NFL player Gary Barnidge, who plays tight end for the Cleveland Browns, has been a fan of movies and automobiles since a young age. While not playing football, Barnidge has a non-profit organization named American Football Without Barriers (AFWB). The organization travels to other countries and puts on free football camps for kids. While there, the group also visits orphanages.

Everyone loves movies. When I was younger, I didn’t watch a lot of movies, but the first time I watched The Goonies at the age of 10, I was instantly hooked. Over time, movies developed into more than just something I liked to watch. I started watching more and more movies — older as well as newer movies, such as Cool Hand Luke, Casablanca and the original Frankenstein.

The more I watched, the more I started critiquing them and giving my own opinions. I started to watch the Siskel & Ebert reviews and read other people’s reviews and I would think to myself how great of a job would that be. So here’s my chance.

 

Here are my Top 10 automotive-related movies:

1. Drive – When your main character doesn’t say much in a film, you don’t expect much, but I think that just helps to make this movie what it is. Ryan Gosling puts on an amazing performance trying to help out someone who needs it.
2. The Cannonball Run – Most people reading this probably haven’t seen this early ’80s movie, but it features a great cast of nowadays stars in an illegal cross-country race. It may not be some people’s idea of a great car movie, but it has one of my dream cars in it – a Lamborghini.
3. Christine – I can’t have a list of car movies without at least one horror movie, and that has to be Stephen King’s wonderful Christine. The movie is about a crazed Plymouth Fury that won’t stop killing. If you like horror and cars, this is definitely one worth checking out.
4. Rush – A new film that is definitely worth seeing that explores the tense rivalry between two Formula One drivers — James Hunt and Niki Lauda. Great performances by the two stars of the film. This one is based on a true story.
5. American Graffiti – A great film from the early ’70s, directed by George Lucas with a great cast. The movie was about spending the last night on the town before going to college. It features another car – a T-bird – as a main focal point of movie that I would love to have, but isn’t made anymore.
6. Gone in 60 Seconds (2000) – How can you not like a film about someone having to steal 50 rare and exclusive cars in a short amount of time to save someone they love? Beautiful cars throughout the whole film, and it hurt me to see some of them destroyed.
7. Cars – I know it’s an animated film, but everyone young and old can like this movie with the way it represents the different style of cars, and the story is pretty cool as well. Definitely worth seeing, and a movie you can watch with your kids (or nieces and nephews) and still enjoy it.
8. Bullitt – A Steve McQueen film had to be on the list, and there were two movies that I could have chosen – Bullitt or Le Mans – but I picked Bullitt because it has a car chase scene that could still be arguably one of the best of all time. And, it was done without the help of tons of computer-generated imagery.
9. The Fast and the Furious – The first of the now seven movies that brought street racing back into the limelight. A movie filled with modded and beautifully made cars, tons of racing, action and crashes.
10. Smokey and the Bandit – The last on the list is in my eyes one of the top movies Burt Reynolds starred in. The movie is similar to the Dukes of Hazzard, but that is probably because Dukes came after the Bandit made his journey. So, some of the influences probably came from Burt’s classic.