Ask Lemmy

1. Wild tales
2. Black mirror

Funny, for me there are more items in Must read List than Must watch.

Goodfellas

China Town

Young Guns 1&2

Naked Gun 1,2& 33 1/3

Repo Men

Everything Terry Gilliam ever made.

Ferris Buellers day off

Legend

Kung Pao Enter the Fist

Kung Fu Hustle

Tucker & Dale VS Evil

Evil Dead 1&2

Army of Darkness

American Werewolf in London

Spaceballs

Plains Trains and Automobiles

The Jerk

Beverly Hills Cop 1&2

Lucky Number Sleven

Snatch

Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

Event Horizon

Shane

Ghost in the Shell - everything

Akira

Vampire Hinter D

Spirited Away

The Irishman

Reservoir Dogs

Pulp Fiction

Real Genius

Tombstone

My Cousin Vinny

High Plains Drifter

Outlaw Josey Wales

Big

LA Story

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

The Burbs

True Romance

Pump Up the Volume

Heathers

Beetlejuice

Multiplicity

Big Trouble in Little China

Tank Girl

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen

Princess Bride

Labyrinth

A diverse list of my some films I like, in no particular order:

• Memento.
• The Anchorman.
• LOTR extended editions.
• Terminator 1, 2, and Salvation (Yeah, those are my guilty pleasures. You can skip the 3rd and ignore the ones after Salvation, imho).
• The Usual Suspects.
• Zoolander.
• Inglorious Basterds.
• The Matrix.
• The Abyss (1989).
• Parasite

In no particular order, and not an exhaustive list

• The Big Lebowski
• 2001: A Space Odyssey
• Sin City
• Lord of The Rings Trilogy
• Star wars Original Trilogy & Rogue One
• Casablanca
• Mad Max Fury Road
• Arrival
• Pulp Fiction
• All the Studio Ghibli movies, but Especially Nausicaa, Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited away, and Grave of the Fireflies
• Blazing Saddles
• Young Frankenstein
• Monty Python's The Meaning of Life
• Monty Python & the Holy Grail
• Jurassic Park
• Rocky Horror Picture Show
• Blade Runner
• Blade Runner 2049
• Mary & Max
• Akira
• Rocky
• The Godfather 1 & 2, and at that point I guess you might as well watch 3 as well
• Rashomon
• Chinatown
• Jaws
• All quiet on the western front
• Psycho
• Kill Bill 1&2
• The Shawshank Redemption
• Forest Gump
• Fight Club
• The Matrix (just 1)
• Silence of the Lambs
• Taxi Driver
• Back to the future trilogy
• The Usual Suspects
• Apocalypse Now
• Indiana Jones Trilogy
• Dune parts 1&2
• The Shining
• Dredd
• Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
• The Room
• A Clockwork Orange
• Gone with the Wind
• V for Vendetta
• Trainspotting
• Fargo
• Ben Hur
• Children of Men
• Shoot 'em Up
• Logan *The Princess Bride
• Old Yeller
• John Wick series
• Most Disney/Pixar movies
• Most Don Bluth movies

I'm going to restrict this list to older movies and imports since there's already most of Hollywood's best listed by other people.

• Ran (1985): Japanese take on King Lear. Kurosawa.
• 12 Angry Men (1957): Fonda has doubts about the man charged. Sidney Lumet.
• Lawrence of Arabia (1962): Based on actual WWI British officer T.E. Lawrence, but more story than history. David Lean.
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975): Jack Nicholson leads this Milos Forman movie about what it was like in mental hospitals (based on Ken Kesey's book of same name -- see also Keroac book On the Road for more of that generation).
• The Man Who Would Be King (1975) : Sean Connery and Michael Caine star in John Houston movie based on Ruyard Kipling story. There are more famous names to pack in there, but mostly the story is great (though told from a supremely Colonial POV).
• Grand Illusion (1937): French Jean Renoir film classic about WWI.
• Beauty and the Beast (1946): French Jean Cocteau masterpiece of the fairytalke before it got Disney-fied.
• The Tin Drum (1979): German Volker Schlöndorff film of Günter Grass story about a boy who won't grow up.
• Amarcord (1973): Italian Federico Fellini film about growing up. You could sub in Nights of Cabiria or Satyricon as a starter Fellini pic.
• Kes (1970): British Ken Loach film about a boy and a bird.
• Winter Light (1963): Swedish Ingmar Bergman about a priest struggling with faith. The 7th Seal probably a better place to ease in to Bergman, though.
• A Man for All Seasons (1966): British Fred Zinnemann telling of how Sir Thomas More was stuck between his Church and his King. For an alternate take on same chunk of history, see Wolf Hall.

There's so many more. Rosselini's Open City, Jodorosky's El Topo/Santa Sangre, Errol Morris documentaries (Fog of War, etc.), Les Blank docs (from music to Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe), oh! and Herzog flicks! I should stop.

Pacific Rim. They never made any sequels though, so don't bother looking.

