Entertainment For Lively Minds
Your number one most favourite movie of all time
We've done albums, now what about movies? What is the film you adore most?
My favourite is "Rushmore" from 1999, directed by Wes Anderson. The movie is as faultless as it can be.
It concerns a teenager in a private school who befriends a depressed millionaire (Bill Murray's best role) and a primary school teacher. Both men fall for the teacher and wage war for her affections. Max Fischer (the teenager) is a unique character in film. I can't think of any other like him. The montage of all his clubs and activities is one of the funniest things ever filmed.
The film is smart, funny and witty. Not just in its screenplay, but also in its visuals. As stylish as it is, it's not stifled by its own quirky techniques (unlike "Life Aquatic" by the same director). It's rare for a movie as stylish as this to have any heart or soul, and yet this one does.
It's also one of those rare movies like Pulp Fiction were the music on the soundtrack is exceptional. "Making Time" by the Creation, "I am Waiting" by the Stones and "A Quick One (While He's Away)" by the Who are used to stunning effect.
This is a classic that I seem to watch at least a couple of times every year.
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Of all the movies, in all the theatres, in all the world,
this has to be playing in mine: Casablanca.
For me it's Fargo
Fantastic plot played with black humour and in Steve Buscemi the film has a perfect villain. The woodcutter scene at the end is darkly hilarious.
Sorry but Big Labowski is the best Coan Brothers movie
Dude,
I have to agree. Let's bowl!
Hudsucker Proxy
I know it got canned by the critics and no one ever mentions it, but I have a soft spot for The Hudsucker Proxy. You know ... for kids....
my fave
is Miller's Crossing - also love Fargo, Raising Arizona, Blood Simple etc
Blood Simple
If I had to choose a Coen Brothers film, I'd go for Blood Simple.
O Brother Where Art Thou
A fantastical retelling of Homer's Odyssey...fantastic performances by Tuturro and Clooney and a soundtrack to die for.
Nope sorry
Miller's Crossing is the best Coen Bros movie and no mistake...
There's none more black
This Is Spinal Tap - never get tired of it, great scene upon great scene. And thge deleted scenes of the various DVDs are deeply brilliant too - unlike most deleted scenes. The whole homage to the Troggs Tape of them trying to record a song is just pure class.
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
The childcatcher...hushabye mountain..grandad in the outside lav...truly scrumptious, toot sweets, nazi metaphors and flying cars. And kids biffing fat old adults. What more do you need out of a film. Even dick van dyke's accent to laugh at. Absolutely brilliant.
I could watch it once a week. And when the kids were young I went through phases of watching it twice a day!
"Sweet Smell of Success" with Burt Lancaster & Tony Curtis
You can almost feel the sleaze oozing out of the screen - just goes to show that celebrity, egos and dodgy PR's are not entirely a new thing.
Match Me, Sidney...
Sweet Smell of Success is fantastic. 'I love this dirty town...’. Top music, too.
My total favourite, though, is Robert Aldrich's Kiss Me Deadly - a great, iconoclastic, explosive 1950s private-eye thriller, based on a Mickey Spillane book but dripping with contempt for its 'hero' Mike Hammer, who's portrayed here as a dumb, leering, narcissistic thug.
Here's the very excellent opening scene:
If you like that then I recommend Build My Gallows High
AKA Out Of The Past starring Robert Mitchem and Kirk Douglas. Brilliant film noir that hasn't dated in the places were it matters.
Seen it!
Great, great film. Burt and Kirk an excellent twosome as ever - and Jane Greer is rather lovely.
North by Northwest
Cinema entertainment in it's purest form. Perfection.
Closely followed by Sunset Boulevard. None more black.
Archie was really good in that one,
it must be said.
Watched this the other night...
...and was reminded just how splendid it is. As far as Hitchcock goes my loyalties are with Rebecca, but North by North-West is a masterclass in tension and thrills.
I prefer Charade from 1963
It's very similar and also stars Cary Grant. Wonderful film. Unfortunatley I think all of Hitchcock's movies have dated badly with only two or three exceptions (Psycho and maybe Rear Window).
