List Five Movies you wish other EoFFers would watch.

I did a thread like this a few years back, it's summer so let's do a little movie homework, though I'm going to add a rule. If someone posts a film that would have been on your list, you need to quote it, but still list five movies not counting the quoted one. Let's see how many cool flicks we can come up with.


Here's mine:

Grosse Point Blank - One of my favorite comedies of all time, it's the story of a hitman who goes back to his ten year high school reunion. Pretty dark comedy and some great witty dialogue. It was made by the same team that did High Fidelity if you've seen that.

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... Spring - A gorgeous and thoughtful Korean film about a small Buddhist temple on a lake. It's actually like five small stories but have each add to an overarching plot.

Jacob's Ladder - An obscure psychological horror film, but one that Team Silent cited as an inspiration for their games. It's about a Vietnam vet suffering from PTSD after coming back from the war and learning his son had died in an accident. His visions become more nightmarish and he soon learns he may have been an unknowing subject in an experimental drug the army used during the war.

Galaxy Express 999 - Anime film adaption of legendary manga-ka Leiji Matsumoto. The film takes place in a far future where man has travelled to space and even begun transcending their flesh for robot parts, if you're rich enough that is. A young boy meets the mysterious Mateal who takes him on the titles train through space so that he may get a machine body as well and kill the robot who murdered his mother.

Big Fish - Probably my favorite live-action Tim Burton film. It's the story of a son and his pregnant wife meeting his estranged father who is well known for telling tall tales about his life. While the son ignores it all as farce, the wife listens as the father tells the fantastic tale of his life.

Interestingly, Galaxy Express 999 was one of the first anime I remember seeing, way back when Sci-Fi used to show anime late at night, and it, alongside Green Legend Ran and Iria, kicked off my anime obsession. :D It's been ages since I've seen the film, but it's pouring outside and I might have to go back and watch it again. Sadly, it is the only film on your list I have seen, though I am familiar with Big Fish and Jacob's Ladder, the former, quite amusingly, being one of my step-father's favorite films.


For my list (and this is more of a list of films I generally recommend to people as opposed to one specifically for people on EoFF):

American Pop

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While basically unheard of nowadays, Director Ralph Bakshi was a pioneer in American adult animation during the late 70s and 80s and was responsible for several notable (and sometimes infamous) films during the era; American Pop is not one of these films, and is often completely forgotten. The film follows the lives of four generations of an immigrant family that comes to America and their experiences on the path to success in the music industry, depicting the impact of things along the way on them like the mafia, drug addiction, and both world wars. This multigenerational story and generally somber tone make it one of the most interesting films to come out of its era -- if not any era -- of American animation, and definitely worth a watch.

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

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I remember growing up and always seeing this double VHS box for The Ten Commandments in my grandfather's collection and wondering how anyone could sit through such a long film (to which he always replied that I should watch it). I never did. Fast forward, God, twenty years or so and I find myself in nearly the same situation with this film, as I run into people who haven't seen it fairly often and recommend it to them, but no one seems to have the patience for the film. Easily the most famous film on my list of common recommendations, this follows the story of two outlaws and a hitman on the hunt for stolen gold through an American Civil War torn South, all three of whom are generally treacherous and out for themselves. It makes for a fantastic dynamic through the film, as alliances are temporarily formed and broken all the time and it sums up in one of the most iconic showdowns in film history, where no one trusts anyone and everyone has to weigh who to shoot and who is the least likely to shoot them. Easily one of, if not the, most defining Westerns. :nod:

Kagemusha

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Outside of martial arts films, I never had any particular interest in foreign films while I was growing up, at least not if we discount Godzilla films, but that changed with my introduction to late night anime and my eyes began to drift towards the Land of the Rising Sun for other media as well. Though the options at the time were slim, I did manage to catch several Japanese films on various movie networks over the years, and two in particular -- Seven Samurai and Kagemusha -- have managed to stick with me even now, and Kagemusha is probably the one I recommend the most often. The film takes place during Japan's Sengoku period and is about a nobody thief who is saved from execution and selected to serve as a body double for a local Daimyo, as such a person is likely to draw assassination attempts. However, the Daimyo himself IS indeed killed, and the thief must assume the role of the lord to maintain a face of strength for the clan so other warlords don't take advantage of the situation during such a turbulent period. From this point there are conflicts from without and within the thief must deal with, and the film speaks, perhaps unintentionally, to some interesting ideas when examined as a whole, such redemption in the case of the thief, petty squabbles bringing down mountains, and whether people can and should be defined by their actions more than their station and identity. The film is quite long, and admittedly slow, but Kagemusha is also what I consider the 'best' film I commonly recommend to people.

Godzilla

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While I love this series, and giant monster attacks films in general, this is my pick for the best made so far, excepting perhaps King Kong and Jaws if you count those, even all these years later. While most films in the genre end up more silly than anything else, either intentionally or otherwise, the original Godzilla plays everything straight and is all the better for it. This is a REAL monster attacking, people REALLY need to deal with it, and how the HELL do you do that in 1955? Even better, I like that when they do find a way, the person who knows how doesn't WANT to do it, because he fears what his creation becoming weaponized would do, and, coming from Japan ten years after the Atomic Bomb, this is a quite relatable concept. If you haven't seen the film before, give it a watch.


