The Top Ten

Here we go the best of the best, those of you that really know me well shouldn't be surprised for this list.

10. Inception- A movie about dreams, who doesn't love that.  We all try to analyze our dreams and it was kinda cool to see a movie try to show what that could be like if we could actually go in our dreams and control them.

9. Les Mis- A musical in the top ten may seem odd but I'm comfortable with my sexuality to place it this high.  Who doesn't love to sing along to I dreamed a dream.

8. 10 Things I Hate About You-  A movie from my teenage years that had Julia Stiles, Joesph Gordon-Levitt and Heath Ledger all before they were stars.  Everyone knew it wasn't fair that Bianca could only date when Kat dated.

7. Dark Knight-  The second Batman movie of the trilogy by Christopher Nolan is by far the best and that is mostly due to the performance of Heath Ledger as the Joker.  The opening scene to this movie is my favorite start to any movie ever.

6.  The Notebook- Great love story as who doesn't love Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams.  We have all seen this movie and I'm guessing a few of you even let out a little tear.

5. An American Tail- A great movie from my childhood that I watched every day. Now don't get this movie confused with Fievel goes West, that movie was garbage and just a movie studios attempt to capture lightning in a bottle twice.

4. The Shawshank Redemption- Get busy living or get busy dying.  A great quote from this movie that I like to live my everyday life.  You really pull for Andy trying to get out and really stick it to the warden.  I never read the book this movie is based on hard to imagine it's any better than the movie, and no one ever says that.

3. The Prestige- The greatest twist of an ending to any movie I have ever seen.  Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman are amazing and of course a movie directed by Christopher Nolan is going to be great.

2.  Love Actually- I watch this movie about ten times every year around Christmas and it never gets old.  You can relate to all the characters because it simply is a story about love.  There are endless moments in this film that you just smile and cheer for the couple on screen.  A timeless classic.

1.  Planes, Trains, and Automobiles- This is the number one film and really it's not even close.  I could watch this movie every night and never get sick of it.  So many quotable lines and memorable scenes. A great ending that makes you laugh and cry at the same time.  Legendary comedians John Candy and Steve Martin couldn't have been better cast and John Hughes one of the great directors of our time is at his finest.

Films 20-11

Oh man is this list getting so good.....Also a lot of dramas on this list for some reason.

20. Se7en- Brad Pitt Kevin Spacey and Morgan Freeman together most likely means a top 50 movie. Also because of this movie whenever someone is opening a package I have to yell, "What's in the box!"

19. Memento- Christopher Nolan's first feature length film and it was a great start to his writing/director talents.  A movie so good you can watch it ten times and still not be sure what happened, in a good way that is.

18. The Sixth Sense- Spoiler alert, he's a ghost. I will always remember watching this movie and loving it so much to have my father watch it.  After the first scene he leans over to me and goes, so Bruce Willis is dead now and the kid can see him?  Talk about figuring the twist out before anyone.

17. The Princess Bride- We all had to figure Andre the Giant would show up somewhere on the list.  This is all around a great movie that stands the test of time.  A true romantic tale for everyone and the touch of Peter Falk reading it to his grandson Fred Savage was a nice twist.

16. The Usual Suspects- Another great cast, and another suspense thriller that has you guessing the whole movie.  Who is Keyser Soze?

15. Beauty and The Beast- Disney classic.  I can't tell you why this is the Disney film I like the best but it just is.  I like the music and the overall story it tells.  Sounds cheesy but love people on the inside and not so much what is on the outside.

14.  Titanic- We have all seen it. We all love it.  It is a little long at times.

13. Forrest Gump-  See review for the movie about it Titanic.

12. Dumb and Dumber- Comedy at it's finest.  I do believe this movie may have the most one liners that I repeat out of any film.  I am super excited for the sequel even though I assume it won't hold up.  The end scene is one of my favorite moments in movie history.  The town is that way.

11. The Simpsons Movie- A lot of you know my love for The Simpsons and how for the first 15 seasons have probably seen every episode 100 times over.  Sure now it's not the show it once was and should have stopped once they made the movie.  The movie is very solid though and does a great job telling a Simpsons story over a 90 minute span instead of the usual 22 minutes.

So just the top ten left and for suspense reasons I'm holding off until Monday to release that list. Give you a preview though: in no particular order the top ten has 3 Christopher Nolan films, a drama, a comedy, an animated film, a musical, a Christmas movie, a love story, and a teen comedy.  So how many can you guess?

Films 30-21

Let's continue with countdown....

