Good films

[Killian]

Inspired by Biz' other thread, how about those films which stick in your mind, and why, for the opposite reason? They don't have to be "film of the century" classics (though they could be)... the important thing is "why do YOU like them?" What inspired you about it? What did you leave the cinema taking with you and stays with you to this day about it?

A couple off the top of my head...

Lord of the Rings
The seminal "it can't be done" film... was.

Let's be honest; it's not perfect (then again, how could it ever be, with so many critical eyes upon it?), but the mere fact an "unknown" was entrusted with 3 years and multiple millions by a major studio to produce it speaks volumes, I think. The mythic vistas provided by New Zealand, the performances from the principal characters and the obvious love and attention to detail of the subject matter shine through. The effects, ground-breaking at the time, won't stand up over the years, but the mere epic-ness of the whole 3 film series, the journey it took to complete it and the way it was laid before us, will still do so, I think. A future classic? Who can say? But definately one of the top film(s) in my book.

Reservoir Dogs
'nuff said; groundbreaking, classic entertainment, topped only by Pulp Fiction in my opinion. The "broad strokes" characters are given depth and life by the actors and script, and the whole thing felt a bit like a roller-coaster ride from start to finish when it first came out.

Any more for any more?

[asa.oleary123]

Pulp Fiction
It was one of the first films i ever watched with violence in it, I've seen it about 8 times since i watched it in 2001

Fargo
An absolute classic, that introduced me to the geniuses that are the Coen Brothers

[Chris62]

1930 King Kong
Comes to mind just how they made the giant ape alone back then the first of the giant monsters before Godzilla and all the other giant monsters.
For SCI FI
Star Wars
A knight story in space and the ground breaking sfx.
For ACTION
Bullet one of Steve mcqueens greats movies.
There's so many great movies you can't list them all.

[josephkw]

The Eye (the original Pang Brothers version)
This is a film which actually gave me the heebie jeebies. The fear of what may come next gripped me throughout the piece. There have been other horror films which came close (such as the original "Exorcist", and "Alien"), but this one reigns supreme in my nightmares. Although I have done what are technically horror films with my Lovecraft movies, I had yet to create a true horror in the modern cinematic sense of the word. I've got to jot that down on my "To Do" list.

The Lord of the Rings
I know Killian already mentioned this one, but this trilogy is one of my all-time faves. I am a fan of fantasy, as well as sci-fi and horror. So to actually be able to see one of the greatest fantasy epics on screen was a sheer delight. Director Peter Jackson is a wonderful storyteller and I dare say he actually improved upon Tolkien's work (by eliminating some dreary scenes such as those involving Tom Bombadil, and including the romance with Arwen). Other trilogies which I love are the original "Star Wars" (on the whole, I didn't care much for episodes 1 and 2 of the new trilogy). I also loved the "X-men" trilogy--perhaps a tad too many characters for those not familiar with the classic comics to keep up with, but still an absolutely fun-filled ride.

In sum, I chose these as my faves because if I was not limited by what I could actually film, I would love to make a scare-your-pants-off-and-make-you-poop honest to goodness horror. After that, I would dive into crafting an epic fantasy flick. I'm eager to see what some of the other TMUers can do with alternative mackie programs.

[alfric]

some great choices ,id put forward "The Roaring Twenties" Cagney's death on the church steps is a classic scene,but the whole movie of the bootleggers climb to the top and of course fall is so well told....masterful
for comedy id have to pick "Withnail and I"more funny scenes and lines than a dozen other comedies"if i spiked you,you'd know you've been spoken too"it worth it just for that one line

[Norrie]

Ah, Withnail :) With you there Alfric.

I'd highly recommend: With Nails: The Film Diaries of Richard E. Grant.

Wonderful memoir.

As for the topic: the last film I remember that stopped me in my tracks was The Usual Suspects.
I'm still not sure how it got made: I just can't imagine the meeting where it got the greenlight.
One of the very few films I watch repeatedly on DVD. Spacey got a lot of the kudos, but Byrne makes it for me.

[thebiz]

Three movies that suprised me/came outta nowhere...

After Dark My Sweet - Caught this one when I was 16ish on cable and at the time thought it was the best movie noone ever saw. Based on a novel by Jim Thompson (of The Grifters fame), Jason Patrick plays a washed up boxer who rolls into a web of cons. Also stars the marvelous Bruce Dern and Rachael Ward. Very dark noir.

Zero Effect - Bill Pullman (who stars in another excellent suprising underseen gem "Brain Dead") plays a modern day Sherlock Holmes (upon which the script is based). Edgy and fresh. Had never heard of this till the wife put it in the netflix list. Ben Stiller plays the Watsonesque character. Very enjoyable.

Cemetary Man - Ive probably mentioned this one before but i do love it so. Got pulled along with a friend and knew very little about it at the time. Watched it in a theater with 2 other people. My friend and her husband. Rupert Everette is not irritating as the Cemetary Man who strives to keep his job by putting down the undead before they get out. Somewhere early it turns from zombie horror to philosophy comedy. Funny and hip. Feels like an Italian cologne commercial full of zombies and topless women but done with a brain. Big plus for the hot female lead Anna Falchi playing the role (actually 3 roles) of She.

