The French Connection is a cop film that, for so much of its runtime, is less focused on the action-packed car chases and shoot-outs the subgenre is known for and more on the meticulous investigating and stakeouts.

Con-air is two hours of pure, unbridled cinematic testosterone. Every aspect of the film gives off an enjoyably pure masculine feeling—the over-the-top explosions, the macho muscly actors, ridiculous one-liners, and a score abundant with ultra-badass guitar riffs. It's a feeling that many action films of its era gave off. But unlike those films, Con-Air seems self-aware of its cheezy, overtly macho tone.

There's a uniquely casual and chill atmosphere to Bullitt throughout most of its runtime. Though the film revolves around a high-stakes mystery, it never treats its story with that high of stakes.

With how overly cynical and self-aware modern superhero movies and I.P. blockbusters have become, Sam Rami's original 2002 Spider-Man feels refreshingly honest and sincere. The film takes its identity as a goofy, over-the-top superhero movie and rolls with it. There's little hint of overt self-awareness. The film knows what it is and commits to it.

Moonstruck is a movie of such lovely normalcy. It's a film about ordinary people who experience moments of love and affection that it approaches so standardly. It doesn't play up its story for overt melodrama. Instead, it approaches its story as an assortment of standard day-to-day situations of regular people falling in love and experiencing the messiness of life.

The true story of the Apollo 13 lunar mission was already abundant with drama and tension. So, all Ron Howard and screenwriters William Broyles Jr and Al Reinert had to do was put the pieces together piece by piece, providing moment after moment of things going wrong for these characters to sell the tension of this story.

My Cousin Vinny is the mainstream Hollywood comedy you don't see often. It's a comedy that's as much character-focused as it is gag-focused.

I found myself much more moved by Gone with the Wind than I expected going into the film, given its age and daunting runtime. It's a story that feels like the rise and fall of a romance spanning decades.

For most of its runtime, Mandy moves at a drifting, dreamlike pace. Scenes move at an intentionally slow pace, all captured with a psychedelic aesthetic that pushes the viewer into an almost hypnotic state.

Unforgiven is the rare revisionist Western that doesn't completely try to subvert the genre. Its story plays to the tropes and cliches typical for the genre, centering around a protagonist with a violent past on a quest for retribution who goes up against a corrupt sheriff of a small Western town. By and large, the story has the makings of your standard Western narrative.

Vanilla Sky equally worked for me emotionally as it did on a narrative level.

When Robert Zemeckis is at his best, he can be one of the most sincere filmmakers working with ridiculous concepts. Who Framed Roger Rabbit features literal cartoon characters, and while there are plenty of cartoonish antics throughout, the film plays the story entirely sincerely.

Sometimes, all it takes to make a movie genuinely fun and entertaining is a brisk 97-minute runtime and a leading duo with charisma and great chemistry. Rush Hour contains both of these things.

Ben-Hur is a classic Hollywood Epic through and through. For most of the film, I was simply in awe of the scale of the film. The massive sets filled with thousands of extras, meticulously designed period-accurate costumes, ultra-wide close-ups, and sweeping camerawork make for the pinnacle of classic Hollywood Epic filmmaking.

High and Low is a film that brilliantly and skillfully shifts genres with every one of its three acts.

Mary Poppins is one of Disney's most charming and whimsical live-action films. It's an incredibly imaginative film, with endearing characters and a story that feels consistently playful throughout every minute of its runtime.

No film has worn its heart on its sleeve more unabashedly than The Shawshank Redemption. Despite its prison setting, the film feels inspiring and hopeful through its story of hope, friendship, and community overcoming adversity.

We're the Millers is a fun, if slight, comedy. Its central concept is clever, twisting a family road trip comedy by centering it around a cast of unrelated characters pretending to be a family, and it does lead to some laugh-out-loud scenarios.

As someone who regrets how sheltered I was in high school, keeping to myself for a good chunk of it, Lady Bird moves me on a deep, emotional level.

Catch Me if You Can works as an effortlessly entertaining crime film. But, at its core, it's a cat-and-mouse chase between two outcasts, one a lost, lonely kid, the other a grizzled loner, and the surrogate father/son relationship that forms between them.