12 Angry Men is a brilliant film that's dependent on the script and performances. The best part is the human aspect. Strangers come together and lay bare their flawed logical reasoning. The ending is powerful because after what the jurors had accomplished as a group, they go their separate ways and never see each other again for the rest of their lives. In fact, 12 Angry Men should be a required viewing for all Americans before they're ready to be jurors.

A brilliant satire about the world of television that's penned by the great Paddy Chayefsky, Network is the one that Howard Beale famously yells: "I am as mad as hell, and I am not going to take this anymore!" The quality of the acting is at its zenith with William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Peter Finch, Robert Duvall, and Ned Beatty giving powerful performances.

Brilliant writing, brilliant acting, and brilliant story. After sloshing around in the world of alcohol and therefore wasting his talent for years, Richard Burton makes the greatest comeback of all time by appearing in Equus as psychiatrist Martin Dysart by giving a fiery but focused performance. His riveting soliloquies are the stuff of greats. On the other hand, Peter Firth is unforgettable as the tormented boy.

Based on a true and bizarre story, Dog Day Afternoon is everything you can possibly ask for in a human drama picture. For the final of his four straight Oscar nominations during the 70's, Al Pacino turns in one of the greatest performances of his career as Sonny Wortzik. Chris Sarandon is also outstanding, having been Oscar-nominated.

When it comes to corruption among the boys in blue, Sidney Lumet was the master storyteller. Q&A is the third compelling movie in his oeuvre with Serpico and Prince of the City being the first two. Nick Nolte is a badass and uses his massive body size to tear up everybody. He's a force to be reckoned with.

Treat Williams was definitely robbed of an Oscar nomination for giving a tour-de-force performance in Prince of the City. It's one of the best movies Sidney Lumet has ever directed, being an improved and more complex version of Serpico about police corruption, hence the Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.

"There are no other cases. This is the case." The Verdict is Paul Newman's finest hour of his acting career. That much is brilliantly shown from the get-go when he's playing pinball while drinking a glass of scotch. His alcoholic character has given up on life, but when a case comes along that's worth fighting for, he finally becomes a changed man and finds meaning in life.

Al Pacino gives one of the finest performances of his career as Frank Serpico, a real-life NYPD cop who defied a corrupt system. Director Sidney Lumet shoots the film in docu-realism by going inside police precincts to see how things work on both sides. Serpico is broken down into three acts: the eponymous character's desire to be a cop, the moment he's awarded the gold shield, and the ending when he's all alone with his sheepdog.

River Phoenix was a precocious actor for a seventeen-year-old boy, and he turned in the performance of his career as Danny Pope, resulting in a much-deserved Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. If people say River Phoenix was so good in My Own Private Idaho, I'll shoot back at them by asking, "But have you ever seen Running on Empty?"

Murder on the Orient Express is completely star-studded (twenty-nine Oscar nominations and nine wins including one honorary award), but nobody tops Albert Finney's performance. It's the only film adaptation that Agatha Christie was satisfied with, and she's most pleased with Finney's portrayal of the famed detective but didn't like his mustache.

In a way, Richard Gere revives his Julian Kay persona for Pete St. John who's only interested in big bucks by delivering results in the political arena. What's interesting is the emergence of Denzel Washington's shadowy figure, somebody with secret foreign ties to see a certain person through which ultimately didn't work. Thus, a dimension has been retroactively added to Power.

The plot is powerful that's reminiscent of City Hall which was released during the same year. It's about how being idealistic doesn't work in the face of the criminal system. But learning how to deal with the reality is the most important thing in order to survive in the jungle. However, keeping the conscience intact is another story which is totally up to the person, and he's going to have to live with the choices he has made, right or wrong.

"There's nothing like a good robbery to bring a family together." At first, it's easy to see Dustin Hoffman taking over the competition by being the glue to keep the film together. But Sean Connery won at the end because he's a true character. In short, there's nobody like him. It's reflected by what Matthew Broderick's character said the whole time, choosing to follow his criminal grandfather over his straight-as-an-arrow father.

The title Before the Devil Knows You're Dead is ironical because it's the final film for Sidney Lumet before passing away four years afterwards and it also depicts Philip Seymour Hoffman's character's heroin abuse that'll ultimately kill the actor in 2014. Seen here are two prime commonalities of Sidney Lumet's films: solid acting and polished storyline.