Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Lynnie's Listicles: Top 5 Rewatchable Movies [Contributor: Lynnie Purcell]


Hi! I'm Lynnie, and I will be your guide to all things movie-related. This is my corner of the lovely Jenn's website, where I will talk movies, characters, and throw rainbow-colored sparkles all over your lives. Today, I have a listicle for you in order to get to know me a little better. It consists of five movies I will always re-watch. There are many others, but these were the first five that popped into my head. I hope to share more movies with you, discuss up-and-coming flicks, and get serious about the craft of film.

Let's get started!



#5: Back to the Future

I'm not a fan of anything related to time travel. I've had extended discussions about why it never works in pop culture, shook my head and my fists at the glaring gaps in logic, and have gotten insanely mad that Walker from Timecop totally killed the unburdened past-him when he came back to the future the last time. (And that is not a tangent I need to have right now. I'm totally side-eyeing you right now, though, Timecop.*)

*Jean Claude Van Damm promptly appears out of nowhere and punches me in the kidney.

The point is that there is one movie where I forgive all time discrepancies and will happily watch and re-watch without feeling frustrated or yelling at my screen. That movie is Back to the Future. It has lightness in all the right places, adventure, comedy that is in good fun, and a lead that you want to hug every three minutes or so. It shouldn't have worked as well as it did, but it managed to balance all the right elements into a fun package that makes you wish you had your own Doc. Brown to meet in a mall parking lot late at night.


It's part of my childhood, and I do not regret it one bit.


#4: Sixteen Candles

You know those days where you kind of hate everything and wish you could just pull a blanket over your head and do nothing? Samantha Baker does. Of course, having your entire family forget your birthday is worthy of angst, but it still is nice to be in such good company. Sixteen Candles is, without a doubt, my bad day go-to movie.

What's great about Sixteen Candles is that it takes not taking itself very seriously very seriously. The levity, fun, dorkiness, craziness, and clichéd teens that abound in the film are matched in full by Michael Schoeffling's quiet charm and Molly Ringwald's steady sweetness. They spend the majority of the film dealing with the chaos of people so crazy you wonder how they're still alive, but when they finally find each other on the same page, you know that everything is going to work out just fine. The movie is a study in crazy 80's fun that never disappoints.

Whenever I'm blue, I know that Sixteen Candles has my back.


#3: Lord of the Rings

Who doesn't love a story about some bling? I've never personally wanted to destroy said bling in a fiery, deadly volcano in the heart of Orc territory, but then again the only evil my bling has ever harbored are crazy interest rates. Actually, I get it now.

The Lord of the Rings trilogy is a commitment, but I love to re-watch it and delve into the world that Peter Jackson brought to life from J.R.R. Tolkien's masterpiece. The love Jackson has for the stories is clear in every shot. The characters all have their moments, the scenery has its time to shine, and the action is large, loud, and just my pace on a winter's day. Plus, Aragorn is easy on the eyes, I'm just saying,


#2: Lethal Weapon

Okay, so I might end up talking about Lethal Weapon more than once on here. Sorry not sorry.

For me, Lethal Weapon is the quintessential action movie. The first movie has everything you could want: action, swear words aplenty, Tai Chi references, characters who hate each other slowly coming to love each other with their whole, blackened hearts, tragic backstories, and banter that puts all other dialogue to shame.

Riggs and Murtaugh are my boys, and if you can't handle that, I will roll my eyes at you really violently. You have been warned.


#1: Star Wars

Everything. Just everything.

Those are my five rewatchable movies! Hit up the comments below and let me know which films you'll always put on repeat and why. :)

1 comment:

  1. Isn't putting an entire trilogy in at 3rd place of your list of five a bit, well, cheating?:-) (speaking personally, I'd happily put Fellowship in, but not the other two, that's me though...)

    As for what I can always watch again, being (a) Welsh and (b) a guy I'd always put "Zulu" on the list - the movie about the epic battle of Rorke's Drift, in which about 130 men of the South Wales Borderer's Regiment held off a determined and desperate attack from over 4,000 Zulu warriors. It's quite simply the perfect guy film. As TVTropes puts it - "Manly Zulus fighting the manly British Army in a manly manner. This film oozes manliness.":-) Heck, even the sing-off between the Zulus and the Welsh is awesomely manly (warning - that link goes from the sing off straight into the final battle, which is pretty unflinching)....

    As for other choices - brought to mind by the sad news of the passing of Sir Christopher Lee I'd add the original version of "The Wicker Man" (*not* the awful Nick Cage remake) which Lee has always said was his favorite film and which is worth rewatching for the performances even when you already know what the plot twist is.

    On a more uplifting note I'd add Invictus, starring Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela and Matt Damon as Francois Pienaar in the film about the rugby tournament that help bring post-apartheid South Africa together. There are plenty of others, but there's three for now...

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