# What are your "Perfect" movies?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-perfect-movies/328546
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [October 30, 2005, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-perfect-movies/328546 "2005-10-30T03:10:10Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)
#### Post date: [October 30, 2005, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-perfect-movies/328546/1 "2005-10-30T03:10:10Z")
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
what are your _perfect_ films?
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### Author:  [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)
#### Post date: [October 30, 2005, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-perfect-movies/328546/2 "2005-10-30T03:19:07Z")
This thread appears to be about cinematic entertainments.
Moved from IMHO to CS.
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### Author:  [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)
#### Post date: [October 30, 2005, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-perfect-movies/328546/3 "2005-10-30T03:44:37Z")
_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.
---
### Author:  [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)
#### Post date: [October 30, 2005, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-perfect-movies/328546/4 "2005-10-30T03:47:04Z")
Jaws
The Usual Suspects
Tremors
Major League
LA Confidential
LA Story
Tombstone
The Outlaw Josey Wales
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### Author:  [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)
#### Post date: [October 30, 2005, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-perfect-movies/328546/5 "2005-10-30T03:53:07Z")
Just off the top of my head:
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
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### Author:  [@lonesome\_loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lonesome_loser)
#### Post date: [October 30, 2005, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-perfect-movies/328546/6 "2005-10-30T04:11:03Z")
The Producers.
Lonesome
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [October 30, 2005, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-perfect-movies/328546/7 "2005-10-30T04:12:24Z")
King Kong
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### Author:  [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)
#### Post date: [October 30, 2005, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-perfect-movies/328546/8 "2005-10-30T04:18:31Z")
I love much off your list **MacTech**
[12 Angry Men (1957)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050083/)
[Airplane! (1980)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080339/) 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)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091042/)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.
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### Author:  [@Operation\_Ripper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Operation_Ripper)
#### Post date: [October 30, 2005, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-perfect-movies/328546/9 "2005-10-30T04:22:15Z")
[Forest Gump](http://imdb.com/title/tt0109830/) thank you very much, liked the book too.
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### Author:  [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)
#### Post date: [October 30, 2005, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-perfect-movies/328546/10 "2005-10-30T04:28:04Z")
> [@Colibri](#):
>
> King Kong
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)
and of course
_Raiders of the Lost Ark_
“We have top men working on it. Top. Men.”
Stranger
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### Author:  [@pokey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pokey)
#### Post date: [October 30, 2005, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-perfect-movies/328546/11 "2005-10-30T04:35:43Z")
Night of the Hunter\*
Moby Dick\*
Monday Night Mayhem\*
Bridget Jones’ Diary
A Christmas Story
Eternal Sunshine
Big Lebowski
\*Desert Island
It’s not a very long list. The top 3 are my most watched movies. I put them on all the time.
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### Author:  [@waits](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waits)
#### Post date: [October 30, 2005, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-perfect-movies/328546/12 "2005-10-30T04:36:58Z")
Just off the top of my head and leaving off movies previously mentioned (i.e., no _Godfather I or II_ or _Holy Grail_):
_A Hard Day’s Night
A Man for All Seasons
Annie Hall
Duck Soup_
Not a bad scene in any of 'em.
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### Author:  [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)
#### Post date: [October 30, 2005, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-perfect-movies/328546/13 "2005-10-30T05:01:08Z")
Groundhog Day
Casablanca
No Way Out
Ferris Buellers Day Off
High Fidelidy
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### Author:  [@Operation\_Ripper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Operation_Ripper)
#### Post date: [October 30, 2005, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-perfect-movies/328546/14 "2005-10-30T05:06:19Z")
> [@pokey](#):
>
> Night of the Hunter
Good call, Mitchum was one perfect, squirrely (frightening!) bastardo in that one.
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### Author:  [@drm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drm)
#### Post date: [October 30, 2005, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-perfect-movies/328546/15 "2005-10-30T05:22:19Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@FlyingRamenMonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingRamenMonster)
#### Post date: [October 30, 2005, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-perfect-movies/328546/16 "2005-10-30T05:36:14Z")
Spirited Away
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.
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### Author:  [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)
#### Post date: [October 30, 2005, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-perfect-movies/328546/17 "2005-10-30T05:58:17Z")
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?
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### Author:  [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)
#### Post date: [October 30, 2005, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-perfect-movies/328546/18 "2005-10-30T06:02:47Z")
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…
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### Author:  [@Rainbowthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rainbowthief)
#### Post date: [October 30, 2005, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-perfect-movies/328546/19 "2005-10-30T06:09:03Z")
**lissener** , no Showgirls? 😃
Santa Sangre
Dead Ringers
Through a Glass Darkly
Three Colors: White
Hana-bi
Meet the Feebles
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### Author:  [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)
#### Post date: [October 30, 2005, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-perfect-movies/328546/20 "2005-10-30T06:09:44Z")
> [@Silentgoldfish](#):
>
> 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…
Some remedies just suggest themselves.
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