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

[Mikel_Cooperman]

I like movies about the characters and interaction between all of them.
Here's some to try....

Big Chill
Breaking Away
Broadcast News
You Can count on me
Sophie's Choice
Gods and Monsters
Ordinary People
Sex, Lies and Videotape
Shawshank Redemption
Talented Mr. Ripley
Ice Storm
Midnight Express
River Runs Through It.

Some quirky/funny choices...
Annie Hall
Heathers
Lost in America
Say Anything
The Sure Thing
Dick
16 Candles
Drop Dead Gorgeous.
Rushmore
When Harry Met Sally


If you really want to get silly and mindless, Dude Where's my Car and Romy and Michelle's High school Reunion.

Science Fitiony kind of stuff...
Innerspace
Buckaroo Banzai
Twelve Monkeys
Repo Man
The Thing
Time after Time
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (78)
Poltergeist.

 

[Guy_K]

I'm not sure it would be smart to list many obscure classics as recommendations.. I think it's generally better for people starting out to see the more modern classics, and older, accessible classics. This way they can work their way backwards and go at their own pace. I don't think many people would enjoy "2001 A Space Odyssey" or "Citizen Kane" without some sort of cinematic frame of reference.. Otherwise their responses may be a "_____ is overrated"

 

[Kenneth Harden]

OK, from what was listed so far:

Contact
Total Recall
This is Spinal Tap (12" Stonehenge)
Young Frankenstein (hell yeah!!!)
Airplane!
Blazing Saddles
The Rocketeer
Little Shop of Horrors
Starship Troopers
The Italian Job
American Beauty
Schindler's List
Dances with Wolves (too long ago to remember - re-view time)
L.A. Confidential

Out of everything listed, I loved ALL of them. I would say 'Young Frankenstein' was probably the best. I need to add 'Best of Show' to that list

Also, last semester, I took a film class on cop movies (could be taken as humanities or CJ credits.) I will see if I can dig up the list of films we watched. Out of all of them, the only one I didn't like (HATED actually) was 'Electraglide in Blue' or however it is spelled.

 

[MattBu]

Can't they be? I HATE Seven Samurai, I think it's horrible and don't understand the hype. Not all "Classics" are for everyone.

2 movies I think you should see:

1)Boogie Nights
2)Magnolia

 

[Francois Caron]

I agree with the opinion that not all classics are masterpieces. I hated both "The Longest Day" and "Sink the Bismark!".

If you want to watch something very old and highly disturbing, try the movie "Freaks!" Don't let the fact it was made in 1932 deter you.

 

[Jacob McCraw]

Escape From New York
Fargo
Caddyshack
Get Shorty
The Court Jester
Gladiator
Dracula (1931)
Time Bandits
A Nightmare on Elm Street
Reservoir Dogs

I heartily second Brazil.

You MUST finish Pulp Fiction.

 

[Jonathan Dagmar]

Here's my list of favourites:

Shawshank Redemtption
Boogie Nights
Almost Famous
The Big Lebowski
Pulp Fiction
Jackie Brown
Magnolia
Eating Raoul
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
Little Shop of Horrors
South Park :Bigger, Longer..
Office Space
Beetlejuice
Batman
Shadow of the Vampire
Being John Malcovich
Shogun (mini series GET THIS ON DVD!, and read the book)
Labyrinth
Return to Oz

 

[Kenneth Harden]

To the top two people, I have seen:

Escape From New York
Fargo
Caddyshack
Gladiator
Almost Famous
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
Little Shop of Horrors
Office Space
Beetlejuice
Batman

I have seen some stuff, but there is still a LOT I have not seen, or don't remember at ALL.

 

[Sean Cauley]

If action's your thing, Kenneth, and you haven't seen it before, I heartily recommend Die Hard, which has become a modern classic in the fifteen years since its release. On top of being a very entertaining movie with more than just the action to recommend it (there's great suspense and quite a bit of humor, plus a little human drama thrown into the mix to give stakes to the actions of the hero), it sparked a new subgenre (the "Die Hard in a _____" little-guy(s)-vs-the-baddies-in-a-confined-setting films like Passenger 57, Sudden Death, Toy Soldiers, Under Siege, etc.) and changed the face of the action hero.

Prior to Die Hard, the bulk of action films were based around a musclebound hero (Stallone, Schwarzenegger) or a martial-arts expert (Chuck Norris) who plowed through enemies while spouting one-liners, and you didn't really ever worry for him. When Bruce Willis came on the scene in this film, he was known only as a wisecracking TV detective, and not one prone to intense action. His vulnerable, scared cop in Die Hard paved the way for the nineties-era action films, where Oscar-winners like Nicolas Cage and John Malkovich locked horns in films that wouldn't have even had them on the callback sheet if made in the eighties.

Lethal Weapon, released a year earlier, was also pretty significant in providing action heroes with faults, though it's remembered more for being a defining benchmark in the "Buddy cop" genre.

 

[Kenneth Harden]

I have seen both of those films (Die Hard and Lethal Weapon) and I consider them to be excellent.

Again, I was probably 10 when I saw them, so definetly something I need to re-view. I bet there is 0 wait on Netflix for Die Hard

 

[george kaplan]

Before this gets too much into 'this is a classic, no it sucks' , let me say that lists of so-called classics (afi, etc.), is to expose you to these films, not necessarily say you should like them all. Almost no one likes all of those films. However, I do agree that it is best to take a layered approach, starting with the more accessible films, and I'd certainly try to watch films off a mainstream list like the AFI 100, before I'd tackle a list like the Sight & Sound one.

 

[Jeff Swearingen]

Here's an idea.

Start working your way through the American Film Institute's top 100 movies. Then hit the OSCAR database and see what has won awards.

 

[Romier S]

Ok so I'm no going to list "classics" here but coming from a complete horror/thriller nut here are 15 recommendations from a horror/thriller fan in no particular order. Some old, some new:

1. Halloween (Classic!)
2. Evil Dead (The whole series including Army of Darkness)
3. The Ring (both Japanese and American versions. You may also want to give "The Eye" a look if you enjoy The Ring, no pun intended)
4. Suspiria
5. Session 9
6. The Blair Witch Project
7. Night of the Living Dead (Original)
8. Dawn of the Dead
9. 28 Days Later
10. The Haunting (1963)
11. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Tobe Hooper version)
12. Silence of the Lambs
13. Se7en
14. Psycho (Hitchcock version of course, not the horrid remake)
15. John Carpenter's The Thing

I could go on and on but I won't.

 

[Haggai]

How about Roger Ebert's running series on the Great Movies?

http://www.suntimes.com/ebert/greatmovies/

It's a good mix of old and new, American and foreign, famous and not so famous. I own many of them on DVD, and I have yet to see a bunch of the other ones.