You simply must see the unrated version of Bad Santa. For the record, I too, loved Death to Smoochy. I also second Four Rooms…hilarious.
You seem to like period pieces, so if you haven’t seen Elizabeth or Shakespeare In Love, I think you might like them. You might also enjoy The Count of Monte Cristo (I enjoyed the 2002 Jim Caviezel version more, visually grin) and Master and Commander.
Cold Mountain, Hidalgo, and The Alamo, while not my favorite period, were all movies I enjoyed very much.
If you haven’t seen all the older Classic Fantasy movies, like Legend, Labyrinth, Krull, Ladyhawke (TERRIBLE soundtrack, incredible movie), and The Princess Bride (fantasy and romantic comedy all in one!), those are all ones I watch repeatedly.
Then perhaps you would like Very bad Things. Now, I should add that I hated this movie with the fire of a thousand sons, and that I’m actually a worse person for having seen it. Nevertheless, it’s not poorly made, and it’s the blackest black comedy there is (please, no Pootie Tang jokes).
I seem to be one of the few people that likes black humor that just didn’t like Bad Santa at all. I had been wanting to see it for months when it finally came out on PPV so I ordered it, expecting to roll on the ground in laughter, and, instead, wound up laughing once. Twice, at the most.
I have no idea what I didn’t like either… I like Billy Bob Thornton, want to have Lauren Graham’s babies, and obviously love the genre but the whole movie fell flat.
I love period pieces although my taste in them generally swings more towards the epic, e.g. Braveheart, Troy, Alexander, et al. I’ll definitely give The Count of Monte Cristo a try though.
Is Shakespeare in Love in King James English? I’ll have to pass, if so… while I love Shakespeare once translated into contemporary English, it’s a chore to try to do it myself.
I’ve not heard very good things about any of those movies but will bite the bullet at your suggestion. Except Cold Mountain, which has been on my queue against my better judgement for a week now.
I’ve seen The Princess Bride already and it was one of the movies in my OP; I gave it four stars. I added *Ladyhawke *and Legend as well.
Despite Cameron Diaz’s inclusion in the movie – a dealbreaker usually – I’ve decided to give it a shot as it sounds interesting and any movie that is described so badly automatically makes me somewhat curious. It’s why I have *Gigli *near the top of my queue.
Well, you mentioned you didn’t like stylized violence, but as long as you’re suspending that to see Very Bad Things (which I got a huge kick out of), you might like True Romance as well. While Tarantino wrote the screenplay, iirc, someone else directed the movie, so it diverges from the standard Pulp Fiction/Kill Bill style. It’s a great story, with amazing performances from Christopher Walken, Gary Oldman, Dennis Hopper, and Christian Slater. By far, my favorite Brat Pitt role…
I loved it, and simply forgot about it in my recommendations. But then again, I’m a huge John Favreau fan. I liked Swingers, Made, Very Bad Things, the romantic comedy he did with Famke Jannsen, (which I recommend to you), and his IFC show.
True Romance is my favorite movie of all time. Quentin wrote the script, but Tony Scott directed. In fact, they had a major disagreement over the ending. I’m pleased as punch that Scott won out and got to use his ending over Quentin’s. Also, it’s not the most violent movie in the world. Not on par with the opening sequence of Saving Private Ryan, for instance. But it is pretty violent, though not stylized.
Okay, True Romance, Made, and Love & Sex have been added.
Now I have the problem of trying to figure out what order to put all these movies in. In addition to the two dozen or more I’ve added from this thread, I’ve also been looking over “Best of” lists and adding favorite actors’ movies in addition to movies I’ve been meaning to see for years now with the end result of just under 200 movies in my queue.
That’s a legitimate headache, alright. Using an arbitrary 4 star system, here’s my ratings of the movies I listed. First, the scale, which is based on entertainment value, as opposed to quality, themes, or other crap like that:
I would advise against picking two 1-star movies as a single order. You might like them both, but then again you might hate them both.
