There are a lot of lists here. But those are easy. Now you have to pick one, and only one, number one favorite film. Not two. Not a runner up. Just one.
Tough huh? Yeah me too.
I’ll post mine later.
No answer. Too reductionist. I have no “favorite film”.
I think I still have a copy of my parents recording my brothers and I when I was around 9, running around my great-grandmother’s lawn. Originally super-8 format!
For my sake. I implore you. Pick one. It does not in any way invalidate any of the other films you love. Consider it a game.
Perfectly acceptable. Film is film.
There Will Be Blood
I’ve seen it about 8 times and still get blown away. It’s also the only film I would argue is faultless.
I’m going with 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Fine.
With the caveat that this is likely one out of 100 (literally).
It could be different tomorrow. Or in an hour.
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid.
Got to be the seminal Corey Haim + Corey Feldman classic The Lost Boys.
This one is actually pretty easy for me: it’s Ghostbusters, by a country mile. I love many films for many reasons, but Ghostbusters is top of the heap. There’s a saying that nothing is ever as cool as things are when you’re twelve, and that’s how old I was in 1984 when this came out. I laughed so much at this movie, and loved the characters and the weird lore. I loved all the throwaway lines (I find a way to fit in “I looked at the trap, Ray” in conversation where I can) and I loved the locations.
While visiting the in-laws in New Jersey a few years back, I designed a Ghostbusters tour of Manhattan, and made a cabbie take us around to the New York Library, Central Park West (with a short visit to Tavern on the Green) and even Ghostbusters HQ at the fire house. The cabbie asked why people always asked him to drive by that fire station, and I was speechless, literally didn’t know where to begin.
I liked the sequel a lot, but not as much as the original. I liked the reboot on its own terms, but not as much as the original. I like the video game a lot, which gets me as close as I am ever likely to get to be a rookie in the Ghostbusters crew. I kickstarted the board game. I have a lego set of the Ghostbusters hearse, but not their headquarters, because I couldn’t justify the cost to my wife. What can I say, I’m a fan.
For a while, it was How to Train Your Dragon.
It was replaced a year or so ago with Hot Fuzz.
I could watch it a billion times and still find something new.
With a few exceptions, only movies I saw before age 10 are going to be in consideration. Raiders makes me unreasonably happy.
Easy
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
The Godfather II
The Godfather
Big Trouble in Little China
It sure is. I love the marriage of Chinese fantastical martial arts with John Wayne.
Hmmm … I’m not sure.
Mine’s easy. 2001: A Space Odyssey. Hasn’t changed in about a quarter century. Before that I think it was Alien, if anyone’s taking notes.