My 21st to 23rd Favorite Motion Pictures

23. Best in Show (2000)
I wasn’t too keen on seeing this picture. After viewing Christopher Guest’s earlier mockumentary – the overly-hyped This is Spiňal Tap – I was afraid this would not be that great either. Well, I was wrong. Guest and his troupe have all the elements of both halves of the contraction “mockumentary” down pat: the film looks and feels as if it’s a documentary, but the people are not real – they are actors. And those actors flawlessly capture all the little eccentricities of dog owners. This is probably one of the biggest crowd-pleasers on this list; when I’ve shown this list to friends, this is one of two films that they all agree should be on their lists, too.
Why not rank it higher? Sometimes the laughs are a bit awkward – I’m not sure if I’m supposed to laugh or feel sorry for the characters. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing (it shows the actors are convincing), but it does detract from the comedic element.

22. Star Trek (series) (1979 – 2002)
Okay, I’m throwing this whole series together as one entry – all ten motion pictures. It’s a mixed bag, really, but they do flow together quite well from one to the next. When this series is good, it is awesome. The action, dialogue and story-lines are exciting, witty and clever, respectively. Humor and pathos – all whilst saving the universe. If you love the television series (and I do love the television series), you’ll love these movies as they further the stories of the characters, and wrap up the loosed ends left by the TV episodes.
Why not rank it higher? Did I mention it’s a mixed bag? Part one is dreadfully slow, part five is simply an exercise in Shatner’s ego, and while the first seven enhance the TV series from which they are gleaned, the more recent three only detract from what was a perfect story arc in The Next Generation. Also, it’s tough to rate this series of movies without referencing the TV shows. As such, it seems unfair to rank this any higher, as the movies themselves are not as great without first having watched the TV shows from whence they were gleaned.

21. Back to the Future (1985)
Here we have the perfect plot. So many loose ends are left hanging, you wonder how they will all fit together. But in this sci-fi/comedy they do, well, perfectly. Watch closely; everything that happens in the first 20 minutes comes back around at the end. But even on a simpler level, this fast-paced picture is pure cinematic enjoyment. Yes, there are two other movies in the Back to the Future Trilogy, but we’re gonna pretend they don’t exist. I would easily put this motion picture in my top ten, except…
Why not rank it higher? There’s a whole ten minute segment – from the time Marty McFly is freed from the trunk of a car, until he arrives back downtown with Dr. Brown – that is just plain poor story-telling. It’s gratuitous and ignores temporal causality (an area at which this movie normally excels) for the sake of a few laughs. Worse, this portion of the movie throws in unnecessary mini-stories wherein George McFly inexplicably decides not to stand up for the girl he just stood up for while we watch Marty quickly ‘fading’ from life in nonconformance to his sibling’s prior, slower fades. And why does Lorraine suddenly ask if she’ll ever see Marty again? Why would she think that she wouldn’t? Nevermind, it’s just thrown in there for a (failed) attempt at a laugh.