Recommended Movies & TV Shows

Set during the housing crisis, Dennis Nash loses his construction job and is not paid for his last two weeks of work. Not able to find another job, and since he was living paycheck to paycheck, he ended up having his house foreclosed on. This movie gives an interesting insight into the world of foreclosures. Some people are getting rich while others are watching their lives implode on themselves. A good point made in the movie is to not get emotionally attached to real estate. Another point is that money earned dishonestly leads to an emptiness that can make the money not feel worth it. More info on 99 Homes.

Jack McCall is a literary agent who is self-described as “being able to talk anyone into anything.” After attempting to promote a spiritual guru’s book (which he hadn’t either read or seen!) he finds that he is connected with a tree and every word he speaks causes the tree to lose a leaf. This is an entertaining movie where we see someone learn that words have consequences. More info about A Thousand Words.

Dave Buznik gets sentenced to anger management classes even though he didn’t act out in anger! In the course of the movie, we learn that he really does have anger issues that he has become an expert at repressing. His instructor has some unusual methods of bringing out Dave’s problems so they can be worked on. More info about Anger Management.

JC Wiatt is a professional woman who is working hard to climb the corporate ladder at a New York City management consultant firm. She is being eyed for advancement to partner, but one of the partners is hesitant because she is a woman. Suddenly, she receives a baby as an inheritance and that turns her world upside down! After being forced out of her job, she moves to rural Vermont where is also not used to small town living. To make ends meet, she starts selling the extra baby food that she made for her adopted daughter. This is a good movie about getting outside of your comfort zone. More info on Baby Boom.

The true(ish) story of Dave Fishwick and the challenges he had starting Burnley Savings and Loans, which had the slogan “Bank on Dave” posted on the front of the bank. This was the first bank started in the UK in over 150 years! He wanted to establish the bank to help the local community that the other banks did not want to help, yet the big banks were losing money. More info on Bank of Dave.

Elliot Richards, a guy with poor social skills, wants to date a gal who he thinks is out of his league. He makes a pact with the devil that he can get wishes. This movie is great at covering the concept that we need to be specific in what we ask for. If we are not specific, how will the Universe know what to send to us, and how will we know if we got what we really wanted? More info about Bedazzled.

This movie is based on the events leading up to the 2008 economic crisis. It’s amazing to learn about some of the stuff that happens and the things that are ignored. If you want to learn about the crisis, this is the movie to watch. You will also learn about how economics work on Wall Street. More info about The Big Short.

The Bio-Dome was an environmental experiment to see if people could live for a whole year in a completely self-contained environment. Two idiots stop at the Bio-Dome thinking it is a mall – they just needed to use the bathroom. They inadvertently end up getting locked inside the Bio-Dome with the scientists. Chaos ensures. The lesson we can learn from this movie is that sometimes things don’t go as planned. When that happens, we need to take responsibility for the mess and then get to work fixing that mess. More info on Bio-Dome.

Jamal prides himself as a “low profile” worker, who is mostly interested in himself. He accidentally finds himself transported to 14^th century England. He has to make it us as he goes and calls himself a messenger and a jester. The king thought that was an odd combination, but Jamal made it work. Jamal is just being himself, and with him acting as his authentic self, things tend to work out for him in a rather chaotic, blundering way. His adventure taught him the value of having courage, honor, and got him to focus on others. More inf on Black Knight.

A comedy about a guy who is fumbling his way through life going from job to job in an unusual way… Alphabetically! There are some people out there who are going through life taking whatever job the can with no real plan in place. Enjoy watching Bob grow and become better in this movie. More info on Bob the Butler.

Braveheart is the story of William Wallace and how he led the Scottish against the British. He did not seek to become a leader, although he was brave enough to stand up and accept the role of leadership. This is a great movie about what a leader can do when he really puts his heart into what he believes in. More info about Braveheart.

A minor league baseball player is the sole heir of his uncle’s vast fortune. His uncle wants to make sure that Montgomery Brewster won’t waste the fortune has a stipulation: $30 Million must be spent in 30 days with nothing to show for it. He also cannot tell anyone why he is spending the money so fast! He learns that there is more to life than just money. More info about Brewster’s Millions.

Bruce is a reporter for a TV station. He is not happy with his life and in frustration yells out to the Universe that he could do a better job than God is doing. He gets the opportunity to fill in for God. The job is not as easy as he first thought it would be. He learns a lot about himself and life in the process. More info about Bruce Almighty.