Treasure Planet

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Treasure Planet is, interestingly enough, the Disney film I recommend to people the most, despite it being far from what I consider one of the company's best films -- indeed, it is one of the films I am the most on the fence about, due to characters like the mindless robot and Morph needlessly dragging the experience down for no real payoff other than amusing five year olds. For those unfamiliar with the film, it is, quite simply, Treasure Island in space, and as such follows all of the basic cues you'd expect, from the treasure map and Flint's pirate crew, the journey and mutiny, and the resolution with Jim and John, all with Disney's characteristic twists and colorful characters. What is unexpected and probably the most praiseworthy element of the film is the time Disney spent with the father-son relationship between John and Jim, and the transformative effect this has on them, and, perhaps, the ultimate redemption it brings for both characters. If you haven't seen it, and have no particular aversion to Treasure Island, check it out. :thumbsup:

Mmm, I like this idea. It's hard for me to think of 5 movies as I'm not much of a connoisseur anymore. 4 movies spring to mind at least


Donnie Darko: People that haven't seen this one may have at least heard of it. It's one of those pretentious indie movies that probably gets more gushing than it deserves. But it caught me out of left field, and I've never came across people annoyingly raving about it incessantly. I could just see it happening. It's one of those head-trippy experiences that deals with time travel, alternate realities, mental instability, mind control, bullying, murder, an extreme coming of age, maybe a little nihilism, and a whole lot of WTF. And I just loved it. The premise is a little weird, but the presentation, atmosphere, and acting were all really well done


Brick: Probably one of the best film noir movies ever made that probably not a lot of people have heard of. And it takes place in a damn high school. If the folks in Japan want to set things in high school and make it interesting to adults, they need to watch this movie. Kids that aren't afraid to murder, have underground societies, secret codes and code phrases, a drug cartel, a murder to solve. And all the characters are brilliantly clever and manipulative. These kids would all be able to play "the game" in Game of Thrones no problem. It's so surreal and well done. And again, this one caught me by surprise and didn't let go. Very well done


The Dark Crystal: Now's a great time to catch up on Jim Henson's masterpiece for anyone interested in another art medium aside from live action, animation, or stop-motion. Probably the grandest of any puppet movie ever. Set in a dark fantasy world like nothing else, with little puppet people living a harsh life under a dictatorship of a council of monsters known as Skeksis that look like horribly disfigured giant birds who have an army of even more enormous beatle/crab things to go out and collect slaves to sacrifice and drain their life essence into a youth serum. And the last survivor of a race the skeksis thought they wiped out trying to find a way to infiltrate their fortress and stop a doomsday ceremony they're about to partake in. Surreal and extremely fascinating if you've never heard of or experienced anything like it before. And there is not much out there like it. And now Netflix is about to revive it in a mini-series, and I can't wait


The Princess Bride: Ah man the influence this movie has had on me, and probably many in the film industry. It's an a-typical fantasy adventure about a pretty farm girl being forced to marry a prince that nobody likes and get ends up getting kidnapped by this weird trio of memorable and even lovable rogues who just want to kill her and blame a neighboring kingdom and start a civil war for money. All of the characters are Disney Animated Feature level of memorable and well written and damn well acted, it's an extremely quotable movie for its age and an amusing and memorable adventure from beginning to end, without any of the normal tropes and cliches you tend to get with this sort of thing


I'm not sure what my number five would have have to be. I've been wracking my brain trying to think if there are any legitimate sci-fi or animated movies that I found as profound, and nothing springs to mind. So I'll have to come back later to finish my list when I'm more awake and something springs to mind

1. A New Hope
2. The Empire Strikes Back
3. Return of the Jedi
4. The Force Awakens
5. Rogue One

Ok, just kidding... kind of.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Vyk

The Princess Bride:

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If this isn't one of the most quoted recommendations in this thread I'll be very sad.

The Shawshank Redemption
Steven King's story about a man sentenced to prison for murdering his wife, but he claims he didn't do it. Of course he didn't. Everybody is innocent! It follows his time spent at Shawshank and the relationships he forms with the inmates and workers and concludes with the most satisfying ending I've ever seen in a movie.

Man's Favorite Sport?
Those who can't, teach. A Rock Hudson comedy in which he's a fishing guru who has never fished. All is well until he's forced into a fishing competition as a promotion for his employer Ambercrombie & Fitch. Shenanigans ensue. I watched this movie so many times my VHS copy began burning out.

Ben-Hur
Like the previously mentioned 10 Commandments and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly; this movie is LONG. In fact I've only watched the entirety of it in a single sitting once. It follows the fall, rise, and return of the titular character during the times of Jesus. The set pieces are fantastic and so much more satisfying than today's CGI. Let's not forget the classic chariot race that spawned inspiration in future films.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Since The Princess Bride was already mentioned I'll throw this one out there instead. A hysterical and nonsensical re-telling of Arthurian legend that really needs no introduction or explanation. If there is anybody here that hasn't seen this you have some work to do this week.

Frequency
Solar activity allows a police officer to speak with his firefighter father who died in the line of duty when he was just a boy. The two conspire to change that past and end up experiencing the butterfly effect while at the same time getting tangled up in a serial killer case that is spanning across both time periods.

With the exception Holy Grail I tried to pick some of my favorites that maybe a lot of people might miss out on. Otherwise if this was just a top 5 it would be pretty heavily Star Wars. ^^;

I'm not a big movie buff, so I'm not very sophisticated when it comes to films.