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When you think of France, what comes to mind? Great food and wine?  Absolument. Romance? Mais oui. Culture? Bien sur!

I’ve always appreciated how movies set on liners recreate a bygone era when travel could be calm and civilized. Other boat films may take us on-board a luxurious yacht, or show man pitted against the biggest and cruelest natural force on earth: the sea.

What makes a movie cool? Perhaps the better question might be: what is cool? To introduce our list of coolest movies, it seemed like a good idea to start by defining, well, coolness.

Africa is one of those wild, mysterious places I’ve never visited. Honestly, I’m a bit hesitant to go. I’m not one of those people who thrills at the idea of being ten feet away from a deadly animal. I’m not big on roughing it in general.

Horror may be the only genre of film that some people categorically can’t watch. I’ve met quite a few people, mostly women, who admit to this sad condition. They simply don’t like being scared, and a really good horror movie can transform them into nervous wrecks for weeks. I’m in fact married to such a person. Two things I wish we could do together that we can’t: eat sushi and watch horror movies.

With this precious gift of leisure time, Mom is likely to want to do one thing: zone out. Here’s our list of movies that will take the chief engineer of Christmas away from the belly of the ship and up onto the Lido Deck for a while.

With families brought together for the holidays, we’re naturally drawn to evergreen movies that light up a room, the house, and the season, their very familiarity part of the aura of comfort and joy. These movies are the favorites we love to gather around, which only get better with repeat viewings.

This time of year, it’s wonderful to spend time with loved ones we don’t often get to see, both friends and family. This welcome scenario still involves an unusual amount of “interrelating,” since there’s always so much catching up to do. To get a respite from all that stimulating talk, nothing beats a great, crowd-pleasing movie.

When the kids are home from college, it’s a prime opportunity to sit them down and turn them on to movies that not only appeal to their developing intellects and identities, but give parents and their maturing offspring a whole lot to talk about.