Happy Friday, everyone! Today is my birthday. Apparently I share my b’day with quite a few famous people: Thomas Alva Edison, Eva Gabor, Burt Reynolds, the late Leslie Nielsen, Sheryl Crow, Sarah Palin, Carey Lowell, Jennifer Aniston and um, Taylor Lautner. Hmmm, an eclectic group, wouldn’t you say?
Just for fun I thought I’d list my top ten favorite movies from the past three decades I’ve lived through. I’m not going to include the 70s as in my toddler years I obviously didn’t get to see many movies. I did see Superman: The Movie when I was about four think, and fell instantly in love w/ Christopher Reeve. Obviously my penchant for hunky superheroes started pretty early, huh? 😀
Well, this is going to be a challenge to simply pick only ten out of each decade, but I’m going to try. Again, these aren’t the ‘BEST’ movies, they’re simply my favorite based on replay value:
1980s (in order of release)
- The Gods Must Be Crazy (1980)
- Somewhere in Time (1980)
- Superman II (1981)
- Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
- Some Kind of Wonderful (1987)
- The Living Daylights (1987)
- The Untouchables (1987)
- Cinema Paradiso (1988)
- Die Hard (1988)
- The Little Mermaid (1989)
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
- Chariots of Fire (1981)
- A Fish Called Wanda (1988)
- Working Girl (1988)
- Licence to Kill (1989)
- When Harry Met Sally (1989)
…
1990s (in order of release):
- Beauty and The Beast (1991)
- Jurassic Park (1993)
- The Age of Innocence (1993)
- Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)
- Speed (1994)
- Heat (1995)
- Sense & Sensibility (1995)
- L.A. Confidential (1997)
- Toy Story 2 (1999)
- The Matrix (1999)
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
- Groundhog Day
- The English Patient
- Shakespeare in Love
- Schindler’s List
- Titanic
…
For the past decade of 2000s, I actually wrote a post back in January 2010 to highlight my five favorites of 2009 as well as my top 25 picks of the decade. I had a hard time narrowing ’em down to 10, but I might do that later this weekend. So here are my Top 25 Favorite Movies of the past decade, also in order of release:
- Chicken Run (2000)
- Moulin Rouge (2001)
- Finding Nemo (2003)
- The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
- Phantom of the Opera (2004)
- Hotel Rwanda (2004)
- Unbreakable (2004)
- Batman Begins (2005)
- Casino Royale (2006)
- Dear Frankie (2005)
- Gladiator (2005)
- Children of Men (2006)
- The Painted Veil (2006)
- Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)
- Stranger than Fiction (2006)
- 300 (2007)
- Atonement (2007)
- Bourne Ultimatum (2007)
- The Visitor (2007)
- 3:10 to Yuma (2007)
- Bella (2008)
- The Dark Knight (2008)
- The Incredible Hulk (2008)
- District 9 (2009)
- Avatar (2009)
So folks, I’d love to hear your picks. What are some of your favorite movies in the past 3 decades?
FLIXCHATTER FILM BLOG 
Happy Birthday! Love your 90’s list, especially Sense and Sensibility, which I’m trying to finish right now.
Thank you Paolo! Oh I’m curious what you think of S&S, that’s one of my ALL TIME FAVE film. Love Alan Rickman in that.
Again, Happy, Happy Birthday, Ruth! Not surprised by anything on your lists, but REALLY glad to see Stranger Than Fiction on it. (How’s your new bag? 😉
Thanks Becky… yeah you know me too well.
I’ll be carrying my new purse on Monday so you can see it, of course I love it 😀
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! ummm, so I thought I was alone on this, but Somekind of Wonderful is my ALL TIME FAVE EVER. (Watts is the inspiration behind my hair!)
this is the BEST scene from the movie (the kissing lesson):
KEITH: Wait, wait wait wait, wait. How…how do you work on it?
WATTS: Pretend I’m a girl, ok? I mean… Pretend I’m her. Amanda. I know it’s a big stretch, but try it.
sound clip:
[audio src="http://www.somekindofwonderful.org/downloads/mp3/13/028.mp3" /]
Ok, I might have to watch that tonight…HAVE A GREAT BIRTHDAY!!!
