Ten Movies

Ten Best Harrison Ford Movies

We have come to the end of our Harrison Ford season of the Ten Movies podcast and - in so coming - have learned many truths about Mr. Ford, America, and ourselves. We have learned what makes Harrison Ford a relatable everyman in his action hero roles - specifically, an air of befuddlement. The Rock and Jason Statham could never. For the rest of our findings - and for The Definitive Ranking of Harrison Ford's Movies (TM), we encourage you to listen to this episode. Brian and Hemal have enjo...

Blade Runner

Though some of his other roles are more iconic, ‘Blade Runner' is perhaps Harrison Ford's most celebrated movie, at least in the world of genre films. Which, of course, made his career and has since gone on to entirely swallow contemporary cinema. But unlike Star Wars or Indiana Jones, Blade Runner is not a beloved franchise suitable for additional revenue generation in the form of lunchboxes and animated spinoffs. It's dark, claustrophobic, and confusing; a slow-paced futuristic neo-noir ...

Mosquito Coast

This is an odd duck in the Harrison Ford canon. Instead of his usual decent everyman hero, here he plays a deranged libertarian inventor who becomes increasingly unmoored from reality - endangered a young River Phoenix and the rest of his hapless family in the process. Brian and Hemal had mixed feelings about ‘The Mosquito Coast'. It's a movie with a strong point of view. And it's some of the best acting we've seen from Harrison Ford; he really gets inside this largely unlikable character....

The Fugitive

Harrison Ford had it all - a beautiful wife, a flourishing medical career and a big chunky beard. But then a sinister one-armed man murdered his wife and the bumbling cop blamed him and he had no choice but to become The Fugitive. Being The Fugitive is a tough business. He spends most of the movie running around Chicago being resourceful - forging documents, stealing other documents, and looking for the truth. As a result, he ends up not having any reason to talk to any other characters. ...

Cowboys & Aliens

A glossy, modern Hollywood western movie made with extreme attention to detail and featuring beloved A-List stars? And also aliens show up? The premise is solid gold - but the execution, sadly, left much to be desired. In ‘Cowboys & Aliens', released in 2011 and directed by Jon Favreau, Harrison Ford plays an excessively curmudgeonly ranch boss in the old West whose thoroughly unlikeable son is kidnapped by space aliens. Meanwhile, Daniel Craig is wandering around suffering from amnesia an...

Air Force One

Exciting? Certainly. Preposterous? Absolutely. But will you enjoy Harrison Ford as the president of the United States, personally karate-fighting and machine-gunning an array of sneering terrorists who have seized his airplane? If you are a good American, you will. In ‘Air Force One', a 1997 action thriller, a band of evil Russian separatists takes over the president's very special airplane with the help of a treacherous Secret Service agent - including the president and his family.. (If t...

Working Girl

Though we know him more for action and adventure roles, Harrison Ford has been known to try his hand at a romantic comedy or two. Turns out that craggy handsomeness and twinkle-eyed charm are just as useful for wooing the ladies as it is for fending off space aliens. In ‘Working Girl', Melanie Griffith plays a gritty outer-borough striver who decides to perpetrate identity fraud to get ahead in the business world, which she has to do because Sigourney Weaver is a mean boss. Amid these shen...

The Empire Strikes Back

If there's a more iconic Harrison Ford role than Indiana Jones, it's Han Solo. The vest! The blaster! The roguish ne'er-do-well grin! The giant dog sidekick! He is the dashing space pirate by which all future dashing space pirates will be measured - and found wanting. We chose ‘The Empire Strikes Back' over the original; ‘Star Wars' not only because it features more Han Solo, but because the movie hangs more on Ford's portrayal of the character - not just as a hero, but as an oddly contemp...

Witness

If you're keen on unspoken but palpable yearning, ‘Witness' will be right up your alley. If, on the other hand, you enjoy things happening, this may not be the movie for you. In ‘Witness', the first of Harrison Ford's two mid-80s outings with director Peter Weir, our hero plays a gritty Philadelphia detective who has to hole up at a remote farmstead in Amish country and spend most of the movie gazing longingly at Kelly McGillis. He's doing this because Kelly McGillis's impossibly wide-eyed...