Two cancer patients meet as roommates in a shared hospital room. One of them resurrects his bucket list that he started as a young man, yet never accomplished. The two of them set out on a journey the included sky diving and a trip around the world. When we are young, it can see as if we will live forever. Creating a bucket list for ourselves can remind us to accomplish things, find adventure, and most importantly live life to its fullest. More info about The Bucket List.

Based on the true story of Frank Abagnale. When he was finally caught, he was considered to be the most daring con men in US history – and he was only 19! Watching movies about criminals can show us what to watch for to protect ourselves from criminals. We can also learn how criminals operate so that we can make it a point to not act in ways that could look suspicious (even though we are not doing anything wrong!). More info on Catch Me If You Can.

Marcus is an assistant basketball coach who is struggling. He gets a DUI and is sentenced to 90 days of community service as a basketball coach for a community basketball team with mental disabilities. He does his best to teach them basketball and, in the process, he learns a lot from them. More info about Champions.

Based on a true story. Coach Carter started off coaching the Richmond High School basketball team by having the boys sign a contract between him and each boy. He managed to instill in the players that they were a team and that they won or lost as a group effort. As a result, they really become a team. Enforcing the contracts with the players lead to the team being locked out by Coach Carter. His toughness was not actually about basketball – it was about giving his players a chance at life! More info about Coach Carter.

An interesting movie about a fictional social media platform. Mae manages to land her dream job there only to realize that she is not as interested in being connected as the company would like. A thought-provoking question is brought up about people behaving better if they know they are being watched. Also, is complete transparency as great as we are told, or are there benefits to privacy in our lives? Is it easier to ask someone to be transparent than it is for us to agree to being transparent ourselves? More info on The Circle.

Three middle age best friends who live in New York City go on annual trips to live life. One year they go to the Running of the Bulls in Spain. This time, they are going on an old-fashioned cattle drive in the American West. They did not expect the trail boss to be as tough as nails, which actually scared them. Mitch feels trapped in his job and while on the cattle drive he finds a new perspective on life. More info about City Slickers.

An architect comes to possess a special remote that gives him the ability to control life. He uses the remote in ways to avoid the unenjoyable parts of life. Over time, he finds himself using the remote more and more. Eventually, he finds that he has missed a lot of life. We won’t enjoy everything in our life. That is a part of life is a part of life, and we need to learn to appreciate all parts of our lives. More info about Click.

Cool Runnings is based on the story of the Jamaican bobsled team. Derice unfortunately does not qualify for the Olympics in the 100-meter dash. Devasted, he hears about a guy that wanted to send a Jamaican bobsled team to the Olympics 20 years earlier. Some of the takeaways from this movie are (1) If you pursue your dream, it can become a reality – it just may look different than you first imagined. (2) Your dream may come to you decades later. (3) When you can learn to stand up for yourself you can gain respect. (4) If winning becomes your life, you have to keep on winning. (5) Don’t let someone tell you that you can’t do something. And (6) Finish what you came to do – even if you have to drag yourself across the finish line. More info on Cool Runnings.

The movie revolves around a group of police officers who make a covenant to be better husbands, fathers, and men. This is a great movie about standing up for what is right and creating intentional relationships. More info about Courageous.

This movie shows how there is quite a difference in the standards of living of people. In the movie there is the common person, the well-off, the rich, and then the super rich. An interesting takeaway from the movie is that sometimes we don’t know who has money and who doesn’t. Some people don’t want to show off their wealth, and there are others who married into money and can be cut off. More info about Crazy Rich Asians.

This cartoon about a family of cavemen is both entertaining and teaches some great lessons. The dad requires his family to follow the rules of survival, although they are based in fear of change. Anything new is bad! They meet a young man named Guy, and he turns their world upside-down. He teaches them that new ideas can make their lives better. We can fall into the same trap of thinking that just because something worked in the past, we should keep doing it. When we accept new ideas and change, our lives can exceed what we can currently imagine. More info about The Croods.

Dave Kovack has a temp agency. He gets hired to pose as a double for the US President. Due to the president having a stroke later that night, Dave is asked to fill in for longer! The take-aways from this movie are: (1) When Dave looked and acted the part he was accepted without question. (2) You may be fooled about who is working with you and who is just using you for their gain. (3) Dave got into the role and he “owned it” after a while. This is not a political movie – even though it is about politicians. More info about the movie Dave.

