My Movie Life List

Thought it would be fun to reflect on all the movies I've ever seen. Was surprised at how many of these still evoke memories of where I was when I saw them, and with who: I'd nearly managed to forget some of those boyfriends!  Everytime people complain about the quality of movies today, though, I have just four words for them: "Herbie the Love Bug".   (Green highlighting indicates movies I loved; red highlighting indicates hours of my life that I wish I could get back!)

Adventure/Suspense/Mystery

1. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
2. 48 Hours
3. Adaptation
4. Adventures of Robin Hood
5. African Queen
6. Air Force One
7. Andromeda Strain
8. Angels & Demons
9. Apollo 13
10. Armageddon
11. Around the World in 80 Days
12. Australia
13. Backdraft
14. Baron Munchausen
15. Batman Begins
16. Birds
17. Bonnie & Clyde
18. Jason Bourne movies - Bourne Identity, Bourne Supremacy, Bourne Ultimatum, Bourne Legacy
19. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
20. Captain Blood
21. Catch Me If You Can
22. Con Air
23. Conan the Barbarian
24. Conspiracy Theory
25. Count of Monte Cristo
26. Crimson Tide
27. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
28. Cutthroat Island
29. Da Vinci Code
30. Die Hard movies - Die Hard, Die Hard 2, Die Hard with a Vengence, A Good Day to Die Hard
31. Dirty Harry
32. Dogma
33. Excalibur
34. Face/Off
35. Fargo
36. Firm
37. Fugitive
38. Good Shephard
39. Highlander
40. Illusionist
41. Independence Day
42. Indiana Jones  movies - Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull 
43. Interview with a Vampire
44. Ivanhoe
45. Jack Ryan movies - Clear and Present Danger, Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, Sum of All Fears
46. James Bond movies  - Casino Royale, Die Another Day, Goldeneye, Living Daylights, Moonraker, Quantum of Solace, Skyfall, Spy Who Loved Me, View to a Kill, World is Not Enough
47. John Grisham movies - A Time to Kill, The Client, Pelican Brief, The Rainmaker, Runaway Jury
48. Jurassic Park
49. King Kong
50. Last of the Mohicans
51. Lethal Weapon
52. Lord of the Rings movies - The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King, The Hobbit
53. Mad Max movies - Mad Max, Mad Max 2, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome
54. Man in the Iron Mask
55. Marathon Man
56. Master and Commander
57. Matrix
58. Men in Black (1, 2)
59. Michael
60. Michael Clayton
61. Mission Impossible (1, 2, 3)
62. Mr. and Mrs. Smith
63. Mummy movies - The Mummy, The Mummy Returns
64. Name of the Rose
65. National Treasure movies - National Treasure, Book of Secrets
66. Net
67. Oceans 11/12/13
68. October Sky
69. Pale Rider
70. Perfect Storm
71. Pirates of the Caribbean - Curse of the Black Pearl. Dead Man's Chest, At World's End, On Stranger Tides
72. Poseiden Adventure
73. Presumed Innocent
74. Red Heat
75. Right Stuff
76. Rob Roy
77. Rock
78. Rush Hour
79. Sahara
80. Scaramoush
81. Sea Hawk
82. Silver Streak
83. Silverado
84. Sneakers
85. Something Wicked This Way Comes
86. Space Cowboys
87. Speed
88. Star Trek movies with original cast - Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Wrath of Khan, Search for Spock, Voyage Home, Final Frontier, Undiscovered Country
89. Star Trek movies with new cast - Star Trek, Star Trek: Into Darkness
90. Star Wars series - Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith, New Hope, Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi,
91. Sting
92. Taps
93. Tequila Sunrise
94. Terminator (1, 2, 3)
95. Thelma & Louise
96. Three Muskateers (multiple versions)
97. Time Bandits
98. Tombstone
99. Towering Inferno
100. Treasure of the Sierra Madre
101. Troy
102. True Lies
103. Twister
104. Unbreakable
105. Wall Street
106. War of the Worlds
107. Wargames
108. Witness
109. Zorro (Antonio Banderas version + old Disney versions)

