Movies Everyone Should See...

[J.D.]

Movies everyone should see at least once...

There are lists about this all over the internet. My husband and I were looking at them last night and realized that a lot of them were pretentious with movies, such as "The Lord of the Flies."
It seemed to us that most of the lists were made by critics, but were not based off of the overall enjoyment of the movie.
My challenge to the members of Book Haven is to create our own lists based on how good the movie actually was and by genre...

Here are the genres (Make sure you label the list you are doing and you don't have to make a list for all the genres... just the ones you would like to! :)

Romantic Comedies
Comedies
Action/Thrillers
Horror
Family
Kids
Romance
SciFi
Documentaries
Anime
Foreign
Musicals
Classics
Westerns
War
Paranormal

[Cary]

This reminds me of the movie Bad Teacher. Where after being reprimanded for showing the class vidoes all week instead of reading assignments. Carmen Diaz says "well Movies are the new books". hah hah.

[J.D.]

Horror List

Nightmare on Elm Street
Poltergeist
The Haunting
13 Ghosts
The Brothers Grimm
Sleepy Hollow
Rose Red
The Shining
Shutter
Don't be Afraid of the Dark
Halloween
The Grudge
The Exorcism
The Rite
The Exorcism of Emily Rose
Scary Movie
Paranormal Activity
It
Amityville Horror
Arachnophobia
Interview with a Vampire
Mirrors
Resident Evil
Red Riding Hood
Let Me In
The Others
The Sixth Sense
The Last Exorcism
Underworld
Alien
Jason Vs. Freddy (It's technically horror, but I thought it was funny)

[J.D.]

War List (real and fake wars)

Pearl Harbor
Saving Private Ryan
Forest Gump (sort of a war movie)
War of the Worlds
Independence Day

[J.D.]

Westerns List

McKlintock
Tombstone
Young Guns
The Quick and the Dead

[J.D.]

Musicals

My Fair Lady
High School Musical
Sound of Music
Sweeney Todd
Grease
Phantom of the Opera
Wizard of Oz
Burlesque
Moulin Rouge
Most Disney Movies (lol)
Mamma Mia
Newsies
White Christmas
Les Miserables
The King and I
Annie
Meet Me in St. Louis
7 Brides for 7 Brothers
Oklahoma
Cry Baby
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Chicago
The Night Before Christmas

[J.D.]

Paranormal List

An American Werewolf in Paris
Twilight
Harry Potter
Prophecy
Brothers Grimm
Red Riding Hood
Interview with a Vampire
Underworld
Dracula
The Sixth Sense
Resident Evil
Fallen

I know there are more... but my mind is blank.

[J.D.]

Classics

Casablanca
Oklahoma
Gone with the Wind
Sound of Music
Bednobs and Broomsticks
Godfather
Star Wars
Indiana Jones
Psycho
It's a wonderful life
Singin' in the Rain
Alien
Stargate
Die Hard
E.T.
Matrix
LOTR
Princess Bride
Titanic
Rocky
Silence of the Lambs
Terminator
When Harry Met Sally
Wizard of Oz

[J.D.]

SciFi List

Terminator
Alien
Predator
Matrix
I-Robot
Star-gate
E.T.
Resident Evil
Independence Day
War of the Worlds
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Skyline
Gattacca
Starwars

[J.D.]

Romance/Romantic Comedies together

Titanic
Oklahoma
7 Dresses
Pride and Prejudice
When Harry Met Sally
Made of Honor
You've got Mail
Pretty Woman
Dirty Dancing
Romeo & Juliet
Nine Months
The Wedding Date
Casanova
The Notebook

[Cary]

OK just showing a sense of humor.
Movies on War must view
1. Apocalypse Now
2. Platoon
3. 300
4. Saving Private Ryan good but to gushy. Have I lived a good life?
There's just not many good war flicks now days.

[Cary]

Scify Movies are a bit better
1. DUNE
2. Alien/Aliens until they did it to death
3. Predator original version
4. The Thing with Kurt Russell
5. The Golden Compass you could have put that in many different generes.

[J.D.]

Wow, I can't believe I forgot 300 and DUNE! lol

[Cary]

Yeah I love that story of the 300 Spartans. Actually a Spartan warrior would have worn a breast plate of bronze that would have covered up those abbs. It would have ruined the effect to have those studly bodies covered up, LOL. ♥

[Miriam]

J.D. wrote: "Movies everyone should see at least once...

