The hot, dog-days of summer sorta skipped our part of the Midwest. Pilot Knob shows green grass on the lawn, although the humidity sure makes it a sauna experience to do farmwork. My inner “Get-Off-My-Lawn” old man has even relented and says that perhaps the kids can do things INSIDE. One of those things, is watch movies in the blessed air conditioning after a long day working outside.
Since eating popcorn is synonymous with a movie experience—and we hope our #awesomepopcorn can earn its way into your movie enjoying experience—we felt a movie review was in order. This is our 10 Most Popcorn-Worthy Movies. We’d sure love to earn a spot in your home, from your kitchen to your comfy movie-watching couch. Try out PopFlix as a code for 15% off all orders in our store.
How did we make the grade?
- General Awesomeness – this is hyperbole and frankly it’s because I can’t think of how to better describe watchability, excitement, pizazz, chutzpah, charisma…we’ll define it here as a movie that folks talked about leading up to its release and then it was talked about long after its release
- Rewatchability – To make our list, movies have to be good enough that you are interested in rewatching them years after their release. A good measure is that if the movie is on TV and you come across it at any point, beginning middle or end, will you start watching it?
- Length – if you’re gonna enjoy #awesomepopcorn, it’ll probably need to be a decent or long runtime. If it’s a short flick, you probably won’t get hungry. In fact, the longer the better because if the movie is as good as advertised, then you’ll not want to leave or pause for extensive cooking. In this vein, we are picking either trilogies, similar themed, or common universe groups of three. Eat #awesomepopcorn and stay glued to the screen.
- Passes the Spouse Test – Rare is the movie that caters to both genders well. Dudes like explosions and action. Chicks like romantic Hallmark reruns. It’s a mystery of life. So we use the “Spouse Test.” One spouse must view these movies as awesome and the other spouse must tolerate them. Bonus points and higher rankings awarded if both spouses enjoy and seek out the movie.
(All memes and scenes depicted below are screenshots from internet searches so CTTO, it ain’t us!)
#1 Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Peter Jackson brings JRR Tolkien’s Lengendarium to life (yes, I knew this word before I typed this blog). I read the books and am biased. JRR Tolkien was to this fantasy, universe-world-building literature what DaVinci was to inventing. Purists argue—as I see on the groups on Facebook—that the movies, while beautiful and well deserving of the 17 Academy Awards they earned, leave a lot out. That’s probably for the best (I know, BOO me all you want) given the 11 hours and 36 minutes in the (way better) Director’s Cut. It shows good versus evil clearly, something that is often gray in today’s world and has you rooting for the good guys to win despite long and seemingly impossible odds. It is still meme-fodder nearly 20 years later too.
Without buying Pilot Knob Popcorn
#2 Star Wars, Best 3
George Lucas made a soap opera about aliens, wizards (but we call them Jedi) and humans in a galaxy far, far away while addressing good versus evil via freedom-loving rebels versus a corrupt galactic government. This redefined the movie-going experience and special effects. Star Wars fanatics will debate the entries outside of the original trilogy, but we used Rotten Tomatoes to settle the score. The later entries aren’t all that bad, in fact the acting and some of the “seriousness” of later entries adds something to them that the original trilogy lacked in some moments. Still, the storylines of the orignals were awesome. We placed it The Empire Strikes Back 1981, The Force Awakens 2015, and A New Hope. A New Hope sets the stage for the entire series, but doesn’t have the same punch later entries have. The Force Awakens brings JJ Abrams’s take to the Star Wars franchise, reuniting old faces with a new generation. Finally, Empire Strikes Back HAS to be the first one with arguably one of cinema’s most iconic villains presenting an epic and unexpected twist—Luke, I AM YOUR FATHER!
The FORCE compels you to SHARE that popcorn with me!
#3 The GodFather Trilogy
This trilogy makes us all “an offer we can’t refuse,” and fortunately it isn’t a severed horsehead in our bed. Each movie, and yes we recognize that the third installment falls off relative to the first two, has a strong storyline with memorable quotes and characters. Michael Corleone’s initial rise, growth, and then desire to pull out of crime (“Just when I get out, they pull me back in!”) is compelling. You may not like the ranking here, but you gotta understand, “It’s not personal, it’s just business.”
Leave the gun. Take the cannoli–no, wait, take the popcorn
#4 James Bond, Best 3
Now we get into some weeds. James Bond is iconic and spans seven decades. Lots of things change in culture over that timeframe and we won’t go further down a cultural-warfare-rabbithole. They’re all pretty good for one-time viewing, but some are flat-out great, rewatchable, and worthy of this ranking. We picked Casino Royale, GoldenEye, and Skyfall. Yes, we’re biased to the more modern takes on this character. It’s not a knock on Sean Connery who is a legend in his own right. But if you want something shakin’ not stirred, it’s best to have a grand story with the action and suspense to keep you on edge wanting more. Daniel Craig takes what Timothy Dalton tried to do in the 1980’s – that is, a grittier more realistic edge to our favorite spy—and brings it to a broader audience. Rotten Tomatoes tends to agree with the more modern takes a tick higher than the older ones. Goldeneye was the first Bond after the Cold War and has Brosnan’s Bond DRIVING A TANK down the street. Enough said.