In no particular order:

• The Thing
• In The Mouth Of Madness
• Pulp Fiction
• Kill Bill (both volumes)
• The Princess Bride
• Everything Everywhere All at Once
• Thelma and Louise
• Secondhand Lions
• I ❤️ Huckabees
• Amadeus
• The Big Lebowski
• Princess Mononoke
• Spirited Away
• Red Line
• Summer Wars
• Evil Dead 2 *~
• Hellboy: The Crooked Man **
• John Wick 2 ***

*~ not a sequel, but a reimagining, if anyone's curious. No need to have seen the first to enjoy this.

** also not a sequel. By far the best live action piece to come out of this franchise. The only one worth watching tbh

*** direct sequel. They're all pretty good, but this one is, visually, as nice as the genre gets imo. The choreography and cinematography, both, are simply beautiful.

Edit: Fargo and Akira belong on this list too

My thought process for this was asking myself what movie I'd recommend to people who have little to no experience or interest in specific genres. Tried to pick a wide range of movies

Comedies (my favorite genre)

• Kung Fu Hustle (probably favorite movie of all time): fun comedy action movie involving gangsters and a poor neighborhood. Think classic Hong Kong kung fu meets super hero movie. Haven't met anyone who didn't like the film
• Airplane: insanely funny movie with nonstop jokes. One of the best movies for comedy because you've got all types of jokes (puns, visual humor, recurring jokes etc)
• Blazing Saddles: revovles around a small western town through the perspective of a former slave turned sheriff. Gene Wilder and Cleavon Little have such great chemistry
• The Naked Gun trilogy: if you liked Airplane you'll love the Naked Gun. Has a lot of ridiculously silly lines told with a straight face.

Action

• LOTR trilogy: I feel like this needs no explanation.
• Star Wars original trilogy: no hate to the prequels (and a lot of hate to the sequels) but nothing quite hits like the OG Star Wars trilogy
• The Mummy: fun, interesting plot, charming characters just the quintissential 90s action movie. Also a great first movie for many people's bi-awakening 👀
• Police Story (trilogy, but mainly 3): it's been a while since I've seen this trilogy but I distinctly remember really liking the third one because it features both Jackie Chan and Michel Yeoh as equal badasses. If you've never seen Jackie Chan's Hong Kong films, this franchise is a great start.

Animation

• Spiderman Into The Spiderverse: beautifully animated movie that does an amazing job of capturing the feel comics in both style and vibes. Definitely way better than the sequel, in my opinion.
• Tokyo Godfathers: touching anime movie about 3 homeless people who ind a baby on Christmas. Don't want to spoil any more than that but it has a good balance of comedy and drama and unlike other anime movies I've seen, completes the story so well that you're not wanting more
• Up: my personal favorite Pixar movie and the first 20 min are a master class of short story telling. Was debating between this an Wall E but I think Up has a better story

Horror

Admittedly my least favorite genre. These movies are closer to thrillers than they are horror

• Train to Busan: zombie outbreak on a train. Premise is simple enough but the storytelling and characters are so well written that you get too attached and actually get anxiety when things are happening. It's a movie with an ending that stays with you
• The Silence of the Lambs: there's a reason Hannibal Lector is the most memorable part of this movie despite having only 16 minutes of screen time

Movies to watch only once

These are movies that will make you feel such intense emotions (usually sadness but not necessarily) that I would only watch once. No descriptions to avoid spoilers

• Grave of the Fireflies
• Schindler's List
• Old Boy

The Princess Bride

Shawshank Redemption

Jesus Christ Superstar

Life Is Beautiful

I'd recommend asking this over at !moviesuggestions@lemmy.world.

As for my answer:

• The Departed
• Parasite
• Django Unchained
• The Princess Bride
• Arrival
• The Intouchables
• Ben-Hur (1959 version)
• Fargo
• Amadeus
• Little Miss Sunshine
• The Matrix

There are more, but that's a solid selection IMO.

Most of mine are already mentioned, but I don't think anyone said:

The Big Lebowski

• Alien, then Aliens, then stop. If you watch Alien 3 then watch Alien: Resurrection, too, to get the taste out of your mouth, but then definitely stop.

• Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
• Indiana Jones and the Temple Of Doom
• Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
• House of Flying Daggers

If you watch Star Wars, then watch in this order:

• Episode 4 A New Hope

• Episode 5 The Empire Strikes Back

• Episode 2 Attack of the Clones

• Episode 3 Revenge of the Sith

• Episode 6 Return of the Jedi

City of God - movie about the struggles of growing up in a tough spot in Rio de Janeiro, it's just great

Gattaca - my favourite sci fi film, it's just a simple concept ... what if we could tell who you were going to grow up to be, just from your blood

Amelie

The Fall (mainly if you have a really nice screen and can watch full HD or 4k)

What Dreams May Come

I'm saving this thread to make a watch list, but I'll add a comedy I haven't seen mentioned: The Blues Brothers

• LA Confidential
• One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest
• Chinatown
• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
• Alien
• Wrath of Khan (Director's Cut)
• Moulin Rouge
• Children of Men
• Gattaca
• The Usual Suspects
• Fight Club
• The Thirteenth Floor

And probably a thousand more I'm not thinking of off the top of my head.

