Your Favorite Movies

[Tragic]

I've never been huge on movies but recently have started to watch a lot more films. I'm just wondering what movies you all think absolutely must be viewed.

My favorites are:

American Beauty - Great messages with hilarity and suspence ontop!

The Matrix - Although I did enjoy the two sequals nothing beats this in terms of style and action.

BASEketball - This movie was obviously written specifically for Trey Parker and Matt Stone and for that I love it.

Fight Club - Great plot, great writing, great style, great movie.

Most of Kevin Smith's Movies - The only one I really didn't like was Jay and Silent Bob Strike back. Other than that my least favorite is Mallrats while my favorite is Clerks.

Office Space - The ability to replicate the frustration of work while making you laugh at it is amazing.

Swing Kids - This was shown to me in my US History class junior year of high school and ended up one of my favorite movies ever. I usually don't like historical fiction entertaining at all but it's amazingly intense and the soundtrack is great.

[Spike]

Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Gladiator
Alien
North by Northwest
The Philadelphia Story
Casablanca
Night of the Living Dead
Roman Holiday
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Searchers
The Godfather Trilogy
I'll See You In My Dreams
The Eddie Cantor Story

[Gooch]

Fight Club - Fuck this job. Fuck consumerist society. Fuck the neutered males who've lost their power. And most of all, fuck you.

Taxi Driver - the use of colors at night, the Bernard Herrmann score, and the lonely man, vigilante time bomb that is Travis Bickle places this as my favorite Scorsese film.

Mean Streets - Scorsese's first big film, made names out of DeNiro and Keitel who put out classic performances. What's a mook?

Goodfellas - being a gangster doesn't always end up glamorous, but damn, this made me want to live the lifestyle. At least the first half, at least.

Reservoir Dogs - CIty on Fire, yeah, but this set the stage for QT's style, dialogue, and use of music that I've come to love in every one of his four films.

Pulp Fiction - picking up off the momentum of Dogs, Pulp rekindled the careers of many of the actors/actresses involved who all seemed to be casted perfectly. I can watch this anytime of the day and not be bored.

Barton Fink - my favorite Coen Bros. film and Turturro's finest performance I've seen. Dark comedy with a hell of a twist.

The Godfather Pt I and II - a rare case where the sequel is better than the first. Fucking classics either way.

Ran - King Lear, sure, but the best battle scenes I've ever seen, esp. from a director in his mid-70's at the time.

Do The Right Thing - the racial undertones mixed with the sweltering heat = explosive on screen drama. Spike Lee's finest moment.

[Ashen Victor]

just off the top of my head:

Battle Royale
the Talented Mr. Ripley
Revenge of the Nerds
Old School
the Wedding Singer
the Ring (both US and JPN)
Lilo and Stitch
A Beautiful Mind
Bloodsport
the Usual Suspects
Ghost World

[Sqoon]

Playtime - The most ambitious movie ever and still decades ahead of its time. An absolute success and unlike anything you'll ever see.
Rushmore - Classy confection of the frustration, energy, and unlimited potential in being a teenager.
The Shawshank Redemption - Worthy of all its accolades.
Stalker - Enticing, complex. The only movie to ever completely absorb me: I could not move, I could not think. Only watch.
Amarcord - A fun kaleidoscope of town and country life.
Stolen Kisses - Wonderful and charming romantic comedy.
Duck Soup - One of the funniest movie ever made.
Mon Oncle - Good-natured indictment of modernization.
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three - Masculine and energetic. Not a line can be removed and even the occasional jokes are all spot-on.
La Strada - A sad, long look at unrequited affection.
The Bicycle Thief - One reviewer put it best: "It's as if the soul of man had been filmed..."

[Diff-chan]

Hmm... it may seem like Im partial or biased to foreign movies, but really Im not. It just kinda turned out that way.

American Beauty - A wonderful, soul-affirming, enlightening film. It probably changed my life.

Ran - If you ask me this is the best movie ever made, in any language, in any time period. It's just amazing. Epic and stirring, yet personal and emotionally fragile. A lot of people point to Seven Samurai as proof of Kurosawa's genius, and sure enough it is, but this is even more wonderful. The man was simply able to put something so beautiful on screen that it cant even be described. It goes beyond mere emotion. It's brilliant beyond words and I get goosebumps just thinking about it.

Dr. Strangelove - the best comedy ever. I think Kubrick's vastly overrated but sure enough this movie hits a nerve with me. The dialogues are just so funny and witty. It's just so good!

Howard's End - a virtually forgotten film yet one of the finest of the 1990s. It's based on a novel by EM Forster, and its an amazing depiction of class and society of the times. Yea, yea, it looks cheesy, its filled with a lot of fluffy dresses and Emma Thompson and non-Fight Club Helena Bonham Carter, but this really is a terrific movie and one that surprised the hell out of me.

