With Kit Kittredge: An American Girl finally opening in limited release on Wednesday, it seemed like a good time to take a look at other films girls in the same age demographic might also enjoy. As a mother of three daughters, I like to seek out films that have strong female characters. So many of the roles for females in Hollywood either fall into blatant stereotypes or position young girls and women as existing on this planet primarily for the pleasures of the male half of the species, and I don't want my girls growing up believing the images of women they're exposed to through the media. Of course, everything in life doesn't have to have a political agenda -- what fun would that be? So some of these are just films my own daughters very much enjoy, that the girl in your life might like also.

Here are seven great films for fans of American Girl books and movies ... let me know what others I've missed that you like; with only seven slots to work with, I had to leave out a lot of films I otherwise would have included ...

I haven't seen Four Weddings and a Funeral since it came out, but I remember it being a fun, quality movie -- more so than your usual rom-com flavor. The Hugh Grant-starring film not only brought in a good chunk of coin and fans, but it also received Oscar nominations for Best Picture and Best Screenplay. However, is it the best British movie of all time? That I'm not so sure about. Yes folks, the Hugh Grant comedy was recently listed the best British Film, according to a poll conducted by Virgin Media (via AOL UK).

Having polled 1,000 adults on June 25 and 26, Virgin notes that Four Weddings took in 22% of the vote, to get the top spot. The rom-com squeaked right by the wonderful Monty Python's Life of Brian, which suffered defeat by just 1% and grabbed the #2 spot. (It's also the only film that boasts a little age.) After that comedy classic, things get rougher and tougher. Next came Trainspotting with 15% of the vote, then Casino Royale with 10%, and Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels came in #5 with 8%.

It's official: more actors need to die. Debra Winger figuratively kicking the bucket in Terms of Endearment, or Jimmy Durante literally kicking the bucket in It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World ... Harold Sakata reaching for his unfortunately uninsulated derby in Goldfinger, Bugs Bunny grabbing for Oscar gold after being mortally wounded by Elmer Fudd in Tex Avery's short "The Wild Hare" ("It's gettin' dark, Doc ... gasp, choke"). One of my favorites: James Mason making it until daybreak during an entire movie-long death scene in Odd Man Out, or the death by, eh, inspiration in Hot Fuzz.

The list goes on at Gawker.com, where a poll got a lot of people talking. Male posters aired out plenty of excuses for crying in movie theaters like whipped little girls. One correspondent has a likely explanation for shedding his unmanly tears at the end of Armageddon: "a piece of meteorite got in my eye." I know how he felt. Ambient radiation made my eyes run when Spock got broiled at the end of The Wrath of Khan. And all that Middle Earth pollen played hell with my sinuses right when Boromir keeled over, begging apology with his last breath. What's your own favorite demise? Cinematical's Monika Bartyzel lists her 7 best here, from an '07 column, mentioning one time Steven Seagal didn't pull through. Incidentally an outfit called movie deaths.com insists on that the one 100 percent rating is the demise of the pugnacious black knight (above) in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Get out the kleenex and weigh in ...

Two things I enjoyed about Definitely, Maybe, which came out on DVD today: the cheesy jokes about New York City in the early '90s and the fact that it is a chick flick for guys. What I mean by the latter is that the movie seems targeted to females yet it caters more to the male viewer. It's basically a male fantasy: Ryan Reynolds tells the story of how he dated three beautiful women (played by Isla Fisher, Rachel Weisz and Elizabeth Banks), one of whom he married and later divorced -- meaning he's now single again. And he also got a cute, precocious daughter (Abigail Breslin) out of the deal who becomes beneficial to him in his return to bachelorhood.

But then is it really a chick flick? I guess it is if you count romantic comedies in that grouping, though the genre has never necessarily been aligned with the term, nor vice versa. And in the age of Judd Apatow, it's more likely that any new romantic comedy is actually a guy movie. Do many men realize it's a movie for them, though? Probably not. Though chick flicks are typically movies primarily populated by women characters and/or a female protagonist (think Steel Magnolias), romance films not made by either Apatow or the Farrelly brothers may be thought of as being for the ladies, even if they feature a male lead, like Reynolds in Definitely, Maybe.

I'll admit I've always been confused about chick flicks as a term. I apparently enjoy many so-called chick flicks, including even (especially) Beaches. So, I may not be using the term correctly in this list. However, I am a guy and I know what guys want. So, I'm going to do this my way, and answer the following question: What other films may have been initially perceived by males as being made for chicks but which turned out to be more for them (us)?

1986 was a big year for me -- at the tender age of 9, I came to the realization that many of the movies I was drawn to weren't the ones that most others were drawn to. It was the start of my '80s and '90s B-movie love, which later morphed into a love of auteurs like David Lynch and Guy Maddin. But back then, while most people were gushing over all things Molly Ringwald, and professing their love of Pretty in Pink, I was dreaming of a good boy in a bad situation, one who would fall for a cute photographer. In other words, Duncan Gibbins' Fire with Fire.

Virginia Madsen's Lisa Taylor was my teen movie heroine -- a girl soft and creative, but smart and strong, and one lucky enough to win the heart of Craig Sheffer's Joe Fisk. I was glued to the television every time the movie aired. Sure, I loved flicks like Ferris Bueller's Day Off and The Breakfast Club, but my true '80s teen film love was reserved for Joe and Lisa. It was different than the usual John Hughes fare, and I loved that. Since no one else ever cared to watch it, it was my little cinematic secret, one made all the sweeter when I found at least one other person who had seen it (cheers, Clint!), and then watched Madsen finally grab the film career she deserved.

