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17 DAZED AND CONFUSED (1993) Richard Linklater

There's a nostalgic ode to Me Decade teendom to be found somewhere amid Linklater's primer on freshman paddling, trashcan tipping, parent duping, spliff toking, mustard dousing, Foghat grooving, mailbox smashing, goon baiting, class ditching, beer funneling, up hooking, and foosball (no wonder Dazed posters paper dorms across America). But while we're enraptured by the wistful undertone and fantastic ensemble cast -- which included fledgling actors Ben Affleck and Matthew McConaughey -- what we're really jonesing for is some Aerosmith tickets, dude. SIGNATURE LINE ''That's what I love about these high school girls, man: I get older, they stay the same age.'' ANOTHER SIGNATURE LINE ''If I ever start referring to these as the best years of my life, remind me to kill myself.'' OKAY, ONE MORE ''Fry like bacon, you little freshman piggies! Fry!''

18 HARD-BOILED (1992) John Woo

A detective and a deep-cover operative unite to depose a crime lord. Simple, right? But in Woo's hands, Hard-Boiled is an action dream that takes the cop thriller and gives it bloody new life. The guns-and-guts set pieces -- the opening teahouse, the warehouse, and the climactic hospital -- alone serve as virtual blueprints for how to blow things up with grace. SIGNATURE LINE ''There's no room for failure now. The innocent must die!'' BLAME IT FOR Every movie gunfighter with a blazing pistol in each hand.

19 EVIL DEAD II (1987) Sam Raimi

Gore just doesn't get any giddier than Raimi's sequel-slash-remake (emphasis on slash), which finds average-guy Ash Williams facing off against the undead, armed with a chain saw and one-liners like ''Let's head down into that cellar and carve ourselves a witch.'' This time the slapstick is upped, lending the film a manic Three Stooges-meets-four horsemen vibe. SIGNATURE LINE ''I'll swallow your soul!'' SENSELESS ACT OF VIOLENCE An errant eyeball flies into the mouth of a doomed girl.

20 THE MACK (1973) Michael Campus

Go ahead and blame The Mack for stacking hip-hop's vernacular with ''players,'' ''game,'' and myriad other prostitution euphemisms. The film's crackling dialogue and pimp politics have been recycled by everyone from Dr. Dre to the Wu-Tang Clan, often for nothing but conscienceless cachet. But despite its loving detail, the story of Goldie, a penny-ante ex-con who escapes poverty by pimping in '70s Oakland, was never simply misguided glorification -- that is, blaxploitation. It's a cautionary tale that screams ''crime doesn't pay.'' Now, can you buy that? SIGNATURE LINE ''We can settle this like you got some class, or we can get into some gangster s -- -.'' WHO'S IN THE CULT? Snoop. Definitely Snoop.

21 PEE-WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE (1985) Tim Burton

Amid the vendetta-fueled Stallone stories and the teen-makeover movies of the '80s came the surreal world of Pee-wee, a weird boy-person with an extensive lawn-ornament collection and a dark side (''I'm a loner, Dottie. A rebel.''). Burton's directorial debut is genuinely winsome, never ironic, and always gloriously juvenile. SIGNATURE LINE ''I know you are, but what am I? Infinity!'' RANDOM POP-CULTURE REFERENCE Pee-wee pours Mr. T cereal on his flapjacks.


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