From time to time, we like take a break from technology news to query our readers to find out details about our community. Previously, we asked you to show us your desktop. This time, we ask “What’s your favorite movie?” Is it sci-fi or comedy? Action or maybe drama? Share your favorites so we can check them out! I’ll start: while I’m tempted to say The Red Violin, I’m not sure there’s a better screenplay than The Usual Suspects.
Ask OSNews: What’s Your Favorite Movie?
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Adam Scheinberg
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Though it’s a rare comedy in my collection, the Princess Bride is my favorite. The classic lines just keep rolling out: Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.
The movie also went up a notch in my estimation when I read that Andre the Giant ran up a $40,000 bar tab at the hotel in about a month of shooting. That’s epic.
Everyone’s throwing in extras so here are a few of mine:
Blade
The Matrix
Serenity
Constantine
Underworld
Star Wars
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Eh, the list goes on…
Great idea for a slow news day.
Difficult to pick just one, but I would say The Shawshank Redemption. So beautiful, so touching.
For a long time, “North By Northwest” was my favorite, being one of those “perfect” movies where everything came together. But I have since switched to “The Third Man” by Carol Reed from 1947. In my poor humble opinion, it is better than even Citizen Kane. It is one of those movies where you memorize every line. With Joseph Cotton, Orson Welles, and Trevor Howard. Get the DVD, it’s very habit forming. Also likely the best example of film noir.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041959/
And the zither theme tune isn’t bad, either:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFz79SBnuk8
But another great movie I saw recently on the “old movie channel” ^^ was “The Devil and Miss Jones” from 1941. One of the funniest movies I have ever seen:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033533/
Edited 2007-04-28 22:34
Ha! You bitches don’t know about movies. I’ll tell y’all the top movies, in no particular order:
The Matrix
The Abyss
The Rock
2010
Armageddon
Spiderman
Terminator 2
Rocky 4
Sudden Death
A Walk to Remember
And one that’ll definitely make the list when it comes out this summer:
Transformers
The trailer alone will blow you away! That f–ker is destined for glory, no doubt about it.
My top five are,
Tron
Rocky4
Terminator 2
The Matrix series
Star Trek – First Contact
Edited 2007-04-28 23:00
On the whole, Aliens 2 has to the best sci-fi movie. I mean there’s lots of greats, but this one is always a good watch. Oh crap, and how about Big Trouble in Little China? Who hasn’t seen that a dozen times?
Here’s another good one that none have mentioned: Somewhere in Time. Trust me, it’s the perfect date movie –and you might like it too.
For sci-fi junkies I also recommend Colossus: The Forbin Project. The ending monologue is classic.
BTW, does anyone recall Electric Blues (I think that’s what it was called), where the computer falls in love with “her” owner?
Two of my all time favorites, which are great movies but hardly were box office smash hits are:
Fresh and The Brother From Another Planet!!!
You can find them on imdb.com for details.
But both are really good movies.
Edited 2007-04-28 23:35
The Terminator, Total Recall, Eraser, Firewall, Rambo First Blood, Pulp Fiction (you motha ******), Rush Hour, Ace Vantura, Dumb & Dumber, so on.
Roddy McDowell delivers some of the best lines of his career… There’s just an ‘atmosphere’ to the movie – though I do get a laugh out of how people criticize the movie for it’s ‘all synthesized’ soundtrack, when in fact it’s all accoustic (Oboe, Contrabass Clarinet)
Besides, any visit to a house made evil by:
Drug addiction, alcoholism, sadism, beastiality, mutilation, murder, vampirism, necrophilia, cannibalism, not to mention a gamut of sexual goodies. Shall I go on?
Daniel Craig in Layer Cake. It’s knock my all time favorite movie from it’s long time perch, Aliens. Daniel Craig is excellent, the movie never slows down and it keeps you intrigued the whole time. I’ve got this movie on DVD, mp4 on my XBMC and in WMV format for my PDA. Rent this and you won’t be disappointed!
At IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0375912/
Pete sends…[eom]
Anti-trust && Labyrinth.
Seen both well over 100 times.. (and labyrinth quite a few more)
“Tous les matins du monde”
http://imdb.com/title/tt0103110/
A haunting, mesmerizing, story of the artist Monsieur de Sainte Colombe.
I’ve watched, on average, 200 new movies every year for the past 30 years and this one is near the top of my list regardless of for whom the list is these days.
No car chases, no exploding heads. It is the story of a man who is totally dedicated to his work, his art, the music in his soul.
So I’ll choose the three I go back and watch the most often:
1. Star Wars
2. Taxi Driver
3. The Godfather
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Shawshank Redemption has always been one of my favorites, along with American Beauty, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Fight Club, and Gattaca.
