I love the Lord of the Rings trilogy. It has elves. It has bow and arrows. It has corruption, adventure, romance, horror, comedy, and just over all epicness. What else could you possibly want? So when I hear someone say they don’t care much for it, I’ll admit I get a little upset. But deep down, I understand. I understand that it’s not for everyone. Whether it’s the hobbits with hairy feet that turn you off or the lengthy 3 hours you have to endure to watch just one of the films (4 hours if you do the extended version), I understand.
I myself do not care much for the 2nd highest ranked movie on IMDB, The Godfather. Sure it has some good lines (I’ll make him an offer he can’t refuse) and a few memorable scenes but I’m just not a big fan. Whenever I tell people this I can see the hatred fill their judgmental eyes.
Friends are lost, loved ones leave, and family's are broken everyday because of disagreement on good movies. Is this justifiable? Of course not. People have different tastes in movies. It doesn’t make one person right and one person wrong.
HOWEVER, with that being said, there are a few movies that you must love to even have a chance of qualifying as a decent person.
The Shawshank Redemption
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Imagine you're visiting with a dear friend and the subject of movies enters into the conversation. You casually tell them that your favorite movie is Shawshank Redemption. They look you in the eye and say, “oh is that that one prison movie? I didn’t really like it”. Now up to this point the two of you have been great friends and you have supported each other through a lot of difficult times in each others lives. This in fact is the first thing that you have ever disagreed on. Is it really that big of a deal that they don’t like The Shawshank Redemption? Oh yes it is. End the friendship immediately. Say a quick goodbye. Tell them that you think you may have left the oven on or you need to feed your pets or that there has been a death in the family. It doesn’t matter. Just remove yourself from the situation. Never, never, never trust a person who doesn’t like The Shawshank Redemption.
Based on the Stephen King short story, Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, this film adaption is one of the few exceptions to the rule that a movie is never better than the book.
After being wrongfully accused for murdering his wife, Andy Dufresne is sentenced to life at the Shawshank prison, a horrible place where the prison bars isolate you from the world. Andy realizes that there is one thing that they can’t take from you, hope. Hope is what drives Andy in believing that he does have a future. He can enjoy life even if he is wrongfully enclosed within stone walls. In the words of Andy’s friend Red, “Get busy livin’ or get busy dyin’. That’s goddamn right.” There is a reason why this movie is number 1 on IMDB.
Slumdog Millionaire
I’ll be honest. When I first heard that Slumdog Millionaire won the Oscar’s Best Film award, I was a little upset. How could a movie about a foreign Who Want’s to be a Millionaire show be not only nominated but win over great movies like Wall-E and The Dark Knight? Whatever… I figured I would just watch it so I could confirm my doubts. 30 seconds into the movie I was starting to doubt my premature conclusion and by 30 minutes I was sold that this was hands down the best movie of 2008.
Slumdog, Jamal, comes within 1 question of winning it all. He is arrested on suspicion of cheating because how could a slumdog possibly know the answer to questions that even doctors and lawyers do not know? However, upon interrogation, they discover that the slumdog has quite an interesting story. This movie isn’t really about a tv show, or growing up in the Mumbai slums, or even about overcoming overwhelming odds. It’s about destiny.
What makes Slumdog Millionaire such a great movie?
A. Superb editing B. Excellent acting
C. Heart touching story D. All of the above
D, final answer.
