The Perfect (for you) Movie

Yesterday, my daughter was home sick, and we ended up watching Ghostbusters together. It’s one of those movies that I still enjoy, but honestly…I could have turned it off at any point and not missed it. Most movies are like that, but there are a few that it doesn’t matter when it happens — I might be surfing through the channels to get to a show that I want — but if I come across it, I can’t go past it. I have to watch it to the end: The Fifth Element, Aliens, The Princess Bride, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, and Willow.

Ah, Willow. I don’t know what it is about this movie, but it hits me in every perfect little place. There’s Willow and his quest to save the cute baby from the evil sorceress. There’s cross-dressing Madmartigan, the wastrel master swordsman who goes from zero to hero. Sorscha, the warrior woman who slowly develops a conscience.

Being who I am, obviously my favorite part of the movie is the romance between Madmartigan and Sorscha, but there’s really no part of it that I don’t enjoy. And I’ve seen it SO many times, I could quote it — and yet I hate missing any section of it. There are so many movies that I can watch just a few scenes, and I’m all good. Not so with my perfect-for-me movies.

I obviously have a severe predilection for fantasy and sci-fi, with action and humor and romance (maybe Aliens doesn’t fit in that, but since I’m in love with Ripley, that’s kinda-sorta a romance between me and her.) And that translates to my reading, as well.

What are your perfect-for-you movies — and are your favorite books similar?