NationStates Jolt Archive

I saw the post about boring movies and I want to know what everyones favorite movies are. My own are Seven Samurai, Kill Bill, Fight Club, Blow, and The Maltese Falcon.

Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels is my favorite movie of all time.

I also liked Arlington Road. I have been waiting my whole life for a movie to end like that.

I saw the post about boring movies and I want to know what everyones favorite movies are. My own are Seven Samurai, Kill Bill, Fight Club, Blow, and The Maltese Falcon.


Where to begin?

Stalog 17
Sunset Blvd
Network
Sabrina (original)
Key Largo
Philidelphia Story
Arsenic and old Lace
His Girl Friday
The Big Sleep
The Maltese Falcon
African Queen
The Thin Man series

Too many to name and that is only the old stuff......

Donnie Darko
Fight Club
Lock Stock and two smoking barrels
Snatch
Saving Private Ryan
The Messenger
Stalag 17
The Usual Suspects
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Bubble Boy
Animal House
Caddy Shack
Fist of the White Lotus
The Five Deadly Venoms
Dark City
Memento
Chinatown
The Two Jakes
LA Confidential
Taxi Driver
Goodfellas
The Godfather

That should keep you busy for a while.

Too many - WAY too many - to list. But I can try to name just the best few:

Crash
Magnolia
Was tun wenn's brennt? (German one, brilliant)
Whale Rider
Dogma
Trainspotting
Muriel's Wedding
Jesus of Montreal
Princess Mononoke
Black cat, white cat

Donnie Darko
Fight Club
Lock Stock and two smoking barrels
Snatch
Saving Private Ryan
The Messenger
Stalag 17
The Usual Suspects
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Bubble Boy
Animal House
Caddy Shack
Fist of the White Lotus
The Five Deadly Venoms
Dark City
Memento
Chinatown
The Two Jakes
LA Confidential
Taxi Driver
Goodfellas
The Godfather

That should keep you busy for a while.

you have been in my dvd shelf haven't you?;)

you have been in my dvd shelf haven't you?;)
How did you know? Actually I make a point of checking every NSer's DVD cabinet at least once per month.

yikes :eek: then you know about the star trek dvds too huh?
They're not mine!!! I swear they are my husbands!!!!

okay they are mine.....:(

Grosse Point Blank
High Fidelity

How did you know? Actually I make a point of checking every NSer's DVD cabinet at least once per month.
*hides all his DVDs*

Uh, sorry, but I don't have any.. really... :p

Grosse Point Blank
High Fidelity
Nice. Can we add Better Off Dead to that list?

Nice. Can we add Better Off Dead to that list?

Certainly. And The Sure Thing.

Shawshank Redemption
Field of Dreams (cause I'm a sucker for baseball and parenthood movies)
Usual Suspects
Momento
Serenity ( The movie Star Wars wishes it could have been, It's not on DVD but the Firefly series is)
My Cousin Vinny
Spaceballs (for pure, unrepentant stupid humor)

Two not yet mentioned:

Dr Strangelove (truly a must-see if you like dark humor. one of the best, as well as funniest movies I have ever seen. and a lovely ending ;))
2001: A Space Odyssey

The Machinist

I saw the post about boring movies and I want to know what everyones favorite movies are. My own are Seven Samurai, Kill Bill, Fight Club, Blow, and The Maltese Falcon.

If you like Peter Lorre in Maltese Falcon, rent "M." That's on my Top-10 list.. it's in German, but I'm sure the subtitles work, and emotion transcends language anyway.

I also liked "City of God," for foreign films.. that's a recent one..

If you like Peter Lorre in Maltese Falcon, rent "M." That's on my Top-10 list.. it's in German, but I'm sure the subtitles work, and emotion transcends language anyway.

I also liked "City of God," for foreign films.. that's a recent one..
Your video rental place has a copy of M? I had to special order it through Suncoast video.

Your video rental place has a copy of M? I had to special order it through Suncoast video.

Hell yeah, Video Paradiso in Claremont.. they have every movie ever made, and they order it if they don't have it at the moment. That's their specialty.. my film professor clued me in. :)

Everyone should watch the animated classics again. "The Fox and the Hound" in particular. Such a touching movie.

And people must see "The Lion King". I doodle characters from it all the time, and I'm sick of people coming up to me, seeing a picture of Scar, or a random lioness (which is even worse), and asking if I'm drawing Simba. Sheesh, there are other characters...

Everyone should watch the animated classics again. "The Fox and the Hound" in particular. Such a touching movie.

And people must see "The Lion King". I doodle characters from it all the time, and I'm sick of people coming up to me, seeing a picture of Scar, or a random lioness (which is even worse), and asking if I'm drawing Simba. Sheesh, there are other characters...
No thanks. I'm no longer three.

