I enjoy watching the latest movies as much as anyone, but there are times when I just need to watch what I think of as a sure thing. A sure thing is the movie equivalent of comfort food — that is, a movie guaranteed to either match my current mood or provide just the right emotional payoff that I crave.
It should be no surprise that these are movies I’ve watched many times over. Some I’ve watched so often that I can quote long stretches of dialogue by heart. They aren’t necessarily movies that are critically acclaimed — in fact, I’m sure there are some on my list that other people might think are downright stinkers — but that doesn’t matter. What matters is what they convey to me.
They aren’t interchangeable; one isn’t as good as another in all instances. For example, when I’m feeling hemmed in by life and need to daydream about the possibility of a complete change, I might watch American Dreamer or Under the Tuscan Sun or Last Holiday. When I’m sick, I tend to watch really old movies — especially Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers movies or The Thin Man. If I’m in desperate need of a good laugh, Big Trouble in Little China, North to Alaska, and The Hallelujah Trail never let me down. And when I want my heartstrings tugged, I might turn to Apollo 13, Gettysburg or Secretariat.
My list of sure things won’t be the same as your list. And that’s as it should be. You have to have a personal connection to a movie — it has to touch you in some way — for it to qualify.
So, how about it? What movies do you count as your sure things?
My Top 20 Sure Things
- Sneakers (1992)
“We got bupkis! We turn ourselves in now, they’ll give us twenty years in the electric chair!” - American Dreamer (1984)
“The important thing, kid, is that you’re doing something you like to do.” - Big Trouble in Little China (1986)
“Son of a bitch must pay.” - The Hunt for Red October (1990)
“The hard part about playing chicken is knowin’ when to flinch.” - Under the Tuscan Sun (2003)
“Any arbitrary turning along the way and I would be elsewhere; I would be different.” - The Thin Man (1934)
“The important thing is the rhythm. Always have rhythm in your shaking. Now a Manhattan you shake to fox-trot time, a Bronx to two-step time, a dry martini you always shake to waltz time.” - Apollo 13 (1995)
“So long, Earth. Catch you on the flip side.” - Live Free or Die Hard (aka Die Hard 4) (2007)
“You just killed a helicopter with a car!”
“I was out of bullets.” - Gettysburg (1993)
“To be a good soldier you must love the army. To be a good commander you must be able to order the death of the thing you love.” - That’s Entertainment! (1974)
“Thank God for film. It can capture a performance and hold it right there forever.” - High Road to China (1983)
“The ox is slow, but the earth is patient.” - Twister (1996)
“The Suck Zone. It’s the point basically when the twister… sucks you up. That’s not the technical term for it, obviously.” - Secretariat (2010)
“He leans back against the starting gate like he’s in a hammock in the Caribbean…” - North to Alaska (1960)
“You’re a pig-headed no-good and you always were.” - The Hallelujah Trail (1965)
“If it’s the last thing I do, I’ll have that entire band transferred to Alaska!” - National Treasure (2004)
“Who wants to go down the creepy tunnel inside the tomb first?” - Independence Day (1996)
“I picked a hell of a day to quit drinkin’.” - Last Holiday (2006)
“Next time… we will laugh more, we’ll love more; we just won’t be so afraid.” - Shall We Dance (1937), but also Top Hat (1935), Swing Time (1936), and any of the other Astaire/Rogers films
“Well, to tell the truth, I don’t know you well enough to tell you the truth.” - Monty Python and the Meaning of Life (1983)
“You are all dead. I am Death.”
“Well, that’s cast rather a gloom over the evening, hasn’t it?”