Clear & Present Danger

It's hard to think of a more iconic actor than Harrison Ford. And it's equally hard to think of a less interesting character than Jack Ryan, the protagonist of countless espionage thrillers. And yet, America loves Harrison Ford in this role. “How dare YOU, sir?” he barks angrily at the president, who is corrupt and venal. But he still calls him “sir”, because he respects the office. Yeah, that's what this character is like. The plot of ‘Clear & Present Danger' is convoluted and not entirel...

Raiders of the Lost Ark

Is there a more iconic Harrison Ford role than Indiana Jones, the bullwhip-snapping, fedora-clad, globe-trotting archeologist who fights Nazis and pillages artifacts from their cultures of origin, which was the style at the time? It can be difficult to step back from this movie's cultural primacy and just watch it as a movie. When you do, it's an adventuresome thrill ride, impeccably made, as Indy and his pal's zip from one precarious encounter to another. Part of the charm is Harrison Fo...

Harrison Ford (Trailer)

Every season on the Ten Movies podcast we pick one iconic actor and watch ten of their most iconic movies. This season: Harrison Ford. He's charming! He's heroic! He's befuddled! Sometimes he's a rogue, sometimes he's a boy scout - but either way, moms want him and dads want to be him! Join us this season to learn the great truths behind these flippant statements. For advertising opportunities on this show or any of the other shows on our network, contact us at: advertise@underdogsportsnet...

Ranking Tom Cruise's Movies

We have come to the end of the Tom Cruise season of Ten Movies. The legacy of America's Last Great American Movie Star is strong. He is a strange man, but he makes big, old-fashioned movies and he is 100% committed, whether he's leaping out of an exploding helicopter or swanning around turn-of-the-century New Orleans as a bitchy vampire in an off-putting wig. In this final episode of the season, Brian and Hemal discuss the ten movies we watched this season and provide the definitive rankin...

Top Gun: Maverick

Hey, remember Top Gun? It was that 80s movie full of strong-jawed, confident men flying cool fighter jets and having intense but controlled confrontations in their underwear. Well, the executives at Paramount Pictures remember it - along with the hundreds of millions of dollars it made them at the box office. They remember it so well that theyve gone and made it again! Released last year, ‘Top Gun: Maverick returns 36 years later (!) to the story of Pete “Maverick” Mitchell. Once a cocky y...

Jerry Maguire

You complete me. You had me at hello. Show me the money! If you were around during the 90s, you have almost certainly repeated one of the many memorable lines from ‘Jerry Maguire', the beloved rom-com / sports-comedy hybrid from fabled Gen X director Cameron Crowe. If you havent watched ‘Jerry Maguire in a while, be warned that this movie has a lot going on. Theres a whole romantic comedy where Tom Cruise plays an ill-starred sports agent who gets together with the somewhat wilted Renee Ze...

The Mummy

So many iconic Tom Cruise movies one could choose from. Why the 2017 flop ‘The Mummy? Wouldnt it have been better to just watch the Brendan Fraser version for the fifth time? But it has become so rare for Tom Cruise to star in a commercial failure. The man is a certified box office draw - he makes the great big movies America loves. Sadly, though, America did not love ‘The Mummy. Not only did it lose a pile of money and receive - quite justifiably - critical derision, it single-handedly ta...

The Firm

Whether he's running from aliens, infiltrating enemy lairs, or breaking the sound barrier, Tom Cruise's characters are always the best of the best. Here he's a hotshot young attorney, fresh out of law school, the best of the best. And the boutique Memphis law firm that hires him away from Wall Street? It turns out THEY WORK FOR THE MOB! Dang, it. Luckily he sorts it all out, via a highly convoluted plot that requires him to run all over Memphis in his suit, being pursued by an albino assas...

Interview with the Vampire

On the one hand, one regrets the recent, Twilight-era trend towards making cinematic vampires moody and emo, instead of soulless monsters of the terrifying dark. On the other hand, it's possible to lean a little too hard into the horrible - ‘Interview with the Vampire' is a seriously dark movie. Way darker than you'd expect a mid-90s Hollywood blockbuster starring the likes of Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt to be. In the previous Tom Cruise movies we've watched this season the Last Great America...

