My 100 Favorite Movies with Reviews (65-61)

65. National Lampoon’s Animal House (1978)

This movie is an absolute comedy classic, with plenty of memorable characters and scenarios. It’s the definitive college comedy and just about everything that happens is hilarious. I don’t have a lot to say about this one because my writing can’t give credit to how funny this movie is.

64. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

I’d go so far to say that the original A Nightmare on Elm Street is the scariest movie ever made. The plot is ingenious. It’s about a man, Fred Kruger, who murders people in their dreams. I don’t know if anything can be scarier than that; it makes for a remarkably dark fantasy film.

The acting is weak, that’s for sure. But the scares, the kills, and the suspense are what make this film such a classic. It did something very new with the slasher genre, which director Wes Craven would go on to repeat in New Nightmare and Scream. If you like horror movies, you should love this.

63. The Pride of the Yankees (1942)

Lou Gehrig is my favorite athlete of all time and this movie is a great biopic showing why he was such a great man. Like plenty of biopics, it ignores his flaws which I read about in his biography, but the film does a great job in painting the portrait of a true American hero.

Gary Cooper plays Gehrig with his typical charm and you can’t help but like him. He’s also teamed up with Teresa Wright and Babe Ruth. It’s a very good baseball film. It is aged, for sure, but it’s a very emotional film and it gets to me every time.

62. Gangs of New York (2002)

If you ask me, this is Scorsese’s most underrated movie. It was up for about a thousand Academy Awards but lost every one, and it’s been overshadowed by his other recent films such as The Aviator and The Departed.

The opening scene is great. It sets the tone for a brutal, violent, complicated historical film about revenge against the toughest and meanest man in New York in the 1860s. This is of course Bill the Butcher, played by Daniel Day-Lewis, one of his greatest performances.

I love the way this movie shows the decaying effect of violence in a historical setting. It has a truly epic feel to it with all its costumes, extras, and sets. It’s quite a good movie.

61. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)

I’m not sure of anyone who hasn’t seen this movie, or anyone who hasn’t loved it, for that matter. That says a lot about this comedy that is just so much fun, I never get tired of watching it.

Ferris (Matthew Broderick) is great but I especially love his neurotic best friend Cameron Frye. Their interactions are what make this movie for me. Oh, and Ed Rooney.

There are so many hilarious moments in this movie that describing them can hardly do it justice. See the movie.