In no particular order....
1) The Godfather Part I & II--I love the way it juxtaposes personal life with public life, family life with the Mafia. My favorite scenes: when the Corleone patriarch comes in to America as a little boy and peers out throught the window at the Statue of Liberty...and at the very end of part II when, after murdering his brother, Michael Corleone has a flashback of a birthday party. When the flashback is over he sits there, alone, desolate and abandoned.
2) Dumb and Dumber. The movie everyone pretends to hate even though they actually love it. The plot of this movie is a lot like the plot of Bollywood movie. The only difference is that this movie is actually a comedy..and Bollywood takes itself absolutely seriously. BTW Jim Carrey actually married Lauren Holly after filming this movie. After his role in the movie, I can’t imagine why!
3) Dead Poets Society. The story of a group of kids at a prestigious all-boys New England prep school (a very young Ethan Hawke portrays one of them) and their teacher Robin Williams, who, besides teaching them poetry, also teaches them how to live. This movie introduced carpe diem to an entire generation. In its infinite stupidity, Bollywood tried to copy this movie as Mohabbatein. They gave it the Bollywood touch, inserting a bunch of heroines and song-and-dance routines, making the kids older, turning the prep school into a college. Sickening. Why do they have to stuff the same old boy-meets-girl story into every movie regardless of whether it fits in to the story or not? If they had to copy it couldn’t they at least leave the story the way it was? I heard they’re doing the same thing to E.T.
4) My Cousin Vinny. The hilarious story of a slick New York lawyer who travels to the Deep, Deep South in order to defend his cousin for murder. This movie will leave you cracking up, provided you are familiar with the great states of AL-uh-BAM-uh and miss-iss--saipp-i.
5) Meet the Parents. Another comedy. I already wrote a review about this so I won’t go in to the details, but you won’t stop laughing for a second.
6) Titanic. Go ahead and cry. No one’s watching. Leonardo DiCaprio rocketed to fame with this movie. His performance in this rivals his performance in The Gangs of NY.
7) East is East. This seems to be an MS favorite, although the people I know all hate it. You have to see this movie more than once to appreciate it. Anyway I won’t go in to this more because I wrote a review about this a week ago. Jimi Mistry, Om Puri, Linda Basset, and Raji James outdo themselves. Wow.
8) Seven Years in Tibet. No, I didn’t just pick it because of Brad Pitt. A German hero travels to Tibet and befriends the young Dalai Lama. Based on a true story
9) Never Been Kissed. Drew Barrymore--my favorite actress--stars as a former high school nerd who goes back to school as an undercover reporter, trying to figure out what’s cool. The only hitch is that she falls for the English teacher, who doesn’t know that she is an adult and thinks she’s a student.
10) Sense and Sensibility. You would be a fool to miss Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, and Kate Winslet in the best movie ever. British accents notwithstanding, all three do a wonderful job. But most of the credit should go to the director. Each scene is in itself a work of art, right up to the perfect ending. That says it all.
Honorable mention...
Ten Things I hate about You--a modern remake of Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew. Sweet without being mushy. As the rebel being paid to date Kat, Heath Ledger is awesome from the first time you see him torturing frogs all the way to the corny ending. See comments for honorable mentions...
The Pit and the Pendulum. This is the old-fashioned kind of horror movie. No special effects here. A lush adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, complete with a dark, gothic setting and a secret that you wouldn’t be able to guess in a million years. The main character travels to his brother-in-law’s Spanish castle to find out how his sister died. It isn’t long before he senses that something is very, very wrong. And no, it isn’t murder. Made in the 1970’s and stars (who else?) Vincent Price.