Top Ten Movie Posters

10. The Shining. Jack was always a fav, and he's just the right amount of insane in this flick. It was one of the first horror movies I ever saw, and while I was infinitely scared of Jack, it stuck with me, and I've watched it several times later on in life. Shelley sitting in the corner, holding on to her knife tightly, with a horrorstruck face, just sums up the whole chilling movie. Jack being insane from start to finish.

8. Return of the Jedi. I don't remember when Star Wars entered my life and/or conscience, but what I do know is, it's stayed put ever since. The old tale of heroics, good versus evil, is something everybody can relate to, and this poster encapsulates just that. Our three heroes in front, Luke the Jedi, Han the courageous fighter, and Leia in her rrrr outfit, with Darth Vader watching over them all, expressionless as always, yet emancipating pure evil.

7. Another one from early childhood. I remember not being able to see what the logo was depicting. I thought it was gold stuff running down a black surface. Yeah, pretty stupid. Of course as soon as I figured out what the hell was going on, there was no turning back. Had played Batman games on my uncle's old Amiga, and read countless comics. It was a no-brainer. And it still reigns supreme in the comic book genre today, imo. I do like the new Batman movie and poster as well tho.

6. Chinatown. I haven't watched this movie in a LONG time, so I honestly don't remember it too well. But the poster struck me as quite cool. It's like a pulp fiction kind of thing I guess. Jack, as always, rocks, and Faye had a really pretty look to her back then. His smoke, in this picture, doubles as her hair making it pretty subculture-like. I dunno if the creases in the poster are supposed to be there, but I like them. Almost as if some Chinatown goon had pulled the poster from his backpocket, and had a look at it.

5. 12 Monkeys has been a favorite movie of mine for many years. Bruce Willis is just splendid (isn't he always?) as Cole, and another of my favs, Brad Pitt, does an amazing job as the loco Goines. This poster is simple yet pretty intriguing. The 12 Monkeys logo with the simple text 'THEY'RE COMING' says it all. The movie itself is complicated, as it goes with most time travel based movies, but has an interesting composition... and a lot of twists, a classic Terry Gilliam thing. Unlike this poster. Red on cream does go well, methinks.

4. Leon. This movie really had a huge impact on me. I'm not sure why, exactly. But it catapulted both Jean Reno and Natalie Portman into my personal mental superstardom. The poster shows Reno up close, with his trademark glasses and really gritty stubble, appearing to be alone. The NYC skyline reflected in his glasses sets the mood well; alone in a big city. He's the hitman with no friends. That's why the story of his only true friendship (and love) with 11 year old Natalie Portman felt real to me, and the red design and composition of this poster had me at the proverbial hello.

3. Se7en. This movie was well horrifying when it came out, without ever REALLY being gory. I found that interesting. It was really gritty and rough, what with the constant rain in the city, lots of lowbelly places, and the interaction between Freeman and Pitt - professional at first, friendly later on, when they realized they did have common ground after all. I found the opening credits in Se7en to be some of the best (another top 10 forming perhaps?), and the story line was compelling to the last second. The poster captures the spirit of the film perfectly.

2. Aladdin. I know this one is sort of out of the blue, but I stumbled upon it when I was looking around the web for posters I could use in this article. I hadn't ever seen it before, but I instantly liked it. The drawing isn't as clean and cheery as the usual Disney stuff, which I found quite interesting. The tagline makes it all the more real as well. Like the poster was introducing a teen drama or something. Oddly enough, it's not far from the truth. Aladdin, while a children's movie, does have some themes that can easily be related to adult life. Anyway, this poster scored high straight away, and I'd be lying if I denied having this poster in a nice frame on my wall doesn't seem like a good idea.

1. Fight Club. The last poster I'm going to show you today, is for Fight Club. Several things make this poster cool, in my opinion. First of all, of course, Fight Club itself is just such a cool movie. Brad Pitt at his all time greatest. His character is totally spot on, in this poster. His smile and eyes just tell us, this is a guy who doesn't give a hamsandwich. He's here to do what he wants to do and what he thinks is right. No questions asked. And then there's Edward Norton. He's looking frightened. Drawn back. Reluctant. The polar opposite of Pitt. The tagline, 'Mischief. Mayhem. Soap.' is equal parts totally obscure, and totally clear. This is one of those posters you don't really get, until after you've seen the movie. But it does bode well, at least I think so.

And that's basically it. My top 10. Of course, as I said, a lot more posters are out there, and a lot more are probably cooler than these. But these mean something to me, personally, and thus they are in this top10 because of personal opinion. Comment on that if you'd like. Wouldn't mind hearing suggestions for other posters. I plan to have a lot of these on my walls sometime in the future.

View the gallery of some 16 posters that were in the consideration for this article here