Top Ten Movies
Friday night is usually movie night at our house. The older children choose something that they watch together, or with Steve and me, if we are able to sit still for two hours in a row. The younger children don’t get to stay up for this…it’s a special privilege to look forward to when they get older.
Joel Miller listed his top dozen favorite movies at Razormouth. That inspired me to post another of my top ten lists. Some of my favorites are on Joel’s list, too.
CARMON’S TOP TEN FAVORITE MOVIES
The Thin Man, with William Powell and Myrna Loy
Ben Hur, with Charlton Heston
The Shop Around the Corner, with Jimmy Stewart
Braveheart, with Mel Gibson
The Patriot, with Mel Gibson
Arsenic and Old Lace, with Cary Grant
North by Northwest, with Cary Grant
Emma, with Gwyneth Paltrow
Pride and Prejudice, the A&E version
You Can’t Take it With You, with Jimmy Stewart and Jean Arthur
This movie is available at Amazon, which is where I found this picture!
What criteria did I use to pick my favorite flicks? I like ‘em and would watch ‘em over and over, if I had time, which I do not. If my readers want to share their favorites, jump right in. Maybe you can inspire me to do another list of my favorite overlooked movies, the ones that didn’t quite make it into the top ten.
May 23rd, 2003 at 8:27 pm
Carmon~
I agree wholeheartedly with your choices of Ben-Hur, Braveheart, The Patriot, and Pride and Prejudice (sigh…) What about Lord of the Rings??? May I also suggest "O Brother Where Art Thou" and "The Long, Long Trailor" The former makes me laugh myself silly and I love the soundtrack. I nominate the latter movie because of the way it makes my boys laugh hysterically. It makes me grateful that I have simple little boys who can laugh at and enjoy simple humor in a world where Goldmember was reported as the favorite movie among kids. (Really, I am not kidding! Our newspaper ran a story about kids and movies and the most often named favorite was Goldmember. Who let’s their kids watch Austin Powers for crying out loud?!)
Kim W.
May 23rd, 2003 at 8:57 pm
Kim,
My kids asked me the same question about LOTR. I really, really liked it, but I had to pick my favorites, so it didn’t quite make it. It would be at the top of the list for some members of my family.
Isn’t "The Long, Long Trailer" a Lucy and Desi movie? My children know more about old movies and actors than what is popular today. They love Bob Hope and there are a couple of old Jerry Lewis movies (Cinderfella and The Family Jewels) that crack them up.
I have never seen an Austin Powers movie, cross my heart and hope to die. It’s scary to think what kids today watch…maybe our kids aren’t watching it, but we all have to live in the same world together. Although, I am just starting to listen to the audiobook by Ken Myers, so I may find out that our family is too immersed in pop culture, just that of a different era. Sigh.
May 24th, 2003 at 5:21 am
I agree with your list, and with Kim’s additions. I’d add "The Princess Bride," "Wives and Daughters," "Princess Caraboo," "The Winslow Boy," "Life Is Beautiful," and several old Irene Dunne movies, including "Mama’s Bank Account." Oh, and "Babe."
May 24th, 2003 at 7:29 am
I like the Thin Man…and Song of the Thin Man…William Powell and Myrna Loy crack me up
And Arsenic and Old Lace…and Emma, and Pride and Prejudice, of course 
Have never seen anything with Mel Gibson, and don’t particularily want to…I’ve seen every other one except for "You Can’t Take it With You".
I don’t really have FAVORITE movies…I just like lots of everything….Bob Hope, Abbot and Costello, Gary Cooper (he was great in Alvin York!)…some Jerry Lewis…one Buster Keaton
One or two Harold Lloyd…(we’re getting WAY back there!)…Laurel and Hardy…Jimmy Stewart…and various old movies…and a couple semi-new…I loved the Popeye movie with Robin Williams 
May 24th, 2003 at 10:55 pm
Jamie,
What do you have against Mel Gibson? Maybe you feel about him the way I do about Tom Cruise…yuck! Have you seen Mel in Hamlet? I think he did a much better job than Kenneth Branagh.
Laura,
I’ve never seen Princess Caraboo…I’ll have to look for it! I love Irene Dunne, too. My Favorite Wife is a great romantic comedy. And Babe is perfect because everyone in the family can watch it.
I would like to hear from more people, yoohoo! I’d like to hear what movies you like so I can get some new ideas for movie night, pretty please?
May 24th, 2003 at 11:25 pm
How could *anyone* think about Mel Gibson the way us straight males think about Tom Cruise? Gibson can act, he’s religious (possibly a Christian, but at the very least, he’s moral), he’s been in a lot of great movies, he’s a family man, he’s straight.
May 25th, 2003 at 3:11 pm
Pieter, Pieter, you surprise me. You’ll take Mel Gibson on these few qualifications, yet you cast a suspicious and frowning eye on President Bush who is MORE than religious, MORE than straight, is certainly a family man, and works probably 16 hour days making sure that you and yours are safe and that the country doesn’t go to pot–all because you disagree with his policy. Who’s unreasonable now??
Mrs. Friedrich, I don’t know ANYthing about Mel Gibson! I just don’t happen to watch the type of movies he typically plays in…they just aren’t my kind of movie
I like comedy, I don’t like violence (other than perhaps a murder or two in a good old-fashioned murder mystery) and I don’t like new movies. Put all of that together, and you’ll probably understand why Mel Gibson’s path and mine have never crossed! 
