I’m curious what it is about some movies that you can just watch them over and over and over again, and never tire of them. I was flipping through the channels thinking about going to bed when I stumbled across Beetlejuice on ABC Family. Now obviously, it was not what one would consider an “Oscar” great movie, but every time I see it on, I watch it for a while. It has aged well, and is still funny. Weird Science is another one like that for me. Tootsie is another. Same for Spinal Tap.
Now obviously, each of us has our own preferences, but certainly there must be something about movies like this that we can agree on. No real point to this post, but what makes some movies good enough to watch over and over?
And what ever happened to Michael Keeton? He was funny in Beetlejuice, and he cracked me up in Multiplicity, but now he seems to have dropped off the face of the earth.
Jon
I’m guessing Jack Frost hurt him pretty badly.
Anton Sirius
“Whatever happened to Michael Keaton?” is one of the great unsolved mysteries of the 21st century.
If there’s one common denominator in your list, John, it’s that everyone involved seemed to be having fun making those movies… ditto stuff like, say, O Brother Where Art Though, or Caddyshack.
Winston Smith
One thing that makes a movie good enough to watch over and over again is it being Highlander…
Ronnie Pudding
I don’t think Tootsie has held up well at all.
Certainly, none of these movies should be mentioned along side Spinal Tap!
DougJ
Tootsie’s a great example. Even with all those awful Steve Bishop songs.
“I was a better man with you as a woman than I ever was with a woman as a man.” Love that line.
I tend to think that a lot of what makes a movie watchable over and over again are good scenes and a good script. The plot doesn’t have to be great and it doesn’t have to be original. Movies are fun to watch over and over when they have the best qualities of a good tv show.
Jim
I seem to remember something about Keaton getting burned out, in part because of Jack Frost, IIRC.
anyway, you made me think of this opener of Roger Ebert’s review of his latest, which he directed
Good actors sometimes despair of finding worthy opportunities. They cheerlessly attend a premiere of their new film and think, “I could direct better than this dingbat.” Sometimes they’re right. I give you Michael Keaton, whose “The Merry Gentleman” is original, absorbing and curiously moving in ways that are far from expected. Keaton once starred in “Jack Frost” as a boy’s father imprisoned in a snowman. Think about that.
demkat620
Raising Arizona, Saboteur, Slapshot, and Shawshank.
And Stepbrothers and Talledga Nights are two of the funniest movies ever. I don’t know why, I just really can’t deal with anything heavy anymore.
The familiarity becomes a comfort, I think.
Chief
I like most of the Walter Mattheu movies. But I especially like one that most people have never heard of named “Charlie Varrick.” I can watch it endlessly. He is a small time crook who knocks off a small town bank that just happens to be a bank that the mob uses to launder money.
DougJ
I don’t like those two as much, but I agree everyone is having fun. That does make a big difference. It’s what makes a slight movie like Roman Holiday a classic. And it’s what makes otherwise-dreck like Mama Mia watchable.
BDeevDad
Shawshank – Robbed of an Oscar
bogart
The Big Lebowski.
That is all.
Waingro
For some reason I’ll usually watch Hudson Hawk for a while if I’m channel surfing. It’s not remotely a good movie, but I just keep watching.
Oh- Commando! It’s awful, but I like watching the action sequences that I thought were so cool when I was a kid. I like when Arnold breaks into a sporting goods store and somehow gets grenades, fully automatic weapons, and a fucking rocket launcher. And when he somehow takes on an entire island full of soldiers and kicks their ass. Rambo:First Blood II is also pretty sweet because of these not at all unrealistic sequences-he takes out the entire fucking North(?) Vietnamese army (in 1985?).
God, I love terrible 80’s action movies.
Crashman06
Big Lebowski. Something about the combination of the soundtrack and the dialogue, especially certain lines, keeps me coming back to that movie. I NEVER get tired of it.
Walker
The wife and I spent tonight watching Michael Mann’s Last of the Mohicans. That is another one of those movies for me (my wife had never seen it, and I spent a lot of the movie explaning the politics of the French and Indian War to her, as she did not grow up in the US).
Watching the movie, I realized that Madeline Stowe is another one of those actors. She was everywhere in the 90s. Now, not so much.
DougJ
I’m probably in “legitimately great movie” territory here but also Singing in the Rain and anything directed by Billy Wilder.
I second Slap Shot and Big Lebowski.
sgwhiteinfla
Happy Gilmore
Forrest Gump
Life
The Waterboy
The Rock (on right now)
Harlem Nights
Blazing Saddles
Primary Colors
Twister
Mrs Doubtfire
A Few Good Men
Those are basically the movies that alternate on TNT, TBS and FX every weekend that I always find myself watching at least some part of.
wasabi gasp
Not quite sure, John, but over the last few months I kept bumping into Children of Men while channel hopping during the wee hours of the night. I must have watched it about five or six times by now. It’s not my all-time favorite movie or anything, nor do I think I have one, but it just has a way of sucking me in.
Laura W
Best In Show.
No matter how far into the plot it is when I flip on, I can watch it and enjoy it as if it were the first time I saw it. The characters are all absurdly delicious and well-developed (not one weak link); you’ve got the whole insane dog show culture mockery; and so many little side plots and vignettes that all weave together eventually, but not too neatly. Plus Fred Fucking Willard.
Shorter me: I LOVE FILMS WHERE EVERYONE’S NEUROTIC.
Boudica
I’ll watch Die Hard any time I catch it on TV. Ferris Bueller, too.
It may be more the age you were when you first saw the movies that you consider “timeless.” I was too old for Big Lebowski to make an impression on me. Although, I was older when Forrest Gump came out and I can watch that over and over again.
ed
Best in Night Shift. Fucking epic performance.
And dude, Tootsie? Really?
Ditto Big Lebowski. It’s too new to really count, but so far Superbad is a go-to joint anytime it’s on.
Crashman06
Also, I can watch any of the 3 Bourne movies at any time.
DougJ
I agree.
bogart
@DougJ
Singing In the Rain is just about perfect. If you don’t love that movie, you have no soul.
DougJ
Half Moon Bay.
JGabriel
@demkat620:
And then there will always be people who disagree. For instance, I love Arizona, like Slapshot, don’t know Saboteur, and am utterly perplexed by the love for Shawshank, which struck me as a mediocre, middlebrow film with good performances, a cliche-riddled script, nice set and costume design, boring direction, and seriously bizarre tonal problem – I mean, prison nostalgia?
Sorry. I just don’t get it.
.
jp2
I always go by director. The good ones rarely take bad projects so it’s a normally safe venture. (Of course, there are notable exceptions…take your pick) After seeing Star Trek last night I hope this Abrams kid is around for a while.
ascap_scab
And what ever happened to Michael Keeton?
Batman. Herbie Fully Loaded.
passerby
I used to really like Michael Keaton back in his Mr. Mom days. Beetlejuice was a captivating movie but MK was well suited for the obnoxious Beetlejuice role.
I think his career started going south after he landed the lead in that Batman movie. I don’t know if it went to his head or what, but, he doesn’t seem to have hit his stride since then.
Besides Ghostbusters, I can watch The Birdcage and Galaxy Quest over and over again.
Same for Kill Bill Vol I which I avoided at first because I couldn’t make it thru Pulp Fiction, but after KBvol I, I’ve now come to appreciate Quentin Tarantino’s work and also give a thumbs up to Reservoir Dogs (not that I could watch that one over and over though).
KG
@12: I’ve always liked Hudson Hawk.
Right now, I’m watching 1408 on Showtime. Decent flick for a scary film.
I also dig most Tarantino films, and anything by Kevin Smith.
eemom
Pulp Fiction. The Shining.
John Cole
@Ronnie Pudding: I think Tootsie is a terrific film. I’m a big fan of Sydney Pollack, too.
@Walker: Every time I watch part of that I end up reading Mark Twain trashing Cooper. I never liked Madeleine Stowe. Or Ally Sheedy.
@Jim: I don’t recall the last time I went to a movie theater without checking to see what Ebert thought first. I don’t recall the last time I disagreed with him, either.
And I am down with the Big Lebowski, Raising Arizona, or anything Coen, as well as any of the Spinal Tap/best in Show/The Mighty Wind Christopher Guest/Michael McKean collaborations. They are always fun.
JGabriel
In an instance of sychronicity, The Onion’s AVCLub is also running an article on multiple viewings, though the subject is slightly different: art that you didn’t get until seeing it more than once.
opium4themasses
Super Troopers is one that usually pulls me in every time it’s on. Also, Hot Fuzz.
I guess I just like laughing at actors playing cops even though I hate Police Academy and can only barely tolerate Reno 911 about 50% of the time but love it about 25%.
Rob in Denver
Michael Keaton does a lot of animation voice over work (Cars, King of the Hill, Simpsons). He recently (2007) played a CIA mole hunter in the miniseries adaptation of Robert Littell’s THE COMPANY. He was fantastic in that.
South of I-10
Raising Arizona
Shawshank Redemption
Sixteen Candles
Wierd Science
Whoever just mentioned Children of Men, I love that movie – have seen it several times. But I think Clive Owens is hot, so that may have something to do with it.
John Cole
There was so much suck in those Batman movies that Keaton can not be blamed. The last two have been the only good ones, and other than ledger’s performance, the second one meandered. I do think that Maggie Gyllenhaal is much, much better than Katie Holmes, though. She was so unbelievably sexy in Stranger than Fiction.
Flappo
I will combine two questions and suggest the I can’t turn off “Live From Baghdad” when I see it.
aimai
Soapdish. Great movie. Holds up better than Tootsie, in my opinion. Way upthread I have to agree that Highlander was so bad it was good, though I haven’t seen it in a long time. And in the even worse its pretty good some astonishingly bad steven segal movies–like the one where he’s a cook (or something) on a boat and blows stuff up with a potato and tinfoil in a microwave.
What? I’m not allowed to have depths?
aimai
ETA: John Cole! Marry me! You are the only person on this earth ever to mention Fenimore Cooper’s (28?) Literary Errors. My favorite essay on this earth–next to the one of the german verb.
Woodrow "asim" Jarvis Hill
Third for HUDSON HAWK. I suspect a large part of it’s problem w/critics and audience alike is that it’s insanely smug about itself. But I’m a sucker for swing music, and that kind of goofball comedy, so it’s a hopeless fight for me.
RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. Damn-near action movie perfection.
I know it’s “obvious”, but CASABLANCA gets me every single goddamn time.
I can watch Tarantino for hours. It’s simply his love of wordplay, and the movie genre — kind of a “Shakespeare” effect, without the (sometimes!) deep writing Willy Shakes worked into his better plays.
Comrade Jake
Shawshank gets me every time. That and The Godfather.
demkat620
@JGabriel: Saboteur is Hitchcock and I could watch anything of his but Saboteur is my favorite.
DougJ
Bull Durham
The Color Of Money (you don’t believe me but check it out, it holds up well)
Laura W
Should’ve chosen my links better. Just watching this makes me want to see the movie now!
Best In Show Trailer
Litlebritdifrnt
I can watch Kenneth Branaughs “Much ado about nothing” endlessly, and without ever thinking “meh I have seen this before” ditto “Love Actually” “Much ado” which never ends to amaze me with the last great panning shot, which to be honest I am not sure I will ever figure out how they did it. I can also always watch, as a totally guilty pleasure “Water Boy” the whole KFC Colonel dude being hit on the head never ceases to crack me up, no matter how many times I have seen it, nor the “do you want me to kill them” sign that Vickie holds up to the window. “What’s for dessert?” “squirrel” I am giggling just thinking about it. Strangely enough John, DH (who is on bedrest right now) was watching “weird science” today, and I am sure he enjoyed it. More on my list of movies I can watch over and over and never find old “Nottinghill” (classic English actors being classic English actors with the addition of Julia Roberts), “Two weeks notice” cause I just love Hugh Grant and Sandra Bullock together in a Cary Grant/Doris Day kind of way. “The Replacements” if only for the scene when Falco comes out onto the field when it is not expected and for the performance of the Welsh Guy (wish I could remember his name cause he was also in Nottinghill) Right now the movie I will watch over and over and over again, August Rush, completely and utterly inspirational. I love it.
passerby
@Crashman06:
I’m also hooked on the Bourne movies. I loved the original with Dr. Kildaire and Jaclyn Smith and had my doubts when the remake with MattD came out but he didn’t disappoint as Bourne and modernized it (them) well.
Crashman06
Almost Famous is another one I can keep coming back to. Again, I think it’s the soundtrack.
aimai
Littlebritdifferent,
I, too, love The Replacements. But that’s because I love Keanu Reeves–won’t someone mention Point Break? Or what about the remake of The Thomas Crowne Affair with Pierce Brosnan? Also, I’m a huge Love Actually fan.
aimai
Crashman06
@aimai: Thomas Crown Affair! The remake was great. That last scene in the museum…
JGabriel
Films I can watch over and over:
His Girl Friday
The Philadelphia Story
just about anything by Hal Hartley
Hiroshima Mon Amour
anything written by Charlie Kaufman
Local Hero
Rushmore & The Royal Tannenbaums
A Woman Is A Woman
The Seven Samurai
M
Fanny and Alexander (Full Length version)
Nothing Sacred
Le Regle du Jeu
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV Series)
Vertigo, and anything by Hitchcock with Ingrid Bergman or Cary Grant in it.
And so on …
.
burnspbesq
A under-appreciated movie that I can watch endlessly is “The Boxer.” Daniel Day-Lewis and Emily Watson are so good, and the sadness of it just kicks me in the gut every time.
