their investments result in the creation of the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company; the middle-aged man doesn't believe this and leaves, laughing, and is soon followed by an intrigued senior woman who listens to Forrest for the rest of the story.

Jenny returns to visit Forrest and stays with him. He proposes but she turns him down. Later in the evening Jenny visits Forrest and they make love, but she quietly slips away the next morning. Distraught, Forrest decides to go for a run, which turns into a three-year coast-to-coast marathon. Forrest becomes a celebrity, attracting a band of followers and inspiring a number of failing entrepreneurs to success. One day he stops suddenly and returns home. He receives a letter from Jenny asking to meet, which brings him to the bus stop where he began telling his story. Once they are reunited, Forrest discovers they have a young son, also named Forrest (Haley Joel Osment). Jenny reveals that she is suffering from an unknown virus. She proposes to him and he accepts, and they return to Alabama with Forrest Jr. and marry. The wedding is attended by Lt Dan, who now has prosthetic legs and a fiancee. However, Jenny dies soon after. Forrest waits with Forrest Jr. for the bus to pick him up for his first day of school, and sits on the same tree stump where his mother sat on his first day of school, and watches his feather bookmark float off in the wind.

. Wikipedia

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Top 100 Movies you must Watch... 4- Pulp Fiction

1994 Film

9/10-IMDb

94%-Rotten Tomatoes

Release date: October 14, 1994 (USA)

Director: Quentin Tarantino

Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino

Genres: Crime Fiction, Indie film, Thriller, Drama

Description

"Prologue-The Diner"

"Pumpkin" (Tim Roth) and "Honey Bunny" (Amanda Plummer) are having breakfast in a diner. They decide to rob it after realizing they could make money off the customers as well as the business, as they did during their previous heist. Moments after they initiate the hold-up, the scene breaks off and the title credits roll.

Prelude to "Vincent Vega and Marsellus Wallace's Wife"

As Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) drives, Vincent Vega (John Travolta) talks about his experiences in Europe, from where he has just returned: the hashish bars in Amsterdam, the French McDonald's and its "Royale with Cheese." The pair—both wearing dress suits—are on their way to retrieve a briefcase from Brett (Frank Whaley), who has transgressed against their boss, gangster Marsellus Wallace. Jules tells Vincent that Marsellus had someone thrown off a fourth-floor balcony for giving his wife a foot massage. Vincent says Marsellus has asked him to escort his wife while Marsellus is out of town. They conclude their banter and "get into character" which soon involves executing Brett in dramatic fashion after Jules recites a baleful "biblical" pronouncement.

"Vincent Vega and Marsellus Wallace's Wife"

The "famous dance scene":^[12] Vincent Vega (John Travolta) and Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman) do the twist at Jack Rabbit Slim's.

In a virtually empty cocktail lounge, aging prizefighter Butch Coolidge (Bruce Willis) accepts a large sum of money from mobster Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames), agreeing to take a dive in his upcoming match. Vincent and Jules—now dressed in T-shirts and shorts—arrive to deliver the briefcase, and Butch and Vincent briefly cross paths. The next day, Vincent drops by the house of Lance (Eric Stoltz) and his wife Jody (Rosanna Arquette) to purchase high-grade heroin. He shoots up before driving over to meet Mrs. Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman) and take her out. They head to Jack Rabbit Slim's, a 1950s-themed restaurant staffed by lookalikes of the decade's pop icons. Mia recounts her experience acting in a failed television pilot, "Fox Force Five."

After participating in a twist contest, they return to the Wallace house with the trophy. While Vincent is in the bathroom, Mia finds his stash of heroin in his coat pocket. Mistaking it for cocaine, she snorts it and overdoses. Vincent rushes her to Lance's house for help. Together, they administer an adrenaline shot to Mia's heart, reviving her. Before parting ways, Mia and Vincent agree not to tell Marsellus of the incident.

Prelude to "The Gold Watch"

Television time for young Butch (Chandler Lindauer) is interrupted by the arrival of Vietnam veteran Captain Koons (Christopher Walken). Koons explains that he has brought a gold watch, passed down through generations of Coolidge men since World War I. Butch's father died of dysentery while in a POW camp, and at his dying request Koons hid the watch in his rectum for two years in order to deliver it to Butch. A bell rings, startling the adult Butch out of this reverie. He is in his boxing colors—it is time for the fight he has been paid to throw.

