A while back, I fell to the temptation of the grocery store magazine stand and bought 500 Best Movies of All Time, a money-grabber put out by Us Weekly. I thought it would be a ranking of 500 movies, and I would be able to list the ones that I have seen. Instead, they broke it down by category and added a bunch that almost made the list.
That means that the movies are in no particular order. With that being said, here are the ones that I have seen with a short description of each.
Avatar – Dances With Wolves in space
Black Panther – A great hero and a great villain
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid – Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head
Casablanca – Great first name for the main character
Citizen Kane – A jigsaw puzzle and a sled
E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial – No cell phones in those days
The Godfather – Still cannot believe that Fish was the traitor
Harry Potter (The Whole Series) – Great faculty reviews
Gone With the Wind – Looks different from a modern point of view
Inception – Do not dream of spinning tops
Pulp Fiction – John Travolta is everywhere
Raiders of the Lost Ark – It will melt your face
Rocky – The greatest fighter who never lived
Star Wars – A lot of people wear hoodies
The Wizard of Oz – Where does the Red Brick Road go
Titanic – Move over and let him up there
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off – Where is the truant officer
There’s Something About Mary – Brett Favre
The 40-Year Old Virgin – Sacrifice for the role
National Lampoon’s Vacation – I have been on that trip
Beverly Hills Cop – Great theme song
Chicago – Song and dance
Reservoir Dogs – Colors are the key
All the President’s Men – Deep Throat should still be a mystery
The Departed – Where is Whitey Bulger when you need him
Sin City – Great animation
L.A. Confidential – Great actors but thin plot
The Wolf of Wall Street – Not the only wolf
The Manchurian Candidate – Foreign meddling in an election
The Untouchables – Bring in the IRS
Rudy – Ugh
A Few Good Men – Lawyer v. Witness
Scent of a Woman – Pacino should have won for something else
Boogie Nights – The return of Burt
Million Dollar Baby – Not a happy ending
The Help – Watch out for the pie
Stand By Me – Best Stephen King adaptation
Lady and the Tramp – Spaghetti
Bambi – Thumper is a great sidekick
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory – I still look for a Golden Ticket
The Searchers – John Ford, John Wayne and Ward Bond
Tombstone – Who set the building on fire
True Grit – Eyepatch
Unforgiven – They should never have killed Morgan Freeman
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly – Ecstasy of Gold
Superman – Strings attached
The Last of the Mohicans – Daniel Day-Lewis as a superhero
Guardians of the Galaxy – A talking tree and a talking raccoon.
True Lies – Arnold and Jamie Lee
Enter the Dragon – A Bruce Lee classic
Captain America: The Winter Soldier – Best friends collide
The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King – He returns to Oscar glory
Back to the Future – 88 mph
Skyfall – One of the best non-Sean Connery Bond films
Argo – Harrowing escape
The Bourne Identity – Matt Damon as the toughest man alive
Taken – And rescued
Zombieland – Twinkies
The Dark Knight – When the villain steals the show
Die Hard – Is is a Christmas movie
Doctor Strange – Superheroes are strange
The Hunger Games – Reality television gone over the edge
Wonder Woman – A superhero for the ages
Silver Linings Playbook – Still not an Eagles fan
2001: A Space Odyssey – The monolith is trouble
Apollo 13 – Lost in space
The Matrix – Red pill or blue pill
The Fifth Element – Excellent science fiction
Predator – Hunters are hunted
Minority Report – Philip K. Dick
Star Trek – A truly new generation
Blade Runner – Deckard
Men in Black – Nice shades
Close Encounters of the Third Kind – Devil’s Tower
Good Morning, Vietnam – Perfect for Robin Williams
Caddyshack – Best golf ever
Ghostbusters – Who you gonna call
Braveheart – Blue face paint
Full Metal Jacket – Gomer Pyle and Joker
Top Gun – Definition of the 80s
Schindler’s List – Spielberg’s masterpiece
Apocalypse Now – Going in country to find Marlon Brando
The Bridge on the River Kwai – Blow it up
The Patriot – Not really accurate
Cast Away – Yes, Nashville got an NFL team
Dallas Buyers Club – McConaughey at his best
The Big Chill – Great soundtrack
Fast Times at Ridgemont High – Teenagers in the 80s
Network – The future of television
It’s a Wonderful Life – He got the wings
Rain Man – Charlie and Raymond
The Exorcist – Captain Howdy
The Lost Boys – Another great soundtrack
Jaws – Iconic poster
The Birds – What about all the poop
Rear Window – The perils of being a Peeping Tom
Gremlins – Watch out for midnight
The Silence of the Lambs – Fava beans and a nice Chianti
The Green Mile – Filmed nearby
The Sixth Sense – Not hard to figure out
Wow, that is an even 100 of what Us Weekly thinks are the 500 best movies of all time. I need to get to the theater more often.
Oh, here are some of the alternates I have seen.
Airplane!
American Pie
Beetlejuice
City Slickers
Coming to America
The Hangover
Happy Gilmore
La La Land
Mary Poppins
Nashville
Walk the Line
American Gangster
Dirty Harry
The Fugitive
Goodfellas
Heat
Leon: The Professional
Ocean’s Eleven
Shutter Island
Training Day
The Usual Suspects
12 Angry Men
All the King’s Men
Almost Famous
Big
Casino
The Deer Hunter
Driving Miss Daisy
Fight Club
Forrest Gump
Gladiator
Good Will Hunting
The Breakfast Club
Frozen
Jumanji
The Jungle Book
The Karate Kid
Pinocchio
The Pirates of the Caribbean
Shrek
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
300
Armageddon
The Avengers
Blood Diamond
Casino Royale
Con Air
Deliverance
First Blood
The Game
Goldfinger
I Am Legend
Iron Man
Lethal Weapon
Mission: Impossible
The Road Warrior
Speed
Spider-Man
The Revenant
Thor: Ragnarok
Watchmen
X-Men
Zero Dark Thirty
Breakfast at Tiffany’s
Ghost
The Graduate
Jerry Maguire
Out of Africa
Pretty Woman
District 9
Independence Day
Interstellar
Planet of the Apes
Starship Troopers
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Total Recall
Office Space
Planes, Trains and Automobiles
Spaceballs
Stripes
Tootsie
Trading Places
Wedding Crashers
A Beautiful Mind
Catch Me If You Can
Chariots of Fire
Glory
JFK
Lincoln
The Social Network
Black Hawk Down
The Dirty Dozen
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Dunkirk
Patton
Platoon
Saving Private Ryan
Hoosiers
The Hustler
The King’s Speech
The Natural
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Remember the Titans
The Truman Show
Big Fish
Bram Stoker’s Dracula
The Crow
The Devil’s Advocate
From Dusk Till Dawn
Misery
Mulholland Drive
Mystic River
A Nightmare on Elm Street
No Country for Old Men
North by Northwest
The Prestige
Se7en
Unbreakable
V for Vendetta
Zodiac
So, that is 121 of the also-ran’s that I have seen. Wait, do the also-ran’s also count as part of the 500? Instead of counting, let us just say that I have seen 221 of the movies listed in a magazine that was a complete waste of money.
SBI: A Thinning Crowd 