A biography about Ted Nygoy’s amazing life from being a refugee from Cambodia, to being sponsored by a preacher who let him, his wife and kids stay in his church, to becoming the donut king. There are so many lessons that can be learned from this movie! He saw an opportunity and pursued it. Even though he wanted to be in business for himself, he got paid to learn the business by getting hired at Winchell’s Donut House. He helped sponsor other family members (over 100) to come to California and helped them get started in the donut business. Mom and Pop businesses can not only compete with national chains, they can be better. We can become “victims of our own success”. Even though Ted built an empire and a fortune, he is still human and was susceptible to addiction. In order to remain successful, we must keep innovating and we need to recognize when we need to step it up to the next level. More info on The Donut King.

A movie about the GameStop story when dumb money (retail investors) was able to play a short squeeze on GameStop stock. This move causes a hedge fund (smart money) to collapse due to insolvency. Riding a stock that is rocketing can be exciting, but no one knows when or where the top will be until the top has passed. Another takeaway is the power of being authentic. More info on Dumb Money.

Ken Burn’s documentary on the economic and environmental disaster in the 1930’s. We can learn a lot about how this situation developed and how people handled it. I wrote a whole post about this documentary. More information about The Dust Bowl.

Transportation becomes safer because accidents are investigated, and lessons are learned. The same is true in the world of business and finance. Enron was the largest corporate bankruptcy in the US when the company collapsed. The driving forces behind what lead to the catastrophe were pride, arrogance, and greed. Headed by very intelligent individuals, they were able to take advantage of loopholes and manipulate the system. They thought they could do this forever, but their deceptions caught up with them eventually. Some of the bigger ways they were able to manipulate their numbers were through mark-to-market accounting (they could post profits based on future expected earnings) and engaging in some “Pump & Dump” schemes with promoting stocks that they had options on. This is a good documentary for those who are interested in business gone awry. More info on Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room.

Evan is a US Congressman. Unexpectedly, he is given the task of building an ark. Things work out amazingly will as long as he is working on the ark. He is ridiculed for the crazy project he is working on. Sometimes our life purpose may not be something we thought we would ever do. When we run with opportunities that come our way, we can align ourselves with the Universe and things work out better than we could have imagined! More info about Evan Almighty.

A movie about Stanley Milgram, the social psychologist, who conducted experiments to see if ordinary people would voluntarily obey an authority figure – even if that meant inflicting pain on another person. The consensus among the psychologists was that no one would continue, but they were surprised to find that the vast majority of the participants did continue simply because they were told to continue. He also conducted many other interesting social psychological experiments. This is a good movie to watch if you would like to learn more about human psychology. More info about Experimenter.

Tripp is in his thirties and still living at home. He is content to still be at home because even though his parents hope he would move out, their actions make it easier for him to remain living at home. They end up hiring a gal to help get him to move out. This is an enjoyable movie with many adventures and misadventures! In the end, Tripp learns that he is not progressing in life the way he should. More info about Failure to Launch.

Jack Campbell is an investment broker that is working on a huge deal. In the middle of that deal, he is given a glimpse of what his life could have been if he had gone down a different path in life. He learns that there is more to life than just money. The choices in our life determine our path. At the same time, we can choose to change our course if we choose to. More info about The Family Man.

Ray, an Iowa farmer has a vision of an old-fashioned baseball game happening in his cornfield. He follows his dream, builds a professional baseball field where his cornfield was, and found an author who was influential in the farmer’s life. The main theme of the movie is, “Build it and they will come!” More info about Field of Dreams.

Forrest Gump is born both mentally and physically disabled. With the help and encouragement of his mother, he doesn’t let any of that stop him. He not only goes on to live a life that is way more fulfilling than the typical person lives. We don’t need special skills, talents, or intelligence to live life to its fullest. Forrest lives in the present and accepts opportunities as they come his way. We can learn a lot from him! More info about Forrest Gump.

A movie about how Ray Krock grew McDonald’s from only a couple locations to a nation-wide brand. McDonald’s revolutionized the fast-food industry by cutting the wait time for food from 30 minutes to 30 seconds! The McDonald brothers cut the menu to only the items that sold the best. Then, they drew out the floor plan of the restaurant on their tennis court. After reconfiguring the kitchen many times with chalk on the tennis court, they came up with a very efficient kitchen. Ray Krock’s big breakthrough with franchisees was when he switched from recruiting people with money to recruiting people who were ambitious. More info about The Founder.

