Need CGI-free film recommendations (1 Viewer)

[David Baranyi]

Note: this a thread for your recommendations, not a place to discuss about CGI-free films.

I have some friends, who are quite traditionalists and refuse to watch films that contains any 3D CGI animation. I could not recommend to them any decent films, so can anyone help me? I would like to mention that they what an exceptional DVD transfer, not a second-rate job.

Remember, no campy, no sentimental, and no melodramatic films please. My friends greatly despise films with such themes.

Update: Several minutes ago, I spoke to my friends on how they are restricting their viewing choices and had decided to drop "any CGI animation." What they really object is the use of 3D CGI animation. They would not mind 2D CGI, as long as it is decent and is irrelevant to the film.

 

[Patrick McCart]

Lawrence of Arabia: Superbit.

 

[BobG]

How about any movie made before 1990?

 

[george kaplan]

There are thousands of great films with no CGI, but I get a feeling that your friends wouldn't be interested in most of them.

However, in case I'm wrong, here's ten films with no CGI that (IMO anyway) are not campy, sentimental or overly melodramatic

Rear Window
The Godfather
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Chinatown
Vertigo
Planes, Trains & Automobiles
Jaws
The Sting
Double Indemnity
A Hard Day's Night

 

[MartinTeller]

Chinatown and Vertigo might be considered melodramatic.

David: you have very strange and rigid friends.

 

[Matt Pelham]

You might try the upcoming League of Extraordinary Gentlemen DVD. Saw it in theaters and didn't notice any CGI at all.

 

[MatthewLouwrens]

I agree with the unusual nature of your friends.

You might try the upcoming League of Extraordinary Gentlemen DVD. Saw it in theaters and didn't notice any CGI at all.

Are you serious? I hope not. Dorian Gray's disappearing bulletholes? The Nautilus? The Invisible Man? Mina Harker turning into a swarm of bats? (Or was that just in the trailer?)

In any case, there are better movies. League was watchable, but I don't know I'd recommend it.

 

[Richard Kim]

How about any movie made before 1990?

Well, there is The Abyss.

 

[Dan Rudolph]

And Tron.

 

[Dan M]

If I'm not mistaken, BRAM STOKERS DRACULA is cgi free

Excellent effects in that movie

 

[ThomasC]

Raiders of the Lost Ark

What about all those ghosts and stuff near the end?

How about Traffic?

 

[Ricardo C]

Attack of the Clones and The Matrix are both fine choices.

 

[Sergio Martorel]

Remember, no campy, no sentimental, any no melodramatic films please. My friends greatly despise films with such themes.

The original KING KONG.
Trainspotting.

 

[Kevin Porter]

Jackie Brown (Or any QT directed movie they haven't seen for that matter)
As Good as it Gets
The Royal Tenenbaums
Out of Sight

 

[Nick Senger]

Some of these may be sentimental or melodramatic, depending on your taste, but here goes anyway:

Almost Famous
Back to the Future
Bang the Drum Slowly
The Bear
The Blues Brothers
Brazil
Dark City
Eight Men Out
The Fisher King
The Godfather
Henry V (Kenneth Branagh version)
Little Shop of Horrors (Rick Moranis version)
The Magnificent Seven
The Natural
Silverado
This is Spinal Tap
2001: A Space Odyssey

 

[george kaplan]

Yeah, I know, but then again, almost any film that's not completely light comedy throughout might be. Still I think there's a huge difference between melodrama, which is basically overemotional soap operas (e.g., Cries & Whispers, All About Eve, Wuthering Heights, Raisin in the Sun) and drama (e.g., Casablanca, Citizen Kane, Lifeboat, The Godfather), but I realize opinions will differ on that. Even though I don't consider them to be sentimental or melodramatic, I still left off films that other might, such as

The Apartment
Casablanca
Citizen Kane

Similarly, one man's funny comedy, can be another's campy film. So even though I don't consider them campy, I also left off films that I suppose some others might, such as:

Planes, Trains & Automobiles
Young Frankenstein
Dr. Strangelove

 

[Fredric]

Ronin

 

[David Lambert]

Sunrise.


Also, stay away from The Last Starfighter.

 

[Jesse Blacklow]

David: I don't see why your friends would be so rigid on CGI. I mean, it's their choice, but they're using (IMO) a stupid criteria for choosing movies. As far as I know, most big-budget films made in the last 10 years or so has had some sort of CGI work done. It may just be to enhance explosions or erase an extra in the background, but CGI is used to correct mistakes and such in a lot of films.

Noticeable CGI is one thing, but the true genius is when you can't even notice it's there. Or when it makes the film even better (see the hallucinations in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas). That being said, I'd choose either earlier movies, or independent films. Maybe Leon: The Professional, Office Space, or Shawshank Redemption, to name a couple from my list.

 

[Matt Czyz]

I'm sorry, but that's about the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard of. That's like saying "Ooh, I don't want to listen to that band, I heard they use the guitar!"