Comedy:[ul]
[li] Big Daddy **[/li][li] Big Touble * (If that. Not a movie I particularly like, despite having Jason Lee.)[/li][li] Dazed and Confused *[/li][li] Death Becomes Her (Actually did not like this one, but only saw it once.)[/li][li] Dogma ***[/li][li] Made ** (At least, I think it’s a comedy.)[/li][li] Very Bad Things ***[/li][li] What Planet Are You From? **[/li][/ul] Drama:[ul]
[li] 21 Grams **[/li][li] 200 Cigarettes *[/li][li] A Time To Kill **[/li][li] Beautiful Girls **[/li][li] Cherish *[/li][li] Four Rooms **[/li][li] Freeway **[/li][li] Ghost World *[/li][li] Go (1999) ***[/li][li] Heavy Metal ** (animated)[/li][li] High Art **[/li][li] HurlyBurly *[/li][li] Laurel Canyon ***[/li][li] Leaving Las Vegas **[/li][li] Levity **[/li][li] Lost in Translation *[/li][li] Punch Drunk Love *[/li][li] Requiem for a Dream **[/li][li] Rounders ***[/li][li] The Anniversary Party *[/li][li] The Good Girl *[/li][li] The Ice Storm *[/li][li] The Opposite of Sex *[/li][li] The Royal Tenenbaums ***[/li][li] The Truman Show ***[/li][li] The Weight of Water **[/li][li] Seabiscuit ****[/li][li] She’s The One **[/li][li] Short Cuts ****[/li][li] Sleepers *[/li][li] Things To Do In Denver When You’re Dead ***[/li][li] Vanilla Sky ***[/li][li] Wonder Boys ***[/li][li] Wonderland ***[/li][li] Your Friends And Neighbors *[/li][/ul] Period/Fantasy/Sci-Fi/Horror/Comics:[ul]
[li] Excalibre *[/li][li] First Knight *[/li][li] Interview With A Vampire *[/li][li] Kill Bill ****[/li][li] Rob Roy ***[/li][li] Solaris **[/li][li] Species *[/li][li] Spiderman **[/li][li] The Fifth Element **[/li][/ul] Crime:[ul]
[li] Bound **[/li][li] Heat *[/li][li] Killing Zoe ***[/li][li] Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels **[/li][li] Shallow Grave **[/li][li] The Professional ***[/li][li] Traffic *[/li][li] True Romance ****[/li][/ul] Romance[ul]
[li] Gigli *[/li][li] Kate & Leopold ***[/li][li] Love, Actually ****[/li][li] Love & Sex **[/li][li] Meet Joe Black ***[/li][li] Mr. Deeds *[/li][li] Mumford **[/li][li] Overboard ***[/li][li] Serendipity *[/li][li] Sliding Doors **[/li][li] The Pallbearer **[/li][/ul]
Off the top of my head. Some of these are a little off genre from your list, but imo match the tone of movies you’ve liked.
Rushmore is a must see for you- surprised it hasn’t been mentioned (maybe I missed it).
I think you’d like the Gift also.
Seems you like Edward Norton so how about Primal Fear - not a bad suspense movie of his?
Also
L.A. Confidential
Dr. Strangelove if you haven’t seen it.
Say Anything and As Good as it Gets (2 good romantic comedies) also Anger Mangement.
The Right Stuff.
Okay, with the new posts in mind, I went back and reordered my queue and now have it reworked so that I’m pretty much getting one suggested movie per arrival.
For anyone that might care, which is Ellis Dee, if that, my (abbreviated) queue, as of right now is:
Out: Road to Perdition () The Broken Hearts Club (*) and Love Actually (********).
Girl, Interrupted
The Majestic
Cop Land
The Cider House Rules
Intermission
Rob Roy
Jersey Girl
Reality Bites
*Short Cuts *
The Rundown
The Ice Storm
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Very Bad Things
The Cable Guy
Maria Full of Grace
Wag the Dog
Training Day
Sliding Doors
Pirates of the Caribbean
Philadelphia
Trekkies
Love & Sex
Clockers
Englishman Who Went Up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain
Ghost World
Good Fellas
School Ties
Rushmore
The Shawshank Redemption
The Man Who Wasn’t There
High Fidelity
Any Given Sunday
The Grey Zone
Flawless
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
Leaving Las Vegas
What’s Cooking?
Free Way
The Sweet Hereafter
Should keep me busy for the next year. My viewing rate of roughly 28 movies a month (six to nine movies a week… takes two days for turnaround) should allow me to put a sizeable dent in this but my leg will heal eventually and when I go back to work, I doubt I’ll be watching as many movies.
One thing’s for sure… this is a hell of a lot better than spying on my neighbors with telescopic lenses and getting caught up in their crimes.
After a bit more clicking (I surf Netflix when bored and it’s 5:30am over here), I added a couple more movies and moved *Cube *to 4 and The Cider House Rules to somewhere in the 50s.
You’ve got some good picks in there, in particular Training Day and Cop Land.
I like The Cable Guy, but it was woefully misrepresented in its marketing. It was sold as a comedy, but it’s a black comedy at best, and really closer to just black. There is comedy in it, but it’s an afterthought.
Rushmore is a good suggestion, too. It’s a cross between Lost In Translation and Slackers. Interestingly, it also involves the leads from Lost in Translation and Slackers. Hey, I could be a casting agent.
When it came out, I was around 14 or so and didn’t know Carey for anything other than his facial contortions and slapstick humor so it was a bit of a surprise when I watched the movie. Hadn’t yet discovered my taste for black humor either.
I’m hoping with my shift in tastes, I’ll finally appreciate it.
