Five of my Favorite Movies

I'm an avid movie watcher and these are five of the movies that I've come to love throughout my years, even though I'm still young. They aren't in any particular order as I haven't really figured out which movie is my all-time favorite but they are definitely five of the movies that are in the top ten that I've ever seen.

Always a fan of Russell Crowe, I first saw Gladiator near after it came out and my parents bought it on VHS. I was too young to realize what was happening or to fully understand everything that was going on and the historical connection of the movie but I still enjoyed it.

It was until this year when I chose to take a Roman Republic & Empire class in my first semester of college. I had a great teacher and I really enjoyed the class as all of the subject matter was interesting. The things we were covering eventually lead up to that which takes place in Gladiator and I watched the movie, fully understood the concept and enjoyed it even more. The story in the movie is actually a spin-off of Marcus Aurelius and how he was betrayed by his son Commodus but is then avenged by the rising General-gone-Gladiator Maximus (Crowe) who was enslaved and rose up to defeat and kill Commodus to give Rome back to the people and fulfill the dream of Marcus Aurelius, the true emperor.

I grew up watching the great Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien. I had always liked the storyline especially once it became a feature film with the likes of Elijah Wood, Orlando Bloom etc.

The first two movies were great: The Fellowship of the Ring, and The Two Towers. The book really took form as it was made into a movie and the actors played there rolls great. I was really excited for the release of the third and final movie, The Return of the King and once it came out I saw it twice in theatres only to wait for it to be released on dvd. I got the extended version on dvd once it came out and continued to enjoy the action-packed and emotional movie as I still watch it to this day.

Coming out only a little over a year ago I first saw commercials for the film on TV and didn't really understand the concept or knew what it was going to be about. I ended up seeing it in theatres on the IMAX screen and it was such an amazing movie that I knew I was going to see it again.

The great thriller starring Leonardo Dicaprio, presents a story about a machine that gives you the ability to "Dream Share" and enter each others dreams. This leads to extortion where people are hired to enter peoples minds and take things from them. The advent of Inception was Hobbs (Dicaprio) finding the ability to enter peoples mind and plant an idea in their brain to change their actions and everything about them. I won't tell you much more but it's a suspenseful story where Hobbs and his team are willing to do anything they can to achieve their task.

Another less-recent movie that came out in 2001, directed by Ridley Scott (also did Gladiator). I first saw this movie a long time ago, probably a couple years after it came out as one of my sisters had received it on dvd and I again did not really fully understand the concept of the movie. I just recently watched it in the last year and it became one of my favorite movies.

Black Hawk Down, starring Josh Hartnett, is an action-packed thriller and a true story of the Army Rangers that entered Somalia in a near-disastrous mission. A mission to extract prisoner in the capital city of Mogadishu ended up in several Black Hawk helicopters being shot down in the middle of the city streets. The phrase beheld by the Army "No one gets left behind" was throughout the movie as all the rangers were to be taken from the site no matter what which leads to an exceptional story of the love and brotherhood of these fellow rangers.

The fact that I am a huge Philadelphia Eagles fan played a large part in this movie when I saw it for the first time but it wasn't everything as I fell in love with the emotional and inspirational aspects of the story.

This is one of my favorite movies because of how well the story of Vince Papali was depicted and how it feels like all of that is exactly what happened. Invincible follows the true story of Papali (Mark Wahlberg), a 30-yr old bartender in Philadelphia that also had a love for the sport of football but never played college ball and he goes out an open tryout that the Eagles hold after a terrible start to the 1976 season. Papali shows his drive and determination, makes the rounds of cuts, and after a shaky start becomes a great player and has a huge impact for the Eagles and first-year head coach Dick Vermeil that season.