This is the last Reel Releases column I will write for The Augusta Chronicle. The column, which began in a slightly different format while I was in college, has always been one of my favorites. It allowed me the opportunity to indulge my deep and abiding love for film and satiated my endless jones for lists.

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Each list of five was constructed following three rules:I had to have seen the movie; I had to be able to recommend something about the film; and it couldn't be a new release.

This week I'm presenting the column I had always intended to be the finale: What are my favorite movies? Here are the top five. Thanks for sticking with me all these years.

RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981): Behold the template for the contemporary action film. Although clearly inspired by the serial cliff-hangers of the 1930s, this kinetic masterpiece has inspired the look, rhythm and sensibility of every action film that followed. But that's not why I love it. I love it because it's a complete original and still leaves me pining for a fedora and whip to call my own.

TOUCH OF EVIL (1958): Lauding Citizen Kane as director Orson Welles' masterpiece is accepted as a given, but I much prefer the smart cynicism of Evil. The film has flaws (the most notable casting Charlton Heston as a Mexican lawman), but those flaws, wrapped in the genius of Welles, make the movie that much more endearing. It's worth checking out simply for the epic tracking shot that opens the film.

BOOGIE NIGHTS (1997): I remember watching this film in the theater and considering the possibility of its director being a movie master along the lines of Stanley Kubrick. I stand by that assertion. Although Paul Thomas Anderson is anything but prolific, his films are always interesting, intriguing and true art. My wife believes my affection for this film stems from it being "slow, long and a little raunchy." She could be right.

THE WILD BUNCH (1969): Though this American classic is a Western, it's about much more than outlaws and lawmen. It's about the disappearing West and morality and mortality. It's about man's unique ability to acknowledge and ignore wisdom. Most significant, however, it's an incredibly violent film designed to warn audiences of the perils, both immediate and tangential, of living a violent life.

DR. STRANGELOVE OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB (1964): This, for me, is No. 1, the movie I can watch anytime, anyplace. I consider it as close to perfect as a film can get. Kubrick, the modern master of significant cinema, balanced comedy and suspense and drama and action, and he made it seem effortless. It's also incredibly beautiful. I might watch it tonight.

The rest of my Top 10: Alien (1979), King Kong (1933), Crumb (1994), Blue Velvet (1986) and It Happened One Night (1934).