KG
Almost Famous might be my all time favorite film. I’m also on board with Bull Durham and Tin Cup, for that matter.
Comrade Jake
@John Cole:
Seconded. I blame Tim Burton. Those films are on the other end of the spectrum for me: impossible to watch.
burnspbesq
And I’m a total sucker for submarine movies. I can watch “Hunt for Red October” and “Crimson Tide” back to back for days.
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
The Right Stuff works for me every time. Great story, lots of likeable characters, lots of humour, awesome cinematography, and the best soundtrack rip-off of Tchaikovsky ever.
(And — wow. Trailers from the 80s, even this one, seem so old-fashioned and literal. Talk – show. Talk – show. So redundant. Plus, the soundtrack is totally wrong.)
anon
#44–
but michael keeton was the worst thing in the brannagh ‘much ado’, no?
what he did to dogberry was an utter crime, if you ask me.
movies i can watch over and over again:
any rogers and hammerstein (but esp. sound of music), any fred and ginger.
the really odd thing about all this is that i’m straight.
JGabriel
aimai:
Let It Be is a great, great, great fucking album.
Oh. You mean a different Replacements, don’t you?
.
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
Oh, and The Fifth Element. Totally silly and disposable, but everyone is so goddamn pretty, even Bruce Willis.
jharp
Goonies, The Outlaw Josey Wales, and Pale Rider (Eastwood again) for me.
Oh, and Platoon.
Comrade Jake
Bronx Tale, Sleepers, Mystic River, Heat. They’re all serious/depressing as hell. Gets me every time.
Crashman06
@Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse: Chris Tucker is so funny in that flick.
anon
#48–
brosnian’s thomas crown, compared to the steve mcqueen, may be the most hugely improved re-make in the history of cinema.
(okay, except for maybe errol flynn’s robin hood vs. some 1919 silent version we’ve never heard of.)
also: everything by buster keaton, but esp. seven chances.
GReynoldsCT00
I’ve watched High Fidelity I don’t know how many dozen times…
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
@Crashman06: For the first and last time, unfortunately.
Crashman06
@Comrade Jake: Speaking of Mystic River, did you see Gone Baby Gone? I love that movie; it’s quite a bit better than Mystic, I think, and I liked Mystic River a lot.
John Cole
@JGabriel: Rushmore was genius. The dinner scene kills me:
I like your nurses uniform.
The are OR scrubs.
Oh are they!
Little Dreamer
@Litlebritdifrnt:
I love that movie, so much hilarity in it.
Litlebritdifrnt
Oh and I forgot, my favorite movie of all time (Other than ET which is a little dated) The Labyrinth, “allo” “did you say hello” “nope I said ‘allo but that’s close enuf”
JGabriel
aimai:
I love that essay, too. Not that I want to marry Cole. Should we ever meet, a friendly handshake or manhug will suffice.
.
Notorious P.A.T.
“This Is Spinal Tap” is a masterpiece. Yes, a masterpiece.
CatStaff
I can’t help it — I love “The Money Pit.” When the bathtub falls through the floor and Tom Hanks starts laughing hysterically, I lose it completely every time.
Just Some Fuckhead
Add The Princess Bride to the list.
passerby
I agree with you on that littlebrit, I’ve got that one in my library. Branaugh does a good job assembling a great cast and location and music. He’s been criticized by purists for editing Shakespeare but he makes it modern. His Henry the V is also a tale well told.
But as for Hugh Grant, I’ve tried, I’ve really tried to get into his movies and I can never make it thru. Knotting Hill–bleh. Love Actually–double bleh (only made it thru the first 15 min.)
HG was ok though in Words and Music w/ Drew Barrymore but, I couldn’t help wishing they’d cast some other romantic lead opposite her.
I guess I don’t really like modern romantic comedy genre but I still give em a shot. Twenty-one dresses was a disappointment–hit eject after 30 minutes.
Halffasthero
Godfather
The Sting
American Graffiti
Ordinary People
Diner
The Departed
almost all Coen brother movies…
Actually, I could go on.
wasabi gasp
A movie that I want to watch again, but never comes on cable, is Henry Fool.
Yutsano
This is my first wade into the Juice (h/t to Sgw for turning me onto this place) but this thread seems like a good place for a coming-out party!
.
My very personal faves are all animation oddly enough. Specifically the Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli films and anything Pixar. In fact I was watching “Finding Nemo” last night while a good buddy was watching “Cars” with his nephew. I can lose myself in those films over and over.
John Cole
@CatStaff: Seconded. I still call my place “Home, crap, home” because of that movie. Joe Mantegna was great as the plumber, too.
I can’t believe 70 posts and no one has mentioned the Princess Bride.
John Cole
@Just Some Fuckhead: LOL.
DougJ
Try “About A Boy”. It’s really brilliant.
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
Yes, I’ll have to agree about The Princess Bride, Shawshank, Bull Durham, Spinal Tap, and Galaxy Quest.
The Great Escape and Snatch. Also.
Also also: Office Space, Lilo and Stitch, Ocean’s 11 (the Clooney remake).
Comrade Jake
@Crashman06:
Haven’t seen Gone Baby Gone yet but I’ve been meaning to.
Litlebritdifrnt
@aimai:
Our poor Keanu is so seriously maligned do you not think? I love him in so many movies, not least the Matrix series, I thought Constantine was utterly brilliant, and I think he was underappreciated in “Something’s gotta give” I have to admit to a serious Keanu crush here, so take of that what you will. :)
JGabriel
Woodrow “asim” Jarvis Hill:
Casablanca is another film, the love of which I don’t quite get. Not so much as with Shawshank, after all Casablanca has Bergman and Bogart, but it always feels kind of sketchy and undeveloped to me.
Yeah, yeah, I know I’m an outlier on that one. Go ahead, ostracize me.
.
Crashman06
@Comrade Jake: See it. It’s great. You’ll be surprised how good Casey Affleck is.
DougJ
@John Cole
Great scene. I don’t love the movie so much. But Wes Anderson is one of those things I just don’t get, like Cat Power and Wilco.
Is House — Hugh Laurie or whatever his name is — the waiter?
Comrade Jake
“You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”-Inigo Montoya
Just Some Fuckhead
I can watch Better Off Dead over and over. Mrs. Fuckhead likes Meg Ryan romances.
Little Dreamer
@Just Some Fuckhead:
“The Princess Bride” was going to be my choice before I saw lilbrit’s choice of “Much Ado about Nothing” – both are welcomed in my home anytime they come on the television (come to think of it, Much Ado about Nothing never comes on the television, I used to have it on tape and play it every few months).
John Cole
Anyone watching this comedian on HBO?
mclaren
The script.
That’s it. Two words. End of story.
That’s what makes a movie great.
All the movies you mentioned had great scripts.
Good direction helps, great actors and stellar performances enhance a movie, good art direction makes a film visually striking, great music grabs you, spectacular cinematography thrills you…but at the end of the day, all that other stuff matters not at all without a great script.
Other movies with great scripts: Casablanca (1945), The Thief Of Baghdad (1940), The Three Musketeers (1973) and The Four Musketeers (1974) , The Godfather (parts I and II, 1972 and 1974), The Shawshank Redemption (1995), The Bicycle Thief (Italian, subtitled, 1948), The Graduate (1967), The 400 Blows (French, subtitled, 1963), Schindler’s List (1995), Ikiru (Japanese, subtitled, 1954), Kramers Vs. Kramer (1987), Dr. Mabuse the Gambler (German, silent, 1922), Bringing Up Baby (1938), Wings Over Berlin (German, subtitled, 1987), Shadow Of A Doubt (Hitchcock, 1947), Miller’s Crossing (1990), It Happened One Night (1932), The Mummy (1998), The Great McGinty (1948), The Usual Suspects (1995), Children of Paradise (1944), Raiders Of the Lost Ark (1980), My Man Godfrey (1939), The Maltese Falcon (1945), etc.
All one thing in common: great scripts.
Hollywood today tries to substitute computer graphics imagery and big-name stars and lavish budgets for good scripts. Doesn’t work. Pixar has refused to go in that direction, insisting on great scripts. As a result, Pixar’s films blow most other movies out of the water. It’s not the computer animation — it’s the quality of their scripts.
A movie like Iron Man had a script apparently doodled by a brain-damaged 7-year-old. The computer graphics made up for that a little bit, in fits and starts, but ultimately…without a good script, the movie remained forgettable.
Compare with the movie Mirrormask, made for 1/16 the budget. Mirrormask had a great script. People will still watch Mirrormask long after shlock like Iron Man and Wolverine and J. J. Abrams’ Star Trek film have vanished from living memory.
Michael Keaton vanished because he built up a career making screwball comedy movies and his audience came to expect him in that role. Then Keaton completely jumped the rails to do 2 Batman films, playing a serious role. Suddenly Keaton’s fans no longer knew what to expect. Keaton found himself unable to return to doing light screwball comedies like Night Shift and Beetlejuice because he had now gotten the rep of a serious actor doing heavy roles in grim movies, like Jackie Brown. But Keaton never really found his metier in grim serious movies. So he disappeared.
Actors get typecast, and if they make too many similar films (Burt Reynolds, Michael J. Fox), they bore their audience and vanish. But if they try to jump out of that typecasting into a radically different role, they risk confusing their audience and in that case, they also lose their audience and vanish.
Being an actor or actress must be an incredibly tough life. Damned if you do, and damned if you don’t…plus, 90% unemployment rate. If you think you’ve got it tough, be thankful you’re not an actor or actress.
JGabriel
@Litlebritdifrnt:
I agree with you on that one, Li’lBrit. For someone who’s often called dumb and whose acting style is generally considered wooden, Keanu’s been in lot of good or interesting movies: River’s Edge, Dangerous Liasons, My Own Private Idaho, The Matrix, A Scanner Darkly …
Whatever his other faults, I really doubt that Reeves is actually stupid.
.
Litlebritdifrnt
@passerby: He not only got together a fantastic cast of classic Shakesperian actors he managed to do it while editing the script (which originally would have been about a day long) to keep the elements of the story, and yet not missing anything. I honestly think that Much Ado About Nothing is one of the best ever renditions of Shakespere that has ever been brought to the screen, the fact that you have Emma Thomson, Brian Blessed, Richard Briars, Imelda Staunton (who I adore) and Kenneth in the same film is just priceless (not to mention Denzel who absolutely kicked ass in his first Shakesperian effort).
Svensker
Working Girl, Nuns on the Run, Fish Called Wanda, ditto on Soap Dish, Bringing Up Baby, Bridget Jones Diary. I loved Tootsie for a while but am now getting sort of antsy about it. Goodbye Girl.
JGabriel
@wasabi gasp:
It’s on DVD.
And, yeah, it’s one of Hartley‘s best.
.
boomshanka
Most definitely agree with Office Space which I’ve seen recently more times than I can remember. Princess Bride I’ve watched many times but not in awhile.
Add to the list: Trading Places. I’ll never tire of that movie.
A personal favorite that I’ll always watch is Breaking Away, which is still shown quite often.
Nylund
I think movies that rely on twist endings make for great first time viewing, but have less re-watching value.
For me comedies are usually much more re-watchable. Many jokes age better with time, especially when jokes become permanent parts of society’s vocabulary (think “turning it up to 11” from Spinal Tap).
I also like to rewatch dialog driven movies (Boogie Nights, Big Lebowski, Pulp Fiction, The Graduate, etc.) or action flicks (Die Hard, Robocop, Terminator, etc.) Great lines and great explosions age well.
Certain stories are great in the sense of where they take you, others are great in how they get you there. The latter end up still being enjoyable the second time around. Knowing that E.T. eventually goes home doesn’t ruin the movie. Knowing the end of Adaptation of the Six Sense kinda does.
Litlebritdifrnt
@JGabriel:
Rivers Edge was quite brilliant, and really showed Keanu’s acting chops, but of course everyone ignored it to concentrate on “Bill and Ted” so sad that he has been saddled with that persona since then. I keep telling people to watch “The Replacements” for an example of “acting nuance” a shy,introspective guy, playing a shy, introspective guy. It is sad that many folks have not seen the nuance of that performance.
eemom
hmmm……no Woody Allen on here?
Mileage varies a lot with him, but favorites off the top of my head would be Annie Hall, Radio Days, Manhattan, Crimes and Misdemeanors. That last I thought was his best, maybe his only, good venture into the dark side. Never was much into his old stuff.
Tim
There are many fine movies listed by people here, but I’m saddened that Airplane isn’t on anyone’s list. I can watch that movie any time and dissolve into laughter. I was going to include a quote here, but the whole damn movie deserves to be quoted.
Notorious P.A.T.
@Yutsano:
Welcome!
Jess
I spent an evening drinking with him once, ages ago. No, he’s not stupid at all. Not a genius, but thoughtful and pretty deep, actually. I liked him, and enjoyed talking with him, and I wasn’t even a fan–in fact, I’m still not, although I appreciate him more since I got to know him a little bit on a personal level.
I think great craftsmanship is what brings us back to any work of art. Even when you know a piece really well, you can still marvel at how well all the pieces fit together. It still has a kind of magic to it. The films that do it for me are the three Bourne films (especially the second one), The Fugitive, Blade Runner, Fight Club, and Lone Star. I also revisit Kissing Jessica Stein over and over again because the characters are so wonderful and the script is so intelligent.
Edit: oh yes, and Spinal Tap. Most of Rob Reiner’s films are beautifully crafted and elegantly nuanced, IMHO.
