Air travel has become crude and brutish over the past few decades. It has gotten worse in nearly every regard.

But not on every front. Planes are safer. They seem to go more places. And the big one: The multi-media platforms most of the big and/or new planes have.

Most of the movies I watch … I now see at 30,000 feet on a screen about as big as my hand. Even a humble 3-3 configured Airbus I flew on last week had a selection of about 30 movies.

Watch a few of those, and you’ve done a big chunk of your flight.

And as I was watching an old favorite, on the return from Kenya, it struck me that I would have no trouble watching my favorite movies a couple of times a week. Sometimes because they are that good; sometimes because I haven’t yet finished deconstructing them.

So, 10 movies I would watch today, tomorrow, next week and next month:

1. Casablanca. The greatest movie ever made in 10 weeks. The not-really-jaded Humphrey Bogart, of course, and Ingrid Bergman is radiant, but Claude Rains almost steals the movie, which I try to gauge anew each time I watch it. Saw it on the way to Kenya.

2. Armageddon. Let’s see, a dozen American roughnecks, including Bruce Willis, Steve Buscemi, Owen Wilson and the late, great Michael Clarke Duncan (“leee-vin’ on a jet plane”), are launched into outer space, and they save the world by blowing up a killer asteroid with a nuclear warhead. Never gets old.

3. Henry V. Shakespeare’s best history, Kenneth Branagh at his peak, great speechifying, living history. “And gentlemen in England now abed shall think themselves accursed they were not here, and hold their manhoods cheap, when any speaks who fought with us … on Saint Crispin’s Day!”

4. Ghostbusters. Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Sigourney Weaver, a great premise, great writing, funny as hell. I know I have a really high threshold for watching this movie because my son watched it about five times a week when he was 5, and I was fine with that. “Cats and dogs living together! Mass hysteria!” “That’s right: The Sta-Puft Marshmallow Man.” I’m guessing about half of all American males born between 1950 and 1985 know most of the dialogue.

5. The Hangover. OK, we’re on a run of silly comedies that continue to slay me. Zach Galifianakis is a revelation, Bradley Cooper is the cool guy we all aspire to be, Heather Graham, Mike Tyson and the most excellent Ken Jeong, doing Las Vegas almost to death.

6. Cast Away. Tom Hanks at his best. Carrying a movie for 20-plus minutes without one spoken word, on a desert island. A terrifying airplane crash scene, Helen Hunt torn between past and present, non-sappy reflections on what matters in life and, of course, the “Wilson” scene. Did this movie lead directly to the TV show “Survivor”?

7. L.A. Story. Steve Martin‘s masterpiece. Los Angeles is no longer the goofy, slightly magical and benign place he celebrated in this 1991 movie (the Rodney Kings riots went down a year later). Sarah Jessica Parker memorably embodies youthful SoCal Me Generation energy and enthusiasm.

8. Spartacus. The best sand-and-sandals movie, and by a long way. Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, ancient Rome brought to life (and with some historical accuracy), some memorable dialogue and, of course, the unforgettable “I’m Spartacus!” scene.

9. The Longest Day. The other field-tested movie, because when my son was not watching Ghostbusters, he was watching this star-jammed epic based on D-Day, the Normandy beach invasion. John Wayne telling a medic: “Lace it up and lace it up tight.”

10. Animal House. John Belushi owns this movie, and once you get past the “what a waste” notions, you can just enjoy the frat-boy hijinks. Tim Matheson is ultra cool. Basically, this is The Hangover of the 1970s. “Double-secret probation.”