I’m not a huge movie fan, but I want to broaden my horizons a bit. I’ll offer my list (that I’ve rewatched so many times I’m a bit tired of them):
-
Young Poisoner’s Handbook
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Full Metal Jacket
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Life of Brian
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Holy Grail
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Sunset Boulevard
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Curse of the Golden Flower
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The Nightingale
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Downfall
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Amadeus
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Once Were Warriors
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Dusk to Dawn
- Wild tales
- Black mirror
Funny, for me there are more items in Must read List than Must watch.
Goodfellas
- Castle in the Sky (for the beautiful hand-drawn art) (also known as Laputa: Castle in the Sky)
- Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith (for the memes)
I’m saving this thread to make a watch list, but I’ll add a comedy I haven’t seen mentioned: The Blues Brothers
- LA Confidential
- One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest
- Chinatown
- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
- Alien
- Wrath of Khan (Director’s Cut)
- Moulin Rouge
- Children of Men
- Gattaca
- The Usual Suspects
- Fight Club
- The Thirteenth Floor
And probably a thousand more I’m not thinking of off the top of my head.
Gattaca and Children of Men are still my top two. Absolute masterpieces that should be seen by everyone.
China Town
Young Guns 1&2
Naked Gun 1,2& 33 1/3
Repo Men
Everything Terry Gilliam ever made.
Ferris Buellers day off
Legend
Kung Pao Enter the Fist
Kung Fu Hustle
Tucker & Dale VS Evil
Evil Dead 1&2
Army of Darkness
American Werewolf in London
Spaceballs
Plains Trains and Automobiles
The Jerk
Beverly Hills Cop 1&2
Lucky Number Sleven
Snatch
Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
Event Horizon
Shane
Ghost in the Shell - everything
Akira
Vampire Hinter D
Spirited Away
The Irishman
Reservoir Dogs
Pulp Fiction
Real Genius
Tombstone
My Cousin Vinny
High Plains Drifter
Outlaw Josey Wales
Big
LA Story
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
The Burbs
True Romance
Pump Up the Volume
Heathers
Beetlejuice
Multiplicity
This is a remarkably good list. I know you’re getting a ton of recommendations OP, but this is really a very comprehensive one with an absolutely excellent balance of “real good quality” combined with “easy and rewarding to watch.”
Thanks for the complement!
As much as I love Kung Pao, I would replace it with Airplane because Kung Pao is just so dumb and divisive. I know people who love that movie and I know people who absolutely hated it. You have to be a certain age (under 12 imo) to really appreciate it.
Airplane however, is timeless regardless of how old you are when you first watch it.
Airplane didn’t make my list only because I forgot/didn’t think about it but defiantly should be there.
Really this list is only a small selection of movies I love and could think of right off the bat. I missed a huge portion of great recommendations. Ill leave them for others to fill in as there are a ton of great comments filled with great movies already and im sure there are more to come.
Im bookmarking this thread so I can get some ideas of things I haven’t seen yet or things I must have in my collection.
defiantly
I decided not to comment on “complement”, but now I think you’re doing this on purpose.
One of us only tells lies and the other only truths… Truth be told I’m a shit speller for sure and my unmedicated adhd defiantly doesn’t play nice with dyslexia nor proofreading. If it is something important like legal docs or code documentation i send that shit off to a family member or friend so they can have a good laugh at my expense before they tell me to fuck off and figure it out on my own.
my unmedicated adhd defiantly doesn’t play nice with dyslexia nor proofreading
You know what, I’m going to say that’s the right word in this context.
I am not sure if its exactly what you are lookomg for by some random movie recs. Some of these may not be great but are just movies I enjoy for one reason or another.
- True Lies
- Varsity Blues
- Scott Pilgrim vs the World
- Coraline
- Shawshang Redemption
- Jurassic Park
- The Princess Diaries
- Speed Racer
- Das Boot
- Maverick
- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
- Lost in Translation
Here ya go!