Raise the Red Lantern - There are a few movies out there that just seem *perfect*. This movie is one of them. It's absolutely pitch-perfect from start to finish. It's really just an experience. Gong Li is an incredible actress (and amazingly beautiful). I saw the movie with a Chinese girl friend of mine and she declared the movie to be "scary". That should really tell you a lot about just how effective Zhang Yimou was... I wish they would release this film in a proper Region 1 DVD, an mpeg on a burned CD just isnt doing it any justice...

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - The second the rooftop scene began I knew this movie was gonna be something special. I love this movie. I've seen it probably 10 times and each time I love it more. The rooftop scene is just so well-done I can't believe it. Yes there are "better" martial arts movies but nothing else is the perfect beautiful package like this one is. Gladiator is a great film but CTHD was robbed for Best Picture in 2000.

And I agree with most of TheGooch's picks, we have similar tastes in movies I think.

Ran - King Lear, sure, but the best battle scenes I've ever seen, esp. from a director in his mid-70's at the time.

And nearly blind.

[arjue]

In no particular order:

Wet Hot American Summer - A parody of, well, alot of things, but mainly those old summer camp movies. It starts off really subtle, to the point where you don't know its a parody, but slowly snowballs into ridiculousness.

Zoolander - Really stupid, but I've seen it more often than you've shit. I love it

Dazed and Confused - A great film that I really haven't seen enough times. Not just one of those "last day of school party" movies, THE "last day of school party" movie.

Bill and Teds Bogus Journey - While most people say excellent adventure is better, it simply isn't true. Watch them one after another, and you'll agree with me. I have seen this movie countless times, and it always cracks me up. Death = greatest.

Waynes World - Another great comedy. Not much else to say, except that its the best SNL movie ever.

Indiana Jones Trilogy - The definition of a great action-adventure movie. Nothing else comes close.

Labrynth - Great fantasy movie. It has awesome puppetry, and music by David bowie.

The Ring - the US version of this movie is the only movie to actually scare me ever. Fucking awesome.

Aladdin - Disney at its best. Shame they went to shit.

Memento - Its movies like this that make me want to make movies. Just plain awesome.

Magnolia - Just a beautiful movie about a bunch of people in pretty odd situations. 1 of 2 movies where Tom Cruise is actually good (The other is the hidiously underrated Vanilla Sky).

Terminator 2 - Best action movie ever. Disagree? than you are a dipshit (a WRONG dipshit too).



Thats all that comes to my head right now.

[adol]

I like sleazy exploitation and gory slashers. I watch little else.

[Scourge]

Rashomon – A beautifully shot movie and intriguing character study.

Notorious – I love Alfred Hitchcock and this is my favorite of his movies.

**2nd edit need to add:**

To Kill A Mockingbird - Filmmaking at its finest. A brilliant movie based on a brilliant book.

**/2nd edit**

Bridge on the River Kwai – The only David Lean movie I watch regularly. Loved it since I was a kid.

The Godfather – Part 2 – Bigger and better than the first.

Star Wars – The original movie. Empire was great, but this being where it all started, it’s always my pick of the three in the OT.

Raiders of the Lost Ark – Pure adrenaline pumping adventure. Love all three; this is the best.

E.T. – Remains magical for me. Never lost the original feeling I had when I first watched it in ’82.

Amadeus –This movie never fails me. Pure entertainment.

Valmont – Better than Dangerous Liaisons any day.

**edit: Forgot a few**

Goodfellas – Joe Pesci. Robert Deniro. Classic film.

Rob Roy – Tim Roth’s most brilliant performance. Better than Reservoir Dogs, better than Pulp Fiction. Excellent script. Liam Neeson more Jedi-ly than he got to be in Phantom Menace. Best sword fight in any movie ever!

Sleepers – This movie freaked me out when I saw it at the theater in its run. Great performances all around. Disturbing story, but an extremely well made movie.

**/edit**

Yi Yi: A One and a Two… – Beautiful Taiwanese movie by Edward Yang about the cycle of life.

Almost Famous – This movie just does it for me… The music, the scene, the story of a kid who gets to live it, the fact that a lot of it’s based on Cameron Crowe’s real experiences… Great, great movie!!

[BioMechanic]

Jacob's Ladder - Simultaneously the most disturbing and uplifting film I've ever seen.

Brazil - Moving on many levels.

Ghost in the Shell - Mindblowing, profound, beautiful.

Alien - Amazing cinematic work.

The Fellowship of the Ring - I read this so many times as a youngster, and was absolutely flabbergasted when the scenes I imagined so vividly were magically transported to film, often very close to how I imagined them.

Blade Runner - While a great movie on the surface, the more you watch it, the more substance you see.

Pulp Fiction - Every time I watch this, I never want it to end.

The Fifth Element - Very possibly my favorite "fun" film.