My Top Ten Movies of the Last Three Years

I just added a list of the “top" movies of my lifetime along the right. Even though I was born in 1978, it starts with 1981 because that's the year of the first release I can remember watching. I have watched all my favorite movies at least twice (save the newest ones) and I would watch any of these again right now. That is why they are my favorites, but they also have the most sentimental value to me. Right after my personal and popular favorites for each year are what the critics and general public would call the “top" movies of my lifetime (Oscar winners and highest grossing at the box office). I haven’t seen a third of those and only a third of the ones I have seen would I watch again. That is not to say these movies are bad.

There are movies I will admit are bad that I would watch again because they have sentimental value to me. Both Popeye (1980) and the BBC version of The Day of the Triffids (1981) remind me of my grandparents’ house. Annie (1982) was the first movie we recorded off the TV after we got a VCR and Daddy Warbuck’s mansion was the inspiration for my childhood architectural plans. The Watcher in the Woods (1980), Never Cry Wolf (1983), and The Peanut Butter Solution (1985) are all movies that freaked me and my brother out. Splash (1984) and Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend (1985) had something to do with Disney so I guess our parents thought they were clean. After seeing them again recently, I was surprised to find nudity and profanity that I could not remember noticing as a kid. What I remember more are the Disney Sunday night movies: The B.R.A.T. Patrol, Casebusters, Little Spies, Mr. Boogedy, (all 1986), Not Quite Human, and Young Harry Houdini (both 1987). Finally, no list of cheesy but sentimental movies would be complete without An American Tail, Explorers, The Money Pit, The Quest, Quicksilver, and Short Circuit (all 1986).

1993 must have been my most impressionable year because many of my favorite movies were released together with many of my least favorite of all time. The Fugitive was the first movie to put me on the edge of my seat with tension. The Pelican Brief remains to me the best adaptation of a book. Both titles led me to question law and government for the first time. For Love or Money and Indecent Proposal, while not the finest films ever produced, sent my adolescent brain spinning about security vs. intimacy. Jurassic Park remains the worst adaptation of a book and it introduced me to the notion that blockbusters can be bad. The implications in Mrs. Doubtfire bothered me so much that to this day I cannot watch anything with Robin Williams or Sally Fields. Lastly, honorable mentions must be made of The Sandlot and Searching for Bobby Fischer. In the last ten years, I’ve enjoyed other impressionable movies, but some I wouldn’t go out of my way to watch over again: At First Sight (1999), Cast Away (2000), Training Day (2001), City of God (2002), Matchstick Men (2003), Closer (2004), Match Point (2005), After the Wedding (2006), and Gone Baby Gone (2007). Here are my top ten for each of the last three years. Drum roll, please:

2006
1. Children of Men

2. Stranger Than Fiction
3. District B13
4. Over the Hedge
5. The Illusionist
6. Jet Li’s Fearless
7. Rocky Balboa
8. The Departed
9. The Descent
10. After the Wedding

2007
1. The Bourne Ultimatum
2. Michael Clayton
3. Waitress
4. Nancy Drew
5. Dedication
6. Juno
7. Live Free or Die Hard
8. National Treasure: Book of Secrets
9. The Orphanage
10. The Host

2008 (Even though the year's only half over, it will probably end up like this)
1. The Dark Knight
2. Iron Man
3. Run Fatboy Run
4. Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
5. WALL-E
6. Australia
7. Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist
8. Quantum of Solace
9. Forgetting Sarah Marshall
10. 27 Dresses