In the hundred or so years since film was invented and turned into a multi-billion dollar industry, plenty of ink has been spilled over lists and articles about just who has been the best – the best director, the best actor, the best musician – like humanity can’t get enough out of figuring out the most superior of our own self-importance. The Hollywood awards season seems to last the entire year, with a multitude of industry-based awards shows dominating the blogosphere and newsprint each and every month, culminating in the very pinnacle of cinematic artistic achievement, The Academy Awards. Each year, golden gongs are handed out to those folks judged by others folks to be the best in their category at what they’ve done that year. Whether those awards are warranted or not isn’t the point of this article; here, we’re going to spotlight the very best of the best – the best Actors and Actresses, the best Directors, the best Films, even the best cinematic advances of the Modern Age. What do I mean by Modern Age, you ask. Simple. Hollywood’s boom times of the 30′s and 40′s, at least prior to the War, are known today as the Golden Age, and the three decades after that could be termed the Bronze Age – with a shift into color film, multi-channel stereo and the re-invention of the Hollywood “blockbuster” away from biblical epics and sweeping melodramatic romance. The 80′s, however, when you look at films produced at that time in a reflective mood, represents a shift both artistically and stylistically in the medium of film to such a degree that I think a new “age” of Hollywood could be coined: the Modern Age. An epoch of cinema between 1980 and 2010, 30 years of both massive successes, and epic fails. The Greatest of the Modern Age series attempts to distill the best of the Modern Age into a series of opinion-based lists, and we hope you enjoy (if not disagree with) our work.

In the years since the early 80′s, cinema techniques and technology have come an incredibly long way. Today, we celebrate that advancement by giving you our choices for the top 10 advances in technology and craft for the film format. It’s been tough going, but I think you’ll agree with the majority of our choices. We’ve considered everything from new sound technology, new film formats and even, yes, even the venerable internet, all seeking to influence the way people watch, make and think about film. This Modern Age of Cinema list includes technology developed (or significantly improved) since 1980.

Criteria – The advent of the given technology or film-making craft must improve the cinema-going/film-watching experience. It must also work to improve the ability of people to watch films, be it at the cinema or some other medium.

Click here to discover which inventions are the greatest in cinema in the last 30 years!!!

In the hundred or so years since film was invented and turned into a multi-billion dollar industry, plenty of ink has been spilled over lists and articles about just who has been the best – the best director, the best actor, the best musician – like humanity can’t get enough out of figuring out the most superior of our own self-importance. The Hollywood awards season seems to last the entire year, with a multitude of industry-based awards shows dominating the blogosphere and newsprint each and every month, culminating in the very pinnacle of cinematic artistic achievement, The Academy Awards. Each year, golden gongs are handed out to those folks judged by others folks to be the best in their category at what they’ve done that year. Whether those awards are warranted or not isn’t the point of this article; here, we’re going to spotlight the very best of the best – the best Actors and Actresses, the best Directors, the best Films, even the best cinematic advances of the Modern Age. What do I mean by Modern Age, you ask. Simple. Hollywood’s boom times of the 30′s and 40′s, at least prior to the War, are known today as the Golden Age, and the three decades after that could be termed the Bronze Age – with a shift into color film, multi-channel stereo and the re-invention of the Hollywood “blockbuster” away from biblical epics and sweeping melodramatic romance. The 80′s, however, when you look at films produced at that time in a reflective mood, represents a shift both artistically and stylistically in the medium of film to such a degree that I think a new “age” of Hollywood could be coined: the Modern Age. An epoch of cinema between 1980 and 2010, 30 years of both massive successes, and epic fails. The Greatest of the Modern Age attempts to distill the best of the Modern Age into a series of opinion-based lists, and we hope you enjoy (if not disagree with) our work.

While stars of the bygone era, names like Shirley Temple, Burt Lancaster, Clark Gable, Rita Hayworth and others may have faded from the forefront of our social conscience, due mainly to the passing of time and the innocence of youth, a youth more obsessed with Justin Bieber than James Dean, the stars of the modern era have, and can, reach a global audience unlike any in history before now. Whereas Hollywood of the 30′s seemed like a fairytale time by today’s standards, nowadays, stars run their own shows and have such a social presence thanks to online media and saturation TV coverage, it’s impossible to not see them every day. Which begs the question: if the stars of today had lived back in the heyday of Hollywood, alongside the greats of cinema, who would be the biggest and the best? It’s like equating apples and oranges, I know, but I wanted to take a chance and try and sift through the smorgasbord of superstars getting about today and put together a definitive list of the ten best actors and actresses living today. I realize it’s a mission fraught with danger and controversy, but here at fernbyfilms.com, we’re all about danger and controversy. Okay, perhaps not exactly all about it, but we don’t mind stoking the flames of fan passion from time to time.

Ergo, we’ve come up with a list of actors which we consider to be the greatest cinema legends since 1980.The criteria for inclusion isn’t that stringent: each actor must have performed in a minimum 5 films since 1980, been nominated for and/or won an Oscar, and have a substantial following from the general public. The majority of their major work must be post-1980.

