What would you consider the “Perfect” movies in your collection, movies you could watch over and over again, movies you know by heart, movies that are just as compelling as the first time you saw them, movies that cannot be improved upon without destroying their impact/charm/character…
for me, my short list would be (in no particular order)
Ghostbusters*
Monty Python and the Holy Grail*
Monsters, Inc
Terminator 2 Ultimate Edition (hidden extended special edition directors cut)
Sin City (i’ve never read the graphic novels, so i’m basing it on a standalone movie)
the LOTR trilogy*
Spaceballs
Fight Club
Better Off Dead
Dawn of the Dead (original, NOT the remake)
Day of the Dead
Return of the Living Dead
Young Frankenstein
The Professional (Leon)
The Nightmare Before Christmas
movies marked with an asterisk (*) are movies that would satisfy the “Desert Island” situation (if you could take only one movie to a deserted desert island)
movies that almost made the cut…
the original Star Wars Trilogy (Han shot first!), good movie, but lets be fair and frank here, you have to admit the “Wars” series is a bit on the cheesy side, and gets cheesier as it progresses (frelling hate ewoks…)
no matter how much i love the Nightmare on Elm Street series (a horror series i grew up on), i can’t deny that the films got weaker as the series progressed and Wes Craven stepped away from the director’s chair, however even in the first Nightmare, some of the Freddy effects (long arms, tear-away face, the oatmeal-stairs, and the inflatable Mom doll in the final scenes) were rather cheesy and pull me out of the movie
Barry Lyndon
Devil in a Blue Dress
The Great Escape
The Last Action Hero
Family Plot
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
Starship Troopers
Sons of the Desert
Mrs. Miniver
Meet Me in St. Louis
. . . all I got for now.
The Empire Strikes Back
Excalibur
Tombstone
Dracula (1931)
Frankenstein (1931)
Incubus
Richard Lester’s The Three and Four Musketeers
Goldfinger
From Russia With Love
Casino Royale
City of Angels
What Dreams May Come
The Lord of the Rings trilogy
I love much off your list MacTech 12 Angry Men (1957) Airplane! (1980) Animal House (1978)
Apollo 13 (1995)
Better Off Dead… (1985)
Big (1988)
Blazing Saddles (1974)
Boundin’ (2003)
Braveheart (1995)
Citizen Kane (1941)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)Field of Dreams (1989)
Forrest Gump (1994)
Full Metal Jacket (1987)
Ghost Busters (1984)
Harvey (1950)
Jaws (1975)
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
Patton (1970)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Real Genius (1985)
Roman Holiday (1953)
Schindler’s List (1993)
Singin’ in the Rain (1952)
Stand by Me (1986)
The Blues Brothers (1980)
The Exorcist (1973)
The Godfather (1972)
The Godfather: Part II (1974)
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2005)
The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)
The Incredibles (2004)
The Pride of the Yankees (1942)
The Princess Bride (1987)
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
The Thin Man (1934)
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
Twelve Monkeys (1995)
Young Frankenstein (1974)
My list is all over the place and heavy on Comedy.
You are, of course, referring to the 1933 version, not the abortion that John Guillermin shat out in 1976. Right?
For me, it’s Brazil Rear Window Some Like It Hot Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb The Empire Strikes Back The Great Escape The Seven Samurai Casablanca (oddly, the movie is badly flawed in many ways, and yet still ends up being a “perfect” movie) Das Boot The Triplets of Belleville Being John Malkovich The Wild Bunch Chinatown (if for no other reason because of the uncompromising ending) Raging Bull The Return (yeah, you’ve never heard of it) The Battle of Algiers Goldfinger (the “perfect” Bond movie)
I guess I best pick all the movies I marked 10/10 on IMDb (less than 3% of the movies I’ve graded have been tens - not really important but the stat was available so I provided it…):
Amadeus (1984)
Before Sunset (2004)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Fargo (1996)
Finding Neverland (2004)
Forrest Gump (1994)
The Godfather (1972)
High Fidelity (2000)
Hotel Rwanda (2004)
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001-2003)
Love Actually (2003)
Millions (2004)
Schindler's List (1993)
Sense and Sensibility (1995)
Tombstone (1993)
It should be noted that I have only given grades to movies i’ve watched over the last 3 years. It would take me years to sift through all the movies i’ve ever seen to give them a grade. There are probably a dozens of older ones I’m forgetting.
And maybe Donnie Darko, though a lot of its attraction lies in not knowing what comes next, so the second time I watched it I still enjoyed it but it wasn’t quite like the first viewing.
Hmm. I posted my “always good for a repeat” movies, which is how I read the OP. I don’t post my “desert island top ten,” because some of those movies are extremely intense and not always dipped into lightly.
But a lot of posters are naming movies that I couldn’t imagine just popping into the player like an old friend:* Schindler’s List; Night of the Hunter; The Battle of Algiers. * Don’t get me wrong–Night of the Hunter and The Battle of Algiers are great movies (Schindler’s List sucks monkey ass)–but are we posting lifetime top ten, or reliable old friends?
You know, when these threads are just lists of movie names without any justification they’re really really boring. I can read the imdb top 100 as well as anyone else…
