#6 Greatest Movie of All Time

Here we are for another round of our top 10 movies of all time! What number are we at today? #6! If you missed the others, here are #7, #8, #9, and #10. Want to know who is behind this zany list? Check this post out to see our incredible braintrust for these movies. I look forward to this every week to find out what movies are going to grace the list. It also tells you a little something about each person. Alright, let’s check out #6 of our Top 10 Movies of all Time list!

Kai – “Pulp Fiction”

Pulp Fiction is probably the most influential movie on my list. It hit Hollywood like a bomb, influencing an entire generation of directors/screen writers and completely reshaping the way that big studios saw independent cinema. It takes place in the underbelly of Los Angeles, following several seedy characters over the course of a few days. Another Tarantino movie with non-linear chronology, he lets the characters tell their own story and leaves it up to the audience to figure out the full coherent tale. The movie oozes iconic moments: “royale with cheese”, the dance contest, the suitcase, cleaning the car, etc, making it a massive cultural touchstone, still referenced in conversation today.

The best part of Pulp Fiction is the writing. The characters speak about big topics using familiar, casual language, making the world seem vibrant and alive. The movie captures the spirit of LA very well, a combination of casual cool and large ambition. If you haven’t seen it and don’t mind the sight of blood, go and rent it, it still stands up as a great movie today.

Andrew – “Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol 2”

I know it’s new and was predictable but I have a thing for movies with “old” music in them.

Sophie – “You’ve Got Mail (1998)”

If you can’t tell, I love Tom Hanks. Throw in Meg Ryan and you’ve got movie magic. It’s a story about falling in love in a world that isn’t black and white: this movie is funny, romantic and heartfelt. I know that the 90s are “in” right now, but Kathleen Kelly’s wardrobe is my dream closet. Between New York City, quaint bookstores, street fairs, quirky friends, and a great soundtrack this is a movie I love to watch again and again.

Po – “Life Aquatic”

Hoo boy. It’s amazingly good at surprising you with heart-punches left and right, which is generally par for the course with Wes Andersen. Bill Murray owns it, and a fantastic supporting cast including Owen Wilson, Cate Blanchett, Willem Dafoe, and Jeff Goldblum only further make this movie a must-watch. Also, listen for Seu Jorge’s David Bowie musical covers throughout, sung in Portuguese.

Randy – “Some Like It Hot”

My next two choices were released in 1959 — the comedy first: Some Like It Hot (written and directed by Billy Wilder) introduces us to slick operator sax player Joe (Tony Curtis) and his long-suffering bass playing pal Jerry (Jack Lemmon) — two down-on-their luck musicians who have the further bad luck to witness the 1929 St. Valentine’s Day Massacre so they must flee Chicago to avoid getting rubbed out by mobsters. They dress up as Josephine and Daphne and join an all girl band headed by train to Miami. Marilyn Monroe plays Sugar Kane Kawalczyk, the band’s vulnerable, boozy singer.

Monroe’s comedic timing with Curtis and Lemmon is crisp and in this movie, she is at her most enchanting – she almost seems to glow onscreen. This movie was shot just 4 years before her death. Jack Lemmon plays Daphne full-out as “one of the girls” and the shenanigans they get into on the train trip and at the Miami hotel are classic. The Hotel del Coronado in San Diego was the shooting location for the Miami hotel scenes. Joe E. Brown plays a Miami millionaire who falls for “Daphne” and Lemmon’s frustrations with Brown’s attraction to him, er I mean her, are some of the best moments in the picture, especially the last scene. The American Film Institute named Some Like It Hot the Best Comedy of All Time.

Scott – “Mad Max: Fury Road”

Come for Tom Hardy, stay for Valhalla metal and Charlize Theron. I use the term “metal” as a very positive word. To me, it’s about being badass, disregarding preconceived notions, and living life to the fullest. Mad Max: Fury Road is unapologetically METAL. All of the characters are so over-the-top that they balance each other. With one character being a guitarist hanging from a semi truck playing metal and shooting flames. The badassery is compounded by the antagonists culture of the Warrior’s way. These are post-apocalyptic vikings! “I live! I die! I live again!”

This movie becomes something better than just a 90-minute action scene. Tom Hardy plays Max. A man trying to survive with nothing left in the world. There are a few city-states scattered around run by dictators. They represent the only commodities that matter any more: water, gasoline, and bullets. In Max’s effort to escape his captivity he crosses paths with Furiosa (Theron) this is where the movie goes from being a one-note teenaged boys fantasy to a complicated nuanced piece about freedom. “Fury Road” is non-stop action but still manages to tell an excellent story about powerful women. Don’t write this movie off as a “summer block buster.” it is a movie that will enthrall you and at the end realize you learned something.

Hungry – “Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers”

This might be really, really shocking for people who know me… but hear me out. If this list was ten favorite movie franchises of all time, there’s a 99.9% chance that the Lord of the Rings Trilogy would stand tall at number 1. But the fact that I love each of the movies so damn much, takes away from the raw firepower that any single one has. Does that make sense?

Now, it’s really close choosing my favorite. If I had to rate them, they’d probably be 9.99, 9.98 and 9.97 out of 10. While the Fellowship is the most majestic part of the journey, highlighting the vivid greenery of the shooting locations, and the fight scenes in Return of the King are on the most epic scale, there’s just something about Two Towers.

It has everything. It has the dominant soundtrack that sets the pace, the best comedic moments as Aragorn/Gimli/Legolas spend a lot of time together, the most plot twists in the series, and so much more. Again, this series would hands down be my number one and the fact that there are three movies that are so good, makes it hard for me to put this any higher, but it is one of my most loved of all time.Nothing in cinema history, for me, can compare with the battle at Helm’s Deep.

Fit – “Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl”

I still remember seeing it. I remember exclaiming, “just like the ride!” though those moments were few. We came in for Orlando Bloom and came out blown away by the entire cast, especially Johnny Depp who plays a convincing, hysterical, unlucky pirate and Geoffrey Rush as the villain, Barbossa. This movie is exciting, fun, and romantic (in more senses than one). The soundtrack by Klaus Badelt brilliantly keeps pace with this swashbuckling movie and has you humming it for years to come (definitely a soundtrack I listened to many times).  

The movie has subtle twists and turns you don’t see coming, characters with depth and growth, and the incredible adventure of cursed pirates. This movie captures perfectly the roaring excitement that we all imagine the life of a pirate to be, however, not without some darkness too. Although the whole franchise isn’t the best, this first one was a home run and you’ll end the movie with a grin akin to Capt. Jack Sparrow’s on your face. 

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Another week, another list of fantastic movies! A lot of these movies are starkly different (You’ve Got Mail and Guardians of the Galaxy? A little different), but you can see some common themes of good movie-making. Lots of adventures in this batch! You can watch out for #5 coming directly a week from today–Sundays are the magic day for movies here. Anyhow, we hope you enjoy the list and as always, stay hungry and fit!