Lord of the Rings
Matrix (just Part one)
The Jugger
Flesh & Blood
Excalibur
Starship Troopers
Aliens
The hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney)
Gladiator
Evita
Final Destination 1 + 2
Indiana Jones 1 + 2
Godzilla
Independance Day (but not the directors cut)
Kill Bill
Saw
The silence of the lambs
Species 1
we were soldiers once and young

and so on

No thanks. I'm no longer three.
You don't have to be 3 to enjoy animated films. :rolleyes:

Even I sometimes watch them, and you may remember that I'm 68.4 quintillioin years old.

You don't have to be 3 to enjoy animated films. :rolleyes:

Even I sometimes watch them, and you may remember that I'm 68.4 quintillioin years old.
Meh, animation that doesn't involve rabbits with Brooklyn accents, sailors who eat spinach, or homicidal hyperactive woodpeckers doesn't interest me.

Hmmm, Spaceballs, The Fifth Element, The Italian Job(1969 version), or Serenity. So hard to choose. I'm gonna have to go with serenity simply because it encapsulates the most genres.

I doubt that these have been mentioned yet:
The Yakuza Papers (AKA Battles without Honor and Humanity) - Five movie series about Japanese Gangs. Based on a true story, subtitled and very complicated, but still a classic of the genre.
Evil Cat - The most hilariously awful 80s Hong Kong action flick that I have ever seen. Also subtitled, but it has a very advanced way of using arrows and a guy whose first name is "Master".
The House of Cards - Technically a BBC miniseries, but the best political satire that I have ever seen (beats the ass of Wag the Dog IMNSHO).
Alternately, anything Monty Python is fun for the first couple viewings.

Meh, animation that doesn't involve rabbits with Brooklyn accents, sailors who eat spinach, or homicidal hyperactive woodpeckers doesn't interest me.
Dismissing something without trying it. How typically Drunk Commiesian. :p ( :D )

does anyone know 'withnail and i'?

its a cult comedy classic.

Dismissing something without trying it. How typically Drunk Commiesian. :p ( :D )
How do you know I haven't tried watching animated films? I just wish Nemo would have stayed lost, and that the sabertooth tiger in Ice Age would have done us all a favor and eaten the rest of the cast.

How many times do I have to try to watch animation before I can dismiss it according to you?

The Wild Bunch, by Sam Peckinpah

Pete's Dragon is a classic! Go out and get a copy now!


hey can anyone explain Donnie Darko to me? The boy get's hit by a jet engine from the future! Makes no sense..

Pete's Dragon is a classic! Go out and get a copy now!


hey can anyone explain Donnie Darko to me? The boy get's hit by a jet engine from the future! Makes no sense..
The story's based (I think) on the idea that occasionally the time line goes out of whack. An object from a short time in the future arrives in the past and a hero is chosen to set the timeline right again through the sacrifice of his own life. Basically when they talk about the "tangent universe" in The Philosophy of Time Travel They refer to an unstable separate universe created by this disruption in time. If the timeline is not restored everyone and everything in that tangent universe is destroyed. Donnie is charged with putting things right so his tangent universe rejoins seamlessly with the real universe. In short, he gives his life so that the world may live. Kinda like Jesus if you're into that sort of thing.

The story's based (I think) on the idea that occasionally the time line goes out of whack. An object from a short time in the future arrives in the past and a hero is chosen to set the timeline right again through the sacrifice of his own life. Basically when they talk about the "tangent universe" in The Philosophy of Time Travel They refer to an unstable separate universe created by this disruption in time. If the timeline is not restored everyone and everything in that tangent universe is destroyed. Donnie is charged with putting things right so his tangent universe rejoins seamlessly with the real universe. In short, he gives his life so that the world may live. Kinda like Jesus if you're into that sort of thing.
I get confused at the begining where Frank (either he's also from the future, dead, or a figment of Donnie's imagination. I really don't know.) saves Donnie from being killed setting of a chain of events that end in his death at the hands of Donnie.

I get confused at the begining where Frank (either he's also from the future, dead, or a figment of Donnie's imagination. I really don't know.) saves Donnie from being killed setting of a chain of events that end in his death at the hands of Donnie.
Frank is an example of the manipulated dead. He died (was shot by Donnie) in the tangent universe, so he's got powers that he uses to guide Donnie toward his destiny. I think Donnie needs to choose to die in order to return the time line to normal. Frank has to make sure he doesn't die by accident moments after the formation of the tangent universe that they inhabit, or all is lost. Therefore Frank calls Donnie outside to the golf course and tells him when the world will end.

Frank the guy who's dating Donnie's sister is a live human being. Frank the bunny can be considered the ghost of someone who died in the future and has returned to the past to guide Donnie.

The story's based (I think) on the idea that occasionally the time line goes out of whack. An object from a short time in the future arrives in the past and a hero is chosen to set the timeline right again through the sacrifice of his own life. Basically when they talk about the "tangent universe" in The Philosophy of Time Travel They refer to an unstable separate universe created by this disruption in time. If the timeline is not restored everyone and everything in that tangent universe is destroyed. Donnie is charged with putting things right so his tangent universe rejoins seamlessly with the real universe. In short, he gives his life so that the world may live. Kinda like Jesus if you're into that sort of thing.

