movies. good ones. seriously.

i need a list of quality movies. genres don't matter, although i'd love a bit of everything.

so let me tell you what works for me.

i love movies. i can't say i've seen a lot of them, actually i really haven't seen that many. most of them were either crap, pointless, stupid, or just plain bad. then there's a tiny number of movies that were "okay" and then there are movies that were "great". i'm after that kind.

i'm quite hard to please. at first, i was going to write an in-depth reflection (can i use that word in english?) on my viewing of movies, but it would be probably really boring. so i decided to just list a few dos and don'ts.

i loved everything i've seen from kubrick.

i hated 300.

i liked eternal sunshine of the spotless mind.

i liked the truman show.

i hated donnie darko.

i think butterfly effect was one of the worst movies ever made.

i liked i <heart> huckabees.

i disliked closer.

i'm a sucker for tarantino. seriously, i love everything he's directed/written.

huge fan of kurosawa.

i loved twilight samurai.

the sequel cube 2: hypercube was the worst movie ever made.

i've seen just one peter greenaway movie, a zed and two noughts and absolutely loved it.

i thought manos, the hands of fate was really interesting, i've seen it many a time.

...

and now i'm trying to remember what my "best movie ever made" was, but i can't. at least nothing that's not by tarantino, kubrick or kurosawa. so... now i'm asking you guys for help. i hope i managed to give you an idea of my taste. if possible, write something about the movies you're recommending, like why you liked the movie/ why you think i'd like it. if you don't feel like explaining, no sweat, just gimme the titles.

i know you're a great good-movies-database, if i get recommended a movie i already saw, i'll write what i thought of it, so you'll get a better picture of what i'm after. i know all this is a very self-centered thing to do/ ask from you, but i'm hoping someone else will also benefit from this thread.

please watmm, give me good movies.

Vertigo

Psycho

The Third Man

Citizen Kane

The Deer Hunter

Apocalypse Now

Rear Window

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Shawshank Redemption

Singin' in the Rain

At the moment, I think these are my ten favorites. It changes all the time though. If it was my top twenty, there might be more foreign movies.

Logan's Run

The Thing

Nothing To Lose

3 off the top of my head, there.

cheers Rook, looks like you see through me :)

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Vertigo

Psycho

The Third Man

those are all hitchcock, right? i'll get on to it. although i find it harder to get into black&white, but will definitely give it a shot, i'm quite convinced i'll once become a true hitchcock fan.

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Citizen Kane

saw it. maybe i need to see it again, i didn't manage to "get" all the buzz about it. should i watch it again?

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The Deer Hunter

saw it. ages ago. i remember i've liked it very much.

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Apocalypse Now

looks good, keeps popping up in top10s, is this a good one to watch with my wife?

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Rear Window

see above (hitchcock)

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One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

saw it, one of my favorites

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Shawshank Redemption

i'm on it!

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Singin' in the Rain

seriously?

I don't disagree with anything from Rook or Caustic (especially the Hitchcock nods, can't go wrong there). I'd recommend something by Robert Altman if you can find it. Admittedly his career was a bit hit-and-miss with moments of true shit (i.e. O.C and Stiggs, Beyond Therapy, Pret-a-Porter), but when he was on form he was awesome. I like a lot of his stuff for his sense of naturalism (over-lapping dialogue etc.) and eschewing conventional narrative structure (sorry for the cliches there, but they are the reasons I like him). I'd recommend:

M*A*S*H

Short Cuts

The Player

California Split (if you can find it)

The Long Goodbye

A lot of people seem to think that he was sloppy and lazy in his style, and I can appreciate where they're coming from, but I love a lot of his films. It'd be nice to know if there are any Altman fans on WATMM.

Also, if you like Kubrick and haven't seen it already, Barry Lyndon is amazing. I've never seen cinematography like it. Story may be a little slight perhaps, but the length at which it unfolds is justified by the characterisation of Lyndon himself. That film really moves me somehow.

  Caustic said:

Logan's Run

The Thing

Nothing To Lose

 

3 off the top of my head, there.

logan's run - i might like this, although not probably not at the moment :)

the thing - probably not my thing. horror movies in general, are not my idea of what a good movie is. unless i'm wrong on this one - is there something more in this?

nothing to lose - looks really good, i love tim robbins!

thanks!

  Caretstik said:

I don't disagree with anything from Rook or Caustic (especially the Hitchcock nods, can't go wrong there). I'd recommend something by Robert Altman if you can find it. Admittedly his career was a bit hit-and-miss with moments of true shit (i.e. O.C and Stiggs, Beyond Therapy, Pret-a-Porter), but when he was on form he was awesome. I like a lot of his stuff for his sense of naturalism (over-lapping dialogue etc.) and eschewing conventional narrative structure (sorry for the cliches there, but they are the reasons I like him). I'd recommend:

 

M*A*S*H

Short Cuts

The Player

California Split (if you can find it)

The Long Goodbye

 

A lot of people seem to think that he was sloppy and lazy in his style, and I can appreciate where they're coming from, but I love a lot of his films. It'd be nice to know if there are any Altman fans on WATMM.

