Dirty Harry (1971) Director: Don Siegel Starring: Clint Eastwood, Harry Guardino, Andrew Robinson, John Vernon
Don Siegel's gripping police thriller has endured accusations of fascism but it never strays into the murky and reprehensible vigilante territory of, say, Death Wish. Instead, it's a sly attack on a system clogged up by petty bureaucracy that doesn't allow cops to do their jobs properly. Elsewhere, though, this is a gripping policier, depicting a compelling battle of wits and wills between the inordinately cool Callahan - who, when he's not delivering //that// speech about his Magnum .44 just to get his jollies from terrified criminals, is spying on half-naked housewives (hence the nickname) - and Andrew Robinson's psychotic serial killer, Scorpio that culminates in one of the great showdowns.
Risky Business (1983) Director: Paul Brickman Starring: Tom Cruise, Rebecca De Mornay, JoePantoliano, Bronson Pinchot, Curtis Armstrong
Forget Top Gun - this was the movie that made Tom Cruise a star. Like an adult version of Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Risky Business revolves around a confident young buck who gets into deep trouble when his parents are out of the picture, but unlike Bueller, Risky Business involves dangerous and, frankly, very sexy hijinks with a prostitute - in this case, Rebecca de Mornay's astonishingly sultry Lana. It's a notch above the countless sex comedies that could have made the list because, in two sequences - where a naked De Mornay first seduces Joel and another where they have sex in an empty subway car - it achieves a genuine erotic high.
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