Awesome movies to Recommend

[Byrus]

Videodrome - Probably my all time favourite movie. Yes, it's the one with the "stomach vagina" thing. It's so surreal and nightmarish, and there's lots of creepy imagery.

Meet the feebles - Basically the Muppets on acid.... and it's directed by Peter Jackson.

Brain dead/Dead alive - There's no point in describing this, you need to watch it. :D It's really gory and over the top, but it's hilarious. Jackson directed this one too, and there's a small reference to the rat monkey in his King Kong remake.

Scanners - The origin of that popular exploding head image. I love books and movie about psychic powers, and this pulls it off in an interesting way.

Eraserhead - This movie is fine.

The Fly - The original had its charm, but I prefer cronenberg's remake, even though people complain about the gore. The horrible, gradual transformation added a whole new layer of horror. Seriously, transformation stuff scares the hell out of me. (which is why I'm so obsessed with it now)

Other movies I'd heartily recommend but can't be bothered to explain: Let the right one in, District 9, Alien, Aliens (well, those two explain themselves really), Akira, Kickass, Watership down, Vertigo, Rear window, Psycho, American Psycho, Naked lunch, The Thing (the remake), back to the future (really, if you don't like BTTF then you are clearly soulless) and... blah, something else.

 

[Phantom]

Inception and Shutter Island.

 

[Dannichu]

Watched Submarine! It was lovely <3 It was hilarious (the only really funny line I can remember was "I thought I'd ease the way with some minor arson", but I laughed out loud many times) and adorable and Welsh :D

 

[Blastoise Fortooate]

Oh!

How did I forget Doctor Horrible? It's free to watch!

 

[Lili]

Cats Don't Dance is just wonderful. The musical numbers are great, especially if you're a fan of jazz. And all the celebrity cameos make me laugh. Adorable animation, cute storyline, it's probably one of my favorite animated movies.

 

[Phantom]

My Favorite Brunette an old movie where a baby photographer get's mistaken for a private investigator. Funny as hell, it's like spoof on on PI movies. Plus, Bob Hope!

 

[Professor Wesker]

Oh!

How did I forget Doctor Horrible? It's free to watch!

I totally second that! Nice, cute storyline + funny characters + great songs = instant win!

You all must see Osmosis Jones. You must. It's plenty funny (Bill Murray AND Chris Rock are in it, hell yeah!), has great animation inside of Frank (basically, the human body is a huge city, blood cells are citizens, viruses are criminals, you know the deal), and Lawrence Fishbourne plays a pretty badass villain. Watch it. Now. You know you want to.

 

[Aletheia]

The Lovely Bones. One of the few movies that has actually made me cry. Despite this, it's one of the finest films I've ever watched.

 

[Aobaru]

So I've been obsessed with Miyazaki lately. Completely obsessed. I started watching all his movies again, but this time for the music. So I can play "One Summer's Day" from Spirited Away and "Theme" from Howl's Moving Castle on piano now. "One Summer's Day" just makes me tingly when I play it, it's so amazing. Like it perfectly captures childhood. "Theme" is just plain fun to play, it's crazy and waltzy at the same time. Next up is Castle In The Sky.

 

[Dannichu]

And HOW did I neglect to mention Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead?! I really like Simon Pegg, and these two are definitly his best films. Zombieland is also a pretty funny zombie flick, but not a touch on Shaun.

I also really loved Where the Wild Things Are, which my sister and I went to see last summer and we ended up in a cinema full of small kids and their parents, and I think we and the parents enjoyed it more than the kidlets did.

 

[Vladimir Putin's LJ]

The Lovely Bones. One of the few movies that has actually made me cry. Despite this, it's one of the finest films I've ever watched.

The book is good, but I thought the film had some derpy moments (like the ridiculously over-the-top bathtub thing near the beginning, the cheesy crashing ships in bottles. And the villain's death scene is hilarious). I feel like the director (Peter Jackson?) put way too much money into special effects when he could have made a faithful adaptation of the novel with a much smaller budget.

I skimmed the thread, but I second Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead like whoa. Movies I love are American Beauty (Kevin Spacey hits his midlife crisis and a whole bunch of stuff goes down), Little Miss Sunshine (dysfunctional family goes on roadtrip to enter the daughter into a beauty pageant), the Monty Python films (er), A Serious Man (1950s Jewish guy's life falls apart and he seeks for the meaning of it all) and probably a bunch of things I'm forgetting. All the previous ones are pretty heavily comedic and most of them have their heartwrenching moments too. Eastern Promises is my current heartthrob but it's only really good if you like Russian mafias in London, naked bathhouse fights, unresolved sexual tension, Viggo Mortensen and Vincent Cassel (and I guess Naomi Watts but her character is so dumb).