"The Gold Watch"

Butch flees the arena, having won the bout. Making his getaway by cab, he learns from the death-obsessed driver, Esmarelda Villa Lobos (Angela Jones), that he killed the opposing fighter. Butch has double-crossed Marsellus, betting his payoff on himself at very favorable odds. The next morning, at the motel where he and his girlfriend, Fabienne (Maria de Medeiros), are lying low, Butch discovers that she has forgotten to pack the irreplaceable watch. He returns to his apartment to retrieve it, although Marsellus' men are almost certainly looking for him. Butch finds the watch quickly, but thinking he is alone, pauses for a snack. Only then does he notice a machine pistol on the kitchen counter. Hearing the toilet flush, Butch readies the gun in time to kill a startled Vincent Vega exiting the bathroom.

Butch drives away, but while waiting at a traffic light, Marsellus walks by and recognizes him. Butch rams Marsellus with the car, then another automobile collides with his. After a foot chase the two men land in a pawnshop. The shopowner, Maynard (Duane Whitaker), captures them at gunpoint and ties them up in a half-basement area. Maynard is joined by Zed (Peter Greene); they take Marsellus to another room to rape him, leaving a silent masked figure referred to as "the gimp" to watch a tied-up Butch. Butch breaks loose and knocks out the gimp. He is about to flee, when he decides to save Marsellus. As Zed is sodomizing Marsellus on a pommel horse, Butch kills Maynard with akatana. Marsellus retrieves Maynard's shotgun and shoots Zed in the groin. Marsellus informs Butch that they are even with respect to the botched fight fix, so long as he never tells anyone about the rape and departs Los Angeles, that night, forever. Butch agrees and returns to pick up Fabienne on Zed's chopper.

"The Bonnie Situation"

The story returns to Vincent and Jules at Brett's. After they execute him, another man (Alexis Arquette) bursts out of the bathroom and shoots wildly at them, missing every time before an astonished Jules and Vincent return fire. Jules decides this is a miracle and a sign from God for him to retire as a hitman. They drive off with one of Brett's associates, Marvin (Phil LaMarr), their informant. Vincent asks Marvin for his opinion about the "miracle" and accidentally shoots him in the face.

Forced to remove their bloodied car from the road, Jules calls upon the house of his friend Jimmie (Quentin Tarantino). Jimmie's wife, Bonnie, is due back from work soon, and he is very anxious that she not encounter the scene. At Jules' request, Marsellus arranges for the help of Winston Wolfe (Harvey Keitel). "The Wolf" takes charge of the situation, ordering Jules and Vincent to clean the car, hide the body in the trunk, dispose of their own bloody clothes, and change into T-shirts and shorts provided by Jimmie. They drive the car to a junkyard, from where Wolfe and the owner's daughter, Raquel (Julia Sweeney), head off to breakfast. Jules and Vincent decide to do the same.

"Epilogue-The Diner"

As Jules and Vincent eat breakfast in a diner, the discussion returns to Jules' decision to retire. In a brief cutaway, we see "Pumpkin" and "Honey Bunny" shortly before they initiate the hold-up from the movie's first scene. While Vincent is in the bathroom, the hold-up commences. "Pumpkin" demands all of the patrons' valuables, including Jules' mysterious case. Jules surprises "Pumpkin" (whom he calls "Ringo"), holding him at gunpoint. "Honey Bunny" (whose name turns out to be Yolanda), hysterical, trains her gun on Jules. Vincent emerges from the restroom with his gun trained on her, creating a Mexican standoff. Reprising the biblical passage he'd recited at Brett's place (Ezekiel 25:17), only this time with sincerity rather than for effect he explains, Jules expresses his ambivalence about his life of crime. As his first act of redemption, he allows the two robbers to take the cash they have stolen and leave, pondering how they were spared and leaving the briefcase behind for Jules and Vincent to return to Marsellus, finishing Jules' final job for his boss.

