Top 150 Movies of All-Time - 30-21

30. The Big Chill - Director Lawrence Kasdan's 1983 comedy-drama brings together a group of college friends from the University of Michigan after one of the group suddenly commits suicide. Great music of the 60s and 70s is the backdrop for the film that features an amazing cast, led by Glenn Close and Kevin Kline. Kevin Costner was cast as the late Alex, but he was never shown in the movie.

29. Silver Linings Playbook - Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper star as two people going through different types of mental issues before forming a unique relationship. Robert DeNiro shows up as Cooper's gambling father, who is very superstitious about his beloved Philadelphia Eagles. Director David O. Russell (The Fighter, American Hustle, Joy) allows J-Law and Cooper to produce their career-best performances.

28. Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope - The first in the epic series introduces Luke, Leia, Darth, Chewy, Han and the whole gang as the Rebellion takes on the Empire. The story begins at the end of "Rogue One," which came out last year, as the Rebels have stolen the plans to destroy the Death Star. The characters are iconic and writer/director George Lucas reportedly mixed elements of myth and religion from Beowulf and King Arthur with Flash Gordon among other classics.

27. Nebraska - I'm still disappointed that Bruce Dern didn't win Best Actor (Matthew McConaughey did) for his work in this delightful, humorous slice of life that was directed by Alexander Payne. Dern plays a fading veteran who thinks he has won a million dollar sweepstakes and his son (Will Forte) decides to take him on a journey to Lincoln despite knowing it is just a scam. The trip takes Woody through his old town before coming to a touching conclusion.

26. Wall Street - Director and co-writer Oliver Stone's 1987 drama takes a look at greed in the stock market through the eyes of a young broker Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen) and corporate raider Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas). Douglas won Best Actor as one of the great villains in movie history and Sheen provided his best-ever performance. "Man looks in the abyss, there's nothing staring back at him. At that moment, man finds his character. And that is what keeps him out of the abyss."

25. Forrest Gump - Tom Hanks won Best Actor for his wonderful depiction of a slow, but sweet and big-hearted man who lives an amazing life after humble beginnings. The 1994 film is a history lesson following Gump through the Vietnam War, his athletic successes in football and ping pong, a successful shrimping business and Watergate before finding his grammar school sweetheart Jenny (Robin Wright) again.

24. Good Will Hunting - Robin Williams won Best Supporting Actor for his role as a therapist working with a damaged young man from South Boston, who is a mathematical genius working as a janitor at a prestigious school. Williams is brilliant in the 1997 film while battling an old colleague for control of the treatment for Will Hunting (Matt Damon). How do you like them apples?

23. Lion - My pick for the best film of 2016 is a heartwarming true story that follows the journey of Saroo Brierley, who is trapped on a train that takes him 100s of miles from his home in India when he is just a 5-year-old. The amazing Sunny Pawar plays the young Saroo in the first hour of the film and Dev Patel takes over as the 25-year-old Saroo in the second half as he desperately tries to find his home. It is a movie about the power of family.

22. A Few Good Men - Probably the movie I have watched the most in my life on television as it is constantly on late at night and never gets old. Rob Reiner directed Aaron Sorkin's screenplay about the coverup after a marine dies when he is disciplined within the unit. Jack Nicholson produced one of his best performances as the chilling Colonel Jessup while Tom Cruise and Demi Moore make it fun.

21. Die Hard - One of the best action movies of all time stars Bruce Willis as the charismatic New York cop John McClane, who springs into action when visiting his wife at a Christmas party in Los Angeles. The late, great Alan Rickman plays one of the best villains of all time - Hans Gruber - the leader of the bad guys. Not usually a fan of shoot 'em up movies, but this one has appeal. Is it a Christmas movie or not?

Top 150 Movies in my 50 years - 40-31

40. Raiders of the Lost Ark - The 1981 epic adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg stars Harrison Ford as archaeologist Indiana Jones, one of the most iconic characters in cinematic history. Jones goes in search of the Ark of the Covenant, which held the Ten Commandments, and must fight Hitler and his army for it. The power of the Ark is unleashed in an amazing final scene.

39. Seabiscuit - The magical story about a banged up little horse who is turns into a great champion and provides Americans with something to feel good about during the Great Depression. Jeff Bridges is outstanding as the horse's owner and Chris Cooper as the unorthodox trainer. Jockey Red Pollard (Tobey Maguire) says to end the film, "You know, everyone thinks that we found this broken down horse and fixed him, but we didn't. He fixed us. Everyone of us. And I guess in a way, we kinda fixed each other, too."

