Movies You Should See, Part 5

(Part 5 of 5, in alphabetical order)

The Shawshank Redemption - Prison movies rarely make you think about prison. We've seen the fights and the rapes, and that somehow never really gives us the impression of why, at a very base level, being locked in a room is a punishment. Shawshank has to make us see all that because it's the only way we can truly appreciate it when Andy escapes. Yes, whatever, SPOILER. Knowing the ending is far from the be-all, end-all of this movie. It's the how; it's the why. It's how you feel for the other characters once he's gone. Thank you, TNT, for making me watch this movie over and over again.

Sherlock Jr. / The Goat - Neither of these are full-length movies, so I'll combine them. The big message here is WATCH BUSTER KEATON. I think a lot of people are turned off by silent films, mostly because Charlie Chaplin is annoying as fuck. Keaton IS NOT CHAPLIN. They're as different as football and ice dancing. Keaton is the finest physical comedian in movie history, and he was able to do it without pansy lawyers telling him he had to be safe. In “Sherlock Jr." he breaks his neck (like in real life, his neck broke), stands up, and runs away from the camera, never breaking character. The premises are always brilliant, but every Keaton movie is just Buster vs. ridiculousness, and he beats away the absurdity with physicality no human should be capable of achieving.

Sneakers - Robert Redford, Sidney Poitier, Ben Kingsley, River Phoenix, Mary McDonnell, David Strathairn, Dan Aykroyd, Timothy Busfield, Stephen Tobolowsky, Donal Logue, Lee Garlington, and James Earl Jones. Oh yeah, also the last great post Cold War spy thriller. It's intense, twisting, and hilarious. It may take multiple viewings to totally figure out what's going on, but it's worth every re-watch.

Terminator 2 - Purists will get pissed when I say this, but T2 makes T1 feel like just a prequel. T1 is a straight-forward action film about escaping a killer robot from the future. T2 takes that premise and, like Empire Strikes Back, builds out the world of the future. Bringing back Arnold as a good terminator was a stroke of genius, and creating the father/son bond between him and the young John Connor was a take on robots we've never seen before. Unfortunately, the crazy success of this one-time most expensive film ever made gave James Cameron the balls to give us Titanic and Avatar, both of which I could have done without seeing.

When Harry Met Sally - Oh, the periods of my life this movie ruined. Do me a favor, watch this movie, but keep it away from impressionable boys between the ages of 14 and 22. The Friend Zone is a thing to be guarded carefully, and its boundaries must be clearly defined. Watch, enjoy, and love this movie, just make sure you realize that in real life, this friendship would have simply ended.