REMARKS: FAVORITE ALL-TIME MOVIES

I've never been able to name one or two favorite movies. I've always had to divide by categories ... even then, I'm not necessarily putting them in order. Here goes, though, for some of my favorites. (I'm sure I'm leaving out some key ones!)

DRAMA

Midway, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?; Sunset Blvd.; Citizen Kane; Metropolis; Guess Who's Coming to Dinner; To Sir, With Love; Patton; The Big Chill; Tuskeegee Airmen; On Golden Pond; Witness; Mississippi Burning; Driving Miss Daisy; Mr. Holland's Opus; Truman; Los Alamos (I think that was the title; George C. Scott & David Straithorn); Mr. Smith Goes to Washington; Titanic; The Quiet Man; A Christmas Carol (1947 Alastar Simm version)

WESTERN

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance; The Shootist; The Alamo; Roster Cogburn (Okay, so I like John Wayne!)

FOREIGN

1900; Wild Strawberries; The Tim Drum; Un Chien andolou; Waterloo (1971)

MUSICALS

Annie; Popeye; Singin' In the Rain; Meet Me in St. Louis

SPORTS

Hoosiers; Field of Dreams; A League of Their Own; 8 Men Out; Chariots of Fire; Bull Durham; Rocky

CHILDREN'S

101 Dalmatians (cartoon); Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang; Mary Poppins; Wizard of Oz; The Love Bug; Tom Sawyer

(1973)

COMEDY

Horse Feathers; Duck Soup; Arsenic & Old Lace; The Great Race; Pink Panther films; Dr. Stranglove; Monty Python's Quest for the Holy Grail; Airplane; Top Secret; Ruthless People; Being There; Dave; It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World; What About Bob?; Blazing Saddles; Young Frankenstein; The Producers; Splash

HORROR

Nosferatu (1922); Dracula (1931); Frankenstein (1931); The Lost Boys, King Kong (1933); The Shining; The Mummy (1932); An American Werewolf in London; Night Life; Rawhead Rex; Pumpkinhead; The Unnamable; Poltergeist; The Haunting (both versions); Creepshow; all Hamner films with Peter Cushing & Christopher Lee

SCI FI

Jaws; Star Wars Trilogy.; Jurassic Park I & II; 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas; Alien;

FILMS I NEED/WANT TO SEE, BUT HAVEN'T YET:

It Happened One Night; Going My Way?; Rebel Without a Cause; On the Waterfront; The Godfather I & II; Space Odyssey: 2001; Clockwork Orange; Psycho; Father Goose; The Misfits; Saving Private Ryan; Forrest Gump; A Streetcar Named Desire; Judgment at Nuremberg; All About Eve; Stagecoach; Grapes of Wrath; Fried Green Tomatoes.

I've been Marx Brothers fan since I was about 10. I'm so grateful now that one of the St. Louis TV stations had a classic comedy theater (can't recalled exactly what they called it) every weekend....I got exposed early to the Marxes, Fields, Joe E. Brown (I'm ESPECIALLY glad of that, since you can't find a Brown movie today and nobody remembers him; I should have put Elmer the Great and/or Earthworm Tractor on the list...but I haven't seen them since I was about 12, so I can't really judge them fairly.), Laurel & Hardy, etc. Abbott & Costello were on Saturday mornings, meanwhile...and I've always adored the Stooges! (I'm in a Yahoo Three Stooge club!)

I'm definitely getting the idea that my horror tastes don't run according to popular flow, whether I discuss my likes and dislikes in this genre. The Video Movie Guide panned several of my favorite horror films -- or at least gave them average marks.

I liked both Jurassic Park movies. Maybe I just like Goldblum -- or Raptors! I guess I like the gradual build-up. It's always a while before one of the critters appears and Goldblum is always the only one with enough sense to be scared/worried, etc.

The scene with the aerial shot of the people wading through the tall grass, panning back to show several raptors closing in from behind, was great. I have to admit, though, the scene with the baby raptors eating the lost man shakes me up.

Brrrrrrr

I guess I just like any "monster" that eats people or rips it apart with its teeth -- as opposed to the "Splatterpunk" school, which never really appealed to me. I guess what I'm saying is a demented killer ripping people up with a knife is just gore, but a supernatural (or genetically re-created) creature tearing people up with claws and teeth is horror.

Oh well...lock me away in a rubber room! Just be sure and leave the VCR remote with me.