38. Sixteen Candles - John Hughes wrote and directed this 1984 high school comedy that is most movie lovers' favorite of its genre. Molly Ringwald provides the best performance of her career as average high school sophomore Samantha Baker dealing with parents forgetting her 16th birthday and a major crush on heart-throb senior Jaaaaaaaake Ryan - played by Michael Schoeffling, who apparently beat out Viggo Mortensen. Anthony Michael Hall shines as the king of the geeks.

37. Miracle - Kurt Russell steals the 2004 film with his strong portrayal of Herb Brooks, who coached a group of college kids to the gold medal in men's hockey at the 1980 Olympics against all odds. While it is difficult to re-create the action of the greatest upset in sports history, the story about how the team came together and Brooks' mad genius is told expertly. I love watching this movie again. ... and again. ... and again. ... and again ... and again.

36. Office Space - Mike Judge (Beavis and Butt-Head) directed one good movie to add to his career resume and it is on the list of the best comedies of all time. Peter Gibbons (Ron Livingston) is a bored computer programmer stuck in a cubicle whose life changes when he is hypnotized into total relaxation, leading to a promotion, humor and chaos. Waitress Jennifer Anniston, who doesn't wear enough "flair," is Gibbons' dream girl and a printer gets justly tortured.

35. Rocky - Sylvester Stallone wrote and starred in the epic drama that led off the series, introducing one of the most iconic characters in movie history - Rocky Balboa, the small-time boxer from Philadelphia who takes on world champ Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers). The movie won Best Picture in 1976 while Stallone and Talia Shire, who played his lovable geeky girlfriend Adrian, were both nominated along with Burgess Meredith and Burt Young. The final fight scene is as emotional as it gets.

34. 500 Days of Summer - Director Marc Webb tells the story of boy meets girl - and both end up driving each other nuts - in a nonlinear fashion that works brilliantly. Summer (Zooey Deschanel) is the your basic appealing, but impossible-to-read young woman, while Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) cannot fight through his expectations and her conflicting signals despite the early proclamation that she "doesn't want anything serious." It all adds up to a fun, thought-provoking and unique film.

33. Dances With Wolves - Kevin Costner starred and directed the beautiful and emotional 1990 film about a disconnected Union Army lieutenant who befriends an Indian tribe while alone on the American frontier. The movie won seven Academy awards, including Best Picture, and re-invigorated the Western genre. It is still a lesson in how people with different cultures can live together in peace, if effort is made. And what about the Tatanka?!

32. Beautiful Girls - Willie Conway (Timothy Hutton) is going through a period of life decisions when he decides to leave NYC to go home to the small Massachusetts town where he grew up. He meets an adorable 12-year-old Natalie Portman and Uma Thurman - two angels who both solve his problems in a way. It is a sweet, authentic and humorous story about relationships and small-town friendships that last forever.

31. Magnolia - Paul Thomas Anderson's three-hour epic film pieces together several intertwining stories, primarily about the relationships between parents and children, with great Aimee Mann music as background. Tom Cruise provides his most powerful and controversial performance as a male supremacist with a dying father that he has not seen in many years and John C. Reilly is the conscience of the film as a cop who falls for a pretty drug addict (Melora Waters). This is a movie that is in the category where people love or hate it. Ebert and I loved it. Siskel didn't.

No Guarantees for Lightning Anymore

By Mark Pukalo

It looked as though this could be a long offseason with several surprising changes to the Tampa Bay Lightning roster.

In reality, it was short and quiet.

The Bolts shipped out an emerging offensive star (Jonathan Drouin) for a 19-year-old, potential star on defense (Mikhail Sergachev) and swapped a few veteran blueliners while signing another forward on the back end of his career (Chris Kunitz).

General manager Steve Yzerman and his brass obviously were banking on health, rest and hunger being the biggest positives for the 2017-18 season, instead of making more drastic changes to the crew of the USS Tampa Bay Lightning.

It is a logical course to take with captain Steven Stamkos returning from knee surgery, Ryan Callahan looking like his old self after enduring a lost season due to hip injuries and one of the world's best defensemen Victor Hedman leading the way. The Bolts also had a full offseason to rest and recover after two straight long playoff runs that took plenty out of them, leading to a slow start in 2016-17. The group that made it to Game 6 of the 2015 Cup final and Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals in 2016 will have something to prove when they hit the ice for the season opener on Friday against Florida.

The question is, will that be enough?

You could make the case that they were a blown third-period lead at home against Arizona from making the playoffs with a skeleton group last season and adding Stamkos, alone, is enough to get them over the top. You can also argue that the group was getting stale, threw in way too many stinkers because of it, needed a bit more of an overhaul this offseason, and should have kept the team’s best playmaker (Drouin).

Yzerman has made the calculation the Lightning can find the spirit that pushed them to great heights from 2015-2017 and he may be right if two very important things happen. The Bolts need to be a lot better limiting quality chances in their own zone and get more consistent secondary scoring.

