This week’s Top 10 Show is in honor of Dory and the Lost City of Gold, which makes the topic is Treasure Hunt Movies.

Just to prepare you, there were quite a few big name movies in this topic that I have not seen.  I will list these during the honorary mentions section.

I tried to only put one film from each franchise, but broke that rule big time as I compiled the list.

#10.  City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly’s Gold.  Yeah, I know this is not a great movie and it pales in comparison to the original City Slickers, but I remember liking this film when I was younger and I was happy to revisit the group of characters from the first film.  I have always been a fan of Billy Crystal and this series of films really highlighted his strength as a comedic actor.  Bringing in Jon Lovitz was a mistake, in my opinion, but the return of Jack Palance was welcomed.  I am sure that if I would rewatch this now with my critic’s eye, it may not hold up, but my nostalgic memory helps.

#9.  Romancing the Stone.  Another one that I have not seen in a long time, but hold fond memories for.   Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner were an 80s iconic pairing and they were at their best here.  Danny DeVito is great as the antagonist.  There are a ton of twists and turns and the film fits nicely into the action/adventure/comedy genre that so many 80s films tried to find.  Again, if I saw this today, maybe my opinion would be different, but for now, it is number nine.

#8.  Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl.  This is the best of the Pirates franchise and the best performance of Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow.   There was some debate on the Top 10 Show about whether or not this works as a treasure hunt film because they were only going after one coin, but I certainly think it fits.  There were many other coins in the film and every source I looked at included it as a choice.  You are never quite sure if Jack Sparrow is the good guy.  He seems to be doing things for a certain reason, but you can never be 100% convinced that it is not some selfish choice.  That is part of the fun of the film.

#7.  The Rundown.  I hadn’t considered this as a treasure hunt movie until, doing research, I found it on several other lists.  However, looking it up, there is a treasure at the center of the film that Seann William Scott is searching for and that makes this a treasure hunt movie.  That made me happy because I get a chance to include this excellent Dwayne Johnson movie.  This was one of the first films where The Rock showed that he could be more than just another pro wrestler in a movie.  Where the Scorpion King failed, The Rundown was a great success.

#6.  Aladdin.  This is another that might be a bit of a cheat, and, while I absolutely love this movie, it is lower on this list because the treasure may not be the main driving force of the plot.  Still, Jafar has been searching for ways into the Cave of Wonders for a long time and there is a massive treasure at the heart of that.  Of course, the real treasure in the film is the Genie, voiced by Robin Williams.  This may be my favorite Disney animated movie of all time and Robin Williams is a huge reason why.

#5.  Monty Python and the Holy Grail.  This is the first film on the list where the treasure being hunted for is the Holy Grail, the cup of Christ.  This is one of the funniest movies of all time.  It is totally quotable.  Moments such as “I feel much better now” and “It’s only a flesh wound” are lines that I have used in real life.  And you must be careful to know what your favorite color is if you hope for safe passage.  This is Monty Python at the height of their powers.

#4.  The Goonies.  A classic 80s iconic movie, The Goonies is fun, filled with adventure and ridiculous action.  Goonies never say die!  With the great cast of characters heading out to try and find the location of One-Eyed Willie’s rich stuff, the film has a ton of heart and showed the relationships between a group of friends and what they were willing to do to save their Goondocks from being sold.  Data was awesome with his James Bond type gadgets (Pinchers of Power etc.)  There were actually many emotional moments here too, which make the film more than just a fun adventure.  It is a coming of age film as well.  I have fond memories of seeing The Goonies in the theater and I have to disagree with John on this one.

#3.  Muppet Treasure Island.  This was the first film that popped into my head when the topic came up and I knew it would be on this list somewhere.  I am a massive Muppets fan and this adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic novel is one of the best out there.  Kermit as Captain Smollett.  Miss Piggy as Benjamina Gunn.  Fozzie Bear was Squire Trelawney.  Sam the Eagle was Mr. Arrow.  Then, to bring the gravitas to the film, we got the classic Tim Curry as Long John Silver.  The songs were great.  The villainous crew were awesome.  Dead Pete especially was a great gag.  This is a fairly faithful adaptation, all things considered.  The Muppets have that special flare for doing these and I wish they had done more of them.

#2.  Raiders of the Lost Ark.  The first appearance of the classic character Indiana Jones, played perfectly by Harrison Ford.  Raiders was a throwback to the olden days with continued serials that featured pulp heroes in swashbuckling fun.  Raiders placed Indiana Jones on a quest to find the Arc of the Covenant before the Nazis could.  There is such a joy in the movie that comes across in every moment.  When looking at the treasure hunting genre, you can look no further than Indiana Jones.

