Suggest for Me a Film

Cafe Society
1

I had a rather…unusual childhood. I was not allowed to watch movies. I only watched TV when I was sick, and so Mr. Rogers is forever linked with having a small glass tube stuck up my bum.

But I digress.

The point is that I have seen very few movies. I’d like to see some more, but I’m kinda like a deer in headlights when at the video store. Too many choices!

Dopers, help me get my education on by recommending some movies. Nothing scary though, because horror movies make me scream and sleep with the lights on for days. You can cross off any Spike Lee films though, becaue those I have seen. All of them. Yes, I’m a big weirdo.

Oh, and I saw that Vanilla Ice movie too. No more like that, please.

2

Let us see…Casablanca. Gone with the Wind. A Streetcar Named Desire. The Philadelphia Story. Bringing Up Baby. My Fair Lady. Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Young Frankenstein. The Wizard of Oz. Anything Monty Python, but particularly The Life of Brian.

If you end up watching and enjoying Gone with the Wind and A Streetcar Named Desire and need a Vivien Leigh fix, try Waterloo Bridge and That Hamilton Woman (which seem to be considerably harder to find).

And for the most effervescent, completely non-scary Hitchcock film ever, try To Catch a Thief.

3

Ooh… good ones. I’ve seen much Python though, and LOB is my least favorite. Breakfast at Tiffany’s the only other one on the list that I’ve seen, and it didn’t appeal much. Also, I was disappointed with the lack of bacon in that film.

4

You too, huh?

5

For more recent films:

Requiem for a Dream
Trainspotting
Pulp Fiction
Amadeus

I have no idea why three of those four movies involve a lot of drugs.

6

You don’t know me. You don’t know me…at all.

Oh yeah; I had a friend in college that liked that movie so much (in the “so good it’s bad” way…he wasn’t insane) he purchased it from the video store. But I digress.

My number one recommendation to you would be Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window. It’s a bit of a thriller (but bloodless, despite the crime involved), a bit of romance (but not sappy), a bit of comedy (but not cheesy); it’s just, quite frankly, the best movie ever made.

I like most of La Llorona’s list, except for Gone With The Wind (yawn), and like you, I can take a pass on Tiffany, though I did like Hepburn in her starring role, Roman Holiday, with Gregory Peck. Also recommended and starring Peck is To Kill A Mockingbird, which is quite faithful to Harper Lee’s outstanding novel.

Casablanca is a deserved classic and double-features well with The Third Man. While we’re on Welles, Citizen Kane, while perhaps not the best film ever made (see above) is well worth the time, as is The Lady From Shanghai. The Bicycle Thief is an excellent film as well. Depending on your tastes and sense of humor any of the Cary Grant comedies such as Bringing Up Baby, His Girl Friday, and especially Arsenic and Old Lace (a serial killer comedy, if you can buy that) are well worth watching, as are the various Marx Brothers films.

I’m also a fan of film noir, like Out Of The Past, The Maltese Falcon, The Big Heat, and Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity. While we’re on the topic of Wilder, you can bet on most of his oeurve, especially Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, and Sunset Blvd.

But this is all older stuff. More recent films of note: Chinatown, LA Confidential, Raise The Red Lantern (warning: subtitles), The Godfather and The Godfather, Part II, As Good As It Gets (with the lovely Helen Hunt), Apollo 13, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Incredibles…the list is endless, actually.

More complex films, that take a bit of time to matriculate: Being John Malkovich, 2001: A Space Oddessy, La Dolce Vita, Il Conformosto, Blade Runner…again, I could go on endlessly. One of my especial favorites that gets better every time I watch it is Terry Gilliam’s Brazil, a movie of such complexity and dizzying pace that you have to see it at least half a dozen times to really pick up on everything that is going on.

There are many more than I’m sure I’m missing; is there a paticular genre or type of film you are interested in? Any particular actors or directors you like?

