Films I should see

[Drakeburn]

My mother sort of said the same thing to me, that was after the family watched Flight of the Navigator and Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark.

I've seen Labyrinth, and The Princess Bride, but I wonder what other films I've been missing out on?

[Tebryn]

Seven Samurai
Metropolis
The Good, The Bad and the Ugly
Hot Fuzz
The Chinese Connection/Fist of Fury
The Big Libowski

Just to name a few.

[Darth Credence]

Wow, this could be a huge list, depending on what you have not seen yet.

Some that stand out:
Original Star Wars Saga (Star Wars, Empire, Jedi)
The Godfather I & II
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
The Shawshank Redemption
The Man with No Name Trilogy (Fistful of Dollars; For a Few Dollars More; The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly)
Caddyshack
Young Frankenstein
Ghostbusters
Evil Dead Trilogy (I, II, and Army of Darkness)
Office Space
Pulp Fiction
Reservoir Dogs
The Big Lebowski

That's just for starters. I went with movies that have a lot of very quotable lines in them, so to understand a lot of references, you need to have seen those movies.

[Kindablue]

You should watch at least a movie by:
David Lean, especially Bridge on the River Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia.
Stanley Kubrick, especially 2001 and Dr. Stranglove.
Billy Wilder, The Apartment and Double Indemnity.
Akira Kurosawa, Seven Samurai and Throne of Blood.
David Lynch, Eraserhead and Blue Velvet.
The Coen Brothers, Miller's Crossing and Fargo.
Robert Altman, MASH (the movie not the series) and The Long Goodbye.
David Cronenberg, The Fly and The Dead Zone (again, the movie).
Ingmar Bergman, The Seventh Seal and The Virgin Spring.
Mel Brooks, Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein.

[Ravens_cry]

Das Boot. Seriously, claustrophobic terror and boredom in the mix of a most terrible war. A war of shadows and stealth.
I know stealth is 'impossible' in space, but it really is paradigm I want to use for a science fiction novel.

[turkishproverb]

Films not listed above:

Duck Soup
Rashamon
Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
Groundhog Day
What About Bob
Muppet Christmas Carol
Terminator
Terminator 2
Drive Angry
Vertigo
Psycho
Big Trouble in Little China
Chindler's List
Princess Mononoke
Spirited Away
Ghost in the Shell
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn
Darkman
E.T.

more later.

[Grinner]

Ink - Spirit abducts young girl. Other spirits give chase. Her father goes to a business meeting. Their paths converge.
Bubba Ho-tep - Elvis and John F. Kennedy fight a mummy plaguing a retirement home in East Texas.
The Big Lebowski - Man goes to local crime boss and demands a new carpet.
Hellraiser and Hellraiser II - People open a puzzle box, get dragged to Hell, escape Hell, and induce others to murder for them.

[Drakeburn]

Let's see.......

I've seen....................

What About Bob
Terminator
Big Trouble in Little China
Spirited Away
E.T.
Bridge on the River Kwai (saw that one in my film review class in High School)
Original Star Wars Saga
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Ghostbusters
And bits of Caddyshack

[Mordar]

Suspense/Film-making: Vertigo, Psycho or The Birds
Genre-Birthing: Night of the Living Dead
Sub-Genre-Birthing: Return of the Living Dead
Legitimate Genre Homage Genre-Birthing: Shaun of the Dead or Hot Fuzz

American Classic: Gone with the Wind
More fun American Classic: The Wizard of Oz

Movies Generally Important to Fans of this Webcomic Not Previously Named:
Flash Gordon
Blade Runner
Clash of the Titans/Sinbad/Jason and the Argonauts (the Harryhausen era films)

- M

[Mammal]

My friends and I actually made a summer project out of seeing the movies we should see and haven't yet. We banged our heads together and came up with this list:

16 Candles
Annie Hall
Casablanca
Die Hard
Ferris Bueler's Day Off
Fight Club
Forrest Gump
Godfather (I & II)
Goodfellas
Grease
Indiana Jones (1,2,3)
My Fair Lady
Pulp Fiction
Rocky Horror Picture Show
Sabrina
Saving Private Ryan
Shawshank Redemption
Singing in the Rain
Star Wars (ep. IV, V, VI)
Terminator (1 & 2)
The Breakfast Club
The Deer Hunter
The Departed
The Graduate
The Princess Bride
The Sixth Sense
Toy Story
What's Eating Gilbert Grape?

[Kindablue]

Duck Soup is insanely funny. It's short, too, barely over an hour, and it doesn't waste a second of its time.

[Slylizard]

Gotta put a vote in for The Usual Suspects... best villian ever!