 

Also, if you like Kubrick and haven't seen it already, Barry Lyndon is amazing. I've never seen cinematography like it. Story may be a little slight perhaps, but the length at which it unfolds is justified by the characterisation of Lyndon himself. That film really moves me somehow.

altman - sounds really good. i've seen MASH when i was a kid, can't remember shit, except it was fucked up. the sense of naturalism you're speaking about is something i really look for in movies, especially the dialogues. (that's what i like about tarantino the most, although his are actually quite artificial dialogues, but somehow manage to get through to me as... realistic. stylized actually, but still realistic.)

i saw pret-a-porter, but don't remember to have particulary liked it. i'll definitely check these by altman.

barry lyndon - great, didn't know about this one!

oh, and guys, please give me the obvious ones too, i've most probably missed them :)

The Battle of Algiers

Day of Wrath

Pickpocket

Week End

Persona

The Shop on Main Street

The Enigma of Kasper Hauser

Mirror

Punishment Park

L'avventura

M

Umberto D.

Ugetsu

Z

Nights of Cabiria

Le Samourai

Performance

i just saw the trailer for 1 Missed Call...yeah, that's definitely not making the list above

Il Conformista

Badlands

The Conversation

and yeah, if you really haven't seen Apocalypse Now that's a definite need to own

I just got a very amazing tv(Samsung LN-T4081F), that new dvd of The Conformist looks very, very, very nice...Dominique Sanda is fucking hot as Hell in this film

good call on Badlands, as well

alien aliens alien 3 alien resurrection predator predator 2 alien vs predator

  kokoon said:

i hated 300.

pansy

awesome, guys, Soothsayer - i haven't even heard about any of those, except for the le samourai, which i also haven't seen! :D

Adjective - cheers - those are also all new to me!

i guess i've some researching to do, where to start!

the hustler

on the waterfront

birdman of alcatraz

scum

cool hand luke

the elephant man

marathon man

all about lily chou chou

videodrome

12 angry men

the cider house rules

cape fear (peck/mitchum)

andromeda strain

bad lieutenant

the picture of dorian gray

  kokoon said:

the sense of naturalism you're speaking about is something i really look for in movies, especially the dialogues.

I don't know if anybody else would agree, but this is something that's been done well by Steven Spielberg in the past; I'm thinking Jaws, Close Encounters Of The Third Kind and Sugarland Express in particular. They remind me of Robert Altman in terms of the naturalism of the colour and sound. I'd certainly recommend those three films as well (hope they're not too obvious).

And I definitely agree about The Conversation, superbly executed film. Brilliant.

2001: A Space Odyssey - You seem to have seen a bit of Kubrick, hopefully this is one of them.

8 1/2 - I've seen very little Federico Fellini, but I immediately appreciated this film's intelligent, nuanced, characters, fantastic dialogue, masterful direction, as well as it's use of metafilm.

Back to the Future 1 & 2 - Great characters, interesting conflict, and perfectly executed humor make this one of my favorite movies ever. The second one is equally as good as it is closely tied in with the first.

The Departed - Tight, graceful, and expertly acted by everyone involved. I need more.

  Wall Bird said:

2001: A Space Odyssey - You seem to have seen a bit of Kubrick, hopefully this is one of them.

Shame on me for not checking this one. One of my all-time favourite films. EVER.

Anything by the Coen brothers.

  kokoon said:

cheers Rook, looks like you see through me :)

 

  Quote

Vertigo

Psycho

The Third Man

those are all hitchcock, right? i'll get on to it. although i find it harder to get into black&white, but will definitely give it a shot, i'm quite convinced i'll once become a true hitchcock fan.

 

  Quote

Citizen Kane

saw it. maybe i need to see it again, i didn't manage to "get" all the buzz about it. should i watch it again?

 

  Quote

The Deer Hunter

saw it. ages ago. i remember i've liked it very much.

 

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Apocalypse Now

looks good, keeps popping up in top10s, is this a good one to watch with my wife?

 

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Rear Window

see above (hitchcock)

 

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One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

saw it, one of my favorites

 

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Shawshank Redemption

i'm on it!

 

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Singin' in the Rain

seriously?

Vertigo, Psycho, and Rear Window are Hitchcock. While the Third Man was directed by Carol Reed I believe in 1949. Vertigo, Psycho, and the Third Man especially to me contain scenes, sequences, and camera shots that look remarkably contemporary, fresh, and modern even today. Citizen Kane has the same as well, but the difference is that Citizen Kane was sooo influential that the elements of scenes made famous by Welles are often used today. There is still plenty of stuff in Citizen Kane that isn't done today though. Watch it, and then watch it again with Roger Ebert's commentary which is very good as far as commentary goes, and increased my appreciation for a movie that was already in my top ten the first time I saw it.

Vertigo is an artsy movie, very visually and symbolically complex and requires more than one viewing. Hitchcock's emotional masterpiece and Jimmy Stewart's best performance in an already abundant career. Plus it contains the best score in the history of film.