Noooooooooo!!!! Sacrilege...
Could have done without the back-projection admittedly, and some of the romances portrayed are a touch clunky, but the man was, and remains, a god.
Kind Hearts and Coronets
..is the one that I can watch any time, any where. But there are some very close seconds - The Last Waltz, The Royal Tenenbaums, Rear Window, Barry Lyndon - all jostling for position depending on the day, mood etc.
Barry Lyndon - are you mad!
The slowest most boring movie ever made with only Eyes Wide Shut to rival it for slowness. Makes 2001 look like a MTV music video.
The Royal Tenenbaums is excellent, but Rushmore is the superior movie (made by the same director).
I shot an arrow in the air...
...she fell to earth in Berkeley Square.
Kind Hearts is a fabulous film.
"The villagers always win" in our house
... if we are going for favourite rather than the best.
It has to be The Magnificent Seven. Even the soundtrack cheers me up and then there's name of the lead character.....
Twelve Angry Men
Always there as an all time favourite. Just plain good acting and drama. Others get close (can think of Usual Suspects, Seven, Life Of Brian off the top of my head) but this always takes the crown....
Fonda;s finest moment (Henry that is, not Jane....)
The Spy Who Came In From the Cold
Burton was never better. A peerless novel, brilliantly adapated and filmed, superbly performed. And it acts as an enthralling document of the 1960s.
Either that or The Producers: 'I'm wearing a cardboard belt!'
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid
Love The Wild Bunch but always come back to Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid...Peckinpah/James Coburn/Kris Kristofferson's finest moments
Grosse Point Blank
John Cusack as an assassin for hire going to his high school reunion. Fantastic soundtrack (Specials, Beat, Clash, original music by Joe Strummer) and Dan Akroyd as a rival assassin. Very funny, very dark and with some of the most quotable dialogue ever.
Obvious choice
Mine has to be The Godfather, although The Princess Bride pushes it close.
Goodfellas
"As far back as I can remember, I've always wanted to be a gangster."
A masterpiece....
Closely followed by High Fidelity
City Of God
It's the best mob movie ever. Could have gone for Midnight Run, Planes, Trains & Automobiles, Spinal Tap or Best in Show easily enough though. Depends on my mood.
Agreed
City of God is a masterpeice, it's a pity so many people are put off by subtitles
The Good The Bad and the Ugly
Brilliant music, brilliant cast, brilliant director, brilliant cinematography, tense, exciting, not afraid to slow down.
I love this film
Planes, Trains And Automobiles
Could watch this again and again.
Some of my other top 10 choices are mentioned above.
It's a great film
Makes you laugh and cry and has the best two film comic actors of that age.
Candy
Well put. It's a shame that John Candy doesn't seem to be spoken of as much as other departed performers gone too soon.
Goodfellas
As far back as I remember (well 1990, as it happens), this has been my favourite film. I`ll get me coat...
Another vote for Goodfellas
I absolutely hate public speaking but I once had to give a five minute talk on an element of film. I chose "Beginnings."
I stood in front of the class and this was my entire speech.
I said "This is how to begin a film"
Remote in hand I showed the pre-credit section of Goodfellas. That's ninety seconds gone. I rewound the tape.
I then said "Watch it again, it shows the world you are about to enter and also shows the three main characters in minature. Pesci, unhinged. DeNiro, more calculating but just as deadly, and Liotta totally unsure and it's ATTENTION grabbing. It does all that in ninety seconds. Listen to the dialogue, it works whether you know what's in the truck, like the characters do, whethere you don't like the audience. Ray Liotta's 'You don't suppose he's still alive do you?' is reduced to 'No'"
I showed it again and then said "That is how you begin a film, thank you good night."
Here it is. I only showed it until the title appears.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly...
...For the music and the grandeur, the stunning sets (I'm thinking battle and graveyard scenes here) and the sheer scope of it all. Docked a point for some appalling dubbing, but hey-ho.
