“To a cop the explanation’s always simple. There’s no mystery to the street, no arch criminal behind it all. If you find a body and you think his brother did it, you’re gonna find out you’re right.”
Verbal Kint

I love movies, however, having read books my whole life I require something substantial (or just very different) from them. I love when the guy doesn’t get the girl, when the bad guy escapes and the hero dies. I hate any movie that I can figure out the entire plot within the first 10 minutes, naturally I love any movie that throws me for a loop and gives me something I never expected. Here is a list of some of my favorites.

The Usual Suspects
Obvious out of the way first. I love this film and if you’ve seen it you know why…if you haven’t, I’ll pray for you tonight. I won’t reveal anything, but the fact that I didn’t know what the deal was until 10 seconds before the credits rolled make this great. Not to mention all the great acting.

The Shootist
I’m a big fan of westerns and this is in my top 15. An famous gunfighter now an old man with cancer and two months to live goes to stay at a boarding house and live out his days. His reputation precedes him and everyone elses reaction changes the dynamic of his death, until he makes up his mind to go out in a blaze. Why do I like it so much? You know the Hero is going to die, how he goes and all that leads up to it makes it good. Side note: this was John Waynes last movie and during it’s shooting he was dying of lung cancer.

The Professional
A killer saves a little girl, then cares for her and eventually seeks revenge for her. The beauty of this is a man who is a total loner and doesn’t even spend the money he makes from his hits just begins to care for this little girl and then takes on a rouge DEA agent to make sure that she can stay safe. Happy ending…depends on your idea of happy…samurai says yes. Gary Oldman is a great villian and I love him in this.

Fallen
A cop and a body switching demon from biblical times. All you need for a good party. Denzel is always good and he plays great in this. Don’t think gore, or horrible scary creatures. Think good acting, good plot, and good ending (at least in my terms).

The Opposite of Sex
This was one of those movies that was on cable in the middle of the day one day when I was home when nothing else was one and I turned out to love it.
A pregnant 16 year old runs away to her gay half-brother and lover. Absconds with (now semi-reformed) gay lover and previous lovers ashes. Leaving confusion, legal charges and all sorts of maddness behind. This was a good movie and I can’t even begin to get into the plot in a real way, just see it.

Hero
Many people didn’t really like this movie and I loved it. A man explains to the strongest warlord how he defeated infamous assasins that had been plotting against his life. This is like a combination of Roshomon and The Usual Suspects. I love the ending. There is nothing like when someone realizes that their perspective was tainted by a lack of the full picture. Let’s just say Hero’s become sinners and villans become what is best for everyone.

The Matrix
For a moment forget that they had real trouble ending the series out. Forget that after a while it became a horrible grouping of philosophical queries and it ended in rather unspectacular fashion. The first installment took me. The trailers and everything I read about gave no clue as to what was coming in this one. When Neo found out I found out and I like movies like that. Despite the fact that the storage and caboose dragged it down, the engine on this trilogy was very strong. I actually think the first was so good that the follow-ups would never have matched up to it.

Any suggestions?