List 30 movies you love that are probably on no one's all-time best list

[Cranch]

Cliffhanger with Sylvester Stallone. John Lithgow is SO over the top as the bad guy that he just completely MAKES the film. (I probably could list more Stallone films that fit the bill as well. He was the king of good/bad movies for me for awhile).

You know, now that you mention it, I kind of feel that way about Judge Dredd!

Tombstone

Don’t you just love Kurt Russell administering the smack-down to Billy Bob Thornton?

 

[CarolAnnSFO]

Gotta love the killer rabbits! Do you like Day of the Triffids? I really enjoyed the British TV series remake from the early eighties.

Would you believe I’ve never even seen “Day of the Triffids”? Does it ever pop up on network or non-premium cable TV channels?

 

[franksv]

platoon
saving private ryan
blackhawk down
thin red line
pearl harbor
full metal jacket

bravehart
gladiator
the last samurai
troy

3000 miles to graceland
heat
the jackel
resevoir dogs
pulp fiction

I came up with 15 or half. Sorry could’nt go the distance.

 

[Nepenthe]

I will be so terribly disappointed if Kurt Russel isn’t cast as The Comedian for the upcoming Watchmen movie. He’s perfect for it, and he deserves the role.

To stay on-topic, here’s a few you can add to Mirdath’s list:

Local Hero
Anything with Buster Keaton
Intolerance (Fritz Lang…the effects and the message are jawdropping even now)
Motorama (surreal little indie film about innocence and experience, starring loads of great B/indie actors)
SLC Punk!
Can’t believe there’s not more Gilliam-love here, but since they’re fairly high-profile, I won’t name names
Absolutely anything by Satoshi Kon – I haven’t seen Paprika yet, but I doubt not it will live up to his extremely high standards
Since I mentioned anime, Ghost in the Shell, and Innocence, directed by Mamoru Oshii
And while we’re at it, why not Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro, among the many fine works by Hayao Miyazaki?
Permanent Midnight
Oh, I could go on, all genres, languages and so forth, but I’ll stop myself now.

 

[Cranch]

Would you believe I’ve never even seen “Day of the Triffids”? Does it ever pop up on network or non-premium cable TV channels?

Haven’t seen it on TV of any kind in years and years. Now you have a reason to join Netflix 'cause they do have it. You could check it out during the free trial period!

 

[ridesawhitehors]

30??? Wow, I’ll try… But they are not necasarily in THIS order.

1. Braveheart
2. Rob Roy
3. Camelot
4. Ladyhawke
5. Forrest Gump
6. Brother Sun Sister Moon
7. Romeo and Juliet
8. Jesus of Nazereth
9. Saturday Night Fever
10. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
11. The Green Mile
12. Indiana Jones (all of them… like someone else said)
13. Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood at his best)
14. True Grit (John Wayne at his best)
15. The SIlence of the Lambs
16. The Exorcist… (sorry )
17. The Exorcism of Emily Rose
18. Spinal Tap
19. Black Beauty (Disney version early 1990’s)
20. Saving Private Ryan
21. Miracle of the White Stallions
22. anything with Roy Rogers.
23. Fargo
24. Pulp Fiction
25. Vertigo
26. Rear Window
27. Pyscho… OK - anything Alfred Hitchcock!
28. Passion of the Christ
29. The RING
30. The Princess Bride

I realize several of these could be on a favorite list - but hey pick out what you think should be there yourselves!

 

[Cranch]

Here’s another 30. Thanks to some of the posters here for jogging my memory on a couple of these:

Austin Powers In Goldmember (“I was involved in an unfortunate smelting accident…”)
Arthur
Bad Day At Black Rock (One-armed Spencer Tracy gets to the bottom of things.)
Ball of Fire
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (For me, much better than Willie Wonka.)
Clerks
Constantine (“I don’t believe in the devil.” “Well, he believes in you.”)
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Dune
Ed Wood
Enemy of the State
The Family Man (Nicolas Cage gets to live “What if…”)
The Flight of the Phoenix (both are great but I give the nod to the 1965 version over the 2004 remake)
Henry V (Kenneth Branagh knocks the St. Crispin’s Day speech out of the park.)
The Incredibles
I, Robot
Kingdom Of Heaven (“Whoever dies here today, you shall surely be among them.”)
La Femme Nikita (more Luc Besson)
A League of Their Own (“There’s no crying in baseball!)
Mars Attacks! (“We come in peace!”)
Memento
Open Range
The Postman
Pride and Prejudice (2005 version for the movie, but I think I like the mini-series with Colin Firth better.)
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (There’s a light over at the Frankensteins’ place.)
School of Rock
Tombstone
Uncle Buck (“You sure ask a lot of questions.” “I’m a kid. That’s my job.”)
Victor/Victoria (Everyone in this is superb and the music ain’t bad either.)
The Village

