What are your top ten favorite films? Not necessarily the top ten best films ever made… you don’t need to put Citizen Kane out there just because that’s what everyone always does… but the top ten that you truly love to watch, curl up on your couch or at an all night film festival. In other words, if you were stuck on a desert island with a bitchin’ system, a ten disk player, and could only take ten, which ten would you choose?
LOTR: FOTR
Aliens
LOTR: TTT
Hmmm, they drop off rather precipitously after that. Sure we can’t just list our top 3?
[ol][li]Round Midnight[/li][li]The Conversation[/ol][/li]
After that, in no particular order:
[ul][li]The Godfather[/li][li]Silver Streak[/li][li]Hopscotch[/li][li]The Silence of the Lambs[/li][li]Casablanca[/li][li]Being There[/li][li]Grosse Pointe Blank[/li]The Empire Strikes Back[/ul]
In no particular order:
[ul]
[li]Kicking and Screaming (the Noah Baumbach film)[/li][li]O Brother Where Art Thou?[/li][li]Quiz Show[/li][li]Juno[/li][li]Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead[/li][li]The Philadelphia Story[/li][li]Finding Nemo[/li][li]About a Boy[/li][li]My Cousin Vinny[/li][li]Kiss Kiss Bang Bang[/li][/ul]
Included among those that didn’t quite make the list are Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Three Kings.
In order of how ashamed I am that the film is on my top ten list, least to most:
[ol]
[li]The Godfather[/li][li]In the Mood for Love[/li][li]Seven Samurai[/li][li]Casablanca[/li][li]The Big Lebowski[/li][li]Office Space[/li][li]Lost in Translation[/li][li]Fight Club[/li][li]Braveheart[/li][li]A Few Good Men[/li][/ol]
Fargo
Last of the Mohicans
The Godfather
Scarface
LOTR: TTT
Shattered Glass
Field of Dreams
Shawshank Redemption
Goodfellas
Four Weddings and a Funeral
Alright, 10 desert island movies, here we go…
- Saving Private Ryan
- Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
3-5. The Lord of the Rings trilogy - Casablanca
- Sin City
- Fast Times at Ridgemont High
- Spider-Man 2
- Speed Racer
I considered re-watchability the main factor in choosing my list. To be honest, I think if was really going to a desert island forever with just 10 movies, I’d include a porno or two. Probably not for an all-night film festival though.
Actually…
In alphabetical order:
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Fargo
High Fidelity
No Country for Old Men
One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest
The Princess Bride
Pulp Fiction
Raiders of the Lost Arc
Sense and Sensibility
Traffic
When I came up with these, re-watchability played a huge factor. I’ve seen all of these movies numerous times and I never get tired of them.
Sorry, you can’t stop me at 10:
Hoop Dreams
Blue
The Hustler
Cinema Paradiso
A Streetcar Named Desire
Raise the Red Lantern
Rocky
Chinatown
Big Night
Sunset Boulevard
Diner
Memento
The Talented Mr. Ripley
Buena Vista Social Club
Rear Window
Breakfast at Tiffany’s
An Unfinished Life
Yes, a full ten is not required. Nor will I get picky if someone’s list goes to eleven, a la This is Spinal Tap.
That’s something I started incorporating in my ratings of movies “would I be willing to watch it again”. It helps me put my movie selections in perspective. Chariots of Fire is an excellent movie, but I wouldn’t be interested in watching it again.
Also in no particular order:
Dial M for Murder
My Cousin Vinny
The Princess Bride
The Shawshank Redemption
Memento
Lost Horizon
The Others
Waking Ned Devine
The Green Butchers
Charade
- Casablanca
- To Have and Have Not
- The Shootist
- Grosse Point Blank
- The Bourne Identity
- High Fidelity
- Road to Perdition
- Tom Horn
- A Few Good Men
- Saving Private Ryan
Taking the desert island approach.
In alphabetical order:
Braveheart
Chasing Amy
Christmas Vacation
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
I Love Huckabees
Little Shop of Horrors
Lord of The Rings: EE
Memento
The Rock
Star Wars (the original trilogy)
The 10 I’d least want to do without:
The General (1927, Buster Keaton)
Vertigo (1958, Alfred Hitchcock)
The Seven Samurai (1954, Akira Kurosawa)
Ordet (1955, Carl Dreyer)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968, Stanley Kubrick)
Black Narcissus (1947, Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger)
La Dolce Vita (1960, Federico Fellini)
The Wild Bunch (1969, Sam Peckinpah)
The Lady Eve (1941, Preston Sturges)
Chloe in the Afternoon (1972, Eric Rohmer)
In no particular order:
Jaws
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Saving Private Ryan
Casablanca
Groundhog Day
The Outlaw Josey Wales
Tremors
Tombstone
Die Hard
Raiders of the Lost Ark
- Sense & Sensibility
- Pride & Prejudice (can I please take both the BBC and Keira versions and have it only count once?)
- It’s a Wonderful Life
- Last of the Mohicans
- Office Space
- That Thing You Do
- Four Weddings and a Funeral
- The Bourne Identity
- Ocean’s Eleven
- While You Were Sleeping
Noises Off
Shaun of the Dead
Star Wars Trilogy
Pride & Prejudice miniseries
The Princess Bride
Big Night
Eat Drink Man Woman
Best In Show
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Clue
These are all movies I have watched repeatedly, most of them at least once a year.
Amadeus
Doctor Zhivago
The Shining
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
Office Space
Boogie Nights
Gone With the Wind
Shaun of the Dead
Love, Actually
The Wizard of Oz
My list includes some embarrassments, but I’m striving for honesty.
In no particular order:
Animal House
Singing in the Rain
Goodfellas
The Wizard of Oz
The Sound of Music
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Casablanca
Mary Poppins
Oceans Eleven (Clooney and Pitt)
Fargo
If I could add two more, they would be
**Oh Brother, Where Art Thou **and Dirty Dancing