Your top ten movies!

[biggytitbo]

It changes all the time but at the moment:

Quatermass and the pit (1967)
The Line the cross and the curve (1994)
Night of the Demon (1957)
Sons of the Desert (1933)
Phenomena (1985)
Dawn of the Dead (1978)
When the Wind Blows (1986)
Way Out West (1937)
Ask a Policeman (1938)
Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)
The Wicker Man (1973)

That's 11 isn't it? Oh well I'll cheat

[dredd]

  Usually the first 6 or so stay the same. Pretty obvious choices bar one or two.

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[Hank_Kingsley]

biggytitbo, is Phenomena really your favourite Argento movie?

Unusual choice but then some people think it's weird I much prefer 'Day of the Dead' to 'Dawn...'.

The world doesn't march to the beat of one drum. Quite obviously.

[Santa's Boyfriend]

In no particular order:

Threads
(The most terrifying film ever made - and a very real possibility at the time)

Lord of the Rings (extended versions, naturally)
(The finest fantasy epic ever put to film, by a very, very long way!)

The Third Man
(Wonderful cinematography, structurally perfect, intriguing, darkly funny, historically valuable and hugely entertaining.)

Baraka
(The world seen through the lens of Ron Fricke - mesmerising and utterly beautiful.)

Yojimbo
(The quintessential Samurai film, hugely entertaining.)

The Longest Day
(A film that really shouldn't have worked - there are so many characters to keep track of - but pulls off the impossible with apparent ease.  A complete-as-realistically-possible account of D-Day, shown from all sides, yet without taking sides.  Significant for showing the crucial role of the French on D-Day - something that has practically been forgotten.)

Brazil
(Terry Gilliam's finest film, a visual treat with a vicious sense of humour.)

Princess Mononoke
(An epic fantasy of man vs nature, by the world's greatest animation director Hayao Miyazaki.)

Avalon
(A chinese box of a film, visually stunning and endlessly rewatchable as your understanding of the film continually changes.)

Pan's Labyrinth
(Haunting, tragic and beautiful - the juxtaposition of fantasy serves to highlight the cruelty and brutality of real-life monsters.  And again, a film that can be interpreted more than one way.)

[Gulftastic]

Dawn Of The Dead

Best zombie picture ever, and, as mentioned above, has lovely lashings of social comment thrown for good measure.

Star Wars (no episode 4, no A New Hope)

Defined my childhood.

It's A Wonderful Life

'Here's to my brother George, the richest man in town'. Still gets me every time.

Singin' In The Rain

Best musical ever.

Beauty & The Beast

Best animated film ever.

Mad Max II

However batshit bonkers Gibson gets, I'll always love him for this flick.

Groundhog Day

There is hope. THERE IS!

Rushmore

Best closing scene ever. The cherry on a lovely ckae.

Boogie Nights

Awesome stuff, with a fantastic ensemble.

Goodfellas

Sweeps you up and carries you along.

[Artemis]

Oooh, I only had a top five before this, but since you ask, and after much consideration... in no particular order...

Pulp Fiction
I regard this as a masterpiece, and the defining role for many of it's principal actors. Clever, innovative, creative, funny and terrifying.

The Magdalene Sisters
A truly powerful film, filled with terror and ultimately hope. Movies don't often affect me but I was in pieces at the end of this.

12 Angry Men (the original)
Possibly my most favourite movie of all time. Killer performances and an amazing script.

Ghost World
I love Thora Birch and Steve Buscemi and this little tale of societal misfits really strikes a chord with me.

Planes Trains and Automobiles
Another vote for this one. Candy is incredible, and it makes me howl with laughter and cry at the end. One of a kind.

Mulholland Drive
Naomi Watts is breathtaking and the entire thing is like a puzzle from a genius. Incredible.

Sideways
It showcases real humanity, with flaws and passions. A wonderful, gentle portrayal that I really identified with.

Punch Drunk Love
It's obscure, quirky, artistic and wonderful. Fabulously off-beat.

Back To The Future (I)
Absolutely love this film, and no-one has done a better job before or since in dealing with space/time.

Vanilla Sky
Another beautiful movie. Camron Crowe directs this wonderfully and it's another film that makes me tearful.

