Another vote for Blade Runner. Despite being dark and depressing, it’s a damned good looking movie. Ford is a bit stiff. However, considering the rumors about his character, it may be a good thing.
Rutger Hauer steals the movie. If he were any more intense, his head would split open.
Memento: A terrific movie with far more going on in it than just the gimmick. One of the best movies of the last decade.
Lost Highway: Fascinating flick, but don’t even attempt to watch it until you’ve seen Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive.
Blade Runner: Extremely influential visually, and worth seeing for that reason, but it’s dramatically inert for most of the running time. And Harrison Ford is wooden and dull. Yeah, it’s intentional, but that doesn’t make it any more interesting to watch. As usual, The Book Was Better (and much funnier.)
Unbreakable: Essentially a big shaggy dog story: the ending will either make you smile or make you scream with frustration. Only see it if a) you’ve seen and liked The Sixth Sense and b) you’re into superheroes.
The others: Another gimmick movie, and the gimmick is fairly easy to spot in advance if you’re looking. Still, it’s worth seeing even if you figure out the gimmick. It’s a good spooky movie (as opposed to a horror flick) and those are rare these days.
Equilibrium: This movie reduced me to giggling fits at least three times, which is bad because it takes itself very seriously indeed. Do yourself a favor: instead read 1984 and Farenheit 451, then watch the Matrix. Those are the models this movie is trying in vain to emulate. Sean Bean is good, though. (Sean Bean is always good.) Just thinking of the phrase “Grammaton Cleric” makes me laugh, hee hee.
Gosford Park: If you like Robert Altman movies, old fashioned murder mysteries and historical documentaries on PBS, then you will probably like this movie. If you do not like any of the above things, you will hate hate hate this movie. I liked it, but be warned the mystery angle is weak, since the movie really cares more more about depicting the mechanics of an English country manor than who killed whom. Features roughly one million great British actors, each of whom gets five seconds of screen time.
The Conversation: A great little paranoid thriller whose edge has been dulled by being copied so many times over the years. Has a very 70s vibe to it, meaning it’s slower paced and more loosly constructed than modern thrillers. A fine movie, but I don’t want to overhype it because most of what’s in it has been turned into thriller cliches by now.
Matchstick Men: One of the more underrated movies of this year. A nice little conman tale with a good performance by Nicholas Cage and a great one by Alison Lohman. Not great art but an above average movie.
My only suggestion: If you decide to watch Blade Runner read the book (or is it a novella?) first. It’s pretty hard to feel empathy for the androids on your first take of watching the movie and that is the whole point of the story. My main gripe with this movie is that they ditched the original title of the book which I think is way more appropriate: “Do andoids dream of electric sheep?” It’s all about whether androids have a “soul”. It’s kind of an alagory (sp) of slavery, hmmmmm.
The ones I’ve seen:
Memento: Very engaging, well acted, way above average writing. You have to pay attention, though, and after multople viewings I’m still not completely sure about the ending.
Cube: Good concept, mediocre execution, ridiculous ending. It’s basically like a not-so-good episode of the Twighlight Zone. It wasn’t terrible but could have been better.
Lost Highway: You either like David Lynch or you don’t. This is a well made and watchable movie, just don’t try to make too much sense of it. Lynch has said that half of the movie is a dream and the other half is “real” but won’t say which is which. It sort of make sense if you keep that in mind. Also, it has lesbians.
Unbreakable: I’m probably one of the few who liked this better than Sixth Sense. It’s basically a homage to superhero “origin” comics.
The others: Sixth Sense rip off. Even the ending. Watchable, though.
Primal Fear:Edward Norton’s first movie, and worth watching just for him. He completely owns the screen in his scenes.
Gosford Park: A little slow for my taste, but well acted, well directed. So-so ending,
Kalifornia: I thought Brad Pitt was quite good in this as a psycho, white trash, serial killer. The story is pretty routine, though.
Matchstick Men: Liked Cage. Hated the ending.
Alright. Thanks a Bunch guys.
I will most likely watch all of these movies… in time. I usually rent about 2-4 movies a month, so it would take me a while to watch em all. So I was basically inquiring so I could find out what ones I MUST see soon.
Of those, I’ve made my list in a general order: [the extended list is movies that I don’t inted on watching as soon as the others]
Memento
Suicide Kings (I love chris walken)
Blade Runner (Should I read the book first? How long is it? I’m almost done with LOTR: TTT and then gonna do LOTR: RTOK… So itd be awhile)
Lost Highway
Unbreakable (And Bruce Willis)
Cube
Gosford Park
Sneakers
Kalifornia
Jacob’s Ladder
Matchstick Men (when it comes out…)
Ordinary Decent Criminal (although Spacey is in it… so its tempting)
Primal Fear
Equilibrium
Along came a spider
The Others
The story on which Blade Runner is loosely based is Phillip K Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.
