Jennifer puts herself in the picture...

Some movies are so fantastic we don’t just want to watch them over and over again; we wish we were in them, often for a variety of reasons.

Maybe we love the character or the things they get to do. Perhaps it’s because we see justice being done in a way that we don’t see in our real lives. Or, maybe there’s a line so well written it enters movie folklore and we wish we were the ones saying it. Whatever the reasons, movies offer more than just entertainment. They offer us escapism and the chance to live out our fantasies, on screen, through the characters presented within them.

And so, I present to you for your delectation, my top four list of movies I’d kill to be in.

4. Falling Down (1993)

We all have our bad days: days where we have visions of going all Die Hard on someone’s ass. Michael Douglas did just that in the ultimate bad-day movie in an explosion of escalating violence that had us yelling ‘Take that.’

Sure, Douglas does some really bad things in this movie (is wrecking a Korean store because the owner won’t give you change for the phone really justified?), but there’s something incredibly liberating about letting out all that frustration and resentment built up over years of being treated like crap in a tide of violence, especially when it appears that most of the ‘victims’ deserve what they get.

The violence in Falling Down isn’t all just wanton: it’s a reaction to things that happen. It’s almost righteous.

Take the Mexican gang who stupidity decided to relieve Foster of his briefcase when all he’s doing is shoving some newspaper in his shoe to block the hole. Who didn’t cheer when Foster said, ‘I’m not giving you my God-damn briefcase’ and then proceeded to batter the hell out of the pair with a baseball bat after one of them pulled a knife on him?

Whatever Foster does, there’s a part of us that’s cheering him on, because - when the films stripped to its most basic element - all he really wants to do is get home for his daughter’s birthday...despite the numerous obstacles...and we get that.

3. Big (1988)

One of the best feel-good movies ever made, Big is a magical movie that makes us feel young again, especially in that iconic scene where Tom Hanks plays the giant piano in the toy store. Who wouldn’t want to join him? But Big is about more than just that famous scene. It takes you back to your childhood even though, at the time, all you really wanted was to be a grown-up.

We’d all love to be Josh because he gets the best of two worlds – he gets to live in the adult world whilst doing the best job in the world (inventing toys); hooking up with a stunning girlfriend, but he also gets to go back to being 12 years old again.

When Josh goes back to being his young self, you can’t help thinking how brilliant it would be to be a kid again. Now, where’s that fairground wish machine? Gotta get one.

2. From Dusk to Dawn (1996)

On the outside this just looks like a typical road movie where a decent, hard-working family get terrorised by a couple of psychos on the run after carrying out a bloody bank robbery. Then they take refuge in a strip joint and the movie takes a surprising turn – they’ve unwittingly ended up in a vampires' den. Considering what it’s about, this would seem an unlikely movie for anyone to want to be in, but, deep down, who doesn't want to kill a dozen or so vampires in a Robert Rodriguez flick?

And yet it is Clooney’s clever line at the movie’s end that makes this a movie worthy of its place in the list. Standing next to the burning club, alongside a blood-soaked Juliette Lewis and looking like the survivor of a nuclear war, Clooney’s associates seem bemused by the state of him, especially when he punches the boss and launches into a tirade about the club.

‘What were they...psychos?’ asks the head honcho.

Clooney’s character, Seth, replies: ‘Did they look like psychos? Is that what they looked like? They were vampires. Psychos do not explode when sunlight hits them, I don't give a fuck how crazy they are!’

Who wouldn’t want to deliver that line?

1. Back to the Future (1985)

For me, the role of Marty McFly is the ultimate movie role. Who wouldn’t want to be Marty, travelling to the past with a madcap professor known as Doc in the glorious DeLorean and getting to meet your parents when they were young, long before they were ground down by the daily grind?

Marty gets to do everything – play guitar in a rock band, time travel, make sure a nasty bully gets his comeuppance, and the icing on cake, gets to make sure his parents get their own happy ending.

You may disagree, but to me Back To The Future is the ultimate movie to be in.

So, what movies would you have loved to be in? Leave comments below, ask your friends. We’d love to know.

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