In case you don't read Entertainment Weekly and didn't see this week's double issue on "The New Classics," or you didn't see my post last week about their list of the best movies from the last 25 years, here's a sad fact: only six foreign-language films made the list. They are: Wings of Desire (#28); Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (#49); The Lives of Others (#56); All About My Mother (#69); Y Tu Mamá También (#86); and In the Mood for Love (#95). OK, so 6% is not terrible for a mainstream entertainment magazine, but EW had to add insult to injury with an accompanying map labeled "Movies: Breaking Down the List," which points to a number of locations around the globe in which some of these new classics are set. The only continent on the map without any love is South America (Antarctica was not included in the visual aid).

Now, before I get into my love letter to new Latin American cinema, I have to note that no film produced in Africa made the list either. However, on the map the continent was at least given some minuscule bit of love via the filming locations for Casino Royale and Gladiator. Yet despite the fact that South America was definitely used as a location in a few of the 100 films, it's shown no respect. And on top of that, Central America isn't even included on the map. For some strange reason there's just a gap between Mexico and South America. Meanwhile, Latin America's sole representative on EW's list, Mexico's Y Tu Mamá También, is left off the map so that no location from this area of the world, from the Mexican-U.S. border to Cape Horn, receives any recognition.

I'm a little jealous that I didn't think of doing something like this first. The Onion AV Club has a new list entitled "Little more than a cameo: 19 stellar cinematic one-scene wonders." It's a list of great performances by actors who only showed up for one scene, and it's hard to argue with their top choice: Alec Baldwin in Glengarry Glen Ross. His electrifying diatribe is a masterpiece of profanity, testosterone, and all-out awesomeness, perfectly encapsulating the feel of the movie.

The rest of the Onion's top five includes Ray Charles in The Blues Brothers, Pamela Anderson in Borat, Dean Stockwell in Blue Velvet, and Janeane Garofalo in The Cable Guy. And if you're like the people who have been commenting on the article, you're already wondering: Where the hell is Christopher Walken in Pulp Fiction?! As one person pointed out, they could do a separate list just for great Walken cameos, including Pulp Fiction, True Romance, and Annie Hall for starters.

If you scroll down, you'll find Onion writer Nathan Rabin conceding that they "dropped the ball" on Walken, as well as on Alfred Molina in Boogie Nights. I'm glad he said that. I'd much rather think they simply forgot something than that they considered it and didn't think it was worthy.

But who else are they missing? That's the real fun part of these lists, of course. Fire away!

With the pending release of the new version of Get Smart, and many fond childhood memories of the original series, I thought I would assemble a list of TV spies who made great movies. Unfortunately, I was confronted with a mountain of evidence that international men and women of mystery have suffered horribly in their transition to the big screen.

That conclusion sounds counter-intuitive. After all, a movie can focus on a single defining story in a spy's life, while a television series, by its very nature, must include many routine episodes that fit into a familiar formula. The movie can have a much bigger budget, allowing for a variety of international settings, while the TV show often takes place in just one or two locations on the back lot.

But I think the best TV spies were successful because the producers made sure that the characters were the stars. Two-shots and close-ups of people talking work really well on the small screen, and sharp, well-written dialogue is always a bonus. Just a list of character names invokes pleasant nostalgia, while the movie versions have, for the most part, justifiably faded into oblivion.

1. Wild Wild West

Two words: Giant spider. Need I say more?

Plenty of music video directors have gone on to make great films. But what if they were to make a great film based on one of their videos? That's kinda the concept behind a list over at JoBlo.com titled "Music Videos That Should Have Been Movies." Many of my favorites are on there, such as Jamie Thraves' video for Radiohead's "Just," Jonathan Glazer's video for UNKLE's "Rabbit in Your Headlights," and Garth Jennings' video for Blur's "Coffee & TV" (pictured above and watchable after the jump). The last of these is said to be one for the kids, but I'd probably be first in line for a feature-length movie about a milk carton on a mission.

Most of the videos included are quite enigmatic, and JoBlo's Mike Sampson admits that for some he simply wants answers, which could be revealed in the longer format of a narrative feature. Haven't we all wondered what the heck is going on in Mark Romanek's video for Nine Inch Nails' "Closer"? And why's that guy in the "Just" video just lying there? Then there's the more easily adaptable videos, such as Van Halen's "Hot For Teacher". I think they've already somewhat made that movie, titled My Tutor, and there's even a remake on the way, but I'd still be interested in Hot For Teacher: The Movie, directed by Judd Apatow, at Sampson's suggestion.

A lot of people think that the American Film Institute should shut up already with the lists, and they have a point: an ordered list of the "100 greatest" anything is bound to be so subjective as not to be worth much, especially when it's not clear why the people compiling the list should be seen as authorities. (The AFI's lists are compiled by "juries" of several hundred filmmakers, critics and historians.) But the lists (and accompanying TV specials) keep coming. The latest is the ungrammatical "AFI's 10 Top 10," a list of the 100 greatest American genre films organized by genre: animation, romantic comedy, western, sports (not really a genre, especially if you include Raging Bull in it, but whatever), mystery, fantasy, science-fiction, gangster, courtroom drama, and epic. The complete selections can be found here.

The lists are sometimes obvious (Alfred Hitchcock makes a 4 for 10 showing in "mystery," and if you can't guess their top three picks for "gangster" in order, you probably shouldn't be reading this blog), sometimes admirable (kudos for Terminator 2: Judgment Day in "sci-fi"), sometimes irritating (The Wizard of Oz as the greatest fantasy film of all time is rubbish), but the more relevant question is: what are they worth? The original "top 100" was a good conversation piece and a useful checklist. What are the rest of them supposed to be good for?

Also: they include "sports" as genre, but not horror. Screw you, AFI.