Fort Myers Florida Weekly

On lead up to the Oscars, take the #Top100movies challenge




 

It’s time. Time for you to dig deep and take the #TOP100movies challenge.

I’m not talking about getting one of those catchy and popular scratch-off posters where you are encouraged to watch 100 movies curated by someone else. With respect to the experts, I’m also not suggesting you look to the American Film Institute, IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, Esquire, Wikipedia or any other well-known critic or film group out there.

I’m asking you not to pick a film simply because it has been assessed and awarded by others in the industry. No, I’m asking you to call out the Emperor’s New Clothes, dig deep and pick YOUR favorite 100 films. Just make sure that YOU like them.

With the Oscars creeping up on us to be televised on ABC on March 27, I have made it a point to pick my top 100 films, not because I was told to, or just to fill column space. I’m doing it for me. You see, while the Academy Awards helps elevate the recognition of excellence in film and brings great awareness to striking performances, scores, set design, direction and more every year, what they fail to do is pick movies we may want to see again. Ever again.

“Parasite,” for example, won for best film in 2020. I loved it. Do you think I would ever watch it again though? I will not. Not because it wasn’t good. Just because it is not a movie I would ever want to watch again. But I would put on “Singing in the Rain” just about any time of any day, in any mood, and watch that over and over. And over.

When actors like Seth Rogan try to suggest that nobody really cares about these prestigious awards, as he has openly done recently, it is mostly because he knows that he will never win an Oscar. (I don’t really know that.) Maybe he is jealous. (He shouldn’t be as he has been awarded Best Comedy Director by the American Comedy Awards, Best Vocal Ensemble in a Feature Film by the BTVA Feature Film Voice Acting Awards, Comedy Star of the year at CinemaCon, Best Screenplay of the Year by the Golden Schmoes, Best WTF Moment by the MTV Movie Awards to name a few.) Who knows? He may win an Academy Award one day. But the sentiment that while “The Power of the Dog” may go home with more hardware than Ace Hardware at this year’s big red-carpet ceremony, more people actually went out to watch “Spider-Man: Far from Home” or “Jackass Forever.”

Doesn’t matter. It’s irrelevant.

The point is that the #Top100movies challenge is meant for you. It is meant for you to think about your favorite films. Which would you put on and watch over and over? Which are the ones that make you laugh, feel, think and keep your interest every time? Feel free to post yours on Twitter or Facebook. Or just keep them handy and reflect on what films really mean something to you. Better yet, have a conversation with one of your close friends or take the challenge together in real life. One of my best friends took this challenge with me and we learned so much more about each other. Plus, we had new films that each of us heard of for the first time. Maybe you will get a chance to stream one you haven’t thought of for years! So, if for no other reason than to start things off, here are mine. And yes, you can judge me by some of these. You can also try watching some of them if you haven’t seen them yet. And sure, you can email me what you think I missed. Or just send me your list. I’ll take a look. ¦

—Eric Raddatz is editor at Florida Weekly, director at the Fort Myers Film Festival and on air personality at ABC and NBC in Fort Myers.

ER’s TOP 100

1) Singing in the Rain
2) When Harry Met Sally
3) Casablanca
4) Serendipity
5) Joe vs. Volcano
6) Burn After Reading
7) Sideways
8) No Country For Old Men
9) Groundhog Day
10) Raiders of the Lost Ark
11) Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
12) American in Paris
13) The Muppet Movie
14) Bourne Supremacy
15) Before I Fall
16) My Best Friend’s Wedding
17) What About Bob
18) The Overnight
19) Planes, Trains and Automobiles
20) Better off Dead
21) A Time to Kill
22) Torn Curtain
23) Star Wars: The Force Awakens
24) Toy Story
25) Star Wars: Return of the Jedi
26) Citizen Kane
27) Along Came Polly
28) Minority Report
29) The Princess Bride
30) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
31) Open Your Eyes
32) Vanilla Sky
33) Amélie
34) Napoleon Dynamite
35) Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
36) Up
37) No Time to Die
38) The Big Lebowski
39) Take Me Out to the Ballgame
40) Blues Brothers
41) Parallel Mothers
42) Godfather P.1
43) Star Wars: A New Hope
44) Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back
45) Star Wars: Rogue One
46) Back to the Future
47) Sleepless in Seattle
48) Fight Club
49) Alive Inside
50) Maggie’s Plan
51) My Blue Heaven
52) The Cove
53) Lost in Translation
54) Going Clear
55) Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead: The Story of the National Lampoon
56) Wedding Crashers
57) Ocean’s 11
58) Wizard of Oz
59) It’s a Wonderful Life
60) Elf
61) Back to the Future III
62) The Departed
63) So I Married An Axe Murderer
64) Tommy Boy
65) Love Actually
66) Jason Bourne
67) Rainmaker
68) Office Space
69) Match Point
70) Zoolander
71) Mean Girls
72) There’s Something About Mary
73) Knives Out
74) A River Runs Through it
75) Citizenfour
76) The Fugitive
77) Pelican Brief
78) Malcolm X
79) Some Like it Hot
80) Chicago
81) Get Back
82) The Peanut Butter Falcon
83) The Incredibles
84) Get Out
85) Birdman
86) Moonstruck
87) All the President’s Men
88) The Music Man
89) RBG
90) Dead Poets Society
91) Guardians of the Galaxy
92) Dumb and Dumber
93) Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
94) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
95) City Slickers
96) Trading Places
97) Breakfast Club
98) Garden State
99) Pitch Perfect
100) Lion King

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