My Top Ten Favorite Movies

After a Twitter exchange with Damon Smith (ThisMayConcernYou.com – great blog covering music, society and other issues), I remembered how much I love ranking things, so just for fun, here’s my top ten movies of all time:

• Tombstone: I love Westerns and this is the best, in my opinion. Kurt Russell, Sam Elliott, Bill Paxton and Charlton Heston all play great roles, but Val Kilmer steals the show as Doc Holliday. I maintain that he should have won an Oscar for his performance in this movie.  Some of my favorite movie quotes come out of here too – “I’m your Huckleberry” and “I have two guns…one for each of you” being two of the best.

• Major League: When it comes to one-liners, it doesn’t get much better than this movie.  I have Major League ranked this high because it’s one of the most rewatchable movies of all time, for me. Great sports movie, plus it was an early starring role for future mega-stars Wesley Snipes and Charlie Sheen. Ironically, Wesley Snipes is extremely skinny in this movie but would later become absolutely ripped (like in Blade), kind of like the guy his part in The Fan was based on (Barry Bonds).

• The Dark Knight: It’s hard to leave off Batman Begins but I don’t feel so bad with it’s sequel on here. That movie was let down only by the lack of a truly great villain and that’s where the sequel succeeds. Plenty has been written about Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker but every time I watch it, I am blown away by he absolutely became the part; you can’t even see Ledger playing the part. Great story, great acting from Ledger, Bale, Michael Caine and more.  Plus, I just love Batman.
• Dazed and Confused
  • This one’s high on the rewatchable list too. I can’t even imagine how many times I saw it in high school especially. Love the cars, the music and the sheer fun of it. It’s not dramatic, it’s not action-packed, it’s just a fun day in the lives of some high school kids. Plus, you get to see Matthew McConaughey wearing pink pants and uttering this immortal line:

• The Untouchables: I love the Prohibition era – the cars, the personalities..and the clothes. Three-piece suits and a fedora every day would be fantastic. This movie has all of that, plus a great cast with Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, Robert De Niro and Andy Garcia. The only letdown for me is that it seems to end too fast, with not enough action scenes and enough background on Capone. The iconic stairway at the train station scene is the most memorable.
• Life is Beautiful: Forced to see this movie for extra credit in high school, this movie ended up being one of my favorites ever. It’s a fantastic story about the love one man has for his son as he shields the child from the horrors of a Nazi concentration camp until the camp’s liberation by American soldiers. The Italian subtitles make it even better – after ten minutes, you don’t even notice that you’re reading them instead of just listening to the words.
• Animal House: Probably the most rewatchable movie of all for me, I’ll never tire of this one. The D-Day motorcycle on the stairs scene, the accidental horse murder, the ladder at the sorority house, the epic “Germans bombed Pearl Harbor” speech and the awesome Deathmobile…I love this movie.  Paved the way for a lot of other movies like American Pie, Old School, etc.

• The Lord of the Rings Trilogy: Yes, they’re three movies but since they were filmed all at once and compose one fantastic story, I’m listing them as one. Other than The Godfather, I don’t think there’s a better series of movies in history.
• The Count of Monte Cristo: This story has been told many times in film but I’m listing the 2002 version, starring future-Jesus Jim Caviezel. The Dumas tale is one of my favorite books ever and this movie tells the story well, if not faithfully. Caviezel plays the role of Edmund Dantes well and the movie is filled with gorgeous period French scenery.
• The Godfather Trilogy: Simply a fabulous set of movies, as long as you can forgive the weird incestuous vibe of Part III. It’s a testament to how fantastic Parts I and II are that Part III is kind of like the ugly stepchild; in itself, it’s a good movie but compared to the first two, it falls short.

Honorable Mention

• The Rocky Series: Though only the first one is a true, good movie, four of the other five are highly entertaining and rewatchable, especially Rocky IV (the Ivan Drago one).
• The Bond Series: I love James Bond movies – love them!  But it’s hard to pick one or two to be in this list.  My favorites, in no particular order, are: Goldfinger, From Russia With Love, The Spy Who Loved Me (even though I can’t stand Roger Moore as Bond), Goldeneye and Casino Royale.
  • Just for fun, I’d rank the Bond actors in this order: Daniel Craig, Sean Connery, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, Roger Moore and George Lazenby.

Which of these are in your favorites list?  What are your favorites?  Leave a comment