Jonothan Cullinane
The Godfather
Say Anything
Charlie Varrick
The Bourne Supremacy (the other two, nsm)
Trespass (the perfect answer to the question ‘what does a director do?’)
(the people who nominated ‘Gone, Baby, Gone’ should be banned from this site)
howtodirectafilm.blogspot.com
opium4themasses
I totally forgot Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
I’d mention my age when I first saw it but i would make some other commenters feel old.
Oh! and Dollhouse got renewed!
YAY!
Just Some Fuckhead
Can’t believe 97 comments and no one mentioned Airplane!.
passerby
@Nylund:
I tend to agree Nylund, with one exception: Fight Club. I had to watch that one twice.
Litlebritdifrnt
@mclaren:
With all due respect if you make it big, you can retire off one film. I know that alot of actors are waiting tables and working at gas stations but if you make that leap and you are making 15 million per movie you are pretty much set for life after one movie if you invest wisely. I am not about to feel sorry for those who have made it. (and who then scream loudely “I want my privacy”, clue, you sold your privacy for $15 million)
Anton Sirius
mclaren – I love Gaiman as much as the next fanboy, but Mirrormask simply didn’t work.
And I didn’t think we were talking about great movies… we were talking about infectious ones. Hudson Hawk’s a perfect example. Nobody in their right mind except for Joel Silver (wait, that’s probably redundant) would defend it as ‘great’, but it’s a hell of a lot of fun.
boomshanka
@Tim:
Don’t be sad.
Of course, Airplane. Laugh out loud funny even the twentieth time.
Jim
No! I’m not glad to be alive. I’m glad I’m not dead. There’s a difference!”
On my good days, that’s how I feel about life. Paul Dooley, I think? Great underrated movie.
eemom
and has no one mentioned MP and The Holy Grail?? I saw that thing for the first time when it was 30 years old and laughed my ass off.
Crashman06
@Jonothan Cullinane: Blasphemy. Gone Baby Gone is a great movie.
Laura W
Can’t believe 111ish comments and no one has mentioned The Hours.
Edit: No one has seen Harold and Maude? John…you forgot not all of us are 30 and under.
John Cole
@boomshanka: I own Breaking Away. Love Paul Dooley in that. Refund! Refund!
When Stoller gets beat up by the frat boys- “All I can tell your for sure is that they all wore Brut after-shave and reeked of Lavoris. ”
Another good movie that I love that no one has ever seen, but I own on DVD is Harold and Maude. Love that movie.
kid bitzer
the curse of the were rabbit.
and all the other wallace & grommets. repay multiple watchings.
flushed away is pretty good, too.
passerby
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Yeah you right. Denzel rocked that role.
“You have put him down, dear lady, you have put him down.”
Svensker
@boomshanka:
Trading Places. Yes.
Krista
Add another vote for The Princess Bride, and a second on the Clooney remake of Ocean’s 11. Hot Fuzz never ceases to make me laugh. I can also watch Sin City repeatedly — that movie was just really damn cool.
I just haven’t been in the mood lately for really in-depth dramatic films — something funny, or clever and stylish is about all that I can mentally process right now.
Dennis-SGMM
The Quay Brothers’ Street of the Crocodile: surreal perfection, a waking dream.
Fitzcarraldo: obsession underplayed to a T.
Barton Fink “you’re just a tourist with a typewriter. I live here.”
Dead Man: the most crazy-ass Western I’ve ever seen. Probably much like it really was back then.
wasabi gasp
@JGabriel: Have you seen Fay Grim? If it’s worth a purchase, I’ll pick up both.
Mike in NC
Avoid any movie with Adam Sandler, Val Kilmer, or Kevin Costner. They invariably SUCK!
Rob
Movies I can watch again and again:
Groundhog’s day
Slapshot
The Princess Bride
Shawshank
Snatch
Anton Sirius
@Jess:
Oh my god, yes. “Forget the Alamo” is one of the three greatest final lines in film history.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Jess:
That is what pisses most people off about him, he is thoughtful, and introspective, they can’t stand that. He also doesn’t give a shit, and that REALLY pisses them off.
Svensker
@John Cole:
Harold & Maude! God. Was on a total Hal Ashby kick for a while. Now I don’t know if I could watch any of them.
Krista
Can’t believe I forgot Airplane! (My excuse is that I’m not home, and so can’t go over and look at my DVD collection to jog my memory.)
joel hanes
Any of these movies produce in me instant hypnotism — I’ll immediately sit down and watch until interrupted.
Young Frankenstein
The Wizard of Oz
Chinatown
A Night At The Opera
The Court Jester
Life of Brian
Willow
Serenity
2001, A Space Odyssey
The Thin Man
The Birds
The Thing
It’s a Wonderful Life
Casablanca
Flight of the Phoenix
Deliverance
Woodstock, The Movie
The Last Waltz
The Empire Strikes Back
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Monty Python And The Holy Grail
King Kong
Romeo and Juliet ( Zeffirelli)
Glory
Reds
The Grifters
Red River
The Maltese Falcon
Anton Sirius
@John Cole:
I once had handmade Harold and Maude dolls made for a gal I was sweet on, since it was her favorite movie.
Litlebritdifrnt
Oh and “Ever After” love that movie.
DougJ
Great freaking movie. When he tells that girl he’s not Italian and she slaps his face. That and his own infatuation with Italy captured something perfectly about growing up in East Nowhere, USA.
Wini
On board with Almost Famous, The Boxer, Bull Durham, Love Actually, and Bridget Jones..and would add Beautiful Girls..
boomshanka
@John Cole:
re: Breaking Away. A classic against-the-odds success story and a great American movie. IMO, the best of the Indiana underdog sports flicks ahead of Rudy and Hoosiers.
Tim
@CatStaff: I also loved the moment in The Money Pit when Tom Hanks is standing on the rug and sinks into the floor. His reaction is priceless.
Anton Sirius
@Mike in NC:
Punch-Drunk Love
Tombstone
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Bull Durham
No Way Out
Nazgul35
Going old school:
Stalag 17
The Bedford Incident
Dr. Strangelove
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold – “Go over the wall Mr. Lemus”
North by Northwest
It’s a Wonderful Life
Casablanca
Maltese Falcon
The Thin Man series
Topper
The Philadelphia Story (the original)
and many, many more
Keaton was excellent in Clean and Sober…
Litlebritdifrnt
@Mike in NC:
Disagree “The Water boy” rocks, and I LOVE “Field of Dreams”
gnomedad
Rewatchable != favorite or best. I mostly rewatch comedies.
Seconded: Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Airplane!, Galaxy Quest
Add: My Cousin Vinny, Duck Soup, Horsefeathers
srv
The original, Infernal Affairs is 10X better. I can pretty much watch most of Johnny To’s movies every year. I’ve seen Exiled probably four times in the last year.
As for JGabriel’s heathen statement about Shawshank, I can say I would never, ever pay a federal fee to go to Alcatraz (I’ve been there w/o paying one) but cannot fathom anyone who doesn’t think it’s one of the best films of all time.
Those not mentioned already:
Blade Runner
Some Monty Phythons
Animal House
The Golden Effect – not a big favorite, but if it’s on, I’m watching it.
Hudson Hawk, man, that must be a really weird covariant for the BJ crowd. I would never admit that in public.
lizzy
Keaton’s in Montana. Can you blame him? It’s a beautiful place to be.
Jess
@joel hanes:
You’re too easily hypnotized. Do you ever wake up in the middle of a shopping mall in a duck suit and wonder how you got there?
Baseballgirl
I’m a little shocked no one has mentioned “Goodfellas”. Everytime I catch it while surfing I’ll stay until the end. Most of my others have already been mentioned. Big seconded on “Almost Famous”. I also love “Shakespeare in Love”, “Emma, “Sense and Sensibility”. “Big” and “Splash” are always enjoyable. “The Money Pit” always kills me too.
For some unexplainable reason, I can’t turn off “Rock Star”. In fact, I’m watching it on Fuse right now. I love the Verve song at the end.
passerby
I love Harold and Maude. I watched it earlier this year after not having seen it since it first came out. I was surprised by the amount of dialog I could still recite after lo these many years. I also fell in love with Cat Stevens’ music all over again.
My favorite cops and robbers movie is Midnight Express. Deniro and Groden made it a great “buddy” movie too. Their chemistry was great and I loved the payoff at the end.
Litlebritdifrnt
OOOOh I forgot “Citizen X” Steven Reha and Imelda Staunton, absolutely brilliant, I could watch that thing over and over and over again, never tire of it.
JGabriel
@wasabi gasp:
Yes, I’ve seen it. It’s good, but more for completists. If you’re a Hartley fan, you’ll like it – and, hey, it’s got James Urbaniak, Jeff Goldblum, Saffron Burrows, Parker Posey, and Thomas Jay Ryan (though he doesn’t really get enough screen time).
It’s not worth Criterion prices, but at the 14 bucks Amazon is charging, I’d say go for it.
.
psychobroad
We love the first Pirates of the Caribbean. Went to it with no expectations and were blown away (my kids and I )–everyone in that movie is having a blast!! My husband and I also love Beetlejuice–we watch it every time it’s on TV. Also Scrooged. ( Bill Murray, I know) And my brother and I know all of the dialog to Airplane! I’ll stop now.
JGabriel
I can’t believe we made it to 119 responses without anyone saying Groundhog’s Day.
.
Jess
@Anton Sirius:
That ending in general was awesome. I had to play it back several times– “Wha…are they really embracing incest? Wow!” After seeing that, I’ll watch anything with Chris Cooper in it, and I’m almost never disappointed. Adaptation, The Kingdom, American Beauty…all films I’ll watch at least three more times. He has a knack for choosing good projects.
AhabTRuler
Dazed and Confused is good. I third Highlander.
The Prophecy is one I can’t avert my eyes from. Christopher Walken absolutely devours the scenery, and I always enjoy Eric Stoltz, but Aragorn as Satan always seals the deal for me.
One of the best actions/cyberpunk movie I ever saw released straight to Showtime was Nemesis. The plot made almost no sense, but the dialog and the guns were badass.
Actually, pretty much anything with Brion James or Tim Thomerson in it is usually interesting (interesting bad, interesting good? Who knows?).
John Cole
@passerby: Harold, that was your last date!
Also, the scenes with the shrink.
JGabriel
I can’t believe we made it to 119 responses without anyone saying Groundhog’s Day.
(Did ya see what I did there? Heh.)
.
srv
Oh, man, forgot about
Bridge Over River Kwai
Lawrence of Arabia
They Live
Tim
@eemom: Oh, God, how did I neglect the Holy Grail. A friend and I in high school would rent that movie at least once a month. Another movie that I can giggle through anytime, and recite pretty much from memory.
TX Expat
Ok, as far as Keanu goes: Point Break – love that movie, his Matrix performances were pretty cool, River’s Edge was awesome (and Crispin Glover is a weird, freaky treasure), but my favorite performance of his was The Gift. He really let loose his inner redneck (being one myself, I knew so many guys like him).
My favorite watch list:
Reds, Apocalypse Now, Ghandi, The Shining, The Great Lebowski (well anything Coen brothers really), anything with Clive Owen (I think he’s super hot too, South of I-10), Network (if you want to see how our current media works), Gosford Park (“Do you think he’s the murderer? No, it’s much worse than that. We think he’s an actor.”), Remains of the Day, all the Raiders of the Lost Ark movies (went to Petra once, where they filmed the first one and all I could think about whilst in this amazing place was the Ark being opened and the Nazis dying), and the Lord of the Rings (what a great way to waste a weekend).
passerby
@srv:
The one I won’t admit to loving is Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.
Mike in NC
All induce my puke reflex for various reasons. As a naval officer who actually lived in DC and worked in the Pentagon for years, “No Way Out” ranks as one of the stupidest, shittiest movies ever made. And now I want to add Gene Hackman to my Worst Actor nominees, too. They call him “Hack-Man” for a reason, ya know.
whatsleft
Sadly, Michael Keaton is appearing in an upcoming movie playing Alexis Bledel’s father. Although I like both of those actors, the trailer was pretty awful, and I have no desire to see the movie, whose name I instantly forgot.
“The Princess Bride” is perfect, and has no unnecessary dialogue. Truly it is a little gem.
passerby
@TX Expat:
IMO, Point Break has one of the best foot chase sequences ever filmed.
JGabriel
@Dennis-SGMM: All great films. And while we’re mentioning Fitzcarraldo, it won’t hurt to point out that Aguirre, the Wrath Of God and most of Herzog’s documentaries are also worth multiple viewings.
Ditto the Quay films, though those can be a little tougher going.
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AhabTRuler
Oh, and I will watch either Hudson Hawk or The Last Boyscout anytime they are on. Bruce Willis is really good at stupid, dialog driven action-comedys (cf. Moonlighting). Also, with The Last Boyscout, you have Taylor Negron in an excellent supporting role.
Ohhhh, ohhhhh. That reminds me, One Crazy Summer. Well, anything by Savage Steve Holland, including Eeeeek! the Cat and How I Got Into College.
AhabTRuler
I’m also surprised that no one has mentioned Sneakers. Also, Heathers.
And Crybaby. Oh, that Johnny Depp is so dreamy (and I remember watching the premiere of 21 Jump Street)!
Yutsano
Not the full movie, just the bootcamp scene (and I haven’t seen a mention of it yet) but Full Metal Jacket. Didn’t remember until I saw it the other day but that has to have been one of Vincent D’Onofrino’s first.
srv
@Mike in NC:
Oh, come on. He’s the awesome in The French Connection, The Conversation and Unforgiven.
