Is there anyone here who didn’t like Leave No Trace? It doesn’t count if you didn’t see it. I find it unlikely that a film that scored 100% on Rotten Tomatoes with 248 reviews written by critics has anyone here who disliked it. Please tell us if you saw it and disliked it.
Mel Brooks did some voices in it.
What you’ll probably find is that most people here haven’t even seen it. It’s a relatively recent film, and it doesn’t look to me like it got a wide release in the theaters; IMDb says its worldwide gross was less than $8 million.
So, while everyone here who has seen it may well like it, it may not meet the OP’s goal of “a movie where we all agree it’s good.”
I agree; never saw Leave No Trace.
There is no movie that everyone has seen. For the statement that we’re investigating in this thread, we can’t take “we all” literally. Again, is there anyone here who has seen it and didn’t like it?
Of course. But most of the other films that others have suggested so far are decades old, have been shown on television again and again, etc., which makes it a lot more likely that most people have seen it. A lot of them are films that have appeared on numerous “best of all time” lists, were Oscar winners, etc., etc.
A newer film, which appears to be an independent, art-house film with a limited release, simply isn’t one which most of us older people on this board have seen (or even know much about).
I gotta say, this thread is extremely boomery. Is the “ALL” part meant to be everyone old enough to appreciate movies, or people who are 60+ on this board?
There is no way you’re going to get people under 30 to enjoy very many movies made before the 1980s. They’re just too slow, they lack a lot of refinement that movies have made over the years. Citizen Kane? You think anyone under 50 or 60 has Citizen Kane among their favorites?
Sound of music is a terrible pick because a lot of people don’t like musicals, so any musical is automatically and easily disqualified.
I’ve never actually seen Casablanca but I bet it, like almost all movies made in that era, would hold little appeal for younger audiences.
Old people can still appreciate new movies but young people would struggle to appreciate old movies. Therefore I suspect a most universally appreciated film would likely be from the 90s or later. My best guess is something relatively simple but well made and generally loved, one of the pixar or disney movies like Lion King or Toy Story or Shrek.
Honestly, I think all of the raving over Citizen Kane / Casablanca / all those old classics is mostly because people have heard those movies are great over and over again rather than that those are movies people would actually like to sit down and watch today. It has the same vibe of how every English teacher tells you how the same novels and the same poems are great, and it’s the same ones their teachers told them were the greats, which are the same ones that their teachers were told were the greats. You say they’re great because everyone has always told you they’re great and that’s what you’re supposed to say. And they may have been legitimately innovative and influential.
But I think if you actually gave people a choice, 95%+ of people would probably choose to watch Jurrassic Park or Wall-E over Citizen Kane.
Now, as these threads always go, I’m going to go ahead and let you get to the part of the thread where everyone just lists every movie they’ve ever heard of or seen.
Well, yeah, but so is this board. 
When I was a kid, my mom loved old movies like Gone With the Wind and Laura. I tried watching some and I couldn’t see what the attraction was. I thought I didn’t like old movies.
Then I grew up and discovered that I do like old movies, I just don’t like the same ones my mom did.
Definitely. My suggestions would be My Girl Friday, The Philadelphia Story, and Bringing up Baby. (See a theme there?)
Others I’m surprised nobody has mentioned: The Producers and A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Forum. (I seem to be in the mood for comedies.) Of course, anyone who doesn’t like musicals will shoot down the latter.
And a Bogart film I might put over Casablanca: To Have and Have Not.
Pace @SenorBeef, but I think these are old movies that have aged well and that modern audiences can appreciate.
My wife and I often watch an old movie on the weekends, often a classic that neither of has seen or a movie that one of us like, but hadn’t seen in years. One thing that can be jarring is how casual,y racist they can be, it can take you right out of the movie and be jarring.
I agree that there can’t be a movie that everyone likes, it’s just not how art works.
