“Without reservation" makes it tough. I would go with the Roadrunner - Wile E. Coyote shorts.
I think some people are playing a little fast and loose here. I yield to no man in my love for Breaking Bad, but there are certainly people I know who I don’t think would like it. Some people just don’t like grim and dark and violent.
So if we’re looking for “something that you enjoy, that you think the greatest percentage of people you meet would also enjoy”, then I think that one of the better Pixar movies is a good choice. Finding Nemo might be the one least likely to randomly offend or put off anyone. (For instance, someone who had just lost a spouse might not be able to enjoy Up, someone who knows nothing about superheroes might not really get into The Incredibles, etc.).
If we’re talking only about grownups, another good choice for a “just about everyone at least likes this movie and lots of people love it” is The Shawshank Redemption.
A book without reservation - “Catch 22” by Joseph Heller. It might seem clichéd now in our modern, cynical times, but I think it was a brilliant look at war for its time (or any time).
I’m going to have to jump on the “Breaking Bad” bandwagon - I want to write theses about Walter White’s character.
It’s equally applicable today, arguably moreso. “The Great Loyalty Oath Crusade” comes to mind. It’s probably my favorite book, but I know people who hate it. Think it advocates cowardice, or even just that it’s badly written and not funny. 
I don’t get it, but it’s controversial enough for me to add reservations.
Movie: Zulu
Book: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
To Kill a Mockingbird.
Charlotte’s Web.
I seriously don’t know anyone who doesn’t love those two books. I’m sure this thread will prove me wrong though.
Brothers Karamazov. I don’t care if its too much for people to understand, learn to understand it. Read it till you understand it, it’s good for you.
I think I could recommend a lot of classical music without reservation as being excellent, but also without any guarantee that the other person would like it or even be able to stand it.
That said, I’m going to go with that clarinet sonata(? or some chamber piece anyway) by Mozart, part of which is featured in the movie Amadeus, while Salieri bemoans the fact that he could never write anything as beautiful and simple as that. I don’t have the number of the work handy, but if you’ve seen the movie you know the one I mean.
Nope.
She isn’t disapproving or disagreeing with the premise, she’s pointing out that a lot of the suggestions that have been made don’t fit it if they can’t really be universally recommended.
I vigorously disagree. The thread asks us to attempt to generalize human tastes.
This is, clearly, impossible, but the attempt is very different from just saying, “I like this.”
A friend of mine once said, “Everybody doesn’t like something good.” There are people who don’t like chocolate; there are people who don’t like Disneyland. That’s their loss, and simply exposes them as statistical outliers, apart from the broad center of human experience.
The fact that you don’t like something good does not make it “not good.”
My husband and I still quote the book almost daily (“Everybody has a share!”); I get what you’re saying, but I think I would still recommend it to anyone without reservations; even if they don’t like it, I think it presents some ideas that everyone should take onboard.
Not true. I love the Truman Show, for example, but wouldn’t recommend it without hesitation to everyone.
Though one of the posts here definitely is just listing favourites.
I love Breaking Bad and The Wire so much I would marry them both if it were legal in my state. But recommend them to everyone? Not a chance.
So, my contribution is the animated film Up.
(who couldn’t love a big goofy bird named Kevin??)
mmm
Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor. Music that makes no appeal to emotion except that of pure beauty.
Horton Hears a Who by Dr. Suess (Theodore Geisel). Two quotes that speak to the beauty and power of chivalry -
and
Micah 6:8
And the Disney movie Fantasia. 75 years ago it was ahead of its time. It still is.
Regards,
Shodan
Avenue Q. Amazing that anyone could think up and do this work, never mind do it so mind blowing well.
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera. Get the 25th anniversary show at Royal Albert Hall DVD. Absolute sheer perfection.
Wonderful stuff! Have you heard the other two pieces in the trilogy, Catulli Carmina and Trinofi di Aphrodite? They’re not quite as good…but very, very similar in a lot of ways.
After that, alas, I tend to lose Orff. De Tempora Fine Comoedia, for instance, just seems kinda lifeless…
Anyone? This painting by Marc Chagall, Ang Lee’s Sense ans Senibility and Chopin’s Nocturne in B# Minor.
Not exactly. I think the problem is that some people are interpreting “recommend without reservation” as “nearly if not completely unassailable critically” while others are interpreting it as “stuff I’m positive nobody would hate.” I leave it to the OP for the correct interpretation.