Rob Lifford

Bunker obliged me with the musical baton meme I passed him recently, and now he’s hit me back with a movie chain. Fair enough!

Total number of films I own on DVD/video:

Less than 20, all of them gifts or hand-me-downs. Never been big on owning films.

The last film I bought:

See above. I have actually never bought a movie, as far as I can recall. Odd.

The last film(s) I watched:

• At home (last night): Ocean’s Eleven (2001). We caught the original 1960 Rat Pack version a few weeks ago and had to compare. (Both had major flaws; both were pretty fun anyway.)
• At a theater (last weekend): Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Five Seven films I watch a lot, or that mean a lot to me (no particular order):

• Bob Roberts. Introducing the rebel conservative.
• The Hudsucker Proxy. Another Tim Robbins starring role, but it’s really the Coen brothers who get most of the credit for this one. I could put almost any of their films on the list, but this one still jumps to mind first.
• Magnolia. If aliens came to earth and asked, “what kinds of personal problems do humans have?” I’d show ’em this. This movie taught me to really, really respect acting.
• Short Cuts. It’s just not fair to rave about Magnolia without mentioning this one.
• Blazing Saddles. Still just plain wet-your-pants funny.
• I can’t make a list like this without any action movies… and although I’m definitely a Star Wars generation kid, I always think of Raiders of the Lost Ark when someone asks me about my favorite action/adventure flicks. I would love to see this get a full theatrical re-release for its 25th anniversary next year.
• I also can’t make a list like this without any Hitchcock movies: Vertigo is a particular favorite.

SO hard to not just keep listing great movies… Someday I’ll have to do a series of top-5 lists by genre, I guess.

I don’t want to bug the same five people as last time, and can’t stay awake thinking of who to hit next right now, so I’ll break the chain here.