Childrens/Teens/Family - Animated

1. 101 Dalmations
2. Alice in Wonderland
3. Alladin
4. Aristocrats
5. Bambi
6. Beauty and the Beast
7. Bug's Life
8. Cinderella
9. Dumbo
10. El Dorado
11. Emporer's New Groove
12. Fantasia
13. Finding Nemo
14. Fox and the Hound
15. Great Mouse Detective
16. Hunchback of Notre Dame
17. Incredibles
18. Jungle Book
19. Kung Fu Panda
20. Lady and the Tramp
21. Lion King
22. Little Mermaid
23. Madagascar
24. Milan
25. Monsters Inc.
26. Peter Pan
27. Pinocchio
28. Ratatouille
29. Robin Hood
30. Shrek (all of them)
31. Sleeping Beauty
32. Sleepy Hollow
33. Snow White
34. Song of the South
35. Sword in the Stone
36. Three Caballeros
37. Toy Story (all of them)

Childrens/Teens/Family - Film

1. Absent-Minded Professor
2. Adventures of Huck Finn
3. Angels in the Outfield
4. Babe
5. Benji (all of them)
6. Black Cauldron
7. Black Stallion
8. Born Free
9. Cheaper by the Dozen
10. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
11. Computer Wore Tennis Shoes
12. Dark Crystal
13. Davy Crockett
14. Dr. Seuss cartoons (all of them)
15. Eragon
16. E.T.
17. Flubber
18. Freaky Friday
19. Golden Compass
20. Harry Potter - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkeban, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (I, II)
21. Herbie (all of them)
22. Holes
23. Hook
24. Incredible Journey
25. Johnny Tremain
26. Karate Kid
27. Lion, Witch, and Wardrobe
28. Love Bug
29. Mary Poppins
30. Muppet movies (all of them)
31. Neverending Story
32. Night at the Museum
33. Old Yeller
34. Popeye
35. Sandlot
36. Shaggy Dog
37. Stuart Little
38. Swiss Family Robinson
39. Treasure Island
40. Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
41. Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
42. Wizard of Oz

