Finally, after four years of writing for this newspaper, they finally gave me a story about something I’m actually an expert on: watching a motion picture while doing absolutely nothing productive.

In all seriousness, the title of “classic” is given out way too much these days when it comes to movies. Nowadays it seems as if somebody enjoys a movie and labels it as one of the greatest flicks of all time. There are no participation trophies given out here, though. Only true great movies get the label. From the years 2000-2007 there are plenty of candidates, but only a select few get enshrined into the movie hall of fame.

Essentially there are two schools of thought in truly making a movie a classic. One is familiarity, or how many people recognize a movie as great. After all, you can make a perfect movie from a technical aspect, but if nobody enjoys it, the film becomes obsolete. The other is a masterpiece of a movie. The ones that you may not sit around with a group of friends to watch, but you can’t deny it’s so well shot that it is on your queue for a night of Netflix and Chill featuring me, myself and I.

Y’all know my gimmick by now, though. I definitely enjoy movies from the former school of thought over the latter. Still, the expectations are steep and requirements must be met for me to give a flick the stamp of approval.

First and foremost, it has to have memorable scenes. I may be stating the obvious, but it’s important to think about really how many scenes you can quote from a movie. I mean, how many can you say verbatim?

After that, we move on to the soundtrack. The movie has to have songs that get you excited. Bonus points if you think of a movie because of a song.

Lastly, it has to have a significant impact on the future of films. This is the most important. If a movie is good, but they don’t create a lasting impact, then it’s simply a one-off.

Okay, everyone breathe. The debate is about to go down, but I have the floor. So without further ado, here are my “classics” from 2000-2007.

Shrek: “All-Star” by Smashmouth. Do I need to say more? The movie gives us many memorable quotes about donkeys making waffles and ogres with layers. Smashmouth fits the early 2000 vibe perfectly, and on top of all that Shrek is important because it put Dreamworks Animations on the map for a generation. Disney’s Pixar wasn’t the only cool animator on the block anymore.

The Lord of The Rings: Remember when movies about hobbits or elves were lame? These movies completely rectified that. Nerdy characters in the past became incredible badasses that seemed cool for everyone. Plus the amount of just flat out cool scenes earns it a spot on this list on its own.

High School Musical: Right. So you might be rolling your eyes on this one. No, it’s not the greatest acting in the world, but this movie has more impact than you think. Look at the careers of Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens and Ashley Tisdale. All of them, especially Efron, have reached some success. It’s all thanks to this movie. Also, if you tell me you don’t turn the volume up to 11 and sing along to “Breaking Free” you’re just a liar and deserve all the bad things to happen to you.

Harry Potter: At first I wasn’t a big fan of Harry Potter, but I realize now how important these movies are. Wizards are cool, tell anyone in the 80’s that and they’ll think you were one of the people Nancy Reagan was targeting in her “Just Say No” campaign. It was thanks to this and Lord of the Rings that a new generation of movies focusing on magic, wizards and elves became mainstream and the number of memorable scenes present are so abundant it’s almost like you could write books about them (thank you I’ll be here all week).

[media-credit id=11 align=”alignleft” width=”208″][/media-credit]

Gladiator: Cool scene after cool scene after cool scene. Russell Crowe is amazing in this movie and I still hear guys quote this movie. It’s even a meme, guys. There’s a meme out there based on a Russell Crowe movie. This movie is awesome.

White Chicks: We can just agree to give this movie the title of classic because of one scene, right? I honestly believe heaven is just Terry Crews singing “A Thousand Miles” to me over and over again. That song is paired with the movie forever. Almost every scene in that movie is a classic too. If there was one movie I would put my money on college students could quote from start to end, it would be this one.

Mean Girls: To many this is the classic movie. Memorable scenes just seem to be on rapid fire and this is a movie you absolutely have at least been forced to watch. This is the cream of the crop. I guess you could say this movie is…fetch.