Our favorite movie to watch together is the original Star Wars, aka “A New Hope.” We also like The Wizard of Oz, and the Harry Potter movies, but really sophisticated sci-fi too; bear in mind that the boychik is only 13, but he has seen the John Carpenter The Thing recently, and not had nightmares. He’s also pretty bright, and liked the original Manchurian Candidate.
We also like really good old-fashioned mysteries. We love The Lady Vanishes, Witness for the Prosecution, the 70s version of Murder on the Orient Express, Gaslight, and Diabolique.
Era does not matter. Country does not matter. Not really interested in spoofs, unless they actually offer a suspenseful plot of their own, such as Foul Play (Goldie Hawn, Chevy Chase).
We have Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime. Also, willing to get other services.
The Winslow Boy (1948) - courtroom drama set in pre-WW1 London.
There’s a 1999 film too, but the 1948 one is better.
Clip - A prominent lawyer questions the boy before deciding whether or not to take the case. Unfortunately this clip doesn’t continue long enough - at the end, after all his harsh questioning, he says, “I’ll take the case, the boy is clearly innocent.”
I really enjoyed these sci-fi movies, you might too.
Life (2017)
Europa Report (2013)
The Last Days on Mars (2013)
Passengers (2016) - Stunningly gorgeous visuals
Infini (2015) - This one has a lot of blood, but is a worthwhile movie to watch
Blade Runner - old and new
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets - Another movie with extremely rich visual design
If you are into martial arts movies, I highly recommend the Ong Bak series and Hero (2002).
SF:
*Blade Runner
**Closer Encounters of the Third Kind
**Dark City
**Battle Beyond the Stars
**Enemy Mine *
Fantasy:
*Labyrinth
**Legend
**The Dark Crystal *
Who Done Did It:
Noe especially my genere, but you could go with Who Framed Roger Rabbit, if it isn’t too dark for him.
If “country does not matter”= tolerates subtitles, one of my all-time favorite comedies is the Japanese movie Summer Time Machine Blues, which seems to be available only on Netflix Japan, so here it is on archive.org (and here are the subtitles.)
We actually splurged on a 54" TV (on sale) when the schools started closing, and we saw the writing on the wall, because DH & I both resist watching subtitled movies at home, although we love them in theaters-- because of the size of the screen.
We are going to introduce the boychik to Rashomon.
All good ideas-- especially like Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Have not seen it since it was in the theaters. I think the boychik has seen the Back to the Future films, which means we’ve all seen them, but good idea.
Never heard of The Winslow Boy, but it is now at the top of my personal list.
Witness for the Prosecution and Murder on the Orient Express are my second and third favorite Agatha Christie movies. But the absolute best is And Then There Were None (1945).
The Third Man, one of the greatest non-cozy whodunnits.
And for bingeing, try the 1980s BBC Sherlock Holmes series, starring Jeremy Brett. I like the first season most, as I think Burke a superior Watson to Hardwicke. But Hardwicke’s no slouch.
I don’t get to the theater much these days, but the most fun I’ve had in yonks at the theater was Knives Out, a thoroughly modern, thoroughly old-fashioned murder mystery. I laughed in glee at so many moments. Sparkling dialogue, compelling characters, and a great, fair mystery at its heart.
If the subtitles are captions, yes, but if they are subtitles actually on the film, no.
I actually didn’t care for this. I thought it was self-indulgent, or something. I’ve seen the original short, though.
We’ve watched a few of those, and lots of things that were on the PBS Mystery. Just watched the original Prime Suspect. The boychik has discovered Helen Mirren. We are going to have a Helen Mirren afternoon soon, but it must be selected carefully. He can watch Cousin Bette, since, heck, I think I was 11 or 12 when I saw it. But The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover is out. He has already asked to watch some Shakespeare she is in, though. He wants to see her when she was really young (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), and in drag (As You Like It). DH even wants to see AMND, because Diana Rigg is also in it.
The boychik actually discovered reading Sherlock Holmes last years, though, so he wants to see only the ones he has already read. We have also watched some Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce films.
Since you have a TV with a decent-sized screen, watch Kenneth Branagh’s version of Hamlet, and the 1935 version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (the one with James Cagney as Bottom, and Mickey Rooney as Puck; it may be black-and-white, but it’s still visually spectacular).
The She-Wolf of London is set up like a horror film, but it’s actually a whodunnit.
If you’ve got a hankerin’ for Shakespeare, Branagh’s Henry V And Much Ado About Nothing are both wonderful.
Seconding the 1935 AMND. Olivia deHavilland makes a gorgeous Hermia and Jimmy Cagney pulls out all the stops as Bottom. Among his band of “rude mechanicals,” look for Joe E. (“Nobody’s perfect”) Brown and Arthur (fish) Treacher.