Augh! I knew I was forgetting some important stuff! Like Holy Grail, Apollo 13, and The Rapture.
-Ben
Okay, so I know it’s silly to include two errata to my list, but I absolutely must make mention of Bogart’s “Desperate Hours,” because I haven’t seen it listed yet.
Desperate Hours is probably the best thriller I’ve seen. A team of three convicts holds a family hostage in their home in order to lay low while their escape plan is put into motion. A battle of wits ensues between the chief convict (Bogart) and the father of the family, as they make moves and counter-moves as the father tries to formulate a plan of escape. It has the same sense of claustrophobic intensity as “Albino Alligator.” (Which was also quite good, btw.)
-Ben
No particular order:
-
- Yojimbo. OK, maybe Seven Samurai is better, but Yojimbo is taut and devilishly clever.
- Miller’s Crossing. The Coen Bros. most underrated film.
- Maltese Falcon. Can you tell I’m a Hammett fan?
- Rear Window. If I didn’t set any limits, I’d probably end up with a list of 15 Hitchcocks.
- Bridge on the River Kwai. Lean’s best movie by far.
- Safety Last. I saw this as a kid, and still think it’s one of the funniest movies ever made.
- Groundhog Day. A neglected classic, mark my words.
- King Kong. Still the best monster movie ever made.
- Local Hero. Sentimental fave.
- Touch of Evil. OK, so Kane is a better movie, but I’m burnt out on it.
- Sunset Boulevard.
- Sullivan’s Travels. Comedy and social commentary. With a little sex in it.
- Unforgiven. Eastwood’s darkest and most misunderstood film.
- (tie) This is Spinal Tap and Young Frankenstein. Two superb parodies that also perfectly capture the spririt of what they’re spoofing.
There should also be a Scorcese on there, but I can’t decide between Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, and Goodfellas.
My 15 favorite movies in alphabetical order:
*
. American History X (1998)
. Braveheart (1995)
. Clerks (1994)
. Contact (1997)
. Fifth Element, The (1997)
. Fight Club (1999)
. Full Metal Jacket (1987)
. Léon (1994)
. Mallrats (1995)
. Mating Habits of the Earthbound Human, The (1999)
. Red Violin, The (1998)
. Seven Samurai, The (1954)
. Six-String Samurai (1998)
. So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993)
. Swingers (1996)
*
So far I have 125 movies rated on imdb. How many do you have?
INPO:
Raiders of the Lost Ark
King Kong (1933 version)
The Manchurian Candidate
Blade Runner
A Touch of Evil (re-released version)
Dead Man
Brazil
Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams
Waiting for Guffman
This is Spinal Tap
The Stranger
The Godfather
Apocolypse Now
Stop Making Sense
12 Monkeys
My favorites this week are, in alphabetical order:
After life (Wandafuru raifu)
Airplane! - Surely one of the funniest movies ever
Casablanca
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Duck Soup
Ghostbusters
Indiana Jones: Last Crusade/Raiders of the Lost Ark
Iron Giant
L.A. Confidental
Maltese Falcon
Monty Python: Life of Brian
Once upon a time in the west
Ran
Rurôni Kenshin: Meiji kenkaku roman tan: Tsuioku hen
Seven Samurai
honorable mentions
Mst3k:TM
Kikujiro no natsu
Clockwork Orange
Clue!
Clockwise
Well, most of my favourites have been mentioned many times, so I’ll just add two that nobody seems to have mentioned:
The Third Man— The first appearance of Harry Lime is the best movie “entrance” of all time.
Night of the Hunter— Robert Mitchum is terrifying. Many of the most horrifying scenes are exquisitely beautiful.
From Favorite to 15th Favorite
- The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover
- Europa Europa
- El Postino
- 5 Corners
- The Unbearable Lightness of Being
- Tampopo
- Breakfast at Tiffanys
- Belle Epoch
- Blue Velvet
- Dangerious Liasons
- The Usual Suspects
- Fargo
- Resevoir Dogs
- My Fair Lady
- A Clockwork Orange
Humm, hard to choose.
- Heathers
- Titanic
- Forrest Gump
- Star Wars
- Airplane
- American Beauty
- Top Gun
- Gone With the Wind
- The Wizard of Oz
- The Shawshank Redemption
- Raiders of the Lost Ark
- Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
- A Clockwork Orange
- Raising Arizona
- Pulp Fiction
I’m a simple girl, with plebian tastes. Mine come under two headings: great quotes, or great costumes. Preferably both.
Fight Club
Aliens
So I Married An Axe Murderer
Labyrinth
The Fisher King
The Matrix
Rob Roy
Dogma
My Neighbor Totoro
The Big Lebowski
The Fifth Element
Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead
The Quiet Man
Scrooged
The Nightmare Before Christmas
As you can imagine, with my lax standards, there are many more I could have included, but this list feels about right. I could have filled up a whole separate list with “kid’s” movies, however.
- Casablanca
- Some Like It Hot
- Strangers on a Train
- The Third Man
- A Hard Day’s Night
- Singing in the Rain
- Pulp Fiction
- Monty Python & the Holy Grail
- A Fish Called Wanda
- Taxi Driver
- Fargo
- Psycho
- Duck Soup
- The Maltese Falcon
- Say Amen, Somebody*
*Documentary about gospel music that does an amazing job
of conveying the music’s power even to an agnostic like
myself.
- Fight Club
- Reservoir Dogs
- A Clockwork Orange
- 12 Monkeys
- The Game
- Pulp Fiction
- Matrix
- Glengarry Glen Ross
- True Romance
- Fargo
- Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels
- A Room With A View
- Goodfellas
- Seven
- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
That took me about 1/2 hour to do! I love so many movies…
I posted before I read everyone’s lists.
Understand this: Movies are my life. I have watched 118 movies so far this year. When people like the movies I like, I go insane. Most of my friends do not agree with me on my favorite movies.
Ataraxy, Jackknifed Juggernaut, Epistaxis, kenny77:
I know not all your genders, but, regardless, I am in LOVE with you! It’s amazing how similar your lists are to mine and how the ones you’ve included that I’ve haven’t would have been included in mine had it been a list of 25. Seriously, I think that I am in love with you all.
I’m an idiot.
Yuck - three posts in a row.