Top 10 Favorite Movies

I think this hobby really caters to people that love genre films likes Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Blade Runner etc. I have to say though, I'm surprised at how many people have mentioned more classic/non-blockbuster films. Very cool.

Tim Champlin wrote: I think this hobby really caters to people that love genre films likes Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Blade Runner etc. I have to say though, I'm surprised at how many people have mentioned more classic/non-blockbuster films. Very cool.

Westerns and war movies were the action genres of my childhood and I grew up in the days when quality films really were a staple of British broadcasting. Hence some of the picks for my seminal movies favourites list.

Posts like these try mens' souls. Barring all shoe-in favorites (like all of the big genre franchises we all know/love), I'd say that my personal favorites would likely be:

2001: A Space Odyssey
Solaris (the Tarkovsky one)
A Clockwork Orange
Blade Runner
Apocalypse Now
The Shining (Kubrick trifecta)
Taxi Driver
There Will Be Blood
Princess Mononoke
The Haunting

I dunno, maybe.

Dead Man
Wings of Desire
Paris, Texas
A Serious Man
Stand By Me
Princess Mononoke (forever haunted by the forest god)
Baraka (I know he made better ones before this; it's my first)
Pulp Fiction
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring
Glory

I know that, by default, I have ten favorite movies. But realizing what they are is tough. I don't own many DVDs at all, and there aren't many I watch again and again anymore. Five instantly spring to mind:

Star Wars
Brazil
The Royal Tenenbaums
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Raiders of the Lost Ark

But beyond that I'm kind of at a loss. I can think of five more movies I like, but it seems like there should be others I like more, yet I can't identify them Out of the rest I'd say,

Dune
Aliens
The Music Man
Bull Durham
Blade Runner

oh wow, I haven't done this list in a while and the last time I did it was just a top five.

...man...i've got 25 movies now but have no idea how to get it to ten...lemme see if I can do. I'll just give out honourable mentions after

I think the top five which I did about ten years ago had Aliens as number one and then the next four were any mix of Cool Hand Luke, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Jaws and The Remains of the Day. With honourable mentions to Before Sunset and Night of the Living Dead. Here is my attempt at doing one today:

1. Boyhood - there's a big bias to recent movies in this list I think as most survivorship bias movies tend to lose their lustre over time (Wizard of Oz for me). But this one just blew me away like nothing had in years.
2. Toy Story 3 - it's just so perfect
3. The Wrestler - I've liked this more and more upon each rewatch. It's the only movie I own right now.
4. The Hurt Locker - I get chills thinking of it.
5. Finding Nemo - Also perfect
6. Jaws - Even by today's standards, this is perfect.
7. Toy Story - ground-breaking, i loved it.
8. Man on Wire - best documentary I've ever seen.
9. Cool Hand Luke - sooooo good
10. Aliens - This breaks my heart putting it this low. it's the most amazing action sci-fi suspense horror movie I've ever seen. Everything up until Newt gets lost is total perfection. I have seen it over fifty times.

honourable mentions:
I wanted to put these seven movies in the top ten so bad but there's just no room:
E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial - i could make a strong argument how this is the best movie of all time.
Before Sunset
Pan’s Labyrinth - both this and the one below gave me chills it was so great.
Spirited Away
Gravity
Zero Dark Thirty - this director is the real frickin' deal between this and Hurt Locker
Pulp Fiction

all of these are worth mentionning to as being considered for my list:
Schindler’s List
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
WALL-E
Up
The Bicycle Thief - yay, a classic gets mentionned
LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring
Star Wars
Let the Right One In

Black Barney wrote: E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial - i could make a strong argument how this is the best movie of all time.

At the risk of derailing the thread, I think it's interesting you put this here. A while back I had a discussion with my friends and this got named as the biggest movie no one ever talks about anymore. ET was HUGE in 1982. It was everywhere. Starlog magazine had a hissyfit because Spielberg was courting mainstream magazines like People and Us and not giving them special treatment, but Spielberg knew what he was doing. It was an enormous box office success, threatening to blow past Star Wars.

And it's barely in the public conscious anymore. Compared to other movies from around its time, it's been forgotten. Goonies gets more nostalgic love than it does. It's the strangest thing.

when i made my first list more than ten years, I didn't even think about E.T. Now I find I think about it more and more. My dad made me hide under the seat after we saw it cuz he wanted to see it again immediately after.

Also Spielberg adding the walkie-talkies made me think about the movie a bunch too and how great it was.

I have trouble watching it now cuz Drew Barrymore was my favourite pin-up girl in my late teens and seeing her in ET is just weird. She looks exactly the same.

Michael Barnes wrote: Posts like these try mens' souls. Barring all shoe-in favorites (like all of the big genre franchises we all know/love), I'd say that my personal favorites would likely be:

2001: A Space Odyssey
Solaris (the Tarkovsky one)
A Clockwork Orange
Blade Runner
Apocalypse Now
The Shining (Kubrick trifecta)
Taxi Driver
There Will Be Blood
Princess Mononoke
The Haunting

I dunno, maybe.

Oof, you made me realize I didn't include a DDL film on my list, which is criminal. There Will Be Blood is a fine choice, although I think I'd go with In The Name Of The Father.

Barnes put The Haunting with Owen Wilson?!?

Does Barnes never fall asleep in movies? 7 of his movies knock me right out. He must be the worst date ever.

I had considered There Will Be Blood as well. I think it's much better than In the Name of the Father

LOL - I'm sure it is the original 1960s one. Probably the best horror movie ever made.

Black Barney wrote: Barnes put The Haunting with Owen Wilson?!?

Does Barnes never fall asleep in movies? 7 of his movies knock me right out. He must be the worst date ever.

I had considered There Will Be Blood as well. I think it's much better than In the Name of the Father

Pete Postlethwaite.

who was great in Usual Suspects and that wacky Romeo & Juliet (only movie ever that makes Claire Daines look insanely attractive).

I can barely remember In the Name of the Father except for DDL crying and yelling, "I told you I didn't do this!" in a thick irish accent. That movie hit close to home and stuff but it's no Bloody Sunday

Legomancer wrote:

Black Barney wrote: E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial - i could make a strong argument how this is the best movie of all time.

At the risk of derailing the thread, I think it's interesting you put this here. A while back I had a discussion with my friends and this got named as the biggest movie no one ever talks about anymore. ET was HUGE in 1982. It was everywhere. Starlog magazine had a hissyfit because Spielberg was courting mainstream magazines like People and Us and not giving them special treatment, but Spielberg knew what he was doing. It was an enormous box office success, threatening to blow past Star Wars.

And it's barely in the public conscious anymore. Compared to other movies from around its time, it's been forgotten. Goonies gets more nostalgic love than it does. It's the strangest thing.

Really interesting thought and I definitely agree with you. I watched this movie all the time growing up and I still love it but I haven't seen it in years. I think more recently The Iron Giant has kind of met the same needs that this movie used to for me. I'm usually against making tons of sequels to every movie ever but I would have really liked to see where they would have taken the story if they made another movie or two.