To balance out yesterday’s post, here’s 7 movies for all the men

Since I went sappy yesterday with the “chick flick” thing, I figured I had better I get some manliness back in me. (Wow! That didn’t sound very good.)      

OK, that's better

  Like I said yesterday, I watch a lot of movies.  So even my man movies are in quite a few genres.   These are movies that I think every guy should see.  So let’s get on with the manliness.   

The Hunt For Red October   

Possible alternative: Red Dawn   

Harrison Ford may have been a better Jack Ryan, but none of the Tom Clancy movies come close to this one.  Red October is the best U.S. vs. the Russians movie ever. (Rocky IV doesn’t really count)    

Sean Connery is perfect as Captain Ramius, and who doesn’t love James Earl Jones in anything.  I read the book when I was 6th grade, and the movie was no letdown.  The Cold War may be over, but watching this makes me yearn for the good ol’ days of fearing the commies.  

Die Hard   

Possible alternatives: Lethal Weapon   

Die Hard is arguably the best action movie of all time.  And Alan Rickman as a villain is slightly better than his later role as the sheriff of Nottingham and only rivaled by Javier Bardem in No Country For Old Men.  And he wore $2,000 suits.  

   

Barefoot but not beaten, John McClain goes on to save Nakatomi Plaza and those in it to make it a merry Christmas for all.    

Clash of the Titans

 I’m still amazed at the number of people who give me a confused look when I ask them if they have seen this one.  It was one of my favorites as a child.  All I wanted for Christmas was my own mechanical owl built by the gods, as well as that sweet sword so I could slay giant scorpions.   

On a sour note, when I was looking for a video for this movie, I was inundated by stuff for an apparent remake coming out next year.  And it looks AWFUL.  Why do they feel the need to continue to completely destroy everything I loved when I was young.  Is there so little originality left in Hollywood that they have to remake classics with new “visions”?  It makes me want to puke.  They already ruined Dukes of Hazzard, Miami Vice, and Star Wars.  Now they’re going to ruin this movie next year along with the A-Team and Karate Kid?  Pathetic.   

Airplane!

 Possible alternatives: The Three Amigos, Spaceballs, Naked Gun   

No movie has delivered the amount of quotable quotes as the Jim Abrams and Zucker brothers masterpiece.  Even if you have never seen this movie, you know at least 3 lines from it.  I don’t even need to say anything about this one.  If you haven’t seen it, you must have been living in a cave.  Drop what you’re doing and go get it NOW.   

Heat

Possible alternatives: Casino, Goodfellas   

The reason Heat is higher than the alternatives is that it is really the only movie where Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino face off in the same scene.  You would think that somewhere in movie history this would have happened, but not until this movie.   

   

Throw in Val Kilmer and a the best cops vs. robber shootout ever, and you have yourself a classic.   

Hoosiers   

Possible alternative: Rudy   

This one was the toughest decision.  Rudy or Hoosiers?  Well, I went with Hoosiers because I like basketball better than football and Rudy doesn’t have Gene Hackman.  It’s the best Cinderella story since Cinderella.   

Also, Rudy was only on the practice squad.  In Hoosiers, Ollie was on the actual team!   

Army of Darkness   

This movie came out during my senior year in high school.  (I know, I’m old) It has a perfect blend of bad acting, cheap effects, and Bruce Davidson.  And would you believe it was written and directed by Sam Raimi? (H did all the Spiderman movies)  There’s some pretty awesomely cheesy quotes from this one too.  And nothing beats the main character battling a bunch of semi-horribly puppeted skeletons.   

Update:  OK, YouTube is starting to annoy me.  This is two days in a row, and this is the only clip I could find with the skeleton fight scene.  Just click on it and watch it.  It is AWESOME.