I have seen so disgustingly few movies :-( (1 Viewer)

[Kenneth Harden]

Over the last year, between work and school, I have been getting with more and more people (not 'getting with them') and many conversations end up talking about movies. However, as much as I love movies, compared to most people I deal with - I have seen almost nothing.

If anyone here just grabbed 10 movies off the top of their head, I can assure you that I have probably not seen more that 3 of the 10, probably less, if any at all. Try it, put down 10 good movies and I will tell you what I have not seen.

I do watch movies, go to the theater, etc., but I have certainly not seen the 100's of movies made in the last 20 years that would be considered 'good'

I guess what I am saying is that I need to start seeing some. I have a nice home theater setup, but with school and work, and family always around (leave me the he11 alone!!! ), it is hard to lock myself in my room for a few hours to watch a film. I have been pondering Netflix.com for a while, as I need to start seeing movies like:

-A Clockwork Orange
-Alien (all of them)
-The first 2 Terminator movies
-Indiana Jones (I am sure I have seen them, but no clue what they are even about...)
-Pulp Fiction (saw 20 minuites of it a year ago)
-The Shining

While those are examples of Sci-Fi/Action films, there are many more, probably over 100 films I really should see.

I know with Netflix, I probably won't wait 3 weeks to get 'A Clockwork Orange' - as it is not in high demand.

 

[Steve Tannehill]

We need to broaden the horizons a bit...try these on for size:

1) The Day the Earth Stood Still
2) 2001 - A Space Odyssey
3) Dr. Strangelove
4) Lawrence of Arabia
6) Seven Samurai
7) The Searchers
8) It's a Wonderful Life

(Those last 4 are the movies that Spielberg watches before starting any project.)

9) Casablanca
10) Singin' in the Rain

Note that none of these movies were made in the last 20 years.

- Steve

 

[Kenneth Harden]

None.

I have seen parts of '2001' - but thats about it.

Keep em' coming.

BTW, I listed action/sci-fi films because thats what I really like (but in no way do I not like other stuff)

 

[Nicodemus]

1) Giant
2) Amadeus
3) Rebel Without A Cause
4) Magnolia
5) Vertigo
6) My Fair Lady (better than Sound of Music)
7) Apocalypse Now
8) Chinatown
9) Gone With The Wind
10) Three Colours: Blue
11) The Piano
12) Once Upon A Time In The West

These are among the best movies I've seen - Steve already mentioned some my other favorites.

 

[Kenneth Harden]

None :frowning:

012

And for the record, Apocalypse Now came up yesterday.

 

[Jonathan Dagmar]

you werent exagerrating. you really havent seen anything.

 

[Dave Corder]

I'm in pretty much the same boat as Kenneth...lots of movies that I haven't seen. I tend to get a "WHAT!?!?!?!" kind of response when some movie comes up in conversation that I've never seen. That's typically followed by an exclamation of "YOU HAVE TO SEE IT!!!!" complete with waving of the arms and other body language indicating the urgency with which I apparently need to view the film in question.

Between school and work, I barely have time to view the movies that I personally own (heck, out of 170 or so DVDs, I've still got 10-15 that I haven't viewed). Kinda hard to find time to view all the old classics and everything (I finally saw Hackers for the first time the other day, which most of my friends thought was weird since I'm a certified computer geek....)

For the record, out of the movies mentioned in this thread so far, I've only seen Dr. Strangelove and the Indiana Jones trilogy.

Dave C.

 

[Werner_R]

Steve and Nico already gave some great choices, how about these:

1. Bladerunner
2. The Usual Suspects
3. The Big Sleep (1946)
4. The Song of Bernadette
5. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
6. Lost Horizon (1937)
7. The Sound of Music (My Fair Lady is also great )
8. Point Blank (1967)
9. Ghost and Mrs Muir
10. 12 Angry Men

 

[Henry Gale]

Kenneth,

Don't be too impatient, at age 18 you've not had time to see that many films. Also, there are no theaters in Tasmaina (since there is no such place as Tasmaina) so how were you going to go?

 

[george kaplan]

First of all, don't feel too bad about this. Being a film buff is much more about the desire to see movies, than what movies you've seen, especially when you're younger. I'm far older than you, and have still not seen tons of movies. And I seriously doubt that there's anyone here who doesn't have huge gaps in what they've seen.

Here's my 10 recommendations:

THE APARTMENT
REAR WINDOW
THE GODFATHER
CASABLANCA
CITIZEN KANE
STAR WARS
DR. STRANGELOVE
RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK
NORTH BY NORTHWEST
SOME LIKE IT HOT

BTW, be absolutely certain to see #5 on Steve's list ASAP!

 

[PhilipG]

I'm going to list 10 decent, recent sci-fi movies, and allow others to fill you in on other genres, and the "classics"!

Gattaca
Dark City
Strange Days
A.I. Artificial Intelligence
Cube
Equilibrium
Contact
Total Recall
Dune (Lynch, not SFC)
Pitch Black

 

[Rodney]

What? He must have seen that one!

 

[Chad A Wright]

As someone who had never seen the Alien movies before I can tell you that you are in for an interesting experience. I have just finished working my way through the Alien Quadrilogy, and I can tell you it is not what I expected.