- Ghost in the Shell 1998
- Hard Boiled
- Inception
- Aladdin 1992
- It’s a Mad Mad Mad World
- The Raid
- Coco
- It’s a Wonderful Life
- Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt
- Godzilla Minus One
- The Lord of the Rings trilogy
- Mask of Zorro
- Searching 2018
- Carnival of Souls
- Casino Royale
- The Dark Knight
- The Social Network
- Angel’s Egg
- Wicker Man 1975
- Wild Robot
- Idiocracy
- Arrival
This list is in no particular order. And it’s admittedly all over the place in time and genre. Feel free to use it as a grab bag rather than a checklist.
Make sure you get the original version of Ghost in the Shell. I recently decided to rewatch and could only find my 2008 remaster DVD, where they replaced some scenes with CGI. It was absolute trash, and my DVD didn’t seem to have the unaltered version available.
Big Trouble in Little China
Tank Girl
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
Princess Bride
Labyrinth
Time Bandits
I scrolled way too far to find this.
Plus Fifth Element, Buckaroo Banzai, Hackers, Blazing Saddles, …
A diverse list of my some films I like, in no particular order:
- Memento.
- The Anchorman.
- LOTR extended editions.
- Terminator 1, 2, and Salvation (Yeah, those are my guilty pleasures. You can skip the 3rd and ignore the ones after Salvation, imho).
- The Usual Suspects.
- Zoolander.
- Inglorious Basterds.
- The Matrix.
- The Abyss (1989).
- Parasite
Memento is shockingly left off most lists. Idk why it isn’t remembered as one of the best films of its decade.
You see, most movie critics have this condition…
- Lost Highway
- Session 9
- Blade Runner: The Final Cut
- Speed Racer
- Constantine
- Total Recall (1990)
- Sin City
- Atomic Blonde
- Night of the Living Dead (1968)
- The Blair Witch Project
- Paranormal Activity
- Strange Darling
- Postal (I know it sucks, but I love it)
- Superbad
In no particular order, and not an exhaustive list
- The Big Lebowski
- 2001: A Space Odyssey
- Sin City
- Lord of The Rings Trilogy
- Star wars Original Trilogy & Rogue One
- Casablanca
- Mad Max Fury Road
- Arrival
- Pulp Fiction
- All the Studio Ghibli movies, but Especially Nausicaa, Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited away, and Grave of the Fireflies
- Blazing Saddles
- Young Frankenstein
- Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life
- Monty Python & the Holy Grail
- Jurassic Park
- Rocky Horror Picture Show
- Blade Runner
- Blade Runner 2049
- Mary & Max
- Akira
- Rocky
- The Godfather 1 & 2, and at that point I guess you might as well watch 3 as well
- Rashomon
- Chinatown
- Jaws
- All quiet on the western front
- Psycho
- Kill Bill 1&2
- The Shawshank Redemption
- Forest Gump
- Fight Club
- The Matrix (just 1)
- Silence of the Lambs
- Taxi Driver
- Back to the future trilogy
- The Usual Suspects
- Apocalypse Now
- Indiana Jones Trilogy
- Dune parts 1&2
- The Shining
- Dredd
- Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
- The Room
- A Clockwork Orange
- Gone with the Wind
- V for Vendetta
- Trainspotting
- Fargo
- Ben Hur
- Children of Men
- Shoot 'em Up
- Logan *The Princess Bride
- Old Yeller
- John Wick series
- Most Disney/Pixar movies
- Most Don Bluth movies
The Room
One of these is not like the other
I actually like Godfather III. Even more than II, which I also enjoyed. Maybe because I don’t understand movies properly or something. Everyone seems cold on Godfather III.
I like Godfather 3 too but I tend only to watch it immediately after 2, which helps make it better.
Great list!
Jurassic Park
deleted by creator
- Airplane
- Shawshank Redemption
- Shrek
- Secretary
- Dead Poets Society
- Bo Burnham: Inside
I’d watched Dead Poets Society years and years ago, then watched it again yesterday. Very powerful movie that touched on themes I’d missed the first time around (probably too young). Thanks for the suggestion!
I’m going to restrict this list to older movies and imports since there’s already most of Hollywood’s best listed by other people.
- Ran (1985): Japanese take on King Lear. Kurosawa.
- 12 Angry Men (1957): Fonda has doubts about the man charged. Sidney Lumet.