I disagree. Last time I updated it, there were around 14 movies - not sure anyone has nixed each of those yet. And a number of new nominees since. Once a film has been nominated, it is presumed ALL DOPERS agree it is good, until A SINGLE DOPER expressed their opinion to the contrary. So, for example, no one yet has dissed Apollo 13 or Forrest Gump.
Unfortunately, people seem eager to lose focus of my intended purpose of the thread, nominating films that have already been nixed (pointless. 1 nix is determinative), expressing their agreement for a previous nomination (unnecessary noise), or expressing opinions like yours (maybe interesting, but not really helping either identify a consensus winner or nixing every nominee.)
Perhaps if we are able to get to a place where we have a list of nominees which have not been nixed, folk could express their opinions as to whether something is or is not a valid nominee. I would imagine most posters would know enough that a film that had extremely limited release and very few of us would not have had a chance to see, would not be at all what this thread asks for. But folk wish to engage however they wish.
I WILL get back with an updated list. Even created a word list to refer to and update. But the amount of noise is making that a much less pleasant endeavor than I had anticipated.
Also, regarding Leave No Trace: yes, it has a 100% “Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes (which is a measure of positive reviews by professional reviewers), but it’s “Popcornmeter” rating (which is based on reviews from Rotten Tomatoes users) is only 78%.
I don’t consider myself a ‘hater’ of any genre, but I’ve never cared much for science fiction or musicals. It’s true, you can’t please everybody.
Gen Xer here, born in 1977. Casablanca is old enough that IMHO it’s past the “old fashioned” stage, which to me is mostly things (not just movies) from the 50s, 60s, and 70s. Once we go past that, things stop seeming old fashioned and begin to seem, archaic isn’t quite the right word, but close enough. They feel as if they were, as the fairy tales or George Lucas might say, from a long time ago and a far away place. Casablanca falls into that category. And yes, I like it. Part of that could be that IMHO the characters Bogart plays are like proto versions of Han Solo and Indiana Jones, both of which are characters that I really like.
WRT movies from the time period fo 1950 - 1980, they do almost all feel old fashioned to me. One of the few exceptions is Star Wars (the original, AKA A New Hope). I may have missed it, but I don’t think anyone has yet said they don’t like that one.
Yeah I’m guessing if princess bride doesn’t cut it nothing does. Personally I have some real issues with LOTR (namely they did a really good job of respecting the sprit of the source material right up the final climax. Then BAM skateboarding monk and dumb Hollywood set pieces all the way)
Maybe Monty Python and the Holy Grail ? (Medievalists excluded )
I quite like My Man Godfrey.
The Big Sleep is excellent.
I was going to say that I never saw it, but looking it up, there was something quite familiar about it. I checked my archives, and indeed there it was.
So I guess my position is: yes, I’ve seen it, but didn’t consider it remarkable enough to particularly remember it. Does that count?
FTR, Rotten Tomatoes critics’ reviews aren’t especially reliable, IMHO. They sometimes give stellar reviews to films that I think are just OK. Leave No Trace may get 100% on RT, but on IMDb it gets a respectable but far from extraordinary 7.1.
So I’d say that I didn’t dislike it, but that there are hundreds of movies that leave it in the dust.
It’s important to view RT in context. I imagine you know this, but RT isn’t necessarily saying a 90% Tomatoscore movie is a better movie than a 75% one, just that it’s sort of… more widely likeable. Basically, “if you had to give this movie a thumbs up or a thumbs down, even if you only like it a tiny bit, what would it be?” and then adding that all up into a percentage. So a 6.0 IMDB fine movie that everyone likes but no one loves can get a tomatometer score of 95% whereas an 8.5 amazing but controversial or complex or niche movie might be absolutely loved by 40% of its audience but only get a 50% tomatoscore.
Since this thread is about finding a movie that everyone thinks is good (and not necessarily great), it definitely makes sense to look at the sort of movies that would score a high tomatometer score. 100% of everyone just barely liking a movie would qualify, but a movie that 80% of people loved but 20% of people hate will not.
No one has dumped on my Blues Brothers idea yet.