The Holy Trinity

While over at Sara and Edwin's apartment celebrating their brand new engagement (congratulations guys!), we started talking about the Final Destination movies, which had been on TV earlier in the week. "You just can't not watch," Sara said, pointing out that they'd even paused their DVR so as to go out and get dinner and resume watching once they returned. And trust me, I know this feeling. The Final Destination movies are by no means technically high quality films. I don't know that anyone would argue otherwise. And yet, anytime I'm cruising through the channel guide and notice that one of them is on USA or FX or some other cable network, I can't help it, I'm done looking. Final Destination will be playing on my TV until the last character has been chopped in half with rogue guitar strings. It is, for better or for worse, one of my Holy Trilogies.

Another Holy Trilogy, of which I am even less ashamed than the FD movies, is The Mighty Ducks. Who in our age group doesn't have gloriously carefree memories of Emilio Estevez's Gordon Bombay shaping up a band of rag-tag hockey brats and becoming a better man in the process, not to mention "quacking" Mr. Ducksworth? And what could top the first film than the cinematic masterpiece known as D2: The Mighty Ducks? It is a testament to the brilliance of the first two films that it still ranks as a Holy Trilogy in spite of the atrocities committed by the third, D3. The Ducks Go To College (and it wasn't even college, was it? Just a boarding school, because apparently Ducks never age, either) isn't a film I'll watch repeatedly-- except, y'know, on a Sunday afternoon, when the pickin's are especially slim. But it's hard to deny the appeal of one of these classic hockey underdog films. And I don't think I have to point out that they all star the young Mr. Pacey Witter, which scores bonus points in any Dawson's Creek fan's heart. Oh, Pacey. Swoonworthy even at 14.

I'll limit this list to a trilogy of trilogies, and so my final pick is one that I think any film fan can agree upon. It has it all-- action, romance, hovering skateboards and Huey Lewis & the News. That's right, I'm talking about Back To The Future. This time, it's not just the third lackluster installment (the wild, wild West? Please.) that has to be made up for-- Back To The Future, Part II may have a bit of childhood charm, but the first movie really carries this trilogy. The film's even been invoked in presidential addresses. It's timeless, I'm tellin' ya.

Other trilogies will come and go in my eyes--the original Star Wars three are pretty great, and Lord of the Rings, blah blah blah, whatever. But give me Devon Sawa & Ali Larter, Pacey Witter & Emilio and Marty McFly & Huey Lewis and I will have a 9-movie marathon of pure awesome.