41 THE THREE STOOGES Stooge-o-philia came out of the closet when Mel Gibson adopted their trademark gestures in Lethal Weapon. Spider-Man director Sam Raimi is another key aficionado. These men know something that many nonfans (and all women) do not: The dumber and more violent it gets, the funnier it is. Stooge fans can now rejoice that practically the entire oeuvre is out on DVD. Key Scene The Stooges fast asleep, collaborating on a syncopated snore. Best Line "I'd knock your brains out if you had any!"
42 THE HUSTLER 1961 Hot-wired young pool shark Fast Eddie Felson (Paul Newman) cares so much about playing the game with dash and flair that he sets himself up for defeat at the hands of a cool, calculating bottom-liner: Jackie Gleason as the mythical monster Minnesota Fats, a sort of pool-hall killer whale. Fast Eddie would be dismissed as a sap and a loser in any modern big-studio story meeting, but it's still a lovely dream: a celebration of the kind of high-minded code of values that hardly anybody lives by anymore. Key Scene Eddie pouring out his heart to girlfriend Piper Laurie; it's Paul Newman's "I coulda been a contender" speech, as intense as Brando's but less mannered. Best Line "Even if you beat me, I'm still the best."
43 SLAP SHOT 1977 The perfect movie for those of us who watch hockey only for the fights. The misfits in a bush league team finally start winning only when they knuckle down and start playing dirty. The cynicism never seems to rub off on Paul Newman, who, as the team's coach, manages to remain sympathetic even when he's instituting a bonus system that rewards acts of violence on a sliding scale. Key Scene Michael Ontkean's on-ice strip tease. Best Line "I may be bald, but at least I'm not chickenshit."
44 THE FRENCH CONNECTION 1971 Famous for its great car-against-train chase sequence, this fact-based police procedural used the hero's viciousness to jack up the suspense. You're never sure when narcotics detective Popeye Doyle (Gene Hackman) is going to pistol whip a suspect or drop a casual racial slur. Key Scene The chase was essentially improvised, executed pedal-to-the-metal without permits. Best Line "All right, Popeye's here!"
45 OFFICE SPACE 1999 Seething with frustration at his life in fluorescent-lit cubicles, a sarcastic smart guy has himself hypnotized into a state of blissed-out recklessness. The only live-action feature by Mike Judge, the creator of Beavis and Butt-head, this is the sort of movie that in its dialog and even in its tone and editing sums up the attitudes of way too many office workers. Guys who love it fantasize about tying their boss to a chair and forcing him to watch it. Key Scene Making copies. Best Line "It's not that I'm lazy, it's that I just don't care."
46 EASY RIDER 1969 With this low-budget road movie Peter Fonda and first-time director and costar Dennis Hopper shrewdly smuggled their brand of hippie hedonism into the pop mainstream. Hollywood was never the same. The film pioneered the use of wall-to-wall rock hits on its soundtrack and features a breakout performance by a B-movie veteran named Jack Nicholson, who took a small role as a boozy Southern lawyer and ran with it. Key Scene Nicholson's first joint, around the campfire. Best Line "We blew it."
47 DAZED AND CONFUSED 1993 For a generation of guys who graduated from suburban high schools in the late eighties and nineties, Richard Linklater's pot-smoking, muscle car-driving teen saga is a cultural touchstone. Matthew McConaughey, as an aging loser who can't let go of his glory days, steals the show. Key Scene Ben Affleck's bully gets his comeuppance. Best Line "That's what I like about these high school girls. I keep getting older; they stay the same age."
48 THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI 1957 Who can forget the column of whistling British POWs marching off to build that bridge? Or Alec Guinness's startled expression when he realizes that the Allied commandos, led by William Holden, want to blow it up? Director David Lean structured this war epic like a suspense picture: The stiff-upper-lipped POWs help the Japanese construct a strategically crucial bridge, while the commando team creeps through the jungle on a mission to destroy it. Key Scene Holden blows the bridge. Best Line "The fact is, what we're doing could be construed as -- forgive me, sir -- collaboration with the enemy."
49 COOL HAND LUKE 1967 A raunchy, violent, crudely humorous melodrama in which a colorful assortment of grinning redneck thugs are brutalized in a Southern prison camp. Paul Newman heads a memorable cast of sweat-stained freakazoids: George Kennedy, Harry Dean Stanton, Dennis Hopper, Joe Don Baker. In the sixties some viewers saw the camp as a savage metaphor for a corrupt, repressive society. What were they smoking? Key Scene Eating those eggs. Best Line "What we got here is a failure to communicate."
50 FLETCH 1985 Chevy Chase's smirky contempt for everything decent is a welcome tonic here. While investigating a murder he makes fools of an endless series of unsuspecting jerks. He also bags the foxy Dana Wheeler-Nicholson, whose hyphenated name is still mentioned in hushed and reverent tones wherever video geeks congregate. Key Scene Mattress police. Best Line "If you shoot me you're liable to lose a lot of those humanitarian awards."
BONUS #51- BEST GUY MOVIE OF THE YEAR KILL BILL 2003 Next time we do this list, Quentin Tarantino's gonzo classic will be on it. So why wait? Uma Thurman is a sword-fighting goddess, and Kill Bill is the definitive guy movie. Key Scene Uma's duel to the death with Go Go Yubari, schoolgirl assassin. Best Line "Every time you don't give me answers, I'm going to cut something off. And I promise you, they will be things you will miss."