If your looking for something interesting/amusing to watch over the hallows eve you could do a lot worse than Cemetary Man or Brain Dead.

[Hotwax]

Okay, I really hope someone else is with me on this one in its awesomeness...

LUCKY NUMBER SLEVIN

Sweet Jeebus, this film is simply incredible. I'd seen it advertised when it was in theaters a few years ago but was too young to see it, and something way back in the depths of my brain made me remember it existed and found it on HBO. After the movie ended and the dredits rolled, I was effing floored. So many twists. I mean, there's a twist on a twist which is a twist on another twist, etc. Well shot and a lot of great acting and stars in it, with the likes of Morgan Freeman, Josh Hartnett playing the "good guy", Stanley Tucci (love that guy for some reason), Sir Ben Kingsley, Lucy Liu, and Bruce Willis among the heavy hitters, who meet each other in the most peculiar of ways. Very well written and a lot of humorous moments to make you forget how much :shit: the main character is in. A high body count stacks up and a lot of noses are puched in the film. Interesting beginning hooks you and the movie leaves you well entertained until the finish, trying to guess what's going on. Sort of Big Trouble meets Shoot 'Em Up I guess.

Ah well, anybody else see it/wanna comment?

[jonathan_92]

Oh man great movies mentioned so far!

Let's see, The Matrix was an instant classic for me, not so much the sequels.

KILL BILL, another of my Tarantino favorites.

The Protector, best martial arts film ever, barring The Game Of Death and other Bruce Lee movies.

DARK KNIGHT, obviously

Stanley Kubrick's : Ludwig Von Beetoven And The Ultraviolence- A Clockwork Orange (Yes that's the movie's full title)

Pretty much anything by Stanley Kubrick..

No Country For Old men, fricken loved that, Fargo too.

I could go on and on..

:wacko:

[jonathan_92]

Okay, I really hope someone else is with me on this one in its awesomeness...

LUCKY NUMBER SLEVIN

Sweet Jeebus, this film is simply incredible.


Ah well, anybody else see it/wanna comment?


Yeah I loved that one man, I must own that DVD! Best Twist ever! Spared no violent detail either!
Bonus: sexy-ass Lucy Lu

[Chris62]

:punk:
LUCKY NUMBER SLEVIN
I agree is a very good movie.

[goofparade]

.

[B][I]The Lord of the Rings
I know Killian already mentioned this one, but this trilogy is one of my all-time faves. I am a fan of fantasy, as well as sci-fi and horror. So to actually be able to see one of the greatest fantasy epics on screen was a sheer delight. Director Peter Jackson is a wonderful storyteller and I dare say he actually improved upon Tolkien's work (by eliminating some dreary scenes such as those involving Tom Bombadil, and including the romance with Arwen). Other trilogies which I love are the original "Star Wars" (on the whole, I didn't care much for episodes 1 and 2 of the new trilogy). I also loved the "X-men" trilogy--perhaps a tad too many characters for those not familiar with the classic comics to keep up with, but still an absolutely fun-filled ride.

.

Actually, I wondered how Jackson would treat Tom Bombadil and his big blue boots...or were they yellow? He's the oldest thing on earth, he's earth power itself. I guess it was just too weird to include him in his already 3 hour plus film. Kinda missed it though.

He has a hot wife too.(Bombadil)

[sisch]

"Snatch" and "Fight Club" - for one thing, I like Brad Pitt only when he looks scrubby... and I think the gypsy in Snatch is one of his best roles. I just love the cam work in that film, the sudden jumps from this scene to that, and the intro scene in the elevator and the subsequent fight is just pure editing/camera bliss... plus the film has Jason Statham - eyecandy for me! :) (much more so than Brad Pitt, I might add).

Fight Club has a great story (and Helena Bonham Carter, whom I like immensely), mixed with very brutal and bloody action - I happen to like that.... :p

[Del]

Ahh, Fight Club. Don't know how many times I've watched it. Brilliant movie.

I also like Donnie Darko, the original Italian Job (you're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off) and Back to the Future.

[macwemyss]

Has anyone ever seen The Machinist starring Christian Bale? I picked it up in Woolworths for £1 and it must be one of my all time favourite films! The atmospheric music and visuals are truly excellent.

Macwemyss :)

[thebiz]

Has anyone ever seen The Machinist starring Christian Bale? I picked it up in Woolworths for £1 and it must be one of my all time favourite films! The atmospheric music and visuals are truly excellent.

Macwemyss :)

I liked that one as well. I read that Bale was on a diet consisting of one can of tuna and one apple a day to lose that weight for this movie. He looks like a freaking skeleton.

edit - wow, I forgot just how grotesque he gets in this..hehe.

[Killian]

...that's method acting for you ;)

[Daninsky]

Movies that stand out to me:

2001 - A Space Odyssey
A 70mm, 6-Channel Stereo experience. Even if the story had been lousy (which, of course, it wasn't, it's a brilliant, thought-provoking, relaxing movie with superbly executed FX that are not about throwing money out the window and hope it catches but true craftmanswork that got only slightly dated over the years) this movie would still stick out to me to my dying day. Cinema at it's best!