#1.  Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.  This is why I could not just stick to one film per franchise.  I love this movie and I could not eliminate Raiders of the Lost Ark from the list because of it.  This is my favorite of the Indiana Jones franchise, as Indy and crew raced against the Nazis a second time… this time for the Holy Grail (the second appearance of the Holy Grail on this list).  The inclusion of Sean Connery as Indy’s father, Dr. Henry Jones was genius.  Harrison Ford and Sean Connery were the perfect pairing and made a great father/son (despite them not being that far apart in age).  The banter between the two of them was amazing and the tenderness, admittedly hidden beneath personal issue, was there in spades.  When Indy was apparently killed in the tank, Henry breaking down was one of the most emotional moments of the film and showcased how much these men loved each other.  I am with Matt Knost putting this as my number one.

Honorable mention:  I did not have a lot of other films to include here that I have actually seen.  The Mummy was one I considered.  It was number ten for a while but got bumped.  I tried to make the argument that Avengers: Infinity War was a treasure hunt, with Thanos searching for the Infinity stones, but I eliminated that eventually.  Treasure Planet and Atlantis were two animated films that I considered.  Then there was a bunch of films that I had not seen that made the Top 10 Show’s list.  They include The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, O Brother, Where Art Thou and Three Kings.  Just never saw them.

I am a life long professional wrestling fan so I am excited about this week’s Top 10 topic: Top 10 Movies featuring a Professional Wrestling.  It is in honor of Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw, which of course features The Rock and Roman Reigns.  The Top 10 Show included a guest this week.  Ryan Satin works at Collider and runs a website about pro wrestling and his knowledge brought a great deal of depth to the discussion.

Interestingly enough, I had already made this list and I almost put it on the website one week because it was a slow week.  It was the week when Dave Bautista was in Stuber that I thought this list would work.  However, I’m glad that I did not do it then, because now we can have it at the same time.

For list rules, I was specifically trying to limit the list to no more than one movie from any one wrestler.  Otherwise there would be a list full of The Rock and Dave Bautista.  I also tried to keep the part reasonably larger and not some bit part.  Some of the bit parts will be included in the Honorable Mentions.

#10.  Rocky III (Hulk Hogan).  Thunderlips, The Ultimate Male!  Hulk Hogan has not been in a lot of great movies.  Certainly No Holds Barred, Suburban Commando and Mr. Nanny were not making this list.  And I wanted to include Hogan, despite the fact that he has been shown to be not that nice of a person recently, because he was pro wrestling for a large part of the last 30 years.  Plus, he is in the ring here with Sylvester Stallone and looks great.

#9.  Man on the Moon (Jerry “The King” Lawler).  The biopic on the life of Andy Kaufman included a chunk about wrestling.  Kaufman saw wrestling as performance art and embraced the kayfabe aspect of the business.  So much so that you never were sure for decades whether or not the slap to Jerry Lawler on the Letterman Show was real or part of the feud.   The movie finally revealed the truth behind the Kaufman-Lawler feud.

#8.  Blockers (John Cena). I debated about what John Cena movie I wanted because I wanted to include him on this list.  Trainwreck was considered, but he is a secondary character here. His roles in the Daddy’s Home films may have been the stand-out parts, but those movies were bad.  Bumblebee is a better movie, but Cena was not great in that film.  Blockers was able to show Cena’s funny side and his comedic timing and he was one of the main leads of the film.  The movie was very tender and had a lot of heart as well.

#7.  Predator (Jesse Ventura).  “I ain’t got time to bleed.” Jesse “The Body” Ventura, future governor of Minnesota, was one of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s crew heading into the jungle to try and find out what was happening and Jesse got a bunch of the coolest lines.  He’s a “goddamn sexual tyrannosaurus!”  Ventura has been in a bunch of Schwarzenegger movies, but this was the one with the most substance to it.  And my friends and I LOVED that minigun.

#6.  The Wrestler (Ernest “The Cat” Miller).  Randy “The Ram” Robinson can not get the spotlight of the ring out of his blood, despite the fact that his body is breaking down and revolting against him.  He has to have one more match and who better to have that match with than his old nemesis, The Ayatollah?  Mickey Rourke is brilliant in the lead role here and should have won the Academy Award.  To me, this was one of the biggest snubs in Oscar history and I believe it is because of the wrestling bias.

#5.  Ed Wood (George “The Animal” Steele).  Ed Wood is a fantastic movie, starring Johnny Depp as the infamous film director of such non-classics as Plan 9 from Outer Space.  George Steele perfectly played the actor Tor Johnson.  George Steele was one of several perfectly cast actors in Ed Wood.  Martin Landau as Bela Legosi led to an Oscar.  Depp was great as the titular character.  Bill Murray stole every scene he was in.  George Steele’s role may not be as large of one, but the quality of movie really pulls this one up.  This is also an interesting one because Tor Johnson was also a professional wrestler.  So you have a wrestler playing an actor who was a wrestler.

#4.  Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson).  We have come to the movie that I chose as my favorite Rock movie.  There were several potential choices, which I will include in the Honorable Mentions, but this was the film that I enjoyed the most.  The Rock played the wimpy character to a tee.  I loved the “Don’t cry, don’t cry, don’t cry” line in the film.  Johnson has great chemistry with his cast mates, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan and Jack Black.  The quartet really makes this movie what it is. And The Rock was able to play off his WWE character when the video game gave him the skill of “smoldering intensity.”

#3.  Guardians of the Galaxy (Dave Bautista).  Drax the Destroyer.  Bautista was a risky casting choice as he was coming from the world of wrestling and the movie was already seen as a huge risk by Marvel Studios.  However, Drax was one of the best parts of this movie and Dave Bautista started his path on the way to some great roles.  Bautista showed some great comedic timing with his deadpan lines throughout the film.  The character trait of not understanding metaphors was a wonderful bit that led to some funny moments.  Plus, Drax is a kick ass character.

#2.  They Live (“Rowdy” Roddy Piper).  John Carpenter’s sci-fi classic included an amazing turn from Hot Rod himself.  Who would have guessed that Roddy Piper would be so perfect in this role of Nada?  Everything from one of the greatest fight scenes in all of movies with Keith David to “I’ve come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass, and I’m all out of bubble gum” is just awesome.  Everybody who knew Piper knew what a sweetheart he was and he is terribly missed.

#1. The Princess Bride (Andre the Giant).  This has long been my favorite movie of all-time and Andre the Giant was the reason I wanted to see it in the first place.  Andre was so important to this movie as Fezzik, he really held everything together.  To this day, “anybody want a peanut” cracks me up.  In the original novel, The Princess Bride by William Goldman, Goldman admits to basing the character o Fezzik on Andre the Giant.  Andre brought such a warmth and charm to Fezzik that he became one of the most beloved characters in the movie.  I love The Princess Bride and Andre the Giant is, quite literally, a huge reason why.

Honorable Mentions:  Okay, these are some of the films I thought about for The Rock: The Rundown, Fast Five, Rampage, Pain and Gain, Central Intelligence, Skyscraper, Moana, and Snitch.  I really would have like to include Fighting with my Family, the story of Paige, but, outside of a Rock cameo, I am not sure if there were any real life wrestlers in it.  I eliminated Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame because of the size of Bautista’s role in them, but I love them both.  Sherlock Holmes with Robert Downey Jr. actually included wrestler Kurrgen, but it was a small role.  Spider-man nearly made the list with Randy Savage’s Bonesaw, but the role size hurt Savage here.  I already mentioned Bumblebee and Trainwreck when considering John Cena.  I did not include any films with Tommy Lister in them which could include The Fifth Element because he only played a wrestler, Zeus, for a bit.  He did have a couple of matches though.  The Running Man has Jesse Ventura in it too, but his role in Predator was much better.  Stone Cold Steve Austin’s only possible films were The Condemned or The Expendables.  There were some documentaries like Beyond the Mat that could be considered.

Re-List…re…re…re…re-list…buzz buzz buzz buzz

Yes, it is another Re-List episode of the Top 10 Show.  And this episode’s topic is one that really excited me because the topic has so many movies and such a variety of genres to choose from.

A24 is a distribution company that has been putting out just some tremendous films over the last 5-10 years.  Again, the variety of movies sets the company apart.  Not only the variety, but it seems as if, any time I see the A24 graphic come up on the screen, I know I am in for a quality flick.

So the Top 10 A24 Movies sounded like a winning topic to me.  The patron Lewis Barrigan chose the topic and Cory O’Connor & George Menchaca sent in their lists for John and Matt to count down and combine.

There were some interesting omissions from their lists.

