Okay... the challenge was to not only come up with a list of my favorite movies, but narrow it down to 100, and rank them top to bottom. One hundred movies, out of the thousands and thousands that I've seen.
Essentially, before I made my "nomination list", I ask myself two questions:
1) Can I watch this movie over and over? Can I see it again and again, and not tire of it, still find it funny, or still find it heartwarming, or at last have scenes in the movie that give chills or take my breath away?
2) When I pass by this movie as I'm flipping channels, do I stop? At least for a minute?
Now, because this list & ranking is in its early early stages, I still have much further to go. My plan is to ask some of you to comment on several of the movies (not yet, I'll let you know) and do a Vh1 mixed with an AFI Top 100 commentary. I know that my friends NYC Jenni, Paula Maddox, Scotty Latta, Matta Latta, Mikey Nipp, Wendi Deckermiller, K-Dub and several more could give great insight to movies they love.
So, here are the movies in contention for Dave's Top 100 Movies of All Time:
The Abyss, Adventures in Babysitting, Air Force One, Airplane!, Aladdin, Alien, Aliens, Almost Famous (the directors cut), American Graffiti, American Pie 2, The American President, An Affair to Remember, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burghundy, Apollo 13, The Aristocats, Armageddon, Back to School, Back to the Future, Beaches, Beauty & the Beast, Beavis & Butthead Do America, Beetle Juice, Big , The Big Chill, The Birds, Black Dog, The Bodyguard, Born in East LA, Bowfinger, Braveheart, Breakdown, Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Breakfast Club, Broken Arrow, A Bug's Life, Cars, Casablanca, Castaway, A Christmas Story, Christmas Vacation (National Lampoon's), City Hall, Cliffhanger, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Collateral, Coming to America, Con Air, Crimson Tide, Dave, Dazed & Confused, Deuce Bigalow, Die Hard, Die Hard 2: Die Harder, Die Hard with a Vengeance, Dirty Dancing, The Dirty Dozen, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, Dogma, Dumb & Dumber, Election, Erin Brockovich, Ever After, Evolution, Face/Off, A Few Good Men, Fight Club, Finding Nemo, The Firm, A Fish Called Wanda, For Love of the Game, Forrest Gump, The Fugitive, Full Metal Jacket, Galaxy Quest, Get Shorty, Ghost, Ghostbusters, Gladiator, Glory, The Godfather, Gone in 60 Seconds, The Goonies, Grease, The Great Muppet Caper, The Green Mile, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, Gung Ho, Happy Gilmore, Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets, Heist, Hercules, High Fidelity, Hoosiers, The Incredibles, Independence Day, Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom & the Last Crusade, Inside Man, It Takes Two (starring Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen... no Chris Hansen hasn't visited my house, shut up), The Italian Job (the new one), Jaws, Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back, The Jerk, Jerry Maguire, Jumanji, Jurassic Park, The Karate Kid, The King & I (the one with Yul Brenner being a pimp), The Last Boy Scout, The Last of the Mohicans (the one with Daniel-Day Lewis being a pimp), Legally Blond, Lethal Weapon 1, 2, 3 and 4, License to Drive (Corey Haim & Feldman's magnum opus), The Lion King, Lord of the Rings: Fellowship, Towers, King, The Lost Boys, Major League, The Man in the Moon (the Reese Witherspoon one), The Manhattan Project, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Mary Poppins, The Matrix, Maverick, Mean Girls, Meet Me in St. Louis, Men in Black, Midnight Run, Minority Report, Misery, Mission Impossible, Mo' Money, The Money Pit, Monster's Inc, The Muppet Movie, The Muppets Take Manhattan, My Best Friend's Wedding, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, My Cousin Vinnie, My Life, Mystery Men, National Treasure, Necessary Roughness, The Negotiator, New Jack City, The Night They Saved Christmas, North By Northwest, Notting Hill, Oceans 11 and 12, Office Space, One Crazy Summer, Out of Sight, Panic Room, The Paper, The Parent Trap (with Hayley, not Lindsey), Patriot Games, The Pelican Brief, Philadelphia, Philadelphia Story, Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, Pleasantville, Point Blank, Poltergeist, Predator, Pretty Woman, Primal Fear, Primary Colors, The Princess Bride, The Princess Diaries, Psycho, Pulp Fiction, Pure Country, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Raising Arizona, Remember the Titans, Reservoir Dogs, Revenge of the Nerds, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, The Rock, Rocky I, II, III & IV (we know and accept that V never happened), Roman Holiday, Roxanne, Rudy, The Rundown, The Running Man, Ruthless People, Sabrina (the old one), Say Anything..., Scream, Scrooged, Se7en, Sea of Love, Sense & Sensibility (the lovely Steph Leann is raising her eyebrows, but yet, I really did like this movie a lot), The Shawshank Redemption, Short Circuit, Signs, The Silence of the Lambs, Singing in the Rain, Sixth Sense, Sleepless in Seattle, Snake Eyes, Soapdish, Spaceballs, Speed, Spiderman 2, Stand By Me, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, All six Star Wars episodes will be considered, State & Main, Steel Magnolias, Strictly Ballroom, Superman, Superman II, The Terminal, The Terminator, The Terminator 2: Judgment Day, There's Something About Mary, Three Kings, Titanic, To Kill a Mockingbird, Tombstone, Top Gun, Total Recall, Toy Story, Toy Story 2, Trading Places, Training Day, True Lies, The Truman Show, 12 Angry Men (the 1997 version), Twister, UHF, Unbreakable, United 93, The Usual Suspects, Wall Street, WarGames, The Waterboy, The Wedding Crashers, Wet Hot American Summer, When Harry Met Sally.., While You Were Sleeping, Witness, The Wizard of Oz, Working Girl, X-Men, X2: X-Men United and You've Got Mail.
All in all, 260 or so movies to think about, weed out and enjoy. I'm sure a few more will come to me (I just thought about Dumb & Dumber today, which is a movie I am pretty sure will be on the final list) and I'll add them as they do.
You might wonder where the classics are, like Network or Godfather II, or Apocalypse Now... well, I only listed movies I've seen at least twice, and I had to have seen them the first time last summer or before (which cuts out Knocked Up, 40 Year Old Virgin, The Holiday and a few other movies that have potential to really be a Dave Fave)... Steph Leann and I are going to try to catch up on some classics like Dr. Strangelove and 2001: A Space Odyssey this summer, and they may make the list in my five year revision, but this is only movies I've already seen and had a chance to really get to know and love.
You're comments, omissions and suggestions are welcome, nay, expected.
Good grief man, save yourself some time and skip over "2001"...I had to watch it in a film class freshman year and could have gotten a better experience staring at the sun for three hours.
ReplyDeleteI've tried twice to watch Citizen Kane, and both times turned it off in ten minutes... just wasn't my thing. Im going to try it once more. And Casablanca? Stephanie, the old movie junkie, the lover of Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart, who should revere such a classic, said about Casablanca... "Eh... it wasn't as good as I wanted it to be"
ReplyDeleteFunny...we had to watch Citizen Kane, too. And AFI just re-released their Top 100 Movies list, and Kane was #1 again, though I would advise you to just skip it like you, evidently, have done.
ReplyDeleteOther movies we had to watch that I would tell you to skip: Roshamon (Japanese), Battleship Potemkin (Russian), and Band of Outsiders (French). But 2001 was the worst, hands down, no contest. Seriously, I would stare at our sun and self impose blindness on myself before I watch that again. I would watch Al Gore do lunges. Hillary Clinton take off her makeup. Anything.