The Blair Witch Project
A movie that was essentially shot in the actors backyard.
$30.000 spend/$30million made, the movie proves that the audience does still honour quality over quantity and gives hope to aspiring indie movie makers everywhere that there will always be a market for good movies outside from Hollywood's big buck, mindless franchise machinery.

Evil Dead
I hated the movie the first time I saw it!
It was hyped beyond all that's good and holy, and naturally it couldn't live up to that hype. Evil Dead is neither the slash-fest you'd hope it to be, nor is it overly thrilling (frankly, Blair Witch has it beat hands down). But having it seen years after it put its hype behind it I have to admit that Evil Dead is a prime example for how indie horror should look, and feel!

Blood Simple
Why?
Well, it's, 'scuse the pun, bloody simple, that's why!

[thebiz]

As for the topic: the last film I remember that stopped me in my tracks was The Usual Suspects.
I'm still not sure how it got made: I just can't imagine the meeting where it got the greenlight.
One of the very few films I watch repeatedly on DVD. Spacey got a lot of the kudos, but Byrne makes it for me.

Read something recently about how the two writers of Usual Suspects had rather different takes on the story and didnt realize it till after the story was complete. Kinda funny.

(from the AP) "But many continue to wonder just how much of "The Usual Suspects" - how much of Verbal Kint's (Kevin Spacey) story - is true. (True, that is, within the movie's plot.)

McQuarrie says only after finishing the film and preparing to do press interviews about it did he and Singer realize they both had completely different conceptions about the plot.

"I pulled Bryan aside the night before press began and I said, ‘We need to get our stories straight because people are starting to ask what happened and what didn't,"' recalls McQuarrie. "And we got into the biggest argument we've ever had in our lives."

He continues: "One of us believed that the story was all lies, peppered with little bits of the truth. And the other one believed it was all true, peppered with tiny, little lies. ... We each thought we were making a movie that was completely different from what the other one thought."

So who believed what?

With a broad grin, McQuarrie responds: "I'll never tell."





Lord of the Rings
The seminal "it can't be done" film... was.

Let's be honest; it's not perfect (then again, how could it ever be, with so many critical eyes upon it?), but the mere fact an "unknown" was entrusted with 3 years and multiple millions by a major studio to produce it speaks volumes, I think. The mythic vistas provided by New Zealand...


There was a great video store in the ATL called Movies Worth Seeing and they had the full catalogue of Jackson way back when. If you wanna see a highly amusing zombie flick done within those mythic vistas of New Zealand I highly recommend Dead Alive (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103873/) aka BrainDead. Its got some great scenes (a 5 minute lawnmower drive through a houseful of zombies) and some great quotes (I Kick Ass for the Lord!). Good good fun. As an added plus check out the plot keywords in IMDB.

For the just plain weird theres "Meet the Feebles (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097858/)" (Muppets on crack) and for the rather bad theres "Bad Taste (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092610/)". Then along came "Heavenly Creatures" and all the adoration. Bah!

[AB Films]

freddy vs jason...bet you guys didn't see that coming from a mile a way...

acting was horrible, sotry line was alright, but those two iconic slasher movie 'heros' battleing it out, was just freaking awesome...

[Norrie]

Read something recently about how the two writers of Usual Suspects had rather different takes on the story and didnt realize it till after the story was complete. Kinda funny.

(from the AP) "But many continue to wonder just how much of "The Usual Suspects" - how much of Verbal Kint's (Kevin Spacey) story - is true. (True, that is, within the movie's plot.)

McQuarrie says only after finishing the film and preparing to do press interviews about it did he and Singer realize they both had completely different conceptions about the plot.

"I pulled Bryan aside the night before press began and I said, ‘We need to get our stories straight because people are starting to ask what happened and what didn't,"' recalls McQuarrie. "And we got into the biggest argument we've ever had in our lives."

He continues: "One of us believed that the story was all lies, peppered with little bits of the truth. And the other one believed it was all true, peppered with tiny, little lies. ... We each thought we were making a movie that was completely different from what the other one thought."

So who believed what?

With a broad grin, McQuarrie responds: "I'll never tell."

I hadn't seen that one Biz; cheers for that.
Interestingly, it doesn't change my take on Verbal: believe nothing.

I suspect I'll love this film for a long, long, time. Everything about it is class; even the DVD commentary pointing out the faux pas!

And now I'm going to watch it again... and I'll bet you I enjoy it.

[Powerslave]

I'd say..
The Number 23
Mainly because it was both thrilling and freaky. It makes your mind jump around like who is the person who wrote the book? Does 23 actually have a meaning? Also with stellar acting of Jim Carrey it is one of the most perfect thrillers this year I watched.

[Norrie]

I'd say..
The Number 23
Mainly because it was both thrilling and freaky. It makes your mind jump around like who is the person who wrote the book? Does 23 actually have a meaning? Also with stellar acting of Jim Carrey it is one of the most perfect thrillers this year I watched.

I cry :(