Last Updated on February 9, 2022
As a general rule, I don’t like watching movies on TV because of endless commercial breaks and editing, but these are an automatic exception.
The other day I was talking with a friend of mine about the “old days” of TV when there were three main channels to choose from and always something to watch. These days, there are 100+ channels and rarely something worth watching a good percentage of the time.
Watching movies isn’t my first choice because there is generally too much editing and too many commercial breaks to make the movie worthwhile. A perfect example was the Lethal Weapon franchise which aired last weekend and featured entirely too much editing for language. I actually put in a DVD of Lethal Weapon 3 and started it after the broadcast version had begun on cable; I was able to enjoy the full version of the movie and it wrapped up before the broadcast version did, thanks to the commercials!
That said, there are some movies I’ll stop and watch on television whenever I see them. Some of these aren’t shown all that often anymore, but if I happen to be flipping through and see them, chances are, I’ll put the remote down and watch.
Here’s my list in alphabetical order:
1. ‘A Christmas Story’
Granted this one is only on in December, and particularly all day long on Christmas Day itself, but I’ll watch it at least once on the big day. Chances are if I see it before that while I’m flipping channels, I’ll watch then, too.
2. ‘Clue’
There were so many great lines in this movie, not to mention Madeline Khan’s strange little “I hated her so much” ad lib that this has always been a favorite of mine. It’s hard to find this one on these days, but the rare time it does air, I’ll watch.
3. ‘Driving Miss Daisy’
This was such a well-done film about a very unlikely friendship between two people who couldn’t have been more different from each other. It’s poignant, it’s funny, it’s sad, it’s sweet.
4. ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’
I think there’s something in us that wishes we could get away with whatever it is we want to get away with as easy as Ferris does. This is one of those films that’s almost cartoonish in its comedy, but all of the ingredients just work together so well here that it’s worth a watch whenever it’s on.
5. ‘The Fugitive’
I have this movie on DVD, but to be honest, it’s a tedious film to get through unless you’re in the right mood. So I almost never watch it intentionally, even though it’s a really good movie. But if I stumble across it on television, I’ll stop and watch.
6. ‘GoodFelllas’
This might be the strangest title on my list because I hate Mafia movies. I’ve never watched any of the Godfather movies. I know, I know, they’re great films, but Mafia pictures just don’t interest me. In fact, I’ve never watched GoodFella all the way through in a single sitting. Oddly enough, though, if I see the movie on, I’ll stop and watch until it’s over.
7. ‘The Green Mile’
I’m not a fan of prison pictures, either, but this one, and one other prison picture you’ll see a bit further down, are the rare exceptions. This is, in fact, one of my all-time favorite movies. I do have it on DVD and watch it every now and then, but if I stumble across a playing on TV, it’s a cinch that I’ll stop and watch.
8. ‘On Golden Pond’
I don’t see this one on the air very often at all anymore, but when I do pass by and see it, I’m in, no matter how far into the film we’re in. It’s a great flick about love and age and it’s timeless.
9. ‘Psycho’
If you’ve read me for a while, you probably know by now that I’m a fan of Alfred Hitchcock. This one in particular is probably the one most likely to be shown outside of a Hitchcock marathon, which I’d make a point to tune in for anyway, so this one’s definitely on my list. (And I mean the original one, not that ridiculously unnecessary color remake.)
10. ‘The Shawshank Redemption’
Like The Green Mile, this is the only other prison picture I’ll stop and watch. Also like The Green Mile, it’s based on the work of Stephen King.
11. ‘Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan’
This is still my all-time favorite of the Star Trek movies, and the one I’ll always watch through if I run across it. Some of the others — featuring both the original and “next generation” casts are dependent on my mood. But Kirk and Company’s fight against Ricardo Montalban’s Khan is a winner.
12. ‘Titanic’
Like The Fugitive, this can be a tedious film to watch from the beginning because it’s so long. But if I find it in progress, chances are I’ll stop and watch.
That’s my list. I’m sure there are others, but these are the ones I could think of off the top of my head.
