Leonard Maltin's Favorite Movies

This year marks Leonard Maltin's 25th as "Entertainment Tonight's" movie critic, and he has seen almost everything the last quarter of a century has to offer as far as film is concerned.

For such a successful career, it's one Maltin stumbled upon.

"I was a writer, a film buff and writer," he said. "I was very lucky. I got published when I was 13 years old. Had my first article published. So I was a precocious young writer about movies. I never really thought about being on television, never aspired to a career. One day the phone rang. That's pretty much my story."

The first movie he reviewed was "E.T.," a movie he said he has never fallen out of love with. He says it was the best movie of 1982.

"The Oscar voters gave their best picture award to 'Gandhi' that year, which was a perfectly good, respectable movie," he said. "But no one talks about 'Gandhi' much anymore and everyone (is) still talking about 'E.T.' "

Maltin has not always agreed with the Academy of Motion Pictures and says he picks movies based on his gut.

"I look for something original, something that doesn't bore me, something that seems fresh, something that does what it says it's going to do," he said. "I don't judge a horror movie the same way I judge 'Henry V,' or vice versa. Is the movie delivering on its promise?"

Since he began at "Entertainment Tonight," Maltin said that movies have become bigger and dominated by a multimillion-dollar franchise, which doesn't necessarily mean the movies will be better.

"I mean, everybody's so bought into the idea of these blockbusters, 'Spider-Man 3,' 'Pirates 3' and all of that that, it almost doesn't matter if the film's any good," he said. "It becomes an event, and everybody's gotta go. Well, did you like it? Was it as good as it should have been? Did you get your money's worth? Once you pay for it, you can't — it doesn't matter to the studios whether you liked it or not."

"Casablanca" is Maltin's favorite movie, and "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" is perhaps his least favorite.

"The story is confusing, boring at times," Maltin said. "Sure there's special effects and the actors are fun to watch, but what are they doing there? Even they admitted in the interviews they didn't know what they were doing a lot of the time. They were confused."

Even though the movie has made $400 million worldwide in six days, Maltin says he sticks to his guns.

"I change my opinion sometime. I'm only human. I do make mistakes," he said. "I do re-evaluate some things. But if I'm sitting there and squirming in my seat, that's not good."

Of current movies, he recommends "Waitress" with Keri Russell and "Knocked Up," which opens Friday.

"Just an absolutely fresh, funny — really deep-down funny — movie that will make you laugh out loud," he said. "A little raunchier than I might like, but it also has a heart and it's got a brain and it's about sort of low-life guys, like the one Seth Rogan plays, but a very smart movie."

These are the films that moved Maltin and linger in his memory.

1982: "E.T. the Extra Terrestrial"
1983: "Terms of Endearment"
1984: "The Killing Fields"
1985: "Prizzi's Honor"
1986: "Hannah and Her Sisters"
1987: "Moonstruck"
1988: "The Unbearable Lightness of Being"
1989: "Glory"
1990: "Dances With Wolves"
1991: "The Commitments"
1992: "Howards End"
1993: "King of the Hill"
1994: "Pulp Fiction"
1995: "Braveheart"
1996: "Fargo"
1997: "As Good As It Gets"
1998: "Shakespeare in Love"
1999: "The Sixth Sense"
2000: "Croupier"
2001: "Songcatcher"
2002: "Adaptation"
2003: "The Barbarian Invasions"
2004: "The Motorcycle Diaries"
2005: "Brothers"
2006: "Little Children"

For more on Leonard's favorite movies, visit his Web site, Movie Crazy.