Top 10 Films

Written on October 28th, 2025 by Dr Hobo

These are 10 films that have stuck with me over the years. No ranking - just movies I love and think are worth your time. As of October 2025.

Aliens (Director’s Cut)

Aliens cover

Director: James Cameron
Year: 1986

Cameron took Ridley Scott’s horror film and turned it into something completely different, and somehow it works. The marines’ dialogue is endlessly quotable, and the action set pieces are still referenced by games thirty years later. Watch the Director’s Cut. The perfect sequel?

💬 Favourite Quote
They're coming outta the walls. They're coming outta the goddamn walls.

The Godfather

The Godfather cover

Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Year: 1972

Brando, Pacino, and a film that basically doesn’t put a foot wrong. Michael Corleone’s transformation is the whole thing, really. You think you understand where it’s going, and then it just keeps going further. Better than the sequel, for my money.

💬 Favourite Quote
Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid cover

Director: George Roy Hill
Year: 1969

Newman and Redford together is just unfair. The film mixes proper Western action with jokes that actually land, and then that final freeze-frame walks in and takes your legs out. Shouldn’t work as well as it does.

💬 Favourite Quote
Shouldn't take more than a couple of days. I'm not picky. As long as she's smart, pretty, and sweet, and gentle, and tender, and refined, and lovely, and carefree...

The Prestige

The Prestige cover

Director: Christopher Nolan
Year: 2006

Nolan’s most rewatchable film, I think. The obsession that drives both characters stops feeling like a plot device fairly quickly and starts feeling genuinely alarming. Bale and Jackman are both excellent, and Johansson is a cut above what the role actually requires.

💬 Favourite Quote
The secret impresses no one. The trick you use it for is everything.

Rocky

Rocky cover

Director: John G. Avildsen
Year: 1976

Almost went with Rambo, but this one edged it. It’s more than a boxing film, really. It works as a social commentary on 1970s Philadelphia and carries that lightly. It manages to be raw and genuinely moving without tipping into cheese, which its sequels singularly failed to manage. The best bit: Rocky knows he’s going to lose. He does it anyway, on his own terms.

💬 Favourite Quote
You're gonna eat lightnin' and you're gonna crap thunder!

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade cover

Director: Steven Spielberg
Year: 1989

For me each one gets better, which makes this the best (P.S. I don’t acknowledge the existence of 4 and 5). Casting Connery as Indy’s dad was a stroke of genius. Their relationship is what the whole thing is built around, and it earns that final scene at the temple completely. The perfect action-adventure film.

💬 Favourite Quote
Nazis. I hate these guys.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (Director’s Cut)

Terminator 2 cover

Director: James Cameron
Year: 1991

Cameron in here again with another sequel. The liquid metal T-1000 was astonishing at the time and still mostly holds up, which is more than you can say for most early CGI. The motorbike scene, the Sarah Connor transformation, Linda Hamilton doing things with that role that the film doesn’t quite deserve. Director’s Cut is the one.

💬 Favourite Quote
I need your clothes, your boots and your motorcycle.

Casino

Casino cover

Director: Martin Scorsese
Year: 1995

I think it’s better than Goodfellas. Yes, I know. Hill I’ll die on. De Niro and Pesci at their most brutal, and Sharon Stone doing the best work of her career. The pen scene, the desert. Utterly captivating.

💬 Favourite Quote
Listen to me very carefully. There are three ways of doing things around here: the right way, the wrong way, and the way that I do it. You understand?

Reservoir Dogs

Reservoir Dogs cover

Director: Quentin Tarantino
Year: 1992

Tarantino’s debut and arguably his best. Stripped back, not as indulgent as his later stuff. The dialogue, the soundtrack, that torture scene - none of it feels like showing off, which can’t be said for everything he’s made since. Launched a lot of careers.

💬 Favourite Quote
You keep talking like a bitch, I'm gonna slap you like a bitch.

The Matrix

The Matrix cover

Directors: The Wachowskis
Year: 1999

Changed action cinema for good and influenced every video game that came after it, to the extent its sequels felt more like games than films. The bullet-time still looks good. The philosophy holds up better than people give it credit for. A product of its moment that somehow hasn’t aged.

💬 Favourite Quote
I'm trying to free your mind, Neo. But I can only show you the door. You're the one that has to walk through it.

Honourable Mentions

These almost made the list, and on another day, some of them might have:

  • Back to the Future (1985)
  • The Usual Suspects (1995)
  • L.A. Confidential (1997)
  • The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
  • Die Hard (1988)
  • The Thing (1982)
  • The Last King of Scotland (2006)
  • My Cousin Vinny (1992)
  • The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
  • The Incredibles (2004)
  • Toy Story (1995)
  • The Departed (2006)
  • Inception (2010)
  • The Rock (1996)
  • Rambo: First Blood (1982)
  • The Negotiator (1998)
  • Rush Hour (1998)
  • Alien (1979)
  • One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
  • Gladiator (2000)
  • Predator (1987)

What are your top films? Disagree with my picks? Drop a comment and let me know what I’m missing!

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