I know what you mean, and I don’t mind crying at the end of movies – it happens often enough anyway; but The Green Mile hit me very hard. I probably won’t be able to stay away forever, because it has that “normal with a bit of flaky” tale that I love, but it won’t be too soon, either.
Cloud Atlas, The Adjustment Bureau, and many other films I love have that same quality. Cloud Atlas should have made the above list as well, but I will be honest: it’s confusing unless you have maybe read the book first. My husband mostly wrapped his around it in the first viewing, but I had to plow through it several times to really get a clear image of what the author was trying to say in the span from 1849 to “106 years after the Fall”.
The films Starman, Hopscotch, The Black Stallion and (not listed) Watership Down – animated – are from, respectively, 1984, 1980, 1979, and 1978. Excellent films all, although Watership Down couldn’t come close to telling the story as beautifully as the book, always the biggest issue.
Patrick, when you watch the films you haven’t seen yet, please let me know what you think of them. I’m not big on a lot of violence, and won’t watch slapstick humour, but they’re good films, I think.
Aislinge Kellogg I definitely need to check out some of the films on your list. There are several I’ve never seen.
Yes, “The Green Mile’s” ending scenes are difficult, but it’s such a great movie that I’ll sacrifice a few tears once in a while to see it again! 🙂
I could probably list another twelve films, you know!
What movies will I stop and watch… Well, definitely The Shawshank Redemption – it isn’t a film about men in prison, it’s a film about a beautiful, uplifting friendship. I love it, so much that I have it on DVD. Other films include:
Apollo 13; I love the space programs, all of them. And Apollo 13 isn’t just a movie, it’s history. I love how well it was put together and what these astronauts went through to get home alive.
The Greatest Game Ever Played: Shia LaBoeuf and Stephen Spillane are unlikely adversaries on the golf course, but it is a wonderful film about Francis Ouimet and his 1911 playing in the U.S. open at Brookline.
Ever After: A Cinderella Story. A completely unique and enthralling version of the Little Cinder Girl, much more taken from the Brother Grimm story than the usual watered down Disney version.
Finding Nemo: charming, beautiful water shots, this animated film is, like all Pixar films, about serious loss – it may seem harsh, but it gives me the joy and release of tears of happiness at the end. The plus to most Pixar, Dreamworks, and other animated movies is the jokes made for adults; themes that kids won’t pick up, but we have material to laugh over.
Ratatouille; another huge favourite in the pantheon of animated films, along with Inside Out, that deals with loss. I loved both films intensely.
How to Train Your Dragon: I love Toothless, the nightfury dragon that becomes Hiccup’s. He’s more like a cat. It explores the magic of a close, but forbidden, friendship.
Avatar; for me, it’s the desire to be in another, healthy, perfectly working body. When Jake Sully first wakes up in the avatar body of the Nav’i, able to move his feet and toes after being stuck in a wheelchair, I understood completely his eagerness to get out and run, run like the wind. As someone whose body won’t – well, can’t – do so much, I can understand this in a way that only disabled people truly can.
Starman: Jeff Bridges in his much younger days as an alien who morphs into the body of a dead house painter and needs his widowed wife to help him get to Arizona.
The Black Stallion: an amazing friendship between a boy and an Arabian horse stranded on a tiny island in the Pacific Ocean.
Hopscotch; Walter Matthau as a CIA agent who decides to write his memoirs…driving his boss and his protégé crazy trying to stop him from divulging all this top-secret information to…everyone!
The Help: a wonderful, moving film about the exposing of how black women were treated by their Southern “employers” in 1960s Jackson, Mississippi.
The Martian; yes, I know, it’s only out on DVD right now. But it won’t be that way for ever, and this is one movie that I’ll watch anytime.
I watched The Green Mile once…I turned into a total basket case when John Coffee was killed. I was so miserable and I could not watch it again – at least not yet. I don’t know if I can take it again, as cool as it was. I love Tom Hanks, especially, but it was so hard to watch the end.
One more movie that needs mentioning is Surf’s Up, another animated film. Those are almost always my favourites, much like The Good Dinosaur, Cars, etc.. I get emotional invested in those films, so I consider them to be top favourites.