All-time favorite movies

Ringdrotten wrote:
Paul - can't wait to read your FotR parody I've soon finished the Wobbit, and I'll try to write a review when I'm done

Thanks for thinking about me, Ringdrotten! I hope your studies are going well.

-Paul

Still on my to-do list, Paul. I will when the mood is upon me. Is it something ironic that I find "writing" parodies more easy to get into than "reading" them? Mind you, I'm not reading fantasy at all at the moment, which is probably half the problem, perhaps three quarters. No, it's all boring, boring, boring non-fiction nowadays, though I don't actually find it boring* --- I do read "Home" whenever Petty finds the energy to do it! - but let's face it, that's ALMOST non-fiction in a way.

Good luck with FotR, Paul!

*I'm reading a book called: "Decency and Decorum - The Age of Cant 1789-1857" by Ben Wilson. Heavy going but fascinating. (I think I'm beginning to understand Odo - and Tolkien's humour for that matter - much better now! )

I appreciate the thought. I want to get back into reading your work too. I've been reading a time-travel story a college friend wrote about EA Poe. I'm almost done, but I can't find the charger for my Kindle!

I would never have thought a movie with zombie nazis could be so uninteresting. And poor Scott Glenn, having to speak some impossibly dopy dialogue. I will never get those ninety minutes back.

-Paul

X Men First Class
Green Lantern
Cars 2
Super 8
terri
Cars 2

You certainly admire cars2, Codie! And welcome!

Just to pop-up and make an appearance since new on the forum.
Not in any order just the five that I could list after a hard times of consideration... and for the time being.

-Lost in Translation
-Trainspotting
-Requiem for a Dream
-Amelie
-The LOTR trilogy, 'cos it just makes me feel so god damn good.

_____________________________________________________________
...I'm so sad that I couldn't manage to fit Léon into the five favs'. Darn.

Nice list, PiP! I've heard good things about all those films but unfortunately the only one on the list I've seen is LOTR. Lost in Translation and Amelie have definitely been on my list of movies I want to watch for a while, but unfortunately that list is long and keeps growing. Since I have a fair bit of free time at the moment I've been able to watch more movies than usual. I don't pretend to know what the best movies ever made are, but there are some that stick with me personally.

I loved both A History of Violence and Eastern Promises (from David Cronenberg and Viggo Mortensen), but on reflection I don't think either would be in the top 10, though definitely a top 50 if I ever made a list that long. The most surprisingly good movie I've seen recently was X-Men: First Class which is without a doubt the best superhero movie I've ever seen, but I'm going to reflect on it and watch the other X-Men movies before deciding where to rank it.

I still have yet to get to Reservoir Dogs or Inglourious Basterds from Quentin Tarantino, or City of God, all of which I think have a decent chance of ending up somewhere in my top 10. I've grown more accepting of dark and/or less hopeful as I've grown older. For now, though I have tweaked the list I posted in July. I also picked individual films instead of franchises (with the exception of LOTR) to appease Petty. I moved Princess Mononoke up the list after rewatching both it and Spirited Away. I also added Boyz n the Hood after watching it for the first time in at least a year and finding it to be even better than I had remembered.

1. Pulp Fiction
   
2. The Lord of the Rings
   
3. Star Wars
   
4. Inception
   
5. Princess Mononoke
   
6. PotC: The Curse of the Black Pearl
   
7. Spirited Away
   
8. Boyz n the Hood
   
9. The Hangover
   
10. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

As always, this will be subject to change, but I like updating it periodically so I can see the evolution of my tastes.

I notice Eldo (and its not a crit, just an observation) all your films are modern. Star Wars I thnk being the oldest.

Like mentioned, I had hard times deciding. There is soooo many good movies out there and some just are not comparable with eachothers.
Lost in Translation and Trainspotting are though the two ultimates for me, can't get over them. After seeing LiT I thought I'd fell in love with S.Coppolas' work but after watching Marie Antoinette I forgot that thought. It wasn't bad but...maybe I just had too high expectations.

