Piers Marchant

You know, even after all this killing, we still don't know what Ricky's story is, exactly, but let it suffice that he kills a lot of people (who seem bad and definitely deserve it) and he does it in novel and inventive ways. Some of our personal highlights from this greatest hits collection: "the mannequin nail-board face plant" (:27); the fat-man spleendectomy (:31); the (super-brief) &

Clearly, with their '70s-era action movies, the Turks have given us a treasure trove of awfulness for all to enjoy. This absolutely mesmerizing scene also stands in for all the myriad of martial arts movies in which a hero fights on completely undeterred even while impaled on a giant spear or stuck through the head with a scimitar...

Gist: In the near-future, a young, sadistic leader of a youth gang is captured and experimented upon in order to curb his ultraviolent tendencies. Supposed Godlessness: Listen closely, my droogs — If, as Kubrick suggests at the end, such violent and vicious impulses can’t be bred out of us, either by science or the better part of human nature, than what point is there to a religion that attempts t

Gist: A spree of extremely exacting serial murders leads the detectives trying to track down the killer deeply embroiled in the perp’s plans. Supposed Godlessness: There is a Yiddish proverb that roughly translates to ‘man plans; God laughs,’ suggesting that the more a man tries to take control of his life, the more disarray and chaos he will find, courtesy of a God whose master plan doesn’t take

Gist: A married man has to contend with a spurned mistress, who threatens to destroy his life. Supposed Godlessness: Like his cinematic idol, Bergman, Woody Allen likes to explore the philosophy of faith on occasion, but never more effectively than in this film, which offers a well-proportioned argument as to our Godless nature...

Gist: A tragic and harrowing night with a young couple attending a party is seen in reverse order of chronology. Supposed Godlessness: Welcome to the uncompromisingly vicious and cruel nighttime world of director Gaspar Noé. This film contains one of single most unwatchable scenes of the last decade — the brutal rape and beating of a young woman in a train underpass — with an absolutely unflinchin

Gist: A young family on vacation fall pray to a home invasion by a couple of young, merciless thugs. Supposed Godlessness: Michael Haneke’s film was actually meant as an indictment of Americans’ thirst for blood and violence on the screen, but, with its utterly callous young antagonists and thorough disregard for justice or redemption, it can also be interpreted as an indictment of a thoroughly go

Gist: A group of guests at a fancy dinner party suddenly find themselves unable to leave the drawing room where they have congregated. Chaos slowly ensues. Supposed Godlessness: A dinner party filled with well-to-do blue bloods dissolves into a Lord of the Flies frenzy when the guests find themselves inexplicably trapped in place for several days in director Luis Buñuel’s nightmarish vision... Rea

Gist: A group of young German soldiers in WW II man a submarine and attempt to disrupt Allie supply lines before making their way safely back home. Supposed Godlessness: The soldiers, lead by a grizzled veteran commander, encounter incredibly daunting obstacles and damages en route to their return...

Gist: On Halloween night in a small Midwestern suburb, Michael Myers, a nightmarish demon-spawn in a hockey mask goes on a killing spree of young teens in the area. Supposed Godlessness: No matter what happens to Michael Myers — including being shot at point blank range several times over — he continues to live in order to kill some more...

Gist: A hunter who scoops up a ton of cash from the aftermath of a drug deal gone wrong is pursued by the authorities and a psychopathic hitman with a creepy bowl haircut. Supposed Godlessness: In the hard-crusted prairies of rural Texas, man makes his violent and bitter choices and no God is there to help him when things go south...

It's one of the hoariest cliché's in the overtly thick Rom/Com Cliché' Manual: The couple, who will eventually fall madly in love and be deliriously happy by the closing credits, absolutely, positively despise each other when they first meet...

Participants: Ben (Dustin Hoffman), a recent college grad in the midst of an aimless summer having an affair with an older woman; and Elaine (Katharine Ross), the daughter of said older woman. Circumstances: Ben is put up to this by his parents, much to his chagrin (and fury from Mrs...

Participants: Marty (Michael J. Fox), a skateboard ridin', vest wearin' teen from the '80s, and his mother (Lea Thompson), a repressed teen girl in the '50s. Circumstances: Let's see. Marty has traveled back in time by accident in a souped up Delorean modified by his wacky scientist friend...

Participants: Andie (Molly Ringwald), a poor-but-resourceful teen girl; and Blaine (Andrew McCarthy), a rich and snooty blue blood. Circumstances: In this tremendous clash of cultures and financial ideology, neither participant finds it terribly comfortable going in each other's circles...

Participants: Mousy, woebegone Paul Hackett (Griffin Dunne) and vivacious, beautiful Marcy Franklin (Rosanna Arquette) Circumstances: Paul, a sweet but lonely office worker, happens to meet the seductive Marcy in a café, who gives him her number and suggests he come visit her place downtown...

Participants: Man (X, played by Giorgio Albertazzi) and Woman (A, played by Delphine Seyrig) Circumstances: Not exactly a date in the traditional sense, but somehow X and A are alone together for a very extended period of time as X tries to convince A, a married woman, that they had a riotous affair the previous summer and that she should run off with him now...

Participants: Andy (Steve Carell), the titular virgin in question, and Nicky (Leslie Mann), a wild party girl he picks up at the local watering hole. Circumstances: Upon finding out Andy's unfortunate sexual circumstances, Andy's new workplace friends convince him he needs to find a nice, super drunk girl to take home with him...

Participants: Sonny Burns (Jeremy Davies), a non-combat soldier just returned from Korea, and Gale (Rose McGowan), a pretty local girl. Circumstances: Sonny, especially as played by the perpetually jittery Davies, is a major head-case, prone to equal parts insecure self-hatred and delusion, manic to the core...

Participants: Alvy (Woody Allen), a writer; and Annie (Diane Keaton), a well-dressed goof from Wisconsin. Circumstances: They meet through mutual friends at a tennis court for mixed doubles. One awkward thing leads to another and before too long, Annie offers Alvy a ride home in her VW convertible bug...