[Dark Sky]

12 Angry Men (the original)
Possibly my most favourite movie of all time. Killer performances and an amazing script.

They remade it?!

Or oh hang on, wasn't it originally a TV drama?  Do you mean the original TV drama rather than the Sidney Lumet film?

[session9]

2/ Withnail and I
There's no point at all where I think "this is a film and these are actors", which is rare.

Rather an odd thing to say about this particular film but I get your point.

[Artemis]

Do you mean the original TV drama rather than the Sidney Lumet film?

I mean the Lumet film from '57, rather then the 1997 television re-make.

[alan nagsworth]

In no particular order, except the first which is the best:

Oldboy - Psychological thriller to the max. Best film I ever decided to sit up until 3am watching. I was on the edge of my seat from the onset right up until the final moments and honestly get chills thinking about how much I seriously love this film. The one-take corridor fight and the scene in which our main man eats a live octopus (for real) is just something else. Without revealing too much, the pacemaker on/off remote control was both extremely grim and extremely funny. FUCK I LOVE THIS FILM

The Castle Of Cagliostro - Hayao Miyazaki's first proper film as a director. It was so hard to pick one film by Miyazaki and I thought this one would be apt as his first. Marking the way for the fantastic Studio Ghibli, this film has everything: suspense, action, a big castle filled with brilliant tricks and traps, love, independence and some of the best humour I've ever seen in an animated movie, using slapstick tomfoolery, witty retorts and comical facial expressions.

Akira - Astounding. The attention to detail in this film is just fantastic, and it's obvious to see why this was, and still remains, one of the most pioneering animated features of all time.

Scum - Ray Winstone smashing a kid's head off a sink, buggery, bent screws, suicide x2 and Mick Ford's excellent performance, especially his chat with one of the screws during his weekly refusal to attend church. A shocking and insightful look into the so-called "rehabilitation" of young offenders. Often in films, vengeful violence is a big fat "YES!" for me and I'm exhilerated by the brutality of this film from Winstone, especially the pool balls in the sock.

House Of Flying Daggers - Stunning visuals, thankfully-not-over-the-top martial arts, great plot twists. Nothing but beauty throughout.

Dawn Of The Dead - what thugler said.

This Is Spinal Tap - The excellent combination of heavy metal lifestyles and genius humour. All performances are shining, specifically and obviously Nigel Tuffnel.

Kung Fu Hustle - CGI martial arts at its best! Stephen Chow is a legendary director and a great actor, this films cartoon violence mixed with extreme violence is brilliant. Chow running from the Landlady, legs a blurry spinning wheel, using the knife stuck in his shoulder as a wing mirror. Hilarious. Also, the cliched "unleashing his true powers!!" plotline was a great touch.

Goodfellas - Up there with Oldboy, another brilliant mix of black humour, vengeful violence and gripping plot. Second favourite film of all time.

Team America - World Police - Matt Stone and Trey Parker say what everyone else wants to hear, push boundaries on a well-trodden subject and somehow manage to carry it all off in a film which has without a doubt made me laugh more than every other comedy film I've seen, put together. They've had a defining career of constantly interesting concepts such as Cannibal: The Musical and Baseketball, yet TA:WP was clearly an issue which they needed to get off their chest, or I don't think they'd have bothered with it, seeing as we'd seemingly already heard more than enough about Bush and his bloody illegal war. Despite that, this film flourishes throughout and I love it like it was my own son.

[Cambrian Times]

1) Withnail and I
2) Spirited Away
3) Akira
4) Ghost in the shell
5) The Lion King - Yes, I know it is Disney Tat but it made me cry like a 4 year old
6) Amelie
7)Sleepy Hollow
8) Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
9) Night Watch
10)Green Mile -Ditto Lion King

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Nothing much new or original in this rather obvious young male list:

War Games
It not only contains a great Famous Five style adventure at the core of it but it also carries the mark of a particular era of filmmaking and a particular era of politics. It's such a pleasure to rewatch and a film that's never far away from my mind, yes, I too daydream about saving the world from nuclear annihilation with a rather enigmatic and saucy Ally Sheedy by my side.