The Modern Age. The Facebook Age. Call it what you will, it’s a Top 10 list and it’s gonna kick up some mud!

Click here to reveal who our choices for the ten best actors of the modern age are!!!

Can I admit that this Top Ten List wasn’t my idea? Al K Hall, over at The Bar None, gave me the idea to do a list of Top Ten Films They’ll Play In Hell after I posted a comment listing Saw VI as a film that might fit the bill – his review on it can be read here. That said, I had a little think about the idea, and decided it could possibly be done quite easily – the biggest of the crappiest films that would annoy people the most. You see, Hell isn’t a nice place to be. Apparently. According to religious iconography and theology, Hell is a place of eternal damnation, a place where people are tormented and tortured for eternity (quite the punishment for 80 or so years of life up here, right?), often with things that are important to them. Music lovers in hell could be consigned to listening to the complete works of The Firm or even Rick Astley, over and over again. TV fans would be made to watch endless repeats of Survivor, but only showing each episode in reverse order. So the question was asked: what are the top ten films they’d show in Hell to torment the evil film fan? It’s an interesting one, to be sure. Do you throw in a few bad sequels, most of which would be eminently worthy of inclusion, to pad the list out? Sure, there have been bad films down the years, but I think the ones in the list below indicate a special level of torment for which there can only be one result. Films they show in Hell. Cue BWAA HAAA HAAA here!

(more…)

The ground quakes, the sky turns red with fire, animals sleep together in unholy unions…. yes, that fabulous line from Bill Murray in Ghostbusters is about to come true – it’s either an asteroid armageddon or a man made cataclysm; either way, you’re screwed. Hollywood has built an entire industry out of a single genre: the disaster film. From the Irwin Allen produced spectacles of the 60′s, to modern effects-driven escapades, directors have always found new and spectacular ways of destroying humanity. The below list represents but a small portion of those films, a representation we believe covers all from space disasters, natural events and even, dare we say it, the medical problems of a deadly virus spreading through a human population. Some are pretty cheesy, some are quite serious, and all are spectacular in their own glorious way. So strap in, prepare yourself for planetary Armageddon, as we count down the ten biggest and best disaster films of all time!

Logos below link to our review of each film, where possible.

Click here for the apocalypse in all its glory!!

A while back we published our list of the Top 10 CGI Animated films, and I did mention that at some stage I’d have to do a list of the top ten traditionally animated films – films drawn by hand and not made in a computer. Well, here’s that list!

Animated films, in one form or another, have been around practically since the dawn of cinema itself. Early cartoon shorts produced by Walt Disney during the early part of the 20^th century became a staple of cinema life, although it was felt by many that a feature length version of the artform would fail spectacularly – who’d want to go watch a bunch of animated rabbits chasing carrots for an hour and a half? If history has shown us anything, it’s that “they” were spectacularly wrong. Disney, brave enough to have a crack at inventing one of cinema’s most enduring genres, gave us the first feature length animated film based on the fairy story Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs, and it was an instant hit. Ever since, the worlds fascination with animation, particularly in the feature format, has been insatiable. Mention the word “animation” to anybody and they’ll think of either Disney or Bugs Bunny – two iconic juggernauts of the animated landscape who single-handedly dragged animation from being a simplistic kiddies entertainment to a form of cinema with plenty to say to all ages.

While we realize that many of our choices will undoubtedly be controversial, the films below represent the best quality animation across the ages and industries – we’ve tried to keep this list from being a complete rundown of the Disney canon (although there are a few Disney films in here!) and in doing so, uncovered a few gems you may have forgotten about. Enjoy!

(more…)

In what is sure to be a heated debate down in the comments section, I’ve decided to try and put together my Top 10 picks for the best CGI animated films to date. While the hand-drawn vs CGI debate rages still, I’m keen to avoid any major controversy and stick with the computer animated ones today – I’ll pick up the slack with a “traditionally animated” Top 10 later, I think.

Ever since Toy Story, film studios have been falling over themselves to produce slick, funny and flashy computer animated films of varying quality, usually involving normally inanimate objects or anthropomorphic animals and what have you. The cute factor has long since evaporated from the CGI realm, leaving us with simple, often stunningly visual storylines that wrap us up in their narrative often even moreso than their live-action brethren. Enough time has passed, and the quantity of CGI films has exploded thanks to Pixar, DreamWorks, Blue Sky and Disney; each have produced quality films in their time. But which of the multitude of CGI animated bliss ranks among the very best? Which do I think would be included in a time capsule sent into space as a sample of our civilisation for aliens to receive? Here’s my picks…

Logos below link to our reviews where possible…

Click here to read our choices for the Top Ten CGI Animated Films Of All Time!!