This documentary will show you a different way of looking at economics. It is a compilation of short documentaries on various topics. There are sections on real estate, naming kids, cheating, cause and effect, and incentives. More info on Freakonomics.

A non-player character (NPC) starts to feel like there is more to life than what he is experiencing. When he puts on a pair of player sunglasses, he is able to see the whole world differently. Because his view of the world has changed, he changes his whole life. When we can learn to see the world differently (we don’t have to put on sunglasses, though), we can change our lives. More info about Free Guy.

Dick and Jane have a nice house in the suburbs, and they are working hard to get ahead. Their life changes when Dick gets a sudden promotion just before the company collapses! Things go from bad to worse for them. Their life takes a turn for the better when they eventually accept their situation and take responsibility to fix their situation. (I am not promoting or encouraging any illegal activity!) More info about Fun with Dick and Jane.

3 retired friends find out that the company that bought the steel mill they had worked at is being closed and that their pension plan was being liquidated to pay for company debts. They contemplate suing the company but figure they may be dead before the case was settled.

One of the guys has a chance encounter that after some thought gives him an idea for an opportunity. You never know when or where ideas will come from. When we find the courage to chase an opportunity it can change our life. (Just jeep it legal!) When doing something new, you will probably suck at it at first. Learn the skills to do that new job and practice, practice, practice. More info about Going In Style.

I have heard that this movie is repetitive. It can be looked at that way. When we look deeper into the movie, we see a weatherman, Phil, who does the bare minimum in his job. He is not happy with his life, nor the on-location spot he has to cover (again!). He is stuck repeating the same day over and over. His life turns around when he commits to improving himself and focusing on helping others. This is an enjoyable movie with a great message. More info about Groundhog Day.

A young man leaves his home in India to come to America to achieve fame and fortune like his friend did… only to find that his friend made up his story. Ramu doesn’t let that stop him. He goes in search of his dream. His breakthrough comes from him being in the right place at the right time and he decides to run with it. More info about The Guru.

A teacher that has lost his passion for teaching finds it again when he stands up for a fellow teacher, who’s department is suddenly decided to be cut by the school. He wants to raise the money needed to keep the music department, but he has no idea where he will find that kind of money. Upon discovering that MMA pays fighters (including the losers) he decides to raise money that way. We get to see Mr. Voss get his teaching mojo back as he pursues his dream. When we pursue our dreams, we can become a hero to others. We also need to stand up for what we are doing – even if things don’t look like they are currently working out. More info about Here Comes the Boom.

An interesting documentary on Richard Heart, the founder of Hex (cryptocurrency). He is a very charismatic and intelligent guy who is passionate about crypto and its benefits. The movie has a fraud specialist and a finance professor who try to find out if Hex is a scam or not. I recommend this movie for more insight into the world of crypto. We all need to do our own due diligence and listen to our gut. Also, if something sounds too good to be true… hold onto your wallet! (Update since the movie came out: the SEC has charged Richard with fraud.) More info about The Highest of Stakes.

An elephant named Horton heard something. At first, he wondered if he had even heard it at all. The sound he heard came from a speck! It turned out to be a whole world on that speck on a flower. Everyone around Horton thought he was crazy. The problems that can seem so huge to us can be insignificant to others. Sometimes other people can’t tolerate ideas or views. We need to be true to ourselves and trust ourselves. A person is a person, no matter how small. More info about Horton Hears a Who.

An entertaining comedy about a young man just out of business school. All the jobs seem to require experience, and he ends up working in a mail room. There are some lessons we can take from this movie. Things are not always what they seem. Different people often have different expectations – the sooner you can figure out what game they are playing, the better you will do. Be willing to do what others are not willing to do (like delivering a blue envelope!). More info on The Hudsucker Proxy.

Sandy Patterson finds himself the victim of identity theft. This movie gives some insight into the far-reaching effects of identity theft on a person’s life. It should be noted that identity thieves do not play by the rules, and they can use the rules to their advantage. These thieves also don’t care about the people they are hurting. Trying to confront them can be challenging because they tend to be really good story tellers, although they can get to the point where they don’t even know the truth anymore. A point to ponder is what has happened in the thief’s life that has brought them to doing what they do. More info on Identity Thief.

