We’re fascinated by and fear death. We never want this crazy ride to end! To escape is one of the many reasons why we watch movies and to see what someone else’s life is like for awhile, but what happens after the character on screen dies? Usually they are left behind in some room by the hero and they are forgotten, but what happens when the situation isn’t so tidy and convenient? What if you have to hide that body before going on with your life? Or worst yet, you have to pretend that the dead body in your arms is a living, breathing person? There have been several movies that feature actors portraying dead people getting into shenanigans with living people. This list celebrates those actors’ stiff performances. Sorry.

5. That Guy in the Freezer Full of Ice Cream in THE GOONIES (1985) - We all remember that scene. Chunk (Jeff Cohen) has had it with his adventuring buddies. He wants out of the Fratellis’ abandoned restaurant hideout, but just as he’s about to exit he smells… ice cream! He finds a walk-in freezer and proceeds to inventory all the flavors before realizing he’s sharing the tiny, cold room with a body with a bullet hole in its head! Gulp!

4. Benicio Del Toro as Jackie Boy in SIN CITY (2005) - After Miho (Devon Aoki) chops Jackie Boy’s gun hand off with her Samurai sword, he pries his weapon from its dead fingers and takes aim at Miho and fires. Unfortunately, she jammed the barrel, causing the slide to explode and impale itself into Jackie Boy’s forehead! Ouch! The subsequent scene where Dwight (Clive Owen) is driving Jackie’s body to the tar pits and imagining it to still be alive and wheezing is a classic.

3. John Vernon as Curtis Mooney in KILLER KLOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE (1988) - What do you do when you’re the only cop left to watch the station amidst a killer klown outbreak? Well, if you’re Curtis Mooney you leave the phone off the hook, pour some booze into a Styrofoam cup and let the trouble come to you. After being strangled by a blowout noisemaker, Mooney’s body is transformed into a macabre ventriloquist dummy. Shudder! (more…)

I’m no sports fan and movies about sports tend to be only one notch above “chick flicks” in my book. However, when a movie is good, it doesn’t matter what the subject of the movie is. A “chick flick” can be great (see WHEN HARRY MET SALLY… (1989))  and so can sports movies! So here are my favorites:

5.  POINT BREAK (1991) - Why settle for a movie that features one sport when you can have one that features three?!! Surfing, skydiving AND bank robbing! You can’t beat a movie that features a stiff talking Keanu Reeves, a crazy as usual Gary Busey and the late great, cool as always Patrick Swayze! Directed by Kathryn Bigelow whose other badass movies include NEAR DARK (1987) and THE HURT LOCKER (2009).

4. MURDERBALL (2005) – This awesome sports doc features wheelchair rugby or what it’s affectionately called by its players and fans, murderball. Wheelchair rugby is played by quadriplegics who have a thirst for violence, destruction and mayhem. The heated competition between the U.S. and Canadian teams as they head into the 2004 Paralympic Games is on display in this Oscar nominated documentary. Directed by Henry Alex Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro.

3. THE BIG LEBOWSKI (1998) – There’s not much I can say about this film that hasn’t been said already, except that the Coen Brothers’ musical ode to bowling dream sequence alone warrants this movie being on this list and if you don’t get why this should be here, you’re obviously not a golfer. (more…)