As a movie fan, and a guy who does a comic strip revolved around movies, I frequently ask people, \u201cWhat\u2019s your favorite movie?\u201d It usually tells me a lot about that person and helps me get to know them better.\u00a0 Unfortunately, I\u2019ve found that there are too many qualifications revolved around this question, and I end up having to explain my own favorite movie to people.<\/p>\n
It seems, when you ask someone what their favorite movie is, that person is almost never on the same wavelength as you.\u00a0 Unless people have had a movie that completely wowed them or spoke to them, they don\u2019t have an outright favorite and probably haven\u2019t systematically ranked all the movies they have ever seen in their lives, much less set up an excel spreadsheet to rank them like some<\/em> people I know.<\/p>\n Because most people are put on the spot by this question of a favorite movie, they then have to come up with a good answer.\u00a0 And watching someone come up with an answer on the spot is usually about as impressive as someone telling you about the dream they had the night before. Once they start to see that you don\u2019t care, they try even harder to make it sound more appealing, and you usually end up with an awkward situation for all parties.<\/p>\n Here are a few of the situations that come about when a person is confronted with the question, \u201cWhat\u2019s your favorite movie?\u201d<\/p>\n 1) They try to think of the last good movie they saw.<\/strong> This is usually the answer reserved for relatives older than you who never go to the movies, or your friends who can\u2019t remember the names of movies or actors.\u00a0 You get a lot of, \u201cThat one that came out last summer with the guy who used to date that singer\u201d type of answers.\u00a0 This response usually tells me that they don\u2019t know much about movies, and I was better off not asking the question in the first place.\u00a0 Even if they do know the title of a recent movie they liked, I sometimes think there should be a six to nine month waiting period, and at the very least a second viewing, for a movie to become your favorite. This type of thinking is also the reason why movies like The Dark Knight<\/span> sit atop the IMDb Top 250 the first few weeks it comes out before people have time to sit back and realize where it really sits in their personal rankings.<\/p>\n 2)\u00a0They come up with a really lame movie.<\/strong> This is usually the answer you get from people who haven\u2019t yet graduated high school and people who have graduated from high school who act like they haven\u2019t.\u00a0 A few years back, my friend\u2019s four-year-old niece looked us dead in the eye with all seriousness and said, \u201cYou should see The Pacifier<\/span>.\u00a0 It\u2019s really good.\u201d I can\u2019t blame her because she was a little kid and that movie was targeted to her, but it\u2019s times like that where I\u2019m reminded why a studio can spend millions of dollars to make a lame movie.<\/p>\n Another time, and I will never forget this, I was staying at a lake house with some friends one weekend in college. My friend brought a girl he was seeing at the time, and I asked this new lady-friend what was her favorite movie. She seriously told me, \u201cThe Thomas Crown Affair<\/span>.\u201d\u00a0 Taken aback, I asked her if she meant the original one.\u00a0 No, she meant the 1999 remake with Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo.\u00a0 And she gave no reason as to why she liked it.\u00a0 I mean, the beginning and ending scenes were all right, but how can you go around telling people that The Thomas Crown Affair<\/span> is your favorite movie of all time without some backup reasoning?<\/p>\n 3)\u00a0They give you one of the all-time greats.<\/strong> This is usually the answer you get from someone who has looked at the IMDb Top 250 Movies of all Time, or a surprise answer from your parents.\u00a0 It\u2019s almost too easy these days to claim The Shawshank Redemption<\/span>, The Godfather<\/span>, or The Usual Suspects<\/span> as your favorite movie.\u00a0 While these are<\/em> all-time greats, I usually look at these answers as showing a lack of effort unless it is accompanied by a good, personal explanation.\u00a0 As far as the surprising parent answers, my dad is the one who introduced me to The Godfather<\/span> and The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly<\/span>, and I love that my mom is a fan of John Wayne movies.\u00a0 Sometimes your parents know what they\u2019re talking about kids.<\/p>\n 4)\u00a0They answer with a movie choice that you respect.<\/strong> This is the answer I get from more people than I let on.\u00a0 I actually respect a lot of people\u2019s favorite movies so long as they have a solid reason.\u00a0 A friend of mine once told me her favorite movie was Love Actually<\/span> because it made her feel like love did actually exist, while in the real world, we are let down so many times by other people.\u00a0 Now that\u2019s<\/em> a favorite movie.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t matter how artistic it is, how entertaining it is, or how many awards it\u2019s won.\u00a0 If it invokes deep-down feelings when you watch it, that\u2019s what makes it your favorite.<\/p>\n So what\u2019s my answer to this question?\u00a0 Well, I have a straight answer but I usually cheat because I give people my three favorite movies.\u00a0 They are Adaptation<\/span>, Shakespeare In Love<\/span>, and The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou<\/span>.\u00a0 These movies are favorites for me because while they are different stories, they all have main characters who continuously strive to be better people despite numerous setbacks.\u00a0 Also, they all have some humor, and they deal with the creative minds of a screenwriter, a playwright, and an explorer\/documentary filmmaker.\u00a0 As a creative person who is striving for great things, these movies definitely speak to me.\u00a0 But when push comes to shove, I usually say The Life Aquatic is my favorite movie, even though I know for a fact that Wes Anderson\u2019s movies invoke a love it or hate it response.\u00a0 At least I told you something unique, and I had a reason for why it is special to me.<\/p>\n So maybe next time you\u2019ll think twice about your favorite movie when confronted with this question.\u00a0 The person who asks may be judging you by your taste in movies, and I don\u2019t know about you, but I\u2019d want to fall in the fourth category when I answer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As a movie fan, and a guy who does a comic strip revolved around movies, I frequently ask people, \u201cWhat\u2019s your favorite movie?\u201d It usually tells me a lot about that person and helps me get to know them better.\u00a0[…]↓ Read the rest of this 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