(Inspired by a Sunday of watching the E! True Hollywood Stories of Fast Times at Ridgemont High and The Terminator.

What movies does everyone have to have seen to be a true member of the Pop Culture mainstream?

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2002

Answers

Goonies.

Stand By Me.

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2002

Airplane!

The Breakfast Club

The Usual Suspects

Fletch. At least, I hope so.

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2002

"One Flew Over a Cuckoo's Nest"

"Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory"

"Pulp Fiction"

"The Piano" (Just kidding, Mike)

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2002

"Say Anything"

"E.T."

"Star Wars"

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2002

"Caddyshack"

"Heathers"

"Better Off Dead"

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2002

The Princess Bride.

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2002

The Shawshack Redemption

Top Gun

Rocky I-IV. Note absence of Rocky V

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2002

Rock Horror Picture Show

Evil Dead

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

Pretty in Pink

16 Candles

Clerks

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2002

Evil Dead

What would you say if I said to you that I hadn't seen Evil Dead 2...yet?

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2002

Breakfast Club and Animal House

I love you, AB. In my head I'm Jack Blacking right now.

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2002

I'd say you were a sad fucker, and I'd feel sorry for you. Well, Barry would, anyway. Since I haven't seen any episode in the Evil Dead franchise, I'd say, you bring the movie, I'll bring the booze!

As for my suggestions:

Wayne's World

Clueless

The entire Monty Python oeuvre

Seeing one or two of the That's Entertainment! series wouldn't hurt.

Some Kind of Wonderful, which I realize might be a repeat entry.

I had Rushmore, The Big Lebowski, and The Hudsucker Proxy on the list, but at the moment, they're really second- or even third-tier for mainstream stuff.

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2002

"Apocolypse Now" (i love the smell of napalm in the morning)

"The GodFather" (I & II)

The Wizard of Oz

Field of Dreams

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2002

What would you say if I said to you that I hadn't seen Evil Dead 2...yet?

I'd say I'm gonna kick your ass. From here, to right over there.

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2002

The Outsiders

Fame

Time Bandits

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2002

"Top Gun" "Dirty Dancing" "The Breakfast Club" "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" "Summer School"

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2002

"Animal House"

"Scarface"

"The Sixth Sense"

-- Anonymous, April 16, 2002

Oops, sorry for the "Animal House" repeat. I will replace it with "There's Something About Mary".

-- Anonymous, April 16, 2002

It pains me to mention anything even remotely associated with Keanu Reeves, but The Matrix should be included.

Also the entire Indiana Jones series. (Well, maybe not The Temple of Doom).

Sixteen Candles

Slacker

-- Anonymous, April 16, 2002

Grease and Grease 2.

-- Anonymous, April 16, 2002

Office Space.

-- Anonymous, April 16, 2002

The Princess Bride.

-- Anonymous, April 16, 2002

Which someone already said.

I feel so lame.

-- Anonymous, April 16, 2002

Wow. I am in big trouble here - I've seen maybe 1/10 of the titles listed. Where's that Blockbuster card??

Ooh, I have one: ET

-- Anonymous, April 16, 2002

Footloose

Forrest Gump

-- Anonymous, April 16, 2002

Meanwhile, Forrest Gump would be one of my entries for worst movie ever.

-- Anonymous, April 16, 2002

But you still have to have seen it to be in the Pop Culture mainstream.

In that spirit,Raising Arizona should be on the list as well, even though I have my documented Holly Hunter hatred.

-- Anonymous, April 16, 2002

And it is for that reason that I have seen it, though I grumbled and hissed through the whole thing. Its only virtue, in my view, is that it neatly divides Tom Hanks's career into two halves: The Good (Bosom Buddies, Splash, Big, etc.) Part and The Sucky (FG, You've Got Mail*, Crapaway, etc.) Part. The one bright spot in the latter half of his career has been Band Of Brothers, which I loved to little bitty bits.

Carrying on, so as not to totally derail the topic:

Charade

Rear Window

The Philadelphia Story

Mmmmm, Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart and costumes by Edith Head!

*Disclosure: You've Got Mail is a guilty pleasure of mine.

-- Anonymous, April 16, 2002

Two more, at least for guys

Major League

Hoosiers

-- Anonymous, April 17, 2002

Full Metal Jacket

What is your major malfunction?

-- Anonymous, April 17, 2002

Planet of the Apes - and not the stupid Marky Mark version, either.

-- Anonymous, April 18, 2002