In this animated movie the superheroes are forced into hiding due to lawsuits over them saving people who didn’t want to be saved. We can view this as a movie about being true to yourself and living up to your potential. Also, just because you are given an opportunity to follow your dream does not always mean that it’s good for you. More info about The Incredibles.

This documentary covers the 2008 financial crisis and how it was made possible through the advent of banking deregulation. With less constraints on the investment banks, the seeds for the economic crisis were laid. The biggest way that the housing crisis got to the point that it did was due to lenders selling mortgages to people who should not have been able to get those loans. The situation became so toxic that institutions that were still rated AAA or AA collapsed. Watch this movie to learn more about how this happened. More info about Inside Job.

This animated movie does a great job explaining how our brain works. Some of the things covered are core memories, emotions, handling change, and the stories we tell ourselves. While this is a movie geared towards kids, there is some good humor that grown ups can enjoy. More info about Inside Out.

You need to see the first movie before watching the sequel. Puberty hits Riley and with it there are some new emotions that join her existing emotions. This movie covers teenage emotions very well. More info about Inside Out 2.

Two middle aged salesmen find themselves out of a when their company goes under. They somehow get an internship with Google. There are plenty of adventures and misadventures the two “non-techies” have while surrounded by interns who are half their age. We can all learn things from people who are different from us. Differences can add a certain amount of depth to things. More info on The Internship.

Phil has a phone addiction suffers his phone being destroyed! The new phone he gets has an AI assistant that works really hard to make his life better. Through the help of the assistant, and through trying to get away from the domineering assistant, his life does get better. What things do we have in our lives that we need less of, and what could we use more of in our lives. More info about Jexi.

This is the story of Meyer Lansky (the “Mob’s Accountant”) as told to an author. I don’t recommend crime to anyone, although there are some good takeaways from this movie. As a child, Lansky noticed that with the hustlers playing dice games on the street, that “there was the wink, the nod… the outsider was the one controlling the game.” Another good quote, “Never let your emotions dictate your actions.” He saw himself as a businessman who just did what he needed to do to get the job done. I’ll finish with this quote of his, “If you lose you money, you lose nothing. If you lose your health, you lose something. If you lose your character, you lose everything.” More info about Lansky.

Eddie is introduced to a pill that increases his cognitive abilities and awareness. He goes from being an unfocused writer struggling with life in general to a limitless person. Because it is a pill, there are side effects that he suffers. When we can change our thinking, we can see the world differently, and our life can change incredibly. More info about Limitless.

This Dr. Suess movie has some great lessons in it. People tend to believe that things that are common and accepted are “normal”. There are two characters that go in search of their dream… the Once-ler and Ted. The Once-ler did not know what his dream was – he just knew he would find it! Ted wanted to woo a girl, and he was willing to go outside his comfort zone (town) to get what he needed. We can also see the effects of unchecked ambition. The last point is the lengths people in power will go to in order to maintain their power. More info about The Lorax.

Natalie is an online writer with such a disastrous dating life that it provides her with great writing material! A great movie about honesty, authenticity, pretending, turning negatives into positives, and living life amidst crazy circumstances. As a romantic comedy, things get out of hand. Watch this movie to see a great portrayal of the differences between physical attraction and emotional attraction, and the lies, dishonesty, and pain that’s caused when we’re not being true to ourselves and others. More info on Love Hard.

A socially awkward guy who works in a video rental store flies to London to surprise his brother, who is a banker. To get rid of his brother, the banker gets his brother involved with something called “Theater of Life” where he can be a part of a theatrical event. He mistakenly gets involved with a real-life crime. The interesting part of the movie is that he is relaxed because he thinks it is all a part of the “Theater of Life”. We can change our responses to life by changing our view of life. More info about The Man Who Knew Too Little.

Stanley Ipkiss, a timid bank teller, discovers a mask, that when he puts it on he becomes a completely different person. He becomes funny, outgoing, and basically is able to become an exaggerated, cartoonish version of his true self. When we do the opposite and take our mask off and let our true self be seen our life can change in unimaginable ways. More info about The Mask.

How does an animated monster movie land on this list? The pertinent takeaways relate to perspective. In the movie, we find that the monsters are more scared of kids than kids are scared of monsters! Kids’ screams are what provide energy for the monsters, and the monsters never considered that there could be a more powerful energy source available to them. People often don’t consider there could be a better way to do something – they prefer to stick with the “tried and true” methods. More info about Monsters, Inc.

