The Top 10 Movies of All Time, and how I picked them

All right, here are my picks for all time greatest, watch-again, watch-again movies.

To make this list, a movie had to achieve all of the following criteria:

• Floor me on first viewing and make me want to watch it again right away


• Make me feel good, a deeply satisfying theatre experience


• Impress me on second viewing with originality, artistry, technical excellence, etc


• Have a message, a deeper meaning


• Make me keep thinking about it (possibly for weeks, and in some cases committing large parts of it to memory)


• Withstand the test of time


• There's also a geek quotient in most of them, if you look for it...

1. Seabiscuit (2003)


2. The Empire Strikes Back (1980)


3. Goodfellas (1990)
   


4. Heat (1995)


5. The American President (1995)


6. The Matrix (1999)


7. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)


8. So I Married An Axe Murderer (1993)


9. Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979)


10. 12 Monkeys (1995)

Honourable Mentions: Die Hard (1988), anything for which Anthony Minghella won an award nomination, the Alien franchise, and Forrest Gump.

The links are to Wikipedia.

So ... what are your top ten?