The Assassination Of Richard Nixon
Forget all the 'this is Penn's Taxi Driver' hype, and the alarmingly overplayed title, this is a tale of one man's personal crisis, it's a wonderful performance and one at the first time of viewing immediately identified with. It is the most intelligent attempt to articulate the struggle between cynicism and idealism I've seen at the cinema. A tragic tale that fortunately chooses to use the style of filmmaking in the time the story is set in, and is much the better without the bland a-to-b direction of most modern films.

Straw Dogs- Another film let down by poor and confused promotional literature and with a slightly unneccessary infamy. I enjoyed Assault On Precinct 13 and also The Wicker Man. This film deals with many of the themes those cover but does it in a more focused and human fashion. The film is all about the erosion of security and trying to maintain your humanity in the face of an every increasing threat. I found the film confident enough to leave the viewer in charge, it never descends into point making or lecturing. Superb performances all around, and you really couldn't have chosen a better lead actor for that part.

Coming To America
The result of tireless genius, and my favourite ever comedy film. Eddie Murphy when he had fresh ideas and actually gave a shit about something. The greatest assembly of black American talent there has ever been. The combination of the detail and the many grotesque characters make this a joy to watch. It's hard to think of a single bad moment in the film, it's just all so tightly put together. The cultural satire is dead-on. Ever since this film Eddie Murphy was destined to make diminishing returns because this film contains 95% of what he had to offer.

Pan's Labyrinth- I can't think of another film where I've left the cinema feeling the same way and for so long afterwards. It's a great modern film, and such a breath of fresh air too. The young girl who played the main character does such a good job and the villain is superb. I must include it due to it being an unmissable experience, and thats why you go to the movies.

Don't Look Now
It was this or The Shining but Don't Look Now just pips it. The characters are intrieging, the location is magnificent and best of all, it has that great 70's look. Not glossy or packed with camera effects but the real thing. The methods used to direct films these days are so drastically different that any attempt to remake this would be doomed to disaster. It becomes incredibly tense mainly of course because the characters and the storyline remains convincing.

A Clockwork Orange
A visual spectacle, style and direction and music done with a swagger, as if we were looking at everything through our main protagonists eyes. Wildly different and directly confrontational with the viewer. Obscene and obscenely challenging also. It's dangerous to watch and I made careful to not slip into the fashion of idolising the main character or adopting the iconography as a style icon, I find doing that with full knowledge of the film story akin to putting a poster of Peter Sutcliffe on your wall. None of this stops the film being extraordinarily brilliant, teeming with ideas and verging on the most significant piece of mainstream film ever produced.

Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring
This is the only one of the trilogy I could consider on it's own. In terms of drama and direction I think this film is second to none. Beautiful to look at, stunning even. The Return Of The King scooped all the award but most people can see that this film is the one that makes the most sense narrative wise. (Sauron, The army of the dead and the ents weren't realised to their potential and the result is quite messy, with a knock on effect on the editing in 2 and 3 which is quite slap-dash). This is also the film that best brought to life my favourite moments of the book, the journey to Bree, Rivendell, the Mines of Moria, they're all great moments. Plus the film carries a significant impact of threat, the threat of the danger that lies ahead. It's a very dark film and it's without some of the embarrassingly twee and shite mutual masturbation scenes between Frodo and Sam that should've been handled a lot better. It's the most impressive thing I've ever seen at the cinema.

Dawn Of The Dead
The best ..Of The Dead, as people have been saying. The ultimate mirror-turn on our consumer society. And if you aren't big on allegory, it's an exceedingly entertaining, tense and pretty horrifying tale that's also grotesquely funny. Gore-tastic.

Monty Python And The Quest For The Holy Grail
Magnificent silliness that could never be bettered. Outrageous. I couldn't adequately do justice to this film in describing it, they'd just be a list of superlatives each one hammering home an already hammered home point with a hammer hammered together by the collective delight millions of people have had watching this film. The idea that a film of such like would be made today is unthinkable. And it crushingly disappoints me every time I think of it.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Amelie
The Straight Story
Better Off Dead
The Big Lebowski
The Royal Tenenbaums
Punch Drunk Love
Toto Les Heros
The Third Man
I Heart Huckabees
Short Cuts
Amateur

That was far harder than I thought it'd be, and I had to cut a huge amount of films that I absolutely adore...

[Ginyard]

6.


Ah yes...The Sound of Music

mine and grandmother's favourite too.