[Erasmas]

Just sticking with films of the fantasy/history involving swords (D&D-ish) genre:

13th Warrior
Bram Stoker's Dracula (Gary Oldman)
Braveheart
Centurion
Conan the Barbarian (original, yes... with Arnold)
Count of Monte Cristo
Dragon Hunters (animated)
Excalibur
Gladiator
Ironclad
Labyrinth
Legend
Lord of the Rings (all of them, including the Hobbit)
Merlin (made for TV movie, with Sam Neill)
Rob Roy
Robin Hood (Russel Crowe)
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (animated)
Sorcerer's Apprentice (yes, that one)
Stardust


Others:

Big Night
District B-13 (French film by Luc Besson - the guy that did Fifth Element... speaking of which...)
Fifth Element
Green Mile
The Imposters (it's on Netflix Instant right now... not 'The Imposter')
The Mist
Ronin
Saving Private Ryan
Three Amigos (Steve Martin, Martin Short, & Chevy Chase)
UHF
The View
Warrior


That's what I've got for now.

[Feytalist]

And just for diversity, some musicals:

Sound of Music and Mary Poppins are the big ones.

Also, something that Elvis played in, just for the experience. Jailhouse Rock is pretty good, actually.

[Ravens_cry]

The Incredibles. Seriously awesome superhero movie. And if you thought animation could never convey real, adult, fear, just watch the faces of Bob and Helen Parr. Seriously, if you have even the tiniest empathy gland or understanding of parenthood, this film is downright haunting.
It is never afraid to punch where it hurts, while still remaining hugely entertaining with many downright funny moments, that, rather than creating mood whiplash, heighten the darker moments.
Awesome film.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit. This film is a lot more flawed, its plot feels cheesy a lot of the time, and yet, well, just look at it. Without a lick of CGI to its name, you can pretty much believe that Bob Hoskins really is paired with a hair brained hare. That, that's acting, which is a lot more than you can say for many modern green-screen fests that attempt the same thing. Compare that to, say, Watto from Phantom Menace. It's completely obvious that he and Liam Neeson are not in the same universe.

[Totally Guy]

I really enjoyed Akira Kurosawa's Ran. Moreso than Seven Samurai which I think I need to devote a second viewing to really "get it".

Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator I liked too, I thought it was superior to Modern Times.

Pans Labyrinth, Bridge to Terabithia and Big Fish are all great movies that subvert fantasy conventions in their own special ways.

Edit: Dr. Strangelove I enjoyed way more than 2001.

[JustSomeGuy]

Once Were Warriors, Raging Bull: Guys who only know how to fight (and are vey good at it) being terrible at anything that needn't be punched, but punch it anyway. Watch sober for a serious film, watch drunk for a comedy.

Anchorman & Old School: When Will Ferrel was funniest. Maybe go for Talladega Nights and Stepbrothers if you're really into him, but prepare for a letdown. Avoid anything else or you'll lose dayse wondering what went wrong.

Karate Kid, Kickboxer, Bloodsport, Best of the Best 2, pick-a-rocky: 80's fight/montage glory. You'll probably end up punching things that needn't be punched afterwards, just go with it.

Ice Cold in Alex, On the Waterfront: Great films that the wife won't watch because they're black & white.

Rocky, Terminator 2, Commando: The best films to teach you the meaning of fatherhood that you really wouldn't expect to learn such things. Also great films to watch while drunk and want to punch things later.

Little Shop of Horrors, Fantastic Mr. Fox: Mucho adult humour sneaking into kids films, censors must have missed it all.

Where Eagles Dare, Lucky Number Slevin, Training Day, Pulp Fiction: Films that need to be watched several times to fully realise what is going down, drunkeness is inadvised.

The Blues Brothers/Smokey and the Bandit: Two ne'er-do-wells on a misson from god/for booze, and a crazy Carrie Fisher/Sally Field. Awesome car chases and villains in cowboy hats.



Snake in Eagles Shadow, Drunken Master, Kung fu Hustle: Instructional Videos for learning to fight while drunk.

[Rolling Thunder]

I would add
Alien and Aliens
as classics of SciFi Survival (also Predator, Dark Star and The Thing

The Deer Hunter was mentioned beforehand. Other Vietnam war movies worth watching are
Apocalypse Now (drags on to much for some, but if you've senn Deer Hunters you're not one of those peoples)
Full Metal Jacket (A better coming-of-age movie than all those Highschool films)
Platoon and Hamburger Hill if you still don't have enough

Also check out
Waltz with Bashir
Very intriguing narrative, it is a documentation, and the comic-style makes it an film extraordinaire!

Excellent german war movies:
the above mentioned Das Boot as well as Stalingrad(1993) and Der Untergang/Downfall(2004)
They are really good in german, I can't speak for the localization in english.

