Oooooooh, I love listing my favorite movies!

20.) To Kill a Mockingbird (1962, *Gregory Peck)
19.) Hush....Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964, *Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland)
18.) Back Street (1961, *Susan Hayward, John Gavin)
17. The Three Lives of Thomasina (1964, *Patrick McGoohan)
16.) Mildred Pierce (1945, *Joan Crawford)
15.) Now, Voyager (1942, *Bette Davis, Paul Henreid)
14.) Gone with the Wind (1939, *Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable)
13.) Terms of Endearment (1983, *Shirley MacLaine, Debra Winger, Jack Nicholson)
12.) Postcards from the Edge (1990, *Meryl Streep, Shirley MacLaine)
11.) The Last of the Mohicans, (1992, *Daniel Day-Lewis, Madeleine Stowe)
10. Legends of the Fall, (1994, *Anthony Hopkins, Brad Pitt)
09.) Sophie's Choice (1982, *Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Peter MacNicol)
08.) Out of Africa (1985, *Meryl Streep, Robert Redford)
07.) Asylum (2005, *Natasha Richardson, Marton Csokas)
06.) The Proposition (1998, *Kenneth Branagh, Madeleine Stowe, William Hurt)
05.) Braveheart (1995, *Mel Gibson)
04.) What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962, *Bette Davis, Joan Crawford)
03.) Gladiator (2000, *Russell Crowe)
02.) A Streetcar Named Desire (1951, *Vivien Leigh, Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter)
01. already???)
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)/The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)/The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003, *lotza people!)

Wow, and I didn't even name all the other old films I love!

You know, I think we all have excellent taste in movies!!
Re-reading all your lists, (grasstains, you're as 'bad' as I am!) I'd think 'Oh, yeah, Sunset Boulevard, Fargo, City Lights, ooooooooh, yeah, yeah, yeah!'
Maybe the list of movies I DON'T like would be shorter!

Re WATERWORLD:
It was almost a carbon-copy of the infinitely better MAD MAX 2 (released in the US as THE ROAD WARRIOR). It was fairly entertaining, yes, but watch ROAD WARRIOR instead!

What about these - (a truly eclectic, off-the-top-of-my-head list):

Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind
Walk the line
Beautiful girls
Memento
In the line of fire
The game
Life lessons (the Scorcese segment of New York Stories)
Children of men
Brazil (brilliant Terry Gilliam satire)
Gattaca
Gallipoli (superb Australian war film)
Murder my sweet (THE best film of a Chandler novel)
Raiders of the lost ark
12 monkeys
The sting
Any of Buster Keaton's silent films (far superior to Chaplin)
Vincent & Theo (almost unknown Robert Altman bio of Van Gogh)
Down by law
Dead poets society (isn't this every English teacher's favourite?)

quote:

Originally posted by oz-crumley:
Any of Buster Keaton's silent films (far superior to Chaplin)

I take umbrage to that (but a very amiable umbrage), as I think Chaplin is perhaps the greatest filmmaker of all times.

Although Keaton was great, too.

We mustn't forget Harold Lloyd, whom I just adored.

poettesse,

I see you like older films. They were so different back then. The ironies didn't need to be dropped upon our heads as is so common now. There seems to be a certain criteria or formula which goes into film making nowadays where the audience needs everything explained for them, and the characters always need to find redemption. Bette Davis and Peter Lorre could tell you all you needed to know with their eyes. The image of an anguished Bogart said more than any dialogue could.

There was a movie with Mickey Rourke and Faye Dunaway (forget title) where they play hardcore alcoholics and none of the characters grow or change by the end of the film. The film begins AND ends with Mickey Rourke in a drunken fistfight. It's beautiful. It's from the late 80s/early 90s but has the feel of the late 50s/early 60s.

================================================

BARFLY was the title of that odd little movie.

I get the feeling sometimes that movies these days are 'dumbed' down for audiences. Maybe filmmakers want to be so sure audiences 'get' a point, they throw subtlety out the door and instead of a thought, emotion, etc. being expressed in the lifting of an eyebrow, the straightening of a spine, we get a dig in the ribs.....
There was a bit of dialogue in 'Amadeus' that kind of summed up this feeling for me. Salieri and Mozart were discussing the closing of 'Figaro' after only 9 performances and Salieri said "I think you overestimate our dear Viennese, my friend. You know you didn't even give them a good bang at the end of songs, to let them know when to clap."

quote:

quote:
Originally posted by oz-crumley:
Any of Buster Keaton's silent films (far superior to Chaplin)

I take umbrage to that (but a very amiable umbrage), as I think Chaplin is perhaps the greatest filmmaker of all times.

Although Keaton was great, too.

Don't get me wrong - I agree that Chaplin was enormously innovative and made some fantastic films. I just think that as comedies, and on an emotional level, Chaplin's films do not really stand up over time as Keaton's films do. As well as being a truly inventive physical comedian, look at Keaton's face - so subtly tragi-comic, he makes you laugh and breaks your heart.

Well, I went and saw "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" the other day.

And? How'd you like it?

quote:

Originally posted by oz-crumley:
I just think that as comedies, and on an emotional level, Chaplin's films do not really stand up over time as Keaton's films do. As well as being a truly inventive physical comedian, look at Keaton's face - so subtly tragi-comic, he makes you laugh and breaks your heart.

I don't know - when I look at scenes in The Kid and City Lights, I must differ.

I agree on the matter of Buster's face - it's wonderful!

quote:

Originally posted by poettesse:
And? How'd you like it?

Okay movie of an okay book; excellent acting and special effects.

Turn on TCM - they're showing a Buster Keaton marathon til the wee hours.

Do it now.

Thanks for the tip!

"Allegro Non Troppo"
"Shall We Dance?" (Original Japanese)
"Little Miss Sunshine"

What have they got in common? Not being part of the herd.

Oh, and "Mad Monster Party". Because I don't have to be a phony intellectual and for fond memories because I was nuts about it when I was a kid.