Oh, and Das Boot, a comedy about zany sub-mariners and their antics on board a U-Boat. Not sure which version, as there appear to be about 6 last time I looked. Probably the one that lasts longest. Original German dialogue with subtitles, naturally.
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
I always quote Cuckoo's nest as my favorite, but haven't watched it in years so don't know if its stood the test of time.
Maybe it's time to break the seal on the DVD I brought about 3 years!
Aah Childhood
I could say The Godfather, The Searchers,Rio Bravo, Apocalypse Now, Singin in the Rain , but the film that I love the most, the one that makes me smile and cry is Stand By Me
O brother where art thou
I watch this movie every three months or so.I never tire of the jokes and always laugh.My second fav is Mr.Hulot's holiday-the perfect summer vacation movie
Sequel Shock
Debbie Does Dallas 2
Far better than the original- honest!
Nobody's perfect...
Some Like It Hot would go down as my favourite - this is how all rom-coms should be.
Different genres
require different answers. Western - Pat Garrett. War - Where Eagles Dare. Comedy - The Graduate. No genre, really, so my favourite of all I suppose is It's A Wonderful Life.
Midnight Cowboy
Always comes out on top for me.
Bladerunner
Yes, it doesn't quite measure up to the original novel (what could!) but it bears repeated viewings when something new always reveals itself. It's both a homage to film noir and completely of itself. Great performances, and like all the best (Casablanca, all the Hitchcocks) there's ambiguity throughout. And a blubfest of an ending...what more do you want?
Or alternatively it's Duck Soup
Good to see lots of comedy in this. The Marx Bros films are hit and miss - but this is all killer no filler...60 mins of madness, lewdness and Margaret Dumont. Had my seven-year old on the floor while we just marvelled at how they got away with all the single-entendres.
a five year old could undestand that
go get me a 5 year old...
Duck Soup and Blade Runner - throw in Airplane and Pulp Fiction and you have 4 of my top 5. But the winner for me is (cue drum roll) The Life of Brian. Wise, educational and funny. What more do you want from a movie? Oh, immensely quotable too.
I think Blade Runner is better than Do Androids...and I am a big fan of PKD's books.
Goodfellas
Genius.
Best Movie
No such thing as "best" but favourite is probably "Where Eagles Dare". Come on now....broadsword calling danny boy...etc
Of course, it has to be...
...The Lord of The Rings. Far and away my favourite movie - I prefer to think of it as one, 11-hour film, rather than three.
I read the book - my favourite - over one snowed-in winter back in '84, and fell in love with fantasy literature as a result. When I heard, years later, that it was being turned into three films by the director of Braindead and Meet The Feebles I was, to put it mildly, slightly concerned they would be a disaster. Watching Fellowship for the first time, and seeing the world I had imagined turned into something tangible, was simply wonderful and unforgettable, the sort of experience that cinemas were invented for.
I don't care how much the trilogy is criticised, and yes, it does have its faults - for me nothing else comes close.
That said, I could watch Heat over and over again. And Braveheart. And Casablanca. Oh, and Sneakers (no, it doesn't feature in most critics' lists, but I love it to bits. So there).
Sneakers
"You could have anything in the world, and you want her phone number???"
Great film.
It would have to be
Goodfellas for me too as I've seen it in the cinema 3 or 4 times and have it 3 times on VHS and a couple of DVD (I suppose I'll have to be getting it on Blueray too). But because this as already been mentioned a couple of times how about any of Powell and Pressburger's film ? I could pick A Matter of Life and Death but my favorite has to be The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp for Roger Livesey great performance as the colonel.
"Come up here i want to scare the cabinet"
Duck Soup - The Marx Brothers finest moment!
Short Cuts
I like the way it's separate stories of different lives in the same city with characters who inter-connect and cross over. Robert Altman's made some great films and this is one of his best. Saw it again recently and wasn't disappointed.
Other favourites - The Third Man, A Matter of Life and Death, Talk to Her, The Ice Storm and Godfather I and II.