I came across this as something I wrote for Facebook back around 2010-11. In a few instances, I’m adding the odd film from later, with an occasional comment.
Just for the heck of it, my five favorite films in 15 different categories (not in order, although favorite in each category is in boldface). Unless otherwise noted, if it is a movie that has been made more than once, the original version is assumed. One further note: If one of your favorites is not included, it’s possible that I haven’t seen it.
ACTION/ADVENTURE: Die Hard, Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Rock, The Abyss, Armageddon.
2024 note: Con Air is a movie that really grew on me. It can replace “Armageddon.”
COMEDY (FUNNY): Animal House, American Graffiti, Night Shift, My Favorite Year, Used Cars.
COMEDY (SATIRE): Bedazzled, Best in Show, Lord Love a Duck, The Loved One, Smile.
2024 note: The 1967 “Bedazzled” might be the funniest movie I ever saw. The 2000 remake was a piece of crap.
DRAMA: The Godfather Part II, The Grapes of Wrath, Casablanca, To Kill a Mockingbird, True Confessions.
FANTASY: The Wizard of Oz, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, It’s A Wonderful Life, Streets of Fire, Peggy Sue Got Married.
FOREIGN: After Life, Shall We Dance, The Wild Child, Il Postino, Changing Times.
GUILTY PLEASURES: Joe vs. the Volcano, Real Men, Hanover Street, A Small Circle of Friends, Stealing Home.
HORROR: Dawn of the Dead, Freaks, Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Dracula, Bride of Frankenstein.
2024 note: The 1978 movie “Dawn of the Dead” had an amazing subtext about consumerism. The zombies have people trapped in a shopping mall, and one character wonders who the are gathering at the mall. “They’re after the place. They don’t know why; they just remember. Remember that they want to be in here.”
MUSICALS: West Side Story, The Music Man, Bye Bye Birdie, Woodstock, Singin’ in the Rain.
ROMANCE: Love Actually, Notting Hill, Windy City, Blume in Love, The Electric Horseman.
2024 note: I love every one of these five movies, although I would bet very few of you have heard of “Windy City.”
SCIENCE FICTION: Blade Runner, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, ET: The Extraterrestrial, When Worlds Collide.
2024 note: The 1978 version of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” was wonderful too.
SPORTS: Bull Durham, Field of Dreams, Bang the Drum Slowly, A League of Their Own, Rocky.
2024 update: This is one where a more recent movie would actually bump one of the original five. “Rocky” is replaced by “Trouble With the Curve,” the movie that made me fall in love with Amy Adams.
THRILLERS: North by Northwest, The Birds, Vertigo, The Maltese Falcon, Dead Again.
WAR: Testament, On the Beach, Gallipoli, The Human Comedy, The Best Years of Our Lives.
WESTERNS: Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, The Magnificent Seven, The Searchers, Little Big Man