Documentary/Educational

1. An Inconvenient Truth
2. Ken Burns: The Civil War
3. Schoolhouse Rock

Funny

1. 10
2. 16 Candles
3. 24 Hours
4. 9 to 5
5. Abbott & Costello movies - Abbott & Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstine, Abbott & Costello Meet the Invisible Man, Abbott & Costello Meet the Mummy, Hold That Ghost
6. All About Eve
7. Airplane
8. Army of Darkness
9. Arsenic and Old Lace
10. Arthur
11. Attack of the Killer Tomatoes
12. Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery
13. Back to the Future (1, 2, 3)
14. Bad Teacher
15. Bedazzled
16. Beetlejuice
17. Beverly Hills Cop (1, 2, 3)
18. Big
19. Big Daddy
20. Big Trouble in Little China
21. Billy Elliot
22. Biloxi Blues
23. Birdcage
24. Blades of Glory
25. Blazing Saddles
26. Blues Brothers
27. Brewster's Millions
28. Bridget Jones's Diary
29. Burn After Reading
30. Canterbury Ghost
31. City Slickers
32. Clue
33. Coming to America
34. Court Jester
35. Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid
36. Devil Wears Prada
37. Divine Secrets of the Yaya Sisterhood
38. Dodgeball
39. Dragnet
40. Earth Girls are Easy
41. Election
42. Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain
43. Evan Almighty
44. Evolution
45. Father of the Bride
46. Ferris Bueller's Day Off
47. Fish Called Wanda
48. Full Monty
49. Galaxy Quest
50. Get Shorty
51. Ghostbusters (1, 2, 3)
52. Groundhog Day
53. Guarding Tess
54. Harvey
55. History of the World, Part 1
56. Ideal Husband
57. Importance of Being Earnest
58. Incredible Mr. Limpet
59. Informant
60. Joe vs. the Volcano
61. Jumpin' Jack Flash
62. Juno
63. Kind Hearts & Coronets
64. Legally Blonde
65. Liar Liar
66. Life of Brian
67. Little Miss Sunshine
68. Man With One Red Shoe
69. Mars Attacks
70. Meet the Fokkers
71. Meet the Parents
72. Men Who Stare at Goats
73. Miss Congeniality (1, 2)
74. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
75. Money Pit
76. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
77. Moon Over Parador
78. Mr. Deeds
79. Mrs. Doubtfire
80. Murder by Death
81. My Best Friend's Wedding
82. My Cousin Vinny
83. Naked Gun
84. National Lampoon Animal House
85. National Lampoon Vacation
86. Oh, God!
87. Overboard
88. Pacifier
89. Parenthood
90. Pink Panther movies - Pink Panther, Shot in the Dark, Return of the Pink Panther, Pink Panther Strikes Again, Revenge of the Pink Panther, Trail of the Pink Panther
91. Pretty in Pink
92. Pretty Woman
93. Princess and the Pirate
94. Private Benjamin
95. Producers
96. Protocol
97. Purple Rose of Cairo
98. Radioland Murders
99. Raising Arizona
100. Revenge of the Nerds
101. Risky Business
102. Robin Hood: Men in Tights
103. Rocky Horror Picture Show
104. Secret of My Success
105. Simpsons Movie
106. Sister Act (1, 2)
107. Soapdish
108. Some Like It Hot
109. Spaceballs
110. Spies Like Us
111. Stripes
112. Sunshine Cleaning
113. Sweet Home Alabama
114. Thank You For Smoking
115. There's Something About Mary
116. Three Amigos
117. Three Men and a Baby
118. Tootsie
119. Trading Places
120. Tropic Thunder
121. Twins
122. Waterboy
123. Wedding Crashers
124. Weird Science
125. What About Bob?
126. What Women Want
127. Wildcats
128. Working Girl
129. Yellow Submarine
130. You Don't Mess with the Zohan
131. Young Frankenstein
132. You've Got Mail

Holiday

1. Christmas Story
2. How the Grinch Stole Christmas
3. It's A Wonderful Life
4. Miracle on 34th Street
5. National Lampoon Holiday Vacation
6. Santa Clause (1, 2)
7. Scrooged
8. White Christmas

Horror

1. Alien
2. Amityville Horror
3. Blob
4. Carrie
5. Dracula (several versions)
6. Exorcist
7. Fly
8. Frankenstein
9. Halloween
10. Invasion of the Body Snatchers
11. Jaws
12. Nightmare on Elm Street
13. Omen
14. Plan 9 From Outer Space
15. Poltergeist
16. Psycho
17. Rosemary's Baby
18. Shining
19. Silence of the Lambs
20. Sixth Sense
21. Sleepy Hollow
22. Whatever Happened to Baby Jane

Musicals/Dancing Movies

1. All that Jazz
2. Amadeus
3. Annie
4. August Rush
5. Bride and Prejudice
6. Center Stage
7. Cotton Club
8. Chicago
9. Dreamgirls
10. Eddie and the Cruisers
11. Fame
12. Fiddler on the Roof
13. Great Balls of Fire
14. Gypsy
15. Hello, Dolly
16. Jazz Singer
17. King and I
18. La Bamba
19. Mama Mia
20. Marigold
21. Meet Me In St. Louis
22. Moulin Rouge
23. Mr. Holland's Opus
24. Music Man
25. Pirate
26. Road movies (Hope/Cosby) - Road to Singapore, Road to Zanzibar, Road to Morocco, Road to Utopia, Road to Rio, Road to Bali, Road to Hong Kong
27. Saturday Night Fever
28. Shall We Dance? (Japanese version with subtitles)
29. Singing in the Rain
30. Sound of Music
31. Star is Born
32. Sweeny Todd
33. That Thing You Do
34. Victor/Victoria
35. West Side Story