Dennis-SGMM
Hard to believe that no one’s mentioned Killer Klowns from Outer Space! A nice little combo of coulrophobia and genre-skewering.
Jess
Any of you seen “Brick”? That was quite brilliant. I’m looking forward to seeing the director’s new one, The Brothers Bloom. Any feedback on that one?
Yutsano
–
Grazie!
Fulcanelli
Too many movie favorites to list, but since we first saw it years ago my wife and I have, without really realizing it, integrated a lot of the slang and gag lines from “My Cousin Vinny” into our everyday banter like referring to our kids as a “yutes” among other stuff. We still watch it every so often and laugh like we’ve never seen it before. Other perennial favorites in our house are Pretty Woman and Dirty Dancing (the mrs) and the action/sci-fi/fantasy/animation like the Star Trek/LOTR/Pixar/Comic adaptation flicks (me). Good mob movies like the Departed and Casino hold sway here too. What? Do I amuse you?! Am I here for your entertainment?!
For sheer awe get the BBC Planet Earth box set. Amazing.
TX Expat
@passerby:
I love the ending, where Keanu just dies surfing in a hurricane. When I was younger, I thought that was just SO SEXY. Ok, truth be known, 20 years later I still think it’s hot…
Him not so much, anymore, sadly to say.
Dennis-SGMM
@JGabriel:
They’re definitely an acquired taste. I have “Phantom Museums: The Short Films of the Quay Brothers” on two DVD’s. One film at a viewing is enough.
MiniMaus
Great choices here ! Can’t believe no one has mentioned “Weekend at Bernie’s” . I still kill myself laughing every time I see it !
ChrisB
Thanks to those who mentioned Almost Famous, my current favorite film.
Shakespeare in Love is also a very good film in my opinion.
And Band of Brothers has to be mentioned as the most accurate, true to life series I’ve ever seen.
But it’s easy to like really good films and enjoy watching them over and over. Why do we like films that are nothing special but are happy watch again and again?
For example, the Michael Keaton film I’ve watched the most is Gung Ho.
Finally, I’m hoping there are people here who like Major League as much as I do. Probably my favorite sports movie.
Kevin
Definitely The Princess Bride. Groundhog day. Back to The Future I. The Karate Kid I.
passerby
No.
Midnight Run
Fulcanelli
@Yutsano: I’ve got an MP3 of the opening boot camp ass chewing from Full Metal Jacket. When I was still in the auto business and I opened up at 7:00AM I would play it on my PC and then blast it on the intercom in the shop at a bunch of sleepy-eyed mechanics to bust their balls when they all came in late.
john F. Loehr
well, john, you know, Keaton is from Pittsburgh
AhabTRuler
@Yutsano: The entire time that Pyle and Hartman are alive always sucks me in, great film. After that, the movie bogs down for me. Part of it, I think, is that I am never sure how I feel about Modine.
wasabi gasp
Lots of good movies in this thread. I agree that Breaking Away is an easy multi-watch classic.
An odd movie that I enjoyed seeing a few times a bunch of years ago is Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould.
JGabriel
passerby:
You mean Swayze, not Reeves.
What are you people staring at? Point Break is one of my guilty pleasures too; I’m a Bigelow fan going back to when Near Dark first came out. Bigelow’s almost always interesting, even when she fails.
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passerby
@Kevin:
These. Except I haven’t seen The Princess Bride yet. I’m gonna have to rent it.
I rented Slapshot on the recommendation of some commenters here and wasn’t too disappointed. After all, I got to see the wonderful Paul Newman in a patchwork leather suit and disco heels. But overall, the only excitement in the movie was when those brothers hit the ice. The love interest part of the movie was a fat drag tho.
Jess
@TX Expat:
That was a great ending, except that it was the Patrick Swayze character that died. I like Bigelow’s films (she also did Near Dark, with a beautiful soundtrack by Tangerine Dream), but like a lot of straight women, she has a romanticized view of male competition, which gives her films a subtle homoerotic flavor. It’s an interesting and not much discussed phenomenon, akin to with men’s fascination with girl on girl action.
Dennis-SGMM
@ChrisB:
“Brain Donors”
“Airplane”
The Entire BBC production of “I, Claudius.”
“Corky Romano”
“Kung Fu Hustle”
HitlerWorshippingPuppyKicker
@Krista:
I share a cardiologist with Leslie Nielsen. Spent an afternoon taking a stress test with him last year. His wife, or the woman he lives with, talked my ear off the whole time. Mr. Nielsen himself is not real friendly.
jTh
Let’s see, seconding various entries from above: Trading Places, Boogie Nights, Fight Club, Die Hard, Almost Famous, Pulp Fiction, Dazed and Confused… and Princess Bride, of course! I’m in the Shawshank camp, naturally. Someone up there was brilliant to recall Money Pit. Fish Called Wanda might be THE great comedy of movie history, endlessly watchable.
Call me a heretic, but I can’t endure Lebowski, and lord how I’ve tried. (Love me almost any and all Coen bros. otherwise.) And I’m stunned that anyone cares for Love Actually. I thought it was frightfully bad (despite wanting to like it!)
On the other hand, I’ve developed a stunning helpless weakness for The Devil Wears Prada?!? Had never been too crazy about Streep but she rivets me in that. And Hathoway is darling, of course.
Okay, adding to the list: Risky Business, Into the Night, After Hours, and do I hear any seconds for Garden State?
But strangely, the ones I just can’t stop watching in recent years are the spot-on superhero movies, Spidey 2, X2, FF2. FF2 isn’t even that outstanding, but still irresistible for some reason. Sin City and V for Vendetta won’t let me reach for the remote either.
Do any of you guys find yourself drawn to movies that you actually pretty strongly dislike? I find myself watching Closer rather often, despite getting the ickies from much of it.
Jess
@JGabriel:
Great minds think alike…
AhabTRuler
Platoon is also worth it for this line alone:
wasabi gasp
@JGabriel: Thanks. I’ll get it.
passerby
@JGabriel:
You mean TX Pat not passerby.
demkat620
@JGabriel: Oh yeah. You ever see Quick Change?
Jess
She was oddly compelling, wasn’t she? I might watch it again just for her…
DougJ
Yeah, definitely.
JGabriel
wasabi gasp:
I’ve been wanting to see that for years, but never seem to get around to it. I wonder if they have it over at Ubuweb.
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AhabTRuler
Like Shakes the Clown, that movie has…moments. Unfortunately, not a whole movie’s worth, but definitely some entertaining bits in there somewhere. IIRC. Murray and Quaid were OK, but Davis was weird chemistry.
IMHO, she was much better in this.
Pixie
The Shawshank Redemption, Pride and Prejudice, and Sense and Sensibility, I can watch these oooover and over again.
John Cole
The SNL opening monologue tonight with Ferrell and Hammond is an instant classic.
BongCrosby
Guilty pleasures:
The Quick And The Dead whenever it makes its occasional TBS appearance. Just slice after slice of ham in a crunchy nut shell.
Physics be damned, I still mark out every time I see that bullethole of sunlight in Gene Hackman’s shadow.
In fact, anything by Sam Raimi except for the Spidey movies. Darkman is my favorite superhero movie.
I like Galaxy Quest more than most of the Star Trek movies.
I’ll watch Trading Places any whenever. Before the obligatory happy ending, most of that movie is really cynical. The five minutes leading up to the Dan Ackroyd attempted suicide scene is one of my favorite movie sequences of all time.
JGabriel
@passerby:
Ha, that’s funny. Sorry for the mix-up, guys.
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MikeD
150+ responses and nobody has mentioned Jaws???
Also, most of the Pixar movies
Dennis-SGMM
Guilty pleasures:
The Harold and Kumar movies
“Drop Dead Gorgeous”
TX Expat
@John Cole:
Ahh, that’s where you would be wrong, friend. Harold and Maude is also a possession of the TX Expat household and a well loved one at that.
I love 70’s movies, they were so edgy. Think about if a film like Blazing Saddles or Harold and Maude were to made today – the outrage!
wasabi gasp
@JGabriel: You can get it new from Amazon if you’re willing to shell out four hundred bucks or used for just under one fifty. Nutty.
Wile E. Quixote
The Blues Brothers My Dad took my sisters and I to see this at a drive in in 1980. He’s a cool guy, my Dad.
Pillow Talk and Lover Come Back I’ll have you know that there are lots of heterosexual men who not only like the Pet Shop Boys but also enjoy Rock Hudson/Doris Day comedies.
Animal House My Dad took me to see this on my 13th birthday. Did I mention that he’s cool.
The Hudsucker Proxy An unappreciated bit of Coen brothers genius.
The Big Lebowski Best Coen brothers film, evah.
Raising Arizona “…(her) insides were a rocky place where my seed could find no purchase”
Pulp Fiction What was in the briefcase? Was it really Marsellus Wallace’s soul?
The Great Escape Probably the greatest ensemble cast ever assembled. If you don’t tear up when Donald Pleasance gets shot by the Nazis then you are a Nazi.
Doctor Strangelove Originally Peter Sellers was going to play the role of Major Kong as well as those of Dr. Strangelove, President Merkin Muffley and Group Captain Lionel Mandrake. However Sellers broke his ankle falling out of the B-52 cockpit set and they bought Slim Pickens on to replace him. So Pickens shows up in his first day on the set wearing a cowboy hat and boots and sounding like Slim Pickens and everyone is thinking “Wow, this guy is really into method acting.” Nope, he was just being Slim Pickens.
Raiders of the Lost Ark Back when Spielberg and Lucas still had soul.
Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back Everything George Lucas has done since then is shit.
War Games If you didn’t have the hots for Ally Sheedy after watching this film it’s because you had the hots for Matthew Broderick. Shot in my home town of Seattle and at my alma mater, the University of Washington.
The Breakfast Club Yes, I know that admitting this reveals my soft and tender side, and if you tell anyone about this I will kill you.
Apollo 13
The Godfather, parts I and II My Dad had me read the novel when I was 11 years old. He’s a cool guy my Dad. Bonus trivia round. What other movie did Mario Puzo and Marlon Brando work together on in the 1970s?
Goodfellas Martin Scorsese’s best film and one of Robert DeNiro’s best performances, oh and the soundtrack is fabulous and Joe Pesci gets shot in the face. What’s not to like?
The Americanization of Emily and Victor/Victoria James Garner and Julie Andrews have an unbelievable screen chemistry. The first is a brilliant movie on the futility and stupidity of war that had the balls to demythologize D-Day and World War II in 1964. The second is just so goddamned fabulous, one of the best love stories ever. I realize that admitting the latter exposes my soft and tender side, see above about the consequences of revealing this.
My Fair Lady For my money the best big-screen musical ever made, just incredibly gorgeous. I can’t imagine what it would have been like with Julie Andrews as Eliza Doolittle instead of Audrey Hepburn. I think it would have been good, Andrews could have done her own songs and as she revealed in The Americanization of Emily she could play edgier characters, but Audrey Hepburn was just so perfect. And OMFG, the scene in the box at Ascot.
Auntie Mame Rosalind Russell’s finest hour on screen. “Life’s a banquet and most poor bastards are starving to death!” who can disagree with that.
Used Cars Another film I saw with my Dad. It’s dated, but still hilarious for those of us who grew up in the late 1970s.
Pleasantville A really fun idea and an absolutely fantastic Randy Newman score.
L.A. Confidential I’m a huge, huge, huge James Ellroy fan and I was prepared to be disappointed when I saw this, but despite the excision of a major subplot from the novel and the fact that none of the actors save Kevin Spacey and Kim Basinger looked like the characters they played as they were described in the book it was still a fantastic adaptation. The dark side of “Dragnet”.
OK, that’s enough for now. I’m not sure what the common denominator to all of these films is, but even though I own a lot of them on DVD I will happily sit and watch them if they come on TV.
passerby
@Dennis-SGMM:
Kung Fu Hustle. Kung Fu Hustle. I’m so surprised to see that come up here Dennis. I’m a big Steven Chow fan. He’s hilarious and has made a lot of movies but the American company that has rights over his films (for release in the US market–Miramax I think) is sitting on a great number of them and so not even Netflix has copies. : (
But Kung Fu Hustle is one of those I can watch over and over. Chow is not only hilarious, he’s also a good film maker. Usually the cast will break out into song and dance at some unexpected point in his films.
Shaolin Soccer is also good tho not as funny and glossy as KFH.
He gives Jackie Chan a run for the money–Chan does more action. Good stuff if you don’t mind the sub titles.
TX Expat
@Jess:
Ok, ok guys, sorry! It’s been a while since I’ve seen that movie and just realized that I screwed up the characters. Mea culpa, but I am blaming the Shiraz! ;-)
Free At Last
@Pixie:
Ditto. Plus, I can read them over and over again.
How about Legally Blond:
Elle: I think he’s still scratching his head
Manicurist friend: Which makes a nice vacation for his balls
always cracks me up.
Dennis-SGMM
@passerby:
The dance number performed by the bad guys at the start of KFH is just amazing.
JGabriel
@demkat620:
Gotta confess, I missed that one. I never even heard of it until you mentioned it tonight. But having seen The Razor’s Edge, Murray’s (bad) first directorial effort*, I’m thinking I might give it a pass.
Is it worthwhile?
*(Edited to Add: Oops, I’m wrong, The Razor’s Edge was directed by John Byrum, not Murray. My error.)
