"You know, there's a million fine looking women in the world, dude. But they don't all bring you lasagna at work. Most of 'em just cheat on you." -Silent Bob
I was thinking about Clerks randomly this morning. I really like that movie. It got me thinking about where it would rank in my list of all-time favorite movies. As I was thinking about it, I realized that I don't watch a whole hell of a lot of movies, and I sure as hell don't go out buying DVDs, like some people do. I own a very small number of movies, because I'm just not that interested in watching a movie more than once or twice. That being said, it would take an especially good movie for me to not only own it, but be able to watch it at any given time, on any given day, during any given circumstance. When I think about my all-time favorite movies, a few immediately pop into my head. Fight Club, Back to the Future (all of them) and Clerks. Fight Club, I always loved that movie, but the book is honestly better. Chuck Palahniuk is easily my favorite author, and it was because of this movie that this is the case. I watched the movie back in 2000, and have basically been a big fan of it ever since. I owned it on VHS, but never bought it on DVD. That's a great movie, but probably not my favorite of all-time.
So it comes down to Clerks or the Back to the Future trilogy. While I know many lines from Clerks, and can say them along with watching the movie, I pretty much know every line from the Back to the Future trilogy by heart. I could honestly watch the movies in my head, without missing any parts, if I wanted to. It's pretty easy to pick Clerks as your favorite movie. It's an indie film, so that gives you cred. It's smart, funny, and a cult classic. It's a movie I can watch with friends and they will all enjoy it. This can also be said about another classic that I would throw into the conversation if I knew it stood a chance of winning the argument, which is The Big Lebowski. Another cult classic, and another easy, respectable choice for all-time favorite. I have some great memories of watching that movie, especially with TJ. But I know that won't win as my all-time favorite.
No, the winner of my all-time favorite movie(s) is the Back to the Future trilogy. It's the obvious choice. I could watch the movies anytime. They're funny, they're exciting, they have everything. Time travel has always been a fun concept to me, and these movies do it great. The only problem I have, when looking at the movies now a days is, when you think about it, the entire part 2 needn't have happened. Travel to the future to prevent an incident from happening that HASN'T EVEN HAPPENED YET? You know how to prevent that? Keep the incident in you mind for the next 30 years, and when the day is coming up, just tell young Marty Jr. not to go to the Cafe 80's. Tell him that Griff is a bad dude and you don't need to be hangin' around that sort of riff-raff. Even Doc Brown admits that the future hasn't been written yet and your future is whatever you make of it, "so make it a good one" at the end of the third movie. So They didn't need to go to the future, but for good cinema, they wanted to show you what the future will look like.
Also, in Back to the Future part 2, the future scenes take place in the year 2015. That's only 5 years away and it's looking like they're not even close on their prediction of flying cars. Speaking of movies that predict the future, there's another movie that may have been way closer to getting it right, though it's too far off to tell at this point. The movie is Demolition Man, with Stalone and Snipes. For a very interesting look at the predictions made by the movie, please check out this website. I recommend it highly! Highlights from the list "As of 2003, the parole system as you know it was made obsolete." They also mention the "Schwarzenegger Presidential Library," which in my opinion is a pretty good prediction in 1993. I don't think anyone would have predicted at the time that he would eventually go on to become Governor of the state of California. So that's pretty neat.
Movies are great. Sometimes. Usually I'm just too ADD to sit down for 2 hours with a movie. But when I do, I'm usually happy I did.
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