 

[Little_Mary]

Waking Ned Devine

The Englishman Who Went Up A Hill And Came Down A Mountain

:yup:

 

[RascalJones]

How could I forget The Princess Bride?

“THE CLIFFS…OF INSANITY!”

"Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father prepare to die. "

 

[ridesawhitehors]

How could I forget The Princess Bride?

“THE CLIFFS…OF INSANITY!”

"Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father prepare to die. "

some of my personal favorites…

“and what about the R-O-U-S’s?” Rodents of Unusal Size? Don’t believe in them!"

“Hey, whatcha got to live for?” truuuuuueee lovvvvve…

“Have fun stormin’ the castle!!”

“to the pain!”

“Is this a kissing book?”

Oh the whole movie is one long procession of memoriable quotes!

 

[CatholicSam]

some of my personal favorites…

“and what about the R-O-U-S’s?” Rodents of Unusal Size? Don’t believe in them!"

“Hey, whatcha got to live for?” truuuuuueee lovvvvve…

“Have fun stormin’ the castle!!”

“to the pain!”

“Is this a kissing book?”

Oh the whole movie is one long procession of memoriable quotes!

How could I forget this one? My husband’s amazing. He can hear 2.3 seconds worth of nondescript background music from this movie and know what’s playing (when he’s not looking at the TV, of course)! He can even tell what scene it’s from in many cases!

 

[Micki]

A Man for All Seasons
Becket
Lilies of the Field
The Cardinal
The Keys of the Kingdom
The Spirit of St. Louis
The Glen Miller Story
The Nun’s Story
The Muppet Movie (the first one made)

Micki

 

[dranzal]

Our favorites include…

The Count of Monte Cristo with Jim Caviezel
Jesus of Nazareth
Batman Begins
Sabrina (the newer one with Harrison Ford)
The Parent Trap
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (this is just too cute)
Gladiator
Fools Rush In
The XMen trilogy
LOTR extended cuts

 

[Zooey]

Zooey- I redid this post to make it easier for you to reply if you wish to. * Have you seen Ed Wood? If so, what do you think of Martin Landau’s portrayal of Lugosi? I think he and the movie are terrific.*

I love this movie!! Landau was super…The best part for me, is that I have actually taped “Plan 9 From Outer Space” off a local late-night show that showed nothing but low-budget, generally so-bad-they’re-fun “scary” movies. So when I watched Ed Wood, I had the chance to re-watch Plan 9 first…
Landau did a terrific job of capturing the strangeness & yet the bizarre dignity in Lugosi, whom I feel is greatly misunderstood. He had been a classically trained actor in Hungary, who took political refuge in the USA, only to find himself unable to be treated seriously, because of his accent.
Instead of feeling sorry for himself, he recreated himself as one of the kings of horror films…
*

Do you like the recent Japanese horror films like Ju-on (The Grudge) and Honogurai mizu no soko kara (Dark Water)? They’re pretty creepy without being gory.

• I have given up on Japanese films some time ago. The few that I like have been in other genres. I am no good with Japanese names, but there are a couple that were based on Shakepearian plays, & I found them fascinating. (They were also extremely gory. I can handle that, but not when it attempts to masquerade as a plot).
  I guess I have seen too many Japanese films that bored me silly, to bother with them after a while…

 

[fcbv]

-A.I. - Artificial Intelligence;
-Gladiator;
-Back to the Future 1 and 2 (So funny… )

 

[kaygee]

Did a search of this thread and am surprised that no one mentioned my personal fav “so bad, it’s good” movie: “Joe vs. the Volcano”

 

[Cranch]

I have given up on Japanese films some time ago. The few that I like have been in other genres. I am no good with Japanese names, but there are a couple that were based on Shakepearian plays, & I found them fascinating. (They were also extremely gory. I can handle that, but not when it attempts to masquerade as a plot).
I guess I have seen too many Japanese films that bored me silly, to bother with them after a while…