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AhabTRuler
I also think that Top Gun is a really entertaining Flick.
OK, so the entire time Tom Cruise is talking to anyone, much less Val Kilmer, you’re thinking “Isn’t he a little short for a Stormtrooper?”, but the movie sounds awesome with enough volume, the flying footage is pretty neat, and its got a great supporting cast.
Admittedly, the plot is crap, but you gotta love the HoYay!
John Cole
Also, Bob Roberts.
Additionally, everyone should be forced to watch these movies, and in this order.
El Mariachi
The Player
Desperado
AhabTRuler
Are you joking?? That movie is the tits.
Course, I also liked Some kind of Wonderful.
Course, I also also liked it when Jay and Silent Bob set out to find Shermer, IL.
passerby
@Free At Last:
“Oh my god, the Bend and Snap! Works every time.”
demkat620
@JGabriel: First thirty minutes are great. Then it gets kind of lost. But there are some good moments.
JGabriel
@wasabi gasp:
(Shocked whistle) Jeepers. Yeah, I can’t afford that. I’ll look for it at Ubuweb (way cool avant-garde archive) or Pirate Bay (which, believe it or not, can be a good place to find lots of rare, out of print, stuff).
That’s just ridiculous.
.
AhabTRuler
@John Cole: And you still haven’t fixed the spelling of Keaton’s name in the OP?
passerby
@Dennis-SGMM:
Yes, and I love his homage to QT’s Kill Bill in the opening scene with the empty streets and the ax gang. Great FX with that thrown ax.
MikeJ
Just to be a movie snob and because it really, truly is in my top three, À bout de souffle. Every single frame is genius. Jean Seberg is adorable and possibly has a stronger american accent than I do.
Things I watch every time they’re on TV: The Third Man, Rope, Hamlet with Ethan Hawke, Les quatre cents coups, Donnie Darko, Salvador, Big Ass Hookers vol. 4.
Dennis-SGMM
Sometimes just one scene will do it. I can’t stand “When Harry Met Sally” but the scene in Katz’s Delicatessen that ends with the lady telling the waiter I’ll have what she’s having,” is priceless.
Same with the Marshall McLuhan bit from “Annie Hall.”
Julia Grey
Weekend at Bernie’s
Oh, gaud, I hate myself for the way I laugh at the “banging the buoys” scene. Horrifyingly hilarious.
Did anybody mention “Say Anything…”?
eemom
@passerby:
Midnight Express IS a great movie too, but I don’t know about watching it over and over. The brutality is kind of intense.
And whoever said the first boot camp scene out of Full Metal Jacket, thank you! I have totally watched that over and over, but the rest of the movie just loses me (don’t like war movies in general).
Other good catches: The Graduate, Good Fellas, both Godfathers, After Hours, Office Space, Groundhog Day…..and yes, Forrest Gump. Always have a soft spot in my heart for that sucker.
Anyone for Robert Altman, The Player or Shortcuts?
Fulcanelli
Wrap Audrey Tatou in burlap and film her changing a tire on a bicycle and my heart and lungs would shatter my ribcage. Ye Gods, what is it about a female with a french accent.
JGabriel
Wile E. Quixote:
I beg to differ: see His Girl Friday for details.
.
MikeJ
I lurve Battleground, but Wellman himself preferred the Ballad of GI Joe (about Ernie Pyle). Both excellent, non rah-rah movies set in WWII.
GoneGalt
Seems Like Old Times & Foul Play. Love those movies.
Dennis-SGMM
Looking over the DVD shelves I see that I missed mention of Jaques Tati. His “Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot,” and “Mon Oncle” are charming, touching, little gems.
Julia Grey
The Player
Desperado
Yeah!
Anton Sirius
@passerby:
Bill and Ted’s still features the most realistic example of time travel in film history.
Fulcanelli
Other faves… The Labyrinth, The Money Pit, George Clooney’s films The Perfect Storm, Syriana and Michael Clayton.
IMHO nothing will ever touch The Sound of Music except the Wizard of Oz in the Musical category…
And the Drug Film Award goes to: Eraserhead.
dsc
So many films reward with repeated viewing.
For me, The Lady Eve with its amazingly intricate plot with no plausibility, but Henry Fonda and Barbara Stanwyck are so very hot.
Vertigo stunned me and stuns me. When you realize that all of the “mystery” about Carlotta is planned in order to blind the detective to what is really going on–and how utterly sick his obsession with his “haunted” object of desire becomes–that plunge into the bay, her willingness to become “blond” for him. Ohhhh, it creeps me out just to think of it.
But I swore swore swore in 1989 that I would NEVER ever watch A Clockwork Orange again and even though it is his greatest work, I was tired of having “Singing in the Rain” ruined (along with “Ode to Joy”) for me. But then I was teaching at USC and the woman who ran the summer film series casually mentions that since the 35mm print sucked so bad that Warners had called Kubrick to ask if they could strike a new print, and well…how could I NOT see it again.
NO SHIT–we were the first to see it. It was a revelation–the color scheme was AHmazing. I haven’t seen it since that print.
And Goodfellas, a real weakness for me. :Like the first person narrator in Clockwork, Henry is such a liar. The amazingly fluid camerawork of Michael Balhaus, especially that entrance into the Copa knocks me out every time.
And Buster Keaton–no matter how many times I see Sherlock, Jr. I still am stunned by his shear grace.
One more: La Jetee. I am such a sucker, I always “forget” how badly that “romance” is going to end.
cybergal619
The Big Chill
Silverado
Anton Sirius
@Jess:
Loved Brick, but was very underwhelmed by Brothers Bloom. It’s the first time maybe ever I thought Rachel Weisz looked a little lost in her role.
Not saying it’s bad — it’s decently entertaining — but it was a little too precious for me.
You’ll love the opening sequence though. Or rather, the party afterwards.
HitlerWorshippingPuppyKicker
Michael Keaton called and said hello to all of you.
CeriConversion
Keaton was excellent in the ghost story White Noise, which worked well with the folklore of electronic voice phenomena. Highly recommended for horror fans.
Jess
@John Cole:
Don’t you mean “Once Upon A Time in Mexico” (instead of the Player) as the last of the trilogy? The ending of that one even made me tear up a little. Loved all three.
wasabi gasp
That’s one of the few movies I have on DVD. All the others have already been mentioned on this thread, except for a wacky Japanese zombie flick called Wild Zero.
passerby
@GoneGalt:
Foul Play.
They don’t make ’em like that anymore.
And you know what, it was only last year that I got the pun, Foul Play.
[There was a time when I would feel stupid admitting to that. Not anymore.]
Wile E. Quixote
@JGabriel
OK, now that’s a hard call to make. For me Auntie Mame narrowly edges out His Girl Friday as Russell’s finest moment on screen because of the gorgeous technicolor and because I don’t know how many times I’ve watched this movie with my Mom, who also loves it. But yeah, it’s a fine, fine, fine line.
Jess
@Anton Sirius:
Okay, now I’m intrigued…
I saw Brick right after I had seen Black Dahlia. What a great lesson about the essential ingredients of film noir. One had all the heart and soul and twisted wit of film noir, while the other just had the costumes.
J.D. Rhoades
I confess, some of my “I’ll get sucked into this movie whenever I see it” films are that way becuase they’re so deliriously bad. Like Red Dawn and the first Conan movie.
Others, though, are pretty awesome, like Aliens and Leon the Professional.
Zuzu's Petals
Yes on Shawshank and several others.
But for some reason Hunt for Red October is my top always-watch choice. I have no idea why. I just like it.
Jess
@J.D. Rhoades:
Because you’re laughing to hard to find the stop button on the remote?
Zuzu's Petals
@burnspbesq:
I know !
Tattoosydney
@wasabi gasp:
I love Children of Men. It really does drag you in, and it’s not until almost the last minutes of the movie that you realise that you have been partly holding your breath with the tension for almost the entire movie…
Tattoosydney
@JGabriel:
This.
Anton Sirius
OK, fine, I’ll do a list of stuff currently sitting on my shelf:
– O Brother Where Art Though (I really think you have to have grown up in the South to fully appreciate on how many levels the movie works)
– Say Anything
– The Red Shoes (Powell and Pressburger’s masterpiece)
– Ong-Bak
– Freeway (Reese Witherspoon’s finest hour)
– Mel Brooks’ Big Three: The Producers (the original with Zero and Gene), Blazing Saddles, and Young Frankenstein
– My Man Godfrey (again, the original)
– Team America: World Police
and now, the weird stuff no one’s seen but me:
– All About Lily Chou-Chou
– 3-Iron
– Innocence
– Save the Green Planet
– Brothers of the Head
and finally, my ultimate guilty pleasures:
– Hudson Hawk
– Road House
– the Adventures of Ford Fairlane
– The Chase (the Charlie Sheen one)
Dennis-SGMM
@Fulcanelli:
Musicals are the one movie genre that leaves me completely cold. My wife loves “The Sound of Music” and I really tried to appreciate it but, Julie Andrews just strikes me as weirdly asexual in the flick. Besides, any genre that would have Clint Eastwood sing “I Talk to the Trees” has some splainin’ to do.
Anton Sirius
@Jess:
Haven’t seen Black Dahlia, and I love Ellroy. But DePalma’s been dead to me for a long time.
That said, Raising Cain should probably be on my guilty pleasures list.
Jess
@Anton Sirius:
Spare yourself the ordeal. Unless you’re in the mood to mock. It’s unbelievably bad. Trainwreck bad. Neo-con bad. The kind of bad that leaves you shaking your head in amazement and pity.
JGabriel
Dennis-SGMM:
Yeah, I’m pretty much the same way, with four exceptions: Hedwig & the Angry Inch, Singin’ In The Rain, and Jacques Demy’s films with Deneuve.
.
burnspbesq
@BongCrosby:
IMHO, “Road House” is the ultimate guilty pleasure movie. So full of suck, and yet I never ever miss it.
Dennis-SGMM
@burnspbesq:
“Big Trouble in Little China.”
wasabi gasp
@JGabriel: Hedwig & the Angry Inch is fantastic. I’m gonna tack the soundtrack onto my Amazon order.
burnspbesq
A couple of others that no one has mentioned yet.
Ronin
Das Boot
Hard Boiled
I will watch anything – anything, even Bulletproof Monk – with Chow Yun-Fat. Ditto for Jean Reno.
Dennis-SGMM
“Snatch”
[standing over Franky’s body]
Bad Boy Lincoln: What has he got a tea cozy on his head for?
Sol: [sarcastic] To keep his head warm.
Bad Boy Lincoln: Well, what’s the matter with him?
Vinny: He’s been shot in the face, Lincoln. I would’ve thought that was obvious.
PanAmerican
An endless Leone wide angle pan, Eli Wallach running in a cemetery and an over the top score from Ennio Morricone in a low budget furin’ western.
Sound like absolute dreck?
The Ecstasy of Gold
Kineslaw
Princess Bride, Goonies, Money Pit
Hudson Hawk I remember as the first movie with a car crash I watched after my own really nasty crash. I liked the movie, but that scene gave me the shivers.
@198 I’m right there with you on the Breakfast Club.
One movie I find absolutely horrible, yet always watch is Volcano. Anne Heche, Tommy Lee Jones playing the Tommy Lee Jones character and a volcano erupting in downtown LA. It also has a precision drop of a skyscraper accomplished in 20 minutes and a moral dealing with how people of every race look the same when they are covered in ash.
Farley
So many good ones already listed, but…
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (the ultimate feel-good movie, maybe?)
Philadelphia Story
Desk Set
ANY of the Thin Man movies
Arsenic and Old Lace
JGabriel
@Tattoosydney:
This … what? This preposition no sentence? I am perplexed.
.
Tattoosydney
@passerby:
Run. Run to the video store now.
JoyceH
Agree with the remark way upthread that said that what makes a watchable movie is a good script. You can make a good movie with a good script and bad actors, but good acting can’t save a bad script.
Unfortunately, the script is probably the thing that gets the least attention from the producers and it shows. The new strategy is to ‘open wide’ in as many theaters as possible and make all the film’s money in the first few weeks before bad word of mouth kills it. (Bad reviews don’t kill a movie because not enough people read the reviews, but eventually bad word of mouth drives the stake in.)
wasabi gasp
@Tattoosydney:
It really is uncanny the way it does that.
Something else about Children of Men is it has what may be my favorite soundtrack moment of any film. When Clive’s character is going to see his cousin and The Court of the Crimson King plays, it is, for me, song/scene perfection.
Original Lee
Soapdish, definitely. A friend of a friend told me that the hilarious revelation scene near the end of the movie was shot in one take, which might be one reason why it works so well.
Princess Bride, definitely. I’ve been quoting Inigo Montoya a lot this past year.
Big Trouble in Little China. (I have a weak spot for cheesy action films.)
LadyHawke. Rutger Hauer, Michelle Pfeiffer, Matthew Broderick, and John Wood, with Alan Parsons Project for the soundtrack.
We’re No Angels (the original, with Humphrey Bogart).
Arsenic and Old Lace (with Cary Grant, natch).
Quigley Down Under. Tom Selleck and Alan Rickman, need I say more?
The Coca Cola Kid. This has the best Coke jingle since “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing” but the songwriter and lyricst won’t sell the rights to Coke.
Reading this thread is like going to a party and hanging out with a bunch of people I haven’t seen in a while. Thanks, everybody, I think my Netflix queue for the next year is full.
Tattoosydney
@JGabriel:
“This.”
