#Hahaha if you made it down this far congrats you get a cookie

[setaflow]

So @beammeupbroadway tagged me (well, technically my alt, but still) to list my 9 favorite movies in order of release and I’m a low-key film nut so of course I was going to love putting this together. Took me a half an hour to narrow down my favs and honestly some of these were a total toss-up I could’ve easily have expanded this list into a top 20.

Honorable mentions include but are not limited to: Casablanca, Psycho, The Godfather, Rocky, Forrest Gump, Ratatouille, The Replacements, Miracle, The Mummy, Into the Spiderverse, Spiderman 3 (yeah I love the Sam Raimi flicks bite me), Spirit: Stallion of the Cimmaron, Everything Everywhere All at Once, and the New York Giants 2007 World Championship Celebration DVD

Tagging @callmeguacamole @holybatgirlz and anyone else who wants to do it but seriously movies make me smile

Explanation for my picks under the cut!

To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

This is mostly stemming from the fact that I adore the source material, which I read in 8th grade and still remember very vividly, but this is also a prime example of how to perfectly adapt a movie from another source. The changes, if there even were changes, are minor or additive to the overall experience, and what was strong about the original book is still retained through the excellent performances of the movie’s leads (especially Gregory Peck bc DAMN there’s a reason that man is one of the greatest American actors of all time). I haven’t seen this movie in a while but the fact that the story of it is more pertinent and timely than ever makes me want to give it a rewatch. If you haven’t watched it because you listen to it’s detractors on social media say dumb stuff, ignore them and watch it. Or at the very least read the original, because the original is SUCH a fucking good novel.

Jaws (1975)

Y’all ever have those movies where the movie itself is good but the way they had to go about making the damn thing is just as, if not more interesting? That’s Jaws for me. Seriously, look up some of the documentaries they made on just how fucking bonkers the production for this movie was. Nothing worked, the crew all hated Spielberg, they were like 100 days over schedule, no one expected this movie to actually do well. Well, suffice to say that this movie basically created the modern blockbuster as we know it and was briefly the highest grossing movie of all time, so yeah, I think it did well. If you want to watch what I would consider one of the best horror movies every made, watch Jaws. It’s a movie basically carried by 3 men and a boat but HOT DAMN, do they carry this fucking movie. 

The Princess Bride (1987)

The Princess Bride is the first movie I ever saw out of these 9. When I was a kid I definitely didn’t really get the appeal and a lot of concepts it was trying to convey went right over my head, so if you’re reading this and experienced something similar, I recommend watching it again. There’s a reason this movie hasn’t been remade yet despite the slew of remakes/reimagining coming out of Hollywood these days: it is honestly a perfect story. There is literally no way to improve upon it. The formatting is excellent, the actors are all perfectly casted (RIP Andre the Giant you found those horses so well) and the arcs everyone goes through are just...so good. It’s just a timeless story that doesn’t need to be remade and retold, and the fact that an iconic line/joke/meme has come out of at least every single scene in this movie is a testimony to that. Out of this entire list, this is the one movie I’ll force people to watch on the spot if they haven’t already. It’s that good.

Titanic (1997)

Fuck the haters, this movie is great. I’m sorry, but as someone who really does not like sweeping romance films bc I think they’re corny and dumb, I unabashedly love this movie and I will always watch it at least once when it cycles back onto Netflix. It’s probably because they play the melodrama up in such an overblown yet still kinda believable way while at the same time keeping an insane amount of the historical accuracy and attention to detail. It’s one of those movies where you can rewatch and always pick out something you haven’t seen before or another bit of trivia you never noticed.  You can watch this Lindsay Ellis video to learn more about why this film is actually better than the haters claim it is. 