THANK YOU, Kris! High five on SKoW, I adore this one, still watch some the clips on YouTube from time to time. LOVE that kissing lesson scene, I mean it’s every teenager or those young at heart can relate to. Who hasn’t had a crush on their friends in high school, right? I know I had several but never got a chance to do what Watts did. He..he… well you wear the short cut very well, now YOU became MY inspiration 😀
Happy birthday Ruth! Guess what – it’s my birthday too!
Some great choices there – Cinema Paradiso in 1988 – great choice.
Happy birthday to you too Dan 🙂
Oh, happy belated birthday Dan, sorry I didn’t get a chance to reply your comment yesterday. Awesome that we share a b’day!
Thanks Ruth and Novroz!
I was born in the 80s too but I don’t think I really appreciated the decade until I was much older. The films I remember growing up were 1990s films – I was looking at your list thinking I haven’t seen Speed in ages. I used to love that movie! Jurassic Park was another big favourite when I was little.
For some reason I seemed to side-step the 80s until I was in my 20s when the decade became my favourite. As a kid it was always films made there and then or, strangely, 70s classics like Star Wars and Jaws.
I was born in mid 70s but I also remember 90s movies more than 80s, maybe because I watched more movies as I got older.
I actually bought Speed on Blu-ray this past weekend as I suddenly wanted to watch it again. It’s still entertaining after all those years. JP is a good one I want to see again soon.
Happy birthday Ruth and great list, I think I’ve seen most of them.
Even though I was born in the 70s too and have never seen most of the films I love from that decade in theater, I believe it’s the best decade for films.
I’ll list some of my faves from the 70s: The Gofather 1 & 2, Taxi Driver, A Clockwork Orange, Superman: The Movie, The Conversation, Dirty Harry, The Outlaw Josey Whales and The French Connection.
1980s: Raiders of the Lost Ark, Die Hard, 48 Hrs., Rambo: First Blood, Robocop, The Abyss, Blade Runner and The Empire Strikes Back.
1990s: Heat, Terminator 2, Goodfellas, Miller’s Crossing, The Thin Red Line, Fargo, Pulp Fiction, Unforgiven, Braveheart; I’ll include a Bond flick, Tomorrow Never Dies, that’s right I prefer this one over Goldeneye. Also, The Insider.
2000s: Kill Bill films, Nolan’s Batman films, Minority Report, Traffic, X-Men 2, No Country for Old Men, Inglorious Basterds, Collateral and Fellowship of the Rings.
Ted, great list you have from the 70’s those would be on mine to, plus you got me reminiscing on a few more of my fav 70 flicks, that I still enjoy watching to this day. Just love Movies..
My Name is Nobody, The Great Waldo Pepper, Bite the Bullet,
Every Which Way but Loose, The Deer Hunter, and Apocalypse Now.
I like your list too Funk, I just love 70s flicks.
Thanks for sharing your list, Funk, unfortunately I don’t watch a lot of 70s films so I haven’t seen any of them you mention.
Thanks Ted! Oh no doubt you’ve seen all of ’em 😀 Man I’ve been wanting to see French Connection, if you have the dvd/bd may I borrow it? Glad you agree on Superman I.
Oh man, how could I forget The Abyss??! I’d have put that at least in the honorable mentions. I’m also forgetting The Insider, goodness me, I absolutely adore that movie, I think Russell deserved to win for that more than Gladiator.
I’ll be listing my top 10 out of the 25 movies for the past decade later today. I’d definitely have a few in agreement w/ you.
No I don’t have The French Connection on Blu-ray because it’s one of the worst HD transfers I’ve ever seen. I was so excited when they announced it was coming to Blu-ray but William Friedkin went crazy and decided to mess with the picture quality of his old film. I decided to rent it first after reading so many bad reviews of the disc and I’m glad I did because the disc looked awful.
If you’re interested in ready about the review of the Blu-ray, go here: http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/1916/frenchconnection.html
If you really want to see the movie, give it a rent.
