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Here's part two of my top twenty films. Expect some more (or less?) interesting blog entries later this week or something

10. Red Cliff (2008)

John Woo's latest movie, and his first film in his native Hong Kong since Hard Boiled in 1993, Red Cliff is a war film of massively epic proportions, detailing the famous Battle of Red Cliff which led the way to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The original Chinese cut of the film (split into two films) is about five hours long, but the beautifully choreographed battle scenes, the amazing acting and the breathtaking cinematography make the whole thing fly by like 10,000 arrows heading towards straw boats

9. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

I love a good action adventure film. In fact, there aren't enough of them, I think. And if there's any film that should be considered the best action adventure, it's Raiders of the Lost Ark. With its endearing and loveable characters, its sense of fun it never takes itself too seriously, but it keeps the thrills coming nonetheless. Raiders is a really fun film, all the while being incredibly well written and thirty years on continues to enchant. Also, you can't go wrong with the Raiders March theme.

8. Role Models (2008)

Role Models is one of my favourite comedy films. Sure it's not the best written film or anything, but it's made me laugh no matter how many times I've seen it. The idea behind Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott - two slackers doing community service - having to look after kids Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Bobb'e J Thomson is simple enough but brings some side-splitting results. And with a great supporting cast (most notably Ken Jeong), it never fails to bring a smile on my face.

7. Battle Royale (2000)

In a distopian Japan, where kids run riot and everything's gone to shit, the government has set up the new Battle Royale scheme - where a randomly selected class of 9th graders are put in some isolated place and told to kill one another. Tagged with explosive collars they have no choice but to slaughter each other until one is left. The film, like the book it's based on, follows a few of the students as they try to find a way out of the nightmare they have been thrown into. It's dark, violent and not for the faint-hearted, but is fantastically entertaining, thrilling and heart breaking.

6. The Dark Knight (2008)

Superhero movies aren't often considered to be high quality cinema. After all, they're usually more a showcase of special effects than anything else - after all, even when you have these fully developed characters in the comics, it's difficult to translate into 2-hour films. But the Dark Knight does something different. Nolan is a master director, and when he took on the Batman franchise he did it with style. the Dark Knight tells a much gritter, more realistic and faithful Batman story - incorporating stellar action scenes, powerful character developments and the best live action version of the Joker put to screen.

5.Toy Story (1995)

Toy Story was a revolution in terms of animation. Much like Snow White was to traditional animation, Pixar showed the world what CG was capable of. Coming from the mind of little-known John Lasseter, the film is a madly imaginative tale about toys, of all things, and their attachments to their owners. Today it stands as one of the best animated features, and it really isn't difficult to see why.

4. Die Hard (1988)

A Christmas movie for the whole family, Die Hard has a simple plot: a bunch of terrorists take an office party hostage demanding a bunch of other terrorists be freed in exchange. However, New York cop John McClane isn't having any of it and decides to make it his business to take them all out. What made Die Hard so different was how it portrayed its main character. Instead of the rock-hard unbeatable machine we were used to seeing in films like Rambo, McClane instead gets hurt. A lot. He's much more human and as a result we relate to him. Die Hard is wonderful, violent fun and always good to watch

3. Le Diner de Cons (1998)

Le Diner de Cons is a film about a man who, with his friends, holds weekly dinners where each participant has to bring the biggest idiot they can so everyone can secretly make fun of them. But when Pierre Brochant finds the biggest idiot and makes the mistake of inviting him around to his house first, it's hilarity all the way. Le Diner de Cons is very clever, witty and so rapid-fire in its jokes that you will not stop for a second laughing, right through the unexpected and hilarious ending.

2. Monsters, Inc. (2001)

Pixar are known for a few things - as the top computer-based animation company, for their work in developing the technology further always, and of course for their incredibly original ideas. Monsters Inc, to me when I first saw it, was simply brilliant. The story, the voice cast, the breakthrough animation (just look at that fur) makes this one of Pixar's best and my favourites.

1. Infernal Affairs (2003)

This is probably a bit of an unexpected choice. Infernal Affairs is the story of two men - one a cop, and one a member of the triads, who both are sent undercover into the other's organisation. The film follows both main characters - Ming (a triad in the police) and Yan (an undercover cop) as the pressure of undercover life gets too much. It's an emotional story, filled with will-he-wont-he tension and brings in some twists and turns to keep you guessing. It had two sequels, and I could even be as bold as to say the second was better than the first - going more for character development (especially in the side characters), but the first one is what got the ball rolling. It was remade as the Departed, in 2006, which is a fine film, but really, the original trumps it any day.

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I don't have a great deal of energy in me to do any work, and I'm sitting at my desk, watching Supernatural of all things (Wilson's making me watch it).

So in the spirit of having nothing else to do, except for wait for renders to finish their job, I'm going to rattle off a list of my top 20 films of all time. Well, the first ten anyway. I'll do the other when I get back from London or something in a couple of days.