This movie shows the power of being your authentic self – even if that means doing things in a very unordinary way. Mr. Right is truthful, comfortable with himself, and operates in a state of flow. Martha’s not living in alignment with her true self. While this movie demonstrates being in a state of flow, I do not agree with killing people. Still, it’s an excellent movie. More info about Mr. Right.

A guy named Jack gets a new job as an engineer for a waterworks project in Asia. He moves there with his family and on the day he arrives finds a coup has started where foreigners are executed immediately. He and his family scramble to survive and make it out alive. A lesson that can be applied to personal finances is that sometimes survival means doing whatever it takes to stay a few steps ahead of disaster – even if it means taking risks or doing what is uncomfortable or even undesirable. When times are extremely tough there is no good or bad – there’s just survival. More info about No Escape.

A successful marketing agent assumes that his wife is having an affair and decides to go for a drive. He gets held-up by a mugger and there is a mix-up with some criminals. The movie covers how a change of our mind can drastically impact our actions. Also, so many things are not what they seem. (I do not encourage any illegal activity!) More info about Nothing to Lose.

A team of illusionists are gathered together to perform a series of amazing magic shows. It is mentioned in the movie that magic is merely targeted distraction. When magic is used beneficially, it entertains and delights. Used in a corrupted way, it’s a crime. We tend to see what we want to see, and that becomes our reality – even if the truth reveals that it is something different. Our human mind can be manipulated so easily, and often we are the ones fooling ourselves! More info about Now You See Me.

Peter works for a tech company that is getting software ready for the Y2K panic. He hates his job and feels stuck in life. After being hypnotized, he is able to relax and be himself. This completely changes his life and things start working for him. While I don’t recommend doing what he does, we can still learn about the benefits of being ourselves. More info about Office Space.

Mr. Simonet, a seventh-grade social studies teacher, gives his class an assignment to work on for the whole year… What can they do to make the world a better place? Young Trevor got the idea that the teacher was passing this on to his class, why couldn’t he pass it on to others. The concept is simple. Do something good for a person and instead of being paid back, they should in turn do something good for another person. The realm of possibility exists in us. More info on Pay It Forward.

Love him or hate him, Howard Stern has quite an amazing story! From a young age he knew that he wanted to work in radio. At first, he sucked as a DJ, in fact he was so bad (but dependable) that he was promoted to program manager to get him off the air. He wanted to be on the air, though. His career took off when he decided to just be his authentic self on the air. Howard was one of the first “Shock Jocks” and become the number one DJ in America. More info on Private Parts.

Three childhood friends come up with a desperate idea to get themselves out of trouble… create a friend named Ricky Stanicky! They keep using Ricky to either get out of things, or to do the things they want to do. This lie keeps growing and getting more elaborate as the years go by. 25 years later, their lie catches up with them and they have to introduce Ricky to their family. The two main take aways from this movie are: 1. We can do things to help us, then we can continue to hang onto these techniques even if they are not really helping us or in our best interest. And 2. We can change ourselves if we put our mind to it. We can even do amazing things! More info about Ricky Stanicky.

The story of Reginald Dwight, better known as Elton John. A great quote from the movie, “you gotta kill the person you were born to be in order to be the person you want to be.” His internal turmoil as he was hitting the big time really struck a chord with me. He had his doubts about himself – the same way we can question ourselves when we are stepping out and doing something new. More info on Rocketman.

Walter’s mother leaves him with his two bachelor uncles while she does her own thing. He is not sure about his uncles at first, yet over time he warms up to them. The real takeaway from this movie is that looks can be deceiving. Some people look responsible, yet they pawn off their responsibilities on others. Some people look broke, yet they are rich. Some people will make up stories about other people to make them look bad. While the two uncles have had adventures and are rich, they have an unhealthy relationship with money. More info about Secondhand Lions.

A good film covering the law of attraction with contributions by experts such as Bob Proctor and Joe Vitale. It is put together in an easy-to-understand way. This is an educational film, not made for entertainment. Still, it covers the law of attraction quite well. More info about The Secret.

Hal is interested in outer beauty. A chance encounter with Tony Robbins causes his perception to change so that he sees people based on their inner beauty, completely changing his life. This is a great movie that shows that there is more than physical beauty to people. More info about Shallow Hal.

Andy Dufresne is wrongly accused of murder and is sent to prison. While in prison he sees opportunities to help other people, including fellow prisoners, prison guards, and the warden. He was also persistent in improving things – he wrote letters (many, many letters!) asking for a better library in the prison. Even if we find ourselves in an unfavorable, or limiting situation, we can still be our best self and look for opportunities. More info about The Shawshank Redemption.