Selamat Ulang Tahun Ruth 🙂 > I just think someone has to say this in our tounge 😉
Your 2000 list are longer than the other decades, does that mean movies are getting better by the years?
Okay…let’s see my own list…as far as I can remember.
1980: The God Must Be Crazy, All Indiana Jones movies, Terminator, All Alien movies (I think the 1st is in 70s)
1990: Speed, Terminator 2, Saving Private Ryan, The Matrix, Ringu, The Lion King (is it in 90s?), Green Mile (?)
2000: District 9, Inception, Breakfast on Pluto, The Lord of The rings series, Shaun of The Dead, Okuribito.
I might have a wrong decade there…and that’s all I can remember for now.
Terima kasih, Nov! He..he… makasih udah diselametin pake bahasa sendiri 😀
Oh no, the 2000s list is longer because I did that a while back, I just haven’t narrowed it down to 10 yet but will do so later tonight. It’s also out of date as I haven’t seen some movies when I made that list, i.e. Inception.
Glad you agree on Gods Must Be Crazy, still makes me laugh every time I watch it and the message is still poignant to this day!
Happpy Birthday! How was the cake?
What an outstanding list you have and it’s really hard to come with one. My main criteria for my list is the movies must stand up to a vast amount of multiple viewings.
80’s: Time Bandits, REDS, Blade Runner, Streets of Fire, Repo Man, The Right Stuff, To Live and Die in LA, The Last Emperor, Cherry 2000, The Killer.
90’s: Goodfellas, Last of the Mohicans, Tombstone, LA Confidential, 12 Monkeys, Shiri(Korean Movie), City of Lost Children, Saving Private Ryan, Pi, Ride With the Devil.
The Aughts: Mulholland Drive, Donnie Darko, Hero, Lord of the Rings, A Very Long Engagement, House of Flying Daggers, Southland Tales, 300, The Watchman, and Avatar.
The cake was delicious, thanks Funk! 😀
You’ve got a great list yourself there, man. I see you’re a big fan of Snyder’s work, so you must be psyched for Sucker Punch and Man of Steel then.
YES, super psyched, especially for the Man of Steel, it just won’t be here soon enough..
I know!! THat’s what I’ve been saying in my Superman post… the worst part about that project is the wait 😦
HAPPY B-DAY DAHLING! May the year till the next one be the best one so far!
Hope someone (someone Gerry Butlerish or Fassbenderish) will jump out of your cake today :)) Scantily clad off course. Hubs will do if none of the mentioned above is available :))
Thank you dear Dezzy! He..he… now that’d be hard to clean up wouldn’t it? Yes, my hubby absolutely will do 😀
I’m guessing the point IS in cleaning the cake all up from him … use your imagination and certain tonguish body parts, I’m sure hubs would like it 🙂
Ruth!!! Happy Birthday dear friend!! May God richly bless you, especially today!
I will come back and revist your list. I love the fact that you have The gods must be crazy on the list!
Enjoy your birthday!
Thank you, T, God’s been good to me… He’s to be praised indeed. I hosted a potluck party last night, so yeah, it was definitely fun.
Happy Birthday Ruth! Ahah I’m not late, there is still 9 minutes left in the day muahahah 😉
Some of my favorite movies of the 90’s:
– LA Confidential, The Last of the Mohicans, Saving Private Ryan
Thanks Castor! Sorry for late response to comments as I’ve obviously been on your blog a lot! 😀 Btw, I just bought a Blu-ray copy of L.A. Confidential at Costco earlier today. It’s only $12.99, a steal I’d say!
A belated Happy Birthday, Ruth! Sorry I was late. Hope you had a good one!
Love the list idea, although we don’t agree on a lot of them, lol. I may have to pinch it. 😀
I’m not at all surprised to see The Living Daylights in there. 😉
Thanks Rich. Oh that’s ok if you don’t agree, movies are subjective anyway. Yes, I love Dalton… can you blame me? 😀
Sorry for the late response, everyone! THANKS for all the well wishes.
Indeed. I think this is Alan Rickman’s nicest character, his eunuch angel at Dogma coming in at a close second.
Pingback: Birthday List Update: Favorite Films from Each Decade I Live Through |