This is kind of a difficult idea to convey, especially when I’m constrained by title.  Most accurately, these are my 10 favorite movies that I’d cancel whatever plans I had for the day if I chanced upon them while channel surfing.  You know these movies.  The kind of flick when no matter what you’ve got planned to do in the next hour and a half, it gets put on hold to watch.  Like maybe you’ve got plans to go to your friend Matty’s house in 20 minutes and want to burn some time; you’ve already seen those highlights on Sportscenter like a hundred times so you scan through whatever else is on and OH GOD, I guess I’m going to be late to Matty’s.  …Like a day late.

It’s the kind of movie that doesn’t necessarily require you to be in a certain kind of mindset.  The Matrix is an awesome movie, but maybe you’re not in the mood for that kind of an adrenaline rush right now.  It’s also the kind of movie you can watch time and time and time again, even though at this point you pretty much know the plot development better than the director does.  In special instances, this might even enhance your enjoyment of the movie.

When I start a TV channel of my own, I’m just going to round up a massive list of these movies and play them all the time.  The channel would be called “Guess I’m Not Going Out this Weekend,” or GINGOW.  Still has a better ring to it than the Versus Network, no?

Here’s my top 10 movies that I will absolutely stop everything to watch:

10. Galaxy Quest

This movie should have been terrible.  It had all the ingredients, specifically: Tim Allen.  But somehow, it works. Pre-Snape Alan Rickman is delightfully antagonistic.  The film has just the right amount of taking itself seriously and poking fun at Star Trek and other bad TV, which is appropriate because the plot of the film is about actors who find that, all of a sudden, they have to take their Star Trek-esque bad TV show very seriously.

9. Pirates of the Caribbean (Trilogy)

A lot of people argue that Pirates II and III aren’t as good.  I wholeheartedly disagree.  The entire trilogy is freaking fun to watch.  Jack Sparrow will be a legend we tell our kids about, in the same vein that my dad can’t stop regaling me about Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack.  Johnny Depp cemented his place as probably the most versatile and awesome actor ever (dude can play ANYTHING).  And it’s PIRATES. There are sword fights, fist fights, and ship fights.  And just the right amount of sex from Kiera Knightley so that the dialogue scenes are entertaining, but the movie is still PG-13 so it’s okay to regularly air on national television.  And come on, what’s not to love about pirates?

8. Jim Carrey in general

So if you didn’t know by now, I’m a big Jim Carrey dork.  Most kids wanted to be firemen when they grew up.  I wanted to be Ace Ventura.

Liar, Liar and The Mask are the cream of Carrey’s comedic crop (that was an incredible amount of alliteration), with Dumb and Dumber in a close third.  And I’ve been referring to blue pens as “royal blue” ever since I saw Liar, Liar in theaters.  And the Cuba Pete Rhumba scene in The Mask might be my favorite movie sequence of all time.

I could really have just as easily put any Jim Carrey comedy here.  Even The Truman Show and Eternal Sunshine have me glued.

7. The Girl Next Door

Another one from the file of “This should have been terrible, but it turned out fantastic” movies.  It’s become a life goal of mine to move to a house with hot neighbors just so my kids can live out this movie (because that’s how it works in real life, right?).  Everything about the movie is terribly, deliciously captivating.  Even after they edit all of it so that it’s safe for TV.  Also, Elisha Cuthbert has a thing for hockey players =)

6. Mrs. Doubtfire

Robin Williams’ best acting performance (even though he’s got another movie on the list that I ranked higher), and a movie that led to a bunch of spin-offs (well, at least Big Momma’s House and Arrested Development’s Mrs. Featherbottom).  The most amazing thing might be how they managed to create a movie that’s so funny and charming out of an idea that’s really kind of creepy.  They make Sally Field out to look like the bad guy when she takes Williams to court because he dressed up like a woman in order to sneak into her home and spend time with her kids.  I’d imagine if you took the whole thing out of context, Garfield minus Garfield style, you’d end up with something even more subversively hilarious.

