The Top 100 Project

Sense And Sensibility is Ang Lee's take on an English tale of manners, money and matrimony. The Taiwanese director was an outsider to this world, obviously, but he also brought a formality and desperate longing to this project. Lead actress Emma Thompson won an Oscar for her adaptation of Jane Austen's classic novel. And it's a good role, doing the buttoned-down thing she did so well back in the '90s. She's a funny woman who made her name being serious. Kate Winslet, Alan Rickman and Hugh Grant are all very good too, but the men take a back seat to the sisters in this movie about (subtle) feminism. So rescue the woman you adore while on a horse when she gets caught in the rain and then try to love enough for two as our 669th episode has the Ellises seeing what the deal is with the Dashwoods and their men in Sense And Sensibility. Well, Actually: at the 11:55 mark, it should be Elizabeth "Spriggs" plural, not "Sprigg" singular. Also, the director of the oft-mentioned 1994 Little Women was Gillian Armstrong. Th

After more than 12 years of doing this podcast, it was high time for us to review something by French director Jean-Pierre Melville. Le Samourai was his (and his star, Alain Delon's) homage to '40s Hollywood noir. This crime classic is about Delon's passive hitman, who's either too cool for school...or just doesn't care. In this one-Ryan show, the talk gets into  relating to Delon's loner mindset and solo lifestyle, although not so much his sparse apartment, his constant smoking or his work as a contract killer. Or having a chirpie bird for a roommate. The ending is puzzling...but it might be more understandable when you remember the code of an actual samurai. So put on your white gloves, pull out your heater and prepare for episode #668 of Have You Ever Seen. Melville's film didn't predate the French New Wave, but he himself did. He, Godard, Truffaut, all of 'em could no doubt have been even more prolific back in those days if they had Sparkplug Coffee. Use our "HYES" promo code and you will be able to benef

On Mission: Impossible weekend, it seemed right for Have You Ever Seen to feature a flick all about an impossible mission to climb a cliff, get inside a Greek island fortress and blow up some enormous German blasters. Our 667th episode talks about that trek, but also about revenge and wartime honour. Gregory Peck, Anthony Quinn and David Niven lead a fine cast in The Guns Of Navarone, as they and their team try to save the lives of 2000 men. The actors are skillfully guided with tension and even humour by J. Lee Thompson, who was on the roll of his life directing Cape Fear the year after he made this Oscar-winning WWII film. So to celebrate America’s Memorial Day, enjoy Ryan's monologue about The Magnificent Six killing a whole whack of Nazis. Well, Actually: at the 38:30 mark, "then became a Russian citizen" should have been "then became a BRITISH citizen". Also, David Niven was one of the Oscar hosts in 1974 when he was onstage during the streaker’s appearance (Elizabeth Taylor actually presented Best Pi

Wait, Ryan O'Neal again?! Yup! What's Up, Doc is our 3rd O'Neal movie this year. And they all came out in the '70s, which was not just the man's peak. That was director Peter Bogdanovich's most-productive time in Hollywood too. They and the Bugs Bunny-ish Barbra Streisand (who's, of course, still a massive star over 50 years later) came up with a screwball comedy that pays homage to the old masters like Capra, Hawks and Keaton. There are funny misunderstandings, hijinks, 4 people somehow have the exact same bag. And for such a cartoonish movie, the stunts are some of the best ever, especially in the big car chase. The espionage stuff might not work, yet this remains a lot of fun. So dial up episode #666 (insert demonic voice) of Have You Ever Seen on this Victoria Day as we dig into What's Up, Doc. Well, Actually: this film was 3rd at the '72 domestic box office and The Poseidon Adventure was 2nd. Also, Looney Tunes' Casablanca parody, "Carrotblanca", was released in the mid-'90s, not the mid-'40s. Peruse the

Ida Lupino was an actor in some classic movies for close to 50 years, but she directed a few classic thrillers in the '50s too. The Hitch-Hiker is her crowing achievement, with William Tallman doing a wonderfully sinister job in the titular role. He's one of the underrated great villains in cinema history. Edmond O'Brien & Frank Lovejoy are the men he kidnaps and forces them to drive him to Mexico. Only, they don't get to be nearly as interesting. In this one-man show, Ryan reads perhaps more into the hitch-hiker's psychology and his hostage's PTSD than Lupino intended...but this DOES appear to be a deeper film than many have given it credit for. So jump in the back seat and menace the front-seaters as this 665th dose of Have You Ever Seen movie-reviewing looks into the goings on in The Hitch-Hiker. Check out our sponsor, Sparkplug Coffee. They give our listeners a onetime 20% savings if they use our "HYES" promo code. So the website is "sparkplug.coffee/hyes". Subscribe to our show in your podcast app, b

Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin tells a very complete story in only about 70 minutes. The black-and-white, silent flick is based on a real-life mutiny aboard a ship in the waters of the Black Sea near Ukraine. Of course, the incredibly influential Odessa Steps sequence is what people remember best...and it’s the extremely violent result of this "war" against your own oppressive rulers. Eisenstein made one of the greatest Russian motion pictures ever here, but the storytelling and modern-feeling technical achievements (especially the editing) make this far more than just a old Communist propaganda film. So don't just hang out in your hammock below-deck and starve on a government boat. No, rise up, comrades, and devour the 664th edition of Have You Ever Seen, the one about Battleship Potemkin. Canadians and Americans (not Russian or Ukrainian residents, unfortunately) can order Sparkplug Coffee and get a onetime 20% discount. Use our "HYES" promo code to achieve that. The website is "sparkplug.coffee/

Nearly every Stanley Kubrick film has been featured on Have You Ever Seen now that we're spending about an hour reviewing Barry Lyndon. In this 663rd episode, we analyze the gold-digging, underwhelming dueler played by Ryan O'Neal, an Irish soldier (turned gambler) who also turns out to be a terrible stepfather. Even though he's good as the opportunistic Redmond Barry, he's outshone by Patrick Magee, Steven Berkoff and particularly Leon Vitali as his lordly stepson. Barry Lyndon is one of the best-looking movies of 'em all, so it appropriately won Oscars for the look and the design. The pace is deliberate and the story is a very blow burn in this episodic epic. So enjoy Cinco de Mayo by hearing us throw it back and forth about these ordinary people in extraordinary times as we play some games of chance with Barry Lyndon. Sparkplug Coffee sponsors Have You Ever Seen. The website is "sparkplug.coffee/hyes". Use that "HYES" promo code and enjoy a onetime 20% discount. Subscribe to our channel in your app, but al

Clarence Brown's family classic National Velvet is what's on tap in the 662nd edition of Have You Ever Seen. A pre-teen, horse-obsessed Elizabeth Taylor sheds tears from time to time, but she's remarkably optimistic all the same, especially about her beloved equine chum, "The Pie".  Anne Revere won an Oscar for playing Taylor's preternaturally calm mom, while top-billed Mickey Rooney was starting to grow out of his annoying "I'm always overdoing it" phase. He's actually pretty good in this, playing a young loner with horse PTSD. They're the main players in this classic sports film, even if the horse-training and the steeplechase sequence at the end represent all the sportiness. So don't be a screechy kid brother. Just walk down an English road to make some friends while you ear up Ryan's one-man-show about the emotionally satisfying National Velvet. Our sponsor: Sparkplug Coffee. Their website: "sparkplug.coffee/hyes". Their offer: a onetime 20% discount if you use our "HYES" promo code. Subscribe to our chan

To put a finishing touch on this year's Revenge Month, our 661st episode has some fun with Colin Higgins' feminist comedy where a mediocre man gets major comeuppance for treating the women in his office so badly. If only Nine To Five was as funny as its reputation says it is. The tonal problems are partly because this started out as a serious look at how hard women have it in the workplace. Flawed or not, we DID enjoy the flick. It helps that Higgins knows how to tell a good story and his 3 stars make a great team. Jane Fonda was at her peak of stardom in this period (although she gave herself the worst role of the 3 main characters), while Lily Tomlin is the ultra-competent heart of the group. It's Dolly Parton's charm and effervescence that steal the movie though. So don't poison your boss' coffee, even if he IS a sexist, lying, egotistical, hypocritical bigot. Just dial up Have You Ever Seen's back-and-forth about Nine To Five. Well, Actually: at the 15:40 mark, the line "Roz imagines" should have been

As Easter weekend comes to an end, Ryan posts a solo show about another intense blood-feud here in Revenge Month. Leonardo DiCaprio went through hell and finally won his Oscar while auteur Alejandro G. Iñárritu won his 4th in 2 years for their work on The Revenant, a violent, gory, grueling and beautifully-photographed survival story. There's a running theme of racism against Native Americans in here too, who are on their own vengeance quest. Tom Hardy is fantastic as Leo's antagonist, who earns the enmity of a man nearly killed by a bear after he kills that man's son. And the hunt is on. So grab your musket & your knife and eat some raw fish & even some raw liver as this lengthy monologue about The Revenant represents Have You Ever Seen #660. We're sponsored by Sparkplug Coffee. They offer our listeners a 20% discount. Our "HYES" promo code will achieve that. The website is "sparkplug.coffee/hyes". Rate and review our podcast in your favourite app (subscribe too), but also seek us out on YouTube ("@h

