Bugger I forgot Groundhog day. Love it too.
My taste runs to comedy, so probably joint top are 'The Life of Brian (arguably the best comedy ever made) and 'The Blues Brothers' - not as funny but great music. I also quite liked 'Spinal Tap' and it's little known follow-up film 'A Mighty Wind'. Finally not forgetting 'Blazing Saddles'.
However I loved 'A Local Hero' and, for some strange reason, 'The Searchers' even though I'm not really a Western fan and most certainly not a John Wayne fan.
Rob
Wow okay, a replicant he was.Originally Posted by soundood
Yep, my bad (original typo now edited) - 'Animal Farm' is not remotely funny... either version...Did you mean Animal House?
Last edited by BigBird; 29th April 2015 at 22:01.
A deeply surpressed memory appears to have surfaced. Thanks for that.Yep - Animal Farm is not remotely funny... either version...
Withnail & I
Big Lebowski
Spinal Tap
Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas
ooops
Last edited by dek10000; 29th April 2015 at 23:30.
That is a great film. I can't recall how many times that I have seen it!
The Shawshank Redemption could watch it over and over again even when it comes on tv I have to watch it great human spirit the 710 does not like it when I say to her why do you have to be so obtuse great quote in the film.
No, I struggle with this as a concept.
Too many great films.
The one that I recall REALLY slapping me in the face as a huge leap forward for a genre was Star Wars (the first one).
Until then mainstream Sci-Fi was always a bit hokey (although real nerds often point to lesser known films that upped the game earlier), 2001 excepted, but the effects in Star Wars (albeit themselves looking a little shaky now) were truly ground-breaking.
That said, Lawrence of Arabia is incredible for its cinematography and the opening scenes of Saving Private Ryan certainly redefined Hollywood war films (even if other nations had probably trod the ground already to a great extent).
Shawshank's OK, but it's the film that defies understanding for me. It's OK, but it's nothing special in my view and certainly doesn't define anything (Scum is more 'scare the shit out of you about going to prison' and everything else has been done a dozen times before).
M
PS I'm with Velorum on Harvey though - Made me cry and then laugh when I was 7 or 8 and still brings a little lump to my throat
Last edited by snowman; 30th April 2015 at 15:49.
excellentThat is a great film. I can't recall how many times that I have seen it!
City Slickers 2 - the Quest for Curly's Gold
Seriously - the Claude Berri pair of films Jean De Florette & Manon Des Source were fantastic, but if it has to be one, then Roberto Benigni's "La vita è bella". It can make me cry now just thinking about it. The most impact any film has ever had on me for sure.
+1 My first childhood crush!!!
I remember seeing "a clockwork orange" at the cinema with a few mates when I was an impressionable 15 year old. Thought it fantastic and defining. Then bought it a few years ago when it first became available in the UK after the ban and could only get thru around 20 cringeworthy minutes before I threw it away...
Out for a kill. Stephen Segal plays Robert Burns as Yale's "most distinguished academician" as he receives "the prestigious and much coveted Winthrop Award for excellence in archaeology." It's only later that the 11 Chinese Tong leaders united against him tell us he was once a legendary art thief known as the Goei, or the Ghost. He got busted and during his seven years in the joint he studied Chinese archaeology and got a degree. When he got out, he created a new identity, but kept his doctorate and parlayed it into the job at Yale. For about 30 minutes after it I seriously considered becoming an art thief and doing 7 years porridge and obtaining my PhD and then getting a job at Yale. But Im making too much money abseiling down cliffs with lit sticks of dynamite in my mouth.
Would have guessed from your nom de plume you'd be more of a fan of "The Life Aquatic" ;)
I am but you have to admire Segal he worked with both DMX and JA Rule.
I admire the confidence with which he wears a pony-tail. And the athleticism despite looking like an Elvis (the latter years) impersonator on a day off.
Fair point on DMX and JA Rule, those Silver Screen luminaries - that's some top-billers right there.
Stand By Me
Went to see it with my then girlfriend when it first came out. She was in tears at the end and I wasnt that far away. Brilliant acting and very poignant. I could personally relate to some of the characters.
Still gets me when I hear the title track.
Flight of the Phoenix, & Ice Cold in Alex'. Both similar in that the characters are quite diverse and they have to overcome a great deal of hardship. Richard Attenborough telling James Stewart that Dorfmann (Hardy Kruger) designs toy aeroplanes was brilliant.
Don't know why, but A Touch of Class with George Segal & Glenda Jackson has always stuck in my mind. Sad ending when he just misses getting to her flat, and looking down from her window at her standing at a bus stop in the rain.
And I have to add anything with Walter Matthau & Jack Lemmon, so funny.
Ok, originally I put Bladerunner. Howerver I just re watched the original Star Wars episode 4 because of another thread.
I have to to say it brought back a lot of childhood memories. So now I'm going to say the Star Wars original trilogy. They sparked my imagination and entertained in a way few if any other films have since. Sure, Bladerunner is a better film...but seeing Luke stare into the twin setting suns on Tatooine With Binary Sunset as a theme, well. It's hard to beat.
Ahhh, good times.
gs
Das Boot. So realistic and very intense. Great movie and great war movie. And great submarine movie. And the message is still pacifistic. The longer version you have from this movie the better.
Captain Thomsen :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJBSJNLwK2w
Nice movie score it has too by Klaus Doldinger: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfbAc-H44Uw
And if you were spending your youth in early 90s and was into dance or techno music at least in some level, this German techno tune was a blast then. The only right form of real German techno :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYUOAe3f_AY
Schindler's List. Very moving film and it grabbed my attention from the very beginning to the end. Perfect in black and white. I have seen it many times.
Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas. I like it also weird and this is it. Great actor work.