- Lawrence of Arabia (1962): Based on actual WWI British officer T.E. Lawrence, but more story than history. David Lean.
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975): Jack Nicholson leads this Milos Forman movie about what it was like in mental hospitals (based on Ken Kesey’s book of same name – see also Keroac book On the Road for more of that generation).
- The Man Who Would Be King (1975) : Sean Connery and Michael Caine star in John Houston movie based on Ruyard Kipling story. There are more famous names to pack in there, but mostly the story is great (though told from a supremely Colonial POV).
- Grand Illusion (1937): French Jean Renoir film classic about WWI.
- Beauty and the Beast (1946): French Jean Cocteau masterpiece of the fairytalke before it got Disney-fied.
- The Tin Drum (1979): German Volker Schlöndorff film of Günter Grass story about a boy who won’t grow up.
- Amarcord (1973): Italian Federico Fellini film about growing up. You could sub in Nights of Cabiria or Satyricon as a starter Fellini pic.
- Kes (1970): British Ken Loach film about a boy and a bird.
- Winter Light (1963): Swedish Ingmar Bergman about a priest struggling with faith. The 7th Seal probably a better place to ease in to Bergman, though.
- A Man for All Seasons (1966): British Fred Zinnemann telling of how Sir Thomas More was stuck between his Church and his King. For an alternate take on same chunk of history, see Wolf Hall.
There’s so many more. Rosselini’s Open City, Jodorosky’s El Topo/Santa Sangre, Errol Morris documentaries (Fog of War, etc.), Les Blank docs (from music to Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe), oh! and Herzog flicks! I should stop.
I watched Kes and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest… both pretty grim. Jack Nicholson was great in his role. I wish Kes had a happier ending, that was hard to watch. But both great movies. Tempted to try Lawrence of Arabia next…
Oh no! I’m sorry. Looking back at my list, I guess most of it IS on the dark side. I mean, Bergman is unavoidably dark and people joke about Herzog’s bitter nihlism, but I didn’t mean be a downer, I hope I didn’t ruin any evenings. I cry uncontrollably at Kes, but I also love it. 400 Blows is equally depressing, but Kes is closer to my heart (professional critics will tell you 400 Blows is a more important film). Ring of Bright Water is a somewhat lighter take on animal bonding and loss about a man and his otter but it is only a so-so film.
You will notice The Princess Bride got recommended repeatedly, That is a happier, family friendly film that is sure to put a person in a better mood. Some Terry Gilliam is lighter, but save Brazil for when you’re once again ready for ‘grim’ (great flick, though – and you could theoretically ignore the intended ending by picking an alternate cut).
It’s good to explore dark themes and be sad sometimes, I just wish Kes went for another 10 minutes and end on a different note. I’m bouncing off everyone’s suggestions to maintain the variety. Still exploring your list!
If you have a cable company that carries Turner Classic Movies, their schedule shows they’ll be airing these Kipling inspired items on Wednesday night/Thursday morning (times in EDT):
- 3:15 AM The Man Who Would Be King (1975)
- 5:45 AM Gunga Din (1939) Despite my apprecication of Cary Grant as an actor, I’m less fond of Gunga Din compared to The Man Who Would Be King, but Gunga Din is worth seeing once for reference. Kim and various Jungle Book movies are better Kipling choices IMO, but since Gunga Din is a poem instead of a whole story, I can’t blame Kipling for the movie plot.
Though I’ve belted you and flayed you,
By the livin’ Gawd that made you,
You’re a better man than I am, Gunga Din!
That’s a fantastic list.
Thank you. I spend too much time watching movies, and there are so many more to recommend for various reasons. The above are all pretty ‘serious’ movies, but I figure the other lists have fun and comedic movies well covered with outstanding pics by many other people.
Is it too much though? I used to think I should spend less time watching TV shows and movies but on balance it’s fine. It’s one of my favourite things to do!
Some intriguing ones on this list. Cheers.
The holy mountain by Jodorowsky is also great. If this is running in a cinema somewhere by chance go for it.
I prefer El Topo to Holy Mountain as it has more of a uh script. Looks like they had a lot of fun filming the latter though!
Both of them are worth taking the time to watch though. Nothing else quite like them.