Stranger

7

Pulp Fiction is an Absolute must (In Fact anything By Mr Tarantino [Jackie Brown, Resoviour Dogs, Kill Bill, Four Rooms]

Lock, Stock and two smoking Barrels, Snatch, Stickmen, High Fidelity, Bandits, Donnie Darko.

They are the only ones i can think of at the moment.

8

This is a good place to start.

P.S. Still ticked off the DVD I sent you never arrived.

9

This is a good place to start, as well: http://imdb.com/chart/top

10

Fact of life: mailmen steal. Packages don’t just “get lost” in transit. I’ve sent money in an envelope (I know now this is a bad idea), a trumpet, and a set of DVDs only to have them disappear in transit. I only use DHL now.

11

Don’t mean to hijack inkleberry’s thread, but (back story) I sent a copy of the final episode of Joan of Arcadia to her. Spent the time copyijng and a nifty label and postage and well…she never got it and I look like a flake. I have since deleted the episode from my DVR, so I can’t even make a new copy to send again. Sucks.
But back to the OP…I would also be interested in RECENT films that are worth seeing. So along with any other suggestions, if anybody can suggest a non-blockbuster that has recently come out on DVD that would be worth renting, I would appreciate it as well as I think it would interest inkleberry.

12

A Chaplin film is bound to entertain you, but you’d have trouble finding one at a Blockbuster video or its ilk. I recommend City Lights but I’m sure anyone else would push for Modern Times.

If you want action with a bit of drama, try Spiderman or Star Wars.

If you want a comedy, may I suggest something from Mel Brooks - my personal favorite is Spaceballs, but History of the World Part I never let me down. Annie Hall is a good one with a little more drama and a lot less farce.

I noticed you don’t like horror movies, so avoid The Shining at all costs. I saw that thing yesterday and I can’t sleep now. I keep thinking those creepy little dead girls are gonna pop up at any second.

Here’s a random assortment of pretty good movies, depending on who you ask:

13

Um, how old are you about? Because I think it’s really important that you catch up with the kids’ and teenage movies of your agemates.

Like if you were a teenager in the 80s and never saw “Pretty In Pink” or “The Sure Thing”, then you have some remedial work to do.

I can only advise you if you’re about my age (35)

14

You advise ‘Pretty in pink’ and 'The Sure Thing" but no mention of ‘Rumble Fish’, ‘The Outsiders’ (ok, so I had a Matt Dillion fetish) or ‘Risky business’.

Shame on you. :slight_smile:

15

The Marx Brothers’* A Night at the Opera*.
John Ford’s The Searchers, and The Quiet Man

Um…these are all likely to have what you called a ‘lack of bacon.’

16

Mostly from the '80s:

funny -
This is Spinal Tap
Parenthood
Planes, Trains and Automobiles
The Four Seasons

intense -
Glengarry Glenn Ross
Chariots of Fire
Ordinary People

unusual -
Purple Rose of Cairo
Bullets over Broadway
The Usual Suspects
Fargo
Raising Arizona
Harold and Maude

Older films:

All About Eve
It Happened One Night
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolfe
Father of the Bride (w/Spencer Tracy)
also seconding -
Amadeus
Pulp Fiction
Casablanca
Requiem for a Dream

17

**The Princess Bride **appears to be a favorite of a good many members of these boards (myself included).

18

Just a note about YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN- it is basically funny as is, but it’s much funnier if you are familiar with these movies from the 1930’s and 40s-

FRANKENSTEIN w/ Boris Karloff
BRIDE OF F… also with BK
SON OF F… ditto BK
GHOST OF F… w/ Lon Chaney Jr
F… MEETS THE WOLFMAN w/ Bela Lugosi

and I think your adversion to scary movies will not be bothered by these.

19

Moving thread from IMHO to Cafe Society.

20

*Ernest Goes To Camp * - Seriously. I consider this to be one of the best movies ever. This Ernest movie is not like most of the other Ernest movies that were released later, it actually has a decent plot, some good acting by Jim Varney, and some really funny parts as well. You should check it out!