Phil Miller wants me to blog about movies, forwarding a meme started I believe by Tyler Cowen. I should ignore him because he spells my name worse than KAR, but what the heck? It sounds like fun. I'm qualifying this list by movies I saw in first run, not ones I found later on scavenging NetFlix. Thus no Casablancas or Gone with the Winds. The only one I might violate the rule for is The Fountainhead. This list is chronological as well because I'm thinking which movies I like best at various stages of my life.

Battle of Britain (1969) -- imagine going to this movie in a big theater in the middle of the afternoon with your best friend the fellow war geek. It was the first favorite (beating out Green Berets, largely because my dad took my brother with us and he was scared to death and ruined it). My grandfather slept in the pickup and waited for us.

Patton (1970) -- early on, I'm heavy into war movies. Unlike the other, this one has staying power. If it's on, I'm not moving until the jeep crashes.

The Groove Tube (1975) -- inexplicably, I take a girl out on our second date to this movie. I had never laughed so hard at a movie before. There was no third date, and I didn't care. I know this movie will be on nobody's list. I enter college this year.

Wizards (1977) -- not that LoTR wasn't good too, but this is the best Bakshi for my money. Stays with me longer than anyting Fritz Lang or Terry Gilliam did (though, see below).

Apocalypse Now (1979) -- last great war movie I saw until Saving Private Ryan which doesn't make this list because for some reason I never saw it in a theater. I also liked Gallipoli, but it's not in this class.

Brazil (1985) -- best. dark. comedy. ever. The hole in this list is graduate school and my first marriage.

Tucker (1988) -- a much better film than ever given credit for. I go back and forth between this and The Hudsucker Proxy, but I think this one's better. Both of them are great, underappreciated films by great directors.

Other People's Money (1991) -- I'm sure I've blogged about this movie before. Where have you gone, Penelope? I still use in class the scene from this stockholder meeting, rather than the one in Greed.

Kolya (1996) -- I cannot tell you how much I love this movie. Prague, music, the Velvet Revolution, the apartment and the despair. Best Czech movie ever, with Divided We Fall a distant second. A good friend of mine with whom I can talk an hour about baseball began lunch one day saying he saw this, and we never got to baseball.

Life is Beautiful (1997) -- movie is beautiful.

Enemy of the State (1998) -- a more frigtening movie that that A. Something Shamalamadingdongdude ever made. Whatever happened to Tony Scott?

The Big Lebowski (1998) -- came out while I was in Indonesia one summer and I bought a copy on the street. Must have watched it 20 times in three weeks.

The Three Seasons (1999) -- the one movie on this list you've likely not even heard of. Vietnamese film, beautifully filmed, and you can even get yourself to like Harvey Keitel. There aren't many movies like that, now are there?

Billy Elliott (2000) -- every teen can see himself in Billy, and no teen would want to admit it. Got a teen? Pop this in.

Snatch (2000) -- I have no idea why I like this movie; I want to smack Brad Pitt out of that accent. But this is a great movie. Every good role actor seems to be in it.

Lagaan (2001) -- a Bollywood musical, three hours long, about cricket and unfair taxation. Think "Seven Brides for Seven Tax Collectors." OK, don't. Just watch it. There's even an intermission.

Ararat (2002) -- I'm not sure this is my favorite Egoyan film, but it's the best and most meaningful. (The closest thing to it for relating to my heritage is Elia Kazan's America, America.) I'm awfully fond of Calendar as well, but this blows that out of the water.

Sideways (2004) -- OK, so shoot me, but I identify with Paul Giamatti. Except I still drink merlot.

I've decided tagging is the blog answer to chain letters, so readers can decide if they want to pick this up for themselves.