A (possibly annoying) idiomatic phrase used by me, and some others I have seen on here, to indicate agreement with, or endorsement of, the words quoted.
geg6
Count me in with those perplexed by why people love Shawshank. Completely mediocre in every way. But I’m with a lot of others being listed. For me, it seems to be two things that keep me watching certain films over and over: intelligence and humor. And preferrably both. Thus the only DVDs I own: “Princess Bride,” “(This Is) Spinal Tap,” “The Life of Brian,” “Young Frankenstein,”Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” “Fargo,” “Best in Show,” “The Graduate,” “About a Boy,” “Bull Durham,” and “A Fish Called Wanda.” As for films I always end up stopping on when channel surfing, “High Fidelity” and “Batman Begins” are high on the list along with several Trek movies and the first Star Wars trilogy.
JGabriel
@Tattoosydney: Oh. Thank you. I seriously did not know what it meant. Surprised I haven’t noticed that usage before.
.
Tattoosydney
@Wile E. Quixote:
There are so many on your list I agree with, particularly:
I saw Aunty Mame for the first time one wet afternoon, and was hooked. It is truly one of the most entertaining films ever made, and Rosalind Russell is endlessly entertaining.
The Ascot scene can be watched on repeat and never stale.
I can also watch Fight Club over and over, but that may have more to do with Brad Pitt and Edward Norton shirtless, and beating the crap out of each other.
ETA: Amelie. Audrey Tatou and Mathieu Kassovitz looking pretty. Sigh.
Tattoosydney
@JGabriel:
That’s ok – I think I picked it up on here, but can’t swear to where I saw it used first.
Original Lee
Oh, and I nearly forgot: Secondhand Lions, with Michael Caine, Robert Duvall, and Kyra Sedgwick. Excellent movie that I watched six nights in a row once.
Tattoosydney
@JGabriel:
That good, huh?
[Wanders off to Amazon to buy.]
Steeplejack
@John Cole:
Cole, then you need to watch Secretary ASAP. That will slake your Gyllenhaal love jones. Very funny little black comedy about a girl with all sorts of problems who takes a job with a (seemingly) uptight lawyer–James Spader. Excellent.
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Rhys Ifans.
@John Cole:
With you on Rushmore. So much to like in that film. I will mention the subplot with Margaret Yang and the scene where they run into each other flying radio-controlled planes and Max sort of gets his mojo back and starts dictating to his assistant, Dirk, again.
@Yutsano:
I firmly believe that if everyone was
forcedencouraged to watch My Neighbor Totoro once a year we would live in a much better world. I love all his stuff, but Totoro and Spirited Away are the ones I can’t turn away from. Totoro has been on my DVR for three years! I guess I should break down and buy it.@Dennis-SGMM:
Excellent movie! I had the good fortune to see it in the theater when it was first out (for about a day and a half), and it was awesome. I’ve been half afraid to watch it at home, because I think it would be easily susceptible to interruption syndrome–“I’m going to go make a cup of tea,” “I’m just going to nip out to the bathroom for a sec,” etc. It was really great to experience it in the “you can’t pause it, you have to watch it now” darkness of the theater.
Plus the music, which consists mostly of Neil Young dropping an electric guitar in an echo chamber in interesting ways.
@Mike in NC:
Tattoosydney
@wasabi gasp:
I could watch, again and again, the extended sequence in the refugee camp – the pitched battle ending in silent awe at the sight of the baby. As a technical exercise, it astonishes me what a good filmmaker can do, but more importantly it gets me in the gut every time.
geg6
Damn, how could I forget “The Sting?”. Newman and Redford, together and providing more man candy than is safe for public consumption. And a premise and script that show how a project based on some real life buddies just wanting to hang out and have fun together at work can be truly excellent entertainment. Perhaps someone should tell Brad Pitt and George Clooney to watch it so we’re not subjected to any more of that Ocean dreck.
TenguPhule
Star Wars, Original Trilogy.
LOTR Trilogy.
Aliens.
Last Starfighter.
Princess Bride.
Flight of Dragons.
What makes them all good?
Aside from satisfying climaxes, music that gets in your bones and characters that feel real, I dunno.
Big freaking heroes, maybe.
Tattoosydney
@Steeplejack:
Such a nasty, sexy movie.
JGabriel
@Tattoosydney:
Absolutely. One of the highpoints of the screwball era – and that’s saying a lot.
.
Dennis-SGMM
@JGabriel:
It’s on a par with “Bringing Up Baby.” If it was possible to wear out a DVD, my copy of “Bringing Up Baby” would have been worn out years ago.
Tattoosydney
All about Eve.
14 Oscar nominations, won 6, deserved to win them all. Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders and a wonderful scene with Marilyn Monroe.
What more could anyone want?
[This post is brought to you by the gayest posts ever.]
JGabriel
Fulcanelli:
Emanuelle Riva in Hiroshima Mon Amour has that effect on me. Especially since there is a scene with her riding a bicycle, and another with her in a bathrobe, if not a burlap sack.
However, it’s decidedly not a light Amelie-style comedy.
.
Tattoosydney
@JGabriel:
@Dennis-SGMM:
OK. Seeing as we’re in the era – I have a memory as a child of seeing “Desk Set” – Hepburn and Tracy and a computer – and I thought it was wonderful…
If I buy it, am I going to have my childhood illusions shattered?
Original Lee
@TenguPhule: Oh, I love that movie. I’ve been intending on buying it for my nephew, who wants to be an astronaut.
grumpy realist
Coming in at the tail of this, but here’s some films that I will watch over and over which haven’t been mentioned:
La Belle et La Bete (yeah, the original)
Top Hat
Charade (Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant. A classic.)
2010 (love Clarke, also I’m a sucker for the dolphins)
Earth Girls are Easy (another great way to waste brain cells)
Zipangu (this is a Japanese swashbuckling film done with tongue firmly in cheek. Don’t watch it unless you have a handle on Japanese, Chinese ghost stories, Japanese samurai cliches and the longest running Japanese TV samurai drama of all time, Mita Komon. If you do, it’s hilarious.)
(Also a definite vote for Arsenic and Old Lace, The Princess Bride, and Harold and Maude. I wasn’t so much into Much Ado about Nothing, but that’s because of knowing the play too well and expecting more of the original jokes.)
Kineslaw
@267 TenguPhule
I agree that the music is an important part of rewatching a movie. It has to be good enough to suck you in without being so over the top that you notice it.
I think what makes a movie watchable many times is that it has internal consistency. It follows its own rules, so you just stay in the movie. The plot, dialogue, acting, characters, music & set design must all hang together.
One movie no one has mentioned is the Incredibles. Great plot about a family having some issues, Holly Hunter & Craig T. Nelson nailed the voice work. I Want A Sequel!
I actually went with my Mom to three stores looking for it one night and bought the last copy they had at Blockbuster. As we were checking out the cashier & I bonded over how great the movie was.
Ladyhawke & Soapdish are also really entertaining movies that suck you in.
Tattoosydney
@John Cole:
Btw John – thankyou for the link to the Twain/Cooper essay. I had never seen that before. It’s wonderful.
JGabriel
@Tattoosydney:
It might not be quite as good as you remember – Kate’s mild subservience to Tracy might stick out a little more, but it certainly won’t be shattering. It’s a product of it’s time, and if you haven’t seen it since you were a kid, you might notice the chauvinism a little more.
But it’s still fun, if I remember correctly. To be fair, I don’t think I’ve seen it since my late-20’s or so (about 15 years ago).
.
grumpy realist
Oh, also, how could I have forgotten the classic SF film to outdo all classic SF films (you were talking about script, hmm?):
Dark Star.
(“In the beginning there was me.”)
JGabriel
Oh yeah, Cocteau is great. Also, Orphee.
.
AhabTRuler
One more for the list: Rosecrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. Love Tom Stoppard. He did the treatment of the script and directed. Gary Oldmen acting against type (OK the type came later, but), and Tim Roth, both a early in their careers. And Richard Dreyfus in one of the more entertaining theatre roles out there. I literally can watch it over and over and over again.
AC Delaware County
It’s now a period piece, but the original 1974 The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, with Walter Matthau as the Transit Police detective. Cops mostly don’t come like that anymore, and we’re glad they don’t, but they are fun to watch.
And of course, the City of New York and the Transit Authority as the two uncredited leads. Realistic in every respect other than showing a subway train in the 1970s not completely covered in graffiti. :-)
Steeplejack
To Cole’s original question: what makes some movies good enough to watch over and over?
1. Dynamic tension.
Our brains are hard-wired to like stories. We want our expectations to be met–the hero to triumph in the end, the villains to be punished–but we also want to be tricked and teased. “Oh, no, I didn’t see that coming!” We want to be entertained. Movies that skillfully and successfully play along that edge of tension are the ones we keep coming back to.
A great example: Luc Besson’s The Professional. We want Léon to triumph over the literally hundreds of cops who are after him, but, at the end of this hard-boiled and (semi-)realistic thriller, that would feel like a cop-out. But we don’t want Léon to die! Besson’s solution to this dramatic problem is genius.
2. “Strangeness.”
We like movies that take us out of ourselves and put us into a world that, however strange or alien to us, seems “real”–internally consistent and containing enough density and depth to support the story. Cf. the original Star Wars trilogy. (The later “prequels” are dreck, IMO.)
And the strangeness doesn’t have to be weird, sci-fi strangeness. It can be anything that takes us out of our own existence and puts us somewhere else. A tight little movie that blew me away is Bruce Beresford’s Black Robe (1991). “In 1634 a Jesuit priest and a young companion are escorted through the wilderness of Quebec by Algonquin Indians to find a distant mission in the dead of winter.” You are there. You feel the huge vastness of this continent, the strangeness of the peoples–both the Indians and the French–and the reality of it. Very well done.
Another example, closer to home: The Big Lebowski. It’s not that much of a stretch for most of us to think about bowling slackers, but the Coen brothers make that tiny little world almost mythic–with an Oscar-worthy performance from Jeff Bridges and great support all around.
There are always at least three things on every list, and I invariably forget the third one. Will have to think about this some more.
Wait, maybe it’s coming to me . . . uh . . .
3. Mastery.
We all enjoy seeing someone do something really well–almost without regard to what that thing is–and a not-so-great movie can get carried by someone performing at the top of his or her game, whether it’s the director, the cinematographer or one of the actors–anyone. I would put Casablanca in this category. The story is not that great–it was a warmed-over stage play–but you’ve got so many contributors at the top of their game: Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, the supporting cast–and especially the director, Michael Curtiz, keeping things moving and not letting the actually quite fragile soufflé collapse.
Finally, when a movie combines two or three of these factors, you’ve really got something that you have to keep coming back to.
P.S. I was mildly surprised to see how Hollywood-heavy the Balloon Juicers’ choices were. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I just thought there would be more foreign (and older) movies mentioned. And there were, to a certain extent, as the thread went along.
That is all. Big blow. Need a drink.
crack
One mention that Michael Keaton has a new movie out, which he also directs. You guys are slacking.
AhabTRuler
@Steeplejack: Do remember that this started with talk of movies that you could watch over and over again, I lurv me some La Femme Nikita, but its not the sort of thing I want to watch over and over again.
Now Wings of Desire is a flick I could watch many, many times (mmmm, Solveig Dommartin), but Wim Wenders is pretty mainstream, so far as those things go.
Mr Furious
* Midnight Run
* Go
* Pulp Fiction
* O Brother
* Out of Sight
* The Shining
* Outlaw Josey Wales
* Unforgiven
* The Natural
* Braveheart
* Sling Blade
All great directing efforts and scripts, but another factor for most of my favorites is a great ensemble cast, or good supporting actors…
Tattoosydney
@JGabriel:
Thanks. I will give it a go.
Mr Furious
“Amelie” is another one that will nail me to the couch. Great quirky characters and the film is just so visually engaging—and not just Audrey Tautou—so much color and rich detail everywhere.
Mr Furious
“Alien” would get me every goddamn time I came across it. I’ve finally developed an immunity and can resist it.
Tattoosydney
@Mr Furious:
Yes.
I also think that The Fifth Element can be watched repeatedly (or even dipped in and out of).
In Australia, the free to air television channel (we have five, and pay tv here is only a small market) that has the rights to it wheels it out in prime time every three months or so, and scores decent ratings every time.
Irony Abounds
Saving Private Ryan – the scene when Mrs. Ryan receives her telegrams about her dead sons gets me every time.
Apollo 13 – the reentry scene gets me every time.
Field of Dreams – the final part when Costner plays catch with his dad gets me every time.
The entire Band of Brothers series – a reminder that not all wars are unnecessary and we were unmitigated good guys.
The HBO movie Conspiracy – Kenneth Branagh is a chillingly authentic Nazi. I watch this movie over and over again and never can quite grasp how subhuman the Nazis were. Branagh is also a good Nazi in Swing Kids, which is a guilty pleasure of mine that contains great music.
Say Anything – John Cusak is great and Ione Skye is absofuckinglutely sexy as can be.
Murphy’s Romance – two of my favorite people, and it’s my fantasy that when I hit sixty, if my wife is gone, I’ll get a Sally Field.
Defending My Life – Two more of my favorite people, Albert Brooks and Meryl Streep, along with the great Rip Torn – I actually think this is closer to how things are when we die than any religion’s version.
Wizard of Oz – simply the best.
