List my 100 favorite movies (movies you'd watch over and over again)

Seriously, I’ve been doing this goal for over a year now, and at the rate I’m going by the time I actually get to number one, I’m going to have made another list with many changes. So here we go: fifty-three through one (with sparse, select commentary):

53. The Muppet Movie (best exchange in the movie: “Maybe we should offer him a ride?” “I don’t know. He’s pretty big…”)
52. Wings of Desire (much, much better than the stupid remake)
51. Casablanca (I love me some Bogart)
50. Grand Illusion (great war movie)
49. Rushmore
48. Duck Soup (Marx Brothers at their best)
47. American Beauty
46. The Matrix
45. L.A. Confidential
44. The Manchurian Candidate
43. The Princess Bride (Andre The Giant’s best film role!)
42. The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
41. Fargo (the first Cohen Brothers movie I’d ever seen and I still love it)
40. When Harry Met Sally (I can quote entire sections of this movie)
39. Leon (aka The Professional)
38. The Wizard of Oz
37. Frankenstein (the only monster movie that makes me cry)
36. Blade Runner
35. Pirates of The Caribbean: The Curse of The Black Pearl (the other two movies weren’t very good, but this one’s the next best thing to Raiders of the Lost Ark)
34. Miller’s Crossing
33. Dark City (combining two of my favourite genres: film noir and sci-fi)
32. MA*SH (hysterically funny and very poignant, too)
31. Rashomon (an excellent movie that inspired one of my favourite Simpsons pop culture references)
30. A Hard Day’s Night
29. The Maltese Falcon
28. The Kid (oh, so shmaltzy; oh, so good)
27. Battleship Potemkin (the only silent movie that’s ever given me chills)
26. Touch of Evil (Charlton Heston = Mexican?)
25. Raiders of the Lost Ark (this movie is pure childhood)
24. Lord of the Rings – The Fellowship of the Ring
23. The Bride of Frankenstein
22. Roxanne
21. Snow White and The Seven Dwarves (it’s like a painting come to life)
20. Apocalypse Now (one of the greatest moviegoing experiences of my life was seeing this in IMAX)
19. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
18. Pulp Fiction
17. The Usual Suspects (best random movie pick I’ve ever made)
16. Empire Strikes Back (the first movie I remember seeing)
15. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
14. Life Is Beautiful (holds my record for most times seeing a movie in the theater)
13. Mallrats (all about the funny)
12. Unforgiven
11. The Last Temptation of Christ
10. Singin’ in the Rain (so many good musical numbers, but my favourite is “Make ‘Em Laugh”)
9. The Searchers (Wayne and Ford make something beautiful)
8. It Happened One Night (best romantic comedy ever)
7. The Rules of the Game (blew my friggin’ mind the first time I saw it)
6. The Godfather
5. Dr. Strangelove (etc etc)
4. City Lights (best movie Chaplin ever made)
3. The Godfather, Part II
2. Citizen Kane (no, seriously, I’m not pretending just to look educated: I really like this movie)
1. The Seven Samurai (just…just perfect)

(Also known as just Her Majesty Mrs. Brown.) The story of Queen Victoria, mourning after the death of Prince Albert, and the strange friendship she forms with John Brown, a Scottish Highlander brought to the palace in an attempt to cheer her spirits. I’m a sucker for a good love story, and this is a great one; more complicated and subtle than the words “love story” typically imply. Judy Dench is just perfect as Queen Victoria, naturally, but Billy Connolly is a revelation as John Brown. I was familiar with him through his standup, but he just blew me out of the water with this performance. A quiet little piece that gets unbearably sad at times, but still never fails to warm my heart.

This movie was simply shocking: a film about a group of documentary filmmakers whose subject is a serial killer. The killer, played brilliantly by Benoît Poelvoorde, is so charming that the audience – and the filmmakers themselves – are drawn into his world, and run the risk of identifying with him, or even worse. The hand-held, cinema verité style (ooh, look at me using the fancy words) is perfect for the movie, which is very dark, violent, and gritty, but has beautifully quiet moments as well. Not for the faint of heart.

