Friday Night Movies

Friday is typically the day we review books and movies in our collection at Mantor. As I was surveying the recently added titles, trying to decide which one to review, I was having a really difficult time deciding which to go for. And then it hit me--why pick one? Why not give a brief rundown of some great films you could checkout and watch tonight? The past few years, we've really been trying hard to expand our film collection, cramming it full of quality cinema. I feel like we've done a pretty darn good job with that. (Of course, I selected most of the movies myself, so I'm admittedly a tad biased.) Practically any movie we have is a classic in one way or another. Most of them are older movies, many of which you might pass over because you weren't inundated with ads telling you to see them. Well, I'm here to tell you to go back and watch some of these gems.

To make things more interesting, I'll present it as a challenge. The following are movies I have seen that are included in this month's new acquisitions list. How many have you seen? Can anyone tie me? Or better yet--can anyone go on the list and beat my number? Here we go:

Adam's Rib--classic Spencer Tracy and Audrey Hepburn film

Airplane--one of the prime screwball spoof comedies from the 70s

An American in Paris--famous Gene Kelly musical

The Birds--Classic Hitchcock

Born Yesterday--One of my favorite overlooked classics. Hilarious.

Braveheart--Remember when Mel Gibson wasn't a raving lunatic? No? Well, there was a time the man was known for film making, not insanity. Braveheart won him some major Oscars.

Chicago--Recent musical that helped put "musical" back in modern film making vocabularies.

Ghost--Never has making a pot seemed so sexy.

Raiders of the Lost Ark--Please tell me you've all seen this movie. Pretty please.

JFK--You can learn some pseudo-history, become a conspiracy theorist, and be entertained. All at the same time.

Kolya--Foreign films more your flavor? This Czech one's a goodie.

Million Dollar Baby--Who knew Clint Eastwood had such a great women's boxing movie inside him all those years he was Dirty Harry?

Moonstruck--Cher and Nicholas Cage, a realistic pair?

Papillon--Dustin Hoffman and Steve McQueen hellish prison goodness.

Pretty Woman--Julia Roberts is the only actress who could somehow create a reputation of wholesome goodness by breaking into the industry playing a hooker.

Rebecca--More Hitchcock goodness, just with less poultry.

Shakespeare in Love--The fictional true story of where Shakespeare got all his great ideas.

And there you have it--all the films I have seen of the ones we just added. I recommend any one of those. They're all great, in their own way. Sound like a lot to you? Maybe it does--until you consider we added 70 films. If any of you have seen all 70, I will buy you an imaginary pony. So don't anybody complain to me that they don't have anything to do tonight, or that nothing's on TV. Mantor's got you covered.

How many have you seen? Why not add one more to the list this weekend?