Top Five Favorite Films

Today's blog post comes from a Plinky answer prompt from a couple months back:

List your top 5 all-time favorite movies

(I'm going to list them in order of exposure, from the most recent to the longest-lived, since I can't really decide a "most-to-least favorite" order!)

1. Star Trek (the prequel movie from 2009)

I didn't have many expectations coming into this movie. Although I was a fan of The Next Generation, Voyager and Deep Space Nine, I was never really a fan of the original Star Trek TV series with Shatner and Nimoy. So I didn't think I'd enjoy this movie as much as I did. However, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the story was amazingly well-written, and the actors were great. And having Leonard Nimoy on board, playing himself? THAT really added the perfect touch to the movie. I enjoyed it so much that I promptly watched it about 5 times in a row in the span of a couple of months.

2. Wall-E

This was another unexpected find. Allan brought it home from Blockbuster one day when our first choice was all rented out, and I promptly fell in love. The anthropomorphization of the two main robot characters, and their subsequent love story, was very touching. I fell in love with all the other quirky characters, too-- my favorite is cute, little, cleaning fanatic M-O! The movie was full of interesting characters and the way they overcome challenges and grow. I also admired the Captain's heroism in the end, and of course, loved the happy ending :-)

3. Liar, Liar

Jim Carrey movies tend to be hit-or-miss for me. He is such an over-the-top actor, that I either can't stand the movie, or I love it. This one is one of the very precious few of his movies that I actually like and can watch over and over again. Not only are the antics hilarious, but I love how his character comes around, learns his lesson, and reforms himself at the end. Allan and I often have fun quoting some of his funnier expressions from the movie!

4. The Negotiator

As you can tell from one of my previous blog entries, I adore Kevin Spacey. He is my number one favorite actor of all. He takes on such versatile roles, from the out-of-it dad in "American Beauty" to the alien mental patient in "K-Pax" to the musically-talented (and yes, he sings, himself) Bobby Darin in "Beyond the Sea" to the maniacal killer in "Se7en"... to the smart, tough negotiator in this movie. I really love the way the story unfolds in this movie-- there is just the right amount of action/special effects when it's warranted, and yet even the "downtime" is filled with activity that really builds the plot and starts revealing the story. I loved watching the transformation of Spacey's character from that of a neutral cop doing his job, to Samuel L. Jackson's character's ally. I loved how the two negotiators were able to connect, and how their relationship changed along the way. It's a long movie, but it keeps you at the edge of your seat the whole way, and is well worth it!

5. You've Got Mail

I've always been a big fan of the Meg Ryan romantic comedy movies (Sleepless in Seattle, When Harry Met Sally, You've Got Mail). Her characters were always so cute and classy. And of course, it's no secret that I adore Tom Hanks, as well-- my second favorite actor after Kevin Spacey. I really really love that this movie has, essentially, two parallel stories going on (real life where Meg and Tom hate each other, and online life, where they are in love), and we get to witness the convergence of these two lives as each discovers who the other really is. I don't cry often, but this movie had me tearing up at the end. This movie was based on the 1940 film "The Shop Around the Corner" (Meg's bookstore is an homage to it) starring Jimmy Stewart, and that story was equally enchanting. Nora Ephron, however, did a remarkable job of modernizing not just the story line, but the incorporation of modern technology (i.e. e-mail replaced snail mail).

And the soundtrack? Absolutely amazing. Not since "American Graffiti" has a movie's soundtrack resonated SO perfectly with the story. I have the complete soundtrack (both instrumental parts only and actual songs), arranged in order of appearance in the movie, and it's really incredible how you can just close your eyes and listen to ONLY the soundtrack, yet it still enables you to visualize exactly what is going on in the movie as each song plays. That's how perfectly the score matches the movie.

There are other movies that make my "top favorites" list, but these are most definitely the ones I could watch over and over and over again without every tiring of them!

How about you?