There's also some other things I enjoy, but that are more of an acquired taste or a bit weird: Grimm Love (love story set in Germany, with cannibalism, also there's a useless female protagonist no one cares about), The Browning Version (the one with Michael Redgrave, about a teacher whose wife cheats on him and which is overall really depressing but nice at the same time), The Servant (Dirk Bogarde goes to work as a manservant for an upper-class guy, then starts to slowly control his life), Englar Alheimsins (about a schizophrenic man in Iceland. I thought it was going to be funny from the basic premise I read on a site ("man goes to psychiatric hospital and ends up with a moody professor, a guy who thinks he wrote the Beatles' songs and a dude who thinks he's Hitler, doh ho ho") and then I watched it and ended up crying like a little bitch at three separate times. It does have some unexpectedly hilarious moments though), etc.
Fucking Amal is also pretty good if you like coming-of age lesbian Swedish films.


PS: Am I the only one who thought Inglourious Basterds was sort of disappointing? I mean I thought the beginning with Landa and the French guy's house was fucking amazing (and I guess you could watch it just for that because it's that good) but then I had to force myself to sit through the rest of the film. The pie scene was also good (Landa is just a good character) but I couldn't get into anything else because everyone who isn't Landa is completely retarded. Literally anyone who walks into the frame. And killing Hitler at the end really ruined it completely :/. It seems like such a half-assed Nazi revenge movie.
I mean the actual filming and the dialogue were good, and I've liked all the other Tarantino movies I've seen, but ugh this one. Personal nitpicking though, I'm pretty sure I'm missing the point since it's really widely acclaimed so go for it.

 

[Solefald]

Dead Man’s Shoes is brilliant if you want a dark, revenge-fuelled thriller. Good acting, great soundtrack and a convincingly played main character. I find it kinda emotionally draining - the ending gets me every time.

I love This Is England too (coincidentally by the same guy that did Dead Man’s Shoes). The tension and realism in one of the final scenes is almost unbearable.

On the other hand, if awful, campy ‘horror’ musicals are more your thing, Repo! The Genetic Opera is good for a laugh.

 

[David12]

My Top 10 movies:
American Gangster
LOTR
Black swan
The social network
300
Gladiator
Pirates of Caribbean
The Color Purple
Precious
For colored girls
Matrix
American Pie
Toy Story 3
HellBoy

 

[reecemysocksoff]

rather than post a list of recommended films (too many to choose from) I'll talk about a film I saw recently.


For those in the UK, GO.SEE.ATTACK THE BLOCK.
It's exciting,tense,funny,scary and strangely thought provoking. I know many won't see it purely because of the fact it deals with "chavs" but look past that and you'll find one of the best british films since This Is England. It's brilliantly shot and brilliantly acted, so don't let the films rather bizzare premise put you off too much and give it a go =)

I also suggest those from other areas of the globe to give it a look when it screens in your respective country, as It depicts a much darker and realistic (bar the aliens obviously)approach to british life than more recent films like "The King's Speech" ever did.

Trailer's here for those who haven't heard of it =) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cD0gm7dHKKc

 

[Harlequin]

I second Vlad's American Beauty and I was going to suggest it myself. :( ANOTHER MUST SEE imo is East is East, which is a story set in 1971 Salford. It's wonderful to watch, and whilst there are funny moments I wouldn't personally call it a comedy. It's about a Pakistani family living in the UK, where the husband's second wife is a British woman and his children have grown up considering themselves British.

It's a really good watch, and apparently there's a sequel being released some time this year called West is West which is set in Pakistan.

 

[Eclipse]

So I've been obsessed with Miyazaki lately. Completely obsessed. I started watching all his movies again, but this time for the music. So I can play "One Summer's Day" from Spirited Away and "Theme" from Howl's Moving Castle on piano now. "One Summer's Day" just makes me tingly when I play it, it's so amazing. Like it perfectly captures childhood. "Theme" is just plain fun to play, it's crazy and waltzy at the same time. Next up is Castle In The Sky.

Oh my god, this! Miyazaki's films are just beautiful, in everything. Animation, music, plot... It's just pure awesome.

Joe Hisaishi orchestrates all of the film's soundtracks and personally, I find all of his works ear candy. His Piano Story albums are great. <3

And in vein of my favorite animated films, everything by Pixar, and "Summer Wars".

 

[Dannichu]

Oooh, I want to see Attack the Block, but nobody will come to see it with me ):

And I watched American Beauty when I was something like 10 years old because I couldn't sleep and it was on TV and all I remember was a woman shooting a guy at the beginning? I want to rewatch it, though, mostly because Allison Janney's in it <3

And my Race and Identity lecturer thinks East is East is the best thing ever, and if Harle agrees, how can I say no? *adds to mental list*

Also throwing One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest out there because it's a) brilliant, and b) my dad and I's 'It's Sunday and there's nothing else on' film :)

 

[Strife89]

Many, many of my favorites are older animated films.


The Iron Giant (1999). A young boy befriends a huge robot that recently crash-landed on Earth, and ends up teaching him what he knows about what it means to be good.

9 (2009). Nine tiny mechanical beings are brought to life by a scientist as humanity comes to an end. But when one of them accidentally awakens a sentient machine driven to madness, they must all band together to shut it back down.

Avatar (2009). Humans land on the distant planet of Pandora to mine it for resources. One of the scouts befriends a local tribe, and as he comes to understand their beliefs, he must choose whose side he is on.

