Favorite Movies

[trdsf]

At Stromboli's suggestion, let's have a thread for favorite movies.  Not necessarily the ones you think are best, but the ones you enjoy most for whatever reason.  Feel free to give reasons and debate lists, but let's avoid bashing anyone's choices -- "I didn't like that one because (reason)" is fine, but "Seriously?  That sucked!" isn't.

[trdsf]

The hard part for me is narrowing my list down, because when I love a movie, I really love a movie.  I kind of need to break it down into manageable chunks, generally by genre.

I'll start with my list of favorite SF movies.



2001: A Space Odyssey - Hands down the greatest SF movie ever made, by the greatest director that ever pointed a camera.  It's a visual poem that connects the invention of tools to the conquest of space with the single most brilliant jump cut in cinema.  It's quiet and takes its time -- which is welcome considering the brilliance of the set design and effects.  It lets you linger over the genius work of Douglas Trumbull... and do remember that none of it is computer generated, not even the computer screens.  I was taken to see this when it was in its initial release, in Cinerama.  I was four.  And I still have the sense of wonder about what might be out there.

Forbidden Planet - Technically speaking, this is a version of Shakespeare's The Tempest, but set in outer space.  In this case, though, the translation of genre works -- exceedingly well.  It also has a rare blend of humor with the drama, enough to keep things light and mobile without derailing the storyline.  And the all-electronic score is both groundbreaking and fascinating.

The Andromeda Strain - I'll be honest, I haven't read the book.  But the movie was great, despite something of a deus ex machina ending.  Great characters (especially Dr. Leavitt), great writing, great story, great pacing.

The Day The Earth Stood Still - Let's get one thing clear from the get-go.  There was no remake.  Any idea that there was a remake is pure mass hysteria.  There was only one version of this movie ever made, and it was made in 1951 and directed by the great Robert Wise (also responsible for The Andromeda Strain above), and starred Michael Rennie.  Just wanted to make that crystal clear.  What's perhaps most fascinating is that the alien Klaatu is perhaps the most "human" of all the characters.

Metropolis - The definitive masterpiece of German Expressionism -- the only actual competitors it has for that title are Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari and Nosferatu -- and still brilliant even though it's nearly 90 years old.

Plan Nine from Outer Space - I am not saying that this is a good movie.  But unlike a lot of Hollywood shit these days, it's an entertaining movie.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind - I won't call it scientifically accurate, but it was a lot of fun, terrifically optimistic, and much, much better without the inside-the-spaceship ending.



I have no doubt I'm forgetting something, so I reserve the right to edit this list later.

There are a few recent contenders I haven't seen -- District 9 and Moon come to mind -- so I shan't judge them.

I hated The Matrix, so it won't appear here.  And while I liked Contact, it wasn't as good as it should have been (that is, if they'd followed Sagan's book a little more closely, not made Dr Drumlin a villain rather than just an asshole, and copped out on the ending).  And while Alien is a great thriller, it all fell apart for me when I realized the biological impossibility of an alien species evolving in a way that its reproduction needed life-forms not of its own world.  I mean, that's year one, day one in biology -- imagine a life form evolving on Earth in such a way that it needs to be exposed to the environment on Jupiter ten thousand miles below its cloud caps in order to reproduce.  Yeah, that kind of ridiculous.

[SGOS]

I'm not going to include anything less than 5 years old.  Sometimes current movies have a great first appeal, but don't invite rewatching, and that's part of the ultimate test.  New movies can't pass this part of the test.

Star Trek:  The Voyage Home
Love Actually
Blade Runner
A Christmas Story
Runaway Jury (John Cusack)
V for Vendetta
Avatar
Planet of the Apes (1968)
Contact
Midnight in Paris         (5 years?)
The Big Year               (5 years?)
Hunt for Red October
Master and Commander
The Thirteenth Floor
Dark City
Target (Gene Hackman)
True Romance
Pulp Fiction
The Music Never Stopped
The Hudsucker Proxy
Best in Show
Wind
Money Ball       
High Fidelity
Sleepless in Seattle
Back to the Future
Blast from the Past

Added:

Kickass

[Munch]