I can’t believe in all these posts that no one has mentioned American Psycho (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0144084). One of the recent greats among Donnie Darko, Mulholland Drive, Fight Club, etc…
2001 Space Odyssee
Faster Pussycat, Kill! …Kill!
Currently, my favourite movie is “The Straight Story” by David Lynch.
My best movie of 2006 is “Clerks 2”.
A list, in no particular order: American Beauty, Apocalypse Now, Platoon, Johnny Guitar, Casablanca, 2001, Dr. Strangelove, A Clockwork Orange, Gladiator, Blue Velvet, Mullholand Drive, Most Clint Eastwood movies (the Western Spaghetti Trilogy from Sergio Leone, Unforgiven, Dirty Harry movies, Million Dollar Baby, Bird, White Man Black Heart(?), Letters from Iowjima) some movies with scripts based in Philip K. Dick stories (as Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report), One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Saving Private Ryan, V from Revenge, Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, A Fish Called Wanda, Frankenstein Junior, A History of Violence and a bunch of Woody Allen artwork (Bullets over Broadway, Matchpoint have a terrific story, but I could mention ten or more of his films).
Well, I stop here and perhaps I forgot some American movie I love… About European Movies (I’m in Europe…) I suggest a nice one called Europa and a German TV series called “Heimat ?” (MotherLand) which delighted me 15 or 20 years ago… Oh, OK, plus Seinfeld and DR. House, nowadays, from USA. In fact, in the last years there were very good TV series (Sopranos, 6 Feet Under…)
Uff…
Edited 2007-04-29 01:47
I can’t choose just one movie or even ten; but i can say that my favorite book is dead man’s walk
That is the best movie.
I have watched this great film for five times.
I think anyone who really love films will be deeply touched by it.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095765/
01. to the ends of time
02. Stay tuned
03. Car 54 where are you
04. Rockula
05. Innocent blood
06. Dr. Giggles
07. Ultimate Avengers
08. Sandokan The Tiger of Malaysia
09. The Battle Beyond the stars
10. Hackers
Anyone who says otherwise is a poofter. 😉
I know it’s old but really loved War Games. One of my favorite computer movies.
– The Hunt for Red October
– The Milky Way by Luis Bunuel
– 2001
– The Seventh Seal by Bergmann
– The Lord of the Rings
– The Road Warrior
This Is Spinal Tap
28 Days Later
Primer
The Matrix
I favorite movie of all time is WarGames with Matthew Broderick.
Is it a game, or is it real?
…Where the only winning move is NOT TO PLAY.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters
The Red Balloon
two thumbs up!
I am amazed by how many of you have quite some taste in movies (though some are rather pulpy
).
My favorites are:
Heaven (directed by Tom Tykwer)
The Trois Couleurs trilogy (By Kieslowski)
Blade Runner
*Mental note to self* watch more Asian movies.
Letter from an unknown woman – A love story, that, in some way, looks like “The Bridges of Madison County”.
Great actors, and great black&white pictures.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040536/
Hotaru No Haka (Grave of the Fireflies) – An animation movie, so emotional, that it would be unwatchable if it was a classic (real, live) film.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095327/
Edited 2007-04-29 08:49
There’s actually a live action adaptation of Grave of the Fireflies but it’s more about aunt of the boy and girl from anime/manga.
Here’s a list of some of my favs that came to my mind now (too many good movies to list even a small part of them):
– any movie by Akira Kurosawa (for example: Ran, Cobweb Castle, Rashomon, Dersu Uzala, Madadayo, …)
– most Stanley Kubrick movies (for example: Full Metal Jacket is the best Vietnam war film in my opinion) Kubrick’s movies – even if you didn’t perhaps like them – make you think and not give you a chance to just switch your brains off. A good sign to me.
– Breaking the waves (Lars von Trier)
– Jerusalem (Bille August)
– Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (by Mike Nichols, excellent actors and acting)
– Piano (Jane Campion) (good music and a touching story)
– Citizen Kane (Orson Welles)
– late (the more serious) Charlie Chaplin movies
– many, many southern European and especially Italian classics (an example of the lesser known classics: Bitter Rice (Giuseppe De Santis, 1949), or a more modern classic: Nuovo cinema Paradiso (Giuseppe Tornatore, 1988)
There are also many good drama movies from Asia nowadays: Hongkong, India, Taiwan, Vietnam, Japan….
(Yeah, not many modern Hollywood movies in my list…)
Edited 2007-04-29 09:09
You forgot Korea, which is where some of the most interesting film stuff has happened this decade.