Posting a podcast about Munich on Easter Weekend wasn't a deliberately provocative choice. Posting this mostly-effective "you'll pay for that" procedural during Revenge Month WAS intentional. Episode #659 of Have You Ever Seen is a Ryan monologue about Palestinian terrorists kidnapping and then assassinating Jewish athletes at the 1972 Olympics...and then the Israelis siccing a hit squad on those who planned it. Upbeat blockbuster filmmaker Steven Spielberg isn't squeamish about showing viciousness and bloodshed when he makes an Important Movie. Trouble is, he gets so heavy-handed in the last half-hour, as Eric Bana struggles with the moral ramifications (and blowback) after what he & his team have done. A pre-stardom Daniel Craig is part of that team, as are Geoffrey Rush & Ciaran Hinds. There's no quibble with their performances. It's just the 9/11 parallels and the politics of the unending conflict in the Middle East that repeatedly smack you in the face. In any case, there's much to discuss about

We reach the mid-point of Revenge Month with a French crime classic that features one of the greatest heist scenes in cinema history. Which has arguably never been topped, with its use of clever thieving techniques, intricate teamwork between the 4 main characters…and silence. Rififi is violent, many people die, it even has a drug addict and it has that brilliant break-in sequence where our "heroes" steal a lot of diamonds. Jules Dassin had been blacklisted by Hollywood during the Red Scare nonsense in the '50s, so he went over to Europe and directed Jean Servais and many (not well-known) international actors. There's a lot going on here, especially the subtext about Dassin's treatment by Hollywood, but the centerpiece break-in is the highlight. So get your handgun locked & loaded to get revenge on the gangster who made it personal as we post episode #658 of Have You Ever Seen, a back-and-forth about Rififi. Sparkplug Coffee sponsors this podcast. Go to "sparkplug.coffee/hyes" and then use our "HYES" pr

The blood-soaked Blood Simple represents the debuts of not only auteurs Joel & Ethan Coen, but also their star (and Joel's future wife) Frances McDormand. They don't seem to agree though with the widely-shared view that their first film was an expertly-plotted noir. It's one of their best movies, in fact. When the Coen Brothers go down to Texas to shoot a nihilistic movie about death and contract killings, classics like this and No Country For Old Men result. And considering it was an independent production without any stars, it was quite a hit. The brilliant highlight sequence is John Getz covering up what he thinks is the murder of Dan Hedaya, the man he's cuckolded. So enjoy episode #2 in Revenge Month and our 657th episode overall as we, yes ARE having a good time in our yellow suit and hat while we review Blood Simple. Well, Actually: the Sundance film festival (the "Utah/US Film Festival" as it was known at first) got its start in 1978, while the Toronto International Film Festival got its start in

Have You Ever Seen's 656th podcast begins our 3rd (Annual, probably?) Revenge Month and Oldboy's plot o' vengeance is particularly sinister. Park Chan-wook's sadistic South Korean thriller has several unforgettable moments, including the one-take hallway hammer fight and the shocking, blood-soaked climax. Choi Min-sik is quite terrific in the lead role, an ordinary man who's forced to live in the solitude of a private prison for 15 years, not even knowing why. He loses his freedom, his family and nearly his mind. Once he's unexpectedly let out, he goes on a vicious rampage as he tries to figure out who locked him up and why...only to finally learn the reason in an "I never saw THAT coming" twist. So get your fried dumplings and live octopus ready to eat while you also try to avoid various forms of mouth trauma as Ryan solos on a podcast about Oldboy. Sparkplug Coffee is our sponsor. The website is "sparkplug.coffee/hyes". Using that "HYES" discount code will result in a onetime savings of 20%. Rate and review

Play your flame guitar as you cue up the 655th edition of Have You Ever Seen to hear us jaw about the loner known as Max Rockatansky, but stay for the Imperator known as Furiosa. George Miller's 6-time Oscar-winner was the 4th in a series that already featured one of the greatest stunt movies ever made (The Road Warrior), but then he and his team managed to easily top it with Fury Road. And just as it was with the earlier pre-CGI films, most of the remarkable and dangerous stuff was done practically! Tom Hardy is solid casting in taking over the role that made Mad Mel Gibson a star, but this movie belongs to Charlize Theron as Furiosa. She, Zoe Kravitz, Riley Keough and the other fantastic female characters are the standouts in a surprisingly feminist film. So drive out, then drive back home as we head over to Australia (well, Namibia, really) and wrap up another Oscar Month with a detailed chat about Mad Max: Fury Road. Well, Actually: we said that it's unlikely Miller will get to make more films in this