This may seem like an unusual movie to make the list. I am not encouraging smoking! The big take away from this movie is that we all have strengths and talents. We can apply these talents to different jobs are opportunities. Also, we are the ones who choose what we do. More info about Thank You for Smoking.

This film is about the financial crisis of 2008. It covers the collapse of the 4^th largest investment bank in the US – Lehman Brothers. Then, there was the complication that AIG added to the situation. One of the things that lead to the crisis was that the average person figures that the professionals (bankers & lenders) know what they are doing and would not recommend something that could be disastrous for the person taking out the loan. The other problem that led to the crisis was that too many people were making too much money to want to change what was happening. More info on Too Big to Fail.

The Duke brothers run a commodity brokerage firm and they enjoy making bets with each other. After getting into a debate about whether a person is where they are due to biology or environment, they make a bet on it. They take a conman panhandler and put him in the role of an executive, and they frame their current executive so that he has nothing. The Duke brothers are greedy, stingy, manipulating, corrupt, and uncaring. This movie demonstrates that our situation can change quickly either in a positive way, or a negative way. I liked the quote from the movie, “The best way to hurt a rich person is to make them poor.” More info about Trading Places.

Jim is a VP for a mortgage fund and is fired for being too aggressive. He decides that he needs to make a big change in his life and gets a job at a waffle restaurant called “Papa’s”. This is a great movie about how life’s path can have twists and turns and we can find opportunities in unusual places. More info about Waffle Street.

This movie is about a young and (overly) ambitious stockbroker who is willing to do “whatever it takes” to get to make more money. He falls in with a guy who fans his burning desire for wealth and encourages getting information any way possible. As Gordon Gekko says, “Greed is good!” While there is nothing wrong with earning more money, we need to remember to temper that by using our moral compass. A couple good quotes from the movie: “It’s yourself you need to believe in.” and “(in business) …if you need a friend, get a dog.” More info on Wall Street.

The movie is based on Bernie Madoff and his unbelievable $65 Billion Ponzi scheme. Some interesting points from the movie. Bernie claimed that his investors were the ones to blame for their losses – because they didn’t look close enough! Even though the SEC was given evidence that there was fraud, they did not pursue it since Bernie was a former chairman of the Nasdaq stock exchange. We need to watch out for ourselves. The reputation of our employer and our acquaintances will carry over to us. We need to distance ourselves from those who are doing things we are not comfortable with. Final point – Our actions (either good or bad) have more of an impact than we may think on those around us. More info on The Wizard of Lies.

This movie is based on the story of Jordan Belfort and Oakmont Stratton. He was driven to make money, and he didn’t care how he did it or if others were financially hurt in the process. This is a story about excess including drugs, alcohol, money, and sex. Some good points in the movie: (1) Brokers don’t know what is going to happen in the market – their job is to sell stock. (2) Our inebriated perspective can be skewed. Very skewed! (3) We need to know when to call it quits. More info on The Wolf of Wall Street.

Carl, a banker has been run over by life. Things don’t go his way. Everything is negative for him and he tries to get through life by hiding from it. A friend introduces him to a Yes seminar, and at the seminar he has to say YES to everything! In real life, we need to learn to say yes to more things. There is a balance, though, and the things we say yes to need to align with our values. More info about Yes Man.

An entertaining sitcom about 4 very intelligent, highly educated friends that are socially awkward and their neighbor who is an aspiring actress who is waiting tables. She is the opposite of the guys, with only a high school education and social skills. The show is quite interesting in watching the characters develop as a result of their interaction with each other. Just because someone is smart in one area does not mean that they are smart in every area. Also, just because someone doesn’t have an advanced degree doesn’t mean that they are dumb. (Personal note: The last two seasons feel like the show is continuing too long.) More info on Big Bang Theory.

This comedy show shows four people who have died and arrive in the good place. Everything is not exactly as it seems, though. We get to see them strive and struggle to improve themselves. We also see their struggles. I highly recommend this series. More info on The Good Place.

Earl is a low life who, after some turns of events, decides to change is life. To help keep himself on the right path, he makes a list of all the people that he did wrong and now he wants to make up for what he did to them. Karma doesn’t work quite the way Earl thinks it works, but it is a good show nonetheless. More info on My Name Is Earl.