What comes to my liking on superhero movies, that is quite inexistent. I don't know why but I'm just not that fond of them and think that they're too "American" for my liking. Kinda agree with Wobbit on this one. No offence. ...Though I did fancy wolverine when I was a bit younger.
But to name one: Sin City, if it even can be set to that category.

I did like Eastern Promises too (or was it just the charisma of Viggo, can't remember ), but still I'd prefer American History X over it. A great movie, harsh and bit too realistic to sleep peacefully after wathcing, but great. And one movie I forgot to credit was Shawshank Redemption. I don't think it ended up in the top of IMDB list by accident.

I noticed that you got some Miyazaki on your list. Great pick! Princess Mononoke was a blast, not to mention Totoro.
All good movies, but had to be cut down from my list.
Maybe I'll one day too find time to make that TOP50 of all times.

I don't know waht my problem is for liking movies that do not have that clear of a storyline, e.g. Lost in Translation and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Maybe I'm just simple or I like things made simple.


Got to admit. I love this topic. People, Hobbits, whoever, please continue filling it with good movies yet unseen.

Ah, the Shawshank Redemption - one of my all-time favourites too

Tried V for Vendetta Pip? Its one of my favs and although a US produced film its a British superhero/anti-hero, not the usual U. S. A. chanting stuff.

Now that you mentioned it Petty, Yes I have !
It came out after a long quiet-phase in the field of good movies.(Atleast in my opinion) I remember when I was at the movies and I actually punctuated my fingernails to the armrests when, well let's not spoil all of it for those who have not yet seen it, you know the bang in the end.

And Ringdrotten you don't have that bad picks yourself either.

If you like your stories in film unconventional Pip I'd also recommend Donnie Darko if you haven't seen it (although its one of those rare occasions where the theatrical version is, in my view, beter than the directors cut).

Hahaha ! Petty I don't know how its possible that you manage to come up with those great movies that I have seen but somehow forgotten or lost in the backspace of my mind.
But seriously, thanks for that ! Now I can recollect them and watch them again.
Donnie Darko was in a way a greatly inspirational movie for me when I was at highschool (I majored in performing arts, if that explains the inspirational part)


edit:those bloody typos

Pettytyrant101 wrote:I notice Eldo (and its not a crit, just an observation) all your films are modern. Star Wars I thnk being the oldest.

Yeah, I realize that my movie-viewing and preferences tend to be skewed towards quite recent years. I think that's partially because most of the movies I've seen are from the '90s or '00s, though I'm working on broadening my cinematic horizons. Part of it probably also that, since I grew up in the '00s, a lot of my childhood classics (and preference-setting movies) come from that period. Since this is a list of my personal favorites, not the "greatest" movies ever, I'm sure it's heavily influenced by such factors.

Also, when it comes to old movies, I find a lot of them to be rather stale. Take Ben-Hur for example: I saw it several years ago and I enjoyed it very much, but Charlton Heston (and especially some of the others) came off as talking wooden planks. Key Largo was even worse. Perhaps that was just my perception when I was younger but it did lessen my enjoyment of those films.

I good 80's classic I just rewatched recently (and whose themes are possibly even more relevant now) is Society- an odd mix of oddball humour, horror and social/political satire. But most definently worth a watch.

I assume Eldo you have seen the orginal Alien. That at least takes you back to the 70's!
Try Bad Day at Black Rock for an old film with quality acting.

Or Outland with Sean Connery is another sci-fi gem.

PiP wrote:Like mentioned, I had hard times deciding. There is soooo many good movies out there and some just are not comparable with eachothers.

That's a problem for me too, especially when I try to rank my picks. It's easier (though still hard) to pick what I think my top 10 films are then to rank each one of them from 1 to 10.

What comes to my liking on superhero movies, that is quite inexistent. I don't know why but I'm just not that fond of them and think that they're too "American" for my liking. Kinda agree with Wobbit on this one. No offence.

I've never been a big fan of superhero movies and until recently my favorites in the genre would have been The Incredibles and Kick-Ass, which are not exactly mainstream comic heroes. I don't know if those would still be seen as "American" too anyone else though; as an American myself I'm not really the best at judging such things.

