My Ten Favorite Movies

Some movies are so enjoyable that I can watch them again and again without ever getting tired of them. The following is a list of my Top Ten favorite movies to watch. If they’re on, I’m watching. I am not saying that they’re the ‘best’ movies ever created or the best stories, etc. (certainly not by the Academy’s standards), and there are no R-Rated movies on this list. If I wouldn’t feel comfortable watching a movie with my teenage son or my parents (not to mention my wife), then to me it’s not a good movie. What follows is simply one man’s list of his ten favorite movies to watch:

The Great Escape—when asked about my favorite movie, this is generally my answer. The fact that it’s a true story is all the more remarkable, but watching the movie is just a fantastic way to spend a few hours. For me, it has the perfect mix of story, drama, excitement, character idiosyncracy, great actors and comic relief.

The Fugitive (1993)—If The Great Escape is #1 for me, then The Fugitive is 1A. What makes this movie great for me is that paying attention is rewarding for the viewer. There are enough twists and turns, with Dr. Richard Kimble just barely staying one step ahead of the U.S. Marshalls, to keep it exciting from the word ‘go’. The bonus, of course, is the acting of Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones, the latter giving one of my favorite acting performances ever.

The Sting—I love clever plots, small substories and resolutions that make me laugh out loud in surprise, and The Sting does not disappoint in this area. I’m also a big fan of a good con, so this one’s a natural fit. Besides, how can you go wrong with Newman and Redford in their heyday?

Men in Black—This movie is laugh-out-loud funny and thoroughly enjoyable to watch. Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones make for a great ‘partner’ movie; I totally get Smith’s sense of humor and Jones plays one heck of a grumpy old straight man. The aliens also allow for a lot of creativity in the story: “Do you have any idea how much that hurts?!” It doesn’t hurt that Vincent D’Onofrio gets to show a little versatility as Edgar, either.

Get Smart—This is the most recent addition to my list, but I couldn’t leave it off after recently watching it again and laughing out loud a LOT. It’s meant to be silly, and it delivers from beginning to end. The Minsk bathroom scene is even funnier with the subtitles on. Now that I mention it, the other bathroom scene is also hilarious, and I’m not generally one for toilet humor. Kudos to casting for putting Alan Arkin in the role as ‘Chief’. He makes the movie. “Sand Trap! Tractor! Swordfish!”

Babe—The next two movies are on this list largely because the end of the movie always produces a huge smile of satisfaction, with maybe even just a hint of mist in my eyes. Babe is a great story on hidden potential and on the virtues of innocence and benevolence.

Driving Miss Daisy—With apologies to Woody and Buzz, this is probably the best buddy flick out there. Both Morgan Freeman and Jessica Tandy give All-Star performances, and it’s a great story of an unorthodox friendship that develops over the second half of the 20th century.

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off—This is on my list for the nostalgia factor. This was my favorite movie of the 80’s, I can still basically quote the whole thing and, along with the rest of Chicago, I’m pulling for Ferris. Mr. Rooney is the perfect foil.

The Sandlot—Also on my list for nostalgic reasons, this movie reminds me of being a kid; I wasn’t a kid in the 60’s, but I did grow up playing baseball from sunup to sundown, and I can attach a real name of someone with whom I grew up to most of the kids in this movie. I like this movie so much that I’m a member of the Squints Palledorous Fan Club on Facebook.

Toy Story (I, II or III)—I’m a sucker for the Pixar films. They haven’t laid an egg yet (Wall-E is the closest they’ve come), and most of their movies have been bang-up fantastic. In my home we own all the movies, and the whole family can identify 99.8% of the quotes from them. Toy Story, simply put, is the gold standard of computer animated films. Frankly, the whole trilogy knocked my socks off, but if I have to pick only one I’ll give the nod to the first movie because the story is great, it introduced us to a lot of fun characters, and because it forever changed the movie industry.
---------------------------------------------
Honorable mention:

Another movie I’ll always stop and watch when it’s on TV: The Dirty Dozen. Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, Donald Sutherland, Jim Brown, Telly Savalas...? Posey, Franko, Jimenez…? Come on.

