MY 100 FAVOURITE FILMS (PART TEN). The time has come, the walrus said, to end this frikkin' list already. Now that we're knocking on the door of the 21st century, it's time to see what terrors I've decided are the final 10 of my favourite 100.

• JFK (1991) dir. Oliver Stone -- I wouldn't say I buy where Oliver Stone is coming from but the film itself is a well-coordinated monster which never fails to entertain me. Of course, anything to do with the Kennedy assassination has a built in interest factor, but the sheer jutzpah demonstrated in simply getting this movie made logistically speaking is impressive. Kevin Costner is appropriately wooden as D.A. Jim Garrison and the endless parade of Hollywood cameos keeps even more interest up. And who could've been more perfectly cast as David Ferrey than Joe Pesce?!?

• Peter's Friends (1992) dir. Kenneth Branagh -- Wrongheaded people at the time referred to this as "The British Big Chill" but this is a complete misnomer. A group of college friends from the 80's gets together ten years later in 1992. The comedy and drama arises from each individual character's backstory and motivations as well as the current interaction with each other after so much time has passed. Whereas the cast of THE BIG CHILL never really sold the chemistry of "old friends", this cast really has that chemistry of people who really connected long ago. This probably owes something to the fact that most of the cast HAS known each other and had a close relationship with each other for years: Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson were married, Phyllida Law is Thompson's real mother, Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry were long time comedy partners and even American Rita Rudner co-wrote the screenplay. Speaking of which, the screenplay is littered with witty lines. Oh and another rather good 80's soundtrack that perfectly fits each scene.

• And the Band Played On (1993) dir. Roger Spottiswoode -- Originally made for HBO, this much-ballyhooed AIDS film featured a huge all star cast. It basically traces the emergence of the AIDS epidemic from the point of view of disease researcher Matthew Modine from the late 70's to the early 90's. Alan Alda makes one of his first "villain" appearances which has marked something of a second-career path for him; he's particularly venal and spiteful in the role of Dr. Gallo. All the big stars making essentially cameos seem to have checked their egos at the door and Iam McKellan is particularly effective as a gay politician fighting for recognition of the disease and more funding to fight it.

• Clerks (1994) dir. Kevin Smith -- Kevin Smith's first movie (financed on his own credit card) is still sidesplittingly funny with dialogue sharp as a pin. Here is where he lays down his manifesto: he's going to make dialogue-driven comedies that pile on the pop culture references and liberally sprinkle them with dick and fart jokes -- while still remaining oddly relevant and damn-near artistic. While I recommend his entire outpit (sans JERSEY GIRL which still ain't THAT bad), this is the one that made my top 100.

• Nobody's Fool (1994) dir. Robert Benton -- Paul Newman is magnificent as a good-for-nothin' screw-up who managed to mess up his entire life but somehow still manages "to grow on" people. Another fantastic cast features Jessica Tandy (in her final film role), Bruce Willis (perfectly cast as his asshole foreman), Melanie Griffith (the best performance I've ever seen her give) as well as a talented aggregation of no-name but endlessly watchable character actors.

• Ju-On (2000) dir. Takashi Shimizu -- the best in the recent vogue for Japanese horror, this is one of my favourite ghost movies of all time. Intricately plotted and filmed, it's also tremendously creepy for almost the entire running time.

• Battle Royale (2000) dir. Kinji Fukasaku -- Near future depiction of a popular Japanese game show. A search is made for the most "juvenile delinquent" high school in Japan. Those kids are then taken on a field trip, knocked out and taken to a deserted island where they are given a variety of weapons (or non-weapons as luck would have it) and told simply that the last one alive. . .wins. It's interesting to see how various kids react; some simply refuse to accept it, others reluctantly realize they must kill to survive eventually and still others immediately fall right into the hunter mode. Sort of a LORD OF THE FLIES meets SURVIVOR movie with guns. Spellbinding.

• The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) dir. Wes Anderson -- Typical Wes Anderson weirdness in his finest film depicting the incredibly disfunctional family of ne'er-do-well Royal Tenenbaum (Gene Hackman) who fakes having fatal cancer in order to get back in the good graces of his estranged family. Yet another top drawer cast including Angelica Huston, Danny Glover, Gwyneth Paltrow, Bill Murray and many more. Another fine example of a soundtrack perfectly matching the mood of the film.

• The Lord of the Rings (2001-2003) dir. Peter Jackson -- That's right I'm counting all three of the trilogy as one film and there's nothing you can do about it. And that's because they simply ARE one film. The "impossible-to-film" Tolkien trilogy was finally filmed in epic fashion. And despite Kevin Smith's cogent and frankly very funny observation that THE LORD OF THE RINGS is basically a long walk ("Even the fucking TREES walk in that movie!") it revives the long-dead tradition of a motion picture "epic" which I had thought everyone had simply forgotten how to make.

• Shaun of the Dead (2004) dir. Edgar Wright -- A perfect melding of horror and comedy; the film is equally funny AND scary and that's a feat which I'm pretty sure has never (or ALMOST never) been done before. The very true comparison of braindead zombies with our own very somnambulant modern state is so biting because it's so true. Then you have the cast which is so incredibly LIKEABLE! Plus a director who actually knows how to put all this together AND effectively shoot action sequences. What you get is a modern horror comedy classic.

And what you also get is the end of my 100 favourite films. As I said before, these are my subjective favourites based on my simple love of the films and my connection with them. These are the films I watch continually over and over again. There are, of course, many more and I agonized long and hard over leaving them off because there are quite a lot of films I love that didn't make the list. And as I've said before, the next time I would decide to make this list I'm sure there would be many changes about who would make the cut. Not to mention those films which I simply haven't seen yet. Movies I've only seen for the first time very recently (A CANTERBURY TALE, EXECUTIVE SUITE, THE THIEF OF BAGDAD to name a few) rocketed right to the top 100 displacing other films which would have been in their places. So the only thing I have to say is: keep watching movies. I mean, what else are you going to do. . .pay attention to REALITY?!?!?!? Please. Don't make me laugh.