Note: this episode might be listed as "E" on your app, but there's no bad language in this one. Tomorrow will mark the beginning of our 13th year of podcasting, so we end #12 with another one-Ryan show...this time about a 7-time Oscar-winner. Along with a slew of technical awards, Out Of Africa won Best Picture and Sydney Pollack was rewarded for his direction. His romantic epic, with all those scenic vistas, was also a mega-hit. Yet not everyone loved the story about Karen Blixen, partly because it's really long and arguably too slow. It's also easy to be bothered that Kenyans & their land are just a backdrop for a love triangle between 3 white people. Coffee farmer Meryl Streep and great white hunter Robert Redford DO sell the love in this "based on real events" flick...even if he doesn't feel as authentic as she does. So enjoy the early days of spring listening to the 654th edition of Have You Ever Seen, the one about Out Of Africa. Well, Actually: to be very anal about this, the Ellis' honeymoon was o

Many boxing movies have surpassed what Robert Wise and Paul Newman brought to the screen in Somebody Up There Likes Me, but their biopic DID win 2 technical Oscars. Newman is not at his best playing Rocky Graziano, an angry young delinquent who turned a life spent in various forms of trouble into a championship boxing career. He was still new to movies though and wasn't to be laconic and cool as he get to be in other roles. This was clearly a huge influence on the most-famous fictional boxer, Sly Stallone's Rocky Balboa. Ryan had fun with that comparison in this solo show, which is the 653rd edition of Have You Ever Seen. So step into the ring and take advantage of your hate as we ring in the spring this Oscar Month with a monologue about Somebody Up There Likes Me. Well, Actually: the content in the 3rd trivia question is inaccurate: Newman had 10 Oscar nominations in total, 9 for acting and 1 for producing (plus, Denzel Washington has 10 in total too because he was nominated for producing Fences). Also, to

It’s St. Patrick's Day, so Have You Ever Seen #652 gets into an IRA frame of mind, puts on some green and talks about John Ford's The Informer. The legendary director and leading man Victor McLaglen won Oscars, but the set-bound film itself lost out to the epic grandeur of Mutiny On The Bounty for Best Picture. McLaglen plays a pathetic liar who betrays and rats out a fellow Irishman to British authorities...and deals with his guilt (badly) by blowing all his blood money as soon as possible. So pour a Guinness, boyos & girlos and prepare for another Ryan monologue here in Oscar Month as the 90-year-old The Informer is on deck. Pour some Irish whiskey into your Sparkplug Coffee. Or don't. Have You Ever Seen listeners can use our "HYES" promo code and get a 20% discount. The website if "sparkplug.coffee/hyes". Don't forget to rate this podcast and write a review. And subscribe! Feeding back to us can be achieved in a number of ways. Try email: haveyoueverseenpodcast@gmail.com. Try Bluesky: "ryan-ellis"

Oscar Month continues! Bev's couple of weeks off begins! She's not here to talk about The King's Speech, which is a classy movie that ended up being a huge hit, even though it's about a group of people that Ryan has never liked: the royals? A monarchy? In a democracy? Yet, credit where it's due, Tom Hooper does an admirable job of making a non-fan care about the king of England and his enunciation---and also Nazi-related---troubles. Colin Firth won gold for his work as the stuttering Prince Albert/King George VI who gets a job he never wanted while his supportive wife (Helena Bonham Carter) and unorthodox speech therapist (Geoffrey Rush) are just about his only support system. The King's Speech is often quite touching and it's even inspirational, showing a privileged man have to deal with confidence issues, loneliness, his uncaring fellow royals and duty to his country. So don't storm off in anger. Just tune into the 651st episode of Have You Ever Seen and listen to one man's speech...about a speech. Well, Ac

All The King's Men is a political movie, so Ryan decided to get very political in this one-man show. In fact, warning: don't listen to the 650th edition of Have You Ever Seen if you're a Trump supporter...because he gets lambasted. As for the movie in question, it's a good one. A man who saw into the future, Robert Rossen, writes and directs a film that's effective at showing a cruel and corrupt governor does business...and how that's connected to the wanton acts of the cruel and corrupt current president. Broderick Crawford plays Huey Long-esque Willie Stark, who's a performer first and foremost, then proves to be a gigantic phony. Rossen's film is complicated though because the man who takes dirty money uses it to build things the state needs. So strap in tight for an episode all about All The King's Men, but also often about the certain loathsome individual who must have seen this and taken notes. Well, Actually: the Danny DeVito line in Heist is "everybody needs money", not "everybody loves money". Also,