My twenty-one-year-old son asked me to pick my ten favorite movies of all time. He didn’t tell me the reason to do this, so I don't know why. But being supportive and cooperative, I have come up with my Top-10 list.
I'm certain there are thousands of movies superior to these. But I haven't seen them. When I do, I promise I'll revise my list. If you have a suggestion to help me in my noble quest, please email me at jeff@jjrlore.com.
Here are my three criteria for choosing the best movies to give you a feel for how I made this list.
The movie must be perfect for its genre. It cannot contain one flaw in a single frame.
It must be a movie I have seen repeatedly over the years, and one I expect to never lose interest in no matter how many more times I see it. Like a true movie star, the movie must grab my attention by force and demand that I keep watching it.
It must be devoid of lecture. When I see a movie, I want to be entertained, not scolded.
My Top-10 movies, in order of release date
Rebecca (1940)
Dial M for Murder (1954)
Rear Window (1954)
Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
True Grit (1969)
The Sting (1973)
Paper Moon (1973)
Rocky (1976)
Star Wars: A New Hope (1977)
Amadeus (1984)
Notice that the most recent movie is thirty-six years old. What happened to Hollywood in the past 3.5 decades?
Runners-up, in order of release date
Unlike my ten most favorite movies that require no introduction or explanation, here is my list of runners-up. All of them are exceptionally fine films. Out of fairness (I'm a reasonable and thoughtful person), I feel I must offer some explanation for not including them in my Top-10:
Citizen Kane (1941)—A perfect film (except for the more than 12 minutes of narration). But I felt so badly for Charles Kane. With all his searching, he could never find what he was looking for.
Casablanca (1942)—An exquisitely polished and perfect film. I don't know why it's not in my top ten films. Perhaps because it's so heavy. There was a lot of suffering back then.
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)—The parents leave their son in the hands of relative strangers in Morocco. This is difficult for me to believe.
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)—Stories centering on race issues are difficult to watch.
Father Goose (1964)—Cary Grant is too old for Leslie Caron. There’s a scene that shows age spots on the back of his hand.
Flight of the Phoenix (1965)—Jimmy Stewart in a tantrum shoots to death an injured camel (which uses up bullets) instead of bringing the camel to his fellow stranded friends to use as food and other precious resources.
Planet of the Apes (1968)—Screenplay written by Rod Serling, and acted by Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, and Linda Harrison. Even people who don't like science fiction movies like this movie.
Midnight Cowboy (1969)—I don’t know why. It's an exceedingly well-done movie.
Young Frankenstein (1974)—I don’t know.
Jaws (1975)—I think it's because Robert Shaw does such a good job compared to the other actors (and they all do superbly!), he makes the others look insufficient. They don't make movies like this anymore.
The Gods Must be Crazy (1980)—Poor sound; dubbed voices don't match lips.
War Games (1983)—I don't know why. It's a great movie!
Back to the Future (1985)—Very tough to say; virtually all critics declare this movie to be perfect.
Fletch (1985)—Clearly the best Chevy Chase movie.
The Princess Bride (1987)—I don’t know. This is an extremely well-done and beloved movie.
Batman (1989)—The only truly superior Batman movie. I don’t know why it’s not in the top ten.
My Cousin Vinny (1992)—Absolutely fabulous. The scenes with the alternate defense attorney (that stuttered) I feel distracted from the movie.
Dave (1993)—It's a crowd-pleaser. Show it to your friends. They'll love it. And you'll make more friends.
Sense and Sensibility (1995)—Can someone tell me the reason?
The Matrix (1999)—I hated the ending (last two seconds). It destroyed the movie for me.
Galaxy Quest (1999)—It's impossible not to like this movie. Nicholas Meyer (director of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan) said that Galaxy Quest is the best Star Trek movie ever made. David Mamet (playwright, film director, and screenwriter) wrote that there are only four perfect movies: The Godfather, A Place in the Sun, Dodsworth, and Galaxy Quest.
Princess Mononoke (1999)—Heavy sermonizing on environmentalism. But it’s done so well that I still enjoy the movie immensely and want to keep seeing it.
Finding Forrester (2000)—I don't know why.
Frequency (2000)—Excellent family movie, showing love between father and son.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)—Very tough decision.
Kate and Leopold (2001)—Every frame in this movie is perfect. Whenever this movie is suggested by friends, I always say, "Let's watch it."
The Village (2004)—Wish the movie went on for another five minutes, or even better, another two hours.
The Incredibles (2004)—I don’t know. Perhaps because they’re digital characters that don’t require human acting?
Red (2010)—This film is so fun to watch I take every opportunity to see it again whenever I can. This is the best "runner-up" movie on this list.
Battleship (2012)—The flawless, effective, jaw-dropping special effects during the water battles are diluted by hideous special effects during the hand-to-hand combat scene in the end.
Knives Out (2019)—Sermonizing the unfairness of enforcement of illegal immigration and that rich, successful people are lying scheming creeps.
Did you know: The Titanic cost $7.5 million to build. It cost $200 million to film the movie Titanic. They're building a full-sized replica of the Titanic. The cost for this will be $500 million. |
Movies everyone should like
Don’t listen to Critics. The statistics provided by Rotten Tomatoes for the following excellent movies show that movie viewers get it right more often than the critics.
The first number shows the average critics’ score
The second number shows the average audience score.
In most cases, the audience gets it more right. See for yourself:
The Burb’s (1989) – 53%, 71%
Rocketeer (1991) – 66%, 65%
The 13th Floor (1999) – 30%, 64%
The Count of Monte Cristo (2002) – 73%, 88%
Big Fish (2003) – 75%, 89%
Matchstick Men (2003) – 82%, 74%
The Village (2004) – 43%, 57%
The Passion of the Christ (2004) – 49%, 80%
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2005) – 60%, 65%
Constantine (2005) – 46%, 72%
Ghost Town (2008) – 85%, 60%
The Invention of Lying (2009) – 55%, 39%
Salt (2010) – 62%, 59%
Battleship (2012) – 33%, 54%
After Earth (2013) – 12%, 36%
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015) – 68%, 73%
Mortal Engines (2018) – 26%, 48%
Where the Crawdads Sing (2022) – 33%, 96%
Uncharted (2022) – 40%, 90%
Death on the Nile (2022) – 62%, 82%
My Son's Top-10 movie list
For your information, here is my son's Top-10 movie list. You can see that he has good taste.
Rear Window (1954)
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1954)
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Places in the Heart (1985)
My Neighbor Totoro (1993)
Jurassic Park (1993)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (2011)
Moonrise Kingdom (2012)