Movies

I’m not usually one for participating in Ten on Tuesday, but since this week is 10 Movies I Can Watch Over and Over Again and Never Tire Of, I thought I’d chime in.

I love movies (I rarely watch TV, and then it’s usually to watch a series after-the-fact on Netflix). I couldn’t possibly choose only ten movies that I could watch over and over. But these are the ones I keep on my mobile devices, so that I can watch them when I travel, or any other time I find myself waiting around with nothing to do.

Of course, my list goes to 11. In no particular order:

1. The Princess Bride “She doesn’t get eaten by the eels at this time.”
2. Galaxy Quest “Those poor people.”
3. Young Frankenstein “You take the blonde, I’ll take the one in the toiben.”
4. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home “Admiral, there be whales here!”
5. Cat Ballou “I’ve never seen a man get through a day so fast.”
6. Men in Black “No, Elvis is not dead. He just went home.”
7. Start the Revolution Without Me “You can’t hunt, you can’t ride, you can’t shoot, you can’t fence! What kind of a marriage is this?”
8. Demolition Man “He doesn’t know how to use the three seashells!”
9. Big Trouble (the 2002 Tim Allen movie) “Okay, we gotta pick a road. Arrivals or departures? We’re arriving, but then we’re departing.”
10. Groundhog Day “Well, what if there is no tomorrow? There wasn’t one today.”
11. Soapdish “How am I suppose to write for a guy who doesn’t have a head? He’s got no lips, no vocal cords.”

You’ll note that these are all comedies, or at least movies with a lot of humor. It’s not that I don’t have favorites in other genres, but for watching frequently, it might as well be something that makes me laugh or feel good. Plus, I often just watch a favorite scene or two when I don’t have time to watch the whole movie, and that’s easier to do with these kinds of movies.

But aside from the movies I keep digitally, there are many others that I watch over and over.

Christmas time can’t go by without It’s a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street (1947).

Some of my other favorites to watch frequently: Charade, Goldfinger (or almost any James Bond movie, especially Sean Connery’s), Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Hopscotch, In & Out, My Cousin Vinny, Overboard (admittedly a stupid movie, but Goldie Hawn slays me with “I’m still tacky.”), Rear Window, To Catch a Thief, Dave, The Wizard of Oz, The Music Man, “Silver Streak“, and almost any Star Trek movie, especially Star Trek II and III, and Star Trek (2009).

There are other movies that I would consider better, or that are more of my favorites than the ones above, but they aren’t necessarily ones I watch frequently. Sometimes it’s because they’re sad, more serious, or very intense – and sometimes it’s because they’re a series and I like to watch the entire set rather than a single one. But for something to just pick off the shelf when I need to be entertained, these will all do the job.