My Top Ten John C. Reilly Movies 

Happy Belated Birthday to John C. Reilly, who turned 52 on Wednesday.

I dedicate this Top Ten to blogger Tom (aka Thomas J), who has done a lot of reviews of Reilly’s films. I apologize to you all as I’ve not been able to visit your blogs this year while I’ve had to cut way back on blogging but, when I did sometimes manage to comment on Tom’s John C. Reilly reviews (ages ago now), I believe my comment was usually “What? John C. Reilly was in this movie?!?“.

And in making this Top Ten, I realized that I indeed have no memory of Reilly being in half of the films of his that I’ve seen. So, for this list, I’m going to indicate after the title whether or not I remember John C. Reilly being in the film. Hopefully John doesn’t read my blog… It’s probably not much of a compliment to say I hardly ever notice him. Sorry, Mr. Reilly! You ARE Mister Cellophane, you know. 😉

Here are My Top Ten John C. Reilly Movies and whether or not I remember him being in them, counting down to my favorite film. Some of these are uncredited cameos (so you can’t blame me for forgetting him!). Here we go…

The Rest That I’ve Seen:

19. Cyrus – Yes
18. Nightwatch – No
17. Dark Water – No
16. Days Of Thunder – No
15. The Good Girl – Kind Of
14. Tenacious D In The Pick Of Destiny – No
13. Life After Beth – Haha. No, and it’s fairly recent! Shit, he’s even in a picture I used in my review…
12. The River Wild – No
11. Dolores Claiborne – No

TOP TEN:

10. Chicago
Do I remember John C. Reilly In This? Yes

9. Anger Management
Do I remember John C. Reilly In This? No

8. The Perfect Storm
Do I remember John C. Reilly In This? No

7. The Aviator
Do I remember John C. Reilly In This? No

6. Boogie Nights
Do I remember John C. Reilly In This? Yes

5. Magnolia
Do I remember John C. Reilly In This? Yes

4. Never Been Kissed
Do I remember John C. Reilly In This? Kind Of

3. What’s Eating Gilbert Grape
Do I remember John C. Reilly In This? Umm. Not really.

2. Wreck-It Ralph
Do I remember John C. Reilly In This? Yes

1. Guardians Of The Galaxy
Do I remember John C. Reilly In This? Yes

Saw But Don’t Remember The Movie, Let Alone Reilly:
Casualties Of War
The Hours

Some Of The Many I’ve Not Seen But Wasn’t Aware That He Was In Anyway Except For That One Where He’s The Only One On The Movie’s Poster & He’s Posing Like Jim Morrison:
We’re Not Angels, Hard Eight, The Thin Red Line, For Love Of The Game, Gangs Of New York, A Prairie Home Companion, Talladega Nights, Year Of The Dog, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, The Promotion, Step Brothers, 9, Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant, We Need To Talk About Kevin, The Dictator, Anchorman 2, When Marnie Was There, The Lobster, Sing, Kong: Skull Island

My Top Ten Movies With Song Title Titles


With these top ten lists that I do, the ideas often come to me while discussing movies/music/life in general with my hubby. With this one, it was the death of a singer on this list that got me thinking about movies that share their titles with song titles. And, boy, are there ever a lot of them!!!

I immediately thought of several but this time got a big helping hand online – I’d have forgotten about some obvious ones if I hadn’t gone searching. This seems to be a fairly popular topic! As always, though, this is my own personal top ten of my favorites as I often have different taste from a lot of people.

With this list, there are SO MANY movies named after songs (or vice versa) that I’ve had to make rules. So… don’t go telling me I’ve forgotten one of it doesn’t fit my criteria! 😉

  1. THE SONG HAD TO BE FIRST: The movie has to have come AFTER the existence of the song
  2. Songs written specifically for a movie don’t count (loads of songs are written for films & given the same name as the film’s title)
  3. Music movies don’t count (so, no musicals or Beatles films like Yellow Submarine or movies based on music people like What’s Love Got To Do With It – obviously these movies would have song title titles)
  4. The movie does NOT have to deliberately be named after the song (but it’s better when they are) and it doesn’t actually have to have the song in it (but it’s better when they do). Sometimes it’s a coincidence that a movie has a song title, sometimes it’s on purpose but the song isn’t used in the film (clearance rights, probably), and sometimes it’s named after a song and the song is used (like my number one – I prefer these).
  5. I have to have seen the movie. 

