Favorite Movies…
Recently, I was talking to some friends that were born in east Asia and lived in the United States for a limited time. At the time, I had been watching several Youtube videos about first time reactions to movies which led me to ask them how many Hollywood films they had seen that were made before 2000. I was not really surprised but they could name very few and some of the most iconic movies were completely unknown to them. This led to hours of talking about the best movies we had all seen and below are some movies that I thought were some of the best.
Action: Christopher Nolan’s Batman series is very good but Matt Reeve’s Batman series could be a good competitor if the series continues to develop the Batman character as a detective but then maybe this movie might be the bestMysterycategory.Animation: I like most animated movies especially as something to play in the background while I work on something but I will say that there are two series that stand above the rest - Kung Fu Panda and How to Train a Dragon. Both of these series produce very good stories and take some risks.Rom-Com: Most popular choice was Sleepless in Seattle but my favorite was released a year later in 1994 and was While You Were Sleeping.Science Fiction: I’m going to be lame and for those who have never seen it then Star Wars: A New Hope and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back are both really good and new versions like Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars: Rogue One are both really well done. Not sure about the rest of them - too many questionable parts. There are also modern sci-fi movies that are good like Ex Machina but I tend to put those into the niche audiences and not for the majority of viewers.Suspense: Okay, one of the best shots in any movie is the day time beach scene where the young boy gets attacked in Jaws. The historical references to the USS Indianapolis and the character development make this movie very good even though it has one of the simplest plots.Sports: I’m not going to recommend my favorite which is Hoosiers because too many people will not share the understanding of what basketball was like in Indiana from 1950 through 1999. The movie series that I am picking as the best sports movie is the Rocky series but only the first five movies. Here is the twist. I vote this as the best because I think it is the story ofAdrianand not Rocky. The best parts of all those movies is the character arc of Adrian. Rocky’s character is not too interesting but he is likeable and most of the other characters have very little impact but Adrian connects the personal life story of Rocky with the action scenes. Rocky as a boxing movie is fine but it is a much better drama than anything else. In a similar way, Rudy has the same formula - it’s the character that you want to see succeed whether they win or lose.Thriller: Many popular choices but I think the Sixth Sense wins because of the great plot twist.Western: I only have one western that I really like and that is Tombstone. I like other movies like The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence and the many John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart movies but most of these movies did not have as memorable characters as Tombstone. Some modern westerns are just ridiculous or incredibly slow, i.e. Dances with Wolves, Cowboys & Aliens, Wild Wild West, etc.
I will update this more in the future because my conversation covered many movies but these were the first few movies discussed. I have not even started talking about the effect of Tom Hanks, Tom Cruise, and Robin Williams had on movies.