Remember the Titans (2000)

Look. Is this movie perfect? No. Does this movie embellish a lot of the real-life story it’s based on? Yes. Does this movie water down race relations in the 1970′s American South to a story that’s easily palatable for white audiences? Yes. Do I care? IDFK man, but all I know when Yoast tells the defense that they’re going to “BLITZ! ALL! NIGHT!” and in doing so sacrifices his reputation and personal glory for the sake of his players? Man, I feel that in my fucking soul. I revisit this movie every so often because for as corny and cheesy as it is, it is a really well done corny and cheesy sports flick that tells the story it needs to tell. Also, having a 20 year old Ryan Gosling running around in the background helps.

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

Out of all the movies on this list, this is probably the one I’ve watched the most. That’s mostly due to this being my brother’s favorite movie, and his go-to pick to watch when we did roadtrips as children, so I’ve probably seen this movie at least 20 times (and I don’t think I’ve ever seen the theatrical cut either-- we owned the special editions and I think that’s the only version I’ve ever watched). But yeah, there’s a reason this movie swept the Oscars the year it came out lol. For a movie that’s going on twenty years old the technical stuff and effects in it are still frighteningly impressive, and the writing and directing is so fucking tight on this thing holy shit. There was a time that my brother Sam and I could quote Aragorn’s entire speech at the Black Gates LINE BY LINE at the drop of a hat. I really didn’t like this movie growing up because I was like 6 when it came out and it was so violent, but now? Yeah this movie fucking rocks. 

The Princess and the Frog (2009)

Fuck the haters, this movie is great (part II). This movie got a lot of stupid bullshit flack for a number of reasons, mostly for having a black princess and for being a hand-drawn animated film in a world where 3D animation was slowly becoming more popular, but this movie is still my favorite Disney princess movie and nothing will ever change that. The animation is gorgeous, the characters are lovable, the music is SEVERELY underrated for how good it is, and the 1920′s New Orleans setting is a perfect place to put a reimagined version of this story tbh. It’s ridiculous that Disney is only now giving this movie it’s due with rides and theming at it’s parks because it’s ALWAYS been an amazing film and has been unnecessarily shat upon for the past dozen years.

Creed (2015)

As a lot of my friends and some of the people on this website know, I’m a massive fan of sports movies and seeing what makes a particular sports movie work when it incorporates one sport over another. That being said, I’m a much bigger fan of boxing movies than I am of actual irl boxing. Rocky is probably the quintessential sports movie, but restarring Sly Stallone with Michael B. Jordan playing the son of his dead best friend was just...ugh. The themes of legacy? Family? Balancing the fragility of life and death and how you can still choose to honor both? Rocky needed to be in this film for it to work, and MBJ bounces off of him so well to make just a perfect followup to a franchise that honestly didn’t really need to be continued like this. I’ll touch on the fight scenes of another movie a few entries down but the fight scenes in Creed really don’t get enough credit for how visceral they are (especially that long take fight against Leo I STILL rewatch that scene). And also, “Fighting Stronger” is such a good song and the scene it’s in still plays in my head on fucking loop I love this movie so much y’all.

John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (2019)

Oh Keanu. As someone who’s seen a good 3/4s of his filmography, I have beared witness to some surprisingly good movies (The Replacements, Henry’s Crime), some unsurprisingly awful movies (Sweet November, Knock Knock), and some “this movie is so batshit fucking stupid that I kinda can’t help but love it” movies (47 Ronin, Johnny Mnemonic). But of all his films, I still think the John Wick movies are still some of his best work. I personally know that the first John Wick from 2014 is the better movie, but I’m sorry, JW3 is my current favorite of the series so far, and that’s saying a lot considering series fatigue is definitely a thing. Fun and flashy fights, gorgeous cinematography (the neon-catholic angel/devil aesthetic for this movie still makes me froth at the mouth), and worldbuilding that isn’t as extreme as the last movie but still shifts everything around so you don’t know how the next movie is going to go given the choices John and his allies make in this film. I’m so beyond excited for John Wick 4 y’al have no idea give it to me now Stahelski before I die