Some of these films aren't the best, at least they weren't critically, but this is a fully personal list. You may agree, or not. I've actually

Anyway - here we are:

20. The Third Man (1949)

It's one of the quintessential noir films ever made, filled with mystery, twists and some stunning expressionist cinematography. The plot is simple enough - a man, Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten) is invited to Vienna by his friend Harry Lime (Orson Welles), only he discovers upon arrival that Lime is dead, and that things aren't quite as they're laid out for him. It's a tense, gripping film with rich characters and some amazing acting by everyone

19. Shaun of the Dead (2004)

Shaun of the Dead is Edgar Wright's comedy about a group of friends trying to survive in a zombie-infested London. With Simon Pegg and Nick Frost in the lead roles, the acting is superb, the story is simple but well-written, but the true strength of the film comes in its many levels of comedy, jokes you never spotted the previous time, and its ability to make you laugh, no matter how many times you see it.

18. North by Northwest (1959)

Alfred Hitchcock is often considered to be one of the greatest film directors of all time. And it's no surprise why. He is the master of suspense and shock, and North by Northwest is one of the best examples of this. Cary Grant plays Thornhill, a man mistaken as a government agent by a group of foreign spies, who pursue him across the country. What else can I say? It's wonderfully shot, perfectly acted and incredibly intense. One of Hitchcock's finest films.

17.Stardust (2007)

Director Matthew Vaughn teamed up with an incredible cast to make this adaptation of Neil Gaiman's graphic novel about a boy who travels to the fantasy land beyond his village to retrieve a fallen star in exchange for his beloved's hand in marriage. The film is stylish and charming, mixing in the classic fairytale themes with the traditional Neil Gaiman touch.

16. The Good, The Bad, The Weird (2008)

I could really put any of Kim Ji Woon's films on this list. His films range in style and genre but his directorial sense stays strong throughout. The Good, the Bad, the Weird went on because it's the one I found to have the most rewatchability. The premise is a take on the the Good, the Bad and the Ugly storyline, but it's a strong enough story with enough great jokes, action scenes and well-written characters to stand strong by itself.

15. Rear Window (1954)

One of my favourite things about Rear Window was its claustrophobic feel. Much like his earlier film Rope, the majority of the action (if it can be called that) takes place within James Stewart's character's apartment. Rear Window encompasses everything that Hitchcock does best and manages to keep the audience guessing throughout.

14. Batman Returns (1992)

I think I like this film more than Burton's original film. It's a much smoother, better thought-out film. Now that Batman has been established, as has the tone of the films, there's a lot more room to play around with the characters. Everyone in the cast does an amazing job, especially the villains - played by Danny DeVito, Michelle Pfieffer and Christopher Walken. It's dark, moody but keeps its sense of humour throughout.

13. Star Wars (1977)

Star Wars, the most famous eastern-inspired sci-fi western, has infinite rewatchability. You might know the plot by heart. You might know every line by heart, but there's something about Star Wars - maybe it's the light-heartedness of the whole thing, or its incredible sense of adventure, or simply the film's ability, despite it's now-dated graphics, to suck you right into a galaxy far, far away.

12. Requiem for a Dream (2000)

Requiem for a Dream, to anyone who hasn't seen it, can be summed up in one word: intense. It follows the lives of four individuals and their search for happiness, only the road to happiness is paved with addiction - to drugs, food, money, and for fear of sounding ridiculous, each other - and their lives take nightmarish downwards spirals because of it. It's not for the faint-hearted, but it's a masterpiece of human emotion and with a killer score from Clint Mansell, it's a firm favourite of mine.

11. Lost in Translation (2003)

Lastly, for this half anyway, Lost in Translation. Directed by Sofia Coppola, this is arguably her best film. It's about two people - played wonderfully by Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson - who, while in Tokyo, meet and become friends. Lost in Translation is a beautiful story about loneliness in a strange place and the way the two characters grow around each other is marvelous. The thing about the film I love the most is how everyone can relate to these characters. At the end of the film, Murray says something to Johansson, but we don't get to hear it. And why should we? I think they deserve their privacy

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And that's it, for the moment. I'll do my top 10 films when I get back. And maybe something Toil and Trouble based again soon. I'm getting through some of the actual finished animation now. With any luck, I might actually get it done.

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I thought, for the sake of something other to do than animatics and Dragon Age: Origins, I would list out my top ten favourite directors working today, and why.

So here we go:

10. Hayao Miyazaki

(Spirited Away/Porco Rosso/Princess Mononoke)

A no-brainer. One of the top people working in animation currently, founder of Studio Ghibli (and director of some of its top films), there's something about his storytelling skills and his art style that evoke beauty which is so rarely seen in animated features these days. What Miyazaki did was show to mainstream Western audiences, whose grasp of anime was mostly Dragonball and Pokemon, what Japanese animation was all about.

9. 'Beat' Takeshi Kitano

(Hana-bi/Zatoichi/Takeshis)

My first of a few fairly unknown directors, here he is mostly known for the namesake (and star) of the 80s game show Takeshi's Castle and as the cold, heartless Kitano in Battle Royale. A comedian by nature, he started venturing into drama in his directing career and, a perfectionist, likes to write, direct, star in and edit all his films. Mixing in the ruthlessly violent, the shockingly funny and the straight-up dramatic, Takeshi Kitano knows how to properly tell a story.

