Movies I will watch at the drop of a hat if I am able

This movie has so many subplots and story twists including so many different actors and directors playing actors and such witty dialogue that it is always a delight to watch it again. It is one of those movies that you can always see something different in it each time. That is the same with a number of movies in this list.

This is a whole lot like Into The Night but is less comedy and more drama and quirky characters.

This movie is in some of my other lists but it still belongs here in that I can make plans to watch it or DVR it whenever it comes on. Back when we only had the three networks and a couple of independent stations, it always seemed to come on around Thanksgiving for some reason and I would stay up late to watch it if I did not have to go to work the next day. So many people say MASH was the defining war movie with comedy during this time but to me, this one beats MASH.

This one speaks for itself in that it was a shot in the arm, no pun intended, for the western genre which had hit a slump at that time. It launched Clint Eastwood's movie career and rescued the career of Lee Van Cleef who was getting ready to withdraw from acting due to lack of interesting part. So glad it came along. Eli Wallach was actually more established in Western movies at this time than either of the others.

This was Clint Eastwood's last turn as The Man With No Name and it a fantastic one with heavy spiritual elements. No doubt that he owns this character. A sort of sequel to High Plains Drifter in that he was an avenging angel who appeared to bring justice that had not been served. A good part also for veteran actor John Russell (Lawman on TV) who showed he really could play a despicable villain. One rumor I heard was that Lee Van Cleef was wanted by that part and he could have done it well but somehow that did not happen. It was also nice to see Michael Moriarty do a western character. It was also an early part, he had no dialogue, of Billy Drago who has also made a career of playing quirky, despicable western villains.

There could not have been a better way for John Wayne to bring a grand finale for one of the most fantastic careers and a character that was hard to separate from The Duke himself. Clint Eastwood did almost the same thing with Grand Torino right down to a number of similarities in plot between the two movies. A lot of people wanted to get into this movie and John Wayne wanted a lot of his old friends in it with him. His health was declining and there was a feeling among a lot of his friends that this would be his last. Actually, I have read that he and Ron Howard planned to do a movie called Beau John set in the 1920's in Kentucky about a romance in a small town. The Duke went out as only The Duke's character would have wanted to go out, on his own terms.

No Christmas is complete without one of the versions of A Christmas Carol. I like about six different versions of it and each one is different than the other. Nothing more needs to be said.

This is a comic take on the Christmas Season when families gather to observe and celebrate the birth of Christ or family fellowship. A good family gets together and like every family, they all love each other in spite of their individual quirks and shot comings. Within the family Griswald and those related to them, everyone can see characters that remind them of people in their family and warmhearted memories that will be with them forever.

A fantastic changing of times western about the vanishing Old West and how the world as they knew it was rapidly changing and they were running out of places to hide and live what they regarded as living free. There are a number of westerns like this including The Shootist. This has some of the best dialogue and some of the best scenes of any western made. The ending left open the remote possibility that they may have escaped the shootout in Bolivia and returned home to live "under the radar". In the end, they were definitely through with Bolivia and looking for somewhere else to go. Also, they both missed Etta Place. What if they had gotten to come home or gone to Australia.

Tom Selleck showed here that he is truly one of the best western actors that we are blessed with today. In this one, he was able to mix some of the Magnum that we all love with that of the American cowboy in a foreign land and how he adapts to his situation and overcomes his challenges. Definitely one to stay up late and get out the popcorn and drink of your choice.

This is a taught thriller and a remake of a movie of the same name in 1976. I like them both. Both of them are good in their own way. A desperate situation when a police station is being closed and on the last nigh a skeleton crew in on hand. They are stuck with a high profile prisoner and others and are attacked by a group of crooked cops who will go down if this inmate talks. Things get more desperate by the minute and the sergeant in charge reluctantly arms the inmates because these cops don't intend to leave any witnesses. A fantastic job by Ethan Hawke as the Sergeant and Lawrence Fishburn as the hight profile prisoner the cops want to silence along with everyone in the station. A real nail biter.

I noted my critique of this movie in another list but this one speaks for itself. Some my dismiss it as an B movie from the 50's but it is one that I can always watch. It scared me pretty good when I saw it in about 1962 and it is one of the few movies that ever gave me a nightmare later. Bring on the popcorn.

This is a movie that I like to watch on New Year's eve or day. It is a very suspenseful movie that holds my attention very well and a lot of great actors giving an outstanding performance. A number of them are gone now but it still holds up well after 26 years. A job well done for everyone.

A worthy remake of the original that updated it and took the plot in a different direction. Adam Baldwin (not one of the four Baldwin Brothers) is the focus this time in part of Rogo who is an Air Marshall detailed to the Poseidon due to a terrorist threat. This is a four hour miniseries that holds it's own very well without detracting from the original.

This is the first time i saw a movie with Steve Austin and Vinnie Jones. They were among the first wrestlers to make the transition from the ring to the big screen and most of those who have done this have done well. This is another take on the classic Joel McRae movie "The Most Dangerous Game" which I read in English Lit in the 11th Grade and I have never forgotten it. I have watched every version of it that I can access. A nail biter that also shows the dark side of the obsession with reality shows.

This really captures the atmosphere and the mood of Eddie And The Cruisers. Of course, a big help to make that happen is Michael Pare' is in this one too and he plays a character like he did in Eddie. Not easy to find but it is worth watching or putting in on DVR,

This is one of those out of the box movies that I enjoy. It plays loose with history regarding the characters but after all, it's a movie!

Along with Abraham Lincoln, his secret service detail includes a man named Wilkerson who is really John Wilkes Booth who is already plotting his attack on Lincoln. The character of Mary Owen was a real person that Lincoln was engaged to before he met Mary Todd. Here is the kicker, others in the group include Stonewall Jackson who had lost his arm due to the wound that caused his death before Gettysburg, Pat Garrett, and Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt is presented as being about 10 years old when he was really about 5. Pat Garrett was really about 13 and never was in the Civil war. It is interesting to have characters who never met in real life and their interacting. One good movie.

This is one of my favorite Stephen King movies. It is one of his movies that I guess after he got more creative control over his material, he remade them to his liking. Certainly as a successful author he is entitled to do so but this is the first one and I like it better.

Jon Voight, Eric Roberts, and Rebecca De Mornay find themselves on a runaway train after the engineer has a fatal heart attack and falls out of the locomotive. I am not going to tell how they got on this runaway freight train or how they and the other characters handle this situation. If you like a movie that holds your attention from start to finish, this is one the check out.