The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974)
Bride of Frankenstein
Aliens
The Maltese Falcon
To Have and Have Not
The Big Sleep (if nothing else, to try to understand the plot) (Bogart-Bacall version)
Murder, My Sweet
The Lady in the Lake (Robert Montgomery version)
Dark Passage
I almost included that, but it’s not one that I have to watch to the end. It’s one of those movies where the first half is better than the second.
I gave up trying to understand the plot. I don’t care whodunit; it’s worth watching just for the characters and dialog.
King Kong (1933)
The Black Cat (1934)
Tarzan and his Mate (1934)
Strange Cargo (1940)
Out of the Past (1948)
D.O.A. (1949)
The Third Man (1949)
Rancho Notorious (1952)
Beat the Devil (1954)
Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
Forbidden Planet (1958)
The Fabulous Baron Munchausen (1962) – and any other Mystimation film by Karel Zeman
Casino Royale (1967)
Once Upon a Time in the West (1969)
In the last couple of months:
Casablanca
Some Like It Hot
Destination Tokyo
Thirty Seconds over Tokyo
Objective: Burma!
My Cousin Vinny
Lost Horizon (original 1937 version)
Casablanca
The Dam Busters
Marty
The Great Escape
The Sterile Cuckoo
The Man Who Would Be King
Phantom of the Paradise
There are others, of course, but those come to mind first.
Regarding The Dam Busters–thanks for reminding me, @glee. Fun fact: that’s the film that Pink watches on TV in Pink Floyd The Wall.
Rat Race.
Five Easy Pieces
the original star wars trilogy
Repo Man
The 7 Faces Of Dr Lao
Pink Flamingos
The Outlaw Josey Wales
A Clockwork Orange
Caveman
Wild At Heart
Santa Sangre
The Odyssey, a miniseries made between 1992 and 1997 that’s sometimes broadcast on TV in its entirety. Although I’ve only seen the last half once and the whole thing once afterward, I thought it was very well made and had a blast watching it. Excellent cast and possibly the greatest road movie of all time.
The Ninth Gate and Frantic, both directed by Roman Polanski. Not great works of art, but I’ve gotten inordinate amounts of pleasure the many times I’ve watched them. Some people don’t like either film, and I wonder if they fail to consider the director’s perspective, as both films portray European culture through the eyes of an outsider, which is squarely in Polansk’s wheelhouse, IMO. In any event, I’ve seen both many times and will probably pass the next time they’re on, so I guess they don’t qualify for the thread.
Point Break, directed by Kathryn Bigelow. Another that’s not a great work of art but is just too much fun to miss whenever it’s on.
that was one of the last great mini-series…
These three, but also THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER and, of course, THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, both of which were virtually ubiquitous on an almost daily basis on some channels. I’ll often tell myself “Well, just for a few minutes…” and end up wasting an hour or more.
Every year I reread Elmore Leonard’s Rum Punch on the beach in St Martin. After returning home I rewatch Jackie Brown.
I came in to mention that one. Bogart, Peter Lorre, Jennifer Jones, Gina Lollobrigida, Robert Morley. “You have forgotten your hot water bottle!”
Great responses. Y’all have reminded me of some favorites, Casablanca, The Hunt for Red October, to name a couple. Wow, The Dam Busters-- I remember seeing that as a kid, and I even read the book, too.
This, too. Sometimes I just want to see the best part and don’t need to see the ending again.
“Join the peasants in their revels, go to church, write your memoirs.”
I don’t have a streaming service, and I’ve never been able to get a decent DVD copy of the movie, so I’ve yet to watch it all the way through. But it was a favorite of my mom’s, and she quoted lines from it frequently.
Rear Window
All the President’s Men
The Godfather
Saving Private Ryan
mmm
Three Vietnam movies that I used to watch fairly often, but haven’t for a long time:
Hamburger Hill
Full Metal Jacket
Apocalypse Now
The Martian