I had heard so many times that the first two were good, so I expected that (and they were fantastic). On the other hand, I had heard just how horrible the last two were. I expected to hate them as almost everyone else seemed to.

I still haven't seen the theatrical version of Alien 3, but I can tell you that the Special Edition is on par with the first two. It's different in tone to be sure, but still great. I was enthralled with the beauty of almost every shot. This cut makes me wish so badly that Fox had just left David Fincher the hell alone. This man is a genious. I loved the SE of Alien 3.

The fourth was not as good by any means. But, if you were to take it out of context fo the Alien films, it's an ok B movie. I think it suffers from the same problem that Godfather Part 3 does. It's not a horrid movie, but when compared with the rest in the series, it doesn't measure up.

Sorry for the mini-review there, but that is an example of how great a first-time viewing experience. I consider myself one of the biggest movie fans in the world, but still haven't seen a lot of the greats like you. The problem I always had was the format of the time.

I have been a huge movie fan since I was little, but even then, I recognized the poor quality of VHS. I just never collect or rented many VHS movies. Now that DVD is here, my viewing has exploded. I'm slowly working back through the greats. My problem is that I just don't rent movies. I prefer to buy them and then if they are bad just sell them off, so it takes a while to get them all.

You'll get there. In the past year, I've discovered a great love for older cinema and Kurosawa films. It's discoveries like these that make being a movie fan in this day and age so great. We get the best of the new releases, plus the near perfect format to experience the classics.

 

[Nicodemus]

After giving you my 12-part recommended-movielist I started to think about this thread and wanted to add that no way the amount of watched classics or other movie masterpieces can measure how "good" movie fan you are. Actually I've always hated people who come to me saying "what, you haven't read that book / watched that movie / listened to that record?!" because it seems they are always basically trying to elevate their own knowledge and experience by ridiculing mine.

It's intolerable. So nowadays I don't even listen to any kind of "besserwissers" and read exactly the books I want to and watch only the movies I'm personally interested in. Surely people who have watched 1000 movies more than me can compare styles and other things better than me but I still dare to call myself a movie fan nonetheless.

And to prove my point: I forgot (at least) one movie from my list - it's Cat On A Hot Tin Roof (based on Tenneessee Williams's excellent play). You really should see it.

 

[MartinTeller]

10 of my favorites when I was college age:

1) Goodfellas
2) Harold and Maude
3) Blue Velvet
4) This is Spinal Tap
5) Young Frankenstein
6) Airplane!
7) El Norte
8) The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover
9) Taxi Driver
10) Pink Floyd: The Wall

 

[Jack Briggs]

Since we're really discussing films in this thread, I've moved it to the Movies section.

 

[SteveGon]

Exactly. I've seen a s**tload of movies and that fact serves only to make me realize how many more I HAVEN'T seen.

I'll only throw out one recommendation: The Third Man.

Great friggin' movie.

 

[Brian Thibodeau]

The classics always bored me because I felt like I HAD to watch them, especially when I was a teenager and didn't have the ability to put some of the greats into the proper context. Now, of course, I can, and actually own a great many of the films on the lists above, but somehow, I'm always drawn back to the guilty pleasures:

Midnight Run (1988)
1941 (1979)
The Adventures of Ford Fairlaine (1990)
Brazil (1986)
Top Secret (1984)
Blazing Saddles (1974)
Guys & Dolls (1955)
The Rocketeer (1991)
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes (1974?)
Little Shop of Horrors (1986)
Starship Troopers (1996?)
Fear of a Black Hat (1994)
And God Spoke (1993?)
The Italian Job (1969)
Army of Darkness (1993?)
The Taking of Beverly Hills (1992; not on DVD yet)

I could list a tonne more in this vein, but these have always been tops in my repeat-viewing list. Besides, if I keep going in this direction, I might get kicked off the thread for not recommending enough of the true greats! Some of these are classics in my opinion, and all of them are a lot of fun to me.

I'd add Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979) to the list as well, but the depth of your religious commitment, if any, might make the film difficult to take. Depends on your ability to distinguish satire and irreverance from outright blasphemy. I'm not overly relgiious (basically a lapsed Catholic who still has some faith) and I find little offensive about the film. My girlfriend, on the other hand, was raised in a staunch Christian household and saw the film when she was, like, 13, and has had very set notions about it being blasphemous ever since. I doubt she'll ever change her mind, but I still hold out faint hope.

But that's a debate for another thread, I suppose. Perhaps I'll start one...

Cheers.

 

[Chad A Wright]

Exactly. I consider myself a huge movie fan, yet I haven't seen a lot of the classics. I'm doing it slowly, but I'm as much interested in the production of the films as much as the final product.

 

[Andrew D F]

My current 20 favorites (across all genres):

Citizen Kane (1941)
Casablanca (1942)
American Beauty (1999)
All About Eve (1950)
Once Were Warriors (1994)
Schindler's List (1993)
Three Colours: Red (1994)
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964)
Dances with Wolves (1990)
GoodFellas (1990)
Shakespeare in Love (1998)
The Godfather (1972)
The Red Shoes (1948)
Amélie (2001)
Nights of Cabiria (1957)
Ghost World (2000)
JFK (1991)
L.A. Confidential (1997)
The Age of Innocence (1993)
Show Me Love (1998)