I know what you mean about the gore but this newer breed of J-horror is all about creepy. Here are a couple of links to different Dark Water trailers (the subtitles in the second one are in French but I found it played smoother than the first):

English (select speed on the right; patience—it loads a little slowly)

French

 

[thann]

I’ll play – although, unless someone else has mentioned it before, many of the movies mentioned so far are on a lot of critics’ BEST movies lists! So disregarding the “probably on no one’s all-time best list,” here are my top 30, in alphabetical order. The Spanish Prisoner is my very favorite movie of all time:

Barry Lyndon (Kubrick)
Barton Fink (Coen Brothers)
Best in Show (Guest)
The Big Lebowski (Coen Brothers)
Big Night (Scott and Tucci)
The Birds (Hitchcock)
A Clockwork Orange (Kubrick)
Dr. Strangelove (Kubrick)
Fargo (Coen Brothers)
Heist (Mamet)
House of Games (Mamet)
The Hudsucker Proxy (Coen Brothers)
Lolita (Kubrick)
The Man Who Wasn’t There (Coen Brothers)
A Mighty Wind (Guest)
Mrs. Miniver (Wyler)
Night on Earth (Jarmusch)
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (Coen Brothers)
Raising Arizona (Coen Brothers)
Rear Window (Hitchcock)
Reservoir Dogs (Tarantino)
Rope (Hitchcock)
Saint Ralph (McGowan)
The Shining (Kubrick)
The Spanish Prisoner (Mamet)
Spellbound (Hitchcock)
Things Change (Mamet)
This Is Spinal Tap (Guest)
Waiting for Guffman (Guest)
The Wrong Man (Hitchcock)

'thann

 

[Cranch]

I’ll play – although, unless someone else has mentioned it before, many of the movies mentioned so far are on a lot of critics’ BEST movies lists!

Oh, yeah…

I’m seeing a lot of highly-critically-acclaimed movies on some of these lists… Here’s mine, aiming mostly for the underrated, the obscure, and the bizarre:

A few of these movies are suspiciously mainstream - we want ones that WON’T make it onto top 30 lists people.

I agree, I think some people are not taking the thread title seriously. In any case, here is an eclectic mix, in no particular order, of movies I either own on DVD, or will almost always stop and watch when I flip past them with the remote, but trying to stick to “probably not best”

So disregarding the “probably on no one’s all-time best list,”

• Noooooo!!! *

here are my top 30, in alphabetical order…

Barry Lyndon (Kubrick)
Barton Fink (Coen Brothers)
Best in Show (Guest)
The Big Lebowski (Coen Brothers)
Big Night (Scott and Tucci)
The Birds (Hitchcock)
A Clockwork Orange (Kubrick)
Dr. Strangelove (Kubrick)
Fargo (Coen Brothers)
Heist (Mamet)
House of Games (Mamet)
The Hudsucker Proxy (Coen Brothers)
Lolita (Kubrick)
The Man Who Wasn’t There (Coen Brothers)
A Mighty Wind (Guest)
Mrs. Miniver (Wyler)
Night on Earth (Jarmusch)
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (Coen Brothers)
Raising Arizona (Coen Brothers)
Rear Window (Hitchcock)
Reservoir Dogs (Tarantino)
Rope (Hitchcock)
Saint Ralph (McGowan)
The Shining (Kubrick)
The Spanish Prisoner (Mamet)
Spellbound (Hitchcock)
Things Change (Mamet)
This Is Spinal Tap (Guest)
Waiting for Guffman (Guest)
The Wrong Man (Hitchcock)

Well, there’s definitely some in there that fit the topic. By the way, no Coen Bros. The Ladykillers?

 

[thann]

Well, there’s definitely some in there that fit the topic. By the way, no Coen Bros. The Ladykillers?

I could choose only 30! The Ladykillers was in my next five, along with It’s a Wonderful Life (Capra), The Impostors (Tucci), The Haunting (Wise), and The Red Violin (Girard).

And sorry 'bout not noticing that others had commented about many films being critical faves – I admit that I skimmed comments in the thread and looked only at film titles!

Bad 'thann! Bad, bad 'thann!