Movies

Movies have been around most of, but not all of, my life. I don’t remember movies from my first era, the New York Era, but I do remember them from all eras after that one. I didn’t become an active consumer, let alone a gourmet, until well into the Los Angeles Era (which began back in 1967).

In high school in the early 1970s, I got involved in theatre [see My Life 2.0], but it wasn’t until college when I formally studied film and television making that I became avidly interested in films. They’ve been a special source of delight (and disappointment) ever since.

As a fan separately of both movies and science fiction, I love them in combination. [I divide SF movie eras into B.L. and Anno Stella Bella] I’ve started a list of Science Fiction Movies that tries to list the ones I’ve seen, but it’s a big task. (And one that requires constant updating.)

I also love baseball, so I also started a list of Baseball Movies.

I used to have a thing for movies about assassins. Others apparently do, too; it’s surprising how many assassin movies there are. (I’ve also noticed my list getting a fair number of, pardon the expression, hits.) I made a list of Assassin Movies a while back (for my website), but it is a bit out of date now.

My Rating System

For the record, here’s my current rating system:

Wow! — A must-see! Gets everything as right as possible. Few or no complaints. Reserved for the very special and jaw-dropping.

Ah! — Glad I saw it! Pretty good, definitely worth seeing. Has some aspects that are especially noteworthy.

Eh! — I’m not sorry I saw it. Still a thumbs-up but didn’t have much that was particularly interesting or noteworthy.

Meh! — I didn’t need to see this. Now we’re into thumbs-down territory. Didn’t impress but didn’t completely stink. Has some aspects that might make it worth seeing, at least for some.

Nah! — I’m sorry I saw this! Not good, not really worth seeing unless there is some special reason that compels one to make the effort.

Ugh! — Avoid! Avoid! Terrible, awful, horrible, very bad. A waste of time. Should not exist.

Favorite Five

I’ve never been able to pick out a top favorite (in much of anything). There are just too many good choices. But sometimes I can manage to narrow it down to five (or so). This list may change, but for the moment, here are my Favorite Five. I’m not saying they’re the best films; they’re my favorite films [see Quality vs Taste].

These are movies I’ve seen many times and could easily watch again:

  1. LA Story; 1991; Steve Martin; Mick Jackson
  2. Grand Canyon; 1991; Kevin Klein, Danny Glover; Lawrence Kasdan [post: Grand Canyon]
  3. His Girl Friday; 1940; Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell; Howard Hawks
  4. Airplane!; 1980; large cast; Abrams & Zucker, Zucker
  5. Galaxy Quest; 1999; Tim Allen, many others; Dean Parisot

Heavy on the comedy because I value laughter above just about everything, but science fiction has some representation, too. (There is much more SF in the runners up.)

I’ve mentioned LA Story several times as one of my all-time enduring favorites. I’ve mentioned Galaxy Quest a few times, too. It’s a film I love on three different levels (comedy, good SF, and loving Star Trek parody).

Runners up are:

  1. Monty Python and the Holy Grail; 1975; Monty Python
  2. Zardoz; 1974; Sean Connery; John Boorman
  3. The Fifth Element; 1997; Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich; Luc Besson
  4. Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid; 1982; Steve Martin; Carl Reiner
  5. The Man Who Knew Too Little; 1997; Bill Murray; Jon Amiel

Zardoz might cause some eyebrows to rise but remember this is a list of my favorites rather than movies I regard as “classics” or “must see”. That said, I do consider it an underrated gem [see Underrated SF Movies].

I consider Airplane! and Holy Grail to be two of the funniest movies I’ve ever seen. In both cases, seeing them in the theater when they came out, I literally hurt myself from laughing so hard. Even after seeing them many times, they still give me good chuckles.

Breathing down their neck in a very close race:

All favorite films and ones I’ve retained DVDs of (after having given away four-fifths of my formerly sizeable collection). Sadly, not many modern movies find their way into my heart. Storytelling in movies has gone way downhill.

Here are some other favorites:

Those are just the ones on my favorites shelf. There are a lot of other movies I’ve loved over the years. Far too many to list.

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Here are some favorite must-see classics (all highly recommended):

To name but a few. I also recommend the even earlier films of Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977), especially City Lights (1931) and Modern Times (1936), two of his more well-known ones.

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In the modern era, I’m a big fan of films by Wes Anderson. Visually, they consist of carefully arranged paintings in which symmetry plays a central role. Part of the delight is in how he breaks the overall symmetry in the details. Textually, his films are quirky good fun with a strong dash of surrealism.

I like his films enough to have “bought” all but one from Amazon:

  1. Bottle Rocket (1996)
  2. Rushmore (1998)
  3. The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
  4. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)
  5. The Darjeeling Limited (2007)
  6. Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) — based on the 1970 novel by Roald Dahl
  7. Moonrise Kingdom (2012)
  8. The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
  9. Isle of Dogs (2018)
  10. The French Dispatch (2021)
  11. Asteroid City (2023)
  12. Henry Sugar + 3 (2024)
  13. The Phoenician Scheme (2025)

In fact, #12 is a Netflix collection of four short films he did, but the one I haven’t bought yet is #11. I wait for Amazon to drop the price to five dollars or less before I pounce, and Asteroid City is apparently owned by Paramount and never on sale (maybe in a few years).

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While I’m naming directors that have, so far, never disappointed, I’ve been a fan of Quentin Tarantino since he wrote the script for True Romance. I still own DVDs of most of his movies (save for the last two) — they survived the purge that get rid of four-fifths of my formerly large collection (I’m down about 200 now).

Two of his films (Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown) are among my favorites:

  1. Reservoir Dogs (1992)
  2. Pulp Fiction (1994)
  3. Jackie Brown (1997) — based on Rum Punch (1992) by Elmore Leonard
  4. Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003)
  5. Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2004)
  6. Inglourious Basterds (2009)
  7. Django Unchained (2021)
  8. The Hateful Eight (2015)
  9. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)

He has claimed he’ll only ever do ten films, which raises two questions. Firstly, what will be his tenth film (he was interested in Star Trek at one point; that would have been … interesting). Secondly, will he actually end his filmmaking career after ten movies.

Tarantino is also attached to:

The above is not at all exhaustive, just some highlights.

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[more to come (possibly)]

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