Mystery/Noir

1. Agatha Christie movies - Appointment with Death, Death on the Nile, Evil Under the Sun, Mirror Crack'd, Murder on the Orient Express, Ten Little Indians,
2. Basic Instinct
3. Big Easy
4. Big Sleep
5. Black Dahlia
6. Body Heat
7. Chinatown
8. D.O.A
9. Dial M for Murder
10. Dorothy Sayers mysteries (all of them)
11. Double Indemnity
12. Dressed to Kill
13. Fatal Attraction
14. Gaslight
15. In the Heat of the Night
16. Key Largo
17. L.A. Confidential
18. Maltese Falcon
19. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
20. Miss Marple mysteries (all of them)
21. Mildred Pierce
22. Notorious
23. Postman Always Rings Twice
24. Rear Window
25. Rebecca
26. Sherlock Holmes movies (Robert Downey) - Sherlock Holmes, Game of Shadows
27. Sherlock Holmes movies (old) - Dressed to Kill, Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon
28. Sherlock Holmes movies (other) - 7 Percent Solution, Murder By Decree, Young Sherlock Holmes,
29. Sorry, Wrong Number
30. Sunset Boulevard
31. Talented Mr. Ripley

Romantic

1. 2 Week's Notice
2. 27 Dresses
3. 50 First Dates
4. Age of Innocence
5. Always
6. American President
7. Annie Hall
8. Bridges of Madison County
9. Casablanca
10. Chocolat
11. City of Angels
12. Coming to America
13. Crocodile Dundee (1, 2)
14. Cyrano de Bergerac
15. Dave
16. Dirty Dancing
17. Emma (multiple versions)
18. Father of the Bride
19. Footloose
20. French Lieutenant's Woman
21. Frenchman's Creek
22. Ghost
23. Ghost & Mrs. Muir
24. Goodbye Girl
25. Gone With the Wind
26. Hitch
27. I.Q.
28. It Could Happen to You
29. Jane Eyre (multiple versions)
30. Jerry Maguire
31. Jewel of the Nile
32. Ladyhawke
33. Legends of the Fall
34. Love, Actually
35. Mansfield Park
36. Meet Joe Black
37. Moonstruck
38. Music & Lyrics
39. My Best Friend's Wedding
40. My Big Fat Greek Wedding
41. Now, Voyager
42. Officer and a Gentleman
43. Out of Africa
44. Overboard
45. Peggy Sue Got Married
46. Persuasion
47. Philadelphia Story
48. Pride & Prejudice (multipe versions!)
49. Princess Bride
50. P.S. I Love You
51. Romancing the Stone
52. Roxanne
53. Runaway Bride
54. Sabrina
55. Sense & Sensibility (multiple versions)
56. Shakespeare in Love
57. Sleepless in Seattle
58. Splash
59. Strictly Ballroom
60. Sweet Home Alabama
61. Titanic
62. Top Gun
63. Walk in the Clouds
64. Way We Were
65. Wedding Singer
66. When Harry Met Sally
67. While You Were Sleeping
68. Witness
69. Working Girl
70. Wuthering Heights (multiple versions)

Serious

1. 12 Angry Men
2. 2001: A Space Odyssey
3. Akeelah and the Bee
4. All the President's Men
5. Anonymous
6. Argo
7. Artist
8. Atonement
9. Aviator
10. Beaches
11. Beautiful Mind
12. Being There
13. Ben-Hur
14. Bird Man of Alcatraz
15. Blade Runner
16. Breakfast Club
17. Broadcast News
18. Castaway
19. Charlie Wilson's War
20. China Syndrome
21. Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind
22. Color Purple
23. Constant Gardener
24. Contact
25. Crucible
26. Curious Case of Benjamin Button
27. Dances With Wolves
28. Dangerous Liaisons
29. Dead Poet's Society
30. Driving Miss Daisy
31. Elizabeth
32. Erin Brokovich
33. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
34. Fail-Safe
35. Finding Neverland
36. Fried Green Tomatoes
37. Frost/Nixon
38. Forrest Gump
39. Gandhi
40. Godfather (all of them)
41. Good Night and Good Luck
42. Good Will Hunting
43. Gladiator
44. Hidalgo
45. Inherit the Wind
46. King's Speech
47. Lincoln
48. Lost in Translation
49. Madness of King George
50. Man for All Seasons
51. Man Who Would Be King
52. M*A*S*H
53. Medicine Man
54. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
55. Network
56. On Golden Pond
57. Outsiders
58. Phenomenon
59. Philadelphia
60. Planet of the Apes
61. Pursuit of Happyness
62. Rain Man
63. Ray
64. Reds
65. Restoration
66. Scarlet Letter
67. Schindler's List
68. Shawshank Redemption
69. Silkwood
70. Slumdog Millionaire
71. St. Elmo's Fire
72. Stand and Deliver
73. Ten Commandments
74. To Kill a Mockingbird
75. Truman Show
76. Unforgiven
77. Untouchable
78. Up in the Air
79. Walk the Line
80. World According to Garp
81. Yentl