The Babadook - Really intense psychological horror movie with genuine suspense I've not felt since the shining.
Lord of the Rings trilogy - Great adaptation of one of the best works of fiction, the trilogy that drew me into the sword and sorcery franchise.
X-men 2 - Taking the first movie and making it even better, love all the roles and the portrayals of all my fav x-men.
X-men days of future past - Same as with 2 but also taking the great feel first class had and mixing it with the elements no.2 had. Great actors and roles made for a fun romp with my fav muties.
Coraline - Brilliant stop motion animation with a great story and fun ride.
The nightmare before christmas - The one that got me into loving this kind of stop motion animation, one I never miss to this day around christmas time.
Beauty and the beast - One of the only disney movies I'll come back to year after year, loved this movie so much when it first came out, I stole a VHS copy from the library to keep it, and paid the cost of it saying I lost it.
Laputa Castle in the Sky - Everything hayao miyazaki did was gold, laputa was part of my childhood before Aladdin and all those disney renaissance movies, my earliest memories of animated movies came from ones like this, and laputa is one of my favorites.
Howls moving castle - Great more recent take on miyazaki, beautiful animation, great characters, well made plot, watched this so many time I can't remember.
Spirited Away - Same as with Howls moving castle, beautiful, timeless animation and story.
Kiki's delivery service - A fun story from miyazaki with a more toned down on high adventure and just a sweet story, with great backdrops and characters.
The Goonies - Another part of my childhood movies, one of my earliest scares, timeless characters and the best group of friends going on an adventure we all wish we could at that age.
Brokeback Mountain - intense and tragic love story, one made in a time where gay people wee beginning to rise up and be noticed, one of the first true gay love stories to be released at the cinema. Helped me a lot as a gay man.
Nausica of the valley of the wind - Back to miyazaki, one of his earliest and still timeless stories, animation isn't as sharp as later movies but still a beautiful one to my collection.
Pans Labyrinth - One of the few foreign movies I sat down and watched intensely, amazing designs, intense characters, thought provoking.
princess mononoke - One of miyazakis most grim dark movies, so bloody and yet still with a deep story and overarching elements between mankind and nature.
too woo foo thanks for everything - Fun movie of campy silliness, liked it even more then prusilla queen of the desert.
The Avengers Assemble - What can be said, one of the best super hero movies of all time.
Harry potter movies 3-8 - loved all the harry potter movies past the second one, the first two felt kind of like a childrens  movie, while the later ones got to dark and intense, you saw the characters grow up and go though some tough times. Loved the world it was set in, and how each movie had its own feel to it.
The secret of nimh - another part of my childhood movies, one of Don Bluths best movies and one of the few childrens movies I watched as a kid that made me feel grown up, one I can watch now today and see it from another angle.

Sure there are loads more I forgot, but these I thought of first.


And just because I can my fav porno titles.

Muscled Up
Jeff Palmer: Raw
Black ballers
Taking flight 1 & 2
Big 'n 'Plenty

[aitm]

Any and all of the LOTR
Hildalgo
Star Trek series caught my imagination as a boy and therefor no matter how cheesy, I love em.

[trdsf]

Animation's turn.



Fantasia -- It's a shame that Walt's original vision of a continually-touring, continually-updated showcase for cutting-edge animation and great music (the ham-fisted orchestration of Bach's Toccata and Fugue in Dm notwithstanding) didn't come to pass; one can only imagine what we might have seen by now.  The re-creation of Dalí's Destino gives an idea of what might have come to pass, and we know that plans were made for sections based on Ride of the Valkyries, The Flight of the Bumblebee, The Firebird, La Mer and Pictures at an Exhibition, among others.  What might have been, indeed.

Lupin III: Castle Cagliostro - Miyazaki is a genius, and this movie has the greatest car chase ever filmed, live action or animated.

My Neighbor Totoro - Miyazaki is a goddamn genius.

Kiki's Delivery Service - Miyazaki is a goddamn fucking genius.

Despicable Me - Most fun I've had in a theater in a long time, and very nearly equalled by its sequel.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit? - Maybe not technically an animated film as it's both live action and animation, but it fits here better than anywhere else.  Terrific fun.

Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit - One of the very few movies I went to see in the theater more than once.  The gags are non-stop; it takes multiple viewings to catch them all.

Les triplettes de Belleville - Who needs words to tell a story?  Great animation, great music, and great fun.

The Nightmare Before Christmas - Burton, Elfman, stop-motion... what else do you need?

South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut - Well, of course.

The Point - "You don't have to have a point to have a point."

Yellow Submarine - So much better than the Saturday morning Beatles cartoon...



As ever, I reserve the right to go back and add things I forgot.  :)

[Desdinova]

Just a few of my favorites....

A Clockwork Orange
Pulp Fiction
2001: A Space Odyssey
Unforgiven
Eraserhead
The Departed
Goodfellas
The Usual Suspects
Memento

[Mike Cl]

Not really much of a movie buff.  And once I see a movie, that's it, I've seen it.  But having said that, here goes:
A Knights Tale--it should not have worked--the music does not match the era (yet, it does in a big way), the costuming isn't great, acting is okay, the story is kind of sappy--put them all together and they simply gelled!  I love it--and can watch it again. 

