My Favorite Movies

Recently my cousin posted a list of his top 100 favorite movies. I found it kind of interesting because the literally night before I had tried to figure out my top 10 favorite movies, and had come up empty handed. I've always had a list of my top 3 favorite movies that has changed very little over the past few years, but pushing it past three has always been trouble for me.

First I'm going to go into my top three favorite movies.

Heat
Heat has stood at the top of my list for a very long time now. I find almost everything about this movie to be perfect. The pairing of Al Pacino and Robert De Niro is amazing, the supporting cast is phenomenal, and the story couldn't be better. If you have the chance, listen to Michael Mann's audio commentary on the special edition DVD or the Blu-Ray. It's a three hour movie and he does commentary on it by himself. It's difficult to be interesting for that long but he manages to do it. He explains the little details he did everywhere in this movie that in my opinion make it great. Plus the bank robbery scene is absolutely amazing.

The Godfather
Nothing I can say about this movie hasn't been said a thousand times before. It's constantly on top 10 lists by everyone from critics to normal folks like you and I. It's an amazing movie, and the ending baptism scene is probably one of the greatest scenes in movie history.

The Star Wars Trilogy
Yes, I know this is three movies. No, I don't care. I'm counting it as one giant movie. Any of the three movies on their own are amazing, but when you put all three movies together you have a masterpiece. Easily some of the best movies ever made.

And that's where that trail goes cold. Sure, I can think of probably 500 other movies that I very much enjoy, but I'm just not sure I can put those in a numerical order of how much I enjoyed them. Plus there's the fact that the list constantly fluctuates. I don't know how many times I haven't seen a movie in years that I'll re-watch and think "Wow, that was absolutely amazing!" Two movies that come to mind are Vanilla Sky and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.

Vanilla Sky
I've seen Vanilla Sky several times, but recently watched it again after not having seen it for a couple years. I forgot how much I enjoyed this movie. The music, the scenery, the actors, the plot... there's just so much about this movie I enjoy. I listed music first because I think this was the first movie where I really noticed how well the music was used, every little piece of music is used perfectly and seems to fit flawlessly with the scene. I know a lot of people didn't like this movie, but to me there was just so much that was great about it. Everything just seemed to click.


The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Probably one of if not my favorite westerns (it has to go head to head with Tombstone which is an amazing movie.) This is a movie that I wish more people had the chance to see. It had a rather small budget movie and a limited release, and it's a shame because it's a spectacular movie with phenomenal cinematography some amazing performances. Remember when Brad Pitt was just another pretty face and no male really wanted to pay attention to him, but every one of their wives and girlfriends did? Oh how times have changed, and this movie really showcases his acting ability. He is amazing as Jesse James, playing him as manic and crazy but also making him personable. And Casey Affleck gives what could be the best role of his lifetime in this movie. This is a role that he was born to play, he is spectacular as Robert Ford and in my opinion should have won the best supporting Oscar. The last half hour or so of the movie is acting at it's best, leading up to an absolutely amazing ending all while showing just how great an actor Casey Affleck is.

But here's the problem... where do I rank those movies? I think they're both amazing movies, but are they in my top ten? Maybe, I'm not really sure. Would I rather watch The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford over say Citizen Kane? Well that would certainly depend on the day and my mood. Do I think The Assassination of Jesse Jame by the Coward Robert Ford is a better movie than Citizen Kane? I'm not really sure. I enjoy them both greatly and for probably completely different reasons. So how do I rank one over the other?

And that's how my mind works every time I try to make a top 10 or a top 100 list. I'm just not exactly sure how to rank the movies that I enjoy. I enjoy so many different movies across so many different genres for so many different reasons it makes it hard for me to give a concrete "These are my favorite movies."

Movies are a huge part of my life. There's very little that I enjoy more then sitting down and watching a movie. It doesn't matter if it's a movie I've seen a hundred times or a movie I've never seen before in my life. I just enjoy the experience that movies bring to me.

So instead of a top 100 favorite movies, I've decided in the next little bit to write a "Top 3 movies with 97ish movies I greatly enjoy" list. Nothing but the top 3 will be in any particular order. Just movies that I've watched and enjoyed, as simple as that.

Squid.