"To survive a war, you gotta become war." So it goes in Rambo: First Blood Part II. Sylvester Stallone has never been more thrilling as he was in this film. It's the role that made him a worldwide icon. My favorite line of the movie is on the definition of expendable: "It's like someone invites you to a party and you don't show up. It doesn't really matter."

Rocky II is a phenomenal boxing movie. Apollo Creed is a great champion. Rocky Balboa was in the match of his career with him, and he showed heart by winning it. The training montage is a can't-beat when Rocky ran up the steps with the children at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

The Godfather Part II picks up where the original left off. Al Pacino continues the rise of Michael Corleone. Robert De Niro makes things interesting in the other thread by taking over Marlon Brando's role. John Cazale is more famous in this part than the other one with a classic scene with Al Pacino while Gastone Moschin is excellent as Don Fanucci.

Roots: The Next Generations picks up where Roots leaves off and finishes at a high note. Although there are scores of thespians spread over seven episodes, there are four black standouts: Georg Stanford Brown, Stan Shaw, James Earl Jones, and Al Freeman, Jr. The writing is terrific throughout, and the postscript by Alex Haley is a bonus, reminding everybody the purpose of watching the entire saga.

Clear and Present Danger is by far the best film of the Jack Ryan franchise. The story is so good with different kinds of villains, and the acting, especially by Harrison Ford, Joaquim de Almeida, Miguel Sandoval, Henry "Boom" Czerny, Harris Yulin, and Donald Moffat, is terrific. Speaking of villains, there are not one, two, or three but many of them. Not only are they from the bad side, but they're also from the good side.

Al Pacino once again dominates the film. Andy Garcia is captivating as Vincent Mancini who's a hybrid between Michael and Sonny Corleone and has a powerful scene when his character is christened as the Don. There are many other great scenes such as Vincent and Zasa's spat in Michael's study, the ballroom ambush at Atlantic City, and the assassination attempt on Michael Corleone's life.

The difference of the battle scenes between North and South: Book II and The Blue and the Gray is night and day. There are many extras marching for both sides, and plenty of battles are shown. They have a feel of mega troops going against each other. I like the scene for the First Battle of Bull Run better than the one shown in the other movie. Even it doesn't disappoint by showing the Battle of Gettysburg.

A creative post-apocalyptic action movie, The Road Warrior further solidifies Mel Gibson's reputation as an international superstar. He helps out a small community of settlers in the battle against a roving band of marauders. The stunts are out of the world for 1981, and the fantastic opening and closing scenes are unbeatable as well.

In the quest of the Holy Grail, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is a perfect mix of everything: dialogue, story, subplots, rich characters, and beautiful cinematography. It takes talent to make a movie like that, even on the neo-noir level. Petra, which is located in Jordan, is an amazing sight.

Not as taut or gritty as the original, Aliens is a bit Hollywoodized. However, there's no question as to the suspense level, and it's still a pretty good movie. The biggest difference is the sheer number of aliens. Sigourney Weaver is outstanding once again, and I like the part when she cared about the little girl Newt who's played well by Carrie Henn in her only movie role.

Two scenes are unbelievable: Indiana Jones on the rope bridge and the roller-coaster ride in the mine shaft tunnel. They're always thrilling whenever. Of course, logic is often questionable, but it shouldn't be an issue because the movie offers the most fun anyone can have. The action sequences alone are enough to be described as emotionally exhilarating and visually exciting.

Thomas F. Wilson should be commended for playing multiple roles throughout the trilogy as Biff, Griff, and Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen. It's an impressive job. This sequel is so much better than part two because it's both fresh and original. Nothing is repeated. There's also movie magic that's supplied by Christopher Lloyd. Of course, the filmmakers asked Clint Eastwood for permission to use his name which worked out well.

French Connection II is almost as good as the original even though it was a Best Picture winner. The follow-up is action-packed with the added international flavor. Moreover, the performances are outstanding, and Gene Hackman steals the show, doing some of the best acting of his career. His anguished cry of "Mickey Mantle sucks!" is quite funny. The last thirty minutes is brilliant.

Unusual and perfect for Christmas, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation is a funny picture. There are many memorable moments such as the crash landing on the Christmas tree lot, the sight of a dug-out tree, the stickiness from the sap, the 25,000 twinkle lights plus the drum roll, "What's that sound? You hear it? It's a funny squeaky sound," the damage caused by the squirrel, the burned-down tree, and so on.

Well, well...the vintage Dirty Harry is back. "Inspector, your methods are unconventional to say the least. Oh, you get results. But often, your successes are more costly to this department in terms of expenses and physical destruction than most other men's failures." Sudden Impact is a fantastic policier with a legendary scene that ends with one of the most famous lines ever: "Go ahead. Make my day."