There’s always been that old saying: Dying is easy, comedy is hard. Never has that truism been more reflective of the comedy offering here today. Of all the genre in film, it is perhaps comedy that is the most subjective. You either find something hilarious, or you don’t. Other genre, such as action, horror, drama or science fiction, for example, are either good or bad because of their story and characters. Comedy films, in the main, depend on a viewer’s sense of humour, as opposed to their attention span. For everyone who finds Monty Python’s Dead Parrot sketch hilarious, there’s a dozen who don’t. Which is a problem for any list purporting to state which is the best of a bunch of comedy films, because no doubt everyone will disagree with me on the below list in some way. So how to approach such a divisive and potentially controversial issue? Simple. I don’t. Instead of offering some trite platitudes about what I find funny, and what turns me off, I’m just going to offer my own choices on the films I find to be the funniest, most impressive comedy films to come out of Australia. So, without further ado, my choices for the top Aussie comedy films….

(more…)

This Top 10 List has been republished from the original version over at Top 10 Films. You can read the original article here.

There are filmmakers, and then there are people change the film industry forever. Unless you’ve been living in an alternate dimension, or perhaps visiting from some outlying celestial plane, then you should already know the name of Steven Spielberg. Ever since he burst onto the scene in the mid 70′s with Duel, and more successfully with Jaws, audiences have flocked to see his films in droves. Whether it’s the popcorn munching thrills of the latest Indiana Jones adventure, the shocking and saddening wartime bravura of Schindler’s List, or the thunderous bass levels of Jurassic Park, it’s an undeniable fact that for over thirty years Mr Spielberg has been giving film fans the movies they’ve wanted to see. Of course, every director has his darker moments, such as the critically acclaimed but commercially lacklustre Munich, the tribute film to Stanley Kubrick in AI: Artificial Intelligence, where audiences tend to feel that the Master had lost his way; Spielberg isn’t one to be tagged as a specialist director – he’s capable of making all manner of films, much to our eternal delight. In later years he began to take on various producer roles, involved in more production areas of film-making than just directing, and has industry-birthed many a Hollywood director along the way (Joe Dante, Joe Johnson, to name two).

[The below list was written to coincide with Top Ten Films' Steven Spielberg Week, with Dan bringing a slew of articles and lists celebrating the mastery of cinema that Spielberg has achieved. For those if you keen to read more on the bearded one's work, I suggest flicking across to Top Ten Films and checking it out.]

Note: Images below link to reviews on fernbyfilms.com where possible.

(more…)

The unthinkable has happened! You’re trapped on a desert island, the only female company is an enormous mountain gorilla with eyes for your rear-end, and your iPod has about half its battery left. Fortunately, before the plane crashed/boat sank, you’d just had enough time to grab a selection of DVD’s from somewhere (it’s not important) and jump out, a solar powered DVD player and TV with you.  You look down, upon swimming to the beach, only to find yourself holding a selection of utter crap movies. Nearby, a volleyball floats on the waves, bobbing up and down with a weird sarcasm in its motion, and you have the temptation to call it “Wilson”. Throwing your arms up in despair, you realise that instead of choosing good movies to watch, you’ve accidentally raided the “Shit” cupboard, consigning you to spend the rest of your days on an island with films constructed of pure junk. Okay, our premise is shaky at best, but then, this is our Worst Film Week, so accuracy and quality don’t count for much!!!

This is simply a long-winded way of segueing into the content of this article, our Top 10 Worst Films Ever Made. We’ve selected ten of the most dire films, although out list does come with one caveat. The following are films that should have been good, not films that started out shite and stayed there. B-movie rubbish isn’t the order of the day: these are big budget, mainstream turkeys of the highest order, that shouldn’t have ever seen daylight. These are films we’d never want to see, never want to see again, or simply should be banned from display to anyone save terrorists in prison.

Are you brave enough to continue reading? Click here if you think so…

We published a similar list during our first Worst Film Week, so we thought it was about time to bring back the infamous list of the biggest box-office bombs of all time. Based on earnings (or lack thereof) compared to their cost to produce, these films are the biggest wastes of money to date. The below list is adjusted for 2008 dollars, with the most costly being the film that bankrupted Carolco Pictures, Cutthroat Island.

Film	Year	Total cost (production+marketing) (USD)	Worldwide theater gross (USD)	Net losses (USD)	Net losses inflation adjusted (2008 USD)
Cutthroat Island	1995	115,000,000	10,017,322	-104,982,678	-146,947,958
The Alamo	2004	145,000,000	25,819,961	-119,180,039	-134,784,016
The Adventures of Pluto Nash	2002	120,000,000	7,103,973	-112,896,027	-134,396,524
Sahara	2005	241,000,000	119,269,486	-121,730,514	-133,141,605
The 13th Warrior	1999	160,000,000	61,698,899	-98,301,101	-125,887,312
Town & Country	2001	105,000,000	10,372,291	-94,627,709	-115,352,672
Speed Racer	2008	200,000,000	93,945,766	-106,054,234	-106,054,234
Heaven’s Gate	1980	44,000,000*	3,484,331	-40,515,669	-104,542,449
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within	2001	167,000,000	85,131,830	-81,868,170	-99,798,592
Inchon	1982	46,000,000*	5,200,986	-40,799,014	-89,870,942