Minority Report

Two titans of popular American cinema, together for the first time! We are referring, of course, to Max von Sydow and Tim Blake Nelson. Ha! We joke. 'Minority Report', released in 2002, marks the first time that famed director Steven Spielberg worked with Tom Cruise. (Though Max von Sydow and Tim Blake Nelson do appear in the movie, the latter as a delightfully weird future prison warden who plays the pipe organ and spouts aphorisms.) 'Minority Report' concerns itself with the lofty concep...

A Few Good Men

You want the truth? You can't handle the truth! No truth-handler, you. Bah! I deride your truth-handling abilities! It's all here in ‘A Few Good Men', the iconic military legal thriller courtroom drama. Tom Cruise as a cocky young hotshot lawyer! Demi Moore as an idealistic, impassioned career military attorney (who, as the only woman in a world of competent men, is herself strangely incompetent)! Jack Nicholson as the menacing, authoritarian Marine colonel who ordered the Code Red! You'r...

Days of Thunder

If you haven't seen 'Days of Thunder', it's basically the exact plot of 'Top Gun', except all the airplanes are racecars and the story is significantly slower and more ponderous. Tom Cruise leans heavily into type here, playing a cocky young hotshot racecar driver who is (say it with us) the best of the best. With the help of Robert Duvall, the world's greatest pit crew chief, Tom Cruise wins a lot of races and dates Nicole Kidman, but then he gets in a wreck and is sad, but then he's the ...

Mission: Impossible

Is there a more iconic Tom Cruise movie than 'Top Gun'? If there is, it's 'Mission: Impossible', the film that launched his longest-running and best-loved franchise - and steered him from the dramatic roles of the 80s and early 90s to the high-octane action films of his later career. The movie was released in 1996 and directed by Brian De Palma, which struck Hemal and Brian as an odd choice, given the slightly creepy and weirdly intimate tone he brings, a direction very much at odds with t...

Top Gun

If you're a fan of strong-jawed confident men making American military hegemony look fun and awesome, then Top Gun is the movie for you. Most of the time they're flying their cool fighter jets, but sometimes they're having intense but controlled confrontations in their underwear. But whether the boys are in each other's faces making terse statements, playing shirtless volleyball, or going Mach 2 with their hair on fire, one thing is for sure: Maverick is the best of the best. He wins the ...

Trailer: Tom Cruise

Every season the Ten Movies podcast picks one actor and watches ten of their most iconic movies. Join your delightful hosts Hemal and Brian for a brand-new season featuring The Last Great American Movie Star - Tom Cruise himself. The confidence. The boyish charm. The disappointing haircuts. It's all here! This season we will be covering: Top Gun, Mission: Impossible, Days of Thunder, Interview with the Vampire, Minority Report, and so much more. (Cocktail, perhaps?) This season of 10 Mov...

11. Ranking Dwayne Johnson's Movies

Brian and Hemal bid farewell to the Dwayne Johnson season of Ten Movies, sharing the insights they have gleaned into the dark quotidian heart of America during this season's journey. More importantly, they rank the ten movies from this season and disagree strongly on a definitive ordering of The Rock's movies. What did we watch this season? San Andreas, The Scorpion King, Fast Five, Hercules, Red Notice, Moana, Central Intelligence, Jumanji, Rampage, and Hobbs & Shaw. And what did we lear...

10. Hobbs and Shaw

As Dwayne Johnson's cultural appreciation exceeds even his legendary physical might, he breaks free from the confines of the Fast & Furious franchise to team up with Jason Statham and fight the evil robot, Idris Elba. Technically the movie is called 'Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw'. How they exercised enough restraint to avoid adding “Brought to You By Mountain Dew Code Red” we will never know. Of course, the Fast & Furious movies concern the exploits of a band of action heroes who ...