Lesley
Just happen to be watching Once Upon A Time In The West, one that has been watched over and over again.
flamingjungleprincess
My top ten in this order:
MP & Holy Grail (I use lines from this as extra credit questions on pop quizzes in my classes)
Dr. Strangelove
Spinal Tap
Dazed and Confused
Grateful Dead Movie
Oh Brother Where Art Thou
Office Space
Harold and Maude
Amelie
And surprisingly I think I am the first to reference:
No Man’s Land – an unelievably dark comic take on the absurdity of the Bosnian war. Nobody comes out unscathed.
Steeplejack
@AhabTRuler:
Yeah, I was taking that into consideration. I think the movies you keep coming back to are those that have the qualities I mentioned in such abundance or combined in such a way that they make you keep pressing the “watch” lever in your brain like a lab rat jonesin’ for a food pellet.
I don’t think it’s great cinema, by any means, but I will watch Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle all the way through almost every time I run across it on TV. Same thing with Kung Fu Hustle. Both of those are hilarious, well constructed comedies. But I will also watch Jules and Jim all the way through when I run across it, and that is great cinema.
AhabTRuler
@Tattoosydney:
Absolutely one of my favorite movies, and so pretty, too. Don’t think too hard about the plot, nor about Milla as an action hero, but a really enjoyable flick. And it conforms to the Brion James/Tim Thomerson theory.
OT, but another music recommendation for you.
And one that I can’t find on youtube, I highly recommend this album.
Tattoosydney
OT, but assuming this will be the defacto Open Thread….
I’m not sure how much, if any, attention the Eurovision Song Contest, gets in the US. In Australia, it attracts somewhat adoring attention as a campfest, with occasional flashes of actual talent.
In some parts of Europe, it seems to be taken very seriously, particularly in the “formers”. Dutch gay men seem to love it, while places like Portugal and the UK have given up on ever winning and view it as a bit of a joke. There is endless discussion about voting blocs. It’s certainly a huge spectacle over here. The Russians reportedly spent $42 million on the event.
Anyhoo. Spoilers at the links (if you haven’t seen it yet, and understand the lure of the endless, excruciating hour long voting process).
The winner. Catchy. Cute boy.
Second. Pretty. Cute girl. Good voice.
Camp value. Hmmm.
Tattoosydney
Hmmm. I seem to have had a comment swallowed – apologies if this ends in a double posting. OT, but assuming this will be the defacto Open Thread….
I’m not sure how much, if any, attention the Eurovision Song Contest, gets in the US. In Australia, it attracts somewhat adoring attention as a campfest, with occasional flashes of actual talent.
In some parts of Europe, it seems to be taken very seriously, particularly in the “formers”. Dutch gay men seem to love it, while places like Portugal and the UK have given up on ever winning and view it as a bit of a joke. There is endless discussion about voting blocs. It’s certainly a huge spectacle over here. The Russians reportedly spent $42 million on the event.
Anyhoo. Spoilers at the links (if you haven’t seen it yet, and understand the lure of the endless, excruciating hour long voting process).
The winner. Catchy. Cute boy.
Second. Pretty. Cute girl. Good voice.
Camp value. Hmmm.
Tattoosydney
@AhabTRuler:
Dammit. I was trying to sully the thread with Eurovision, and then you give me good music. Very nice.
My Eurovision posting seems to have been swallowed, twice. (Damn alcohol). I like the winner and the second place getter. At least both of them can sing.
Tattoosydney
Website go kablooey?
ETA: Gosh. I posted a couple of posts, which seem to have disappeared. So then, seeing no other posts had appeared for about half an hour, I post this one, which appears! I am now confused, and I blame alcohol.
Could it be that Eurovision references trip the moderation filter?
Steeplejack
@Tattoosydney:
I haven’t noticed a problem. I haven’t tried to post in the last hour, but I have been reading (other threads). Maybe it’s your dismal, second-tier Aussie (“ozzie”? “ossie”?) Internet connection.
By the way, I wanted to–but couldn’t–work into my movie rant that there’s a small Australian movie that I really love: The Last Days of Chez Nous. Lisa Harrow, Bruno Ganz, Kerry Fox. All excellent. I even bought the soundtrack (though have lost it since). It shows up periodically on Sundance or Independent Film Channel (both cable channels here in the U.S.), and I have to watch it all the way through. I saw it originally in the theater when it first came out.
Also love Rob Sitch’s comedies The Castle and The Dish.
Tattoosydney
Oh moderation gods, whom I have offended, I humbly beg thee mercy. I shall no more mention the cursed song contest of Europe.
[I hope my other posts get released from the spam filter, or this one will look mighty strange.]
Steeplejack
@Tattoosydney:
Weird. I replied to a previous comment of yours, but it disappeared between the time I clicked the arrow thingie and the time I posted my reply.
That is probably a sign from the FSM that I should go to bed. It is 3:36 a.m., and I need to get some sleep before I begin my belated weekend. ‘Night.
Tattoosydney
@Steeplejack:
I suspect the amount of spam coming out of parts of Europe headed with the name of the aforementioned contest is tripping spam filters everywhere.
Most seem to plump for “Aussie”. And we have been promised a state of the art internet thingumywhatsit as part of our economic rescue package.
I haven’t seen Chez Nous. I may have to now.
The Castle has iconic status in Australia as the movie that must be loved (and thankfully it’s very very good and very funny). Definitely a repeat viewer.
I’ll take the chance to plug a new Aussie film (which, to my shame, I have not yet seen) called “Samson and Delilah“. It’s not a lighthearted romp by any means – but it is garnering great reviews.
Tattoosydney
@AhabTRuler:
As I’m not sure whether my original response to you will ever reappear, thanks for the recommendation. That’s a great track.
Jonothan Cullinane
Thanks to AC Delaware County for the reminder about ‘The Taking Of Pelham 1-2-3’ – a great film based on a great piece of pulp fiction.
‘Conspiracy’ was a version of a much much better German film called ‘The Wannsee Conference’.
I’d like to add ‘Scarecrow’ with Al Pacino & Gene Hackman, ‘The Sure Thing’ with John Cusack, and ‘Rafferty & The Gold Dust Twins’ with Alan Arkin and a galaxy of fine character actors to the pile.
Also glad to see there’s widespread agreement that ‘Gone, Baby, Gone’ is an incomprehensible piece of scheisen which has no place in a serious discussion.
Glen
Many interesting favorites here. Mine are all over the map. To qualify, it boils down to: what would I buy?
My criteria come down to (1) excellent dialogue, excellently delivered (I’m a sucker for ear-candy); (2) an interesting premise, well executed; (3) a sense of go-for-broke hope (even if the good guys ultimately lose). Music is a bonus, though on that alone, I can wait for the CD, MP3, whatever.
Put any two of the three together and my AMEX may be at your service. Not that there haven’t been exceptions, but that’s the starting point.
My most watched movie: The Lion in Winter. My favorite line from a recent movie: “I aim to misbehave.” (Malcolm Reynolds, Serenity.)
jTh
@ John Cole 205
You know, I was trying so hard to sift out “relentlessly watchable” from “my favorites” that I spaced completely on The Player, which is certainly among both.
Which brings us back to your original question. To my mind, one factor that makes a movie relentlessly watchable is Tim Robbins. (Hudsucker would also fall into both my lists here.) Perhaps those above who don’t care for Shawshank are immune?
But more broadly, many of the great “watchables” share a sense of clockwork, of “coming together.” We already know their endings, but watching them congeal into themselves is mesmerizing (and yes, of course, requires fantastic craft to pull off). O Brother is another example, all building up to the triumphant performance of their “hit single.” The best TV serials do this too, like the first two seasons of The Wire.
Kineslaw @ 276 mentions The Incredibles, long overdue in this list (and I’m kicking myself for forgetting it), and it’s the same thing, the “clockwork” of the family coming together, really becoming a team, and then kicking some butt together! (None of the other Pixar movies grab me in the same way.)
Two more romantic”ish” movies have the same effect on me, Before Sunset (the sequel), and good lord how I just cannot stop watching ONCE. Over and over and over, Once. (So obviously, a charming leading lady can be a major factor too.) Secretary obviously “clockworks” too.
And how did I (and everyone else?) forget to mention Grosse Point Blank?
Anyway, don’t know about anyone else, but “clockwork” is probably the common thread among the movies I can’t turn off. Even if I tune in halfway through, only intending to watch a little bit of them, I end up riveted by all the parts turning together to become the whole. (And to a poster far above, yes, I’d always credit the writing with putting them into place and motion to begin with.)
And then Memento becomes an interesting case, because its clockwork is moving in both directions (toward the end, but also backward toward the beginning), though it’s “dark” enough that I can’t watch it too often, but rather have to save it to savor it. Loosely related to that, I have a hard time turning off The Prestige as well. These are movies where “knowing what will happen” makes them more fascinating, rather than less.
bob h
And what ever happened to Michael Keeton?
He directed and starred in “The Merry Gentleman”, which was rather good.
Zuzu's Petals
@JGabriel:
Well it seems to me that – despite the thread title – the topic was which movies you watch over and over again, not which have the most artistic merit.
Is Shawshank art? Nope, but it sure has a satisfying payoff. I have no idea why I keep watching a certain submarine movie, but I do. Hitchcock movie? I’m staying up.
Each of us could name half a dozen flicks that have that mysterious “watchability” factor (granted, Hitchcock falls more on the quality side). If the criteria were just artistic merit, there’d be a lot more Kurosaki, Cocteau, etc. in the mix.
Just my opinion.
katsbah
I good movie is alchemy and magic….it’s a “good” ingredients, script, director, actors, music, locations,…etc…all “cooked” into something magical (and usually it’s not, even with the best ingredients)…..it’s a mirror reflected back to show us “something” about ourselves….
gil mann
Can someone please explain the neuroscience behind the inability to not watch a favorite movie you’ve stumbled across on TV even when the unedited, wide-screen version’s sitting right there on the damn shelf?
I’m lookin’ at you, entire output of John Carpenter, none of which even works in 4:3.
Laura W
@Steeplejack:
High Fidelity, because I’m a narcissist.
I think geg6 was the only one to mention this. It’s my new Annie Hall.
Also Reds, because Keaton and Beatty together for all those hours playing writers in Russia…Oh yeah. Dr. Zhivago, for the Russia and the narcissism.
Aimai
I can’t believe no on mentioned ” Z”. One of the most compulsively watchable movies of all time.
Ai mai
Micheline
No Fast Times at Ridgemont High. That movie is a classic.
snetzky
Three words
Cool Hand Luke
Tom
Yeah, this is what is killing the movie industry right now. Studios make films that they think will have huge opening weekend. Then rely on strong subsequent weeks, and that’s it. That’s why you see so many sequels. they’re guaranteed to put a certain number of people in the seats just by its name. Spiderman 3 grossed $330 million. It made $150 million of that in its opening weekend. that’s almost half. It’s all about the opening weekend.
Now, great, interesting movies get made, it’s just that they’re smaller, “art house” films that often don’t get wide distribution. I live in Chicago, so it doesn’t really affect me, but I bet in other parts of the country a lot of the great films being made don’t get a release.
Also, movies are made now to appeal to the widest audience. there’s more marketing taken into account than ever. Look at Risky Business v. The Girl Next Door. They’re essentially the same movie, same plot. But RB, you can tell is a work of a writer and director who are trying to tell the best story possible. It’s more organic. Feels more “real.” The Girl Next Door just feels so marketed. It doesn’t take the risks that Risky Business did. It’s glossy as opposed to the slight grittiness or seediness that Risky Business has. And I think that comes from studios not trusting the story as much these days. It’s more about marketing.
Tom
Actually, I shouldn’t say that. The movie industry is doing very well. It’s what’s preventing better big studio films from being made.
DougJ
Why does that make you a narcissist?
Steeplejack
@Laura W:
Laura is one of my must-watch-every-time movies. Gene Tierney . . . sigh. And, again, like Goodfellas, sometimes I find myself looking at the fantastic Manhattan apartment interiors.
Betsy
I saw Tootsie for the first time just a year or two ago, and if “holds up” also means that it is great for the first-time viewer 25 years later, then IMO it holds up better than most. I *loved* it. Hoffman was superb, the script was smart, funny, and tender, and it was feminist without hitting you over the head with it or patting itself on the back.
Kevin
I’m adding Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure. Up there with the princess bride as a movie from my childhood that I actually enjoyed more when I grew up. The scene at the drive in at the end, when they’re screening the movie about the movie, with Pee-wee playing the guy behind the hotel counter is a classic. The voice they dub over his, watching him in the background mouthing all the lines of “Pee-Wee”. Just a classic scene.
Anchorman is another movie that I can’t help but watch, even if it’s for a couple of scenes. “Baxter, you ate a whole block of cheese? I’m not even mad at you, that’s impressive”. Talledega Nights also has the same feel for me. So add it as well.
Laura W
@DougJ:
Thanks for giving me a chance to post this!
Laura W
@Steeplejack: How could I forget? I was named for the movie Laura.
I coulda been Dana, so I am very happy with my parents’ choice.
(No offense to Danas out there. It just doesn’t suit me or appeal to me.)
DougJ
Really, that movie isn’t anywhere near as good as the book.
Digital Amish
You mean to tell me, in the context of movies that grab you when channel surfing and with over 300 comments, I’m the only one that will stop and watch “Leon, The Professional” even if I have to leave the house in five minutes?
pablo
I caught Beetlejuice last night on surfing, and went through the same thought process!