How do you take your popcorn sir?
— Seasoned, then shaken — not stirred
#5 Clint Eastwood, Best (Range) 3
The last one may have been difficult reading instead of hearing, but you have heard it. The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly is iconic amongst the spaghetti westerns. Loved watching it with my Little Farmer and years before with my late father. It’s an earlier installment in the copious and long acting and directing career of the one and only Clint Eastwood. You get into the middle of his career, we have the Dirty Harry series and, “seeing as this is the Magnum .44…” you see, it’s still quotable. Eastwood took a western style and made it modern again. Finally, he places our hero, brash, unapologetic but morally strong grandfather in Gran Turino. All great movies. Dish out the #awesomepopcorn.
Seriously, don’t touch my bowl — get your own
#6 The Matrix, Best 3
1999. Man, I remember junior high. And I remember how awesome this story was shown with revolutionary filmmaking techniques. The opening seen to the first installment, where Trinity stops mid-air as the camera does a 360 pan STILL holds up as amazing. The fight scenes are impressive, especially Neo’s fight(s) with Agent Smith and the one on the mountain chateau with The Merovingian’s thugs. Great story, great fighting, and a great arc. We drop Revolutions and move the fourth, less popular but better story arc, Resurrections ahead. The Matrix, Reloaded, Resurrections.
Me, literally stopping everyone’s hands from reaching into MY popcorn bowl
#7 Marvel Cinematic Universe, Best 3
So Marvel’s Cinematic Universe is epic in terms of scale. It has redefined the movie industry and the idea of superheroes. Lots of debate in any angle of any number of items here, but what isn’t for debate is the fact that Marvel has quite a few movies worth enjoying over popcorn. We decided to pick three that sort of go together but have different tones: Thor: Ragnorak, Infinity War, and Endgame. Ragnorak is Taikia Waititi’s first installment and adds humor to Chris Hemsworth’s character that originally debuted as somewhat “Shakesperian” and a bit too serious at times. This movie had fight scenes and great humor. Infinity War and Endgame had over a decade of buildup across 20 prior movies. They brought together ensemble casts to tell an epic story that kept folks on edge. Endgame brought me to a movie theater by myself, no wife or kids. Honorable Mention: Guardians of the Galaxy Trilogy for being mostly light hearted and a group of plucky misfits that hits deep in the third installment.
POPCORN LOVERS — Assemble!
#8 Bourne Trilogy
So there are lots of movies where a corrupt government organization is hunting someone. Usually, that someone formerly was affiliated with that corrupt government organization (albeit without knowing of said corruption). But the twist here is that Bourne is an elite, covert assassin with severe memory loss trying to remember why and what he is? That’s INTENSE. Matt Damon turns in steller fight scenes with a gritty, realistic feel. Bourne’s character arc shows good development as he rediscovers his past and exposes corruption in the CIA. And it shows that while he seems invincible, the fighting scenes with other “assets” leaves suspense the entire time that he can be brought down…
I don’t remember what I was doing in the kitchen, but now I’m cooking awesome popcorn…
#9 John Wick
Cold, professional, elegant, suspensful. The underworld of professional crime with rules (“The only thing that separates us from the animals”) governed by the mysterious high table (“Everything happens under the table.”). Keanu Reeves is on this list twice. There’s a fun fan theory that John Wick is Neo if he chooses the blue pill instead of the red. Makes A LOT of sense—there’s too much cohesion and skill from the professional assassins in the John Wick universe to be in our world, right? Also, as a dog lover, it’s hard not to sympathize with Baba Yaga. Our pick is 1, 3 – Parabellum, 4 — though Chapter 2 is no slouch. We wish we had John Wick’s improv skills–dude killed two baddies in a bar with a pencil. A pencil!?
Don’t sweep up the popcorn you drop, the doggo deserves it
#10 The Has Fallen Series
I’m sure there are other worthy inclusions on a popcorn-worthy list of trilogies or list of three. But Gerard Butler as Mike Banning in Olympus Has Fallen, London Has Fallen, and Angel Has Fallen is ridiculous. It moves up on my list simply because it has all the stereotypical stuff a dude likes in a movie, plus added swear words, and my wife still loves it. She normally likes Hallmark nonsense. Hallmark. Let that sink in. Mike Banning saving the President twice and then proving his innocence the third time, wow. Great movies.
X-#*!$, that’s awesome popcorn!
