Favorite Films

Our beach date was not going as planned.

“It’s about to rain,” he pointed out, gesturing at the dark clouds.

“Can’t you ask Mr. Sun to keep it at bay?” I pleaded. “You’re close, right?” I was referring to the fact that part of his name literally meant the word sun.

“Yes, and he told me, ‘I am sorry, but look at those clouds, they’re beyond my powers. You have to look for shelter,’” he laughed, changing his voice a bit to be in character as the sun.

So we found a beach bar which wasn’t so occupied because it wasn’t night yet and sat down on some plastic chairs.

Now what? I wondered to myself. First dates are always so awkward, made all the more so for me because I hadn’t been on one in years.

“So what apps do you like to use on your phone?” he suddenly asked. He must have noticed me twirling my phone in my hands. A nervous habit.

“Ummm…” I wasn’t sure how to answer. I wasn’t about to tell him “Facebook,” even though that was the truth. I didn’t want him to add me there. Not yet.

I opened my phone and quickly scrolled through my apps. “IMDB!” I said excitedly, glad to have found a safe answer.

“What is that?” he asked.

“It means Internet Movie Database,” I explained. “It’s an app where you can look up movies, see their ratings, reviews, and other info like actors and quotes and trivia.”

He asked me to show it to him, so I opened the app and gave him a tour. “Let’s say you wanted to look up… Inception. So we search for that. Here it is. It’s rated 8.8. I believe that makes it one of the top 250 movies of all time.”

“What are the other movies on this top 250 list?” he wondered.

So I clicked on the link to show him, and together we scrolled down the list, offering information on which movies we had seen, reviewing those that we had and explaining the story in case one of us had seen it while the other had not. It was certainly a very interesting date conversation as well as a quick way to gage compatibility. It’s a highly recommend first date topic. 😀

So anyway, here are my top 10 of the top 250, arranged according to said list but not necessarily in the same order of my personal ranking.

 IMDB’s #1: Shawshank Redemption. I love its message of hope and redemption. My favorite moment was when Andy… oops, spoiler alert. Never mind.

My favorite quotes from the film:

Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane.

Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.

These walls are funny. First you hate ’em, then you get used to ’em. Enough time passes, you get so you depend on them. That’s institutionalized.

There’s not a day goes by I don’t feel regret. Not because I’m in here, or because you think I should. I look back on the way I was then: a young, stupid kid who committed that terrible crime. I want to talk to him. I want to try and talk some sense to him, tell him the way things are. But I can’t. That kid’s long gone and this old man is all that’s left. I got to live with that.

The things you own end up owning you.

You have to know the answer to this question! If you died right now, how would you feel about your life?

Warning: If you are reading this then this warning is for you. Every word you read of this useless fine print is another second off your life. Don’t you have other things to do? Is your life so empty that you honestly can’t think of a better way to spend these moments? Or are you so impressed with authority that you give respect and credence to all that claim it? Do you read everything you’re supposed to read? Do you think every thing you’re supposed to think? Buy what you’re told to want? Get out of your apartment. Meet a member of the opposite sex. Stop the excessive shopping and masturbation. Quit your job. Start a fight. Prove you’re alive. If you don’t claim your humanity you will become a statistic. You have been warned.

IMDB’s #29: It’s a Wonderful Life. This is an oldie but goodie, a heartwarming Christmas tale that makes you think: whose life is now better because I was born? This is what I always think about whenever a voice inside my head tells me that I am a failure and wishes I had never been born.

IMDB’s #244: The Perks of Being a Wallflower. This was a wonderful coming-of-age story that reminded me of how I used to be (yes, hard as it is to believe, I used to be a wallflower) as well as give me a lot of wonderful nuggets of wisdom.

{Read my The Perks of Being a Wallflower review}

And there you go, that’s my tough ten (because it was tough to choose, get it?). Take a look at the complete top 250 list and tell me, which movies are your favorites?

I have lots more favorite films that are not ranked high enough to be on top 250, though, and I intend to blog about them in the future.

And oh, thanks to Tupe for giving me the idea to blog about this. Check out his list of must watch movies. Why not blog about yours too and share the link with me so I can go check it out?

All movie images are screenshots from IMDB app.
Above mentioned date happened years ago. Don’t get too excited. LOL.