There are lists about this all over the internet. My husband and I were looking at them last night and realized that a lot of them were pretentious with..."
Okay thank u

[Sebastian]

There are a lot of movies i could say are worthwhile to watch. But i would like to know why someone thinks a movie should be watched. What makes it a good or memorable or interesting?
So I just want to add two for now:

Stanley Kubrick, A Clockwork Orange from 1971 with Malcolm McDowell.
Well the soundtrack and the pictures are great, the story is decent. If you watch it you have some material for the grey matter.

Sergio Leone, The Good, the bad, the ugly (1966) with Clint Eastwood and Lee van Cleef.
It is one of the best italo-western. Good soundtrack by Ennio Morricone. Good story with a lot of action and some humor.

[J.D.]

Sebastian wrote: "There are a lot of movies i could say are worthwhile to watch. But i would like to know why someone thinks a movie should be watched. What makes it a good or memorable or interesting?
So I just wan..."

Hmmm... it depends on the movie, but... I tend to think a movie should be watched for multiple reasons.
Thought provoking
Unique Qualities
Amazing Special Effects
Emotive
It Surprised me

Honestly, there are so many layers to why I like one movie and dislike another that it would be difficult to write out the reasons for them all. lol

[Edward]

I keep telling my friends SEE BLADE RUNNER!!! It's the best sci-fi film of all time!!! (At least to my way of thinkin'!) Give it a shot!

[Parvathy]

I like the Back to the Future series very much. I have even made all my friends watch it. I like mind bender movies like Inception, Source Code, Prestige etc. I think there should be a separate genre for them. A Man form Earth is one such mind bender movie that I would specifically recommend.

[Jeanette]

J.D. wrote: "Musicals

My Fair Lady
High School Musical
Sound of Music
Sweeney Todd
Grease
Phantom of the Opera
Wizard of Oz
Burlesque
Moulin Rouge
Most Disney Movies (lol)
Mamma Mia
Newsies
White Christmas
L..."

Rocky Horror Picture Show?

[Edward]

Parvathy wrote: "I like the Back to the Future series very much. I have even made all my friends watch it. I like mind bender movies like Inception, Source Code, Prestige etc. I think there should be a separate gen..."
I consider Blade Runner a sorta mind bender in itself, Parvathy, but I'd like to try Inception too. I love a challenge to my brain! LOL!

[J.D.]

Edward wrote: "Parvathy wrote: "I like the Back to the Future series very much. I have even made all my friends watch it. I like mind bender movies like Inception, Source Code, Prestige etc. I think there should ..."

Jeanette wrote: "J.D. wrote: "Musicals

My Fair Lady
High School Musical
Sound of Music
Sweeney Todd
Grease
Phantom of the Opera
Wizard of Oz
Burlesque
Moulin Rouge
Most Disney Movies (lol)
Mamma Mia
Newsies
Whit..."

Sadly, I have never seen "Rocky horror picture show" all the way through. :( I will eventually though!

Edward- I loved Inception. It's an awesome concept. :)

[Edward]

Cool! When I get a DVD machine I'll hunt it down first! Then MAYBE re-collect all them Indiana Jones/Star Wars/etc. faves of my youth!

[Cate (The Professional Fangirl)]

Haha, I so agree with the Rocky Horror Picture Show mention. XD

Also, The Sound of Music.

[Hannah]

Really? I can't just list off my favorites? Oh well. I will anyway:)

The Invisible
The Fall
Dark Water
Sweeney Todd
Tideland

[Nicky]

"Non-English" movie recommendations:

French:
Le Fabuleux Destin D'Amélie Poulain
Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis
Le Huitième Jour
Kirikou et la Sorcière, animated

Japanese:
Nobody Knows, hankerchiefs at the ready!
Pretty much all Studio Ghibli movies, with a special shoutout to Tonari no Totoro though, it still makes me giddy!
Battle royal (only the first one)
Hanabi
Kikujiro
Casshern (not for everyone)

Dutch:
Rundskop (Bullhead) with Matthias Schoenaerts, one of our finer Belgian export products. Like chocolate ;-) )
Loft (if you cannot wait for the American remake, also with said Belgian Export Product :D )
Daens


Spanish:
Pan's Labyrinth (El labyrinto del fauno)
The Orphanage (El Orfanato)

To name a few...