Watching this movie is like watching a live-action cartoon. The movie is definitely uneven, but that’s part of its charm: the exhilarating highs and mellow lows, and then it all spiralling wildly out of control towards the end, it’s like a terrible terrible trip. Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro have great performances, easily my favourite of Depp’s career. And it’s all wrapped in the deliciously crazy imagination of Terry Gilliam. Watch it straight or watch it twisted, and Fear and Loathing gets you right where it counts. (And if you’re watching it on DVD, you owe it to yourself to see the Criterion version. The special features are amazing.)

Gangsters, girls, jazz music, and cross-dressing: what’s not to love? This movie is a great little comedy, with a little darkness around the edges for flavour. Sure, Marilyn Monroe is a part of it. She gets to look very pretty while saying some funny lines, and she seems surprisingly natural while doing it. But the real standouts are Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis. Tony Curtis, in particular, is hysterical, particularly during his Cary Grant impressions. I giggle every time he busts out the glasses and the stammer. Just a teriffic comedy, well-liked for a good reason.

I read the play and was hooked. I rented the movie and was blown away. The story and the dialogue is just so dark and twisted, you need a good cast and a fine director to pull it off, and you can’t do much better than Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Actually, I don’t much like Taylor outside this movie, but she’s at her scheming, bitchy best here, and Sir Richard Burton comes at it with every ounce of acting skill he’s got. Mike Nichols deftly balances the humour and the darkness, and the result is a sometimes-tragic, sometimes-hilarious roller-coaster ride of lust, hate, betrayal, and pure viciousness. It is a black, black comedy, and I just love it.

This is film comedy done right. A Fish Called Wanda shows you the dark and funny side of robbery, British-American relations, sex, murder, politics, and sociology. Michael Palin and John Cleese not only wrote a killer script, but they did some great acting as well. Kevin Kline is astoundingly funny, and Jaime Lee Curtis is just great as well. Easily one of the ten funniest movies I’ve ever seen, and I’ve never recommended it to anyone who didn’t ended up liking it. If you haven’t seen it, check it out: your stomach will hurt with laughter by the end of it.

I’ll admit it: initially I only watched it because of the scene in Wayne’s World where Garth kills his donut with a straw. But when I actually saw it, I was hooked. The movie starts off with a really slow burn, but it doesn’t turn you off because even in the more lighthearted moments it feels tense. Then Hitchcock pulls out one of the best bait-and-switch tricks in the movies. At that point, you don’t know where you’re going. The whole movie is just saturated with a thick, dripping sense of foreboding, some of Hitchcock’s most effective suspense work. And Anthony Perkins is just brilliant. It’s a shame this movie basically ruined his acting career and left him being typecast, because he’s really great in this movie. It’s not Hitchcock’s best movie, but it doesn’t need to be in order to be entertaining. Psycho is more than just a great movie to me: with all the suspense and tension, it’s a great movie-watching experience.

This is Steve Martin’s cinematic love letter to Shakespeare, Victoria Tennant, and the city of Los Angeles, and it is touching, biting, and hilarious. Its biggest flaw might be that it’s a little too light and fluffy, a problem common to a lot of fantasies and romances, and L.A. Story is both. But there are so many great moments strung together in this movie, all coming together to create a remarkable story. Great comedic moments written with great skill and care by Martin, performed by good actors (Martin, Tennant, and a standout Sarah Jessica Parker) with great timing and the right touch. To me, L.A. Story isn’t just a smart romantic comedy. It’s a really moving experience, with a lot of laughs to boot.

The first time I saw this movie, my roommate was out and I picked this movie off his shelf, figuring I might watch it and see if it was any good. Ninety minutes later I’m sitting on a couch watching the end credits, bawling my eyes out and thankful I’m alone in the house. The Iron Giant is tells a great story of friendship and what it’s like to be a child, set against the backdrop of 1950s Cold War paranoia. It’s beautifully animated and director Brad Bird gets good performances out of all of his actors, even those you might not expect great work from (Vin Diesel? Jennifer Aniston?). And I still cry every time I see it. Brilliant stuff.