Recently, somebody asked me what my all-time favorite movies were. So I came up with this list, in no particular order (it’s hard enough to come up with the list, how much rank them!).
CITY OF ANGELS
I am a sucker of impossible love stories like this. I’m sure you know where I’m coming from (I grew up feeling that I could never be loved in the same degree that I can love – of course, I found out I’m wrong). Not to mention the soundtrack of this movie is just over the top.
This movie is the reason why Googoodolls’ Iris became my favorite high school song. Even until now, it stands out and is in my playlist.
This movie is about an angel (Seth played by Nicolas Cage) who takes the souls of dying people, and in the process laid eyes on a beautiful doctor (Maggie, played by Meg Ryan) and then starts stalking her and they eventually fall in love with each other.
My memorable line? Oh dear, is when Seth (Nicolar Cage) said: “I would rather have had one breath of her hair, one kiss of her mouth, one touch of her hand, than eternity without it.”
And of course, my favorite scene was the heartbreaking accident. I could have blamed the pear forever. Imagine what length they had to go through to be together, and then that.
After killing his immortal self to finally be with Maggie, Seth finds himself confronted with the death of the love of his life. Ugh. No happy ending. But still easily one of my favorite films.
JERRY MAGUIRE
I like Tom Cruise, he is continually overdoing his previous movies.
This is a movie of a once-famous sports agent who told the truth about the business and everyone left him, except single mom Dorothy (played by Renee Zellwegger – my crush!), who became his assistant and eventually, his wife.
Along the way, they both realized that the reason they got married was because Jerry needed her. So they broke up and Jerry finds himself unhappy and incomplete even with the success that their company is already experiencing.
He storms in to Dorothy’s sister’s divorcee support group and gives out these lines (excerpt):
But it wasn’t complete, wasn’t nearly close to being in the same vicinity as complete, because I couldn’t share it with you. I couldn’t hear your voice or laugh about it with you. I miss my — I miss my wife.
And my favorite soundtrack is Bruce Springsteen’s Secret Garden. It is so romantic in a different way, you just got to listen to it yourself!
CHANCES ARE
I bet some of us do not know this movie, which was starred by Robert Downey Jr., the Iron Man himself.
It is a funny movie about a newly-wed couple, where the husband, on his way to their 1st anniversary dinner celebration, dies in an accident. Apparently, in heaven, they send the souls of people who died, back to earth to unborn babies and inject something that gives that soul a clean slate so it doesn’t remember anything about its past life.
However, in this case, the husband’s soul did not get the injection and was born as Alex Finch, played by Robert Downey, Jr. who met the husband and wife’s only daughter, Miranda (Mary Stuartmasterson) who then falls in love with him. That was mayhem!
So Alex’s reincarnated soul is still in love with his wife (Cybill Shepherd), while they daughter Miranda is in love with Alex.
I liked it because I wanted to believe in reincarnation, not knowing that in buddhism, reincarnation is a process of rebirth conditioned on karmas. I don’t want to mess with religion just because I wanted to be reborn as a man (that was before).
Guess what the soundtrack is! Of course it’s a Cher and Peter Cetera classic, “After All” (sing: After all the starts and stops, we keep coming back to these two hearts…)
SOMEWHERE IN TIME
Oh this one’s a classic. Superman star Christopher Reeve stars in this time-warping movie where the playwright Richard Collier hypnotized himself to go back to 1912 to find the love of his life.
Also a tragic movie (Oh, why am I drawn to them?) with a very soulful soundtrack.
This is Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. I know that’s like what? But I’m sure you’ve already heard it in the past.
Here’s a link to the YouTube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4E7XHOotTX0
PHANTOM OF THE OPERA The musical movie version starred Gerard Butler as the titular character, Emmy Rossum as Christine Daae and Patrick Wilson as Raoul.
I watched it like over 30 times now.
The heartbreak of the musical genius, the phantom, in the love he chose, Ms. Daae, a soprano in the theater, who is in love with Viscomte de Chagny.
The music, the architecture, the talent in this film would just want to make you watch it over and over.
My favorite song (well, it’s a musical, remember), is Angel of Music, where you’d see how much the Phantom loves Ms. Daae to the point of pretending to be her Angel of Music, as Raoul tries to dissuade Ms. Daae from consenting to a tour down below Phantom’s abode.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lG2zPKo9e4
His obsession drove him to hate himself more, which eventually destroyed him in the end.
Alright, so those movies comprise the first part of my all-time favorite films.
photos courtesy of: imdb.com