    Ha! Sorry… This one really needed rules for me to narrow it down to ten!

    So now, here are My Top Ten Movies With Song Title Titles (ranked according to how much I like the movie, not the song – but I’ll give my opinion on the song too):

    10. TIE: American Pie & Drive


    Song by: Don McLean & The Cars
    Is it named after the song? Pie, probably. Drive, definitely not.
    Is the song in the film? No
    Do I like the song? I like both but prefer Drive – I went through about a two-month phase of being a big Cars fan at the age of 17.

    9. Pretty In Pink


    Song by: The Psychedelic Furs
    Is it named after the song? Yes. As are many John Hughes movies…
    Is the song in the film? Yes, a re-recorded version
    Do I like the song? Yes

    8. Whip It


    Song by: Devo
    Is it named after the song? No
    Is the song in the film? No
    Do I like the song? Yes – I love Devo

    7. Some Kind Of Wonderful


    Song by: The Drifters & Soul Brothers Six
    Is it named after the song? Assume so but don’t know which one! 
    Is the song in the film? No
    Do I like the song? Totally different songs. I like the Soul Brothers Six one, which is the one I assume John Hughes liked??

    6. My Girl


    Song by: The Temptations
    Is it named after the song? Assume so
    Is the song in the film? Yes
    Do I like the song? Yes – it’s a great song!

    5. Can’t Buy Me Love


    Song by: The Beatles
    Is it named after the song? Must be
    Is the song in the film? Yes
    Do I like the song? It’s okay – I love The Beatles but it’s not one of my favorites

    4. Sixteen Candles


    Song by: The Crests 
    Is it named after the song? Yes
    Is the song in the film? A cover by The Stray Cats is
    Do I like the song? Not especially

    3. Dazed And Confused


    Song by: Led Zeppelin
    Is it named after the song? Not sure – Don’t think so
    Is the song in the film? No (the soundtrack is awesome, though)
    Do I like the song? It’s okay – they have other songs I prefer

    2. Pump Up The Volume


    Song by: M|A|R|R|S
    Is it named after the song? Unlikely
    Is the song in the film? No
    Do I like the song? Definitely 

    1. Stand By Me (as if my number one was going to be anything else!)


    Song by: Ben E. King (R.I.P.)
    Is it named after the song? Yes
    Is the song in the film? Yes
    Do I like the song? Love it. Like the film, it’s an all time classic.

    Honorable Mentions: (I just like the song with some of these)

    • Boogie Nights (Really like both the movie & Heatwave song)
    • Boys Don’t Cry (Good movie, LOVE The Cure song)
    • Just Like Heaven (Meh movie but, again, adore The Cure song. Witherspoon also ripped off Lynyrd Skynyrd for Sweet Home Alabama…)
    • Blue Velvet (Like the movie okay, loads of people have done the song. The most famous version by Bobby Vinton is good but totally not my type of thing)
    • Pretty Woman (Like the movie a bit more than I’d care to admit & the Roy Orbison song isn’t a favorite but is catchy as hell)
    • Take Me Home Tonight (Movie okay but I really like the Eddie Money song. As with Pretty Woman, I probably like Eddie Money more than I’d care to admit. Billy Squier too. Guilty pleasures! God I’m old & uncool…)
    • Babe (I don’t care about that stupid pig, but: Woohoo! Styx!)
    • Starman (sorry Carpenter fans but I keep falling asleep trying to finish this. I just use any excuse I can to get David Bowie into my posts. Great song!)
    • Lean On Me (Good movie & excellent Bill Withers song)
    • Running On Empty (I really need to re-watch this River Phoenix movie that shares its name with a really good Jackson Browne song)
    • Cars (the weakest Pixar films but I totally admit to liking the Gary Numan song)

    Look at Eddie Money’s beautifully feathered hair. Get that wind machine going!

    Put the needle on the record!