#10.  A Ghost Story.  This was a beautiful film.  The story of a recently deceased man who returned to his home as a ghost (under a bed sheet, of all things) and winds up having to watch his wife as their life unfolds in front of his eyes.  This film crosses a bunch of genres, from ghost story to romance to science fiction.  It is a strong film.
#9.  Moonlight.  I almost did not put this one on the list because I wanted to include The Lobster, but in the end, Moonlight won out.  This is an amazingly touching and poignant coming of age movie about a young gay boy discovering his sexuality and finding out how it will fit into his life.  Mahershala Ali gives a stunningly memorable performance in a film where he only appears in the first act.  Famously defeated La La Land at the Academy Awards after initially being announced incorrectly.

#8.  Hereditary.  One of the scarier films you are going to see.  The first two-thirds of that movie truly was fantastic.  I found the ending to Heredity to lose me a bit, but that does not take away totally from the positives from earlier.   Toni Collette gives one of the best performances of her storied career, but she was matched in every moment by Alex Wolff, who does not receive enough credit for his exceptional work in this movie.  A truly scary ride and a movie that will stick with you for quite a while.

#7.  Tusk.  I was happy to hear this one pop up on the list because it receives a lot of negative remarks despite being better than people give it credit for.  Even Kevin Smith himself makes jokes about Tusk as “the walrus movie” and puts it down.  Smith made the movie because he loved the idea and the story.  Yes, the story is weird and strange, but that is not a bad thing.  The film is filled with creativity and wildness.  It has scenes that you have never seen before or likely will never see again.

#6.  Locke.  This is the one-person perspective film genre, much like Phone Booth or Buried.  This time though it is Tom Hardy in a car driving.  Sure it does not sound like much, but the conversations that happen on the phone are as compelling as any full on ensemble film.  This is an indication of how strong of an actor Tom Hardy actually is.  He carries this entire film on his words and facial expressions.

#5. Ex Machina.  One of the top science fiction movies of the last decade, Ex Machina features two amazing performances.  First, Oscar Isaacs is great as the CEO of a huge internet company that has invited Domhnall Gleeson (who is wonderful in his own right) to his private estate.  Once there, he meets Ava, played exquisitely by Alicia Vikander.  Ava is a humanoid robot with an AI intelligence and she turns out to be more than either of them think.  As with all good sci-fi, there are plenty of themes running through the film that deal with more than just what you see on the screen.  It forces you to think about the world around you.

#4. Eighth Grade.  As a middle school teacher, I have rarely seen a coming of age movie more realistic than Eighth Grade.  There are moments and characters found in this film by director Bo Burnham that I have seen in the halls of my own school.  It is such a universal film that anyone who watches it will find something that reminds them of a situation or moment in their own lives.  I have said this before, but there is a scene in this movie, found in the back seat of a car, that is as tense and frightening as any scene you will ever see.  This is a great movie.

#3.  Room.  This movie… I bawled through the whole thing.  Brie Larson won an Academy Award for her role as a mother who has been kidnapped and kept in a small room for the entirety of her son’s life.  How she makes life normal for her son in this unbelievably extreme position shows how much she loves him.  Her son is played by Jacob Tremblay, who is every bit as powerful of a scene partner as Brie was.  A hugely emotional voyage.

#2. The Disaster Artist.  A wonderfully funny and poignant telling of the making of The Room, one of the worst movies ever made.  The film is mainly about the relationship between Tommy Wiseau and Greg Sestero, played respectfully by James Franco and Dave Franco.  James Franco is astounding bringing the enigma that is Tommy Wiseau to life that it sometimes feels as if Franco has actually become him.  You do not have to have seen The Room to understand or enjoy The Disaster Artist, but it does give you a deeper understanding of the film.

#1.  Swiss Army Man.  I love this movie.  I did not expect to go into the “farting corpse” movie and love it as much as I did.  I typically am not a fart joke fellow, but this movie took the fart joke and made it more than just a joke, they made it into a part of the character.  Paul Dano and Daniel Radcliffe are unreal in this trippy dramady.  Radcliffe in particular had a huge acting chore ahead of him and he just dominated the performance.  The film is very weird, and I loved every second of it.

Honorable Mentions: There were a bunch of these.  As I said, this was a tough list to make because it seems when you see A24, the movie quality is always great.  I already mentioned The Lobster and how I almost put it at #9.  It is a weird and creative movie.  There was the recent mid90s, a film about skateboarders directed by Jonah Hill.  Patrick Stewart starred in a horror/torture porn movie called Green Room that was very well done and received.  Free Fire came up on the Top 10 Relist show and it is very deserving as it is a fun and dramatic shoot out film.  Another film mentioned on the Top 10 was It Came at Night, which was promoted as a horror movie, but it was not.  It was a very great character based home invasion film.  I was not as much of a fan of The Witch as some were, but I recognized how good of a technical movie it was.