12 Favorite Movies

Although I am no movie buff, I am in a relationship with one. He has introduced me to several movies that now appear on my “top twelve  movies” list. If you would like to know what that list is I have listed my favorites below (in no particular order).

1. Pulp Fiction

Genre: Dark comedy/ thriller

Rating: R

A masterpiece by genius director Quentin Tarantino, this movie follows several stories all entangled with each other. Released in 1994 it stars celebrities such as John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, and Uma Thurman (which is what I consider a star studded cast). The script (which I read once) is sharp- cunning and cutting. It is witty, fresh and edgy all at the same time. It almost makes me want to get into scriptwriting. 

Do Watch If: you love swearing and violence, you aren’t easily disturbed, you love John Travolta even when he isn’t singing about summer nights, you think Uma Thurman looks hot with dark hair.

Don’t Watch If: You are easily squeamish, swearing offends you, you aren’t into crime and drugs, you like a chronological storyline.

1. The Dark Knight

            Genre: Action

            Rating: R

             This movie is the second in a Batman trilogy directed by Christopher Nolan. Batman is             played by Christian Bale but if you really want my opinion I think it is Heath Ledger that steals the show. Sorry Jared Leto and Joaquin Phoenix but for me Heath Ledger will always be my favorite Joker. This is one of my favorite superhero movies just because it’s so gritty. Gotham is full of corrupt politicians and policemen. District Attorney Harvey Dent is going to change that. He is determined to get to the Joker, the man responsible for most of the crime and chaos in Gotham. But will the Joker get to him first?

Do Watch If: you love superhero movies, even ones where things don’t end happily ever after, you are a Batman fan, you love a good villain (because in this movie Heath Ledger may be the best I’ve seen)

Don’t Watch If: you only like vanilla superhero movies, face paint scares you, clowns scare you 

3. Legally Blonde

Genre: Rom Com

Rating: Pg-13

Okay, I have a penchant for Rom Coms. Of course I like watching two mob bosses curse at each other but I’m always down for a good Rom Com. Like this one. Elle Woods is about to graduate college and she has it all. Money, good looks, popularity and a boyfriend whom she is sure will propose. But he doesn’t. In fact, he dumps her, telling her he needs someone “more serious” So Elle gets into Harvard Law School where she can follow him and prove to him (and herself) that she is more than just a “dumb blonde” It is a hilarious movie. Elle Woods, played by the talented Reese Witherspoon, is a very likeable character and we are rooting for her the entire time.

Do Watch If: you’ve just been dumped by a pretentious douchebag, you are in law school (or med school. Or any demanding place), you feel you’ve been judged by your appearance

Don’t Watch If: you don’t like Rom Coms. I’m telling you upfront. It’s a rom com. 

4. Mean Girls  

Genre: Rom Com

Rating: Pg-13

I’m pretty sure this is on the list of every girl who ever attended school in the 2000’s. Lindsay Lohan absolutely kills it as Cady Heron, the new girl at school who has been homeschooled in Africa all her life and has alot to learn. She makes some friends- Janet and Damien- but then the “popular girls” (also known as the Plastics) take her under her wing and Cady has to figure out what friendship and popularity really mean. The movie is hilarious. I watch it at least once a year usually on my period. I guess its that kind of movie.

Do Watch If: you want to relive the trauma of your school days, you are now an adult safe from all of this, you feel like you have no friends/ just ruined your life and you need to get back on track.

Don’t Watch It: it hits too close to home (it might). We understand.

5. Horrible Bosses

Genre: Comedy

Rating: R

I feel like this is an underrated movie and I will defend it with my life. It stars comedy geniuses such as Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, and Jennifer Aniston to name a few. The premise is that three friends have horrible bosses. We are talking beyond your average awfulness. Eventually they contemplate killing their bosses but soon they change their mind, realizing they are not capable of that. The wheels are already set in motion though and it leads to a big mess.

Do Watch If: you find Jason Bateman or Charlie Day funny, you want to see more of Jennifer Aniston’s killer bod, you hate your boss, you are a boss

Don’t Watch If: you find these movies kind of dumb, if you are boycotting Kevin Spacey (he plays one of the bosses), you don’t like adult humor

5. Watchmen

Genre: Thriller

Rated: R

This is my favorite superhero movie of all. Well, it might be tied with the Dark Knight. Anyway, this movie takes place in an alternate reality of the 1980s where Nixon is president. The Watchmen are a group of superheroes but they aren’t your average Superman. In fact  most of them are despicable in some way or another. Not all of them. Some do have morals and they clash with one another. Anyway, this movie is brutal and violent but it has a happy ending (kind of). And of course it raises the age old question ‘Who is watching the watchmen?’