Matrix trilogy without doubt
You should all watch his movies :
http://imdb.com/name/nm0578483/
I like “Le cercle rouge”.
This director was a source of inspiration for John Woo (his Hong Kong movies) adn Tarantino.
Btw my favourite directors are Scorsese, Melville, Tarantino, Leone and Burton.
I’d say the movie i’ve seen the most time is “The Good, the bad and the ugly”, with a fresh mexican beer. Predictable fun.
I’ve too many to list but quite a few have been listed already.
Anything by Kubric or Gilliam, I also like a lot of Ridley Scott’s work (Alien, Blade Runner) and Spielberg’s. Sam Mendes has only done a few so far but they’re all good, the photography in his films is excellent.
Some not mentioned:
Last of the Mohicans
The Killing Fields
Solaris (later version)
Contact
Threads ( http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2023790698427111488&q=thre… )
If you want to see something different: “Pi” and “Man bites dog”.
If you want a laugh: Amelie, The Blues Brothers, Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and Little Shop of Horrors, (“You’ll be a dentist. You have a talent for causing things pain”).
Edited 2007-04-29 15:36
The attack begins 46:00 into the film, “well thought out”, nicely done, and even timely given that the premise was Iran-centric ! It seems that a lot of real war footage was mixed in, the attack-scenes have that sense of being real rather than special-effects-y, scary indeed.
Searching the Google Video on (( “RAPE OF NANKING” )) finds the full version, the 1:17 “English Language Edition” with the plain red-on-black slide on the left.
I just skipped through the dead-body-footage, the REALLY scary part was the summary lessons, beginning at about 1:13, e.g. at 1:13:53
“The Nanjing Massacre is a lie made up by the Chinese” — Ishihara Shintaro, Japanese Cabinet Minister, 1990.
followed by a few more similar slides from contemporary Japan.
and at 1:14:40 “Those Who Deny the Past…And Those Who Do Not Learn From the Past…Are Condemned to Repeat the Past and Suffer the Consequences”
THANKS for pointing me to that “Threads” documentary, it was following links from that that I stumbled over Nanking. The most dreadful word I remember from the “Threads” documentary was “Escalate” – in the USA “War in Iraq” seems to always mean relatively light-duty-stuff, from a historical perspective, a few IED’s, a few more doors kicked down, a few more suicide bombs. Worth revisting these documentaries on those HUGE weapons available on such short notice…
American Psycho
Amusing 80s satire. Outstanding performance by Christian Bale.
Wasabi http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0281364/
My favorite movie is The Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119249/
Swedish Action Movie
I have 3 movies I’d consider my favs of all time, with Stargate being #1.
1)Stargate
2)Bloodsport
3)Universal Soldier
McLintock, and for a more modern movie Sin City.
“Eyes Wide Shut” is a masterpiece. I love it.
“At least the God we serve actually EXISTS! Unlike the Norse mythological gods”
Now thats just mean!
“Now thats just mean!”
It’s only “mean” if you acknowledge it as true. Otherwise, it’s pure and utter nonsense that no one should pay any attention to.
While I can appreciate the “fiction” of Norse mythology, when it comes down to brass tacks… I choose to believe in a God that I have a book about (that millions read and believe in) and archeological proof to support it’s claims.
There’s about as much evidence for Norse mythology as there is for the claims of Christianity.
That is, absolutely none.
If you are a Christian, that’s great, and I respect that, but to claim that Christian beliefs have more evidence than other religions is just untrue. Not that it should affect your faith, since after all faith is supposed to be belief in the absence of proof.
“There’s about as much evidence for Norse mythology as there is for the claims of Christianity.
That is, absolutely none.”
Email me and I’ll SHOW you evidence! I’ve got it in a lengthy text file with pictures! I can take you to URL’s that back it up. If you were actually SEEKING to know, you’d find it. Not hard, once you know where to look.
“If you are a Christian, that’s great, and I respect that, but to claim that Christian beliefs have more evidence than other religions is just untrue. Not that it should affect your faith, since after all faith is supposed to be belief in the absence of proof.”
As the bible says, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (I believe I got that right). So, yes, you’re right. But, as far as tangible evidence (mounting almost daily)… you only need to LOOK, in order to SEE. And I’ve got quite a bit saved up in a text file, right here on my computer… Email me to find out more.
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
I did not get the wrong man. I got the right man. The wrong man was delivered to me as the right man! I accepted him, on trust, as the right man. Was I wrong? Anyway, to add to the confusion, he died on us. Which, had he been the right man, he wouldn’t have done.
Beat that
I am surprised I am the first person(and only till now)
to have put LOTR as the best movie
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073251/
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Primer