My Top Ten Favorite Movies - On VHS

Dennis Quaid is a dream in this movie. Set in New Orleans, it always manages to transport me back there.

Set in New Orleans. Remy McSwain, lieutenant in Homicide finds that he has two problems, the first of a series of gang killings and Ann Osborne, a beautiful attorney from the D.A.'s police corruption task force in his office. He begins a relationship with her as the killings continue only to have charges filed against him for accepting bribes as he stumbles on a police corruption Sting. While this is happening, the criminals insist that none of the crime gangs are behind the killings.

There really isn't one thing about this movie that I don't like. I've watched it so many times already - yet, I know that after writing about it, it will need to be seen again soon. I dub it a masterpiece.

The greenskeeper is about to start World War III against a gopher. The judge plays to win but his nubile niece has her mind set on scoring her own way. The playboy shoots perfect golf by pretending he is the ball. And the country-club loudmouth just doubled a $20,000 bet on a 10-foot putt. Insanity? No. Caddyshack. In Caddyshack, the term "golf nut" takes on a deranged double meaning and the laughs are par for the course!

Irving Blitzer disgraced himself when putting extra weights into his team's bob in the Olympics, resulting in his gold medal being taken away from him. Years later, Derice Bannock, son to a former friend of Irv, fails to qualify for the 100-yard sprint for the Olympics due to a stupid accident. But when he hears of Irving Blitzer living also on Jamaica, Derice decides to go to the Games anyway. If not as a sprinter, then as a bobsledder. After some starting problems, the first Jamaican bobsledding team is formed and heads for Calgary. In the freezing weather Derice, Sanka, Junior and Yul are only laughed at, since nobody can take a Jamaican bobsledding team led by a disgraced trainer for serious. But team spirit and a healthy self confidence may lead to a few surprises in the upcoming Winter Games.

Robin Williams stars as an English teacher who doesn't fit into the conservative prep school where he teaches, but whose charisma and love of poetry inspires several boys to revive a secret society with a bohemian bent. On father's terrible pressure on his son to drop his interest in theater reaches heartbreaking proportions. Williams is given plenty of latitude to work in his brand of improvisational humor, though it is all well-woven into his character's style of instruction.

John Cusack!!

A killer comedy hit that's loaded with outrageous fun! For Martin Blank (John Cusack), a hit man stuck in a career rut, attending his 10-year high school reunion is about the last thing he's in the mood for! But when the prospects of rekindling an old flame (Minnie Driver) and pulling off one final job convince him to go, things are looking up ... that is, until Martin's arch rival (Dan Aykroyd) shows up aiming to blow the competition away!

Check out the song that is playing in the opening of the film just as the guy hitting golf balls is about to realize he is hearing contact from outer space. I always find the irony of that song playing in that moment to be deliciously wicked and I settle in to be entertained yet again.

It's the ultimate encounter when mysterious and powerful aliens launch an all-out invasion against the human race. The spectacle begins when massive spaceships appear in Earth's skies. But wonder turns to terror as the ships blast destructive beams of fire down on cities all over the planet. Now the world's only hope lies with a determined band of survivors, uniting for one last strike against the invaders - before it's the end of all mankind.

That this movie can still scare me is my testament to how good I think it really is (you can so skip the sequels, other than for kitsch factor). Not to mention all the great quotes from it -- "Boating accident? This was no boating accident!!"

The story of a Long Island town whose summer tourist business is suddenly threatened by great white shark attacks on humans. This movie goes straight for the jugular with beautifully crafted, crowd-pleasing sequences of action and suspense supported by a trio of terrific performances by Roy Scheider (as the local sheriff), Richard Dreyfuss (as a shark specialist), and particularly Robert Shaw (as the old fisherman who offers to hunt the shark down). The sequences on Shaw's boat--as the three of them realize that in fact the shark is hunting them--are what entertaining moviemaking is all about.

It sounded like a great weekend away at their boss Bernie's beach side pleasure palace. But when working stiffs Larry and Richard arrive to find a real stiff - their murdered boss - they're forced to concoct a crazy scheme to avoid being implicated and/or dead themselves! With Bernie propped up and his death effectively covered up, Richard and Larry's weekend getaway becomes exactly that as they dodge curious babes, a curtain of bullets and one confused hit man!

In the nineteen-twenties, in a fabled city in the sands of Egypt, in a hidden tomb, an American adventurer named O'Connell (Brendan Fraser) goes looking for buried treasure. With him are a studious but sultry librarian (Rachel Weisz) and her cowardly brother (John Hannah). These three are part of a handful of people searching for a long-lost treasure, and they have just unearthed a 3,000 year old legacy of terror. The Mummy is a true nonstop action epic, filled with dazzling visual effects, top-notch talent, and superb storytelling.

One of my favorite movies by the Coen Brothers. And, don't miss getting the soundtrack for this picture - excellent!!

Disenchanted with the daily drudge of crushing rocks on a prison farm in Mississippi, the dapper, silver-tongued Ulysses Everett McGill (George Clooney) busts loose. Except he's still shackled to his own chain-mates from the chain gang -- bad-tempered Pete (John Turturro), and sweet, dimwitted Delmar (Tim Blake Nelson). With nothing to lose and buried loot to regain -- before it's lost forever in a flood -- the three embark on the adventure of a lifetime in this hilarious offbeat road picture. Populated with strange characters, including a blind prophet, sexy sirens, and a one-eyed Bible salesman (John Goodman), it's an odyssey filled with chases, close calls, near misses, and betrayal that will leave you laughing at every outrageous and surprising twist and turn.

I realized as I was typing this out, that this was indeed number eleven. So, it is now the first runner up to the top ten. Should one of the top ten's not be able to fulfill their obligations, then this movie shall step in for them.

Five Criminals . One Line Up . No Coincidence
Following a truck hijack in New York, five con men are arrested and brought together for questioning. As none of them is guilty, they plan a revenge operation against the police. The operation goes well, but then the influence of a legendary mastermind criminal called Kaiser Soeze is felt. It becomes clear that each one of them has wronged Soeze at some point and must pay back now. The payback job leaves 27 men dead in a boat explosion, but the real question arises now: Who actually is Kaiser Soeze?