Do Watch If: you love superheroes or antiheroes or people who might not be heroes at all, you like a bit of gore, if you love to see Miss Jupiter in skintight outfits

Don’t Watch If: you are easily disturbed, you like your superheroes “pure”

6. The Gentlemen

Genre: Action/ Crime

Rated R:

My boyfriend Justin introduced me to this movie last week. It stars a very sexy Mathew McConaughey as a drug dealer. He has engineered a giant marijuana enterprise which has left him and his associates very wealthy and powerful. He is clearly a ruthless man but him and his wife are also very likeable and you find yourself rooting for him throughout the movie as he tries to maintain his business and save his reputation.

Genre: Crime

Rated R

Do Watch If: you love a good revenge story, you think Mathew McConaughey is hot, you admire powerful women (his wife is a badass)

Don’t Watch This If: you are squeamish, you don’t like having to think too much, you don’t like a nonlinear story

7. Some Like It Hot

Genre: Comedy

This is easily the oldest movie on the list from 1959. The is about two broke musicians (Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon) during Prohibition when they witness something they shouldn’t have (hint: it involves the mafia). So they disguise themselves as women and go to Florida with an all female band which is where they meet Marilyn Monroe. The rest of them involves dodging gangsters and trying to get in Marilyn Monroe’s pants. It is absolutely hilarious.

Do Watch If: you don’t mind black and white movies, you love Marilyn Monroe, you want a more wholesome movie than some of the other movies listed here

Don’t Watch If: you don’t like movies made before the seventies, you don’t find guys cross-dressing to save their lives funny, you aren’t uncomfortable making Marilynn Monroe a sex object in the movie

8. She’s the Man

Genre: Rom-Com

With a Shakespeare’s classic Twelfth Night, this Rom Com starring the talented Amanda Bynes  is about a tomboy (Viola) whose passion is soccer. Unfortunately, her school has just cut her team. So Viola goes to an another school pretending to be her twin brother, Sebastian, so she can play on the guys soccer team. Well, needless to say there are complications (Olivia starts having a crush on Viola as Sebastian and Viola as Sebastian starts having feelings for Duke who has feelings for Olivia. And then the real Sebastian appears on the scene) that all culminate in a very interesting soccer game.

Do Watch If: you like soccer, you believe women can play soccer (if you don’t please get off my page), you want to swoon over Channing Tatum)

Don’t Watch If: you don’t like love triangles (or pentagons, to be honest it’s so complicated I’m not even sure what it is at this point), you’re willing to look past all the obvious flaws in the plot (like how Viola and Sebastian’s parents don’t notice they are both AWOL for two weeks)

9. Knocked Up

Genre: Comedy

Rating: R

Katherine Heigel (playing Alison Scout) is a news anchor who just scored a big promotion. When she is out celebrating with her sister, she gets pretty drunk and has unprotected sex with Seth Rogen (Ben Scott). They are not compatible at all which makes the movie hilarious (and the ending a little on the unbelievable end). 

Do Watch If: you love Seth Rogen, you like stoner comedies in which there is at least one scene of people hallucinating, you don’t take yourself too seriously

Don’t Watch If: you find the premise of the movie stupid, you don’t like thinking about babies (for whatever reason)

10. Challengers

Genre: Drama

Rating: R

This is probably the only movie on the list that is not a comedy or not an action film. Challengers came out several months ago. It’s about “tennis” but there is so much more to it than that. It’s not even just a love triangle, its a love triangle with (spoielr) homoerotic overtones. It really probes into the relationships between the three of them and their love of the sport. Not a movie I’d watch with my parents but there is depth to it. Zendaya (who plays the main character) really outfit herself.

Do Watch If: you love romantic entanglements, you don’t mind watching some tennis, you like to keep guessing who should end up together

Don’t Watch If: you don’t like drama with romantic complications and lots of dialogue, you don’t want to see two guys making out

11. Dogma

Genre: Comedy

Rating: Now this is one hilarious gem that stars Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Alan Rickman, Jason Mewes, Chris Rock and Alanis Morisette (as God). I don’t think religious fanatics with no sense of humor will find themselves a fan of this work (blasphemy!) but I found it to be a very clever movie. 

Do Watch If: You love a movie that takes something usually serious and makes it light while exploring new ideas at the same time. 

Don’t Watch If: you have a stick up your ass about religion 

12. The Wolf of  Wall Street

Genre: Black Comedy

Rating: R

I knew Leonardo DeCaprio was going to show up on this list. He was last but not least in this movie about a ruthless businessman on Wall Street who came from very little with a simple life and wife that (while attractive) was no superstar (in the movie he divorces her to marry Margo  Robbie). Are the drugs and fast lifestyle excessive and exagerated? Maybe. But are they true? According to the biological book, this movie is based on it is.

Do Watch If: you like seeing life in the fast lane (especially if you’re seeing an Ikea couch munching on potato chips), if you just like seeing the scene with Margo Robbie putting Leonardo DeCaprio in his place

Don’t Watch If: you are easily disgusted by the sins of others.

So this has been my 12 favorite movies in no particular order. Thanks for sticking around!