2001--Best SF ever.  And can be as philosophical as you wish.  Plus, watched it once in Honolulu after sharing a brownie mix with a lid in it.  Did the apes ever pop!!!

Fried Green Tomatoes--this is the first movie I took my wife to--it is 'our' movie.  And I find I still like it very much.

War the Worlds--the '50's edition.  The first 'scary' movie I watched by myself in a theater--must have been 8 or 9.  Scared the shit out of me!  Then had to go home (my grandparents home really) and to to sleep upstairs by myself.  I can still see myself in that theater and several scenes in it. 

[Hydra009]

Monty Python and the Holy Grail
LOTR series
Star Wars (original trilogy only)
Indiana Jones series (except Crystal Skull)
Terminator 2
The Matrix
Starship Troopers
Chronicles of Riddick
Moon
Contact
Underworld
Avengers
Guardians of the Galaxy
Kickass
28 Days Later

Guilty pleasures:
Queen of the Damned
Resident Evil series
Army of Darkness
Blair Witch 1 and 2
Mortal Kombat 1 and 2
The One (the one with Jet Li)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgg_JM9BDCE

Out of all of the movies, I've watched Queen of the Damned and Underworld the most.  There's just something about vampires, especially in the protagonist role, that really appeals to me.

[SGOS]

Kickass

Oh shit, I forgot Kickass.  How could I have missed that one?

[stromboli]

The Professional with Jean Reno et al

Metropolis because it was so ambitious and so ahead of its time

Things To Come- H. G. Wells movie about human endeavor and futility of war-Art Deco in the early 30's.

Manon of the Spring/Jean De Florette terrific, under appreciated French cinema with Emmanuel Beart, one beautiful lady

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo/Girl Who Played With Fire/Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest with Noomi Rapace, not the American version. GREAT triple movies, see them in order. Very intricate plot about a bisexual woman who is an expert computer hacker out to prove she is not insane for past behavior.

That Man From Rio wild Jean Paul Belmondo craziness, black and white from 1964

City of Lost Children/The Delicatessen 2 surrealistic movies by director Marc Caro.

Spirited Away anything by Miyazaki. He is a fucking genius.

Seven Samurai Toshiro Mifune directed by Kurosawa, a masterpiece.

Ran Basically King Lear by Kurosawa. Very long, but the battle scenes are jaw dropping gorgeously filmed.

Godzilla because the first 3 letters of his name spell GOD.

Das Boot because it details the futility of the German submarine service in WW2, and captures the claustrophobia of living inside a submarine.

Bullitt Count the hubcaps.....

Monty Python's The Meaning Of Life

The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen/Brazil/Time Bandits because Terry Gilliam is much under appreciated.

[stromboli]

The Battleship Potemkin mentioned in the other thread is a historic masterpiece. A silent film from 1925, it was a propaganda piece that dramatized the 1905 mutiny in Czarist Russia that many still see as a catalyst that led to the eventual downfall of Czarist Russia and the rise of Communism. Propaganda, but don't pass up the chance to see it. 

[caseagainstfaith]

And while Alien is a great thriller, it all fell apart for me when I realized the biological impossibility of an alien species evolving in a way that its reproduction needed life-forms not of its own world.  I mean, that's year one, day one in biology -- imagine a life form evolving on Earth in such a way that it needs to be exposed to the environment on Jupiter ten thousand miles below its cloud caps in order to reproduce.  Yeah, that kind of ridiculous.

Just FYI, in Prometheus, we find out the Xenomorph was engineered, not evolved.  By the same race that engineered humans.

[Unbeliever]

These are in no particular order, just off the top of my head:

The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (Werner Herzog, director)
The Fifth Element
The Night Visitor (Max von Sydow, Trevor Howard, Liv Ullmann)
The Medicine Man (Sean Connery)
Aguirre: The Wrath of God (Klaus Kinski)
The Princess Bride
Aliens
The Abyss
Big Trouble in Little China
Enter the Dragon
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (Gary Oldman, Tim Roth, Richard Dreyfuss)
Romeo Is Bleeding (Gary Oldman)
Bram Stoker's Dracula
Lord of the Rings Trilogy (especially the 3rd one)


Many more could be listed, but that's enough for now.

[stromboli]

I just noticed- no Tom Cruise movies mentioned yet.

Ditto on....

Big Trouble in Little China
The Fifth Element
Princess Bride
LOTR
Harry Potter, all of them
Forbidden Planet
The Usual Suspects
Memento- a GREAT movie!
All the Python movies
All the Wallace & Gromit movies
Hunt For Red October
Kickass
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Bladerunner- read the book, its better