The Best Movies From Each State: California
The results from the fifth installment of my totally normal and not insane 51 week study of the top three movies from each state are IN. Remember everyone got three votes, so the percentages reflect how many times they appeared on every individual vote. For the Golden State, this is what y’all chose.
6. Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Yes, I wanted to post the pool scene but I’m not trying to get in trouble. Fast Times is a classic coming-of-age movie and definitely has a very Cali vibe to it. Spicoli is a quintessential stoner character that became the archetype for a ton of high school movies that came after this as well. Also a great 80’s soundtrack:
5. Point Break
Oh hell yea, I’m just mad this didn’t place higher. Johnny Utah is an all-time cop character that would for certain be in my personal Mount Rushmore, and Bodhi is one of the best 3D bad guys. Especially considering that era of action movies where bad guys were singularly evil.
4. Back to the Future
Always a virtual lock to place, ‘Back to the Future’ is one of the best science fiction movies ever that seamlessly weaved in coming-of-age and humor elements to make it more mainstream. Hill Valley, CA, is definitely one of the more recognizable fictional towns as well. What’s Crispin Glover been up to, man? Loved him in ‘Hot Tub Time Machine’.
3. Training Day
“I run shit here, you just live here!” Such an outstanding rant, ‘Training Day’ is a defining LA movie. The first of the Antoine Fuqua/Denzel Washington team up movies (The Equalizer, The Magnificent 7), it was a insanely well paced story with incredible action, suspense and dialogue.
2. The Big Lebowski
The Dude abides. One of the best Coen brothers movies, ‘The Big Lebowski’ is one of the more intricate and funny stories ever put to screen. It’s infinitely quotable and has a heavy dose of California influence. I hate even talking about it because I had to stop what I was doing and watch every single clip from it I could find from it on YouTube.
1. Pulp Fiction
It’s still my favorite Quentin Tarantino movie and for good reason. It’s such a mysterious and deranged story, and the dialogue is obviously quotable to an extreme degree. There’s a ton of Cali influence throughout the entire movie, which is why I’m not surprised it gets the number one spot.
Here’s the breakdown:
I will say I definitely expected both ‘L.A. Confidential’ and ‘La La Land’ to place higher. This was such a loaded poll, though, so its not outrageous or anything. I will note that ‘Pulp Fiction’ was about 10 points behind ‘The Big Lebowski’ until around Friday, where there was a huge swing. Anyway, we’re on to The Centennial State, Colorado. Google automated some solid choices for the big ass square territory, and I’d be shocked if ‘The Shining’ doesn’t win. If the embedded form doesn’t work on your device, click here.
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