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Michael Caine has been a lot of things to a lot of people. To the ladies of “Alfie” (1966), he’s the conflicted bad boy they’ve both dreamed of and dreaded, the working-class womanizer who broke all the rules (including kicking down the 4th wall to talk directly to the audience). He’s a British super agent in “The Ipcress File” (1965), and the scientists he saves are glad to have a “thinking man’s James Bond” on the scene. He’s been an alcoholic English professor (1983’s “Educating Rita”) and a stout British soldier standing up to wave after wave of Zulu warriors (1964’s “Zulu”). He’s one of the most universally beloved actors of his generation, a charismatic talent that steals nearly every scene he’s in. 

The topic today is old age — not always the most popular subject, particularly in Hollywood, land of botox, face lifts, and tummy tucks. Still, its universality is worth exploring, because let's face it: unless you chop your head off and stick it in a freezer like Walt Disney and Ted Williams, you won't be around in 100 years.   One movie that explores this theme with uncommon sensitivity is the multiple-Oscar nominee, “Nebraska.” Although this year’s Oscar for Best Actor went to Matthew McConaughey for his performance in “Dallas Buyer’s Club,” and although we’re fans of his since he graduated from projects like “Failure to Launch” and “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past,” we were pulling for Bruce to win. His fearless performance in “Nebraska” was unflinchingly honest, as was the movie itself. Sometimes the Academy will give its prized statuette to a veteran actor as a way to pay tribute not just to one performance, but a whole career. Such was clearly the case in 1970, and 1982, when John Wayne and Henry Fonda won for (respectively) “True Grit” and “On Golden Pond.” Though they’d both been previously nominated twice, neither star had taken home the golden statue.

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.

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.

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.

The cinema has given us many great gangster films, showcasing some of the nastiest, shiftiest, most venal criminals in the world. On paper, their deeds are rotten, maybe even murderous, putting innocent people at risk and defying the forces of law and order.  Yet very often, you still sympathize with these characters; you may even root for them. After all, usually their backs are up against the wall. You sense that poverty and dysfunction placed them on the wrong side of society. Born into the right circumstances, they coulda been contenders. You glimpse a trace of honor, even goodness in them. Whenever there’s talk of the greatest films ever made, gangster pictures always figure in. You know the usual suspects, but we’ve rounded up ten of varying ages that we think are... well, for the ages.

An opening scene of a movie is like a cinematic thermometer. You take a movie’s temperature by that first scene. It holds you, intrigues you, grabs you — or it doesn’t. Though it’s true that plenty of great movies take their time building up our involvement, obviously they can’t take too long. Then there are those others that start off with a bang. It’s this latter group we’re celebrating today. Here are fifteen of our favorite movie openers, covering seven decades of filmmaking: