92: It Came from Outer Space

100: Night of the Living Dead
99: Laura
98: Dead Poets Society
97: Bladerunner
96: The Lost Weekend
95: Oceans 11
94: Star Wars: Episode IV
93: Midnight Run
92: It Came from Outer Space
91: The Right Stuff
90: The Fugitive
89: The French Connection
88: Back To The Future
87: Cast Away
86: Quiz Show
85: The Silence of the Lambs
84: Titanic
83: The Magnificent Seven (?)
82: Rain Man
81: Galaxy Quest
80: Harold and Maude
79: Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead
78: The Day The Earth Stood Still
77: The Apartment
76: The Great Escape
75: The Hustler
74: Ed Wood
73: The Jerk
72: Raiders of the Lost Ark
71: When Harry Met Sally
70: Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan
69: M*A*S*H
68: The Breakfast Club
67: The King and I
66: Gentleman's Agreement (?)
65: The Princess Bride
64: Yellow Submarine
63: Network
62: Mister Roberts
61: Singles
60: Gone With the Wind
59: The Awful Truth
58: Goldfinger
57: The Manchurian Candidate
56: It's a Wonderful Life
55: The Blues Brothers
54: The Remains of the Day
53: Midnight Express
52: Waking Ned Devine
51: Roman Holiday
50: Cool Hand Luke
49: The Taking of Pelham One Two Three
48: The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
47: The Big Sleep
48: On The Waterfront
45: The Hudsucker Proxy
44: Dirty Harry
43: Monty Python and the Holy Grail
42: Finding Nemo
41: Ben Hur
40: Superman
39: The 39 Steps
38: Aliens
37: Men In Black
36: Clerks
35: Harvey
34: Marty
33: The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (?)
32: All About Eve (?)
31: Ferris Bueller's Day Off
30: The Wild Bunch
29: Young Frankenstein
28: The Bridge Over the River Kwai
27: The Usual Suspects
26: North By Northwest
25: Sunset Blvd.
24: Escape From New York
23: The Wizard of Oz
22: Casablanca
21: The Lion in Winter
20: Boogie Nights
19: The Shawshank Redemption
18: Almost Famous
17: The Maltese Falcon
16: The Natural
15: Being John Malcovich
14: The Professionals
13: Laurence of Arabia
12: Ghostbusters
11: This is Spinal Tap
10: Citizen Kane
9: 12 Angry Men
8: Office Space
7: To Kill a Mockingbird
6: Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
5: The Godfather
4: Fargo
3: L.A. Confidential
2: Once Upon a Time In the West
1: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

That's off the top of my head. My wife saw this and filled in a few more, and corrected a few.

On some bit about Penn & Teller on YouTube, someone referred to Teller as Penn's "assistant". Nothing could be further from the truth. They are partners, but when asked, Penn will say that Teller is the much more skilled magician. They have a pose as the "bad boys of magic" and how mainstream magicians hate them, but the truth is they don't reveal any tricks they themselves didn't invent...and it's usually only as a step on the way to the real trick. For instance, they invented a completely new method to do the classic cups and balls. This is a magic trick that may be thousands of years old - and they invent a new way to do it.

I've actually worked with an Edison electrical system - the American Theater in St. Louis, Missouri. The lighting system was DC, with huge knife switches. The stagehands had to throw the switches with a wooden hook, and they had to wear cotton draw-string pants. If they had any metal on their bodies, the charge could jump and fry them.

I know a number of ex-Scientologists, and asked them how they got into the cult in the first place. Some said it was just something to do - at first. Then the cult would work on them to do more courses, and "move up the bridge" (Scientology has their own dictionaries - as they say, if you're allowed to define the words, you can win any debate). Some had even signed the "Billion Year Contract", supposedly binding them to the "Church" of Scientology not just for this life, but for a billion year's worth of reincarnations.

But the Hollywood types get a completely different brand of Scientology. The "Celebrity Center" shown in the film is a former luxury hotel with free drinks, massages and all the ass-kissing any up-and-coming actor could desire. Hubbard specifically told his members to go after "opinion leaders", people with followings who could bring in new recruits or (in Hubbard's charming phrase) "raw meat".

Anyway, the more you learn about Scientology, the more disturbing it is. Everything the critics claim is proven - usually in Hubbard's own handwriting.

I've done plenty of arguing with Scientology members, and this is a completely understandable reaction. They keep repeating the same things over and over, give no evidence that they hear anything you say, and usually have an annoying smirk on their face. I haven't seen the rest of the documentary, but I'll bet there are two or three "Sea Org" members gang-arguing with his, accusing him of various "crimes", repeating nonsensical phrases...basically, these jerks could rile Mahatma Ghandi into a kill frenzy. Look at how he's totally calm in the middle. He's just trying to shout over their constant chatter.

In the world of GATTACA (the name is composed of the letters used in a DNA sequence - GATC), a system to destroy all body debris would be very useful. When DNA alone is used for identity (in the film, guards barely looked at his ID), swiping someone's DNA is as good as swiping their wallet and PINs. DNA analyzers are common in that world, and Ronco probably makes a home device to perform Polymerase Chain Reaction. An incinerator to get rid of all of one's loose hairs and skin flakes would be a very good idea.

This is brilliant! Rather than suing your customers the RIAA way, make the CD an object that is desirable for more than just the music. You can download the songs, but barring the imminent invention of the Star Trek transporter/replicator, you can't download the Thermochrome coated CD. THIS is the way you deal with a problem, with creativity, rather than by turning your fans into criminals.

As the train is coming towards the camera, you can see that there are guard rails on either side, but after the train has passed, no guard rails. They only have rails on bridges. It's clear that the camera operator is under the bridge, on the bank of whatever gap the bridge is over. This is made more obvious by the fact that one direction features grass growing between the ties, while the other direction is clear. The camera is on a stick - most likely a "monopod", a variation of a tripod with only a single telescoping leg. The camera threads onto the top as usual, goober sticks his Mom's camera up through the space between the ties. Raising and spinning the monopod is as easy as raising and spinning a mop.

The most simple explanation is the one most likely to be correct.

This is GENIUS! Brokeback Trek.

Mmmmm....grilled chickenhawk!

One other point, the late Johnny Carson was a magician himself, specializing in slight-of-hand, so he knew the tricks of the trade - though not quite as well as James Randi.

I don't envy the right-wing these days. Defending the indefensible is obviously extremely stressful. We're in a pointless war that benefits nobody other than the defense industry - Halleburton, Blackwater and the hardware suppliers. We're spending trillions so these companies can make billions, and more importantly, wasting thousands of American lives and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives. And we took one of the few secular Muslim countries around and managed to convert it into a cesspit of battling religious sects. Saddam was a vicious tin-pot dictator, but the mess we've created has resulted on more deaths than he ever did (most of the Kurds were slaughtered in the aftermath of Bush Sr's war for rebelling as urged by Bush Sr.).

See? I didn't have to make a single childish personal attack. It helps when the actual facts are on your side.

No, that was a Janet Jackson "wardrobe malfunction" reference.

There was an excellent article in the "New Yorker" about this whole thing, and they talked to FBI agents, and they all said "Torture does not work". The way you get information out of a suspect is by gaining their trust, and appearing to sympathize with them. It doesn't appeal to what one FBI man called "...all that Alpha Male bullshit" but it is effective. All a tortured person will do is repeat what the torturer tells them to say to try to get the torture to stop. It's utterly useless as a way to gain new information.

As H. L. Mencken said: "For every complex problem there is a solution that is simple, neat and wrong."

Where are our "conservative" trolls on this one?