9. Rampage

The Rock doesn't just fight giant monsters in this one, he fights giant monsters and has an enormous monkey for a best friend. Hard to see how it could miss. If you're a Gen Xer, you may remember the beloved arcade game on which 'Rampage' was based. They've added some stuff, but the story is the same - giant mutant animals fighting and smashing up a city. In the movie, Dwayne Johnson plays a primatologist - his usual turn as a strong, silent, confident, supremely competent ex-military guy...

8. Jumanji

The Rock isn't just immense, he's charming and funny, cinematic gifts on display in this family-friendly action-comedy. Worth your time? Hemal and Brian agreed, for once. In "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle," a band of mismatched high school students are sucked into an evil video game, where they inhabit the bodies of Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, and Karen Gillan. Also one of the Jonas Brothers, eventually. Much of the movie's comedy derives from this conceit - a nerdy 17-year-o...

7. Central Intelligence

Teaming up with Kevin Hart, Dwayne Johnson tries his mighty hand at slapstick comedy. Is it an instant classic or a tonally incoherent mess? Brian and Hemal have your answer. Kevin Hart is a boring middle-class accountant and The Rock is a weirdly naive man-child who is also somehow a merciless CIA operative. Because Hart was nice to him in high school, The Rock gets him involved in a confusing high-stakes game of murder and subterfuge. Presumably, someone is trying to sell the top-secret ...

6. Moana

Dwayne Johnsons most beloved role as an animated Polynesian demigod - if, that is, you are a nine-year-old girl or the father of one. But did Hemal like it? In a bit of a departure from our usual fare, this week were looking at an animated film. But for many Americans (ie - nine-year-old girls and their parents), this may very well be the movie The Rock is best known for. Released in 2016 by everyones favorite multinational entertainment conglomerate, the Walt Disney Corporation, Moana tel...

5. Red Notice

A fun-filled romp with beloved A-list stars or a soulless exercise in branded entertainment products? Brian and Hemal discuss - you decide. Released almost as a surprise directly onto Netflix in 2021, Red Notice stars Dwayne Johnson as a heroic federal agent (when does the man NOT play a heroic federal agent?) who is forced to team up with Ryan Reynolds as a smarmy art thief. Together they battle various antagonists - chiefly Gal Gadot, who does a lot of twirling around in a fancy dress an...

4. Hercules

Another Dwayne Johnson movie about swords and wizards? Yeah, but this one is straight-up terrible. This week, Brian and Hemal watch 'Hercules' - and they are not pleased about it. Director Brett Ratner seems to specialize in the lowest common denominator filmmaking, and this is certainly that. 'Hercules' features one inspired act of casting - get the biggest, mightiest actor to play the iconically biggest and mightiest hero of Greek myth - but not much else. An almost cynical exercise in ...

3. Fast Five

Fast Five, released to cheering moviegoers in 2011, is The Rock's debut in the Fast and Furious franchise, where he towers as the only man bigger, balder, and more ethnically ambiguous than Vin Diesel. Engines on, family. The fifth installment in the ever-escalating Fast & Furious franchise was directed by Justin Lin, who presumably understood what was being asked of him. In addition to Dwayne Johnson and Vin Diesel, the movie stars a veritable menagerie of beloved actors, including Paul W...

2. The Scorpion King

Swords! Wizards! Loincloths! Dwayne Johnson's 2002 debut feature film is a D&D game set to a heavy metal soundtrack and if you are a 14-year-old boy, or simply have a taste for the simple yet earnest cultural products that might appeal to a 14-year-old boy, then The Scorpion King may be for you. After watching The Scorpion King, Hemal and Brian (the co-hosts of Ten Movies) both agreed that, whatever its faults, the movie was a romp. Those faults include the movie's dismissive treatment of ...

1. San Andreas

Dwayne Johnson rescues his family while a million buildings fall down. The first episode of the Dwayne Johnson 10 Movies season focuses on the 2015 release, San Andreas. In addition to the Rock, the film stars Carla Gugino, Alexandra Daddario, Ioan Gruffudd, Archie Panjabi, and Paul Giamatti. It was directed by Brad Peyton and written by Carlton Cuse, with Andre Fabrizio and Jeremy Passmore receiving story credit. San Andreas grossed $474 million worldwide. Is it fun? Is it reactionary? ...

Ten Movies: The Rock - Teaser