Mine are:
Bringing up Baby
Godfather 1
Roger Rabbit
Patton
Saving Private Ryan
Any Hitchcock
Red River
Castaway
Man on the Flying Trapeze (WC Fields)
and any Buster Keaton (Michael’s Father? naaa)
The thing about Goodfellows is that I can only watch it on HBO
Having Joe Pesci Saying “friggin” all the time is a real turnoff.
(although its funny because they dragged him in to record all the edits. Would have been better if they had done it with soeone with a thick British, Russian, or Japanese accent!)
BDeevDad
Actually, Milla Jovovich rocks as an action hero in the Resident Evil flicks which are one of the few action-horror series I enjoy, probably because of Jovovich and not mentioned yet.
Laura W
@DougJ: I’ve not read the book but will grab it next time I’m on Amazon. Been meaning to read it for years.
I was going with the original intent of the post (as I interpreted it) in terms of the very few movies, and I mean few, that I can watch for the xth time if I see them playing. There are only a handful that I can pick up and enjoy no matter how far into the plot they are. Best in Show, High Fidelity, Reds and The Hours are on my mind this weekend. Probably a couple more.
Edit: Fun to see Asheville and Biltmore on CBS Sun Morn. I need to get to Biltmore finally. I hear Christmas is the time to go up.
Steeplejack
@Digital Amish:
Dude, I’m with you. See my big rant at 284.
AhabTRuler
@Steeplejack: My god, and the sun is out, too!
HyperIon
Idiocracy.
DrDave
I may have missed it but did no one mention My Cousin Vinny?
Vinny, Trading Places, Stripes (and other great comedies) work because you don’t ever get tired of watching great characters deliver the same punchlines over and over again. Anyone ever get tired of Animal House? The lines are good but the delivery makes it work:
“Uh…Mr. Gambini. What’s a Yute?
I never tire of Silverado, either. Josie Wales is probably my all time favorite western but Larry Kasdan managed to incorporate every cliche ever seen in a western movie into Silverado and he had a phenomenal cast that sells the story. I’ve seen it 25 times if I’ve seen it once and I still enjoy it.
The Bourne movies are very good. I read the books when they were first written and although they completely overhauled the plot lines to work in the 2000’s, rather than the 1970’s, the movies are work as legitimate adaptations of Ludlum novels.
Pelham One-Two-Three was on Starz or Encore yesterday; damn, Walter Mathau could act.
And a couple more off the top of my head:
Glengarry, Glen Ross
The Nightmare Before Christmas (a seasonal film to share with the kids every fall)
Fax Paladin
@Wile E. Quixote:
The version of the story I heard/read on Strangelove was that Sellers kept putting off the bomber scenes until Kubrick got the message and cast someone else. This was told as an example of Sellers as primadonna jerk, but in this case I think his judgment was sound — what sells the climax is he bomb being ridden by a guy who’s actually ridden bulls.
Fax Paladin
@Wile E. Quixote:
The version of the story I heard/read on Strangelove was that Sellers kept putting off the bomber scenes until Kubrick got the message and cast someone else. This was told as an example of Sellers as primadonna jerk, but in this case I think his judgment was sound — what sells the climax is the bomb being ridden by a guy who’s actually ridden bulls.
Will
Goodfellas is the best of the “movies that you can just watch them over and over and over again, and never tire of them” genre, in my opinion. I think it has something to do with food.
Fax Paladin
@John Cole:
Haven’t seen The Player but know enough of it to know what you mean. Someday I’m going to find that alternate-universe video store that sells the straight-to-video El Mariachi, Corrido Dos with Carlos Gallardo…
Will
@Kevin:
I love how Pee-Wee playing the hotel clerk, in addition to the overdub, can’t stop looking at the camera, try as he might. A great little joke.
Steeplejack
@AhabTRuler:
Har-de-har-har. Even I get a weekend; it’s just Sunday-Monday.
And I just got back from being outside–Target, REI, drugstore, etc.–in the presence of actual normal (presumably) people.
Okay, I’m going back in the crypt now.
asiangrrlMN
Late to a dead thread, but I have to add the one thing that makes any movie worth watching–Alan Rickman. That is all.
lilysmom
@asiangrrlMN:
Rickman was the only sexy thing worth watching in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.
He wiped the floor with Kevin Costner.
Kevin
“Paging Mr. Herman. Phone call for Mr Herman”
I love that line as they’re leaving the drive in “Pee-wee, don’t you want to watch the rest of the movie?”
“Watch it? I lived it”
Of course, the movie of his life bared no resemblance to anything that happened to him. But he said it with such cool conviction.
I hadn’t seen Pee-Wee since I was a kid. it was on TV one day, I decided to watch the start. I just couldn’t stop watching. Right from him winning the Tour De France in his dream, the movie doesn’t stop making you laugh.
AhabTRuler
@asiangrrlMN: These recommendations likely apply equally as much to you as to your pretend husband.
AhabTRuler
@asiangrrlMN: Eh, I think he was wasted in January Man (or maybe it was that he couldn’t save it?), but for the most part I agree.
tofubo
almost any luc besson movie, esp the the fifth element and léon, but there’s also nakita (NOT the fonda version) and the 1st transporter, and am glad to have come accross angel-a
The Cat Who Would Be Tunch
What, 340 posts and no mention of American History X or Baraka? Come on, I would’ve expected at least one person to mention the latter movie with the namesake of the current president.
Steeplejack
@asiangrrlMN:
Truly, Madly, Deeply.
asiangrrlMN
@lilysmom: Damn right. That thing was so wretched, I fast-forwarded through any scene that didn’t include him.
@AhabTRuler: January Man sucked. The only way it could have been saved (SPOILER ALERT) if he was the killer. However, I had to watch it because Alan Rickman was is in. And Susan Sarandon.
Nice music.
@Steeplejack: One of my faves of his. Plus, Snow Cake. Plus, this video. Plus….
I. love. Alan Rickman.
Jamey
Drugstore Cowboy–quirk in service of a narrative; neither overpowers the other.
Requiem for a Dream. Ellen Burstyn knows what crazy feels like. How could the Academy job her in favor of Julia Roberts?
Some Like It Hot–funny that holds up after a half-century.
North by Northwest–it has the same power as Goodfellas, Fanny and Alexander, or Trainspotting: I stop flipping through the dial and watch.
The Right Stuff. Find me a better shot, better acted, better edited film. An incredible movie-making achievement that also succeeds wildly as storytelling.
Bad movie? The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I was misty-eyed at the end–and PISSED, because it didn’t evoke emotions so much as it manipulated them. So much awful in one film. A big WTF for the Academy.
Worst not-awful movie ever: Pretty Woman. Discuss.
Steeplejack
@asiangrrlMN:
That Texas video freaked me out. The woman singer looks almost exactly like a woman with whom I had one of the most intense relationships of my life. Well, two, actually, since we had one of those “Will this work any better than it did 10 years ago?” retro do-overs. (Answer: sadly, no.)
Good video, though. And good use of Alan Rickman.
asiangrrlMN
@Steeplejack: I would give almost everything I possess to have been her in the gas station scene. Sorry for the flashbacks, though.
peaches
John Cole, did you also read the other article at GQ about John Walker Lindh and cringe a bit?
wasabi gasp
Worst shouldn’t-have-sucked movie: Casino.
wasabi gasp
I ain’t no shoeman! {{waves fist}}
You ca$ino hatin’ (lovin’?) moderation filter.
Steeplejack
@asiangrrlMN:
No, it was a great video. Thanks for pointing me to it. And I wished I was Alan Rickman in that scene!
asiangrrlMN
@Steeplejack: I love your posts. Will you marry me? Oh, wait. I’m already fake-married. I will just have to admire you from afar.
Steeplejack
@asiangrrlMN:
Well, I do sort of look like Alan Rickman, in that I have two eyes, one on each side of my face, and a nose in the middle.
I do understand your fake-relationship problems. I’m the sympathetic lurking “friend,” remember? I guess for now we’ll have to be satisfied with a tawdry fake-backstreet affair.
Okay, well, then. I’ll just push off and stand over here in the rain for a bit, shall I?
asiangrrlMN
@Steeplejack: Oh, hell. If you look ANYTHING like Alan Rickman, I will cheat on my fake hubby in two seconds’ flat. That’s ok. You can be the sympathetic friend with the hanky. But wait! My fake hubby is gay! Which means, I wouldn’t really be fake-cheating on him!
By the way, that song is tight. Never heard it before. Yes, you can stand in the rain and look hangdog.
Steeplejack
@asiangrrlMN:
Hangdog?! Damn it! I was going more for brooding, like.
I screwed up my courage and clicked through to Texas’s other video, “Halo.” Damn, that woman really looks like the former future Mrs. Steeplejack. And the former future Mrs. S. lives in Texas! Coincidence? You be the judge.
Oh, my dreams will be troubled tonight.
CatStaff
@asiangrrlMN: Did you see him in “Closet Land”?
tam1MI
::I’m probably in “legitimately great movie” territory here but also Singing in the Rain and anything directed by Billy Wilder.
I second Slap Shot
The Sting
The Great Escape
Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back
The Godfather II
Auntie Mame
Aliens
Once Upon A Time In The West
Cool Hand Luke
Some Like It Hot::
Let me offer up a hearty second and third to all the above movies, which are pretty much bona fide classics. Others I will always watch, no matter what:
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
The Magnificent Seven
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (second greatest muscial of all time, after SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN)
Love, Actually
About a Boy
National Treasure
Zulu
The Four Feathers (1939 version)
Jaws
asiangrrlMN
@CatStaff: I saw parts of Closet Land. I haven’t been able to watch it all the way through because he’s so disturbing in it. Some day, I hope they put it on DVD.
@Steeplejack: Yeah, I can see you as brooding–a cigarette dangling from your mouth. Somehow, you manage to keep it lit despite the rain. Maybe she IS the ex-Mrs. Steeplejack! Spooky.
Steeplejack
@asiangrrlMN:
Duraflame. Hell on the lungs, though.
CatStaff
@asiangrrlMN: Amazon has a few copies available on DVD. Definitely disturbing.
asiangrrlMN
@CatStaff: Seriously? It’s on DVD? I’m on it! Thanks, CatStaff. It’s also on YouTube in 9 segments. I was thinking since Alan Rickman is now a bona fide star, they would re-release it.
@Steeplejack: Ouch. My lungs shudder in sympathy.
Will
@tam1MI:
Love, Actually is “actually” one of the worst movies ever made. For the sake of your endangered soul, please strike it from your list post-haste.
It’s a movie about beautiful people “falling in love” with other beautiful people they don’t know at all. It’s beyond stupid.
asiangrrlMN
@Will: But Alan Rickman is in it. Therefore, it is watchable–for me, at least. I found his relationship with Emma Thompson to be the most believable thing about the movie. As far as the beautiful part, eh, not really. I wouldn’t consider most of the people in that movie beautiful.
Tattoosydney
@Steeplejack: @asiangrrlMN:
I turn my back for one minute, and this is what happens. I’m shaking my head over here, and I may even purse my lips.
"Fair and Balanced" Dave
The first Superman movie.
"Fair and Balanced" Dave
That and the homage paid to the cover of Pink Floyd’s “Animals” (Clive’s cousin lives in the Battersea Power Station and has the giant pig balloon moored outside.)
Steeplejack
@Tattoosydney:
Oops! Look at the time. Gotta go.
AhabTRuler
Dictionary definition of a back-door man.
Dictionary definition of a back-door man.
Wait, now I’m confused (and possibly even a little gay!). Damn you, Balloon Juice, damn you!
chuck
The story I heard was that Sellers broke his leg before the bomber scenes and couldn’t do the part. Accident or not, Slim Pickens defined Doctor Strangelove more than its eponymous character. It’s the quotable lines in a movie that make it a timeless classic:
“Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here, this is the war room!”
“I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration , Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion, and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.”
Svensker
@grumpy realist:
Best line: “Well, I see split ends are universal.”
I love that movie. The 80s in L.A. Gorgeous.
Original Lee
@asiangrrlMN: So what do you think about Quigley Down Under, besides that Rickman needed more screen time and a bigger speaking part? It seems to me that Rickman was doing a basic riff that he developed to greater effect in Robin Hood.
asiangrrlMN
@Tattoosydney: Aw, fake hubby. You know you’re always first in my heart of all my fake relationships! But, but, but, a woman has needs, damn it! (Like the need to be admired from afar, in the pouring rain, cigarette dangling….).
Here. Does this make it up to you?
@AhabTRuler: Man, AhabTRuler, you are teh funny.
Original Lee. Yes. That. It was better than I expected, but still, I wouldn’t have watched it if Alan wasn’t in it. You are right, of course, that Alan’s character is essentially the same one he played in Robin Hood. Hm. I never noticed that before.
DonnaInMichigan
The problem with Hollywood these days, is that there is no original thoughts. They recycle movies, sequels, tv sitcoms, and comic book hero’s .
The same few actors/actresses playing the roles in the top movies, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Tom Hanks, etc.
I think that is why movies such as Slumdog Millionaire are refreshing. No big name stars, just real honest to god, talent. Both in front of and behind the camera.
tam1MI
And yet, every Christmas, I watch it again…
A movie that is very quickly moving up my list to “must-watch” status is the original CAPE FEAR, starring Gregory Peck and the magnificent Robert Mitchum, the sexiest beast ever to grace the silver screen. If all you have seen is the craptacular remake with Robert De Niro, do yourself a favor and see the original – it’s amazing how much power and menace Mitchum brings to the part of Max Cady, and all he does is peel off his shirt and break an egg.