If you like Rock'n'Roll, Blues Rock or Rock you should see
Blues Brothers

Medieval/Fantasy:
Beowulf & Grendel (The 2005 movie, forget the Hollywood Remake)
Kingdom of Heavens

Aaaaaaaaand, last but not least:
The Gamers and The Gamers: Dorkness Rising should appeal to every fan of OotS

Those are my suggestions

[razark]

Casablanca
The Maltese Falcon
30 Seconds Over Tokyo

[Eldan]

Kingdom of Heaven

You forgot to specify "Director's Cut". For this movie, it's really, really essential. You sometimes hear about how the Director's cut changes a movie. I've never seen one where it was so true.

[Ebon_Drake]

A lot of really good stuff here. I'll add:

The Three Colours trilogy (Blue, White and Red in that order). Red is especially beautiful.
The Third Man
Donnie Darko
Solaris (the American remake is fine, the Russian original is only if you're hardcore)
Blue Velvet
Being John Malkovich
Blade Runner
The Shining
Get Carter, or any other Michael Caine gangster classic
Million Dollar Baby
Amelie
The Wicker Man (the sublime 1970s British original, not the awful Nicholas Cage remake)

I'll second Pan's Labyrinth and add Let The Right One In. A pair of great Spanish and Swedish coming-of-age fantasy horrors. Ooh, and Carrie as well, although that's quite a bit darker.

And of course... Citizen Kane. It doesn't matter whether you like it, you just kinda have to see it just to say that you have.

[Hopeless]

Watching the original star wars trilogy at the same time as watching the special edition or Lucas's corrected version so you can notice the differences and think why couldn't they have done this to the prequel trilogy...:smallcool:

Watching Gamers 2 Dorkness rising and turn to your dm and say, No, simply no!:smallsmile:

Watching the dungeons and dragons movie and turn to your dm and say, well as long as Snails is run by someone who actually knows what a Rogue can do and you don't use Beholders as watchdogs otherwise its fine!:smallwink:

Conan the Barbarian and Conan the Destroyer so you can turn to your dm and say In your dreams!:smallbiggrin:

Silverado, seriously just watch it!:smallamused:

Dresden Files both tv series and book series oh right films only but still check out this series!:smallwink:

[Kindablue]

Edit: Dr. Strangelove I enjoyed way more than 2001.

Have you ever seen the original Lolita? Peter Sellers's Claire Quilty is the reason he got so many different roles in Strangelove. He's also really funny in the original The Pink Panther and the original Casino Royale.

2010 is also a very good sci-fi movie in its own right. If you thought 2001 was too artsy or heady, you might like the sequel more.

[Ebon_Drake]

There was a sequel to 2001??? For reals? How have I never heard of that?

[Kindablue]

Yeah, with Helen Mirren and John Lithgow. It's not Kubrick, so it was massively overshadowed by 2001, but still worth a watch.

[zorenathres]

Stalker (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalker_%281979_film%29)

"The Stalker works as a guide who leads people through "the Zone", an area where the normal laws of physics no longer apply – to encounter "the Room", said to grant the wishes of anyone who steps inside. "

An amazing movie, see it of you get the chance.

[Felhammer]

I'm going to suggest a really weird movie that most people do not like because it is... Very strange. It's called Womb and stars Eva Green and Matt Smith. It's a very thought provoking movie. It isn't a classic or anything like that (as it is fairly recent) but still very good.

In a similar vein, I'd say Blue Velvet is a good film.

Ran is a classic - and amazing - Japanese Samurai film.

Dead Man is a really strange western starring Jonny Depp and Garry Farmer. It's... Out there.

The Fifth Element is one of the defining sci-fi movies of the 1990's. I highly recommend it.

Stand and Deliver is the classic "poor kids getting a good education" movie except it stars Lou Diamond Phillip and Edward James Olmos (which means it's great, for the genre).


Other movies that are worthy of being seen:

Apocalypse Now
Deliverance
Alien
Aliens
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Young Frankenstein
Clockwork Orange
A Knight's Tale
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Seven Samurai
Sparticus
Mad Max
The Bridge on the River Kwai
The Shining
Train Spotting
A Beautiful Mind
Metropolis
In the Heat of the Night
Casablanca
Blade Runner
Lawrence of Arabia
The Godfather
Ben Hur
Dr. Strangelove
Close Encounters of the Third kind
Rebel Without a Cause
2001: The Space Oddessy

[Feytalist]

The Wicker Man (the sublime 1970s British original, not the awful Nicholas Cage remake)

Oh yeah. Can't imagine how I forgot about this one, since it's on my top five favourite movies list. Christopher Lee outdid himself in that one.


Stalker (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalker_%281979_film%29)

"The Stalker works as a guide who leads people through "the Zone", an area where the normal laws of physics no longer apply – to encounter "the Room", said to grant the wishes of anyone who steps inside. "

An amazing movie, see it of you get the chance.