8. Edgar Wright

(Shaun of the Dead/Hot Fuzz/Scott Pilgrim)

If any of you have seen Hot Fuzz or Shaun of the Dead more than once, you'll know what it is about Edgar Wright that makes him such a brilliant director. Not only is the writing sharp, but the cinematography and the attention to detail is like nothing I've ever seen. A second viewing of his films reveals a whole new wave of jokes you didn't get the first time around, as does the third and fourth viewings. Combine this with some excellent storytelling and highly likable characters and you have films you'll want to watch over and over.

7. John Lasseter

(Toy Story/A Bug's Life/Toy Story 2)

The man who arguably saved Disney from becoming a laughing stock, Lasseter is best known as co-founder of computer animation giant Pixar. Almost comparable to Walt Disney in a lot of ways Toy Story was the first fully computer animated film in the same way Snow White was the first traditionally animated one. His directing style is whimsical, highly imagintive and often trying to give life to things which we otherwise wouldn't think of. His films bring you right back to your childhood. After all, who wasn't watching Cars and thinking "this is what I used to do with my Hot Wheels".

6. Ron Clements and John Musker

(Aladdin/The Little Mermaid/The Princess and the Frog)

The men behind making Disney strong again in the 80s and 90s, a time known as the Disney Renaissance, they helped bring back a classic Disney feel to what was otherwise a company on a bit of a downwards spiral, both in the 70s and the early 2000s (I'm looking at you, Emperor's New Groove). Their directing style keeps humour mixed with an almost Hans Christian Anderson-like fairytale feel (The Little Mermaid being an Anderson story, too). The current kings of Western hand-drawn animation, Clements and Musker are top-notch directors.

5. Tim Burton

(Beetlejuice/Edward Scissorhands/Big Fish)

Tim Burton made a name for himself in making films which didn't conform to Hollywood's "standards". It all began with a short he made while working for Disney, called Vincent, about a young boy who believes he's Vincent Price. It was dark, fantastically animated and had a certain creepy style about it, which became Burton's trademark. In recent years, he's tried to appeal to his fanbase as well as the mainstream with some lackluster films like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Alice in Wonderland, but his genius lies in his ability to mix humour and horror, and make the grotesque beautiful.

4. John Woo

(Mission: Impossible II/A Better Tomorrow/The Killer)

There's nobody in the world who can direct an action film quite like John Woo. Here and there he delivers the odd badly written movie, or badly acted, but there's something that doesn't quite falter: the way he delivers his action sequences. I've seen a tonne of beautifully choreographed sword fight or martial arts films, but when it comes to a shoot-out, many films are lost in a hail of bullets and explosions. Woo's action scene are like ballets in comparison, and they're told with such passion, too. And it's not just gun fights. Red Cliff features some of the most impressive fights I've seen in ages. And while some of his films have been a bit hit-and-miss, they never lack in the entertainment department, making his "heroic bloodshed" films absolute treats.

3. Christopher Nolan

(The Dark Knight/Inception/The Prestige)

Nolan shot to fame after having successfully rebooted the Batman franchise from a blubbering mess into a series of dark, and highly well-made films. His films always find a way to tell stories in new light (see Memento, for example), all the while focusing intently on character development. There's never a weak character in a Nolan film, and that's what makes them so fascinating. There's always great tension within, and with some fantastic screenplays from his brother, his films have always managed to entertain and amaze me.

2. Takashi Miike

(Ichi the Killer/Zebraman/Chakushin Ari: One Missed Call)

I put Miike high (or rather, low) on the list mainly because of how many times I've been surprised, taken aback or simply baffled by what I was watching. He's known in the West mainly for his over-the-top portrayals of violence and disturbing horrors (see Ichi the Killer or Audition), but the fact is there's just so much more to him. His films go from the slow and well-thought out dramas (Rainy Dog, the Bird People in China) to the outright insane (The Happiness of the Katakuris, Gozu). An incredibly prolific director, he churned out a total of 15 films over 2001 and 2002. It's no doubt that some of them are gonna be pretty bad, but for the most part, Miike has shown that he is by no means a one trick dog.

1. Kim Ji-Woon

(A Tale of Two Sisters/The Quiet Family/A Bittersweet Life)

My favourite director still working today. Why? Well, there's just something about all of his films that I've absolutely adored. A bit like Miike (but considerably more sane) he's shown that he can work with all kinds of genres. Compare A Tale of Two Sisters, which was a dark, creepy horror to the Good, the Bad, the Weird - an epic-scale wacky comedy, all of which he manages to handle with ease. His style is focused on cinematography, and it definitely shows; his films all have a distinct visual style about them which bring you right in the mood of the film. Combine this with some very well crafted storytelling and a star-studded cast and you have yourself some of the best films I've ever seen.

And that's it. My list of top ten film directors. And it has taken an ass-long time. With all this inspiration, I think I could get back to work now

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