Movies that made me say ‘Yeah!’

(Revised 06.22.2012)

Let me start by saying I don't consider myself much of a movie connoisseur.

While Kates brags about the list of classic ‘80s movies she watched as a kid, I can count on one hand the movies my parents took my brother and I to see in a theater during our childhoods. (My first: ‘Follow That Bird,’ a Sesame Street classic …) ...

During my teens, though, I could be found at a movie theater almost every weekend -- back then ticket prices were just $4 or $5, I had the money to burn and it was the thing to do on a Saturday night. It also was a time when I thought every movie was the best thing I'd ever seen ...

These days, I’m more critical of movies than I've ever been. You can probably point to my life experiences and my work for much of that ...

Still, there's a selection of movies that I can watch over and over again, reciting my favorite lines, adoring the characters and still laugh at the same lines I probably laughed at the first time I heard them.

Here's my list of movies I think everyone should see at least once ...

-- About Schmidt
-- Air Force One
-- A League of Their Own
-- American Beauty
-- Apollo 13
-- Armageddon
-- Back to the Future (The entire trilogy)
-- The Bank Job
-- Big
-- The Bourne Identity & The Bourne Supremacy
-- Cast Away
-- Christmas Story
-- ConAir
-- Crash
-- The Cure
-- Dead Poet's Society
-- Down With Love
-- E.T.
-- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
-- Eye for an Eye
-- Face Off
-- Field of Dreams
-- For Love of the Game
-- Forrest Gump
-- Frequency
-- Freedom Writers
-- The Fugitive
-- Garden State
-- Good Will Hunting
-- Hairspray
-- The Help
-- Home Alone
-- Honey I Shrunk the Kids
-- The Incredibles
-- Independence Day
-- Jerry Maguire
-- Juno
-- The Karate Kid
-- L.A. Confidential
-- The Last Kiss
-- Little Miss Sunshine
-- The Lorax
-- Love Actually
-- The Matrix
-- Magnolia
-- Major League
-- Mean Girls
-- Million Dollar Baby
-- Moneyball
-- Monsters Inc
-- Mr. Holland's Opus
-- National Treasure
-- The Natural
-- Notting Hill
-- Ocean's Eleven
-- Once
-- Over The Hedge
-- The Perfect Storm
-- Pleasantville
-- The Pursuit of Happyness
-- Ratatouille
-- Ray
-- Remember The Titans
-- Rent
-- The Rock
-- The Rookie
-- The Sandlot
-- Serendipity
-- Shakespeare In Love
-- The Shawshank Redemption
-- Shrek I & II
-- Sister Act I & II
-- Spanglish
-- Speed
-- Star Wars (The original trilogy)
-- Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith
-- Stand By Me
-- Tangled
-- Team America
-- That Thing You Do!
-- Titanic
-- Toy Story (The entire trilogy)
-- The Truman Show
-- Vanilla Sky
-- Walk The Line
-- Wizard of Oz
-- World Trade Center