I've wanted to watch this since I heard about it. I really should see if I can find it.


I'll add some more by director:

Something by Tim Burton. They're somewhat hit-and-miss for viewers, but Nightmare Before Christmas is generally regarded to be the good one.

Something by Tarantino. Pulp Fiction has been mentioned a coupla times.

Something by Darren Aronofsky. Requiem for a Dream, if only so you can show it to your kids one day to get them off drugs forever. I happen to like The Fountain.

Something by Hayao Miyazaki. Sure it's anime, and sure it's Japanese, but there's few directors who can accurately capture the sense of wonder of being a child. People mentioned Spirited Away, but I'd personally choose My Neighbour Totoro.

And then something by Danny Boyle. It's really hard to describe his style, because he jumps between genres so much. But he directed Trainspotting, and Slumdog Millionaire, and 127 Hours, and all those are good, but my favourite is Sunshine. It won't be a timeless classic, but the visuals, the atmosphere and themes of the film all just clicked for me. Sort of space Sci-Fi/psychological thriller/horror mash up, with some weird philosophical undertones.

[Totally Guy]

Have you ever seen the original Lolita? Peter Sellers's Claire Quilty is the reason he got so many different roles in Strangelove. He's also really funny in the original The Pink Panther and the original Casino Royale.

I need to see more Peter Sellers.


People mentioned Spirited Away, but I'd personally choose My Neighbour Totoro.

Right behind you on that call! There's some about Totoro.


The Fifth Element is one of the defining sci-fi movies of the 1990's. I highly recommend it.

When I saw this I had no idea it was going to be a comedy!


I saw the Life of Pi recently and I really liked the ending. It was really cleverly done!

[Brewdude]

Just one note...

Evil Dead is completely unnecessary to watch. Just watch Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness.

On the Rocky Horror Picture Show: Only watch it with a background track of audience participation, or you won't know what the hell the point of the movie is. This is the original concept that was basically stolen and perfected by the MST3K crew for other movies.

[DigoDragon]

I'll throw in "The Last Starfighter", "Ferris Beuller's Day Off", and "The Goonies".

[Bhu]

My mother sort of said the same thing to me, that was after the family watched Flight of the Navigator and Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark.

I've seen Labyrinth, and The Princess Bride, but I wonder what other films I've been missing out on?

What do you like genre wise? I usually ask that before making recommendations.

[Raimun]

Yojimbo, by Kurosawa. You should see Yojimbo.

I think this is even better than the great film The Seven Samurai. It's much more compact but still tells a great story. That guy* Mifune plays is one of the greatest movie heroes ever. Also, this film is the reason Leone made the first Dollars-film.

Anyway, whatever you think you should see, you should put them on a special list and cross all the movies you'll eventually watch. I kind of have something like that for my eternal and neverending project of watching good movies.

*He's the original Man with No Name.

[Kindablue]

If you've seen A Fistful of Dollars, Yojimbo is that movie in black and white and Japanese. I think they're both a great movie; it's just that they're the same great movie. And I change my mind. Rashomon is my favorite Kurosawa film, and then Seven Samurai. Yojimbo is five or six for me.

And still on Mifune, he is amazing in the Samurai Trilogy, in which he plays the legendary samurai warrior Mushasi Miyamoto, and also in Life of Oharu, another epic, in which he plays some idiot.

[Raimun]

If you've seen A Fistful of Dollars, Yojimbo is that movie in black and white and Japanese. I think they're both a great movie; it's just that they're the same great movie. And I change my mind. Rashomon is my favorite Kurosawa film, and then Seven Samurai. Yojimbo is five or six for me.

And still on Mifune, he is amazing in the Samurai Trilogy, in which he plays the legendary samurai warrior Mushasi Miyamoto, and also in Life of Oharu, another epic, in which he plays some idiot.

The other way around. Fistful of Dollars is the same movie in colors and in english. Yojimbo was made first.*

Either way, they're both great movies and worth seeing. Even if you have seen one and not the other.

*Do not mention the continental op.

[Kindablue]

The other way around. Fistful of Dollars is the same movie in colors and in english. Yojimbo was made first.*

Either way, they're both great movies and worth seeing. Even if you have seen one and not the other.

*Do not mention the continental op.

I didn't mean to imply derivation. Yojimbo is A Fistful of Dollars in black and white and Japanese regardless of which came first.

[turkishproverb]

The other way around. Fistful of Dollars is the same movie in colors and in english. Yojimbo was made first.*

Either way, they're both great movies and worth seeing. Even if you have seen one and not the other.

*Do not mention the continental op.

Hammett is judging you. :smalltongue:

Oh, another film:
DOA (dead on arrival)