Let's start off with an easy one. Casino. I saw this before I actually saw Goodfellas if you would credit that, but this movie plunged me head first into a love affair with gangster films and wow, was this film damn good. A 3 hour epic but hard not to miss.

Goofellas

Obviously the prelude to Casino, but I saw them back to front. I was only 10 years old when this one first came out so there was no way I was seeing that one. Not if my parents could help it. But like Casino, this one was a 3 hour epic about the Italian mafia in the US. Lots of good stuff and harrowing stuff in this film.

Shutter Island

You think you know what's happening in this film, but you really don't. It's a crazy one, and one that has your mind boggled for most of it, who is he trying to find? Why is everything so strange? What are the staff trying to keep from him? And who is that strange woman in the cave. I love this film because I understand this type of psychiatric hospital and what they are trying to achieve.

Forest Gump

Ah, one of my all time favourites. A lot of people give Jenny a lot of flack for being a horrible friend and later girlfriend, but we often forget about the hard life she had and that forest's life wasn't as simple either - in life things aren't as easy as they seem. That's what I loved most about this film, the complexity of life and how true and loyal forest stayed to his friends.

The Shawshank Redemption

Absolutely hate that a man like this would waste 20 years of his life, but wow this is a film about overcoming all the odds and carving out an amazing life for yourself. Touching people in a positive way and changing their life for the better even when in prison. This is probably one of the best films with a clear cut message about life I've ever seen.

and last but not least:

Braveheart

Widely criticised for being crazily historically inaccurate (and it was) it was still one of the best films I've ever seen if you can take it for what it is -- a nice historical romance. This has got it all in it: greed, envy, hate, retribution, love, death, if you ever wants to see a film that can take you through every emotion you could experience it would be this film.