While the book is an excellent read, so much was adapted/added/cut for the movie that reading it or not will have no effect on your enjoyment of the movie.
I think you’ll find Monica Potter was the lead female in this movie, not Ashley Judd. The only Freeman-Judd pairings I’m aware of are **Kiss The Girls ** and High Crimes. For what it’s worth, I thought **Along Came A Spider ** was brilliant with an excellent twist!
No need to read the book first. It’s hardly even recognisable that the film is based on the book. The book is great, though, so you might want to read it someday.
Memento – Excellent film, but it takes some mental effort to view. If you’re one of those people who is always whispering to your neighbour asking, “Why did he do that?”, “Who is that guy?”, “Why did they just shoot those guys?” Then this film is not for you.
Suicide Kings – Not great, but its a fun film. Classic Walken.
Cube – This is typical of all Canadian movies. Its crap and despite their attempts to convince you that it makes sense, it doesn’t. Boring and cheesy.
Blade Runner – Only watch this if you get the Director’s Cut. Its really slow in some places but its an exceptional film if you’re willing to sit through it.
Unbreakable – Cool little film. It drags it some parts but its definately enjoyable to watch.
Sneakers – In terms of cinema its crap, but it has its moments if you enjoy a mindless romp.
Primal Fear – When it first came out it was considered a cool film, but you’d probably find it pretty cheesy now. Edward Norton is good but Gere over-acts through the entire movie.
Gosford Park – Overrated and it doesn’t really go anywhere, but all the performances are solid. Minus Ryan Philippppeeee who is just annoying whenever he is on screen in any movie.
The Conversation – Excellent older film, but its very slow. Hackman is gold and while Harrison is barely in it, its an interesting role for him.
Kalifornia – One of Brad Pitt’s earlier films, he gives a great performance. Also with David Duchovny. Its basically the same as Natural Born Killers, but it came out before Natural Born Killers but somehow didn’t get nearly as much press. I think its a good film and better than NBK.
Mulholland Drive has lesbians. Lost Highway is one of the more successful attempts at filming a nightmare. Plus, it features the creepiest character ever caught on film. Shivers
I’d also like to go with the crowd and say that the director’s cut of Blade Runner is superior. That is, if you like more open-ended narratives and don’t like everything clearly and blatantly pointed out to you.
Other than that, I either haven’t seen them, seen them but not cared enough to formulate an opinion, or my opinion has already been covered by someone else.
After you get around to watching Jacob’s Ladder, post your opinion of it [url=]here in mancunian’s Jacob’s Ladder SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER thread from April 2002.
As far as the suspense / thriller genre goes, I (still & as usual) recommend Funny Games, Body Double & Dressed to Kill
Blade Runner- Strictly OK, IMHO. But I saw a version that completely eliminated Harrison Ford’s monologues, and had Music where there was no dialogues. Aslo , pretty slow moving.
Unbreakable- OK to good. Somewhere in between
The others- Had it moments.
Primal Fear- One word. Norton.
Kalifornia- Skip.
Matchstick Men-Enjoyable.
The one’s I’ve seen, rated best to worst:
Blade Runner - One of the best science fiction films of all time, despite the fact that Ridley Scott butchered Phillip K. Dick’s book. I don’t know what I would have thought of Dune if I hadn’t read the book first, but I saw the theatrical release of Blade Runner before I read the book and the voice-over helped. Besides, it’s shot in the film noir style–it’s supposed to have a voiceover! Still, Mercer would probably want you to suffer throught the director’s cut. 
Matchstick Men - This is not just a “con” movie; it is also a character study, funny and moving.
Lost Highway - Very surreal; Lynch’s best.
Jacob’s Ladder - Creepy.
Unbreakable - This isn’t the fifth best movie, it’s the least bad. Without Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson it would have sunk like stone.
Sneakers - As someone else stated it’s dated. Reminds you of the short-lived X-Files spin-off Lone Gunmen.
The Others - At the signpost up ahead: a predictable ending.
Kalifornia - Brad Pitt as a redneck serial killer and Juliet Lewis as his trailer park girlfriend. A classic. 
Suicide Kings - Did we mention Christopher Walken is in it?
Primal Fear - Not bad, just very predictable.
Memento - If you’ve seen 21 Grams, Amores Perros or Run, Lola, Run there’s no reason to punish yourself by watching this movie. When it first came out on DVD the Texan in my office raved about it and forced us all to borrow and watch it. It was univerally scorned. We still make fun of him for it.
Cube - Dry science fiction.