Five Favorite Films

Five Favourite Films with J. J. Abrams

The Star Trek director takes the captain's chair and talks space, John Ford and classic cinema.

by | April 27, 2009 | Comments

The blockbuster season is upon us and amongst the line-up is the highly anticipated reboot of Star Trek. RT spoke to the man in the captain’s chair, J. J. Abrams, about his galactic re-imagining of the great Trek franchise as well as the films that have inspired him.

Abrams made his name creating ratings gold on the small screen in the form of Felicty, Alias and the mind-bending Lost. His feature directorial debut came in 2006 with Mission: Impossible III and in 2008 he produced the film marketer’s dream, Cloverfield.

Today, J.J. Abrams talks to Rotten Tomatoes about the light and dark in the Star Trek universe and the challenges and freedoms provided by the scale of shooting in space.

We put him through the torture of selecting his top five favorite films right now. In doing so he produced a list that reveals a fan of great and classic cinema.

Check out the video interview or skip below for a pull-out of his five faves.


Jaws
(1975, 100% Tomatometer)



Jaws
Jaws is an undeniably great movie. Jaws is just one of the greatest movies ever. It’s on TV all the time. It is never not on television. They should just have a Jaws Network where they just show Jaws all the time because I would subscribe like crazy. The movie is just wonderful and the characters are so great. I am just in awe of that movie. I think that movie is spectacular.


Philadelphia Story
(1940, 100% Tomatometer)



Philadelphia Story
Brilliant dialogue and even better chemistry.


Star Wars
(1977, 95% Tomatometer)



Star Wars
I can’t understand why that would not be on the list…


Tootsie

(1982, 87% Tomatometer)

 

TootsieThings come to mind and this sounds nuts but Tootsie. It is as preposterous premise as they come and yet you completely believe it is real and happening.


Rear Window (1954, 100%)



Rear Window
And maybe that is just because when Grace Kelly goes to kiss Jimmy Stewart that first time it was just one of those things where it is the best special effect in the history of time


If you are as excited about the reboot as we are, and want to get your Trekkie credentials up to date, join Editor, Tim Ryan, for Trekking With Tim. He will boldly take you on his journey through time as he visits every Star Trek film in the franchise leading up to the reboot.