[Chris]

Just a few off the top of my head on my "I will cry...guaranteed" list:

- 'My Life' (the last video he leaves for his son, WOW!)
- 'Rudy' (when the stadium is screaming his name and he gets the sack...the definition of underdog)
- 'Of Mice and Men' (the end...of course)
- 'The Bucket List' ("kiss the most beautiful girl in the world" = sob like a baby)

[stormhawk]

Pan's Labyrinth was the most depressing movie I have ever seen. And I've seen a lot of movies.

A couple of good ones that haven't been mentioned (unless I missed them)

Harold and Maude
M*A*S*H
King of Hearts
Morgan! (A Suitable Case for Treatment)
Hard Day's Night
Help
The Dirty Dozen
The Great Escape
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (silent)
Fahrenheit 451
Arsenic and Old Lace
oh, darn it ... that one where Alec Guiness plays all the members of his own family ... Kind Hearts and Coronets (he was majorly funny before he was Obi Wan Kenobi)
Bridge on the River Kwai
Die Hard
The Godfather I and II (leave III on the shelf, not worth the time)
Ghostbusters
Brian's Song (the original one, not the remake)


I'll second or third Bladerunner. Beautifully done. Although I like the version no one else does, the one with the narration. the original, not the director's cut.

[Nicky]

stormhawk wrote: "Pan's Labyrinth was the most depressing movie I have ever seen. And I've seen a lot of movies.


I agree that Pan's Labyrinth is a very 'heavy' movie and the ending is anything but 'happily ever after' (although...), but despite that I still think it's quite magical and original. However, if you didn't like Pan's Labyrinth, I'd probably refrain from watching El Orfanato as well...

Come to think of it, I've seen and liked a lot of movies that one could classify as 'depressing'. (Del Toro's Spanish works, Nobody knows, Battle Royal, American Beauty, Lost in Translation, The Virgin Suicides, Melancholia...).

But I'd grant the title of 'most depressing movie I've ever seen and (therefore) did not like' to Requiem for a Dream...To me, that's just a big black hole of badness from which there is no escape.

[Susan]

I offer the most depressing and saddest movie, Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby.
Hilary Swank won Best Actress Oscar.

[[deleted user]]

Memento
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Inception
Mulholland Drive
Primer
Die Hard
12 Monkeys
Termimator

[[deleted user]]

Those were all thriller/suspense. Even Who Framed Roger Rabbit on a weird kind of way.

[Jonathan]

Das Leben Der Anderen (the lives of others (set in East Berlin, 1985- about a playwright being watched by the Stasi)).

Some Like It Hot

Le fabuleux destin d'Amelie or AMELIE

Birdsong

Psycho

Inglorious Bastards

Glorious 39

Citizen Kane

The Third Man

[Rhian]

the shawshank redemption

[Susan]

Eyes Wide Shut
Kubrick is the man!

[Rhian]

ah i just thought i gotta give a shout out for a few alfred hitchcock films the birds, psycho and vertigo are so good

[Nicky]

Kathy wrote: "The Brave Little Toaster. Seriously."

Ooooh, I saw that a bazillion times when I was a kid.

[Jonathan]

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

[M.K.]

J.D. wrote: "Classics

Casablanca
Oklahoma
Gone with the Wind
Sound of Music
Bednobs and Broomsticks
Godfather
Star Wars
Indiana Jones
Psycho
It's a wonderful life
Singin' in the Rain
Alien
Stargate
Die Hard
E..."

Saw Casablanca for the first time this year. Definitely a classic!

[M.K.]

Try The Sapphires ... it's relatively new, lovely story and you'll be top tapping to the music.

[Jonathan]

MONTY PYTHON'S LIFE OF BRIAN!!!!!

"he's not the messiah, ,he's a very naughty boy!"

[Susan]

Kathy wrote: "Jonathan wrote: "MONTY PYTHON'S LIFE OF BRIAN!!!!! "he's not the messiah, ,he's a very naughty boy!""

And their Holy Grail, including the Lego video."

Is that the one with "biggus dickus"?? said with a totally straight face ... hahahaha

[David]

"It's not a miracle! He stepped on my foot!"

[Rhian]

i so love the holy grail, its just too funny

[Susan]

Let's not forget A Fish Called Wanda.
Jaimie Lee Curtis writhing in ecstasy as Archie (John Cleese) speaks in various foreign accents. And poor Michael Palin, stuttering away, unable to save his beloved fishes ...