I have yet to see an interpretation that flawlessly fits into the movie. We must remember that Frank originally woke Donnie up from sleep so that he was not killed by the jet engine, and the film ends in Donnie leaving himself in the room instead of being woken up. I think the movie is more about Donnie himself and not the unverse in that all he does in the end is remove his own influence from other people's lives while leaving them with a feeling tantamount to what can be considered a close relative of deja vu. Fate saves Donnie, but Donnie ends his own life against it. Were it not for him, the girl would never have been run over, Frank never shot, and his mother may never have had to take the airplane from which the engine came off.

I don't even know to tell the truth. The movie is no doubt brilliant, but chaotic. All the things we debate about may not even have been given much thought. After all, the strangest and most mysterious movie is considered the most brilliant.

I have yet to see an interpretation that flawlessly fits into the movie. We must remember that Frank originally woke Donnie up from sleep so that he was not killed by the jet engine, and the film ends in Donnie leaving himself in the room instead of being woken up. I think the movie is more about Donnie himself and not the unverse in that all he does in the end is remove his own influence from other people's lives while leaving them with a feeling tantamount to what can be considered a close relative of deja vu. Fate saves Donnie, but Donnie ends his own life against it. Were it not for him, the girl would never have been run over, Frank never shot, and his mother may never have had to take the airplane from which the engine came off.

I don't even know to tell the truth. The movie is no doubt brilliant, but chaotic. All the things we debate about may not even have been given much thought. After all, the strangest and most mysterious movie is considered the most brilliant.
Yep. Donnie sacrifices himself to save those he loves. But if you check out the Philosophy of Time Travel extras on the DVD it does shed some light on the mythology they were trying to create.

Yep. Donnie sacrifices himself to save those he loves. But if you check out the Philosophy of Time Travel extras on the DVD it does shed some light on the mythology they were trying to create.

Thanks. But, to be honest, they did fuck it up a bit, didn't they?

Thanks. But, to be honest, they did fuck it up a bit, didn't they?
I don't know if they fucked up or if I just don't understand it completely. It's a movie that leaves you with questions, but you don't have to understand it completely to enjoy it thoroughly.

The acting, the atmosphere, the setting (they did a great job of recreating the 80s, didn't they?) and the soundtrack all make for a spectacular film.

I don't know if they fucked up or if I just don't understand it completely. It's a movie that leaves you with questions, but you don't have to understand it completely to enjoy it thoroughly.

The acting, the atmosphere, the setting (they did a great job of recreating the 80s, didn't they?) and the soundtrack all make for a spectacular film.

True true. And if you want to see a brilliant recreation of the 70s, watch Dazed and Confused. I actually thought it was a 20-something year old movie until I saw Ben Affleck step in. :)

True true. And if you want to see a brilliant recreation of the 70s, watch Dazed and Confused. I actually thought it was a 20-something year old movie until I saw Ben Affleck step in. :)
Yeah, I've seen that one a few times, but never while sober for some reason.

Yeah, I've seen that one a few times, but never while sober for some reason.

Haha that's exactly my experience with it.

Haha that's exactly my experience with it.
The same goes for Pink Floyd's The Wall and Stanley Kubric's A Clockwork Orange. I haven't watched either since I stopped doing acid and smoking weed.

I usually go by directors. Here's my favourites:

Stanley Kubrick.
Ok, he's not a movie, but I can't be bothered listing his movies since all are worth watching ('cepting 'Eyes wide shut' which was ok but nothing special).

I really Sergio Leone's work too. The fantastic wide-angle panning shots are superb.

Goodfellas is an absolute must. Best gangster movie ever. Not one weak scene in the entire movie.

Martin Scorsese's work, especially in the 70's - Taxi Driver, Raging Bull etc

Casablanca, obviously.

Apocalypse Now, most definitely. Though do yourself a favour and don't buy the redux version. The added in scenes don't do anything for the movie (maybe Marlon's scenes add a bit) and if anything detract from the movie.

Tarrantino's stuff is always good for a relaxing do-nothing daywhile drinking beers.

Midnight Cowboy is a definite must-see. One of the last character-driven movies Hollywood produced before selling out completely to Mammon.

Lars von Trier does some great movies, though you do need to be in a definite certain frame of mind
to handle them. But they're worth watching just for the direction and cinematography. Some scenes are just beautifully crafted and shot.

Wim Wenders does some good stuff. 'Wings of Desire' is such a beautiful film.

Jim Jarmusch also is one to always look out for. 'Dead Man' is one cool movie, and, more recently, 'Broken Flowers' isn't bad either.

Werner Herzog is another great director. 'Aguilerre: The wrath of God' is superb. Especially as it was all done on a shoe-string budget and with only one camera.