What are good movies with narrators?

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. A great movie, not just a good one.

Citizen Kane had a part narration in the form of the newsreels.
Trust Ol Welly to do things differently.

show-off :smiley:

I thought the narration in Stand By Me, done by Richard Dreyfus, added a lot to one of my favorite movies.

Indeed, I would say most of that film is narration and another Jimmy Stewart film Flight of the Phoenix has a lot as well.

Raising Arizona

Does Life is Beautiful count?

Although originally a musical, made into a a TV movie, Into the Woods had some of the best narration ever. Until he gets killed by the Giantess, of course.

Another Woody Allen flick: Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Been a while, but what about The Third Man?

**Fallen **has some narration, and I think it’s a pretty good little thriller that’s often overlooked.

“The Mating habits of the Earth bound Human” narrated by David Hyde Pierce.

Great movie, but I don’t think there’s any narration. Unless you count the zither music.

Well, Walloon scooped me on To Kill a Mockingbird, All About Eve and Letter to Three Wives (boy, Mankiewicz sure loved his narration!), so how about the terrific 1951 Scrooge with Alistair Sim? Admittedly there it’s more a framing device, not used throughout the film, but still.

Oh, and I Remember Mama. A bit treacley but still a good family film.

Considering all these “exceptions” I’d say the “narration can be lazy” isn’t a rule so much as a warning.

The movie isn’t great, but the narrator in George of the Jungle was freakin’ hilarious.

Does The Princess Bride count? The narration is done by a character in the frame story…

Alec Baldwin in The Royal Tenenbaums. The tone of his voice fits the movie perfectly.

Also, I remember liking The Sandlot as a kid, and that had a narrator in the nostalgic tone of The Wonder Years.

It does have narration in the beginning (Joseph Cotten in the American version, director Carol Reed in the British version), but that’s where it ends. It isn’t there while the narrative is in process, which kept a lot of additional films off my list. The 1951 Scrooge / A Christmas Carol opens and closes with narrated quotes from Dickens, but otherwise lets the story speak for itself.

My dad’s really into narrated movies. A Bronx Tale is one of his favorites.

The Gods Must Be Crazy.

Scorsese really likes to use narration. Casino and Goodfellas has already been mentioned, there’s also Gangs of New York and Bringing Out the Dead. Mean Streets has a bit of narration at the beginning.