30. Toy Story- This high on the list due a lot to how revolutionary it was for the time.  A full length computer animated movie that has become the norm twenty years later.  We all love Buzz and Woody and we have all seen Toy Story.

29. Goonies-  After this movie came out every child wanted to go on a treasure hunt and find the pirates gold.  This movie introduced us to the Truffle Shuffle and it was the first ever movie for Josh Brolin and Sean Astin.  And they both ended up doing pretty well for themselves.

28. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation- Our first holiday themed movie on the list and second Lampoons film.  Chevy Chase plays once again the great Clark Griswold and makes us all realize our family may not be as bad as we think. 

27. Weekend at Bernies- An interesting concept, get invited to spend a weekend at your boss's beach house only to have him die.  Then if that wasn't weird enough how about spending the weekend pretending he is still alive.  I mean hilarity is bond to happen. 

26. Major League- Another sports movie on the list.  Who doesn't love the Wild Thing, he made us all Indian fans.  Jusssst a bit outside

25. Saw- A creative movie for the time and became a huge cult classic.  Was so successful it spun off six sequels. 

24. Big- Tom Hanks early in his career but just as good as he is now.  This movie made us realize that as bad as we wanted to grow up a child we all needed to stop and enjoy life as a child.  Don't rush life, you only get one shot.

23. Coyote Ugly-  Hot chicks who loved to get on the bar and dance while serving drinks.  Yeah, like this wasn't going to make my top 50.

22. Ferris Bueller's Day Off*- What would you do if you had a day off from school?  Ferris lives that dream for all of us.

21. Leap of Faith*-  The most underrated film on this list.  Steve Martin in one of his best performances and a young Liam Neeson plays the sheriff we all love to hate because he doesn't believe.  I also believe this movie is home to one of the best songs in a movie, it's even used in the trailer.  Seriously though this movie is on Netflix so watch it today!

 

Films 40-31

Part two of the five part series, no need to make you wait any longer. Sadly none of these movies are currently available on Netflix.

40. Amadeus- Academy winner for best film in 1984 as well as F. Murray Abraham and Tom Hulce winning Oscars for their performances. I've always been fascinated with Mozart and the life he lived.

39. Little Mermaid- I love this Disney film although many people tend to have the Lion King over it.  Why I like the Little Mermaid more is the music.  I'm not saying Lion King doesn't have good music but it's hard to beat Under the Sea and Kiss the Girl.  Also let's not lie, all guys had a crush on Ariel.

38. Pitch Perfect- Anna Kendrick is awesome as always and this movie also probably has my favorite scene ever when Anna Kendrick and Brittany Snow.

37. The Hangover- Gotta love movies that are based in Vegas.  This movie introduced most of use to Zach G.  I didn't want to look up how to spell his last name.

36. American Pie- A teen comedy that came out when I was teen. It ended up standing the test of time as the term MILF is still used today and who hasn't tried to make love with an apple pie?

35. Little Big League- A sports movie based on the Minnesota Twins so of course it made the list.  Would have been higher if it wasn't for that stupid Ken Griffey Jr.

34. Follow that Bird- A movie I grew up with from when I was a child that I would probably watch every day if my mom would let me.  I will always remember how sad I was when when Big Bird was trying to get back to Sesame Street and was bird-napped and turned from yellow to blue.

33. Waiting- This movie has a special place in my heart as it hits so close to home. Whenever I watch this movie I notice another thing that I had missed before about something I can relate to. Even though I have watched this movies many times over I still don't know which character is closest to me.

32. National Lampoons Vacation- The first of two National Lampoons movie to make the list.  Bet you can probably guess the second one.  And who hasn't wanted to go to Wally World after watching this film.

31. Almost Heroes- An underrated movie most of you probably never even heard of it.  It was made at the beginning of Matthew Perry's Friends career and towards the end of Chris Farley's life.  It's a cheesy movie about a group of trailblazers that tried to get to the Pacific Ocean before the famous Lewis and Clark expedition.

FIlms 50-41

So if you missed yesterday's post I talked about how I decided to make a list of the 50 greatest films of my lifetime (30 Years).  This was a huge task as I literally went through thousands of films that I have watched, and after that narrowed it down to 100s I really enjoyed.  Many of you will read this list and will say oh he must have missed this film or that film but trust me I didn't, I went through them all. I also feel that I have seen most of the prestige films over this time.  I have a wide range of movie taste so there is a huge variety of movies on my list.  Before we start I wanted to give the honorable mention, these are all films that at one point seemed to be a lock on my top 50 but would later get bumped off because of the high volume of great films.