Favorite R-rated comedy that I’ve only ever seen in an edited version: Trading Places. Were I to consider only the edited version, it would displace either of the comedies in my top ten. I love this movie. Ask me about a funny story regarding an edited version of this movie sometime.
Edited runner-up: Plains, Trains and Automobiles.

Favorite R-rated drama that I’ve only ever seen in an edited version: The Shawshank Redemption. Redemption, indeed.

Favorite Soundtracks: Happy Feet, Muppets from Space. The movies are okay, but both have lots of good funky tunes that will get me to watch; Happy Feet wins here for its great mashups.

Favorite overall DVD experience: Apollo 13. The bonus features alone make it worth owning.

Favorite cult classic: I’ll give this one to The Princess Bride, though So I Married an Axe Murderer deserves mention as well.

Best big-screen movie for which a small screen wouldn’t work: Avatar. I enjoyed seeing this in the theater so much that I went twice and paid for the 3-D both times. However, the story is not especially strong, and I just don’t think I’d enjoy it that much on my 27-inch screen.

Another reason to love summer

One of many, many reasons for loving summer

Diary of a burn--update

This evening will mark one week since "The Burn" happened. The pain is still present and accounted for, though Stacey would prefer that it not be so. This photo is a couple of days old, but gives a fair sense of the burned area. Since this was taken, the dead skin on the thumb as well as down toward the palm have receded more, leaving a nice, big, raw area. The last visit to the Dr. yielded a prescription that would have cost about $350 for a week's worth of ointment (the wonderful insurance, of course, no longer covers that medicine--SCAM!), so Stacey pleaded broke with the Dr. and they prescribed a different ointment that's much more affordable, covered by insurance, and stings slightly. As you can imagine, her use of the hand is still rather limited, and she faces the daily dilemma of being lucid and very uncomfortable or being loopy/asleep and pain-free.

Diary of a burn Day 1 and 2

Day 1
It will be a long time before I try to cook sopapillas again. Or at least I will get a fry daddy first. Moving pots of hot oil around on the stove top is a very dangerous thing. Especially when the oil sloshes up onto your hand. Of course my knee-jerk reaction was to pull back and wipe the oil off on my pants. Do you know what happens when you do that? Oil all over the floor and stove and torn skin on your hand. (Day 1) I can't even begin to describe the burning, stinging, raw pain...but, stupid me, I'd rather tough it out under cold water than make a trip to the doctor. Thankfully at the insistence of my husband and sister I went to the ER at University Hospital (it was a slow night for them, thank goodness, and I got right in) I was asked about 10 times if I was up to day on my Tetanus shot--which I can't remember. How do people keep track of those things anyway? After the doctor and a student had a "teaching moment" about my hand (which seemed to last forever as they poked and prodded my hand and using terms I couldn't understand) I finally was hooked up to some Morphine and sweet bliss took over. The nurse cleaned and bandaged me up and I was even visited by doctors from the "burn unit" with instructions to come and visit them in a few days. With a prescription of Oxicodone in my hand off I went with instructions to keep the medicine going and I will be a happy person....well, at least a pain free person. I'm not sure why people enjoy this foggy, eye-swimming feeling but I'll take the pain free part.

I am so grateful that our home teacher could come over with a yummy plate of cookies and the priesthood to help Devin give me a blessing. I know that will make a difference in my healing. We also had an amazing dinner brought over by the McIntosh's. It was so good! And we are devouring the cookies that my visiting teacher brought! Thanks Kristin! I am feeling very loved.

Day 2
The nurse had this amazing gauze soaked in vaseline which made up the first layer covering my skin. I was so afraid it had stuck to the wound, but it didn't! The outer layer is a loosely knitted gauze lightly wrapped around my hand. I was very curious to see what the wound would look like the second day. After taking it all off, I was amazed to see the big blister that had formed. We were told not to pop any blisters since that would encourage infection to enter; but as skin gets loose we were to cut it off. Thankfully, Devin is helping me with this whole process. As soon as the air hit the raw, opened burn, the stinging began. So we took a quick picture, cleaned it up and wrapped my hand trying to repeat what the nurse had done. Not as good as she did, but it works.