One movie recommendation

San Il Defanso wrote: I would have to go with Raising Arizona, for my money the funniest movie ever.

This was the other one I would have picked if someone already took 2001. I have seen this more than 100x.

"OK then."

"These balloons blow into funny shapes?"

"Well no. Unless round is funny."

Also...

"Anyone found bipedal in five wears his ass for a hat!"

I would recommend A Walk in the Sun not because I think it's the best movie ever but because it's probably the best movie you've never seen.

Ignore the crappy song from the soundtrack and be amazed. Richard Conte's Pvt. Rivera and George Tyne's Pvt Friedman are great. I don't know if the "bickering buddy" thing was done in any movies before this one but it was never done so well.

The Chronicles of Riddick.

Seriously. It isn't my favorite movie or even on my top ten list, but it's a very entertaining movie that a lot of people didn't see. It was a very ambitious movie, with a baroque style and some fresh ideas. There is a lot of action, some nice FX and some great locations. The story is interesting, and features a bold anti-hero, so many of the usual cliches are skipped. And the story doesn't slow down to carefully explain everything, but just moves along at a brisk pace, showing the viewers what they need to know and then alluding to more. The cast is strong, including fine actors like Judy Dench, Thandie Newton and Karl Urban. Even so, Vin Diesel grabs the spotlight in every scene with athleticism, cynical humor and so many quotable tough guy lines. The movie ends somewhat abruptly with a surprise twist, setting up a sequel that may never arrive.

At Rotten Tomatoes, it scored only 29% with critics (and just 12% with top critics), but 73% with the audience. Although I am generally fairly interested in what critics have to say about movies, sometimes they just can't let go and have fun. One of the negative reviews expressed this well, saying "I enjoyed it immensely, but not because it was any damn good."

Rashomon. It's an interesting little ethical tale that is timeless in its relevance and made by one of the finest directors to ever live.

A close second would be Blade Runner.

Breaker Morant
One of the finest "intersection of war and politics" movies of all time. Every American movie about Vietnam [and just about everyone about the Civil War] wishes it could be just *half* the movie Breaker Morant is.

Edit: My 2nd choice after that is Man Bites Dog, which manages to be both absurd and disturbing at the same time. After that, my tastes degenerate rapidly into samurai and yakuza movies and all manner of Hong Kong Kick Flick[tm]. I do love me some of that Ferrari-/candy apple-red arterial spray only found in East Asian films...

I want to say Aliens real bad since it's my favourite movie but I think it's more fun picking something obscure that you know would really impress. With that, i would recommend either MAN ON WIRE or AMAL.

Black Barney wrote: AMAL.

Freudian slip?

AMAL is great cuz it's the only movie I've seen that makes a strong case for the poorest people being the happiest in many ways. It's a great movie.

Jackwraith wrote: Rashomon. It's an interesting little ethical tale that is timeless in its relevance and made by one of the finest directors to ever live.

A close second would be Blade Runner.

Great choice. The lumberjack scene early in the movie always blows me away. The long tracking shot that goes on for 2 or 3 minutes is great. I think I remember the commentary mentioning that Kurosawa may have been the first to film the forest canopy with the sun glinting through to signify the lumberjack's POV when looking up.

Shit, am I too late to participate in this?

Booty Call.

Fantastic Four. Not the one that was officially released, the other one. It's better than Batman & Robin.

I don't think anyone has mentioned it, but I'd go with 'Dellamorte Dellamore' (Cemetery Man in the US). Just a really great movie that is worth watching at least once. It's very foreign (very Italian and doesn't immediately make the most sense), but I can lose myself just thinking about that movie at times.

Dellamorte Dellamore is an amazing picture. I saw it years before it came out in the US...I was heavily into trading cult movie VHS dubs and a trading partner sent it to me. I had no idea what it was but it blew me away. It's not really a zombie movie...it's more of an undead existential/Kafkan thing with some really bizarre humor and some brilliant filmmaking sort of several cuts above the usual Italo-exploitation fare. "Shouldn't have gone on the boy scout picnic" remains one of the funniest gags in horror. That and "Great, a new fad. Let's go!"

The director, Michele Soavi, didn't really do anything in cinema after it. He started out doing assistant work for Dario Argento, Lamberto Bava, and those guys in the early 1980s and did a couple of very interesting pictures including a bizarre giallo called Stage Fright (aka Bloody Bird or Aquarius) where the killer wears this giant owl mask. He also did a weird Satanic cult thing with Jamie Lee Curtis' daughter called The Sect, but it was more odd than remarkable. Before Dellamore Dellamorte, he did the third installment of the Demons films, one called The Church. It's quite good, a very stylish monster movie with some cool Templar stuff in it.

He also did a really good documentary about Dario Argento sometime in the late 1980s, it was (I think) right before Opera came out.

As for Francesco Dellamorte...well, he's really Dylan Dog from the Italian horror comics. It was marketed in Italy and Europe as a Dylan Dog movie. Then we wound up with that terrible Dylan Dog movie here in the US, but who the hell here knows anything about Dylan Dog.