Shakespeare

1. All's Well That Ends Well (Kenneth Branagh version)
2. Hamlet (Mel Gibson version)
3. Henry V (Kenneth Branagh version)
4. Midsummer Night's Dream (Kevin Cline, Michelle Pfeiffer)
5. Much Ado About Nothing (Kenneth Branaugh version)

Sports

1. 8 Men Out
2. Any Given Sunday
3. Bend It Like Beckham
4. Blind Side
5. Breaking Away
6. Bull Durham
7. Caddyshack
8. Chariots of Fire
9. Cool Runnings
10. Express
11. Field of Dreams
12. Happy Gilman
13. Hoosiers
14. League of Their Own
15. Major League
16. Million Dollar Baby
17. Mr. Baseball
18. Natural
19. Pride of the Yankees
20. Remember the Titans
21. Replacements
22. Rocky movies (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
23. Rookie
24. Rudy
25. Seabiscuit
26. Tin Cup

War

1. Apocalypse Now
2. Braveheart
3. Bridge Over the River Kwai
4. Courage Under Fire
5. Glory
6. Good Morning, Vietnam
7. Patton
8. Saving Private Ryan
9. Zulu

Top 10 News Stories of 2009

Here are my (highly partisan) picks for the top news stories of 2009.  If you have other suggestions, let me know.

1. Barack Obama Inauguration.  Barack Obama sworn in as the coutry's 44th president, in an inauguration ceremony watched by the world.  Immediately appoints his primary rival, Hilary Clinton, to be the country's new Secretary of State.
2. Economic crisis/recession.  Jobless rate continued to hover at 10%.  Many Americans forced to abandon their homes to foreclosure as rash loans made during the housing boom came back to haunt them.  Obama passed massive federal stimulus/bailout program to create jobs and keep big businesses (especially banks, brokerages and automobile manufacturers) from declaring bankruptcy and plunging the country into fiscal chaos.  "Cash for clunkers" programs launched to stimulate the purchase of U.S. cars.  Widespread outrage as AIG executives collected big cash bonuses anyway.
3. Health care reform. In one of the most uncivilized examples of civil discourse ever, Obama tried to coax Americans and Republicans alike to embrace universal health care.  The debate was punctuated by angry town hall meetings, ignorance ("Keep your government hands off my Medicare!"), misinformation ("'Death panels' will decide who lives and dies!"), partisan politics (during a Presidential address to the joint houses of Congress, one congressman actually shouted "You lie!"), and lots of lobbying by pharmaceutical firms ... but at this time it appears that at least some form of reform will pass.
4. Swine flu (a.k.a. H1N1).  After some initial panic (including school closings all over the U.S.), researchers finally gathered enough data to conclude that H1N1 was not actually that much more deadly then seasonal flu, allowing folks to relax (and schools to significantly loosen their criteria for quarantine). Eventually a vaccine was produced, but not until many folks contracted - and mostly survived - this new strain of flu.
5. Supreme Court appointment.  Sonia Sotomayor confirmed as first Hispanic and 3rd female justice in Supreme Court history. 'Bout time.
6. Iraq/Afghanistan.  As the conflict in Iraq gradually began to calm down, violence in Afghanistan continued to escalate, finally convincing Obama of the necessity of sending in 30K additional troops ... though he did  promise that he would be able to begin withdrawing them in July 2011.
7. Large Hadron Collider Goes Online. The Large Hadron Collider was fired up and did not, as some had feared, cause a rupture in the space-time continuum.
8. EU Elects a President.  Europe chose its first president, Belgian Premier Herman Van Rompuy. Although he's a minor figure on the world stage, the very idea of a "president of Europe" was a milestone. Europe also celebrated the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall - the event that signified the end of the Cold War and made it possible for the European Union to swell to 27 member states by taking in 10 former communist countries.
9. Anti-Governmetn Protests in Iran.  In Iran, sweeping anti-government protests received international coverage but were eventually suppressed by the country's military police.
10. Drug War in Mexico.  In Mexico, the government continued to fight an increasingly bloody war against the big drug cartels. Murders, kidnappings, and other atrocities became daily occurrences in some regions of the country, such as the town of Juarex on the Texas border.