The Third Man is set in Austria. It contains the best dramatic entrance in film history and probably the third or fourth best score in film history.

As far as Apocalypse Now goes, it depends on how your wife is. Firstly, stay away from the redone "redux" extended edition which is terrible. Stick to the original. It is a surreal, psychedelic, and frankly a fairly depressing film about war and morality. Francis Ford Coppola's best film imo. Better than the Godfather. The opening scene, ending scene, and cavalry scene are three amazing sequences.

Singin' in the Rain is THE best hollywood musical. If you don't like musicals, than probably stay away from it. But Singin' in the Rain is a masterpiece. I suppose this movie, Rear Window, and sort of the Shawshank Redemption are the only non-depressing movies on my list. I first came into Singin' in the Rain, I consistently saw it on top ten lists like AFI and BFI. I adore the Sound of Music, but wasn't exactly going out of my way to see musicals. But I finally rented Singin' in the Rain and was astounded by how contemporary it feels. A masterpiece.

Looking at other lists;

8 1/2 , M, 12 Angry Men, Alien, and 2001 are all spectacular.

  Rook said:

As far as Apocalypse Now goes...stay away from the redone "redux" extended edition which is terrible. Stick to the original.

  Caretstik said:

  Rook said:

As far as Apocalypse Now goes...stay away from the redone "redux" extended edition which is terrible. Stick to the original.

 

I gotta disagree. I thought the redux was really well done and the re-inserted scenes added a lot to showing how fucked up the situation was for people outside the military, and how that played on the psyche of the soldiers.

No one's mentioned any Terrence Malick yet? Oh no wait someone said Badlands.

You must check out Days of Heaven and Thin Red Line by Malick as well. All 3 of those movies are just beautiful. A New World was decent, but didn't compare to those 3.

Oldboy is a very popular Korean movie from a few years ago. Can't recommend it enough.

  chenGOD said:

Thin Red Line...just beautiful.

Abso-fucking-lutely. Sorry to hog this thread, but that's another film that really, really moves me every time I watch it. ChenGOD is so fucking right here.

I dunno about Redux though, I just found the character of Willard more convincing in the original, being such a miserable and intractable bastard. The extra Kilgore scenes with the surfboard just didn't seem to fit in with the later ones where Willard becomes more detached from the rest of the boat crew (or the opening scenes where he's fucked out of his mind); they just seemed too lighthearted for Willard. I liked the additional scenes with the Bunny girls and the extended Kurtz dialogue worked OK for me. I fucking hated the French Plantation sequence though. Just seemed flabby and redundant. I think what I'm trying to say is that the original made the point about the madness of (the) war and it's effect perfectly well on it's own.

I would say though that I've only watched Redux once (at the cinema when it was released); I love Apocalypse Now at least enough to give Redux another chance, I suppose. But I really don't think that I'll change my mind.

Heres a random selection of some of seen recently and thought were excellent

Rescue Dawn

Cashback

The Prestige

Lets go to prison

Everything is Illuminated

Primer

Pan's Labyrinth

  chenGOD said:

  Caretstik said:

  Rook said:

As far as Apocalypse Now goes...stay away from the redone "redux" extended edition which is terrible. Stick to the original.

 

 

I gotta disagree. I thought the redux was really well done and the re-inserted scenes added a lot to showing how fucked up the situation was for people outside the military, and how that played on the psyche of the soldiers.

 

No one's mentioned any Terrence Malick yet? Oh no wait someone said Badlands.

You must check out Days of Heaven and Thin Red Line by Malick as well. All 3 of those movies are just beautiful. A New World was decent, but didn't compare to those 3.

 

Oldboy is a very popular Korean movie from a few years ago. Can't recommend it enough.

When I first saw Apocalypse Now, I was astounded at how strong the characters were and at how the movie was almost devoid of cliche. The Redux ruined this. Martin Sheen's character in the original was very messed up and dark; completely removed from humanity. The redux contradicted this when he steals the surfboard and gets those girls for the other guys in the boat. And I remember first seeing the Playboy scene and being very impressed that the movie didn't add some ridiculously cliche scene were the bunnies somehow got to sleep with the crew. And lo and behold, that scene was added in the redux. Similarly, come one, that plantation scene? Martin Sheen just happens to have a sexual encounter with a beautiful French widow? Give me a break. Plus, the movie was not about the French involvement, it was too long a sequence that throws the plot and "American" feeling of the movie way off.

Thin Red Line was indeed good.

I saw Old Boy and enjoyed the general story, the ambiguous ending, and that cool fight scene where it looked like a Kung Fu fighter game. But some parts were kind of eh for me. I thought maybe some of it got sort of lost in translation, since I am not Korean. (for example, toward the end where the main character goes berserk hurting himself. Seemed a bit weird to me

Also, Primer and Pan's Labyrinth were amazing. Primer is really complex though. Made with only 7000 dollars I believe.

  Dr. Bunsen Honeydew said:

Everything is Illuminated

This film is amazing, you should definitely watch it.