My top 10 most influential films...Part Two

Maybe it's the new year...or maybe it's because I'm finally sitting on my ass more...but I've been watching a bunch of WatchMojo.com's Top 10 lists on YouTube. Some of them are pretty good, others just bulls**t, but it got me thinking of movies that had an impact on me in my youth. This list is the result. I'd love to say that the rankings matter, but with the exception of the top three they really don't.

My criteria: the films in this list were seen by me in my youth (which I'm ending in 1989 - the year I graduated high school and went off to college), but not necessarily in the theater. So it includes anything available on VHS at the time. Also - these are movies that affected me the most while growing up, meaning they are not genre-specific

If you're sick of lists like these, stop now or forever hold your peace.

Spoilers ahead. You've been warned...

5) 

There are a bunch of movies about the "college experience" that I love. PCU, and With Honors came out later...Back to School, Real Genius, and Revenge of the Nerds I saw when they came out. But they all stem from this masterpiece - my first.
I was 6 when Animal House came out. My father rented it (along with many R-rated films) when we got our first VCR. We usually sat around the living room after dinner and watched one or two movies until bed. This is how I first saw such classics as Blade Runner, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Timerider, and Caddyshack. For movies like this one, my parents' solution to the "R-rated problem" was for my sister and I to cover our eyes.

Yeeeeah...

So I missed the boobie-bits, and a lot of the humor went over my head. Until Channel 20 (which I've mentioned before) aired it...UNcensored. I recorded it, and watched the hell out of it. I mean yeah...boobies...but as I grew up and entered high school I caught a lot more of the humor. Two words: 

John. Belushi.

This was the first movie to make me want to go to college. Yeah, the reality was far removed from the films, but the "having-fun-away-from-home-and-parents" thing was so appealing. Especially during my time trapped in high school. 

4)

A bunch of John Hughes' films could have made this list. Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Uncle Buck, Sixteen Candles, Weird Science...and those are just the ones he directed. The Breakfast Club came out when I was 13. Never saw it in the theater. When I finally did see it, I was 16...a junior. This film hit me in every way possible, revealing high school for the cruel joke it truly is. As for the characters, I never saw myself as one of the guys, I saw myself as each of them. Regarding the ladies...

...I crushed on Ally Sheedy's character. Hard. 

Yeah, she's cute at the end...

...but...damn.

3) 

I was just about to turn 7 when my mother took me to see this film. Simply put, I believed a man could fly. I honestly can't say if this film started my obsession with comics, but it did get me into the Super-Friends cartoon...which then led me into comics. The success of this film makes me wonder, to this day, why Warner Brothers didn't do more than just the sequels. Batman. Wonder Woman. Green Lantern. Green Arrow. Flash. They all could have benefited from this film. But nah...I'd have to wait another 30+ years.

2) 

An argument could be made about Empire being the better film, but I've always considered sequels (even better ones) as results of the originals. If not for One, Two would not be. It's that simple. We all know this film came out in the summer of 1977 (roughly a year and a half before Superman: The Movie - talk about epic picture following epic picture). I was 5. This film had a profound affect on me. Yes, the characters were awesome. The music unforgettable. The special effects groundbreaking. And the TOYS! But that's not the biggest thing:

My father and I saw this film - together - five times. Before it came out on video. In four different theaters and a drive-in. 

This is the only movie the two of us have seen that many times. We've seen it repeatedly since then on his VCR, but we've seen several films in that manner. We bonded over this film...and later football...but this came first. 

1) 

I've been a fan of Michael J. Fox since Family Ties. So when BttF came out in 1985, of course I had to see it. I was 13 and looking forward to my freshman year in high school. After I walked out of the theater my life changed completely. I changed my clothes, my attitude and my outlook on life. The first soundtrack I ever bought was of this film (cassette, which I played on my Walkman). I wanted a guitar, a DeLorean, and a Flex Capacitor. I knew I couldn't be Marty, I just wanted to be the most Marty-esque I could be. The sequels were good, but again - they exist because of this one. 

I love this film.