• Lawrence of Arabia.

Most of Denis Villenueve’s filmography are must watches:

• Prisoners
• Arrival
• Sicario
• Blade Runner 2049
• Dune 1 and 2
• Incendies

Korean movies:

• The Handmaiden
• Parasite
• Old Boy
• The Vengence Trilogy

• There Will be blood.
• No country for old men
• Sicario
• Anora
• Amadeus
• The Big Short
• Children of Men
• Collateral
• A Complete Unknown
• The Departed
• Djanjo Unchained
• Dune 1 & 2
• Ex Machina
• Fracture
• Gone Girl
• Good Time
• Guardians of the Galaxy
• Her
• Heretic
• Hotel Rwanda
• The Killer
• The killing of a sacred deer
• Lord of War
• The Menu
• The Pianist
• Terminator 2
• Uncut Gems
• warfare
• Whiplash

Anything with Daniel Day-Lewis really. Or nothing by Aaron Sorkin. If bored and wanting to watch something familiar I like the Bourne (Jason) films.

-there will be blood

-magnolia

-birdman

Ooh, my kids are heading deep into teenager territory so this feels like my chosen, specialist subject. Avoiding OP's picks (the Python stuff would be on my list too), and in no particular order:

Bladerunner (Directors cut)
The Blues Brothers
This is Spinal Tap
Alien
Aliens
Terminator
Terminator 2
Seven Samurai
Yojimbo (+ A Fistful of Dollars)
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Schindler's List
12 Angry Men
Rear Window
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Memento
Dune (the Lynch 1980's one)
The Princess Bride
The Cornetto Trilogy (Sean of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, The World's End + Baby Driver)
Die Hard
Pulp Fiction
Fight Club
The Silence of the Lambs
Se7en
The Usual Suspects
2001 A Space Odyssey
Platoon
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
Trainspotting
My Neighbour Totoro
Do The Right Thing
The Thing (John Carpenter version)

Some they've seen, most they haven't yet.

1. Airplane
2. Shawshank Redemption
3. Shrek
4. Secretary
5. Dead Poets Society
6. Bo Burnham: Inside

Snatch

And watching Napoleon Dynamite with a 10-12 year old is HILARIOUS.

I always recommend the Hitchcock movies from his middle era. My favorites:

• Lifeboat
• Rebecca
• Strangers on a Train
• Dial M for Murder
• Rope
• Rear Window
• The Man Who Knew Too Much
• North By NorthWest
• Vertigo
• Psycho

Rear Window is my all-time favorite movie. It's a perfect film, where every shot and line means something. Grace Kelly's appearance is the most beautiful that any woman has ever been, in any film. The rest are all 10 out of 10s.

And look for Hitchcock's famous cameos in every movie, always close to the beginning, and usually amusing.

Old classics:

• It's A Wonderful Life (1946)
• Citizen Kane (1941)
• Casablanca (1942)
• 12 Angry Men (1957)
• Mr. Deeds Goes To Town (1936)
• Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (1939)

Drama/misc:

• Gandhi (1982)
• Network (1976)
• A Few Good Men (1992)
• The Truman Show (1998)
• Dead Poets Society (1989)
• Pay It Forward (2000)
• The Green Mile (1999)
• The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
• Guess Who's Coming To Dinner (1967)

PG sci-fi/fantasy:

• Back To The Future (trilogy, 1985+)
• E.T. - The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
• Jumanji (1995)

Action/etc.:

• The Matrix (1999)
• The Terminator (series, 1984+)
• Die Hard (series, 1988+)
• Mission: Impossible (1996)
• Air Force One (1997)
• Independence Day (1996)
• Speed (1994)
• Limitless (2011)

Generally romance-centered (other than Casablanca):

• Titanic (1997)
• Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (2004)
• The Notebook (2004)
• Ghost (1990)

Comedies:

• Duck Soup (1933)
• The Great Dictator (1940)
• Monty Python And The Holy Grail (1975)
• Office Space (1999)

• The Godz Must be Crazy
• The Godz Must be Crazy II
• Top Secret!

No movie collection is complete without Scott Pilgrim versus The World

Here ya go!

• Ghost in the Shell 1998
• Hard Boiled
• Inception
• Aladdin 1992
• It's a Mad Mad Mad World
• The Raid
• Coco
• It's a Wonderful Life
• Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt
• Godzilla Minus One
• The Lord of the Rings trilogy
• Mask of Zorro
• Searching 2018
• Carnival of Souls
• Casino Royale
• The Dark Knight
• The Social Network
• Angel's Egg
• Wicker Man 1975
• Wild Robot
• Idiocracy
• Arrival

This list is in no particular order. And it's admittedly all over the place in time and genre. Feel free to use it as a grab bag rather than a checklist.