Last edited by opop; 1st May 2015 at 09:19.
Ghostbusters
Back to the Future
Poltergeist
Rosemarys Baby
Usual Suspects
Oldboy (not the poor remake)
Recently watched The Eichmann Show and was blown away by that. It's a must watch.
Sex lives of the potato men!!
My fav clip. This is NSFW!!
http://youtu.be/OKaxdNmVKNk
Apocalypse now
Blow
Lock stock
Well said
This exact scene stayed with me all my childhood - saw both episode IV and V as a cinema double bill with my dad when was 6 - had no idea what to expect
by the end, was so tired that I had my head resting on the front rail of the gallery, but couldn't take my eyes off the screen!
and now my 6 year old loves them too :-)
The Return of the Pink Panther.
Peter Sellers at his best. I loved watching this with my dad as a kid, and now I love watching it with my own kids. I know the whole film pretty much back to front, but it still always makes me laugh. I think Steve Martin is a very funny man, but comparing his take on Clouseau with Peter Sellers really shows what a genius Sellers was imo.
True Romance... it really has it all... Action, humor, love, plot twists, innocence, depravity, redemption and of course Elvis.
It is constantly in my top 5 movies and I can sit and watch it any time, no matter how many times I've seen it.
Close behind are:
The Shawshank Redemption.
The Usual Suspects.
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.
Parenthood.
I think I'll watch TR tonight... it's been a while.
The Warriors - 1979
A Fistful of Dollars
Pulp Fiction
Leon: the Professional
The American - but wish they'd stuck to the plot of the book.
Forgot Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Gregory's Girl - will resonate with anyone who grew up as a teenager in the West of Scotland. And it was no coincidence my first girlfriend had a beret like Claire Grogans...
Blue Velvet - indirectly led to me getting married. Took a girlfriend to see it on a first date - bad move. She said it was "disturbing". Broke up shortly afterwards, first date with new girlfriend took her to see Truly Madly Deeply - better move. 24 years, marriage and 2 kids later we're still together.
English Patient and Dr Zhivago just for awesome cinematography, plot, soundtracks, acting and epic factor.
And probably most of the rest mentioned on thread already, anyone done Raiders of the Lost Ark? Still can't beat it for pure rewatchability and entertainment, never ever get bored with it,
Given it some thought, lots of great films, but the one I will watch whenever on, that covers it all is...
Forest gump..
Legally Blonde.
Cant do one, impossible im afraid
star wars as a kid, on the big screen it was awesome
Lost boys as a teenager, vampires with a bit of humour
Blade runner, raised the bar
Casino & Good fellas for the genre
Best In Show, same team as spinal tap set at a dog show. Has me in stitches
Moonstruck, first film I remember watching with the Mrs and it's sort of 'our film', Olympia Dukakis was great in it.
Loads others including most already on here, quite a few reminders that I have to rewatch, some that Mrs has never seen and will be forced to endure; lucky girl doesn't know what a treat she is in for having never seen blade runner.
Star Wars.
Jaws
Field of Dreams.
The life of David Gale.
Bladerunner
Apocalypse now
Shawshank Redemption
Lawrence of Arabia
Gladiator
Out of Africa
to name but a few
Last edited by RJK35; 6th May 2015 at 09:43.
The matrix
Drive
Donnie Darko
Jaws
The Usual suspects
The Goonies
Ferris Beullers Day Off
The Thin Red Line
The Fountain
Magnolia
And although a game not a film, The last of us is truly inspirational and life affirming.
Bladerunner
Manhunter
Lots of half-answers here!
For me it has to be Casablanca filmed in 1942.
The scene in which Madeleine LeBeau (playing Bogart's ex mistress Yvonne) singing La Marseillaise gets me every time I watch it. It is filled with such raw emotion.
Two years earlier Madeleine fleeing from the Germans in 1940, she and her husband eventually reached Lisbon, where they obtained visas to Chile, but on reaching Mexico they learned that these were forgeries. They eventually obtained temporary Canadian passports and ended up in the US.
Madeleine's escaping from Nazi occupied France almost mirrored her role as Yvonne in Casablanca. During the scene where so many patrons of Rick's started singing La Marseillaise, the French national anthem, many of the actors in that scene were refugees from Europe and their tears were real, including Madeleine's.
This the scene and only 1 minute 56 seconds long. It's well worth a watch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HM-E2H1ChJM
scooter
If you really want to know why this or that film is absolutely defining then I can't answer properly because each of the films I remember and re-watch are for different reasons and often context relevant.
However:
I used to be keen on The Grapes of Wrath for the depth and humanity (and lack of) but the people who actually suffered through that said the film was nonsense and largely it wasn't like that at all.
I'll watch the children's film Matilda because of the mix of utter charm and the contrary darkness that's at the root of all of Dahl's work. Or Alien because I've always adored sci-fi; or Star Wars for the same reason. Jurassic Park because that was the last film I saw in the cinema and the audio had the T-rex shake the seats - brilliant at the time.
Each leaves a different set of memories.
Barefoot in the Park - brilliant
The first half of My Fair Lady - I lose interest when she finally gets into the upper circles
The Lost World - the first film I was allowed to go and watch at the pictures as a boy by myself.
Another one I can't believe I forgot:
American Beauty
Brilliantly filmed, acted and scripted plus a great soundtrack. I can't fault it.
Les Enfants du Paradis
Dances with Wolves on BBC2 currently, absolute classic.
Another vote for the pooka
"Years ago my mother used to say to me, she'd say, "In this world, Elwood, you must be" - she always called me Elwood - "In this world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant." Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. You may quote me."
Thanks
Planes, Trains And Automobiles - hilarious, tragic, hopeful, my absolute favourite
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