Honorable Mentions in alphabetical order:  Air Force One, Aladdin, American Beauty, Apollo 13, Big Fish, Batman Returns, Con Air, Fargo, Field of Dreams, Fight Club, Ghost, Green Mile, Groundhog's Day, Home Alone, JFK, Juno, Jurassic Park, Lion King, Milk, Monster, Office Space, Rudy, Scream, Shutter Island, Space Cowboys, Social Network, The Town, Truman Show,  Uncle Buck, The Untouchables.

I mean seriously look at how solid that list is, and those are the movies that didn't even make the top 50!  Below I have listed 50-41 along with a little summary of why it made the list.  I also have marked movies that are currently available on Netflix with an asterisk (*). I have also embedded all the movie previews for you to watch in case you haven't seen the movie before.  Hope you enjoy my list and let the debates begin.

50. Oceans 11- This all star cast plays off each other perfect and this movie is a little special for me as it is set in my second home Las Vegas.  I also love the creativeness it has of how they come up with the actual plan to rob the casinos.

49. Saving Mr. Banks- Of all the movies that make the list this is the most current by far.  At first I wanted films to be able to stand the test of time but the more I looked at this film the more I loved it.  I think Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson are amazing as always, and Paul Giamatti is great as the lovable driver.

48. The Great Outdoors*- John Candy and Dan Aykroyd are an amazing duo in this family film that reminds us of all how great summer is for everyone.

47. 61*- This movie isn't available on Netflix just so happens to have an asterisk in it's title. A rare sports movie on this list but a truly great one.  One of my favorite sports stories is the chase at 61 and I think this movie does a great job telling that story.  Billy Crystal shows his passion for this story as the storyteller and Barry Pepper as Roger Maris is one of the most underrated actors.

46. Frequency- The concept of this story sounds like the dumbest thing ever.  I son who is able to talk to his dead father 30 years in the past through an old ham radio?  But it's the story that is told of the bond between a father and son that makes this movie so remarkable.

45. Grizzly Man- The only documentary on this list tells the story of bear expert Timothy Treadwell and the hundreds of hours of footage he took until he was killed by the thing he loved so much.

44. Sleepers- Another all star cast tells the story of teen boys abused and wanted to get revenge as adults.  This movie does a great job of telling two stories as one and overlapping the then and now.

43. Spaceballs*-  I love slapstick movies that are able to smartly make fun of movies around that time period. I was never a big Star Wars fan and even if I was the first three were made before 1983. I did however love the biggest movie to make fun of Star Wars and you can't go wrong with a movie that has John Candy and Bill Paxton, or is it Bill Pullman?

42. Team America- Another movie that makes fun of the movies around the same time but in a slightly unique way.  The creators of South Park came off as geniuses I feel in this tale of Americans in the fight for freedom.  This is also the only movie made only with puppets to make the list.

41. Schindler's List- Critically acclaimed film that is pretty depressing for most but tells a fascinating story none the less.  Usually I'm not a fan of black and white films but was a must for this picture.  I scene with the girl in the red jacket was an image we will all remember.

The 50 best films of the last 30 years

So about a week ago my friend Jared suggested since I'm such a movie rube that I rank my favorite movies of all time.  I thought well that could be a fun little task even if no one cares my personal preference.  Little did I know I would become so OCD over my list and it would take hours to fill it out just right.  What I did to get my list, was use lists from IMDB.com, Rottentomatoes.com, the AFI top 100, and my own DVD collection.  When I went through all the lists the first time around I wrote down movies that I thought would make my top 50 and ended up with 124 films.  So coming up with a top 50 was a huge task but I finally narrowed it down.  I wanted to break down each film so I decided to make this a daily list all this week and today before I reveal my list I wanted point out some fun facts that I noticed with the 50 greatest films of the last 30 years.

• No Harry Potter films made the list. I feel that as a series I liked these movies but none really stood out as their own great one.
• My favorite director of all time Christopher Nolan has three films on the list.
• Speaking of Nolan only one of his three Batman movies of the trilogy made the list.
• My favorite actor Leonardo Dicaprio is in two movies on the list.
• My favorite actress Anna Kendrick has been in one movie on the list.
• A total of five animated films made the list. However Aladdin and Lion King did not.
• One documentary made the top 50.
• Just three sports movies made the list even though I'm a huge sports rube.  Goes to show I don't really like sports movies based on true events.
• The late great John Candy even though he died in 1994 managed to be in 7 movies, easily my all time favorite actor.
• Five films that won an Oscar for best picture made the list.
• Not to give anything away but it is a wide range of films as my number one and number two films on the list were made 20 years apart.

So make sure to check back daily and tomorrow we reveal the start of the list 50-41.