John Carpenter's 1982 masterpiece The Thing. The themes of paranoia and isolation are so perfectly explored; it launched the career of Keith David, who is just a treasure; the performances are all immaculate; and those effects. My god, the effects.
5th Element
This is one of my favorites. Also Shawshank Redemption and The Birdcage. Although I learned recently that a lot of humor in The Birdcage goes over the heads of younger people.
Edit: Sharing this here in case you haven't seen it...
Multipass!
Hot Fuzz. It's just hilarious and fairly well done and people I know generally appreciate the style.
For those that don't, maybe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hundred-Year-Old_Man_Who_Climbed_Out_of_the_Window_and_Disappeared_(film)
The Big Lebowski
Is gonna be the best movie you've ever seen once you see it twice
Shut the fuck up, Donny.
Really? I tried watching it but I couldn't get through it.
It has a really messy plot with fast paced dialogue and subtle details that you can miss, I also remember my first time seeing it and being like "wtf is going on?"
As I said, the second time I saw it years later, I already knew the general direction of the movie so I could focus on the single characters and let me tell you: there's a reason why there are a bunch of people quoting it all the time, every line of the script is like a meme, everything is so iconic
A friend of mine mentioned 'Contact' was the perfect film. I thought about it for some time and found that I agree. The plot, casting, filmography, and score are all top notch.
Beyond favorite there are quite a few films I consider 'done' we don't need sequels or remakes. Most recently the original 'Willy Wonka' came to mind.
I love the line “They should have sent a poet”
First rule is, I can't talk about it. Second rule is, I can't talk about it.
I have lost count of how many times I watched that movie. So many great details.
And I think most people take away the wrong message. It is critic and not encouragement.
It's a philosophical movie about breaking yourself apart and rebuilding yourself consciously.
Not hard to understand why so many people don't get that part of it. It's a deeply introspective movie, not just about sweaty guys fighting each other.
A high school friend of mine said it romanticized mental health disorders, which I can't really disagree with.
Tucker and Dale vs Evil.
It's such a gem of a movie, hits all the right notes
Snatch. Such an absolutely quotable movie with interesting characters, and the great mix of storylines that Guy Ritchie films are know for. The dialogue is just phenomenal!
Aliens.
Great story. Excellent pacing. Fantastic characters. Awesome music. I'm running out of adjectives, so I'll add that I really liked: dialog, acting, special effects, lore, and setting.
The Blues Brothers. For years people had been telling me how good it was but I hadn’t got around to watching it. Now I get it.
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly... by like a lot.
I watched the Dollars Trilogy in order and I love all those movies. A Fistful of Dollars feels very low budget at certain points, including one of the worst day for night edits I've ever seen, but overall it's a damn good 9/10 Yojimbo ripoff.
For a Few Dollars More is straigt up one of the best movies I have ever seen, an easy 10/10. It's a full blown high budget movie that just shocked me when I saw it for the first time, I was amazed how good it was, and it confused me too since EVERYONE said that The Good, The Bad and The Ugly is the best of the bunch, like how could something be better than this???
Well, how is it...? When I first saw The Good, The Bad and The Ugly I almost went catatonic. If For a Few Dollars More is 10/10 then this movie is 11/10, or 12/10 or even 13/10. EVERYTHING about this movie is amazing, if the previous one was made with an A24 budget then this one was made with the same production level as fucking Oppenheimer. Everything is bigger, the scale of the movie is breathtaking, the Morricone music is the best of all time, the characters are amazing, the action is amazing, the climax of the movie is the best ever put on screen, I just fucking love this movie so SO fucking much.
So yeah... watch The Good, The Bad and The Ugly if you haven't.
(Shout out to Duck, You Sucker. A movie that also blew my socks off, made by the same director.)
I love most of Wes Anderson's body of work, but my absolute favourite of his is The Life Aquatic
Has to be The Matrix. Was 13 or 14 at the time of release, marketing around it was very mysterious. Obviously my childmind was blown during opening scene!
I'm always telling people to REALLY watch Napoleon Dynamite. I think it got quoted and proto-memed to death when it came out, leading to most people having an unfair idea in their head of what the movie is.
The soundtrack is phenomenal. The acting is (mostly) way better than you may have thought it was. Jon Gries (Uncle Rico) was nominated for an Independent Spirit award and he absolutely deserved that nomination. The cinematography is excellent, especially knowing how much it cost to make + how much experience the crew had. Though it's not explicitly said, I think it's ultimately a story about neurodivergent people finding friendship, solidarity, and happiness in a world not made for them.
Also, the scene where Uncle Rico throws a steak at Napoleon is still funny.
The Grand Budapest Hotel - visually beautiful, the story never slows, altime favorite
My favorite movie of all time is Lord of the Rings, but most people have already seen that.
I find that I recommend Warrior a whole lot. It is an awesome movie and most people haven't seen it.
For action movie fans, I'll always recommend The Raid: Redemption. It's a good gateway to martial arts movies, which can lead to a whole slew of other more esoteric recommendations
Ratatouille.
I don't think there's a movie that loves food more, or pays more respect to food. It's an actual masterpiece, from every strand of hair rendered on Remy's body, to each note played in the score. I will never get tired of watching this movie.
Here is my top 3 list:
Cube (1997) It's a great little film and a bit of a mindfuck.
Baby Driver was the first movie I saw 3 times at the theater. Gets me hooked beginning to end.
I don't have a single favorite, but generally it's going to go something like:
Triangle.
The Void.
The Endless.
Moon.
Upgrade.
Delicatessen
Moon! Definitely one I recommend.
Adding another. Children of Men. Brilliantly made, disturbing premise, very plausible sci-fi. Quite violent, though.
The Matrix (1999). The one existential movie for all. Then, it's probably "Serenity" (2005). Then, probably Galaxy Quest (1999).
Coherence, it's like 85 minutes long and came out a decade or so ago. No script, the actors ad-libed their lines with only minor directions.
It's a lot like Primer meets the Man from Earth
Storks
Inside out
Idiocracy
Popstar: Never stop never stopping.
Screamers (camp sci-fi horror)
Along with the rest mentioned here.
Recommendation depends on the audience
As they pop in my head:
Everything everywhere all at once.
Her
Groundhog Day
I saw the devil
Patch Adams
Memento
Prisoners
Fight club
Good will hunting
Dead Man directed by Jim Jarmusch.
I am by no means a Johnny Depp fan but he provides a top tier performance alongside Gary Farmer.
An acid western buddy movie about death, dying, and belief. Beautiful film with a beautiful score.
If you're 40 to 60 years old, definitely Hot Tub Time Machine.
It'd still be a great movie if you're out of that age zone, but if you were around to remember the 80's it just hits that much better. It's a fantastic comedy from beginning to end.
Repo: The Genetic Opera.
It's definitely not for everyone, but it hits all the right buttons in my moody theatre kid heart, and "I Didn't Know I'd Love You So Much" will always get the tears going for me.
And even if someone bounces off it, I've gotten a terrifying number of them hooked on Zydrate Anatomy. Might be the only song they remember from the whole thing, but it stays stuck.
Into the Spiderverse is a perfect movie.
Hot Fuzz is so funny every time.
The LOTR trilogy is my favorite but the two above are my recommendations.
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