"Two men enter, one man leaves." It's the most famous line of the entire Mad Max franchise. Of all, this one is the most creative, having a Peter Pan slant. It must have taken a lot of work to build up the interior sets and to outfit all of the characters with unique clothes. To go further, they've made each world distinct from each other, and the Thunderdome is the most interesting of them all.

Featuring the best buddy cop pairs of all time, Danny Glover and Mel Gibson with Joe Pesci thrown in the mix, there are a lot of good scenes in Lethal Weapon 2, but the most memorable is the toilet bomb incident. Another is Riggs taking down the stilt house with his truck. Leo Getz opening the car door is very funny.

The Color of Money is a cinematic rarity: two heavyweight actors, movie idols in their own right yet come from different generations, clash with each other before they make a change of the guard. It's a dog-eat-dog world of hustling. What's interesting is, as the mentor-protégé thing goes astray, the former ends up wanting a shot at the latter who in turn denies him his best game.

Patriot Games is a thrilling yarn by Tom Clancy with a new kind of action hero through Jack Ryan. It's a unique American picture with lots of strong UK elements. Sean Bean will forever be remembered for this. Harrison Ford has a great line when he confronted Richard Harris: "I will fucking destroy you." Cromwell was certainly left shaking in his boots...or perhaps not.

Murder on the Orient Express is the one that restarted the cycle of whodunnit pictures, and here comes along Death on the Nile four years later. The true treat of such pictures is an all-star cast which is 28 Oscar nominations with eight wins and one Honorary Oscar among them. It's also hard to go wrong with an Anthony Shaffer screenplay.

Although the child actors don't come back for this and are replaced by their adult counterparts, none of the power is lost. It's still a disturbing picture that's correct on many levels. The key here is the rage and long-lasting psychological damage that's felt by the physically and sexually abused children.

Desperado is the Mexican version of Pulp Fiction with lots of style, interesting characters, and beautiful, action-packed scenes. I remember in 1995 when the film hit theatres, Antonio Banderas, who's at his sexiest, was all the rage and therefore became an instant superstar. The people were asking, "Who is that long, dark-haired Latino?" There are many well-shot scenes that are aesthetically beautiful.

I've seen the second part maybe four times in the past, but what's unbelievable about it is two baseball predictions came true recently. One is the Chicago Cubs won the World Series one year after 2015, ending a 108-year drought. Two is there's now a Miami baseball team which was established in 2012. Thankfully, Jaws 19 will never happen.

The sequel may not be the most sensible picture around, but it lives up to the expectations set by the original. The more cultish the film is, the campier and more weird it becomes. Once again, the cast is outstanding. The biggest winner is John Quade as Cholla the leader of Black Widows. His performance is gold, and he sets the tone of the movie. Although the orangutan looks different, the change doesn't disrupt the flow.

Sequels have a notorious reputation of not matching the consistency of the original, but that's not so in Beverly Hills Cop II. Eddie Murphy is at his vintage best as Axel Foley. The on-screen chemistry between John Ashton and Judge Reinhold along with Eddie Murphy is superb, and they all work together well.

Eddie and the Cruisers II: Eddie Lives! is a better movie than the original. It goes even further to make the first part special by highlighting the important parts to bring more meaning to them. The nice thing is that it explains why Eddie Wilson disappeared and what his motivations were.

The Rocky franchise enjoyed a nice resurgence when Sylvester Stallone came back to reprise his role in Rocky V with John G. Avildsen reclaiming the director chair. The acting is much improved this time with excellent supporting work from Tommy Morrison as Tommy Gunn and Richard Gant as George Washington Duke, an imitation of Don King in the flesh. Unforgettable is the street fight between Rocky and Tommy Gunn.

Death Wish 3 is an absurd, over-the-top, and ridiculous action-packed picture, and I was 100% entertained. It has originality, contains scenes that defy logic, and is fun to watch. When a couple of punks robbed parts of Kersey's car, he pointed out, "It's my car," and then shot them in plain sight before walking away to rejoin the people he's having dinner with. Another comedy gold is when he said, "Chicken's good. I like chicken."

What I like about this is it has a high mix of comedy and action. The weird part is how Jack Travis case feels secondary in the grand scheme of things. Instead, the movie is all about Martin Riggs and Roger Murtaugh having a great time in many random scenes. Hence, they're pretty funny. As a bonus, Joe Pesci and Rene Russo join them for more fun.

The cinematography of Spain's Balearic Islands including Majorca (which is also called Mallorca) is amazing. This time, the Agatha Christie mystery is pretty hard to solve, so when Hercule Poirot explained how the murder happened, it's ingenious. So, kudos to Anthony Shaffer again for penning a clear screenplay.