Our Favorite Movies

It’s been established that I love lists.  My weekly to-do list, lists of my favorite songs, my favorite restaurants, my favorite lists – if you name a topic, I’d spend time making a list.  So when a movie blog that I read semi-regularly recently had each of its writers create a list of his/her top 10 movies of all time, you'd better believe I started thinking of my own list.  I discussed the idea of a top 10 movie list with Mrs. and of course she was immediately rattling off movies she’d include.  So I decided to turn our lists into a blog post.  This way we can look back in a few years and laugh at our choices.

When I made my first list I originally came up with about 35 films to consider, so of course I had to narrow it down.  This led to a painstaking process where I considered several times changing this to a top 15 or 20 list.  But in the end I was able to stick with the original concept of 10 movies.  I guarantee Mrs. spent less time than me thinking about this, and I believe she only came up with 7 movies on her first go round.  But in an odd twist, she eventually asked me to leave #10 blank because she had several films she wanted to include and just couldn’t decide between them.  She also asked that I include 2 of the Indiana Jones movies as one entry because she couldn’t pick between them (she may have gotten a side-eye from me).  This technically means her list includes 10 movies, but let’s not tell her and just move on.  Mrs. also put up a brief argument about not numbering her choices because there “was no order”.  In the end she picked #1 & #2, and I ordered the rest for her based on the vast knowledge of her that I've accumulated over our 10 years together.  I think I did a better job with her list than she would have done.

I’ll also say that upon looking over my list Mrs. mocked my choices by saying I just picked all the popular critics choices and award winners.  However, a closer look reveals that my list has 5 best picture nominees (of which only one won best picture), and wouldn’t you know it, Mrs.’ list has 4 best picture nominees (although no winners).  Turns out we both just enjoy good movies.

You’ll also see that Mrs.' list represents a wider range of cinematic history with movies from 5 different decades, whereas (much like my taste in music) I tend to gravitate towards the 1990’s.  And I’ll add that I actually like Mrs.’ list and several of her favorites would make an expanded list of mine.  I don’t think the same is true for her and my list. 

And now to the lists.

Mrs.’ Top 10 Movies:

10) [left blank per request]

9) Rudy

8) Last of the Mohicans

7) Forgetting Sarah Marshall

6) Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark / Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

5) Jaws

4) Bridget Jones’ Diary

3) The Fugitive

2) American Pie

1) It’s A Wonderful Life

Mr.’s Top 10 Movies:

10) The Big Lebowski

9) L.A. Confidential

8) Good Will Hunting

7) Field of Dreams

6) Groundhog Day

5) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

4) American Beauty

3) Almost Famous

2) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

1) Pulp Fiction