Top Ten Movies

…that I can remember!

Meloinks, who is hosting The Blog Rounds January 2009 edition, promised that it won’t be a case of “tell me your top ten movies and I’ll tell you who you are” and Gaya suggested that it might be a case of “tell me your top ten movies and I will tell you your age.” Perhaps this list, in the order of which came to mind first, will be something of both. ;p


1. 100 is an independent film that I very highly recommend. Here’s an extensive review I wrote some months back. Similar to the Bucket List, but this one is very Filipino.

2. Air Force One with Harrison Ford. Action. Adventure. Suspense.

3. Hunt for Red October starring Sean Connery. Action. Adventure. Suspense.

4. Coma is an ancient movie which none of my students have seen but I keep using this as an example of how the noble practice of medicine can be corrupted by the lust for fame and money.

5. Anak starring Vilma Santos. I cry every time I watch this movie.

6. Mano Po (number something) is another superb Vilma Santos starrer. Beautiful memories. I watched this movie with my high school classmates, just a few years ago, during one of our reunions. We were all girls in a long row in the movie house and during an intense emotional moment in the movie, a male classmate called his wife, who was with us, to ask where we were, what were we doing, etc. His wife hissed into the phone, “Will you please stop disturbing us as we are currently crying in the middle of a movie!” Oh, how we laughed and cried all at the same time.

7. Movies I watched as a child with my cousins and siblings. Every Christmas my big family would have a Christmas program and for each song or poem or dance rendered, we would get a gift (candy, handkerchief, plastic toy, etc.) or cash (5 pesos was rich). After the program, we kids would count our ‘earnings’ and always there was enough to go watch a movie downtown.

Mindful to scrimp if we wanted to have popcorn and soda with the movie, I, as the mastermind of adventures, would lead my many cousins and siblings down the road as we walked to Park Theater or to Main Theater, and make sure that everyone was accounted for and seated in one long row at the movie house. Today, my cousins, siblings and I are all grown and we all share fond memories of those movie treks.

8. Pirates of the Caribbean was the first movie I saw on a wide screen TV, in my cousin Albert’s house. I watched the movie over and over again. The wide screen was fascinating. And so were Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom.

9. A Few Good Men, Top Gun. Tom Cruise was there. Reason enough?

10. Movies I watched in college. Weekends were so mingaw in campus. All our classmates were not around and our dorms were very quiet because those who had relatives in Metro Manila would be with their relatives and those of us who were promdi would be left by our lonesome selves at the dorm.

Our kuyas, who were studying law, would herd us undergrads and bring us to Ali Mall in Cubao or to Circle Theater in Delta. We would pile at the back of the bus and talk in Visayan or in English (easier to us than Tagalog) in loud voices, just like the hillbillies that we were. I don’t remember the titles of the movies that we watched, only the wonderful memories of being with friends in an otherwise strange place.