. Wikipedia

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Top 100 Movies you must Watch... 1- The Shawshank Redemption

1994 Film

9.3/10-IMDb

90%-Rotten Tomatoes

4.3/5-Goodreads

Release date: September 23, 1994 (USA)

Director: Frank Darabont

Featured song: If I Didn't Care

Screenplay: Frank Darabont

Awards: American Society of Cinematographers Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Theatrical Releases, Japan Academy Prize for Outstanding Foreign Language Film

Description

In 1947, banker Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) is convicted of murdering his wife and her lover, based on circumstantial evidence, and is sentenced to two consecutive life sentences at Shawshank State Penitentiary. Andy quickly befriends contraband smuggler Ellis "Red" Redding (Morgan Freeman), an inmate serving a life sentence. Red procures a rock hammer for Andy, allowing him to create small stone chess pieces. Red later gets him a large poster of Rita Hayworth, followed in later years by images of Marilyn Monroe and Raquel Welch. Andy works in the prison laundry, but is regularly assaulted by the "bull queer" gang "the Sisters" and their leader Bogs (Mark Rolston).

In 1949, Andy overhears the brutal chief guard Byron Hadley (Clancy Brown) complaining about taxes on a forthcoming inheritance and informs him about a financial loophole. After another vicious assault by the Sisters nearly kills Andy, Hadley severely beats Bogs resulting in Bogs being sent to another prison. Andy is not attacked again. Warden Samuel Norton (Bob Gunton) meets with Andy and reassigns him to the prison library to assist elderly inmate Brooks Hatlen (James Whitmore), a pretext for Andy to manage financial duties for the prison. His advice and expertise are soon sought by other guards at Shawshank and from nearby prisons. Andy begins writing weekly letters to the state government for funds to improve the decrepit library.

In 1954, Brooks is freed on parole, but unable to adjust to the outside world after 50 years in prison, he hangs himself. Andy receives a library donation that includes a recording of The Marriage of Figaro. He plays an excerpt over the public address system, resulting in his receiving solitary confinement. After his release, Andy explains that he holds onto hope as something that the prison cannot take from him, but Red dismisses the idea. In 1963, Norton begins exploiting prison labor for public works, profiting by undercutting skilled labor costs and receivingkickbacks. He has Andy launder the money using the alias "Randall Stephens".

In 1965, Tommy Williams (Gil Bellows) is incarcerated for burglary. He joins Andy's and Red's circle of friends, and Andy helps him pass his General Educational Development (G.E.D.) examinations. In 1966, after hearing the details of Andy's case, Tommy reveals that an inmate at another prison claimed responsibility for an identical murder, suggesting Andy's innocence. Andy approaches Norton with this information, but the warden refuses to listen. Norton places Andy in solitary confinement and has Hadley murder Tommy, under the guise of an escape attempt. Andy refuses to continue with the scam, but Norton threatens to destroy the library and take away his protection and preferential treatment. After Andy is released from solitary confinement, he tells Red of his dream of living in Zihuatanejo, a Mexican Pacific coastal town. While Red shrugs it off as being unrealistic, Andy instructs him, should he ever be freed, to visit a specific hayfield near Buxton to retrieve a package.

The next day at roll call, upon finding Andy's cell empty, an irate Norton throws one of Andy's rocks at the poster of Raquel Welch hanging on the wall. The rock tears through the poster, revealing a tunnel that Andy had dug with his rock hammer over the previous two decades. The previous night, Andy escaped through the tunnel and the prison's sewage pipe with Norton's ledger, containing details of the money laundering. While guards search for him the following morning, Andy, posing as Randall Stephens, visits several banks to withdraw the laundered money. Finally, he sends the ledger and evidence of the corruption and murders at Shawshank to a local newspaper. The police arrive at Shawshank and take Hadley into custody, while Norton commits suicide to avoid arrest.

After serving 40 years, Red receives parole. He struggles to adapt to life outside prison and fears he never will. Remembering his promise to Andy, he visits Buxton and finds a cache containing money and a letter asking him to come toZihuatanejo. Red violates his parole and travels to Fort Hancock, Texas to cross the border to Mexico, admitting he finally feels hope. On a beach in Zihuatanejo, he finds Andy, and the two friends are happily reunited.

. Wikipedia

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