Start The New Year Out With A Resolution To Watch These Movies
There are great movies, and there are great guy movies. Every guy movie is great, but not every great movie is a guy movie. The Titanic, Thelma And Louise, Ghost... All great movies, but not guy movies by any stretch of the imagination.
Here is my list of one hundred movies every guy will want to see before he dies.
The list is presented in four installments of twenty-five movies each. In the end, I’ll reveal my number one guy movie of all time. I look forward to hearing from you about where I am right and wrong and some of your favorite guy movies.
In alphabetical order, here are numbers one through twenty-five.
3:10 to Yuma (2007) - A downtrodden rancher, played by Christian Bale, is tasked with ensuring that a dangerous outlaw, played by Russel Crowe, is put on the prison train to Yuma. There is not one dull moment in this one—total action from beginning to end.
A Christmas Carol (1951) - You know the story. A cranky old man hates merry-making in general and Christmas in particular. In the end, he learns to love both. Alistair Sim stars as the definitive Ebeneezer Scrooge
A Christmas Story (1983) - A timeless classic. It isn’t Christmas until you’ve watched this movie. Everyone, please be careful not to shoot their eye out.
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) - Not just another slasher flick. This may be the best horror movie ever made.
The African Queen (1951) - Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn go on a quest to use Bogie’s old steamboat to sink a German gunboat in East Africa at the onset of World War One. Bogart won his only Oscar for Best Actor.
All Quiet On the Western Front (1929) - This anti-war movie is set on the Western Front during World War One and undermines the romantic fallacy of war by exposing its horror. Told from the German soldier’s point of view. The novel was later banned by Hitler, so it must be good. Based on the novel by Erich Maria Remarque.
American Beauty (1999) - Every man’s mid-life crisis played out in detail.
American Graffiti (1973) - Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Opie Taylor, Richie Cunningham, Harrison Ford, and Wolfman Jack working on the same movie? A coming of age classic.
An American Werewolf in London (1981) - This movie gave me nightmares when I was a teen. Is the English countryside as creepy as it’s portrayed here?
An Officer and A Gentleman (1982) - Watching Gunnery Sergeant Lou Gosset Jr. kick Richard Gere’s ass is worth the price of admission. Semper Fi.
Apocalypse Now (1979) - If you like the smell of napalm in the morning, you’ll love this one. It’s over two and a half hours long, so brew some coffee—an all-star cast featuring Martin Sheen, Robert Duvall, Dennis Hopper, and Marlon Brando.
Back To The Future (1985) - I watched this at the USO in Hollywood, California, in 1987 while eating nachos and drinking beer. The sequels all sucked, but the original is a classic.
The Bad News Bears (1976) - Walter Matthau is excellent as Morris Buttermaker, a cantankerous old little league baseball coach. Tatum O’Neal co-stars.
Batman (1989) - We all agree that superhero movies suck, like your best friend's sister. This one, though, is an exception. Why? Because it doesn’t take itself seriously. It’s campy and funny and silly, like a comic book. Michael Keaton as Batman and Jack Nicholson as The Joker. “Tell your friends about me.”
Blazing Saddles (1974) - They couldn’t make this one today. Directed by Mel Brooks and starring Gene Wilder and Cleavon Little. Slim Pickens and Burt Gilliam are hilarious.
The Blues Brothers (1980) - John Belushi and Dan Akroyd star as Jake and Elwood Blues. A stellar musical cast makes for a fantastic soundtrack.
Bonnie and Clyde (1967) - Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow take a road trip across America stealing cars, robbing banks, and shooting it out with the po-lice. Starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway.
Braveheart (1995) - It’s not historically accurate, but the battle scenes are fantastic.
The Bridge On the River Kwai (1957) - British POWs are forced to build a bridge by their Japanese captors. The film won seven Oscars, including Best Picture. One of the greatest movies ever made and one of my mom’s favorites.
Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid (1969) - The wild west is in its twilight, but the Hole In The Wall Gang still rides. Based loosely on a true story. Stars Paul Newman and Robert Redford.
Casablanca (1942) - Consistently ranked near the top of every Greatest Movies list ever created. Starring real man Humphrey Bogart. Casablanca is noted for two famous lines; “Here’s looking at you kid,” which Bogart may have adlibbed, and “Play it again, Sam,” which was never said.
Castaway (2000) - A tale of survival. Chuck Noland spends four years on a deserted island with only a volleyball named Wilson to keep him company.
Citizen Kane (1941) - Frequently cited as the greatest movie ever made. A reporter sets off to learn the meaning of a man’s final words and learns more than he bargained for. Written, directed, and produced by Orson Wells. Starring Orson Wells.
Coming To America (1988) - Eddie Murphy stars as Prince Akeem, heir to the throne of a wealthy African country. He travels to America to escape an arranged marriage and find his true love. Absolutely hilarious. Google “Sexual Chocolate.”
Cool Hand Luke (1967) -A petty criminal is sentenced to two years in a Florida prison farm and refuses to conform. The warden blames it on a failure to communicate. Starring Paul Newman, Strother Martin, and George Kennedy.
Check back tomorrow for numbers 26-50
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