The defense is likely to be better, but how much? Assuming Andrej Sustr and Slater Koekkoek are the two players sitting out on the blue line to start the season, you add Sergachev and Daniel Girardi in place of Jason Garrison and Sustr. Jake Dotchin is also a year older after a solid debut in 2016-17.

Sergachev will get nine games before his rookie contract kicks in, so they can test his progress. Unless he struggles badly in the first few weeks - which would be surprising - I’m not sure what is gained by sending him back to juniors. If the AHL was an option, sure, let him dominate down there first. But I expect the Russian will be here all season and likely play with a veteran like Girardi or Anton Stralman, even Braydon Coburn at times. If the rookie becomes a solid contributor, that makes this defense much better. Everyone can play a little sharper, but he might be the only player that can make a big difference and that’s a lot to expect from a teenager.

The expectation and hope for the Lightning is their backend will be stronger in the second half of the season and find their stride for the playoffs. Unless there is a long-term injury or Sergachev is deemed not ready, Sustr or Koekkoek could be moved. Although, they could send Sustr through waivers at some point.

The offensive side of the puck is the biggest unknown for the Bolts, which is hard to fathom with talents like Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov leading a host of players that have had plenty big moments over the years. But with all that potential, Tampa Bay was just 14th in scoring last season despite a productive power play.

We’ll see how it works out, but I’m a little concerned about Stamkos and Kucherov playing on the same line for several reasons. First, it gives teams a chance to put their top defense pair against that line and, secondly, they are the teams’ top shooters and will be deferring to set up the other. They might get more shots as the top option on separate lines. In my opinion, you use them like Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. Put them together on occasion to mix it up and give the team a boost.

Those two will get their points no matter what and the other linemate will benefit. Coach Jon Cooper has tried Brayden Point there and Vladislav Namestnikov most days. I would place a savvy veteran like Kunitz in that position and push more skill to the other top-three lines.

Whatever the three-man units look like, the Lightning need contributions from all of them. Alex Killorn had a great first half and a rough second half last season while Ondrej Palat was quiet in the first 41 games and one of the team’s best in the last 41. Namestnikov has the skill, but went backward last season, and Kunitz had just nine goals in 71 games with Pittsburgh. Point must also avoid the sophomore slump.

The biggest question mark is Tyler Johnson. The 27-year-old center had 53 goals and 122 points with a plus-56 in two seasons from 2013-15. He netted 33 tallies with 83 points to go along with a minus-1 in the last two, but was still signed to a seven-year contract in July. You can say he wasn’t as healthy, but that’s an excuse. Johnson must live up to that $35 million contract if the Lightning are going to return to the level of Cup contender.

One of the spots he and others must step up the most is on the power play, where Drouin made his biggest impact. That unit may end up being a vital factor this season. The Lightning were sixth in the league in 2016-17 with the man advantage and need to stay in that vicinity.

Yanni Gourde helps the energy level on the team and should be a factor whether he is a center or on the wing. Faceoff specialist Gabriel Dumont, J.T. Brown and Cedric Paquette are on notice with capable Adam Erne and Matt Peca in the minors waiting by the phone. Peca seemed to earn a spot on the team in the preseason, but he did not have to clear waivers and was sent down. Mathieu Joseph, Alexander Volkov and Anthony Cirelli may get a chance as well at some point.

There is depth. There is talent. The key forwards like Johnson, Palat, Killorn and Namestnikov just have to be better while Point finds his most-productive spot and Callahan stays healthy.

It’s doable. It’s just not guaranteed anymore for the Lightning.

You notice, nothing about goaltending. While national writers seem to think there is a need for Andrei Vasilevskiy to prove himself, I’m not sure what they have been watching. Sure, he’s young, but there are no concerns here about him taking the No. 1 job full time and Peter Budaj will be fine as the backup for 25 games or so.

The Lightning will be in the mix. You just wonder if they still have that special something, the spirit that always gave them the tools to find answers, rally or break a slump before it got worse. We will see in the first few months of the season.

Cooper must make the right decisions, hold back from constant line shuffling and create the right atmosphere. Perhaps without the dilemma of where to put Drouin, he will settle in to a better rhythm behind the bench.

But this will ultimately be about the players. You know what you’re going to get from Hedman, Stralman, Stamkos, Vasilevskiy and Kucherov for the most part. But the other capable players - especially those with long-term contracts - must find their best form consistently.

If they can’t, it will be another pressure-filled playoff race for a wild-card spot.

If they do, Lightning fans could enjoy another long postseason.

Ultimately, I am a little skeptical. But I don’t think it’s out of the question that things can fall into place with character guys like Stamkos and Hedman steering the ship.