I did like Eastern Promises too (or was it just the charisma of Viggo, can't remember ), but still I'd prefer American History X over it. A great movie, harsh and bit too realistic to sleep peacefully after wathcing, but great. And one movie I forgot to credit was Shawshank Redemption. I don't think it ended up in the top of IMDB list by accident.

Well, I'm pretty sure that The Shawshank Redemption only ended up at the top of the IMDb list after fans of The Dark Knight started downvoting The Godfather (TDK was once at the top but it too was downvoted in turn). Before 2008 it had always been in the #2 spot. But from what I've heard Shawshank is a great movie, though I've not seen it myself.

I noticed that you got some Miyazaki on your list. Great pick! Princess Mononoke was a blast, not to mention Totoro.

I stumbled on Miyazaki quite by accident when I first started watching anime and even though I'm not as much of an anime fan as I once was (though I think Cowboy Bebop is great, if my avatar doesn't clue you in ), I still love his movies. A friend of mine got me a whole bunch of them on DVDs but unfortunately I haven't watched many of them yet. Totoro is at the top of the list, though, since my brother also wants to see it.

NB It's awesome to see another Miyazaki fan here; I don't recall anyone else posting about him before now.

I don't know waht my problem is for liking movies that do not have that clear of a storyline, e.g. Lost in Translation and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Maybe I'm just simple or I like things made simple.

Unclear and non-linear stories interest me too. That's the main reason why I want to see Memento (for those who don't know: it's a film told chronologically backwards form the perspective of a man with retrograde amnesia; being incapable of retaining memories). It sounds fascinating to me.

Got to admit. I love this topic. People, Hobbits, whoever, please continue filling it with good movies yet unseen.

This has always been one of my favorite threads here so it's always great to see it get some love. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and I hope this post isn't too long.

Pettytyrant101 wrote:I assume Eldo you have seen the orginal Alien. That at least takes you back to the 70's!

Actually I haven't. My brother watched the first two films in that series but I was only around for Aliens. I didn't much care for that one and while I've heard the original Alien is different I'm not really a fan of horror movies.

Try Bad Day at Black Rock for an old film with quality acting.

Or Outland with Sean Connery is another sci-fi gem.

I'll have to look into them (after The Wicker Man ... I swear I'm going to watch that one someday. )

Memento is a cracking film Eldo I'm sure you will enjoy it.
Usual Supsects is another good 'un.

Wickerman is superb and one of the most unique films ever made in my opinion.
Alien is ten times the film aliens is. The only other in the series that comes close for me is the directors cut of alien 3 that most people dislike.

I've listened to a lot of the songs from The Wicker Man and loved them, as well as the first 10 minutes or so that I watched before the YouTube trail ran dry.

Speaking of music in movies (though a totally different genre here), has anyone seen 8 Mile? It's a hip hop movie and yes, it stars Eminem, but I really enjoyed it. I thought Em actually showed some surprising acting skills, though maybe that was because the movie was based so heavily on his own life story. In any event, while I wouldn't put it on a Top 10 list, I thought it was an enjoyable film both for the music and the story.

I never saw it Eldo although I heard good things about it, but in general I'm not usually a huge fan, regardless if its a rap star, sporting team or whatever, of the underdog fights the odds comes out on top story. The only one I can think of that really worked for me was the first Rocky.

AND WATCH WICKERMAN YOU FOOL!!! (As Gandalf would say, if he's ever seen it)

Pettytyrant101 wrote:
AND WATCH WICKERMAN YOU FOOL!!! (As Gandalf would say, if he's ever seen it)

Since I now need to admit, ashamedly, that I have not even heard of this one, I count myself as a fool and will do as adviced.
...as soon as.

Make sure you watch the Directors cut Pip. The theatrical release is an offense against art and was chopped by execs who didn't understand it or like it and they all but destoyed it, the film is set over 3 days, they took an entire day and night out amongst other henoius acts.
Oh and don't be tempted to find anything out about it first- its an expercience best met in ignorance.