10 best.... WARNING SPOILERS

It seems like everyone does these and some lists of the 10 <15, 25, whatever> best are good and some are bad. Recently Entertainment Weekly did a list of the 25 best tearjerker moments in cinema----- so lo and behold I felt the need to knock a few of those out of the way. Hopefully this causes a lot lest strife than the last post:

Top 10 Tear Jerking moments in film :

1. Top Gun - This entire movie fits the 80's very well. Its macho and cheesy as hell. But this gets a sucker punch to the pastel colored balls when every man's favorite side kick Goose dies when the plan him and Maverick are in goes into a flat spin and they are forced to eject. Goose shoots right up into the ejected canopy of the F14 and dies. Saddest macho moment....

2. Rudy - I have seen this movie bring room full of men to tears. The one moment is when Rudy final takes the field as a football player for Norte Dame. The buildup to this moment is what makes its a memorable one. He is told he isn't good enough, he sacrifices his dream to start a life, loses best friend in an accident, goes to community college, works at the ND stadium, finally gets accepted to the school, gets onto the practice squad, earns a spot on the team, and after his team mates threaten to walk over Rudy not being able to dress for his final game gets to dress. Then in the final moments of the game when the crowd begins it's iconic chant for Rudy, the music swells, Rudy takes the field, and then sacks the opposing QB --- his only recorded stat at ND ever, and gets carried off the field.

3. Schindler's List - The entire movies could easily fall under this category. For me though, the moment that stuck out the most, is when Schindler realizes the girl in the red coat has fallen victim to the Nazi Regime.

4. Saving Private Ryan - The final 15 minutes. The squad holds down the German bridge against overwhelming odds. In some of the grittiest cinematography I have ever scene, this moment plays out in bold realism as the fight boils down to Tom Hanks firing his pistol at a tank, when he is already mortally wounded and his entire squad is dead, save for Ryan and the coward. Then the film forwards in time to Ryan kneeling besides the grave of Tom Hanks at Normandy beach, in tears, coming to terms with the events of the film.

5. Steel Magnolias - I'm not a big chick flick fan myself but occasionally one comes along that is futile to ignore. This one has an impressive cast that includes Dolly Parton, Olympia Dukakis, Sally Field, Julia Roberts, Daryl Hannah to name a few. So the scene is that the daughter of Sally Field, played by Julia Roberts, had died after sub cumming to diabetes. All of the women are with Sally as they are at the funeral and Malinda (Sally Fields) comes mentally undone as she has to bury her own child. It is a memorable and moving scene seeing the mother go through such a thing which is only elevated by the stellar performances by the women. And in a moment of sheer brilliance the sadness is dashed when Olympia Dukakis shoves Wheezer at Malinda and tells her "slug her, punch her lights out."

6. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan - Say what you want but the funeral scene after Spock goes out like a pimp and sacrifices himself to save the ship moves even the most stoic of nerds to tears. "Of all the souls i have met on this journey, his is the most......human."

7. Gettysburg - The entire sequence in which the Southern travels a mile over open ground into union fire from three sides, gets massacred, and limps back to base.

8. Armageddon - Ok, this movie is not the greatest in terms of plot and you won't see it on any Oscar lists in this lifetime. But it's a Michael Bay movie, so you shouldn't have been expecting any of that anyway. The moment for me in this film isn't the part where Harry sacrifices himself so that he can not only save humanity, but his friend AJ so he can marry his daughter. It's not even the scene where Grace says a teary good bye to her father Harry as he tells her he loves her and will always be with her over the satellite. For me it is the moment after the surviving crew members return home and everyone meets on the tarmac. Here you see the son of Chick run up to him to hug him. This stands out cause earlier in the film Chick tried to visit his son and was met by his ex-wife who told him not to come around and told the son that Chick was a salesman. Then that is followed up by AJ giving Truman the mission patch that Harry gave him before he died and the missing man formation that flies overhead.

9. Glory - Denzel Washington, Matthew Broderick, Morgan Freeman, Cary Elwes, and Andre Braugher. This impressive cast tells the story of the 54th Mass Regiment of the Northern Army during the Civil War, the first all black regiment. This brilliant and gripping epic concludes when the 54th takes the lead on the assault on Fort Wagner. Bravely charging straight into enemy cannon fire, they make it all the way inside untill they are overwhelmed by enemy forces and all men are killed. The moment hits home when the movie shows the Confederate soldiers burying the men in a mass grave and the limp bodies tumble over each other and the movie states that the Fort was never taken.

10. Rocky Balboa - The classic underdog story is back when the Italian Stallion tries to prove he is not some old dog waiting to be put down and agrees to fight in one last match against the current raining champion. After a long and arduous struggle the match ends and much like the first one, Rocky's opponent is declared the winner despite the crowd clearly leaning in Rocky's corner.