5. Forrest Gump

Maybe the most endearing movie character of all time.  The film does an absolutely brilliant job covering all of the pop-culture references, from Elvis to Vietnam, and tying in how Forrest made them happen on accident.  In fact, what I really love most about this movie is how Forrest just seems to wander aimlessly through life, go with the flow, and often enough, good things like football, ping pong, and Jenny manage to find him.  Kind of like how I bumped into Eleven Magazine.

4. Happy Gilmore

Bob Barker was a cool guy when he hosted The Price is Right.  He became a legend after teaming up (and throwing down) with Sandler in Happy Gilmore.  Watching the old dude take it to a Sandler in his Bruins jersey is Price-less (punzzz!).

The movie was a great early appearance for Ben Stiller (though not as good as his work in Heavyweights), and cemented Chubbs and Shooter McGavin to be forever known to an entire generation as Chubbs and Shooter McGavin, even though they’ve each had multiple other solid film roles (well, at least Chubbs did – the Rocky series comes to mind).

I also profoundly enjoy the blatant TV editing job they do when Happy and Shooter discuss their breakfasts of choice.

3. Hook

Hook is one of the best examples of a magical movie (we’ll get to THE best one in a minute).  The kind where, once you’ve been watching for 10-15 minutes, your insides just start to get warm and bubbly.  It’s an absolutely fantastic twist on the Peter Pan tale, and I wish there were more movies that could do that sort of thing really well.  The “Grayson” movie trailer comes to mind.  I was REALLY excited about this movie for the longest time, but I guess it was either something fan-made or it just got lost in production or something.  Watch that here, thank me later.

One of the ironic things about Hook is that, for as warm as it makes you feel, there are a terrible number of really depressing characters.  Tinkerbell gets her heart shattered.  Wendy gets too old and lets Peter marry her granddaughter.  Jack (until the very end) feels like he doesn’t have a father.  Rufio is jealous of Peter, ends up bowing to him, and then dies.  The movie has lots of fun at the expense of that one lost boy’s child obesity.  And even Hook is just a sick, old man.  Still, watching Pan’s slow self-discovery is THAT magical that it overwhelms everything else by a longshot.

2. Back to the Future (Trilogy)

Time travel is awesome.  Biff Tannen (and all of his incarnations) is a legendary mold for the bully-villan (Hello! Butthead!), as is Doc Brown for the zany, wrinkly, crazy scientist.  The music is great, the action is great, the triumph over Biff is great, the past-future references (“Ronald Regan?  The actor??”, or “all our best stuff is made in Japan!”), subtle changes (the Twin Pine Mall, or the Eastwood Ravine), and character development (like the mayors, or George McFly before and after punching Biff at the prom) are all sublime.  On that note, George’s punch is definitely my favorite left hook of all time.

Best part of all?  You KNOW that when this movie’s on, it’s going to be a Back to the Future marathon.  Back to back to back. Three for one deal. Best possible way to spend a lazy Saturday afternoon.

1. Field of Dreams

Field of Dreams wins by a landslide.  I couldn’t count how many times I’ve seen the end of this movie.  I’m actually not even sure if I’ve ever seen the beginning; I just always happen to catch it part-way through on TV.

I don’t know how Field of Dreams does it, but this movie gives the definitive warm, cozy, bubbly feeling in your stomach when you watch it.  It’s impossible to watch the movie and not smile.  Like when Ray drops Terrence Mann off, does a U turn, and Mann is waiting there in the headlights.  Or when they pick up the hitchhiker “Archie.”  And especially, especially when Shoeless Joe says “If you build it, HE will come” at the end.  The whole thing is so completely nonsensical, but so, so, so good.

Honorable Mentions: The Lord of the Rings series (too long), Heavyweights (not aired frequently enough).

Thoughts?