Some of my favorite movies.

While I'm sure I'm leaving out a few, here are some of my all-time favorite movies:

Star Wars - I was five when Star Wars came out in 1977. Star Wars fired up my imagination like nothing before or nothing since. Han Solo and Chewbacca immediately became my favorite characters and light sabres are the coolest weapons ever!

Raiders of the Lost Ark - I'm not a fan of Steven Spielberg as a director (I'm sure he would make a good next door neighbor, though). But Spielberg got it right with Raiders when he created one of the coolest characters ever to grace the big screen: Indiana Jones!

The Sixth Sense - I'll never forget the emotions I felt when the movie reached it's twist ending. It still gives me chills. Repeat viewings take little away from the finale.

Field of Dreams - I've never been into baseball much but every American knows that baseball is weaved into the very fabric of our society and our history. The movie plays on this and ties it into the disconnect many post-fifties men feel they have with their fathers (much thanks to the Age of Stupidity ushered in by the nineteen-sixties and 'seventies). I don't get weepy often but the final scene in Field of Dreams makes my sob like a baby.

Big Trouble in Little China - I remember my dad taking me to this flick when it originally came out back in 'eighty-six. I loved it then, I love it now. It crosses so many genres (fantasy, martial arts, comedy, action, adventure) that it confused audiences when first released. Since, it has become a cult classic. Kurt Russell is at his best.

Unbreakable - One of the most suspenseful films I've ever seen. I love Unbreakable's take on superheroes. Two by director M. Night Shyamalan on my list so far.

Tears of the Sun - Bruce Willis (in his third appearance on my list) plays a Navy SEAL squad leader ordered to rescue a Doctors Without Borders physician during a fictional civil war in Nigeria. The movie forces the SEAL's to choose between duty and morality as they decide whether or not to save villagers from the slaughter of militant rebel Nigerians.

Serenity - Based on the short-lived Firefly TV series, Serenity is the best science fiction movie ever made. It was released in 2005, the same year as the stupidly simplistic and shallow Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. Serenity made twenty-five million in the US. Sith made, what, a half billion? Something ain't right with the world.

Once Upon a Time in the West - A so-called Spaghetti Western directed by Sergio Leone, this epic movie tells the tale of a murderous outlaw (played by Henry Fonda of all people), a mystery man nicknamed Harmonica (Charles Bronson), and a recently widowed beauty caught up in a corrupt railroad owner's schemes. The climax of the movie, as Harmonica faces Fonda's character in a showdown, is absolutely superb. Pay special attention to the clever opening credits sequence.

Those are several of my favorite films. I'll add more at a later date.