Dead Leaves (2004). A short-ish anime film about two amnesiacs that get sent to a prison on the moon. Everything is over-the-top and certain to hold your attention as the pair struggle to find out who they were - and discover the truth is bigger than they ever imagined.

Finding Nemo (2003). A timid clownfish's only son is taken by humans to be kept as a pet. It's up to the cowardly father and a forgetful acquaintance to traverse the ocean and find him -- if they can.

How to Train Your Dragon (2010). A scrawny young viking who is far better at using his brains manages to down a dragon even the bravest fear. But he can't bring himself to kill it, and instead forges a friendship with an enemy of his people. But when his attempts to impress his father go up in smoke, Hiccup must use everything he knows to show his village the truth - or go down in flames.

Kung Fu Panda (2008). A fat fan of martial arts accidentally gets chosen as the Dragon Warrior - or is it an accident?

Liar, Liar (1997). A lying liar who lies (a lawyer) who continually disappoints his ex-wife and son suddenly finds himself unable to lie one evening -- and soon discovers, on the day of an important trial, that the "curse" lasts a full 24 hours. In order to save face, he must discover the value of truth -- or risk damaging his career and losing his family.

Lilo and Stitch (2002). An destructive alien sentenced to life imprisonment breaks free and rockets to Earth - only to land on a Hawaiian island and be adopted as a "dog" by a misfit girl, and proceeds to ruin her family's lives. But when the ohana is split apart by the increasingly desperate search for "experiment 626", it's up to the "dog" to ensure that nobody gets left behind.

The Phantom of the Opera (2004). This film adaptation of the acclaimed musical brings to life the tragedy of a "genius" who despises his hideous face, and the melody of a lovely singer whose voice captures his attention.

Radio (2003). A football coach becomes interested in a young boy with a handicap. Both have plenty to teach each other, provided the town lets them. Based on a true story.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010). A bass guitarist must learn how to deal with relationships and seven evil exes. Based on the smashingly successful comics, this film is a fun ride for video game fans.

Sintel (2010). A young girl befriends and injured dragon, and goes on a long search for him when an older dragon steals him away. But when she finds him, she must learn to let go of what she perceives -- or face tragedy. A short film made with Free Open Source Software.

Spider-Man 2 (2004). Spidey has become famous in his own right, but his heroics keep getting in the way of his normal life, and depression sets in. Peter Parker must learn to balance his double life -- or turn in his costume entirely.

The Blues Brothers (1982). Two singers are reunited after one spends his time in prison, and they go on a cross-country trip to gather band members, perform shows, and raise money for their "mission from God". Features numerous excellent musical numbers and climaxes with the most epic chase scene of all time.

The Brave Little Toaster (1987). Five appliances leave a vacation cottage to seek out their Master, encountering many of nature's perils along the way. But when newer appliances convince them that they're yesterday's trash, they must stay banded together or lose all hope entirely.

The Lion King (1993). A lion cub's father is murdered by the cub's uncle, and the cub must learn to face his past if he ever hopes to take his rightful place as king. The Disney movie of the 90s to watch, if you haven't already.

The Princess and the Frog (2009). A young, hard-working woman in the Roaring Twenties has big dreams of running her own restaurant - but a kiss from the Prince of Maldonia, done as part of an agreement, leads to them both winding up in a swamp as frogs, searching for a way to turn back. A delightful throwback to the "old style" of animated Disney films.

Toy Story 3 (2010). Andy packs to leave for college, and a misunderstanding causes the attic-bound toys to be sent off to a daycare instead. But not all is well with the social ladder of the toys there, and escape attempts result in conflicts. A charming, tear-jerking final chapter to the first to films.

Wall-E (2008). A small trash-compacting robot with a personality is the only "living" being left on Earth -- until a scout ship from the current human residencies touches down and Wall-E hitches a ride, desperate to spend time with one of the robots on board. A powerful film that details Wall-E's journey on board a cruise ship as he tries to impress E.V.E. - and as the ship's captain slowly discovers the marvelous features of the Earth his ancestors left behind.

 

[Lord of the Fireflies]

The Brave Little Toaster (1987). Five appliances leave a vacation cottage to seek out their Master, encountering many of nature's perils along the way. But when newer appliances convince them that they're yesterday's trash, they must stay banded together or lose all hope entirely.

man I have to watch dat movie

on a related note, I thought Up was pretty amazing as an animated picture

EDIT: @Vlad- Inglorious bastards is not supposed to be realistic, just violent and funny at times (and I agree Landa is awesome as an actor (dunno the name of the guy))

 

[opaltiger]

EDIT: @Vlad- Inglorious bastards is not supposed to be realistic, just violent and funny at times (and I agree Landa is awesome as an actor (dunno the name of the guy))

Christoph Waltz.

Also, while I agree that the whole point of the film is that it isn't historically accurate, it's not really the violence that's important! Unlike, say, in Kill Bill. It's the incredible tension that makes it work. Also Cat People playing over the start of the last act. :D