Top Ten Movies

Well, since Jeff called me out like a punk, I better go through with it. It’s not like I’ve been writing about much lately anyway. [Besides, I get to break out Jeff's favorite tag!]

The rules of the “game” are simple:

  1. list your top ten favorite films (in no particular order).
  2. if you’re tagged, you’ve got to post and tag 3-5 other people.
  3. give a tag back (some link love) to the one who tagged you in your post
  4. give a hat tip (HT) to Dan

I’ll follow those, except somehow along the way, Dan lost the linklove. Sorry, dude. Since these are in no particular order, I won’t use an ordered list. That saves me brain cycles on ordering them…

  • Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back: Yes, they are defining movies of my generation, even if the first one came out before I was born. I don’t include RotJ because I hate Ewoks, and the first three … well, the problem is the same: letting Lucas write dialogue is like letting me plan an exercise regimen.
  • The Big Lebowski. I adore introducing this farcical romp of mistaken identity to people. Goes better with a good Caucasian, and I mix a hell of a Caucasian, Jackie. And yes, because I am a large, bearded man, I often get pushed into role-playing Walter. Eight year olds, Dude.
  • Primer. I’ll go off the board here with a movie I’ve seen only once, but have probably replayed in my head a number of times. It absolutely blew my fuckin’ mind when I saw it.
  • Clerks. So recently, a friend called this “a whiny bitch movie”. And, well, yes. It’s crude and hilarious, but it’s also pretty ingenious. Well, for a buddy movie shot in black and white that involves playing roller hockey on the roof of convenience store. This movie, of course, made Kevin Smith’s career. Thankfully, it was the first of his films that I saw.
  • Arma … okay, no, I couldn’t finish typing it. Seriously, this is a fun movie to watch with me ONLY IF YOU LIKE TO LISTEN TO ME YELL AT THE TV AND THROW STUFF AROUND THE ROOM. Ahem. [I'm a killjoy.]
  • Swingers. Right up there with Lebowski, a movie I can pop in at any time and always feel better afterward. When I thought yesterday that I’d be driving to Houston last night, I said, “I can be to Houston by midnight. Hell, I’ll be up five hundy by midnight!” Too bad no one in the room got it.
  • Miracle, for two reasons: the agonizing “AGAIN! [whistle]” scene, which is totally legit, and … well, beating the fucking Soviets. Okay, a third reason: Kurt Russell’s son plays hockey for my alma mater, and not yours. Chumps.
  • Apollo XIII. Um, hi. I work in manned spaceflight, and this movie makes heroes out of engineers. Not all of my days are as exciting as the “We’ve got to make this fit into this using this” scene, but some days, it feels like that. Without, you know, the deadline and the risk of people dying if we keep on fucking around.
  • High Fidelity. Let’s just say that I watched it last week and lived it starting Sunday. Well, not really. But I did consider autobiographically organizing my CD collection. [I'm okay, though. Really.] Admission: if I were independently wealthy, I would buy a big, old downtown building and put a coffeehouse/bar, record store, and music venue in it. I would also hire John Cusack to manage it and smoke a lot of cigarettes.
  • Shawshank Redemption. If you have to ask why, you clearly have not watched the movie, and … well, you should. Mind you, this comes from someone who really doesn’t watch movies that often.
  • 2001: A Space Odyssey. Ending with Kubrick is always a great choice. Stunningly beautiful, hauntingly weird, terribly quotable, and spot-on. Well, other than the fact that we’re seven years past that and still fucking around in low Earth orbit.

Okay, since I have to have a list of victims …

Posted June 19th, 2008 in Fooftatsic. Tagged: , , .

4 comments:

  1. Jeff H:

    I am so glad that my tag got used again!

    I thought about including High Fidelity. I’ve never organized by CD collection auto-biographically, but I *have* created an auto-biographical playlist on iTunes. Sick, I know.

  2. Chris Hubbs:

    Ah, I gotta go back and watch Primer again.

  3. Geof F. Morris:

    I am shamed … how the hell did I not get Mystery, Alaska or Good Will Hunting, especially the latter, on this list?! I guess Miracle makes it for my sports movie [over M,A and Slap Shot, which at some level says that my head should be examined], but … man. I think I’d need to replace High Fidelity, and … wow, what a tough movie to knock out of a top-ten list.

    [And that's before anyone notes that I really have eleven movies on there. Hey, I grew up in the Midwest, home to the Big Te(lev)en.]

  4. Amy:

    I am, for once, obedient: http://domesticat.net/node/1513

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