Favorite Movies List: Discover My Top 10 Picks

There’s a lot of movies I’d rank as favs. Some of them, no one has ever heard of. But I’ll take a crack at it:

10: Top Gun: Maverick – How can you go wrong. One serious cowboy of a fighter pilot with a past, high performance jets, and a man with a chip on his shoulder! For most, the F-18s are the story. To me, it’s about one man overcoming his past, dealing with present, and facing a future that might not include him.

The dogfights are just the icing on the cake.

9: Twister and Twisters – Two movies that are very similar but so different at the same time. It’s two stories of people up against something that should make you want to hide. Both have awesome effects. But again, it’s the characters that make the story.

8: Battle: Los Angeles – The ground war version of Independence Day. This story is one as old as time. A platoon of fighting men trapped behind enemy lines. Only the enemy lines they’re behind is an alien invasion. The movie has often been criticized for lack of character development. That’s okay, but I have to ask what movie the people who said that watched. Granted, it’s no Macbeth, but these are men tossed together fighting for their lives. To me, the character evolution is amazing.

7: Apollo 13 – The ultimate survival story. What can I say.

6: An Unfinished life – Robert Redford, Jennifer Lopez, Morgan Freeman. You mention this title to most, and then who’s in it, and they just look at you. Seriously, people have never heard of it. You’d think with that kind of star power in the same movie, everyone would have.

I call this a western in the modern age. At it core, it’s a story of grief, forgiveness, missed and second chances, and life.

5: Justice League – Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Cyborg, and the Flash. The critics hated this movie. Thank God I don’t listen to people. I think it rocks, and I’ll watch it any chance I get.

4: Quigley Down under – In my book, this is one of the greatest westerns ever made. And it happens in Australia. It’s a simple story of Good versus Evil. Nothing flashy except story, story, and good characters. And oh, Quigley’s rifle. I want one.

3: The Man from Snowy River – Another awesome western that doesn’t happen in the west. It’s a story of a young man finding his place in the world. The men who either challenge him or hinder him. And the woman who loves him

The stunts in it are incredible. And the soundtrack! Wow!

And I want the hat!

2: Star Trek-The Wrath of Kahn – I love almost every Star Trek movie made, but this is top of my list. Bringing back a classic villain was an awesome idea. And finding out that James T. Kirk has a past and some of it he’d just as soon not deal with! Inspired.

For first place! Well, that was tough. There’s so many I could put in there. Films like 2001: A Space Odyssey, Galaxy Quest, Saving Private Ryan, Robin Hood (the Costner version), Contact, or Avengers: Endgame. But number one slot goes to:

1: The Green Mile. Tom Hanks, Michael Clark Duncan, Bonnie Hunt. Put these people into the pressure cooker world of Death Row and then toss in a living miracle.

I still don’t know how this movie didn’t sweep the Oscars.

I’ve seen the movie a dozen times and it’s lost none of it’s power.