But you’re right about Tom Cruise of course–no self-respecting girl would look at him twice. (You know why, don’t you? It doesn’t actually have anything to do with being straight or not straight, sorry Pieter! It’s really because girls get crushes on him. You simply CAN’T like him after that! And besides, it is my firm position that one cannot have BOTH beauty and brains (yourself excepted, of course)–and therefore he must be a nitwit. Naturally, this is why I also dislike Leonardo DiCaprio and all other "hunks". I’m just peculiar…I can’t stand to like things that giggling girls like. It’s my pride, I suppose. *sigh* (Don’t tell Pieter, but that’s probably why I tolerate having him around–because nobody else will–I just have a twisted intellect, Mrs. Friedrich! I’m too complex for the ordinary mortal to understand) )
May 25th, 2003 at 4:28 pm
But Jamie…Gibson is an actor. I require much more from a president. I mean, I like Harrison Ford, too, but he’s been through an unknown number of marriages and starred in several rather bad movies, and all. My point was that Gibson is respectable. I believe Bush is also respectable. I just don’t think that respectability is the only quality necessary for a president.
May 25th, 2003 at 4:38 pm
Ok, youse guys…move it over to Pieter’s blog. Stop hijacking this one!
May 25th, 2003 at 5:10 pm
Mel Gibson is a Roman Catholic (Whether he is a Christian or not, I do not know) who is very anti-abortion and adhere’s to the RC teachings on birth control. His wife gave birth to number seven a couple of years ago.
I’d say he is my favorite actor, though I haven’t had a chance to watch Braveheart yet.
No top ten list that I can think of, though I have watched Shrek more than enough times. Oh, I do like The Tenth Kingdom but it takes along time to watch.
May 25th, 2003 at 5:22 pm
Who is the Terminator? The person who can terminate this conversation by deleting our comments and so forth? Isn’t that called a Moderator?
May 25th, 2003 at 5:53 pm
You don’t even KNOW about the Terminator movies, Jamie? Wow. You must be one of those sheltered homeschoolers I hear about.
May 25th, 2003 at 6:57 pm
You idiot. I KNOW–sheesh, one can’t even wisecrack around here anymore…
May 25th, 2003 at 7:21 pm
Oh. I forgot. We’re supposed to scatter and regroup at Pieter’s blog. But Pieter doesn’t HAVE a post about his favorite movies.
May 25th, 2003 at 7:53 pm
Children, children!
I almost lost Nickey’s comment in the middle of your bickering!
Nickey, you must watch Braveheart, although you may have to do it like I do, through your fingers (realistic battle scenes). It is one of the most moving films I have ever seen, although, as you might expect, there is not a load of historical accuracy. It will inspire you to learn more about William Wallace, however, a great Christian hero. The soundtrack is wonderful, too.
What is The Tenth Kingdom?
Jamie…I also reserve the right to resort to an alias occasionally ;-).
May 25th, 2003 at 8:24 pm
She called me an idiot.
May 25th, 2003 at 9:30 pm
Banished!
May 26th, 2003 at 8:50 am
Dh checked out Braveheart from the library for me to watch, but never got a chance to when the children were asleep. Will have to try again.
The Tenth Kingdom- it was a made for tv mini-series. I have it on DVD- about 6 hours long I think. It is a kind of mixture of all the old fairy tales- Cinderella, Snow White, trolls and fairies, etc… The wicked queen turns the prince into a dog and he escapes into the Tenth Kingdom, which is our world, and meets and girl and her father and they all go back to the fantasy world to try and stop the Queen. You can read more at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/6305818398/qid=1053963655/sr=11-1/ref=sr_11_1/104-4102016-3182321
More of a childrens show, though I would certainly watch it first as there may be scenes you’d prefer younger children not watching, and the writing is certainly not comparable to Lewis or Tolkien but it is good as fairy tale fantasy. If you are against any and all magic use, then I would recommend not watching it. They do use magic, though they are clear that the use of magic brings about undesirable consequences. For example- the father sticks his finger in a gold fish and once done his finger will turn anything he touches to gold- in his greed he doesn’t realize the full consequences of such an action and must be careful not to touch the boat they are on lest it turn to gold and they sink and he does accidently turn the dog/prince to gold.
I really like the sets they use, as I love European and Swiss type architecture.
May 26th, 2003 at 10:20 am
C’mon, Pieter, we’re kicked out…let’s find some other place to argue…*sigh*
I saw PART of the Tenth Kingdom…I have to admit that I didn’t like it so very much…but parts of it were funny
May 27th, 2003 at 8:35 pm
Hey Mom you skipped the Lord of the Rings. Isn’t that on your top ten to?
P.S. Jamie don’t you like the Lord of the Rings. I mean it’s the best movie I ever saw. Oh yeah Mom how about Rope?
May 27th, 2003 at 9:56 pm
My favorites:
Tied for first place are:
Darby O’Gill and the Little People
Sgt. York
Somewhere a little farther down the list, along with , North by Northwest, and The Princess Bride are:
Rear Window
The Lady Vanishes
May 27th, 2003 at 10:51 pm
Rebekah,
It was my list of favorites, not yours, although I do like those movies very much. Alfred Hitchcock is one of my favorite directors, and I mentioned one of his movies in my list.
Kelly,
I really like all of those movies, too. You may enjoy "The 39 Steps" if you like "The Lady Vanishes." The story in the movie is quite different from the book, however. My children just watched "Sgt. York" yesterday.
May 28th, 2003 at 7:25 am
Rebekah,
I abosolutely LOVE the Lord of the Rings!–the book, that is
The movie was extremely well done, and the sets were awesome, and it was even funny! But unfortunately it wasn’t the Lord of the Rings from the books–they dwelt too much on the dark parts of the story, and not enough of the cheerful parts…and they changed too many things 
I’m just a nitpicker at heart, I guess! *grin*
That’s why, even though I enjoyed the movie as a separate entity from the book…it’s not on my favorite list