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.