This week’s blogging challenge is Favorite Movies or All Time and Why. This challenge is organized by Long and Short Reviews.

I’ve watched a lot of movies, particularly SF movies and animation. I took a lot of film studies courses. My list of favorites would be really long, or many reasons, so I just picked a few movies that I watch whenever I need inspiration or an emotional lift.

Star Trek: First Contact (1996): This is the movie I watch whenever I feel down. Not only is it one of my favorite Trek films, with characters that I love, but I also love it because of it’s hopeful message. That humanity has a great destiny and things work out through cooperation and a willingness to better ourselves. The Trekkiest of Trek movies.

The Birds (1963): I like Hitchcock and it’s hard to pick one, but The Birds is my favorite. It’s the kind of horror that I like-psychological. There is never a good reason given for why the birds act the way they do, but it’s terrifying to watch. The performances are great as the sea side residents struggle with a horror they can’t comprehend or understand. It has none of the big budget effects of many modern movies, but the director, actors, camera effects still make it chilling.

Marty (1955): This 1955 film starring Ernest Borgnine and Betsy Blair has always been one of my favorites. It’s essentially about an awkward butcher who lives with his widowed mother who meets a plain looking schoolteacher. She’s been dumped by her date for not being pretty enough and they hit it off at a dance. I like it because both of these people don’t have celebrity looks and they are just regular people. But they fall in love. It’s a simple story with a simple script, and what true love is all about.

Hairspray(2007): This is another movie that I watch whenever I feel down. I have the soundtrack and I love to sing the songs. That’s it, really. It’s just a lot of fun. As you can guess,  like movies where the underdogs win.

Inception (2010): This Christopher Nolan film looks goods, and it’s got great actors, and really good ideas about dreams and perception and the ‘inception’ of an idea. The soundtrack is great too. Interstellar is also a good one. And even Nolan’s historical film, Dunkirk. I am a history buff and I thought Dunkirk was very well done.

The Age of Innocence (1993): I love this movie, even if I always feel sad in the end. It’s a historical drama with beautiful costumes, great script, and great acting. You get to see a view of upper class people trapped in their own opulence and over-bearing social order they’ve created for themselves.

The Magnificent Seven(2016) : I really love this remake of the Magnificent Seven (a real remake, not the B-movie fest of my last post)  and I really don’t think it gets the credit it deserves. Denzel Washington should be in every western as far as I’m concerned. Vincent D’Onofrio is amazing. I felt like I hadn’t seen Ethan Hawke in forever, and he was good. Chris Pratt was too. Lee Bunyung-hun was good too. I also associate him with overwrought  Korean dramas but he’s great in this.

AND THE GREATEST OF THE ALL…ONE RING TO RULE THEM ALL

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy: It’s just great from start to finish. It looks great, the characters are heroic. Bravery, loyalty, and all that good stuff. Elves. Wizards. The Riders of Rohan. I rewatch the trilogy for New Year’s every year.