2009 in Review

I already did the Top 10 News Stories of 2009, but that doesn't begin to cover what 2009 will really be remembered for!  Here's a more comprehensive list of the cultural highlights (and lowlights) of the year.

1. Notable deaths: Michael Jackson, Ted Kennedy, Walter Cronkite, Farrah Fawcett, Dom DeLuise, Patrick Swayze.
2. Sports: The Pittsburgh Steelers won their 6th Superbowl, setting an NFL record; also, the New York Yankees won their 27th World Series. (Not exactly a year for upsets.)
3. Television: Jay Leno tried to do a talk show at the 10am hour, but doesn't look like the experiment will last much longer. Oprah announced that she will retire from TV next year to focus on her new television network. Some long-running soaps ended, victims of lower advertising budgets. A homely British woman with a Broadway-quality voice made an international splash on Britain's Got Talent. Reality TV was HUGE: almost every celebrity seemed to be signing up to produce a peek-and-tell show, from Michael Jordan to Jon & Kate + 8 - the phenomenon eventually becoming so pervasive that one couple tried to market themselves by hoax (they claimed their 5yr old son was aloft in a home-made balloon), while another couple tried to market themselves by crashing a state dinner at the White House. Among the biggest television shows of the year were Mad Men (a cable show about advertising), dancing shows (So You Think You Can Dance, Dancing With the Stars), and Glee.
4. Movies: The biggest movies of the year were the 6th installment of the Harry Potter series (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince), New Moon (the first book in the Twilight series), and Star Trek, a movie that walked the characters back to their origin. Outside of theaters, most people chose to have their movies delivered to them via Netflix or cheap movie rental kiosks located in grocery stores and fast food restaurants.
5. Technology: Twitter overtook iPhone as the hot technology of the year. Still, it was a little startling to see congressmen busily twittering as Obama addressed them during his State of the Union address! Iphone, Facebook, Youtube, Hulu, Google and Kindle (electronic book) were also significant technology players this year, while Blackberries became just the littlest bit "passe." There was great furor about banning texting while driving, after several high-profile accidents.
6. Kids: When they weren't reading the latest installments of the hugely popular Wimpy Kid series of books by Jeff Kinney, little ones spent their time enthralled by the Webkins line of plush toys - you buy the toy, then oversee its virtual life on a webkins website.
7. Books: The top 4 books on USA Today's list of 2009 Bestsellers were the four installments of Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series. #5 was Dan Brown's Lost Symbol, which failed to reclaim the magic of DaVinci Code but earned plenty of money anyway. Lots of people cried over The Last Lecture by Randy Paush, but Sarah Palin's autobiography made me cry more.
8. Food: For some reason, 2009 was all about food! It was hard to flip channels without running across at least one cooking show (Top Chef, Hell's Kitchen, Paula Dean, Rachel Ray, etc.). Stores like "Dinner Zen" allowed folks to prepare their own meals utilizing proven recipes and pre-prepared ingredients, and much attention was devoted to the merits of organic produce.
9. Fashion: Michelle Obama caused an international stir with her sleeveless dresses and blouses.
10. Quote of the Year: "You lie."